Just this past week I received an email from Sandra Morgan. She is one of the founders of the database, Facts4Me, which we use when doing our student research.   For a limited time, the elementary research site will offer FREE ACCESS so that teachers, students, and parents can visit and see what all the excitement is about. Mrs. Cranford will visit the their booth #2047 at TCEA in Austin next week. They are providing both User ID and Password to visitors, allowing access for one month’s free trial.

Thank you to Facts4Me and Sandra Morgan.

NEWS:

Here is the log-in information for the free access offer:  User ID is TCEA (case sensitive) and the Password is access (case sensitive).  The free access is from February 4 to March 7 with 24/7 access. 

Monday is the 100th day of school. Can you believe it? Our students have worked really hard to make the kind of progress they need to accomplish in order to be prepared for the next grade level. Some classrooms will have special activities centered around this monumental day. We will continue to work just as hard for the remainder of the 2011-2012 school year.

Thank you to 2011 Edublog Awards for the nomination for the Best Class Blog!

We are so honored to have been considered. Keep reading our blog because we are still going strong.

See the entire listing here.

This is a time when we stop to give thanks for the beautiful blessings and sometimes trials in our lives. Michelangelo never wanted to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but his perseverance to see it through to the end is truly a beautiful blessing to the world.  We found this Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel and wanted to share that beauty with our readers.  Perhaps some of you have seen it in person, but this may be as close as any of us ever get.  Click on the picture above to enter the Sistine Chapel. Be sure to enable the music and zoom in to see the intricate beauties of Michelangelo’s creation.

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it and really mess it up, but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said that they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever.

Remember to treat others the way that you want to be treated and we can avoid the temptation to bully.

We have participated in the Student Blog Challenge each year since 2009 and this year we decided to participate by serving as mentors to other student bloggers. Below is a list of the students whose blogs we will be visiting regularly and leaving comments. Please help motivate these students to continue to blog by stopping by their site and leaving them a comment.

• Anahi
• Jose
• Christian
• Gisela
• Leslie
• Breeyana
• Daniel
• Julyssa
• Adilene
• Leticia
• Cassidy
• Avery
• Sophie
• Lucy
• Caroline
• Tess
• Angie
• Emily
• Natalie
• Catherine
• Lauren & Liana
• Shayne
• Ashleigh
• Hannah
• Nat
• Alexis
• Emma
• Jarrod
• Jakob

Are you looking for some Halloween Fun and Games for your students?  Click on the Candy Corn and be taken to our page where there are math games, videos, crossword puzzles, wordsearches, and more!  Have fun while learning!  This is no Trick….this is our Treat to you.