Europe Trip

Europe, here he comes!  Well, he will if he raises enough money in the next 8 months...

Right now I'm just looking for encouragement for his efforts and some ideas and suggestions, so maybe click on some of his links?   Thanks!

Piano Stairs and Bedazzled Battleships

These ideas cover life in general, but what an important concept for educators -- The Fun Theory promotes changing and rewarding positive behavior through this new-fangled concept called "fun" ...

I also remembered this fantastic blog that I used to read almost as a daily devotional, but somehow lost it in the shuffle (maybe 5 blogs + Facebook is too much?).  It's not only fascinating history connected to today's world/student, but it's also full of that "fun" stuff to engage and reinforce learning, such as creatively coloring battleships? I did not know about the dazzle method of camouflage, but now thanks to History is Elementary I do...

Math Teacher Shadow Video

He's not the best actor, but this is still very cool!  A Math teacher has issues with his own shadow...

Oops, just noticed some of the other videos listed are NSFW!

Here's his Halloween video on YouTube, which is probably a safer site to visit.

What a great way to get students interested in using video/computer technology  to express understanding...

Energizing Brain Breaks

Energizing Brain Breaks  -- quick and fun ways to get students re-energized and get attentions re-focused... although some of these look like a full on sweat inducing work out to me, I'd better practice first!  (via I Want To Teach Forever)

Henry Rollins, Punk Educator?

"A member of Ku Klux Klan doesn’t need a frying pan upside the head! He needs an Al Green record and some good books."

Excellent point by the punk icon, made at a University commencement... he's come a long way, baby!  Here is the speech text, and here is the blog that brought up some excellent ideas.

Violence Overload

I am giving up violence.

Or at least attempting to severely curtail my personal exposure to anything and everything violent, which obviously must include books.  On my original* "Inspired..." blog  I am writing about this desire to eliminate violence in my life, and will probably have some duplicate posts here when relevant to students, teaching, and Education.

I know the world is violent.  Some students' lives are violent on a daily basis.  Pop culture is certainly violent, sometimes overwhelmingly so, which is why I am trying to recognize ways I can avoid as much violence as I can and find alternatives for my children and students, if at all possible.  So far, the violence I have encountered in the classroom has been confined to the realms of history (wars, slavery, and assassinations) and nature (volcanoes, tornadoes, and the food chain).**  Could the elementary school culture be the least violent-saturated element of our American culture?

Or have I just not seen it yet, is violence too prevalent in Education?  Do we teach about the battle's victors, and not the peace-makers?  Is everything Twilight and Goosebumps and wizards fighting?

As always, I welcome comments and suggestions.




*Violence is hard to get away from -- I was going to say "I have hijacked my other blog..."
**Not including student violence: a few fights, discussions of video games, and the 1st grader's report on his gun-shaped birthday cake.

Well, what are they?!?!?

I get most of my sub jobs through the online systems, and when one is available there's a brief description such as "3rd grade" or "Boys' P.E." -- took one a few weeks ago that said 6th grade and ended up being the kind of 6th graders that are on their last chance to stay in school and move up a level due to the troubles they've had in other, probably several other, schools. The classroom is separated down at the end of the elementary school,  behind a 10 foot high fence, and there are 7th and 8th graders that trade periods between the two teachers and everything worked out fine.  The kids were cool, respectful and worked hard, and I didn't have any more issues during the day than in any other class or grade level.

Anyway, saw another available job to sub at the same school for the 7th & 8th graders, but instead of the job description being similar to "6th grade" it said "Educationally Handicapped" -- I checked my past assignment, yep it's the same school, same teachers, same students... how did they go from being listed like every other student to being labeled as handicapped?  I hesitated, then took the job, and when I showed up that morning sure enough they were all the same kids!  How many good teachers don't take the job, a job that desperately needs good teachers, because the students are stamped "handicapped"?  How many other difficulties do these students have, and their lives seem tough enough already outside the classroom, because they get labeled like this?

Just another naive new teacher mini-rant, sorry.

cool license plate frame

"You Can't Scare Me

I'm A Teacher"

Owl Box Live!

Cool webcam in an owlbox so you can watch live baby owls being born (well not yet, they're still eggs) and of Mama Owl eating mice... **warning** use full screen around children and principals, the idiots leaving comments are not always on their best behavior...

Sand Art video

Here is an amazing artist working in sand (my sons were stunned, although they didn't get the crying audience) from a cool blog.

Building A Better Teacher

I watched and posted these videos last night, and in class today (subbing 5th grade) I mentioned them to the students -- in transition between subjects I talked about the kindergarten students clearing their desks in 3 seconds, and later while beginning a discussion on democracy I brought up how the 3rd grade students were able to debate the "6 is also an odd number"  issue without any interruptions or disruptions or general carrying on. Now I realize there may be some students, potential problem type students, sitting in the library while the filming is going on, but for the most part I'd say this teacher has got it going in the right direction.  I wonder if it would be beneficial for students, such as students in a class that appears to have cultivated a culture of constant interruption and talking over each other,  to watch some of these videos to see that yes, it is actually humanly* possible to sit still and not talk when someone else is talking?

It seems there is a discernible difference in classrooms I work in: some are designed, set up, run, developed, fostered, created, etc., with a primary, overriding culture of learning, while others are concerned only with "getting through" -- the material, the day, the school year...

Guess in which type of classroom it is easier/smoother/productive and more rewarding to be a Guest Teacher?


*assuming that is we acknowledge 8-12 year old children as "human" -- There is considerable debate.

Aaron Burr Raps!

As it says, easily the best rap song about the first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton... not sure my elementary kids would get it, but middle or high school?