This is a follow-up on an earlier post about some changes I wanted to make in the way that I taught taxonomy and biological diversity. I’d never been quite satisfied with the way that taxonomy and diversity is taught. What finally occurred to me is that it had always been taught in a shallow [...]

{Bell rings signaling the end of class} {Students begin to close books, move towards door and leave} Me: OK, see everyone tomorrow. Have a great day. See ya. Student {packing up books into backpack}: Hey Mr. Wall Me: {Turning to student} Yes? Student: Good class today, Mr. Wall.

It’s the second day of classes so [...]

The school division has recently enacted a healthy food policy. We’re trying, and in general I admire and support this, to eliminate unhealthy foods and drinks from the vending machines in schools that have them.

But – and you know this was coming, didn’t you – they haven’t really eliminated anything unhealthy. I walked past [...]

More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given (Bertrand Russell)

I’m looking for a teaser for the top of the blog’s main page. This is a good one and might end up being the winner.

I don’t get to attend all the cool conferences that Dean does – hey, someone’s got to stay home and actually teach the students – but I sometimes get a vicarious feeling for the zeitgeist of the proceedings by reading Dean’s blog entries and his updates on Twitter. … This is too bad because I think the meaning that it carried was a good and important one, but we attention has been diverted from its core meaning by the name that it has been given – “libel by label” as McLuhan called it.

I just saw this video on Alec’s blog. My first intention was to leave a comment there but just in case you haven’t seen it already, I thought it would be worth passing along.

Thanks to Alec for bringing this powerful message to my attention.

Alec and Rick both meme-tagged me for this one, but it took me a while to think of 7 things about me that might be interesting. Here’s my list:

I can turn my feet backwards. I forget exactly how I discovered this, but it’s always made for a good conversation starter at parties.

One of my many projects which keeps me from doing cooler things like the 7 things meme has been the World of Wall, a site that is going to integrate all the online information I need for my classes. I’ve blogged about this project but I think it is operational enough now that [...]

I’ve been meme-tagged by Rick Schwier and Alec Couros with the “7 things you may not know about me” meme. I’ve been having a tough time thinking about things that are interesting enough to be worth sharing, but I will get around to it. Sometime. Eventually.