#teachblr

[inspired-lesson-plans]

A few years ago, I got briefly obsessed with (and had a Tumblr post break containment about) the then-ongoing downfall of Cornell marketing professor Brian Wansink, an influential food psychology researcher who turned out to have been doing scientific fraud on a massive scale. This ranged from having grad students record every random thing they possibly could about a study and then slicing and dicing the data until they found a correlation between two random things that met a statistical significance threshold and only reporting that, to impossible data, to copy-pasting thousands of words between allegedly unrelated papers, to extremely basic arithmetic errors like sample sizes that don't add up. The scientists who exposed him dissected several dozen of his papers, but he's published over 200, and pretty much all of them seem to be like this. I've thought ever since that it would make a great school activity to bring in a stack of random Wansink papers and challenge the class to see how many problems they can find.

Oh, I've heard about this guy! I think they talked about him on an episode of Freakonomics, or else somewhere on NPR.

Academic dishonesty, especially regarding scientific publications, it's something very near and dear to my heart. And the fact that this guy produced so many in easy, delightful, daytime talk show style. Scientific headlines means that I think I know the angle I would want to take with this just because somebody says that something is science, doesn't mean it is. It's not a matter of you. Can't trust the mainstream media, it's a matter of people need scientific literacy in order to be trustworthy when reporting science.

But the reason why I'm responding to this ask instead of just making a lesson plan, Which I do intend to do, is that I never ever actually took any classes on scientific methodology. All I know about p-values I learned from Khan Academy and Wikipedia.

So do you think we could collaborate?

If I draft up a lesson, could you proofread it for me to make sure that it's got all the information that you would like to see students learn?

And if anyone else knows any way they can help, please leave a comment or DM me. I'll be grateful to gain a better matter of this topic.

[porcupine-girl]

Reminder to everyone who teaches students age 18+ in the United States:

It is NOT LEGAL to offer ANY INCENTIVE for a person to either vote or register to vote in an election with any federal positions on the ballot. I don’t know if it’s actually been tested in court, but this is generally assumed to include offering extra credit!

Do not offer extra credit for voting or registering to vote (and definitely don’t require it)!

HOWEVER. Things that ARE totally legal that I encourage you to do:

Remind your students of registration, absentee, and early voting deadlines.

Provide links to the necessary sites to do these (and warn against fake links).

Be available to answer questions about the registration or voting processes

Don’t have anything due on Election Day (and maybe the day after) and if you can, cancel class that day.

When I was in high school one of our teachers became a notary just so she could register students to vote when they turned 18 (I don’t know anything about that process).

Offer extra credit for (or if it’s relevant to the class, create assignments requiring) things like explaining/researching the registration or voting process, going to a polling station and writing observations (no photos!), researching candidates or issues, etc. Things that make it easy for them to just register/vote while they’re there, but they don’t have to.

Things that are legal but tbh I don’t encourage you to do unless it’s relevant to the class you’re teaching and you’re totally sure your school has your back if parents complain:

Tell them who/what you think they should vote for (or you’re voting for) and why

However, if any issues are relevant to your class obviously you can work them in in relevant ways. Just be careful of parents or students who think you’ve “got an agenda” - personally I always stick to the facts and let students draw their own conclusions.

For example: In our development chapter we cover prenatal development, and I’m careful to mention several facts that I could skip but that directly oppose anti-abortion taking points, such as the fact that you aren’t pregnant until you’re 2-4 weeks pregnant, there is no “heartbeat” at six weeks, only an electrical pulse, and as far as we can tell fetuses cannot feel pain until myelination of their nerves starts around 25-27 weeks. I’ve noticed some students who look pleased that I’ve mentioned these things as well as students who are clearly surprised by them. I never mention abortion, and anyone trying to claim I’m pushing a pro-choice agenda would be hard pressed to demonstrate that I’m doing anything other than conveying the scientifically-supported facts of prenatal development.

It’s an unfortunate fact that it can be dangerous for teachers at any level to give any indication that we aren’t apolitical beings, but you know and I know that just getting people to register and vote (especially young people), without a single word about who to vote for, benefits the left more than the right.

They know it too, but I’d like to see a parent complain about my providing links to voting registration without admitting they just don’t want people with every right to vote to actually do it.

[study-diaries]

Things I Wish Teachers Would Understand

I have a life outside of school. I may be going through health problems or mental health issues or family troubles or financial issues. Literally, I can name so many things and of course, you won't consider it because the only thing you notice is that how I've not done my homework or how I got low grades in my exams.

Grades don't define me. Or my efforts. Or my self-worth. Just because I get high grades doesn't mean I'm more smart or disciplined. And just because I get low grades doesn't mean I'm dumb or lazy.

Mental health issues are real. Really real. And they are hard to deal with.

Learning disabilities are also real. You can't just get out of it. Working hard doesn't fix it. It's a real issue.

Being an introvert is not bad. IT IS NOT BAD. Period. I do not have to speak more in class to prove that I'm paying attention. It just means that I do not want to speak. I'm fine with being quiet.

I can forget things. I can forget that assignment that was due, I can forget to do the homework. And I can definitely forget about the test.

The things you say matters. Even if it is sarcasm. Even if it is a dismissal. Sometimes, it makes me stay up late at night. Sometimes it just stays with me throughout the day. So, yes. You should speak a bit more carefully.

Grades don't show my full effort. Sometimes, I try so hard and I still don't get it right. And when you say that I should try harder? That does shatter a small part of me, not because you told me that, it just makes me feel that I'm the one who's damn stupid and that no matter how much effort I put in the work, it doesn't matter if the grades are not there.

As a student, I will of course prefer some subjects over the others. It is not a personal attack. And it is not an invitation for you to tell me something sarcastic about it.

Calling out a student on their mistakes in front of the whole class or our juniors or seniors or any other teachers is not okay. It's embarrassing to us and makes us feel bad.

Small praise does mean something. Honestly. I remember every good thing a teacher told me because I'll be honest, most don't say very nice things.

Please don't try to force things on us. Whether it be competitions, extracurriculars or anything really. It doesn't feel good.

And if there are some students who misbehave? That doesn't mean the whole class is bad. And no, collective punishments don't help.

I also appreciate when you try. Like, really. I respect you because you teach dozens of classes a day and still show up to our classes with neutral moods. You have a lot of patience for dealing with us.

I really appreciate your stories, advice and the small tips that you give about life now and then. It helps. And yes, I do remember.

I also feel that sometimes that both our expectations come crashing down. You expect us to do good. We expect you to be supportive and passionate. And it's okay to let go of your expectations sometimes.

And I know you have stresses too. You, too, have health problems, mental health issues and family issues, financial issues. I know you have the pressure of making everyone pass through the year and delivering good grades. And I have to say, I understand you. I really do.

I'm writing this because I've had so many teachers expect so much from me. And I'll be honest, that pressure broke me. Seriously broke me. I also respect teachers a lot, but it also doesn't mean I appreciate their behaviors or actions. You make up the world that we currently live in and I say this, not just as a student but as a person.

(P.S. This has been in my drafts from a long time. This was like peak exam + pressure + stress season, so don't mind the not so small rant. And no, I don't have a personal grudge against teachers.)

[lackadaisycal-art]

This is a deck of Happy Families cards I drew for my mum / myself, since it's a great game to teach kids "Have you got?"/"Do you have?" "Yes, I have."/"Yes, I do." in EFL classes, and her old deck from the 90s was in tatters

[boreal-sea]

“Why should my paper have a conclusion? I just told you everything! Why should I say it again!?”

Firstly, conclusions don’t have to be summaries. That’s one way they can be used but to be honest it’s lazy and boring to read.

To use an example… why do tv shows and movies and books get descending action? Why do some get epilogues? Have you ever read a book or seen a show that seemed to end really abruptly or the ending seems rushed? It felt like the themes and messages of the show never really resolved, right? You’re left hanging, missing something. You’re unsatisfied and potentially confused.

That’s how your paper will read if you don’t give it a conclusion. You’ve just lead me (your professor) on an adventure, now I need you to gently land the plane instead of just slamming it into the ground, ok?

Why does the stuff you told me matter? How does it affect things within the field you’re writing? How do the themes you’ve described carry on into the real world? Should we be taking action, now that you’ve told us all this information? What do YOU think this all means?

[library-goblin]

The past year, I've been a substitute teacher for someone who went on maternity leave and she had this plant in the back of her classroom that looked dead. I ignored it for a couple of months, then decided to make it my little project. It took me a couple of months, but in the end I managed to get green leaves again and even some new branches. It's one of those plants that climbs up, and it was one big tangle, so I detangled all the branches and neatly wrapped them around the pole again.

When the teacher came in last week to briefly discuss the classes before her taking over again, it was the first thing she noticed when she walked into the classroom. She teared up and started to smile and thank me. She said "I've always felt like that plant was a representation of my own state. I was knackered before my leave. You've given me a brand new start, thank you for that. I feel like I myself am now starting as a beautiful green plant again."

Sometimes it's the little things, guys.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

ELA, Writing Prompt:

After reading the posts above, and doing some research about Joshua Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, write a story about the four adventures.

You may come up with your own plot, or use the following premise:

In 1870s San Francisco, nothing is more popular, or more profitable, than a cold drink. But there hasn't been a ship entering town from the Boston Ice Company in months. Word is, they've all been redirected to those milksops in Sacramento. That's why the beloved, aging Emperor Norton has put out a call for " Lion-Hearted rogues of a gentle temperance". Four unlikely outcasts have answered.

@shorthistorian feel free to fact check me on this.

Consider:

Victorian England: 1837-1901

American Old West: 1803-1912

Meiji Restoration: 1868-1912

French privateering in the Gulf of Mexico: ended circa 1830

Conclusion: an adventuring party consisting of a Victorian gentleman thief, an Old West gunslinger, a disgraced former samurai, and an elderly French pirate is actually 100% historically plausible.

[lepetitmini]

another half term spent up north- mostly marking papers. if you’re ever in leeds, be sure to pop by the bookish type for a browse. very excited to make my way through these james baldwin essays (but very unimpressed with the penguin archive collection covers). hope you’re all having a lovely june thus far :)

[ditzydiitsi]

teaching is so unserious because you could be having the worst day of your life and theres a 8 year old fortnite dancing next to you during silent reading time

[mutopians]

press f to pay respect to educators rn. i dont even mean because of us politics. it's may. we're all tired. everyone's pissy and stressed and it is SO fucking busy man. but we're almost there at the end of it all

[mariancsearle]

POV: Me as an ADHD teacher using Classroom Dojo.

DOCTOR WHO | 11.06: DEMONS OF THE PUNJAB

[inspired-lesson-plans]

This is a very long post. If you do not have the time, then please at least do the quick activity up top. The lesson plan that took me 4 days to write will follow the ⁜ symbol.

HW Due Mon:

Open https://mysolartime.com/ in a new tab and allow the website to track your location.

Open https://www.utctime.net/ in a new tab.

Reblog this post the current UTC time and your local time, using the following format:

21:00 UTC, 4:00 local

4. Vote in the following poll.

⁜

Social Studies, Grade 5, Geography 6.1.5.GeoSV.3: Demonstrate how to use digital geographic tools, maps and globes to measure distances and determine time zones, and locations using latitude and longitude.

Do Now:

Provide students with a paper copy of a population density world map and 2 minutes to fulfill the following instruction:

Draw lines on the map in order to separate the world into 24 time zones. Try not to separate dense population centers into different time zones.

⁎

Class Discussion:

Use the projector to share and discuss the maps of any students who are willing to share. Have fun with this, there are bound to be some good ideas and bad ideas because 5th grade is like that.

Then, project the official world time zone map, and discuss the good ideas and bad ideas present here.

Exemplary discussion points:

The 0-point of the timezone map is the Prime Meridian, which cuts right through England. Why do you think it's in England?

How come some countries like the US and Brazil are cut into multiple time zones, but China isn't?

Why do you think the lines are pretty straight in Europe, Africa, and North and South America, but so confused in Asia and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans?

⁑

Direct Instruction:

Long ago, nobody really cared about the exact time. All you really needed was sunrise, sunset, and noon, and you could figure those out with your eyes. If you wanted to be fancy, you could put a stick in the ground and trace its shadow over the course of the day to measure out hours.

Perhaps the first recorded complaint of time-keeping technology comes from Rome in 250BCE.

The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours! Confound him too Who in this place set up a sundial To cut and hack my days so wretchedly Into small portions! When I was a boy, My belly was my sundial: one more sure, Truer, and more exact than any of them. This dial told me when it was time To go to dinner, when I had anything to eat; But nowadays, why even when I have, I can't fall-to unless the sun gives leave. The town's so full of these confounded dials, The greatest part of its inhabitants, Shrunk up with hunger, creep along the streets. [x]

In other words, "Kids these days are always looking at their sundials. Back in my day, there were only three times, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. All we needed to tell the time was our stomach!"

Please note this was a satire, so if it sounds funny, you are correct.

But for 18th century British sailors, accurate timekeeping was no laughing matter. These sailors used fancy math (called trigonometry) to calculate their latitude. So long as they knew the angle between the sun and the horizon, and the time when that angle was measured.

Ship's captains would keep logbooks of these measurements. That way, another ship's captain would be able to reference the logbook in order to replicate the journey, much like replicating a science experiment.

Now... think about this... how can you do that unless the next captain is using the same time as you. We take this for granted today, but how can you be sure that two clocks are synchronized?

Scientists in the town of Greenwich, England (pronounced gren`-ich) recorded the solar noon every day of the year and calculated the Greenwich Mean Time. By keeping an accurate and exact time in one exact place, GMT eventually the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for everyone in the world. That's why in the time zone map, the 0 runs through one specific part of England.

This is important. For the first time in human history, the clocks in different places were synchronized. Solar noon happens at a different time in London than it does in Greenwich, but if they both use GMT (otherwise known as UTC), then they can coordinate their schedules. This was very important for railroads, where exact, coordinated schedules are very important.

Soon, the entire country of England existed within a single time zone.

When the United States built railroads that spanned vast lateral (East-West) distances, they needed to create different time zones for cities that were far apart from each other, such as New York and Chicago. Thus, the US became the first country with multiple time zones.

As the rest of the world industrialized, they needed to pick their time zones. You can see this on the map. Each time zone is, at least in theory, as wide as 1/24 the circumference of the Earth. It's like the space between the numbers on a clock! Most countries are smaller than this, so they can comfortably fit within a single timezone. Others, like Brazil and Australia, divided their landmasses into two or three time zones.

China did not have widespread industrialization until post-WWII dictatorial communist rule. This was a very uncaring and inconsiderate government, to put it mildly. Suffice it to say that for Chinese farmers in the far west, having to get up 2-3 hours earlier every day would have been the least of their worries.

⁂

Modeled Activity:

Show students how to use this Day and Night world map as a way to visualize the day and night cycle across the world.

Additionally, show them how to use https://mysolartime.com/ to find their current time where they live.

Give students a moment to calculate the difference between their Local Time and the official time in their time zone, and what that means.

(I am currently in Philadelphia, which is 11 minutes East of New York City)

Finally, show students how to use https://www.utctime.net/ to find their exact, current UTC.

Have students calculate the difference in minutes and hours between Local Time and Official Time.

00:41 - 19:30 = -5:11 (Philadelphia is 5 hours and 11 minutes East of Greenwich, England)

Explain that every internet connected device in the world uses a service like this one, then adds or subtracts hours to fit the time zone of your current location.

Higher Order Learning:

Students work in small groups to look up the local time in different major cities around the world, recording their data on a worksheet. As they do, they should discuss the following questions:

Are time zones still relevant in our always-online society?

If you can know your Local Time and the UTC any time you look at your phone, then what purpose do time zones still serve?

How would it feel for schools and businesses to use UTC instead?

How would you feel if your school day went from 4:20-10:50 UTC?

Finally, each student must individually write at least 3 sentences responding to the following question:

Would you advocate for or against your school district dropping references to the time in your time zone and instead referring to UTC and Local Time? Why or why not?

[ben-learns-smth]

I had a few events today at the school I'll do my teacher training at and while it was A Lot (also bc I have a cold. yay.) it was also really great to meet my co-trainees and the other teachers in a more relaxed setting. I talked to a few of the other teachers, but mostly with my cohort and we seem like a good group! I'm very hopeful and excited for the next 18 months now!!

the monstera picture is from a class trip I co-supervised on monday. it was exhausting (especially in the heat) but a great second to last day at work. currently waiting for my cinnamon swirls to cool so I can pack them for tomorrow's goodbye breakfast with that group

[187days]

Day One

Well. It's my twentieth year of teaching. And I started it majestically... by tripping over my own two feet on my way to my classroom because my sneakers and the freshly waxed hallways didn't get along.

(I tripped like three more times throughout the day, twice in front of other people).

Buuuuut anyways.

In-service started with coffee, and The Principal's welcome back/welcome new people remarks. After that, we had four gloriously uninterrupted hours to set up our classrooms, but, if you've been following along at home, you know I did a lot of my set up when I was in for LT meetings last week- and I'm notoriously quick at doing many things anyhow- so I went and checked in with the teachers in my department. Then I started tackling the mess that is the English/Social Studies staff room. I didn't get very far on that, but progress is progress.

Lunch was pizza from one of the local restaurants. I introduced Ms. B and Mr. X to my Cacophonous friends, and they fit right in, which was awesome. A cacophony ought to expand and grow, after all!

After lunch, The Principal went over policies and procedures, new or continuing initiatives, and expectations for tomorrow's freshman orientation. He'd given himself an hour and a half, probably anticipating more questions than there were (I'd anticipated more), but only took maybe forty minutes. So everyone was free to wrap up the day however they needed to. I went over how to use PowerSchool and Smartpass with Ms. B and Mr. X, then went back to my classroom to fill out all the beginning-of-the-year paperwork I had to fill out.

I did text Mrs. T, too, to tell her it was weird to do this without her, but we're both in good places and doing what we want to do, so it's all good.

And that was that! Day one, in the books!

[omnivorousshipper]

Me: *existing*

My email: you've got a new student!

Me: FUCKKKKKKKKKKK

[starlightinhumanform]

hey!! do you hate AI?? help me with a project to ID AI in student writing!!!

it will only take a couple minutes and will be super helpful!!!

please share + reblog!!!