Archive for the 'Books' Category

Jan

Wednesday, 1/18

I recently finished reading David Baldacci’s Simple Genius. I’ve read several of Baldacci’s books with the two main characters Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. This one was pretty good. In Simple Genius, Sean and Michelle are hired to investigate a murder at a top secret science facility across a river from a CIA base. They are given clues by a young girl. However, the clues have to be decoded.
The book is a bit long for young students but can be quite enjoyable if you like mysteries/thrillers.
I’m going to be taking a break from fiction for awhile. I’m sure I’ll eventually get back into reading more of Baldacci’s books.

Being Proactive
Being proactive means dealing with an issue before it becomes a problem and not after. If you are missing information on your notes, the best person to see is your teacher. He/She will be able to help you best or at least point you in the right direction. You cannot wait until you take the test to realize that you are not prepared for it. It’s too late.
Steps that should be taken include, seeing the teacher to discuss the issue. This doesn’t mean come to the teacher with 40 seconds before class begins to say, “I don’t get it.” What can be done about that problem in 40 seconds?
The bottom line is now is the time to begin advocating for yourself. I know your parents are your protectors but you have to have the internal strength to speak to a teacher. It will serve you well in the future.

As a reminder, all of my notes are on my website. The website is www.socialstudieswithasmile.com. There are no secrets. Go there…it will tell you when our next test is. It tells you when our next extra help session is. Also, don’t forget that I’m available every Tuesday and Thursday for Homework Club.

I haven’t even factored in that we review in class…I remind you of dates for upcoming tests and assignments. These things don’t sneak up on you.

I think a lot of my students are good students and have the ability to be proactive and advocate for themselves. Now you need to prove it. Trust me, you will need these skills in high school and college…oh yeah, and the every day world!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,School,Uncategorized and have Comments (2)

Dec

The Weekend of 12/17

You can pretty much gauge how busy I am on the amount (and quality) of blog entries. Before children I was able to blog consistently 6 days a week. Now it is less. During busy weeks I’m lucky to get to the blog for any entries.
I’ve been meaning for post for a week that I’ve finished a book.
I don’t think this is a book that you would be interested in…certainly not at this time in your life.

Anyway, as a parent of a nearly 2 year old boy, I read First Aid for Tantrums. The book gives practical advice to parents for when young children have meltdowns. When DJ has these moments now I do feel better prepared. I might not always do the “right thing” when he is having a tantrum but at least now I have a number of strategies that I can use.
I should also point out that this book was written by Kathy Levinson. I had the pleasure of having both of her children, Peter and Aimee. Both are currently high school students. If I’m not mistaken, Peter graduates this year.

It is probably going to be awhile before I finish another book. Perhaps I’ll be able to get one done during the vacation. I challenge you to complete a book between now and the beginning of the new year. Those of you getting on a plane should take advantage of that opportunity and read!

Top Blog Stories of 2011

Read, Read, Read!!!…Earn, Earn, Earn!!!
Sticking with our theme, our number 9 story of the year is the new extra credit opportunity that is available for Green 7 students. Yes, this is a shameless plug. Yes, I’m using my annual countdown as an opportunity to remind you of the extra credit. But it is my blog (and I can do what I want with it). Besides, I do genuinely feel strongly about this.
Reading does expand your vocabulary. It increases your creativity. It allows you to expand your knowledge base. Why not read?
If you are interested in the Extra Credit for reading, you can read more about it by clicking here. It can also be found on the right side under the categories by clicking Outside Reading Extra Credit Opportunity.
Each book earns you one test point. You can gain a total of 5 points per quarter.

Two students have already taken advantage of the Extra Credit. One is posted on the blog, the other was handed in. Your response should be posted. It will save paper and it is actually easier for me to grade.

Has any one been following Tim Tebow? I have to admit that watching last week’s comeback was pretty amazing. I wonder if he will be able to do the same this weekend against Tom Brady and the Patriots.
I don’t know about you, but I”m looking forward to the NBA returning on Christmas Day. I’m glad the Knicks are on. I’m also glad that the Mavericks are on. Those are my two favorite teams. It also gives my family something to do besides eating!
I’m getting more and more frustrated that the Reds aren’t pulling the trigger on a major deal this winter. I know it is early but the longer they wait, the harder it is going to be to get a frontline pitcher that will make a major change. If the Reds don’t make a big move, they are squandering a chance to take advantage of the Cardinals losing Pujols and the Brewers likely losing Prince Fielder and possibly Ryan Braun for 50 games.

That’s all for now. Have a great weekend!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Outside Reading Extra Credit,School,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (8)

Nov

Outside Reading Extra Credit Opportunity

A special opportunity to earn extra credit: Read a book (or two, or three, or four, or five).

After reading your book, go to socialstudieswithasmile.com/blog. Click on the category link Outside Reading Extra Credit.
Answer the questions on the post by leaving a reply.

The questions that need to be answered:

1.Name of the book. Who is the author?
2.What is the book about? Provide a brief summary.
3.Fiction: Who is your favorite character? What did you appreciate about him/her?
4.Non-Fiction: Describe a moment/event in the book that most people are probably not aware of.
5.Would you recommend this book to other readers? If so, who would you recommend it to? If not, why would you not recommend it?

Each book is worth 1 extra credit point. The maximum number of books that can be read in a quarter is 5.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Outside Reading Extra Credit,School,Uncategorized and have Comments (19)

Nov

Deep Drive

I just finished reading Deep Drive. This book, written by Mike Lowell, wasn’t a hard hitting expose on the inner workings of Major League Baseball. However, it was a pretty good story of one man’s determination to overcome the adversity that challenged him.
For those of you who don’t know, Mike Lowell was the 3rd baseman for the World Champion Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins. He also spent a very short amount of time with the Yankees early in his career. The adversity that he had to deal with was cancer. Lowell was diagnosed with cancer early in his career. He managed to become fully healthy, regain his strength and return to baseball. Eventually he became one of the great 3rd basemen in baseball.

For those of you who are reading, keep doing it. I have a passion for reading and would love to see it overflow to you. Reading can become contagious, especially when you are reading something you enjoy.

“Read, Read, Read…And When You’re Tired…Read Some More” was the slogan of my elementary school. Perhaps we should make it the slogan of the Green 7 team as well.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (3)

Sep

I’m Back!!!

After an extended break from the blog and website, I’m back.
My time away didn’t exactly go as expected. I ended up having several family members come to my house as they had to flee evacuation zones. Of course, of all the homeowners that stayed with me only my house lost power.
We ended up not having power for 5 full days. I’ll avoid being critical of LIPA because I know they had a big job but thank goodness this wasn’t a huge storm.
I wasn’t too worried about losing the power because my family and my parents were slated for a trip to Lake George for 4 days. Unfortunately, that never got off the ground. After driving for hours and hours trying to find a way around closed roads, we finally decided to give up and cancel our vacation.
And it was a good thing that we did. It turns out that the place we were staying in Lake George lost all power. It was likely we would have been miserable there anyway.
We turned our vacation into a staycation as we stayed with my parents until power was restored. We ended up taking trips to 2 parks/playgrounds for DJ to play, Adventureland (he’s still a bit too young but did like the train ride around the park) and the beach.
I wouldn’t say this was the best vacation ever but at least we made the best of a bad situation.

Speaking of bad situations, the Reds must have been experiencing deja vu as they were once again swept by the Phillies in easy fashion. The good news at least is that Chris Heisey returned from the disabled list with a 3 run pinch hit homerun. The Reds also called up rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco to see what he’s got. The Yankees aren’t the only team with a catching phenom. The Reds now have 3 games against the Cardinals. Whether the Reds are in 3rd place or last, they will always want to beat the Birds. I hope they get it done.

Another Study On Soda
If you’re a loyal reader of the blog, you know that I enjoy soda. I drink it more often than I should but my excuse is that I don’t drink coffee so that makes up for the coffee.
Check out this article on soda. It was staggering to find that according to the article, 5% of people drink 4 cans of soda a day. The most powerful part of the article was the quote from an upcoming ad campaign, “”If you wouldn’t eat 22 packs of sugar, why are you drinking it?” I never thought of it quite like that.

St. John’s University Basketball On The Rise
I was pleased to read that the St. John’s basketball team will have 17 national broadcasts this season. That shows that the schedule makers see the Red Storm as a team on the move. I’m glad. Basketball and St. John’s used to go hand in hand. Unfortunately, that was a long, long time ago. I like to see that they are returning to their prominence. I haven’t been to a game in years. However, college level athletics is always fun. I went to a St. John’s baseball game last year and loved every minute of it.
There are plenty of local colleges that you can check out. Hofstra, CW Post and St. John’s are all within driving distance. Best of all, their games are extremely affordable and sometimes even free.

I also managed to finish reading Shoeless Joe during the vacation. Shoeless Joe was the inspiration for the hit baseball movie Field of Dreams. I enjoyed the book, but like the movie must more. The storyline in the movie flows much better than the book. The book has a few addition characters that don’t add to the storyline and often detract from it. Perhaps I feel this way because I’ve seen the movie so often.
I think the movie is better because it focused on the relationship between a father and a son. The book (in my opinion) largely skimmed past that.
I’ll have the book in my classroom library if you would like to check it out. It was still worth reading.
Question of the Day: Do you prefer reading a book first and then seeing the movie, or seeing the movie and then reading the book? If you’ve seen a movie, would you still go through the trouble of reading the book?

It is a tradition for us to watch Field of Dreams during lunch in April. I’m looking forward to doing so once again.

One last thing, I’ve been watching the Phineas and Ferb movie with my son. Is it odd that I’m actually enjoying it. Am I the only one that enjoys this show?

We’re just days away from school. Enjoy what is left of the summer!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Current Events,Food,Movies,Television,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (8)

Aug

Monday, 8/22

The reigning National League MVP Joey Votto has a chance to have a better season this year than last year. Despite his better numbers, he is not a candidate to be MVP this year. The difference? The Reds aren’t winning. Hats off to Votto for making this a watchable season. I shudder to think about what this season would have been like without Votto.
This has happened to the Reds in the past. Barry Larkin’s best season was 1996, the year after he won the NL MVP.

I just finished another book. This one again had an educational focus. In fact, the book is called Focus. The main idea of the book is that teachers need to spend more time reading, writing and discussing ideas in class rather than doing fancy schmancy techniques in the classroom. Too often we try to dazzle with fun and exciting activities but at the end of the day we aren’t actually learning. I think we do a lot of reading and writing and discussing in Social Studies but perhaps I will focus on this a bit more. I’ve said many times that school is not a trip to the circus. While I don’t want my classes to be bored, I’m not an entertainer. School is for learning and is not a night at the Chucklehut.
More reading and writing means students will be better prepared for college and beyond. That’s what I want from all of my students.

DJ and Casey

Check Out This Triple Play

I once had a ball bounce off of my head at 1st Base (that explains a lot) but I wasn’t able to make a triple play out of it. I guess I can go with the tired “That’s Using Your Head” line for this video? Any other comments we could make about the play?
I guess we can call this the temporary return of Caption Craziness.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Caption Craziness,Casey,DJ,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comment (1)

Aug

Thursday, 8/18

Sometimes we think of athletes as greedy, self-centered jerks. Perhaps that is true in many cases. But it wasn’t with this story about young Cleveland player Jack Hannahan. Hannahan’s wife was about to give birth and his teammates chipped in to allow Hannahan to get home for the birth. Hannahan does not make the money that the mega-stars make so he would not have been able to afford to get the quick flight home.
Here’s the article or you can check out a blurb here:

So even while Hannahan was at bat in the game, Speed booked the first flight in the morning out of Logan airport in Boston back to Cleveland, even knowing that would likely be too late. His next step was calling about private planes. They were available, but they cost $35,000. Even though Hannahan has a contract for $500,000 this year, $35,000 is still seven percent of his annual salary — that’s a lot of money on a gamble that it would be the night Jenny gave birth.
After Hannahan was notified after the game of what was going on, he considered that, because it was the only way he’d be getting back to Cleveland before the morning. However, the price tag was just too high for the fiscally conservative Hannahan.
At some point after the game, teammate Justin Masterson asked Hannahan what was happening and as soon as Hannahan told him, Masterson told him get the private jet.
“Book it,” Masterson told Hannahan, according to Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press. When Hannahan balked, Masterson insisted.
At that point, Masterson passed around a hat, getting donations from teammates. And pretty quickly, they had the $35,000 covered — call it a baby shower gift from his teammates.

Read, Read, Read And When You’re Tired….Read Some More!
That was the slogan of my elementary school when I was a kid. Perhaps that is part of the reason that I became such a reader.
I read this quote in a book that I am reading called Focus.
“Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.”-Aldous Huxley
If you are not reading, start. If you are, keep at it.
Check out your local library (which happens to be fantastic). There are plenty of great books for every taste. Best of all, it is F-R-E-E!!!

Finally, if you’ve been around me long enough you’ve probably heard me talk about PACE (Positive Attitude Changes Everything) or DIMITT (Determination Is More Important Than Talent). I’m going to add one more which I read a few days ago.
HOPE-Have Only Positive Expectations!

Enjoy the rest of the day!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comment (1)

Aug

Wednesday, 8/17

Today marks one year from when my sister gets married. Let the countdown begin!
DJ will be ring bearer and Casey will be one of the flower girls.

Highly Recommended Reading: Steinbrenner: The Last Lion Of Baseball
This is basically a history of the Yankees from 70s to today. George Steinbrenner is an odd figure. At times he seems like a kind hearted man. At others, a ruthless millionaire. You get to see both sides of Steinbrenner in this book written by Bill Madden of the Daily News.
This is one of my favorite books that I have read in recent years. Obviously you will like this book more if you are a baseball fan, especially a Yankees fan.

You have to see this clip from a Royals/Yankees game:

A match made in heaven (or the bleachers).

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (3)

Aug

Tuesday, 8/2

A message I received on the blog yesterday:

Mr. Dowling I think you are a wonderful teacher. I have not met you, but I know that you love the kids you teach and you love being an educator. I have been looking at your website for 2 years. I get very excited and motivated when I browse your website. I teach 5th grade and your calendars have guided me with my lessons. Thank you for sharing with the world your expertise on teaching.

Thank you for the kind words.

Voters Reject New Coliseum Plan
Here’s the article from Newday.
What’s Next?
It is very possible that the Islanders will leave Long Island in a couple of years. I find that to be doubtful because there aren’t exactly huge hockey markets clamoring for a hockey franchise. I guess you never know.
Perhaps private funding will be the way to go on this one to keep the Islanders in town.
I read yesterday that there was a very low turnout and that most of the people who were voting were elderly voters. That is never good for a tax hike plan. When I went to vote there were only a handful of people there.
I’m sure we have not heard the last of this from Mangano, Wang, and the Islanders.
If I were the Islanders I would file a voter discrimination lawsuit. There is no way that #1 Islanders fan Sparky could fit in a voting booth.

Have You Slithered Across This Video?
This was on the news just recently. Check this out.

I hate snakes. I definitely wouldn’t want to find one on, in or near my car. That would be especially scary at a high rate of speed.
What would you have done in this situation?
I wonder if you have a snake on your windshield if you could drive in the carpool lane?

Reds 7 1/2 games out. I prefer to leave it at that rather than go on a rant about how the Reds beat the World Champions 3 straight and then can’t beat the lowly Astros team of rookies. They are running out of time to make a run. The good news is that Wyn has moved on to Schreiber so I don’t have to hear/see him gloat about this every day in September.

Just finished reading another book, Differentiated Assessment Strategies. Not exactly fun reading but there were a few ideas that will be helpful for next school year. I always look for a few new things to do each year.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Current Events,School,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (6)

Jul

Things Learned

Things Learned While Watching the Reds play the Mets last night:

1. The Reds defense was horrible. Jay Bruce, Miguel Cairo, Drew Stubbs, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips are made defensive miscues during this game.
2. The Mets trivia questions are too easy.
3. The Reds don’t realize that baseball isn’t magic and there aren’t always Hollywood Endings. They need to try to get a lead early in the game and not expect heroics every night in the 9th inning.
4. Joey Votto is a fan of Jerry Seinfeld and wants to meet him when they play the Mets in September.
5. The Reds traded Jonny Gomes to the Nationals yesterday. The Reds would never have traded the Gomes of early 2010 when he was an All-Star candidate. But the fact of the matter is he wasn’t hitting, was reduced to a pinch hitter and wasn’t getting any hits. Chris Heisey had passed him by and will probably get a good amount of playing time now. Also the Reds replaced Gomes with Yonder Alonso. Alonso is the future of the Reds (unless he is traded) and probably would be the starting 1st Baseman already if it wasn’t for that Seinfeld fan mentioned above.
6. Keith Hernandez is a good broadcaster. His honesty is refreshing.
7. The Mets are not as bad as Mets fans think they are. They just aren’t the caliber of the Yankees. Sometimes we forget that getting to the playoffs isn’t easy.
8. At least I’m not a Mariners fan. What have they lost, 17 games in a row??? Yikes!

This Day In History
1940-Bugs Bunny makes his debut in the cartoon A Wild Hare.
1953-An armistice is signed to end fighting in the Korean War
1995-The Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington DC. The Korean War Memorial seems largely forgotten in Washington as it is overshadowed by the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial etc. When I went to Washington several years back I made it a point to stop by this memorial.

I just finished reading How To Survive Middle School. The book is a geared to middle school students but I figured I’d give it a shot. The book was a light read (at least for me) but highly enjoyable. It was like reading a show from the Disney Channel. The story is about a young boy who is struggling with Middle School for many of the issues that students have to deal with. It is difficult to adjust to new teachers, a new school, losing friends, gaining new friends, where to sit at lunch, bullying, divorced parents, older siblings, the death of a pet, etc. The main character, David Greenberg, is a huge fan of Jon Stewart and makes videos that he posts on youtube similar to the show. Eventually, this leads to Greenberg’s successful transition into Middle School. If you want to find out more, you’ll have to read the book. I highly recommend this book.
You can borrow it from my classroom library in September or find it yourself in the bookstore. In fact, I purchased it during recent visit to Dolphin Bookstore.

I got a complaint during the school year that I only read baseball books. Not true anymore!!!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball,history and have Comments (5)

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