Instructify

In 1988, Public Enemy released their single “Don’t Believe the Hype”, which encouraged many of us to check our facts and beware of media spin. So it’s a strange twist of irony that about 18 years later, one of the most recognizable members of Public Enemy, Flavor Flav, began starring in the reality TV dating game show, Flavor of Love. Its difficult to find a better example of media being spun than reality TV… unless you consider politics.

PolitiFact.com, a service of the St. Petersburg Times and CQ, is a fact-checking site that examines the truth—and truthiness—behind many of the political messages that are being made. Not only do they examine major speeches, TV spots, and other high profile comments, they also show that nothing is too minor. Chain emails that are being passed around or comments made during off-the-cuff interviews also get vetted for accuracy.

You can view candidate profiles, look at their analysis of attacks made against candidates, and, my favorite, see who is caught Pants-on-Fire through their Truth-o-Meter breakdown.

Encourage your students to get involved in politics, at every level. Even more importantly, encourage your students to do their fact-checking (and then check the facts they’ve checked). A healthy dose of skepticism is the perfect compliment for youthful political ideals. –NICK YINGLING

PolitiFact.com

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Make Sure Your Students are Ready to Vote This Election

The Road to the Capitol

Understand Your Local Election

Back in my day we didn’t have that fancy schmancy “track changes” function. Rather, we did, but I hadn’t learned to use it yet. Personally, though, I’d rather edit a hard copy of an essay than an electronic version any day.

If you do your grading on paper rather than via email, may I suggest boning up on traditional editing marks, the kind old school newspaper editors used. Knowing how to mark up a paper lets you clearly suggest improvements to your students, while teaching them the language of the professional editor — useful to students interested in journalism or writing.

I’m a big fan of technology, but sometimes it’s good to look backwards, too. Grading writing assignments by hand is one area that has an advantage over the digital method. And if you’re going to edit hard copy, you may as well do it all the way by learning proper editing edit-iquette. -BILL FERRIS

Editing marks

10 Virtually Instant Ways to Improve Your Life - I’m all for improving my life, but why does it have to take soooo long? Here are ten easy ways to pull yourself up by your boot straps courtesy of Stepcase Lifehack. If you find yourself wanting to change something about your life, then why not start out with the simple stuff like Don’t over-generalize and Don’t take things too personally.

12 Ways to Use Project Censored in Your Classroom - Project Censored is an intiative designed to help aggregate news stories that often go under reported. This guide offers ways teachers can educate their students in fair journalism methods and help them understand the practice and importance of research. There are in-class activities and projects on the list, so if your students are studying media and journalism, this is a good place to start them on the right path.

 101 Scholarships Just For Teachers - From TeachingTips.com comes this amazing list of scholarships available for teachers working their way through college. It might be too late for most of us, but if you have some students who are interested in becoming teachers themselves, give them this list to ease college’s financial burdens. Some are region specific, so all 101 might not be completely pertinent. By the way, be sure and check out some of the other amazing lists on TeachingTips, they’ve got some great stuff there.

101 Things to Do When You’re Bored - I don’t know how anybody could possibly get bored when there are hundreds of Instructify posts to read, but if you find yourself with some idle time, then try out a few of these activities to rescue yourself from ennui. Lists Galore recommends flying a kite, starting a blog, or you know, making a list. - JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: Wetsun on Flickr

Welcome to the Carnival of Education Career Fair! We’ve retracted the bleachers and set up the booths on the gymnasium floor so these brave teachers can see what they might be doing if they weren’t teaching (perish the thought).

Motivational Speaker
Mr. D at I Want to Teach Forever agreed to sport a freaking mohawk as long as his students worked hard, which was about three weeks. Sadly, his motivational experiment has concluded. Long live the mohawk.

Camp Counselor
As a kid, my wife got to go to Space Camp and Marine Science Camp. Had Tisha Kulak and American Consumer News been around back then to point out how to save money on tuition to summer research camps, I might’ve been able to go, too.

Productivity Consultant
Instructify-favorite studenthacks.org has some great tips for students who want to learn how to write a research paper.

Pro Athletes
The Jose Vilson uses Derek Jeter as an example of how nurturing students’ talent and leadership ability early on can reap great results.

And over at Jay P. Greene’s Blog, the author talks about the importance of identifying students’ talents, whether they’re a left tackle or potential honor student.

Economist
ESL teacher Larry Ferlazzo knows that money is the international language.

Translator
Melissa B. at The Scholastic Scribe provides a handy-dandy English-to-Eduspeak dictionary.

Director
Mathew Needleman at Creating Lifelong Learners takes a proactive approach to managing disruptive students during a class movie project.

Advice Columnist
Let’s Play Math! has some advice on teaching math to a struggling student.

Detective
OverwhelmedMom gets to the bottom of problems that gifted students face.

Investigative Reporters
The proprietor of a voice from the middle knows the means to discovery is asking the right questions.

In addition, eduwonkette responds to a Wall Street Journal article about the criteria used to evaluate teachers.

Game Developer
Alvaro at SharpBrains shares a few games to stimulate your temporal lobe.

Diplomat
Coach Brown tries to reach an understanding with hostile parents.

Nutritionists
At Homework. Dinner. Life. Angela points out that good nutrition habits ought to be maintained year-round, not just a few days before the test.

Meanwhile, Chanman at Buckhorn Road says all that caffeine students drink can’t be good for them.

Cartographer
Dan Callahan, a.k.a. geek.teacher, harnesses Google Maps for a lesson in community mapping.

Librarian
@EDU takes the work out of student research by pointing them toward Google Alerts.

Politician
Jane Artabasy at Golden Apple Teaching Excellence Network unloads the loaded word of the day, “elitism,” showing it’s nothing to be frightened of - especially in schools.

The folks at Golden Apple also mull over the differences in races and learning styles.

Astronaut
HowDoWhy asks, what is a solar system, anyway? Furthermore, just how big is ours?

Human Resources Specialist
Over at Right on the Left Coast, Darren discusses the sticky situation of a teacher dating an 18-year-old student at a different school.

Mentors
Allison Jones at Entry Level Living wants to revamp the way young people think about leadership.

The folks at the Efficient Leadership Files have some ideas on that as well.

Statistician
Lead from the Start crunches the numbers about the disconnect between teachers and EdSector.

Strategist
Seth Pearce at NYC Students Blog has an intriguing idea on how to overcome schools’ non-stop test preparation.

Lobbyist
PZ Meyers at Pharyngula has some news about a disturbing bill in the Oklahoma legislature regarding religion in schools.

Road Grader
As the great homework debate rages on, Shabam School makes a good case for grading homework.

Kindergarten Teacher (sorry, I couldn’t come up with anything else)
Kiri at Elbows, Knees, Dreams shares her thoughts (and asks for others’ opinions) about early entrance to Kindergarten.

Photo credit: ou_ags on flickr

Do you like water? I know I do! I’m hooked on the stuff, in fact. Unfortunately, a lot of people die each year due to a lack of clean drinking water. That’s why the Quill and Scroll Society is teaming up with ITT Corporation to sponsor the ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism. The winner gets a $1000 scholarship, plus an expense-paid trip to World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.

Interested students should submit an article addressing a water-related, environmental issue by May 28 (see the award page for complete entry guidelines). If you have any student journalists in your school with a soft spot for the environment, this is right up their alley.

This award is a good way to introduce a discussion on conserving natural resources (in another, more practical way, the $1000 scholarship is also a good way to introduce a discussion on how to pay for a college education). Fortunately, water is a topic everybody can relate to, so your students shouldn’t have too much trouble coming up with an article. -BILL FERRIS

ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism

Tangentially Related Stuff:
The C. Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

Photo credit: cobalt123 on flickr

The Library of Congress apparently has a flickr account. They know how to use it, too - they’ve added a few thousand photos onto the interweb for your perusal (they must have shelled out for the pro account). This isn’t a static collection, either. The Library welcomes any tags and comments you have, and you ought to encourage your students to take them up on the offer.

You can find loads of historical photos, including the 1930s-1940s in Color–funny, I’d always thought they couldn’t afford color in those days because of the depression.

The collection will give your students a glimpse of fascinating bits of American history. Check out war photos, news pictures, shots of baseballers, plus lots of images of regular folks living their lives. You can easily lose an hour trolling through the pictures, and will probably keep you busy at least until the Library of Congress sets up its Facebook page. -BILL FERRIS

The Library of Congress on flickr

Good photography takes practice. When looking through digital photos, I can always identify mine from my wife’s because mine are usually a cluttered shot of nothing in particular. Now that I’ve seen VideoJug’s Photography: The Rules of Composition, I’ll be able to snap pictures like a pro.

The short video tutorial covers the rule of thirds, letting the subject of the shot dominate the frame, plus other great advice that will yield immediate dividends to student photography. That means great action shots of the varsity basketball game for the school newspaper, as well as more compelling photos for art class. With a little practice, even a n00b like me can learn to take great photographs. -BILL FERRIS

Photography: The Rules of Composition