Totally 3rd Grade Blog

Share your views about teaching 3rd grade

• About this site
• Music Site
• Contact

I invite you to take a look and help us explain why educators and other public employees are the enemy?

This has been a rough week.

I don’t understand – why am I the enemy?

I put myself though college – twice, bachelor’s and master’s – while my kids were little.  I worked full time, went to school at night, paid out of pocket, never got a bridge card or unemployment , ADC or welfare.

I get up and go to work every morning.  I pay a percentage of my healthcare and even pay extra to have my husband covered.  I pay into my retirement fund.

I pay taxes – income tax, property tax, school tax, sales tax, and registration fees on the American cars I’ve always owned.

I had nothing to do with Wall Street scandals or the housing bubble, and my house is now worth half of what I paid for it, but I still pay my mortgage.  No short sales, no foreclosures, no sticking it to the banks and taxpayers.

Why am I the enemy?

[Is it] Because I have worked hard without entitlement programs to get two degrees and a decent job?

No CEO bonuses here.  Not even a UAW bonus.

My kids had to take out student loans for college too – with 10% per year tuition hikes.   Because Mom and Dad go to work every day, we’re too “rich” to get handouts.

Why am I the enemy again?

[Is it] Because my job involves teaching children to read and write and [to] understand math and science, which can’t possibly be complex or demanding?

[Is it] Because I provide Band-Aids and pencils and Kleenex and calculators, and wipe away tears and tell my students that yes, they can master fractions if they will just come in early or stay late with me and I’ll help them?

[Is it] Because I use everything I’ve learned about brain research in graduate classes to make their learning process natural and fun and exciting, to the point where they think my class is easy? Because I treat them as individuals, and manage to challenge kids who read at a 12th grade level, while differentiating for kids who read at a 2nd grade level, all at the same time?  Is that why I’m the enemy?

[Is it] Because everyone’s been in a classroom and it seems so easy to run one?  Is that why I’m the enemy?   (Does getting your oil changed at Jiffy Lube regularly mean you could design combustion engines as well as the engineers at Ford?)

I’ve always worked hard and paid my own way, and yes, I got an A in calculus and I can explain redox reactions and Newtonian physics to middle schoolers.

But I’ve never made a fortune, never gotten [sic] a bonus or a company car or cell phone or expense account or incentive trip to the Bahamas.

I just work with kids every day.  Whoever shows up – hungry, sad, tired, bouncing off the walls – I work with them.  I teach them.  They know more when they leave my classroom than they did when they came in, every day.

But I’m the enemy.

Why is that again?

Please explain it to me.

(Click here for a larger view)

Several months ago I mentioned a world map that features a thought-provoking and truly interesting projection.  South is at the top.

Every time I look at this particular projection I become more impressed with its ability to challenge my thinking and to arouse curiosity about my neighbors on planet Earth.

Now for something special:

I have been able to secure 12 of these full-size (24″ x 36″) maps from the terrific folks at ODT Maps and will give them away free to the first 12 teachers who send me an e-mail with their name and a mailing address that I can ship to. (Use the “Contact” button above or the comment form below to send the information.  I’ll hide your name from public view like the others below.)

All I ask in return is that some day you’ll send me a follow-up email to let me know if your class enjoyed the map and any other comments you may have about this thought-provoking resource.

That’s it.  I feel strongly that resources like this are under-used and that teachable moments are lost in their absence.  If you’re one of those teachers who constantly pushes for higher achievement, then be sure to step up and let me know that you want your classroom to be one of the beneficiaries of this one-time, free offer.

Update: The last map has finally been given away.  Thanks to everyone who responded.

While not a flashy looker on the outside, Education.com sports beautiful, quality printables that are exceptionally well-organized and easily sortable.  They’re also free and numerous.

Reading, math, social studies, science, writing, games, holidays and arts and crafts are all represented. One of the nice features of the site is that all of these materials can be presorted first by grade level and then by topic within that level.  That will save you a ton of time since you won’t have to scroll though every document on the site to find what you want.

Another neat feature is the fish-eye preview of each document.  Every printable has a thumbnail picture that can be magnified by hovering your mouse over the image.  This makes it very quick and simple to determine if you’ve found what you’re looking for or not.  No more  “download surprises.”

This site is huge.  I’m just mentioning the worksheets here because I think they’re very good and super easy to peruse.  If you have a little extra time to explore, you might want to check out their activities section, which has the same presorting  feature that the worksheets enjoy.  (Sorry, no fish-eye enlarger).

This site is a winner.  Take me to Education.com to see some great worksheets.

I’ve recently discovered 2 Google search functions that work really well and that practically nobody uses.  The first is known as “site search” and the other is “file search.”

Site search allows you to look for something on a website without actually going to the site. This is especially powerful when applied to education sites since so many of them are massive link farms.  There’s good stuff available, but you have to work hard to find it and it can be sloooow.

Here’s a likely scenario: you need resources to teach a unit about counting money.  You seem to remember seeing something good on superteacherworksheets.com, but you’re not sure.  Rather than going to the site and nosing round, type the following formula into the Google search bar:

[subject] [site:] [website address]

Press “search” and you’ll get a list of all of the materials that exist on the site for money.  If they have something, you’ll see what they’ve got and if they don’t have anything, you won’t waste time hunting for a dead end.

Regardless of how inefficient or unorganized the navigation of some sites may be, this technique will cut right through and deliver the goods.  How cool is that!

The second search function you may want to try is “filetype” search. With this search option, you type in the subject, “filetype:” and then the type of file you want.  For example, if you want to find a PowerPoint presentation about simple machines you’d use this formula:

[subject] [filetype:] [type of file you want]

Press “search” and you’ll see every PowerPoint presentation that exists on the web.  (This works equally well for PDF files and Word docs).

I could see this being a powerful tool when you need to find a new way to approach a subject.  Pick your subject, use the “filetype:” function and investigate how other people have approached the topic.  Get creative!