I found a great series of videos that explain some grammar rules. I love it! If you’ve ever been confused about what it is an adverb does or how and when you are using them (because you do even if you don’t know it) This is the video for you. For that matter it is a great little tool to refresh your child’s understanding during the summer or to help them with adverbs during the school year.
What did you think of the video? Did it bring back great memories? Do you understand adverbs any better?
This article talks about a possible pact made by highschool students to get pregnant and then raise their children together. You might be asking yourself what this has to do with education. Well…they went to school together and some are saying the lack of sex education is to blame and not the reported pact. I say it is probably a mixture of the two along with a few other factors. I know for a fact in the schools I’ve taught in (high school and middle school) that there were many young girls who were participating in sexual activities. It was thought to be the cool thing to do and few of them seemed to have any concern for consequences. How do I know this? You can rest assured that I never asked and would have been much happier not knowing. However, kids seem to think that an adult does not exist if they aren’t looking or talking. I could stand in the hallway and hear all kinds of insane details about lives I’d rather no nothing about. When I was a new teacher I’d march the kids to a guidance counselor or contact a parent but that was frowned upon as interfering and I soon learned to stop. Parents don’t want to know and school officials don’t want to upset the parents. To my knowledge none of the dozen times I tried to intervene in my first year of teaching had any positive affect. Sad but true. The other way I or you or anyone else in the world can easily find out about the lives of kids is to go to myspace. Crazy the things the kids will put out there.
What is my point? My point is pregnant teens are pregnant because there is no reason for them not to be. Their parents aren’t talking to them, schools don’t talk to them, and there really aren’t any repercussions for becoming pregnant without any way to support themselves. What can we do about this? I don’t know. Part of me thinks we should force sex education into the schools and the other part thinks that is a parents’ job. Then there is the issue of repercussions. I know there are schools that now offer day care so students with children can take their child to class with them…I think that is making it too easy. But….don’t I want all of our children to be educated. The only solutions I’ve come up with are too radical to be plausible. How do you think we can decrease the instances of pregnant teens?
I had so much fun with the geography games from yesterday that I thought I would do a follow up geography post with this map video. The map video shows you how to read a map. Pretty darn cute. Would be a great way to introduce a map lesson or a fun video to show before letting the kiddos loose on the map games I mentioned yesterday!
What did you think of the video? Do you like songs that teach? Do you have a favorite learning song??
As I was randomly surfing the Internet I found (you are going to have to work to follow me here but it’s a fun trip) a YouTube video that explained how maps worked that led to another video about a map game. This map game looked like fun but I couldn’t figure out how to find it online so I read the information from the person that uploaded it and there was the link! However, the user said they had since found a more entertaining group of games. The link for the more entertaining games can be found here. Ah…there is no end to the amount of work I will go to just to find something to entertain and educate you!
All of the quizzes ask you to locate specific items on the map. There are over two dozen games to play. You can choose The World, variations on the United States, or various other countries or continents.
These would be great to use with your children over the summer. IF you are a teacher you could use these as rewards. Kids love games and any excuse to be on the computer makes them happy. If you can sneak in a learning experience all the better!
I played several of the versions and even though I taught Geography for a couple of years I was surprised by what I did (and more often didn’t) know 
Go play the games and let me know how your geography skills stand up! Are there other geography games out there that you especially like? Leave your suggestions below and I’ll go check them out!
I know that for the most part graduations around the country are over. BUT if you are one of those people who puts things off till the last minute and you haven’t bought your graduate a gift yet here are two of my favorites.
The first book is the Little Big Book of Life. This book has some fantastic quotes, letters, short essays and songs about, well, life. It is a truly fantastic book. There is a bit of bad language but overall really a great item, and I think most graduates would find it a book they’d go to repeatedly throughout the years.
The next book is a long time favorite from Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!. I know what you’re thinking, he’s a children’s author. Well, yes and no. This is a great book for graduates because it tells them you believe in them. Most of the kids I know who graduated this year were very anxious about leaving school behind and this book is child like enough to comfort but the message is powerful enough to be touching. You could even splurge and make a little gift basket with the Places You’ll go theme.
I’ve recently found two new FREE games online that I think are a lot of fun. Not only are these educational games fun but they are also great learning tools. You could use these games as a teacher or as a parent or heck even just for fun if you are an adult
I hope you will all go check these out! Even if you don’t have a class to use them with right now they could go into your lesson plans for next year. But….to be perfectly honest I like them so much I keep going back to them for myself. Especially the Budget Hero. It is really interesting to see how the changes you make effect the economy. It’s made me rethink what I want in a president.
Try out the games and let me know what you think! Will you use them in a class or with your own children? Were they fun for you?
Now that most of the country is out for summer vacation parents across the nation are wondering what to do with their children. Many of you probably have vacations planned but I doubt they will take all summer long. As a teacher I can tell you that it will help your child if he or she does something educational over the summer and to that end I thought I’d give you a list of suggestions to help you (and more importantly your child) pass the summer.
Educational Activities for Summer Vacation
Do you have any other ideas on how to keep your child engaged in learning over summer vacation? What are your plans for summer vacation?
I found a great blog that podcasts children’s book reviews. The book I’m going to link to is Someday When My Cat Can Talk but you should really take a look around the site because it totally rocks! I’m always on the look out for good book reviews to point me to a new favorite author and this is going to be book marked for sure. I can see using this in a classroom or school library to help children find out about new books or as a teacher or parent to get ideas for gifts or assignments. Pretty great all around.
Let me know what you think of the site (how cute is “Just One More Book” for a blog name anyway?)
I hope you enjoy it!
The 2008 FCAT reading scores for third graders have just recently been released. FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that all Florida students must eventually take. It is how the development of the child and ultimately school the child attends is measured in Florida.
"In 2008, 72 percent of all students in Grade 3 were performing at or above Achievement Level 3 (on grade level and above) on FCAT Reading. This represents an increase from 57 percent in 2001, 60 percent in 2002, 63 percent in 2003, 66 percent in 2004, 67 percent in 2005, a decrease from 75 percent in 2006, and an increase from 69 percent in 2007 for a total increase of 15 percentage points since 2001. In 2008, 16 percent of all students in Grade 3 were performing at Achievement Level 1 on FCAT Reading. This represents a decrease from 29 percent in 2001, 27 percent in 2002, 23 percent in 2003, 22 percent in 2004, 20 percent in 2005, an increase from 14 percent in 2006, and a decrease from 19 percent in 2007 for a total decrease of 13 percentage points since 2001."
There is a handy graphical representation you can check out here.
So what does this mean? Well…it means that we reached a high and then started dropping again for the level 3s. That’s not such a good thing. In 2006 we had 75% of all students scoring at or above level 3 and this year we only have 72%. Of course the officials are excited because we are up from last years 69% but to my mind it isn’t good enough if we aren’t surpassing previous results. At least that’s the way the numbers look, right?
Here’s the thing about those scores that I never see anyone talking about. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. The scores from 2006 are from entirely different children than the scores from 2008. For all we know about the students in 2006 there was a large number of gifted students and maybe in 2008 there was a larger number of students who were…not as gifted.
That is one of the problems with FCAT. Don’t get me wrong, there is a way to check individual progress but that isn’t the stuff you hear about in the news usually. Just a mass "third grade scores up/down this year". I guess that’s one of the problems I have with standardized tests. Another problem I have with FCAT as well as the national No Child Left Behind program is that it assumes that all children are capable of being ‘on grade level’. This is simply not the case. I know there are some allowances made for students who have a learning disability but there are none for students who are just below average.
While I don’t personally see anything wrong with being ‘below average’ apparently a lot of parents do and so does the government. It seems as though in an effort to show everyone can achieve, standards are and have been lowered over the years to make it easier for students to be ‘average’. Unfortunately this means those students who are ‘above average’ are often not getting the type of stimulation they need.
After teaching in Florida for the past seven years I still can’t decide if I hate FCAT or if I merely dislike it. If you are in Florida what do you think of FCAT? If you are in another state how do you like the standardized test given there?
Cat with Books Photo Credit: Petteri Sulonen from Flickr, Creative Commons License
May 6, 2008 is National Teacher Day. I’ve been talking a lot about how the presidential candidates want to hold teachers accountable and what they want to do to improve education. I thought I’d take a little break to talk about teacher appreciation. As a teacher it often felt as though no matter how much I gave it was never enough. Administrators always want you to stay later and serve on more committees, parents want you to tell them their child is doing better than he or she is and children want to learn more with less work. That is why I know what it is like to be a teacher in need of appreciation.
My first year teaching was especially rough, as it is for most new teachers. That is why when the first week of May rolled around and there were pastries and surprises each day of the week I was overjoyed. You wouldn’t think something as little as a donut and a coffee mug could make you feel so great but it can! It wasn’t just me either. All of the teachers in the school seemed happier. A little praise every now and again can make all of the hard work that comes with teaching feel like it isn’t so hard after all. 
I often hear from non teachers how teaching is such an easy profession and gee I have summers ‘off’ so why would I complain about how hard my job is. I guess you’d have to be a teacher to understand. This post is primarily for all the other teachers out there. You know how hard your job is and even if no one else tells you for the rest of the year how great you are, you can (hopefully) fondly recall this one week.
Here is some information on National Teacher Day from the NEA to get the ball rolling. Wikipedia has information on Teacher’s Day from around the world. This is a site for ideas on how to celebrate a teacher (in case any of you reading aren’t teachers but instead someone who loves a teacher)
How does your school celebrate National Teacher Day? Does having a special day where people recognize your efforts it lift you up for the entire year? If you are a student or a parent how do you let your teacher(s) know how important and appreciated they are?
The School Hallway Photo Credit: Kevindooley from Flickr, Creative Commons License
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