Educational funding, where can you be?

(to the tune of Chim Chim Cher-Ee)

Educational funding, where can you be?
Our kids aren't so lucky, nothing comes free.
Educational funding, what will we do?
The classrooms are bursting, at almost 32.

And I've got an ulcer, trying to serve 62!

This one has seizures, that one's tube fed,
"You'll figure it out," is what the higher-ups said.
Six need PEC Systems, two have high-tech AT,
No time to train them, can't talk to me.

Educational funding, where can you be?
We've lost our assistants, the kids run away free.
Educational funding, what will we do?
The Kinders are wild, it's like controlling a zoo.

With budgets of ZERO, it's like teaching one too!

Donald, vision, and math

I started reading the book Brain Rules, by John Medina, in an attempt to help both my students and my children (and myself!) learn and retain more. Although most of the book is review for me, Mr. Medina presents some great information and tells good stories. One piece of information that he stresses is that the visual sense is so important to being human, that it trumps all other senses. He stresses that educators should learn how to use pictures to transfer information. He describes how the movie Donald in Mathmagic Land determined his career choice.

A 27 minute animated Disney film altering the professional destiny of an 8 year old? This I had to check out.

And after checking it out, I have to recommend it to you and your children as a wonderful way to enliven mathematics for both adults and children.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Today's post was inspired by the classic (and highly adaptable) book Fortunately, by Remy Charlip. I've considered buying the book for my classroom for several years. And as it turns out I should have--I just found out that my classroom budget went from several hundred dollars to zero-zip-nada-rien thanks to the huge educational budget cuts.


Fortunately
my husband got a phone call from his sister (who lives 3000 miles away).

Unfortunately
it was to inform us that their uncle had just passed away.

Fortunately
the service was scheduled for a day I was off of work.

Unfortunately
the service was scheduled 200 miles away from our home.

Fortunately
we have friends that live in the area, with whom we could stay.

Unfortunately
their kids (friends to our kids) were in our neck of the woods on vacation.

Fortunately
we drove the 200 miles quickly and without incident.

Unfortunately
I left my pajamas, hairbrush, shampoo, exercise clothes, and medications at home.

Fortunately
I remembered to bring one of my P90x DVDs with me.

Unfortunately
I brought the wrong one and felt sick half way through it.

Fortunately
the kids did well at the memorial service and family gathering afterward.

Unfortunately
the traffic on the drove home was atrocious.

And unfortunately
if we didn't get to the pharmacy by 7:00pm, Professor X would be without his medications until after the long weekend.

Fortunately
our car does a great job of going 80 mph.

Unfortunately
we got to the pharmacy at 7:03pm.

Fortunately
Professor X had called 10 minutes ahead of that to beg the pharmacist to stay open a few extra minutes.

And fortunately
she did!

Unfortunately
I got back home to find three messages saying my classroom had been broken into last night.

But fortunately
the intruder had taken nothing and left only broken glass, blood, and a child-size foot print. :(

Image from security and surveillance blog.

Sarcastic message of the day: I'm so glad the members of our community are so supportive of the educational funding crisis at this time by testing our security systems, reminding our custodial staff how to clean up glass, putting our hazardous body fluid containers into early use, and making sure our police department is handling situations in a timely fashion.

What a whirlwind of 2 days!