You see flags everywhere, flying from porches, over buildings, on boats and even on team jerseys. Do you ever stop and wonder what goes into a good flag design? Or what constitutes a really bad design? Here's a fun TED talk that covers all this off for you. If you don't have time to listen to it all, here are the top 5 flag design principles:
Keep it Simple
Use Meaningful Symbolism
Use Two to Three Basic Colours
No Lettering or Seals
Be Distinctive or Be Related
But watch the video (especially the part about the bad designs).
A collection of funny classroom stories from various web sources.
First grader #1: Miss D.*, how old are you? 23-year-old Miss D.: Well… First grader #2: Shhh! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask an old lady how old she is?
— Hauppauge, New York Overheard by: Toni
(We are studying the US state capitals in class, and the teacher is quizzing us on them.)
Teacher: “What is the capital of Connecticut?” Class: *silence* Teacher: “Umm… here’s a hint: It’s a shape and a car.” Student: “Square Lamborghini!”
(It’s really Hartford. We still laugh about that to this day.)
Four Yr. Old on a field trip: Is this whole place China? Teacher: We are still in NY but this is China town Four Yr. Old: I bet Chinese McDonalds is deeelicious!!
I recently asked a student where his homework was. He replied, “It’s still in my pencil.”
—Larry Timmons, Surprise, Arizona
My sixth-grade class would not leave me alone for a second. It was a constant stream of “Ms. Osborn?” “Ms. Osborn?” “Ms. Osborn?” Fed up, I said firmly, “Do you think we could go for just five minutes without anyone saying ‘Ms. Osborn’?!” The classroom got quiet. Then, from the back, a soft voice said, “Um … Cyndi?”
—Cyndi Osborn, New York, New York
"Yeah, I want to go to college! I really want to go! I have lots of money to pay for college!" [Later on in conversation] "Wait, college is school? I don't want to go to college! I didn't know college is SCHOOL!!"
On the last day of the year, my first graders gave me beautiful handwritten letters. As I read them aloud, my emotions got the better of me, and I started to choke up. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m having a hard time reading.” One of my students said, “Just sound it out.”
Sigh... I thought I was doing all right with knowing about 65% of African countries... but little Max here seems to have me out-paced by some margin. The video was originally posted to the Tony Kroukamp YouTube Channel and shows 3-year-old Max rattling off names to countries while his father points them out on the map.
Now we just have to get Max onto Lizard Point and let him loose on the rest of the world. (Here`s a link to Lizard Point`s Africa quiz to test yourself against Max.... )
We noticed an article in our feed a few months ago and thought that our readers would appreciate it. We presume you already know that geography is incredibly interesting. It's a discipline that actually makes you think outside of your own environment and relate other places, peoples and cultures. You can't really be passionate about geopgraphy without being an open-minded thinker with an 'inner-eye' that's forever looking at the horizon.
Geographers are quite employable. We've highlighted elsewhere the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that project a 29% increase in this occupation. Here's another study in the UK of a recent graduating class, that shows that geography majors have one of the lowest unemployment rates of all discipines. This is attributed to a few reasons;
Studying geography provides graduates with a mix of skills employers want to see.
Geography students tend to have a more flexible career path than other subjects with higher unemployment statistics.
Geography graduates flexibility opens up possibilities in industries with increasing numbers of vacancies.
Okay, now lets look at a few of the lighter reasons that you will want to study geography in college according to Huffington Post, UK:
No-one really knows what you study
You get to go on loads of field trips
You have the life of an arts student
Geographers are the most fun
You get to do a bit of everything
You're not geologists
Your dissertation can actually be interesting
Because you've always wanted to be a geography teacher
Everyone loves volcanoes
Because everyone loves colouring in
By all means, take a look at the article to see if you agree with the thinking behind these advantages. (But keep the 'very employable' thing in mind too!)
Well, we really don't know that... but he sure does love making fun of Americans being bad at Geography. And we believe our job is to, you know... fix that. As Laura Bradley points out in her recent piece on Slate, Oliver would be "...the teacher from hell. Is the highlighted country on the map actually the country he’s talking about, or will it turn out to be on another side of the continent entirely?"
Anyway, it's a fun little clip. Click it for a chuckle or two.
(You knew where Uruguay was immediately, right? If not, do we have a quiz for you!)
