February was a cold month in New England but we had some great guest blog posts from some knowledgeable parents and educators. The six posts covered a wide range of topics from preparing for teacher retirement to the benefits of raising chickens for you family.
Many thanks to our authors for sharing their expertise with us. Enjoy, and if you like them, please share.

Guest Blog: How Tutoring Can Save your Retirement as a Teacher

Steven Daar is a published author & blogger on financial issues facing teachers and their retirements. He graduated with a degree in Finance from the University of Illinois in Urbana – Champaign and has since learned from and/or directly collaborated with some of the brightest and most decorated individuals in personal finance. He is also a constant student of his craft, looking for new or better information to pass on to teachers. You can read more from Steve at http://teachersretirementhelp.com/.

Guest Blog: Teaching the Brain How to Learn

Philip Schnipper, CCC-SLP is a certified teacher and licensed speech pathology for the last 25 years. He has been a director of a speech clinic in addition to working in hospitals, nursing homes, and public schools. He has a Master’s Degree from Salem State College as a reading specialist and has done research in brain based teaching and learning. HE developed a learning program entitled Building Better Bridges for Learning which uses a specific language of learning which the brain is more easily able to process and understand. He can be contacted by phone 781-424-3596 or by email at learningmadesimple@gmail.com.

Guest Blog: Flipping the Classroom to Break Through in Today’s Society

Mayra Aixa Villar is a freelance instructional designer and researcher who is passionate about educational technology.  She is currently finishing a thesis to obtain an MA in Applied Linguistics. Her dissertation is about linguistic modeling and computer-based applications. This project has allowed her to intern at UN HQ, participate in international meetings and collaborate in several research activities. You can also follow Mayra on Twitter @MayraAixaVillar or on http://ar.linkedin.com/in/mayraaixavillar

Guest Blog: Civil War Research

Rob Finkill has been teaching since 1996 and teaching 8th grade American History since 1999 in Hershey, PA for the Derry Township School District. Currently, his school has a  1:1 environment of students to laptops. He is a team leader of a multi-disciplinary team and coordinator of our Middle School Leadership Experience for Boys. Besides coaching volleyball and baseball, he has also taught Ancient Civilizations. The past two summers he has had the opportunity to be a Teacher Ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, PA. At Gettysburg, he presented programs to visitors and worked to develop  educational programs for school groups. Email :rfinkill@hershey.k12.pa.us Twitter @RobFinkill

Guest Blog: The Benefits of Raising Chickens for your Family

Scarlet Paolicchi of Family Focus Blog, a green family blog, is a stay at home mom blogger from Nashville who reports on family fun, eco tips, travel, giveaways, and products that you may find helpful or interesting.

Guest Blog: A Montessori Education

Shawn Trudeau is the founder/writer at thekidexperience.ca, a “dad blog” about the experiences of raising kids and offering ideas, insights and opinions to other parents and families on everything “kids”.