Greg and Kat's blog

Well, it’s Link Friday again. I thought I had a lot of links to share, but I don’t have nearly as many links backed up as straight-up blog topics. Maybe Link Friday won’t be every Friday.

Anyway, for this week I have some links related to teaching. I teach stuff to people all the time, and suppose I must know something about it. Believe it or not, there are people that have made observations that even I haven’t had.

First are a couple of things my students should read. Everybody below about 85% in CMPT 120 should read How NOT to go about a programming assignment (Google cache link). Part of teaching a first year programming course is seeing each and every one of these things. Repeatedly.

This prof’s Top Ten No Sympathy Lines are really interesting. In particular, his answer to “There Was Too Much Memorization” was really insightful.

For the last several years, I have been trying to minimize the textbooks required for my classes: the pricing is criminal and they usually aren’t all that good. My rule has been to only require texts if they are really good and if I’m going use them very heavily. Otherwise, they are only recommended. So, this guy is my hero: UVSC prof. quits books.

I’m not sure that Taylor Mali on what teachers make particularly applies to me, but it makes me think that the high school teachers I know are a lot cooler.

Finally, the… um… darker side of teaching. Apparently, according to a peer-reviewed article, Teaching may be hazardous to your marriage. And the complementary article: If College-Themed Porn Were Real.