Learnatopia

The Newsletter for Educators

March 15th 2010

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

I love teaching.  I love coming up with lesson plans, helping my students learn and seeing their success.  Of course, searching for information and the latest developments is time consuming and time is something many of us wish we had more of. That’s why I started Learnatopia. I figured let’s share what we find with each other and we can all save some time.  If there’s a great idea or lesson plan you have, hit reply and email it to me.  I’ll include it in the next issue of Learnatopia.

The program is very different than the traditional methods used to teach math so it can be a rough transition to switch to Math-U-see.  In order to make it easier, we started with kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd grades the first year and will be adding 3^rd next year, 4^th the year after that and 5^th the next year.

Motivate-Encourage-Inspire

Many teachers offer rewards to their students for good work.  While I understand the need for incentives, I also struggle with the idea that the reason little Johnny acts well for a whole class is just to get the sticker he wanted.  How about doing it just because he’s actually engaged in the subject? Yet, when I hear Rafe Esquith talk about the different “levels of thinking”, I can’t help feeling it’s a bit pie in the sky for most classrooms.

I’ve thought about this a lot and come up with a plan that, while it may not be perfect, is better than the whole idea of a “prize”; I have a reward box of activities.  When one of my students finishes their work at the standard I expect, they may pick an activity.  All the activities are educational which eases my moral dilemma. Very popular items in the reward box include the game “Rush Hour, Jr.”, a cheap CD player with a book on CD, non-hardening clay, a magnet activity pack and a doodle book.

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

-     Sir Richard Steele

I have always loved to read but there have been periods in my life where I stopped because I was “too busy” or… well for whatever reason. Anyway, I’m now in a book club and it’s really great because even if I put off starting that new book for a week or two, the pressure of my impending club meeting makes me pick it up and start.  Of course, once I start I really get into it and then I just can’t put it down.

The people in my book club are all my friends and people I really like.  We take turns hosting and it’s so much fun none of us want to miss it so we all read the book.

I still live in the town that I was born in.  Most of my friends I’ve known all of my adult life.  As much as I love that, I was also curious about what people outside my circle of friends thought and did.  So a few years ago I joined a book club with a group of ladies that I didn’t know (I was invited by one of the moms on my son’s little league team).  I really enjoyed that experience.  I read all the books, which were ones I would never have picked.  I was exposed to viewpoints I’d never experienced before and had a great time.

Either way you go, I highly suggest being part of a book club.  It’s a very healthy activity.

Books I’ve enjoyed of late:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore

Being not only a teacher but also a director for grades K-3, I’m interested in activities that increase enrollment.  In articles such as this, I substitute words like “entrepreneurs” for “directors”.  After all, we are all working on carving out success down whichever path we are on.  Let’s use any tool we can find to become the greatest success we can.

The Cost (and Payoff) of Investing in Social Media

Savvy entrepreneurs are looking to social media as another way to market their businesses. By Lydia Dishman June 12, 2009

Twitter grew 3,000 percent in April. Facebook hosted 61.2 million visitors in March. LinkedIn counts 20 million users worldwide.
 With a potential audience that big, it’s no wonder savvy entrepreneurs are looking to unlock the secrets of social media as another way to get the word out about their businesses. Free access to many social media accounts (and potential clients) just adds to the allure. 

But is social media right for your business? Could it be a free substitute for a traditional (read: expensive) advertising plan? How much time should be spent in the care and feeding of all those profiles? The answers may surprise you.
 “Traditional advertising and marketing is not dead,” says Olivier Blanchard, business strategist and principal of The Brand Builder Marketing. Blanchard advocates integrating social media into a more traditional marketing and advertising plan, “so you can have a healthy mix, much like a diversified investment portfolio.”
 Though the platforms will differ based on the type of business, Sarah Granger, founder of a technology communications strategy firm Public Edge, encourages small organizations to have a solid website, e-mail list and a contact database before venturing into social media. 

Blogs: Write Your Way to Success. If you want to build customer loyalty, Kristi Colvin says start blogging now.  “Many platforms allow you to blog comfortably,” says the chief creative officer at We Heart and Twitterface. She recommends Tumblr for smaller businesses, “because it is customizable, extremely easy to learn to use, and has an additional component that allows you to follow people and re-blog their content easily.”
 Colvin believes blogging takes disseminating information about a company a step beyond formal press releases, ads, marketing brochures and websites. “That is where the magic happens in social media.  A well-managed blog invites peoples’ perspectives and provides an opening for real relationships to be formed which is a critical aspect of great customer service, and a good user experience. It can be a stepping stone to brand attachment,” she says.
 That attachment doesn’t have to equal a huge time commitment, but expect to spend an hour or two to knock out a post.. The rewards are immediate: Blogs that are refreshed regularly get a boost in search engine rankings. “It also helps to establish you as an authority,” says Blanchard who suggests writing during evenings or on weekends to maximize regular working hours.
 Twitter: To Tweet or Not to Tweet Granger says she used to advise companies to start with a blog, but now suggests getting on Twitter first.  She also advocates engaging in conversation. Connecting with a business owner on Twitter “produces the necessary personal touch so many clients and customers prefer,” she says, and offers a time management tip for those tweeting entrepreneurs. “[Free] mobile tools such as Tweetie and Tweetdeck can make it a lot easier to keep up with the ongoing conversation,” Granger says. That way, a company announcement of a new product or promotion could be tweeted with a link back to details on the company’s blog or website, all while standing in a latte line.
 The rapid-fire conversations on Twitter have the added bonus of giving entrepreneurs who’ve built a network, “instant answers to questions, feedback on brand elements, product ideas, etc.,” Colvin says.
 YouTube: Be a Star Another way to capitalize on the fast pace of social media is by posting videos on YouTube. With a little creativity and relatively low overhead (Flip video cameras can be had for as little as $100) uploading a short clip can be a rapid way to test the market. “Release freebies to capture a niche. Then find the demand and create the product,” says Steven Weathers, who documents his adventures in China on YouTube.
 As founder of American English Circle, and producer and host of Foreigner Perspective, Weathers uses videos to help the Chinese learn English and to give Westerners a glimpse of life in Asia. By hiring students he spends around $10 per finished minute of video, less if he tapes himself. 

To learn how to create good content Weathers suggests watching some viral videos. The payoff? “You will reach a wider audience than with network TV,” says Weathers.
 LinkedIn: Business Networking Made Easier A glowing recommendation is a gold star for any type of business, so why not collect and post them for all to see?  It’s easily done on LinkedIn.  Creating a profile allows an entrepreneur to create an online career history, then to connect with others they’ve worked with. Obtaining a recommendation from a former colleague or existing client may help sway a potential investor or customer. 

Additionally, Kimberly LeRiche of JK Virtual Office Resources says, “LinkedIn provides the opportunity to connect with others who are also looking to create partnerships or to collaborate.” LeRiche also notes that LinkedIn has incorporated additional social networking capabilities such as special interest groups and open discussion threads. Digests from these groups can be delivered by e-mail to scan or read in-depth, depending on interest in the topic and how much time there is on hand.
 The Bottom Line: Time is money, but Weathers says it’s all about how you manage it. “Previously wasted down time like sitting in taxis for 20 minutes or standing in a bank line for 10 minutes is now spent on my mobile phone, bouncing between Twitter and Facebook. It’s getting easier and easier, and for branding an entrepreneur, I think it’s golden.”
 No matter what the platform, Blanchard says the true value of social media is found in the conversation.  “You are not necessarily going to get 150 comments per day, but you are engaging a potential customer or client in the way you wouldn’t in an ordinary day.”

http://www.entrepreneur.com/technology/newsandtrends/article202274.html#ixzz0LFvpfNLS&D

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

- Marilyn vos Savant

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here. If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

Spring Forward 2010

Jeanna Bryner

LiveScience Managing Editor

LiveScience.com – Sat Mar 13, 11:35 am ET

This Sunday most U.S. residents will gain an hour of daylight as it’s time to spring forward.

Few people will likely wake up exactly at 2:00 a.m. local time to move the clock hand, or dial, forward an hour. But that’s when daylight saving time officially begins on the second Sunday in March. It ends on the first Sunday in November, when clocks are turned back at 2:00 a.m. local time to read 1:00 a.m. That is, for everyone except those who live in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and by most of Arizona, with the exception of the Navajo Nation.

Why two o’clock? The thinking goes it’s late enough that most people would be at home, with few bars and restaurants being affected. In addition, it prevented the date from switching to yesterday; it would be confusing if, say, we changed the clocks at midnight back to 11 p.m. The time is also early enough that the clock-hand change occurs before early shift workers and early churchgoers might be impacted, according to the WebExhibits, an online museum.

Turning clocks back in the fall could mean an extra hour at bars, which tend to close at 2 a.m., right? Not so, according to the California Energy Commission. Bars actually close at 1:59 a.m., so they are already closed when daylight saving time begins.

When it began

Daylight saving time has a rocky past. Established in the United States in 1918, daylight saving time was a contentious matter and was repealed in 1919. The standardized clock changes, however, were re-established nationally early in World War II and observed from Feb. 9, 1942 through Sept. 30, 1945.

After the war, U.S. states were free to choose whether to observe daylight saving time, and if they did, the calendar start dates of the time change. The result was time confusion for travelers and newscasters. In 1966, Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act, which stated that if any state observed daylight saving time, it had to follow a uniform protocol, beginning and ending on the same dates throughout the country.

The start and end dates have changed over the years, with the most recent change in 2007 setting the start date on the second Sunday in March and end date on the first Sunday in November – adding four weeks to the total stint compared with years prior.

Saving energy

The idea of saving energy was one primary motivation behind the 2007 shift, but it’s arguable whether the change will be worthwhile. In 2007, the California Energy Commission estimated that the extra month would save the state only one-half of 1 percent of their current energy expenditures.

Here’s what the Department of Energy found when they looked back at energy saved nationally in 2007, by extending the DST:

Total electricity savings: about 1.3 Tera Watt-hour (TWh). That corresponds to 0.5 percent per each day of extending DST, or 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year, which was 3,900 TWh.

The electricity savings generally occurred over a three- to five-hour period in the evening though there were small increases in usage during the early-morning hours.

On a daily percentage basis, electricity savings were slightly greater during the March (spring) extension than the November (fall) extension.

Here are some tips for how to survive the time change without losing too much sleep.

5 Things You Must Know About Sleep

Time Change: Springing Forward Could be Bad For You

Video – How Long is Time?

Original Story: Why Does Daylight Saving Time Begin at 2 a.m.?

LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos,Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s.Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100313/sc_livescience/whydoesdaylightsavingtimebeginat2am

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here. If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

March 10th 2010

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

I’ve worked in education for over 14 years. I’ve taught the 2^nd through the 6^th grade, and I am currently teaching a 3^rd grade class.  I am also director of what my school refers to as “Lower School”- kindergarten through 3^rd grade. We are a small private school in Los Angeles.  What this means is I have to think from the perspective both of a teacher and an administrator.  For this reason I like to include in my newsletter ideas for both viewpoints which can be used to keep students and parents happy and spreading excellent word of mouth advertising.

Handwriting Without Tears;

A Great Curriculum for Pre-k and Up

If your school is looking to standardize their handwriting curriculum, Handwriting Without Tears is an excellent option.  Although I haven’t attended one of their workshops, I’ve talked to others who have had great things to say about the program.  I was interested, so I went online and checked out their site.  I also ordered some of their books, and I can tell you, this looks like a great program! Check it out for yourself.

From their web site-“We are the leaders in providing easy-to-learn, easy-to-teach, developmentally appropriate, and inclusive materials to preschool and elementary students throughout the U.S. Last year, more than two million students learned to write successfully using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. The Get Set for School™ preschool program is used by thousands of public and private preschools to develop handwriting and other school readiness skills.”

http://www.hwtears.com/

Teaching Art, Art History and Art Appreciation

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”  Goethe

At my school, each Friday is “Art Day”.  We learn about an artist, look at some of their art work and then do an art project in a similar style to the artist we are learning about. I also usually tie in a writing assignment and geography lesson.  This is super fun, very inexpensive and, because all projects are displayed on the walls, gives our classroom a colorful and happy feel.  Here’s how to do it:

Use the book Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters, by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga. This book offers a bio and an art project for dozens of artists from a wide timeline.  Trust me, you won’t have trouble finding fun, easy and inexpensive art lessons.

Go through the book and find a lesson you’d like to offer (a great start is the section on Van Gogh).  Make a sample of the art project you want your students to do.  Having already completed the art project yourself will help you run a successful lesson, and because students are very visual, will help them understand the lesson. One other tip I’ve discovered on projects that require a student to paint a picture is to make a basic outline of a picture and photocopy it onto the paper the students will be using. For example the outline of a vase and a few flowers gave my students a great start when they did the lesson on Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”.

After you pick an artist, go online and print off a picture of the artist and a small selection of their art.

Next, read to your students the bio out of the book while introducing the students what the artist looked like and some of their work.  Throw on a classical CD and help the students with their art project.

If you like, you can tie in a writing lesson.  There are several great ways to do this.  I’ve had students write letters to Van Gogh.  We review the components that friendly letters include and I allow the students to offer ideas about the kind of things they could ask or say in their letters.  When I feel their creative minds fully engaged, I set them free to write and help those who need it.

Using Monet’s “Field of Corn”, I had the students imagine they were standing in the field.  I had a few minutes of silence while they imagined what they smelled, what they felt and what they were doing in the field.  After a discussion about these things I had the students write three sentences about it, which turned into some really impressive poems.

Essays about an artist, including three or four things the students learned about the artist, really help reinforce information and aides in retention.

I always print out a small picture of the artist, write their name on the bottom and staple it on the world map near where the artist came from (Europe’s coast is getting pretty full).  I also print out a bigger picture with artists name on it and their birthday and add it to our time line (all people we learn about and all events from history also go on our timeline, which is just above our wall mural of the world).

I’ve also discovered that many of my students like to do the same project twice.  The first time they just get the hand of it and the second time they are much happier with their work. I want them to be happy so I have extra supplies for those who would like to do the lesson twice.

When everything is dry pick a wall and make a big, beautiful display. Don’t pick and choose-put it all up.  Include the photos and artwork of the artist.  This gives students a sense of pride, helps them remember whom they learned about, gives the classroom a lively feel and impresses the parents.  By the end of the year there your classroom and probably the hall outside your classroom will be plastered.

Fun With Graphs

I came across this site— www.graphjam.com — where you can easily create your own graphs for giggles, teaching, or serious presentations.

You can make and label bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, diagrams—even build equations with their math symbols.

This is a great site for teaching about graphs, assigning homework, or as a reward activity for students who do well in class.

The site promises not to send spam, and says it will email your graph to you.

14 Technologies Educators Should Watch in 2010 — THE Journal

Which technology tools can help improve teaching and learning? Which can boost productivity? Which are just plain useful for keeping organized? Education technology veterans shared their lists of apps intended to make life in and out of the classroom faster, easier, and, well, better.

See the full article at http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/01/20/14-technologies-educators-should-watch-in-2010.aspx?sc_lang=en

One major highlight is the Epson BrightLink interactive projector.  It’s just unbelievably cool-if you haven’t seen one of these projectors, you simply won’t believe what you see.

“The new projector provides all the functionality of traditional interactive whiteboards, but allows users to project on virtually any flat surface. To prove the point, Davidson’s demo consisted of the Epson BrightLink, some duct tape, and two pieces of foam core. “You could also use a wall, several sheets of paper, a cheap shower curtain from IKEA,” he said. You get the idea.”

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here. If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

Saint Patrick’s Day

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

Saint Patty’s Day offers a fun opportunity to cover all the normal stuff, like reading, writing, science and social studies; all wrapped up in shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold and rainbows. Learning has never been so fun!

This is the only reference book you’ll need for the holiday-crammed full of Irish stories, folklore, poems, pictures, recipes and history:

A Pot o’ Gold by Kathleen Krull

Things To Do

Make green Jello; eat it while listening to some fun read aloud books.  Download a copy of the Irish flag and have the children color it in.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/europe/ireland/flag.shtml

Put a shamrock on the world map next to Ireland.

Learn the difference between a shamrock and a four-leaf clover.

Download a map of Europe and have the kids color in the countries-making Ireland green of course!

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/europe_map.htm

Great Books for Read Aloud

The Luck of the Irish, by Margaret McNamara

That’s What Leprechauns Do, by Eve Bunting

St. Patrick’s Day Alphabet, by Beverly Vidrine and Patrick Soper

St. Patrick’s Day Countdown, by Salina Yoon

Let’s Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, by Peter Roop

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/stpatrick/blarneystone/

The Newsletter for Educators

February 15th, 2010

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

The other day I was at a friend’s house, and she was talking about how happy she was with her son’s preschool.  One of the things she liked best was that they sent home a class calendar each month.  The calendar was a simple outline of the days of the month and had handwritten lessons and activities the class would be studying.  It also listed birthdays of students and teachers.  I was surprised that she was so excited about this simple calendar but then it occurred to me that parents don’t know what we do in class each day unless we tell them, and without using a calendar we are not telling them.  I also realized that we are missing out on an excellent opportunity to impress our parents with all that we do.  Then I started thinking about all the times I’ve asked my kids, “What did you do in school today?” to which I’ve received the reply, “I don’t know” or perhaps, “Nothing”.  How great it would have been to have a calendar saying when a book report was due, or had been able to ask my children how the science experiment went. Right away I started making sure my teachers put out a monthly calendar and the feedback from parents was great. I highly recommend class calendars for all schools and all classes.

A Great Math Warm Up

Knowing basic math facts by heart is an obviously important skill. There are all kinds of ways for students to achieve this skill; from flash cards to computer programs. In addition to these classic ways teachers and parents have come up with to help their kids memorize times tables and other equations, I came up with a game I use as a warm up for my class each day.  My class calls them speed drills and they LOVE them!

Here’s how it goes:  I take a sheet of basic math facts at an appropriate level for the grade I’m teaching and make a copy for each of my students.  I pass it out face down and remind the students that they may not look at it till I say go.  When I give the word, the students flip their papers over and write the answers as fast as they can.  As my students finish they yell, “done!”  The first student to finish writes the number 1 on the top of their page.  Then that student has the job of “calling out the numbers” for the rest.  As the next student finishes, the “Caller” shouts out the numbers in the order the student finishes, and the student writes it on the top of their page, the goal to get a low number.  While students who are done wait for those still working, they get started on their own work (either work they are in the middle of or optional work pages I make sure they are supplied with).  When all students are done I start my math lesson.  This activity serves as a great warm up and helps the students know math facts cold.

Some important points to make sure the game goes smoothly are 1. Make sure the pages are at a fairly easy level for the students.  The purpose of the game is to help the students memorize basic math problems by having them repeatedly figure out the answers and write them.  Give students pages with math problems at the same level as flashcards you would assign.  2. Don’t correct the pages.  Look them over to make sure students are actually writing answers but don’t bother having the students correct the pages.  It takes all the fun out of the game. Of course, I don’t actually tell students I don’t correct them J 3.  When you introduce a new sheet of math problems, give the students the same one for a few days in a row.  That way they are really used to it before having to tackle learning a new one.  4. The whole speed drill should take about 5 to 10 minutes.  If it’s taking longer than that, make the problems easier and work up to the harder ones.  5. If you have a student who is behind the rest of the class and needs more time make a secret deal with them to do half the page or the first 3 rows or whatever they need to keep them challenged but not embarrassed.  Assign extra pages for homework or have them do them at another time during the day so they catch up to the class.

Book Review

Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 – Rafe Esquith

The New York Times bestseller that is revolutionizing the way Americans educate their kids—“Rafe Esquith is a genius and a saint” (The New York Times)

I highly recommend this book to educators and parents alike.  As a teacher, I found it very inspirational and full of great ideas that were immediately applicable to the classroom.  It also challenged me to set a higher overall standard for my students and myself.  Do yourself and your class a favor and read it!

A History Review for You

Have you pledged allegiance?: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

This is a must see; must know; only 10 minute video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVsjZBy7hww&feature=related

Quotes for you to enjoy:

“Imagination rules the world.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” - George S. Patton

“The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.”

- Thomas Sowell

Get your school on the map with these important marketing tips

Every school can benefit from the right publicity.  Unfortunately, PR firms can be costly.  Lucky is the school that has a parent volunteer in the industry! You can, however, take matters in your own hands by generating your own free publicity.

For starters, take a crash course in writing press releases and putting together a media kit. Numerous online articles detail press release writing – present something newsworthy about your school in one or two pages. Include the who, what, where, why and when of the story and select news that is of interest to your target audience. Piggyback your release onto a major news story related to your school.  Also, think like a news reporter and avoid sales lingo and superlatives. Consider what will grab the attention of an editor or producer and encourage them to do a story on your school. Make a list of media contacts and send press releases on a regular basis. For more, read “ Sending Out Press Releases.”

Other means of generating free publicity include:

• Viral Marketing (or word of mouth marketing): There are several ways to launch a viral marketing campaign, including an online newsletter, online discounts for merchandise or books from the school bookstore or even e-cards from your Web site.
• Visibility: Make sure you are on and have great reviews on GreatSchools.com, Education.com and other sites that promote schools.  Make sure your school is listed on Google Maps. Give out school bumper stickers, t-shirts, notebooks and pens to students and public.  Offer free weekend seminars at school or, to reach a wider audience, at a nearby community college. Topics can range from how to have a better relationship with your child to how to help your child improve his grades.
• Awards: Create an award and present it to someone who is notable to your demographic group and has some connection with your community.
• Barter: Make deals with other smaller schools or local businesses.  Is your school near an event venue?  Offer parking at your school in exchange for advertising.  Give free ad space in your yearbook in exchange for posting flyers about your school.
• High-Profile Individuals: Get information about your school to people with high visibility in hopes that they will talk about it in view of other people and/or the media.  My school recently got a mention in a large magazine because of a great job one of our teachers did in tutoring a child of the person being interviewed.
• Groups: Start a mommy-and-me group for siblings too young to attend school yet, offer a seminar series for parents, start a book club, or other type of group that can meet and talk about your products or services.
• Business Gatherings: Sign up for and pass out promotional items at school fairs that preschools and communities offer to help community members find schools for young children.
• Speaking Engagements: Offer to be a speaker at seminars, conferences and other functions. You can even teach a class.

Find more information on generating sales leads for your business at AllBusiness.com.

Adapted from an article by AllBusiness.com

Word of the day (complements of the 7^th grade)

Sabotage: Noun.

1) The destruction of buildings, factories, roads, etc., especially by enemy agents or civilians resisting an invading army.

2) The destruction of machines, tools, etc., by workers during a labor dispute.

3) Any harm done to some effort to get it to fail.

And some history: Nobody knows just when the French began to use the word sabotage. It was probably formed a number of years ago when children found to their delight that, clattering together in their clumsy wooden sabots, they could drive their teachers or their parents to distraction. At least, in some such manner, sabotage came to signify any kind of nuisance that might or would bring about a desired end. But in 1887 it acquired a more sinister meaning. In that year the French General Confederation of Labor adopted sabotage as an instrument of industrial warfare. It was to include any kind of malicious damage that would injure an employer in any way – the disablement of machinery by dropping sand in its bearings, the destruction of tools, destruction of belting, spoilage of raw material – anything at all that was calculated to force an employer to yield to a demand by labor. The term came into English use by journalists in describing a long and disastrous strike upon the railway lines in France, at which time all the principles of sabotage were put into practice.

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here. If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

February 3rd, 2010

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

Right now it’s more important than ever to realize we are all marketers for our schools, no matter what position we hold.  In the way we dress, in our attitude and manner toward public and fellow faculty, or simply in how well we make our campus look, we can and do make an impact on the way our schools are viewed.

All of the above contributes to the experience the students have and how your school as a whole comes off.  The fact is, the better your school does, the more job security you have and the higher your paycheck.

For this reason, I like to include ideas that teachers, as well as administrators, can use to keep students and parents happy and spreading excellent word-of-mouth advertising.

Happy reading!

Grammar Every Morning

Grammar is one of those subjects that takes consistent repeating and practice to learn, understand and remember.  For this reason, I start each day with a mini lesson.  For instance, I will have the class review what an adverb is with examples, and then I will pass out a short work page to reinforce the lesson and find any students who don’t understand.  The students know that as soon as they finish the work page they are to put it on my desk and get started on their reading assignments.  During the day the pages are corrected, and anyone who needs help gets it.  In a few short months my class has become very proficient in parts of speech, sentence structure and elements of sentence construction.  I have a workbook that correlates with the grade I teach, and my class covers a page a day.  It’s fun, quick and the results are impressive!

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” – George Washington Carver

February is black history month and a great excuse to delve deep into the Civil Rights movement.  With my theme worked out, I break it down into four parts; George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. and for a really fun time we wrap it up by boogying down to a CD of jazz music that includes Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald while I read books about these innovative musicians.

A fun and easy lesson plan that’s also good marketing!

The main source of income for my school is the tuition payments parents make, and the largest source of new students into the school, by far, is word of mouth.  Knowing that my paycheck depends on happy parents, I’m always looking for ways to excite parents and inspire them to send more prospective students to our school.  For this reason, I make sure really great student work goes home regularly – especially something the child or parent will want to show off.  For example, we have a once-a-week science lesson, and I always take pictures of the kids doing the experiment.  Then I have the students use the pictures in a “science journal”.

The journal we are currently working on is an accordion type book (so easy!) with a photo and just a few lines explaining what they did or learned during the experiment.  We’ve also made them by just cutting construction paper in half, making two holes in the top for book rings and laminating the front and back cover.

You better believe that when my students take a book like this home, they show it to everybody!

Here is a link to a site for instructions on making accordion books:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4884237_make-accordion-fold-books.html

If you have a minute, check out the following video clip. It is a beautiful story of Johnny, the grocery store bagger. It is very short, but it will remind you of why and how we make an impact in what we do. You may even want to share it with others and I hope you will.  It might just make their day, too.

http://www.simpletruths.com/simpletruths/a.aspx?af=219&mo=stsr

Word of the day (complements of the 7^th grade)

Sarcasm: Adjective. Remarks that mean the opposite of what they seem to say and are intended to hurt or make someone feel foolish.

We also went over the story of where this word came from. The Greeks loved metaphor. They loved to compare human emotions and human tendencies with the actions or traits exhibited by animals. And, because dogs were ever at hand for purposes of comparison, the ways of the dog served as convenient and well-understood metaphor. Thus they took the word sarkazo and gave it a figurative meaning. Literally it meant “to tear flesh” after the manner of dogs, to snap and rip. The physical effect upon the animal or person thus attacked by a fierce dog was so similar to the mental effect resulting from a sharp and stinging taunt or gibe that sarkazo seemed perfectly fitted to the latter meaning also. The caustic remark became sarkasmos. Altered by Latin sarcasmus, this ultimately became English sarcasm.

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The Newsletter for Educators

January 25^th, 2010

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

A couple of years ago during a continuing education class, I received an assignment to go to another school that taught the same grade as I did and to meet the teachers, see the classrooms and ask questions.  I was to make a list of things that were similar and a list of things that were different from my school.  I ended up getting to talk to the Principal, teachers, students and even a parent who was volunteering that day.

It was such an enlightening and interesting experience.  I had a great time and came away with lots of smart ideas that I could apply to my class, as well as feeling pretty good about my school and my abilities as a teacher.  Although I had a lot of respect for the people I met, I also developed an increased appreciation for the way things were done at my school.  It was a truly win-win activity.

Now I’m an administrator (as well as teaching my own 3^rd grade class) and in considering how much I learned and grew from that assignment, I decided to visit all the top schools in my area.  Each time I do, I acquire new perspectives, as well as great ideas and inspiration.

Get started by calling a school you are interested in seeing.  Tell them you’d like to make an appointment to tour their school. Be straightforward about your motives; you are a teacher and have heard many great things about their school. You’d like the opportunity to come see for yourself.  Another option is to check their web site for the date of their next open house and add yourself to their list of attendees.  I’ve received a warm welcome at each school I’ve seen.

I highly recommend this activity to all teachers and administrators!

“Kobe as pa jet men”

The words above are Haitian, and the phrase translates literally as “this is not a game.”  Those words were used by Partners In Health employee Cate Oswald to describe the utter devastation she saw while driving through Port Au Prince today, delivering two trucks of supplies to doctors who, until those trucks arrived, had only aspirin with which to treat the wounded who were living, and dying, in their care. You can read more about what Cate and other front-line care providers are confronting in near real-time on the Partners In Health website, www.pih.org.  I know that many of you are looking for ways to contribute to the enormous effort that is required to meet the immediate needs of those wounded and made homeless by the earthquake – donating to PIH is a fantastic way to do that.  Their commitment to Haiti is unlimited – and as usual, they are doing whatever it takes to meet the needs of the people in their care.  Their long experience working in Haiti means they will likely prove critical to leveraging the abilities of other aid organizations to deliver care in this chaotic environment.  And of course, they will be there long after the first and most public phase of this crisis is over, continuing to meet the long-term needs of these stricken communities which, given our short cultural attention spans, will be anonymous again long before their recovery is secured. 
Please – consider a donation to this amazing organization, in any amount, large or small.  They can do so much for Haiti right now.  Help them do it.  Donate at www.pih.org .

Make a donation to these guys, I did. Their website makes it easy. They are on the up and up. Whatever you can do to help!!!

Here’s a couple of YOU TUBE videos I enjoyed so I thought I’d share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TF3fn_Bm3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnbtr1cL8rY

A Neat Timer Product

Time Tracker® Tags

Portable timers make it easy to keep track of up to 3 people wherever they are. • Lets you easily program and monitor each timer via the base station, which can also display digital time • Helps kids develop a natural sense of elapsed time as timers count up or down • Includes 3 timers with light and optional audio alarms, 30-second warning, and belt clips and wristbands for easy portability

http://www.universalmania.com/ssproduct.asp?pf_id=1011704771

“The anguish of low quality lingers long after the sweetness of low cost is forgotten.”

-    Unknown author, suggested by Peter Gregory

This site is free and offers some good activities, writing projects and worksheets.  It also lists many schools across the nation.  Make sure your school has good reviews!

http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/

Dr. Pepi is a natural doctor.  I signed up for her free health tips and I really enjoy them. You can too at

http://www.drpepi.com/

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here. If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

January 11^th, 2010

Please forward this newsletter to fellow teachers, administrators and anyone else who may benefit from it.  To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

I hope you all got off to a great start after the winter break.  I hadn’t planned on getting out another newsletter so soon, but there was just so much to share that I felt I must.  In this “mini edition”, I hope you will find something you can use to improve your class and school!

Looking Forward to Spring

Last year, my class decided to plant a garden and do experiments for science class.  The perimeter of the playground at our school was landscaped but had sections that needed to be replanted.  We picked a small section, and I brought some tools from home that the students took turns using.  We got a parent to buy some soil amendment and seeds.  We pulled the weeds, turned the old soil and worked in the amendment.  We then followed the instructions on the back of the seed packages and planted a combination of flowers and vegetables.  I must say, so much excitement was created over the garden that other classes begged to join in, and our little project exploded. Seeds were planted in every nook and cranny, and many kids used their lunch and recess planting and pulling weeds!  I think the students were most excited about the radishes because they came up so fast, and the sunflowers because they were so striking and easy (we planted the giant ones).

Before school started in September, the whole playground was professionally landscaped, and it’s so pretty that I wouldn’t want to go sticking random seeds in the ground and disrupting the uniformity of the carefully selected plants.  At the same time I didn’t want to deprive my students from the wonderful educational experience they received from gardening.

With spring coming I started thinking about were we could plant.  I went on a walk around the campus and noticed an area of blacktop that was never used.  I talked to a parent that loves gardening and we started coming up with ideas for a school wide community garden using raised beds.

I must say, this has become such a popular project with an unlimited number of educational applications, from science to campus beautification.  The students could even “sell” space for families to use to plant their own organic vegetable gardens for the small fee of soil and seeds J

Here are some links that may be helpful in getting your project started:

How to plant a garden:

http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/howgardn.htm

How to plant a raised bed garden:

http://www.wikihow.com/Construct-a-Raised-Planting-Bed

These premade raised beds are pricy but so easy and they look great:

http://eartheasy.com/store/proddetail.php?prod=3636

These are self-watering raised beds:

http://www.gardeners.com/Self-Watering-Raised-Beds/VegetableGardening_RaisedBeds,17403,default,cp.html

The willow products offered at this site are so beautiful: http://www.mastergardenproducts.com/willowraisedbed.htm Planters are in the $30 to $40 range and raised beds start around $60 (plus you’ll need to buy a liner).  If funds are limited, order one a month (or get parents to pledge one a month).

Pretty garden gallery for great ideas:

http://www.waterwillows.com/page9.htm

Barrels offered at your local home improvement store are another great (and less expensive) option. Try writing a letter or talking to the manager and asking for donations (they will often give them to schools). Our school has received donations from OSH and Do-It Center.

If you have any parents that are gardeners ask them for help.  You can also try getting in touch with local garden clubs or schools that offer horticulture and see if anyone there would be willing to help or advise your class on their project.  Happy gardening!

My Students LOVE LEGOS

The 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade classes at my school have been participating in LEGO League for the past several years with great success.  The younger students have also had a LEGO club run by a parent volunteer.  They meet once a week after school in the science lab to make robots and experiment with robots and simple programming.  Next year we will expand the LEGO club into a Junior LEGO League Team.  If you’d like to get more information on offering this exciting program at your school, here are some links for you:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/content.aspx?id=398

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/jfll/default.aspx?id=818

http://www.ehow.com/how_2124218_start-junior-lego-league-team.html

LEGO^® Education and LEGO Club are offering your school the opportunity to share exclusive LEGO Club School Edition Magazines with your first-, second-, and third-grade students, for FREE!

Explore the depths of the ocean with this FREE offer from LEGO Education and LEGO Club.  Visit www.LEGOeducation.us/MagazineRequest to submit your order today.

I have never applied for a grant but it’s something I plan on exploring in the next few months. If there are educators who have some suggestions to share, please forward them and I’ll include them in an upcoming issue.  Here is a link from Teacher Planet that looks very helpful:http://www.grants4teachers.com/

More Martin Luther King Jr. lesson plans from Teacher Planet available at the following link:http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/martinlutherking.php

This is a video that was submitted to a contest by a 20-year old.   The contest was titled “u @ 50″ and sponsored by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awestruck and broke into spontaneous applause.  Simply brilliant, brilliantly simple. Take a minute and watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here. If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

January 2010

Happy New Year!  For Learnatopia, twenty-ten is off to a great start.  We have a new look and format that we hope you’ll find even better than our last one.  Your feedback has been very helpful and much appreciated, so we hope you’ll keep it up.  You can contact us by email at any time at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder.

In the coming year we are looking forward to helping educators and school administrators make it their best year ever by supplying them with practical suggestions, easy-to-use flexible lesson plans, inspirational information, interesting news and anything else that we think will make your job (and your day) a little easier.  The more subscribers there are, the better the newsletter gets so please be sure to forward it to as many of your fellow educators as possible.

To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here.

Kick your Valentine lesson up a notch

I was in a bookstore recently and stumbled across the book “Why We Are a Family: 100 Reasons” by Gregory Lang. I thought it was a very sweet book, and it was so simple my 3^rdgrade class could adapt the concept to make a valentine for their parents that would become a keepsake for years to come.

I started the lesson by asking my students for some examples of special qualities their families had.  What were they most proud of about their families? What did they love most about their families?  After getting some really good answers, I presented the book and read a few examples out of it. Then I asked for more examples from the class.  Each time the examples slowed down I read a few examples from the book.  When it seemed like the creative juices of my students were really flowing, I handed out paper and asked for a list of special qualities specific to their family.  What do you do each Sunday morning?  Do you make breakfast?  Watch cartoons? Go see Grandma?  Each student was required to come up with at least 10 entries.

Next I gave the students construction paper and had them lightly draw a large heart shape.  When they were happy with their shape, I had them stack a couple a pieces of paper on top of the drawing and cut out the heart.  I had them cut enough for a cover, a back and several pages for the middle of the book.  I also had them cut writing paper in the same shape, which they glued to the cutout construction hearts.

On the cover the students wrote their title, “Why We are a Family”.  The next page was a dedication to their family such as “Happy Valentine’s Day Mom and Dad” (or whatever was suitable for their family).  On the next page the students wrote, “We are a family because…” The pages after that contained the student’s lists (“We make French toast every weekend”).

The last page was saved for the date and I encouraged the students to bring in a picture for a nice touch.  The books can be bound by sewing them together, with ribbon, yarn, staples or book rings.

My class had such a great time making these Valentine books they didn’t even realize they were writing a book, and their parents loved them!

Book Review

Meet Martin Luther King Jr (Landmark Books) by James T. De Kay

Martin Luther King day is Monday, the 18^th of January 2010. Each year I kick January off by reading this book aloud.  If my class is younger, I may leave the more complicated parts out and change some of the words, if the class is older I may assign some research that correlates with the subject matter from the book.

After we finish reading the book I hand out a writing assignment that begins “I have a dream” and the students have to come up with their own dreams for their community or mankind.  Depending on the age of my class the students may make their dreams into mobiles, essays or any number of possibilities, which I always have them decorate and put up on the walls.  I feel it’s important for the parents to see what their children are learning. Additionally, putting the work on the walls of the classroom helps to keep the students’ ideals fresh in their minds, creating a good atmosphere for all of us.

Last year I gathered my students around my computer and using youtube.com, we watched Dr. King give his famous speech.

Another assignment my students have fun with is writing a letter to Dr. King. They ask him questions, acknowledge him for his services to the community and give him their own opinions and thoughts about the information they received from our reading the book.

Gee, I really hope you don’t need this,

but it’s always good to have information about the treatment and, most importantly, the prevention of head lice close at hand.

For basic information:

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;110/3/638

http://www.headlice.org/index.html

For treatment:

This site was highly recommended by a pediatrician’s office for the treatment of lice.  They say that if the directions are followed, it works 100% of the time.http://www.ehow.com/how_2123367_treat-head-lice-cetaphil.html

For prevention:

The following link provides good information about things you can do at home to keep the situation from spreading (or keep from getting it in the first place)

http://lacetoleather.com/keepliceaway.html

Although I found the products on the pricy side, this site has some interesting information and you may be able to figure out a homemade version of the bag.

www.bugbagusa.com

Quotes for you to enjoy:

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

- Albert Einstein

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

- Theodore Roosevelt

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

-      George Washington

I found this news story ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING so I thought I’d share it with you: http://www.fox8.com/wjw-reincarnation-txt,0,1190900.story

The 7^th grade students attending the school I teach at are encouraged to make note of new vocabulary words they encounter in their reading and find the correct definition in their dictionary.  They keep a list of these words each day.

To have some added fun with this, the teacher suggested that the students come up with a “word of the day” from that list which is then emailed to the school faculty every afternoon via their teacher. We all enjoy reading the middle school “word of the day”, and the students get a kick out of it when we comment to them on it (usually through replying to their emails).

Recently we got six new words in one day!

Malarkey: Noun. Insincere, meaningless or deliberately misleading talk; nonsense.

Prodigious: Adjective. 1) Wonderful, amazing. 2) of great size power or extent.

Somnolent: Adjective. 1) Sleepy or drowsy. 2) Making someone sleepy or drowsy.

Glockenspiel: Noun. A musical instrument with tuned metal bars in a frame: it is played with one or two hammers and produces bell-like tones.

Inexorable: Adjective. Not able to be stopped, altered, etc.

Desolate: Adjective. 1) Left alone, lonely. 2) Not lived in; deserted 3) Ruined or destroyed 4) Very unhappy Verb. 1) Make unfit; ruin; destroy 2) Make unhappy or miserable.

To which one of our staff replied with a the following sentence:

May you never be made to feel desolate because of some somnolent malarkey but rather be inexorably inspired by superfluous music from a prodigious, glockenspiel player!!!

You can contact us any time by email at Learnatopia@yahoo.com. Please add us to your contacts list so the newsletter doesn’t wind up in your spam folder. To make sure you never miss an edition of our newsletter, please subscribe by clicking here If you are no longer interested in receiving our newsletter reply to this email and type unsubscribe in the subject field.

The Newsletter for Educators

For me, November is a time to delve deeply into American History. Using Thanksgiving as a springboard, the students in my school learn about Columbus, the Pilgrims and Colonial times.  Rather than holding a Thanksgiving feast with no context connected to it, we spend the month learning the history that surrounds the holiday and reinforcing the lessons by using read-aloud books, making timelines, learning poems and songs, and creating class projects that culminate in a “Colonial Festival” for parents to enjoy.  This year we ordered pilgrim hats and Indian headdresses, which we put together in class and the students wore during the festival.  Each class from kindergarten through 3^rd grade took turns reciting classic American poems, singing colonial songs, acting out simple Thanksgiving stories which I picked up from the library and then sampling food which we spent part of the day making (I found simple recipes online).  The students all had fun and learned so much.  Plus they enjoyed sharing what they’d learned with their parents who loved being involved.

Here are some links to food we enjoyed:

Jiffy corn pudding: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1850,153170-231206,00.html

Hoe cakes: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,164,144184-249192,00.html

Butter: http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/butter.html or http://gomestic.com/do-it-yourself/how-to-make-butter-with-kids-shake-it-shake-it-hard/Hint-put two marbles in with the butter.  It goes much faster!

Applesauce: http://www.ehow.com/how_4713604_applesauce-slow-cooker.html

We also served beef jerky, crackers, cheese, popcorn and apple cider.  Fun!

This is a link to a really great Indian Headdress lesson:

http://www.familycorner.com/family/kids/crafts/indian_headdress.shtml

I’m looking for an equally great lesson for pilgrim hat for next year.  Please let me know if you find one!

Book Review

Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 – Rafe Esquith

The New York Times bestseller that is revolutionizing the way Americans educate their kids—“Rafe Esquith is a genius and a saint” (The New York Times)