As a former Social Studies teacher, I love, love, LOVE election day.  I can't believe that it's already been 4 years since I was in what became my final year of classroom teaching!  It was a fun semester, especially since I had a great group of Grade 9 students with whom I followed the last American presidential election.

I found that aside from teaching them the ins and outs of the political system, election process, etc., that humour was a HUGE component of getting them interested in such an important current event.  Thanks to the likes of Rick Mercer, SNL, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart (along with some excellent sound bites from Sarah Palin and Joe Biden), class was fun, sarcasm was rampant and information was interesting.

Since election day 2012 is upon us, I thought I'd share a bit of my humourous side with the help of someecards.com.  I'll be taking an unbiased approach by making fun of each party and all candidates, so please read the following with tongue firmly planted in cheek.  Oh, and if you are an American citizen - please don't forget to do your civic duty and VOTE! :)

Happy that Election Day is finally here? So are millions of Facebookers around the world:

Poor Obama's had a rough term in office...

Bad publicity seems to be plaguing a few Republican candidates lately...

...while Joe Biden has managed to keep his comments to himself (except during the debate):

Still unsure who to vote for? Maybe these final two ecards will help you figure it out:

Yes - I will be watching as election results pour in tonight.  Hopefully we'll have a winner by the time I head to bed!

Vanessa

Mr Wolf?  Sorry - years of teaching swimming lessons to small children has rendered me unable to complete the question "What Time is it?" without adding "Mr. Wolf" to the end.

Ahem.

Saturday night was the end of Daylight Savings time for this year, meaning that the vast majority of the population in North America (minus Rider Pride country) switched their clocks back one hour.  I used to look forward to this weekend with glee.  A whole extra hour of sleep? Fantastic!  Oh how things change once you have a baby...my teething 15 month old had other plans for the evening and proceeded to make sure that night ranked right up there in the top 10 worst sleeps I've ever had.  Thanks, little buddy!

In my sleep deprived state, I neglected to note that the clock in my bedroom (which I'd already turned back one hour prior to going to bed) possessed some sort of psychic super powers and KNEW that it was the end of Daylight Savings Time, thus turning itself back one hour further.  Let's just say it was a very confusing morning around our household. 

With all of this talk about time and clocks over the past 48 hours, I thought now would be a prime time to feature some time telling activities for those of you teaching younger children (or older children that have become accustomed to digital clocks, haha).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - why reinvent the wheel?  The SMART Exchange has plenty of ideas and activities created by fellow educators available FREE for you to download.  Remember that the file doesn't need to perfectly match your needs to be useful - all of the files are customizable, so you can tweak the components as needed.

First up - a classic SMART Notebook file containing some practice activities.  What I like most about this, is the teacher obviously intended it to be used independently by a small group of children, as the answers to most of the questions are hidden off screen (pull the arrow tabs in to see the right answer).  Perfect for reinforcing a concept learned in class, and even more perfect if used in your classroom as a learning center.

Check out "Clock Time"

For those of you teaching elementary students whom are lucky enough to have a SMART Table in the classroom, there are quite a few SMART Table Activity packs available on the Exchange.  One of my favourites is called 5 Minutes on a Clock, and you can download it here.

Have a great week!

Vanessa

I've seen a ton of cool pumpkin carvings on my Facebook Newsfeed lately, and it really does put my own carving skills to shame.  Who knew so many people were so talented wielding a knife?  I thought maybe I just had some exceptional friends, but after spending some time with my friend Google, I've realized that humourous and amazing pumpkin carving is a major trend.

Since it's Halloween night this evening, I thought I'd share a few of the best ones I've come across.  Enjoy!

Thanks to the following websites for providing tonight's entertainment:

http://www.alittlebitfabulous.com/2012/10/17/we-love-pumpkin-carving/

http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/funny-stuff/news/blog/10-most-awesome-pumpkin-carvings/20101028-aaa1.html

http://weknowmemes.com/2011/10/10-funny-pumpkin-carving-ideas/

http://www.knife-depot.com/blog/10-funny-pumpkin-ideas-for-halloween/

Happy Halloween!

Vanessa

Just a quick little ditty for your first Fresh Look Fridays post of October.  I have seen a number of different tweeps discuss this site over the past little while, and thought it was worth mentioning in a blog post.

Symabloo is a great place to deposit websites and links for an individual, group or class to use.  I love the way it allows you to create your own sub "folders" around a certain topic or theme, and then place all the bookmarked information there.  Plus, it's fun to look at.

Click here to see a sample Symbaloo created by the lovely folks that participate in #kinderchat every week (people whom teach kindergarten having Twitter conversations).  Play around and see all of the amazing online resources this group has compiled over the course of time.

I'd love to see this used in the classroom as a "choose your own adventure" center of sorts, or placed in the hands of students to create a demonstration of important ideas, places and websites associated with a particular topic.

I'd love to hear about any of the ways that you might be currently using this awesome resource in education!

Vanessa

I'm not gonna lie: I like humour, sarcasm and quick wit, and I like to think that on the days when I'm most sharp, I possess small amounts of all three.  OK, maybe more like 90% sarcasm with a spattering of humour and quick wit only after a solid 8 hour sleep the night before.

However there are lots, plenty, an overwhelming amount of people on this planet whom are funnier and quicker than I am.  I bow down to these people, and then stalk them on Twitter and their blogs in hopes that some eensy weensy piece of hilarity will rub off on me.

One of my all time favourite blogs in education to follow is "It's Not All Flowers and Sausages".  What I love, love, LOVE about this blog is that the writer truly does tell it like it is in the trenches of the classroom, but does so with such an amazing flair for writing and humour.  While Mrs. Mimi has been taking a bit of a break from posting these days (she's a new mom and is simultaneously working on a book), there are some amazing posts from years gone by.

In honour of the fairly brand new school year, I thought I'd direct you to a few of my favourite posts:

Back to School Lists - this was a no brainer when choosing posts, given the time of year

Pardon the Interruption - Mrs. Mimi's take on announcements

Before You Poke Yourself in the Eye - a reminder of why you teach

Really.  If you teach, or have taught in the past, you NEED to get over to this website and spend some hours perusing her posts.  Funny. True. Worthwhile reading.  Procrastinators, I'm looking at you.

Vanessa