New Article Pairing for Emerson’s “Nature” and AI
In the face of AI, humanity needs Emerson more than ever Do you ever read an article and get goosebumps as you read it because you know you can use it in your classroom? Well, that happened this morning as I was reading my new printed copy of the July-August 2023 The Atlantic. And since…
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The Magic of Memorizing for High School Students
Memorization creates meaning I’ll admit it. There was a time that I disdained memorizing. For some reason, I believed that memorization was no more than something one did in order to regurgitate information later. And I had experience to back up my prejudice. For example, I remember as a high school student memorizing dates and…
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ChatGPT and the Numbing of a Student’s Mind
No, I won’t be embracing ChatGPT I’ve held off on writing about OpenAI’s ChatGPT because… well, it exasperates me. Frustrates me. Angers me. It makes me angry that software developers with little experience or interest in the provision of education have created a “tool” that replaces the very human activities of thinking and writing. In…
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Checked Out: Student Disengagement in the High School Classroom
Is thinking deeply a thing of the past? As I mentioned in my 2022 year-end post, I’ll be spending 2023 reading and researching on the loss of focus (and the disengagement it fosters) that we are witnessing in students today. To that end, I’m on a personal quest to read more about the phenomena that…
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The Web, Student Focus, and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Five Allusions to Emerson in The Shallows by Nicholas Carr Today, we mostly know Ralph Waldo Emerson, the popular nineteenth-century transcendental philosopher, through a handful of quotes that have filtered down through the centuries. Three examples: Beyond Emerson’s many well-known sayings, however, the larger ideas behind his writings ring few bells in the collective minds…
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High School Students Can’t Focus and Here’s Why
We need to reclaim our ability to focus. Is it possible students are suffering more anxiety and stress because they know deep down inside they’re falling short of their potentials? Johann Hari discusses how to think deeply again in his book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention.
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