Once Upon A Time

Once Upon A Time

By: Lindsay Cook

Once upon a time there was a very fat cat.

There was also a very mean black bat.

One day, the very mean black bat was bored and decided that he would pick on the cat because he was so fat. So the bat grabbed pebbles from the ground, flew high above the cat, and dropped them on the fat cat’s head.

Then the very fat cat was very sad and decided he would get revenge. What the mean black bat didn’t know was that the fat cat had other bat friends.

Then, in the middle of the day, the cat found its bat friends and devised a plan with them to get back at the mean black bat. The bats were just fine with this idea because the mean bat was mean to them to. They decided that they would get back that very evening.

The bats headed out in their Batmobile for the mean bat’s cave. They were angry and wanted revenge. They filled 75 water balloons with shaving cream and decided to throw them at the bat’s cave. However, when they got there, they smelled the sweet smell of chocolate mice pie, baked fresh from the oven. They would rather eat this pie than anything else in the world! They threw the shaving cream balloons off the cliff and went to knock on the mean bat’s door.

Then, the bat came out of his house with a cooking apron on. He started to speak but got hit right in the face with a shaving cream balloon that the fat cat threw. The bat wiped his face off and then cried. The cat felt bad that he had wanted to get revenge so he comforted the bat. Then the bat invited the cat into his house for some chocolate cake. They have been friends ever since.

The moral of this story is that revengeful acts always end in eating chocolate cake with your best friends.

Visual Learners

Although I missed this morning's class, due to a faulty alarm, after reviewing the class Wiki, I found the resources extremely insightful. Project Zero was quite fascinating. I especially liked the researching being done on Artful Learning. I personally love art, and anyway to bring that into my classroom as a learning resource is definitely on my top list. The Thesaurus was also great! I am constantly using one to make my papers better, and this one is so much more advanced, with a huge amount of information that will help me, as a teacher, to increase my vocabulary and writing abilities. There's nothing more boring than a teacher who uses the same "stuff" over and over again. Or who errs constantly in letter to take home to parents or to the administration. Variety in the classroom is so important. I have been introduced to Howard Gardner's learning styles theory through several of my classes this Spring. I find the theory to be true in my life. It seems that no matter the type of visual presented, I also take more from a lecture if I can have a concrete example to make a mental picture of. It helps my recall of information all the better. This will help me so much in my classroom, if I am aware that my students do not learn everything by simple lecture or direct instruction. This is another way to make learning more meaningful for students, and we've been saying all year that meaningful learning is the best way to make kids really "learn", and love to learn, in the classroom.

Digital Photography

I think that the Digital Photography lesson was very insightful and practical. I feel that every teacher SHOULD be given a digital camera. So many lessons could utilize this type of technology. I loved learning about iPhoto. It is a great program for organizing your photos. That will help me in personal life, as well as in my classroom. The Geometry Book was a terrific way to bring geometry to life for students. Some times I forget that the subject we spend so much time learning about inside, actually happen outside. Being able to make information and lessons meaningful to the students will help them to really learn the material, as well as make it applicable to their everyday life! I would like to utilitze digital photography for art and english lesson, as well as math. I think that it is a great way to integrate subjects! All together, I think it it will be a huge assest to any classroom.

Copyright Law (cont.)

By the way, the layout for my blog is under Creative Commons, which until today, I had no idea what that meant.

Copyright Law

I thought that our discussion about Copyright Law was very informative. I learned a lot of new things pertaining to legally using multimedia in the classroom. I did not realize how important and strict the law can be. I am glad that there are exceptions for using the information in the classroom, because it would make the technology and masses of information we have available at our fingertips difficult to utilize if not.

Instructional Architect

I really enjoyed the discussion on IA. I think that it is going to be a very useful tool in creating lessons for my students, as well as find reliable and useful resources. It is also a great way to keep lessons organized. I am excited to use it to create some fun and exciting lessons!

New Podcasts

I have subscribed to two new educational podcasts:

1. Ecogeeks: Science Video
2. Music K-8 Music Sampler