A Swinging Pendulum...

Birthday Celebrations at School Ah! Birthdays at school! What a great time to be a kid! To be that kid that brings in the yummy treats! I know my son was a 'best friend' to all one day when I sent in eight different boxes of Little Debbie treats so all of the kids could pick what they wanted. I told him to make sure that these are eaten AT LUNCH time. Your teacher has plans for the entire day and it does not include eating Cosmic Brownies and Honey Buns! Hopefully, all allergy-prone children found something they could eat, as well.  Then I let his teacher keep the rest and use them however she would like.  Quick, easy, yummy!  And, unfortunately, filled with sugar. How many times do our children consume sugar when we don't know about it? Some would say, "It's no big deal. They are kids. It's a part of growing up."  However when we consider the childhood obesity rate increasing in America, I did feel a tinge of guilt sending in the quick and easy sugar...

Long Division....  Why do we teach this monotonous process of division? Why?  Kids cry and start to hate math. In reality, very few will EVER use that process to divide. Most will resort to using a calculator because the process they were taught takes too long to use to get to the correct answer.  By the time they solve for that "zero" answer, or that "remainder" answer, the student thinks the answer to the never-ending subtraction problem is the actual answer to the division problem! The don't realize the numbers ON TOP of the division bar form the actual answer to the division problem! Why don't we teach short division? It is the regrouping method comparable to addition, subtraction and multiplication. When I teach this to my students, the end up enjoying division. Their response, "That's all it is?" What is short division? Here it is in a nut shell: The Math Page: Short Division (CREDIT: http://themathpage.com/ARITH/divide-who...

So, normally when we go to our family cabin, I follow a bit of a routine. After we all unpack the car, I like to make the outside of the cabin look lived-in. In other words, I sweep off the patio, clear off the driveway of fallen tree branches...and sometimes limbs from storms, and I clean off the patio furniture. Finally, I sweep off the siding to get rid of the cob webs and spider webs. But before I started clearing off the siding, I noticed several spider webs. These spider webs still had the spiders on them. In addition, I found a HUGE spider web spanning 20 feet at least across the driveway and patio connecting a tree to our cabin via silk! Well, I couldn't knock down the webs. I guess I thought about Charlotte in Charlotte's Web and just left the webs alone. However, I didn't ignore them. So, I began studying them. Most of you would not be surprised to read that. It's Labor Day weekend with beautiful weather. We are on a lake. People are enjoying the last of s...

Hey? Did you know there is going to be an eclipse on Monday, August 21st? If you don't, where have you been, under a moon rock?   There are MANY things to do during an eclipse.  However, you need to prepare! Prepare to View the Eclipse: To view an eclipse safely, you must have proper eye protection. The eclipse glasses MUST have the following code printed on them: ISO 12312-2. Here is an information pic for you to review for proper eye protection: (picture source:  https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/glasses.png ) To wear your glasses properly: 1. Go outside. 2. Stand with sun to your back. 3. Close your eyes. 4. Put your eclipse glasses on. 5. Open your eyes 6. Slowly turn around until you see the sun. 7. Leave glasses on until you are not looking at the eclipse/sun anymore. 8. Then move your head downward. 9. Turn around. 10. Close your eyes. 11. Take your glasses off. 12. Slowly open your eyes and slowly look up AWAY from the sun. ...

Summer vacation is coming to a close. So sad. To some. Some parents are planning end-of-summer parties that will start promptly at 9am on the first day of school! Of course, there are some parents who will just go to work like they have done all summer long. No matter how the end of summer is recognized by your family, there are a few who really even question summer vacation in the first place. Many like to claim summer vacation isn't needed any more because we aren't an "agrarian" society anymore. Supposedly, summer vacations existed because kids were needed to work on the family farms. Really? Kids were needed to work on farms, in the summer, as plants were .... what... growing?  What did they do, watch plants grow?  Spring break occurred for spring planting, fall break existed for fall harvest, but summer vacation was for ... what? Guess what? It had NOTHING to do with our farming families so stop blaming them! Summer vacations started because city children wer...

It's that time of year! School Supply time! Yay! And there was great rejoicing.....NOT! To many parents, school supply lists are crazy! Gone are the days kids needed just pencils, erasers and paper! However, the history of school supplies is kind of interesting, well, to me that is!  The earliest school supply list dates back to 1450 in England when students were required to provide their own Hornbook .  What's a hornbook? It was a wooden tablet (think of a board with a handle at the bottom or top to hold like a fan.). Then thin paper was placed over the letters for the student to copy the letters. Quotes, scriptures, or sayings may also have been on different horn books for students to memorize. In the early 1800s, students in America would need slates , chalk and books. Slates are the original version of our handheld dry erase boards! Students practiced writing spelling words, math problems and answering other questions. The teacher would review the work for accuracy and...

PBL vs. PBL Project-Based Learning vs. Problem-Based Learning Is there a difference? Yes! Project-Based Learning is a learning process in which students learn through completing projects that revolve around real world problems. Project-Based Learning is when a problem is presented to a student, group of students or a class, and they discuss possible solutions. Project Based learning is focusing on the problem, identifying affected parties, and determining a solution to resolve the problem. Now, the solution could lead into a prototype, working model, poster displaying solution ideas, writing letters, making web pages, informing the public, and more.  Project-Based learning can also occur when student(s) identify their OWN problem to study, or identify their own problems in a given topic. Project-based learning span over time - a few weeks and up to a school year. Examples of Project-Based Learning are science projects that address a question students have and the stude...