Extreme Weather?

Wow!! Can you believe all of the hurricanes we've had this year??? It is unreal!

I found the following article that was interesting, and I thought you might like it, too.

Extreme weather changes in front of us by ZDNet's Roland Piquepaille -- Researchers from Purdue University have used their supercomputers to run the largest simulation of what could become the weather in the U.S. between 2071 and 2095. And their model, which was validated by using data from last century, predicts more extreme temperatures throughout the country.

Language Arts Lessons

When I was in junior high and high school, I had some really great "English" teachers (as we called them). Some of them are still doing that great job today even after retirement from the school system I attended. I owe 99% of my writing ability to those people with the other 1% going to my college professors. It's important to learn these skills early, and those folks did a great job. They know who they are. My memory has failed me on some writing rules over the years, but I know who I can go ask when the time comes. I thought this site might help Language Arts teachers. It has lots of lesson plans on various topics.

Daily Grammar

The page is no longer updated, but the archive is still available of all the lessons that were originally posted.

Math Tricks

Anybody that knows me knows I'm horrible in math. But then, most people don't even know who I am on this blog so what does it matter??? LOL

Anyway, I found this really cool math trick that I thought I might pass along, because even I could do it!! I took this from Curious Math and if I can do it anyone can. It was posted by a person named kayer35.

Got 5 minutes to spare? That's all the time you need to learn how to quickly multiply two numbers from 11 to 19 in your head.

With this trick, you will be able to multiply any two numbers from 11 to 19 in your head quickly, without the use of a calculator.
I will assume that you know your multiplication table reasonably well up to 10x10.

Lets try 15 x 13.

1. Always place the larger number of the two on top in your mind.

2. Then draw the shape of Africa mentally so it covers the 15 and the 3 from the 13 below. Those covered numbers are all you need.

3. Now add 15 + 3 = 18

4. Add a zero behind it (i.e., multiply by 10) to get 180.

5. Multiply the covered lower 3 by the single digit above it, in this case the "5" (3 x 5 = 15)

6. Add the products from steps 5 and 6 to get your answer. 180 + 15 = 195.

That's it! Wasn't that easy? Practice it on paper first!

Wi-Fi Woes

This post from C-Net has some really great wireless networking advice.


Image from www.cnet.com

Is the earth elastic?

Is the Earth elastic? by ZDNet's Roland Piquepaille -- Scientists from Brazil and the U.S. think so. In a surprising discovery, they've found that a GPS station in Manaus, near the center of the Amazon River basin, showed that the Earth level was going up and down by almost 3 inches (75 mm) every year with the seasonal floods of the big river. In [...]

It's Fall!

Don't you just love this time of year? The leaves are beginning to turn a little, and the evenings are getting a little cooler. However, in this part of the country the leaves just turn brown and die. We don't get the pretty reds and yellows like some parts of the country. It's always dry here until they pretty much fall off the trees. Anyway, this pic says it all.

(Image from http://www.freefoto.com)

Did you know that October 15th is National Grouch Day as well as National Poetry Day? Go here to see a calendar of all kinds of events for the month of October.

Websites for Teachers

I've had a teacher or two ask me for some Websites for their classrooms. I hope the following sites help a little bit. Just click and drag your mouse over the link and copy and paste it into your browser address bar.

Middle School

Science

http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bstpract/bstpractNew/ScienceMS.html
http://quest.nasa.gov/
http://www.thegateway.org/
http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/109.html
http://www.ncrel.org/tplan/guide/int5.htm
http://www.iloveteaching.com/Intenetclass/index.htm
http://techlearning.com/outlook/reviews/science.jhtml
http://www97.intel.com/odyssey/teacher.aspx?viewby=category
http://www.mtnbrook.k12.al.us/tech/k6/6ssites.htm
http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html
http://www.edutopia.org/modules/ms/index.php
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/taylor/standards/

Math
http://www.sabine.k12.la.us/class/excel_resources.htm
http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/kadkins/abc.htm
http://www.thegateway.org/
http://www.teachers.net/cgi-bin/lessons/sort.cgi?searchterm=Mathematics
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/bjpinchbeck/
http://rcs.rcps.k12.va.us/creativeways/index.htm
http://www.ncrel.org/tplan/guide/intmath.htm
http://www.iloveteaching.com/Intenetclass/index.htm
http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html
http://illuminations.nctm.org/index_d.aspx?id=271
http://illuminations.nctm.org/index_o.aspx?id=125
http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/rtc/workshops/math_webresources.htm
http://www.edutopia.org/modules/ms/index.php
http://www.wmburgweb.com/Resources/Mathcat/kinteg.html

Language Arts

http://www.thegateway.org/
http://www.teachers.net/cgi-bin/lessons/sort.cgi?searchterm=Literature
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/bjpinchbeck/
http://rcs.rcps.k12.va.us/creativeways/index.htm
http://www.ncrel.org/tplan/guide/int6.htm
http://www.iloveteaching.com/Intenetclass/index.htm
http://techlearning.com/outlook/reviews/sites_for_edus.jhtml
http://www97.intel.com/odyssey/teacher.aspx?viewby=category
http://tiger.towson.edu/~avan1/portfolio/lessonplan.htm
http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html
http://www.edutopia.org/modules/ms/index.php
http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang.html
http://7-12educators.about.com/msub1plneng.htm

Interactive Education

Teachers are always looking for new and creative ways to explore their subject matter with their students. I found this site that has different animations for different subjects. It's pretty interesting. You can view the demos to see if you'd like to purchase them.

http://www.explorelearning.com/

Boy, is this ever true!

I can relate to this guy's blog post. So many times I've been asked "how do you know all this stuff?"

This post says it well.

Hats off to Larry.

Words and Stuff

Everything you'd ever want to know about word usage is in this lady's blog. It seems to be a great resource for ELA teachers. I learned a thing or two from it.

Wow.

Content Consultant

EARTHQUAKE!!!

(Image courtesy of Kian H. Chong, Univ. of California, Davis and is located on the site listed below)

As of the time of this posting, there were 153 recorded earthquakes in 7 days!!!

Check out this site to view this information.

Earthquakes

Pictures, Pictures, and more Pictures

Have you ever visited The Astronomy Picture of the Day page? It's really cool! Each day a new picture is added regarding earth and space science. I've seen pictures of nebulas, northern lights, planets, stars, volcanic eruptions, etc. Follow the banner link above to the site. Check out the archives.

There's Another One!!

Astronomers have discovered a 10th planet. It is officially catalogued as 2003UB313, but informally known as planet Xena. It’s named after the famed TV series, but suddenly I feel like Captain Kirk is about to be born a century or two earlier than planned! Seriously, the same Cal Tech astronomers now believe that Xena has a moon and have nicknamed it Gabrielle. According to CBS News, the planet is located in the Kuiper Belt. This is an assembly of icy bodies and is about 9 billion miles from the sun. This is currently the farthest known object in our solar system. Isn’t this cool??!?!

(Photo taken from http://www.cbsnews.com and is credited to AP/NASA.)