What you think does matter

Homeless Graduate valedictorian says – never give up. This encourages me and should encourage all of us to continue forward, to struggle, to strive for greater achievements. Our students, our children need to learn this simple but important trait – a never give up attitude. Success is often attained by people who face turmoil, difficulties or hardship and refuse to give up. Homeless High School Student Inspires in Valedictory Address By MATTIE KAHN | Good Morning America Rashema Melson will begin her studies as a freshman at Georgetown University this fall after three years of living in a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter. And her tireless determination has paid off in the form of a full scholarship. "It hasn't hit me yet, to be honest," she said today of the realization that high school has come to an end. Melson, 18, says she has refused to let her family’s misfortune define her. Not only is the teen a dedicated athlete, but she has also maintained a sterl

10-Year-Old Boy Graduates From High School, Aims to Cure Cancer By Elise Solé, Shine Staff | Parenting Tanishq Abraham graduated from high school on Sunday with a 4.0 GPA and a Mensa membership — he’s also 10 years old. The pintsize prodigy, who lives in Sacramento, Calif., with his parents and 8-year-old sister, Tiara (who is also a Mensa member), also received a congratulatory letter from President Barack Obama just in time for his big day. “I sensed there was something different about Tanishq when he was 6 months old because he became very interested in clocks and numbers — he started counting and could point out numbers when he saw them in books,” Tanishq’s mother, veterinarian Taji Abraham, tells Yahoo Shine. “He would also stare very intently at photos and ask so many questions. I always wondered, ‘Why is he so curious?’” By the time Tanishq was 2, he was adding and subtracting numbers. “I told my husband that Tanishq was very smart, but he said I was just a proud mom,

A 15 year old boy may have found the solution to charging that all electric energy hog – your smart phone and solved obesity issues as well. A 15-year-old boy’s thirst for science has helped him developed shoes that can charge your cell phone or any USB-powered device by simply walking. That is correct – walking! Generating Electricity By Walking - Google Science Fair 2014 Angelo Casimiro lives in the Philippines, a country still recovering from last fall's Typhoon Haiyan. "A lot of people are still suffering from poverty," he says in a YouTube video in which he demonstrates his invention. Some people have no access to electricity, he adds. For them, "a simple source of light is big," he says. Now Angelo is creating a new way to generate power. He placed two pairs of piezo-electric discs on the insole of each shoe. The discs produce energy when any type of pressure is placed on them. That energy is then channeled to a USB port, which an electronic de

The Difference a good Dad (Father) makes can never be truly measured - but it has been proven to be incalculable and of great importance to the success of our children. "If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings." ~ Brian Tracy Some of the things that concern me most are the depictions of Dads being dumb, ignorant, and just plain stupid. You see it in sitcoms, commercials, movies and most anywhere you look. It may be part of the feminist movement or it may be a fad but in essence it’s a dangerous thing, in my opinion, to try to teach our children that one of the two (Mom and Dad) most important ingredients necessary in the formation of a child can be cast off, undermined or diminished. I grew up without a father, trust me, I know a child can survive without a father – but should a child be forced to endure such har

Teen entrepreneur is continuing her success with more great news. That news is that she is opening a clothing line. I love stories like this one, children who are proving that children, yes a child can achieve much more in life - these are the stories I use to inspire other children to succeed in life. Madison Robison is your average teenager who has gone the extra mile and found much success. Yes she has had a bit of help along the way but who hasn't - the important thing about this story is that she tried - she saw a need, she worked toward filling that need and she worked hard for what she has achieved. Her business was launched with financing provided by friends and family, but no worries the enterprise is doing well and is very profitable. She has even been working to open her own website FishFlops.com - but this not just a fly by night kind of business: More than 60,000 pairs sold in 2012, making for retail sales of at least $1.2 million. That's not all Fish Flops&#

Children - Having fun water activities! It was an awesome time and the kids sure had fun, despite the fact that it rained in the morning. But hey, as the kids were saying: we're going to get wet anyway. It is fun to be a kid.

Awesome - Glow in Dark Party for Accelerated Reader students (nice idea) These kids have been working hard in school and in their extracurricular “Accelerated Reader” efforts. They have maintained and above avg. of 80% and some have read more than 300 points in the reading program we call AR. For all their hard work and their dedicated effort to read, learn and past these AR test we throw a party for the children who strive to meet these goals. The last party of the year is (was) a cool awesome ‘Glow in the Dark’ AR party. I admit it – I danced, I laughed, I partied like it was 1999! Oops, showing my age. But in all seriousness it was fun, I had a good time, the children had a great time and we did it all to reward them for all their hard work. People ask me what we do, what do I do to motivate children to learn. My answer will always be the same – give them a reason to want to learn. Give them something that will motivate them to do more, to try harder, something that will dri

How to make learning interesting, fun and even funny. Honest this is the truth: I shared it on face book but I thought I should give a bit more detail here on my blog. So here goes. Being one who works hard at motivating my children to learn and to desire to learn - especially when it comes to being inquisitive, I found myself in a funny but tough spot. I'm driving in the car with my son after spending less than an hour at the mall to buy he new pair of sneakers (* surprise - wife wasn't with us so the trip was short... :)  in and out, just how I like it. LOL) So my son decides to have a conversation about animals and to be honest, I wasn't putting to much attention to what he was saying, he can really go on and on sometmes. but out of the blue he ask me a simple question - let me give you a play by play reinacment. Son: "Dad do all animals eat?" Dad: "of course son, they all eat in one form or another." Son: "Do sharks eat?" Dad: &q

Fred wild elementary – Christmas / Santa breakfast (* Looking back on the past school year 2013-2014) The Fred Wild: this has been a very fun year. Now, I didn’t say we didn’t have work or that it hasn’t been hard work. All I am saying is that it has been a pleasure to work at Fred Wild Elementary. Though I miss my old school – I have made new friends, have interesting colleagues to work with and the kids, well the children are great. I am not a fan of the afternoon duty that I have, but it has allowed me to get some what familiar with many of the walk home kids. One of the things I like most about working in a school (elementary school) is that many if not mostly all of the children are still relatively innocent – they may not say they believe in Santa Clause but – Hmm 200 plus kids showing up and paying hard earned roar tickets to go have breakfast with Santa must mean something. This year there were too many kids to have a small intimate breakfast with Santa so they moved it

The importance of children, kids education - teaching your child to read, do math and more may need to be a top priority for parents because apparently the people who say they know, don't know squat. Apparently - You can give $100 million dollars for education, but that won't help. People still complain about my book title, how “Rich” is some form of four letter word that no one should use. But I believe that children need as much help as possible to succeed in life and whichever form of motivation that works – parents should employ. I think parents are the first and best line of defense when it comes to kids education, their desire to learn and motivation behind their desire to do well in school. Trust me, if you are waiting for the government and all these “we know better” individuals to properly teach your children – by all means wait, but don’t hold your breath as you wait. The article (see excerpt below) is proof that simply throwing money at a problem, especially a

Learning tool / Monopoly: do you suck at it or just miss the point? I wrote a post a while back on how I use monopoly to teach my children about money, finances, and the skill to negotiate – Yes I know their only children. But the point is that children are not taught in school how to manage money much less how to think when it comes to business, managing art the art of deal making. While the school system is teaching them how to play nice, be fair and no one losses, the real world is ready and waiting to knock them on their kister. It has been reported that teens as well as young adults who graduate high school do not even know how to balance a check book. Now you might suggest that with the age of technology that doesn’t matter – but you would be considerably wrong. As parents we all say we teach our children about money – but in truth, most of us do not. Balancing a check but is more than just balancing a bunch of numbers. Also Monopoly is also more than just a simple game to p

BRING AWESOMENESS TO YOUR CLASSROOM! Create animated videos and presentations easy! Teachers: Flip your classroom, inspire, engage and delight your students. Students: Have fun presenting your assignments with a Wow! "Finally, a presentation tool that incorporates an intuitive user interface, super cool comic graphics, is 200% less frustrating than Prezi, and offers a zillion more options than the free version of GoAnimate. I know we just met, PowToon, but I think I am in love." - Amy Gibson HS Teacher - Personally - I think its cool. It is very easy to use, once you get a handle on things. I will be honest; it took a bit of playing in order to get a hand of this cool video tool. But after a while it turned out to be pretty easy to manage. I love the hand that moves the characters back and forth so yes, that is why it’s in my video. Of course there are a lot more features; I simply stayed with the basics for my video. I didn’t even use feature to add music, wh

Funny and maybe Not so Funny school wide email  - SEE BELOW I love children, they are all unique in their own special way. But I am a realist and I know for a fact that the right child can drive any adult to the brink of insanity. I have seen a lot of things working in the school system and dealing with all sorts of children - but this, the email I received from a friend, this takes the cake. Before I let you read the email, I want you to consider this: children are children. You "DON'T" send children to school to learn manners, respect or any social skill that should be taught at home. With that said I am sure that if it was you that had to deal with these out of control children - you would not be so ready to judge. You tell me: what would you do if a child crapped his pants in the middle of your class and doesn't want to change his clothing?

Encourage child to Read More Children need a reason to do anything. Ask them to read and they may have a look that undoubtedly says “must be crazy”. But if you ask them to play a video game, now that they will love to do - don't even have to ask them twice. It’s instinctive, fun is usually not related with reading, with learning and that may be a difficult thing to change in a child. Working in the school system I have learn a few tricks to share here today. Visit Our YouTube Channel: Mr Medina TV Be a leader. The natural instinct of a child is to follow, so in order to a child to follow, there must be a leader. The younger the child is the easier it is in the long run, but reading should be part of the whole and should be cheered on by other. By this example of reading, being the instigator of reading or by simply reading or creating stories before bed time will create interest and help foster the idea in a child’s mind that if everyone likes it – it must be fun. Read

SEBRING - When Caitlin Sinness bagged the Jr. Heartland Idol last year, she thought the best thing had happened that day, not realizing she was just getting started. Tween singer is 'up' and about At that singing contest was a friend of Playback Records producer Jack Gale, who was impressed with Caitlin's singing ability and stage presence. Soon after the February 2013 win, mom, Candy Sinness, got a call asking if her daughter would like to audition. Sinness thought it was a joke, figuring people don't get "discovered" that easily but have to pound the pavement a bit. Gale was impressed not just with Caitlin's voice and her personality, but her ability to understand the songs she's singing even though she is very young. "She's amazing," he said. "She really has the dedication and the passion. All she has to do is to keep singing." When Gale told Caitlin she was going to get her own country/pop album, "I just kept

Anastasia State Park - camping in St. Augustine, Fl. vacation St. Augustine, Florida vacation – having as much fun as you possibly can with as small a budget is possible. Well, no – that is not going to happen. It’s been a long time coming and my wife finally gets her 'St. Augustine' vacation. Sure I live about four hours away and I somehow had an extra body (the daughter of a friend of the family) who unbeknownst to me, was invited to come along with us, of which I had not factored into my already ballooned budget, but all is good. I have to say I was very excited as well; it’s been awhile since I have been camping with my family and I wanted to see how the kids reacted, especially Wanda our friend’s daughter (she has never been camping before). St. Augustine – Anastasia State Park, the campground site my wife finally decided on is a wonderful camp site indeed. Not like my favorite place "Kelly Park in Apopka Florida", but it is nice, clean and has a beac

St. Augustine, Florida Vacation fun activities. St. Augustine, Florida vacation – having as much fun as you possibly can! St. Augustine, Florida must be the ghost capital of the world; there were more ghostly haunted sites than you could shake a stick at, again something my wife loves. With so many ghoulish haunts to choose from my wife settled on ‘Ripley’s Haunted Castle Adventure’. It took some coaxing but my scared little boy said that he would do it – for me and only if I held his hand as I walked with him. The tour was at night, which made it fun for me. Who doesn’t want to go into places like these at night – that alone was worth the price of admission but that is just me? The tour takes you through the whole building; you watch a 3D movie about a ghost hunting company’s documentary: I will let you be the judge, if you ever see it. The story is about the troubled history of Ripley’s castle and finding Mr. X. Mr. X murdered two women in the castle when it was run as a

My reluctant Super Star baby So its spring break and I happen to have some free time on my hands – great! But with free time comes great responsibility – I mean, I’m bored and I currently had nothing better to do. So what did I decide to do? Well, I decided to make my little girl the main character, the face, the ‘Super Star’ of my promotional efforts. I am always looking for ways to promote my blog, my book and my Facebook page and so – I created a marketing plan for my FB book page using some interesting pictures of my daughter. Of course, I did not ask for her permission (why should I – am I not Dad?) Besides, the pictures are in public places making it copy right free - Just joking. Please remember friends: I need FB likes. I need G+, I need your comments below and I desperately need you to share this blog with your friends and family. After all, that is what friends do for each other, right? But like I was saying, I had a bit of free time and I decided to set up a mar

Follow the money – you must be joking, teen makes how much! Sometimes it never ceases to amaze me. What is that old saying: get good grades, go to college and get a great job – you’ve got a wonderful future ahead of you. Sometimes I think the universe has a sick sense of humor. It just has to be joke, what else can it be? I guess this is why I work hard at trying to teach my children how to think out of the box. Not that learning, school and all the traditional methods don’t work. But you have to admit – children today have more opportunities than ever before. All they have to do is open their eyes, focus their thoughts and shoot for the moon.

Have Grit: if you want to have success? Intelligence and creativity are great but you can’t quit when the going gets tough if you really want to accomplish anything big. Published on May 9, 2013 Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success. That’s grit . Perseverance. And it’s one of the best predictors of success there is. Via Dan Pink’s excellent book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us . The best predictor of success, the researchers found, was the prospective cadets’ ratings on a noncognitive, nonphysical trait known as “grit”—defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference

Review: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel (Orlando Florida) Every Hotel has its pluses and it’s negative – here is my review of the Doubletree Orlando, Florida hotel by Hilton. I have a lot to say! If you didn’t know my story starts with Walt Disney trying to cheat me with what look like to me like a sort of "bait and switch" kind of scam. After searching for the closest hotel to Sea World to take my mini-weekend valentine vacation with the wife, who decided to take the kids with us (Ohm – Don’t ask me, I still don’t know why she did that?) I settled on the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. It was too cold for Coco Keys, it’s a great Hotel but it’s mostly a water park – not the kind of thing I wanted to do when it’s chilly. Besides, I wanted to try something new, something deferent and most of all – something elegant; something that was as close as possible to sea world as I could get. After all, that was where we were headed before my wife converted a “you and me” setting to a w