If you're on Twitter, you've probably experienced something similar to the following scenario:

I've finally gotten some time to myself - my son's in bed, my husband's working upstairs and the cat is curled up on the couch beside me.  Perfect time to get caught up on some socializing via Twitter.  I start by perusing my Twitter feed, RTing things that I find funny/useful/interesting, commenting on a few people's thoughts and tweets, then going on a rampage of opinion-laden tweets on whatever happens to be on my mind that day (most likely related to politics, Emerson Drive, the Blue Jays or the Roughriders).

Because I'm narcissistic (and you are too, or you probably wouldn't be on Twitter!), I take a short break of flooding my followers' Twitter feed, and click on the "@Connect" link to see if anyone has noticed my genius tweets and decided to give me a RT or comment on my brilliance.

Sure enough, someone has.  But wait.  All they said was "@VanessaSCassie LOL! Soooo true! What do you think about the other ones?"

Ummm...what's "sooo true?" Which tweet are they referring to? The one where I pointed out how cute @jparencibia9 looks in his Blue Jays catcher's get up or my sarcastic tweet about the media bias I've seen in a recent provincial political campaign story?

Awkward. 

Either way, without knowing which tweet they're referring to, I'm going to risk looking like an idiot.  The political junkie will write me off as some blonde haired bimbo if I gush about the looks of another Blue Jays player; the fellow JP Arencibia admirer probably isn't even from AB, and won't have a clue what I'm referring to if I start rambling about the Calgary Sun.

What's a girl to do?

Luckily, in a fairly recent update of the web based version of Twitter (or maybe it was there all along, and I just discovered it a few months ago, haha!), you can "open" a conversation to see which tweet said person is replying to.  Better yet, if you've been in a full blown conversation over the past few days, you can see the full trail to refresh your memory before you reply.

How?

Simply move your mouse to the top right-hand corner of the tweet, and choose "Open"

This will then expand the full conversation and let you see what topic your replying was referring to, thus avoiding embarrassment!

You're welcome :)

Vanessa

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend, and didn't eat too many chocolate eggs!

In keeping with the Easter theme because, let's face it, I didn't get a chance this weekend to type out pages of brilliance for you to read, here are a few Easter/Spring funnies to enjoy on the lovely Monday morning:

What do you call ten rabbits marching backwards?

A receding hareline

How do you catch a unique bunny?

Unique up on it!

Why did the Easter egg hide?

He was a little chicken.

What grows between your nose and your chin?

Tulips.

Easter Cartoon by Andertoons

And since copyright laws prevent me from duplicating/publishing some of the next few cartoons, I've taken the cheap route and provided links to them.  They're actually pretty funny, so if you must leave my blog page, I guess it's worth it for these guys!

Springtime in the Mountains

First Robin of Spring

I hope everyone is off to a great start for their long weekend!

A great little site today as our feature for Fresh Look Fridays.  Math Playground is exactly what it sounds like - a website devoted to math games appropriate for elementary students.

Click here and check out the variety of activities that can supplement learning in your classroom.  The only negative thing I have to say about the entire site is the distracting advertisements on the main page, but once you get into the actual games, those become far less annoying!

There are quite a few different topics covered in a wide variety of activities -- everything from ratios to area & perimeter to fractions to multiplication and money sense.  2 of my personal favourites include:

Algebraic Reasoning

   - Using the given weight of some items, figure out the weight of the other objects on the scale.  3 difficulty levels to play around with.  I see this being most beneficial as a review activity in a computer lab, or as a center on your SMART Board for a small group of students.

Estimating Angles

   - Given a scenario of where the lost alien may be located, students have to move the slide on the bottom right so that the angle they need to find is approximated.  When they're satisfied with their estimation, they hit "check it".  If they're right, they rescue the alien; if not, I guess he's doomed to float aimlessly around in space for all eternity :)

Play around with this site (literally!) and I'm sure you will find something that is applicable to whatever unit you may be currently teaching in your elementary classroom.

Happy Easter!

Vanessa

Since it's almost the long weekend, I thought I'd share a little list of some fun Easter activities to do with your kidlets on your SMART Board!

1. SMART Exchange Notebook/Table Activities

    - Obviously, there are a gazillion activities on the SMART Exchange on nearly every topic imaginable, made by creative educators like yourselves!  Click here to see the full search results for "Easter" (there are 71 Notebook activities and 8 SMART Table Activity Packs, for the record!)

2. Eggs of Destruction

    - A fun, silly little game where 2 players (or one player vs. computer) try to hit each other with eggs.  There's some educational value to this though, I swear!  It uses concepts such as angles in order to be successful! Really fun as a little break activity on the SMART Board!

3. The Easter Story

- For those of you in a Catholic or Christian school division, this site has the whole Easter Story complete with follow up interactive activities.  I personally like the "arrange the story" feature under "The Story" section.  

4. The Hip Hop Easter Bunny

    - Not really educational, nor interactive, but pretty funny and cute! The rapping Easter Bunny

Happy Easter everyone!

Vanessa

I love April Fools Day! Well, mostly when I'm the prankster, and not necessarily the fool :)

When I was a classroom teacher, I looked forward to some good ol' fashioned fun trying to trick students.  As luck would have it, between weekends, pd days and Easter, I believe I only got to experience 2 April Fool's Days at school.  But I made the most of them!

One of my all-time favourites that got countless high school students and a bunch of staff members, was the old Oreo switcharoo.  Take a box of Oreos, open 3/4 of the cookies, scrape out the icing and replace with toothpaste.  Keep the other 1/4 in a specific row so you know which ones to eat.  Walk around the hallways with the box, with you and a few helpful students eating the untarnished ones, and inevitable someone will try to mooch a cookie.  Offer the box with the other end out (where the minty fresh cookies reside) and voila! Instant fun!

Unless, of course, you get the student who LIKES the minty, gooey toothpaste flavour and eats 2 before they catch on, haha!

Of course, some of my all time favourite pranks have happened in the media, where people spend a lot more brain power coming up with spectacular jokes and reach a far wider gullible audience than I can.  In honour of this fun filled day, here are a few of my favourites:

1. Nixon for President -- NPR announced on April 1st, 1992 that Nixon was running for president once again, under the campaign slogan, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again."  Read more about public reaction here.

2. Google Gmail Motion -- Tired of having to type and swipe your commands on a keyboard? Last year Google announced it's motion activated Gmail.  Still makes me giggle! Watch the introductory video here. 

3. Johns Hopkins Drops the Extra "S" -- On April 1st, 2010, officials announced they'd be fixing the "typo" that led to the extra 's' on the end of John.  Hee hee.  Read the full article here.

4. Metric Time -- Keeping up with the switch to metric measurement, Australia announced they'd be switching to metric time in 1975.  No more seconds, minutes and hours...instead they'd be known as millidays, centidays and decadays.  LOL! Read the full explanation here.

5. Winner of Mega Millions Jackpot -- Just yesterday, a prankster and his buddies pulled off the most successful April Fools joke to date on Twitter.  He tweeted a fake picture of the winning lottery ticket and bam! Thousands of followers, inquries and his very own worldwide trend.  Read about it here.

Have a great April Fools day, and make sure to check your sugar before you put it in your coffee :)

Vanessa