Mr Blair's Classroom

Social media has morphed into a breeding ground for misinformation and polarization. If you don't believe me, just check out the comment section of any news article. No platform has been exempt from this transformation: not Facebook, not Twitter, not YouTube. A key culprit in this culture of misinformation is the internet meme due to how quickly they can be shared person to person, and platform to platform.  Like all mediums, memes can communicate a seemingly infinite number of messages and sentiments. They can feature everything from "Grumpy Cat" jokes to logical fallacy fueled racist rhetoric. Unfortunately, not everyone sticks to "Grumpy Cat"! Too many people delve into the murky world of fallacious reasoning and malicious political commentary. As a teacher, I felt compelled to be a force for change in this arena.  My primary intention behind this project wa s for students to develop a keen awareness regarding logical fallacies and their various manif...

The other day, a student arrived to class excited to tell me that she walked by an Anti-Mask rally on the weekend. Her excitement initially caught me off guard. I had never associated Anti-Mask sentiments with excitement. Regardless, I patiently listened. It turned out, she wanted to show me a pamphlet from the rally. Apparently, it had "like a million logical fallacies." Now I felt excited too! That student's story inspired our primary activity for the following class. I scrapped what I initially had planned, and went with something infinitely more meaningful. I googled "Anti-Mask Pamphlet" and got to work. The previous week we had explored logical fallacies and their prevalence in internet meme culture (stay tuned for my next blog). Therefore, reasoning, or a lack thereof, was on my students' minds. My google query proved successful and I found an authentic Anti-Mask group's pamphlet ready to be analyzed. How would my students fare? Would their learnin...

How do you overcome your fear of public speaking? How do you react to a subpar test score? How do you find peace in these Covid-19 times? Such questions occupy our students' thinking. Unchecked, they may turn into stress and anxiety. Where can our students find answers? Where can they find an antidote for that anguish? How about Ancient Greece? My "Becoming Stoic: An Inquiry Project" had students inquire into stoicism, an Ancient Greek philosophy. After brainstorming personal challenges and learning a variety of stoic concepts, students used both to address the following essential question: Does stoicism have significance for 21 st century students and their challenges? SO WHY STOICISM? Founded 2300 years ago in Ancient Greece, stoicism promotes virtue and mental fortitude; it's a philosophy for anyone and anytime. Thinking stoically helps people overcome life's challenges, big and small: from dealing with a personal loss to failing a math test, and everything in...