The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • Happy New Year 2007

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    mongreldogs
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    Yeah, it’s lame to post just a “Happy New Year” message. But it’s after midnight and I don’t feel like writing much more, so there. 🙂

  • The Holy Grail in Teaching

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    mongreldogs
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    The Holy Grail, in teaching, would be the development of an assessment tool that has the following properties: It accurately reflects the actual learning that has occured. It cannot be spoofed by students who don’t learn/prepare/read etc. It is fair. It is easy to grade. It is, in like manner, easy to administer.

  • Review: Eragon

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    mongreldogs
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    Eragon (the movie) fantasy/adventure Cast details, etc., are in the IMDb entry. InstaRating: 2 out of 5 Having little else to do while school is out, I decided to see Eragon, this season’s epic high fantasy. I went with some trepidation, as the commercials made it seem overwhelmingly, well, cheesy. In hindsight, I had no…

  • Makeover for 2007

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    mongreldogs
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    Yesterday I spent more time than really justified in playing around with the look-and-feel of The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach. It began innocently enough: I finally reached my breaking point on the comment spam, receiving two blocks of 48 spams within an hour. (And yes, they came in discrete quanta of 48. Odd.) Considering the…

  • Saddan is Dead: Can We Go Home Now?

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    mongreldogs
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    Today, Iraqui President and dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after a conviction for atrocities committed in his name. Before going any further, let me clarify something so willfully obscured by some commentators on the right: Saddam Hussein was a Very Bad Man. He did terrible things and — while I am myself still…

  • Death and The Pardon

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    mongreldogs
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    It was announced yesterday (2006 Dec 27) that Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States, passed away at the age of 93. I will admit that I’ve always had a soft spot for the Ford presidency, derided in popular culture as one of the least effective in history. I generally root for the underdog,…

  • Review: Interface

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    mongreldogs
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    Interface by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George (c) 1994 Bantam Dell InstaRating: 3.5 out of 5 An experimental biochip is implanted in a governor of Illinois after he suffers a massive stroke. Its stated purpose is to repair the connections in his brain, giving him access to speech and motor skills again. Unknown to…

  • Politics and Teaching

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    mongreldogs
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    So, Election Day has come and gone. I took time to talk about it in each of my classes today — and yes, I know I teach physics; more on that later — and I thought I’d ruminate some here. Full disclaimer: I am a lifelong Democrat who had been reasonably certain they’d find a…

  • *ping*

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    mongreldogs
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    Just a stay-alive post to indicate that I’m still around, though unable to write about teaching because, ironically, I am too busy teaching.

  • Running the Race (My speech given as Distinguished Faculty recipient)

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    mongreldogs
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    I have had the honor of being named as the Hun School’s first recipient of a new Distinguished Faculty Endowed Chair. One of the prices is that, today, I had to give a speech at the first-ever Convocation. Since some people have asked, and since I have an ego the size of Montana, I decided…