EricHoefler.com

Researching the Bunny Man

Monday, August 13, 2007

My girlfriend and I were a little restless yesterday, so we took a drive out to a local “urban legend” hot spot: Bunny Man Bridge. The legends that collect around this site vary widely, attributing the origin to an escaped convict, a murderous teen, or perhaps just a local nut-job upset about trespassers. [It's the [...]

The Orphan Archetype

Sunday, August 12, 2007

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October’s issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine has an article by Terri Windling called “Lost and Found: The Orphaned Hero in Myth, Folklore, and Fantasy.” In it, Windling traces the archetype through mythology, fairy tales, fiction, and history.1 She also offers some explanations for the continued interest in these tales, such as the [...]

Elmore via McCleod

Thursday, July 5, 2007

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Scott McCleod pointed to Richard F. Elmore’s UCEA conference presentation a few days ago and hosted the mp3 on his site. I gave it a listen. (His presentation is a bit dry, but substantive … and McCleod’s list of examples of misalignment are also helpful.) Elmore provides data and studies that [...]

60-30-10

Thursday, May 17, 2007

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The end of the year can be a trying time for teachers, particularly teachers of seniors. The concept of “one more month” translates roughly into “school’s over” (or, if they’re trying to be considerate, “school’s practically over”). If it wasn’t there already, a hatred of school grows quickly during this final month like [...]

Grading Woes and Growing Pains

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

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For many students, the last month of school is a time of new understanding: the poor choices of the last eight months really do add up. This is the time many students come looking for “extra credit” or some other way to change their grades. Recently, in West Virginia, a student sued for a grade [...]

Removing the Training Wheels

Monday, March 19, 2007

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[In an effort to get more specific and address more of the what, why, and how of my teaching practice, I'd like to outline how I begin to move students away from the five-paragraph essay and toward a more sophisticated understanding of writing. This is a long post because I want to be specific. [...]

If There Were None

Sunday, March 4, 2007

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Questions about what, why, and how I teach are constant preoccupations of mine. I want to attempt to make my thoughts about these questions more explicit, in part due to recent conversations I’ve been having with others (online and off), and in part because one of the most important things teachers can do in [...]

TTeach and Others Like It

Thursday, March 1, 2007

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A comment on an earlier post asking if anyone had information about tteach led me to Peter Rock’s blog entry. There, he says of tteach: Paying teachers through advertising revenue is unwise pedagogy. The site says that “tteach is essentially School 2.0″. Apparently, School 2.0 is really about placing profit over students. gnuosphere: School 2.0 [...]

Coyote Teaching

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

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Recently, Scott McLeod called attention to Mike Wesch’s post about “anti-teaching,” which stirred up some discussion. The objections in the discussion centered around the term itself: “anti-teaching.” Most seemed to agree with Wesch’s basic ideas, but didn’t like the implications of that label. Wesch makes his distinction clear, stating: Teaching is about providing good information. [...]

Working Backwards to Assessment

Friday, February 9, 2007

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I’m saying: we should teach to the test, as long as it’s an appropriate test, and to discover what an appropriate test is for each discipline and each course, we have to work carefully backwards. I’ve thought this for a while, but the last two posts over at Friends of Dave gave me a way to [...]

Students Have Bodies

Thursday, February 8, 2007

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A few days ago, Kevin tagged me for the “layout of your working space” meme. This comes at a good time because I’ve been thinking lately about the importance of aesthetics and the affective domain in terms of the education. My basic working thesis is this: students’ brains are housed in bodies, and both brains [...]

Thougts on Context, Relevance, and School Reform

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

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I don’t even have a beginner’s grasp on what School 2.0 might mean (and maybe that’s OK), but I have been playing with a question that seems to be moving in that direction. What if teachers worked as facilitators and translators, instead of gatekeepers and repositories of knowledge? Bear with me through some thinking-aloud … Context [...]