Archive for the “Uncategorized” Category

10 Ways to Go Green and Save Green

1) Save energy to save money.
–Set your thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and a few degrees higher in the summer to save on heating and cooling costs.
–Install compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) when your older incandescent bulbs burn out.
–Unplug appliances when you’re not using them. Or, use a “smart” power strip that senses when appliances are off and cuts “phantom” or “vampire” energy use.
–Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible. As much as 85 percent of the energy used to machine-wash clothes goes to heating the water.
–Use a drying rack or clothesline to save the energy otherwise used during machine drying.

2) Save water to save money.
–Take shorter showers to reduce water use. This will lower your water and heating bills too.
–Install a low-flow showerhead. They don’t cost much, and the water and energy savings can quickly pay back your investment.
–Make sure you have a faucet aerator on each faucet. These inexpensive appliances conserve heat and water, while keeping water pressure high.
–Plant drought-tolerant native plants in your garden. Many plants need minimal watering. Find out which occur naturally in your area.

3) Less gas = more money (and better health!).
–Walk or bike to work. This saves on gas and parking costs while improving your cardiovascular health and reducing your risk of obesity.
–Consider telecommuting if you live far from your work. Or move closer. Even if this means paying more rent, it could save you money in the long term.
–Lobby your local government to increase spending on sidewalks and bike lanes. With little cost, these improvements can pay huge dividends in bettering your health and reducing traffic.

4) Eat smart.
–If you eat meat, add one meatless meal a week. Meat costs a lot at the store-and it’s even more expensive when you consider the related environmental and health costs.
–Buy locally raised, humane, and organic meat, eggs, and dairy whenever you can. Purchasing from local farmers keeps money in the local economy.
–Watch videos about why local food and sustainable seafood are so great.
–Whatever your diet, eat low on the food chain [pdf]. This is especially true for seafood.

5) Skip the bottled water.
–Use a water filter to purify tap water instead of buying bottled water. Not only is bottled water expensive, but it generates large amounts of container waste.
–Bring a reusable water bottle, preferably aluminum rather than plastic, with you when traveling or at work.
–Check out this short article for the latest on bottled water trends.

6) Think before you buy.
–Go online to find new or gently used secondhand products. Whether
you’ve just moved or are looking to redecorate, consider a service like craigslist or FreeSharing to track down furniture, appliances, and other items cheaply or for free.
–Check out garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops for clothing and other everyday items.
–When making purchases, make sure you know what’s “Good Stuff” and what isn’t.
–Watch a video about what happens when you buy things. Your purchases have a real impact, for better or worse.

7) Borrow instead of buying.
–Borrow from libraries instead of buying personal books and movies. This saves money, not to mention the ink and paper that goes into printing new books.
–Share power tools and other appliances. Get to know your neighbors while cutting down on the number of things cluttering your closet or garage.

8 ) Buy smart.
–Buy in bulk. Purchasing food from bulk bins can save money and packaging.
–Wear clothes that don’t need to be dry-cleaned. This saves money and cuts down on toxic chemical use.
–Invest in high-quality, long-lasting products. You might pay more now, but you’ll be happy when you don’t have to replace items as frequently (and this means less waste!).

9) Keep electronics out of the trash.
–Keep your cell phones, computers, and other electronics as long as possible.
–Donate or recycle them responsibly when the time comes. E-waste contains mercury and other toxics and is a growing environmental problem.
–Recycle your cell phone.
–Ask your local government to set up an electronics recycling and hazardous waste collection event.

10) Make your own cleaning supplies.
–The big secret: you can make very effective, non-toxic cleaning products whenever you need them. All you need are a few simple ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, lemon, and soap.
–Making your own cleaning products saves money, time, and packaging-not to mention your indoor air quality.

I found this humorous list at http://www.teachingheart.net and wanted to share it with Homeroom. Hope you enjoy it!

You Might be in Education if…

1. You believe the staff room should be equipped with a Vellum salt lick.
2. You find humor in other people’s stupidity.
3. You want to slap the next person who says, “Must be nice to work 8-3 and
have your summers free.”
4. You believe chocolate is a food group.
5. You can tell if it’s a full moon without ever looking outside.
6. You believe “shallow gene pool” should have its own box on the report
card.
7. You believe the unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, “Boy,
the kids are sure mellow today.”
8. When out in public, you feel the urge to snap your fingers at a child.
9. You have no time for a life from August through June.
10. Putting all “A’s on a report card would make your life SO much easier.
11. When you mention “vegetables,” you are not talking about a food group.
12. You think people should be required to get a government permit before
being allow to reproduce.
13. You believe in the aerial spraying of Prozac.
14. You encourage a parent to check into home schooling.
15. You believe no one should be permitted to reproduce without having taught
in a middle school for at least five years.
16. You can’t have children because there isn’t any name you can hear that
wouldn’t elevate your blood pressure.
17. You think caffeine should be available to staff in IV form.
18. Meeting a child’s parents instantly answers the question, “Why is this kid like that?”
19. Your personal life comes to a screeching halt at report card time.

A few quotes about teaching.

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin as “Edith Ann”

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~Thomas Carruthers

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Brooks Adams

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward

pulled from yahoo news this morning….July 4th, 2009

On Independence Day, Liberty’s crown reopens (see the slide show of pictures here)

NEW YORK – The first visitors allowed into the Statue of Liberty’s crown in nearly eight years began the arduous climb Saturday on an Independence Day journey laden with symbolism of freedom and national pride.

“I feel like I was just born today,” said Andrea Balfour, 38, as she prepared to ascend the 354 steps with her daughter, Mona. Mona won an essay contest to get to go up to crown Saturday — her 13th birthday.

The visit was the Staten Island pair’s “biggest dream,” Balfour said.

The statue was closed to the public after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The base, pedestal and outdoor observation deck were reopened in 2004, but the crown remained off-limits.

The National Park Service says the crown remained closed since Sept. 11 because the narrow, double-helix staircases could not be safely evacuated in an emergency and didn’t comply with fire and building codes. Tourists often suffered heat exhaustion, shortness of breath, panic attacks, claustrophobia and fear of heights, spokesman Darren Boch said.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., pushed for years for the crown to be reopened, once calling the decision to close it off “a partial victory for terrorists.” He said it was embarrassing that it was off-limits for so long.

The reopening “represents some personal vindication,” he said Saturday. “It’s nice to pat Lady Liberty’s toes. It’s nice to stand and breathe the air on Liberty Island, but you really haven’t lived the experience until you’ve gone up to the crown. A lot of Americans are able to see that now.”

So far, about 14,500 tickets to the crown have been sold, most of them for visits through the end of August. Tickets currently on sale are for visits in the fall and beyond. Tickets for the July Fourth weekend sold out within hours.

Marking the historic date, seven members of the U.S. armed forces were sworn in as citizens Saturday at the statue’s base.

“It’s the very diversity of this country that has made us strong,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.

Thirty people an hour will be allowed into the crown. They will be brought up in groups of 10, guided by park rangers along the way.

Some of the crown’s 25 windows offer a view of the Manhattan skyline, no longer punctuated by the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center.

New handrails have been installed to help with the climb. Bags are not allowed; only cameras and cell phones are acceptable.

The statue, 305 feet tall to the tip of its raised torch, was designed to mark the 1876 centennial of the Declaration of Independence. It faces the entrance to New York Harbor, welcoming the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” in the words of Emma Lazarus, engraved on a bronze plaque inside the statue.

The torch has been closed since it was damaged by a saboteur’s bomb in 1916.

Visitors are now screened before boarding ferries and again before they can visit the museum in the base or climb to the top of the pedestal.

Jennifer Stewart won a Statue of Liberty lookalike contest to join the first group of visitors headed to the crown. The Brooklyn Heights resident, who has imitated the statue for 23 years, arrived in full costume and green makeup.

“Being able to perceive the world through her eyes, from Liberty’s crown — I just feel it’s so important to maintain the opportunity to literally be a part of liberty,” she said.

By SUZANNE MA

This email was being sent around and I thought it was cute and wanted to share with you all. Enjoy!

A Child’s View of Thunderstorms….

A little girl walked to and from school daily.
 
Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to the elementary school.
 
As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with lightning.
 
The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school and she feared the electrical storm might harm her child.

Full of concern, the mother quickly got into her car and drove along the route to her child’s school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along.
 
At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile.

Another and another flash of lighting followed quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.

When the mother’s car drew up beside the child, she lowered the window and called to her, ‘What are you doing?’

The child answered,

‘I am trying to look pretty because God keeps taking my picture.’

Homeroom would like to wish all teachers, their students, school support staff, family and friends a wonderful, safe and Happy Holiday Season.

May you all be blessed with the spirit of the season, now and throughout the New Year.

Based on local values and cultural differences the policies and regulations vary from school to school and district to district but the issues seem to remain the same. Once we accept this fact and look outside of ourselves to the greater picture we might remember why we became teachers.  We wanted to make a difference. The system has worn us down. After years of hard work, we are tired. As the statement goes from our teens we have become “out of touch” with both our own dreams of change and the desires of our students.  It wasn’t that long ago that we were those students. 

My selfishness, and I suspect the selfishness and “pity me” attitude of a few of us was actually hindering the education of these little minds that we had taken an oath to build to their fullest potential.

We have great power as a group to work together. The strength of our group is built from both our similarities and our different perspectives as individuals.  If we wish to make a difference in our schools and the way they are run, we need to ban together and more importantly, stick together. Change can come from outside but at a great cost to our students and teachers.  We as teachers know the issues better than any other entity in the school system.  We witness it each and every day. We feel the same demands and difficulties with staff, students, and parents.  If we ban together not just as schools, but as districts we can ensure change at the local, state, and federal levels.  We teach our students that one person’s voice can make a difference; maybe it is time that we walk the walk and act upon these thoughts. 

Are we exhausted from life and our current work loads?  Yes. However we will  be far more exhausted if we stand by and idly watch as yet more inane testing is added or yet another new reading or math program is added in hopes of improving our schools test scores. Think back to when you first began teaching.  What was the thing that excited you so and why?  For me it was seeing the light bulb go on in students’ eyes when they got the concept form the lesson I had just taught.  What made the difference in my attitude by the third year in the public education system versus the first two years?  I had been indoctrinated into the system.  What was most important was no longer the kids love for exploration and fascination with the unknown.  It had become the test scores and the administration crap.  I had lost sight of my dream.  We must have these results by this time or the school will not be receiving the funding we need from the government.  Yes, we need guide lines but we also don’t need to break the spirit of both the students or their teachers.

 When are we as the “teaching professionals” going to make a stand?  We know what works with our students and our current testing regime is not it.  Take a moment and think back to your 1^st few years of teaching and marvel at the excitement (and exhaustion) it brings back.  Now what is standing in the way of this great feeling?  Yes, the current doctrine which has been proven not to work.  It is up to us to make the change.  Think about it, ask a friend, or even your students to do this same exercise and see how they feel.  We may be surprised to find they have become as apathetic as we have become.  Let’s bring the same concept of change being spoken of on our national political front back home, beginning with ourselves.  Change must start form within and I for one am stepping up to the plate.  One person can make a difference.  We are our students’ leaders.  It’s time to stop complaining and walk the walk. 

Sometimes we think we are so very different from one another.  We are all individuals. Then the alarm clock goes off and we must face the fact that we are actually very similar.  What makes us want to be different?  Why did I think my situation needed to be different from my fellow teacher in North Carolina?  It was rather ironic.  Why did I secretly wish that my problems with the school system and my daily trials with those challenging students would be different from the teachers I had broken bread with while visiting their school?  With this said, I was almost relieved to here that we shared so many commonalities. The dichotomy of the situation was almost humorous. 

In our culture it has been so ingrained that we are to be individuals first that we sometimes loose sight of the fact that we are all humans whose hearts all beat and pump the same color blood.  Why wouldn’t those working in the same profession share many of the same qualms?  Although we may have different perspectives and sometimes different values regarding these issues; our hopes, dreams, trials and tribulations are more common than we care to realize. 

When talking with other teachers over lunch at the school I was visiting, I came to the conclusion that despite all the differences in schools from district to district, many of our issues as teachers were the same.

During our lunch break a number of us were discussing some of these challenges.  As one gripe came up after another we began to chime in with nods and the “you are so right” replies.  We all agreed we would relish more behavioral parental support.  We lamented that our states of Ohio and Nevada are testing our students to death.  Some students are so burned out that the kids are simply making designs on their scan trons.  Nice creativity, but not good for our federal and state monies when the scores come in.  Of course, without dispute we agreed upon the fact that we worked far too many hours for the little pay that we receive.  It really is a sad fact that a man that simply holds a stop sign on the highway in a construction zone is remunerated at a higher wage than a certified teacher with 18 years or more of education. 

Did we find differences among our philosophies?  Sure. Were there disagreements on how to implement new programs?  Of course. Do we all want the best for our students and their families?  Most assuredly, yes. 

More on this subject to come.

Recently while visiting friends in Ohio I requested a class visitation at a small school in an affluent area of the NE region. I figured it would be a great chance to see how the school system ran in Ohio. I had come from large metropolis school districts. Would  schools in a smaller district have advantages or disadvantages I was not aware of?  Either way I was very curious, so off I went for my 1st day in a rural classroom.

The school was everything you would expect from a 60’s country setting. The facility was set on a small knoll, there were no fences (big change), and tons of grass & equipment for the children to romp & play on. Many of the parents were walking hand-in-hand with their children to school and it seemed as if all of the employees of the school knew each and every child and their parent on a first name basis. Wow!!! This was something special! Upon entering the school I received quite a welcome from the school secretary. She was a sweet-faced grandmotherly type who made me feel like I had just stepped into her living room. She directed me to my classroom of the day with my visitors pass and a promise that I could come to her if I needed anything at all. With that I stepped into a large room filled with tons of realia, manipulatives, children’s art work, and tiny little desks filled with miniature people. Their teacher was quite striking, tall, beautiful and in her mid 50’s. Both her gestures and her classroom management skills suggested she has been teaching for quite some time. I quickly found a seat in the back of the class until she was done making her morning announcements. Since this was 1st grade ,this morning discussion was on the weather, and how many days school had been in session, using counting sticks by 100, 10’s, and 1’s, a morning poem, turning in last night’s homework, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and the schedule for the day. Lastly, she introduced the stranger that had been lingering in the back of the class as a visiting teacher from Las Vegas. Boy, did the kids have lots of questions about that. I might as well have been from Mars. The teacher stated to the kids that I would be with them throughout the day so they would have plenty of time to learn about me. 
The students first period was Art, always a great way to start off any day. Paint, all the paper you can use, and freedom to draw anything only being graded by participation. That’s the way to go. The day continued with through math, computer lab, reading, writing and science uneventfully, but still entertaining and stimulating. Somewhere between reading and writing the scent of fresh baked cookies wafted down the hallway. Baking cookies in school?? What was this all about? Curiosity got the best of me just as the bell for lunch rang. We all lined up single file, walked down the hall, up the stairs, around the bend, and down the hall into the large table lined cafeteria following the scent of those amazing smelling cookies. It couldn’t be true. Could they possibly make these things on a regular basis??? After getting the kids settled in, I followed the teachers back to the kitchen; another shocking concept. The teachers actually ate the food as well? We all hovered back there over the oven picking up our hot, enticing smelling lunches. Another “Wow!”. There are cafeterias out there that actually cook their own meals and make their own menu?? Scarier yet, lunch tasted really good. You have to realize my students back in Vegas were eating frozen ham & cheese sandwiches for 4 months straight while our kitchen was being rebuilt. When I say frozen, I mean they were literally still frozen much of the time. Even after the renovation was complete, students and teachers still did not have freshly cooked meals. Food was brought from another school and then reheated.
At lunch the teachers and I discussed student progress, parent meetings, classroom management techniques, and of course our woes on these subjects. Of course there were many differences between my financially challenged school back in Las Vegas and this beautiful school here in Ohio but one thing did remain the same, the issues. Our vantage points might have been the different but what we were trying to achieve was the same.

The rest of the day was a blur of reading, a science experiment involving magnetic force, and the “hurry and get ready to go home” syndrome that all teachers face. At the end of the day I thanked my host teacher and her colleague next door for my very wonderful day with their students. They both said, “No, we must thank you.” I was a little taken aback for I had really done nothing except to assist were needed. I asked, “For what?” They said “For reminding us why we come to school each day.” “We have a wonderful school with amazing support from our student’s families. You come from such a difficult setting with so many challenges, little support, and yet you obviously love it and bring immense joy to your students. Thank you for reminding us that teaching is fun and a gift that only the lucky ones get to experience.” I was so stunned I had little to say except, a very small “You’re welcome.”
I had come to this school hoping to find a treasure and learn something of the region yet, without intending to, I had left these veteran teachers with a gift as well. It’s not about the experience or the amount of years you have been teaching. It is about the excitement you imbue into your content and the connection you make with your students. Thank you NE Ohio for a wonderful day with some amazing kids.

Teacher Gifts at HomeroomDirect.com

Homeroom® Teacher’s Blog is pleased to introduce you to Franki, our new contributing blogger.
In her own words:

“My name is Francesca Hutchins-Huff, Franki to my friends. I didn’t grow up with the desire to be a teacher. In a way, it happened by default. In my previous professional life I was a consultant for Texaco Refinery, teaching interpersonal skills to a diverse, international group of people. During a period of down-sizing, I went from there to working with the senior population, assisting them in understanding their medical benefits under the latest Medicare system, advising on living trusts, and most importantly, how to take their medical care into their own hands. Although this job was rewarding, there was no room for advancement. At the time I decided I would take some classes until something better came along. It did. I just didn’t know it at the time. I decided that I wanted to work with children. I took a leap of faith and I didn’t look back. 

For the past 4 years I have been teaching 1st and 3rd grades as well as middle school in Long Beach, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada.  Since I began teaching, I got married, relocated to Ohio, and became a step-mom. Learning how to be a mother has been its own rewarding challenge. When I moved I also became a private tutor. Although classroom teaching and tutoring may seem very different, I could not say one has been more rewarding than the other, they are just different. Each day that I work in education I learn as much, if not more, from my students as they learn from me. The experience and the knowledge I gain from life, teaching and my interactions with others inside the classroom or out are an invaluable gift to me. As my grandfather used to say “If you don’t learn something new every day of your life, you might as well cash in your chips and go home because you just wasted a day.” That is my motto exactly.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts, insights and experiences in teaching and I look forward to hearing from you”

Great Gifts for Teachers