Inspirational Sunday

Since the end of our school year is very near here in Abu Dhabi, I'm posting inspirational quotes for teachers.

The world seldom notices who teachers are; but civilization depends on what they do. Lindsay J. Stiles

We all need someone who inspires us to do better than we know how. Anonymous

There is no way to judge the worth of a teacher except in the lives of those he has taught. Anonymous

Quality education is not just providing information, it is developing wiser minds. E. J. Oliver

Theories and goals of education don't matter a whit if you don't consider your students to be human beings. Lou Ann Walker

One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen. Phillip Wylie

Never give up on a child. Patricia Willis

The best teacher of children is one who is essentially childlike. H. L. Mencken

Everyone who remembers his own educational experience remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the kingpin of the educational situation. He makes or breaks programs. Sidney Hook

I touch the future. I teach. Christa McAulliffe

Tickle-Me Tuesday

Aren't they adorable?! I love this!

Tickle-Me Tuesday

Tickle-Me Tuesday

CUTE!

 

Tickle-Me Tuesday

This was rapper/producer, Dr. Dre, on Kids Say the Darndest Things. They need to get these kind of shows back on air. What some of these kids say...hilarious! I heart kids.

Q is for Quick (Children Are)

This one's late, I know. Better late than never, though, right? I'm posting a cute email sent to me.

Children Are Quick
***
TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.
____________________________________

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
__________________________________________

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong.
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
____________________________________________

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
__________________________________

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!
__________________________________________

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
_______________________________________

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with 'I.'
MILLIE: I is...
TEACHER: No, Millie... Always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right, "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."
______________________________________

TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand?
______________________________________

TEACHER: Now, Simon , tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
______________________________________

TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE: No, sir. It's the same dog.
_____________________________________

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher.
_____________________________________

K is for Kids These Days

Today, I'm not posting words, but a cute video of a 3yr old singing Justin Bieber's "Baby". He's like seriously into the song. Too precious!

Tickle-Me Tuesday

A joke emailed to me this week...

Joey's dad invited Rev. & Mrs. Brown to dinner. Joey's mom made an extra-special meal. It was Joey's job to set the table with the good china and silver.

As everyone sat down to eat, Joey's mom said, "Joey, dear, you forgot to set a knife and fork for Mrs. Brown."

"I didn't think I needed to," Joey explained. "I heard Daddy say she eats like a horse."

Kids say the darndest things, don't they?

Tickle-Tuesday

Nine year-old, Starr Andrews, ice skating to Willow Smith's Whip My Hair. Cute video!

Tickle-Me Tuesday

TOO CUTE!!!

Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Americas Got Talent Videos or Americas Got Talent Videos

Tickle-Me Tuesday

So, a month ago my parents welcomed 4 new niños to the family. My new foster bro and sisters are just too precious (ages 4, 5, 6, and 9). The 4 year-old little girl reminds me of a southern belle. I call her "Princess" cos that's exactly how she acts. Here are a few of her sayings that I like to call, "Princess-isms." By the way, she has a lisp, which makes it even cuter!

• One time, she walked into the bathroom, only to run back out screaming, "Ahhh! I can't go to that bafroom! There's a bug-squito in there!" Guess it's part bug and part mosquito?



• One Sunday, she hadn't changed her dress after church yet, so she carefully drank her juice. Why? "I don't wanna spill this on my dress cos it'll get roont!" I'm assuming she means, 'ruined'.




• My dad has this game he plays with her where he tells her that her nose is broke cos it has 2 holes in it. Every time, she hollers out, "Uh, uh! It's not brote, Daddy!"

  
  

And the ultimate...

• Here's her version of Jingle Bells:"Jinger bells, jinger bells. Jinga all da way. Old McDonald is to ride a one plus say say say. Hey!"

I know. Cute, right??

Tickle-Me Tuesday

AWESOMENESS!!!

Tickle-Me Tuesday

Sent to me by email...

Little Dewey and his family were having Sunday dinner at his grandmother's house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Dewey received his plate, he started eating right away.

"Dewey! Please wait until we say our prayer," said his mother.

"I don't need to," the boy replied.

"Of course, you do." his mother insisted through gritted teeth. "We always say a prayer before eating at our house."

"That's at our house," Dewey explained. "But this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook."

Tickle-Me Tuesday

Two cute videos. The 1st one is of my 5 year-old nephew, Sidney, dancing to Michael Jackson's movie, This Is It. He LOVES MJ!! Too bad, MJ won't be around to see this future rock star! The 2nd one is a video response to Beyonce's Single Ladies. I love it! Enjoy.

Tickle-Me Tuesday

HILARIOUS!

Random Thoughts Thursday Part 2

Laser Eye Surgery.I've been so busy, that I'd forgotten that last Tuesday was the 4-year anniversary of my Lasik eye surgery. Doesn't matter to you, but it matters to me. I'd only worn glasses for 5 years before my surgery, but boy was that enough. They were annoying. It was a spur of the moment thing, I went to see if I qualified, I did so I signed up. 20 minutes (10 on each eye) and $3000 later, I donated my glasses. No pain - well, except from the pain of having to shell out $3000 - and no regrets. I am SO glad I had the surgery.

California District Closes Libraries.Wow. What's next? Closing down the schools?http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6686591.html

Toy Commercials.Is it me or are there not a lot of commercials advertising toys anymore? When I was a kid, there were commercials about Barbies, My Little Pony, GI Joe, etc. Now, I don't see them advertising toys that much anymore. Now, it's all about the video games. Are there ANY children who still plays with toys?

Reading Workshop.So, I read a NYT article about reading workshop and letting kids pick the books they have to read instead of forcing them to read the classics. While I agree children should be exposed to all types of literature, including the classics, I don't agree that these books should be the only books student read. We wonder why we have so many aliterate children (those who read, but choose not to). If you ask most teens, or even any adults, who hate reading, and they'll tell you, part of the reason why they can't stand to read is because of the books that were shoved down their throats in school. I LOVED this article. This teacher went against tradition and is making a difference. Some of her students who hated reading previously are now reading...and liking it. Why? She let them choose the novels they were to read.

I'm not planning to go back to the classroom, oh, but if I did, this would be one thing I'd be doing...going against tradition. As you can see, reading motivation and aliteracy is very near and dear to my heart. I plan to do more research on this, starting with my dissertation (which is on hold). I want to find out why kids, especially teens, aren't reading and what can we do to stop them from becoming aliterate adults.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html)

Los 25 Hombres Mas Guapos.And I'm ending my 2-part Random Thoughts Thursday on a high note: CUTIE PIES! I'm a visual person...love visually pleasing stuff and men are no exception. I got my People en Espanol in the mail (I get it to practice my Spanish) and imagine my delight when the cover story was Los 25 Hombres Mas Guapos - the 25 most handsome men. Visually pleasing indeed! Here are just a few:

Pedro Moreno: the whole reason why I got hooked on El Rostro de Analia.

Jencarlos Canela: the whole reason why I watch Mas Sabe el Diablo

Jencarlos again cos he's just so dang gorgeous.

Juanes: love his music

William Levy

That is all.

Random Thoughts Thursday Part 1

I've had a lot on my mind, so RTT will be split into 2 posts.

ABDC. Ok, I'm all for diversity, but why in the h@## is Vogue Evolution still on ABDC? Am I the only one NOT crazy about them? They've had some pretty good moves at times, but they weren't dynamic. I mean, Artistry in Motion was better and they're no longer there. And We Are Heroes was in the bottom 2 last week. WTH? Next week, either VE or Afroborike should be going home. This season PALES in comparison to the other ABDC seasons. I'm still waiting for them to wow me. Anyway, my vote goes to Rhythm City - with We Are Heroes (or maybe Massive Monkeys) being 2nd place.

Movies. What's with the remakes of old movies? Do we not have writers with enough creativity to come up with some ORIGINAL movies? I mean, come on! Karate Kid, Wizard of Oz, Halloween 2...the list goes on. They're even remaking The Last Dragon! A classic (yet cheesy) movie. The Last Dragon is one of my favorite movies. And just who will they get to play the main character, Bruce Leroy (yeah, the name's cheesy, I know)? Who's fine enough? Who's athletic enough (in martial arts)? Who has the cheesiness/innocence that Bruce Leroy had? Not even Will Smith (a very talented and good looking actor) can play BL in my eyes. Personally, I think they should've left The Last Dragon alone, but who am I. I'd go see the movie just out of curiosity, in hopes that they would not mess up a classic. I'd be SO upset if they do...unless Taimak (man who played Bruce Leroy) is in the remake, too. Then I'd love the movie no matter how sucky it may be.

Here's Taimak then

And here's Taimak now. See why I wouldn't mind seeing him in the movie?

Speaking of remakes. I am looking forward to seeing Fame. It's just that I LOVED the TV show...the few times I watched it when I was younger. Remember, I wanted to be a dancer when I was a little girl, so I loved any show with dancers (Solid Gold & Fame being the top). And speaking of movies with dancing...I was hoping Bring It On: Fight to the Finish would be at Redbox. I know, they shoulda stopped at the first Bring It On...& this movie may suck, but I wanna see it (remember I like dancing movies...which, they are cheerleaders, but they dance too). Redbox is the only way to guarantee that I won't be so upset with wasting my money. It costs $1 to rent from Redbox.

And, I went to see District 9 this past weekend. Didn't like it much. It took too long to get to the point. By the time it got to the action, I was ready to go. And the fact that the aliens looked like giant cockroaches messed it up for me. I HATE cockroaches!

The First Lady's New Do. OMG, who cares whether or not she cut hair? Obviously, they've run out of newsworthy stories (don't see how that happens, though). Get a life! And she didn't cut it, her hair is pinned. *sigh* She's still elegant and classy as usual.

Duggars 19th Child. WTH? 19 kids? More power to them, I guess. I, on the other hand, only want 2...3 if I must. 19 kids...smh.

Tickle-Me Tuesday

In honor of the many teachers and kids starting school this week:

1. I was working with a small group of 4th grade students creating word lists for their writers’ notebooks. One list was titled “Scary October Words”. I asked a girl to give me a scary word to write on the list to which she replied, “report cards!”

2. I teach high school, but a good friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher. One day a little boy tattled on another, telling my friend the other student said the "B" word. Wondering exactly which "B" word, she called the boy over and asked him to repeat what he had said. He did not want to repeat it for the teacher, but after some prodding he finally admitted to saying "Bagina".

3. At Math time, I told the kids that we were going to talk about Even and Odd. One boy yelled out- "I know that story. It's in the Bible! " After I quit laughing, I said- "I think you mean Adam and Eve. "

4. I was a teacher in a tutoring center and at the end of every session, we would ask the students quiz questions for extra tokens. I asked, "What are the three primary colors?". One of my students said, " I know- black, white, and Mexican!!" I laughed so hard, I gave him 2 tokens.

5. One teacher I had for Biology had a special way to remember Kingdom Pylum Class Order Family Genus Species. Her way we found out was King Phillip Came Over For Really Great Spaghetti. But, she was a bit flustered that day and instead of saying King Phillip Came Over For Really Great Spaghetti, she said King Phillip Came Over For Really Great Sex.

6. A teacher friend of mine does a survey with her 8th graders on future jobs. One young man stated he wanted to be a garbage man because they only have to work on Thursdays.

Taken from http://www.yesiteach.org/funny.htm

Have an awesome school year!

Tickle-Me Tuesday

Pics that have that 'aw' factor:

Tickle-Me Tuesday

Emailed to me. Too cute:

A doctor went to the country to deliver a baby. There was no electricity. When the doctor arrived, no one was home except for the laboring mother and her 5 year old. The doctor instructed the child to hold a lantern high so he could see while he helped the woman deliver the baby. The child did so, the mother pushed, and after a little while, the doctor lifted the newborn baby by the feet and spanked him on the bottom to get him to take his first breath. The doctor then asked the 5 yr-old what he thought of the baby. The boy said, "Spank him again. He shouldn't have crawled in there in the first place!"