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Merry Christmas (And All That Stuff)
2020 has been weird, weird year. If you've spent any time at all on social media, I'm sure you've seen all the posts and tweets and reels and memes about how this year has been the absolute worst. And,...
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Teaching is Not for the Faint of Heart...and HyFlex Teaching in Particular
I saw this tweet this morning, and boy did this resonate... I don't think non-teachers understand what teaching remote and in-person simultaneously really entails. How would you describe it, teacher...
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Welcome to 2021: Let's Go!
Welcome to 2021!I know, I know...I'm a few days late. But here we are. It feels like everyone I know has taken a collective sigh of relief that the madness of 2020 is now in the rearview mirror....
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Happy PodDay!
My buddy and co-conspirator, Matt, texted me first thing this morning: "Happy PodDay, brother!"Today is the day...after weeks of dreaming, scheming, recording, and a whole lot of laughing have come...
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Learning Targets
I've been thinking a lot about learning targets lately. In the two methods courses I'm teaching right now (Science Methods for Elementary and Middle School, and Methods of Teaching STEM K-12) we are...
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A Case of the Blahs (And Teaching Anyway)
By nature, I'm a pretty upbeat person. I can usually look on the bright-side, find something lovely to celebrate, and bring some joy to pretty much any situation. Positivity is one of my...
View ArticleA Pandemic Year, and Counting Blessings
I am feeling reflective as I write this. I was grateful to have been able to get my first shot for the COVID vaccine this past Thursday, one year to the day after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global...
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Exhaustion and Emotional Labor
What a year it's been! (Understatement much, Dave??) Seriously, this has been a demanding year for me as a teacher. I am not complaining. I'm so grateful that I've been able to be regularly meeting up...
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On Being Seriously Silly
I saw this one on Twitter today from the eminent Sir John Cleese:Always be the silliest in any group. 😃 #tbtpic.twitter.com/oMJu876Wsz— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) April 22, 2021(Just in case you aren't...
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Concluding a Course: "Sparkiness" in the Classroom
I'm having a bit of a hard time today as I'm working on my end-of-semester grading. It's not that the students have written poorly, or that they aren't showing evidence of their learning--quite the...
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Finding Gratitude by Way of an Email from the Past
This morning I checked my gmail, which I do periodically...though not every day. Actually, it had been a few days since I'd last logged in. There was a surprising message waiting for me. The sender?...
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Weighing Our Words: The Impact of a Teacher
Last week I heard that a former professor of mine had passed away. Gloria Goris Stronks was a legend, and she influenced an entire generation of Christian teachers. Hearing about her death impacted me...
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The Future of the Teaching Profession
A couple weeks ago I was at my kids' high school for a concert, and afterward, I ran into the principal in the courtyard of the building. We visited a bit about how the school year was wrapping up, and...
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My Pseudo-Hiatus for Summer
Haven't written much on the ol' blog this summer.It's a combination of being busy with other things (teaching a couple of courses, recording and editing episodes of Hallway Conversations, working on...
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First Day Jitters and Joy
It's day one, again. It's my 10th first day teaching at Dordt.It's my 24th first day of teaching, overall.It's my 40th first day of school in my life(??!!)I still get the first day jitters. The anxious...
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On the Death of My Clicker: A Reflection on Technology and Pedagogy
At the risk of sounding ridiculous...I am grieving a small loss in my life. My faithful clicker that I believe I purchased during my last year teaching middle school science (in 2009) has died. It's a...
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Giving Up on a Book
I have a stubborn streak. The folks who know me quite well will not be surprised at all to hear this. It plays out in lots of different ways in my professional and personal life. It even comes out in...
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Thoughts on Publishing and on Being an Academic
It's the end of the year, and I'm growing reflective. I'm thinking back over the past year, the things I've done, and the things I've left undone. I deliberately didn't set a lot of goals for this year...
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Rhythms, and Resting, and Taking Breaks
I'm back in the office. It was a lovely Christmas Break for me. And...it was a true break for me. From December 23 through January 3, I did not come to campus at all. I didn't even check my email.Wow,...
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My Latest Adventure in Learning
I am a learner at heart. Having taken the StrengthsFinder assessment a couple of times now, it's been confirmed for me: "learner" is one of my top five strengths. I didn't really need the assessment...
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Computational Thinking and Solving Problems
In my last post I shared how I am taking a programming class. We're a couple weeks in now, and it's all going well enough. (So far, so good!) Yesterday I wrote a fun little program to help with...
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Sympathizing with Students
I've had two very different conversations in the past few weeks with two different colleagues, both of which relate to working with students. One of these conversations was very sympathetic to...
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Hope When Things Feel Hopeless
True confessions: I'm having a hard time right now with a lot of the things I see in the news. Ongoing conflict in Ukraine, continuing pandemic concerns, an incredibly challenging political climate...
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That Academic Rhythm
The end of the semester is upon us!I feel like every conversation I have with a colleague lately eventually settles on this topic in some way, shape, or form. The semester is nearly complete. Oh, there...
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The End of a Season
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under heaven.The Teacher then goes on to list a series of pairs that illustrate these seasons: a time to be born...
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