Here’s what we’ll be cooking with my kids tomorrow: Malfoyland French Toast. The fried chicken thing is a bit of an in-joke with the kids. And yes, I am posting this from my dorm room (where my net connection actually WORKS!) for the simple purpose of having it somewhere accessible so I can download it and print it once I arrive at the office across campus.

Over at This IS London, there’s an article up about dyspraxia , which is the new dyslexia, a medical term now bandied about by both parents and teachers who sometimes use it as an excuse for academic underachievers. The woman in the article relates a story which is, after all, pretty damning; it shows how medical labels sometimes get misused in the educational system. It’s something I know for a fact happens with the term “dyslexia”, and the story the woman tells is tragic. But there are other stories out there. For one, there are dumb kids. I’m not talking …

Well, over the weekend there was one other thing I did, which was to mark my writing class’ essays. I caught one plagiarist out of two possibles; one guy I am semi-certain cheated somehow, but I can’t find his report on the net. The other guy’s movie review was two separate reviews from the Net, copied and pasted together. I’m giving the proven cheater an F in the class. It’s downright insulting. But there was, among the day-late submissions, one essay that knocked my socks off as far as the quality of thought and humor that went into it. I …

Last night I taught the funniest exercise to my Language Education Center class. It focused on the grammar used for describing the function of things, but also involved an alien invasion and students lying through their teeth to one another, as well as the chance to leave the classroom in pairs… all of which are good for livening up a class. But I think it’s really of little interest to those who don’t teach ESL so I’m putting the bulk of this post into an extended entry. If you’re really interested, there’s a link just below this sentence that’ll allow …