collaborative learning

After about six months and fifteen horrible haircuts in the San Francisco Bay area I finally found somebody who could give me a decent haircut, and I became a loyal customer for the next six and a half years. Even now, when I’m back in Berkeley, I stop in ...

A week into the spring semester, the fall term seems like it was forever ago! In my last post, I talked about the informal evaluations my students took, and since writing that post, I have thought about some of the suggestions they made. Looking back at the semester, I see ...

Please indulge this low-grade rant. I believe the notion of “safe space” in adult classrooms is un-interrogated and oversubscribed.  The question is … Safe for whom?  Well-intentioned teachers, in wanting students to attempt deep conversation, wrongly presume adult students need to feel safe in order to effectively learn. Rarely is it ...

The projects have, at sometimes, crashed and burned.  There have been the occasional minor derailments.  In several instances there were irreconcilable differences and un-repairable circumstances.  Once I declared utter, dismal failure.  On the other hand, there have also been profound insights; reports of experiences of magic and awe – accounts of ...

When you are a teenager, at least in the 70’s, the house with abundant food and a loving mother was the place to gather.  Our house had both.  Unlike all the other mothers in the neighborhood, Nancy Bullock Westfield was a stay- at-home mom.  Consequently, homemade meals, fresh baked everything, ...