Oct 24, 2008

The Russian Method

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The group of Russians just left UNC a couple of days ago; they were here for a conference on teacher education. The visit was a lot of fun; ...
1 comment:
Oct 9, 2008

Problem Solving

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I greatly value people's ability to solve problems. It brings me great pleasure to see how an unexpected solution emerges. There is a li...
Oct 3, 2008

The theory of set

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In the first half of the 20s century, a great Georgian psychologist Dmitri Uznadze developed the theory of set. He and his followers measur...
Sep 20, 2008

In Praise of Email

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Yesterday, Friday 9/19/2008, I have sent 51 emails. The first one, at 9:30 AM, was to Vicky. She told me than Layne is out ill today, and in...
Sep 13, 2008

A Study of Human Nature

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The most challenging and the most interesting part of my job is dealing with people, with their quirks and peculiarities. Sometimes I think ...
3 comments:
Sep 6, 2008

On Academic Ethics

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Last night (yes, Friday night), I met with my doctoral class, EDF 670, Introduction to Research Literature. We had four guest speakers – fa...
Aug 29, 2008

Till When?

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I was trying to rent a van from UNC facilities, for the Nomadic conference in October. No problem, but they require each driver to take a 75...
Aug 22, 2008

White Privilege

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This week, we had a diversity workshop for college faculty on white privilege. By all accounts, it was very well done. The conversation was ...
Aug 15, 2008

Ten Profound Truths about the Japanese culture

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Can one visit a country for a week or two and then claim any level of understanding its culture? Not really; it always annoys me when peop...
1 comment:
Jul 30, 2008

Plagiarism

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A happy week was completely ruined by plagiarism cases I discovered in my graduate class. I don't really know why, but it always makes m...
Jul 17, 2008

On stupidity

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Two nights ago, I was building a headboard for our bed; something I promised Svetlana to do for a very long time. Like most men, I have to ...
Jul 9, 2008

Virtual course

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We had a great slowtalk with Elementary PTEP program this week. It is good to talk about the nitty-gritty of curriculum, and not about data...
1 comment:
Jul 5, 2008

Summer reading

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Summertime, and the living is easy. I don't know how other people spend their down time. I was reading (and also listening to podcasts) ...
Jun 28, 2008

Silentium!

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By Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, 1830 Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal the way you dream, the things you feel. Deep in your spirit let them r...
Jun 19, 2008

What is happening to public higher education?

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As we are testing waters in various off-campus ventures, I get a sense that some rules of the game are changing. Mainly, it is the kinds of ...
Jun 13, 2008

Fall Offense Planning

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I have written here before, that I divide all work into defense and offence. Defense is reacting to things that are coming my way: reports, ...
3 comments:
Jun 6, 2008

The tasks of improvement

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Some of the units at our university, which shall remain unnamed, cannot improve. They run into the same problems semester after semester, an...
May 29, 2008

The wheel reinvention factory

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How long does it take to develop a course syllabus? For a course you taught for many times, it still takes a couple of days: to change the c...
May 23, 2008

The language regime

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Over the last weekend, I attended my son's graduation. On Monday through Wednesday, I spent a lot of time on a grant application. On Thu...
May 1, 2008

Flexible but sticky

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At the end of the academic year, I reflect on what worked and what did not, and if there is any pattern that separates the two kinds of proj...
Apr 25, 2008

Colorado Tease

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That is what they call the spring season here in Colorado: the Colorado tease. It may snow at night, only to go up to 60 the next day. The w...
Apr 18, 2008

Homecomings

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Mister blog, I am back. I took a trip to Russia where I attended a conference at my alma mater, the Novosibirsk Teachers' University . ...
1 comment:
Mar 21, 2008

Yet another reform

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Governor Ritter is proposing a new bill . Basically, the standards will be revised, and then re-revised every two years, and aligned from pr...
Mar 14, 2008

Refuse to be second-rate

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Like everyone else, our School has a vision . It is better, less bland than most of its kind, but I doubt it really guides our every-day act...
1 comment:
Mar 7, 2008

Slowtalk

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Much of my interactions with people are fasttalk through e-mail, in person, or phone. However, certain kinds of problems can only be effecti...
Feb 29, 2008

Due Diligence

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Wikipedia defines due diligence (also known as due care) as the effort made by an ordinarily prudent or reasonable party to avoid harm to a...