This is the first in a series of posts about The Ripe Environment, my thoughts on how to create a space for educators and learners to want to become better educators and learners (although, one could argue that educators and learners are or should be the same thing). The first …
Many edubloggers (only the most recent one I have found) and podcasters have noticed this phenomenon that it is terribly difficult to receive recognition for doing great work outside your most logical sphere of influence: your own school. This tendency leads to less willingness to collaborate with the teachers that …
A lot of edubloggers are focusing on what School 2.0 should look like. I really like the idea of looking ahead (and hopefully planning ahead) for the inevitable progression of modern education. But the more that I think about what a technologically and pedagogically progressive school should look like, I …
Is language encoded in DNA? How much is built in? Acquiring Language is different than learning. Are verbal errors really errors? (We are trying to make the irregular, regular.) Children don’t know how to truly speak incorrectly. When there are errors that no child would make, it is assumed that …
Interesting Animal Grammar Article Animals do not have the capacity for generative grammar. They are committed to the behavioral form of learning language. Another article described the genetic link of stuttering. Metaphor as thought. (My contribution) A grammar is the derivation of understanding (not meaning, not sense) from syntactical and …
Homework: Bring some piece of my own reading that deals with language and the brain. Book Recommendations: The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language) Not everyone can be a mathematician, but everyone …
My questions: How can we use our language so that our students become more metacognitive and reflective? Others’ questions: Is peer editing actually useful for students or only for teachers? How would our teaching practice change if we were to consider all of our students as gifted? Iquiry works for …
Linguistics is a sub-set of Cognitive Science. Linguistics is only a study of natural langauges (not like esperanto) If Language is a mirror to the mind, unnatural language (created langauges) are like fun house mirrors. The different schools of thought in lingustics define linguistics in very different ways (parsing the …
I am now taking a graduate course called Language Theory at the University of Colorado at Denver for my graduate program, “The Teaching of Writing.” It is taught by Ian Ying. This is my first introduction to Linguistics, so much of my notes will be of an elementary nature.
I have had the busiest and most productive summer of my life. I have created a lesson planning wiki, a technology integration wiki, the beginnings of a district Edusphere, and a bloated furl account. I have been thinking both big and small about the new school year that is now …