Mr. B's Bookshelf: Robert A. Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy as adap...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Robert A. Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy as adap...: I have always been a big fan of Robert A.Heinlein. Citizen of the Galaxy was one of the first books of his that I read. I remember wel...

Why Public Education Will Survive and Prevail by Diane Ravitch

Here are some words of encouragemnet.

Why Public Education Will Survive and Prevail by Diane Ravitch

Thanks, Diane! I needed that!

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt: “Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stu...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: El Deafo by Cece Bell

Mr. B's Bookshelf: El Deafo by Cece Bell: This was different. This is a loose biographical account of Cece Bell's loss of hearing as a child. What makes it different is that...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos: The title is the first thing that caught my attention. It reminded me of some of the off-the-wall titles of Paul Zindel's young adu...

Some Interesting Looking Ted-Ed Collections

Next year my school is going to a "1-to-1" initiative. Basically, every student in the grades 6, 7, and 8 will be getting an iPad. I am looking forward to it. So, as I am on summer "break" (teaching summer school is a break, right?) I am cruising around the internet to look for cool things that I can use in class.

One of these things are collections of videos by Ted-Ed. While I wouldn't use all the videos in any one collection, having them grouped around like ideas seems to make sense to me. Here are links to a few of them that I especially like.

The Writer's Workshop

Reading Between the Lines

The Way We Think

If you give any of these a try, I'd love to know which ones you especially like--or don't like for that matter.

Why Is It Okay to Defame Teachers?

This is a good companion piece to the post I shared yesterday about the demonization of teachers.

Why Is It Okay to Defame Teachers?

Why America Demonizes Its Teachers

This is a really good article. I recommend it highly!

Why America Demonizes Its Teachers

Almost Daily Quote: 05/08/15

Almost Daily Quote: 05/08/15: An oldie, but a goodie about the importance of teachers from Lee Iacoca...

Almost Daily Quote: 05/07/15

Almost Daily Quote: 05/07/15: A quote from Frank McCourt's Teacherman...

Almost Daily Quote: 05/06/15

Almost Daily Quote: 05/06/15: If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around. - Ji...

John Oliver Destroys Standardized Testing

John Oliver goes after the insanity of standardized testing!

Almost Daily Quote: 05/05/15

Almost Daily Quote: 05/05/15: I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might eve...

The Ogre's Poetry Den: seventh graders

The Ogre's Poetry Den: seventh graders: seventh graders frantic, hormonal talking, laughing, crying life's a roller coaster my kids ©2015-Art Belliveau

©2015-Art Belliveau

Almost Daily Quote: 05/04/15

Almost Daily Quote: 05/04/15: I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.- Lily Tomlin

The Ogre's Poetry Den: Late April Inservice

The Ogre's Poetry Den: Late April Inservice:

Wednesday, after school, an inservice class meets
in the library to talk about iPads.
Nervously, the anxious instructor smiles, greets
us, t...

©2015-Art Belliveau

The Ogre's Poetry Den: test week

The Ogre's Poetry Den: test week:

wasting my time
 spinning my wheels
 another week gone
 unnecessary stress
 test week 2015

 ©2015-Art Belliveau

The Ogre's Poetry Den: empty walls

The Ogre's Poetry Den: empty walls:

empty walls
 posters taken down
 so boring
 desolate
 testing takes priority
 over teaching kids



 ©2015-Art Belliveau

Read on NPR Ed

I was doing a little readig on the web and found a couple of really cool little articles on NPR Ed.

The first one, The Teenage Brain: Spock Vs. Captain Kirk, starts to explain why adolescents can so oftenm make such spectacularly bad choices. It also says it starts at around age 12, not 17.

The other one, 5 Lessons Education Research Taught Us In 2014, had more of snippets than real substance, but some of those snippets, like what affect alligning curriculum has on standardized test scores, were intriguing. 

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Jumper by Steven Gould

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Jumper by Steven Gould: While the movie Jumper was based on this book, it is nothing like it. Well, almost nothing like it. The main character being a telep...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Daniel X: Alien Hunter by James Patterson and Leop...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Daniel X: Alien Hunter by James Patterson and Leop...: James Patterson has exploded into the YA market over the last few years. The thing I noticed, though, is that all of his YA books have ...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christ...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christ...: Have you heard the story about Prince Charming?  Think so? Think again. In this amusing book, several fairy tales in which Prince Charmi...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Big Nate: Say Good-Bye to Dork City by Lincoln Pei...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Big Nate: Say Good-Bye to Dork City by Lincoln Pei...: My daughter turned me on to the Big Nate books. She loves them. I had seen some of the kids in my classes reading them, too. So I tried...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Wonder by R.J. Palacio: I had heard a lot about this book and how wonderful (no pun intended) it was. So, it was with a grain of salt that I downloaded the audi...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman

Mr. B's Bookshelf: No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman: Gordan Korman is one of my favorite writers for young adults. He has a sense of humor that resonates with my own. And, the one time I me...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: I Funny: A Middle School Story by James Patterson ...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: I Funny: A Middle School Story by James Patterson ...: A kid who wants to be a stand up comic, reminds me of my own childhood dreams a bit. As a teen I listened to some of the classics: Geor...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Godless by Pete Hautman

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Godless by Pete Hautman: I chose to read this book because I have, more than once in my life, gone through a spiritual crisis of faith. I was a teenage Catholic ...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: To This Day: For the Bullied and Beautiful by Shan...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: To This Day: For the Bullied and Beautiful by Shan...: I don’t talk much about it anymore, but I was bullied a lot as a kid. The biggest, baddest kid in the school didn’t like me. A small Ca...