National Coffee Day – Study Friend or Foe

Sept. 29, 2014 is National Coffee Day! Many start out the day with this friend.  Many turn to coffee for late night study sessions which leads to the question is coffee a friend or foe?   Lets start with a quick infographic and get some facts & figures:

Here are a few articles we found to further the argument:

Should you drink coffee before or after a learning task?

by Ashutosh Jogalekar | blogs.scientificamerican.com

11 Reasons College Students Absolutely Need Coffee To Survive

by Renee Jacques | The Huffington Post

Coffee: A cup that makes studying easier

nestle-family.com

 

Leave us a comment and let us know whether you believe coffee is your friend or your foe.

Friday Funny

Don’t you hate when kids get smart & use your own logic back against you? At least you know they are learning their math skills

September is Strategic Thinking Month

September is the month dedicated to bringing about awareness for the universal need to improve strategic thinking skills.  Strategic thinking is a form of problem solving and involves being able to observe, comprehend, and analyze a variety of information, plan solutions and then select suitable actions to take.   Strategic thinking involves more than logic; it is being able to brainstorm and handle unexpected twists and turns and is truly a valuable skill for students to develop.

Thinking skills are an essential tool for being successful in school, social, and home life.  How can we help students improve their thinking skills?   We can actively ask students for their input, we can teach them to incorporate others’ ideas when they work in groups, we can promote the playing of strategic games like Chess, Backgammon, Parcheesi, Clue, and Battleship, and we can promote ‘out of the box’ thinking.  

Let’s use September to give students the opportunity to develop their potential – allow them to work through real-life problems and situations.  Let’s promote thinking strategically!

How do you improve your thinking skills?

Web Wednesday 9/10/2014

The Smilebox Teacher’s Toolbox program is a teacher’s digital companion for all things in the classroom.  It gives teachers at all grade levels an easy and creative way to safely share photos, videos and classroom updates to your students and parents. Smilebox is perfect for:
• parent newsletters and updates
• overviews of teaching units for at-home learning and modeling
• award and merit certificates
• performance and field trip scrapbooks
• classroom activity slideshows
• end-of-year photo albums and yearbooks
• much, much more
Classroom creations can be emailed, posted to a school blog or website, burned to DVD or photo frame, or printed for bulletin boards or backpacks.  Parents will experience these learning moments as if they were sitting right alongside their child in class.  Your kids will love to see themselves and friends featured in creative multimedia designs set to the music of your choice.  As a member of the Smilebox Teacher’s Toolbox program, you will receive a FREE annual subscription to our premium Club Smilebox service (a US$47.88 value) To register: http://media.smilebox.com/teachers/welcome/?sortby=Newest&campaign=nletter_20140902_School2

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   By Rita Arens on Blogher

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Discovered an awesome site today http://www.teachersprintables.net/

Their site states: 586 teachers pintables and classroom pintables that you can download,

customize, and print for free. Choose from attendance charts, grading sheets, lesson planning

forms, parent communication forms, office passes, school calendars, and more.

Or, download the entire collection for $27.00.

Be sure to bookmark them and sign up for their free newsletter as well.