Honoring the Deserving

Last Friday was Veteran’s Day. Maybe it was me and this always happened and I hadn’t paid attention. Or maybe this year more attention was made for honoring veterans. I noticed the usual town celebrations which are always a nice thing. But this year, there were more news stories about businesses giving free meals and services for military personnel and veterans. I saw these listed on local websites also. So, for the first time, we took advantage of one of these honors and went to Applebees so my husband (a veteran) could get a free meal.

All of the servers were wearing the same tshirt honoring Veteran’s Day. There was even a book to sign in that would be sent to those serving in Afghanistan. My husband was thanked for his service by the servers, managers, and even other diners. What a wonderful feeling of honor and celebration. It made me feel even more proud to be an American and warmed my heart..

Then I began thinking about honoring our teachers. I know we have Teacher’s Day sometime in the year but I’m not even sure of the “official” date. In the news, it seems like we hear all of the negative things that are going on in the school and crimes committed by teachers. The media seems to revel in the bad news.

I even see on one station that there is a “Golden Apple Award” for different teachers each week. I think that is a nice gesture but I also wonder if it makes the community complacent. I have heard people say that they don’t really pay that much attention to it. Someone has to nominate this teacher which is good if you have literate parents and students. But what about those who teach students who are either too young or not able to even fill out the nomination form? Many of the students in my special education class had parents that had learning problems themselves or the parents were so busy trying to survive that they didn’t have time for this nomination form.

I’m not saying that teachers make the same life sacrifices as veterans but let’s face it, everyone has had a teacher. Usually they had one teacher who impacted their lives. But I think we have watered down the appreciation system to where many really don’t seem to appreciate teachers and the difference they have made in many lives.

I think it is great to recognize great teachers and they should be recognized. But how do we get this positive attention to the forefront? How do we move it ahead of all the negative press? How do we get to where being honored really feels like an honor rather than lip service? I don’t have the answeres to these questions but it weighs on my mind often.

What do you think? What suggestions do you have?

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 11/11/11

  Happy Veteran's Day to all of those in the USA! Thank you for all that you have done to keep us free!

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!
Channel Me – “Surf the Web Together with Online Friends Beyond link sharing or screen sharing, Channel lets you navigate through the same website with one or more friends.”
Open Study – “Make the world your study group”
Geosense – “Test your knowledge of world geography alone or against another online player.”
Mathematics in Movies – “This is a collection of movie clips in which Mathematics appears. To see the movies larger, or to see it on the iphone/ipad or to include a clip into a presentation, chose the quicktime ipod version. These are the files with .m4v extension.”
A Book and a Hug – “Welcome to ABookandaHug where young readers can now write their own reviews of their favorite books.”
Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).
Original Image: Pat Hensley

Lovelies by Loony

I have finally opened a store on Etsy to sell some of my handmade stuff. The store is called Lovelies by Loony and can be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/loveliesbyloony. I have enjoyed knitting many things and have started to run out of room. I thought if I sold some stuff, I can make room for new things. It is really hard to part with some of the things but I remind myself that I can always look at the pictures. I will sell some of my knitted projects, some yarn that I spin, and some shawl pins. I just hope others enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed making them. I thought some people might be interested in buying some holiday or birthday presents.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Podcast: Episode 12 November Highlights

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Blog – http://successfulteaching.net

Email me at successfulteaching@gmail.com

Yes I Can by Danny O’Flaherty from his Secret Garden CD. : http://www.dannyoflaherty.com

Mathematics in Movies – “This is a collection of movie clips in which Mathematics appears. To see the movies larger, or to see it on the iphone/ipad or to include a clip into a presentation, chose the quicktime ipod version. These are the files with .m4v extension.” http://www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/mathmovies/index.html

The Great Hamster Massacre - A Book Review

I recently read the book The Great Hamster Massacre by Katie Davies and illustrated by Hannah Shaw which was mentioned on The Picnic Basket. This is the review that I gave the book (I am not being paid to give this review):

I thought this book would be a cute book for older elementary students and early middle school students. The title is definitely appealing to students and the illustrations and fonts in the book make this a fun book to read.

As for the story, it was an okay story but I’m afraid students may get bored with it before the story ends. I was disappointed by the ending because I felt it was a little flat. When I have my students write, I encourage them to have a conclusion and I felt this story lacked a conclusion. The title and parts of the story lead to the Great Hamster Massacre and then when it happens; it seemed kind of a letdown because it seemed to be mentioned in passing.

I would give this book a 3 out of 5.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).