I love summer storms, especially if I’m inside a cabin watching from a safe place.  Students can use this KIDSTORM website to get information about thunder and lightening.  There are no interactive activities, but the information is clear and concise with a few simple diagrams.  National Geographic has a very fun interactive page on lightening.  You can click on objects to see what happens to them when lightening strikes.  I had fun doing it myself and I think students would like it, too.

I found this fun list of amazing and unusual pets.  I like the categories – smartest, most talkative, most springy and most rolling. This is just fun information, but you could use it for a pay attention to details lesson.  Pick a few of the pets and read their descriptions to the class.  Then have students come up with as many details as they can, either verbally or in writing.

Since today is my daughter Erin’s Golden Birthday, I decided to google Golden Birthday and see what came up.  There were some interesting ideas in this list of family birthday traditions, from giving birthday insults to having a birthday elf. For ideas and information about golden birthdays, read this ad for a $12.97 Golden Birthday Book. You get a lot of ideas even if you don’t order the book.  You could use this information about golden birthdays to start a discussion or writing exercise on traditions.

Happy Birthday Erin!

My daughter just pointed out that it’s the birthday of my blog.  I started writing one year ago and just kept going, taking out a little time out to pack up a house and move into an apartment.  Dealing with my teacher stuff was probably the hardest part of the move.  I still have trouble passing a dollar store without buying something.  Today I saw the coolest giant plastic crayons.  Friends – stop me from going back next week to buy them! Those of you who read some of my earliest posts know how much I love props.  I feel like I have dropped the ball because I haven’t written about any cool props in quite a while.  So here’s my son’s link to giant robot arms.  You at least have to look at them.

If you are interested in creative problem solving, you might want to read this somewhat academic article that defines the terminology of problem solving and describes thinking patterns.  I like the diagrams that accompany the article.  This is not something you would use with students, but rather something to help you understand the theory behind problem solving activities.

I was reading the I Love Libraries blog and came across this inspiring article about a girl who set a goal of reading all of the Newbery Medal winners before middle school and reached that goal.  Not only did she read all the books, but she created a blog where she reviews many of them.  Her blog is a good place to have students write their own comments and reviews of books.  I applaud Laura’s work and creativity in accomplishing her goal in such a creative way.

I gave my kids a wide variety of toys – cars, building blocks, dolls, science kits, crafts, athletic equipment.  I wanted my daughters to love cars as much as dolls and my son to love playing house as much as playing cops and robbers.  Well, my daughters loved dolls and dressing best and my son loved weapons and electronics.  They played with all toys but always gravitated back to traditional male-female choices.  Observing my own kids has made me more interested in what influences kids to make non-gender specific choices.  Choosing books enters into that arena.  That’s why I liked the But I want a REAL princess book blog post by the librarians at the Seattle Public Library. They suggest books that introduce more liberated princesses to girls who only want to take out princess books.  Be sure to read the responses because they give even more book suggestions.  I have to add my favorite princess book, The Paper Bag Princess. Every girl should have a copy on her shelf!

I came across Teacher Tap when I was looking for more articles on creativity.  If you want to review Bloom’s Taxonomy without digging out your old textbook, this is the place for you.  I like the easy-to-use list of verbs that go with the six levels of the cognitive domain.  The Teacher Tap is an excellent source of professional development resources for teachers and librarians.  There are four focus areas: tech and learning, internet resources, libraries and literacy and tech tools.  I will try to test out some of the links and pass on ones I think are particularly interesting.

Today’s tip is that the online courses are well-organized and free.  The courses are actually offered online by Indiana University and you have to pay to get credit. However, if you just want to learn more about audio and video collections, electronic materials, high tech learning or web development, the free course guide will give you a ton of information and valuable links.  Just a note – there is a lot of information in these courses so this is not the place to go if you want quick summaries.

Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown is an insightful well-written young adult book that deals with the emotional upheaval of having a bipolar parent.  It is both very sad and very uplifting, giving a very real picture of a young girl whose bipolar mother leaves, forcing the daughter and father to recreate their own relationship.  It’s another book that can give teachers insight into the thinking of students who have to deal with situations most of us can barely imagine.  It might also be a book to use to open conversation with a student who has an absent parent for whatever reason.

Hugging the Rock is a verse book, which is another reason to read it.  In the online teacher’s guide, Brown talks about why she wrote the book in verse.  I think students might respond well to writing verse books of their own.  The teacher’s guide also offers questions that can be used for discussion as well as suggested projects for students.

New York Giants wide receiver Sinorice Moss wants high school students to set goals and achieve them.  His program Dare to Dream encourages goal-setting by inviting students to write letters to him expressing their goals.  The idea is that he will then work with classes to provide support in accomplishing the goals.  Students will receive a certificate from Moss when they achieve their goals and their names will be added to an honor roll on the website.  The program is in its infancy, but will be an interesting one to watch to get insight into whether such a simple reward system can effectively change behavior.