[A fun little conversation I'm having with Laura in this comment thread includes her question about differences between Chinese literary types and Western ones. It reminded me of this post I wrote last year on Change.org, and planned to cross-post here eventually anyway. I hope you agree that its quotes are lovely things.] ~ ~ [...]
Archives for the ‘writing’ Category
William Burroughs’ “Thanksgiving Prayer”
Sunday, 13 June 2010
A Real-World Mini-Lesson in Critical Reading and Writing
Saturday, 12 June 2010
I’m always looking for models of real readings to share with students. The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein gives us a good one with his reading of a recent opinion piece by conservative NYTimes columnist David Brooks. At issue is Brooks’ argument that deficit spending during periods of debt crisis makes consumers insecure, and thus deficit [...]
Remembering George W. Bush: Greatest Education President Ever
Friday, 11 June 2010
[Note: I used to ape the standard liberal line that George W. Bush was a horrible education president. Then I met Mr. Wilber D. Snipes III of Crawford, Texas, and he showed me the error of my ways. So compelling were Mr. Snipes' arguments, I invited him to write the following open farewell to President [...]
On Student Genius, How Not to Grade a Wiki, and Making the World a Stage
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Sunday – a Story
Monday, 25 January 2010
217 years ago last week, Louis XVI’s head rolled from a Paris guillotine. One of my students emailed me to tell me that, because we’d discussed that event on the very day of its anniversary. A few years after that bloody blade gave death to feudalism and birth to modernity, the French Revolution became so [...]
Students with Eyes, Let Them See: 27-Year-Old Chinese Blogs His Way to Fame
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
An example worth sharing to students of a kid who figured out the power of simple blogging — combined, of course, with quality thinking and writing — and blogged his way to stardom by age 27. In China. From the excellent China Digital Times, with emphasis added: Han Han was named as the ‘Person of [...]
Resource: Teaching Students How NOT to Comment
Sunday, 27 December 2009
I was going to delete this spam, but upon reading it realized it could have been written by so many students new to commenting on blogs. So students, if your comments sound like this, consider them an epic fail: Easily, this article is really the most informative on this deserving topic. I agree with your [...]
On Using Technology Without Understanding It
Friday, 25 December 2009
This editorial from our high school student newspaper is a must-read for its criticism of the school-wide technology integration initiative. It’s a must-read for other reasons too — and other readers — but read it first, and we’ll get to that very different party afterward. The first thing I did when I read this was [...]
A New Diigo Vision and Call for Advice: On Students Teaching China to the West
Wednesday, 23 December 2009






