164 Carnival of Education–Teachers Gone Wild Spring Break Edition

Welcome to “The Teachers Gone Wild Spring Break Edition” of the 164th Carnival of Education. (You were expecting something less? Something a bit more staid? Something a bit more, well, professional? Oh, pah-leese…Loosen up, grab some suntan lotion (or if you’re old like me, make that some SPF 50+), a beach towel and a beverage of your choosing, but for heaven’s sake, leave those speedos at home.

Hmmmm…Let’s look and see who’s already here. Ah, there’s Mr. Teacher hawking his t-shirts over there by the cabana. He’s talking about the pitfalls of third grade geometry. Maybe I can sneak by him before he makes me buy a t-shirt and asks me about polygons.

Has anyone seen Edna Lee from Regurgitated Alpha Bits? Sadly I think she’s stuck in the conference room at the hotel at some professional development seminar because after all, she must be a very, very, very terrible teacher. You should check out her recent parent conference (OMG, haven’t all of us been there, done that, and didn’t even get a t-shirt?). And, of course, you remember what happened when she went on that field trip and Billy Fell Off the Cliff… I guess we’ll have to send a rescue team to spring her. Otherwise, I think she’ll be stuck in there all day.

What’s Larry Ferlazzo’s trying to do over there? Oh, he’s getting a group together to surf––the web that is by checking out something called Digital Vaults. And there’s sunglass-wearing Nancy Flanagan (fresh off the plane from Teacher in a Strange Land). She doesn’t seem too impressed with all these new gadgets she saw at a recent technology conference. It’s “new tools, old thinking” in Luddite Lite. Whether you’re a techie or not, it’s worth wandering over there just to sing the Timbuk3 song. (Ya know ya wanna.)

And speaking of bright–as in bright and early–it looks like Frugaldad’s trying to rustle up a group to catch the early bird parasailing special. Ask him about those schools that are paying kids to learn. (Hey, I wish they would pay me to teach. Oh, yeah right, I guess they do.) Frugaldad wonders whatever happened to that innate drive to learn. (But hey, I’m wondering whatever happened to Timbuk3 and those bright futures.) Now, where did I put my sunglasses?

Jeepers, look over there. I swear that’s Bill Ferriter from the Tempered Radical on the jetty screaming at those fishing boats. Whoa, it is Bill and he sure is just a bit testy over how testing has changed his teaching. He’s got this metaphor/analogy thing going about how teaching is like fishing… (Maybe we should sign him up for one of those deep sea fishing cruises?)… Bill’s tirade got me to thinking that if teaching is like fishing then those starfish are like…but all that analogy stuff just made my brain hurt so our friends over at Sharpbrains.com thought I should do a nifty little exercise to–what else?–sharpen my brain by stimulating my mental rotation skill. Now, that really made my head explode. See what happens to yours.

OK, so the mental agility thing isn’t working for me. (Lots of things aren’t working for me any more, but we’ll save that list for later.) Hey, do you hear that sound? Not the ocean, silly, the music. It’s the Conga line! As a fan of the hokey pokey and Sponge Bob Dancing to “Crank Dat” by Soulja Boy, count me in. MusicMakesSense provides a dancing activity for the special education classroom… or just for fun. EHT at History is Elementary also has some tips for waking up kids and it involves dance moves too. Now, that’s what I’m talking about.

But that’s not what Lorem Ipsum’s talking about. He provided an interesting take on why an English teacher didn’t get his teacher’s National Board Certification in “Um, You’re an English Teacher.” News Alert: He really didn’t teach much English. I wanted to ask my buddy Clix at Epic Adventures are Often Uncomfortable about that whole canoe thing, but she wanted to chat about about teaching the Odyssey (Which, of course, begs the question, can you really ever chat about that?)

Well Darren finally arrived from Right on the Left Coast. He’s got a few things to say about euphemisms in “First you have to admit you have a problem…” After you talk to him, you really should go see why Henry Cate from Why Home School asks the question “Is Less More?” And while we’re asking questions, Miss Profe questions “Who Is At Risk?” while the Education Wonks wants to know why taxpayers should be made to pay for the rampage at Virginia Tech.

All interesting questions, but I wanted to soften the banter and turn to more mindless, less stressful stuff so I tried to get a group to watch Where the Boys Are or Beach Blanket Bingo so we could forget about work. But you know what happens when you get a bunch of educators together. Jeez Louise, I had to put away the popcorn because they preferred to have Trade Tips for Teachers instead with Pat at Successful Teaching offering up some great advice for using Web 2.0 with special education students. Then Mamacita at Scheiss Weekly offered some sage advice for mid-term exams takers in “Frazzed Catfish Balls.” But then came a woman after my own heart– Mrs. Bluebird. It’s all about the pencils, she says, and not just any ole pencils. No siree, we’re talkin’ brand new, bright yellow, Dixon Ticonderoga pencils. Ya, gotta love that.

Now, ladies and gents, before we get too misty-eyed over those pencils, we better listen to what Colleen Palat at Tutorfi.com has to say about assisting students who are visually impaired. And while you’re at it, you better hand me one of those yellow pencils so I can jot down some notes. Brian from Acceptedtocollege.com was explaining what high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors should have been doing over spring break–and it definitely was NOT catching some rays. Then there’s that young upstart at Realm of Prosperity who had some worthwhile financial advice for college bound kiddos.

Oh by the way, while we’re being careful to avoid unpleasant things like money or the lack thereof, watch who you talk to poolside. I think some politicians slipped in pretending to know what it’s like to be a teacher, but Woodlass at Under Assault: Teaching in NYC thinks they often don’t know what their talking about. (While you’re over there make sure you check out her Terror Alert on the side.)

And speaking of terror… Stay away from the Parents and Kids Gone Wild tent. The Collosus of Rhody ran into the poster child for those folks over there providing yet another shining example of lack of parenting. I think Old Andrew from Scenes from the Battleground stumbled over there too. He knows exactly what’s wrong with the “Appeasers” while SwitchedOnMom talks about a parent who was arrested and banned from his child’s school for one year. Jeez, we couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.

Now, I told you to slather on some of that SPF 50. You’re looking a bit red. Did you fall asleep while catching up on some mindless reading? Did you turn off your cell phone and actually relax? Did you stay clear of anyone with a video camera and hide when you heard the words “wet” and “t-shirt” in the same sentence? Golly gee, I hope so.

Well, it’s just about time to close this show down, but wait, I heard there’s a group leaving at 9 to go and get matching tattoos. Should we save you a seat?

While you’re thinking about that, make sure you meet us at the next carnival hosted by I want to teach forever. You can use this handy, dandy form.

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

–Snow Patrol

And, if I did, my apologies. Until next time…