Paul Slansky writes biting political commentary that's, well, funny. His work appears as political quizzes in the New Yorker and in books like his latest, My Bad: 25 Years of Public Apologies and the Appalling Behavior That Inspired Them. But don't call it satire. "There's not really a word for what I do, which is to point out the reality in things and show what it adds up to," he explains. Paul talked to us about his unique style of political humor.

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In the following blogs, educators write about their challenges, triumphs -- and love for teaching:

In the Heart of a Teacher is a Student

Bud the Teacher

Teaching in the 408

hipteacher

How about checking out these National Book Award winners for your next vacation read?

Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (2005 winner)

The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck (2004 winner)

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (2003 winner)

Three Junes by Julia Glass (2002 winner)

The Visual Thesaurus isn't just a fun way to avoid writing. Sure you can surf our word maps, discover new meanings and suss out relationships between words. But at some point you gotta put quill to parchment, pen to paper, keyboard to file. You got to get to work. That's where the Visual Thesaurus really comes in handy. With over 145,000 words and related meanings, all connected by a remarkable interactive interface, you'll find the right word, master usage -- and use words more precisely. The best part is the Visual Thesaurus works naturally and intuitively like your brain, not some paper-bound book. So you'll get your writing done. And still have fun.

Every once in a while, those of us in marketing and advertising are faced with the challenge of naming a company, a product or a service. This usually means sifting through reams of data and then throwing up hundreds of words on the white board until something sticks. The Visual Thesaurus makes that process so much easier by illustrating the meaning and relationship between words in a graphical format. The white board's stupid. Visual Thesaurus is smart. Which are you?

We open a window in the Lounge this month onto the life to come, as suggested by a few chosen last words, illuminated in the Visual Thesaurus.  Continue reading...

This entry comes from an excellent blog dedicated to innovative teaching called Tech Savvy Educator, "a practical guide to integrating technology in the classroom." It appeared on 4/24/6.

I know that I've discussed the possibility of students taking and working on notes in a collaborative effort before, but after a quick search I realized that I hadn't yet blogged about the possibilities of students using technology to help one another focus on key points and note taking skills.

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