What you think does matter

Special needs (ESE) student has wonderful turn around due to the interesting game of chess. Michael (name changed to protect the innocent)is an ESE student who came to my school two years ago that required special attention - to the point that he was required to be in a special room away from the other students with specially trained instructors. He was like many of the other students in the program who because of their uniqueness needed to be cared for differently. In Florida, children who have special learning needs are called exceptional students. Exceptional students include children who are gifted and children who have disabilities. The purpose of exceptional student education (ESE) is to help each child with an exceptionality to progress in public school and prepare for life after school. When Michael arrived at my school he had a special attendant whose only job was to follow him around school to insure that he would not - to put it lightly, get out of hand. He had several...

Funny politically incorrect holiday joke - run if you are easily offended. With all the holidays that come up - the food that becomes the focal point of all our holiday activities - I just wanted to mention something that is on everyone's mind - the challenge to control ones weight in the face of such insurmountable odds. That is right - with all the food that is thrown at us during the holidays, people always start the new year with weight loss as one of the top ten new years eve resolutions. So, here is a prayer from a man's perspective - please, do not be so easily offended...... it's a joke and you know you want to laugh. Order your copy @ Amazon Secrets of Whisper Pine Secrets of Whisper Pine is a thrilling ride filled with unexpected twists.  Can Emily handle what she’s about to face?

Joke, funny or Crazy... What do you do when you want to celebrate your birthday - well, you jump out of a perfectly good airplane of course. Or at least that is what one of my friends did. This is what I would have been thinking - but this is just me.  Wow! we are going to have so much fun - we Rock!!   OMG! Am I really going through with it?   I guess I might as well go I did pay for this...     Holy Crap! How high are we?   Wait I'm not ready, wait....   I do not want ....     to DIE .. ieieiei     AAaaaaaaaaaa!     ..........    This is my hysterical face ..     Uh .... when do we open the shoot? When? Hello!     Oh, thank you Jesus! Get me out of this this now! (Proceeds to kiss ground and vomit..)

I love this – Girl Power story. It is something I have tried to teach my daughter when she was small – girls can do more. Children can be more, better future, more possibilities. Debbie Sterling is a female engineer and founder of GoldieBlox, a toy company out to inspire the next generation of female engineers. She has made it her mission in life to tackle the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math. GoldieBlox is a book series+construction set that engages kids to build through the story of Goldie, the girl inventor who solves problems by building simple machines. Debbie writes and illustrates Goldie's stories, taking inspiration from her grandmother, one of the first female cartoonists and creator of "Mr. Magoo". Her company, launched in 2012, raised over $285,000 in 30 days through Kickstarter, and has been featured in numerous publications such as The Atlantic and Forbes. Prior to founding GoldieBlox, Debbie served as the Marketing Director of Lori...

Funny silly healthcare Joke / Canada Has Death Panels .... I recently read an article about healthcare and the title – of all things it reads like this: Canada Has Death Panels … And that’s a good thing. Order your copy @ Amazon Marly's Million Dollar Coat Hanger Girl Power Empowerment - and a cute entertaining story. At first I thought it was a joke, sarcasm – I read the article waiting for the punch line but it never came. Maybe I missed it I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt – but I doubt I did. I found it odd that he could be so callus with his attitude. Personally I had a brother (Albert) who was very sick and I know what it is to have a family member so sick that you find yourself conflicted, struggling to come to grips with the debate in your heart: Is it better to let him go or to keep him alive? No one should have to go through that and trust me I know how it feels, how much it hurts but we choose to help my brother live, for as long as he could until it was time...

How to have a MineCraft Birthday party Minecraft Party – What better birthday party theme than one my son is hooked on 100%! It was a simple thing: Mother: Son, how do you want to celebrate your birth? Son: Oh! Oh! I want a Minecraft birthday party it would be so cool! Please, please, pretty please! Mother: Ok, son – that is what we will do. Then mother looks at husband and says: what is Minecraft. Yep, that’s when dear old dad said: Google it baby. No, I explained to her that it was that game that he was so infatuated with. There were times I wondered if it was wise to let him play that wacky game. Sure he creates things, he builds homes, islands, he searches and he investigates – so in essence he is using his brain. But after watching a few of the YouTube video he watches –I’m starting to think it may have fried some of these people’s brain cells. But I digress, the birthday party has consumed my wife – I mean really, here are just a few things I have seen here do fo...

Rock Paper Scissors BANNED at school? One of the things I love to do is play “Rock, Paper, Scissors” with the kids at my school. Being an adult and a figure of “authority” - I try to find ways to make the kids feel like they can relate to me. In most cases, it helps the school children feel like I can relate to them. One of the reasons I love rock, paper, scissors is because we can play, have fun and it is relatively a simple quite game. There is no screaming, running, jumping, throwing, no debate on rules or anything that can be misconstrued in any way shape or form. Let’s face it, in today’s world we as administrators in a school, we have to be careful how we deal with children. But rock paper scissors is such an innocent game and trust me – my kids love it. In fact not only did the group of children that I monitored during lunch duty love to play the game with me – but soon I had children in other class groups wanting to play. The first graders and second graders were starting...

  Pumpkin Treat CONTEST! Here we GO – Pumpkin Treat Contest! Who doesn’t like to get involved in a nice competitive contest – sure people say that competition only brings out the worst in people but I personally believe it also brings out the best in people. After all, most people never truly give it their all, unless there is something to win or something to be lose (like pride). At our school we proved we can have a contest, meet a challenge and still – even with many showing their strong competitive side, we can get along well and be gracious winners and losers. After all, despite everything people say – everyone can’t be a winner, just ask all the people who play the lotto every week. A contest, any contest requires a winner and a loser. Now I know people hate to lose – so do I. But lets be real, losing can drive you to work harder, can create a drive, it can cause you to strive to be better and fuel a competitive spirit that in truth, is what made this country gre...