Taking Sides is Hard for Me!

I am one of those people who has a hard time distinguising right from left. I remember being terrified of fouling up my driving test because of this, but discovered that the old Ford Fairlane that was my very uncool ride had little labels over the turn indicator lights saying "Left" and "Right." Those saved me from a humiliating mistake in that task but did not keep me from backing over the barrier in parallel parking. Anyway, thanks to my daughter's preschool teacher, I am now tons better at Left/Right. I was volunteering one day when she taught the kids the trick about holding up your left hand and making an "L" from with your hand up and thumb out. Wow! I thought! Why didn't anybody tell me about that years ago? It seems I am not alone! There is an article on this topic in today's Houston Chronicle, and it references a site called Neuroscience for Kids. And I can understand lots of the stuff there too!

Here is the link to the article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5905777.html

Here is the link to the Neuroscience page: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
Once at the page, click on Experiments and scroll down. You will find a link for "sidedness" with interesting information and even a little test you can take.

Setting my sites on...

Here are some great sites I picked up today from my students as I graded assignments:

• Who2, which offers quick biography information. It also tells "Arrivals and Departures," or what famous people died or were born on the day you are searching. http://www.who2.com/
• Here is a useful site for teachers and/or students to use if they want to ask permission to use material and respect copyright--separate templates for educators and students. It is a Landmark Project page: http://landmark-project.com/permission1.php
• Holy Bookworms! Superheroes Reading Clubs! http://tinyurl.com/5cber5
• This Mexico site is worth visiting just for the stunning portal, but info is great also: http://tinyurl.com/39untn
• Here is a site NOT to use. It would be good to share with teachers as an example of inaccurate and biased "science" sites: http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/vidclips.html and of courses you would want to explore the rest of the site.
  

Viva la Compagnie

For some reason this song and lyrics came to my mind this evening. I think I sang it in school at some point, probably in elementary school music class:

VIVA L`AMOUR

Let every good fellow now join in a song.
Viva la compagnie!
Success to each other and pass it along.
Viva la compagnie!

Cho: Viva la, viva la, viva l`amour
Viva la, viva la, viva l`amour
Viva l`amour, viva l`amour,
Viva la compagnie.

A friend on the left and a friend on the right.
In love and good fellowship, let us unite.

Now wider and wider our circle expands
We sing to our comrades in far away lands.
(http://www.lyricsbay.com/u/unknownlyrics/unknownvivalamourlyrics.html)

This song is about being connected with others. That is just what I was missing today. The Internet was down on my campus all day. That cut me off from students. While on campus I could access BlackBoard instructional software, but I could not receive emails. Further, I could not send messages to students or use our Yahoo Groups site for students and alumni. I was concerned about our many students in South Texas/Rio Grande Valley but could not access the Internet to check on them personally or to check weather sites for the status of Hurricane Dolly. I realized how much I do rely on the net for communication. Being without is isolating and frustrating.