Happy Summer!

Schools across the country are gearing up for summer break, and we just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone happy vacation. Let's hope teachers and students across America return safely to their classrooms in a few months.

We know that teachers never really completely stop working. Many of you will be laying out new lesson plans, reading up on theory, maybe taking a class or two of your own. And that doesn't even take into account year-round schools or summer school teachers. So maybe "Summer Vacation" should be relabeled something else entirely.

We here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in still chilly (what the heck is up with that?) in the morning Auburn Hills, MI will be plugging away at some great new stuff, not to mention finishing up the catalogs that will be waiting for you when you get back to school.

Over the summer, we'll still be updating the blog and letting you know what's new in the pipeline, along with our other posts that meet our flights of fancy.

So check back in if you can, but if you go on break and can't, don't worry.

We'll be here when you get back.

Teacher's Discovery Earth Day Clean-Up

Mother Nature decided for us yesterday that the good folks of Teacher's Discovery (the mothership to our Teacher's Brunch office) were going to postpone our annual Earth Day clean up until today, and she rewarded our patience with a beautiful mid-April Michigan day.

So at 11 am EST, we shut down the phones, turned off the computers, set aside the Shakespeare and replaced pens with shovels, keyboards with work gloves, and hit the great outdoors.


Here Rick tidies up at the front of our English, Social Studies, Science building. Teacher's Brunch is housed in the same building.



Ron, shown here cleaning up the back of the same building, works in receiving. He's also a crack shot, and just today brought in a turkey beard from a bird he took last week. Some homemade turkey chili would be nice. . . .


There's nothing around here that Kristin can't do. When she's not ripping weeds, she handles a lot of responsibilities for our English and Social Studies catalogs.


Gordon, Ginger, and Nick pull out the table down the road at the Foreign Language building, a three minute walk from Eng/SS/Sci. If the tables are out, that means Spring is in full effect.


When the fear of frost is completely gone, and sometimes in Michigan that feels like that doesn't happen until about July, this flower bed will be glorious in color. Last year it received recognition from the city of Auburn Hills.


Foreign Language catalog guru Steve attacked the flower beds the way he attacks an advertising spread.


Here's Skip, sauntering away from the garbage can after a Herculean effort to dispose of a monstrous chunk of concrete that he tore from the ground with his bare hands after helping an old lady cross the freeway in rush hour traffic. His picture is bigger than everyone else's because, well, he's the owner and signs our checks.


After the hard work of giving Mother Earth a face lift, Tom (shown here in the foreground) treated us to some of the finest sloppy joe's we've ever had. Tom is the friendly voice on the phone when you call about Teacher's Brunch or Teacher's Discovery Interactive products. If he seems to know about life as a teacher, it's because he's a retired teacher himself. The two ladies in the back arranging potato chips just so are Nina and Stephanie, two of the Project Managers on the TB team.

We hope everyone else had a good Earth Day, too. We'll finish this post with a shot of Mike, tech support ninja. His message is a good one.

Our Favorite Things We've Made (part three!)

Nina has this to say about her favorite PowerPoint presentation, the French and Indian War:

"If only there was a teaching aid when I was in school that brought the French and Indian war – the battles, people, places – alive like this PowerPoint does.

Listening to the audio, watching the animated maps, and looking at colorful slides will make your students understand that this was the war that truly began it all for our country."






Here's a sample to download for PC: click here, PC person!

Here's a Mac download: Mac folks, this is for you!

Essay Time!

Need some help inspiring student writing?

We just finished our Electronic Essay Starter. It's a Flash application, so it should run on just about any computer you're using.

Here's how it works.

First, display a picture. There's fifty to choose from, including this nifty dog:


The image you and your students select is the inspiration for their essays.

Next, pick from one of 11 essays types. You can choose which kind, or let the game randomly pick one for you.

What's great is that each essay type has a definition, and a sample essay:




We include the sample and definition for each essay on the disk for easy printing.

All that's left to do is give them a length requirement, a due date, and off they go!

It's great for review, standardized test practice, or proving that writing can be fun.


You can order it from Teacher's Discovery here: http://www.teachersdiscovery-english.com/item_details.php?item=R411E&SBJ=English

PC users can download a trial version of it here: Sample


Let us know what you think.

Where's Your Shopping Cart?

If you're already a customer of ours, you might be wondering where our online shopping cart has gone.

If you're new, you might be wondering where you can get all of the great stuff we make.

Well, head on over to our parent company, Teacher's Discovery. You can order online, via fax, or over the phone. If you call, you'll get to speak to one of our wonderful Customer Service Representatives.