Couple Neat Do-Dads

Surfing the great waves of the net I've found a couple resources to share with you all in an unofficial blog post. No great stories to share today, but I hope you find these links helpful!


Source of the Day

For those of you in early education (or just with hard-to-settle children in your lives) I've found a good solution to time-out tantrums and timer dilemmas. The Relax-Bottle Time-Out Timer created by this blogging stay-at-home mom solves a lot of issues that can come up with little kids facing the inevitable punishments of youth. Step-by-step instructions show you how to create a bottle that will not only focus their attention enough to alleviate a tantrum conundrum that prevents focus on why they're there in the first place, it can also become your timer for said period of incarceration. With nothing but an empty plastic bottle, glitter glue and water you can solve some pretty outstanding fit-throwers that come your way.


And for you secondary education majors that think you will never have any use at all in your life for the above link (*snerk* fat chance.) a morsel for you as well. Let me introduce you to the wonderful mind of Don McMillan. Mr. McMillan is a comic. One who does PowerPoint presentations. If you've seen his work, you understand the correlation. If not, then enjoy. I've used his YouTube videos to introduce the Do's and Don'ts of PowerPoint design to high school students that I've taught in the past. The why is obvious. Lecture all you want on your requirements to your students, someone somewhere will forget every word you've just said. But if you can show them the mistakes in action and make them laugh while you do, they'll sit up and pay attention. There are several versions and updates to his videos on this, some 5 mins, others about 10 mins, and some aren't exactly school appropriate, but the ones that are are worth it. I've included one that's relatively classroom safe right here, but use your own judgment. Enjoy!