Carnival!

The newest Carnival of Education is out on Bellringers, and I am honored to have a post listed. Thanks to Carol for continuing to put this together! Go check it out!

Break it down!

'Twas the night before Christmas (Break), and all through the house,
Just one creature was blogging, while using his mouse.

Tomorrow is our last school day before break, day 77 for anyone who is counting. You would think 77 days would be a long enough time period to establish a routine or two, but my kids seem to take the adage "Every day is a NEW day" QUITE literally. Still, we will be having a little bit of a party after lunch tomorrow. Nothing major, just some fun time for games and snacks.

On the way out the door, one girl asked if she could bring Twister. I told her that she could, but not to expect me to play. My body doesn't contort like that anymore -- not that it ever did.

I know that some teachers are still teaching through mid or even ALL of next week. I feel for you, I really do. But hey, at least you will be out of school for longer than I am at the beginning of 2012.

Lastly, please be sure to check out Carol's latest Carnival of Education, where she's listed her 12 favorite bloggers. Look who scored the "Golden Rings" position! WOOT!!

Morning sickness

Just a couple of quick hits today:

First, the new Carnival of Education is up and running over at Bellringers. The theme is Meet the Teacher Night, and there are several great posts to check out.

Next up, I had to call in sick yesterday due to feeling like crap. Felt like it today too, but since the doctor told me yesterday that I didn't have strep, I figured I needed to go and face the children.

However, the best piece of news I got also came yesterday, when my wife and I went to HER doctor and confirmed that she (my wife, not the doctor) is indeed pregnant! I'm gonna have a kiddo of my own!

I'm thankful for the last nine years of seeing various examples of how NOT to raise a child. I can't wait to be a father! :)

Carnival time

I'm a few days late on this, but the current incarnation of the Carnival of Education is up and running this week over at I Want to Teach Forever (Why do I want to shout, "FAME!" after that?).

Check out all the great posts and articles that Tom compiled from the interwebs.

Time keeps on slipping...

Slipping, slipping... Into the future...

Only 3 more free weekdays before I have to return to school and face the music. Then, after being asked forcibly to move away from the music classroom doorway, I will have to face my own classroom. The "Freezing Room" this year. I love it! :)

I have been very lax in posting this summer, and as such, I have not participated in any Carnivals of Education. However, that hasn't stopped Carol of Bellringers from posting them anyway. Check out the latest one here.

Hopefully, I'll have something to contribute for the next one.

Carnival time!

Hey all,

Carol has the new Education Carnival up and running this week over at her place at Bellringers! My post, League Parity, is up, along with several other fun fall festival-ly posts!

Check it out!

A few quick links

Joel, over at So You Want to Teach, has put together a list of 50 Teaching Tips. Some are pretty universal -- "Choose your battles," "Establish a constant routine" -- and some are much more specific -- "You need to teach fundamental technique before you can presume to teach musicality." But all of them are worth a perusal and possibly a usal.

Also, I'm a bit late on this one, but the newest Carnival of Education is up (and has been since Wednesday) at Bellringers! I forgot to submit anything for inclusion, but there are still lots of great articles there, worth your perusal. (and possibly usal)

a swing around the web

Now that I'm back from all of my world travelling (Disney World, anyway), and school is about to start back up -- shockingly soon for some folks -- I figured I better get back into the swing of blogging on a more regular basis. Not once per week, and guest bloggers at that!

So I took a look around at some other bloggers to see what they were doing.

Carol over at My Bellringers has jump started up the old Carnival of Education. This is something that really hooked me into the "edusphere" when I first started blogging -- I even hosted a couple (this one was my fave) -- and it's a shame it's gone away. But it's super fantastic that Carol has revived it!

Happy Chyck is (morosely) realizing how soon the new year will be upon us...

Joel at SYWTT is gearing up for the new year as well, with this great guest post and THIS great guest post!

As for me, I'm busting out my copy of The Cornerstone and brushing up!

Behold the power of math

When I picked up the kids from the playground today, we had a little time on our hands as my helper ran around to open the door so we could go inside. So naturally, the kids took that opportunity to loudly pester me for my age. I refrained from answering.

Suddenly, though, one of my girls announced that she had a 36 year old sister. Seeing as how my student is 9 years old, I thought it odd that she would have a sister that old. Not entirely within the realm of impossibility, but very unlikely. So I asked her how old her mother was. She told me that her mother was 43.

I didn't want to jump to any immediate conclusions, so I asked her if she had the SAME mother as her sister, and she affirmed. I told her that her mother would have had to have had her sister at age 7 if that was the case.

Apparently, judging by her red face and her sheepish grin, she was a bit mistaken on one age or the other, I never found out which.

Ain't math great?

On another note, the Carnival of Educators is up and running (with a Mother's Day theme!) at I Want to Teach Forever. Go over and check out all the great posts!

Carnivals and awards

I want to send a shout out to Clix over at Epic Adventures are Often Uncomfortable. She has been keeping the current Carnival of Education running at her site, and sometimes she even includes one of my posts when I've forgotten to submit! She hosted it this past week, so you need to go over and check out all of the great posts!

Also, it's time for nominations for this year's EduBlog Awards! So without any further ado, here are my nominations:

Best individual blog: Bellringers

Best teacher blog: Bluebird's Classroom

Best new blog: Look at my Happy Rainbow!

Lifetime achievement: Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly

Best resource sharing blog: So You Want to Teach (possibly not the greatest category for him, but his blog deserves to be nominated one way or the other.)

Be sure to visit these blogs, and vote for them (and me!) from 12/08 - 12/16.

Brand new carnival

This week's Carnival of Education is being hosted at I'm a Dreamer, and the host was gracious enough to include a last minute entry by yours truly. My post of What's the Difference is part of the midway. But not only that, the entry by Mr. D of I Want to Teach Forever also references me -- along with a great game to play with kids of low number sense (LNS).

Check it out!

Linking while sick

I called in sick today for the first time this year. I very rarely miss school, but I was just feeling horrible yesterday, and being able to sleep in till 11 this morning certainly seemed to help that some. I'm still stuffed up and I still have a sore throat and a headache, but at least I'm not having to deal with unruly children on top of that.

So, since I'm home, I figured I'd go ahead and make a new blog post, pointing over to our good friend Tom deRosa's page -- I Want to Teach Forever (FAME!). Tom has hosted the Carnival of Education this week, and it's got some great posts, including Sum Wrong Answers from here at Learn Me Good. Now if Mr. D would just add me to his blogroll! :)

I've also been slowly coming into my own in the Twitter-verse, but I'm still learning gradually. I know there are lots of you out there that are using Twitter that I have not hooked up with yet, so I wanted to send an open invite to anyone reading this to follow me @learnmegood and to leave a comment on this post with your twitter name so that I can follow you.

Twitter Me Good!

Big Tex says Howdy!

This week's Carnival of Education is being hosted by Carol over at Bell Ringers, and it's got a great midway! Go check out the sites, read the posts, and leave a few comments! Oh, and stay away from the deep fried butter.

The Carnival can take a hike

This week's Carnival of Education is being hosted by Pat (AKA Looneyhiker) over at Successful Teaching. Be sure to lace up your hiking boots and bring a canteen, because she's taking us for a hike throughout the best blog posts of the week.

Helpful explanations

This week's Carnival of Education is up and running at Scheiss Weekly. There are some fantastic posts there, including one in particular by Sarah Robbins of Parenting the Gifted.

I really like one of Sarah's classtime ideas to help students understand a concept, and I'm going to parrot it here:

After the kids have learned the concept, you can find fun and exciting ways to become experts on it. Take your two digit addition example. When I taught second grade, we did some fun activities to reinforce this concept. You can write stories to explain the process (the ones family lived in an apartment until they got too big, so they all had to move to the tens house).

I LOVE this idea! I have my own cutesy little explanations for ways to remember regrouping and other math concepts, but having the kids write their own helps stretch their imagination, their writing ability, AND their overall understanding of the concept. Maybe they can't remember (or don't like) MY way of explaining it, but if they can think of and then use their own method, it is SURE to stick!

This is one (hopefully of many) idea that I will be using next year in class.

Carnival of Summer Blockbusters

Welcome to the 226th edition of the Carnival of Education! This week’s edition comes at the very end of the school year, at least for those of us in Texas, and regardless of whether or not you are still in school, no one can deny the fact that summer is upon us! Therefore, I thought a fitting theme would be that of the SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER.

Below, you will find a preview-junkie’s dream of coming attractions and upcoming marquees. Be sure to give each of them your full attention, and please don’t ruin the movie-going pleasure of those around you with noisy babies, cell phones, loud talking, or links to research paper-writing sites.

From the people who brought you The Terminator, Back to the Future, and Season 5 of Lost – Phil for Humanity takes a look at Time Travel Theories. Good news ladies, none of the theories account for talking animals.

The first time, it was for glory. The second time, it was for revenge. This time, it’s strictly for the Principal. Mazenko’s back, and this time it’s somewhat relatively personal.

It calculates. It does thermal analysis. It even knows all about the day you were born. With a hyper-intelligent computer running things, what could possibly go wrong? Can Bogusia Gierus survive to find out??

The boy who became a man. The man who became a teacher. The teacher who stuck with a union. Tom White stars in this black and white indy.

When a magical book is banned from the schools, how far will the teachers go to get it in front of their students? Join the heart-pounding, pulse-quickening adventure with the Shiloh Muse, only in theaters.

Coming soon, a Travel Channel original documentary, A History of India takes you deep into the heart of the Asian continent and Indian culture. Narrated by Steve Gutenberg.

This I Believe. These simple words will warm your heart this holiday season. Join Patrick Black, and you too will believe.

He’s studying the same things, over … and over… and over… Glowing Face Man is having his own personal Groundhog Day, presenting a new idea for retaining language skills.

It was a race they said he’d never win. It would take tools he didn’t have, they said. This 4th of July, Loony Hiker asks, Should he even try??

Old Andrew is back, and once again his Bad News Brits are trying his patience. Can he get them to understand the concept of Obedience?

Protecting her blog from the scum of the internet. Siobhan Curious takes us into a recent experience with some not-so-friendly commenters with her take on how to handle them.

An unspeakable horror. Millions wiped out in an instant. All because of a bird/swine/killer bee/raging raccoon. This Halloween, say F U to the Flu.

In 2018, the Brains will rise up and take over. In 2005, the seeds for revolution were planted when two young men wrote a book and started a website. See how it all began in this epic prequel to SharpBrains 2: Die Sharper.

Winner of the 2009 Foreign Film Award – Don’t Mess with The Book Whisperer. This groundbreaking movie (subtitled, of course) will make you rethink your literature teaching style. AtlantaTeacher raves, “I laughed, I cried, I ate paste!”

From MTV Motion Pictures (in association with detentionslip.org) comes Save the Last Dance – at the Segregated Prom. This controversial film will leave you thinking.

What do you get when you mix poetry and lollipops? You get In Good Company, the latest computer-generated animation phenomenon from Tracy, the people who brought you Through the Cubbyhole and The Teacher’s Top Drawer.

In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream. But they CAN judge you by a bad, scary photograph. They say pictures are a window into our personality, and Victoria has some opinions on whose windows should be boarded over.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away… A question was sent through the blogosphere. Now, witness the answer in this awesome instructional power of this fully functional, operating weblog! Starring Sarah Robbins, and introducing special guest star, Mister Teacher!

In her stunning vision of a dystopian future, where everyone who opposes difference is stripped of identity and given a number, Diana Senechal will have you asking, “ Change… Why did it have to be change?”

Johnny Cash and the guitar. Truman Capote and writing. Frida Kahlo and art. They all practiced; they all perfected their skills. Now meet Matt Matic and discover the truth about how he perfected his mathematical ability. Brought to you by Tutorfi.com and the number 8.

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall…What’s been happening on my hall? With the aid of a magical mirror (voiced by the always topical Pauley Shore), Larry Ferlazzo takes us back through a series of reflections on the past school year. Be sure to stay for a special scene at the end of the credits!

School is like a box of chaw-klits, you never know how many nuts are to be found inside. Popular documentarian Nancy Flanagan takes a close look at where the trend of education is going and who will be running schools in the future in the groundbreaking film Grade Runner.

What do you do when there are only 2 weeks of school left? SHOW ME THE ENGLISH!! Happychyck stars as a half-mad high school teacher whose antics prove just crazy enough for the kids to follow her to glory.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to volunteering… The dog poop hits the fan when Carol of Bellringers steps up for the 15th movie in the Crazy Carol series.

An overwhelmingly high percentage of children showing eerie behavior. Teachers fearful of these strange children. Will Dutch educator Joep survive his tenure in The Village of the ODD?

This movie is for the birds! You’ll FLOCK to the theaters to check out Kim’s review of Henry the Impatient Heron! (No Herons were harmed in the writing of this review.)

It’s 7 PM. Do you know where your Parents are? Mathew Needleman shows us just where he WANTS the parents to be, and HOW to get them there! Open House Night never felt so good!

No one can be told exactly what the ARIS is – you have to see it for yourself. Woodlass invites us to take the red pill and journey down the rabbit hole into a system that must be escaped. There is no spoon!

Trapped in a room for hours. No escape. Suddenly, that urge rears its ugly head. Will the Scholastic Scribe make it in time? Find out in Dancing in the Pain, courtesy of MGM.

What if you could do it all over? A fresh start on life, using the lessons learned from hard experience? This Fall, Mister Teacher stars in the uplifting family film that received 15 standing ovations at the Cannes Film Fest – The Magnificent Five Ideas for Improvement.

20 lucky kids each find a golden ticket in their backpack and win the privilege of being in Michael Mitter’s classroom. Mitter, an eccentric teacher (and amateur chocolatier on the side), holds class in a room where comics come to life! This 3-D masterpiece is best enjoyed on an IMAX screen, but Internet Explorer users may have trouble seeing the film…

Just as “Listy” as Schindler’s, but without the horror and pain! Put Scrafford’s List and Scrafford’s List 2 on YOUR list of “Must-sees!”

In 30 Days Later, zombies run amok in the countryside of Australia! Humanity’s only chance for survival is 5 lessons which can only be learned in the month of May. Can survivor Mrs. D take advantage and prevail?

Witness Darren and his elvish neighbors trek to Mordor (or some local restaurant) to dispose of an evil coupon. Witness the fellowship set upon by orcs, goblins, and teenagers with poor math skills. Witness the teacher yell, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!”

The nation’s educational system is rigged to implode, if the average grade falls below 55. Can Agent Dave Johnston bring together a unified system of standards and assessments? Whooaaaa!
Long before Stallone made it popular, one of our Founding Fathers used to go Over The Top. Elementary History Teacher reveals the ugly truth about the self-proclaimed “Master of Lightning.”

In Mr. Mayo’s Opus, Mary Ann Zehr follows a group of students as they see their visions put to film. Say hello to my little friends’ amateur movies!!

Mission Impossible? Or Metrics Possible? Team Leader Dava Saba takes a team of green-behind-the-ears recruits through the paces and shows them that it’s not enough to have just one or the other.

It’s NOT a tumor! Undercover detective John Holland takes on all opponents of his beloved grade as the Preschool Cop. When the bell rings, the fun begins!

Summer school had always been gratis for Mrs. Bluebird’s Gawky Girl. But this June, she’s about to find out that there’s no such thing as a free ride. Will she value her experience more if she has to shell out the cold hard cash?

One dream. Eighteen Indians. Twenty below zero. Joanne Jacobs, viewer of Cool Runnings, gives her own take on the Olympic dream. Or at least high school graduation.

What do you get when you lock Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Robert Pondiscio in a room and make them discuss Merit Pay? Why, 4 Angry Men, of course.

Democrats and Republicans drinking coke together. Teacher unions and the Chamber of Commerce in agreement. Cats and dogs, living together. MASS HYSTERIA!! Who ya gonna call? Mark Stock wants to know!

The Italian Stallion is back! The Dreamer Teacher faces his toughest opponent yet, the formidable “Slick.” By the end, you’ll know if Slick is more Apollo Creed or Ivan Drago.

For your consideration: Dirty Joel has 45 tasks and asks So You Want to Teach? Well do ya, punk?

That does it for our Summer Blockbuster Sneak Preview Extravaganza! Thanks for keeping your eyes glued to the screen! Please be sure to get your butts in those seats for each and every one of these high-budget flicks! And tell your friends – links are always appreciated!

Reminders

Just a couple of reminders about upcoming events --

Monday is the deadline for the contest to win 500 business cards or 500 brochures from uprinting.com. Remember, all you need to do is leave a comment in the original post explaining what you would do with that prize. There aren't a ton of entries, so your chances are still good!

Also, I am hosting the Carnival of Education here next Wednesday, and it's going to be BLOCKBUSTER! Don't get left in the dark; get your tickets to the big show and submit a front-row post ASAP!! You can email me or use this handy submission form.

We love to fly, and it shows

Doing a little project with my kids called, "I Want to Go There," which involves the kids picking a vacation destination and then making a travel brochure about it. Included in the brochure will be trip information, travel costs, tables showing sight-seeing fares, etc, etc.

Yesterday, the kids in partner groups decided where they wanted their vacation spots to be. Most of them were really good choices like New York City, Miami, Paris. And some of them even chose those spots because they knew about some touristy things to see like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and so on. Of course, there was an issue with spelling "beaches" (One kid -- "I know! It's B-I-T-C--" before I cut him off and said, "Nope! That's not it!")

A few weren't quite sure what their attractions would be. One group had chosen Mexico as their location. When I asked what people would go there to see, they replied, "Mexican people?"

Um, we can see plenty of them right here!

Today, I asked the kids to estimate the cost of airplane tickets to their destination. It was really interesting to see how much they think travel costs. One group said a ticket to NY City would be 2 bucks, while another group had a ticket to China rather under-priced at $50.

Hey, be sure to catch this week's Carnival of Education over at Siobhan Curious. Lots and lots of great articles there! And the Carnival will be here at Learn Me Good next week! So be sure to get your entry in early, by emailing me or using this handy dandy submission form.

Exclamation points!!

The other day, I was working on punctuation with my kids. Specifically, the exclamation point. We went over how it is used when someone is excited or shouting. Perhaps an oversimplification, but it gives a pretty general rule for its use.

We did a few example sentences together.

"Don't call me names!"

"Stop talking!"

Then I asked the kids to write some of their own examples. Some of them got it pretty quickly, and it was amusing to read things that they have obviously head/said often.

"You're grounded, Corey!"

"Mary, stop copying me!"

"Hey kid, that's not your pencil!"


A few others didn't quite get the distinction between a statement and an exclamation, as evidenced by their line of sentences.

"I like pizza!"

"I like the Incredible Hulk!"

"I like water!"


Then there were the oddities, like the boy who had obviously done a poor job of copying from his neighbor.

She had written, "The school is out!"

He had, "School out!"

*Is that like Seacrest out?*

In other news! This week's Carnival of Education is up! It's over at the Education Wonks! Check it out!

Subscribe now, operators are standing by!

This week's Carnival of Education is up and running over at Steve Spangler's Science Blog, and it was written by Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly! If you're a teacher and feeling under-appreciated, head on over and you won't be sorry. If you're NOT a teacher, you might be sorry, but you won't be bored. :)

And since this IS Teacher Appreciation week, let me just say Thank You (in very large letters) to everyone who reads Learn Me Good on a regular basis, and to all of you who have become FoLMeGs. I love writing for a receptive audience, and for the past few weeks, you've been leaving bunches of comments, which is super fantastic!

For anyone who has not yet become a FoLMeG, may I humbly ask that you subscribe to the Learn Me Good feed, either through RSS or email using one of these handy links.

Email is pretty well grasped by everyone I think, but it took me a while to grasp the concept of RSS. When I did, I wrote this post which I'm going to re-run now for anyone who may have missed it.

RSS can beat YOUR RSS

I'm sorry to disappoint all of you Princess Bride fans out there, but the fact is RSS does NOT stand for Rodents of Substandard Size. But then, to quote Princess Bride once again, Get used to disappointment. ;)

No, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it is a tool that is widely becoming more popular and more used. It's almost, sort of, not exactly, but pretty much like TiVo for your television. Instead of having to scour the TV Guide and set up your timer for each program that you want to catch, you just tell your TiVo the name of the program that you want to watch, and it records it for you whenever that show comes on. If the show doesn't come on, nothing gets taped. If the sci-fi channel shows a New Year's Day marathon, every episode gets taped.

RSS serves a similar purpose for the Internet community. Instead of hopping from one blog to the next, taking a peek in the hopes that something new has been posted, all you have to do is subscribe to that blog's RSS feed. Then whenever new content is published to that blog, you're feed reader is automatically updated and notifies you (boop-boop TiVo sound effect not included).

Joel, over at So You Want to Teach? has done an excellent job of promoting his RSS feed and explaining it in a way that everyone can understand it. I have attempted to explain it, but you might want to check out his version all the same.

So why am I even talking about RSS feeds, TiVo, and the sci-fi channel? Well because I want more subscribers, of course! Those of you who are regular readers of Learn Me Good, I certainly appreciate your business, and I hope that you keep coming back. I know there are some times, though, that I go for days without making a post. Subscribing to the Learn Me Good feed would keep you updated on when I've posted something new. Since many of you are already subscribers, I'll even go one step farther and make a request. I would be eternally grateful if you could think of just one person that you could recommend Learn Me Good to as a new subscriber. Just think about all of the fun conversations you could have over lunch! Who will Kate choose on Lost? What will Simon's next snarky comment be on American Idol? Can you believe what Mister Teacher said yesterday on Learn Me Good?

And for those of you who are new or visiting here at Learn Me Good, why not give me a chance to win you over? Put me into your feed reader and read a few posts. I guarantee, if your acne hasn't cleared up after three weeks, I'll give you your money back.

Here's the link you need to click to get things going: http://feeds.feedburner.com/learnmegood

I'm looking forward to RSSing all of you real good in the near future!