The impact of AI on writing, critical thinking, and the teaching of writing is too big and impossible to contemplate at first glance. This is not just because generative AI is still new enough to feel like magic (which, if someone said that was how it worked would make it make a lot more sense)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to write a terrible introduction with a sucky hook? Well, according to Brainyquote, someone named Jeffrey Dahmer once said, “A good introduction can make all the difference in succeeding in your plan.”​ Same with a bad introduction, only the opposite. In this blog post, I’m going […]

When teachers catastrophize, I generally tend to not buy in. When my colleagues complain about the latest bureaucratic stuff we’re expected to do, I figured you just ride it out. When somebody starts going on about how the students are getting dumber every year, or worse every year, or more feral every year (post-Covid fallout […]

Quick!  Pop-quiz, hotshot: Where does the thesis go in your students’ essays?   Go ahead and answer out loud.  The FBI agent watching you through your camera will let me know what you said. I’m kidding, of course, I don’t need Phil to tell me what you said.  You said “End of the intro paragraph.”   Well done.  […]

We spend a lot of time talking about modes of writing. What kind of writing is it? Informative? Persuasive? Rogerian? Definition? Narrative? We also spend a lot of time in our education system not teaching creative writing, which is – to use a pedagogical term – cuckoo-bananas. “Hey, you know the thing that’s great about […]

Last weekend there was a big trivia bee to raise money for schools.  I was asked to be on a team and – because of my nerdiness – jumped at it.  I didn’t think much of it, but as it got closer, it became more and more apparent that this wasn’t a little “Hey, have […]

Howdy, Laksehore High Panthers! I hope you had a great summer and are ready for another year of Panther Pride!  RAAWR! As you’re getting ready to put away the flip-flops and break out the new school shoes, here’s lots of good news and a few tips to help you prepare for how to make the […]

“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”  – page 20, Republican Party of Texas, 2012, […]