Carnival of Educators, March Madness Edition

Welcome to the March 9, 2010 edition of carnival of educators.

It's march and the natives are starting to get a little cagey.  Some of use are planning for next year, others are looking back over the past year and holding our heads in our hands.  Others are just holding it together... barely.  Regardless of what state you are in, here are some blog entries from educators across the net to keep  you company.

The State of Education

Andrea presents She helped ruin schools but wants to remain influential at Education Headlines Examiner.

Teacher musings

siobhan curious presents Encountering the Other: How Literature Will Save the World posted at Siobhan Curious, saying, "If I read more novels, will it fix the world?"

teachin' presents I'm a Dreamer: Worth the fear. posted at I'm a Dreamer, saying, "Why it's worth it to have students evaluate your class."

Cool teacher tools  

 
Rachel Lynette presents Teaching Tools: 7 Ways to use Individual Student Whiteboards posted at Minds in Bloom, saying, "Individual student whiteboards are a fun way to keep your whole class engaged and quickly check responses."

Megan Wong presents How to teach preschoolers and toddlers to speak well posted at Games for Fun Kids.

Educators about to lose it 




Carol Richtsmeier presents Spring Break, Yearbook Deadlines &; Things That Begin With “Y” posted at Bellringers.

Homeschooling and loving it
  
Pamela Jorrick presents Little things posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.

Andrea presents Japanese via Youtube at Notes from a Homeschooling Mom 

Digital education


Mathew Needleman presents RTI (Response to Intervention) A Complete Apple Workflow posted at Creating Lifelong Learners.


Important information to save for later


TSW Blog presents How To Shop For Back To School Supplies: Don't Pay Twice! posted at The Smarter Wallet.


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of educators using our
carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.


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Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com
Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources

Former homeschoolers transfer into public school behind the curve

I cam upon a homeschool debate at Babycenter.com.  It has the usual arguments.  Socialization, bad parents, no PE... you know... the same old thing. 

One argument against homeschooling however stuck out as being especially flawed.

Every student that I have had that has transferred from being homeschooled has been behind the learning curve.

This comment was from a public school teacher.  Let's stop and consider this though...

She is probably only seeing students behind the curb transfering into public school because the ones ahead of the curb have no need to.  We considered public school the summer before my son started his highschool curriculum, and my son decided against it because he felt it would slow down his progress.  Looking back, I have to agree because he has already progressed far more than I ever imagined he would.  This would not have been possible in public school...

So instead of successful homeschoolers transfering into public school ahead of the curve, they are probably going directly into community college... and college.

As another person weighed in... "if the child ended up in public school chances are that the parent realized homeschooling was not cutting it for their family."  There are soooooo many others that this teacher will never see.

PS... I am not saying that all homeschoolers who transfer to public school was unsuccessful, but just that IF this teacher is only seeing unsuccessful homeschoolers (and I doubt she is being truthful), that chances are that those students had the good sense to transfer to public school as they were struggling.


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Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources

Japanese via YouTube

Learning Japanese via Youtube

Like many teenage girls her age, my daughter has a thing for Japanese music.  I don't get it... and neither does anyone else in our family... except her cousin, but she loves it.

As she spends all of her free time watching Japanese pop groups, and was beginning to pick up Japanese words, I told her to start a japanese notebook, and translate a new song each week.  Ha!.  Japanese 1... check.

I will follow up with an online Japanese 1 program that has an assessment test.

She is 3/4 through Spanish 1 right now, but instead of doing Spanish 2 next year, I will let her continue with Japanese.    

~ Please feel free to submit any activities that homeschoolers might enjoy. To do so, you can email Ahermitt@gmail.com with headline Homeschool Gwinnett.

~ For most recently added activities, go here.




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Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources

Always Adjusting

I woke up this morning feeling overwhelmed.

Yesterday I mapped out the last 3 months of the school year on a calendar and realized that for my daughter who is in a play, has a year end performance coming up, and an arts competition, we are close to overbooked for the month of March.  The more this fact sank in, the more frantic I became.

Today at a play rehearsal it hit my.  We are homeschoolers.  I can back off during the month of March and everything would come out fine.

When I say back off, I mean take time off from the classes she does at home.  As of next week when she takes the History 1 CLEP exam, all that will be left for the year is math, science, and a little Spanish.

Well, I already planned for math to go through the whole summer.  Spanish is no bother for her she enjoys it,  but why not back off of math and science until he schedule lightens up.

Yes... that's what we'll do.  What a wonderful idea.

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Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources