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This season you may get requests for several video games. Before you go and purchase those requests, you may want to read this article about the "Cool Games for Kids". This is a review of popular games and describes the action and gore level. There are some additional hints for better choices at the end of each description.
Included is a list of CommonSense Media's 10 most violent video games. Be sure to read that list carefully. Print the list, so you can have it handy to ask others if they allow their kids to play them when your children are going to be at that home. I have to agree with some of their choices. I have watched my kids play games with their friends at my house. Some of the bloody stuff was too much for me. Teens are desensitized to the violence and that is what bothers me the most. When I hear that machine gun bursting, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

My son and his friends are over 18 and like to play other games as well, Spore, Restaurant in Facebook, map maker from Call of Duty, and other map maker options. I have seen these kids play paintball, airsoft and make videos for fun. They are not violent kids, but they ARE desensitized to gore. Care should be taken in previewing the type of videos kids watch. The recent popularity of horror or gore movies gives me chills. I can't even watch the trailers. I am truly worried about this teen generation and their attitude toward death, torture, and violence in song, games movies and other media. Only time will tell the effects on our kids. The articles below contradict each other, but worth the read.

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• Pediatricians say videogames as bad as smoking (destructoid.com)
• Modern Warfare 2: 'No link between video games and adult violence' (telegraph.co.uk)
• Study: Violent videogame ads the most memorable (destructoid.com)
• Wisdom of the crowd | Should you let children play an adult video game? (guardian.co.uk)
• Fox News debates video game violence (crunchgear.com)

Teachers get upset that people don't take their careers seriously. No wonder, when you see ads like this !!!! I would like two masters and a Phd please. Look and see who it is sponsord by at the bottom of the advertisement.

If you don't have access to create a web page for your classroom, try this site to get started for FREE. In addition to giving teachers space for websites, they provide options for creating tests, quizzes, photo gallery, announcements, a blog, file manager, and a calendar of events for your room.

100 Top Teacher Sites
This includes links to sites from every curricular area including world language activities like learning to speak Turkish. If you like to include cartoons in your publications, view a great collection at MartyBucella.com. These are copyrighted images and you must write for permission. Contact Mary for prices and permission.
Another link provides suggestions for Creating Cheat-Proof English Grammar Test Worksheets. There are links to creating unique awards for your class, and games and activities for all areas. Over 5 pages of links provided for your enjoyment!

Teachers First Newsletter
Every few weeks I get an email newsletter from Teacher'sFirst.com. It is full of activities for the season, month and themed programs. This week, November 15th, there are book lists, debate topics, or Thanksgiving activities. Need a creative science idea, try this site: SDI: The Experience. It is based upon forensic science to teach students concepts in an applied manner.

Education Week
And it is National Education Week, so why not treat your students to some writing in 140 characters? This story from educationweek.com, offers some Twitter ideas for your classroom.

Kerpoof lessons from Scholastic
Looking for some ideas for using comics in your classroom, then fear not! Kerpoof and Scholastic provide a great source for your use of the products. There are .pdf to download and you can adapt them to your curriculum.

Enjoy!! and Happy Thanksgiving

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Trying to keep up with Internet safety is a daunting task. Daily, there are changes in security, news stories that alarm parents, and more ways in which the thugs are invading our privacy, often illegally. This site: Internet Safety.com has a helpful website and a blog that appeals to parents as well as teachers to stay informed. More information is at this post from the blog "Parents Want to Know". Disclaimer: I write that blog as well and try to add new information about Internet safety or monitoring.

I am an avaid iPhone user and love the device and was quite pleased to see a monitoring program for parents to control. The statistics about availability of porn on the Internet and how easy it is to find it is quite un-nerving to me as a parent of two teenagers. There are explicit podcasts, free downloadable books, images and videos on YouTube.

Don't assume that your child's phone is protected. Make a plan for checking it often, and check text messages, photos as well as any videos or unknown phone numbers in the list.

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• Internet Safety Tips For Online Video, Blogging & Downloads (parenting-success.com)
• Why You Should Protect Your Cell Phone Number (everyjoe.com)

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In a recent article from The Washington Post, the author quotes a study that texting does not create poor spelling. I am not buying into that just yet. The kids texting today have had years of spelling/vocabulary tests and have that sense of history behind them.

Those findings, recently published in the journal Reading and Writing, suggest that parental worries that kids who use "chatspeak" will become bad spellers or never learn how to write well are unfounded. "Young people can compartmentalize their language," Varnhagen said. "They have language that they use on the playground and then school language. They know how to speak in classrooms without sounding like goofballs."

I believe that the jury is still out on this one. My recommendation would be to ask the language arts teachers and find out what they are seeing in writing samples throughout the year. A short spelling test with 40 students does not convince me that students can still spell after texting all weekend. The English language has been corrupted enough without including texting language!

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• Study: Texting Does Not Affect Children's Ability To Spell (inquisitr.com)
• Researchers describe txt sp3ak as "brain workout" for kids (arstechnica.com)
• Study: OMG! Texting Does Not Affect Children's Ability To Spell (debaird.net)

In a recent plurk post from Lisa Parisi she mentioned Math Shoes. So my curiosity made me click on the link provided and I had a good chuckle at the wide variety of shoes with math patterns! Perfect for the elementary or daring secondary teacher! Everything from fractals to numbers are included in the patterns and the selection is interesting.They are a bit pricey, but I did see that you can click on them to customize the color combination. Enjoy shopping!

This site: Teacher's First, has provided many important links to activities for holiday celebrations, curriculum lessons, contests and general information. You can sign up for the newsletter to be delivered to your email, so you don't miss anything. The links and lesson ideas fro October range from the typical Halloween/Autumn ideas, to lessons about Henry Hudson, visual math ideas and science activities about the sun. The featured site is Inventors of the Industrial Revolution. There is a wealth of information and resources for teachers of any grade level. TeachersFirst is an ISTE100 member.

If you are near a Civil War battlefield, monument, location or the home of any famous Civil War people why not invite Civil War Sallie to your class. She is a traveling bear that visits classrooms and above learning all she can about the Civil War. She is the friend of Sara Beeghley, a 7th grader from Mechanicsburg, PA and is coordinating Sallie's visits. You can contact or follow Civil War Sallie this way:

• Blog: http://civilwarsallie.blogspot.com/
• Wiki with a Glogster: http://civilwarsallie.wikispaces.com/
  
• Schedule a visit: http://civilwarsallie.wikispaces.com/SignUp
• Twitter Account: CivilWarSallie
• Flickr phtos:
  

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If you teach the predator/prey concepts, here is a web activity that can be used by early elementary grades through middle school. You choose how many lions, antelope and the rate of birth for antelope and the rate the grass grows on the plain. At the bottom of the page, there is a link for additional education activities. This is a great time fill activity for your class. There are several types of writing prompts you can create from this simple science concept.