a feel for learning
When Grace gave up horse riding a year ago, we went through a period of mourning with a dash of trauma added for flavor. Who our child is, or was, or was going to be,…
Category: learning
exam space
7:25 AM. I step in through the upper door and walk down the steps of the lecture hall. The metal door slams behind me to the dark morning, shuddering in the frame. Students are already assembled…
back to school
Sabbatical is over. To make this especially clear, last week was that back-to-school tradition, and I, along with thousands of students and hundreds of instructors at my institution, marched or otherwise stumbled forward into another…
on the harvesting of our children for industry
I spent a good part of two days listening to industry experts extolling their virtues and their needs. In this venue, once I started to hear a particular theme, I could not un-hear it. These…
a day at the “museum”
Note: A few months ago now I was traveling, bouncing from one experience to another and all the while trying to stuff them into my head. This is extracted from my notes and attempts to…
learning relationships: making sense of a dressage clinic
I’d like to be more clever and elegant in this narrative. I would like to write up my experiences with dressage in a slightly coy way, drawing the reader in with some intrigue and mystery….
stating the obvious — because I’d forget it otherwise
As I go back through my notes, I am recognizing an important, significant fact: I would not have remembered 90% of the details of what I’ve been experiencing if I hadn’t written it down. I…
stepping in: on vulnerability; or, “a physicist walks onto a dance floor…”
A few months ago, Andy was telling me about his work with college students preparing to be elementary school teachers and their experience with his science class. Andy sets up authentic science experiences for these…
student portraits and tales of learning
A couple years ago, a student caught me before my evening Science Teaching Methods class and reminded me about his kidneys. I remembered, but I knew that I really didn’t fully appreciate it all. He…