Random Quote
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
Tech in the Classroom
Gord has a long post about using Tech in the Classroom that is well worth the read. Gord’s post talks about how some things are used primarily for flash and impress, but in my opinion students will know when something is being done to impress them versus actually impressing with a pedagogical purpose.
Gord also talks about the various uses of the internet that are available. Everything that Gord says is spot on. I would like to do more such as using Second Life (what’s the point you ask?) and more online tasks with my students but due to contextual constraints I can’t. Last semester I did have the opportunity to teach English education majors a course on “How to teach English through the internet” that I got to explore a lot of these opportunities with web 2.0 applications and second language learners. Unfortunately at the time my PC was not powerful enough to run Second Life so I could explore in advance of class and was forced to leave it off of the activities though I did suggest my students explore it on their own.
In any case as Gord says below, all of this will be second nature to the next generation and if teachers and institutions want to engage future students on any sort of meaningful level, they need to start adapting now. This means change now and continuous change in the future as technology is not static - teaching in the future will require a constant change and professional development through the internet - using the tools you teach your students with will lead to greater professional development and ability to connect with students.
The next generation of students? All this will be their natural language, all this and more. (Actually, I think this will be to them like “lisp” or “BASIC” is to those of us who know what lisp and BASIC were. So far in the background or foundation of their natural language that if that’s all we grasp, we’re going to look very, very silly.) If teachers are going to find a way to be relevant to those students-to-come, it’s going to have to be through inventive use of these kinds of technologies in ways that actually facilitate the learning that goes on outside the classroom. This will make both students and teachers alike happier campers.
