Desktop Learning Adventures

By this time of year, everyone  is ready for that last bell to ring, announcing the end of another school year!  The classroom is cleaned up, keys are turned in.  Now, it's time to relax and recharge.  Here are my 10 favorite ways to do just that. 1. SLEEP!  Teachers have got to be one of the most sleep-deprived groups on the planet.  I didn't realize how sleep deprived I really was until I retired. For those still in the trenches, enjoy those lazy mornings. 2. Learn to be still... I'm not sure I know how to do this yet, but I practice regularly.  Some call it meditation, but I don't want to go that far. 3. Garden- Truth be told, I really don't like dirt under my fingernails.  However, I do love flowers on my deck and in my yard, and the only way that's going to happen is for me to plant them. Every May we make a very expensive trip to our favorite nursery, and gather a myriad of colors to fill the pots on our deck.  Then I spend ...

Did you ever have the locker dream?  You know, the one where you're late for class and can't remember your locker combination?  I had that dream for years! Well, I can finally put that dream to bed, because I found the best locker combination EVER, built into Locker #256!  To begin with, 256 is an awesomely powerful number.  Broken down to its prime factors, 256 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 or, 2^8.  That's cool, right?  But wait, it gets even better.  The combination that was built into this particular locker is pretty darned special, as well. Let's play a little mystery number game to see if you can figure it out. The first number- how many numbers are in the empty set { } ? It's also an excellent starting point when counting. The second number is the product of two primes.  One digit of this number is three times the other digit. These two digits are already in the locker number. And now, the best clue of all!!!  The last numb...