Differentiation, anyone?

I was just surfing around at one of my new favoritest websites -- Mr. Teachbad -- and found this little gem of a video.



I love these little videos, ever since first seeing the one about iphones.

Kudos to Mr. Teachbad!

As a double Tuesday Tip o' the Hat, here is a link to the latest post on Regurgitated Alpha Bits, where Edna Lee shares some unfortunate (yet hilarious) ecological names from her students.

2011 Carnival!

It's the year of the double uno, and Carol at Bellringers is up to her usual Carnival-posting tricks! Go browse the midway and see some excellent articles, including two from yours truly!

Tuesday Tip o' the Hat

Today, my tip o' the hat goes to Edna Lee at Regurgitated Alphabits, for her story about an obnoxious child and the adult who dared to stoop to his level.

You might notice my own personal take on the matter in the comments section at the end of her post...

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)

Links, links, LINKS!!

It's the weekend, and it's time to catch up on a few links that people have sent me.

First up, is a game called The Wild Ride to the Heart. No, this is not like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It looks a little more like Candyland, but with some more meaningful lessons on how to better handle emotional difficulties. This game comes from an organization called the Institute of Heartmath.

Next is a site called Teacher Voice. Teacher Voice can be viewed as either the Consumer Reports or the Girl, Don't Date Him site for schools and principals. Here, people can anonymously post their opinions about their school, their principal, or their superintendent. So far, it looks like no one has rated DISD or its superintendent, but I look forward to reading THOSE posts when they happen.

I also got a link to a fee-based math program called "Virtual Nerd." For the price of one month (roughly 50 bucks), your child received THREE months of online math tutoring to prevent the dreaded "brain drain" of summer. The downside to this program is that it appears to only be valid for grades 7-12, whereas I know my 3rd graders always come back from summer vacation and act as if their brain was a beach ball with a slow leak.

Last is a request from Brennan at Campusbookrentals.com who is trying to collect all of the best student discounts in one place. He wants your help in pointing towards any discounts and deals that you are aware of.

Professor Flash

My thanks go out to Amber today for sending me a link to a post at Teaching Degree, titled "Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers."

There are (as promised) one hundred links, including everything from articles about the benefits of using comics, to lesson plans, to permission pages to print comic strips!

Check it out! You just might learn something!

Posts of the Week

So Joel of So You Want to Teach got me hooked into Darren of Problogger's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (aka: Who Wants to Be a Bloggy Idol?). Day 2, which I'm only slightly behind on, had a challenge to write a link post. My man Joel is of course the guru of link posts, but I figured I needed to make an attempt if I was going to keep up.



Having said that, here are some fantastic posts, coming directly from several blogs that I enjoy frequenting.



Carnival of Education: The Day to End All Days -- I had to start the list here, because this week, Joel has put together an amazing Carnival. Chock full of relevant links, as always, this one has the distinction of being tied together by a really fun story, of which I am proud to say that I am a major character! According to sources, my character actually died heroically at the end of the original draft, but it didn't score well with test audiences, so I got to live instead.



What's the Word Wednesday: "Something" Happens -- Probably not what you would expect the "Something" to be, but still something that I probably shouldn't post on my blog. This post from the Scholastic Scribe talks about the dangers of a careless (or non-existant) spell check.



Why Bill Nye the Science Guy and I Will Never be Friends -- Mimi at It's Not All Flowers and Sausages (one of my new faves since April 1st) posts hilariously about her lack of a green thumb in the classroom. I can totally relate.



The Cornerstone Accolades for March -- Angela Powell, author of The Cornerstone for Teachers, has put together her own Carnival-esque links post of great posts around the web for the month of March. Is me linking to her links like looking into an endless line of reflections in a Funhouse mirror??

Poverty Stresses Kids' Brains -- In this post by Joanne Jacobs, she notes a recent Washington Post article that says that living in poverty actually affects children's memories. I work at a Title I school, and a lot of my kids can't seem to remember basic math facts, so I would tend to agree with this research.

The 175th Carnival of Education: Game Show Edition

Hello everybody, and welcome to the 175th edition of the Carnival of Education. Thanks to last week’s host, The Education Wonks. It’s not too late to check out that carnival before firing it up over here.

Before we get started, let me explain the theme of the Carnival this week. On Thursday (tomorrow), I will be a contestant on a brand new game show here in Dallas called Whatta Ya Think? It will probably air sometime in July, though very few will see it, as it is on a rather obscure channel.

But at any rate, it's put me in the mind frame of more well-known game shows. Therefore, I invite you to put on your Camouflage, pick up your Remote Control, and go on a veritable Shopping Spree of blog entries. Who knows -- you might just find yourself Queen for a Day.

Denise of Let's Play Math appears on the classic game show $10,000 Pyramid to tell the story of a shakeup of faith in the old Pythagorean society. Her post is titled An Ancient Mathematical Crisis, and you really should take a straight diagonal line to get there.

Currently appearing on The Moment of Truth, an (aspiring) Educator talks about the dangers of plagiarism in schools (as well as politics), and what teachers can do about it.

AwayWeGo points our attention to several worthy contenders for the hot seat on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Check out her post, Other Peoples’ Money. Is that your final act of embezzlement?

Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrelevant appears only halfway ready to host his own version of 1 vs. 100 with his post Top 50 P-12 Edublogs? Look at the list, and you will see several familiar names, including History Is Elementary and So You Want to Teach? If only Scott would extend his list to the top 100,000 edublogs, Learn Me Good might actually join the mob!

Gary Stager seems to think he’s in the speed round of Scrabble, as he scrabbled together 5 different posts to submit, all within 10 minutes!! In my ever so humble opinion, the most interesting were The Surge Against First Graders and Coming to a Classroom Near You! (Was anyone else NOT aware that showing Aladdin in the classroom was illegal??)

Mark Montgomery of Great College Advice has some words of wisdom for prospective college students who find themselves low on funds. In his post The SAT, the ACT, and “Test Optional” Admissions, Mark tells students not to worry if their test scores are not super fantastic—there are some colleges that don’t even look at those scores. They’ll still get a chance to appear on Cram – night after night after night.

Larry Ferlazzo is playing Let's Make a Deal with his class, giving the audience some suggestions for keeping discipline in More about Maintaining a "Good" Class. But do you have 3 safety pins, a rubber band, and a pack of chewing gum in your pocket?

Changing channels, we find Rockapella singing the theme to the classic Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? On today’s episode, Shan Siddiqi of Globally Rational offers his take with Encouraging Isolationism: Americans and Geography. He complains, “Apparently, we don’t know anything about the world. This is why the rest of the world looks down on Americans… geography is no longer an important part of our school curricula. How do we expect to succeed through globalization if 90% of our youth don’t even know where Afghanistan is?”

The bus driver seems to be encountering a lot of wild jokers, so let's just place him on…um, how about, yeah… The Joker's Wild. Read Behavior Issues and Parents and see if you don't recognize nearly every single one of the character traits that he's complaining about.

Diego is making the case that the mothers and children of the FLDS compound in Texas do not belong on Family Feud; rather, their feud is with CPS. Read A Child's Letter and see if you agree.

Ana of Reading Coach Online is protesting The Match Game. At least, she is against matching children's books up with proposed age ranges. While the idea sounds good on paper, Anna brings up some interesting points in Age Guidance for Children's Books… No Thanks! “It may discourage readers or embarrass others: A child who is interested in dinosaurs may excitedly pick up a book about them only to put it down quickly once he realizes it’s a ‘baby book’.”

Time for the 2 Minute Drill! You know the drill I’m talking about! Tweenteacher informs us in The Seventh Affliction that teachers have to choose their time carefully every day when it comes to suppressing a certain bodily function.

Those with an ear for music will want to flip over to Name That Tune, featuring Music Essay -- Writing with Tune, presented at CustomEssays. Three notes, baby, that’s all I need.

Spinning the Wheel of Fortune (and praying the whole time) was the Scholastic Scribe. With Toto, I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore, she tells us what it was like to be SC_R_D SH_TL_SS while sitting in the basement of her school with her students while Mother Nature threw everything she had at the school. Care to buy a vowel?

As a warmup for my shoot tomorrow, I appeared on Greed. (Hey, if I can tolerate some of my students, I can certainly tolerate Chuck Woolery for an hour.) On the last day of school, despite watching videos, having extra recess, and having pizza for lunch, my kids kept asking me, "Where’s the party?"

Strange New Teacher presents a clip of middle schoolers playing To Tell the Truth. In Learning from the Experts, she gives several examples of suggestions that kids have given to their teachers to help them improve.

Learners Inherit the Earth has a problem with Teach for America. In the post Sustainability Meets True Commitment, she states, “TFA encourages its members, many times from the very start, to look at teaching in high-needs schools as simply a stepping stone to something better.” If I'm reading her correctly, she's wondering why TFA is hyping Deal or No Deal, when it should be promoting It's Your Life.

The Hall Monitor lends her opinion that high school seniors should NOT be contestants on Double Dare. In her post Senior Pranks Gone Awry, she tells us of the latest pot of hot water students find themselves in. (Where’s the green goop, folks?)

On a similar note, Matt from Scholar’s Notebook wants to ask a few high school seniors, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Their recent actions would suggest otherwise…

Matthew Ladner revs things up on Holy Rollers and assures us that Catholic Schools Can Survive. He had me hooked with the intro picture of the Blues Brothers meeting da Penguin…

Meg of Simpson's Paradox loves the fact that her kids are finally starting to learn the Lingo, and seeing her kids In the Same Boat. Meg, please be sure to give my best to the lovely cohost Shandi Finnessey. And give her my number. And ask her to call often. And really talk me up as a great guy. And tell her a restraining order just isn't necessary.

Poor oldandrew, he was booked on a classic game show, but as he recounts in Lesson Observations, there was most definitely no Love Connection. Back in two and two, Andrew.

The Price Is Right for children in India, or at least it WILL be, once The Right to Education Bill, 2005 passes into law. It’s almost like winning the Showcase Showdown!

NYC Educator found himself off to a great start on Chain Reaction, moving from chalkboard to whiteboard, but since then, the technology seems to have passed him by.

Matthew Needleman was sitting at home watching Classic Concentration, but what he saw disturbed him. Some of those kids just CAN’T sit still and concentrate for such long periods of time! Let them get up and move around!

The Science Goddess is getting sick and tired of ALWAYS seeing Whoopi Goldberg in the center square on Hollywood Squares! She asks why people can't branch out from the edge of their rut?
Carol at Bellringers hopes that, as the last teacher to leave her school last week, she will indeed be the Winner Takes All.

IMC Guy has a list of his end of year reflections, and it should be readily apparent that Win, Lose, or Draw, he has grown this year.

Ted has the Password for recent college grads on how to use those skills to get a job. Check out his Ultimate Graduation Resource List.

Is it any wonder that Betty feels like she is the Weakest Link? She wants to learn all of the technology that The Thumb Generation has at its disposal, but she can't always find a tech instructor to teach her.

On the next channel, we have a similar challenge in Beat the Geeks, featuring Teacher in a Strange Land, who wants to figure out exactly what good a Kindle is.

If Wink Martindale’s face wasn’t Botoxed beyond belief, I think he’d be steaming mad right about now. The Tempered Radical – a mere contestant, mind you! – is trying to get Wink to change the name of his beloved Tic Tac Dough to, get this, Wiki Waki Dough! Good luck with that one, Bill…

When a graduation ceremony has reached 100°, there are 185 students to walk across the stage, and a guest speaker whom no one will remember tomorrow is droning on and on, is it time to bang him off of The Gong Show? Jeff thinks so.

For many above average students, classroom instruction is mere Child's Play. OverwhelmedMom says why not let them skip ahead to the next topic?

The Dragon Lady gives us 10 Signs That You’re an Urban Teacher. Sign number 11: You feel like you’re playing Russian Roulette, all day, everyday.

Hank advises everyone to stop by education.com for some pointers on teaching your kids to Show Me the Money. Come to think of it, education.com has some pretty nifty columnists…

In New York City, teachers find themselves on (or in) Jeopardy! because of some new, unclear regulations on student abuse. Woodlass states, "So when I hear things like people being brought up on charges for raising their voice, I say there’s a huge difference between doing that to cause fear and doing it to get the kids to tone down the volume."
I'll take Ridiculous Arbitrariness for $800, Alex.

Joanne Jacobs directs our attention to the 12 students who have hit the Jackpot! The name of her post is They Made It! but I like Ride the Carrot Salad much better!

In Do We Write off Slow Students, Loonyhiker asks why should Special Ed students NEED to play Beat the Clock when they might be able to grasp the concepts at a different rate, and possibly in a different way.

Eduwonkette says change the channel. She’s tired of watching Rod Paige and his whole “Houston Miracle” story on Liar’s Club.

John at TLN Teachers Voices has a question: “Is it possible that technology may change all of that and allow families to select schools based on design and ideas that best represent their personal preferences and values INSTEAD of choosing schools based on physical location?” If so, parents’ power of choice would increase substantially – perhaps even to, say, a Power of 10?

On today's episode of Who Do You Trust? J.M. Holland shows us the right way that teachers can deal with pretend guns in the classroom. This in turn can give kids a good starting point for how to deal with REAL guns in their lives.

Mrs. Bluebird thinks the whole idea of teachers having their summers "off" is enough to Make Me Laugh. Check out her rundown of tasks, errands, and responsibilities that make her wonder if she's really on summer vacation.

Over on the TEN blog, there is a Duel going on. Should teachers merely teach, or should they get involved with their students’ lives as would "social workers?"

Darren of Right on the Left Coast is carefully monitoring Friend or Foe. He wants you to know that Communists are supporting Los Angeles teacher groups.

Monique of Instructify suggests that students can liven up a book report by turning it into a Claymation movie. Each frame lasts for only a Split Second.

Over on Win Ben Stein’s Money, it’s dress up as a nerd day! But do elementary school kids need to be taught through example that “nerds” are socially unacceptable? SwitchedOnMom says absolutely not!

Norm decries certain education reform movements that allow top students to leave struggling schools. On a very special episode of Blockbusters, he argues, "Thus, the neighborhood public schools - from elementary through high school – become drained of the very kids that provide the school a somewhat stable environment by shunting the top students to places like KIPP. And by the way, do not underestimate the positive impact these kids have on teacher morale, which is affected by seeing kids succeed."

SharpBrains worries that our kids are appearing far too often on Couch Potatoes, and that they are in fact turning into them. What has happened to play time?

Elementary History Teacher wants to see Obama and McCain on So You Think You Can Dance? Find out why in Education Stance... Education Dance.

For Mamacita, it just ain’t Saturday unless she’s watching What’s My Line? I guess no one appreciates a good quotation like the Mistress of Sheiss.

It's The Sale of the Century over at Steve Spangler's place. See exactly what you can do with 9/10th of a cent of gasoline.

Clix says I’ve Got a Secret… “Teaching is as much an attitude for me as it is my job.”

Friends of Dave feel like backers of the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education" belong on Pass the Buck. See if you agree.

Ryan at I Thought a Think has, unfortunately, hit the Whammy on Press Your Luck. He's come to the realization that he can't be both school principal AND union president. (Don't forget the money! Hee Hee Hee!)

And that's it for our game show marathon! Look for the home game in stores near you, and please, get those pets spayed and neutered.

As always, links to the Carnival and to Learn Me Good are very much appreciated. Next week, the Carnival will be hosted by Pass the Torch. Send your entries to her or use the handy dandy submission form.

On a final note, if you are a teacher with interesting plans for summer vacation, please click here.