April 2008 - Posts
My sister and I spent the day together shopping and drinking coffee at Starbucks. If you ever wonder what retired teachers do, let me give you an idea. Both of us are retired Texas teachers and watch our grandsons while our daughters work. Her daughter
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Just by taking a little test, you can find out what kind of punctuation mark best matches your personality. I found this site while reading a post on Bridges . This is a new twist on personality tests and promises to add a little zest to your life. Go
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I won't mention any names, but some of the political candidates remind me of children arguing and refusing to get along. Regardless of what is said, nothing is accomplished. No wonder it is difficult to convince students to work together.
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The garage sale is over. Stuff I once considered important was sold for a fraction of its original value. The items were shuffled off to be a part of someone else's life and memories. Part of me was sad as I let go of objects that reminded me of the past,
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Being messy comes to me naturally. After imitating bees all day and cleaning my office and preparing for a large, neighborhood garage sale, I sat down at my computer and felt pretty proud of myself. Yes, I felt the freedom to surf the blog world in a
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Jumping on the bandwagon to eagerly take money from those willing to pay for their morning coffee fix, a Blockbuster stands ready to serve. In an effort to reinvent themselves, why not? Not only are they pushing cappuccinos, but Blockbuster is trying
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Growing up is hard to do. Getting past childhood memories? Impossible. It is worrisome that children are tossed into a system, and as far as friends go, it's pretty much sink or swim. Parents sit back nervously biting their lips hoping that their children
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I just received an email from one of my daughters reminding me to click on the *** cancer site and help provide free mammograms for underprivileged women. Please read the information below from the site to learn about this wonderful opportunity. (For
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Designing a three frame comic can enhance assignments in all subjects. Check out makebeliefscomix.com to see if it's something you might like. Students can create cartoons to demonstrate their understanding of almost any concept, and I always found comics
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I watched American Idol Gives Back and saw this beautiful, poignant performance live. Today, I was lucky enough to catch it again on Epiphany in Baltimore's post , and the words of the song struck me as even more meaningful today. This performance by
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Simon Cowell of American Idol fame is allowed to say what he thinks without reprisal. Aspiring singers listen to his brutally honest, curt remarks realizing that he stands between them and stardom. People will stand for just about anything if the carrot
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Being able to google the title or even words of a song and find its lyrics helps keep me sane. In the good old days, I had to call a friend. Racking one's brain and trying to remember trivial information used to be a real pain. Yesterday, my younger grandson
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While visiting a blog named Two Writing Teachers , I discovered a beautiful "I Remember" poem. Writing an "I Remember" poem is a meaningful experience for any age, and the poems would probably wind up in special memory boxes to be shared over and over.
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While reading other blogs today, I was delighted to discover some challenging online math games . The best part of all is that the games were designed by students. What a great way for students to utilize their skills in both math and computers! When
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There is a wonderful opportunity to learn new words and donate rice to hungry people at the same time just by clicking your mouse. FreeRice.com is one of the coolest sites I have visited in a long time. Give the interactive vocabulary quiz a try, and
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Every year Parade Magazine provides us with insight as to how much money other people are making. The statistics are all over the map and include salaries of those scrambling to make ends meet, and of course, people earning millions, like Oprah and Ryan
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One of my favorite books, The Memory Keeper's Daughter , is on the tube as a movie tonight on the Life Channel. I haven't seen the movie, but if it's anything like the book, it should be worth your time. I reviewed the book in a previous post. Since I
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I was checking out ReadingRockets.org and discovered that I almost missed Drop Everything and Read Day. I used to love D.E.A.R. time at school because it gave me the opportunity to delve into a good book, if only for a few minutes. Reading Rockets is
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Text messages immediately get most people's attention, so sending quick emergency text messages to spread the word that a child is missing will get the news out fast. I found the following links on Barry Bachenheimer's Plethora of Technology blog this
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Wow! The storms were awful last night and did a lot of damage in the Dallas area. It makes me renew my goal to value each day and to learn, live, and laugh as much as possible. I always told my students to find at least one thing to laugh about every
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When my sister and I were kids, my parents refused to tell us the meanings of bad words. We would come home and ask about something we had heard in school, and besides receiving a stern look, we were dismissed without an explanation. Somehow we knew that
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I have found that I am pretty good at putting Lego sets together. Sure, there are directions included for a seven year old, but assembling a set of over 200 pieces into something that actually resembles the picture on the box makes me happy enough to
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One of my college professors advised us to "learn to ignore" some behaviors in the classroom and only make a big deal out of what really mattered to us. A few years later, I was given similar advice by my children's pediatrician. "If you don't plan to
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A lot of you might have already seen the video of Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon Professor, describing his childhood dreams. Although he is dying of pancreatic cancer, he is energetic and humorous as he talks about his happy childhood. (There will
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I found this video while visiting Educational Origami . It reminds me of how much the world has changed since I was in school. I recently read where kids today might find themselves in at least 38 different jobs during their lifetimes. A lot of these
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I woke up this morning, looked at the paper, and discovered that the peace symbol is fifty years old today. Back in the day, this symbol played an important part in my life. Here I am, many years later, learning a few interesting facts and having some
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Besides being known as the month we have to pay taxes, April is also poetry month . At Poets.org , you can register to have a poem-a-day e-mailed directly to you free of charge during the month of April. These poems will feature new work that will be
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I ran across this beautiful writing lesson when reading California Teacher Guy's blog . It begins with students making a collage of a tree. One part of the lesson has the students writing a simple letter to the tree and considering life from the tree's
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Many years ago our family was dining at an El Chico's and my daughter's boyfriend was unusually quiet. In an attempt to make polite conversation, my husband made a comment about how great the boy's salad looked. The kid looked at his bowl, paused a minute,
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I keep forgetting that today is April Fool's Day. The phone calls will probably start right after school, so I'd better get ready. I used to really have to prepare myself because my own children played some doozies on me, and my grandsons will surely
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My grandson was one of the last ones in his first grade glass to become the proud owner of a Webkinz. He actually received two identical stuffed tigers for his birthday since the Bengal tiger is his school mascot. On first glance, they looked and felt
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