Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from your friends at Teacher's Brunch, Teacher's Discovery, the Exploration Company, and that Italian food warehouse next door.

Check back Monday for pictures of the festivities, including the Tech Team's first place rendition of a certain television anchorman and news crew.

Thanks for the laughs, Soupy

While it's true that Teacher's Discovery is a national (even international) company, regular readers of our blog know that we are proud of our Michigan and Metro-Detroit roots.

So those of us here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in cold and rainy Auburn Hills, MI join with everyone in mourning the passing of a TV icon we in Detroit like to consider one of our own, Soupy Sales.

No, Soupy didn't start in Detroit, and he wasn't even from Detroit, but he was here as he approached the cusp of his success. He always maintained a generous attachment to our fair state, and the people of Michigan reciprocated.

Maybe today in his honor, instead of eating a pie, we should all throw one. That would be good for the waistline, and the funny bone.

Happy Birthday to Ryan

Today, we at Teacher's Brunch HQ in warm but soggy Auburn Hills, MI will raise a slice of pizza and celebrate Ryan's birthday.

Ryan is now head wholesale honcho, but in his time as a Project Manager he got his name on loads of products, including the best-selling teacher favorite Literary Terms and Devices Challenge game.

He also likes motorcycles. And he's getting old.

So we offer this image, combining both themes, as a Teacher's Brunch blog birthday card:

New "Shakespeare at the Movies" Poster

The Bard returns to your classroom walls in this Teacher's Discovery exclusive poster, "Shakespeare at the Movies."






You'll see that the poster features a lot of well-known Shakespearean adaptations, along with some films with surprising bard roots.







We're particularly pleased that the poster gives props to "Forbidden Planet." Your kids will love it, too!






(Blogger's note: the last image isn't on the poster, but it made you smile.)

Pathos, Ethos, Logos (and Robots)

Someone last night was standing in front of a group of college writing students, delivering the finer points of appeals to reasoning, when it dawned on him that one of the funniest bits ever done by the good folks at "Saturday Night Live" has all three--pathos, ethos, and logos.

In abundance.

So here it is, nice and easy, for writing teachers assigning argument essays across the globe. (Sorry for the lead-in advertisement, though.)






A great example of persuasive argumentation. (And just look at the Old Glory logo!)

Plus, it has robots. And there's something about the "Certainly I'm too old" lady that makes us want to pinch her jowls.

RSS Feed

We're trying a new techy thing on our blog.

We think we hooked up an RSS feed, to let folks stay on top of all the latest and greatest updates from Teacher's Brunch HQ in winter-already? Auburn Hills, MI.

Feedback is appreciated as always.

Our students and "dirty books"

While a lot of the blogging and posting at Entertainment Weekly's website focuses on the latest exploits of John and Kate or summarizing the goings-on in Melrose 90210, sometimes it does stumble on something worthwhile.

Tina Jordan's post, you can find it here, discusses teenagers and pre-teenagers reading books that may approach or even throw themselves over the comfort line, as far as some adults might see it.

Where do you stand on that? Another one of EW's obsessions, the Twilight books, seems to fit in the discussion, too. But so do loads of other books that have fallen into the canon.

Another great response for Electronic Poetry Starter

We got another really great review for our Electronic Poetry Starter.



We have four electronic starters in all, and you can find them here.

They're so cool, and your students will enjoy using them to write so much, you might even forget heart-breaking baseball playoff losses.

Still . . .

Well, our Tigers just lost.

We're still glad we're from where we're from.

Congrats, Twins.

Fall is for football!

U.S. History teachers, your students are thinking football right now, anyway.

Play into their interests, and make use of that technology you got this year (or whenever!), with one of our U.S. History football games.



With eight topics to choose from, they make a great review any time!

Check out what we've got here!

Author Series PowerPoint Presentations

Right about this time in your school year, you're probably trying to keep students' minds on your lessons instead of Homecoming, having happily fallen into the daily grind of school and wondering if a rookie pitcher can help avoid the worst baseball team implosion ever. (Well, maybe not that last part.)

Allow us to make your job a little easier, Mr. or Ms. Literature Teacher.

The presentations we made for some of the most-read authors are ready-to-go out of the box and show students that writers are people, too--sometimes tragically flawed, sometimes surprising normal.

Each disk includes two reproducible activities, so you'll know your students know what's what in the world of letters.

Have a look here for an easy way to troll through the presentations available, and to download some samples.

You wish you were from Michigan

Followers of this blog remember this post we made a while back.

We just wanted to let you know that our Tigers are cautiously optimistic, our Red Wings are so awesome they've gone international, and there are football teams with worse records than our Lions.

It's also Michigan/Michigan State week, though nobody here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in ready-for-some-pumpkins Auburn Hills, MI attended either school. (Central/Western weekend IS a big deal in our office, though, and we hear Oakland University has read the rules to football.)

All this excitement, plus a crisp Autumn breeze and the promise of warm apple cider sipped to the earthy fragrance of burning leaves.

You wish you were from Michigan.