No music today, but I did do something fairly creative: I made a slide presentation showing third graders how to find their name (or something close to it) in the encyclopedia. It’s to give some classes extra practice in understanding and using the guide words at the top of the page. What, you can’t just browse from page to page?

Normally, of course, I eschew PowerPoint. PowerPoint kills. But this was all pictures that told a story, and I didn’t use PowerPoint, of course, I used Apple’s Keynote. Prettier and simpler, if that counts for anything.

The lesson itself went over pretty well. The kids, whose lackluster performance in previous lessons inspired the slide show, actually did a not bad job and did it with something approaching gusto. Young Mr. Porter was delighted to find that he had heard “Anything Goes” before, while Mr. Goncerzewicz was a little frustrated.