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 way – looking at various kingdoms, phyla, etc. and talking about key characteristics of those different groups. What was lacking, in my opinion, was a look at the deep structure that shows the unity of life instead of the diversity. A chance to explore all the branches of the phylogenetic tree rather than just look at the leaves, if you will. So, I created the Examining Biological Diversity Using the Tree of Life project, currently hosted on wikispaces but may eventually get moved onto the World of … Continue reading »

{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 maybe he was just earning some brownie points and generating some social capital that he will draw upon later in the semester. But I don’t care. Teaching is one of those jobs in which you usually hear only the complaints and the commentary about how you could have done a better job. It’s always good, no matter what your job is, to hear that you’re doing a good job. A lot of high school students, but certainly not all, tend towards apathy towards their teachers … Continue reading »

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 the beverage vending machines and they contained juice, water, Gatorade type drinks and Diet Coke. And Coke Zero! What the – let’s just use the word heck here in case my students are reading this – heck! They’re stilling selling drinks with sugar. I’m sure the Gatorade has at least as much sugar as a can of regular Coke. And they’re still selling caffeinated fizzy drinks. They’re just not selling them in the same can! This is so unfair and agonizing to me. I walked … Continue reading »

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.

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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. I was a total drama nerd in high school, which led to acting in the first Edmonton Fringe Festival in 1982. It was a minor part as Queen Clytemnestra’s lover, but I got to wear a toga and carry a whip. I considered studying drama after I graduated but decided to pursue my B.Sc. in Genetics instead. My first job after high school was as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. I earned sharpshooter awards for assault rifles and sub-machine guns. I also learned how to … Continue reading »

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 can say it is open for business. Right now I’ll be using it for my Computer Networking 10 class as we finish up the semester. Once the second semester starts on January 28, I’ll be using it for all my face to face classes (Computer Networking 20 and 30, and Biology 20) and maybe even for sharing some of the work I’ve been doing in my online classes (Computer Science 20 and 30). The site consists of a WordPress blog which is the primary public interface … Continue reading »

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.