First, I’ve never - not once - met a single person in public education who knew what Walter Reed did, so let’s start with that. Med students usually know about him; Walter Reed is famous for his work on understanding the transmission of yellow fever [around the Span-Am War in Cuba, this mattered quite a lot, [...]

Over on the Teacher Magazine forums, they’re talking about learning styles. It seems that the learning styles debate didn’t penetrate very deeply. Or, to be more realistic and more charitable, that it has a long way to go. Here are some snippets from the discussion: “As a special education teacher, I am constantly frustrated in professional development. I [...]

Thinking of those college Democrats got me in the mood to post Che Mouse. Countdown to Gretchen Wilson at the RNC? About half an hour. Don't forget to subscribe to the Education for the Aughts Podcast!

If ya know what I mean. I’ve subscribed to the Boston University College Democrats e-mail list for some years now. I was never involved in any political groups when I was a student there, but I knew a few who were. It’s good to stay abreast of what the other folks are doing - not out [...]

Over at the GlobalScholar Blog, I commented on Jay Mathews’ piece about great teachers vs. great buildings. Mathews is right that instructional quality matters the most, but as several links and quotes in my entry show, we can’t neglect buildings, either. Oddly enough, Mathews’ article - and the support/criticism of some of his points - are [...]

Ask yourself: “Which Side Are You On?” Or you can watch the video, listen to the song, and let Pete Seeger ask you [YouTube video]: As a YouTube commenter points out, the picture of Karl Marx displayed from 1:36 to 2:06 gives an indication of which side you’re on, but I digress. I love union songs - [...]

You know that old saw? That one about ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?’ [Hint: It was a chart-topper for George Santayana in 1904 or so.] Not everyone does. Remembering history has other benefits, too - when you recall the past, you avoid hyperbole that makes you look like a fool. The issue [...]

Forbes has released its new college ranking system so that college-seekers might have an alternative to US News. As you might expect, there’s some good, some bad and some surprises. I like what I see so far - you can read my brief summary and analysis of the Forbes system [and links to other takes] over at [...]

For some reason, I thought that Mavis Beacon-style typing programs on the IBM PCjr were games. Apparently they aren’t, but now I can type like a[n accurate] madman. There’s lots of stuff on the market - some free, some not, some good, some worse. I’ve always liked JumpStart’s games. They’re geared toward the youngest crowd, but [...]

I’m on a slightly political bent, so I’ll call this fairly good news. It’s a non-partisan primary, but if a candidate gets a majority, they win. If there’s no majority selection, the top two finishers runoff in November. With 90%+ precincts reporting, we’ve got the following results: Susan Valdes over Schmidt. Good, she’s alright. I guess this means [...]