Let the March Mathness begin!

OK, so I didn't quite the widespread spreading wide of the new learnmegood.com address that I would have liked (you can always STILL post the link!), but this was a sweepstakes after all, so I am here to honor the effort and pass out prizes!

There were a slew of comments posted between Feb 9 and Mar 9; the FoLMeGs just about doubled in number; the guest book entries increased dramatically. . . If you participated in any of those things, then your name was in the hat for the drawing! Prizes up for grabs were 2 copies of my book Learn Me Good (ask for it at your local bookstore!) and 2 witty T-shirts from Mister Teacher's Spreadshirt Store.

And so, without any further ado. . .

The winners of a copy of Learn Me Good are COLUMBIA LILLY and THE SCHOLASTIC SCRIBE!!

The winners of a T-shirt are MISS PANDA and RAMBLIN' EDUCAT!!

If you are an above named winner, please contact me at learnmegood2@yahoo.com to claim your prize.

And now that that's done with, time to announce the next round of games. As many of you may know, I am a GINORMOUS college basketball junkie. I love March more than almost any other time of the year. I love the fact that my Spring Break once again coincides with the start of the tournament.

I'm inviting everyone who's interested to join my bracket pool at espn.com. The name of the pool is "NO PACKER! YESSSS!" Even if you know absolutely nothing about basketball, this is the year to join anyway, because the teams are so evenly matched that any pick could be a good one.

To sweeten the pot, I'm going to offer a prize for the person with the top bracket. I recently received a lovely package of DVDs from the History Channel, courtesy of A&E Home Video (thanks, Anna) so I thought I'd offer up their set titled "The Founding of America" as a first-place incentive. After all, I'm sure the founding fathers had March Madness in mind when establishing this great nation.

You can find more info about this set by clicking here, and here's a small blurb about the set:

The inspiring early days of America -- the personalities, the battles, the bravery, the losses, and even the romance -- spring to life in spellbinding detail in this sweeping 14-DVD set from A&E Home Video.

FOUNDING FATHERS and FOUNDING BROTHERS examine the relationships of the very human men who risked their fortunes and lives for independence. THE REVOLUTION recounts great battles, devastating losses, and miraculous victories. BEN FRANKLIN and BENEDICT ARNOLD: A QUESTION OF HONOR look at the critical roles played by both men--one a hero, the other a traitor--while WASHINGTON THE WARRIOR and THE CROSSING pay tribute to the soul-stirring leadership of our first president.

With performances by Kelsey Grammar, Aidan Quinn, and Jeff Daniels, rare archival material, and commentary by leading historians, THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA presents historical programming at its comprehensive best.

You can set up your ID and join the pool now, just be sure to go in and make your bracket picks sometime between NEXT Sunday and the following Thursday...

Almost time for the drawing

This Monday, March 9th, will end the Learn Me Good Grand Reopening Sweepstakes of 2009! There are still a couple of days left to get entries into the sweepstakes!

Remember, leaving a comment, signing the guest book, and becoming a FoLMeG all get you a few entries, but I was really, really, REALLY hoping that people would start posting links to learnmegood.com around the net! I see that a lot of places that link to the Learn Me Good blog still have the blogspot.com link up. I DO plan at some future date to do more than just mirror the blogspot, at which point any blogspot links will be outdated.

So switch NOW rather than LATER! Think of it like making sure your TV is up to date and won't be obsolete once THAT switch happens. Also, you get a chance to win a great T-shirt or Book!!

Get your entries!

Ladies and Gents,

The Learn Me Good February Grand Re-Opening Sweepstakes is soon coming to an end! We began on February 9th, and we will be ending on March 9th, so there's a little over a week left to get as many entries as you can!

Remember, you're competing for a Spreadshirt T-shirt OR a copy of Learn Me Good!

Here's a refresher on how you can get entries:

Leaving a comment on any blog post -- this will net you 1 entry

Signing the guest book -- this will score you 2 entries

Becoming a FoLMeG -- this too will entitle you to 2 entries

Placing a link to learnmegood.com (and this is the one I REALLY want you to do!)
anywhere on the net (then directing
me to it for proof) -- you will receive 5 entries

Buying a T-shirt -- you will rack up 10 entries

Don't delay! Act now!

learnmegood.com

So far, a lot of people have gotten entries in the Learn Me Good February Sweepstakes by leaving comments and signing the Guestbook, but I think that Joel at So You Want to Teach is the only person who has actually posted the www.learnmegood.com link for 5 entries!

I encourage (and beg!) everyone to put up a link for learnmegood.com! If you already link to Learn Me Good, just change your link and let me know! You'll get more entries into the sweepstakes (to win a T-shirt or a book), AND you'll be doing your country a service. :)

Revamped lesson plans?

I got an email recently from Frank, who writes Intellteacher's Blog, about a project he is working on with Dr. Win Wenger. A quick Google search on the good doctor brings up pages about Project Renaissance, Brain Boosters, and Creative Thinking. The guy is seen as a pioneer in the field.

So anyway, as part of this project, Frank is offering to help teachers apply an Accelerated Learning aspect to their existing lesson plans. He asks, "What are you having difficulty with in the classroom?" Is it grouping? Is it presenting to the class, is it reaching kids of various abilities?

If you are interested in participating, send Frank a copy of your lesson plan (intellteacher@yahoo.com), and he will -- under Dr. Wenger's supervision -- add on the Accelerated Learning - Creative Problem Solving (AL-CPS) aspects. He also says that he may choose some of the revamped lesson plans to use in the case study part of a new book, and the contributing teacher will get a shout-out.

To see a small sampling of Frank's work, visit his blog, or check out his guest post right here on Learn Me Good.


In completely unrelated news, today is my 36th birthday, so I am headed off to have some of my mom's world famous lasagna!!

And don't forget to take part in the Learn Me Good February Sweepstakes! Get entries by leaving a comment, signing the guest book, becoming a FoLMeG, or best of all, posting a link to www.learnmegood.com somewhere on the web!!

It's electric!

Yesterday, when I was instrumental in what was perhaps one of the lamest physical demonstrations of all time.

A guy had come to our school to talk with the second and third graders about electricity. He had several props to ooooh and aaaah the kids, including Van der Graff generators, power cables, and tube lights. Most of these props were used quite successfully, especially the ones that generated visible static electricity -- little bits of "lightning" -- for the kids to observe.

I was standing at the very back of the auditorium, attempting to serve as a menacing presence for the rowdy second graders in that section. The guy said he would need the assistance of the teacher in the striped shirt and pointed back at me.

Naturally, the kids all started going wild -- in anticipation, no doubt, of their math teacher getting fried by an overload of static shock. No, I kid. I think the kids were all truly excited to see me take part in a demonstration.

The guy running the show handed me a long fluorescent tube light, the kind you find in office buildings. He made the announcement that I was going to hold the light pointing at his generator, and when he turned it on, either the bulb would light up, or I would.

From my vantage point, I could see that the bulb was lighting up. However, all of the auditorium lights were still on, so except for the few kids in the front row who could see a small difference in the bulb, I think that most of the kids could not see if anything was happening.

The kids, being the paragons of politeness and refinement that they are, began screaming, "Turn the lights off!!" at the top of their lungs. One of the teachers went up on the stage and behind the curtain and spent the next five minutes attempting to turn the lights off.

Unfortunately, in our auditorium, the lights aren't controlled by a simple switch. One must actually flip circuits on the breaker panel, and that panel is not very well labeled. So I got to spend the next five or so minutes,holding an impotent lightbulb, in front of a crowd of almost 300 growingly restless children, while watching the stage lights flicker on and off.

The guy finally decided to just do the demonstration with the lights on (with plenty of children still demanding loudly that the lights be turned off), and I was released from my duty.

Not really satisfied with how things had turned out, I jumped up on the stage and started playing with the breaker switches. I was able to pretty quickly turn the lights off in auditorium, but I also killed the electricity to the stage outlet that was powering the gentleman's props. So I had to turn everything back on and just accept the fact that I had done a pretty poor job as the stereotypical "lovely assistant."

Please don't forget to take part in the February Learn Me Good Sweepstakes, which began earlier this week. I'm giving way books and T-shirts! All you have to do is leave a comment, sign the guestbook, or, best of all, put a link to learnmegood.com somewhere on the net. For everyone who already links to Learn Me Good, please change your link to http://www.learnmegood.com/.