SUBSCRIBE | SUBMIT
August 2008
Vol 5 No 8
BACK ISSUES

Current Issue » Cover Page Cover Story Harry & Rosemary Wong Columns Articles Features
Back Issues
Teachers.Net Gazette Vol.5 No.8 August 2008

Cover Story by Alan Haskvitz
NCLB/Poor Teacher Training:
End of Gifted Education?
The most at risk students in the nation are the gifted. Here’s why.


Harry & Rosemary Wong: Effective Teaching
A Computer Teacher Shows the Way

Columns
»Tools for the Coming School YearCheryl Sigmon
»Get the Most Out of Being Mentored - Part 2:Take ResponsibilityHal Portner
»Get Set for the Best Year Yet!Sue Gruber
»UPDATE!! Hooray! I did it!Sue Gruber
»"Getting to Know Each Other"Activities, part 1Leah Davies
»School is a VerbTodd R. Nelson
»5 Classroom TipsMarvin Marshall
»The Busy Educator's Monthly FiveMarjan Glavac
»Dear Barbara - Advice for SubsBarbara Pressman

Articles
»Who’s Cheating Whom? (Part 2)
»Responsibility Equals Participation
»The Classic Pirate
»August 2008 Writing Prompts
»UNESCO Survey Finds Underprivileged Children Also Disadvantaged in the Classroom
»Good Grades Are Nice – But Mastery is Better
»A Teaching Guide for Libby Bloom
»Brain Based Learning Chat Transcript with Dr. Daniel S. Janik
»Being Mentored Chat Transcript with Hal Portner
»6 Traits Writing chat
»Make the Call!
»High School Physics - "First" or "Last" - Must and Can Be Mathematical

Features
»What would you do...
»Printable Worksheets & Teaching Aids
»A Candle of Inspiration: August 2008
»School Photographs for August 2008
»Lessons, Resources and Theme Activities: August 2008
»Video Bytes: Mathmaticious, Stand up for P.E.!, Becoming a teacher and More
»Today Is... Daily Commemoration for August 2008
»Live on Teachers.Net: August 2008
»The Lighter Side of Teaching
»Apple Seeds: Inspiring Quotes for Teachers
»Lighting a Spark About College
»Newsdesk: Events & Opportunities for Teachers


Advertisement

The Teachers.Net Gazette is a collaborative project
published by the Teachers.Net community
Editor in Chief: Kathleen Alape Carpenter
Layout Editor: Mary Miehl


Cover Story by Alan Haskvitz

Effective Teaching by Harry & Rosemary Wong

Contributors this month: Alfie Kohn, Marvin Marshall, Cheryl Sigmon, Marjan Glavac, Todd R. Nelson, Hal Portner, Leah Davies, Barbara Pressman, Tim Newlin, James Wayne, Alan Haskvitz, Bill Page, Amy Otchet, James Burns, Michael Olson, Stewart E Brekke, Barb Stutesman, Ron Victoria, Joan Masters, and YENDOR.

Submissions: click for Submission Guidelines

Advertising: contact Bob Reap


Subscribe for free home delivery


Sue Gruber

Instant Ideas for Busy Teachers
Archive | Biography | Resources | Discussion

UPDATE!!
Special addition to the July 2008 Teachers.Net Gazette
Hooray! I did it!
by Sue Gruber, M.A.
Barbara Gruber Courses for K-6 Teachers
www.bgrubercourses.com
Regular contributor to the Gazette
August 1, 2008

My photo albums haven't been touched and I haven't been in my classroom since mid-June, but my mosaic table is finished!! (See Sue Gruber's July 2008 article, a lighthearted perspective on what summer break can and should be.)

I had a stack of 3 or 4 chipped plates I'd been saving. My mom gave me a bag full of pieces of a gorgeous "flow blue" plate that she dropped and broke. My husband and son were at a garage sale and came across a stack 2 feet high of old china plates. All of them were chipped and best of all most of them were totally different patterns. They bought the stack for $2!!!

Here's how I made the table:

  1. I bought a thick pine tabletop and tile board (hardy or hardie backer I think it's called) at Home Depot. My husband cut the tile board to make it fit on the pine table and screwed them together.
  2. The fun part--breaking plates! I put the plates in an old pillowcase and gave them a whack with a hammer. All of the pieces that I liked went into one bucket and the uninteresting ones or ones that weren't relatively flat went into another bucket. Pieces of plates that I wanted to keep together like the 3 pink castle plates I stored in zip lock bags so I'd be able to find the pieces easily.
  3. The not so fun part--I smoothed the edges of every piece on a grinder. They were just way too sharp otherwise. This part took forever!!
  4. I used a butter knife and slathered tile adhesive on the back of each piece and placed it where I wanted it. I wasted a ton of time laying the whole table out first. It really wasn't necessary to do that. If I did it again, I'd plan out the focal pieces (for me that was the 3 castle plates and my mom's flow blue plate in the center) and wing it with the rest. I used edge pieces of plates around the edge of the table to keep that part smooth.
  5. Once everything was glued down, I grouted it with premixed grout.
  6. After the grout was dry, I sealed it with grout sealer.
  7. Matt attached the finished table top to our old iron porch table.
  8. That's it!!

It took way more pieces to finish than I thought it would. I ended up sifting through my discards more than once to get more pieces. There was something very addictive and relaxing about the process of placing the pieces. It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle. I'd start working on it and the next thing I knew, it would be 2:30 a.m. I love the finished product! It's a fairly even surface and not sharp at all.

Here are some pix to show you the details. You can see how thick the tabletop is in one of the pictures. The table base is pretty sturdy so it's not tippy or top heavy.

The plates were very different thicknesses. The tile adhesive is pretty thick. I really did use a butter knife to spread adhesive on the back of each piece. To make the surface as even as possible, thin plates were given a thick adhesive layer and thick plates had very thin coats of adhesive. I used a bench grinder to smooth the pieces. I think a small hand held one would take forever.

One of the pictures shows the table edge where I used the rims of the plates to make the edge smooth and finished looking.

Just for fun, I decided to use the backs of some of the plates to make it more interesting. (See photo.)

My next door neighbor is incredibly crafty...she likes the table so much she's planning to do a bathroom counter. I bet it'll look great.

Sue



» More Gazette articles...




About Sue Gruber...

Sue Gruber, M.A.
Barbara Gruber Online Courses for Teachers
Sue@bgrubercourses.com

Sue Gruber taught the upper grades for years. In a moment of wild abandon, she decided to take the plunge and teach the grade she feared most—kindergarten! Sue just wrapped up her eleventh year in kindergarten and loves it. Who knows, the next grade level change might be to sixth grade!

Sue Gruber and Barbara Gruber, a mother-daughter writing team, have created dozens of products for Frank Schaffer Publications, Scholastic, The Education Center and other publishers. Barbara is a former teacher who was employed by Frank Schaffer Publications from l980 to l996. She developed and presented curriculum seminars nationwide for K-6 teachers.

Sue and Barbara launched Barbara Gruber Online Courses for Teachers in 2002. They personally write each course with today’s students and busy teachers in mind. Teachers can do coursework completely on their own, or, if they wish, interact on line with others. They can earn one, two or three semester units from University of the Pacific. Barbara and Sue provide practical strategies and ideas that can be put into action immediately without creating more work for teachers. Barbara and Sue have created exactly what teachers are looking for—teacher-friendly courses at affordable prices. You can find out about their courses at www.bgrubercourses.com

Sue teaches full time, manages Barbara Gruber Courses for Teachers and loves writing for the Teachers.Net Gazette. She lives in Sonoma County with her husband and son. Barbara consults for Barbara Gruber Courses for Teachers; however, she has “retired” from the business. Retirement for Barbara means she’s busier than ever in Healdsburg, California on a 25-acre working farm called Healdsburg Country Gardens. She and her husband are grape growers for local wineries, have three guest houses for visitors and host wine country weddings.


Barbara & Sue Gruber Columns on Teachers.Net...
Related Resources & Discussions on Teachers.Net...

#