Oh, Canada!

We've got Canada on the brain lately here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in overcast Auburn Hills, MI.

Some of us absolutely love the Olympics, and wish we were in Vancouver. (As a side note, how's a chubby fellow supposed to try to earn a medal when even the curlers are in perfect shape? I mean, curlers? Why, on earth, would they need cardio? I guess my only shot at gold is archery, after all.)

We're also thinking Canada because Teacher's Discovery just launched Teacher's Discovery: Canada, featuring an entire line of classroom supplies for the Canadian teacher with a French class.

That means Canadian-English spellings, and a real push to make products that are Canadian, not just American stuff with a different dollar.

So, welcome to the family, Canada.

And sorry about women's moguls. There's always hockey! (Unless Sidney Crosby is too hurt, of course.)

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Cow has landed."

The title of this post is a not so subtle nod to the anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, but is also serving to announce the distribution of our Fall Social Studies catalogs.

Teachers who purchase items from Teacher's Discovery with their home addresses will be receiving our comprehensive Social Studies catalog featuring the cow on the cover.

Everyone else will have a catalog waiting for them at school.

If you'd like a catalog before that, give us at call at 1-800-543-4180. Tell them the blog sent ya!

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.

Interloper! Bird moves in at Foreign Language building

It's a beautiful but breezy day here in springy Auburn Hills, MI, a great day to relax in the courtyard at the Teacher's Discovery Foreign Language courtyard, shielded from the gusty wind.

But. . . .



Seems mommy bird has decided to nest in the low crook of the courtyard tree. In this picture, you can see just how close to the ground she's nesting. We figure the relative safety of the courtyard emboldened her a bit.






So for now we're staying out. Mommy's name is Robin, and we'll keep you posted as the egg-watching progresses.

The following pictures, by the way, were taken safely from the other side of the glass. No need to disturb her, especially so close to Mother's Day!

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.

New Teacher's Discovery Homepage!

The Teacher's Discovery homepage is all bright, shiny, and new.

Check it out here.

The Teacher's Brunch gang at TB HQ in Dali-like melting Auburn Hills, MI especially likes the coffee cup.

Teacher's Discovery Catalogs Hitting

Catalogs for all of our divisions at Teacher's Discovery are just about in the hands of teachers across the country.

For those of us who work hard creating and finding great stuff for teachers, and then work hard to get it all between the covers of our catalogs, the catalogs hitting always mark the end of one long process and the beginning of the next one.

Games and books and posters that aren't in the most recent catalogs are already in the works for the next ones, waiting to make big debuts in the Fall.

One of the neatest aspects of the making of a catalog is picking our covers. Our Foreign Language division has one for each language we support, English has two, Science will have five, and Social Studies has five. That's a lot of time spent sifting through tons of great pictures.

If you've gotten your catalog, drop us a line and tell us what you think. If you'd like one, give us a call and we'll be happy to send one to you. Our contact information is here.

By the way, I am partial to the U.S. History cover, but that's just me.

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.