March 2012 - Posts

Distracted


31 March 12 05:31 PM
I lost a friend this week, a strong woman who once jumped out of airplanes to fight forest fires, and lost her fight with some vagrant cells after a long, long battle. None of us are permanent, of course, a flippant statement when one is healthy. She's Read More...
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Thank you Steve Dembo and Discovery!


25 March 12 05:42 PM
I had the rare and wonderful opportunity to hang with some edu-gliterati folks at Discovery Education's Beyond the Textboo k last week. It was fun hanging with the circuit crowd, listening to them talk of gigs, comparing notes and frequent flyer miles. Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 3 Comments    

John Spencer on data


24 March 12 04:44 PM
As a result, I am known as the guy who "doesn't believe in data." And they're right. It's not a belief. It's a rejection or acceptance. I hold research at a high enough standard that I don't easily accept the counterfeits. John T. Spencer , a mensch A Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 5 Comments    

Action pseudo-research


24 March 12 11:13 AM
My district's recent incursions into action research have been interesting. I have the extreme fortune of sharing my prep room with a retired bench research scientist, published in multiple peer-reviewed science journals. We are tackling a specific method Read More...
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Discovery Education's "Beyond the Textbook" Forum, Part 3


17 March 12 11:08 AM
OK, last one for now, folks. We'll resume our regularly scheduled programming. Spring is breaking out all over and I'm missing it playing with abstract ideas. And finally, my dream "textbook." Science starts, and ends, with the natural world, the one Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 0 Comments    

Discovery Education's "Beyond the Textbook" Forum, Part 2


17 March 12 09:17 AM
While some schools have fancy Madagascar hissing cockroaches, we made do with an American cockroach, the huge one found in norther Jersey. A child volunteered that she her dad had caught one at work, and wondered if she might bring it in. I loved the Read More...
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Discovery Education's "Beyond the Textbook" Forum, 1


17 March 12 01:13 AM
A few quahogs destined to end up on my plate tomorrow just got a reprieve from the governor. They will have to wait a bit before they feel the cold steel tines of my rake. I've been asked to attend a conference unlike any I've attended before-- Steve Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 6 Comments    

"Is this right...?"


13 March 12 08:15 PM
Procedural rules are both useful and arbitrary--we like to have routines, and we like to know the routines already established. (I bet the 20 odd people backed up at Newark Liberty Airport while I fumbled with the check-in procedure would agree.) A child Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 2 Comments    
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Harping on education


12 March 12 06:41 PM
Anybody can do science in the same sense that anyone can play a harmonica--it's very easy to bleat out some noise and pretend you're playing something worthwhile. Doing it right takes years of practice, and not everybody is going to enjoy it well enough Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 0 Comments    

The Art and Science of Science and Art


11 March 12 02:25 PM
Chris is the guy on the left.... I've had an interesting past few days in Tampa the past few days, celebrating the work of our principal Chris Jennings and our school at the NASSP Convention. We're a MetLife Foundation Breakthrough School this year and Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 9 Comments    
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