This is a great interactive bulletin board idea for primary classes to do in the winter.  Have the students or a volunteer pre-cut out colorful flowers for spring and snowflakes for winter.  We mad our bulletin board the day before Groundhog’s Day, so the kids could predict if it was going to be six more weeks of winter or if spring was coming early, but you can do it according to student’s favorite season.  After asking students to either make a Groundhog’s Day prediction or to choose winter or spring as their favorite season, have them pick a flower or snowflake to tape to the bulletin board.  To extend the activity, have students count the flowers and snowflakes.  Put the numbers above the words "winter" and "spring".  You can then make the numbers into various graphs and discuss the vocabulary words “more” and “less”.  We also asked different adult, including the principal to choose a flower or snowflake to keep the students thinking throughout the day.  

Sponsors:

Cash for Creations, Inc. - Educational Visual Aids

        

President Obama's administration just released a "blueprint" for the changes made to the No Child Left Behind Act. There is one part that will remain the same, annual testing in reading and math for students.  Most teachers are for testing, but not the way some states are using the test scores.  One idea discussed was to change the name, even though it was not in the proposal.  Here are the five big changes being proposed:

        

Usually, video games are one of the reasons people give when they discuss childhood obesity.   Nintedo Wii is different from the video games I group up playing.  You have to get off the couch and move to play. A college in Huston TX is offering college credit to students who choose the physical education class using Wii. The class will use Wii Fit, Wii Resort, Wii Sports and Wii Dance Dance Revolution.    The school uses games that will teach posture, center of balance, and to improve knowledge of health and fitness.  Students will have to learn the basics for keeping a healthy body weight and proper nutrition.  The college is trying to find fun and effective tools that will teach students about nutrition and interest students who avoid physical education electives.  

        

Students getting called names in school is pretty normal, but the name calling is usually not done by the teacher.  A middle school teacher, wrote the word "loser" on a sixth-grader's classwork.  The mother told the principal how offensive this was to her daughter and the principal assured her it would not happen again, but it did.  "Minus 20% for being a loser" was written on one of her daughter's assignments.  The mother is obviously upset about it, and trying hard to get the teacher suspended.  The teacher claims this is a term he uses to relate to his students.  Many parents and students showed support for the teacher by telling the press about how his "joking" style gets him on their level by using the student's current vocabulary.

I can not believe that a teacher would find it acceptable to call a student a "loser", and actually write it on student's papers.  There are more creative ways to relate to today's students than lowering yourself to name calling, especially if they have informed you that it produced hurt feelings. It's amazing what some people think is funny. Let's hope he really has learned his lesson from this and will stop with the negative comments.  Boy, what a LOSER!

Sponsor: Cash for Creations, Inc. - Educational Visual Aids

        

The superintendent in Rhode Island decided to fire all the teachers and the administrator at a local high school because teachers refused to work 25 minutes longer per day, provide tutoring (with pay), attend summer workshops (with pay) and eat lunch with students.  Notice the extra 25 minutes a day was without pay.  The union refused to accept these demands, which  lead to the superintendent's decision.  The high school has been among the state's lowest-performing schools for seven years.  Only 7 % of students are considered proficient in math, and less than half graduate.  

        

A school in Mississippi canceled the prom because a lesbian student wanted to bring her girlfriend to the prom.  Constance McMillen, and 18 year old student at Itawamba Agricultural High School asked permission to take her date to the prom.  She also wanted to wear a tuxedo.  The school's board objected,  felt it would be a distraction to the educational process  and canceled the Prom.  Yes, canceled it!  Which you can imagine upset a lot of ther other students.  The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the school district.


I would love to know why the girl even asked for permission.  If she really wanted to, she could have just showed up in a tux and with a "friend".  If you want to support her, you can join the over 160,000 fan's on Facebook  at Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to Prom!

Would love to hear your comments!

 

        

Can educational stickers help your children become confident?  Cash for Creations, Inc. believes they can!  The company manufactures labels including Instant Genius Gel, Optimistic Ointment and Captivating Courage Cream.  The idea is to use the stickers over existing stickers of your favorite hand sanitizer or lotion bottles.  Schools have been snatching up these labels to help their student have confidence prior to testing, giving speeches or to encourage positive behavior.  "Genius Gel is the first topic of our day.  Students actually feel more confident and it makes keeping their hands clean a breeze." said one teacher.  You can find the labels at www.cashforcreations.com .

           

        

The importance of learning life skills in elementary school is often over looked by the general public. However, life skills should and need to be taught in early childhood.  Every new teacher knows that they cannot teach the curriculum until they have control of their classroom.  If your school supports life skill lessons, it is easy to see the positive impact it has on the students.  Every day we make it a part of our morning to discuss or role play different life skills.  You can see it works when a student recognizes other students using a life skill in class or uses the vocabulary we talked about in the lessons.  "He used a "put down". or "She is organized." are great to hear after teaching the skills.  We review different life skills daily but put a focus on one every 2 weeks. Here is a list of life skills we teach in our classroom:

Trustworthy
No Put Downs
Organization
Integrity
Respect
Caring
Citizenship
Responsible
Truthful
Cooperation
Friendship

You can find a Life Skill's Dry Erase Pocket Chart here to help students know when they have used the life skills appropriately:

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Cash for Creations, Inc. - Educational Visual Aids

        

The days of sitting in a classroom in rows with the focus on the teacher should be a classroom environment of the past.  There are many ways to teach thinking skills.  After all, students should not be taught to only rely on others for information.  The parents or teacher will not be there with them at all times, so critical thinking is crucial in today's society.  Research has show critical thinking to be a weak area for students who take tests.  Critical thinking or "strategic" thinking is the ability for one to put things in a correct order to come to a reasonable conclusion.  Here are some tips for parents and teachers to help foster thinking skills:

        

   The President will deliver his speech to school children tomorrow.  The White House released the transcripts today.  This has caused quite a controversy with parents and educators.  You can find more details on their web site.  Although other Presidents made educational address' to inspire students to stay in school, this one has an optional lesson plan attached to it ,encouraging students to write to him on what they can do to help him and help America.  I did say "optional".  Being a teacher myself, I know a lot of teachers can't fit this into their overstuffed curriculum. However, why would this be a problem?  Students have always written letters or essays to the President on this issue.

    After reading the transcripts and viewing the lesson plans, I can honestly say as a teacher; there is nothing strange or out of the ordinary in either.  The words are inspiring.  He even touches on Bullying, a huge problem in today's schools, by saying "Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn."

    In my opinion, this is the best educational address given to students because it has the lesson plans attached to it.  The plans activate prior knowledge, review what was covered and even require students to think "outside of the box".  He asks them to set personal goals. It doesn't force students to agree with his words.  The speech invites them to activate critical thinking skills which is what every individual should strive for in their life.  Every American should listen to this speech so they can discuss the important highlights of the speech with children, whether they agree or disagree.