September 2014

  • Reading Salad: A Hands-On Reading Demonstration

    This is an amazing reading lesson that helps our students learn to think while they are reading. It makes the entire process visual as well. To teach this lesson, you will need three bowls. Have a large empty salad bowl and label it “Real Reading Salad,” and then two smaller bowls labelled “Thinking” and “Text.” […]


  • Bullseye: Greatest Hits

    Bullseye: Greatest Hits This is a one-off story that attempts to tell the origin of one of the most dangerous villains in comics. This graphic novel collects the entire run of the five issues mini-series. First off, the title is a bit of a misnomer. This wasn’t a greatest hits compilation. It didn’t retell any […]


  • The Hulk is Indestructible

    Indestructible Hulk: Volume 1 – Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce Banner has been fighting the monster within ever since the Gamma Bomb turned him into the Incredible Hulk. The meek scientist has been looking for a cure for years. He hates the damage that The Hulk causes every single time he is unleashed. Banner realizes that […]


  • Hula Hoops on the First Day of School!

    I like to start off the first day of school by pushing all of the desks to the side of the room and setting up enough hula hoops for each student in my class. I have been doing this for years now and I find it is a great way to start off the day. I […]


  • Earth Afire – Ender’s Game Prequel

    Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston I had no idea that this book was part of a trilogy when I started reading it. I just thought it was a one-off prequel to Ender’s Game. I enjoyed the read but it seemed like it took a long time to get to the actual story […]


  • The New Spider-Man, Miles Morales

    I’d been wanting to read this title for some time now. I finally got around to it, thanks to the Marvel Unlimited Comics App on my iPhone. They had a one month special subscription price as a special comic-con deal that I just had to take them up on. I read all of the graphic […]


  • There’s Logic Behind How Our Numbers Look

    This is a fascinating image showing a correlation between the number symbols we use every day and the number of angles in each shape. It’s brilliant! I’m not sure about the historical accuracy of this image though. It seems like they really stretched the concept to make this work for 7 and 9. That, plus […]


  • John Lawson Trail

    Let’s explore the John Lawson Park trail in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. It starts out fairly nondescript but goes off into the woods for a short period. Unfortunately, my photos of that portion of the trail didn’t turn out. I love running through natural areas and crossing small creeks or rivers. The trail opens up and […]


  • Amazing Spider-Man: Dying Wish

    The Amazing Spider-Man: Dying Wish by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, and Richard Elson Spider-Man swung into our lives in 1963 and immediately became an iconic hero. But all good stories must come to an end. This graphic novel tells the story of the final days of Peter Parker. It collects issues 698-700 of The Amazing […]


  • List and the Interpret a Moment

    This is a great idea for a classroom activity. It involves reading a moment by paying attention to our senses, listing everything that crosses our minds, and then interpreting that list. Tina Welling explains it all in her book “Writing Wild” “Readings of the moment are a playful interaction with the natural world, yet revealing, […]