Good times at The Education Wonks.

It’s only fair to single out a post by Alexi, whose nom de blog is “Teacher With A Bad Attitude,” whose WordPress ID is “BadTeacher,” and whose carnival entry is entitled “I love homework.”

That’s kinda like, what, three strikes right there, right? I mean it’s hard for me to take anyone seriously who’s bending so far over backwards to cultivate this in-your-face, just-tellin’-it-like-it-is persona, but his counterposition to mine is mostly fair and certainly worth noting.

There are some assumptions I plainly disagree but, shoot, if you really don’t have enough time to “practice Mendelian dihybrid crosses,” then you have to send some home, I suppose. However, stuff like this always raises an eyebrow, sometimes two:

If you fuck around in class, don’t cry at me when you get to do that work at home. Nor if I throw in a few extra questions for good measure.

Putting aside the cheapness of his second sentence, I flatly disagree with the first. Specifically, I take exception with anyone who submits the idea that a class’ misbehavior is entirely its own fault. After “Tradition,” “Lousy Class Management” takes the top spot on the list of “Terrible Reasons to Assign Homework.”

Okay okay, so if we’re coming off an assembly the day before Spring Break, during which the rally coordinators threw concentrated sugar tablets into the crowd, after which the kids had lunch, and then your class, I might allow your assertion that your class’ misbehavior isn’t entirely your fault.

Any other day, though, I’m gonna point out that these are kids, you’re an adult, you can outwit them, and it’s simply unfair to oink up their free time with homework because you couldn’t keep them from fucking around in class.

The sidebar is a pretty poor representation of my recent reading habits. When I first became aware of these edublog thingies, my ‘roll tilted towards the bigger names, the celebrity edubloggers (understandably, I hope), the Pete Wentzes and Suri Cruises of the edublogosphere.

But tastes change, as have the bloggers who give me any sort of giddy gotta-read-that thrill when Google Reader flashes one of their updates. More important than my intention to jettison the dead blog weight is my hope that anyone who stops by here goes and reads these new links.The overlying theme here is that I take my blogroll seriously, as a stamp of writerly, pedagogical, and ideological approval. Probably too seriously.

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From Education Week’s article entitled, Does Merit Pay Work?:

Despite pay-for-performance programs’ resurging popularity, some skeptics question whether money can ever be a major motivator for teachers, many of whom see the profession as more of a calling than a job. [emphasis added by moi]

All by myyyyseeeellllllfff …

I took precalculus as a sophomore, which was was unusual in my unified school district but not very. Halfway through the year — over winter break to be exact — I borrowed a calculus textbook and taught myself the first semester. After break I joined up with a class of seniors and set their first semester final exam curve.

Until that point I had enjoyed math in much the same way I enjoyed hearing those chimes upon completing a level of Super Mario Bros. Precalculus was satisfying but calculus was engrossing. That textbook fed me like only my favorite novels have. I’m realizing today — now — how insidiously and completely calculus has infiltrated my teaching.

If you have never found joy in an indefinite integral, you’re pre-emptively forgiven for scratching your head over this post. I hope you’ll extend me the same courtesy when I say: you’re missing out.

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LeaderTalk has been knocking ’em out of the park lately. Brian Saxton writes compelling insecurity in “Is this what I have to look forward to?” Scott Elias gives an honest account of discipline from across the administrative divide. (Although his mandate to “Err on the side of the student” just makes me queasy.) And Greg Farr is far and away (heh) the byline I most anticipate on the board. He has a great recent post on the schizophrenic nature of the administrator, paying homage to statistics and AYP while staving off stat-insanity. Keep it up, gents and ladies, but could we puh-leeze get correct author credit in the RSS feed?