Life's a Carnival–-the Education Buzz Edition #4

Yippee! Finally the lunch bell. Oh, hurry up will you? We only have 25 minutes to dash down to the teacher lunchroom, inhale our lunch and find out what's the buzz. 

The buzz? Yes, siree missy. 

Welcome to the Fourth Edition of the Education Buzz--an eclectic smattering of things buzzing about the EduSphere. So come on in and sit a spell? Or at least sit until your allotted 25 minute lunch is over.

Table 1 is already crowded with the controversial lunch bunch stirring up the educational cauldron with J.M Holland comparing unions to guns and teachers to … Ahhh, my dears, you'll have to jump on down to Emergent Learner to hear what he has to say about all of that. Interesting post. Wow, things are really sizzling here …Curmudgeon disagrees with a post by Joanne Jacobs that paying science and math teachers more than other teachers will keep more math and science teachers in the classroom. 

Oh my, and if that wasn't enough to boil the pot over, Joanne asks the question, "Success without whites: Is this a problem?"  Old Andrew from across the pond had to attend an INSET day (teacher inservice, professional development, or what  I like to refer to as a WOT Day (Waste of Time Day). Sadly, after reading Old Andrew's post, I'm ready to whip out my card, too. Check out  "What I Didn't Say During the INSET Day on Special Educational Needs."


Uh-oh. Wait a minute. Mamacita just sat down. Let's hear her take on group work and those pesky, lazy grasshoppers.

Table 2…Ah…here's the fun bunch. While you're checking out that lid on the salt shaker, check out Super Teacher McGuire on his first day of school. A hilarious post. Not so hilarious was Mr. Teacher's struggle through Friday. He writes: "By 8:20, I had already put one kid in time out in another classroom, ripped up one kid's homework and thrown it across the room, and taken two kids down the hallway to the phone to call their parents." See how the rest of Mr. Teacher's day went. Oh, and would someone pah-leese put on a pot of coffee. I'm draggin' after that concert. Jeepers Creepers, don't tell me you don't know who Leon Russell is?!

Table 3…The technology gurus…Check out Pat over at Successful Learning and see how she stays connected with others. Oh come on now, get out of your technology comfort zone and make some friends. Mathew Needleman over at Creating Lifelong Learners offers some excellent tips on the right way to show movies in class.

Hey, see if Table 4 will stop sharing classroom tips for a minute. Oh, now that's an interesting way to look at things. I Want To Teach Forever believes teachers are masters of inception. Would someone please tell Dancing Crocodile to stop it with the Woo-hoos! Oh, it's Wu-Wei. Wu-Wei? Go see what that means.

Sitting over in the corner at Table 5 are the Listers & Critique-ers. You know, the ones who make lists and talk about other stuff.  Find out why Barry Garelick hurled this book across the room. Then check out  Paper Tiger's review of Frontline: College Inc.--an apparently not-so-flattering video about for-profit colleges. TeachTechTopia has 50 Special Ed teachers on twitter.

Is that really the bell? Hey, it's time to go. Don't forget to pick up your trash. I am not your mother. 

If your post was included, please link back to the carnival. Otherwise, I'll get snarky and may not include you next time. If you are interested in submitting a post, please check our guidelines first and then use this handy dandy form to submit. The carnival will appear back here in two weeks on Wednesday, Sept. 29. Submissions are due by 5 p.m. CST on Saturday, Sept. 25.

Please let me know about any broken links or problems.  As always…

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

–Snow Patrol

And, if I did, my apologies.

Life's a Carnival–the Education Buzz #3

Welcome to the Third Edition of the Education Buzz--an eclectic smattering of things buzzing about the EduSphere.

Many of us started school last week, so in addition to sore feet, raspy voices and challenges, there's lots of stuff buzzing about.  

But before we get started, there's something free buzzing around the EduSphere. Quit playing those midway games, find your best writing utensil and go for a chance to win free--yep, that's right FREE--copies of the Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition. (I've used it before, and it's great!) Deadline is Sept. 20 and you can get all the info here. Now, let's get this carnival going!

Wow… a lot new folks decided to hop on the midway this go-around, so a very Big Tex welcome to y'all. Check out all the new guys meeting over there by Big Tex…

• Edge of Terror discusses why he's disappointed with The Race to the Top. 

• An infinite number of cats on a keyboard talks about finally getting around to registering for Greenroom, a forum for teacher's using Greenfoot. (I need something for Sorefoot.)

• Funny about Money writes about a workshop she went to that tells how to identify students who are high or drunk in class. Interesting statistic tossed about: At any given time, about 50 percent of the students in community college classrooms are probably abusing some kind of drug. Jeepers Creepers. 

• Teacher Reboot Camp challenges us to quick looking for the ugly and  find the beauty instead.

• "I am a charter school co-founder and principal. Please don't shoot." That line alone should make you want to hop speedy quick over to Stories From School.

In the Oldies but Goodies category, here are some folks we haven't heard from in awhile. Apparently, they were stuck on the Merry-Go-Round. So glad they found the Education Buzz.

• Mamicita over at Scheiss Weekly points out that if you throw glitter on a dung heap, it’s still going to stink.  Hmmm, ya think?

• Science guy Steve Spangler introduces us to his high school chemistry teacher and presents a great little video about a singing pipe.  

• Joanne Jacobs talks about KED coming soon to an American classroom near you. And, we ain't talkin' no sneakers here either.

• Darren from Right on the Left Coast questions the wisdom of throwing out stricter state standards for weaker national standards.

And look over there, coming back around to us on the ferris wheel are a few of our new and/or regular contributors…

• Curmudgeon talks about why embedded curriculum doesn't work.

• Dancing Crocodile has us holding hands, making paper airplanes and learning math. What's not to like about that?

• Nancy Flanagan over at Teacher in a Strange Land looks at the Power Elite and whether elitist credentials can make a person a better teacher.

And finally, over by the fun house…

• Mr. Teacher (recently married) over at Learn Me Good gives us his list of his Top 10 Memorable Moments for his first day of school. 

• And, of course, you've got to check out my post "Back to School, Whoppers & Project Runway."

OK folks, that's it. If your post was included, please link back to the carnival. Otherwise, I'll get snarky and may not include you next time. If you are interested in submitting a post, please check our guidelines first and then use this handy dandy form to submit. The carnival will appear back here in two weeks on Wednesday, Sept. 15. Submissions are due by 5 p.m. CST on Saturday, Sept. 11.

Please let me know about any broken links or problems.  As always…

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

–Snow Patrol

And, if I did, my apologies.

Education Buzz Carnival #1

Welcome back my friends!

Come one, come all, the short, the fat, the tall...C'mon y'all down the education carnival midway. We've got the very first edition of the Education Buzz Carnival right here with some excellent reading throughout the EduSphere.

No need to pop into the Funhouse if you want to get some blood boiling and screams curdling, all ya gotta do is mention the words "voucher" and "public schools" in the same sentence. Yep, that ought to do it. I'd just as soon shoot fish out of a barrel. But if you'd rather do more than fish around, check out Matthew Ladner's post on "Rhee Looks to Clean Up the DC Special Ed Barn with vouchers."

Darren from Right on the Left Coast pushes some hot buttons with his take on an Augusta State University student who filed a lawsuit against her school claiming it violated her First Amendment rights when administrators told her to change her views on homosexuality or leave.

And did you really think you could get out of the Funhouse without popping over to the Education Standard to read "Scary but true: Real Reform is Wholesale."

All this reform stuff must have been weighing heavy on everyone this summer because Nancy Flanagan also talks about the difference between reform and investment in her post "Follow the You-Know-What." (Even if you don't care about reform, you need to go there to read about her new house.)

Better watch your step on the midway or you'll find yourself Dancing with Crocodiles. Go see why the perfect classroom should be like a group of monkeys on a rock. (Come on, what's not to like about monkeys? OK, OK, OK, so maybe the flying ones are a bit scary, but the other ones…)
 
Sorry, but things are going to get a bit more complicated than wondering whether to buy cotton candy or salt water taffy (although that's a tough decision). Curmudgeon's pondering "Why Johnny Can't Write A Term Paper" and perhaps you should, too.


And while you're in the mood to ponder those educational type things, go chat with Stephen Lazar about the challenges in using Standard Based Grading in the history classroom over at Outside the Cave.

I wish y'all would stop asking me if I think you'll win one of those ginormous stuffed Tweety birds. Go talk to Pat over at Successful Teaching. She has some some pointers for handling those silly questions (and unlike me, it doesn't include anything remotely having to do with Big Fat Stupid Heads). She's nice like that.

Wait just a darn tootin' minute…Maybe we should try and figure out how to win one of those ginormous Tweety birds. With creativity on the decline, Sarah over at Ensmartening has some tips on what to do.

Better hurry up and grab that last corny dog. It's time to head on home. Hope you had a good time. 


Thanks to everyone for submitting. Some posts were not included as we try to determine whether to include posts from commerical sites. The survey is still up and running and the results are really close. So, if you haven't voted yet, please take the time to do so. You can read about it here and cast your vote on the link provided there.

If your post was included, please link back to the carnival. Otherwise, I'll get snarky and may not include you next time. If you are interested in submitting a post, please check our guidelines first and then use this handy dandy form to submit. The carnival will appear back here in two weeks. Once school begins we'll shoot for a weekly carnival. Posts are due by 5 p.m. CST on Saturdays.

Please let me know about any broken links or problems.  As always…

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

–Snow Patrol

And, if I did, my apologies.