Testing season is in full swing across the country. Everyone is feeling the pressure. As a cheerleader for both students and staff, I offer one simple idea: laughter. As far as I know, nobody ever died from a giggle. If they did, I really don't want to know about it.
Kids love, love, love our joke and riddle books. I can hardly keep them on the shelf in the library. The poor books live a rough life...they are literally "loved to death". They are usually not Accelerated Reader books, but what the heck. Those silly books are probably one of our greatest teaching tools for language: vocabulary, metaphors, use of quotation marks - you name it. If our students can understand the subtle and not so subtle meanings in humor, then we have truly arrived as educators of the mind and heart.
Listed here is the link from Merlot
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=329573
This is the link for the article for humor in teaching.
http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue6_2/garner.html
So put on those funny glasses with the rubber nose that you have been keeping in the desk drawer and tell a joke and diagram the sentence of the punch line. You've done several things...taught a valuable skill in grammar and made yourself and the kids feel good about learning.
"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose." ~Woody Allen
Until the next chapter, be good!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Hit or Myth: The Lightning Thief
Greetings!
This past weekend my hubby and I went to see The Lightning Thief. I was fresh off of reading the book about a week before. I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for about five years. I was fortunate enough to have seen the author, Rick Riordan, as a guest speaker at a dinner. I was fasinated by the whole primise of a modern teen finding out that he was the son of Posidon the god of the sea.
Well, I loved the book -- I saw everything play out in my mind's eye. Well, the movie was "different". Chris Columbus did a very good job with setting up the plot at the start...even though the meeting of Zeus and Poseidon on the deck of the Empire State Building didn't happen that way in the book.
The movie can stand by its own merits, and is done well. It is sure to please its targeted audience of pre-teens and teens and it is pretty much family-friendly. The character, Grover, the satur, does get a bit "frisky" making eyes with the ladies, so it might be a bit PG-13 for some parents.
When it comes to comparing books and movies, its "apples and oranges". Books like the Lightning Thief have a hard time being confined to the restrictions given to the movie makers. Cuts and rearrangements become necessary. I was very disappointed that the character, Clarisse, seems to have been written out. As the daughter of Ares, god of war, she is a tough cookie and does factor in the later books of the series.
I do recommend this movie and hope that it and the upcoming Clash of the Titans will encourage and foster an interest in people picking up that dusty copy of mythology and seeing what treasures await them on Mount Olympus.
Here is a link to visit with the author, Rick Riordan:
www.rickriordan.com
Until the next chapter, be good!
This past weekend my hubby and I went to see The Lightning Thief. I was fresh off of reading the book about a week before. I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for about five years. I was fortunate enough to have seen the author, Rick Riordan, as a guest speaker at a dinner. I was fasinated by the whole primise of a modern teen finding out that he was the son of Posidon the god of the sea.
Well, I loved the book -- I saw everything play out in my mind's eye. Well, the movie was "different". Chris Columbus did a very good job with setting up the plot at the start...even though the meeting of Zeus and Poseidon on the deck of the Empire State Building didn't happen that way in the book.
The movie can stand by its own merits, and is done well. It is sure to please its targeted audience of pre-teens and teens and it is pretty much family-friendly. The character, Grover, the satur, does get a bit "frisky" making eyes with the ladies, so it might be a bit PG-13 for some parents.
When it comes to comparing books and movies, its "apples and oranges". Books like the Lightning Thief have a hard time being confined to the restrictions given to the movie makers. Cuts and rearrangements become necessary. I was very disappointed that the character, Clarisse, seems to have been written out. As the daughter of Ares, god of war, she is a tough cookie and does factor in the later books of the series.
I do recommend this movie and hope that it and the upcoming Clash of the Titans will encourage and foster an interest in people picking up that dusty copy of mythology and seeing what treasures await them on Mount Olympus.
Here is a link to visit with the author, Rick Riordan:
www.rickriordan.com
Until the next chapter, be good!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
"Lions and Tigers and Blogs - OH MY!"
Like Dorthy from The Wizard of Oz, I am entering a magical new territory...a lot of it new and a bit scary! Please come with me on this adventure and hopefully have some fun. It takes a leap of faith to publish something that maybe read by a whole dozen people on the old WWW. I hope to keep up with this blog on at least a weekly basis.
How does one start a blog? Well, first of all you have to come up with some really catchy idea...or at the very least something that might not give others a migraine. I pretty much settled for the latter. Keep the Tylenol handy just in case.
Next, find a free blog site -- I went with herd on this one and went to http://www.blogger.com/
Just follow the directions...there is the rub...there are so many things to set up! I so wanted to be cool and download a lovely background and such...well, you're getting a template in the meantime -- I have high hopes for the future.
Now, the big question: Why would I want to do a blog? Well, er...because it's there? I follow tons of blogs and figured that if "they" could do it, so could I. I hope I'm right on this.
Until the next chapter - be good!
How does one start a blog? Well, first of all you have to come up with some really catchy idea...or at the very least something that might not give others a migraine. I pretty much settled for the latter. Keep the Tylenol handy just in case.
Next, find a free blog site -- I went with herd on this one and went to http://www.blogger.com/
Just follow the directions...there is the rub...there are so many things to set up! I so wanted to be cool and download a lovely background and such...well, you're getting a template in the meantime -- I have high hopes for the future.
Now, the big question: Why would I want to do a blog? Well, er...because it's there? I follow tons of blogs and figured that if "they" could do it, so could I. I hope I'm right on this.
Until the next chapter - be good!
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