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#302

From: Joyce Sampson <joyas05@...>
Date: Sun Aug 2, 2009 8:28 pm
Subject: Re: ANGELS ACADEMY GROUP Wasting money in education

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THANKS FOR SHARING.

--- On Sun, 8/2/09, Heitor G. Carvalho <heicarvapl@...> wrote:

From: Heitor G. Carvalho <heicarvapl@...>
Subject: ANGELS ACADEMY GROUP Wasting money in education
To: AngelsAcademy@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, August 2, 2009, 6:05 PM

Source:
http://www.newsweek .com/id/209962

Dumb Money

Too many nations are wasting their school spending. Here's how to get it right.
By Stefan Theil | NEWSWEEK
Published Aug 1, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Aug 17, 2009

"If we want to become a strong economy again, the best thing we can do is have an educated workforce." Few would object to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's explanation of why Washington is funneling $100 billion to schools and universities as part of February's giant stimulus package. Indeed, other countries are following suit, with Britain, Germany, Canada, China, and others making new education funding part of their anticrisis strategies.

What's far less clear is that this money is going where it's most needed—or likely to have the greatest social and economic payoff. In Germany, the bulk of nearly €10 billion in new school spending is being used to renovate buildings—a bonanza for construction companies and popular with parents and teachers, but unlikely to have much effect on the quality of German graduates. In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is pushing for more PCs and Web access in schools—another policy that's popular but considered irrelevant by educators. In the United States, a July audit by the Government Accountability Office found that schools were not using the stimulus money to boost student achievement, as promised by Duncan, but to fund their general budgets. And in still other countries, governments are using money to help build new world-class universities— projects that a World Bank study in July warned risk bleeding resources away from more desperately needed areas. "I'm not sure that the people making these decisions even realize the trade-offs involved," says Jamil Salmi, author of the study.

That's particularly unfortunate today, given the economic stakes. According to an April report by McKinsey, the United States' GDP would have been 9 to 16 percent—or $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion—higher in 2008 had U.S. high-school graduates attained the average skills of their peers in Canada, Finland, or South Korea. This fall, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will unveil a similar study in Paris detailing the losses suffered by other laggards. Andreas Schleicher, author of the OECD study, says that "in a whole row of countries, the economic losses of educational underperformance are significantly higher than the costs of the financial crisis." What's worse, he says, countries pay the price for their mistakes year after year.
Click Here!
Quantcast

The biggest error governments are making is to blindly push for more and better everything at all levels of education: more teachers, flashier facilities, more technology in the classroom, and more elite universities. Saudi Arabia, for example, is currently spending $13 billion on a single graduate school. All such efforts may seem sensible, but studies by academics at Munich's IFO Institute and Stanford, among other places, show that simply spending more on education doesn't yield better results. Kids don't necessarily learn more if they sit in smaller classrooms, in more modern and better-equipped schools, or even if their teachers are better-paid (as opposed to just better). According to Ludger Woessmann of the IFO Institute, merely raising per-student spending has zero effect on achievement. The United States, France, and Germany have upped spending significantly in past decades only to see performance stagnate, while countries like Sweden and Finland have boosted quality through structural reform.

Even building better universities has a lower return than one would think. Peer Ederer, who heads the Lisbon Council's Human Capital Index Project, says the biggest problems university systems face today are high dropout rates and too few skills taught for later careers—problems most current spending proposals do little to address. Too much attention, he says, is given to things like increasing attendance or moving top institutions up the international rankings. Salmi of the World Bank says the huge resources now being spent to create elite schools would be better used for expanding and improving engineering programs at unflashy polytechnics, for example. President Obama's advisers seem to be listening closely; in July, they announced a $12 billion boost for two-year community colleges. But most of the U.S. stimulus money has gone for helping all schools fill in general budget shortfalls.

Studies such as McKinsey's suggest another important way education policy should be refocused. They find that the largest returns on investment come not from funneling more money toward top or even average performers, but toward those who have been left behind. Raising the achievement of the unskilled and excluded would lead not only to individual payoffs, such as higher incomes and more meaningful lives, but also would generate big benefits for economies, such as higher productivity and greater GDP. It would also result in broad social gains—less crime, less welfare spending, and a greater sense of cohesion. "Improving our education to get the economic growth more broadly shared is the one most important thing we can do," says Benjamin Friedman, a Harvard economist and author of The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. He argues that changing education in this way would be one of the few ways governments could promote both equity and economic growth—not one at the expense of the other.

But it won't be easy. Washington's long history of failed attempts to improve inner-city schools shows that raising the level of the 20 percent or so of U.S. students who leave school functionally illiterate defies straightforward fixes. If there is one thing most experts agree on, however, it's that the earlier the system intervenes, the better. In Germany, where the educational achievements of immigrants and other socially disadvantaged groups are strikingly low, a study by Katharina Spiess of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin found out that if you can get immigrant kids to attend kindergarten, they are 25 percent more likely to go on to a pre-university track.
Harvard economist James Heckman estimates that preschool programs for disadvantaged kids cost $10,000 per student a year—not cheap by any means—but generate a 16 percent annual rate of return. Heckman figures that a quarter of this gain goes to the kids, who he says are more likely to get better grades, stay in school, get a diploma, go on to college, and enjoy higher lifetime earnings. But 75 percent of the "profit" accrues to society, in the form of lower crime rates, fewer welfare payments, and greater economic productivity, as well as better integration of minorities and immigrants. "Trying to remediate later is much more costly and often ineffective, " says Spiess. Yet many of the world's school systems try to "fix" the problem of the unskilled and uneducated when it's too late—with welfare payments, high-school equivalency courses, or programs like Germany's ghettoized Hauptschulen, low-level schools that train for menial jobs.

Raising the achievement of previously excluded groups is thus no softhearted social policy, but an economic imperative. One country that has systematically pushed this maxim is Canada, which saw a big surge in immigration in the 1990s. In Toronto, where more than 40 percent of schoolchildren speak a mother tongue other than English and more than a third come from socially disadvantaged families, the entire school system is concentrated on raising these kids to the level of their peers. Though it still struggles with high dropout rates among some groups, Toronto has been able to erase the achievement difference between migrants and natives—in marked contrast to cities in Germany and France, where the gap has been widening. It's one reason why Canadian students get some of the highest scores on international achievement tests.

Given how obvious all this sounds, why haven't more countries already figured it out? One answer is that determining what kind of education spending is most economically and socially effective—as opposed to merely popular—requires the kind of close self-scrutiny that is foreign to most school systems. That said, Britain, Norway, and several American states have finally begun to conduct "value added" testing, which measures students' progress from the time they enter a school until they leave. Such testing, which measures advances instead of achievement, is controversial. For one thing, it highlights the fact that top institutions often rely on "creaming"—admitting only the best of the best, who then, unsurprisingly, do well.
Click Here!
Quantcast

When the emphasis of testing shifts from outright achievement to relative gains, the results can be stunning. In Florida, for example, school districts that have introduced such testing have found that at some of their "best" schools (by conventional rankings), students' skills actually dropped between grades, while lower-ranked schools were much better at raising students' abilities from their (admittedly lower) starting points. Such analysis may be uncomfortable for some, but it is critical, for once the schools or programs that provide the biggest boost are identified, they can be targeted for spending and their methods replicated.

The logical next step would be to identify which individual teachers give their students the greatest boost. "Forget class size, curriculums, budgets—the most effective policy is good teachers," says Eric Hanushek, an education specialist at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. The OECD study finds per-student spending has little relation to student performance. It's teacher quality—which involves much more than money—that makes the difference. According to Hanushek, students taught by the worst 10 percent of teachers achieve only 50 percent of average gains, while those in the best teachers' classes improve by 150 percent—even after adjusting for the differences between good and bad schools or students. Finland and South Korea have the world's highest-achieving high-school students—thanks in large part to a focus on teachers: improving their selection, upgrading their training, and concentrating on how they can best help individual students keep up.

So why haven't more countries followed their lead? The answer is politics. Spending on elite or middle-class schools is much more popular than redirecting scarce funds to migrants and the underclass. Parents and teachers' unions also love mostly irrelevant policies like lowering class size and hiring more teachers. One reason, beyond their intuitive appeal, is that the benefits of such measures, such as nicer or less crowded classrooms, are often immediately apparent. Focusing on early intervention and preschool, by contrast, may not deliver dividends for 20 years.

Teachers' unions also often object to any disruptions in the current system. When the British Education Ministry first tried to introduce value-added testing, it couldn't overcome stiff resistance from teachers and schools until Parliament made it illegal to use the results to determine salaries or budgets. Something similar happened in Belgium, and in Germany it is taboo to compare individual schools' or teachers' performance. Yet without such testing and evaluation, education policy will remain vague and approximate, based on folk wisdom and political expediency rather than evidence and facts. Some of the new policies, such as Obama's community-college plan, are big steps in the right direction. Yet most of what governments around the world are calling "education investments" still fails to meet the effectiveness test. That's despite the fact that redirecting spending toward society's underachievers is one reform that would pay for itself many times over. Indeed, to put it another way, the truth about such measures is stark: they represent one change today's crisis-stricken governments simply can't afford not to make.

© 2009

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#301

From: "Heitor G. Carvalho" <heicarvapl@...>
Date: Sun Aug 2, 2009 5:05 pm
Subject: Wasting money in education

heicarvapl

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Send Email

Source:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/209962

Dumb Money

Too many nations are wasting their school spending. Here's how to get it right.
By Stefan Theil | NEWSWEEK
Published Aug 1, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Aug 17, 2009

"If we want to become a strong economy again, the best thing we can do is have
an educated workforce." Few would object to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan's explanation of why Washington is funneling $100 billion to schools and
universities as part of February's giant stimulus package. Indeed, other
countries are following suit, with Britain, Germany, Canada, China, and others
making new education funding part of their anticrisis strategies.

What's far less clear is that this money is going where it's most needed�or
likely to have the greatest social and economic payoff. In Germany, the bulk of
nearly �10 billion in new school spending is being used to renovate buildings�a
bonanza for construction companies and popular with parents and teachers, but
unlikely to have much effect on the quality of German graduates. In Britain,
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is pushing for more PCs and Web access in
schools�another policy that's popular but considered irrelevant by educators. In
the United States, a July audit by the Government Accountability Office found
that schools were not using the stimulus money to boost student achievement, as
promised by Duncan, but to fund their general budgets. And in still other
countries, governments are using money to help build new world-class
universities�projects that a World Bank study in July warned risk bleeding
resources away from more desperately needed areas. "I'm not sure that the people
making these decisions even realize the trade-offs involved," says Jamil Salmi,
author of the study.

That's particularly unfortunate today, given the economic stakes. According to
an April report by McKinsey, the United States' GDP would have been 9 to 16
percent�or $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion�higher in 2008 had U.S. high-school
graduates attained the average skills of their peers in Canada, Finland, or
South Korea. This fall, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) will unveil a similar study in Paris detailing the losses
suffered by other laggards. Andreas Schleicher, author of the OECD study, says
that "in a whole row of countries, the economic losses of educational
underperformance are significantly higher than the costs of the financial
crisis." What's worse, he says, countries pay the price for their mistakes year
after year.
Click Here!
Quantcast

The biggest error governments are making is to blindly push for more and better
everything at all levels of education: more teachers, flashier facilities, more
technology in the classroom, and more elite universities. Saudi Arabia, for
example, is currently spending $13 billion on a single graduate school. All such
efforts may seem sensible, but studies by academics at Munich's IFO Institute
and Stanford, among other places, show that simply spending more on education
doesn't yield better results. Kids don't necessarily learn more if they sit in
smaller classrooms, in more modern and better-equipped schools, or even if their
teachers are better-paid (as opposed to just better). According to Ludger
Woessmann of the IFO Institute, merely raising per-student spending has zero
effect on achievement. The United States, France, and Germany have upped
spending significantly in past decades only to see performance stagnate, while
countries like Sweden and Finland have boosted quality through structural
reform.

Even building better universities has a lower return than one would think. Peer
Ederer, who heads the Lisbon Council's Human Capital Index Project, says the
biggest problems university systems face today are high dropout rates and too
few skills taught for later careers�problems most current spending proposals do
little to address. Too much attention, he says, is given to things like
increasing attendance or moving top institutions up the international rankings.
Salmi of the World Bank says the huge resources now being spent to create elite
schools would be better used for expanding and improving engineering programs at
unflashy polytechnics, for example. President Obama's advisers seem to be
listening closely; in July, they announced a $12 billion boost for two-year
community colleges. But most of the U.S. stimulus money has gone for helping all
schools fill in general budget shortfalls.

Studies such as McKinsey's suggest another important way education policy should
be refocused. They find that the largest returns on investment come not from
funneling more money toward top or even average performers, but toward those who
have been left behind. Raising the achievement of the unskilled and excluded
would lead not only to individual payoffs, such as higher incomes and more
meaningful lives, but also would generate big benefits for economies, such as
higher productivity and greater GDP. It would also result in broad social
gains�less crime, less welfare spending, and a greater sense of cohesion.
"Improving our education to get the economic growth more broadly shared is the
one most important thing we can do," says Benjamin Friedman, a Harvard economist
and author of The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. He argues that changing
education in this way would be one of the few ways governments could promote
both equity and economic growth�not one at the expense of the other.

But it won't be easy. Washington's long history of failed attempts to improve
inner-city schools shows that raising the level of the 20 percent or so of U.S.
students who leave school functionally illiterate defies straightforward fixes.
If there is one thing most experts agree on, however, it's that the earlier the
system intervenes, the better. In Germany, where the educational achievements of
immigrants and other socially disadvantaged groups are strikingly low, a study
by Katharina Spiess of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin
found out that if you can get immigrant kids to attend kindergarten, they are 25
percent more likely to go on to a pre-university track.
Harvard economist James Heckman estimates that preschool programs for
disadvantaged kids cost $10,000 per student a year�not cheap by any means�but
generate a 16 percent annual rate of return. Heckman figures that a quarter of
this gain goes to the kids, who he says are more likely to get better grades,
stay in school, get a diploma, go on to college, and enjoy higher lifetime
earnings. But 75 percent of the "profit" accrues to society, in the form of
lower crime rates, fewer welfare payments, and greater economic productivity, as
well as better integration of minorities and immigrants. "Trying to remediate
later is much more costly and often ineffective," says Spiess. Yet many of the
world's school systems try to "fix" the problem of the unskilled and uneducated
when it's too late�with welfare payments, high-school equivalency courses, or
programs like Germany's ghettoized Hauptschulen, low-level schools that train
for menial jobs.

Raising the achievement of previously excluded groups is thus no softhearted
social policy, but an economic imperative. One country that has systematically
pushed this maxim is Canada, which saw a big surge in immigration in the 1990s.
In Toronto, where more than 40 percent of schoolchildren speak a mother tongue
other than English and more than a third come from socially disadvantaged
families, the entire school system is concentrated on raising these kids to the
level of their peers. Though it still struggles with high dropout rates among
some groups, Toronto has been able to erase the achievement difference between
migrants and natives�in marked contrast to cities in Germany and France, where
the gap has been widening. It's one reason why Canadian students get some of the
highest scores on international achievement tests.

Given how obvious all this sounds, why haven't more countries already figured it
out? One answer is that determining what kind of education spending is most
economically and socially effective�as opposed to merely popular�requires the
kind of close self-scrutiny that is foreign to most school systems. That said,
Britain, Norway, and several American states have finally begun to conduct
"value added" testing, which measures students' progress from the time they
enter a school until they leave. Such testing, which measures advances instead
of achievement, is controversial. For one thing, it highlights the fact that top
institutions often rely on "creaming"�admitting only the best of the best, who
then, unsurprisingly, do well.
Click Here!
Quantcast

When the emphasis of testing shifts from outright achievement to relative gains,
the results can be stunning. In Florida, for example, school districts that have
introduced such testing have found that at some of their "best" schools (by
conventional rankings), students' skills actually dropped between grades, while
lower-ranked schools were much better at raising students' abilities from their
(admittedly lower) starting points. Such analysis may be uncomfortable for some,
but it is critical, for once the schools or programs that provide the biggest
boost are identified, they can be targeted for spending and their methods
replicated.

The logical next step would be to identify which individual teachers give their
students the greatest boost. "Forget class size, curriculums, budgets�the most
effective policy is good teachers," says Eric Hanushek, an education specialist
at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. The OECD study finds per-student
spending has little relation to student performance. It's teacher quality�which
involves much more than money�that makes the difference. According to Hanushek,
students taught by the worst 10 percent of teachers achieve only 50 percent of
average gains, while those in the best teachers' classes improve by 150
percent�even after adjusting for the differences between good and bad schools or
students. Finland and South Korea have the world's highest-achieving high-school
students�thanks in large part to a focus on teachers: improving their selection,
upgrading their training, and concentrating on how they can best help individual
students keep up.

So why haven't more countries followed their lead? The answer is politics.
Spending on elite or middle-class schools is much more popular than redirecting
scarce funds to migrants and the underclass. Parents and teachers' unions also
love mostly irrelevant policies like lowering class size and hiring more
teachers. One reason, beyond their intuitive appeal, is that the benefits of
such measures, such as nicer or less crowded classrooms, are often immediately
apparent. Focusing on early intervention and preschool, by contrast, may not
deliver dividends for 20 years.

Teachers' unions also often object to any disruptions in the current system.
When the British Education Ministry first tried to introduce value-added
testing, it couldn't overcome stiff resistance from teachers and schools until
Parliament made it illegal to use the results to determine salaries or budgets.
Something similar happened in Belgium, and in Germany it is taboo to compare
individual schools' or teachers' performance. Yet without such testing and
evaluation, education policy will remain vague and approximate, based on folk
wisdom and political expediency rather than evidence and facts. Some of the new
policies, such as Obama's community-college plan, are big steps in the right
direction. Yet most of what governments around the world are calling "education
investments" still fails to meet the effectiveness test. That's despite the fact
that redirecting spending toward society's underachievers is one reform that
would pay for itself many times over. Indeed, to put it another way, the truth
about such measures is stark: they represent one change today's crisis-stricken
governments simply can't afford not to make.

� 2009

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#300

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:01 pm
Subject: Preparing For Your Student Teaching Experience (part 2)

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Preparing For Your Student Teaching Experience (part 2)
By Frank Holes, Jr. and Dr. Peter Manute

This is the second in a series of articles designed for college
interns getting ready for their student-teaching experience. Student
teaching is the final step for most teaching programs, and having a
positive experience is vital for new teachers. This series of
articles will provide many ideas, tips, and suggestions for young
educators to make the most of the experience.

Being an intern is an interesting position to be in. The university
treats you as a student, making you jump through hoops completing
projects and meeting deadlines sometimes seeming totally irrelevant
to the internship. The school district you are working in expects you
to be a professional educator with all the secrets of innovation and
new technologies fresh from the university 'think tank'. Parents
think of you as someone who really doesn't know what they are doing
yet and don't understand why you are practicing on their kids. They
are always quick to point out their perceptions of student teachers
when a problem arises about grades or behavior.

Hopefully I will provide you with some practical information
presented in a no-nonsense form.

First and foremost, make sure all of your personal chores and plans
are in order before you begin your assignment. Once you start it is
vital to focus all of your energy and time into your placement.
Secure your housing well in advance and establish a routine of daily
tasks. Plan to arrive at school early and plan to stay late. Student
teaching is absolutely relentless; you will be exhausted after your
first day. The mental and physical strain is unbelievable. Make sure
all of your details are taken care of in advance; you don't want
anything to interfere with your teaching. Do create some time for
yourself or you will self-destruct. You need to keep your mind clear
in order to make effective teacher decisions. Plan to have some time
each day for your self - it may only be a few minutes, but it is very
important. You may think you don't need it, but all veteran teachers
will tell you differently.

Secondly, be a sponge. You are new to the profession and regardless
of how well your university has prepared you, nothing measures up to
being on your own in a classroom. When the door shuts for the first
time you will know what I am talking about. Glean as much from your
mentor and other teachers as possible, and by all means, don't come
across as an expert.

You have not paid your dues and therefore you are really not an
expert at anything. Learn from your observations and reflections;
don't be afraid to make mistakes. As you progress and you become more
effective, take risks and try different methodologies and teaching
strategies. By all means keep in close contact with your mentor and
always remember - no surprises. Ask questions before you do
something; your mentor knows the ropes and will offer excellent
advice. Make it your responsibility to learn the routines and
specifics of the district and building you are working in. Don't rely
on someone to tell you; find out on your own, take the initiative.
You can learn many things from both effective and ineffective
teachers. Unless asked, keep your opinions to yourself, being new and
having all the energy of youth will be a threat to some, so tread
lightly.

If there is any down time in your room, ask your mentor for tasks to
accomplish. Help out anywhere you can. Ask to take on something
difficult and work with your mentor to accomplish it. Save as many
artifacts as possible and use them in your professional portfolio.
Creative lesson plans and examples of student work are excellent
things to have. Ask for feedback and listen and process. Create an
open dialog with your mentor; remember that is the person who will be
called first when a district wants to know about you. Your mentor
will be able to talk about strengths and weaknesses, so what do you
want to them to say about you?

Finally, enter the internship with the idea there will be a teaching
opening that you will be qualified for in the very building you are
student teaching. Create positive relationships with staff, parents,
and students. You do that by demonstrating professional behavior.
When your internship is completed you want everyone to say - "We
would really like to have you become part of our team!" Prove to
people that you are the type of teacher that would be a perfect fit
for their district.

School districts are looking for candidates who are 'low maintenance'
teachers who can come into their buildings and have an immediate
impact. Confidence, solid work ethic, and exemplary professional
dispositions are words you want people to use to describe you. Your
internship is an excellent place to begin!

Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan. Simply click the following link:
http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Interested in FREE writing activities you can print out and use
immediately in your classroom? Simply click the following link to our
writing page: http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to check
out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the
bi-monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest
issue at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_5apr1.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's new book, Year of the Dogman at:
http://www.dogman07.com

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#299

From: Edu Nile <edunile@...>
Date: Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:55 pm
Subject: Edu~Nile New TESL Job Listing Portal Launched

edunile

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Dear Educators,

Apologies for the cross-posting..

It is our pleasure to announce the inauguration of our new Edu~ Nile TESL and teaching job list. The purpose of this job list is to provide language teachers, educators, professionals, and recruiters the opportunity to network together and provide job opportunities worldwide. Posting job ads is completely free and could be done in a couple of minutes directly from your own accounts.

Please remember not to post the same job ad more than once within the same 24 hours. Our platform is mainly an educational ad-free, pop-up-free.

To post a new job ad, follow these steps:

1. Go to the main index list: http://www.edunile.net/cgi-bin/bbs60x/webbbs_config.pl

2. Click on “post new” or click here: http://www.edunile.net/cgi-bin/bbs60x/webbbs_config.pl?page=1;md=form;id=0

3. Enter a user name, email, and job details for that post (you may edit your profile later by clicking my profile on the top).

4. click post and that’s it! :)

We look forward to helping you in any way..

Sincerely,

Edu-Nile Moderator

http://www.edunile.net

edunile@...

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#298

From: "kelangthangtrongmandemtoi" <kelangthangtrongmandemtoi@...>
Date: Sun Feb 8, 2009 6:10 pm
Subject: Hello

kelangthangt...

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i am trong from vietnam. i not good at English. So i want study
English. Glad to make friend with you. My nick:
kelangthangtrongmandemtoi@... and my blog:
http://360.yahoo.com/trong1102

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#297

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Sun Nov 2, 2008 9:06 pm
Subject: Teaching Listening Skills During Class

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Teaching Listening Skills During Class
By Frank Holes, Jr

Presentations are becoming ever more common as teachers change to
student-centered classes. These may be students or possibly guest
speakers addressing the class. Regardless of who is speaking, the
remainder of the students are comprising an audience that must be
informed of its expectations during a presentation.
We've developed a short, simple set of rules we call 'Expected
Behaviors of a Good Listener'. All of our classrooms (each subject
area) have posted these rules, and review them and utilize them
whenever a presentation is given. They are easy to teach, remember,
and monitor.

Rule 1: Look At The Speaker. This is a no-brainer. The audience is
there to watch and listen to the speaker, and attention is mandatory.

Rule 2: Keep Your Hands Still. Free hands are unable to tap pencils,
rustle paper, or drop spare change on a tile floor (one of my all-
time greatest pet-peeves).

Rule 3: Never Talk When The Speaker Is Talking. This one again seems
obvious. The audience is there to listen to the speaker, not to
listen to another member of the audience.

Rule 4: Never Distract The Speaker. This is supported by the previous
rules, but will also cover other situations. The audience should not
make faces or body gestures that detract from the speaker's ability
to present.

Rule 5: Keep Questions, Comments, And Laughter To Appropriate Times
And Levels. Students will often have questions and comments about the
presentations, and these are best posed at the end of the
presentation. There will also be instances where funny things will
happen or humor is used by the speaker. It is ok for the kids to
laugh at these times (it's ok for the teacher to laugh too). We've had
instances where puppet show stages and scenery props have fallen
over.  We've had tongue twisters gone awry. We've even had hilarious
costumes and actions by characters. These and many others will happen
as you present more often. That's ok, because these funny moments
will help students remember the information better. Just remind
students that laughter needs to be kept to an appropriate level, and
not to carry on with it. Questions and comments can also be carried
on too far. Don't let this time become an attack on the speaker
(unless you're in a debate class!)

Ok, so what do we do about a student who chooses to not follow the
expectations? We never give warnings, first of all. Once we've
covered the rules, we expect immediate compliance. Many students have
difficulty getting up in front of class without someone 'stealing
their show' or causing them embarrassment.

Basically we take points away from that interrupter's presentation
grade. The amount of the deduction is generally up to the individual
teacher and weighted for the assignment. The first time it happens,
we take off approximately 10% of the possible points. The second time
is decreased up to 25% (we have little tolerance for disrupting a
speaker). If it happens again, the student loses all credit and is
removed from class for the remainder of the presentations.

Presentations are important for students, both as speaker and
listener. Check out our website for a free printable copy of these
rules that you can put on an overhead sheet or hand out to your
students.

http://www.starteaching.com/freebies.htm#article5

Using these simple rules (or adapting them to your class), you can
teach your students to be respectful and pay close attention during

Interested in FREE writing activities you can print out and use
immediately in your classroom? Simply click the following link to our
writing page: http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan and other great Freebies for new teachers. Simply click the
following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Did you find this article helpful and useful for your classes?
Interested in more information on teaching writing, or writing ideas
you can use (and adapt or change for your classes)? See our website
or click the following link to access our NEW writing page:
http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to
check out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-
monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest issue
at: http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4oct2.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's folklore thriller novels, great for any age, at:
http://www.mythmichigan.com

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#296

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:19 pm
Subject: Learning Pods and Classroom Setup

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Learning Pods and Classroom Setup
By Frank Holes, Jr

Setting up small learning groups, or communities, in your class
requires planning, not just in your instruction, but also in the
physical space of your room.
When I decided to change my teaching style from a teacher-centered,
lecture format to a student-centered, project format, I had to
seriously contemplate how my room and its instructional resources
were arranged.

I knew I wanted to set up student 'pods' of four to five students.
Four makes a great sized group, but five is starting to push it.
These sizes also fit with the number of computers I had available.
Each pod needed one computer for the group to use, as well as
workspace, achieved by placing desks next to each other forming a
table.

I placed the pods at the outside walls for a few important reasons.
First was to get some elbow space between students and groups. I
wanted to eliminate interaction between groups so students could
concentrate on their own group's activities. Secondly, this
arrangement allowed me to monitor the computers at all times. Third,
this setup created better traffic flow through the room, since
students would often need to move back and forth to the central
resource center.

I've set up the resource and presentation center in the center of the
classroom. This is where I keep student file cabinets (the short
types), dictionaries & thesauri, school supplies, and art-type
supplies. I've combined this storage area with my podium, overhead
projector, and the other tech equipment like vcr or dvd players,
digital projectors, and the like. This allows for easy student access
to all resources, and I can effectively use all of my wall space when
I need to present material.

The 'traditional' classroom and the 'student-centered' classroom are
very different both in philosophy and in the application. The basics
of setting up your classroom to reflect the learning environment
you've envisioned must be thought through carefully before jumping
right into the pods.

Having previously taught in the traditional manner, I've found the
pod setup, or student-centered class, to be both a challenge and a
benefit to student learning. Now that I've had a chance to compare
them, my students and I prefer the pods.

Interested in FREE writing activities you can print out and use
immediately in your classroom? Simply click the following link to our
writing page: http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan and other great Freebies for new teachers. Simply click the
following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Did you find this article helpful and useful for your classes?
Interested in more information on teaching writing, or writing ideas
you can use (and adapt or change for your classes)? See our website
or click the following link to access our NEW writing page:
http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to
check out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-
monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest issue
at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4aug1.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's folklore thriller novels, great for any age, at:
http://www.mythmichigan.com

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#295

From: "Heitor G. Carvalho" <heicarvapl@...>
Date: Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:06 am
Subject: Free downloads of working papers

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Go to the site and follow the links. Most of the papers are in English!
http://www.pucsp.br/pos/lael/cepril/workingpapers/
««««««««««««««««««««««««««

Working Papers
  Working Papers e Resource Packages do Projeto Nacional Ensino de
Inglês Instrumental
Dr. Antonieta Celani
Working Papers e Resource Packages from "Projeto Nacional Ensino de
Inglês Instrumental em Universidades Brasileiras"


M.A.A.Celani

Collaboration of Ricardo Castro e Soluá Simões de Almeida.
Livro 'The Brazilian ESP Project - An Evaluation'

     * Celani, M.A.A., Holmes,J., Guerra Ramos, R.,Scott,M.,The
Brazilian ESP Project - An Evaluation. São Paulo: EDUC, 1988 (arquivo
pdf, 8,8MB)

Working Papers

     * 1 Mike Scott, Teaching and unteaching coping strategies; Some
thoughts on testing reading comprehension in English for Academic
Purposes, 1981 (arquivo pdf, 854 KB)
     * 2 John Holmes, What do we mean by ESP?, 1981 (arquivo pdf, 1,9MB)
     * 3 Tony Deyes, Applications of Discourse Analysis, 1981 (arquivo
pdf, 657KB)
     * 4 John Holmes, Stages, strategies, activities, 1982 (arquivo
pdf, 879KB)
     * 5 John Holmes, The importance of prediction, 1982 (arquivo pdf,
750KB)
     * 6 Tony Deyes, Discourse, Science and academic discourse, 1982
(arquivo pdf, 756KB)
     * 7 John Holmes, Some approaces to course design, 1982 (em breve
-- arquivo pdf, 702KB)
     * 8 John Holmes, The teaching of language items in ESP, 1982
(arquivo pdf, 1,1MB)
     * 9 Tony Deyes, Some criteria for evaluating ESP reading
materials, 1983 (arquivo pdf, 1,4MB)
     * 10 John Holmes, Text typology and the preparation of ESP
materials, 1984 (arquivo pdf, 1,4MB)
     * 11 Anna Maria Becker Maciel, Lourdes Marmet, Maria Helena Curcio
Celia, Developing a system for specifying objectives, 1983 (arquivo
pdf, 1,6MB)
     * 12 Mike Scott, Self-access in ESP, 1984 (arquivo pdf, 520KB)
     * 13 John Holmes, What is a unit? The structure of the course unit
and its place in course design, 1984 (arquivo pdf, 1,8MB)
     * 14 Tony Deyes, Ruth Bork, The influence of intonation and syntax
on reading; The influence of materials and methods on research, 1984
(arquivo pdf, 618KB)
     * 15 Marília dos Santos Lima, A macrostructural approach to course
design in ESP -- How to implement the summarizing ability, 1984
(arquivo pdf, 1,1MB)
     * 16 Tony Deyes, Focal information in scientific discourse, 1985
(arquivo pdf, 843KB)
     * 17 John Holmes, The teacher as researcher, 1986 (arquivo pdf, 1,8MB)
     * 18 Mike Scott, Conscientização (appendix by Cynthia Fischer),
1986 (arquivo pdf, 1,1MB)
     * 19 Andrew Cohen, The taking and rating of summary tasks, 1988
(arquivo pdf, 2,4MB)
     * 20 Mike Scott, Nadia Alves de Oliveira, Reinildes Dias, Sonia
Maria de Oliveira Pimenta, Teaching critical reading through set
theory, 1988 (arquivo pdf, 1,5MB)
     * 21 John Holmes, Feedback -- A systems approach to evaluation and
course design (Appendix by Tania Maria Franco Cavalcanti), 1989
(arquivo pdf, 1,9MB)

Resource Packages

     * 1, 2, 3 Staff of CEPRIL, Re-edição conjunta das resource
packages 1 a 3, 1994 (arquivo pdf, 2,9MB)
     * 4 Valéria Branco Moreira, Vocabulary acquisition and reading
strategies, 1986 (arquivo pdf, 1,8MB)
     * 5 Vera Silva dos Santos and the staff of CEPRIL, Testing, 1994
(arquivo pdf, 4,1MB)

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#294

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Wed Apr 9, 2008 7:53 am
Subject: Student Biographies and Invterviewing

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Student Biographies and Invterviewing
By Frank Holes, Jr

Our biography project begins with careful planning long before the
actual class implementation. The first step is to set up the access
to information. We arrange our time with our local librarian so she's
well aware of the project expectations. She always thinks of details
we need, and she's really good about setting out
autobiography/biography books and materials for us.
The students each check out an autobiography/biography book from the
library. I require teacher's permission and approval before check
out.  I do allow students to use outside books, but they must still
be brought in to be approved.

We allow students to 'test drive' the books for a one-week span. If
the subject is just too boring or awful for the student, I do allow
them to change books (though the due date stays the same!) The most
important aspect to me is the reading of the book; we'll take time
every day during the project to quiet read in the classroom. I want
to stress the importance of the reading of biographical text, since
it's much different than the fictional works they normally read.

You can also skip ahead of the reading of the book and move right
into the fact finding session. If you have internet access and an
updated encyclopedia you can find most or even all of the facts abut
your subject. But make sure your students are reading the books too.
This is important to get an overall, rounded-view of their character.
Be careful that your students have chosen biographies and not
historical fiction or the various 'diary' books out there now!

This next step is to identify what information you want your students
to find about their subject. We call this our 'fact-finding' stage.
We complete a note taking sheet which organizes the students'
research.  You can find a copy of our 'fact-finding' worksheet on our
website.  There are basic facts to find such as personal and family
information, employment, and education.

Then there are the facts which must be uncovered, such as mentors
they had, who they have influenced, their impact on society, and why
they'll be remembered in history. Lastly, I'll have students complete
several short writing assignments extending the new knowledge.
Sometimes students create interview questions and formulate fictional
answers based on what they think the person would say. Another idea
is to create a fictional conversation with that person which is held
around a dinner table or around a campfire. There are many
applications you can create to use the students' facts.

Finally, you need to consider what the students will do with their
completed research. We have had students create PowerPoint documents
and give in-class presentations. We have had them create posters to
display their findings. This year we're putting our research onto
each student's website along with any multi-media that is available
to us (such as clip art, photos, audio and/or video clips).

Most years, we will have students pair up and interview each other.
Students find out personal information about each other, such as
basic family and friends, schools and education, and where they've
lived.  They pose questions on likes/dislikes, favorites, and goals
for the future. You can go ahead and create a short sheet of sample
questions, then allow students to create their own as the interview
goes on (also check out our website for a FREE printable copy of the
interview sheet we use in class). Allow each student about 10-15
minutes to ask questions and write down answers, then have students
trade roles.

Now you have enough information to create student biographies (or
give the data sheets to the owners and have students create
autobiographies). We will write these up in a narrative form to tell
a life story, but we've also done projects like PowerPoints, web
pages, and posters. One favorite is cutting out t-shirt shapes out of
paper and having students write on them and decorate them with
photos, drawings, and clip art. These are then presented to the class
and hung in the hallways.

The biography project is not only required in our curriculum, but it
is also fun for the students. It is also a great means of
incorporating an informational text (non-fiction) into your class
curriculum.


Interested in FREE writing activities you can print out and use
immediately in your classroom? Simply click the following link to our
writing page: http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan and other great Freebies for new teachers. Simply click the
following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Did you find this article helpful and useful for your classes?
Interested in more information on teaching writing, or writing ideas
you can use (and adapt or change for your classes)? See our website
or click the following link to access our NEW writing page:
http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to
check out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-
monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest issue
at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4mar2.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's new book, Year of the Dogman at:
http://www.dogman07.com

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#293

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:24 pm
Subject: Journal Writing (part 2)

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Journal Writing (part 2)
By Frank Holes, Jr

I use a grading system that makes the journals easy to grade.  In my
class, a full page is given ten points (ten being the maximum per
page).  However, I'm a stickler; the students must write a full page,
right down to the last line on the paper.  I do allow the top eight
lines for brainstorming, though I don't always require it.  Students
are always allowed to use the brainstorming lines if they wish.

I require at least one page at each journaling session, which lasts
from ten to fifteen minutes.  Students are required to write
constantly until the time is up, or until they reach a full page.
However, before they are allowed to go on to another activity, they
must show me their completed work.  Students may also write more than
a page for extra credit.  I give out ten points for each full page
beyond those required.  For example, we may have three journal
sessions in a week, so the weekly grade is out of thirty points.  If
a student completes five full pages, their score is fifty points,
twenty of them extra credit!

I don't mind offering the extra credit, since usually the ones who
take advantage of this are your A students anyway.  And since I want
to promote as much writing as possible, I strongly encourage every
student to write for extra credit.

Journals are the only form of writing that I allow to be done outside
of class.  Mostly this is because I allow students to write for extra
credit (only promoting more writing!)

Students are allowed to share their writing with the class afterward,
though no one is required to share.  I tell the class they may read
all or just part of their writing, or just tell about it.  The
remainder of the students are allowed to keep writing during the
sharing time, and must stop when there are no more to share.
I strongly believe students should be allowed to keep their journals
when the year is finished.  For many students, putting down their
private thoughts in class can lead to a lifetime of writing.

If you'd like to check out a list of journaling topics, check our
website at the following quick link:
www.starteaching.com/free.htm.

Again, you may feel free to use any or all of these, and they may
lead you to think of many others of your own.  You can also use any
of our Weekly Writing Prompts from issues of our newsletter.  I
encourage you to send along your own topics to add to our calendar

Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan and other great Freebies for new teachers. Simply click the
following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Did you find this article helpful and useful for your classes?
Interested in more information on teaching writing, or writing ideas
you can use (and adapt or change for your classes)? See our website
or click the following link to access our NEW writing page:
http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to
check out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-
monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest issue
at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4mar2.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's new book, Year of the Dogman at:
http://www.dogman07.com

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#292

From: "Patrick Wong" <patrick@...>
Date: Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:12 pm
Subject: blog with wordpress

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Anyone interested in blogging ?

There is new software called wordpress. If you go on their website you
can sign up for a free blog.

It is also possible to download their software for free and install on
your own server.

If you want to see an example you check out our blog at
http://blog.angelsacademy.com .

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#291

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:16 pm
Subject: 'Give Me Five' Sentence Writing Activity

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'Give Me Five' Sentence Writing Activity
By Frank Holes, Jr

We've created another variation of the context sentences activity
which we call 'Give-Me-Five'. It is similar in that you create a
matrix of words, vocabulary, or terms from which your students will
write unique, interesting, complete sentences. And students should be
given the opportunity to share their unique sentence creations with
the class.

The original context sentences activity had a matrix of nine total
words, three across by three down. Students then created a sentence
for each line across, down, and diagonal, writing a total of nine
sentences. Give-Me-Five builds on this, but expands the matrix to
five words across by five words down, twenty-five words in all.

Now the lines down, across, and diagonal will include five words that
you have designated. That gives you and the students twelve different
lines of word combinations to choose from. We like to have the
students choose five (or more) such lines from this 5x5 matrix. The
students then must fit all five words from their line into a
sentence. The students are getting practice in spelling and using the
words correctly, as well as writing complete sentences.

One of the great aspects of this activity is its durability. I like
to create several matrices and type them out on an overhead sheet so
I can use them over each hour and I can file them for year after
year. We make up specific sets of words to match certain stories,
lessons, or units, and we also use them with random words just to
have fun.

Always give the students the opportunity to share their creations
with the class. This reinforces the correct use of the vocab or
terms, gives students practice reading and listening to properly
written sentences, and creates an opportunity for students to present
in front of their peers, a skill that always needs practice.  This
also makes a great lesson to leave for a substitute teacher, or to
put in your emergency plans. Make sure you have fully explained this
activity and your students have practiced it a few times under your
guidance before leaving it as an activity for your sub.

This activity (as well as the context sentences activity) is great
for utilizing vocabulary in foreign language classes, as it forces
students to spell and use words properly while writing sentences. It
is also good for any class or subject that has specific vocabulary
students need to familiarize themselves with. This works well for
social studies and science classes, and it makes an easy writing
assignment for music, art, p.e, and other elective-type classes where
the teacher may be required to add writing activities, even if he or
she isn't highly trained in writing.

This is especially good for English teachers if you're covering
compound or complex sentence structures, as you can specify
particular types of sentences to have students write. Simply set up
your matrix so there are two or more nouns or verbs in a line. You
might even add a conjunction to the line!

Now of course you might want to adjust this activity to meet the
needs and level of your students. This could include changing the
number of lines you require students to make sentences out of. You
might have students choose fewer lines and create different unique
sentences from the same five words. You might have students choose
two or three lines and take all ten or fifteen words and create a
story paragraph. There are many possibilities you can develop. If you
create any really interesting variations, let us know and we'll
feature you in an upcoming issue of our newsletter.

Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan and other great Freebies for new teachers. Simply click the
following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Did you find this article helpful and useful for your classes?
Interested in more information on teaching writing, or writing ideas
you can use (and adapt or change for your classes)? See our website
or click the following link to access our NEW writing page:
http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm

-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to
check out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-
monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest issue
at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4mar1.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's new book, Year of the Dogman at:
http://www.dogman07.com

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#290

From: "realrareflower" <realrareflower@...>
Date: Fri Mar 7, 2008 2:08 pm
Subject: PREDICTED FAMINE

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Not to frighten anyone, but if you see that this is even remotely
possible, you may wish to get yourself prepared ahead of time.

I sure will.

http://www.theamericannightmare.org/FOOD_SHORTAGE__AAK.html

Holly

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#289

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Fri Mar 7, 2008 2:46 am
Subject: Crosswords and Word Puzzles: A Great Way to Review in Class

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Crosswords and Word Puzzles: A Great Way to Review in Class
By Frank Holes, Jr

Many of us enjoy the challenge of a good crossword puzzle in our
local papers when sitting down to breakfast on the weekends or
passing the time when traveling. But did you ever think about the
benefits of using crosswords and other word puzzles in class?

Crossword puzzles are said to be the most popular and widespread word
game in the world. However, according to George Elliott of the
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament,
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/more/wynne.html, this serious
adult pastime has a relatively short history. To paraphrase
Elliott, "The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th
century. The first known, published crossword (December 21, 1913 in
the Sunday newspaper the New York World) was created by a journalist
named Arthur Wynne, who is usually credited as the inventor of the
popular word game. Wynne based his crossword on a similar, though
much older game (played in ancient Pompeii) called Magic Squares or
word square, which was a group of words arranged so the letters read
alike vertically and horizontally. These word squares were printed in
children's puzzle books and other periodicals. During the early
1920's other newspapers picked up the newly discovered pastime and
within a decade crossword puzzles were featured in almost all
American newspapers."

Crossword puzzles require two fundamental vocabulary skills, 1)
knowing the definition of the word and 2) knowing how to spell the
word correctly. This can be a great way to review important terms and
words for any class, from foreign languages, to math, to science, to
language arts. By varying the number of words, and the size of the
letter boxes, crosswords can be used at any grade level. Even lower
elementary students can fill in these puzzles, and many children love
the interesting shapes and connections between words.

Crosswords are not difficult to create, especially with the help of
your handy computer. There are several on-line websites that allow
you to input your vocabulary word list and definitions (clues). Good
programs also allow you to customize the puzzle, changing the
puzzle's overall dimensions, box sizes, title, and even colors. One
easy to use puzzle making website is located at:
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/

Once there, you simply choose the type of puzzle you wish (you can
even see examples of the different types of puzzles, including math
puzzles, mazes, and word searches among others).  Crossword puzzles
are fun for students, and they provide a welcomed break from
finishing review worksheets, studying vocabulary lists, and answering
questions from the textbook.

Did you find this article helpful and useful for your classes?
Interested in more information on teaching writing, or writing ideas
you can use (and adapt or change for your classes)? See our website
or click the following link to access our NEW writing page:
http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm
-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to
check out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-
monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our 100th
Anniversary issue at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4feb2.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's new book, Year of the Dogman at:
http://www.dogman07.com

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#288

From: "bigdog_irc" <editor@...>
Date: Sat Mar 1, 2008 1:24 am
Subject: Modeling Student Behavior

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Modeling Student Behavior
By Frank Holes, Jr.

Whether you as a teacher realize it or not, you are the best model of
behavior in your classroom. A large part of your proactive behavior
plans should include your own behavior you demonstrate to the
students every day.
You must set expectations for your students, demonstrate the
behaviors, and be vigilant to correct the kids. Don't waver on your
expectations; inconsistencies will only confuse the students and
cause you more problems.

If you stay calm, collected, and in control, your students will
exhibit the same behaviors. The same is true about enthusiasm; if you
are excited about your lesson and truly believe in its importance,
the kids will respond in kind. Conversely, the kids will know when
you are tired, bored, don't want to be there, or are 'winging it.'

If you are late to class, or don't start on time, the kids will pick
up on it and be more likely to do the same. The same is true about
the way you dress, the way you act, the language you use, and
your 'body language'.

If you want your students working from 'coast to coast', or from bell
to bell, you need to set the expectation of activity all hour. Start
with a warm up, and ensure the kids are doing it. Keep them busy on
activities with transitions between each. Don't let there be any down
time. Work them to the end of the period, and have them pack up when
you say so, not whenever they want to.

If you want your students to quietly read in class, but you are
spending that time working on other things, it sends the message that
you don't value the activity personally. Modeling the skill for the
kids reinforces your belief that it is important. It shows you as a
lifelong learner who values the skills you're teaching them.

The same is true for writing, or labs, or math problems. Students
rarely have the chance to see real people performing schoolwork - for
many, the only examples (and role models) are their classmates. Work
along with your students.

Now this doesn't mean you have to do this the entire time. You must
also supervise, coach, monitor, and actively support their learning.
But you can spend at least a few minutes 'at their level'.

Be a positive role model for your students. Don't just explain and
show the behavior; be the example day in and day out.


Be sure to check out our website for the FREE teacher Who-I-Want-To-
Be plan and other great Freebies for new teachers. Simply click the
following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm

Interested in FREE writing activities you can print out and use
immediately in your classroom? Simply click the following link to our
writing page: http://www.starteaching.com/writing.htm
-------------
For this article, and more on teaching and education, be sure to check
out our website:
http://www.starteaching.com

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the
bi-monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out the Special
100th Issue or our newsletter at:
http://www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_4feb2.htm

You can contact Frank at:
editor@...

Check out Frank's new book, Year of the Dogman at:
http://www.dogman07.com

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#287

From: "Patrick Wong" <patrick@...>
Date: Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:56 pm
Subject: Accommodation Data Base

pilw0

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Send Email

I have created an online database for accommodation in Trinidad. Once
you join our group you can add your place to the list. This will be a
win win situation for students and hosts.

Thanks

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#286

From: "Patrick Wong" <patrick@...>
Date: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:49 am
Subject: verification

pilw0

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Send Email

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

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#285

From: "Patrick Wong" <patrick@...>
Date: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:27 am
Subject: Hello

pilw0

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