Showing posts with label Development of the Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Development of the Day. Show all posts

March 1 2010

Teaching Link of the Day:
Sketching Lego Creations

I wrote about a Lego(R) and sketching exercise that we did last year, and this year the lego construction projects have become exponentially more complex. I've been encouraging one model a day become sketched, which increases difficulty to 3D, 2D, rounded bricks and bricks of odd shapes, internal perspectives for things like houses and drawing without grids. It's like jumping jacks for the brain.



Development of the Day:
I spent my afternoon filtering through all my pictures, downloading the newest version of Picasa, running AdAware because Picasa kept crashing, just to get an online album created with photos of the kids for the grandparents.

It took forever ...forever ...forever ...forever

But I don't have to do it again. Re: just upload them to the album when I upload them to my computer.

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February 25 2010

Teaching Link of the Day
Block Letters and Shading Geometry in 3 dimensions

It all started with Star Wars...
Letters have geometry. They are square and triangular and circular, and drawing block shading makes them prisms. When you do a lesson on art and graphic design, never neglect the technical vocabulary, the science, the math. With young children, you never know if they're interested in the lesson because they will be architects or artists.

Geometric Shapes
Light and Shadow
Perspective and Depth
Angles and Parallelism



Development of the Day
New student: How to beat the ASVAB (Armed services vocational aptitude battery)

Show of the Day
Studio 60
Food of the Day
Bread--in a bread tube.

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February 5 2010

Granny Square of the Day:
Here's the square with the adjustments mentioned yesterday. It came out more like a candy cane, more like I expected.

Development of the Day:
Art Opening for the Members Show at the Grand Junction Center for the Arts. Two of my husband's pieces are on display and for sale--"It finds water" and "Lefty", two four-foot tall pieces of forged and welded metal.

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January 21 2010

Teaching Links of the Day: Puns & Puns & Puns
Print up homophonic puns (defined below) and some sticker labels with the "real" word. Have the student cover the pun with the matching sticker. This should strengthen the connections between the different ways to spell a sound. When a reader pays attention to the sound structure of a word they are more likely to recognize those structures when they read.
"Homophonic puns use like sounds but with different spellings and meanings. This is also referred to as polyptoton. Examples of homophones are scent and sent, jeans and genes, waive and wave, and buy and bye."--from link below

New Sidebar "Pun of the Day" =>

Granny Square of the Day:
Today was a Red day. My morning shirt was red. My gussied-up-for-teaching sweater was red. My scarf was red. And the color I coincidentally chose from my dresser of yarn is also red. Quite not on purpose. It's a thinner yarn and I used a disproportionately large hook, as I tend to do. I think it's a wool, or a wool blend. It was very nice to work with. My scanner made it look orange. It is very red, instead.

Show of the Day: We just got to the episode with the homemade automatic shotgun today, and look, it's on the cover. I wonder if he keeps it through the rest of the season, or if it was just the coolest thing they could find to put on the boxed set. It is definitely cool.


Thought of the Day: People act like you're not around when they talk to others. It's frustrating. Is nothing private? No wonder small towns have that "small town" feel. People will talk anywhere around anyone.

Development of the Day: I'm down by a student, maybe two. It's a bummer. I love to work with my students; losing them for any reason other than success is frustrating. How am I to ever become good at reaching goals when I'm not giving the opportunity to reach them?

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January 7 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Graph Paper

Standardized tests don't use lined paper. Nor do teacher's tests. They're all printed out on white paper with white space to show work in. So why in the world does every math curriculum encourage that math concepts be practiced on lined paper? Why the notes, neatly organized as if it were a book report? Use blank paper for math. There is more freedom in adapting thoughts and ideas, with a little arrow, a crossed out bit that didn't work, and the conclusion neatly displayed...somewhere...there it is. The chalkboards the great geniuses use don't have lines.

At the very least, use graph paper instead, especially for geometry.


Development of the day: I fell off a stool and cut the bottom of my foot on my daughter's desk. It hurts. A LOT. I have to stop falling off/down things. (I fell down the steps just before the New Year.)


Dictionary.com Word of the Day:

quotidian \kwoh-TID-ee-uhn\ adjective
1. Occurring or returning daily; as, a quotidian fever.2. Of an everyday character; ordinary; commonplace.

There are so many Project 365 blogs; everyone has caught the quotidian fever!
---Heather in Progress--- ---JonMagic--- ---your name here---

Game of the Day:

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January 6 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Sentence Diagramming

When you have students who consistently mis-construct sentences, a diagram teaches them what to expect. This one is a simple, straightforward one. The site mentions that this hasn't been taught in classrooms for 30 years or more, but I got to be a lucky one who not only studied this early, but it eliminated the need for any further grammar drills after about the third grade.

I do it with a different color for each part of speech. This way a student has a narrow field of what fits in each spot, and they begin to recognize grammar patterns.

Game of the Day:

Two bored kids, a notebook, two pens. Each list 5 nouns and 5 adjectives. Switch lists, and go.











Thought of the day: Autistic Children with Brainy Parents

Evidence that the smarter you are, the dumber the people around you seem. If you live in a blue collar community with an average education, you may not notice someone with an odd learning or social disorder.

So who is normal? What does normal mean? Do children with autism get diagnosed only because they're different than the people around them?


Development of the Day:
Girl Scout Cookies are coming! Place an order with your favorite Girl Scout starting Friday! The new cranberry ones are delightful. There is also a donation option, and this year my daughter's troop is sending the donations to the Hometown Heroes (firefighters, etc.) and the Bloodmobile.

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January 5 2010

Family Development of the Day: My son is 5 today! I have no more babies. They have grown up.

Game of the Day:

The boy opened eight dinosaurs' resting places, carefully removed them from where they've fossilized all these years, and meticulously shoved the pieces together, following slot by slot, number by number. He and I made a Triceratops (it looks just like the one here! The joy of models.) and a Plesiosaurus, which happens to be one of my student's favorite creature.

Food of the Day:

Junct'n Square Pizza re: Spaghetti and Meatballs


Television of the Day:
Avatar: The Last Airbender

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January 4 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Colorado Homeschooling Law


Colorado law states that you can teach your child all of school (from age 7 to 16) or part of school (for example, math). Your child can also participate in all school sports and extracurriculars.

What this means is that if your child is struggling in one subject bad enough, and has uncooperative or overworked faculty, you have every right to pull your student out and homeschool for that one subject. It's been done, it's legal, and it's fair.

Game of the Day:
Interesting Development of the Day:
I no longer have corporate competition. They closed their doors December 20th. I got my first call from one of their former clients today. Anyone have a loan so I can do an advertising push for the rest of their former clients?

Thought of the Day:
Pyramid schemes are better when you send books to the person named on the back of the letter, instead of a dollar. Or when it's edible, like Friendship Bread.

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January 2 2010

Teaching Link of the Day: Buzz! for Kindergarteners
I play the variation of Buzz where--instead of a multiple, or a multiple and a digit--I use just the digit. The little monsters begin to recognize that "twelve" has a two in it, and so do all the twenties; same goes for "eleven" "-teens", and "a hundred" having ones. Any digit will do.


Game of the day: Boy oh boy do I suck at this game, but I just can't quit playing it.


Family development for the day: Beer a Day
We stocked up on about two weeks worth of beers he's never tried, and he's already written an extra review for a stumped day. When he's ready, I'll reveal his link.

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