Teacher-humorist John P. Wood of LearningLaffs.com offers up some fresh panels in this month’s issue.

Eric’s father talking about warming his son’s behind reminded me of Hilda’s insistence that thrashing was the only way to deal with my bad boy, Sam. She never mentioned this after the trial, in fact was pleased with the way it solved the discipline problem. I wondered how many parents thought corporal punishment was the way to go. I recalled the words of the song, “School days, school days, dear old golden rule days. Reading and writing and ‘rithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick.” I thought taught to the tune, period, was the way to go and thought I should practice the folk songs I had figured out the chords to from my Burl Ives records. I was not sure of my musical ability.

Can you imagine Thoreau’s iPhone, blog, Facebook page, or Twitter use? “I’m following Thoreau on Twitter,” we might say. But is this the same as our own examined life? It’s the instantly reported life, for sure. But the filter of reporting is where the intelligence, reflection, assessment and understanding originate. Somehow the thought diminishes the hermit of Walden. In fact, it makes us all smaller: the sum of our electro-magnetic feedback.

Today was the first day of pre-planning in Orange… among the surprises we found out was that we will no longer have individual printers in our classrooms!!! Instead we will share one printer with a neighboring teacher. We will share one ink cartridge for the whole year. The printer won’t even be in our classrooms! It will be in a “common printing area” nearby.

Have you ever wondered why several students fail in nearly every grade in every school every year? It’s the system that is the real problem, not the kids, or the teachers, or their families.

Too often teachers have been the victims of their own tendency to be “nice.” Dedicated to helping others, schooled for years on being role models for society, teachers are held up as the epitome of moderation and understanding. This has resulted in teaching being rated as a highly valued and most honorable profession in public polls. Sadly, this willingness to cooperate has also resulted in teachers taking abuse by politicians, a few parents, and administrators not willing or able to stand-up for their staffs. These cases illustrate the abuse some teachers are suffering, and what they are doing to fight back.

Consider one of the oldest self-help books known to man. You may be thinking that I am gearing you up to read a few Bible passages, but you would be wrong. Although the Bible is in a league all to itself, my aim in this article is to give you a glimpse of a different 4000-year-old self-help book that finds its origin in Egypt.

Teachers share activities and lessons that will make Grandparents Day at your school extra meaningful!

This is a great lesson when you’re teaching space/planets, or for teaching multiplication of decimal numbers. Students calculate their own weight on other planets using simple formulas.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald