Tonight is the Schoolhouse Supplies Celebrity Spelling Bee at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon!

We are mega fans of spelling bees. Have you seen Spellbound? If not, Netflix it and you’ll buzz for bees too.

We are very excited about this year’s event because last year’s winner, Zia McCabe will be defending her title.
Zia is keyboard player and super cool chick from our favorite band, The Dandy Warhols. Last year’s win
was a bit of a shock to her, but word on the street is that she is P-O-I-S-E-D to take the title again this year.

She’ll be facing off against Cupcake Wars winner and owner of Kyra’s Bake Shop, Kyra Bussanich,
news anchorman and reporter Reggie Aqui and Portland Trailblazers high profiled rookie, CJ McCollum.

The annual event is the big fundraiser for Schoolhouse Supplies, a non-profit organization that supports
public education in Portland by giving students and teachers free classroom supplies. 100% volunteer run,
they operate Oregon’s only Free Store for Teachers which is stocked with supplied donated by the community.

To learn more about Schoolhouse Supplies and the Celebrity Bee, click here.

Good luck to tonight’s celeb spellers! We’re rooting for you Zia!!!!

This week, we honor Agnes “Granny” Zhelesnik, teacher at the private Sundance School in New Jersey.

Last Friday, Agnes turned 100. She is believed to be the country’s oldest working teacher.

Zhelesnik was a homemaker until the age of 81 when she became a full-time home economics
teacher and started teaching students how to cook and sew at the North Plainfield school.

She’s still there 19 years later.

Why? She likes the kids! Her daughter teaches at the school as well.

A birthday celebration was held in the pre K-5 school’s auditorium for Agnes last week.
Students, faculty and administrators sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
She also received birthday letters from Governor Chris Christie and President Obama.

At 100 years and still working, we think Agnes Zhelesnik is a class act.

If the zombie apocalypse came tomorrow, a group of Norwegian
high school students would be ethically prepared.

Tobias Staaby, a teacher at Nordahl Grieg High School, has
developed a class using Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead.

The teacher wants “a good catalyst for discussions about ethical theories and dilemmas.”
He picked great material. The Walking Dead Game (based on the AMC television show)
features intense narrative that is heavily influenced by player’s choices. The sophisticated
nature of the game helped it to win over 90 Game of the Year awards in 2012.

The class plays through the game as one, pausing every time the students must
make a choice to proceed. Then, each student votes anonymously for how he thinks
the situation should be navigated. Once the resultsof the vote are in, the class
discusses the dilemma and the various ethical approaches that could be taken.
Finally, they advance the game according to the solution with the most votes.

Staaby thinks that the game has been an effective teaching tool. “The students are motivated
and committed,” he said, “and when one is engaged in the subject at hand, one will learn better.”
The students agree. Stated one “It’s not normal that I remember everything after a lesson …
but now I feel that I know the subject very well.”

Staaby hopes that in five years, his approach to teaching ethics will be more commonly used.

Meet Alex Benda. Entrepreneur. In debt college student.

Alex is graduating from the University of Flint-Michigan this spring with $31,000 in student loan debt.

To help pay some of that loan bill, he’s decided to sell ad space on top of his graduation mortarboard.

Last week he launched his campaign via GoGetFunding.com. No donation is too small and every
donation gets rewarded. A $1 donation gets you a high-five from Alex should the two of you ever meet.
$10 gets you a hand written thank you note. A $300 donation gets you a 1″ square ad on his graduation cap.
If Alex can sell 100 1″ square ads, he’ll eliminate ALL of his student loan debt and be one glad grad.

As of 6pm on Wednesday, February 22 he has 32 backers and has raised 9% of his goal ($2,851.00).
So far, he’s sold four 1″ ads for his grad cap. Oh…and just so you know… you can put ANYTHING
YOU WANT on that 1″ ad on his graduation mortarboard. As long as it’s not sexual, offensive or crude.

All donations must be made by Friday, May 2 at 11:59pm. If you want to support Alex, click here.

Over 30 years ago, a man created THE most complex, unbelievably detailed hand-drawn maze.
The maze is 34″ wide x 23.3″ high and took him 7 years to complete.

Art connoisseurs are going crazy over this maze, recently published by the artist’s daughter,
both for its artistic brilliance as well as the fact that NO ONE has been able to solve it.

But the most fascinating fact about the maze drawing is that it was not drawn by
a mathematician, a scientist or a professor. It was created by a university janitor.

Due to high demand, the maze is currently on back order.
If you’re interested in taking a crack at it, you can buy it here.