Clif’s Notes

Kids Do the Darndest Things

I ran across this YouTube video and it cracked me up. This fellow should be thankful that he had the video camera rolling.

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again

I read this poem in a church bulletin in 1997. Although I was single it struck home with me as an elementary teacher and as a hoping-to-someday-be Dad. I saved it and read it from time to time. I thought some of you teachers and parents might like it.

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again
By Diane Loomans

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d finger-paint more, and point the fingers less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I’d do more hugging and less tugging.
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I’d teach less about the love of power, And more about the power of love.

Newsletter on Educational Technology

Throughout the years many of the preservice and in-service teachers in my classes, workshops, and presentations have requested that I start an email newsletter. They indicate that in addition to this blog they would like to receive occasional emails sharing rich resources related to technology integration. I’m excited to announce that I have answered these requests.

Clif’s Newsletter on Educational Technology focuses on the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning. Subscribers of this free service will receive occasional emails providing valuable resources and information about lesson plans, activities, technologies, research, etc., related to educational technology.

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Subscription to this newsletter is open to everyone. You are encouraged to share this with everyone with an interest in education (teachers, administrators, homeschooling families, friends, classmates, co-workers, etc.). Everyone is invited to receive this free newsletter.

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MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS
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Claymation Video by Sixth Grader

Since childhood I’ve always wanted to learn how to do claymation, but I’ve never gotten around to it. Sixth grader, Charlie, has already figured it out and released his first video. Watch the video and then consider leaving Charlie a comment. EduBloggers might notice that Charlie is Neil Hokanson’s son.

Charlie and Neil, you should both be so proud!

Student projects like this always makes me wonder if we are underestimating what our students are truly capable of.

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Happy Mother’s Day

In honor of all the wonderful moms let’s set the blog color selection on pink (see top right) today.

A few of the things we love about the Mom in our home.

1. “I love it when she hugs on me…and kisses on me.” — Our middle child
2. “She takes care of me, and she makes me breakfast, and she sets my TV.” — Our oldest
3. “Kisses…hugs…TICKLES!” — Our youngest

Related Posts

The Mom Song - A Great Laugh

Favorite Children’s Books - A Great Memory

Breast Cancer Awareness - A Great Cause

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Awesome Song

I first heard this song over a year ago. I’ve listened to it oodles of times since: the kids and I have danced and jammed to it, I’ve sung it while commuting back and forth to work, I’ve hummed along with it at 30,000 feet on multiple occasions, and it has brightened many a dull day in the office. My iPod probably groans with boredom every time I select it and wishes I’d grow weary of it. I love this song - the message and the music. I’m sharing the very difficult to find live version as it’s best.

Did You Read to Your Children Today?

photo credit: Squiggle

More Favorite Children’s Books

I enjoyed our recent discussion of favorite children’s books so much that I wanted write a follow-up. A lot of teachers have mentioned that they have already bookmarked it for future reference. This blog exists for exactly that reason - to be a resource for teachers.

My favorite genre of children’s literature is wordless picture books. It’s fun to see kids get swept away in these books. The artwork is usually stellar and the author’s/ illustrator’s work typically invokes our creative interpretations. Wordless picture books can be a great way to encourage higher order thinking, creativity, and self-expression. They can often be used to practice the elements of a story (setting, plot, character, etc.) or to initiate activities in creative writing, art, drama, multi-media, etc. It’s often a good way to level the playing field with regard to student reading levels. Here are a few of my very favorite wordless picture books.

The Silver Pony - One of the very first books I “read” from my elementary school library. This book has many elements that I have always enjoyed: horses, Greek mythology, art, imagination and creativity. I wish I knew how many times I checked out this book. I need to go buy a copy for our family library.

Animalia - Another outstanding work by Graeme Base.

Tuesday - Mostly a wordless picture book about frogs.

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Favorite Children’s Books

Earlier this week I was a parent reader in the class of one of our children. Although I’m an elementary math and science teacher I do really like children’s literature. We read with our mother nearly everyday growing up. One of our grandmothers was an elementary school librarian and she kept us supplied with books, books on tape, magazine subscriptions, and more. I was also blessed with many teachers that loved books. I made a conscious effort to read books to my students because I wanted them to see books being appreciated by a man, a mathematician and a scientist. Now, our home’s bookshelves overflow with children’s books as we enjoy reading to our own children. All that to say, I always have a difficult time selecting the books to read in these types of situations. Here are some of the reasons.

1. There are so many great books with which I want all kids to be familiar.
2. There are some books that I really want to read to them, but am nearly certain that they’ve already encountered them (Where the Wild Things Are). I’m never completely sure, though.
3. I like to read a book that our son or daughter especially likes and point this out to his or her classmates.
4. Reading a book with a moral purpose is always desired.
5. I like to narrate the story (with character voices and sound effects) which limits the pool of potential books to some degree.
6. Books based on television programs, computer games, websites, toys, etc. pretty much are not going to make the cut.
7. I want all the children to fall in love with the book.

Do you see why I have a bit of trouble deciding what to read? It’s a great delima with which to be faced, though!

Here are some of the books that received strong consideration.

• Round Trip
• The Tale of the Three Trees
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Don’t Eat the Teacher
• Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
• Water Hole

I actually received input from many of this blog’s reader via Twitter. As a result, I thought it would be a useful idea and a lot of fun to mention and discuss your favorite children’s books here on the blog - thus, this post. So,…

What are your favorite children’s books?

UPDATE: Join this closely related discussion.

photo credit: ianus

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Weekend Plans

Our kids received a new swing for their birthdays. Weather permitting, I will be spending my weekend putting this beast together. Any volunteers to help?!

Teaching and Learning with Squidoo

*DISCLAIMER: I’ve hesitated to share this resource because of the advertising and economics tied to it. I have given it a quick test and think that all of that stuff remains invisible. I’m sharing this resource because, in the right context, I see true potential in its integration with teaching and learning.

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Have you seen Squidoo? I would roughly describe it as a means of mashing up information from a variety of resources into a lens (as in the eye of a giant squid; fancy word for webpage). This is accomplished through customization and pulling together a good number of RSS feeds, favorites, bookmarks, page rankings/voting, etc. Lenses are ranked, money is given to daily winners, etc.* You can actually earn money for charity or for yourself just by using the service.* I have browsed through many of the existing lenses and been impressed by their quality. I am guessing that the whole free market competition model encourages quality effort as those with lenses with the highest use and approval are rewarded. Most of the ones I reviewed were by doctors, therapists, professors, etc. and all seemed well-credentialed. It is likely that you will find some lenses that you can use in your own classroom.

I haven’t completely made up my mind about what I think of Squidoo (I found it very, very late last night) but it has certainly given me some things to consider. Ideas for integrating it with learning and instruction have flooded my mind. In the right context it would be an interesting tool for teachers and learners to use for webquests, research, scavenger hunts, presentations, cooperative learning, online classes, a Web 2.0 activity, etc. Additional ideas and strategies are very end of this post.

There is also a section called Hey Monkey Brain where students can pick, research and debate a topic. Again, in the right context this feature has several positive educational implications.

I joined and threw together my own lens on the topic of educational technology. Take a look…

• My Squidoo Profile: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/clifsnotes
• My Ed Tech Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/clifsnotes

You can setup your own free account using here.

Integrating Squidoo

I thought it might be helpful to all of us if we brainstormed ways to integrate the use of Squidoo with teaching and learning. Here are some of the ideas (classes, lesson topics, activities) that came to me.

• Business
• Economics
• Research
• Writing and editing
• Information design
• Current events
• Math/ science/ health news and research
• Travel planning/ virtual field trip scenarios
• Marketing
• Student designed and developed webquests
• Homework helper
• Tips for parents
• Book reviews
• Debate/ critical thinking/ persuasive writing
• Newsletters
• Service learning/ moral education
• Instructional design/ lesson planning
• Online/ web-enhanced learning
• Focus on composers, painters, or sculptors
• Communicate information and resources to teachers about particular special needsMuch of the above can be modified for use in foreign language classes

Don’t Take My Playdough

The following story comes from my friend’s blog. It was told to him by his sister-in-law.

The funniest story happened yesterday at church. Our minister [Mike] was preaching…All of a sudden the side door of the auditorium burst open. A little three year old is running and yelling, “No, no, they are after me.”

Mike [the preacher] stops and asks, “Ryan, who is after you?”

“They are after my playdough.”

Mike laughs and yells - “Run, Ryan, Run, here they come. Don’t let them get your playdough. Run to that door over there, that side.”

The little boy takes off squealing, gripping tight to his playdough. The whole congregation breaks out in laughter and applause as Ryan breaks through the side door with his playdough and the embarrassed teacher enters looking for his lost pupil. It was priceless. Ryan was screeching as he broke through the door to freedom.

I wish I had been there!

Did You Change the World Today?

Gadberry asks the important question, “Did you change the world today?” So many teachers go into the profession with the genuine intention to positively impact the world. Unfortunately, many of us allow lesson planning, grading, IEP meetings, curriculum standards, meetings, sports, tv, errands, etc. to fill the bulk of our schedules and crowd out any possibility of changing the world. You know exactly what I mean, so I won’t insult you by pontificating on the obvious.

I haven’t positively changed the world today, but I still have about 7.5 hours to work on it. I assure you I will.

Now it’s your turn. Did you change the world today? (Please share in your the Comments below.)

Related Resources

• The Challenge
• Links and Information

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Educational TV Programs

I’ve been pleased to see a resurgence in quality educational television programs recently. Even better is that our kids are choosing to watch these programs over the just-for-entertainment children’s programs. Both the teacher and parent in me would like to take the creators of these shows out for pizza to say thank you. I hope this is a trend that we see continue to grow.

Here are some of the shows that I’m talking about. Be forewarned that the educational value in a couple of these won’t be immediately obvious, so watch the program in it’s entirety.

• FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman - Problem solving, math, science, engineering, team work, research/ scientific method
• WordGirl - Language arts, vocabulary, literacy, problem solving
• Super Why! - Reading, phonics, vocabulary
• Cyberchase - Math, science, technology, problem solving, data collection and analysis, trail and error, real life application
• Gerald McBoing Boing - Music, history, creativity, audio learners
• Pinky Dinky Doo - Vocabulary, story telling, imagination, creativity

I know there are probably others, but the kids are all asleep and I can’t ask them for help right now. Please share your comments and suggestions as I’d enjoy the feedback and ideas.

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