When I was a kid, there was a big water buffalo living in the vacant lot
at the end of our street, the one with the grass no one ever mowed. He
slept most of the time, and ignored everybody who walked past, unless we
happened to stop and ask him for advice. Then he would come up to us
slowly, raise his left hoof and literally point us in the right direction. But
he never said what he was pointing at, or how far we had to go, or what
we were supposed to do once we got there. In fact, he never said anything
because water buffalos are like that; they hate talking.

This was too frustrating for most of us. By the time anyone thought
to consult the buffalo, our problem was usually urgent and required
a straightforward and immediate solution. Eventually, we stopped visiting
him altogether, and I think he went away some time after that: all we could see was long grass.
It's a shame, really, because whenever we had followed his pointy hoof
we'd always been surprised, relieved and delighted at what we found.

And every time we'd said exactly the same thing - "How did he know?"

- "The Water Buffalo", from "Tales from Outer Suburbia" by Shaun Tan

If you don't own this book, buy it.

Now.

(I'm waiting.)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

- Jack Handy, Saturday Night Live, "Deep Thoughts"

The chart is taken from the November issue of Macworld which offers a good article explaining most of the audio formats out there, and how to play them on your Mac.

My preferred apps for converting audio files are AudialHub (sadly, a great product that is no longer supported), and EasyWMA.

Happy listening.

A TED Talks video by Ursus Wehrli on "Tidier Art" that may be useful for visual arts, Theory of Knowledge, and other classes to get students to think about the meaning and creation of art - particularly at the older grade levels. The video presents a humorous concept to help generate class discussion, and Wehrli uses famous paintings as examples. Particularly worth the price of admittance (free) for his use of props to make a joke about PowerPoint presentation "slides" at the high-tech TED conference... that is, if visual gags are your thing.

I’d like to take back my not saying to you
those things that, out of politeness, or caution,
I kept to myself.

- "Regret" byTroy Jollimore

A wonderful poem, "Regret" by Troy Jollimore in the December issue of The Walrus magazine about regretted passion-lessness, and written in double-negatives. Good for poetry class, reading wistfully alone over a glass of wine, or maybe a digital photography starting point for grade 8s.

An article in the December 2008 issue of Men's Health offers a half-dozen good tips for shooting pictures. It may be a useful resource when doing units with iPhoto and Aperture with the students.

Fair warning: the other articles in issue are about building abs of steel, how to be better in bed, and advice on picking up women... which may not be quite as applicable to educational practice.