Do you ever ask yourself this question? How about when the classroom teacher drops her kids off to you on the fly and says "Run 'em!" Or when your gym is taken over for a music rehearsal? How about when you are referred to as "specials?" Or here's a good one, how about when the day's schedule is changed for some reason and every other teacher is scheduled for a "break" except you?

Quite frankly, these things can get the best of us down. When they start to get to me, I just remember that these things are only said out of ignorance! They don't really know how important what we do each day is and how much our students really do learn from us. Even if you publicize your program all over the place, some people don't really want to know what goes on. Or if they do, you are still a "special."

At this point, I know that what I do (and what you all do) is of high quality and learning takes place every day. Every once in a while, something happens to remind us of that. I will share an example that happened to me recently.

I was in my office at the end of a long, but productive day. There was a knock on my door. I was expecting some student with a birthday, handing out cupcakes. Instead it was two former students that were in the building on other business. They were both high school seniors and wanted to stop in and say hi.

In talking with them, one of them told me that he remembered a lot of what we did in class. His favorite thing was earning a gold pin in the PE Central Challenge and how long he worked on the tennis volley before he got it. He remembered the satisfaction that he felt afterwards. It also impressed me when he said that he still had that pin.

The other student still talked about the "monkey" in the ceiling. This is a long story, but basically, I tell my K-2 students that there is a monkey in the ceiling that opens and closes the gym door. He is very shy and doesn't want us to see him. He will sneak a peek at us when we are working very hard, to see what we are up to in class, but we cannot see him. I was impressed that this boy, a high school senior still remembered this and how it made him work each day in my class.

I was at a conference once many years ago. I heard a teacher present on something, I don't even remember what his topic was. What I do remember was his motto. He wanted to be the topic of conversation at the diner table at one of his students' houses every night! What a great idea. Ever since then, I do things in my classes with this in mind. Because yes, I make a difference with my students. Keep these things in mind when the classroom teacher says "run 'em!" and you will know that you too do make a difference. A huge difference!

Why Are Kids Still Surfing In the Bedroom?- This is a page you just have to read! It not only provides some great information about kids and internet safety, but info on how kids are losing sleep due to internet 'sneaking' after bedtime. There is great feedback from readers further down the page.

Internet predators
Sexual exploitation of children
One in four kids reported that they met strangers off the Internet. While most of these "Internet friends" turn out to be another teen or preteen, that’s not always the case. Unfortunately, children are now dying at the hands of their Internet child molesters and, not all sexual exploitation of children occurs offline. Learn more about how Internet sexual predators operate, and tips for protecting your child online and offline.

Kids Are Easy Victims - Protect your kids. Most children know more about the Internet than their parents do. This knowledge gap keeps parents in the dark about their kids' online activities. This page provides some good suggestions for parental control to help keep your child from being victimized online.

Kulture Kids - Founded in 1999, Kulture Kids has grown rapidly into Northeast Ohio's leading provider of multicultural arts programs for schools and businesses. Check out one of their games below!

Tug Of War From Ancient Egypt

There are paintings of ancient Egyptians having a tug-of-war without a rope!

The way they did it was to have two teams in a single line. Each team is lined up one behind the other, holding on to the waist of the person in front of them, facing the other team. There could be a line between the teams.

The first person in each line, the leader, extends their arms. Each team leader clasps the arms of the opposite team's leader and the tug-of-war begins.

The first team to pull the other across a line wins! OR first team to break contact with themselves (i.e. someone lets go of their fellow teammate) loses!

Check out more of their games!

Playground Games, By Emma and Yana (Students)
The games children love to play in England and around the world. This site was created by a couple students to describe games that kids enjoy playing together. Basically unstructured playtime. Interesting. Check it out!

Traditional Children's Games: Hopscotch
Around the world, children have enjoyed drawing grids on the sidewalk or on the ground, and then jumping or hopping from one end of the grid to the other. Check out two different versions of this game from Colombia and Indonesia.

Ball Games - Check out this great list of games involving the use of a ball. These are great for PE classes, family reunions, summer camps, you name it! This list provides some good resources for summer fun.

Summer Fun Activities - Ready... set... go! The best game ideas, resources and activities for birthday parties, picnics, youth groups, summer camps, company events, educators, family life, home schooling, or just for the fun of it.

Tag Games - Do you want fresh ideas for different versions of tag? Kids want to stay active and have fun too, so check out this great list of different tag games.