Author Archives: Ed Hitchcock

More on non-drooling autotrophs

My earlier post “Autotrophs don’t actually drool“, which references the Big Bang Theory song, is one that gets some of the most hits on this site. Go figure. Apparently lots of people are doing searches for drooling autotrophs. But since that … Continue reading

Posted in Pop Culture, Trivialities | 2 Comments

Microscope Diagram

Many years ago, as a (fairly) new teacher, I made a diagram of a typical microscope that I was rather proud of. The years went by, and my photocopied versions would run low, so I would copy the copies, but … Continue reading

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Bingo! From academic to authentic

This year, for the ecology unit in grade 9 Science I decided to focus on invasive species. The Ministry of Natural Resources and other non-government organizations have been putting out plenty of information on invasive plants and animals in the … Continue reading

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The cake is the truth

Three of my Grade 9 students, who happen to be fans of Cake Boss on the food network, decided to use a cake to represent the water cycle for a project. And hey, who am I to argue?
Behold the wonderfulness:

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Spam load

Dear Readers,
The rate of spam on this site seems to be increasing, and I am finding it harder and harder to filter through and look for legitimate comments. Every once in a while I will find a real comment tucked … Continue reading

Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments

Just what is “edcamp”?

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure, which may not sound great coming from someone helping to organize the upcoming edcamp Toronto at York Univeristy on Oct 15. I can tell you what it is conceptually, but since it hasn’t … Continue reading

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Yet Another Look at Khan Academy (YALAKA)

There has been, of late, much discussion of Khan Academy in the news, blogosphere, and twitterverse. I have written on the topic before, and I feel it is time I chimed in again.
Some of the criticisms of KA are:

The videos … Continue reading

Posted in Pedagogy, resources | 6 Comments

On inquiry, pseudo-discovery and Socrates as a canine

I am assured that, even though the migration issue has STILL not been resolved, I can continue to post without worrying about losing anything. Just in case, I am keeping a backup…
At the end of the school year we had … Continue reading

Posted in Authenticity, Pedagogy, Philosophy | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Status update

So, there appears to be an issue migrating this site to the new host, and they seem to be in no great hurry to fix it. While I wait patiently (and send them almost daily requests for updates), I am … Continue reading

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Possible service hiccup

My host (Netfirms) is merging with TUCOWS, and my account is slated for transfer on June 9th. I expect all will go smoothly – they have been migrating accounts for months now, the bugs should be worked out – but … Continue reading

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