Currently reading “Peer Feedback Through Blogs: Student and teacher perceptions in an advanced German class” by DORIS DIPPOLD found in European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 21 (1) : 18-36. Published in 2009. This article explores the question of…
what I’m reading – for fun
I’m reading Chinese Americans by Kwong and Miscevic. I’m barely into it and I’ve learned: America’s favorite cherry – the large, sweet and succulent Bing – was developed by Ah Bing, a Chinese immigrant horticulturalist, in 1875. Lue Gim Gong,…
Secrets of other teachers.
Tweed, a blog by the Chronicle of Education, has an interesting example of teachers who should know better having no privacy settings and posting inappropriate (?) comments on Facebook. This isn’t how I grade because a) I don’t drink beer…
Research on Facebook: statistics.
Near the end of 2009, Facebook had over 300 million users and it’s common stock value was about $9.5 billion (Womack, 2009). By the beginning of 2010 it had become the “most popular social network in eight of the 10…
Grammar matters (?): #9 farther vs. further.
Farther is distance and further is for an abstract concept – matter of time or degree usually. Click on cartoon for full treatment (it won’t fit here and be legible).
Grammar matters (?)
Oddly enough – non-standard grammar / spelling bother most people even more than it bothers English teachers. English teachers just see so much of it; however, nothing makes people feel more superior than reading someone else’s mistakes. Failure to proofread…
Book Report: Brothers
Brothers, by Yu Hua is available in Chinese or English, and in Audiobook form at the Lawrence Public Library. It’s long – but I loved it. The New York Times says “Brothers” is, in fact, very much a social novel…
Book Report: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
This novel by Dai Sijie, is available in Chinese or English – and can be found in audio format in English. Set during the cultural revolution, it treats the it’s protagonists with warmth and humor – and the book has…
Feedback: teacher clarity and millennials
About every semester lately I get a request from a couple students for greater clarity in what is expected in a writing assignment. I expect this because the course goals and objectives of composition classes call for abstract thinking and…
advice to myself – what I’ll do differently next semester
We will establish the role of wikipedia (ie. anything there should be considered common knowledge, so it doesn’t make an effective quote in a real research paper – but can make useful footnotes for electronic discussions). likewise: queries to ask.com…