I’m sure you can take firefighting as an elective.
Tag Archives: teaching
Yes, some of us do this for fun.
If any of you are still in touch with your high school English teachers (or mine) it might be worthwhile to pass on a link to Websnark.com: The Podcast and the Examiner: on the nature of Webcomics Criticism.
I say that because, in English class through high school and even through college, I often heard people ask when they would possibly ever use the literary criticism skills they were stubbornly digesting at the time.
Well, if your interests lie in creation of things – art, fiction, comics, pretty much anything – you might find that literary skills come in handy sometime much later, when you’re participating in the creative community.
And no, I don’t expect my English teachers (or anyone else) to understand all of this comic criticism, this is more to say, “Look! I’m still using the skills you taught me! Thank you!”
An Introduction to Science, the Kansas Way.
The Kansas Board of Education will soon be voting to determine whether or not Intelligent Design should be taught side-by-side with the theory of evolution in their schools. Obviously, such a decision is highly important, as it affects whether or not science teaching in the United States continues to go to Hell in a handbasket. To whit, I present a excerpt from one of the letters that the Board has received:
I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
Take this seriously, please. Go learn more about FSM and Pastafarianism and why we should all address this important educational issue. Science is, as Wikipedia defines it, “Reasoned investigation or study of nature, aimed at finding out the truth. Such an investigation is normally felt to be necessarily methodical, or according to scientific method – a process for evaluating empirical knowledge”. Faith, on the other hand, is “as the affirmation of belief without an ongoing test of evidence, and even despite evidence apparently to the contrary”.
If we’re going to teach our students that science=faith, we might as well choose the stupidest possible faith to set equal to science, because we’re already destroying their ability to reason and think.
Bad teachers! No doughnut!
These two headlines are courtesy of ideaphile Plantnerd. Jzimbert had a third link that formed the trifecta of bad teaching in the forums, but the article expired before I could capture a screenshot.
99 Grade Balloons…
Grade inflation due to grade pressure? What’s grade pressure feel like? If I’m about to graduate with what will hopefully be a 4.0 with my Master’s degree, should I assume I’ve experienced grade inflation at some point?
Then again, at least I’ve never gone back to a professor in either undergrad or graduate school and whined about a grade. (High school? Yeah, I did it in high school.)
Now, off to write some php.
Testing The Lines
This is a test of the comic news posting service… this is only a test. Were this an actual piece of comic news, we’d all be falling over in shock. This concludes the test of the comic news posting service.