Bare Bones Basic Edition of the Education Buzz–Life's a Carnival

Welcome to the Bare Bones Basic Edition of the Education Buzz–Life's a Carnival, an eclectic smattering of things buzzing about the EduSphere. 

I was going to do a clever Homecoming theme for the carnival, but I got sidetracked with all the madness from Homecoming stuff last week at my school.  If you're interested in that, just check out my post below, "Gummi Bears, Pumped Up Kicks & Things That Will Get You Fired," and you will see why we're just going to have the Bare Bones Basic Edition of the Education Buzz–Life's a Carnival this go around.

So here are some interesting posts, that were buzzing about the EduSphere…

• Seventh grade reading and writing skills is all you need to enroll in community college in Arizona. Yep, you heard that write right. Check out education guru Joanne Jacobs' post.

• While ICE.Teacher wanders and wonders about on Walking Wednesdays with her third graders, perhaps the rest of us should join her in pondering, "What if…" 

• J.M. Holland over at Emergent Learner talks about the importance of having foster grandparents in the classroom. 

• Jane Goodwin over at Scheiss Weekly weighs in on how to tell good parents from bad parents. 

• If you're a chemistry teacher (or even if you're not), check out the latest explosive post from our favorite science guy, Steve Spangler.

• Tim over at AssortedStuff has an interesting post on "Fixing the Middle Mess" (as in Middle Schools). 

• Mr. Teacher over at LearnMeGood discovered that sometimes when we answer the question, we have to question the answer in  "Um, that wasn't the question."

And for no other reason except for amusement, check out these 15 fictional professors that we wish were real.

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That concludes our Bare Bones Basic Edition of the Education Buzz–Life's a Carnival.

Join us here again on Wednesday, Oct. 12 for our next edition of the Education Buzz. Please submit your posts no later than Saturday, Oct. 8 by 5 p.m. CDT. Use this handy dandy form for your submissions and please keep in mind our submission rules…

1. No spam
2. Must be education related
3. Since the carnival may be organized around themes, not all submissions may run.
4. Please remember to post and link back to the carnival.

If you would like to host a carnival, pah-leese let me know by emailing me at mybellringers@gmail.com.  Also, don't forget to let me know if you find any broken links or problems with this edition of the Ed Buzz. 

As always…

“I’ve got this feeling that there’s something that I missed…”
–Snow Patrol

And, if I did, my apologies.

Friday, Back to School & Rick Perry

It's Friday and somehow we all survived a week of school…my voice is raspy, my feet are screaming and my head is exploding (and not from the kids either). Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about.

I don't know if it was the 100 plus degree record-breaking streak that got me feeling just a tad snarky or just the regular back-to-school stuff that just seemed to suck the life right out of me.

Here's something a teacher friend of mine sent to me. Funny way to end the week. I hope you can view it at school, but if you can't it's worth the watch at home.

No Child Left Behind & My Rather Large Behind

Three weeks into school and already I feel as pressed as a dried flower squashed and forgotten in one of those classic-looking books. (You know, the ones that adorn bookshelves, not necessarily for reading pleasure, but strictly for looks?) This whole pressed and squashed thing got me thinking about the similarities between the No Child Left Behind law and my rather large behind–which, by the way, I truly would like to leave behind.

Now, I hope this will be blessedly short and sweet because progress reports loom ominously on the horizon. For you non-educators and non-Texans, that means papers have to be graded and those grades duly recorded by law at the three-week mark. At this moment in my frazzled existence, neither the jolly red grading giant nor the ruby-red rubric fairy has yet to darken my classroom door with an offer of assistance. Sigh.

But before we tackle this behind-thing, here’s a big disclaimer… This is not a political rant and I am not a political pundit. Rather, it’s an observation of similarities and coincidences…

Point #1…Let me say that I have never read the 670 page 1.8-MB file that contains the law, but trust me, I don’t need to see it to know it’s huge–just like I don’t need to dust off the bathroom scale hidden in the back of my closet to weigh in on my back side.


Point #2…Sadly, despite our most valiant efforts as teachers, realistically there is no way to save every school and every child. School administrators and politicos must have all attended the same seminar somewhere and heard the “Starfish” story, got teary-eyed and vowed to save each and every washed up urchin, thus sparking the birth of EUs (Educational Utopians). I must admit that I, too, have succumbed and spent hours tossing the creatures back in only to look up and realize that for every one returned safely another 10 washed back up. Which, in some twisted way, all oddly parallels the hours expended in my aerobics class. For every calorie I burn, I probably eat two more when I return home famished.


Point #3…Accountability is important in every facet of life. Education shouldn’t be an exception. Apparently accountability provides the cornerstone for the hundreds of pages devoted to this law. At the risk of sounding callous, don’t we need to factor in personal responsibility at some point? It’s easy to play the blame game and cry victim. I do the same thing. It’s those evil marketing ploys that make me grab the chocolate, shout supersize, gulp lattes and want more, more, more.

I swear sometimes I should just slap myself silly.

Point #4…Despite all the rumblings and grumblings, No Child Left Behind will be here awhile–as will my, ahem, wide load.

But let’s end this on a positive note, I’ve traveled frequently with kids, and never once left one behind. ;-)

So, it’s all good after all.

Unless, of course, I start beeping when I back up.