Teaching with iPads: Motivation, Inspiration and Alienation in the Appleverse

Here are the slides for the half-day workshop I presented with my colleagues, Laura Patterson and Christine Cusick. Similar:Almost all the traffic to fake news sites is from Facebook, new data show I think and post about fake news a lot…CultureOn teaching coding to English studies studentsBecause this is a practical, hands-on, i…AcademiaFriday night. What…

Making Writing Socially Engaging: Asking Why New Media Draws Us In

[View the story “Making Writing Socially Engaging: Asking Why New Media Draws Us In” on Storify] Similar:The Chicago Tribune Has Made the Best Internet Mistake of the DayEvery second is a deadline, every instan…AmusingGames as Text and K12 Social Studies Rather than training students to ident…CultureHow I Joined Teach for America and Got Sued for…

Seussical: Stage Right Homeschool Production

My 13yo was Horton the Elephant and my 9yo was the Sour Kangaroo (with attitude). Similar:Shakespeare’s Genius Is NonsenseJust as comedians generally don’t laugh …CultureJournalists play a vital role in a democracy. That sometimes includes serving the public b…PersonalRandom #steampunk workstation with a porthole, because why not. Most of the surfaces are f…AestheticsCrochet octopus for…

“Scary Things”: An Address to the Class of 2011 — The Goreletter — Michael Arnzen

Mike Arnzen posted his weird and wonderful address to graduation seniors. “Scary Things”: An Address to the Class of 2011 — The Goreletter — Michael Arnzen. Similar:I just realized I've been misspelling and mispronouncing "detritus" all my life. I’ve been a college English faculty …AcademiaMultimodal Composition: Every time a student submits a narrated PowerPoint, a…

Another Nerdy Lord of the Rings Post

I just got an email from Amazon saying that typos and omissions in my Kindle edition of The Lord of the Rings have been corrected, and I can opt to receive the updated edition for free. However, like a certain similarly magical gift that I’m sure we’re all thinking of right now, this boon comes…

Bacon Starry Night Meme

I’ve no idea where the “Bacon Starry Night” meme comes from. Other than Vincent Van Gogh, and bacon, of course. My wife asked whether there is a bacon “The Scream.”  Not yet, apparently. Similar:The Circle (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 2) Kira relocates to Bariel's monast…Rewatching ST:DS9 Picking up where s2…CultureAm I a Bad…

The New York Times Makes The Nerdiest Correction Ever – Featured on BuzzFeed

The New York Times Makes The Nerdiest Correction Ever – Featured on BuzzFeed. Similar:Pulitzer Alert: Local TV Reporter Throws Cookies to Dramatize Destructive Walmart Flash Ro…The serious-faced TV anchor introduces a…DesignJournalists Prefer "Said"Journalists prefer the neutral “said” to…EducationThine Own Self (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 16) Data gets amnesia at a RenFe… Rewatching ST:TNG…

Helping students engage with challenging texts

Based on the constructivist theory of learning suggesting that students make sense of new information by joining it with information they already have, his guidelines suggest that students begin with a quick pre-read, in which they underline words they don’t know but don’t stop reading until they reach the end. They then would follow up…

Hillary Clinton edited out of Situation Room photo by Hasidic newspaper

Take a look at the photo published above, famously snapped in the Situation Room as the U.S. raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. The astute viewer will notice that, like some sort of sexist version of Highlights magazine, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been Photoshopped out of the picture (not to mention Counterterrorism Director Audrey…