Interactive Monday is back!!

I've been feeling lately like I haven't been contributing enough to this blog. Or that when I HAVE, it's mostly been about Learn Me Good the book. Not that there's anything wrong with touting the book. That IS, after all, why this blog was started in the first place. However, I feel I haven't been balancing that enough with actual school and teacher related "stuff."

So I'm ready to remedy that. To get back into a regular routine, I am bringing back an old favorite -- Interactive Mondays! Every Monday, I will pose a question, and I hope that you the reader will contribute your answers, thoughts, and ponderings.

This week, the question is What mnemonic, or memory trick, have you found helpful in the classroom?

This can be helpful as a teacher, OR helpful to you yourself when you were a student.

I posted recently about a new little ditty I had learned to help the kids remember when to regroup during subtraction. The more we use it, the better it gets. The kids are remembering to use it, they're remembering how to regroup, and they're even (gasp) remembering the rhyme!

I've also had a lot of success with the "Punch it up" strategy for rounding. If you have 5 or more fingers, you can punch it up to the next nearest 10 or 100 or whatever. If you have less than 5, you can't make a fist, so you have to drop it down to the lower nearest 10 or 100 or whatever.

For symmetry, I like to get a bit goofy and use a Toy Story reference. I have the kids imagine Buzz Lightyear, and how he has the same costume parts on both sides of his body -- wings, helmet, boots, etc. Then we practice the mantra -- "To the Symmetry, and Beyond!" -- and I get to do my best Tim Allen impersonation.

So now I turn it over to you. What memory tricks have worked for YOU?

And now a word from today's sponsor

Learn Me Good is today's sponsor for the Free Book Alert at Kindle Nation Daily!

"Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Monday, October 25: Four Free "Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith" Books to Get You Ready for Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #5: Purgatory, plus an undiscovered gem: John Pearson's Learn Me Good (Today's Sponsor), and over 100 other fully updated free Kindle ebook listings http://bit.ly/bXKspk"

Hopefully, this will help to boost sales, at least for a bit. Wish me luck!

Tutoring Tuesday

Tutoring began today, and much like the beginning of the universe, there was a great ball of chaos.

I got my paperwork taken care of yesterday. Got the names turned in, my lesson plans, their bus assignments. Of course, I didn't get them turned in on time, per se, but that's what happens when the email request comes at 8:34 am, and the deadline is set for end of the school day. I felt like sending an email back saying, "I was TRYING to read and send emails, but these pesky kids kept bothering me with questions!"

But at any rate, I got all that turned in. Then today, right before 3:00, we got an announcement over the loudspeaker: we could NOT clock out and log in for tutoring right after school, like we've always done. We would have to wait until 3:45 to clock in. This would necessitate leaving the tutorees unattended mid-stream in the room while we walked down the lengthy corridors to scan in our thumbprints, but we were advised that our neighbor would probably be happy to watch our kids for us while we did that.

Oh, and there would be no snacks. Actually, I managed a loophole around that one. I just so happened to have a few bags of chips left from a homework reward celebration last week, and a couple of the kids had their own bags of chips in their backpacks. So everyone DID get a snack during tutoring, at least in MY group.

The actual tutoring session was great. I only had 5 kids, and they were wonderful. They were doing all of the work correctly and with the right steps, and really getting into it.

Getting them out to the buses resumed the chaos. The kids had been divided into 3 buses. But only 2 buses showed up. The 3rd was rumored to be making a high school run and might be 15 or so minutes late. I brought my kids from that 3rd bus back into the building to wait, only to discover that the school's power had gone out and all the lights were off.

The last bus finally came. Or maybe it was the 2nd bus discovering they had more room, I didn't really notice. At any rate, all of the kids got home safely, and I was able to go home.

And thus began tutoring for the 2010-2011 school year. Maybe Thursday, we'll throw a helicopter into the mix.

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)

League parity

Today before I left my classroom, I took care of my kids' Thursday folders. Thursday folders are these folders that we send home on... you guessed it, Thursday. This is when we send home graded homework, old tests, fliers from the school, etc.

The kids are supposed to bring back their folders on Friday so that the teachers have them for the following week. It has been my experience that many kids often do NOT bring them back, so I devised a motivational system long ago that has worked pretty well. I can sum it up in one word -- Stickers.

If a child brings back their folder the next day, with all of the old papers taken out and left at home -- as they are supposed to -- I put a sticker on their folder that they can either leave as decoration, or take and put somewhere else at home. The kids love stickers, and their faces light up on Thursdays as they see what new sticker they got.

Today, I was using a sheet of stickers that I got from a Sports Illustrated promotional mailing. It has square stickers with the image of a helmet from each team in the NFL. As I neared the end of my stack of folders, I happened to notice a correlation between the helmet I was about to affix and the girl whose name was on the folder. It was the San Francisco 49ers helmet. The 49ers are off to an 0-5 start this year, and they just can't seem to do anything right. Incidentally, the folder I put it on belongs to a girl who has been bombing her tests, has gotten off to an awful start, and (at least on tests and homeworks) just can't seem to get anything right.

Curiously, I looked back at the other folders to see if any other connections had been made. I was surprised to find several.

The girl who got the Green Bay Packers sticker started off the year very well and by all indications, looked like she would be one of my higher students. However, in recent weeks, she seems to have suffered a concussion, and her work has gone downhill.

The boy who got the Jacksonville Jaguars sticker is widely acknowledged by all teachers as one of the lower achieving students. Yet he has a lot of spirit, he puts a lot of effort forth, and he occasionally has moments of brilliance.

The boy who got the New York Jets sticker brags a lot about how great he is.

Let's hit the floor

Today, we began our unit on subtraction. It seems weird to even say that, as I (still) feel that 3rd graders should know how to subtract BEFORE entering 3rd grade. However, at my school, they often don't, and even when they know the basics, they don't regroup (borrow) correctly. Or in some cases, at all.

The kids often just invert things in their minds. If the ones place says 2-7, they turn it around and compute 7-2. If it says 0-4, well that's easy, it's 4. After all, 4-0 is 4.

But things went pretty well today, when I shared a rhyme with them that I heard at my session on Friday. This is a rhyme that I'm sure has been around forever, but for whatever reason, I had never heard it before. Last year, I had success with my own made-up, "Tiny Top vs Big Bottom," but that hasn't seemed to stick this year. However, the kids really liked the new rhyme.

If there's more on the top -- No need to stop.

If there's more on the floor -- Let's go next door -- and get ten more.

If the numbers are the same -- Then zero is the name.

The kids loved it when I said that. Now getting THEM to say it proved a bit challenging in some cases. When they would tell me I needed to regroup on a problem, and I asked why, some of them shouted, "The top is smaller!!" When I tried to get them to recite the rhyme to me, I heard a few mishmashes including, "If there's more on the bottom, let's go next door. And get another ten."

OK, so in the ELA block, we'll work on what makes a rhyme.

Still, once we got into it, things went pretty well. Hopefully, this will help the procedure stick for when we're not just focused on subtraction.

It's finally here!!

My new cover is finished and up on the Kindle page for Learn Me Good! I am so stoked! It will be a couple of weeks before the paperback copies change over to the new cover, but I still just think this is so cool!!

Rounding the corner

This week has been, and will continue to be, pretty messy. We're giving Benchmark tests (or as I call them, the dreaded BMs) through Thursday, and that really throws a monkeywrench into our teaching time.

So I haven't had as much time to work with the kids as I normally would. However, I have been really pleasantly surprised by how well my kids are getting the concept of rounding, especially given the shorter class periods.

Yesterday, I introduced it to them, and, as is often the case, they acted as if they had never in their entire lives heard the words "Estimating," "Estimation," "Rounding," or "Math." (OK, Math they had heard of.) We started discussing why anyone would want to use numbers that weren't exact, as in the case of shopping. I read them a story about 2 kids using estimation to win a jelly bean counting contest. The story was called, "Betcha," and I had to carefully state up front that this was short for, "I'll bet you -- like they are making bets with each other." I didn't want the kids who hear me say the word, "Beach," and start giggling and oohing and aahing telling their parents I was cussing them out again.

Anyway, once we actually started talking about tens and how to find the closest ones in front and behind the numbers we were using, and then how to decide which of THOSE was actually closest -- things went INCREDIBLY smoothly! With only 1 or 2 exceptions, these kids got it! They were doing the steps, they were rounding correctly. They really got into the whole "Punch it up" strategy.

1 of the kids who struggled didn't understand that the rounded number needed to have a 0 in the ones place, and he was trying to round 27 to 37 or 81 to 71. But even he got the concept down today.

I tried to fool them by giving them tricky numbers to round, like 95. Typically, a lot of kids will tell me that 95 is between 90 and 10 (forgetting that other 0). Not a single one of them was fooled. I gave them 7 to round. They knew that the closest tens were 0 and 10 (usually the 0 hangs them up at first).

It was fantastic. So much so, that even in the short class period, I introduced rounding to hundreds yesterday. When we started practicing tens AND hundreds today, they remembered all of the steps and all of the strategy. It was great!

My homeroom still continues to waste a lot of time by playing and making noises and not listening when I talk, but that's another issue. At least I feel fairly confident that rounding is not going to hold them up. At least not until the big test, I estimate.

Cover model

Thank you to everyone who put in their 2 cents yesterday. I really appreciate all of the feedback! The voting turned out to be just a bit rigged though, because after I posted those initial 4 ideas, I found ANOTHER photo that screamed out to me even more. This new cover makes it feel like I'm almost there on the cover myself (hey, that IS what my arm looks like, after all), and I can write whatever I want on the chalkboard.

Here's a sneak peek.

Judging a book by its cover

Hello, Gentle Readers! (As Stephen King would say... Oh wait, I don't write horror. Usually.)

Reader AND Lurker alert! I need your feedback!

I am strongly considering changing the cover of Learn Me Good, at least for the Kindle version, and I have a few concepts that I have been playing with. All of them involve an actual, professional photograph, as opposed to the (very much self-admittedly) amateur cover that currently graces the book.

Below, you will see 4 possibilities for new cover designs. Please note that the rights still belong to the artists at istockphoto, that's why their logo is prominently stamped in the center. You'll have to imagine that gone.

I would really love to hear any and all feedback on these ideas. What do you like? What do you dislike? Which do you like best, if any? Why?

Thank you in advance!

Edit: I added one more to the mix. This one has a male teacher's arm, which could very well be MINE...

Double Edit:  Here are the two existing covers, as of July 2012:

Friday Night Sites

So my super-short work week was actually increased by 50%, due to the fact that my off-site training, scheduled for today, was canceled. It was canceled yesterday at 4:00 PM. I'm really thankful that I checked my email before I left yesterday, because otherwise I would have been wondering where everybody was at 8 o'clock this morning.

When I got to school this morning, I was told not to clock in, because my sub was already there. Eventually, that was changed, and I was able to clock in and resume my duties. I got down to my room just as the sub was closing the door and starting to introduce herself to the kids. The kids who were sitting and standing around their desks, looking like they had absolutely no idea what to do. Despite the instructions for the day ALWAYS being written on the board, despite me telling them yesterday exactly what they should do when they entered the room -- there was only one kid who had his spiral notebook out and ready to do the first morning problem.

Ah well, maybe by June, these kids will know the routines.

At any rate, one routine that we should all follow is to check out the bi-weekly Carnival of Education over at Bellringers. The theme this week is Friday Night Lights, which might not mean much to you if you're not from Texas, but the posts listed are still well worth reading.

Bring your cowbell and ignore those kids making out under the bleachers.

Shortest. Week. Ever

Do you remember the discussion of a 4-day school week? How it would save electricity, power, the universe, etc? And my counter-proposal was that if cutting ONE day off of the usual week would do that much good, why not shave FOUR days off?

Well, this week is going to be pretty darn close to that proposal.

Yesterday (Monday) was a student holiday/staff development day. No kids, no lessons, no teaching.

Today was a regular day.

Tomorrow is a regular day.

Thursday, I have to attend an off-site meeting for some math program I had never heard of before. Thus, I will not have kids, or lessons, or do any teaching.

Friday is Fair Day, so there is no school.

This boils down to a 2-day school week for me. Thank goodness it's the end of the grading period, and we're just reviewing. I'd hate to try to introduce anything new and expect it to stick.

The newest voice online

A good friend of mine is one of the "Educator Voices" in the Dallas Morning News this year, and his first editorial column ran today. It's very well written, and I invite everyone to check it out.

Down with the sickness

**Big news! For whatever reason, Amazon.com has discounted Learn Me Good from $11.99 down to $8.63! I have no idea how long this will last, but please spread the word! ****

Last year, as I recall, I made it about 2 days into the school year before getting sick. Whether it was a cold, allergies, "the crud," whatever, I'm not sure. I'm never sure, as they all seem to have the same symptoms, and they all make me feel the same way.

This year, I managed to make it into the 5th week before succumbing to the evil illness. Maybe it's marital bliss that staved it off for so long, or maybe I really have built up a better immunity. But it was finally my time to fall victim. Several kids had been absent, or even worse, PRESENT with sniffles and wet hacking coughs.

I started to notice that scratchy tickling in the back of my throat on Monday, and Tuesday was worse. It probably didn't help that I stayed up way to late on Monday night, watching the exciting end to the Saints-49ers football game, and then I had to get up for early morning duty the next day. On Wednesday, after school, I felt like I had hit a wall. My head was on fire, my whole body felt foggy, and my throat was on fire. When I got home, though, I had no fever, I just felt miserable. I have never taken a nap between school and actual bedtime, but I did that day.

Yesterday (Friday), I just drifted through the day, trying to make it to 3:00. I went home and took a nap again, and then slept till 10:30 this morning.

I'm hoping a good 2-day blast of sleep and non-activity will kick this thing on its rear.

Seems to have worked... for now

Last week, I bemoaned my students' lack of work showing. Monday, I put into play a plan of action that I hoped would solve that issue. So far, it seems to be working.

I have always used a system that involves blue tickets to reward the kids for making good choices. They get blue tickets which they can put in a basket on my desk, and at the end of the week, I pull out 3 names for simple little prizes like pencils and small toys and such.

Now I've added orange tickets into the mix (ORANGE!!??!!!!!). Where blue tickets are like raffle tickets, orange tickets are like cash. If the kids get an orange ticket, they can use it to buy a prize, they don't have to get lucky to get their ticket pulled from the basket.

But the only way they can earn an orange ticket is by getting a 100 on a test and showing all of their work. Anybody who marks all the correct answers but doesn't show how they got those answers will not receive an orange ticket. Anybody who makes a silly mistake and gets an answer wrong will not receive an orange ticket.

I introduced the orange tickets on Monday as we went over last week's test, and I gave the kids the spiel and the rules.

Yesterday, during the test over comparing (less than, greater than) and ordering (greatest to least, and vice versa), I didn't have to remind a single kid to show his/her work. There were a few silly mistakes made, where the problem said least to greatest, and the kid put his/her numbers in greatest to least order, but yesterday's test went MUCH better than last week's. Gradewise, there are still a few issues, but all of my kids showed all of their work, which to me, is a huge victory in a major battle.

I only hope that it continues throughout the year.

Also, I had the opportunity to meet the mother of the child who told me (AND put into writing) that his mother had told him, "Don't listen to your teacher."

Anyone want to guess what the outcome of THAT was? Even more perfectly, the principal walked by as we were meeting, so I got to tell the mother AND the principal about little A's claim. Of course, the mother denied it, and she was quite upset at her son for saying that. I should get much better results out of him now that his mom knows the score.

Shake up some Buzz

Is it that time again? Every other Wednesday, Carol at Bellringers serves up the latest from the world of edumacators in her Carnival of Education Buzz. Today, Episode 4 (The Tinman and the Unicorn) is presented.

Check out all of the great posts found there, and be sure to comment on a few!

In my classroom, I have decided to shake things up a bit. I just drew up a completely new seating chart, new partners, everything. I will implement this first thing tomorrow, and MAN do I hope it results in some positive changes. Too many kids thinking that just because they sit at the table farthest from the white board, that they don't have to pay attention when I'm writing on it. Nevermind the fact that I'm still less than 10 feet away from them (it's a very small room).

Keep your fingers crossed!

Who grades the test?

I was speaking to my kids today about the TAKS and the importance of filling in the answer bubbles neatly. That, and the reason that they should never ever write anything in or near the bubbles other than filling in the one that they are choosing.

So I asked my class who they thought actually would be grading their TAKS tests. Several hands went up.

"The teacher?" one asked.
"Nope," I replied.
"You?" the next one guessed.
"Uh, I AM the teacher, so still no," I countered.
"The principal?"
"No."
"The President?"

One of my kids actually thought that President Barrack Obama might take time out of his busy schedule to pick up a red pen and grade his TAKS test. Forget the mess of the economy, the whole international politics scene -- give him a key to the 3rd grade math test, and put him to work!

Words escape me

Today was NOT the greatest Friday in the world. By 8:20, I had already put one kid in time out in another classroom, ripped up one kid's homework and thrown it across the room, and taken two kids down the hallway to the phone to call their parents.

I've had better mornings, to say the least.

My rage just continued to simmer all morning long because of my homeroom's seeming apathy about their education. We've been studying number forms this week. Standard form, expanded form, and word form. For most of the 3rd graders, this is the first time they have been required to know how to read a 4, 5, or 6 digit number. On Tuesday, we went over expanded form, and Wednesday and Thursday, we went over word form.

Expanded form never ceases to frustrate me. It is, quite possibly, the absolute SIMPLEST type of problem in all of 3rd grade. It involves adding, every question has plus signs in it, to remind you to add, just in case you forgot, and mostly, you are adding zeros!! A typical question is "What number is represented by 300,000 + 20,000 + 500 + 40 + 8?"

Year after year after year, I have kids that stumble all over these problems, merely because of the fact that they refuse to actually add the numbers. They would rather cherry pick the first digit off of every "piece" and string those numbers together. For the above question, I would get a ton of answers that read 32,548. (Or worse, 3,2548)

I pull my hair out, grind my teeth, and stress out big time while I plead and cajole and try to convince them that if they would just stack these numbers up vertically and add them, they would get the right answer every time. I am usually successful in this endeavor during the day or two that we practice expanded form in class, and sometimes I can get the kids to do it on their homework for that night. When the test rolls around, all bets are off.

Going over the word form strategy on Wednesday and Thursday, I felt I was making some progress. It's overwhelming at first for the kids to see these large numbers and even larger strings of words. But I have a strategy called "Three easy boxes" where we chunk the numbers and words into 3-digit groups, and when the kids do this, they are almost always successful.

Yesterday, I worked with small groups for the first time this year. I was pretty pleased with myself, as time management and small groups are among my weak points that I'm trying to improve on. The kids I worked with got it, and they were telling me all the steps while they did three easy boxes on the number words and turned them into standard form. Before each class dismissed, I passed out the homework, and we did a couple of example problems so that they kids would know exactly what I expected to see.

So this morning, I was incredibly disappointed to find that ONE out of my 15 homeroom students had done her homework correctly. I have 17 in my homeroom, but 2 were absent, so I have no idea if they did it right. And I don't mean that the other 14 wrote down the wrong numbers, I mean that the other 14 didn't try to turn the words into numbers at all. They just bubbled in answers.

Some of the kids hadn't even done the work on the problems that I did in class.

One girl had done nothing BUT the 2 problems that we did together in class, and she said, "Oh, were we supposed to do the other ones?" I had to struggle very hard not to use adult language. Instead, I marched her down to the phone. Call number 1.

I told the kids that I had planned on giving them a little inside recess at the end of the class, but that instead, that time would be used at the beginning, for them to work on their homework, doing it the right way. After about 15 minutes, which involved the second call and placing the third kid in time out in another room, we went over most of the homework problems, which involved doing the strategies of changing words to numbers over and over and over. Over and over and over, I kept saying, "This is what I expect to see on your tests. THIS is the work I want to see BEFORE you fill in a bubble."

When the test started, it was as if I had never spoken a word about it. I walked around and had to stop by about 8 kids' desks, noticing that they had filled in bubbles for questions 1 and 2 without showing a lick of work. No stacking and adding, no three easy boxes, NOTHING.

I understand that these kids are babies at the beginning of the year. Understanding that is not the same as liking it, though, and I was in a terrible mood for the whole morning.

The spelling test went just as poorly, but I won't even go into that.

My afternoon class walked in, and as they did their calendar activities, I started glancing at homeworks to check their work. The first I flipped over looked just like the morning class's. My heart sank. The next one I flipped had all of the work completely done. So did the next, and the next, and the next. Out of the 15 kids in the afternoon class, only 3 had NOT done their work correctly.

After wanting to punt my morning class through the nearest uprights, I just wanted to hug this second class.

I still had a lot of the same issues during the test. For some reason, there is a major disconnect with 3rd graders between work in class and work on tests. But I was a lot more pleased and proud of the 2nd group.

The other high point of my day involved a nice little piece of evidence that I now have in my possession.

One of the kids in the morning class told me that he was going to do the homework the way we practiced it in class, but his mother had told him not to do it that way. I explained that since she wasn't present in class to see how we did things, that HE would have to be the one to show her how we did these problems. He kept saying that she told him not to do it that way. I kept telling him that if she said that, he needed to tell her, "This is the way Mister Teacher says we have to do it."

Eventually, he said, "She said not to listen to the teacher."

Oh, really?? I asked him to repeat it, and then I repeated it myself to be sure. "Your mom actually told you not to listen to your teacher?"

He nodded his head. So I went and got a piece of paper and told him to write that down, explaining the whole time that I wanted to be able to show that paper to his mom when we sat down to talk, and that I wanted to be able to show that paper to the principal and assistant principal when they asked about his work.

Most kids would back away from a claim like that at this point. But my munchkin persisted, and wrote down his statement.

Should be very interesting next week to actually talk to his mom and verify or shoot down this claim.

WHEW!!

Well, my wife and I apparently just dodged a tornado. Or 2. Hard to tell, because we didn't have access to a television from our tiny downstairs workout room where we were taking cover. But the people that came in to join us said that they had just seen report of a tornado touching down at Love Field airport, which is only about a mile from us.

All I had to worry about today at school was a few lights flickering. The week has been going pretty well (short week, we had Monday off) though. We've been doing various number forms. Expanded, word, standard. The kids are picking them up pretty well, which is no small feat with the words, since they've never had to read a number bigger than 3 digits before.

I still have a few kids that are total dead zones when it comes to listening, and that's just a bit irritating, but one of my kids who had been a total slug for the first 2 weeks, has had an INCREDIBLE 2 days this week. I talked with him Friday about changing his attitude and his mindset, and he has really gotten it done.

Super-ironically, he came into my room this morning before class started and said, "There's a slug in the hall!" Sure enough, there was literally a slug crawling on the floor near where he had been sitting. I guess the mantle had been passed.

A new way of doing things!

Yesterday morning, as the kids were returning to their seats after Calendar Math, I was walking around checking to see if they had shown their work on the homework from the night before. It was a set of 10 place value questions (ie, What is the value of the 5 in 498, 256?), and I had insisted that they show a place value chart for each question before choosing their answer. We had even done the first question and chart together in class the day before.

All of the kids had done their charts except one, A, who had not been doing his homework this year anyway. So that really didn't surprise me.

As I picked up his paper to look on the back, he watched me with a spark in his eye. I of course saw nothing on the back except the one chart that we had done in class, but before I could ask, "Where are your place value charts?" A proudly exclaimed, "I did it a DIFFERENT way!" As if he had independently discovered a new element.

I tried not to be TOO harsh as I told him that merely filling in an answer bubble without doing anything else was not actually a "way" so to speak.

Traipse through the sawdust

The newest edition of the Education Buzz Carnival just came out over at Bellringers, so mosey on over there and smell the greasepaint and try not to point at the freaks. I haven't really had a chance to head over there myself just yet, but if you save me a seat on the Tilt-a-Whirl, I'll be there.

Tomorrow, at my school, we're supposed to wear a shirt that somehow symbolizes a form of labor, in honor of... wait for it... Rosh Hashanah. No, I think it's for Labor Day. Anyway, I haven't decided what I am going to wear.

I suggested to a female colleague that she stuff 3 pillows under her shirt, walk around sweaty and holding her back all day, and around noon, spill a bunch of water on the floor. She politely declined.

My next thought was to wear a shirt depicting Hercules, he of the 12 Labors. After all, what public school teacher hasn't at SOME point felt like he was cleaning out the Augean Stables or skin the Nemean Lion? (OK, I googled it.)

There's always the plumber route, but do I really want the kids to see my crack? Nah.

I'll probably just wind up wearing some old t-shirt from a community service project or something. But I can already tell I need to start thinking ahead for Arbor Day...

Everything in its Place

My kids really impressed me today. We started talking about Place Value, reviewing what they should know from second grade -- Ones, Tens, and Hundreds. Usually, despite the fact that this is NOT new material, it's like teaching a brand new topic. Today, though, my kids showed me that they had it down cold.

And not just one class! BOTH classes went pretty similarly, and we sailed right through things. I started off by writing the number 979 on the board and asking somebody to read it. I then asked them to discuss with their partners whether or not the two 9's in the number meant the same thing.

I heard great discussions, and in both classes, kids told me that they were not the same because the first 9 was equal to 900 but the second 9 was merely 9. When I asked about the 7 in the middle, a good majority of the kids were able to not only tell me that it represented 7 Tens, but even that that equaled 70!! That's pretty major!!

I busted out the place value blocks, and the kids started modeling 2 and 3 digit numbers. For the most part, they did this with ease, and one great surprise was how well they worked with their partners and did not just play with the blocks (with one or two unsurprising exceptions).

But then I posed a tricky question. I asked them to model 63, which they were able to do easily. I then asked them to show me with the model how we could represent 63 - 5. I asked them to take away 5 cubes from their model.

Most of the kids had difficulty with this one. However, in my morning class, I heard one of my kids immediately launch into a PERFECT explanation to his partner of how they needed to "exchange" one of their ten sticks for ten ones cubes and then they would have 13 ones and they would be able to take away 5.

Color me incredibly impressed. After a few minutes had gone by, and it was obvious that the other kids were stumped, I had that kid come up to the overhead and share his explanation with the whole class.

In the afternoon group, nothing was quite as powerful, but I observed a few groups doing the right thing. When I asked them to explain, it took a little bit of coaxing and drawing it out of them, but they had the right idea.

Tomorrow, we introduce Thousands, and Thursday, we'll introduce Ten Thousands and Hundred Thousands. I can only hope things go as smoothly then!

24/7

We got a bulletin in our mailboxes today, beginning with, "This year, two of the courses that are mandatory for all campus staff members will be online. The courses, Confidentiality and Ethics, will be accessible and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

This makes it sound like we can access the programs at any time and fulfill the requirements at our leisure.

Until I read further and saw that the window for completing the Confidentiality course is August 16-28.

Yeah, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week really doesn't mean jack when you're told about the MANDATORY course the day before the window closes.

Um, no one wants to see that, dude

They finally fixed my air conditioning! I think. Today was quite a bit cooler, due to a nice rainstorm this morning, so that may have skewed my perception. But for a while, the unit was running, and it was nice and cool. I turned off the fans and closed the windows. Later in the afternoon, it seemed a bit warmer, but still not nearly the sauna that it had been. What a relief!

This year, there is a kindergarten class on the 3rd grade hallway. This is not exactly optimal space planning, in my opinion, but it is what it is. Our hall's bathroom schedule thus includes this kindergarten class, and of course, they happen to go immediately preceding my class.

This morning, I took my class down to the restroom at our appointed time, and the kinders were still down there. As we stood there waiting for them to finish, this little boy walked out of the bathroom with his pants down around his ankles and his tighty whities visible to the whole world.

This kid wasn't showing the appropriate level of embarrassment that one would expect from someone with their drawers hanging out. He wasn't looking around the hall wild-eyed shouting, "LOOK AT ME!!!" but he also seemed ready to get a drink of water and get in line in his condition.

I figured since there were no other men around that I should step in and handle the situation. I gently escorted the lad back into the bathroom to get things taken care of, telling him, "Come on, nobody needs to see that."

Getting him taken care of was trickier than it seemed though. For one thing, his pants were down below his knees, but they were still buttoned up and belted up. He started tugging them up, and they wouldn't go over his hips. He also didn't seem able to undo his belt to loosen them up enough to pull back up. I finally realized that I would have to actually get my hands dirty, so to speak (would this be wet work?), and I helped with his belt. He at least was then able to unsnap his pants and pull down his zipper so that he could get his pants back up to, well, pants level.

But then he couldn't get the zipper up. So I had to help him with that too. And with getting his pants closed again. And with getting his belt done again.

Once again, I confirmed the notion that I would NOT be a good or happy kindergarten teacher.

Top Ten Memorable Moments from the First Day of School

Today was our first day of school, and if you've ever read Harry Wong's "The First Day of School," then you know that it's best when everything is planned out in advance, and there are no major surprises. This would be pretty much the total opposite of my school's first day of school. Also, you may be giggling at the name Harry Wong right now.

Our day was actually full of chaos and mayhem and unexpectedness. Instead of just narrating the day, I thought I'd pick out the top 10 moments and express them in list form.

10) Having people walk in and out of my classroom all day long to check out the air conditioner. The motor was working all day long, and if you held your hand 2 inches from the vent, it appeared to be blowing out cold air, yet the classroom remained at 85 degrees. I'm not really sure why the 2 guys inspecting it were wearing hard hats, but I guess there's no such thing as TOO safe?

9) I was able to offload a few handfuls of my leftover wedding M&Ms before classes began. My morning duty was monitoring the 3rd grade hallway, so I told the kids that I would give a few M&Ms to each student in the quietest class. There were two classes that I figured this would make no impression on whatsoever, and I was right about them. But the other four classes WERE very quiet, which was especially great seeing as how it was the first day, and they didn't know the usual routine. The class who won never asked me who "John and Tamara" were, or what was special about "July 2, 2010." They just shoved the candies in their mouths.

8) Despite the district going to a computerized attendance system, we learned in our meeting after school today (yes, a meeting after school -- memorable moment 8.5) that we would still need to turn in a folder with a headcount each day. We are to a paperless system what Hummers are to Green cars.

7) Getting called out of the 3:15 meeting to meet with a parent who didn't know where her child was. This boy was not supposed to get on a bus, yet he may have, instead of going to parent pick up. The lady eventually went home to see if he was there, and I never heard anything more, so I am assuming she found him. We'll know for sure tomorrow.

6) One of my students from last year coming up to me after school and giving me a hug. I am sorry to admit that I did not remember her name (I remembered it later), but it was nice to see her.

5) After-school bus duty was hectic and hot. It was about 104 degrees outside, and I was out there for about 20 minutes, due to several missing kids. The kids were finally found, but my buses were the last to leave, and I probably lost about 10 pounds through sweat. Also, there are usually 6 faculty members monitoring the first two buses, but today my buddy Ed U Cater and I were the only 2 out there between both buses. Not sure what happened to the others, but I have a feeling it had something to do with our bus duty never being officially announced.

4) The cafeteria ceiling collapsing. We were told to have lunch with the kids in the classroom, and things were delayed for a while, but I didn't find out until a little later the reason why. It seems a few sections of the ceiling fell (leak? gas? bigfoot?), narrowly missing one class of students.

3) The announcement at 2:55 that "the brother or sister of so-and-so needs to go to room 202 to pick up so-and-so." Turns out that the sister (cousin, really) was in my class, and that earlier, I had needed to send her to the office with a message. And she hadn't known where the office was, so I had to send another student with her. Yet here she was, being asked to find a room on the second floor, in the 5th grade wing. Thankfully, at that time, the 5th graders were walking by on their way out to the buses, so I snagged one and sent my student with her.

2) The teacher break room now looks like a high-scale Starbucks. There are fancy tables and chairs, the walls are bright colors, complete with trim, and the lighting is soft. It's good to know that I may not have working air conditioning in my room, the hallways were just painted last week, and our cafeteria may need to be condemned, but at least I can have lunch in style. Priorities.

1) My kids. It would appear that I have a really good group of kids this year. There were several on both rosters that did not show up, but of those who did, there were only a couple that gave me any problems today. One kid fell asleep, and a few others couldn't stop talking and playing. But other than that, they listened, they did what they asked, and when we did a fact family triangle, they completed the fact family with little trouble. I hope this trend continues!

Good luck and good link

School starts tomorrow, so good luck to everyone who is kicking off a new year, whether tomorrow, next week, or sometime in the past!

Also, Learn Me Good is featured today on Spalding's Racket, a British book blog. Maybe people in the UK will start buying LMG, now that they are getting Kindles there!

Getting there...

Well, after a week of preparation at school, I can say I'm just about ready for the kids' arrival on Monday.

I say just about, because yesterday at 5:30, when I had to force myself to leave, I know that I still had a few things I wanted to move around. I figure I can do that on Monday after school, though.

The important things are in place. Desks are arranged the way they should be. Textbooks are inside desks. Accountable talk stems, math strategies, spelling words, etc are visible on the boards. Pencils are sharpened and in the cup. Air conditioning is... well, non-existent as of yesterday. But since my SCHOOL has A/C, my room apparently takes a back seat in the district's mind to all of the other schools that are entirely without.

I can sympathize with them. I mean, after all, they've only had 2 months and change to fix these cooling problems. Hopefully, they'll get around to me by Christmas break. Also, it's nice to see DISD not waiting till the last minute to make improvements to my school. There was a whole crew of guys painting the hallways this week, and I for one am certainly glad that they did not wait until NEXT Monday to start. Because setting up an 83 degree classroom swimming with paint fumes is one thing, but having to TEACH in an 83 degree classroom swimming with paint fumes AND students would have been horrible.

Thursday night, we had a Meet the Teacher night, and so I got to meet a few of my charges. I didn't meet anyone that seems like a holy terror, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Now I just need to type up my lesson plans, think through a few procedural things, and get a good night's sleep tomorrow!

It's SHOWTIME!!

Routines and routines

A couple of very quick announcements first:

1) This week's Education Buzz Carnival is up over at Bellringers. Even more great posts than the last time, and we all know how great the last time was!!

2) Most excellent blogger David Wisehart has posted an interview with yours truly on his site.

Now, on to business.

About a month ago, I came across a post by My Teaching Spirit about practicing the routine for small group activities with students on the first days of school. I thought it was great, as one of my weaknesses has always been finding the time and knowing HOW to do small groups. Her methods were clear cut and gave clear student expectations, and the kids got to see the RIGHT way to do it and the WRONG way to do it.

This morning, part of our staff development was a presentation on The Daily 5. This is a program, mainly aimed towards reading, that our district is mandating for K-2. The upper grades are encouraged to give it a try.

The presenters went over how to talk with the kids and get student-generated criteria for reading to themselves, and then we had 2 faculty members act out the RIGHT way to do it, and the WRONG way to do it.

Greatness!!

It was nearly the same from blog post to presentation this morning! So either the blogger at My Teaching Spirit has independently developed her procedure and it just happens to be exactly like the Daily 5, OR she is familiar with the Daily 5 and has adapted the procedures from reading to her math class. Either way, it's a great demonstration that these procedures can be used for just about any subject!

I am looking forward to trying them out in my own class, as my goal is to get stronger in small group instruction. I even have a horseshoe table in my room for the first time ever! I'm hoping that's the first baby step in a long series of them.

Kids have been spotted

I apologize to everyone who is experiencing long loading times for this blog. I've noticed it too, though it seems to only be the background that is taking a long time and not the actual content, which makes it bearable. I hope this is what everyone else is seeing too.

Today was our first official day back to school, Operation: In-Service. In Dallas, we always go back for 5 days of staff development before the kids come for their first day. I showed up around 7:40, as I had been promised breakfast, and on that matter, I was not disappointed. Some tasty breakfast burritos and a cup of OJ later, and I was a happy (er) camper.

However, things were not cool with my classroom. Literally. It was already 102º today, yet the heater was running full blast in my room. It should have been the A/C running, but it was blowing hot air, and when I opened my door, I felt like a victim from the movie Backdraft. Needless to say, I shut the "A/C" off, but the room didn't get much cooler. Thankfully, I wasn't in my room much as we had other things on the agenda.

Item 1 on the agenda was the mystery field trip. We had received an email from our principal last week saying that we were getting on buses and going somewhere, and that we should wear sunblock, shades, and a hat. If you noticed my earlier statement -- it was freakin' 102 degrees outside today -- you might guess that we were not especially pleased to hear that we would be outside for any amount of time.

A few people had guessed at where we would be going, and they were correct. In conjunction with the planned "Meet the Teacher" night this Thursday, we visited our students' apartment complexes and passed out fliers announcing the event.

Now, if I had been in charge of this field trip, I would have gotten a list of apartment numbers at each complex where our kids lived so that we weren't putting fliers on doors of people who had no kids at our school. Or I would have assigned certain people certain sections of each complex to go to, so that even if the wrong doors got knocked on, at least they weren't being knocked on 2 or 3 or 4 times. Or, most likely, I would have just thought of these things and not done anything, and things would have gone exactly like they did today.

The buses pulled up the first complex, teachers grabbed a handful of fliers, and we all started randomly walking around the apartments, knocking on doors. A few people did report getting yelled at by people who were awakened (hey, I would have been asleep at 9 too, if I hadn't had to report to school), and several were greeted by people in various states of undress.

I was walking around (aimlessly) with a colleague when another group of teachers called to my colleague to come see a former student. This girl had been one of MY former students the year before, so I went as well. As we walked over, I recalled that this former student, while SUPER sweet, was also the cousin of one of my worst kids from last year. This was the child that I yelled at so loud last year that the other teachers in my hall all asked about him by name.

Sure enough, as we approached, I see both the little girl and the little boy hanging out the apartment door. The little boy, A, sees me and yells, "MISTER TEACHER!!!!" and runs over to give me a big hug.

Ahhhh, short term memory.

We visited 4 apartment complexes in all, and I can say that the Disney World vacation prepared me well for this morning. Walking around in extreme heat without letting the back sweat overwhelm me.

At our third stop, after the excursion, most of us had gotten back on the bus, and we were waiting for one of the teacher's aides to come back. As she came within sight, so did a mother and her four children. We had seen several people come outside while we were around to talk to us and get fliers, so we figured this was happening again. The TA went over and handed a flier to the mother and said a few words that we couldn't hear, but we presumed pertained to Thursday night. She then turned and got on the bus.

So did 2 of the kids.

The lady wasn't out there to get a flier, she was out there to put her kids on the school bus! Our TA didn't even realize the 2 kids had followed her onto the bus until we started laughing and telling her to turn around. And the kids were just looking for an empty seat, like it was perfectly normal to see a bunch of grownups wedged into the seats.

After lunch, we blessedly stayed inside. Last year, we had done an activity where we had to choose what animal we were most like and then discuss in that group what our qualities were. Fun. I was an owl. This year, we did an activity where we had to choose what shape we were most like and then discuss in that group what our qualities were. The choices were square, circle, triangle, and squiggly line.

I put myself in the squiggly line group for no discernible reason other than that I feel I'm sometimes a bit unusual. But I soon came to the conclusion that I was in COMPLETELY the wrong group. Several of the traits that people in my group wrote were "Creative," "extroverted," and "party animal." Yeah, not really me.

I should have been in the square or triangle group, for sure.

Ah well, day 1 is done. And even if I HAD been a square, after returning to my super-heated room for a bit of arrangement definitely melted me down into a squiggly line.

Are you waiting?

A really quick question -- is anybody else having difficulty loading this page? Is it taking longer than it should?

I appreciate your feedback.

Last day of freedom

Today is my last day of not having to get up and go to work. Wow. What a great summer, but it ALWAYS seems like the summer is just not long enough.

Plus, I'm a master procrastinator, so I've only just started doing the things I should have been doing all summer.

I finally started working consistently on a sequel to Learn Me Good.

I've updated my T-shirt store. Now you can choose your color, and there are many new styles, including neon, heather, and women's cuts. Also, some pretty cool grocery totes!

I also really need to get on the ball and film a video for the song I recorded LAST YEAR. I don't want to give the whole thing away, but here's a hint: It's a parody of a pretty popular Justin Timberlake song.

I think I'm going to visit my classroom today and at least arrange the furniture the way I want it for the year, maybe get a few bulletin boards started.

But then tomorrow is going to be a lay out and read by the pool day!!!

A few questions

Here in Texas, we go back to school next week for our 5 days of teacher in-service, then the kids show up on the 23rd. That's public school, anyway. My nephew goes to private school, and they started today!

To start getting back into the swing of things, I thought I'd post an old Mr. Teacher column from Education.com that ran back in August of 2008.

This column was titled Practice Q&A.

Here in Texas, the brand new school year just started yesterday. Class has been in session for a while in a few other places, and some kids don't begin until next week, after Labor Day. Since we're all at or around the first week of school, though, I thought I'd do a small service for all the parents out there and provide a few questions that their kids might be asked, along with examples of good answers and bad answers. This way, you can prep your kids on what to expect and how to get in the teacher's good graces.

For instance, the teacher may ask your child, "What is your name?"A GOOD answer would be, "Edward," or "Donisha," or whatever your child's real name is. A BAD answer would be, "My peeps call me Mac Daddy Zeno, the Pokémon Playa!"

Another question might be, "How did you spend your summer?" A typical GOOD answer would be, "It was fun. We went to Sea World and Cici’s Pizza, and I got a new puppy!" A rather BAD answer would be, "My dad got caught trying to smuggle illegal fighting llamas into the country, so we visited him every Thursday from one to four at the Henderson County lockup. Also, my new puppy smells like paint thinner."

The teacher will probably ask, "What did you learn last year?" Your child is providing a GOOD answer if she replies, "I learned my times tables, I learned how money is made, and I know the capital of China is Beijing."Conversely, your child is giving a BAD answer if he responds, "I learned that you can jimmy the lock on a teacher's car in five seconds with clear cover and the proper equipment."

Teachers often ask if their students know their parents’ phone numbers. A GOOD response to a question like this might be, "Yes, we practice it every night in case of an emergency." A BAD response to this question might be, "Yes, but I never call that number because it's $4.99 for the first minute and $1.99 for each additional minute."

Out of concern for safety, a teacher may ask your child, "How do you get home after school?" GOOD responses to this question are, "I take the school bus," or, "My granny picks me up out front." The answer of, "My mom's friend ‘Stinky’ usually picks me up on his rusty old Yamaha. We have to share a helmet," would definitely be a BAD answer.

Of course there are many other questions that teachers will be asking their students this week and all year long. Hopefully, this little primer will help guide your efforts in getting your kids ready to put their best foot forward.

One word of advice -- I would suggest practicing these questions and answers with your kid yourself. Results might not be so good if you leave the practice up to "Uncle Stinky."

Look kids, Stonehenge!

Amazon announced a couple of days ago that they were making books on Kindle available to customers in the United Kingdom. This means that if you live in England or the surrounding countries, you can have Learn Me Good on your ereader for less than 2 pounds (or 2 quid, as the young blokes say)!

I'm not sure how much of a hassle it was for Amazon to translate Learn Me Good for the UK readers, but I have confidence that it was done right.

And just in the hopes that this will drive a lot of UK readers to my blog, I am going to throw out several relevant "hot" keywords here:

Buckingham Palace
God Save the Queen
Sean Connery
Blarney Stone
Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road
Firth of Forth
Harry Potter
The Beatles
Brigadoon
Torchwood
Fumbling Goalie

There, that should do it. Welcome UK readers! Check out Learn Me Good on your Kindle today!

A brand new carnival!

The brand spanking new first edition of the Education Buzz Carnival is up an running over at Bellringers!

This midway will undoubtedly grow over time as more people become aware and remember to send in their entries, but this first carnival is chock full of sawdusty, funnel cakey, grease painty goodness!

A few choice entries:

From Dancing Crocodile (and how can you just not love that blog on name alone?), a comparison between kids in the classroom and a pack of wild animals.

Pat (Loonhiker) ponders why kids sometimes ask questions that seem a bit. . .dopey.


I hope to have something to enter for next week! In the meantime, check out these and the other articles at Bellringers!

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!

Holy cow, it's August already!!

Man, this summer has just flown by. Maybe it's because I was out of the country for a while. Then out of the state for a while. Then just out of my mind for a while. (ongoing, of course)

Yeah, me and the new misses (and the rest of my family) just got back from a 2 week vacation to Disney World yesterday. While technically not a honeymoon, we treated it as such, and broke away from the family unit pretty often. Personally, I LOVE Disney World. It really ignites the little kid that lives in my heart. I can't look at Mickey Mouse without a giant grin breaking out on my face.

And I love the rides! Though nowadays, I'd be hard pressed to answer which I love more -- the rides themselves, or the photos that are snapped midway through them.

One of my absolute favorite rides -- the Tower of Terror -- snaps a picture of the elevator occupants on one of the final drops. My brother and I must have ridden that thing a dozen times, each time coming up with some new shtick for the photo. Jazz hands. Playing dead. Fist bumping. Taking off my shoe and smelling it.

Yeah, I pity the poor soul who actually PURCHASED one of those pictures for framing at home.

And now I'm back home again, with *GASP* only two weeks of freedom left before reporting back for the new school year!

I plan on getting a jump on those remaining two weeks tomorrow, starting with sleeping in till noon.

Podcast Hero

This week's guest blogger is Emily Goll, who is the editor at the blog My Dog Ate My Blog.

The Top 10 Podcasts for Teachers

As a teacher, you face an increasingly challenging task – educating the next generation. How effective you are today may well decide how successful these young people will be tomorrow. This can be a heavy responsibility to bear. Thankfully you don’t have to go it alone.

One of the easiest, most convenient ways to connect with other educators and keep abreast of changes in the field is by listening to podcasts. Podcasts are audio and video files that can be downloaded and played back at any time. They are perfect for the daily commute or morning jog and can easily be subscribed to so you never miss a new episode.

Listed here are ten of the best podcasts for teachers. These free audio and video casts offer news, information, and advice to new teachers and seasoned professionals alike.

Teacher Created Materials:

The Teacher Created Materials Podcast will give you in-depth advice you can use in your classroom every day. From tips on building vocabulary to testing strategies, you'll have the most up to date information you need to ensure your students success.

New Teacher Know How:

This video podcast offers time proven guidance on everything from setting up your classroom space to lesson delivery and dealing with parents. LSU College of Education professor Debbie Guedry hosts the podcasts. In addition to being a certified reading specialist, Guedry has accumulated more than 4000 hours of first-year teacher observation.

Shell Education:

In these podcasts you'll find expert advice from respected authors on a variety of subjects. Each podcasts features content you can use immediately, including bonus handouts.

Middle School Matters:

This podcast brings news and relevant resources to middle school educators. Everything from politics to teaching innovations is covered here.

School of Effective Teaching:

Dr. Joseph Brown’s podcasts strives to increase student learning by training teachers to be more effective in the classroom. Dr. Brown’s advice covers a range of grade levels and can be used by nearly any educator.

New Teacher Hotline:

While it seems that new episodes are no longer being produced, the archived episodes are still an excellent resource for any new teacher. Common questions are answered and tips are given to help you avoid rookie mistakes. This podcast is a must-listen for anyone starting a career in teaching.

The Teacher’s Podcast:

Hosted by Mark Gura and Dr. Kathy King, this podcast focuses on technology in education, particularly the use of educational podcasting. Software, product reviews, and digital textbooks are also covered.

Learning Matters:

NPR Education reporter John Merrow hosts these gripping podcasts. Through captivating interviews, Merrow digs deep into the topics affecting educators today.

Science Friday:

Science Friday with host Ira Flatow is a podcast by National Public Radio. The 90-minute episodes cover everything from the solar system to gene exploration. These podcasts are a great way for science teachers to stay current with new discoveries and offer intriguing information to share with students.

60 Second Civics:

The Center for Civic Education offers teachers a unique way to pass on knowledge about our nation’s history. In just one minute a day, you’ll learn about topics ranging from the constitution to American presidents.

This post is written by Sunday O'Brien, a guest blogger from My Dog Ate My Blog. O'Brien has also written about online colleges for Guide to Online Schools.

In case you get bored...

Hello, fellow lazy summer-ers!

Today's guest post comes from Alexis Bonari, who writes for onlinedegrees.org. She writes about things for teachers to do over the summer after they got bored -- like THAT would ever happen. :)

For the Overachieving Teacher: What to Do After Having Requisite Summer Fun

School is out for the summer. The impending doom of some annoying, ill-conceived vacation or a week of going to the pool, smelling like sunscreen, getting burned anyway, and leaving peeled skin all over the deck chairs hangs in the air. Mister Overachieving Teacher shakes his head and knows that he will have to suffer through at least a week of “real vacation” time with his wife, but after that, he’s got big plans. Fun plans. Life-changing plans of immense grandeur.

Summer Vacation Doesn’t Have to Be Too Much Fun

What’s a teacher to do when he’s exhausted all of the “real vacation” possibilities? Fun in the sun isn’t usually the mantra of an entire three-month period, especially not for the overachieving teacher who gets the itch to “do something” while he’s on vacation. As it turns out, there are plenty of enriching (and even fun) activities for all of those “doer” teachers who are starting to make the beachgoers nervous.

Being an Accomplished Vacationer

ThriftyFun readers (and Mister Overachieving Teacher) recommend the following substantial activities:

1. Stop griping and start golfing. It gets the teacher outdoors, passes the time, and even offers a way to get some kind of exercise into that vacation.

2. Teachers can be students, too. Attention-grabbing community college classes like cooking, art, or computer science can be a smart way to pass the summer. Also, for the teacher who’s still finishing up a higher education degree, summer classes might be beneficial.

3. For outdoorsy types, the local Parks & Rec tends to have summer job opportunities or volunteer work that needs to be done.

4. It’s a fact: teachers love book stores. Why not keep track of any lectures happening at these favored venues?

5. Volunteer at a nursing home, homeless shelter, animal shelter, or other deserving community service institution.

6. Become a gardener and start a local plant swap group.

If golf looks like a daunting activity, the adventurous teacher may want to try disc golf. As long as there’s a course in the area and a sporting goods store that offers discs, it’s a good way to develop some arm strength for erasing those chalkboards in the fall.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online colleges. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Look inside!

A huge thank you to everyone who helped out during my Happily Wed (and Read) Ever After celebration! Learn Me Good is up to 70 reviews now, it is number 2 in the humor category based on the tags, and the sales were amazing in both Kindle and paperback.

So thank you, thank you, thank you!

I am really excited about the paperback version of Learn Me Good now costing only $11.99 -- use that saved 4 bucks to buy a personal pan pizza! Man, how 80s is that?

Also, Learn Me Good has been accepted into the Look Inside the Book program at Amazon, so people can preview a small sample before buying!

All very exciting developments!

Whiteboard Resources

Hey everyone,

My blushing bride and I got back from our honeymoon late last night (actually almost 1 this morning). It was super fantastic, and we had an amazing time. Nevertheless, I am a bit tired, so I thought I'd hand the reins off to frequent guest poster, Karen Schweitzer.

So without any further ado...

15 Whiteboard Resources for K-12 Students

There are many different games and sites online that are perfect for use with interactive whiteboards. Here are 15 that are free, fun, and educational.

Elementary Students

Tutpup - Tutpup is an award-winning site for students between the ages of 5 and 14. The site allows students to compete in fun and competitive math and spelling games with other children around the world.

Professor Garfield - Designed for students in grades K-8, the Professor Garfield website offers standards-based learning materials and fun games that work well with interactive whiteboards. Covered topics include reading, art, science, trivia, and more.

Math-A-Thon - Math-A-Thon is a volunteer-based fundraising program for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In addition to offering students the opportunity to participate in an educational math event, the site also provides fun, math-based games that work with interactive whiteboards.

Robot Obstacle Course - The Robot Obstacle Course is an excellent game for young students. In addition to testing observational, analytical, and critical-thinking skills, the game also teaches students about elementary programming.

Thinkuknow Cyber Cafe - The goal of the interactive Thinkuknow Cyber Cafe is to teach students how to be safe online. The Cyber Cafe is designed for students between the ages of 8 and 10 and covers topics like online forums, instant messaging, and social networking.

Middle School Students

Whyville - Whyville is a virtual city designed for educational purposes. As Whyville "citizens," students can learn about art history, science, journalism, civics, economics, and much more.

Bugscope - Created by the Imaging Technology Group at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Bugscope gives students free interactive access to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study insect specimens. Before accessing the microscope, teachers must register ahead of time and make sure that students collect the bugs for examination.

Stop Disasters - The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction created this interactive disaster simulation game to teach students about natural disasters and hazards. Students must assess disaster risk, limit damage when natural disasters strike, and create a safer environment for the population. Each disaster scenario takes approximately 10 to 20 minutes to complete.

The Road to the Capitol - The Road to the Capital is a government game that teaches students about the election process. While playing the game, students must register as a candidate for congress, make campaign stops, and debate an opponent.

Stage'D - Stage'D is a free digital tool that can be used to create animated comics. After a comic is created, it can be emailed, embedded in a blog or website, or shared via social networking applications.

High School Students

FreeRice - Created by the UN World Food Program, this free trivia game allows students to make a difference in the world while they learn. For every question that is answered correctly, 10 grains of rice will be donated to hungry people. Trivia topics include English vocabulary, English grammar, Spanish, Italian, German, French, geography, chemistry, math, and famous paintings.

FreePoverty - FreePoverty is similar to FreeRice--it is a trivia game that creates donations for people in need. Instead of donating food though, this site donates cups of clean drinking water. Students can have ten cups of water donated for every geography question that is answered correctly.

Edistorm - Edistorm is a great tool for collaboration and works well with an interactive whiteboard. The free, web-based program allows users to organize ideas on an interactive brainstorming wall. Created ideas can be saved, stored, and retrieved at a later date.

Classroom Jeopardy - This free classroom tool makes it easy for teachers to create a Jeopardy-like trivia game on any topic imaginable. Each game can include 25 questions and can be created and played within minutes.

Smithsonian Virtual Museum - The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History allows site visitors to take a panoramic virtual tour of the museum. Teachers who can't get their class to the actual museum will find this tour is a good substitute when used with an interactive whiteboard.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about pharmacy technician certification for PharmacyTechnicianCertification.com.