Sunday 30 September 2018

Theme Conundrum

As returning students know, every year in the Gifted Program Classes we have a theme.  I often get asked what the new theme will be, but I always like to keep it under wraps until classes start.  I also get asked how I come up with the different themes.  Well, every year in the spring I start thinking about what the next year's theme is going to be. Usually I begin with a few ideas and I mull them over, just letting them percolate through my brain.  Along with the percolating I rework the ideas until I find something I like.  Usually by the start of the summer I have a pretty good idea of what the new theme will be, and then I start coming up with ideas for what we will do related to the theme.

This year was different though.  When summer started, I didn't have the foggiest idea what the theme would be.  I wasn't worried though, my process had worked in the past, it would work again.  But as July turned into August I still didn't have a theme that I was happy with!  As August was winding down I was beginning to get desperate.  Really desperate.  One night late in August I couldn't sleep -- the lack of a theme was making me crazy!  I crept out of bed and decided to go for a drive along the lake.  I rolled down all the windows on my souped up mini-van and turned on the radio.  After a few so-so tunes I heard an ad, an ad that was going to save my bacon!

You can listen to the ad below.



What did I do?  Well what do you think I did?!!!  I filled in the 'Theme! Theme! Theme!' online questionnaire and breathlessly awaited their response.  Find out what they suggested... in the next post.

Saturday 29 September 2018

Talking To Ducks

In my previous post many of you correctly identified that the beeping noise was some form of communication.  Gary Larson has this great Far Side cartoon that tackles the idea of communication:


It made me think about what languages I would love to be able speak; there are so many!  Being able to speak quack would definitely be handy.  It would probably be more effective than me yelling in Engish 'Stop eating my tomatoes!!!' to the duck that hangs out in my backyard.  I tried quacking, but I'm not a fluent quacker, and the duck just looked at me blankly as tomato dribbled out of her beak.

What languages do wish you could speak?  Let me know in the comment section below.

Monday 24 September 2018

Welcome Back!

Hello Gifted Program students and families.  I hope the start of the school year is going well and that you are excited about our classes starting up soon -- I know I am! 

I recorded the video below as a little welcome.  Something strange happened when I was recording so there is a bit of a mystery to solve.



I thought it might help if you just had the beeping sound without my talking over it, so I've added it below.



And here's the form for you to send me your guess. 



Thanks for helping me to solve this mystery.  See you soon!


*Note: if you are receiving this post via e-mail, some of the multimedia may not show up.  You can go here to view the post online.