What Teachers Make: In Praise of the World’s Greatest Job. By Taylor Mali. Penguin-Putnam Publishing. Hardback. 2012. $12 At 197 pages What Teachers Make is short, sweet and to-the-point. Mali has a wide following, having taught in numerous places, with experiences across curriculums and disciplines. He draws from his wide experiences in this brief collection…
I’m sure I’m like many college faculty. We become so frustrated with our students. Frustration builds like a storm as we feel stymied class after class by the apparent lack of knowledge absorption by our supposedly eager students. “What can I do different to encourage them to soak this stuff up?” The reality is we…
I have to admit, I think my generation ruined the U.S. Educational System. I think I am Generation X, falling in the 1965-1980 era, just a little beyond the World War Two “Baby Boomer” scope. My generation is the generation “in power,” so to speak. We are the ones who occupy a good portion of…
Geography is so much a part of our everyday lives we take our experiences for granted. Being a geographer is not enough; we are still susceptible to bias and not immune to being oblivious. However, I would submit the holistic nature of Geography allows trained geographers to see, interpret, and question patterns many others would…
I’ve been an educator for almost two decades now, 19 years or so. My mother taught everything from pre-school to high school special education. My grandmother taught elementary school. My uncle was a university professor in his early career. In my adolescent, I remember Mom bringing home papers to grade, assignments to evaluate, and lesson…
As I write my journal, I am prepping for tonight’s class. Prepping for class nearly always puts me in the frame of mind of, "What the hell am I doing? I can’t teach." I’ve been working through this negative self-talk since I became responsible for teaching courses. So, since August of 1993. Here I sit,…
I have been really challenged lately trying to put into words a teaching philosophy I have been struggling to promote. A good friend of mine helped me put this philosophy into words, which has helped me put them to paper. Teacher evaluations are mostly bullshit. I say that because the evaluations I have seen do…
Graduation was yesterday. I understand from attendees fewer than half of those graduating actually appeared to collect their faux diploma and have their photo snapped with the university president. Unoccupied chairs far outnumbered family and friends in the audience. I suspected as much. I noticed no significant increase in vehicle traffic. My bookstore/coffee shop haunt…
Look around the global. Think of countries that are economically successful. Here, I will help you out: South Korea, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, The Netherlands. There are more examples. This enough to make my point. What do all of these countries have in common? Education. All of these countries stress the…
Over the last 24hrs, er…, make that 36 hours now, I’ve overheard two conversations, and read an article all dealing with the same thing: rewarding students. Parents are mad, as well they should be. But not mad enough to do anything about it, complaining, writing a letter to the school district, or a letter to…
Constant Geography 
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