Ukraine\’s Got Talent 2009

Yesterday I watched this amazing You Tube video of the winning performance on Ukraine’s Got Talent 2009—that’s right, Ukraine—and immediately thought of art teachers Steve Donald, Mary Tucker, and Randall Leach. I wondered how our art teachers might use the video with their students; however, the video IS on You Tube and, therefore, NOT accessible at school. Of course, if you are at school and clicked the link above, you already know that. Not only could they not show the video to their students, but I couldn’t even show it to them without sending them a link to watch at home. No fun.

The same has probably happened to many of you. You find some cute, clever, inspiring video to introduce a concept or add humor to your instruction, and, what do you know, you have no ability to show it to your students. Proxy programs get blocked. You Tube has no download feature. You’ve got nothing. Keep reading »

The study referenced in this article indicates that binge drinking–and not even the scary binge drinking in which some of our students engage–hinders normal neural development in teens.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122765890

No wonder Alg. II is so hard!

My students always had to ask me when they could change seats, then wait another week before I actually changed them. I treated it as an inconvenience, a waste of class time. Plus, it messed up my system for distributing papers.

But changing students’ seats is beneficial, and there is a good time to do it. Instead of waiting for the end of a grading period, change your seating chart each time you begin a new chapter or unit. There’s actually a good reason for it Keep reading »

New Year, New Semester
The custom of every New Year is to commit ourselves to a resolution. That’s why the gym is so crowded in January. When I wrote my new year’s resolutions for 2010, I made sure I set professional goals, too. One of them was to continue writing this blog.

In the spirit of the New Year, and with the imminence of the new semester, perhaps it is time for all of us to set new goals and make new professional resolutions. Maybe your New Year’s resolution will be to try a new strategy in the classroom. Keep reading »