Fun with Pizza

The link to my assignment is HERE.

Students were given portions of the following six pizza wholes.

Students organized their pizza with like pieces.

Students were asked to find one half.

Here I am modeling my findings!!!!

Students were asked to compare like halfs.

Students were asked to find a fourth of pizza.

Students were asked to find another way to make a fourth.

Students were asked to show whole pizzas with their partners pieces.

The Rut

 Oh yea!!!!! This is the way that I like bucks to act. This buck is a classic look of head down, nostrils curled, and trotting posture. I just returned from an Oklahoma hunt from over the weekend. A lot of smaller bucks were starting to do this very act. This lets me know that the older bucks chasing is just around the corner.

Some of the most exciting deer hunts can happen when the rut is going. How has the rut affected your hunts?

The Magic of the Yellow Call

This picture is of a corn feeder that has a hog proof fence around it. The "yellow call" that I am referring to is CORN. Although it is not actually a "call", it will out perform any call on the market in my opinion. I gave it that name while on a South Texas deer hunt many years ago. Feeding corn is a very popular way to draw deer in to your location not only in Texas but in many other areas of the country. The fence is essential if you have wild hogs in your area. The panels are low enough that the deer can easily hop over but the hogs can't get to the feed.

There are many types of feed and several different ways to disperse it for the deer. I personally have troughs with roofs to protect the feed from the rain for my protein pellets. The corn feeders that I use are similar to the one in this picture. I think it is very important to keep your feed dry. Mold and mildew can cause your animals all kinds of problems. Typically the corn will get eaten up quick enough that the rain has little to no affect on it.

The purpose for feeding corn for me is to draw in as many does as possible. There will be a few bucks that will frequent the bait station but that is not the theory. I believe that the more does you can keep in your area the better for when the rut comes around. Nothing will make that old mature buck make a mistake faster than a hot doe. A hot doe can make your stand location go from average to magic in an instant. You can go from seeing a buck occasionally to seeing multiple bucks for several days in a row. 

Along with feeding the deer I keep a game camera at each of my feeding locations to monitor the activity. It is always a treat to look through the pictures each week to following the progress of my set up. I will discuss the advantages of the game cameras in a future blog.

What do you think about feeding deer? Are you for it or against it? Has this strategy worked for you in the past?  

Work Work Work!!!!

Do you sometimes feel like this cat? I sure do sometimes, especially on days like today. On my way into town this morning I saw deer running all over the place. I will be day dreaming about being in my deer stand all day. There is probably a buck standing under my stand right now laughing at me saying "nana nana boo boo"!

Whatever your hobbies are that you love to do I think some days the pull of them overwhelms us because we can't go do them. It is days like today that I have to remind myself to enjoy the times that I do get to spend in the outdoors to the maximum!!!

What would you rather be doing today instead of working??

Moon Phases

THE DREADED FULL MOON

What does this mean to us hunters? Do you like hunting when there is a full moon? It has been a topic among hunters for generations. Some experts believe the moon can trigger the rut. Some professional hunters claim that the dark moon is the best time to hunt. The moon has been to blame on countless opportunities gone astray.

I personally have had some good hunts when the moon was full. It is too easy to blame the moon when you have a bad hunt. I am sure there is some good scientific data to prove some of the moon issues to be true but I decided long ago if I have time to hunt I just hunt. We definitely can not control things such as the moon phases, weather, or temperatures. I personally think that temperature is more of a factor than any other scenario. 

So I say this fellow hunters. If you have any opportunity to hunt then go hunt. What I always have believed to be 100% true is this. You can not shoot a deer laid up on the couch.....

Web 2.0 Tools Blogging Assignment

http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/

SlideRocket is a presentation tool.  You can access your site from anywhere and make your presentation available. It has the capability of themes, layouts, shapes, charts, tables, etc. that are amazing. This is a tool that I may use if I have to be absent for my substitute to use. I could also use as an in-class teaching tool.

http://freepptresources.com/

Free Power Points Resources has several different options to choose from. It has free music, PowerPoint templates, photos for presentations, advice, and all sorts of other free PowerPoint stuff. Steve Hards developed this site because of his job needs. I feel like this site will be helpful in my classroom. I can use this information to set up several different types of lessons.

https://filefreak.com/#manage

FileFreak is a site that you can share your files with anyone. One of it's many components includes safe and secure file hosting. The downloads are extremely fast. I could use this tool to interact with my students or their parents. This could be a good way to share my lessons with the students, other teachers, or the parents.

https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

Jing lets you capture what you see from an image on your screen. It is also capable of recording for up to five minutes what you do with your mouse. You can share your activities through IM, email, social media, and more. This would be a cool tool to create a project. I could do a task and send it to my students with recorded instructions.

http://www.findhow.com/

FindHow is a site that basically helps you learn to do virtually anything. It is a good tool for kids and adults alike. You can ask it about anything from A to Z. I could use this when doing class projects. If I find myself teaching science it would be helpful for science projects for sure.

http://schoolwaxtv.com/

SchoolWax is a learning library. It is designed for school, students, teachers, and parents in mind. It is a safe and school appropriate site for students who may need a little help in their studies. This would be a great site for homework. I could use this for guiding my students through difficulties.

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

Holt is an interactive graphic organizer. It lets you choose many different ways to organize your ideas on paper. You can save as a PDF and print out your final product. This would be good for monthly bulletins. I could also use this for lesson plans and group assignments.

http://www.exploratree.org.uk/

ExploraTree is a site that has many different bracketed outlines. You can choose from solve problems, explore, map your ideas, etc. It helps you choose a route to do a task or project. I could use these different options in many different ways in my classroom. I could give the students a project and let them choose between the options on this page in which to enter their work. I think this site would help the student get their ideas out on a bracketed form and create different ideas and angles to their thoughts.

http://www.toodledo.com/index.php?ref=td4a65c0782eb98

Toodledo is a set of powerful tools that increases your productivity and helps you organize. It has places for long notes, structured outlines, and tracks your habits. You can talk with your friends, classmates, and teachers while it's all safely stored and synced. This would be a good tool for group projects. I could use this tool for lesson plans, homework, and communicating with the parents.

http://www.flipsnack.com/

Flipsnack lets you transform your PDF documents into online flip books. It lets your audience have interactive experiences. Its digital platform is engaging and it looks great. This site is mainly for sales and marketing but I could use this many different ways. I could use any type of lesson using this tool. Like many others mentioned above, this tool has many different aspects allowing me to integrate a lesson plan through it. I could create an activity that was accessible for my students to use.

http://picasa.google.com/

Picasa is a tool that lets you manage photos. It lets you organize, share, and edit your photos. You can transform your photos with effects as well. I could use this for fun in my class. We could keep a photo diary of things that we do for fun, what we eat for dinner, and share our pet pictures. This would be a good tool for show and tell presentations. I could also learn more about my students and hopefully help the ones that I find in need when it came to nourishment!

WHAT A NEAT DEER STAND!!!

How many ways are there to hunt deer?

-stand

-still hunting

-stalking

-pushing

-using dogs

-???? how many more ways

I would think that the terrain would eliminate some options but ultimately there are several different approaches for chasing that whitetail. I grew up stand hunting (mainly sitting on the ground up against a tree). As I grew older I built many different types of tree stands. Some of these stands were probably as dangerous as trying to wrestle an alligator but it was sure fun fabricating the idea. Later I got into box or tower stands. These were more comfortable than the rickety wooden structures I put in acceptable trees. I really enjoy hunting out of tower stands. On cold days I could take a little heater with me to keep toasty! One thing I miss though when hunting in a tower stand is the close proximity of the wildlife. Other types of stands (climbers, ladder, and lock-ons) have you right there with the game. The sounds of the rustling leaves, squirrels so close you can touch, and the feel of the fall breeze can put you in a trance. 

There are definitely many different ways to hunt deer. I would love to have the one in the picture above. That is so cool!!! What type of ways do you hunt deer? What is your favorite way?