The Difference Between a Man-Eating Lobster and a Man, Eating Lobster

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. 

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. 

"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up." 

The waiter turns to the revenant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

It's hard to convince kids that spelling and punctuation matter, especially when every browser has a spell-check plugin. We can talk about homonyms all we want, but when it comes to punctuation, the best way to make anyone give a hoot, are concrete examples.

Below are some great, funny concrete examples of how punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence. Sadly, some of the best ones were not school appropriate, but I still feel confident that this list and accompanying handout will get a few chuckles.

Individuality as Means for Acquiring Respect

In the 9th and 12th grades I had a Social Studies teacher, Mr. D'Angelo, who liked to make cartoons. His overhead slides were covered with cartoons and when he had us do group presentations on topics in the textbook, he encouraged us to draw our own cartoons. I was always quite good at drawing (for the little pond that was my High School-- by Art School standards I'm mediocre) and I didn't mind being the one in my group to do the cartoons. When we presented a Sociology report on the structure of a family-based TV show (my group did Smallville), our slides were covered with colorful art.

I'm sure that seeing a cartoon of Henry VIII didn't give me any better visual picture of the man than the classical art in the text. I'm sure that drawing a shirtless Tom Welling with an S painted on his chest didn't make me understand cultural representations of family dynamics any better. What I did get was a connection with my teacher. He nerded out, he showed us his focused passion, and by sharing one thing that made him an individual, we came to respect him as a human being.

Ten Ways An A in English Class Will Make You a Cooler Person

A PDF Handout

Nerducation

There are a lot of education blogs targeted at the general education of elementary school students. LOTS. And that's great for elementary school teachers. Unfortunately, the resources out there for secondary education are much less numerous. Do kids stop being fun when they turn 12?

Well, kids start being moody and hard to motivate around that age. They stop being excited about being able to count to one hundred and the trouble they get into stops being cute. That's no reason, though, why people who teach teenagers can't have fun.

The increasing problem in the American Education system is the challenge of motivating students. The drop out rate, however, is actually down over the past twenty years. Still, teachers cite No Child Left Behind, a decrease in disciplinary control, and lack of support from parents as factors that make it difficult to get through to children.

But maybe more standardized tests and pacing guidelines aren't the answer. Maybe we need to give teachers more freedom to use their creativity to get the information out there. The last two decades have seen great leaps in how we teach to different learners. Education isn't just for one type of learner anymore, but they have to want to learn.

That's where this blog comes in. This blog is about making everyone a nerd-- making everyone able to get excited about acquiring knowledge on a particular subject. Nerd, Geek, Dork... in my school days, my friends and I wielded these as words of power.

Maybe your students would rather be identified by their skill on the football field or their prowess slaying Zombie Nazis online. That's okay. This blog is about reaching out to them and making them understand why their education is important to them.

You can expect posts about

• Using pop/nerd culture to motivate students
• Using pop/nerd culture to motivate teachers
• Educational technology
• Printouts for teachers
• Lesson plans and assignments
• Getting kids excited about learning-- even if they look like a nerd.

Urban Dictionary (Urbanddictionary.com)

Nerd: 1. One whose IQ exceeds his weight.