The One With Glasses

It is Mega Millions fever! I think that’s what giving me the sniffles. As you can see I have photographic evidence that I have bought a ticket or two. 

The very sane side of me understands there is little chance of winning the historic amount, but the ticket is an investment in dreams that need some sort of funding.

So what would I do if  I won. First, I would not tell anyone except for my immediate family. I would live a modest lifestyle that matches my profession.

The jackpot is so large is hard to fathom how one would spend the money. I would make sure that all of my debts were paid and set aside money that would ensure my soon-to-be husband and I have a nice retirement. Then I would make sure mine and his parents had a nice retirement. Then I would pay for my brothers’ college education.  After taking care of my family, I would try to do some good with the money. Such as creating an endowment or program that can give opportunities to students in school districts. I am educator and I think it’s sad that all the extracurricular activities seem to be disappearing.

Those are some of my dreams. What would spend $640 million on?

thekidshouldseethis:

Joseph Herscher takes a sip of his coffee, pulling string thereby tipping paintings. Balls roll down paintings, lighting burner to boil water causing books to tip. Vase and computer get knocked off the table, releasing tape which opens front page of newspaper.

You can see the entire set up by Joseph Herscher, who builds Rube Goldberg machines in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in this great interactive description on the New York Times. There’s also a video interview with him that’s worth watching.

via Makezine. Thanks, @cre8d.

kbkonnected:

Fantastic word decoding strategy that I can’t wait to try. The power of the red dot!
#elemchat #spedchat #literacy

I saw this on Pinterest and really think is is an awesome strategy that would help struggling readers as well as emergent readers.

From the site: “Thanks to brain specialist Fritz Mengert, I learned how to use a red dot in my reading instruction. Dr. Mengert told me that placing a red dot in the center of a word helps kids focus on the middle rather than just the beginning.
Many of my students just looked at the beginnings of words and guessed at what they were, and the red dot was the answer I had been looking for.

It worked! My students were much more able to distinguish between similar-looking words.”

Via Teacher Support Force….check out the rest of their word strategies. Superb resource!!!

thekidshouldseethis:

Starting with a goofy portrait of his father’s photocopied face artist Miquel Endara embarked on an ambitious stipple drawing, using 3.2 million dots from assorted Micron pens to recreate the image on paper. Watch the wonderfully shot video above condensing 210 hours of drawing to see how he did it and also check out his website where he has a zoomable high-res version of the image.

I had to explain what a xerox machine is and why the dad’s face is so smushed, but after I did that, this video was co-curator-approved. (Also, love the type-work in this.)

Via This Is Colossal.

Guest teaching (a.k.a subbing) has its perks. You get to pick your own hours, you can be choosy about which schools you’ll go to and you get to experience diverse grade levels. For the beginning teacher it is good to get as much experience as you can.

There are downsides to everything. Most times you don’t know if you working until you are abruptly woken around 4 a.m. by an automated system asking if you would sub for such and such teacher at such and such school. You only have about 30 seconds to think if you are going to take it or hope a better job opens up.

There are good days and then there are the bad days. It’s the bad ones that makes you head straight for the bed when you get home or pop open that bottle of red wine. There will always be students that will shock you, be mean to you, talk over you, curse at you, throw something at you or even pretend they’ve never met rules before. You can choose how do deal with such things. For the rowdier classes I use my stern voice which sounds similar to a drill sargeant. I spurt out short stern requests. I also reward students with stickers or free time depending the age level. 

Is this how I would operate my own class? No, if I did my drill sargeant voice everyday I would be depressed. I am usually depressed on days if I have to resort to the voice. Guest teaching is sometimes the survival of the fittest. I will never let a student to undermine the learning in the classroom. 

A person shared this advice with me: don’t let a bad day make you think you are a bad teacher.

When I enter a classroom, I do not know the ins and outs of students. Their everyday teacher knows how to deal with each student. In the course of a day, I’m learning about the student and/or discovering a child with severe behavioral issues. In a blink of eye, I need to remedy problems in the classroom. It’s a lot to take in.

On bad days, such as today, instead of letting the class get under my skin while I’m at home, I reflect on my day. I think about what went well? What needed some work? What should a do next time? 

Everyone is a work in progress, even me. 

I’m not much of a blog reader nor do I like to listen to music. The few times I listen to music is at the gym or when some emotional distress compels me to find a song that accurately describes what I’m going through. My boyfriend, the boy with glasses, is able to listen to jazz or rock for countless hours. 

One night when I was with him, I had to politely ask him to turn the music off. I could not go into hour two of jazz. The music was slowly started to make me twitch and I could no longer take it anymore.

The one thing  that I can seem to listen all time is podcasts. I am a podcastoholic. First it started with one podcast “This American Life” then I started to add more podcasts to my queue. I find podcasts to be a good filler of time. They are great for long commutes or when you are mindlessly working out at the gym. 

I find podcasts interesting to listen to because I like to listen to stories that sometimes can be very thought provoking. Then again I listen to many podcasts because I enjoy to laugh. Laughing is when I feel the happiest. I don’t get that from music. 

Here’s what is on my iPod:

TBTL: I used to listen to listen daily and I find Luke Burbank to be hilarious. Since my podcast world has opened up, I find less time to listen to the gem of a podcast. On a different note, I actually like to listen to Burbank more in the morning when he cohosts a show with Dave Ross. I like the banter between them. (Seattle-based)

Stack of Dimes: If you like potty humor, fast food talk and B-rated action movies then you will like this podcast. (Seattle-based)

This American Life: Wonderful storytelling.

The Moth: Ditto on the storytelling.

How Did This Get Made: Have you ever wondered after watching a movie, “How did this get made?” Paul Scheer and his guests pick a movie and pick it apart.

The Nerdist: Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Mira nerd out over various topics. Yes, I am a big Who fan.

Radiolab: This podcast feeds the inquisitive side of me. 

Doug Loves Movies: I love playing along with the Leonard Maltin Game. 

I would love to use this video in my class one day.

thekidshouldseethis:

The Water Cycle! This cute little stop motion piece about water in many of its forms was created by animator Emma Dougherty, and was inspired by her time as a teacher.

Also, it has great boogie woogie music! Here’s Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson in 1944 playing some more in a hoppin’ piano duet (with young Lena Horne looking on). There’s also this link with intro-level bios and long song clips of boogie woogie greats. 

kbkonnected:

Excellent LiveBinder with nice resources for all sorts of subjects created by ang1960.

#elemchat #spedchat

This one is jam-packed. Just the way I like ‘em. Can’t wait to go digging through the goodies.

Museum Day is an annual event sponsored by the Smithsonian Magazine. This year Museum Day was September 24. If you downloaded tickets, then you and a guest are admitted to any participating museum for free. Free sounds good to this unemployed gal.  I chose the Tacoma Museum of Glass. I haven’t been there for quite a long time and I didn’t want to make the trek to Seattle (Obama, sports, Oktoberfest and events = traffic headache).

My boyfriend, the boy with glasses, and I enjoyed the museum very much. Most of the exhibits inside come various artists the museum had in residence. The Kid’s exhibit was fun. The Museum artists really brought to life the drawings that children created. I love how imaginative and creative children can be. Only a child could come up with “Venus flytrap with a light saber.”

The current artist in residence is Janice Peacock. Her craft is creating works that are very small in scale from a couple of centimeters to three inches. During her residence she and the Hot Shop team are experimenting with scale by creating African masks in glass. What kind of impact does the mask have at 1/2 inch versus a foot tall? 

Museum Day was great. I’m definitely going to mark my calendar to remember it for next year. 

Visit Museum of Glass for more information about current exhibitions and directions to the museum.

A friend posted this video in his status. It’s funny and it’s important to keep in mind that we all just need to get over the need to have the newest thing.