Today marks the most unscientific milestone of the birth of Bernard Malamud. Not of much appeal for middle-schoolers, to be sure, but I’ve always been struck by how his writing prowess was recognized around the world before it came to the attention of his employer and my alma mater, Oregon State. As I recall, he [...]
Archive for the ‘good books’ Category
Even he taught remedial students
Posted in good books on April 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Coming up this weekend …
Posted in good books on February 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The city’s library foundation is wrapping up its big book sale this weekend, which means Saturday is $7 for a grocery bag of books day. The details are available here. I will probably have to set myself a little budget, but one of the great things about teaching middle school science is that there is [...]
A long-awaited treat
Posted in good books, good living on December 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
You grow up with certain literary figures and it’s almost natural to imagine them in a movie … for example, “Matthew Looney,” of course … but I had long ago given up hope that the most cinematic of them all would make his way to the big screen. I’m thinking of a young Belgian journalist [...]
I couldn’t make this stuff up
Posted in good books on December 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Recently received a polite and professional rejection notice on a submission I proffered about my experience moving in to teaching. Fair enough — in Morocco I had an entire wall covered with rejection notices, so they’re disappointing but not defeating. Except that this one noted that “fiction, as I’m sure you know, is just about [...]
How high … and how low
Posted in good books on March 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The bookshelf has been a little somber lately: I have barely started “Perfection Point,” but it looks to be interesting. I had hoped it would be a little more accessible for my students than it is, but the book puts together a series of looks at human potential in various sports. How high could basketball [...]
Turns out reality is perception
Posted in Cool science, good books on February 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Been reading from “The Best Science Writing,” an anthology I was hoping might contain nuggets for my students. I am thinking the topics are spot on but the vocabulary may still be too intimidating … Yet reading “The Itch” by Atul Gawande is making my skin crawl. A nicely crafted and sometimes horrifying explanation of [...]
Reading into things
Posted in good books, teaching on September 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Met last week with the head of the high school English Department to look for help with my fledgling reading workshop. He suggested shifting a little more to simply sustained silent reading, and focusing on getting sets of five or so copies of a handful of titles… then have the students journal about what they [...]
On the reading list
Posted in good books on July 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here are some of the books I am juggling at the moment, with various degrees of success: “Edison’s Concrete Piano: Flying Tanks, Six-Nippled Sheep, Walk-on-Water Shoes and 12 Other Flops from Great Inventors,” by Judy Wearing. Not much to say after the title and although I have it in hand I have not started this [...]
A little self-indulgence
Posted in good books on May 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
OK, this one has nothing to do with science or education but I am plunging into a hefty tome on one of my favorite topics, the obscure battle of Dien Bien Phu. A new book is out, “Valley of Death.” Seems not long ago Martin Windrow’s “Last Valley” came out, which is a great read [...]
Strange influences
Posted in career changing, good books, good living on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Encountering many bits and pieces that seem to have nothing to do with teaching but are rolling around in my consciousness these days: 1) Bonerama, the wall-of-trombones band from New Orleans that seems to chiefly do Crescent City standards along with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin covers. I never imagined “Ocean” as a piece for [...]
