Creative Insanity- The journey of a future educator

Seperation between commercialism and school?

charliegirl612 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:10:25 +0000

So I just ran across an awesome article, “Ads on tests adds up for teacher.” Here is the jest of it. Schools are cutting their budget but expecting teachers to exceed expectations. A teacher wants to give his students as much practice as possible for calculus but his printing budget isn’t big enough. His solution, sell space on the tests. He has already raised a lot of money. It isn’t for “personal gain” per say. I think that desperate times call for desperate measures. Isn’t the whole point of school to learn, no matter what it takes…or costs. I commend this teacher for thinking outside the box. Good for him!

Teaching the election

charliegirl612 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:42:39 +0000

I know it has been a while since the election, but I saw this blog post Tuesday and thought I would share it. This is from Elementary, My Dear, or Far From it. Jenny, the writer/teacher, talks about teaching first graders about the election, their results, and their thoughts on the whole thing. She always taught older students during election time, but would not ignore the topic. She believes that more students were Obama supporters than McCain supporters because they found out that Obama liked basketball. It made him more relatable to those children. It is interesting what really matters to children. They didn’t understand the hot button issues, all that matters to them was if he was a cool guy. It is amazing how children view the world.

I also found her dilema of switching grades interesting. I was just talking to a friend of mine who is a teacher. She is teaching first graders this year, but has taught fourth and fifth graders the last several years. She was telling me about the differences. She loves not having to teach for assessments but says that the parents are a lot different. My teacher friend is not a softy. She wants the children to be independent and be able to tie their own shoes, blow their own noses, and follow directions. She doesn’t “baby” her daughter and is not going to “baby” her students. Unfortunately at times, the parents don’t like that approach. I have to say that I like her approach. She is not mean, she just isn’t going to let the students take the easy way by having her do everything for them. It is also refreshing to know that you don’t have to be all sunshine and happiness and that teachers still have some authority over the children. If they didn’t, I don’t believe the children would learn anything.

Check out my other blog!

charliegirl612 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:33:11 +0000

I have had so much fun creating this blog for class that I decided I wanted to do one on another passion in my life. I have created one to show off all my homemade cards. I always look at different craft blogs and now that I have learned the tools to make one of my own, I couldn’t pass it up. You can find it here. Hope you enjoy.

Our You Tube Video

charliegirl612 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:21:50 +0000

The green team made this video for class and put it on You Tube. I am going to be famous.

How to handle subjects you don’t like

charliegirl612 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:33:49 +0000

There are certain subjects I love and then there are those other subjects that just aren’t my favorite. I am pretty sure I will have kids in my class that feel the same way. I wanted to see if I could find any tips to help the students, and myself, through those difficult subjects. Here is what I found….

http://www.ehow.com/how_2249395_get-through-class-one-hates.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Spaced Penguins

charliegirl612 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:32:54 +0000

Today in science class we were studying inertia, Kepler’s Law, centripetal force, and orbits. It made me think of this really fun web game that I have played before. It is called Spaced Penguins. The point is to launch a ball into space and get it to land in the other space craft. The only thing is, you have to deal with orbits and you can’t just shoot it straight. I think this would be really fun for kids when you talk about orbits or gravity. They would be having fun and learning at the same time. Even if you don’t use it as an educational tool, it is a fun game for all ages.

Wow this kid is smart

charliegirl612 — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:18:18 +0000

This is the kind of student I am afraid to have in my classroom. He’s 12 and building 3-D solar cells and I am *cough* and still can’t figure out how to delete unwanted songs off my MP3 player.

Fantasy Football as a learning tool

charliegirl612 — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:14:48 +0000

It is fall (not officially, but in just a couple of days) and this is my favorite time of year. The leaves are changing, I get to pull out my sweaters, and I love pumpkin pie. But one of my favorite things about fall is that football season has begun. I love watching football and I am also involved in fantasy football. I watched a cool segment last year on ESPN about how some teachers were actually using fantasy football in their math lessons. Here are some cool links about it and the awesome video.

http://fantasysportsmath.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=34

http://www.k12.wa.us/cisl/K-12/FootballMath.aspx

http://www.aaps.k12.mi.us/slauson.lincourt/fantasy_football

http://www.sahomeschool.com/Articles/Fantasy%20Football.asp

Random thoughts stemming from historical inaccuracies

charliegirl612 — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:13:13 +0000

My mind has been spinning after reading “Nike bends time and space to brand Ernie Davis’ shoes” by Matt Hinton, a Yahoo blog writer. The jest of the article is about how a statue was created to honor Ernie Davis, the first African-American Hiesman trophy winner. The problem with the statue is that Nike swoosh appears on his shoes. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem, if the Nike swoosh had been created in Ernie Davis’ lifetime.

Now this article led me to a thought. I have never lived without the Swoosh, but my parents did. Remember when you were younger and would ask your parents or teachers where they were during historic events like the Kennedy assassination, or the Challenger explosion? I was also fascinated by the technology, or lack there of. It got me thinking about what things the children of the future will be surprised that I have not had my entire life. Well, what questions are the children in my class going to ask me. This is what I think…

Q: Where were you when 9/11 happened?

A: I was a sophomore in college and noticed a bunch of my sorority sisters huddled around a radio and they told me what had happened. French class was canceled that day and I started a new job at the college art museum.

Q: When did you get your first computer?

A: I was 9. It was a Tandy and then we got Prodigy, my first “on-line” experience.

Q: When did you get your first cell phone?

A: I was 18 and got it before I left for college.

Q: When did you get your first iPod?

A: I don’t have an iPod, but I do have an MP3 player that I have used twice.

Q: When did you get a DVR?

A: I waited far too long for one of those. It wasn’t until the cable channels started requiring digital boxes for televisions, and now I don’t think I could live without it.

Some other questions I will have for them…

Who has a home phone?
Who has ever recorded a show on VHS?
Who has written a letter and sent it through the mail?
Anyone used a typewriter before?

The future is limitless, but how much the future know about the past?

Here is a really cool site, http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ This is a list made every fall. It is all about what the incoming freshmen are too young to understand. Really makes you think and also makes you feel old, and I only graduated high school less than 10 years ago.

Where in the world answer!

charliegirl612 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:18:42 +0000

So I wasn’t able to give clues this time around, but I wanted to give everyone the answer since it has been a while since I posted the original entry. I was at…

the Washington Monument!

If you want to learn more about the Washington Monument, check out http://www.nps.gov/wamo/.