Welcome to the Carnival of Education, where parents and instructors and good citizens find out what’s actually going on in the world of education by actively participating in the sharing of ideas, information, and suggestions. Remember, if you don’t keep up on what’s happening, you won’t KNOW what’s happening.  And if you don’t find out what’s happening, you forfeit all whining rights.  Yes, ALL of them.

Steve Spangler has posted the results of his fantastic and generous Teacher Appreciation Award Winners – thank you, Steve, for recognizing and acknowledging the excellent teachers in our nation. Don’t forget to register for Science in the Rockies!  It’s July 8-12, and all the information is right HERE.

Mrs D presents Things I’m doing well: Grammar and Punctuation posted at Footsteps of Aristotle. What did she learn from this lesson?  Many things, among which are the fact that  . . . grammar and punctuation can be fun. Students can learn it and not need to be constantly retaught it. 

Over at The Education Optimists,  Sara Goldrick-Rab presents Sorting, Selection, and Success. Access does not equate with success, and partly as a result, U.S. higher education is perpetuating a lot of inequality.  What do we do about this?

Joanne Jacobs wants to know if an additional year of schooling is really going to make a difference in the lives and futures of our students at Compulsory schooling to age 19? posted at Joanne Jacobs. Robert Pondiscio, at the Core Knowledge Blog, is wondering the same thing at  The Core Knowledge Blog.

Nui Loa still loves children’s music and thinks you might, too, if you check out Our Five Favorite Kids’ CDs for Grownups posted at Boston Children’s Music.

Religion, which ought to be bringing us all together, is instead tearing us apart in many areas and aspects of our lives. Perhaps if we learned more about each other, we’d be able to understand each other. Sarah Scrafford, at Related Colleges, thinks so.

Are your students twittering during class? Why not learn to use it to your advantage?

You really don’t want to get me started on how our gifted students are shafted every day, but blogger Sarah Robbins of Parenting the Gifted has some great ideas on how to bypass some of the ridiculous barriers against advancement in our schools.

Tom DeRosa posts about skills for the new millennium at What 21st Century Skills Should Mean over  at I Want to Teach Forever.

I’m just wondering if Mister Teacher, who is one of my favorite educational bloggers, is even CLEAN today! Read all about it at School’s out for summer, is hot water in my future? posted at Learn Me Good.

Mary Ann Zehr presents a two-part post about tracking at The Problem of Tracking in Middle Schools posted at Curriculum Matters and again here.

I will have to agree 100% with Nancy Flanagan, for I’m in full support of our musical students; it is my opinion, based on experience, that they are some of the most superior kids in any school. Nancy Flanagan tells us about a curmudgeonly letter to the editor criticizing the band at My Small (Minded) Town posted at Teacher in a Strange Land.

I usually skim off any submissions that are just trying to sell us something, but I’ve read Visiting Volcanoes with a Scientist and loved it. So, since I’m hosting this week, I’m including this submission: Kim tells us all about Nonfiction Monday: Visiting Volcanoes With A Scientist posted at Wild About Nature.

Is it true that many administrators are afraid to have meetings wherein ideas are exchanged openly because they don’t want to be blamed for anything? Kimberly Moritz was wondering, too, as she sends us to read about Why Do We Do It This Way? posted at LeaderTalk.

Want to learn some cool stuff for free? Alvina Lopez presents 100 Excellent Lectures to Improve Your New Media Literacy posted at Clear View Education Blog. Alvina also shares some facts about high school.

Under Assault presents The NY Teacher and agita posted at Under Assault: Teaching in NYC. I read a lot of blogs by NY teachers, and things in that state seem to be out of control and getting worse.

I will have to agree with Carol Richtsmeier at Bellringers when she says that there is never really a last day of school for teachers! Read her post at Rock Stars, Dr. Seuss & Why The Chicken and I Belong posted at Bellringers.

Charles H. Green’s post is to be trusted. Really. Read it at Can Trust Be Taught? posted at Trust Matters.

There is always that small group of teachers who refuse to learn new things, particularly when it comes to software. Next time they start to whine about how you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, etc, refer them to How to learn new software posted at The Wise Curve.

oldandrew was eventually told that the school was on fire. Oh, and that he stinks. Read all about it at The School’s on Fire « Scenes From The Battleground posted at Scenes From The Battleground.

Rick Sincere honors his Latin teacher and shares a dirty joke with us over at ‘Ave, Greenwald’: MUHS Latin Teacher Retires posted at Rick Sincere News and Thoughts.

Dr. Bernard Bull posts a list of textbook alternatives, many of which our students are already using, at Five Technologies / Movements that Will Turn Textbooks into Antiques posted at Etale – Life in the Digital World.

Pinyo shares with us how scary it is that so many young teens can’t wait to get a credit card so they’ll be “financially free!” Check out his concerns at A Credit Card Is Not Your Ticket To Financial Freedom posted at Moolanomy Personal Finance.

Want to learn to speak Spanish? For free? Check out Elburi’s videos at Introducing “la rana video blogs”.Learn Spanish vocabulary through our Videoblogs. – Spanish conversation CLUB posted at El buri.

If you are looking for some fun games to help your students learn sight words, check out Denise Bossard’s post at Top Ten Sight Word Games posted at sight word games. (I’m a firm believer in phonics, but I do know that some words are used so often, we know them by sight.)

Larry Ferlazzo wonders why more teachers don’t ask their students to evaluate them, at Results From Student Evaluation Of My Class And Me posted at Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day….

siobhan curious asks the very important question, What’s To Like About School?, and gets some answers at what’s to like about school? posted at siobhan curious: classroom as microcosm.
And yes, I do believe that a poor teacher can make a fascinating subject boring. I also believe that administration can require a good teacher to dumb down the fascination to the point that every single spark is gone.

Is what you get out of college really worth all the money you pour into it? Jim has some thoughts on this topic at Is College Worth the Cost of Tuition? Yes. posted at Bargaineering.

Mathew Needleman understands that social networking is here to stay, and that an educator who doesn’t learn how to navigate it is well on his/her way to becoming a dinosaur in the system. Check out his post Navigating Social Networks: You Can Pick Your Friends posted at Creating Lifelong Learners.

Does your child need tutoring? Before you get out your wallet, check out some of the great free tutoring suggestions from Erin at Note from the Teacher: Free Tutoring posted at Note from the Teacher.

Tweenteacher is now a veteran teacher, for she has hit her “memory wall” at last. How about you? Check it out on The New Definition of Veteran Teacher posted at tweenteacher.com.

Liam Goldrick tells us to stop whining over at Whining Vouchers posted at The Education Optimists.

Mamacita (Jane Goodwin) at Scheiss Weekly (hello, I’m your host!) is always ranting about something, it seems, and since many schools have just had their graduation ceremonies, what better time than to bring out her annual whine about school systems that select the valedictorian and salutarian after the seventh semester, instead of waiting until the last minute.

Guusjem, who is a school librarian in Texas, asks whether or not a librarian can be a 21st Century Teacher.

Pastor Jeff posts about talking with our children – and ourselves – about unjust laws. We all know they exist; why don’t we do anything about them?

Over at Polski3’s View From Here, they’re using interactive notebooks. Why are we out of glue already?

3σ → Left has an attendance issue that beats anything I’ve ever heard of. 

NYC Educator asks the question:  The Para or the Teacher? Go check it out.

Over at A Shrewdness of Apes, Ms. Cornelius tells us about her latest experience with cheaters.  Personally, I’ve always loathed cheaters.  They’re just petty criminals with braces on their teeth.  Or “adults” who want the acme but without the climb.   The pay without the work.  The trophy without the run.  You get the picture.  Lazy gits who can’t be arsed to lift a finger themselves, but who feel entitled to the glitter.  I’ve obviously been watching too many British movies lately.

That’s it for this week’s Carnival of Education.  I hope I haven’t left anyone out, except for the free essay people and the salespeople and that idiot who submits his political views every week.  I also didn’t include any posts that did not accept comments, because the Carnival of Education is about interaction, not lecturing.  If anyone would like to duke it out over any of these factors, bring it on.  If I have omitted a perfectly good post, however, please let me know immediately, for it was not my intention to leave out anyone who actually had something relevant to say.

I’m very tired.  I’m actually too tired to use my good manners.  My apologies for the bluntness.  And for the choppy sentences.  And fragments.  Cheaters suck, and so do free essay dealers.

I know that many people feel that the state of education in our nation is beyond repair, but I do not agree.  I do believe, however, that unless intelligent, knowledgeable, and caring people get up off their keisters and start doing something about it, and DEMANDING that something be done about it, then we’re screwed.  Keeping quiet and hoping things will change next year just ain’t been working.  It seems as if the more we put up with things that should not be happening, the more such things happen.  We then get so used to them being ‘that way’ that we forget that we, the people, have always had the power to make changes in this country.  Somehow, we’re forgotten that, in the case of our schools.  We must all remember that the public schools belong to the public, and that WE ARE THAT PUBLIC.  I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of MY SCHOOLS being overrun with hoods, criminals, selfish elitist pigs, dangerous crackheads, bullies, rapists, people who can’t keep their hands off other people, and sexist pigs, and that’s just at the administrative level.  It’s even worse in the classrooms.  Public, we must take back our schools.

I don’t know who’s hosting the Carnival of Education next week, but you can send your submissions here.

Thank you all for stopping by!