Month: December 2006

  • The Holy Grail in Teaching

    The Holy Grail, in teaching, would be the development of an assessment tool that has the following properties: It accurately reflects the actual learning that has occured. It cannot be spoofed by students who don’t learn/prepare/read etc. It is fair. It is easy to grade. It is, in like manner, easy to administer.

  • Review: Eragon

    Eragon (the movie) fantasy/adventure Cast details, etc., are in the IMDb entry. InstaRating: 2 out of 5 Having little else to do while school is out, I decided to see Eragon, this season’s epic high fantasy. I went with some trepidation, as the commercials made it seem overwhelmingly, well, cheesy. In hindsight, I had no…

  • Makeover for 2007

    Yesterday I spent more time than really justified in playing around with the look-and-feel of The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach. It began innocently enough: I finally reached my breaking point on the comment spam, receiving two blocks of 48 spams within an hour. (And yes, they came in discrete quanta of 48. Odd.) Considering the…

  • Saddan is Dead: Can We Go Home Now?

    Today, Iraqui President and dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after a conviction for atrocities committed in his name. Before going any further, let me clarify something so willfully obscured by some commentators on the right: Saddam Hussein was a Very Bad Man. He did terrible things and — while I am myself still…

  • Death and The Pardon

    It was announced yesterday (2006 Dec 27) that Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States, passed away at the age of 93. I will admit that I’ve always had a soft spot for the Ford presidency, derided in popular culture as one of the least effective in history. I generally root for the underdog,…