Welcome to the 155th edition of the Carnival of Education.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  Now, on with the Carnival!

Around the Classroom:

Mrs. Bluebird describes a Teachable Moment at Bluebird’s Classroom.   If this is typical of her teaching, she’d better be careful if she starts teaching a unit on life cycles.

Darren discusses the recent topic of Maternity Leave For High School Students at Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher. 

Dave Saba presents Great Teaching Defined? | American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence at DoE- Dave on Ed, saying, “A great interview with the New York Teacher of the Year demonstrates what great teaching is all about.”

Mamacita at Scheiss Weekly needs some quick and learned advice on a related topic.  Click over there and see if you can help her.

M. Cruz presents The Chocolate War – Disturbingly Truthful Fiction posted at NOIRLECROI.COM: “A review of the classic book The Chocolate War from the perspective of a current educator”

Scott McLeod presents Within-School Segregation: Reflections on MLK Day posted at LeaderTalk.

Mister Teacher presents Is a 50 good?? posted at Learn Me Good.

Denise presents The game of algebra posted at Let’s play math!: “My pre-algebra class hit the topic of equations just as the NFL season moved into the playoffs. The result was this series of class notes called “The Game of Algebra.”

Maria Fernandez presents I’m too old to learn a foreign language, right? posted at Learn a foreign language – blog, saying, “Not so. Language learning has a lot more to do with motivation and perseverance than with age.”

Seth Pearce presents The Student’s Role in Society posted at NYC Students Blog, saying, “A Student’s thoughts on our role in NYC Education and society in general.”

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Plasticity, Health and Fitness Books posted at SharpBrains, saying, “Enjoy this list of 20 great books on the brain and learning.”

Andrea presents Remedial Learning Lessons posted at Andrea’s Buzzing About…, saying, “why do we keep insisting that when students have problems learning by a particular method, what they need is to learn how to learn the “right way”?”

Elias presents Mathematics as the science of reasoning posted at Ramblings of an Australian teacher.

Dr Martin W. Russell presents Procrastination Case Study posted at Dr Martin W. Russell.

History is Elementary presents Get Out of the Box posted at History Is Elementary.

The Teaching Life
Justine Mize presents What are you reading? posted at Random Thoughts of a Teacher, saying, “With all the articles I have read about reading lists for 2008, I am curious how lists are organized and tackled.”

Joel presents Loving My Job; Hating My Work posted at So You Want To Teach?

Justine Mize presents Classroom Discord posted at Random Thoughts of a Teacher, saying, “A peaceful classroom is a nice place to be.”

Pat presents Class Size – Learning to Live With It posted at Successful Teaching.

School Policy and Red Tape

eduwonkette presents It’s Our Secret! The NYC Teacher Experiment posted at eduwonkette

Mike in Texas presents I’m No Reading Expert But This Seems LIke THE MOTHER OF ALL BAD IDEAS posted at Education in Texas, saying, “My submission is about some really bad decisions some administrator at my district made regarding a reading curriculum for struggling 2nd graders.”

Greg Laden presents Clay County (Florida) School Board Adopts Pro Creationist Standards, Breaches Ethics posted at Greg Laden’s Blog.

Oldandrew presents The Theory of Multiple Fitnesses posted at Scenes From The Battleground.

Matt Johnston presents Going to the Mat: Teachers, Pay and the Labor Market posted at Going to the Mat.

Joanne Jacobs presents Hallway culture posted at Joanne Jacobs.

Jennifer Ward presents Research Matters -or- Making Research Matter posted at Et cetera, saying, “integrating authentic and formative assessment techniques into the teaching of research.”

Scott McLeod presents 2008 Education Blogosphere Survey is now open! posted at Dangerously Irrelevant.

Michael Umphrey presents Now what? School reform after NCLB posted at Michael Umphrey’s Blog, saying, “Politicians are running education? How did that happen?”

John Holland presents Teaching from the standards not to them posted at Circle Time “Lead From The Start”, saying, “A post on how standards have changed the nature of teaching.”

woodlassnyc presents Bring back school uniforms — for teachers posted at Under Assault: Teaching in NYC.

Dave Johnston presents NCLB Poster Child posted at Friends of Dave.

Dana presents P16Plus, or Who should be in control of education? posted at Principled Discovery.

Scott McLeod presents School law blogs posted at At the Schoolhouse Gate.

Nancy Flanagan presents DIVERSITY IS ITS OWN REWARD posted at Teacher in a Strange Land, saying, “What was Jay Greene thinking? Musings on multiculturalism and crummy research…”

Chanman presents Teaching indoctrination posted at Buckhorn Road.

Homeschooling and Parenting
Miss Profe presents Top Ten List For Parents posted at It’s A Hardknock Teacher’s Life.

Marjorie presents Where Experts Fear to Tread posted at Life Without School.

Vjack presents Guest Post: Teaching Lies Jeopardizes America’s Future posted at Atheist Revolution, saying, “Thought-provoking discussion of the impact of “Christian” education (home, parochial or ‘bible’ schools) on the future of America.”

Higher Education
Mark Montgomery presents Why Go To Harvard? One Man’s Story posted at Great College Advice.

Bob O’Hara presents The Collegiate Way Comes to Birmingham posted at Higher Education News from the Collegiate Way, saying, “Recommendations for improving undergraduate life at a large pubic university.”

Patrick A. Sizemore presents 10 Ways to Improve Note Taking Skills posted at College Information for Smart Students.

Matthew Paulson presents What to Do When You Can’t Afford to Pay for College Anymore » American Consumer News posted at American Consumer News.

Richas solis presents Choosing a Dissertation Topic posted at Customessays.co.uk Blog: guide on how to write essays, courseworks, dissertations, assignments. Essay help, Dissertation Assistance, GCSE Coursework, saying, “A person who is not really familiar in sentence construction may have a hard time in communicating with other people. This is also the same when it comes to writing papers.”

Carol Richtsmeier presents Semester Exemptions, Counting Computers & Singing Kanye West (Again) posted at Bellringers.

Resources

Larry Ferlazzo presents The Best Websites For Learning About Civic Participation & Citizenship posted at Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL.

Daniel Lafleche presents A fascinating clip from the film Malaria Parasites posted at Film and Video Marketplace Blog, saying, “Why is it that 30 years ago malaria in Africa was no more serious than the flu? This 5-minute educational video provides an overview on what has happened. Can be a useful resource for related lessons.”

Bill Ferriter presents Twitter-ific Success… posted at The Tempered Radical, saying, “This piece describes the valuable role that Twitter can play in the development of an individual’s personal learning network.”

Mathew Needleman presents Inspiration for Filmmakers and Film Teachers posted at Open Court Resources.com Blog.

Elsom Eldridge presents Create and Publish Your Book NOW posted at International Guild of Professional Consultants and Coaches.

Ted Reimers presents Using Wikipedia in Research posted at CampusGrotto.

Alex presents Essays Examples – A Typical Essay posted at Customessays.co.uk Blog: guide on how to write essays, courseworks, dissertations, assignments. Essay help, Dissertation Assistance, GCSE Coursework, saying, “When it comes to essay writing there is an overload of information. But there is nothing like a few essays examples to show the reader what an essay is all about.”

 Carnival Business
That concludes this edition. Thanks to EdWonk for sharing the Carnival of Education with us all.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Carnival of Education using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of education, blog carnival.

I feel like I’m grasping for straws to find a topic for this week’s Thursday Thirteen.  So here are thirteen things on my desk at work.

(1) One apple (gala – uneaten)

(2) eyeglasses in a faux-fur lined glasses case

(3) bottle of lotion (Christmas gift from a student)

(4) box of thank-you cards (I WILL catch up on all my thank-you notes this Friday)

(5) roll of paper towels (use ’em all the time)

(6) tape dispenser

(7) stapler

(8) box of Kleenex

(9) 3-hole punch

(10) walkie-talkie

(11) school supply catalog (actually about a dozen of them.  I have to finish up all my orders for the school year by the end of next week)

(12)  Clipboard with my schedule and students listed

(13) a small clear business card holder filled with my business cards.

I’m an elementary school reading specialist, and so I’m always reading.  I also love quotes.  Thus I’ve done Thursday Thirteens on various topics related to reading and quotes.  There are Thursday Thirteens on quotes about Mothers, quotes from American History,  poems to read with children,  quotes to write in the sand,  my favorite read-aloud books for children,  my favorite quotes about reading, and thirteen books for Read Across American week.  Here is a second set of quotes about reading that I love:

(1)  “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life.”   ~W. Somerset Maugham~

(2) “The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.”  ~Christopher Morley~

(3) “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” ~Emilie Buchwald~

(4) “A house without books is like a room without windows.”  ~Horace Mann~

(5) “To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.”  ~Cicero~

(6) “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”  ~Richard McKenna~

(7)  “To read is to empower;

To empower is to write;

To write is to influence;

To influence is to change;

To change is to live.”

~Jane Evershed~

(8) “The more that you read,

The more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go! “

~Dr. Seuss~

(9)  “There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.”  ~Mary Ellen Chase~

(10)  “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”  ~Chinese proverb~

(11) “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” ~Sir Richard Steele~

(12)  “Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.”  ~Jim Bishop~

(13)  “A book is a like a garden carried in the pocket.”  ~Chinese proverb”

I was working with a small group of fifth graders this afternoon, and we were discussing contractions and compound words.

We played a brief game in which they looked through their books to find five contractions and five compounds words.

Scott kept murmuring under his breath as he worked, “This is hard. I can’t find any contraptions. I can’t find any contraptions.”

Meanwhile when I asked James to tell me one of the compound words he’d found, he replied with, “plum meeting.”

“Plum meeting?” I said, looking perplexed.

“PLUM MEETING!” he replied – somewhat exasperated.  After all,  he HAD said it clearly the first time.

When I continued with my confused look, he declared, “It’s right here in my book,” and he held the book up for me to see.

The sentence was, “The arrow was plummeting to the ground.”

I have a lot of work ahead of me.  Contraptions and plum meetings….

Yesterday on the news, they were talking about a new law requiring seat belts on small school buses.  What about regular school buses?  When I have bus duty at school I watch children crowd onto school buses.  Children who are playing, talking and who are not thinking one bit about safety.  School buses are one of the most blatantly dangerous forms of transportation in today’s world.  We mandate seat belt use in all forms of transportation except school buses – buses that carry our most precious cargo.  I am afraid it will take some tragic accidents before people will stop ignoring the facts.

Here are the facts:

(1) School buses often contain up to sixty (or more) children.

(2) Typically, the school bus driver is the ONLY adult on the bus.

(3) So you have a crowded vehicle with sixty children, an adult who is torn between trying to drive safely while supervising more children than two classrooms at the same time.

It is a recipe for disaster.  I think laws about school buses (all-ways stop whenever a school bus is picking up or dropping off children, etc.) are the only things that have kept more tragedies from happening.

Every school bus should have an adult monitor in addition to the school bus driver.  Every child should have a seat belt, and the adult monitor should make sure that the seat belts remain fastened throughout the trip.

We’re ignoring basic safety measures by not having seat belts and adult monitors on school buses.  It’s just common sense. 

Back in the mid-1990’s, I decided to start working on my doctorate.  I applied to Vanderbilt’s Peabody School of Education and not only was accepted but received a full graduate assistantship.  It was wonderful.  I took a year’s leave of absence from my teaching job and attended classes fulltime.  I supervised student teachers and students working on practicums in the classroom.  I couldn’t afford to take a second year off work, and so I gave up my assistantship and went back to teaching.  However, during that second year I finished all my coursework and even finished my written and oral exams for my doctorate. 

Then life intervened, and I was single and couldn’t afford the time or money to work on my dissertation (no assistantly meant paying full price for those dissertation hours).  I was teaching during the day and tutoring kids in the afternoons.  It was a struggle.  I figured I’d get back to my degree after a couple of years.  I just needed a little time to settle into managing the single life. 

Imagine my dismay when I checked on it a few years later to learn that it was too late.  I begged and pleaded, but it was indeed too late.  Too much time had passed.  The coursework and exams were no longer valid for a degree.  If I wanted to get a doctorate, I would have to start all over – from the beginning.  I won’t say that all my work was for nothing because it was such a wonderful experience going back to school.  I’m the ultimate student because I sincerely love taking classes and learning new things.  However, all those courses would never count towards a degree.

Now I’m looking into getting that doctorate via an online degree program.   Yes, I’d have to start over, but it would be do-able.  Looking online, I found a wide variety of degrees offered – associate, undergraduate and graduate – available through many different schools.  And yes, there is a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership / Curriculum and Instruction degree offered online.  Maybe I’ll be Dr. Carol one of these days, after all.

Here are two of my favorite quotes about reading. 

“To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.”

~Cicero~

This is one of my favorite quotes in rhyme.  Don’t you just love it?

“Oh please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in it’s place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”

~Roald Dahl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory~

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

~Emilie Buchwald~

You can NEVER underestimate the importance of parents in building the foundation for success in school.

“In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.  It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”

~S. I. Hayakawa~

When my children were growing up, they’d tease me because they knew that if they asked me a question while I was immersed in reading a book, I would be on autopilot in my answers:  You want to go play in traffic?  Sure – go right ahead.  You want to dye  your hair green and paint your nails black?  Uh-hmm – whatever.  Well, it wasn’t that bad, but you get the idea. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it.  I loved reading, and I loved getting lost in stories.

And that’s why I love that quote.  That’s why I’m a reading specialist.  I want to help children learn the absolute enjoyment that reading can give them.  Reading DOES enable us to know worlds outside our own.  It’s almost magical.