Things You Don't Learn in Teacher School

Just read a blog in Edutopia about classroom strategies for elementary teachers. It deals with pencil sharpening, sending students to the bathroom or nurse, when to provide a bandaid, vomiting issues, and all those other issues they don’t teach you in Teacher Ed classes. While I agree with many of her ideas, some of mine vary a little. Take for example, a paper cut… there’s no blood, but it hurts like heck. Her theory: no blood, no bandaid. My theory, give them a bandaid. It helps to take their mind off of their pain and then they can focus on their work. Otherwise, they sit at their desk squeezing their paper cut while making anguishing faces, totally not focused on what you are saying. Seriously, what’s the bandaid going to cost you? It was pretty entertaining. Here’s a link if you would like to read it: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-management-strategies-elementary-teacher?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Disturbing

We’ve all came across a video or TV show that caused us to laugh but also had us questioning how people could be so careless (or stupid). With that said, I just came across some disturbing news…Students are trying to get drunk by absorbing alcohol through their eyeballs.  It’s called a Vodka Eyeball Shot and students are literally putting vodka in their eyes. There were several videos of this on YouTube. Apparently students found out that when something is placed in the eye, it is absorbed in the body almost immediately. Very troubling. Keep an ear out for those kids that may be talking about it.

Need a Banner?

Found a neat site while working on my digital story. I wanted to add some text into my story board, but wanted to do something a little more eye catching. I found a site called www.cooltext.com by happenstance, and it worked great. The site is free and you don’t have to register. That’s a big plus. You would use this site to make banners or sayings because you’re only allowed a few lines of text. What I liked about it was that it has unique fonts, different kinds of graphics and was easy to use. A couple of steps and you’re done. Click your format, write your text, pick your color and font, click on render and your graphic is there. You download it just like a photo. This site I am bookmarking.

Slideshare Animation - Is it possible?

OK. I've posted my PowerPoint on Slideshare and its now on my wiki. Learned something new again. Perhaps someone can help me with this question. I placed animation in my PowerPoint only to realize that it didn't carry over to Slideshare. Is there a way to make the animation come through or is animation a waste of time when posting to Slideshare?

Screen Shot

Please don’t laugh, but I just learned how to capture a screen shot. I’ve never had to do it before so I just didn’t know.  Seeing as we had to send a picture of our blog to Dr. Merrill, I figured I’d better learn real quick. Youtube…what a wonderful thing. A helpful little video and I was on my way. I’ve always wondered how to do it. Now I know.

Education of the Future?

Florida is touting a new Internet-based public high school called Florida Virtual School. Other than being Internet-based, it appears to be like any other high school, only it had 97,000 students last year. It offers classes in all subjects, including languages, honors and AP classes, and electives. While it doesn’t offer degrees or diplomas, it does offer 125 accredited classes. While there is a cost involved for out-of-state students, it sounds promising for students who might need credit recovery or seek additional academic challenges. I do believe that education is heading this way. Virtual schools are popping up all over and they offer flexibility. No matter your situation or location, education can be just a few clicks away.

Stop the Excuses. Just do it.

A blog by Andrew Marcinek entitled Just Get Out There hit home today. It talked about how everyone has excuses, and in the teaching profession, we hear numerous excuses on a daily basis. Not just from students but colleagues as well. Today was a perfect example. Six colleagues and I are working on a big data analysis project. Today was records day (end of marking period) and we were to get a majority of the work done today. Myself and a teacher aide were the only two that worked on it. If every other member would have put in just one hour we would have had it done. Needless to say, I get to work on it tomorrow. Major frustration. Enough venting…back to the article. The gist of the article was “drop the excuses and just do it.” Do something new with your class. Share something with your colleagues. Join Twitter or Facebook. Explore a little.  So no more excuses, here is my first blog.

Dry Run.

Hi Everyone. Welcome to my Blog.