It's Catalog Season

Hello again, from Teacher's Brunch HQ in freezing fog-stricken Auburn Hills, MI.

(As Mike, our tech guy said, if smoke and foggy makes smoggy, do freezing and foggy equal froggy?)

Teachers across the country will soon find in their mailboxes our Spring Teacher's Discovery catalogs.

We've seen them, and they look great--full of ideas and awesome stuff to make teachers' days a little easier.

If you don't think you're going to get a catalog from us, and want to make sure you get one, head over to this link for English, Social Studies, and Science teachers, and over here for our Foreign Language friends.

When it does arrive in your mailbox, let us know what you think.

A ghoulishly good time

One of the many perks to working around here (along with the fun of making great classroom tools) is the annual Halloween party. Last year, members of the Teacher's Brunch staff actually did all the planning. They were happy this year to let Lauren and Katie from the Foreign Language building throw the shindig, and this year's party planners did a fabulously awesome job.

Among the festivities were a pumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. As you might expect, we have some immensely creative and talented people around here.

See for yourself:


Caryn in FL made this wonderful piece. We're not exactly sure how many pumpkins are in this thing.




Get the joke?





Ginger in Foreign Language made her pumpkin look like one of our popular bobble head turtles.




Dave from Exploration Company made this pumpkin he called "Shish Ka Boo."





And here's the winning pumpkin, from Katie. That's real meat, people.





Karen came dressed to impress deep-fried fanatics everywhere.






Barb's wacky buffet retained the food fancy.





When he's not fixing web and computer problems, Vadim fights crime as one of the X-Men.





Devilish designer Michelle helps Nick search for coins and turtles to stomp.





And finally. here's the Tech Team decked out as the Channel 4 six o'clock news team from "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." We won first place, which, since there were five of us, means we each get four bucks to spend at our local Target.

We didn't do it for the money. We did it for the glory.

Here's hoping your students aren't too wired on jujubees and goobers. And is it just me, or are Bit o' Honeys way too little honey and way too much bit?

You Got Jokes?

Ryan found this site that should brighten your day:

http://www.teacher-appreciation-kit.com/humor-2014.html

With football season approaching, we thought this one is a particularly good one:

A football coach was asked his secret of evaluating raw recruits. "Well," he said, "I take 'em out in the woods and make 'em run. The ones that go around the trees, I make into running backs. The ones that run into the trees, I turn into linemen."

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.

Yet Another D & D Post

Well, followers of this blog know someone around here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in rainy Auburn Hills, MI has a "Dungeons & Dragons" jonesing, so it makes sense that when we saw this article, Everything I Know I Learned From Dungeons & Dragons, it had to be posted here.

Hopefully, game clubs will spring up across American schools.

A Michigan Sports Post On An Education Blog?!

That's right. A sports post.

We here at TB HQ in cold and soggy Auburn Hills, MI are very proud of the "MI" that always accompanies "Auburn Hills," and though Southeast Michigan--in particular Detroit--has been taking its lumps lately, I defy you to find a better sports area in all of the United States.

Our state has all four major professional sports--and often has minor ones, too; we've got two major universities that each usually excel in at least one sport, often more; we recently played host to a Superbowl, a Final Four, the Stanley Cup playoffs, a World Series, and WNBA Championships. For amateurs, we are surrounded by water, and our state is criss-crossed by trails.

We have nearly new venues for our football and baseball teams, a great place for the basketball teams, and a classic arena for our hockey team.

Sure, other states have better individual teams (unless you're talking hockey, or women's basketball), but where else is the total package better?

So, you think your state is a better sports state? Feel free to defend your piddly little home in the comments.

So why sports on this education blog? Because we agree with Robin Williams's character from "Dead Poets Society," that sports are just an excuse to make other people push you to excel. And because, like it or not, sports are important to many of our students, just like games like D&D (see yesterday's post) are important to others.

So if it's important to your students, and it's important to you, it's important to us. Including sports.

So we here at TB HQ say "Go, Red Wings," "Go, Pistons," "C'mon, Tigers," "Well Done, Spartans," "Maybe that will help the offensive line, Lions," and "Godspeed, Bird."

Dungeons and Dragons Co-Creator Dies

Some of us around the TB HQ in chilly-morninged but nice-afternooned Auburn Hills, MI are mourning the passing of Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson. He now joins his fellow co-creator, Gary Gygax, in an afterlife we hope is full of merry adventuring and the occasional bugbear.

Dungeons and Dragons attracted a lot of attention--mostly negative--in the 70s and 80s, but has since quietly provided many teenagers, and more than a few adults, a welcome respite from the ordinary and everyday. D&D came first in many ways, and its influence is still being felt. How many of your students play Magic? Or Pokemon? Or Warhammer? How many saw or read "The Hobbit" and already had a pretty good idea of what an elf was like?

In schools across America, teachers lament the video-gaming of our young people. Before Atari, D&D supplied kids with their daily recommended allowance of other person fun. And it was all done using books and math!

In truth, D&D has a several applications in today's schools. Why not challenge your students to "quest," in writing, for a famous historical or mythological artifact? Sort of like Indiana Jones in essay form. The more "quests" your students successfully complete, i.e. the more solidly written papers they submit, the more powerful their character becomes. What happens after that is up to you!

Here's the story about Mr. Arenson's passing. Dip your sword out of respect.