THE BLOG IS NOW AT YJSOON.COM

UPDATE YOUR FEEDS WITH THE NEW SUBSCRIPTION

PLEASE DON’T LOOK AT THE SITE IN IE

TAKING A WORD DOC FILE AND CHANGING THE EXTENSION TO RTF DOES NOT MAKE IT A RTF FILE YOU IDIOTS, YOU MAKE ME RENAME THE FILE EVERY GODDAMN MONTH I HATE YOU SO MUCH

I looked up the official website hoping to find something to make fun of, and MDA certainly didn’t want to disappoint here.

Check out the horrible font choices, nigh-unreadable text size and colour contrast, the hilarious combination of drop-shadow AND outer-glow text effects on the main title, and the amazing playable “background music” involving screeching monkeys and a low-quality version of the (admittedly very melodious) theme song that builds up to a rousing climax and… stops. Even the standard Flash video controls on the trailer are mysteriously ginormous and pixelated. Aargh my eyes.

No, Seriously: Microsoft Patents Page Up & Page Down - GigaOM

So when students get to college, they hear a couple of speeches telling them to ask the big questions, and when they graduate, they hear a couple more speeches telling them to ask the big questions. And in between, they spend four years taking courses that train them to ask the little questions — specialized courses, taught by specialized professors, aimed at specialized students. [...] We are slouching, even at elite schools, toward a glorified form of vocational training.

What does it mean to go to school at a place where you’re never alone? Well, one of them said, I do feel uncomfortable sitting in my room by myself. Even when I have to write a paper, I do it at a friend’s. That same day, as it happened, another student gave a presentation on Emerson’s essay on friendship. Emerson says, he reported, that one of the purposes of friendship is to equip you for solitude. As I was asking my students what they thought that meant, one of them interrupted to say, wait a second, why do you need solitude in the first place? What can you do by yourself that you can’t do with a friend?

• My chicken comic is the first Google Images hit for defenestrate. Hooray.
• I have a propensity for looking at my watch at exactly 13:37 and being needlessly amused.
• Colbert vs. Cookie Monster = awesome
• Poképresident = also awesome

That is all.

You can do and use the skills that you have. The schools need you. The teachers need you. Students and parents need you. They need your actual person. Your physical personhood and your open minds and open ears and boundless compassion. Sitting next to them, listening and nodding and asking questions for hours at a time. Some of these kids just don’t plain know how good they are. How smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them one human interaction at a time.

I’m moving on to a new posting in January, and I have strong suspicions these next few months will be my final times as a professional teacher. Even so, I’m not quite sure I’m done teaching yet, so I’m just making a mental note here to revisit this video a year down the road.

Once Upon A School, Mr. Egger’s challenge for adults to support their local schools, is here.

This and last week’s “demo lessons” in Changchun actually make me miss teaching Physics a little… I just had a lot more room for self-expression, instead of struggling to design a coherent lesson package.

Some Things To Mention In Point Form.

• Going to start posting comics on flickr as well. Go there for high-resolution (rather, super grainy) versions.
• Related to above, from the left side of the page: “You’re the only person who has used “stupidchicken” as a tag.” YEAH I’M SO ORIGINAL WOO
• The comics-only page is now accessible at comics.stupidchicken.com.
• Sooner or later I will make a comics-only blog.
• (Bet on later.)
• Recent turn of events have made me so annoyed I can’t even begin to describe how much I want to kick a small animal or two right now.

That is all.

Experimenting with new lazy method — draw on whiteboard, take picture, touch up image, post. The uneven lighting and levels are very frustrating, though, so I might have to dig out the tablet..