Letters March 2006

High school reunion
I saw your issue featuring Francis "Skip" Fennell ("All the President's Math," January 2006). I went to high school with Skip and am going to contact him regarding your article. I think if I'd had a math teacher like Skip when I was in school, maybe I wouldn't have had to take Algebra two times to get a C!
Bill Dietz
via e-mail

Green Pages blues
I was so excited when I received my January issue of Teaching K-8 magazine. I quickly skimmed through to find "Your Green Pages," my favorite part of the magazine. I became curious when I could not immediately locate them. My excitement turned to disappointment to see that they've been "made easier." When I read my Teaching K-8, I sit down in my favorite chair and enjoy the delicious hints in "Your Green Pages" first. I then go back and read the magazine, return to "Your Green Pages" and mark off the ideas I really like. Now I can no longer just relax and read the magazine; I have to go to my computer to the new downloadable format. I hope you will consider putting "Your Green Pages" back into the magazine for those of us who don't want it "made easier."
Debra Bendett
via e-mail

Correction
The second "Universal Vocab" submission in the January 2006 "Laugh Lines" should have been credited to Lisha Goldberg of Needham, MA.

Spelling snafu?
We received several spirited communications from readers regarding a "misspelled" word on our February 2006 cover. "The ANSER is...yes, a former athletic club can indeed house an outstanding charter school," the cover line reads. What we thought to be a clever play on words – the featured school is called ANSER, which is Latin for "goose" – understandably set off spelling-error alarm bells for many of you.

As is explained in the cover story (see page 42 of the February issue or view online), ANSER charter school chose the goose as its namesake because it is "a bird with great learning capacity, social skills, stamina and health, a bird that flies in formation with other geese, helping all of them fly faster and farther than they could alone." As our publisher, Allen Raymond, commented in the article, "What an appropriate name for a school."

Thank you for keeping a keen eye on Teaching K-8 and telling us how you think we're doing. Every one of you helps us fly faster and farther.

March, 2006, Vol.36, No.6