A few copyright highlights: Portions of copyrighted material may be used with proper credit and citations. This may just be a title and a link, but if copyrighted material is used, it must be credited. Consider creating and using a personal fair use statement to include at the beginning of any and all materials that include copyrighted materials. Fair use ends if you put something on the internet with unlimited access. You cannot claim fair use on an unsecured site. Examples of fair use (with proper credit given): Text – 10% or 1000 words – whichever is less. Poetry – Up to 250 words of a poem. No more than 5 poems altogether. No more than 3 poems from a single poet. TV Shows – You should have made the tape yourself. Someone else can make it, but it can’t be a copy of a copy of a copy. It must be shown in a classroom/instructional setting. It has to be from a public TV station – ABC, NBC, etc. Cable channels do not count. Video must be shown within 10 days of taping. Video must be dest

I expanded it to a booklet ;)

  Shepherd: Instead of Mandatory Standards for All . Short post (and would someone please listen to him!):   Robert D. Shepherd answers a fundamental question about the Common Core: “Question: What should we have instead of a single set of mandatory standards for all? “Answer: Competing, voluntary standards that can serve as guidelines to be followed, or not, by independent, site-managed schools in which teachers make their own decisions about what should be taught, when, and to whom.”

We've got more than a few new teachers this year and I wanted something to put in their hands. Here's my effort. Not sure if it's finished or not - probably though since my next is to work on one for the students and one for Destiny. My extension isn't on it because I could not for the life of me remember it :/ Library| Media Center Teacher Guide

Vol.#37: The NC News Target | Teaching Speaks Volumes . So does Erica. I didn't start reading Erica for her NC political updates but I'm glad she writes it so I can read it. Wear red on Wednesdays for solidarity please.  

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage My rating: 5 of 5 stars Some kid's childhoods are bizarre and some are just crappy. Such were the lives of Mo and her best friend Dale. Life gets even more interesting (and dangerous) for them when a Detective from Winston Salem comes to town. Great read. I had a hard time putting it down. View all my reviews

Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata My rating: 5 of 5 stars Surprisingly good book! The dogs are such great characters. The humans were too, but I don't remember reading a book before where the animals (as animals) were so well portrayed as individuals. I laughed and cried my way through this book and read parts of it to my husband because we were on vacation. He wanted to know what happened to Cracker when I finished the book. View all my reviews

Gym Candy by Carl Deuker My rating: 3 of 5 stars Gym Candy is one of this year's Battle of the Books for NC Middle Schoolers. I've really liked most of the books I've read from the list, but this one was just OK. Of course, I'm not a guy. Football is not my thing. I don't care about making the team. I do think this book has a great place on the shelf and just because I didn't especially like it, I can see how it will be appealing to students - especially some of the boys. View all my reviews

I wasn't quite as crafty this summer as I've been some others, but I did get several things made.  I did some really heavy cleaning and rearranging this summer instead. Thing one: Crocheted baskets. I made the red, white and blue one first. I had some heavy yarn left over from another project. When I came across the pattern, I thought they would work. It's a great yarn basket! My second try was with some Red Heart Super Saver yarn. I found these colors that looked rather like watermelon colors. I put two pockets on the inside of this one.   Thing two: Baby blanket. Several friends are having babies over the next school year, so I started with this one. Thing 3: Stained glass boxes. Looking into my newly cleaned out closet, I thought the banker's boxes I'd been using for storage looked like they'd been used for too many things over the past 30 years. (That would be because they have!) So I took an idea I'd used at school. I cut a multi-color pack of tissue pa