#AtoZ : W for Winning

"We're going to the tournament to have fun. 

The way you have fun is you win!"

                                             ~Richard Bute    

Memphis Futbol Club Soccer Coach

Every year our city celebrates Memphis in May where we honor a country and teach students about a foreign land. This year the country of honor is Panama. I attended a teacher's conference and presented my students with interesting facts about Panama so that they could enter the Memphis in May writer's contest. Not to brag, but I typically have a winner of this contest each year. This year, I was blessed with two winners! 

Second Prize went to Lauren for her story about painting the golden altar in Panama black to keep

pirate Captain Henry Morgan from stealing it from the church. Her story was rich with historic detail and smoothly written; however, other than giving her the background information, I can't take credit for her writing ability. She entered my class a few months ago, so I have not had a lot of time to develop her writing.

Santiago, my first place winner, came to my class close to the beginning of the year and was not the writer he is now, so I'll take credit for his success. His early writing was cluttered with boring "be" verbs that he has learned to replace with his rich vocabulary. This is a kid who reads constantly, and as a result, his vocabulary is better than that of most adults. He has also learned to use multiple senses in his writing and strong descriptive nouns. I am kicking myself for not saving his early work because it would be a great artifact for my professional development evaluation. 

Here is the first paragraph from his winning entry. It's hard to believe that this was written by a fifth grader.

The Hunt

     Crawling close to the ground, I stalked my prey. I got as close as I could. Then I lunged and with a quick snap of my jaws, the bird was dead. It tasted as sweet as the juice that came from a monkey's meat. I padded my way back to my home, a rocky overhang curtained with leaves; my prize hanging from my mouth. As I sprinted my way back home, my spotted coat blended in the shadows caused by the leafy canopy. The sweet fragrance of the star-shaped flowers wafted around me. The meaty taste of prey filled my hunger. I was home.

We enter contests for fun, but it is most fun to win!

#AtoZ "V" for Very Happy About Teachers Pay Teachers #TPT

I've blogged about Teachers Pay Teachers before, but it's time to bring it up again because this site has become a wonderful business for me. I have a store at TPT that contains 246 teaching products, and I am constantly adding more. Every product is for sale with items listing from Free to $15.

These are items that I've made for my students and sell to other teachers. Since joining Teachers Pay Teachers in February, 2013, I've sold 452 products and earned $1,074.72. I use these dollars for groceries, gas, and normal life instead of looking at it as extra income. It's really not extra pay, since I took a pay cut when our school system was part of a hostile take over from the city schools. It's a long story, but to make it short, my earnings from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gifted-And-Talented-Materials-By-Joyce-Lansky still does not add up to my pay loss this year.

 So if you're a teacher, I'd love for you to stop by my store and check out my products. I try to keep them inexpensive because I know teachers don't make excessive amounts of money, especially for all of the extra hours we put in.

 

I have many literary units, math lessons, writing activities, logical thinking activities, as well as lessons to go along with holidays. I even have a freshly posted Tired Teachers Logic problem that contains my humor and sells for $1.  And, if you stop by my store between Sunday and the end of April, you'll find all my products on sale for 10% off!

Also, I'd love for you to follow Gifted and Talented Materials By Joyce Lansky at TPT. As a side note, I may start a new blog this summer related to my TPT store. Hopefully, the blog will get the word out.

Remember:
Sunday, April 27 - Wednesday, April 30 = 10% Discount!

#AtoZ : U for Universe

Did you hear the news? Our space program has discovered a planet just like ours and only 500 light years away. I wonder if this planet has intelligent life. I figure the good Lord must have put something of intelligence on another planet because we sure wouldn't want the survival of all life to depend on humans. 

The President in His Royal Limo

Speaking of intelligent humans, have you seen the satirical movie Idiocracy? Luke Wilson plays the most intelligent person in the world when he time travels to a future society where only dumb people have reproduced and as a result, the populace is filled with those of substandard IQs.

Scary stuff, but looking at the stats, we just may be headed that way while geniuses work on their PhDs with no time to be fruitful and multiply.

To further prove my point, "the person may be smart, but people are dumb," here are the latest thoughts of the highly intelligent.

I fear for the future!