Carnival of Education: Teacher Appreciation!

We are honored to periodically host the Carnival of Education. Hats off to our good friend Jane Goodwin for all of her work on the latest Carnival. – editor

Welcome to the Carnival of Education, Teacher Appreciation version!  Of course, teachers don’t really need to be TOLD they’re appreciated.  I mean, they get all summer off, and all those holiday vacations, and it seems like every time we turn around, there’s some kind of half-day, or day off of some kind for no apparent reason.  So, why should we go out of our way to pat a teacher on the back and talk about appreciation?

How about, um, because our children’s teachers are the adult role model who spends the most time with our children?  Or perhaps because dealing with a room full of small children five days a week is stressful beyond all comprehension and requires beaucoups of energy, patience, sincerity, devotion,  dedication, knowledge, discipline, and the ability to NOT go to the bathroom for up to seven hours?  How about because our nation’s teachers have devoted their lives to other people’s children?  How about because teachers spend hundreds of dollars of their own money on their classrooms because corporation budgets no longer cover chalk, staples, paper, and paste?  Maybe because I’ve never met a teacher who hasn’t bought a store-full of winter coats, shoes, socks, and haircuts for students over the years?  Or because you sent your 5-year-old to kindergarten and he came home knowing how to read, write, count, think, and become more and more independent every day?  Possibly because teenagers, who already know how to run the world, are guided and advised and taught life-skills to help them take care of themselves and of other people?  There are far too many reasons to list.  You pick one.

Let’s begin with the best idea for a Teacher Appreciation gift that I’ve seen in a good long time:  gift certificates for science toys!  Right here at Steve Spangler’s Blog, you can nominate your favorite teacher and he/she will receive a certificate for $35.00 worth of fantastic science stuff!

At the opposite end of the appreciation spectrum would be the horrible concept nicknamed the Rubber Room, where unappreciated teachers are often sent on an administrator’s whim.  This dreadful practice is outlined for us by Woodlass on her blog Under Assault:  Teaching in NYC.

Jeannie, at The Writer In Me – Teaching, Writing, Living, tells us why her terms are bookended with bull–it.   Hey, Jeannie, I know what you’re really saying.

Marcy Webb presents Is Foreign Language Education Wasted on the Young? posted at Pensamientos.

Mamacita (Jane Goodwin) is posting about Teacher Appreciation this week over at Scheiss Weekly. Her advice?  Teachers already have more than enough mugs, statues, candles, and little picture frames.  They want gift cards!

A solar panel school?  Check out Katy’s post on Boots on the Roof!

Dave Saba believes that wonderful things can happen, and not just in Wisconsin,  when everyone cooperates.  Check out his post at  ABCTE.

Dr. Mark Stock wants to know how YOU would fix NCLB, and lists a few ways HE would start.  Dr. Stock is also pondering the fate of newspapers in education.

Rock star pay for rock star teachers?  Check out Matthew Ladner’s post!  

Got a lot of student loan debt? Join the crowd! Check out what Joe has to say about consolidating those loans.

ChildCareOnly.com has some helpful hints for those pre-school potty accidents!

The Education Optimists have a few things to say about NCLB, too.

Is taking one test really a good reason to take a half a day off school?  Darren, at Right on the Left Coast: Views From A Conservative Teacher, wants to know!

Is there much reading instruction beyond the primary grades?  See what Mary Anne Zehr thinks, over at Education Week.  Then check out what she thinks about ELLS and Federal Stimulus funds.

Preaching to the choir or not, something resonated with Nancy Flanagan, at Teacher in a Strange Land.

Jason Oller, a high school student in Louisiana, has posted a list of teachers he appreciates.  What a great kid!  Check out his blog over at Jason’s Perspective.

Over at Learn Me Good, Mister Teacher tells us what he will NOT be wearing on Monday!

Joanne Jacobs posts about the high cost of firing (or not firing) teachers.

Know any negative people?  Travis gives us some hints on how to deal with them.

If a teacher has turned in 43 “incidents” and only 8 of them were taken care of, that doesn’t sound very appreciative, does it.  It doesn’t sound very professional, either.  Old Andrew, of Scenes from the Battleground, posts about disruptive students who seem to be running the institution.

Are you interested in getting an engineering degree online?  Then check out this post.

Craig Fenton tells us about how awesome a thesaurus can be!

Ear wax and nose hair?  Just A Substitute Teacher knows how to get quarrelsome kids to be friends, all right!  Hilarious!

Scott McLeod, of Dangerously Irrelevant, talks about witch hunts, Survivor, and how to get rid of the bad teachers.

Sarah Ebner thinks every student should have a blog. 

Over at Successful Teaching, Pat is wondering if her students are overwhelmed – by her!

Larry Ferlazzo’s students face a lot of challenges in their inner-city high school, and sometimes, a personal letter can make a lot of difference.

How much does Mamacita love her teaching gig?  A LOT.

Seriously, these science toys are AWESOME!

Ted, at the Campus Grotto, has some great tips for survival at the college level.

Haven’t we all wondered exactly what some of those assessment test scores really mean?  Erin N. King, at the School Psychologist Blog Files, tells us!

Mr. McGuire, at The Reading Workshop, posts about blogging in Language Arts classes.  I agree!

Erika Collins tells us all about the SAT’s.

Practice worksheets and homework assignments are excellent study tools.  Just ask Meaghan Montrose at TutorFi.com.

Outer space rocks!  Andrew, at The Evolving Mind, gives us proof that it isn’t just drugs than can blow our minds!  Black holes are mind-blowing, too!

Siobhan Curious wonders if more schools will make us better people.  Great discussion; why not join it?

Matthew Needleman, over at Creating Lifelong Learners, tells us about a film school for video podcasters, on YouTube.

Switched on Mom, who blogs at The More Child, has a really interesting post about Monday Morning Quarterbacking.  It might not be what you think.

Kiri, of Elbows, Knees, Dreams, tells us how valuable pre-school can be for non-English-speaking children.

Over at Let’s Play Math, Denise has given us all a wonderful math calendar for May!

Should a child who has only recently survived a traumatic accident be required to sit still at a desk for hours and take a standardized test?  Guusje has a post that will make us all ponder.

Pastor Jeff believes we should all be very careful about the values and behaviors we encourage and pass down to our kids.

Polski3’s interactive notebooks are cookin’!

The fact is, teachers are among the most unappreciated and underappreciated professionals, yet they are among the most deserving-of-appreciation professionals out there.  Don’t be shy about showing your children’s teachers that you appreciate what they do for your kids, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and forever.

As for you people who submitted posts about eBay, credit cards, research paper mills, and advertisements for your eBook that had nothing to do with education:  stop submitting such things to an education carnival!

Or, in keeping with this week’s theme:  NOT APPRECIATED!

Next week’s Carnival of Education will be hosted by Mamacita, at Scheiss Weekly.  Submit your educational posts right HERE. And let’s all remember that the Carnival of Education is about EDUCATION.