September 2011 - Posts

The satellite is falling! The satellite is falling!


23 September 11 06:23 PM
I'm curious--are other science teachers noticing a dearth of numeracy? While we struggle to get enough of our lambs to wiggle through algebra algorithms to pass the state exam, fewer children "feel" numbers. Numbers may not be warm and fuzzy, but each Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 3 Comments    

The microscope "e" lab kills science


18 September 11 08:42 AM
Telescopes, when introduced too early, kill interest in astronomy. Everything moves the wrong way, the field of view shrinks to impossibly small increments of sky, and, alas, a star is a point of light no matter how powerful the scope. Nothing looks like Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 6 Comments    
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Tossing the bathwater, keeping the baby


17 September 11 01:45 PM
Robert Marzano may become the Jean-Baptiste Lamarck of education. Lamarck was the guy before Darwin who thought giraffe babies had longer necks than their parents because their parents strived to reach leaves. This "inner need" drove evolution. Lamarck Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 8 Comments    
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Pediatrics vs. teaching


08 September 11 07:21 PM
I used to be a doctor, the kind with a stethoscope, the kind licensed to hurt you for you own good. It puzzles children to learn that a physician would walk away from medicine in order to teach, and there are days I am baffled myself. I liked medicine. Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 11 Comments    
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Put the shoe on the other foot


05 September 11 07:28 PM
I haven't worn shoes since the graduation on June 21st, which means I've gotten through the summer without a wake or a wedding. My feet share the story of summer--they're currently encrusted with the oozy remains of an ill-advised tromp through poison Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 9 Comments    
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In Irene's aftermath


01 September 11 10:26 PM
The sandpiper did the unthinkable--it strolled . Then stopped. Then sat at the edge of the ocean. I was sitting a yard or so behind it. I t did not matter. This bird is done. Hurricanes are exhausting. *** We're more intricately tied to nature than we Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 3 Comments    
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Zeitgeber matters


01 September 11 08:03 AM
We keep time in class, as we do pretty much everywhere. We pretend that days are exactly 24 hours long, and that each hour is as well proscribed and linear as he next. An hour in December lasts exactly as long as an hour in June. Kids know otherwise, Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 2 Comments    
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