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	<title>Upper Grades Exchange</title>
	
	<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades</link>
	<description>Upper Grades Exchange - For teachers of grades 4 and up - From The Mailbox, the #1 idea magazine for teachers®.</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 15:09:34 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Ballerina in a Minefield</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/ballerina-in-a-minefield/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/ballerina-in-a-minefield/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 15:09:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Current Events]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[accommodations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[calendar]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[parent-teacher conferences]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[principal]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=103</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a teacher, working with parents---whether they are classroom volunteers or largely absent from their child’s school life---requires all the deftness of a ballerina in a minefield. Some days you can do no wrong. Other days? You can’t seem to avoid causing an explosion.]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Slow Down, 2012</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/slow-down-2012/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/slow-down-2012/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 15:56:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Current Events]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Fun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Vacation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[lesson planning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[2012]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[24/7]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[anytime ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[calendar]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[good book]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[July]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[June]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[laugh]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[May]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[movie]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[solar power]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[summer]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation Week]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[themailbox.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=102</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Is it just me, or did someone set the 2012 calendar to “Stun”? Really? It’s the middle of the second week of May already? Where did this come from? I’m stunned. If you’re feeling the same way, then I think it’s a good idea if I get a few items of looming summer business out of the way
]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Ten Ideas for a Classroom That Fosters Thinking</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/ten-ideas-for-a-classroom-that-fosters-thinking/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/ten-ideas-for-a-classroom-that-fosters-thinking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 May 2012 13:48:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Student-directed learning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[continuing education]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[authority]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bertrand Russell]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[certainty]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[critical thinking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[dissent]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[elementary classroom]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[evidence]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[New York Times Sunday Magazine]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[opinions]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[teaching]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[truth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=101</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I like to read people’s ideas. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter what the topic is, except perhaps for such things as Internet marketing analytics and reality shows about people who don’t seem to ever actually work. Ever. Here are ten ideas about teaching from Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), the late British philosopher, mathematician, historian, and social critic.]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Inducing Anxiety</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/inducing-anxiety/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/inducing-anxiety/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 13:33:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Current Events]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Fun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Student-directed learning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Vacation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[lesson planning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[anxiety]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[class assignment]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[dread]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[plan book]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[poetry]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[psychology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[reading goals]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[report cards]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[routine]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[testing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[umbrella oak]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[year-end]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=100</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You could probably wield even your most rudimentary Psychology 101 skills to write a 400-page case study of me when I tell you that the last six weeks of the school year filled me with dread and anxiety. A Teacher’s Plan Book stuffed full of notes, remarks, reminders, failures, and successes took center stage on my desk. It gently prodded me, “Hey, Mr. S., don’t forget about all the cool things we were going to do this year!”]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/05/inducing-anxiety/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Thoughts on Pineapplegate?</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/thoughts-on-pineapplegate/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/thoughts-on-pineapplegate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:31:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Current Events]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Data Driven Decision Making]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Education Reform]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[continuing education]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[language arts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[absurdity]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[activists]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bugs Bunny]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Daniel Pinkwater]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ELA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[furor]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hare]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Hawaii]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[parents]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[pineapple]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Pineapplegate]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[standardized tests]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[teachers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=99</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are you familiar with Pineapplegate? Because if you’re not, you really should hear what this is all about. Although the reading selection---an extensively edited version of a brief scene in a Daniel Pinkwater novel---and its accompanying questions have appeared in standardized ELA tests since 2006, it was only recently that this test selection made its way out of the classroom and onto the desks of a few well-connected education bloggers and journalists. ]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Light Dawns on Marblehead</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/light-dawns-on-marblehead/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/light-dawns-on-marblehead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:07:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Fun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Math]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[STEM]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Social Studies]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[continuing education]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[home economics]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[language arts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[lesson planning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[library]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[a-ha!]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Cheyenne]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Concord]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[conversation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[double meaning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free book]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Massachusetts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[millennium]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[perks]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[teacher]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[understanding]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wyoming]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=98</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Light dawning on marble head is an exciting thing to witness in the classroom. It is one of the (we hope) frequent perks of being a teacher. Whether we recognize it through a student’s arched eyebrows, suddenly upright posture, exuberantly raised hand, unsolicited burst of “I get it,” or some combination of all these, we want to witness it as often as possible.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/light-dawns-on-marblehead/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How Green Is Your Classroom?</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/how-green-is-your-classroom/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/how-green-is-your-classroom/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:57:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Current Events]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[home economics]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom resources]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[donations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[doodling]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Earth Day]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[earth-friendly]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[paper]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[recycle]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[reduce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[reuse]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[waste]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[white space]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=97</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Earth Day is nearly upon us. Careful and thoughtful use and reuse of classroom resources, including paper, is surely something you’re aware of on a constant basis. What are your tips for creating a green, earth-friendly classroom? ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/how-green-is-your-classroom/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Do Small Groups Work?</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/do-small-groups-work/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/do-small-groups-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:38:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Fun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Math]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[STEM]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Social Studies]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Teacher Appreciation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[language arts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[effectiveness]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[equitable]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[millennium]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[noise]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[participation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[small groups]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Stone Age]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[students]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[teacher]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=96</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From my perspective as a teacher, I have both similar and quite different feelings about the effectiveness of small groups. Whenever I would bring a small-group project to my classroom, I was inevitably left with two questions: Who is doing the lion’s share of the group’s work? Why is it so loud in here?]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/do-small-groups-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Language of Math</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/the-language-of-math/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/the-language-of-math/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:46:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Fun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Math]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[continuing education]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[lesson planning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[acute]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[average]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[decimal]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[denominator]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[fraction]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[isosceles]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[mean]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[median]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[mode]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[obtuse]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[quadrilateral]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[terminology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=95</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The language of math is intense and unique. Used improperly or inaccurately, it is sure to leave students confused and struggling. However, placing an emphasis on top-notch math literacy only helps create an ever-more-solid math foundation. While this is not why I became a language arts teacher, it is certainly one of the reasons I am glad I did.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/the-language-of-math/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>More Math Excitement, Please</title>
		<link>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/more-math-excitement-please/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/2012/04/more-math-excitement-please/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:18:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Todd</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Education Reform]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Fun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Math]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom management]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[continuing education]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[calendar]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[celebrations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[classroom]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ELA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[mathematics]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Pi]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.themailbox.com/uppergrades/?p=94</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It may be hard to believe, coming from a writer/ELA teacher such as myself, but I just get the sense that math is getting the short end of the stick on celebratory days during the calendar year. ]]></description>
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