Welcome to SAT at BCC -- This page is unofficial and is created by one of the SAT Prep instructors. The words on this page here are NOT official BCC policy. This page is maintained to give you, the student, a special level of support. Our client is the person who paid for your course. You are the student, so get everything you can from this course.
This page is the introduction and gives general information about the SAT.
Call Sue Mattson (BCC) if you have questions 954 201 2459 about registration.
FAX 954 201 2482 Building
1000 Coconut Creek Drive
Coconut Creek, FL 33066
Send Sue an email if you want to know when the next SAT Prep class will take place. smattson@broward.edu
Specific information related to Steve's class
(Call me Mr. Mac if you want a stern authority figure or a math teacher to push you to do the work).
1. I don't lecture (a lot). I prefer to use the theory that most of the information is in the audience. When each of us says what we know is true, then we "perform our understanding" (Howard Gardner) and we strengthen our understanding.
2. Help someone. When we teach, we grow stronger in our understanding. This course is like a big study hall. The instructor takes youthrough some tips, but it's up to you to bring questions. If one of the other students can give you the answer or if the instructor shows the answer to the class or if one of the other students demonstrates the answer, then we have a victory.
3. Ask for help. If you are a social learner, you need to study with a buddy, even if you just met this buddy. If you aren't a social learner, you might become one ... Hey, you never know who will be in these classes. You could meet your friend for life or someone who will introduce you to an important person to you. See Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. (Excellent book).
4. Each class has some verbal, some essay, some math. If you are in the class ONLY for math or ONLY for verbal or ONLY for an essay, then quietly keep working independently while the instructor is working on another topic.
5. Reading is best improved by improving your vocabulary. Each class has a "demonostration period" when you stand in front of the class or whisper to the instructor the meaning of a difficult word.
Mr. Mac's Free Videos to improve your SAT score
I ask each student to become a mentor on video and speak what you know about the SAT. I give free SAT classes and videos to students who can't afford this course. Youcan do service by participating. When I pull out my digital camera and start recording you, you are helping some kids learn some words and write better and grasp complicated math concepts in a new way. Your accent. your youth, and your energy are important for many students. They can't hear me but they will listen to someone close to their age. I look forware to turning you into a star. By performing, you will improve your score.
Rubric Checklist for Essays
1. Do pronouns (it, they, he) point to a specific person or thing? Is it clear?
The dog went to into the cat’s house and ate its food.
My dog saw the dead mouse, sat next to the paper plate and ate it.
Strunk and White. The little book http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html
2. Use appropriate examples to develop the point of view.
3. Is there a progression of ideas? Is there enough support for these ideas?
4. Show critical thinking. Do you show a complex argument that looks at the issue from more than one viewpoint?
5. Skillful use of language (it’s important to have the vision thing.) Is the vocabulary appropriate? (When raising the internal core temperature of the soft water-flour amalgamation, it is important to engage adequate insulation by using a ceramic device.)
6. Is the essay coherent? Is the essay consistent? Is it organized and focused?
Or is it disjointed and incoherent?
7. Is there variety in the sentence structure? Is the sentence structure correct?
This situation is something up with which I will not put.
8. The conclusion covers the entire essay .
How to improve your vocabulary:
Teach New Words
Teachers can point out important words to study.
We can’t always teach you a trick to remember those words .
We tend to remember stuff that is PERSONAL or SHOCKING or amusing.
You are closer to the middle school students than I am. I invite you to perform your understanding of at least one word to a young teenager. If you perform on camera, then I will show your performance to a middle school student and they might understand it better than if I show them how to remember a word.
Vicarious = a vicar or a bishop who can’t enjoy a trip to Tahiti (no money) has a vicarious experience by looking at videos and by talking with someone who went there.
mistermath@comcast.net
How can I write better?
Read a newspaper, espeically the opinion and editorial pages. Write a letter to the editor and practice expressing your point of view.
Techniques
Some of these techniques will be used in each class
1. ASK A QUESTION. Preparation: Students bring in questions. In class: other students demonstrate the answers.
2. Demonstrate a word ... Preparation: students print a word list from freevocabulary.com or other word lists. In class: in front of the camera, students demonstrate a way to remember the word. Give at least one synonym and use the word in a sentence, plus think of a way to remember how to pronounce it -- HOWEVER, the SAT is not an oral exam, so pronunciation is not important.
3. React to an issue. Preparation: students cut out an editorial or opinion article and create a headline for the article. Students write a REACTION piece: see below for the questions. IN CLASS: turn in the article and the teacher will read it and evaluate it. You can make an OUTLINE or you can make a full essay.
4. Look for the structure of an essay. Preparation: read an article and look for the 5 parts of a typical essay. Or look for AIDA: Does it grab your Attention, how does it continue or sustain your Interest, How does the author inflame your Desire, and move you to take Action. (This is the process behind most advertising campaigns.)
5. The White Sheet. In class or Preparation: select a topic that is really important to you. “I believe that Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest basketball player of all time. Kobe Bryant is a good player but there’s no way he can meet the greatness of Wilt.” Support the idea with evidence. You can do an outline or you can stand and speak your opinion to a camera and then later write down the structure (very effective if you don’t like writing).
6. Interview a Mentor. Preparation: find someone you respect and interview the person. Ask questions that you can find on mentorsOnVideo.com or invent your own questions. Interview on tape or video or take really good notes. IN CLASS: write an opinion piece; persuade me about “why this person should be recognized as a mentor.” Or choose your own title (“My Dad, Grandma, Uncle, Mother Teresa is My Hero because…”)
Bring Questions Preparation: Read ahead. You are in charge of you. You can find 20 minutes each day to identify problems that you don't "get". You should be able to handle each math problem in less than two minutes. If it's taking more than 90 seconds, then you need to learn the trick. I have LOTS of tricks. Let me show you... but you have to bring the question.
THEORY: if you have a question and I answer it, you are more likely to remember the answer... than when I lecture to you about a situation that you didn't think about before.
Bring Questions…
======
7. 700 Club. Preparation: Look at EVERY last and second to last problem in the BIG SAT BOOK in math.
8. Find the grammar error. Create a grammar question. Preparation: listen carefully to people when they use “Me” and “I”. Between you and I, John and me, John and I, I and Shirley, he hit me and John, … and bring the sentence to class. IN CLASS: ask other students or the teacher about the correctness of the sentence.
8 1/2. Write an essay and bring it to me. Or send it to me. S2314@tmail.com or (if it bounces back) mistermath@comcast.net.
9. Call Mr. Mac and demonstrate your understanding of a word. “HI, Mr. Mac, this is Shawn in your Saturday class, I want to check how I understand egregious. I made an egregious mistake, it was obvious and big and everyone can see it. Egregious is easy to remember because GREG makes mistakes. Thanks. My phone number is 954 555 5555.” Or you can email your understanding (but talking tends to be stronger for some people. When we talk, we can remember things better, sometimes, and it helps to reinforce with a short email message to s2314@tmail.com
But Mr. Mac, I’m not in your class. It doesn’t matter. You can send me an email.
Did you miss a previous class? No worries. Call the instructor and ask to sit in on a make up class. Be prepared to be engaged by the instructor as a class assistant. You might be asked to demonstrate your understanding of some of the tips.
The Reaction Paper
Select an issue or topic that you feel strongly about. Or look at an event that happened in the newspaper. Or read an opinion or letter to the editor.
“This guy is an idiot because…” or “This person is right because…”
What is the author’s main idea? (or the main idea of the article if you can’t find the author’s opinion)
What details does the author use to support that idea?
What is my reaction to the idea?
What additional evidence can I use to support my opinion?
10. Give me a tip. Preparation: flip through the book and look for at least five tips (there are icons and logos and boldface type and you will call out what you find useful.) Example: “I know that the last problems are really difficult, so my tip is to skip the last two math problems and focus on checking my answers to the previous problems. I will do this because the last problems often look easy but turn out to be complicated or difficult.”
Another tip: “I will read the questions before reading the passage. Sometimes I don’t have to read the whole passage to find some answers.”
FINALLY – this class is like a study hall. Find a buddy and study together, especially when the instructor gets boring and starts talking about essays when you really want to use the class time to practice math. You are in control over how to use the time. Every person in the room has a tip about how to do a math problem or how to do a reading problem, so make time to talk to other students.
Give your email address to the instructor and make sure you write at least one email message a week to the instructor.
Read a newspaper and find an interesting article. “This is so rotten!” “This is righteous!” “I can’t believe this, can you?” “Awesome!” “This is too much!” “Sweeeeeet!” “I’m appalled.” “There ought to be a law to prevent this from ever happening again.” Etc. Use those articles to write a persuasive essay. YOU are in charge.
======
Yes, I'm ready to work with you. Even if you are not in my SAT class, your questions help me become a better teacher. So keep asking. How can this web page be improved?
Did you find a better way to learn new words?
What books do you recommend for studying vocabulary (there are some good ones out there with pictures!)
Do you need visual and active teaching styles?
Do you have the SAT Prep CD? It has Mr. Mac on the video, video on CD, viewable on a computer. Yes, watch and learn. He gives his tips live to you with stuffed animals and waterfalls.
EVALUATION
What should be improved about this course and this web page?
What did you like about the course?
Was there enough homeowrk? too much?
Was there enough participation by students in the class?
What should be changed?
Would you have attended this course at a different time of day or a different day of the week?
What would have been convenient for you?
Here are some sample "email messages" that I send to students...
I made an egregious eror.
I spelled "error" incorrectly. It's obvious...
We are almost halfway to Saturday. Remember to plan your work and \\
work your plan.
Look for an interesting word and be prepared to explain how you
remember it. Tell a story.
I remember EGREGIOUS because I have a sentence: "I made an
egregious error"
It's an obvious error, it's really bad, everyone can see it and I
didn't see it! Oh no!
Be prepared to stand up in class on Saturday and explain how you
remember a word. If you can't think of a word to explain, try one
of these words
=============================================
natal adj. Pertaining to one's birth.
nebula n. A gaseous body of unorganized stellar substance.
necrology n. A list of persons who have died in a certain place or
time.
necromancer n. One who practices the art of foretelling the
future by
means of communication with the dead.
necropolis n. A city of the dead.
necrosis n. the death of part of the body.
nefarious adj. Wicked in the extreme.
negate v. To deny.
negligible adj. Transferable by assignment, endorsement, or
delivery.
Nemesis n. A goddess; divinity of chastisement and vengeance.
neocracy n. Government administered by new or untried persons.
Neolithic adj. Pertaining to the later stone age.
neophyte adj. Having the character of a beginner.
neonate
nettle v. To excite sensations of uneasiness or displeasure in.
niggardly adj. Stingy. (no longer acceptable to use)
nihilist n. An advocate of the doctrine that nothing either
exists or
can be known.
nil n. Nothing
noisome adj. Very offensive, particularly to the sense of smell.
nominal adj. Trivial.
nonchalance n. A state of mind indicating lack of interest.
nonpareil n. One who or that which is of unequaled excellence.
nostrum n. Any scheme or recipe of a charlatan character.
notorious adj. Unfavorably known to the general public.
novice n. A beginner in any business or occupation.
noxious adj. Hurtful.
nuance n. A slight degree of difference in anything perceptible
to the sense of the mind.
nugatory adj. Having no power or force.
numeration n. The act or art of reading or naming numbers.
nuptial adj. Of or pertaining to marriage, especially to the
marriage ceremony.
nurture
===========================================
Ooh, "Plan" is spelled incorrectily. I'm an egregious typists.
Main Entry:
Egregious
Part of Speech:
Adjective
Definition: very bad
Synonyms:
arrant, atrocious, capital, deplorable, extreme, flagrant, glaring,
grievous, gross, heinous, infamous, insufferable, intolerable,
monstrous, nefarious, notorious, outrageous, outright,
preposterous, rank, scandalous, shocking, stark
Remember come to class with at least one math problem that you
can't do or that you want to find the quickest way to do…
Send me an email message if you want me to send you a reply before Saturday.
Www.scienceFriday.com has excellent ipods
Explain these words to your partner
3/2/06 How to get a great college education DAVID BROOKS
I've consulted with a bevy of sages, and I've come up with a list of core topics that every college freshman should know. If you do everything on this list, you'll get a great education, no matter what college you attend:
Read Reinhold Niebuhr. Religion is a crucial driving force of this century, and Niebuhr is the wisest guide. As Alan Wolfe of Boston College notes, if everyone read Niebuhr, "The devout would learn that public piety corrupts private faith and that faith must play a prophetic role in society. The atheists would learn that some people who believe in God are really, really smart. All of them would learn that good and evil really do exist — and that it is never as easy as it seems to know which is which. And none of them, so long as they absorbed what they were reading, could believe that the best way to divide opinion is between liberals on the one hand and conservatives on the other."
Read Plato's "Gorgias." As Robert George of Princeton observes, "The explicit point of the dialogue is to demonstrate the superiority of philosophy (the quest for wisdom and truth) to rhetoric (the art of persuasion in the cause of victory). At a deeper level, it teaches that the worldly honors that one may win by being a good speaker ... can all too easily erode one's devotion to truth — a devotion that is critical to our integrity as persons. So rhetorical skills are dangerous, potentially soul-imperiling, gifts." Explains everything you need to know about politics and punditry.
Take a course on ancient Greece. For 2,500 years, educators knew that the core of their mission was to bring students into contact with heroes like Pericles, Socrates and Leonidas. "No habit is so important to acquire," Aristotle wrote, as the ability "to delight in fine characters and noble actions." Alfred North Whitehead agreed, saying, "Moral education is impossible without the habitual vision of greatness."
That core educational principle was abandoned about a generation ago, during a spasm of radical egalitarianism. And once that principle was lost, the entire coherence of higher education was lost with it. So now you've got to find your own ways to learn about history's heroes, the figures who will serve as models to emulate and who will provide you with standards to use to measure your own conduct. Remember, as the British educator Richard Livingstone once wrote, "One is apt to think of moral failure as due to weakness of character: more often it is due to an inadequate ideal."
Learn a foreign language. The biographer Ron Chernow observes, "My impression is that many students have turned into cunning little careerists, jockeying for advancement." To counteract this, he suggests taking "wildly impractical" courses like art history and Elizabethan drama. "They should especially try to master a foreign language as a way to annex another culture and discover unseen sides to themselves. As we have evolved into a matchless global power, we have simply become provincial on an ever larger stage."
Spend a year abroad. Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland believes that all major universities should require a year abroad: "All evidence suggests this, more than any other, is a transforming experience for students that lasts a lifetime."
Take a course in neuroscience. In the next 50 years, half the explanations you hear for human behavior are going to involve brain structure and function. You've got to know which are serious and which are cockamamie.
www.geocities.com/talkinternational1/nytimes
www.angelfire.com/fl4/cavemanwoman
Take statistics. Sorry, but you'll find later in life that it's handy to know what a standard deviation is.
Forget about your career for once in your life. This was the core message from everyone I contacted. Raised to be workaholics, students today have developed a "carapace, an enveloping shell that hinders them from seeing the full, rich variety of intellectual and practical opportunities offered by the world," observes Charles Hill of Yale. You've got to burst out of that narrow careerist mentality. Of course, it will be hard when you're surrounded by so many narrow careerist professors building their little subdisciplinary empires. But you can do it. I have faith. -- David Brooks
Look for the main idea, the "thesis statement" and the supporting columns of evidence.
Look for the interesting SAT words and find synonyms.
===================================================================
PLEASE SEND YOUR SUGGESTIONS
Steve McCrea
Put your ideas on DVD and video-on-CD
Get your book in print with "print-on-demand"
Box 30555
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303
TELEPHONE 1+ 954.646.8246
www.teachersTOteachers.com
www.LookForPatterns.com
TRANSLATE http://world.altavista.com/
Clients
www.pat-harris.com
www.ResolveToHeal.com
www.scottsolochek.com
Ask to become a MENTOR ON VIDEO
The three questions
1. what do you remember learning in Middle School that you continue to use today? (what continues to be relevant?)
2. What do you find useful that you could have learned in Middle School but didn't? (A suggestion to middle school teachers)
3. What are you reading today that you find useful? (give an example about how you are continuing to learn and take time for reading books and articles).
Your replies to these questions will be shown to middle school and high school students. The idea is to increase relevance and to help students see that adults can be mentors…
Are you a mentor?
Connect with other cultures
www.geocities.com/talkinternational1/bibbi
BuildingInternationalBridgesByInternet
Contact me analyst@comcast.net
mistermath@comcast.net
globalcooling@comcast.net
Plant trees www.treesftf.org
Quotes from Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind
"A designer gives to the world something it didn't know it was missing." -- Paola Antonelli, curator of design, MOMA
"Design is shaping our surroundings to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives." -- John Heskett, Toothpicks and Logos: design in our everyday life.
Design is utility enhanced by meaning.
Three forces are shaping our world: Asia, automation and abundance.
Daniel Pink recommends that we ask three questions about our work:
1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Does my product offer meaning to a customer in an abundant society?
3.3 million white collar jobs in the USA will shift to low-cost countries by 2015.
Nations like Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom will see similar job losses. -- quoted in Pink's A WHOLE NEW MIND
From Lee Brower (empoweredwealth.com): An Opportunity Filter (a series of questions to filter out opportunities from distractions)
Is the project in line with our values?
Will the project increase our abilities and will it use our unique talents?
Does this project make sense financially?
How will this project benefit society?
Is this project a gateway opportunity or is it just a single transaction?
From Daniel Pink (danpink.com): Asia, Automation and Abundance
Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
Can a computer do it faster?
AM I offering something that satisfied the nonmaterial desires of our abundant society?
Get the BIG PICTURE www.bigpicture.org
Here’s the link: http://www.chroniclewebs.com/met/metOnNpr.mp3
www.DoubleMoonShot.com Listening to Mr. Friedman
Some clever quotations to inspire us
> You never grow old until you've lost all of your marvels. Merry Browne
Don't wait for inspiration to find you -- go out and hunt it down. Jack London
> Dreams come a size too big so that we can grow into them. Josie Bissett
> Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down. Kobi Yamada
> If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. Lou Whitaker
> Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting. Anonymous
Take the everyday and make it strange. Take the strange and make it everyday. – Steve Powers ESPO, graffiti artist
To SUBSCRIBE visit: http://www.gophercentral.com/sub/history.html
http://www.afsc.org/iraq/movie.htm
http://emrooznet.varamincity.com/swf/863.swf I wonder what it says... from zamani.mehdi@gmail.com
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/tessellate/ make interesting shapes... like MC Escher.
ABOUT EMAILS and EMAIL Addresses
Some students give me the following types of emails
BabiQT405@___.com
ThaWon4U@____.com
LovelyMeS202@___.com
Anarchy4vr@___.com
gangstaMon45@____.com
ThuBig1Atlanta@___.com
At some point you will decide to choose an email address that is easier to remember and an address that a 50-year-old teacher will not be embarrassed to read out loud.
Globalcooling@comcast.net
s2314@tmail.com
talkinternational@yahoo.com
mistermath@comcast.net
My friend John Vornle adds the following message to his emails. I like it and I've adjusted some of the wording: This e-mail may contain confidential and/ or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender and delete this message. Unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail or its attachments is discouraged. All original material included in this e-mail or its attachments is copyright protected.
E-mail is unreliable. Please assume I have not received your message or note if I have not responded within a reasonable amount of time. Also, please remember that some servers do NOT deliver all attachments or require several steps to find the text of the main message or that your mailbox may sometimes be full and might not accept messages. E-mail is only a convenience. My preferred hours of telephonic communication are between the hours of 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM in the New York City (a.k.a. Eastern) time zone. Earlier times are reserved for Europeans, later times are for the West Coast.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
A short course in Math
Look For Patterns
Connect
Relationships
Measure something
Convert
F to C Liters to Gal lons
Km to Mi les
Percent
Decimal to Percent
Percent to Decimal
Fraction to Percent
Percent to Fraction
Fraction to Decimal
Decimal to Fraction
Analyze the data
What are the chances?
Plane vs. car
What are the odds?
What is the risk?
Shapes, Area, Angle
Fill the pool
Steve McCrea
Put your ideas on DVD and video-on-CD
Get your book in print with "print-on-demand"
Box 30555
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303
TELEPHONE 1+ 954.646.8246
www.stevemccrea.com
www.teachersTOteachers.com
www.LookForPatterns.com
TRANSLATE http://world.altavista.com/
Ask to become a MENTOR ON VIDEO
The three questions
1. what do you remember learning in Middle School that you continue to use today? (what continues to be relevant?)
2. What do you find useful that you could have learned in Middle School but didn't? (A suggestion to middle school teachers)
What are you reading today that you find useful? (give an example about how you are continuing to learn and take time for reading books and articles).
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
Well... see what I say....
HOMEWORK> yes, students, you can join me in a (virtual) WALK to support a cooler climate… a march against global warming.
My friend writes these four sentences… please Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
Go to www.StopGlobalWarming.org
Here is a story that I received…
Live anywhere you want. Love anyone. Please care about something (if everyone cares about something, then we can take care of this planet). Speak quietly (it’s too noisy in the city and most people shout).
S2314@tmail.com steve
Subject: Excitement on the UCLA campus yesterday!
It’s a story about a person named Amanda……
Amanda witnessed Larry David and his wife, Laurie, give her classmate Larry's car yesterday during class. The event was filmed and will be shown on MTV and online on May 9. Below is an article about it. It was also in the Post today.
Actor Larry David Gives Away Prius to a Medical Student to Highlight Global Warning
05-04-2006 7:40 AM
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES -- Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Seinfeld" fame put his Prius where his mouth is _ giving away the hybrid car in a contest aimed at increasing awareness of global warming.
David and his wife, Laurie, an environmental activist, surprised a class Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, to award the car to medical student Erick Tarula.
Tarula, 24, of Azusa, registered for the yearlong Virtual March to Stop Global Warming, an online petition organized by Stop Global Warming. The group was co-founded by Laurie David to spur politicians to act on the issue.
Tarula "jumped up, he was all excited" when Larry David announced his name, Laurie David said Wednesday. The student told the class he drives a "gas-guzzling" truck and was eager to switch to the Prius, she said.
Larry David's Toyota Prius was used in his HBO comedy series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm." David co-created the NBC comedy "Seinfeld."
The actor-writer remained true to his cantankerous "Curb Your Enthusiasm" character in reacting to the giveaway, an idea his wife said she came up with spontaneously and without consulting him.
"I'm still waiting for the moment when I'm supposed to feel good about this," Laurie David quoted her husband as saying.
MTV's college cable TV network, mtvU, a partner in the virtual march, filmed the couple's visit to UCLA's "Effective Methods of Social Change" class for the series "Stand In." The episode will air May 9 on both mtvU and the broadband channel mtvU Uber.
More than 300,000 people and counting have signed up for the virtual march, said Laurie David.
___
On the Net:
http://www.StopGlobalWarming.org
Important links
collegeboard.com take a free test, get some tips, read, read, read.
number2.com Sign up, do the work, print the problems that you don't recognize, and learn the words. Look at their explanations . If you don't understand a problem, print it out and bring it to the class
mathForArtists.com Learn about your learning styles, participate in the Challenging Math Contest.
FreeVocabulary.com print a sheet each week, give a copy to your parents or other adults in your life, ask them to use these words with you. Share them with your friends. We remember whatever we use.
SAT-Secrets.com a free newsletter
SAT WORDS Print these words
SAT WORDS 2 Post around your house
SAT WORDS 3 Give copies to your friends and ask them to quiz you.
(organized occasionally by Mr. Mac)
(a word a day)
Suggest your favorite web site for practiceing for the SAT.
MATH PRACTICE
VERBAL PRACTICE
Lots of words (see Free Vocabulary
and SAT WORDS above)
ESSAY PRACTICE
Read a newspaper's op-ed section every day. Yes, most teens don't read a daily newspaper. You are different. You have decided to join the responsible, literate millions who
NO MORE MUSIC
(at least until you no longer need to prepare for the SAT)
Listen to NPR 91.3 FM South Florida
Listen to Science Friday and download podcasts from the archives.
----------------------------------------
Look for mentors
Here are some fabulous teachers who have an additional perspective. Many of them are willing to give two or three minutes if you ask a very specific question.
Leslie Lott, director of a language school
lottle@aol.com
Ray McAlister, former Ocean Engineering professor, a very impatient and dedicated teacher. He wants everyone to know a little about science. He taught me why clouds have a flat bottom and a fluffy top.
dinodivr@bellsouth.net
see his photo at MathForArtists.com
other stuff ... cool readings ... stuff that might be useful someday ...
-----Original Message-----
From: update@snopes.com [mailto:update@snopes.com]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 7:11 PM
To: analyst@comcast.net
Subject: Urban Legends Reference Pages Update #253
Hello again from snopes.com, your corner of urban legends sanity on the World Wide Web! This e-mail gives information about new articles recently added to the Urban Legends Reference Pages
(http://www.snopes.com) and provides pointers to older pieces about rumors and hoaxes still wandering into everyone's inboxes.
Our last update mailing was 31 March 2006.
If after this update you are left wondering about something newly arrived in your inbox, our search engine stands ready to assist you at http://www.snopes.com/search. Bookmark that URL
-- it's a keeper!
An RSS feed for our What's New page is available at http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.rss
And now, to the legends, the mayhem, and the misinformation!
New Articles
------------
MILDLY DISTURBING IMAGE WARNING: Photographs show a U.S. soldier whose tooth saved his life when he was shot in the face in Iraq.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/teeth.asp
DISTURBING IMAGE WARNING: Photographs show a bizarre-looking baby born in Nepal.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/nepalbaby.asp
E-mail quotes statements from Australian government officials about Sharia law and Muslim extremists.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/australia.asp
E-mail forward says a Texas city provided Hurricane Katrina evacuees with free transportation to a local job fair, but no one used the service.
http://www.snopes.com/katrina/politics/jobfair.asp
Prayer request for Sgt. Kevin Downs, a National Guardsman injured in Iraq.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/prayer/downs.asp
Did Paul Allen of Microsoft write a letter to a Santa Clarita newspaper in defense of Mormons?
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/paulallen.asp
Worth a Second Look
-------------------
When the dead return to ride again - Declared-dead jockey comes back to stun the grandstand crowd.
http://www.snopes.com/sports/horse/deadjockey.asp
Still Haunting the Inbox
------------------------
No, the major home improvement stores are not selling garden mulch laden with termites.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/termites.asp
While Venezuela president Hugo Chávez did make nasty remarks about the U.S., boycotting Citgo brand gasoline is not an effective protest.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/citgo.asp
Dialing #77 or *677 is not a surefire way of reaching the local highway patrol -- the service is in place in some regions, but not in others. If in need of assistance, dial 911 instead for the sure thing.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/fakecop.asp
Identity thieves trick the unwary into revealing their personal details by telling them they've failed to report for jury duty and warrants for their arrest are being issued.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
The e-mail asking for help in locating 9-year-old missing Penny Brown is a hoax. Photo of a cute redheaded kid or not, there is no such child. This hoax has been running since 2001.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/missing/penny.asp
Will pressing #-9-0 on your telephone allow scammers to make long-distance calls and charge them to your phone bill?
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/jailcall.asp
There was no letter to Starbucks from coffee-seeking G.I.s serving in Iraq, so no response from the coffee retailer saying it didn't support the war and anyone in it.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/starbucks.asp
No, several major brands of lipstick do not contain dangerous levels of lead.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/lipstick.asp
There were no Arabs at a convenience store celebrating the 9/11 attacks and no Budweiser employee who upon seeing them pulled all the Budweiser product from that store.
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/budweiser.asp
The FDA's phenylpropanolamine (PPA) recall alert from 2000 is back. Though this was real five years ago, precious few products of any stripe now marketed in the U.S. contain PPA.
Do not rely on e-mailed lists of products to tell you what's what because they're all so badly outdated as to be useless; instead read the labels of your over-the-counter medicine.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/ppa.asp
Read stuff from Cecil
From: webmaster@straightdope.com [mailto:webmaster@straightdope.com]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 5:00 AM
To: The Straight Dope
Subject: The Straight Dope 04/07/2006
The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com
THE STRAIGHT DOPE 04/07/2006
Dear Cecil:
Robert Essenhigh, a professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State, has written an essay disputing the idea that human activity is causing global warming. He is part of an academic group that opposes the Kyoto treaty. Although I have a PhD in physical organic chemistry and have done some work in environmental areas, I cannot dismiss his arguments out of hand. Is Professor Essenhigh right and can we all go out and buy SUVs? Or are there convincing arguments to the contrary? With the Kyoto treaty on the rocks, it'd be nice to know. --Jon Kapecki, Rochester, New York
~~~~~~
Cecil replies:
I get a lot of letters like yours, Jon, basically asking me, a weekly alternative newspaper columnist, to resolve one of the great controversies of our age. No problem, that's what I do. Given an 800-word limit, however, you'll excuse my taking a few shortcuts.
So here we go: Are greenhouse-gas emissions from our fuel-guzzling cars, power plants, etc, a significant contributor to potentially catastrophic climate change? Answer: Beats me. But you know what? It doesn't matter even if they are.
First, Essenhigh. The professor argued in a 2001 article in Chemical Innovation that average global temperatures were rising but that, contrary to wide popular and scientific opinion, human activity wasn't the principal cause. Rather, the fluctuations we're now seeing are part of a natural cycle that's been going on for eons. Essenhigh's reasoning appealed largely to common sense: Carbon dioxide, the most widely discussed greenhouse gas, is part of earth's vast store of carbon (about 150 billion tons), which is continually being cycled through the oceans, the atmosphere, and vegetation. The human contribution to atmospheric carbon in the form of CO2 is small, less than 5 percent of the total carbon reservoir. Ergo . . .
For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060407.html
unts.
STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #2 - 06/08/1990
Dear Cecil:
Is man a meat-eater or a vegetarian by nature? According to the enclosed clipping from a vegetarian magazine, "The intestinal length of carnivores (meat-eating animals) is three times the body length to allow for quick removal of flesh wastes that putrefy in the intestines. Man's intestine length, like other herbivores, is six times his body length and is designed for digesting vegetables, grains, and fruits." I'm not a meat-eater but my girlfriend is and she is not convinced man is a natural vegetarian. We decided to leave it up to you. (Why I agreed to this I don't know, it's obvious from your aggressive tone that you like your steak rare.) Please, don't embarrass yourself by quoting that garbage from the National Beef Council that meat is our best source of protein. Even high school kids know better than that. --L. Williams, Culver City, California
Cecil replies:
Listen, wimp--whoops, too aggressive. Gimme some of that tofu burger.
Ah, I can feel the testosterone receding already. Now then, let us reason like gentlemen. There are some intelligent arguments for vegetarianism, but claiming that man is "naturally" herbivorous isn't one of them. The settled judgment of science is that man is an omnivore, capable of .eating both meat and vegetables, much as certain four-year-olds might like to convince their mothers otherwise. Like the hard-core carnivores, we have fairly simple digestive systems well suited to the consumption of animal protein, which breaks down quickly. Contrary to what your magazine article says, the human small intestine, at 23 feet, is a little under eight times body length (assuming a mouth-to-anus "body length" of three feet). This is about midway between cats (three times body length), dogs (3-1/2 times), and other well-known meat eaters on the one hand and plant eaters such as cattle (20 to 1) and horses (12 to
1) on the other. This tends to support the idea that we are omnivores.
For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_087.html
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FIVE MYTHS
Five Things that Parents, Teachers, Students and Principals Probably Need to Know About the Brain
By Pat Harris, Family Therapist and Motivational Speaker
And
Steve McCrea, Tutor and DVD Producer
Five Discoveries about the Brain that could help Parents, Teachers, Students and Principals
Introduction
Hi
My name is Pat Harris. I’m a family therapist. I met Steve Mccrea when I volunteered at a local school. I offered to speak for 20 minutes to a class in a middle school. I believe in volunteering because we never know what it will lead to.
Working with Steve is part of my journey as a therapist. He’s taught me that it’s okay to make a recording. He enhanced my way of thinking through technology.
I heard from my daughter: “You’re like a broken record… always the same message.” Well, as a family therapist, I think I know I sound like a broken record. My clients sometimes need five or six exposures before they really hear my message for the first time. I think I’m a broken record, but they think (eventually), “Hey, that makes sense.”
That’s why Steve and I are teaming up to deliver what we think is obvious. It’s obvious to us because we made it our lives to study children and how they learn. We want to make their learning more efficient and safer. Steve and I both learned the lessons we needed to make it through many decades of life, but we know that there were messages along the way that we ignored or failed to hear.
This booklet brings you summaries about recent research about the brain.
What could happen to our schools, families, relationships, and communities if 200,000 parents were instantly up-to-date with the latest research? How could that information be presented to these parents?
What is the essence of the messages, so we don’t waste the time of these parents?
That’s the reason behind this book.
I come to this space with a focus on options…especially options against violence. There are so many ways to resolve conflict and address bullies and “cracking” (negative so-called playful jokes that kids tell each other).. … without yelling, shouting, or exerting force.
I hope you will tell us what we missed and suggest new topics… we’ll put them on ResolveToHeal.com under the topic “Five Things for Every Parent.”
Pat Harris
This book will be divided into chapters that will include some interesting materials. You are invited to read straight through or to visit pages that you find interesting.
Go ahead, skip around.
Five Myths or Misconceptions about “How to educate a child” That Parents Carry in their heads
There are at least five ideas that get in the way of students and parents. Steve and I hear these myths at least once a week while talking with parents about their children.
#1 “There’s only one way to learn this material – out of the textbook. You just have to work with the teacher. The teacher doesn’t like the book, but it’s on the curriculum. Sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to do. School gets you ready for real life. Everyone has to learn by taking notes and studying for the test.”
#2 Academics is more important than “street smarts.”
#3 “Teachers are the experts. Listen to the teacher.”
#4 “We should just get rid of this test!” (FCAT, SAT, other standardized tests).
The FCAT is destroying our schools. Teachers spend months practicing those multiple choice and short-answer problems. We should just let teachers teach.
# 5 Video games are harmless, except for the really violent games.
“My child lives for video games. Habbo Hotel, that simulation game seires called “The Sims,” 3-D football, and others. At least he doesn’t play Grand Theft Auto. I make sure of that.”
There’s something true for most parents in each of these statements.
Each of these myths has helped us in someway get to where we are today. By respecting our teachers, we followed the rules and got degrees.
By respecting the educational process, many of us graduated.
We listened to these myths and ideas … then we passed them on to our children.
Let’s look at each of these myths and then hear about the recent research about how the brain works.
Myth #1 “There’s only one way to learn this material – out of the textbook. You just have to work with the teacher. The teacher doesn’t like the book, but it’s on the curriculum. Sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to do. School gets you ready for real life. Everyone has to learn by taking notes and studying for the test.”
This myth is saying, “There’s only one way to teach.”
Huh? There are hundreds of examples of teachers who have learned how to modify their teaching methods. This means there are hundreds of teachers out there who could learn from the need to be flexible.
Myth #2 Academics is more important than “street smarts.”
ANSWER:
“How can someone who is so smart make such a stupid decision?”
Remedy: Respect people where they are. Growth is a process. Everybody grows differently.
I’ve seen some students who are sheltered at home. Thye are so protected that they don’t have a chance to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Then when they finally leave home to go to college, they have so many choices. Should I study or party and get drunk?” It’s shocking to some parents that their bright child can make sure unfortunate decisions.
Myth #3 “Teachers are the experts. Listen to the teacher.”
Teachers are well trained, they are the experts, and other adults should stay away, since they don’t know how kids develop. Adults and parents who visit a school should stay in a corner and be invisible because adults in general don’t know how to teach kids.
ANSWER see the section on Mentors in this booklet. The pentagon has it right.
Myth #4 “We should just get rid of this test!” (FCAT, SAT, other standardized tests).
The FCAT is destroying our schools. Teachers spend months practicing those multiple choice and short-answer problems. We should just let teachers teach.
Standardized tests have received a lot of attention since 1999, when many states began introducing written tests as a way to measure progress. The purpose was to hold schools accountable – “There must be progress.”
The down side is that the test appears to be the ONLY measure that many parents are looking at. Some parents tell their children, “If you can’t match the level of other kids, then maybe you shouldn’t go to college. You need those reading, writing and math skills.”
Another Answer -- Is a written test the only way we have, after 5000 years of history, to decide who should go to college? Is spelling and writing the only skill that must be demonstrated? Huh? Nelson Rockefeller, governor, was dyslexic and he couldn’t spell. He could talk an inspiring speech and lead a state for several administrations.
Why not use technology to overcome deficits? Or focus on a student’s other abilities instead of looking so strongly at “deficits” and “weaknesses”?
This misconception believes that “we need one standard and let’s not waste time and resources developing alternatives.”
Isn’t it more costly to have kids falling through the cracks because the testing didn’t measure or identify their skills? And abilities?
I used to think that kids who couldn’t spell were doomed to living without a college degree. Then came the spellchecker. The way we spell when we are writing an exam is not important
Rap is indeed an annoying “art form” and “freestyling” is an excuse to not spend time crafting a song or poem. However, some of those kids are very clever and should be recognized for their gifts. And standardized tests often miss these talents.
Myth #5 Video games are harmless, except for the really violent games.
“My child lives for video games. Habbo Hotel, that simulation game, 3-D football, and othersl. At least he doesn’t play Grand Theft Auto. I make sure of that.”
This myth is stated in another way: Kids that don’t play video games lose the skill: what country makes the best pilots in the world? The USA. What did researchers find in the best pilots? Excellent hand coordination and quick reaction time. How did pilots gain this skill? Many researchers believe that the use of video games over time can improve eye-to-hand coordination. In fact, some researchers suggest that elderly people could improve their brain functioning by learning to play video games.
This article was published in 1998 and several students have quoted it as reason for them to play video games. See the Section on video games.
REPLY: Video games are entertainment. Some simulations help students learn how to place objects over other objects. There are excellent simulations for math, chemistry, physics and biology to help students “see” in three dimensions. And yet… some research shows that certain problems involving three dimentions are learned better with blocks and actual manipulation of real objects. A multi-colored cube on a screen might look like a three-D object, but it’s still two dimensions in your hand. Your eye is fooled by the image on the screenyou’re your hand does not sense a three-D object when you touch the screen. Certain types of brain development occur when you hold an object. Those neural connections don’t happen when you just look at the object while it spins on the screen.
REMEDY #1: get magnetic sticks. Find Lego and other building Include more Three-d objects in classrooms, libraries and homes.
REMEDY #2: There is no “minimum daily requirement” for video game playing. A child who doesn’t learn to play a game is not “retarded” in development.
From a study: Children who didn’t play a game were compared with children who had three years of experience with a game. The study found that inexperienced children gained the same expertise and skill with the game within six months. In other words, kids who learned a game at age 9 and played it for three years had no long-term advantage over a child who learned the game at age 12. If you delay the use of video games in your home, you are not “holding back” a child.
REMEDY #3: Read with the child – everything about the game. There are plenty of ways to teach reading! Yes, learning how to play a game takes concentration and skill. I used to think that video games could promote reading, since there are menus with information presented in interesting colors and designs. Oops! Just because there is reading material on the game’s menu, don’t assume that kids are reading. Some kids learn to play a video game by watching friends and asking questions (and never read the instructions of the game).
The Routine
How do these myths remain so strongly implanted in the heads of parents?
Why don’t parents learn about new research on the brain?
Most of the information that appears in this booklet has appeared on popular morning TV, especially NBC’s Today Show. Dozens of experts each year describe the recent discoveries made about the brain and human development.
Why are parents still carrying around ideas from their childhoods?
In a single sentence: I was raised in a certain way and I turned out okay. Why can’t my child be taught the same way?
Another explanation: The routine.
Parents are so busy raising their children that they don’t have time to hear what could help them. Let’s take a moment and look at the benefits of the routine.
1. Routines keep children safe and healthy. By following the same procedures each day, families develop a system. That system keeps most kids from being run over, kidnapped or drowned.
2. Everybody recommends routines. Teachers, friends, other parents, the principal – everyone talks about the importance of a stable home and a dependable routine. Parents who follow routines are rewarded by the positive feedback from other adults.
Children thrive when they go through a similar parttern every day. Kids complain to each other about the “same old, same old” routine after school. Yet it feels comfortable to hear the same questions:
What did you learn in school today?
Did you finish your homework?
What is happening next week in school?
Keeping a routine brings security to children.
However, repeating the same things can create a box. Let’s look at what happens after school?
Your child comes home.
You remind the child of the limits. The routine goes something like this:
Play for 15 minutes.
Do your homework.
Dinner is at 6 p.m.
Finish your homework after dinner.
Take a shower.
Get your clothes and books ready for school tomorrow.
Five more minutes and then get off that phone.
Get ready for bed.
Good night.
The routine creates a stable home. But when do we make time for new information?
In addition to these five myths, parents tell themselves and their children many things. At the heart of a typical myth are several facts. The problem comes when parents don’t have time to learn about recent developments.
Children are sponges and will absorb almost everything we say. “Almost” is the key word. Parents often think they have communicated clearly
Using Technology
A quick look through this book might lead you to believe that Steve and I don’t like techoloyg. “Keep video games out of your home!” In fact, there are clever uses for technology. Here are some suggestions.
Technology Tip #1
Math Games by Matti. We recommend the web site mathForArtists.com, which has links to dozens of video simulations and interactive activities. There are hundreds of applications that promote better understanding through a visual presentation. If something moves, most students will be attracted to it. If the image is connected to a keyboard and solid academic purpose, why not let the child learn by doing? Learn by watching a simulation. Learn by changing the conditions of a simulation.
Technology Tip #2
Read your child’s notes into a tape recorder or onto a video tape and then watch the results together. Pause the device and ask your child to predict the next sentence.
Technology Tip #3
Schools can use technology, too. Find out if your child’s teachers can use videos in the classroom. If there is no video camera available, keep asking until a camera is used. Find out
Technology Tip #4
Bring a video camera into your home. Record messages. Record special events. Interview your parents with your children present and encourage your children to ask questions.
Technology Tip #5
Put cool messages on your child’s screen saver. There’s a free software product called Parent Pest that sends messages to a screen saver on the computer. Find out more at www.geocities.com/talkinternational1/parentpest.html
Technology Tip #6
Put audio messages on the iPod or mp3 player.
Invitation
The five myths in this booklet are just some of the ideas that parents use to build their lives. We welcome your suggestions on other myths or half-truths that get in the way of our understanding about HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN?
What do you know about the development of children? What ideas did you have to discard or change or improve in order to help a child grow?
Please share with us by email at mistermath@comcast.net or by phone at 954 646 8246
Five New Ideas
In the first part of this book, we talked about myths. We looked at what is holding back our kids and our understanding of the brain. Now let’s restate these ideas in a positive way.
“Hey, you’re repeating the information.”
Yes, many people learn when new information is given again in a different way. The following section has more examples, often given in a story. These ideas will help us create a positive mental attitude toward changes we can choose to make in our routines.
Five Ideas about the Brain
1. Children learn differently. Most boys learn differently from most girls.
The brain is divided in two parts. The connection between the two sides makes a big difference: do you have a thick or thin connection? Most girls and most boys really do learn differently. Shouldn’t they be taught differently?
For further reading, we suggest Michael Guerlain and his institute for learning differences…
2. Social Skills are more important than most academic skills. Emotional Intelligence is more important than academic achievement for most people. Shouldn’t we teach social skills in school?
REMEDY… here’s how I build emotional intelligence in myself
a) I listen to advice from people on tape. Somehow it’s easier to listen to a stranger tell us advice than our parents. To help you, I’ve created a series of audio letters for you to listen to in the car.
b) I practice what I learn. I apply it. Yes, it’s annoying and boring sometimes, but I use it. Use it or lose it.
c) I look for options. I know what I’m comfortable doing. I look around and I look for other ways of achieving what I usually want to get done. It’s surprising how many new people we meet when we stop doing the same thing the same way…
d) I learn about the fifteen styles of distorted thinking. I love to discover a new way that I’m distorting my view of the world to suit my needs. It’s amazing how creative I can be! It’s great to be relieved of the job of trying to figure out everything for everyone else…. Now I just worry about me.
We can learn from films like Stand and Deliver and Goodbye Mr. Chips and the recent dance film with Antonio Banderas (where a dance instructor teaches some impolite teenagers how to be civil, gentile, and confident). These films show that schools can be places to learn more than academic subjects. Social ability can be taught.
3. Mentors are needed in schools. The Pentagon requires parents to spend 8 hours a month in a classroom. When was the last time you volunteered in a classroom?
Read about the baseball coach.
Alison Gropnik’s piece in the Ny Times, January 2005
Her basic message is …
How We Learn
By ALISON GOPNIK
Published: January 16, 2005
Here's the big question: if children who don't even go to school learn so easily, why do children who go to school seem to have such a hard time? Why can children solve problems that challenge computers but stumble on a third-grade reading test?
When we talk about learning, we really mean two quite different things, the process of discovery and of mastering what one discovers. All children are naturally driven to create an accurate picture of the world and, with the help of adults to use that picture to make predictions, formulate explanations, imagine alternatives and design plans. Call it ''guided discovery.''
If this kind of learning is what we have in mind then one answer to the big question is that schools don't teach the same way children learn. As in the gear-and-switch experiments, children seem to learn best when they can explore the world and interact with expert adults. For example, Barbara Rogoff, professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, studied children growing up in poor Guatemalan Indian villages. The youngsters gradually mastered complex skills like preparing tortillas from scratch, beginning with the 2-year-old mimicking the flattening of dough to the 10-year-old entrusted with the entire task. They learned by watching adults, trying themselves and receiving detailed corrective feedback about their efforts. Mothers did a careful analysis of what the child was capable of before encouraging the next step.
This may sound like a touchy-feely progressive prescription. But a good example of such teaching in our culture is the stern but beloved baseball coach. How many school teachers are as good at essay writing, science or mathematics as the average coach is at baseball? And even when teachers are expert, how many children ever get to watch them work through writing an essay or designing a scientific experiment or solving an unfamiliar math problem?
Imagine if baseball were taught the way science is taught in most inner-city schools. Schoolchildren would get lectures about the history of the World Series. High school students would occasionally reproduce famous plays of the past. Nobody would get in the game themselves until graduate school.
But there is another side to the question.
In guided discovery -- figuring out how the world works or unraveling the structure of making tortillas -- children learn to solve new problems. But what is expected in school, at least in part, involves a very different process: call it ''routinized learning.'' Something already learned is made to be second nature, so as to perform a skill effortlessly and quickly.
The activities that promote mastery may be different from the activities that promote discovery. What makes knowledge automatic is what gets you to Carnegie Hall -- practice, practice, practice. In some settings, like the Guatemalan village, this happens naturally: make tortillas every day and you'll get good at it. In our culture, children rich and poor grow highly skilled at video games they play for hours.
The problem for many children in elementary school may not be that they're not smart enough but that they're not stupid enough. They haven't yet been able to make reading and writing transparent and automatic. This is particularly true for children who don't have natural opportunities to practice these skills, learning in chaotic and impoverished schools and leading chaotic and impoverished lives.
But routinized learning is not an end in itself. A good coach may well make his players throw the ball to first base 50 times or swing again and again in the batting cage. That will help, but by itself it won't make a strong player. The game itself -- reacting to different pitches, strategizing about base running -- requires thought, flexibility and inventiveness.
Children would never tolerate baseball if all they did was practice. No coach would evaluate a child, and no society would evaluate a coach, based on performance in the batting cage. What makes for learning is the right balance of both learning processes, allowing children to retain their native brilliance as they grow up.
Alison Gopnik is co-author of ''The Scientist in the Crib'' and professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley.
We can learn much from Dr. Gopnik’s observations.
4. About FCAT: There are at least seven ways of learning and seven ways of teaching. Shouldn’t there be more than one way of assessing our children’s growth and understanding?
Are there other ways to measure understanding?
Listen to Dennis Littky.
(We can quote from Littky’s book)
Maybe there’s another way of organizing our schools, around individuals, not around the facilities.
What is the best size of a school? How big should schools be? What governs the size of a school?
The cafeteria?
Or the number of parents a typical principal can remember?
5. Video games: There really is something about what our mothers told us. “If you get too close to that TV, you’ll go blind.” Something inside the head of many 12 year olds shuts down because the three-dimensions of playing with objects has been replaced by virtual worlds with simulated 3-D. We don’t really learn more when we have a video game.
How can we use technology better? Instead of banning ipods, how can we train teachers to use ipods? Many students love to listen to music and short messages can be inserted between songs.
(pat, this section of the book will be about specifics of each area of research. Lots of comments by you when I talk about stuff from one of the research papers…)
Summary
Here’s what we’ve learned together
Five Things
1. Girls and Boys learn differently.
REMEDY -- use different styles of communication when talking with men and women. There’s no simple difference, but it is often successful to get a man’s full attention before speaking because he often can focus on only one thing at a time (while a female brain can often do several things at once). PLUS Girls and boys really do learn differently. Shouldn’t they be taught differently?
REMEDY If you can teach girls and boys separately, can that arrangement be explained or supported with evidence from the class? “I really do better when the boys aren’t around.” That’s hard to get from teenagers, but there might be some support from students.
2. Social Skills -- Emotional Intelligence is more important than academic achievement.
REMEDY make time for social skills. Just having an A in school is not reason to say, “Oh, everything is fine.” Dig deeper. Set up “what ifs” -- what if Oprah stepped on an elevator with you. What would you say? What charity would you promote? What would you give her?
3. Mentors are needed in schools. The Pentagon requires parents to spend 8 hours a month in a classroom. When was the last time you volunteered in a classroom?
REMEDY If you can’t visit a classroom, find a video camera and start talking. Go to www.MentorsOnVideo.com for guidelines. Or contact Steve and he’ll turn you into one of his Mentors On Video.
4. About FCAT: There are at least seven ways of learning and seven ways of teaching. Shouldn’t there be more than one way of assessing our children’s growth and understanding?
REMEDY Learn more about portfolios, work with your principal to set up a portfolio system and volunteer to get started and maintain it. Learn about “performances of understanding” and about Dennis Littky’s work. Get “the big picture.” www.bigpicture.org
5. Video games: There really is something about what our mothers told us. “If you get too close to that TV, you’ll go blind.” Something inside the head of many 12 year olds shuts down because the three-dimensions of playing with objects has been replaced by virtual worlds with simulated 3-D. We don’t really learn more when we have a video game.
REMEDY most TV is not educational. Most video games are not educational. There is no minimum daily requirement for training the “game” muscles and reaction time. Simulations can help some students prepare for flight school, bomb detonation and de-activation, and other potentially hostile situations. But there are other skills to build and video gaming takes away from time that could be spent learning a language. Why not visit a virtual world and learn about brot, pain, pan and pane?
There are more topics, more research, and more items ready for selecting and highlighting. Steve and Pat are already collecting more topics for you to hear about.
What keeps us going? We are here to help each other and we want to share what we’ve learned. Yes, we appreciate new audiences, and it’s nice to be compensated for our time. Call 954 646 8246 to find out how you can bring our workshop to your school.
Appendix
Dear Parents,
Have you been looking for a way to judge your child’s writing? Here’s a checklist (called a “rubric”) and we’ll see what happens…. Go ahead, try it … read one of your child’s essays and apply the checklist.
=====================
Rubric Checklist for Essays
1. Do pronouns (it, they, he) point to a specific person or thing? Is it clear?
The dog went to into the cat’s house and ate its food.
My dog saw the dead mouse, sat next to the paper plate and ate it.
Strunk and White. The little book http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html
2. Use appropriate examples to develop the point of view.
3. Is there a progression of ideas? Is there enough support for these ideas?
4. Show critical thinking. Do you show a complex argument that looks at the issue from more than one viewpoint?
5. Skillful use of language (it’s important to have the vision thing.) Is the vocabulary appropriate? (When raising the internal core temperature of the soft water-flour amalgamation, it is important to engage adequate insulation by using a ceramic device.)
6. Is the essay coherent? Is the essay consistent? Is it organized and focused?
Or is it disjointed and incoherent?
7. Is there variety in the sentence structure? Is the sentence structure correct?
This situation is something up with which I will not put.
8. Conclusion covers the entire essay
Teachers can point out important words to study
We can’t always teach you a trick to remember those words
You are closer to the middle school students than I am. I invite you to perform your understanding of at least one word. If you perform on camera, then I will show your performance to a middle school student and they might understand it better than if I show them how to remember a word.
Vicarious = a vicar or a bishop who can’t enjoy a trip to Tahiti (no money) has a vicarious experience by looking at videos and by talking with someone who went there.
mistermath@comcast.net
The Fifteen Ways that we sometimes use to Distort our Thinking…
Fifteen Styles of Distorted Thinking
Filtering: You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation.
Polarized Thinking: Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you're a failure. There is no middle ground.
Overgeneralization: You come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once you expect it to happen over and over
again.
Mind Reading: Without their saying so you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to divine how people are feeling toward you.
Catastrophizing: You expect disaster. You notice or hear about a problem and start "what ifs": What if tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?
Personalization: Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking, etc.
Control Fallacies: If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The fallacy or internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you.
Fallacy of Fairness: You feel resentful because you think you know what's fair but other people won't agree with you.
Blaming: You hold other people responsible for your pain, or take the other tack and blame yourself for every problem or reversal.
Shoulds: You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.
Emotional Reasoning: You believe that what you feel must be true - automatically. If you feel stupid and boring, then you must be stupid and boring.
Fallacy of Change: You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure or cajole them enough. You need to change people because your hopes for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.
Global Labeling: You generalize one or two qualities into a negative globa1 judgment.
Being Right: You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness.
Heavens Reward Fallacy: You expect all your sacrifice and self-denial to payoff, as if there were someone keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn't come.
Resource: Morgan Edwinson, MS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fifteen Distortions © Copyright 1997-2003
Fifty Plus Fitness Association
Box 20230 Stanford, CA 94309
A Non profit 501 (c)(3) Corporation
http://www.50plus.org/libraryitems/1_11Fifteen_Styles.htm
Appendix
The Audio Letters
Each of these audio letters is three or four minutes long. Why not listen to them all and hear about the voices of each heart? Widen your perspective…
A letter from the heart of a teenager
A letter from the heart of …
A teacher
A principal
A bully
A victim of a bully
A lonely student
A popular student
The leader of the pack
The nerd
The class clown
The school receptionist
The school experts
The family therapist
A tutor
A mentor
FAMILY
An aunt
An uncle
A grandmother
A grandfather
A single mother
A single father
An unwed mother
A divorced mother
A divorced father
An older sister
An older brother
A younger sister
A younger brother
An adult without children
An adult with ADD
A child with ADD
A child who is bipolar
An adult who is bipolar
A child with a sibling who is disabled
An adult with a child who is disabled
A disabled child
A disabled adult
Appendix about ADD
Steve has ADD or lives with ADD. He calls it “Variable Attention Abiility” or VAA. He can usually vary the amount of attention he gives to an item…
If he’s really interested, he can focus!
Parents can find interesting and helpful information on line. Here’s an example of some information we found on a service that sends a free email message once a month.
-----Original Message-----
From: Attention Research Update [mailto:attentionresearchupdate@helpforadd.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 9:00 AM
To: analyst@comcast.net
Subject: Recent issue on ADHD Medication Misuse/Treatment monitoring tool
Note: Attention Research Update is sent to over 36,000 subscribers interested in keeping informed about new research on ADHD. It is only sent to people who have signed up to receive it. Information on changing your address, confirming your subscription, or unsubscribing can be found at the end of this message. Links below should be "clickable" - if they are not, just cut and paste the link into the window of your web browser.
=============================================================================
Dear Educator,
I hope that you are doing well. Below is information on several items that may be of interest to you. These include the following:
- Recent issue of Attention Research Update now on the web
- Newsletter Sponsors - Kurzweil Educational Systems and Shire US, Inc.
- ADHD Treatment Monitoring tool - A system for tracking your child's progress
- Aspen Education Group and Cedars Academy - Specialized programs for children and teens with ADHD
- National Resource Center for ADHD - An Outstanding Resource
Please forward this message to others you know who may be interested. If this has been forwarded to you, and you would like to receive Attention Research Update regularly, you can subscribe for free at http://educators.c.topica.com/maaeDb6abpiiybefpnOb/
=========================================================================================
* Recent Issue Posted **
If you missed the recent issue of Attention Research Update, it is now available on the web. This issue reviews a very interesting study that examines the misuse and abuse of stimulant medications used to treat ADHD.
As you may be aware, this is an issue that has received widespread coverage in the popular media, and this study provides interesting and important new data on this topic.
You can find the article at http://educators.c.topica.com/maaeDb6abpiizbefpnOb/
** Back Issues of Attention Research Update **
You can find a collection of all back issues at http://educators.c.topica.com/maaeDb6abpiiAbefpnOb/
All back issues are archived by year with a contents page for each year. This allows you to scroll through and locate studies you may have missed that would be of particular interest to you.
** ADHD Monitoring System **
To request the ADHD Monitoring System, a simple tool that educators can use to assist parents and health professionals in tracking the ongoing effectiveness of children's treatment(s) for ADHD, please visit http://educators.c.topica.com/maaeDb6abpiiDbefpnOb/
There is no charge for this tool and I believe you will find it to be very helpful.
==========================================================================
** The National Resource Center on AD/HD **
The National Resource Center on AD/HD provides science-based information on AD/HD. Services include a resource center staffed by highly trained information specialists, a Website with information and resources on AD/HD, and a library open to the public. Contact the NRC at 800-233-4050 or visit their web site at http://educators.c.topica.com/maaeDb6abpiiGbefpnOb/
You can get answers to your specific questions about ADHD either on line or over the phone. The NRC is operated by CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
==============================================================================
** NEW ISSUE OF ATTENTION RESEARCH UPDATE **
The new issue of Attention Research Update should be sent to you on April 11th. Best wishes until then.
Sincerely,
David Rabiner, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Center for Child and Family Policy
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
========================================================================================
Attention Research Update is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Although newsletter sponsors offer products and services that I believe will be of interest to subscribers, sponsorship of Attention Research Update does not constitute a specific endorsement or guarantee of any company's product or services.
====================================================================
Forward to Friend:
http://www.topica.com/f2f/?f=aaain5uv5adp4rh3yfspogw394mgp8om83rafl4o4ms1kq&r=analyst%40comcast.net
========================
The final page of the “5 Things” book
This is our last opportunity in this space to connect with you.
Please contact us with your questions.
Please give us your feedback. Maybe we need to call it “six things” because you have an important addition to this list.
Thank you for your time.
Pat Harris
Steve McCrea
Welcome to SAT at BCC -- This page is unofficial and is created by one of the SAT Prep instructors. The words here are NOT official BCC policy. This page is maintained to give you, the student, a special level of support. Our client is the person who paid for your course. You are the student, so get everything you can from this course
You are taking this course because you want more VERBAL or more MATH or BOTH. You will find what you need here (call 954-646-8246 if you are unhappy with this course or write to theEbookMan@gmail.com). If you are happy, send us your testimonial…
Hello.... Hello... It takes
90 days to start seeing
a difference in your vocabulary
for the SAT...
Start studying today. You don't
have to wait for a course...
Preparation for the
SAT in 5 Sessions
Summary of the class rules
SAT Test Preparation (Level 1)
This course prepares you to take the SAT college entrance exam. This is for the SAT I, but some of the techniques can also be used on SAT II and other multiple-choice tests.
The skills and web sites that you learn about in this course will help you for the rest of your life, even outside school. You will be able to help other students in their studying.
The session will focus more time on VERBAL (three sessions) and only two sessions on MATH.
MINIMAL LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION:
Complete the homework each week.
EXCEPTIONAL LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION:
Visit www.number2.com and bring TO THE CLASS at least ONE TIP from the web site.
Strategies
1. Each class will aim to give you new test-taking tips and to remind you of tips that you have heard of before.
2. You will practice these strategies in class and at home.
3. You are given all of the web sites on the first night. It’s up to you to visit these sites and complete the exercises on the web sites.
4. REPEAT: you are almost an adult, so you are capable of managing your time. The instructor is not responsible if you have not completed the homework.
5. Bring questions. Each Session will have a Q and A portion. A student asks a question. All of the class turn to the page. We solve the question together.
6. Multiple Q and A: If some students want to practice more math, they can do so together. The instructor will provide a space for math practice during the Verbal class for students who want to work together and present questions to the instructor.
7. Substitute Teacher: There might be a substitute teacher – if that teacher focuses only on math or only on verbal, save your questions until the next class.
8. Books – the books are our friends. Let’s read them. They are YOUR books. Please mark them. Don’t save them to sell them as used books. This is your future. Mark them in pencil, if you like, but mark them.
Expectations
A) The instructor will come prepared to give worksheets to help you learn the test taking techniques. You are expected to practice these techniques in class and at home.
B) Beepers and cell phones are on silent or off.
C) Leaving the Room: Use your judgment. Generally you don't need to ask to leave the room ... The following is an unnecessary gesture of courtesy... The signal for leaving the room is to raise your hand to get the instructor’s attention, point to the door and leave quietly. The reason is that the instructor might have something important to tell the class in the next two minutes (while you are out) and he might ask you to wait just a little longer before you attend to your business outside the classroom.
D) Attendance Sheet
To help the instructor, write your name on the attendance sheet, last name first, under the letter of the alphabet. If you name is Mr. George Johnson, please put your name as Johnson, George under the J. Please PRINT.
E) Late: If you are late, don’t explain or give excuses or apologize. Just put your name on the sign in sheet and PRINT it clearly. You can send me your questions by email.
F) If you need to leave early: Please sign out.
G) If you are bored, find something interesting to do. If youdon't want to work on MATH, please find some VERBAL to do. If you don't want to work on VERBAL, find some MATH to do.
H) WHISPER. Some people have a learning style that requires a sound level like a library. Other people like to create a social environment for working. Let's begin by respecting differences in learning styles.
I) I used to say to students, "You are not looking at me. You must look at me when I speak." Now I know that some people have a learning style that makes it difficult for them to look at someone when they are listening. HINT: rotate a pen in your fingers or transfer the pen slowly from one hand to the other hand while you listen. You might find that your listening is improved.
Meeting 1
Classwork: We cover "learning styles" and some handouts are given that you are encouraged to begin working on independently. Sign up for WORDS TO CELLPHONE or EMAIL
Homework: Do one test FAST (put ? marks next to problems that you can’t do.). Quickly scan all the TIPS portions of pages 1-94, plus page 110-112. Be prepared to discuss three tips that you find useful.
Meeting 2
Classwork: Discussion of “Tips we can use”
Review of learning styles and "Emotional links to new words" ** see SAT WORDS **
Homework: Do one test FAST (put ? marks next to problems that you can’t do)
Meeting 3 Math
CLASSWORK: The focus of this class will be math (but groups can work on verbal, too). Hands-on math techniques or "visual math" will show you how to turn any problem into a
Discussion of “Tips we can use: part C”
Homework: Do one test FAST (put ? marks next to problems that you can’t do)
Meeting 4 English
CLASSWORK: Discussion of “Tips we can use" followed by a review of learning styles and some "drama with emotional connections to new words." Video images might be used. Students are encouraged to bring in video clips on videotape or DVD to demonstrate some "obsequious" or "loquacious" behaviors.
Homework.. Yes, there’s more homework…. Do one test FAST (put ? marks next to problems that you can’t do, then send your questions to one of the classmates and work on it together. If you still need help, contact the instructor.
Meeting 5
CLASSWORK: Final review of tips... Bring your questions. Did you number2.com?
30-minute timed test.
The instructor will continue to take questions over the Internet... please give at least 5 days to allow a response.
Why does the instructor need your cell phone number? And email address?
You will receive a daily list of words to learn and make your own. Practice the words with your friends If you want the list sent to your friends, put down their email or cell pone numbers and the instructor will send them the practice words, too.
Example:
Subject: fencible (FEN-si-bul) service
Capable of being defended. A soldier for home service only. [Short for defensable)
You will be asked to use these words in class when we next meet.
If you have additional suggestions on how you want to learn these techniques, please contact the instructor at 954 646 8246 or by email to analyst@comcast.net.
The instructor is a former tutor at an SAT training center and he tutors in his home at the cost of $50 per 50-minute lesson. You are getting a great bargain by attending this class.
But, Mr. McCrea, what will we do in class for two or three hours?
Here's a typical lesson plan:
A typical class is structured around the needs of the class. You can see a "step by step" elaboration of this lesson plan at the bottom of this page.
Welcome
Short word of the day
Tip of the week.
Instructor will ask students, “What did you learn from Chapter 6, about analogies?”
Students will shout out the tips they learned and demonstrate how to use the tips.
Instructor will hand out worksheets to practice the tips....or work from the book.
Q and A (students ask questions about problems in a test from the book and the class works together for the answer)
Work in small groups (instructor walks around and addresses the problems)
The small-group work will involve some walking around and stretching.
There will be no break. The instructor will handle questions and ask from time to time for everyone to pay attention and look at the board. This activity will help us all avoid being bored or getting stiff in our chairs.
Some students need a high level of activity or something VERY DIFFERENT to make a point interesting enough to remember. The instructor will try to CHANGE something in the room. Examples:
a) Louder voice
b) Music or video with the new word
c) Dramatic HISTRIONICS to demonstrate a new word.
d) The teacher might answer you question by saying, "I just showed that to Fred. Fred, please come over here and show these two students what you learned." (This activity will require Fred to put into words the new skill that he just learned. Please, Fred, stop what you are doing and help the other two students. You will help yourself, too.)
e) The teacher might give a story from another kind of class -- you might be asked to tell your partner two facts about the Second World War. "Hey, why is that related to the SAT?" Please participate. The teacher is trying to "change the pace" and prepare your mind for the next activity.
f) What are other ways to make the learning more interesting? The teacher might stand on a chair or walk out of the classroom for five seconds.
g) We can use color or posters or large pieces of paper.
PARTICIPATION: If you have an interesting point that you want to add to the discussion, move: raise your hand or stand up or get excited. The best learning comes from students, not from the teacher. Participate and other students will learn, too. By asking a question, you engage your brain and make the learning ACTIVE. Let's turn passive learning into active learning. Students are welcome to leave the class at any time for personal reasons. If you don’t intend to return to the class until next week, please write a note to the instructor in case there is special homework.
If the instructor asks you to move to a different location in the room, please move. Moving around helps the brain activity. Stand up and walk around the room at least once each hour. Stretch. Yoga is good for you and "classroom yoga" includes stretching your arms over your head and breathing deeply.
When was the last time you took at deep breath?
The instructor will attempt to change the activity every 20 minutes.
Please work with us.
Examples
Lecture or short video segment
Class participation
Small group work
Compare results with other people in the class
Back to lecture. Etc.
ABOUT THE WORKSHEETS
The photocopies are placed in 5 groups.
In each class there will be a section called
Discussion of “Tips we can use: part x”
The worksheets are divided into 5 groups
The first pile is called First Night
Then there are 4 packets, which can be used depending on the expertise of the substitute.
Part A, tips page 1-94
VERBAL
Worksheets Group A
Part B, tips on pages 111-160
MATH
Worksheets Group B
Part C, tips on pages 161-234
MATH
Worksheets group C
Part D: Review tips on pages 1-94
VERBAL
Worksheets group D
Step by Step, in blocks of 15 minutes
All page numbers are from 10 Real SATs
This schedule is for a class that takes place in the evening from 6-9 p.m.
6 pm Welcome
6:01 Short word of the day
6:03 Tip of the week.... taken from the newspaper or from page 14
6:04 Instructor will ask students, “What did you learn from Chapter 6, about analogies?”
6:05-6:10 Students will shout out the tips they learned and demonstrate how to use the tips.
6:11-6:26Instructor evaluates the tips, adds some. The class works together on a set of 4 questions from Nov. 1995, page 283 -- working in pairs. Instructor walks around (IWA)
6:26 Stretch, Instructor will hand out worksheets to practice the tips.
6:27-6:40 class goesover the worksheet.
6:40-6:42 re shuffle classroom, form new pairs
6:42-7:00 work with new pairs
7:01 pairs shift and make groups of 4
7:02-7:10 compare answers and learn one tip from another student
"Find out one tip from another student, such as how to remember the definition of vicarious."
7:11 to 7:20 walk around the room and exchange tips. Find at least two people who seem like good partners to work with. Exchange email addresses or phone numbers. Commit to sending each other one vocab definition and sentence each day.
7:21-7:40 Go around the room, Each person explains to another person in their group "this is what I learned from the four people I met."
7:41-7:55 Instructor explains different learning styles: converge, diverse, sequential, global or visual, social, individual and intrapersonal.
7:56-8 Q and A about learning styles.
8:01-8:03 Homework is given (as shown on syllabus or schedule of the course)
8:01-8:15 new handout, either math or verbal. Students can choose. IWA
8:16-8:30 Students break into groups and work on problems in a test from the book
8:31-8:45 the class works together for the answer to problems shown by the instructor.
8:46-8:59 Instructor assigns four more problems... Students work in small groups (instructor walks around and addresses the problems)
9 p.m. dismissed.
Instructor might include more walking around or demosntration of hands on math... the key is to be flexible, both instructor and students, and realize that testing is an unnatural process. We prefer to be social and to solve problems together or at least announce the solutions in a group. We learn by talking. Even if you know the answer, when you explain it, you become a stronger student. Together we are better.
PARTICIPATION: Students are welcome to leave the class at any time for personal reasons. If you don’t intend to return to the class until next week, please write a note to the instructor in case there is special homework.
The instructor will attempt to change the activity every 20 minutes. Please work with usand cooperate.
Here is a list of all of the techniques
VERBAL
1. Make sentences with the Groups of SAT WORDS. The idea is to make EMOTIONAL connections between the words and situations. Remember the situations.
Go to SAT WORDS www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/satwords.html
2. Mark the SAT questions with "+" and "-" in the problems with gaps.
3. GO TO www.number2.com
4. Work with someone.
5. Make cards. Find a partner.
6. Sign up for WORD A DAY to your CELL PHONE
7. Write to the teacher and ask, "WHAT IS DECIBEL?" or whatever the word is today. Do anything except look up a word in the dictionary.
Ask a teacher of someone in the administration about a difficult word.
8. Use a dictionary or go to dictionary.com
9. Go to FREEVOCABULARY.COM (an excellent program)
10. Send your questions to Mr. McCrea... the act of typing will help to REINFORCE the idea or the new vocabulary.
11. Get up, walk around, take a deep breath and use the words you know from the word group. "That teacher is bombastic!"
MATH
The basic theme is "IF you are BORED or YAWNING, then it is YOUR responsibility to find something interesting to do WITHOUT bothering other people."
1. Look for something to do. It does not bother the teacher if you go to the math computer and "play" with the math web sites or the flash card programs or the other computer activities.
2. Video -- watch a video and ask questions about what you see.
3. Read a magazine and ask: how long? How tall? What is the ratio between the small one and the tall one?
4. Go to www.mathforartists.com and do some of the interesting problems.
5. If you don't have internet access, then ask the teacher for some manipulative math problems. Get a pass to go to the library.
6. Look at magazines. Ask questions like:
How much water can this object hold? (TV, Desk, pencil)
Then calculate the amount.
How much paint do I need to cover this object (one gallon covers 400 square feet)
What fraction of a gallon do you need to cover your shoe in paint. Estimate it.
7. Convert 1/2 = 50 cents = 50% = 29/58 = 0.50
Do this with 1/3, 1/5, 1/6 and 1/7
How many gallons of paint do I need to paint the room?
Probability.
8, How many possibilities are there for dice? Three dice?
52 cards?
9. What are the chances of picking a red card and then a black card?
What are the chances of getting a pair of red cards?
Talk about these questions with your partner.
10 Look at problems in the book. (Yes, this is a novel idea... why don't you be your own teacher?) There are TIPS on how to improve your score on the SAT...
11. Learn a tip and tell another student. Or tell the teacher. Or write to me about it. When you EXPLAIN the tip, you become better.
12. Go to CollegeBoard.com and sign up for the newsletters ... and take the free mini SAT.
THEORY: Most people learn when they want to learn.
Most people learn when they are playing or trying something that they want to do.
Most people learn from talking with other people or hearing a story or watching TV or DOING SOMETHING. Don't just listen to the teacher. The "good student" who takes notes about what the teacher says needs to GET VISUAL and DO SOMETHING with another person.
EXPLAIN something that you recently learned... This is a good way to improve your understanding. "I know this, but I just can't explain it." SORRY! You don't know it. Try to begin to explain part of the information that you understand and your audience will help you udnerstand the rest.
In other words: imagine that you are in a classroom and you fall asleep. Just for 3 minutes. Then you wake up and the teacher stands over you... She smiles and says:
a) "Go to the principal's office."
b) "Go back to sleep."
c) "Let's start over. What do you want to study right now? Do you want to study with someone or do you want to study alone? Do you want to handle things or use colored pens?"
I hope you choose "C".... so, become your own teacher and tell yourself to get to work... or turn the work into play. Start playing. Please.
Mr. McCrea, Tutor
Did you visit www.number2.com???
Did you take the "Learning Styles Quiz"?
Cary Elcome lives in England. He enjoys linking his students with my students. Send him an email asking him to link you with a student from another country: bradstow2@yahoo.co.uk >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ALSO AVAILABLE: A DVD with Mr. McCrea's system:
A Visual and Active Approach for SAT.
For availability and pricing, write to talkinternational@yahoo.com or call 954 646 8246. Description: Mr. Mac, with 10 years of experience as a tutor, describes how he went from a PSAT score of 550 to 800 in math. Learn more according to your learning style.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Visual and Active SAT or GRE Prep In 5 sessions
Welcome to the Visual and Active way of improving your vocabulary and your understanding about math. It’s also known as SAT Prep.
Let’s start with your homework. Every week you should learn at least 50 words from www.freevocabulary.com... Like this.
You will find with the CD a photocopied list of words. This is what you should do (I’ve made it easy on you… you have everything you need to get started). Even if your printer is broken, you have the first 50 words on paper in the packet.
Step 1… Fold the paper so that you only see the words, not the definitions.
Step 2 … read the full list, and put a check mark next to every word that you can GIVE A SYNONYM and USE IN A SENTENCE. “Garrulous.” Man, I hate my class in SAT. There’s a student who is so garrulous, he’s always arguing with the teacher and then he’s talking all the time on his cell phone without leaving the class. He’s so argumentative and talkative.
Step 3…Unfold the paper. It’s time to go back, each day, and read and study the words I don’t know. Hmmmm, read read read. So, gregarious means like… social, friendly. Okay. It’s not egregious… okay. I gotta make a connection. Gregory is so friendly, he’s always talking. He’s smiling, he’s gregarious.
Step 4…go to the library or to the book story and get VISUAL SAT with cartoons and a list of hot words. Or go to www.teachersTOteachers.com and get your list.
Step 5…number2.com. Visit and register and get started.
Step 6… smile, breathe, remember that the SAT tests only about 2/7ths of who you are and most jobs require none of what you’re being tested on. The SAT is NOT a great predictor of success in life or in college and we are playing a game here.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. Have a good class…
How do I know all this? I have ADD. I nearly flunked out of my first year at university. It took me nine years to get through college. The first time I took the SAT, I got 550 math, 570 verbal or 1120. The next time I took the test, I got 1520, that’s 720 verbal and 800 math.
How did I do it? I spent three weeks without TV and I did every problem in the prep book.
Do you have to do every problem to make a jump in your SAT scores? No. But do you want to take the chance? The idea is that there are about 120 math problems that they can throw at you. Just 120 variations. There are about 30 variations of problems in verbal….and 5000 vocabulary words. You need to learn at least 1000 of those words to hope to understand enough of the SAT to score an increase.
This is a game. Do you want to play by my rules or by the rules that you invent? Your choice. C’est a vous de decider!
This course has 5 sessions.
You don’t have to come to any of the sessions. That’s your choice. If you come to at least 3 of the sessions, you will get a prize and anyone who makes all 5 sessions and who completes all of the homework will get an additional prize.
If you come and you want to sleep, that’s your choice.
If you want to talk on your cell phone, c’est votre choix.
If you want to ignore the teacher and work on your own section of the SAT book, esta es su decision.
My name is Mr. Mac and I’m your SAT Prep teacher. If a substitute teacher gave you this CD or video, then it’s because I’m with my wife in a fabulous location or we have a family emergency or I’m on business, teaching in another state.
In this short video I will describe the theories of learning.
The Baseball Coach
Mistakes are good.
Teachers made mistakes.
Teachers still make mistakes.
Learning styles
Linguistic and logical
Analytical and numeric
Converge / diverge
Details LEFT, big picture RIGHT
Visual audio Movement
3-D, special relationships
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Musical… look up Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences. Google him.
I also want to pay tribute to the teachers who
Walk around Ms. Donna Elrad parking lot hands on
David Rhodes for short term to long term
Dr. Sally R at FAU. She showed me how to use manipulatives (things to move by hand) Mano a mano manual
The trainers for Broward County Public Schools, with their use of the Parking Lot and well-timed training sessions.
If you don’t understand why I mention these people, make a note and email me at s2314@tmail.com or call me at 954 646 8246 or hit my web site at TeachersToTeachers.com or email me at talkinternational@yahoo.com
Make the link connect what you know to something new. Make multiple connections. The rule of 7 exposures to learn new words.
The rule of 72 to double
4% for 18 years, 6% for 12 years, 10% for 7 years, 7% for 10 years…
The multiplication table.
“But I’m just not able to learn math. I don’t have the ability. My father can’t do math, he’s an artist. My gene pool just can’t figure it out. I’m not a rocket scientist.”
In Europe and Asia, people don’t gasp when you tell them “I am a physicist.” Or “I’m studying calculus.” If you can’t do the math, they assume that you just haven’t spent time to learn the subject, not that you don’t have the ability. In USA, it’s about having the right kind of brain. In Europe and Asia, it’s about spending enough time or getting the right teacher to help you understand the subject.
That’s the brilliant conclusion here. I might not be the right teacher. I usually am convergent, I zip right to the main answer (which is okay for most math problems). I had to learn to DIVERGE.
I am visual and musical and 3-D. I’m lazy and that’s a good thing… I don’t read the passage. I read the questions and then scan for the answer. “Oh, it’s not about baseball. It’s about the Amazon.” I get the answers quickly and I often don’t need to read the entire passage. Remember, this is NOT a test about understanding a book. That is the IB international baccalaureate. This is not about learning 10,000 words in another language. This is NOT about learning calculus. The SAT is about finding the answer on the page. In most questions, the answer is given to you. You just have to select it.
Mr. Mac, when do we get started? Now. I have to stretch to analyze, to use bigger words (I hate reading), and so I might not be the right teacher for your learning style. But someone in this room might have the key for you. Get to know your classmates.
Some of you are right now saying, “Huh? I came here to learn how to boost my grade in the SAT. That’s verbal, writing and math. Why is he singing? Why is he jumping around?”
A math teacher told me: I don’t use manipulatives. I like to keep my classroom simple. One text book. This person did not have Mrs. Robison as his trainer. I did and that’s why my classroom is filled with toys, things to touch, rulers, calculators, pens, paper. I trust that you will touch but not break, that you will borrow and return. Yes, you can take something home with you for the week…. Just bring it back.
EQ is Emotional Quotient, like IQ or intelligence quotient, and EQ is a lot more useful. Go to www.6seconds.org.
This is the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Learning and we worship Gardner and Goleman. I’m learning with you. Some students might be offended by the idea that religion is a set of principles and theories and that I’m saying that a religion has no spiritual truth and that Mr. Mac makes fun of Catholics.
This is not the place to get into a debate over Darwin or about what happens after death. It is a place to have fun and smile, breathe and walk around.
PARKING LOT – Park your questions!
I learned this from Josie Bacayao… Visit hispanicunity.org and see where I got my UNITY reminder band.
If you have a question that has nothing to do with this class, please put it on a post-it note or on a scrap of paper and I’ll deal with it during the Parking Lot time of the session.
I have ADD, I get scattered very easily and it’s why I’m good at a multiple choice test. Just show me something interesting. This course takes place in the evening and jumping around keeps me awake and I hope you are entertained.
EDU-TAINMENT… education as entertainment. If you are laughing, you are paying attention, you are not asleep and you might be learning. I learned this from Dennis Yuzenas, yuzenas@prodigy.net or go to www.WhatDoYaKnow.com -- you’ll learn something there.
BRING QUESTIONS TO THE CLASS.
It’s not for me to select the problems to do on the board. It’s for you.
Why do you video tape the sessions? If someone is sick or late or wants to review (you don’t have to take notes in this class … especially if you are visual… it’s hard to pay attention and take notes, especially when the teacher doesn’t stop talking.)… the video is available for review. You can also use the video to file a complaint to the college about me and the video is there for you to prove that I used obscene language or called the war in Iraq “a necessary war.” You can show that I’m a liar. That’s your choice. That’s why I have the video.
Again….Do every question in the book like this. If you look at the reading or math section and you say, Hey, I know how to do that problem, then check the problem and move on. If you can’t do the problem in 30 seconds, put a question mark and move on. You are reading the problem and saying to yourself, I feel confident that I know what to do next. If you don’t have that feeling, then put a question mark and ask me to show you how to do it in class.
INTERPERSONAL
I insist that people work in pairs. I will not force you to … because some people are intrapersonal and prefer to work alone. Einstein might be here today. He was NOT an interpersonal social learner.
I will sometimes look at the problem and say, “Go ask Vincent to show you how to do that problem. If Vincent can’t show you, then I’ll show the whole class.”
Is this fair to Vincent? Yes, because when he has a weakness, he’s going to go to another student. You have in this class at least 4 other students who will be your mentors and show you something new. Most people are visual and social learners, so you will learn from your peers and interpret what I say by listening to your partner. “WHAT DID MAC SAY?” and your partner, who might change from hour to hour, will say, “Oh, I was confused too until I remembered that FOIL is First, outside, inside, last. See F O I L.” Questions? Call me. 954 646 8246.
I don’t take a break unless the majority of the class insists on the break. The break, if we have it, will be for 5 minutes, unless the class as a majority forces me to make it 10 minutes. I stay until 9:30 because that’s the kind of teacher I am. More is better, and we can get more if you limit your questions … sometimes I will be 5 minutes late to a class. Big problem. Unless you take advantage of that time and talk with your partner. And every student in the room is your partner.
BUT I WANT TO BE A PRIVATE PERSON, I don’t want any jerk that I don’t know to have my email address or my cell phone number. Live with it. Get a yahoo.com account that you can throw away after class. You will get more out of this class if you put more into it. We will meet for 15 hours and you need at least 120 hours to raise your SAT scores.
Did I get your attention yet?
You need 180 hours of focused effort to learn a language. Why not give 4 hours a day for the next 30 days? Just to improve your English and writing and math understanding.
You will wear a name tag or you won’t
You will work with a different buddy each session, or you will stay with the same pal or work alone. It’s your choice.
Performance of your understanding. It is not required, but if you want a POU, raise your hand. I’ll put your understanding to the test as you explain how you came to the answer… or show another student.
Structure of the class: what structure?
Motivation by Mac Mactivation™
You will begin by copying me in using words in crazy ways…
Then the problem of the day is put on the board. I put one up maybe 5 problems and you try to solve it. Work in pairs or small groups. Repeat for 170 minutes. Then we go home.
No breaks which means you can leave anytime you want.
If you talk, you whisper. You form small groups, when I come over, you either perform your understanding of a problem and I check your understanding or you follow along with that person who is talking or you
Anyone talking with friends can do it outside. If you choose to use your money or your parent’s money with social club, fine, do it outside.
Homework. Read every problem in the thick book. Simple.
Look at every word in freevocabulary.com
Check off the words you know.
Put question marks on problems you can’t do in the thick book.
Visit number 2.com and print the problems that you don’t get.
Send me email if you have problems. talkinternational@yahoo.com
Good luck Bonne chance Buenta Suerte
GET THE VIDEO
The 5 session SAT training is available on VHS video and on COMPACT DISK, CD, using mp3 Video. Each session, there is a 20 minute talk, so your $20 buys 5 CDs.
If you want it on VHS, you get 5 Video Tapes and postpaid in hte USA it's $45
I charge $50 per hour of tutoring, but here you can have everything that I would tell you anyway for just $45.
If you want it on CD, the videos are shorter (it doesn't include the whole class). $30 for 5 CDs, postpaid.
Send your order to
S. McCrea
Box 030555
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303-0555
or email me at mistermath@comcast.net
I might take a while to respond to you, so call 954 646 8246 if you don't hear from me soon. Also check out my new FCAT site www.newFCAT.com
HELLO!
Did I get
your attention yet?
More Tips...
SIGN UP for a word a day...
Here is an example
From: Wordsmith [mailto:wsmith@wordsmith.org]
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fletcher
This week's theme: words related to archery.
fletcher (FLECH-uhr) noun
A maker of arrows.
[From Middle English fleccher, from Old French flechier, from fleche (arrow).
Ultimately from Indo-European root pleu (to flow), which also gave us flow, fly, float, fleet, pulmonary, and pluvial.]
Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=fletcher
Sometimes this word is used in extended senses, for one who deals in arrows and also for an archer, but it is one of those professions that now mostly survive as surnames. Some others are Webster (a weaver), Napier (in charge of the table linen at a royal estate), and Cooper (makes or repairs casks or barrels).
In their place, new professions have cropped up: webmaster, knowledge manager, privacy officer, and others. Do you think the pattern will repeat and in a century or two one might find somebody named John Webmaster only because his father had a last name Webmaster?
-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
"[Richard Head]'s garden is a longbow factory. His wife, Lindsay, is
a longbow champion and a full-time fletcher."
Angus Watson; Know your Bow: Yew Turn That Changed History; The Daily
Telegraph (London, UK); Oct 8, 2005.
...........................................................................
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(1947- )
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http://wordsmith.org/words/fletcher.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/fletcher.ram
Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/fletcher.html
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Subject: QAD - "How can one be compelled..."
QUOTE A DAY
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How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me.
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he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done. Non-cooperation is directed not against...the Governors, but against the system they administer.
The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but injustice.
--Mahatma Gandhi
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY! ----+ In 1797, who was awarded a patent for the first washing machine?
+----- Answer At The End -----+
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War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off.
--Karl Kraus, writer (1874-1936)
------------------------------------------------------------
HISTORY ANSWER:
In 1797, Nathaniel Briggs was awarded a patent for the first washing machine.
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Michael Starbird... This person is my nominee for math teacher of the next millennium. He makes math fun and visible. If you don't like math, then look for his videos.
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/
users/starbird/
Michael Starbird
Address: Department of Mathematics, UT Austin, Austin, TX 78712
Office: RLM 11.122
Phone: (512) 471-5156
Fax: (512) 471-9038
E-mail: starbird@math.utexas.edu
His book is called The Heart of Mathematics and his video series about calculus is called Change and Motion.
Do you like working with
Mr. McCrea?
Here's a proposed class that you might enjoy...
Proposal for a six hour course (two sessions) for “How to Maintain a Web site for just $10 a year”
Maintain Your Own Web Site for less than $10 a Year.
Do you own a small business? Do you want to organize a family reunion via the Internet? For just $10 a year you can maintain a web site and own a domain name for just $10 a year. This six-hour course makes sure you Required skills: how to use a word processing software. You will need access to a computer (either at home or at a library) to complete one homework assignment lasting about 60 minutes. How to resize photos and upload photos will also be covered. This is not a course for expert users. This course uses NO HTML. This is the least expensive way to get your own web site. Learn how to grab a piece of the Internet for yourself!
Suggested cost: $39 (no computer lab)
Suggested cost: $49 (in a computer lab)
Course Instructor: Steve McCrea, web page instructor, www.stevemccrea.com
Want to learn more about the course? Write to Steve at analyst@comcast.net.
Flexible.
The point of math is to show you are flexible.
In general I like Algebra and I find many students don’t see the relevance. I try to convey the sense that they are engaging in an exercise of “flexibility.”
If you can see that x = 50/100 = 0.5 = 400/800 = 50% = 4.25/8.5 = -35/-70, then you have a flexible mind.
Word to Cell Phone
Practice a new word in a sentence each day with another person...
Here's the concept: Studies show that people learn words when they use them (not by studying lists of words). If you have a child who wants to learn new words (to prepare for higher education), why not practice new words together? You can receive a word each day in a sentence that you can use with your friends and family. Invite your family to receive these words on their cell phones -- then (during a free moment while waiting in line) .
Your email address and cell phone number will not be sold to a mailing list. Your information will not be used to sell products.
I send the email to my family and friends and my SAT students about three or four times a week. Below are some of the past words that I've sent.
You can also click HERE to find more practice sentences.
PROCEDURE
1. Find out the email address for your cell phone.
ATT = xxxxxxxxxx@
mobile.att.net
Cingular = xxxxxxxxxx@ mycingular.net
Verizon = xxxxxxxxxx@ vtext.com
T-Mobile = xxxxxxxxxx@ tmomail.net
(Do you know other codes or domain names?)
2. Check that your cell phone receives email messages. You might need to ask your cell phone service provider to add the feature. You can check to see if your cell phone receives email messages by sending yourself a message.
3. Send an email message to analyst@comcast.net (my email address) with the following message: "PLEASE ADD MY EMAIL and CELL PHONE to your Word-To-Cell-Phone List."
4. Encourage your parents and friends to sign up and start using the words in the sentence to expand your vocabulary.
5. If you want to be removed from the list, please send an email message giving your phone number and email address. I purge my list about once a week.
Find out more, click HERE
Are you interested in other workshops?
Ask questions that a tutor asks and you'll save money!
Are you visual?
Do you prefer to work alone or with other students?
Do you want the information provided step-by-step in a sequence or
If you want to become a tutor, then examine these pages carefully. You can pull ideas about how to become a tutor by closely following recommendations on these pages. Anyone who feels comfortable with the subject that they are teaching can become a tutor... Generally, you charge at least $30 per lesson for a 50-minute lesson.
If you have questions, write to analyst@comcast.net
Return to Teachers to Teachers home page
The rest of this page is for students and parents to read... good luck!
Tutor/SAT Preparation
FIRST LESSON IS FREE
(at least get a free lesson for your child...
It's my pleasure to share what I know with the next generation)
Fill in the gaps ? Help with homework
Elocution and traditional tutoring
>>> Cultural Literacy <<<
Ask for free videos on “Study Skills” ? “7 SAT Tips” ? “Aptitudes” ? “Visual Math” ?
Also available on AUDIO CASSETTE and CD for “learn while you ride.”
Free LENDING LIBRARY
of Classics Illustrated >>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sensitive to LD ADD/ADHD (I have it!)
Location: your house or 2314 Desoto ?
Rates
SCHOOL SUBJECTS/ SAT PREP
$45/hour in your house
$40/hour in my house
SCHOOL SUBJECTS
Math, Chemistry, SAT Math/Verbal, GRE,
Spanish, French, World History
Lower costs:
Elocution, Cultural History, Geography and other "culture" subjects (not directly related to school work): $35/hour my house
Ask about the Parent eBook (free on CD for one week)
SAT PREP -- If your student is mature, you can save money by learning to do some of the tutoring YOURSELF, with your child. Anyone can help a child improve vocabulary and the SAT Verbal is 80% vocab! SAT WORD LIST
FIRST LESSON IS FREE –
Try tutoring at no risk and no cost.
Cell: 954 646 8246
www.teacherstoteachers.com
E-Mail: englishlesson@mail.com
BEST TIMES for the tutoring
Saturday and Sunday by appointment
I'm a high school teacher, so weekends are the best time to get together. Some kids are "late night creatures," and I am flexible with my timing.
I'm tutoring to be able to afford to live in beautiful 7 Isles, so I'm grateful for the chance to serve you and your child. The idea is to open doors, expand horizons, and do so efficiently....
Suggested programs
The Study Skills Review: 2 lessons to build smart study habits
Cultural Literacy: What does your kid know about Harriet Beecher Stowe? Read the Classic Illustrated and then discuss with the tutor. 2 lessons.
Visual Math: See geometry (volumes and area), fractions and decimals in a new way (4 lessons) .... when and when not to use a calculator... Mental Math.
Introduction to Aptitude Testing: I don't do the testing, but I can recommend a highly reputable organization: Johnson O'Connor -- ask for my free testimonial tape. FREE LESSON (15 minutes) I receive no commission for this service. It helped me when I was 17 years old and you'll enjoy it, too. http://members.aol.com/jocrf19/
Elocution: This was my first experience as a tutee. My tutor was Lady Luia Forbes in Vaud, Switzerland. I hated the experience and I've enjoyed the results ever since. She introduced me to concepts like reincarnation and made me define the differences between religions. She helped me see the value of critical thinking, objective definitions and memorization of poetry. (2-4 lessons)
Language Learning: tips on how to learn a language more efficiently. What are similarities between languages? There's a "Skills Inventory" that helps the student learn his/her strengths and challenges (two lessons)
TOTAL: 12-14 lessons (includes the free 15-minute information workshop on aptitudes)
SAT -- Hand-holding the student: If you student does not like to study alone, I'll do the baby sitting! 10 lessons at $40 per session, split between verbal and math.
SAT -- Mature Student -- The student uses my videos and needs only two lessons to review methods and strategies.
SAT -- TRAIN THE PARENT: In two lessons, I can show you my techniques.
Six SAT Tips
1. start learning vocabulary early (you can’t cram)
2. get enough sleep and drink plenty of water
3. plug in the number (work from the answer)
4. guess when you can eliminate 3 choices
5. Do at least 10 practice SATs
6. Learn words by eliminating words from a word list like freevocabulary.com
(I have the audio CDs, so you can borrow them at no charge)
On certain geometry problems, you might need to add a line.
Remember: TRIANGLES
3 4 5, 5 12 13, multiples of these triangles,
diagonal of a square is ROOT 2,
the middle side of a 30-60-90 triangle is ROOT 3.
How can a tutor help my child?
A tutor can teach your child…
How to Study more efficiently
How to memorize, Tricks for memorizing
Note-taking and reviewing systems.
How to Read faster and better
How to skim, scan, and make a survey. How to anticipate what you will read. Techniques to summarize a chapter and retain what your child reads.
The Art of Elocution
How to speak with confidence.
Proper posture, relaxed breathing, phrasing of sentences, smile!
Memorization of speeches and poems, clear pronunciation. How to use a tape recorder or a video camera to prepare for a speech. How to relax in front of a group. Techniques I learned from Lady Luia Forbes, a tutor in Villars, Switzerland.
Tricks in Specific Subjects
Tutors can helps your child with specific subjects: Quick mental math, Classics Illustrated books to help the lazy reader get through English, Strunk & White, halogens vs. noble gases in Chemistry, Presidents and British monarchs, songs and poems to remember dates in history, etc.
Five Languages
What are important phrases in Italian, Russian, German, French, Spanish? How about Bahasa and Kiswahili? A well-traveled tutor can give your child confidence and expand vocabulary and horizons.
General Information
Does your child need a little boost of confidence? A little review of geography, U.S. History and other
useful information (that many schools overlook or don’t include in their curriculum). Quick metric and currency conversions.
Does a tutor cost a lot?
Not necessarily. You can use a tutor for a short "boost" (two or three lessons) or for an on-going "training" (once a month) to monitor and sustain your child’s progress.
Why is a tutor helpful?
There are "Seven Intelligences" – Research has shown that traditional tests (like the SAT and IQ tests) measure only two of a person’s aptitudes. Most schools teach
analytical thinking using abstract marks on paper. There are at least five other "intelligences", including kinetic sense (the ability to learn sophisticated
movements), rhythm and musical memory and structural visualization (3-D vision). Why not teach to your child’s strengths?
Johnson O’Connor Laboratory (based in New York) suggests that if an aptitude is not used, the person becomes restless or bored. If your child has a strong musical ability but has problems with math or other subjects, a tutor can use non-traditional techniques to teach the material in a new way.
Why not try tutoring?
I have learning disabilities including ADD. I have multiple aptitudes. I can show your child how I adapted. Visit www.teacherstoteachers.com and click on TUTOR.
954 463 0310 (weekends), 30 to 50 minutes per session.
Tutees should learn poetry
VISIT SOME SUGGESTED ITEMS...
List of userful web sites
James Loewen http://www.uvm.edu/~jloewen/
Dennis Yuzenas www.WhatDoYaKnow.com history with a twist
Career Assessment www.careerassessmentcenter.com
Sunrise, Florida 954 587 7148
Hollywood Center
7550 Davie Road Extension, Hollywood, FL
Learn about the ADD Kit (for adults, too)
Return to the MAIN PAGE
PARENTS: Sign up for WORD A DAY
Rturn to the TUTOR page
Click here to learn about Learning Styles on Tutor Page 2
Samples of poetry and literature for tutees to choose and commit to memory.
Why do I need to learn this?
TO a 17-year-old: when you sit in the office of an admissions director at a university, will you have anything to talk about? Can you get inside his/her head? You need to have a common experience. Perhaps you see a photo from Firenze on her wall. “Ah, Ponte Vecchio. I heard that there are gold merchants on the bridge, working in stalls that are 400 years old.” When you are asked, “How do you like our campus?” you can say, “it reminded me about the first time I heard H_____’s Messiah. I really enjoyed the echo in your cathedral.”
Music samples:
Beethoven’s fifth, Pastoral
Messiah (who wrote it? Which composer wrote in English? Which composer had more than 4 children?)
Who wrote the wedding march? He also did the music for Midsummer’s night dream.
Shakespeare (he shakes the spear)
When to the marriage of two minds….
33. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at sometime are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings...
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great?
--Julius Caesar, I:2
32. Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous...
Would he were fatter! But I fear him not.
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius...
I rather tell thee what is to be feared
Than what I fear; for always I am Caesar.
--Julius Caesar, I:2
31. Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge...
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war...
--Julius Caesar, III:1
30. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones...
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!
--Julius Caesar, III:2
22. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
--MacBeth, V:5
21. Lay on, MacDuff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
--MacBeth, V:8
20. O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength,
But it is tyrannous to use it like a giant...
Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting, petty officer
Would use his heaven for thunder.
Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulfurous bolt
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarle'd oak
Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.
--Measure for Measure, II:2
19. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
--The Merchant of Venice, I:3
18. Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my money and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For suff'rance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is my own.
--The Merchant of Venice, I:3
17. If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
--The Merchant of Venice, III:1
16. The course of true love never did run smooth;
But either it was different in the blood -
Or else misgrafted in respect of years -
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends -
Or if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And, ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!',
The jaws of darkenss do devour it up.
--A Midsummer Night's Dream, I:1
http://www.gva.net/misenber/shakes.htm
11. One that loved not wisely but too well. --Othello, V:2
9. O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse they name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet...
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy...
What's Montague? It is not hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
--Romeo and Juliet, II:2
8. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all to short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
--Sonnet 18. See also Summer Sonnet
2. Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. --Twelfth Night, II:5
43. To be, or not to be: that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them. To die: to sleep;
No more; and, by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die; to sleep;
To sleep? perchance to dream! Ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffl'd off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And make us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus consicence does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
--Hamlet, III:1
42. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in batallions.
--Hamlet, IV:5
41. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kiss'd I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that.
--Hamlet, V:1
38. Away, you scullion! You rampallion! You fustilarion! I'll tickle your catastrophe! --II Henry IV, II:1
37. Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger...
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot!
Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,
Cry, "God for Harry! England and Saint George!"
--Henry V, III:1
The forward violet thus did I chide…
Friends, Romans, Countrymen. L_nd me your ___rs.
Who said it?
great quotes from http://www.bartleby.com/101/
Jokes Puns
When she told me I was average, she was just being mean.
-------------------------------------------
A neutron goes into a bar and asks the bartender, "How much for a beer?"
The bartender replies, "For you,no charge.
------------------------------------------
Two molecules are walking down the street and they run in to each other.
One says to the other, "Are you all right?" "No I lost an electron!" "Are
you sure" "I'm positive !"
----------------------------------------
Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused his dentist's Novocain during
root canal work? He wanted to transcend dental medication.
The idea is to keep each section short so you can identify it and listen again, if you need to.
http://www.famousquotesandjokes.com/
How do crazy people go through the forest? They take
the psycho path.
How do you get holy water? Boil the Hell out of it.
What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall?
"Dam!"
What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long?
Polaroid's.
What do prisoners use to call each other?
Cell phones.
What do the letters DNA stand for? National Dyslexics
Association.
What do you call a boomerang that doesn't work?
A stick.
What do you call cheese that isn't yours?
Nacho Cheese.
What do you call Santa's helpers?
Subordinate Clauses.
What do you call four bull fighters in quicksand?
Quattro sinko.
What do you get from a pampered cow?
Spoiled milk.
What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Frostbite.
What has four legs, is big, green, fuzzy, and if it fell
out of a tree would kill you?
A pool table.
What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?
A nervous wreck.
What's the difference between roast beef and pea soup?
Anyone can roast beef.
Where do you find a dog with no legs?
Right where you left him.
Why are there so many Smiths in the phone book?
They all have phones.
Why do bagpipers walk when they play? They're trying
to get away from the noise.
What do you get when you cross a pit bull with a collie?
A dog that runs for help ... after it bites your leg off.
What does it mean when the flag is at half mast at the
post office?
They're hiring.
What kind of coffee was served on the Titanic? Sanka.
A certain man was infatuated with a young woman, but was
so timid he never had the courage to speak to her. In fact,
he told his therapist that every time he got near her he
felt like nothing more than a tiny pebble.
"Well," his therapist responded, "if you want to get the
girl you'll just have to be a little boulder!"
_________________________________
Recently a guy in Paris nearly got away with stealing
several paintings from the Louvre. However, after planning
the crime, getting in and out past security, he was
captured only 2 blocks away when his Econoline ran out of
gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and
then make such an obvious error, he replied:
"I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh."
=============
GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE, THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the
second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold an egg.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.
GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE, THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge, mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the joy.
GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD:
1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down
there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking
chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to
ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.
THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:
1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.
SUCCESS:
At age 04 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 16 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 20 success is . . . having sex.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 60 success is . . . having sex.
At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
(From Kurt Vonnegut)
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists,
whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own
meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But
trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you
and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Ok, worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed
your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle
Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people
who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes
you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with
yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in
doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted
to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I
know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when
they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe
you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't
congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices
are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of
what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever
own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should
hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle,
because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you
when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in
Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will
philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize
that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund.
Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one
might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will
look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply
it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing
the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts
and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
Einstein's Speech
When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's
circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his
laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another
rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who
somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of
speechmaking.
"I have and idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give
this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you."
Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!"
When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's
cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a
beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few
questions expertly.
Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric
question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to
let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool.
Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a
steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so
simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back,
answer it for me."
(how to tell a joke) get to the point, avoid a long set up but paint the picture.
Random Quote:
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."
- Albert Einstein
Random Quote:"Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be Blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rest and expatiates in a life to come. Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way; Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler heav'n."- Alexander PopeAn Essay on Man
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
- Albert Einstein
Only when the doors of perception are cleansed will man see things as they really are - infinite."
- William Blake
http://www.famousquotesandjokes.com/quote.asp?categoryId=38#Quote
READING
http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/book/
This site is for children who love to read, laugh, and think.
It has a book I wrote about my childhood, including when I went to boarding school in England, as Harry Potter did. But my book tells a true story. It also has books and stories by E. Nesbit, including a funny love story (scroll to see them) and famous and not so famous fairy tales.
Maybe stories about math subjects
Not sure… http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/alltopics.html
Trivia contests
http://www.funtrivia.com/quizlistgold.cfm?cat=1915
Literature
History of American Literature
... in the history of American literature. ... 1817-1862), the main Transcendentalists, important ... Though
most modern readers consider Henry ... was also writing the poetry ...
http://news1.yasuda-u.ac.jp/ptervin/HAL/hamlit08.html
http://www.bartleby.com/cambridge/
Considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing. The set encompasses a wide selection of writing on orators, humorists, poets, newspaper columnists, religious leaders, economists, Native Americans, song writers, and even non-English writing, such as Yiddish and Creole.
HISTORY
Here are some questions to ask yourself about history
When did the Normans take over England?
When did England separate from France?
What was the historical background to the movie TIMELINE? The key date was 1350-something
When was glass invented?
What is the largest pyramid in the world?
Where is Borobudur?
How can you use google.com with these investigations?
What are the exxaggerations or distortions or facts in this flash presentation?
http://198.173.255.220/conen/conflict_2.html
www.conceptwizards.com
www.WhatDoYaKnow.com Dennis Yuzenas of Palm Beach County Schools asks questions that many students find interesting...
Science
Art
Math: www.mathforartists.com
Math Links (the FAU professor's links)
Law: go to google.com and ask questions that you might hear in a law class. Or type in "Legal questions" and see what appears. "Law and ethics"
More exercises for every student to complete:
Be intuitive. Say the first answer that comes to mind and take time to write why you answered that way.
If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?
If you were a vegetable, what vegetable would you be?
If you were a piece of furniture, what furniture would you be?
If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
If you were a car, what car would you be?
If you were an airplane, what airplane would you be?
If you were a type of building material, what material would you be?
If you were a building, what building would you be?
If you were a computer, what type of computer would you be?
If you were a body part, what part of the body would you be?
If you were a key on a keyboard, what letter would you be?
If you were a type of weather, what type of weather would you be?
If you were a color, what color would you be?
If you were a shape, what shape would you be?
If you were a mathematical equation or a type of operation in math, what would you be?
ALSO: nut, flower, tree, heavenly body...
Comments from the teacher who created this lesson
Just a thought: I prefer to stick to things in nature as much as possible
because they are so much more powerful in their beauty and meaning and
therefore evoke more of our eternal nature. Plus once you get into things
like cars, the tendency is to starting wanting what you don't have, and that
spoils the exercise. And body parts could get weird!! What emerged from
this for us was a blossoming of each person's personality as well as an
appreciation for the awesome beauty and divine design that is evident in
nature (whether it's a Brazil nut or a palm tree or a persimmon!).
Just wanted to share that. -- Ms. Appleton
www.writeAbookNow.com one of the exercises is to write for five minutes about 3 words, such as Fire Clock Certain (you can add any prefixes or suffixes, such as five o'clock or uncertain or certainly).
The following is from a guy named Steve who created the Write A Book Now web site
He makes some interesting observations:
These are truths you’ve probably suspected all along:
1. Talent: in order to write a book, the less writing talent you have, the easier it will be for you. If you’re a professional writer right now, it’s an uphill struggle as you try to perfect what’s already perfect. These techniques will free you from the bonds of perfection and you’ll discover in minutes that you already have all the talent you need to write an outstanding book… honest!
2. Creativity: I have one word of advice for you when it comes to creativity. DON’T. I’ll show you exactly what publishers want… and it’s NOT creativity. Those who wish to be creative will rarely be published. The sooner you learn that, the sooner you’ll be a very successful author.
3. Time: You’re a busy professional. You’ve probably been told it takes years to write a good book. These are lies. You can write your book in 14 days or less, even if you’ve got a full-time business or career and have other demands on your time. No tricks, no asterisks. As one of my students, professional speaker John Watkis, said to me, “Steve, if I hadn’t used your information I’d probably STILL be writing my book. A book that’s now published and selling fast!”
4. Luck: Forget luck. Luck has nothing to do with writing and publishing your book. Follow the guidelines I’ll set out for you and you’ll be on a direct course for publishing success.
5. Writing ability: Do you know how to talk? Then you know how to write! Writing isn’t like painting or sculpting or playing tennis. You don’t need to spend years learning the basics and mastering the techniques. You’ve already done that as a child. You’re already a master writer. I give you the techniques to make it happen!
6. Getting an agent: I don’t want you to simply write a manuscript. I want you to SELL your book to a publisher. I’ll give you the three steps to getting an agent that will have several of them lining up within 36 hours! That's right, 36 HOURS!
Now, those are all bold claims. And each one of them has been challenged by “professional” writers. But when they see the techniques and strategies, when they actually use them, they actually write me letters afterwards apologizing and agreeing that these strategies not only work, they work better than anything they’ve ever seen in their lives.
More exercises for every student to complete:
Be intuitive. Say the first answer that comes to mind and take time to write why you answered that way.
If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?
If you were a vegetable, what vegetable would you be?
If you were a piece of furniture, what furniture would you be?
If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
If you were a car, what car would you be?
If you were an airplane, what airplane would you be?
If you were a type of building material, what material would you be?
If you were a building, what building would you be?
If you were a computer, what type of computer would you be?
If you were a body part, what part of the body would you be?
If you were a key on a keyboard, what letter would you be?
If you were a type of weather, what type of weather would you be?
If you were a color, what color would you be?
If you were a shape, what shape would you be?
If you were a mathematical equation or a type of operation in math, what would you be?
ALSO: nut, flower, tree, heavenly body...
Other items of interest
I've found the following web site to be helpful in describing the relationship between effort and reward...
A fabulous view of the World created by Bucky Fuller
http://www.geni.org/globalenergy
This page is about Learning Styles
This appeared on 60 Minutes in January 2004
It is posted here to help teachers remember that there are other ways of learning...often without a textbook.
The Eyes Have It
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 4, 2004
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to take a class at Harvard, you're about to find out from one of the university's most distinguished and popular professors. But don't worry, he doesn't teach advanced calculus or nuclear physics or ancient Greek literature.
In fact, if you were the kind of student who spent all your time staring out the classroom window, then Professor John Stilgoe's class may be just for you -- because looking around is exactly what he teaches. Correspondent Steve Kroft reports.
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”I just like to meander along, with or without my students, and just look,” says Professor Stilgoe, who teaches the art of exploration, and discovering the built environment - everything from architectural history to advertising and design. He introduces his students to a method of discovering a hidden world that's always been right in plain view.
“I start by showing slides of things that they think they have seen, and it turns out they haven't seen. The white arrow that's on the side of every Fed Ex truck is a nice place to start. Almost everybody's seen a Federal Express truck, almost nobody's seen the white arrow,” says Stilgoe.
If you don't see the big white arrow there's a reason for it, says Stilgoe. It's because your eyes and your brain have been conditioned to read the letters.
“Before they've learned to read, toddlers will see the arrow. And I've asked toddlers, ‘Do you see the arrow on the truck?’ And they usually do,” says Stilgoe. “The arrow is between the lower half of the capital E, and the X.”
Stilgoe says the arrow is just one of millions of things that are right in front of our eyes that we never notice.
His title at Harvard is professor in the History of Landscape. But his classes don't have much to do with bushes and flowers. He's more interested in the urban ecosystem that has been shaped and repaved over the centuries -- like the vast underground world beneath our feet.
When Stilgoe took Kroft for the kind of walk through Cambridge he takes with students, it turned into a march through the American industrial past – a relic from a long-extinct trolley company, a memorial to the American steel industry.
How long does it take him to get from one place to another?
“It takes me a very long time, and I've started out in perfect confidence to drive to California and I've wound up in Tennessee because things were interesting along the way,” says Stilgoe, laughing. “And if you just kind of wander along like that, following your nose, I mean, you find all kinds of neat things.”
Even if all of this stuff is a world that nobody sees or nobody thinks about.
“I think people see it. But most people, when they learn to read, stop looking around,” says Stilgoe. “I try very hard in this university, which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing.”
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This "other way of knowing" is simply using your eyes. The power of acute observation is one of nature's most useful tools for learning. But Stilgoe says the constant blur of the speed of modern life has caused us to lose it over the years.
“I think there are good reasons we've lost it. I mean, I don't tell people to start looking 360 degrees while they're driving a car. But if you were jogging along in a horse and carriage, horse and buggy 100 years ago, you could look around,” says Stilgoe. “I have people now who lead such high-speed lives, they really have never been told to slow down, look around, take a nice walk. Instead they go jogging or running to increase their heart rate. And I tell them, ‘Why not look around while you're doing it, increase some kind of rate in your mind?”
Harvard, he says, has some of the finest students in the world, but he believes most of them are visual illiterates. Their academic lives have been programmed around verbal and mathematical tests that will get them into a good college, but he says they lack a sense of spontaneity.
“I think they've missed a kind of self-guided, non-organized activity, non-sports activity growing up. Wandering around, getting into things. And the assumption seems to be nowadays is if a child isn't in an organized activity, the child is a criminal,” says Stilgoe. “But as far as I can understand, most of my colleagues I work with seem to have found their careers by being slightly disorganized. Lucking into something, you know.”
And this is exactly what happened with Stilgoe, who grew up in a small town south of Boston. His father was a boat builder, and Stilgoe was the first member of his family to ever graduate from college. He came to Harvard 30 years ago to get a PhD, and he’s been there ever since.
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Stilgoe has written a number of scholarly books, on subjects ranging from the development of the seashore to the impact of the railroads on the American landscape. But it's his eccentricity and accessibility that have made him so popular with Harvard students.
Sara Rotman, Lisa Faiman, Agnes Chu and Chris Hunter have all taken his classes.
“As he gives his lecture, it's sort of, can appear as though this is just coming out of nowhere or coming off the top of his head,” says Chu. “But if you read his books, you realize that they're very academically rigorous.”
“And he calls into question so many things that you take for granted on a day-to-day basis,” adds Faiman. “I kind of thought he was just crazy, like the first week of class I was there.”
“Rather than making you a better lawyer, or a better doctor, or teaching you how to be a good accountant, it's a way of living,” says Hunter.
Stilgoe, who teaches in the school of design, devotes a lot of time to the visual media, and to advertising messages that he believes have subconsciously shaped his students' perceptions.
One example he points to is an advertisement for pantyhose. “I can't imagine how it sells pantyhose. And I've given a good deal of thought to the fact that the most atrociously sexist images of women that I can find are in magazines that are aimed only at women,” says Stilgoe.
Another example shows a woman out in a sun-baked arroyo with a nice sink full of water in front of her, while a freight train rumbles behind in the far back. She’s wearing a locomotive engineer’s hat.
“How does an ad like this sell sinks? Does it sell sinks to women? What does the nation's railroad industry think of being depicted like this, right? I haven't a clue. But if you put an ad like this for an hour in a final exam with one direction, discuss, you'll force students to do something,” says Stilgoe.
“I don't think I'll ever be able to look at a fashion magazine again without thinking of him,” says Faiman, laughing. “I used to be able to flip through a fashion magazine in maybe about, oh, half hour tops. Now it will take me several hours. I just can't look at images the same way. I can't just sit down and enjoy my magazine anymore.”
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“This generation of Harvard students gets into Harvard by doing exactly and precisely what teacher wants. If teacher is vague about what he wants, they work a lot harder to figure out what they want, and whether or not it's good,” says Stilgoe. “The vaguer the directions, the more likely the opportunity for serendipity to happen. Drives them nuts.”
Every year, Stilgoe sends his students into supermarkets to study product packaging and product placement. The marketing people leave nothing to chance. And they start going after them before some of them can either walk or talk.
“The design of a package is incredibly important. I tell them to duck walk down the cereal aisle at a supermarket,” says Stilgoe. “And they'll realize that the eyeballs of the figures on the cereal boxes are looking down to the place where a toddler meets the eye, if the toddler's in that little seat in a grocery carriage.”
Stilgoe pays great attention to the psychological power of color in manipulating moods and images. Take, for example, the color of his kitchen, which is apple green.
“Apple green was thought by a number of turn-of-the-century psychologists to be a calming color. And many of them told husbands to have their kitchens painted in that color so that their wives would be happy in the kitchen and not want to be, not want to register to vote and so on,” says Stilgoe. “And nowadays, if you go into the basements of old police stations and mental hospitals, you'll see the apple green color.”
He says that research on the effect of color on emotions continues, but it’s now become a secret science.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At his farmhouse outside Boston, Stilgoe receives junk mail under a number of phony demographic profiles he's created for himself. He wants to see how direct mail advertisers tailor their message if they think he is an African-American or an Asian. He got the idea from two of his students.
“I had two students who were living in sin, and who were seniors, and discovered that the American Express company had sent each of them a catalog. The interior of the catalog was identical. But the covers were different,” says Stilgoe. “The man got this cover. Every man's dream - a space cadet woman hanging on him and gazing off into La La Land. Her thoughts are his. The woman got this...every woman's dream, a horse. And the males are on the other side of the fence.”
It's all part of Stilgoe's scheme to instill in his students the power of discovery and deduction – to notice unseen things that tell them what's really going on.
All you have to do is go outside, move deliberately, and relax. Do not jog. Forget about weight reduction and blood pressure, and look around.
"I try very hard in this university, which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing."
Professor John Stilgoe
© MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
Comments by a Math Teacher and Tutor
Some comments about Learning Styles
Welcome to Tutoring with Mr. McCrea
$35 for 55 minutes at my house, $40 at your house. Reduced rates for shorter classes.
Contact 954 646 8246 Cell
For a successful session, bring questions. When you have a specific question, then the tutoring is easier.
I don’t help with homework, but I will show you how to complete a similar problem.
Eventually you won’t need a tutor. Let’s work to create an independent learner.
What is the difference between you and a person who enjoys math? You haven’t seen the interesting problems yet. Most math classes teach skills. The web sites below have a mixture of skills and challenging problems. People who look at interesting problems usually develop a love of math.
www.math-success.com links to dozens of web sites for additional learning.
www.teachersTOteachers.com for general tutoring topics
www.freevocabulary.com for SAT vocabulary
www.geocities.com/talkinternational/sat.html
The 10-week course
www.number2.com on-line tutorial, free, who knows for how long?
For a good foundation, enroll in a Kumon program.
For a crash course or to fill in specific gaps, look for a tutor.
Do you have your own copy of an SAT Review book? With a list of vocabulary words?
Do you have the 10-test book?
Good luck!
www.algebra.com is a good web site with free worksheets.
http://www.algebrahelp.com/index.jsp also has free worksheets.
Why do they make us study math? When will I ever use this stuff?
If you become a teacher, you will use algebra. Why? Because you need to pass special tests to become a teacher and to retain your teaching license. Employers think, “Hey, this guy knows that x squared minus 9 has two solutions. He’s a flexible thinker.”
For the rest of you students who don’t plan to become teachers, why would you want to learn about polynomials, probability and the volume of a pyramid?
Here’s a hint: they are on the SAT, or the GRE, or some other test in your future.
MATH IS USEFUL. There are loads of examples of making math interesting. Go to www.math-success.com and then click on one of the links to CHALLENGING problems.
If you are beginning to yawn, well, I apologize. I like math because it came easily tome. My students have taught me that maybe math is like sweeping and washing dishes: they are something we don’t need to do or learn, but the house looks nicer if you learn to do them.
Math is like having a map. It’s possible to find your way in an unfamiliar city by asking other people to help you. Yes, it really is possible to go through life without knowing about compound interest or how to factor a polynomial (“poly” = many, “nom” = name, so a thing with many parts to its name). I’m not sure many math teachers would admit this, but I’ve met some very talented people who don’t use algebra in their lives.
Yes, it is possible to go through life without using algebra. (You will need a large bank account to pay your assistants who will do the calculations for you.)
The nice thing about learning algebra, at least the useful parts of algebra, is that you can estimate the time it takes to get to another city or you can estimate the amount of electricity that your house consumes.
CONFESSION: I believe that there are jobs or careers for every person. I also believe that our school system doesn’t prepare everyone to be ready for their career. Part of the responsibility for getting ready for the future sits with the student. The student needs to put a little effort into finding something that is interesting.
I met a guy who LOVES to write rap lyrics.
I met another guy who loves to draw and scribble.
I met another guy who LOVES to snowboard.
There are jobs for each of these guys… or maybe they will need to learn how to set up their own business and run a sole proprietorship. They don’t NEED algebra…if they know someone who can do the math for them.
I write feasibility studies (when I'm not tutoring). The word “Feasible” means “it can be done” and “it is a good idea to do it” and “you won’t lose your shirt if you go ahead with this project.” I learned how to use a spreadsheet and there’s just enough algebra in the spreadsheet to make me say, “I use algebra everyday” when I’m writing these studies. My boss hates math and she always brings me along to explain the math in the studies. This is great for me because I have a guarantee for work on the days when my boss is presenting a proposal to a potential client.
If you want to have your own business, you can hire someone like me to handle the math, or you can put a little effort and learn enough algebra and geometry to help you with basic calculations. I have to admit that the quadratic equation has never been used in any business meeting that I’ve attended: minus b plus or minus the square root of b-squared minus 4 times A times C, all over 2 times A. Trust me, it’s a fun poem to memorize or write a rap about, but you’ll only use it when you are checking the answers to your son’s or daughter’s homework… or when you want to score 700 on the math test for SAT.
Some of my students are going to be great teachers of snowboarding or rafting on the Colorado River. They will make some mistakes with math if they don’t find a friend to check the math, but in general they will have a great life and I look forward to getting an invitation to hang glide or bungee jump. Generally, thrill-seeking personalities or people who enjoy physical activities don’t see enough action in math to get their attention or to get motivated or stimulated by the subject. Even these paragraphs that I’m writing at this moment are BORING to the person who prefers catching or throwing a ball or who would rather be driving a car or watching TV.
I say, “No problem.” Let’s discover the parts of math that you know and then decide on how much more you need to learn to get the score that you want. And then you can get back to do what you find important.
By the way, go to www.freeEnglishLessons.com and click on the word “KANGAROO” near the bottom of the page. It’s really funny. Your computer will need Flash.
Mr. McCrea
P.S. Note to parents (students can read this, too)
Most students do NOT pick up everything the teacher presents in class. Many students are visual, musical, social or private learners. The students who are linear and sequential (they learn 1-2-3 and A-B-C) prosper in school and generally don’t need tutoring (except perhaps to learn to be flexible…)
Sequential students >> go here http://www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/
tutor2.html
If you are a visual learner or if you like teachers to talk to you (audio learning) or if you like to discover the information for yourself, or if you like to do lessons in groups or if you like to have music playing in the background while you are studying or reading, then you need a non-traditional way of learning, probably with lots of interesting things happening and LESS reading. Many schools and textbooks have too many pictures and too many problems. Some schools in Japan and Germany have thin textbooks and ask their teachers to work on one or two problems per class, so that everyone sees that there are usually three or four ways to solve a problem. That’s what tutoring with Mr. McCrea is about…
If you feel you need a strong background of math, then a program like Kumon is worth considering. Step by step, you work through the worksheets and you reinforce what you know and you discover new rules of math by completing more worksheets. If you want specific help to plug a gap in your math knowledge, then tutoring is helpful.
REMEMBER -- most people pick up math eventually. You just need another way of looking at the problem.
LIMITED TUTORING - I believe a tutor needs to be a limited solution. Some tutors help every week with homework and with preparation for the weekly test. I believe the best help I can give a student is to walk away when they are ready, even if the student doesn’t want me to leave. The goal is to be independent, not to employ the tutor!
Besides, when the math tutoring is finished, there is also geography, history, SAT vocabulary, classic literature, sciences, study skills, note taking skills… many other areas for me to tutor …
If you have any questions, call me.
Mr. McCrea
Felder's description of Learning Styles
ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE LEARNERS
Active learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with it--discussing or applying it or explaining it to others. Reflective learners prefer to think about it quietly first.
"Let's try it out and see how it works" is an active learner's phrase; "Let's think it through first" is the reflective learner's response.
Active learners tend to like group work more than reflective learners, who prefer working alone.
Sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but take notes is hard for both learning types, but particularly hard for active learners.
Everybody is active sometimes and reflective sometimes. Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. A balance of the two is desirable. If you always act before reflecting you can jump into things prematurely and get into trouble, while if you spend too much time reflecting you may never get anything done.
How can active learners help themselves?
If you are an active learner in a class that allows little or no class time for discussion or problem-solving activities, you should try to compensate for these lacks when you study. Study in a group in which the members take turns explaining different topics to each other. Work with others to guess what you will be asked on the next test and figure out how you will answer. You will always retain information better if you find ways to do something with it.
How can reflective learners help themselves?
If you are a reflective learner in a class that allows little or not class time for thinking about new information, you should try to compensate for this lack when you study. Don't simply read or memorize the material; stop periodically to review what you have read and to think of possible questions or applications. You might find it helpful to write short summaries of readings or class notes in your own words. Doing so may take extra time but will enable you to retain the material more effectively.
SENSING AND INTUITIVE LEARNERS
Sensing learners tend to like learning facts, intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships.
Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises; intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. Sensors are more likely than intuitors to resent being tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class.
Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical formulations.
Sensors tend to be more practical and careful than intuitors; intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors.
Sensors don't like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world; intuitors don't like "plug-and-chug" courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculations.
Everybody is sensing sometimes and intuitive sometimes. Your preference for one or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. To be effective as a learner and problem solver, you need to be able to function both ways. If you overemphasize intuition, you may miss important details or make careless mistakes in calculations or hands-on work; if you overemphasize sensing, you may rely too much on memorization and familiar methods and not concentrate enough on understanding and innovative thinking.
How can sensing learners help themselves?
Sensors remember and understand information best if they can see how it connects to the real world. If you are in a class where most of the material is abstract and theoretical, you may have difficulty. Ask your instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures, and find out how the concepts apply in practice. If the teacher does not provide enough specifics, try to find some in your course text or other references or by brainstorming with friends or classmates.
How can intuitive learners help themselves?
Many college lecture classes are aimed at intuitors. However, if you are an intuitor and you happen to be in a class that deals primarily with memorization and rote substitution in formulas, you may have trouble with boredom. Ask your instructor for interpretations or theories that link the facts, or try to find the connections yourself. You may also be prone to careless mistakes on test because you are impatient with details and don't like repetition (as in checking your completed solutions). Take time to read the entire question before you start answering and be sure to check your results
VISUAL AND VERBAL LEARNERS
Visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations. Verbal learners get more out of words--written and spoken explanations. Everyone learns more when information is presented both visually and verbally.
In most college classes very little visual information is presented: students mainly listen to lectures and read material written on chalkboards and in textbooks and handouts. Unfortunately, most people are visual learners, which means that most students do not get nearly as much as they would if more visual presentation were used in class. Good learners are capable of processing information presented either visually or verbally.
How can visual learners help themselves?
If you are a visual learner, try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is predominantly verbal. Ask your instructor, consult reference books, and see if any videotapes or CD-ROM displays of the course material are available. Prepare a concept map by listing key points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows between concepts to show connections. Color-code your notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same color.
How can verbal learners help themselves?
Write summaries or outlines of course material in your own words. Working in groups can be particularly effective: you gain understanding of material by hearing classmates' explanations and you learn even more when you do the explaining.
SEQUENTIAL AND GLOBAL LEARNERS
Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, with each step following logically from the previous one. Global learners tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly "getting it."
Sequential learners tend to follow logical stepwise paths in finding solutions; global learners may be able to solve complex problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.
Many people who read this description may conclude incorrectly that they are global, since everyone has experienced bewilderment followed by a sudden flash of understanding. What makes you global or not is what happens before the light bulb goes on. Sequential learners may not fully understand the material but they can nevertheless do something with it (like solve the homework problems or pass the test) since the pieces they have absorbed are logically connected. Strongly global learners who lack good sequential thinking abilities, on the other hand, may have serious difficulties until they have the big picture. Even after they have it, they may be fuzzy about the details of the subject, while sequential learners may know a lot about specific aspects of a subject but may have trouble relating them to different aspects of the same subject or to different subjects.
How can sequential learners help themselves?
Most college courses are taught in a sequential manner. However, if you are a sequential learner and you have an instructor who jumps around from topic to topic or skips steps, you may have difficulty following and remembering. Ask the instructor to fill in the skipped steps, or fill them in yourself by consulting references. When you are studying, take the time to outline the lecture material for yourself in logical order. In the long run doing so will save you time. You might also try to strengthen your global thinking skills by relating each new topic you study to things you already know. The more you can do so, the deeper your understanding of the topic is likely to be.
How can global learners help themselves?
If you are a global learner, it can be helpful for you to realize that you need the big picture of a subject before you can master details. If your instructor plunges directly into new topics without bothering to explain how they relate to what you already know, it can cause problems for you. Fortunately, there are steps you can take that may help you get the big picture more rapidly. Before you begin to study the first section of a chapter in a text, skim through the entire chapter to get an overview. Doing so may be time-consuming initially but it may save you from going over and over individual parts later. Instead of spending a short time on every subject every night, you might find it more productive to immerse yourself in individual subjects for large blocks. Try to relate the subject to things you already know, either by asking the instructor to help you see connections or by consulting references. Above all, don't lose faith in yourself; you will eventually understand the new material, and once you do your understanding of how it connects to other topics and disciplines may enable you to apply it in ways that most sequential thinkers would never dream of.
From Richard Felder's web site
http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/RMF.html
More about Learning Styles
The Cave Man...
Giftend Students
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/
http://www.howtolearn.com/personal.html
Even the tutor needs to learn something new....
These are pages that give me headaches.
http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/kenny/home.html
Web sites
www.knowyourtype.com
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/
learningstyles/ilsweb.html
Tips for TAKING TESTS
Richard M. Felder
North Carolina State University
James E. Stice
University of Texas at Austin
I. PREPARATION
Study in small groups
Go over as many different problems as you can (like old homework problems, unassigned problems in the course text, and problems on old exams). Set up the solutions. Don't leave a problem until you're convinced you could do it by yourself.
Brainstorm possible things you could be asked and answers you might give.
Make up a crib sheet as though you were going to cheat on a closed-book exam. If the test is closed-book, know what's on the sheet. If it's open-book, bring the sheet with you.
Don't stay up all night studying.
Set a second alarm, or arrange for a wake-up call from a friend.
Arrange for backup transportation to campus.
Bring everything you need to the exam:
II. TAKING THE TEST
Read over the whole exam before beginning to write anything.
Choose the problem or question that seems easiest to you and do it first. Continue to do the problems in order of increasing difficulty.
Work on a problem until you get stuck. Think about it for a minute or two, and if nothing comes to you then drop it and go on to another problem.
Show your work. Give enough detail so that both you and the grader can tell what you're trying to do.
Watch out for significant figures. Some instructors don't appreciate answers like 23.694028, even if that's what the calculator says. It's either 23.7 or 24.
Think about getting partial credit. Try to put something down for each part of every problem/question. If you don't have time to solve a problem completely, tell what you'd do if you had more time.
Keep your work legible. If an instructor can't read what you wrote, you aren't likely to get full credit and you may not get any.
Don't panic. If you feel yourself sweating or hyperventilating, put down your pencil, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and consciously relax any muscles that you're clenching (jaw, neck, stomach). When you're calmer, go back to work.
If you have time at the end, check your solutions. Did you answer each part of every question?
Hand in your paper when time is called. Nothing makes an instructor/proctor more annoyed than having to wrestle you to the floor to get your paper.
For the full list of suggestions, click here
http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/
TO: Students who have been disappointed with their test grades
FROM: Richard M. Felder, North Carolina State University
Dear student,
Many of you have told your instructor that you understood the course material much better than your last test grade showed, and some of you asked what you should do to keep the same thing from happening on the next test.
You'll notice that several of the questions presume that you're working with classmates on the homework--either comparing solutions you first obtained individually or actually getting together to work out the solutions. Either approach is fine. In fact, if you've been working entirely by yourself and your test grades are unsatisfactory, I would strongly encourage you to find one or two homework and study partners to work with before the next test.
The question "How should I prepare for the test" becomes easy once you've filled out the checklist.
Good luck,
Richard Felder
Test Preparation Checklist
By Richard Felder
Answer "Yes" only if you usually did the things described (as opposed to occasionally or never).
Homework
1. Did you make a serious effort to understand the text? (Just hunting for relevant worked-out examples doesn't count.)
2. Did you work with classmates on homework problems, or at least check your solutions with others?
3. Did you attempt to outline every homework problem solution before working with classmates?
4. Did you participate actively in homework group discussions (contributing ideas, asking questions)?
5. Did you consult with the instructor or teaching assistants when you were having trouble with something?
6. Did you understand ALL of your homework problem solutions when they were handed in?
7. Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problem solutions that weren't clear to you?
Test preparation
8. If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself that you could do everything on it?
9. Did you attempt to outline lots of problem solutions quickly, without spending time on the algebra and calculations?
10. Did you go over the study guide and problems with classmates and quiz one another?
11. If there was a review session before the test, did you attend it and ask questions about anything you weren't sure about?
12. Did you get a reasonable night's sleep before the test?
-------------------------------------------
TOTAL YES _____ NO _____
The more "Yes" responses you recorded, the better your preparation for the test. If you recorded two or more "No" responses, think seriously about making some changes in how you prepare for the next test.
http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/
See the Quadratic Formula (because it has four parts... (x - 2) (x + 3)
x-square -2x +3x -6 (4 parts)
x equals
minus b plus or minus the square root of b-squared minus 4 times A times C, all over 2 times A.
Say that three times slowly and one time quickly...
A personal plan
1. visit some web sites and find one that you like. We’ll talk about it. Print a couple of pages from the web site with some problems.
2. mark the problems that you don’t understand and that you want to learn how to solve.
3. take a deep breath.
4. call me when you feel ready to prepare for the next test or homework.
5. There is a solution.
954 646 8246 cell
mistermath@comcast.net
I also take students over the internet. I can talk to you by internet phone, called Net2Phone. I encourage students to become independent.
Hello!
Welcome to this class about Learning Styles.
You can use this web site to learn more about how you learn. Indirectly, this time will help you improve your study skills and vocabulary. Your test-taking will also improve.
When you feel a genuine interest in a subject, your brain sends you powerful positive chemicals that turn into positive mental attitude.
PMA >>> Look below: LSQ
PMA
PMA
Learning styles
Let’s think of opposites:
If you don’t know some of these words, you can try looking them up and asking the instructor. You are likely to be more of one kind of thinker than another. Let’s find out your style and then work to use the advantages of your style.
Why do boys tend to be good at finding the answer to a math problem (which has ONE answer), while girls are better able to tell stories?
Most girls can tap into their right brains much more quickly than most boys. Most girls are equipped to search for details that might not be specifically related to the problem at hand. Why?
Think about hunters and gatherers. (This is the wonderful comedy routine developed by Rob Becker.) Hunters look at one think until it is captured. The best hunters are not quickly connected to their right brain, which sends information about their emotions. When a good hunter sees a snake, he doesn't shout or gasp. That's because there's a thin connection between the RIGHT side of the brain (where the signal about the snake was sent) and the LEFT side (the verbal and logical side of the brain). The LEFT side of the brain in the hunter receives just enough warning about the snake but the hunter remains quiet.
Consider the Gatherer. She is looking at bananas, strawberries, under leaves, apples, looking for food, and then she sees a snake. AAAAH! she warns the others who are looking for food. If she is bitten and killed, the others in the gathering party know where to find her and know where to pick up the food that she dropped. They can go back to the clan and take care of the orphaned children. Shouting and acting quickly on the emotional signals fo the right brain are important for women.
Most women have a thick corpus callosum between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Most men have a thin corpus callosum. The men receive fewer signals per second than the women from one side to the other. When you ask a guy, "How are you feeling?" the guy has to go over to the right brain and look around. If he sees no storms or hurricanes, then he comes back to the verbal left brain and says, "Fine."
Ask a woman how she feels, she is instantly able to recount how her family is doing and how that makes her feel and what is coming in the future and what she worries about...because that's what evolution has given most women: the ability to quickly tap into her emotional concerns for the well-being of her family group.
Men typically use 2000 words each day.
Women on average use 5000 words each day.
Source: Rob Becker.
(I believe he quoted research that counted the variety of words, not the absolute number of words.)
It is useful to list a number of opposites. Your learning style can be found by asking, "Do I converge or do I diverge? Do I like the certainty of one answer or do I wonder if there are other conditions that might make the answer different in different situations?"
Right-brain emotional
Left-brain logical
Converge
Diverge
Perceptive
Just the facts
Carl Jung, the psychologist, believed that people are driven be certain urges or natural ways of doing things: you are either directed mostly inward or outward.
Here are some of the other "drives" or tendencies (and their opposites) that his disciples developed.
Thinking (T)
Key words:
impersonal • truth • cool • tough-minded
Extraversion (E)
Key words:
outer world • people • action • breadth
Introversion (I)
Key words:
inner world • ideas • reflection • depth
Sensing (S)
Key words:
facts • details • experience • present
Intuition (N)
Key words:
symbols • pattern • theory • future
Perceiving (P)
Key words:
flexible • open • adaptable • spontaneous
Judging (J)
Key words:
structured • decided • organized • scheduled
Feeling (F)
Key words:
personal • value • warm • tenderhearted
Thinking (T)
Key words:
impersonal • truth • cool • tough-minded
www.knowyourtype.com is a good web site to get more information about this system of "types."
There is a total of 16 TYPES:
ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ ISTP ISFP INFP INTP
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ
Visual
Linear (thinking in order)
Sequential
Multiple Intelligences is a system of learning styles that Howard Gardner of Harvard University has described. You can learn more if you do a google search about "multiple intelligences Gardner."
Other styles include:
musical learning methods,
social learning
Gardner even believes there's a spiritual learning style.
Can you change or improve your learning style?
Some people suggest that you can. I know that my learning style has expanded to INCLUDE the linear or sequential style. I also know that when I make a presentation to a client or when i tell a story, some of the people in my audience want the beginning, middle and end and perhaps even an outline: Tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell it to them in detail and with stories, and finally tell them what you told them.
Today I want to give you three ways to improve your score on the SAT.
1.
2.
3.
SO, to review, we have three ways to improve the score on our SAT. Can anyone name the three ways?
SO: we know that it's possible to copy the style of someone else ("How would Mrs. Hopkins describe this procedure?") We don't have to LIKE how this is done, but we can copy the style and get a better score on the test.
CHANGE IS POSSIBLE: If you change the way you dress, if you change your hair style and change your clothes, these changes help you change your behavior.
When I wear a uniform or a jacket and tie, I feel more like a "real teacher" than I do when I wear a t-shirt.
Change your handwriting, change your personality, change your life. For someone with ADD, a few hours of making choices about handwriting is a good use of time. We're going to use our handwriting for the rest of our lives. Let's choose a style that fits our personality and that communicates with the world.
Here’s how I used to write when I was 14 years old
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Here’s how I write now. >>>>>>>>>>>>>
I read a book called Change your Handwriting, Change Your Life.
The basic recommendation was to make the letters clear and easy to write and your personality will be more sharply defined.
It worked for me.
Here's what someone on a book review page wrote about the book...
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer
Psychological script analysis or graphology has competition and opposition from many quarters. Psychometric testers claim greater accuracy for recruitment and compatibility studies. Forensic questioned document examiners claim greater scientific rigour than court graphologists. Human rights groups attack graphology as an invasion of privacy. Graphology may upset people because it is considered either insufficiently accurate or because it is too analytical, negative and invasive.
But there is one area where an understanding of handwriting has unique possibilities and that is graphotherapy. It is the subject of Vimala Rodgers's Book "Change Your Handwriting, Change Your Life".
Human beings naturally tend to see themselves and their place in society from their own point of view. Graphotherapy helps people to understand their innermost feelings, fears and moods, yet at the same time become more sensitive to others' feelings.
Innately we all need to move forward and grow. How to do this on one's own is often not easy. Here Vimala Rodgers's book can be a great help. It outlines a way for readers to audit their attitudes. It presents handwriting exercises which act as focused meditation, helping the reader in such areas as listening, patience, resentment, forgiveness and gratititude. Subsequently, handwriting analysis is able to monitor the extent to which this focused meditation through graphotherapy has changed the way the reader is living.
Qualified graphologists will see this book as a useful addition to their library on stroke analysis, but it is much more than this. The book contains a whole-life, uplifting philosopy which takes it outside the specialised field of graphology.
That's what a reviewer wrote about this book. For some students, this could be the most important information on this page...because it will give you the freedom to experiment with your handwriting and make it more legible!
Then there is the popular "learning difficulty" called ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder.
I prefer to call it...
Variable Attention Syndrome (VAS)
There are many jobs and careers that are made more challenging when a person is equipped with VAS.
Yes, I like to write "He comes equipped with VAS," the way we say that a car is equipped with air conditioning or a GPS device.
A friend, Marshall Thurber, says that "Alfred Do-Good is with me today!" when he has a particularly overwhelming day, filled with details. Thisis a helpful insight. Many people with ADD have an urge to do good things for others...and often get lost in helping other people in so many directions that they don't get down to doing the drudge work that they need to do for their own life.
To see how people with ADD or VAS get on with their lifes and adapt to the condition, visit a web stie about a workshop that Marshall created in 1979. www.excellerated.com
If you are interested in learning more about Living with ADD, visit the www.addkit.com. It's a good way to assist people who are equipped with ADD.
This web site will grow. Please send your questions to S. McCrea at mistermath@comcast.net and we'll expand this page to answer your questions.
Signup for A Word send to Your Cell Phone
Return to INDEX of Teachers To Teachers dot com
The more times you answer "YES", the more you use the right side of the your brain. The more RIGTH you are, the more you need non-linear, ALTERNATIVE teaching methods. Spelling and details are less important to you, the focus should be on creativity and seing the "big pictures."
1. Do you prefer to think ALONE so you can concentrate (rather than think out-loud in a group of students)?
2. Do you use PICTURES to remember things instead of words?
3. When someone asks you to spell a word, do you have an imaginary whiteboard in uyour mind where the letters appear?
4. Do you enjoy puzzles and mazes?
5. Do people think that you are maturing later than other people? Do you think you are "blooming" later in life than other people?
6. Can you "see" objects in three dimensions? Can you rotate an image of a six-colored cube or beach ball in your mind, seeing each side of the cube or beach ball? Can you see it from the top, from the bottom and from the size?
7. Do you like making something "perfect"? Do you avoid trying something new because you think that you might not be good at it?
8. When you are in a city or on a street for the first time, can you find your way without asking for directions?
9. Do you like to daydream? Is it common that you find yourself thinking about something else instead of focusing on what you are doing (daydreaming while you drive or walk)?
10. Do people tell you that you are good at deceiphering people? Can you look at someone you recently met and make accurate conclusions about the person? Are you intuitive?
11. Can you remember a face better than a name?
12. When you open a box that contains a "assemble-it-yourself" cabinet or toy, do you ignore the directions and try to build it?
13. Do you have very good or sensitive hearing?
14. Do the labels in your clothing bother you? Do you cut out the labels?
The more YES, the more RIGHT-SIDED.
These questions are adapted rom a list in a book called Right-Brained Chidren in a Left-Brained World by Jeffrey Freed, MAT, and Laurie Parsons, Simon and Schuster.
People who are "right-brained" tend to have high expectations for themselves. they usually "put themselves down" and they don't usually write very clearly. They are generally not good with details...
Informatin about Emotional Intelligence... These reviews were pulled from the www.bn.com web page for EI:
Annotation
"...explains why empathy, self-awareness, and self- discipline is essential to success and positive human interaction."
From the Publisher
Is IQ destiny? Not nearly as much as we think. This fascinating and persuasive program argues that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow, ignoring a crucial range of abilities that matter immensely in terms of how we do in life.
Drawing on groundbreaking brain and behavioral research, Daniel Goleman shows the factors at work when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do well. These factors add up to a different way of being smart--one he terms "emotional intelligence." This includes self-awareness and impulse control, persistence, zeal and self-motivation, empathy and social deftness.
These are the qualities that mark people who excel in life, whose relationships flourish, who are stars in the workplace. Lack of emotional intelligence can sabotage the intellect and ruin careers. Perhaps the greatest toll is on children, for whom risks include depression, eating disorders, unwanted pregnancies, aggressiveness and crime.
But the news is hopeful. Emotional intelligence is not fixed at birth, and the author shows how its vital qualities can be nurtured and strengthened in all of us. And because the emotional lessons a child learns actually sculpt the brain's circuitry, he provides guidance as to how parents and schools can best use this window of opportunity in childhood. The message of this eye-opening program is one we must take to heart: the true "bell curve" for a democracy must measure emotional intelligence
From The Critics
Publisher's Weekly
This international #1 bestseller, which spent a year on PW's list, explains why EI can be more important than IQ. (July)
Library Journal
Scientific data emerging from studies using new brain imaging technologies have yielded fresh understanding of how emotions work and, argues the author, suggest ways to regulate the more negative emotions responsible for the horrendous acts of violence that are the stuff of daily headlines. The book calls for universal adoption of educational curricula that teach youngsters how to regulate their emotional responses and to resolve conflict peacefully. Along the way Goleman summarizes much of the best psychological work of the last few decades on such topics as the importance of learned optimism, the theory of multiple intelligences, the role of innate temperamental differences, and the importance of emotional intelligence in marriage, management, and medicine. Based on good empirical data (unlike many popular psychology books), this fine example is recommended for academic and larger public libraries.Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.
Booknews
Goleman, psychologist and science writer for The New York Times, explains how the rational and emotional work together to shape intelligence, using intriguing new information from neuroscience and psychology of the brain. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
A reviewer, A reviewer, April 13, 2004,
Great!!!
They should take this books theory into account in all schools everywhere. There are little Picassos, Hemingways, and Einstiens out there who are genius in their own area of strength, but yet never make it because they couldn't get passed their weakest required class within their curriculum. We need to focus on individual curriculums for each student. People are individuals. And many are getting lost.
Also recommended: The Little Guide To Happiness
Lyno Sanchez, an operations executive in LA, January 12, 2004,
Great and Very Long
Emotional intelligence was a thought provoking book that I've introduced to many of my friends. It's a great way to frame an important side of life. There's a new one you should get to, called the Emotional Intelligence Quickbook. I found it on Amazon and it's much shorter, and the conversational style is easy to follow. Both books are great and the Quickbook is the one I'm giving away now because it's fast and easy to read.
Also recommended: The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook
A reviewer, A reviewer, September 24, 2003,
Already of historical significance!
This book was only written a few years ago but it is already a classic! It opened the eyes of our culture to another side of human consciousness anf functioning. Although we still have a long way to go in developing a full understanding of the emotional aspects of ourselves, this book provided us an wonderful opportunity to move in that direction. The book that has taken us one more step in that direction is 'The Ever-Transcending Spirit' by Toru Sato. Though Goleman's book helped me become more aware of this aspect of myself, reading Sato's book has increased my emotional intelligence level immensely! Both books are essential readings for the evolution of our consciousness.
Also recommended: The Ever-Transcending Spirit by Toru Sato
A reviewer, A reviewer, February 20, 2003,
First rate book for acknowledging the value of emotions
I like Daniel Goleman's explanation of emotional intelligence. As so many of our decisions are emotionally based, it is imperative that we understand the value of emotions and how to intelligently deal with them. My favorite book on emotional intelligence is Optimal Thinking -- How to Be Your Best Self by Rosalene Glickman, Ph.D. She offers a roadmap to deal with disturbing emotions, and a roadmap for specific emotions. She shows you how to use emotions as optimization signals. If you read both books, you'll have it all.
Also recommended: Optimal Thinking -- How to Be Your Best Self by Rosalene Glickman, Ph.D.
Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., is founder of Emotional Intelligence Services in Boston, Massachusetts. For twelve years he covered the behavioral and brain sciences for the The New York Times, and has also taught at Harvard (where he received his doctorate). In addition to Emotional Intelligence, his previous books include Vital Lies, Simple Truths; The Meditative Mind; and, as co-author, The Creative Spirit.
Feel free to visit www.bn.com for more information.
ow many ways can we use these letters?
Either I or E
Either S or N
Either T or F
Either P or J
Introvert (I) or Extravert (E)
Sensing (S) or INtuitive (N)
Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
Perceiving (P) or Judging (J)
Most of us are mostly one or the other.
For example, as a teacher, I am mostly Extravert, mostly Sensing (if you don't show it to me, I won't see it)
mostly Thinking (so I'm not in touch with my feelings, usually)
and mostly Judging (I've seen this sort of student before, so this one is probably liek the others.)
These are habits and ways of viewing the world that i need to work through in order to also be able to feel, perceive, listen to my intuition and look inward to find the information I need to give my students.
Do you see why these learning styles are helpful for you to know about? Most people are operating with these types of behavior, so you can use this information to try to reach them where they are more comfortable. Some students DON'T want to work with a partner. Okay, I don't force them.
s page is dedicated to my niece. I asked her, "Why do boys and girls learn differently?"
She replied, "Well, I know that boys find math easier, usually, and girls find reading and writing easier. But nobody explained why."
This is one set of theories that explain why.
This page is based largely on the popularization of brain structure, popularized by Dr. Nancy Snyderman and comedian Rob Becker. As a teacher, I greatly appreciate their contributions to society. Their work has helped hundreds of teachers to understand how we learn and how students learn and how to better present material so that students can pick it up more quickly.
If you find this interesting, please learn more about Rob Becker at www.cavemania.com.
Do a google search on Nancy Snyderman.
For some people, it's important to be VISUAL and make the important words in a paragraph larger.
This is annoying to sequential people who like order. Please excuse me...I'm writing for the VISUAL AND ACTIVE learner.
Rob Becker
www.cavemania.com
This guy should receive a TEACHER OF THE DECADE award for the humorous insights he delivers. He shows how to turn scientific discoveries and research papers into "news we can use."
Here is a press release that took place in 2006 to promote the use of electronic books in schools. For more information about electronic books (eBooks), go to TheEbookMan.com.
Is Downtown Academy one of the first schools to offer a CD to its students for summer reading? Perhaps. A search on Google for "summer reading CD" got these results...
1) Well, if adults can use a CD for professional development... why not middle school?
Shortcut to: http://www.nnu.edu/1669/ VIRTUAL EDUCATION SOFTWARE, inc (VESi) HOME STUDY COURSES OFFERED ON CD's NNU partners with Virtual Education Software, Inc., a leading provider of computer-based instruction courses for educators, to provide the opportunity to take professional development courses from a CD. These self-paced, multimedia, interactive courses allow you to obtain credit working from your own computer on your own time frame. A maximum of 6 months is allowed to complete the course.
2) Search: schools give compact disk CD to students
[PDF] The Life Cycle of a CD or DVD File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
contacting a CD recycling company on behalf of your. school or school district—collecting ... CD/DVD Recycling Web Sites. www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/students/finalposter.pdf -
3) Bob Reid Programs Each school can decide how to use the finished CD. It can be made available to ... Give students an opportunity to participate in a recording project. ...
www.bobreidmusic.com/programs.htm -
4) Description Exercise 3: Compact Disk (CD) Exercise 3: The Compact Disk (CD). Goal:: To have students reconstruct a coherent, .www.ebstc.org/TechLit/analysis3d.html -
5) Educator Courses Via Distance Learning These courses are designed to run from a compact disk (CD) and saves user ...www.csudh.edu/extendeded/Educatoronline.htm
Memories from Four Years of Downtown Academy
2004-2005 Mr. Di's first year
I was reading reacher for 18 weeks. Mr. Stephen the Rabbi took over for Jan. to April 2005.
Do you remember the Sumatra Tsunami in Dec 2004? I tutored a student named Billy in the main library.
2005-2006 Mr. Di's second year
I tutored one student for much of the year (helping him get through his 2nd year at 6th grade)
2006-2007 Mr. Di's third year
We brought students from various language schools to practice speaking with middle school students.
2007-2008 Mr. Jett's first year -- I held workshops in October 2007 at DATA to teach people about Skype
June 26, 2007, I was on NBC6 "South Florida Today" to talk about Skype.
I tutored some students in oct to Dec 2007 and some FCAT prep in Feb 2008
A large number of computers were donated.
September 2008 the school was closed.
Volunteers who spoke to our
classes at Downtown Academy
Ms. Scott (who spoke about Jamaica)
Mr. Christopher Hills (via Mr. Mac) about the spice industry
Gerry Cooper, real estate business
Debbie Orshefsky, land use lawyer
Clarence McKee, lawyer and entertainment law
Ms. Abrams, environmental law enforcement officer
Mrs. Rudnick, real estate
Mr. Eral Manning, information about insurance and running your own business -- special thanks for picking up our newspapers each week (I see you visit us at least twice a week) and for your interesting stories for the students..."This is how you can control your time -- own your own business"
Mr. Stanley Brown, chemistry, water and computers
Judge Bowman (with handcuffs!)
Clem Tingry, born 1988, Monsieur Rap de HLM, I bet you don't believe that I can rap cuz I'm a white boy clem92140.skyblog.com or email at clement_tingry@hotmail.com
Invited: Ms. J. Bacayao, director of Hispanic Unity
Volunteers who have given their time to the school (so many to mention!)
Parents (see Mr. Di for the complete list!)
William Lamm, computer specialist with his assistant Cliff donated 3 hours on a Saturday to present some suggestions to the school
P ARENTS: Recommendations about email and skyblogs
Some of the visitors who speak at the school encourage students to get more information onthe internet. Some of the contacts connect to legitimate email addresses. Please monitor your children's access to the Internet.
When a speaker wants students to visit a web site, we will send a copy of that information to parents for two reasons.
a. the parents can store the information and remind the student to visit the site.
b. the adults can monitor the visits and use of the site.
For example, www.skyblog.com is a powerful tool in the fight against racism and a helpful web site to support intercultural understanding and creating opportunities for your children to visit interesting places and meet helpful people in other countries. And...skyblog.com can also be used for... (fill in the blank) See Mr. Mac's SKYBLOG www.skyblog.com/englishlesson
Some websites that I recommend
www.corpomovimento.com (nice people who describe the culture of Bahia in Brazil)
If you want to receive updates about web sites that I find inteeresting, send me an email and I'll add you to my "once a month" club for reminders to look at interesting web sites.
Interesting research about driving and teens. We know that insurance rates are higher, especially for teen boys, while driving. Ouch! Can we delay the use of automobiles? Let's keep our students out of accidents!
See my new web site about "a new attitude" toward the FCAT (Floridians Can Achieve Together)...
School Athletic Records at DATA
Downtown Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida...
(2004) Joshua D. can run the length and back of Huizenga Park in 26 seconds. Katie can do the same distance in 28 seconds. In 6th Grade, Lan can do the length (one-way) in 15 seconds. Karriyma can do the length (one way) in 15 seconds. She can also walk from the band stand to the edge of the brick with 14 cartwheels.
FOOTBALL: Mr. Kranstover threw a 68-foot passs to Dane ... wow!
Bravo to Joshua H. for his quarterback throw and Damian Edwards' catch.
Nicholas in 6A can throw a frisbee 66 feet.
READING AWARD Week 22
Damion Edwards received the first reading award for working hard
to find the main idea of the books he is reading.
He received the famous "Reading Award Pen"....
Web Sites by students Some students are making web sites, such as:
Ashley M. 345
Tess Kramer piratesfan1000
Negus The team of four who will connect
Keirstin their sites and make
Bryan P. a web page for the
Michael seventh grade
Mohammed "TrueDawggg" (the GAMES site)
DESTIN's Website Chamba60
Schools are better thanks to volunteers.
Thank you to parents who bring in
books and computers. Keep volunteering!
Computer use -- DATA starts with the idea that students need to learn about the use of computers. Parents, please assume that your children are learning how to use matches at school, then check to make sure the students are using the matches responsibly. In other words, we're teaching students to make web sites. It's up to you to check that the web sites contain what you want them to contain. Why? Students are clever. If I check what's on the site, and it's okay, two minutes later the clever students have changed the content.
Reading Links
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/
Reading Course: www.sbbc-vu.org
The responsibility of the historian and any storyteller is to distill for the audience. Assemble the important information and discard the irrelevant.
The historian's task is to find out what really happened, how it really was.
Even an untrustworthy source is valuable for what it reveals about the personality of the author.
Research is seductive; writing is hard work. You have to sit down on that chair and think and transform thought into readable, interesting sentences that make the reader turn the page. It is slow, painful and agony. It means rearrangement, revision, adding, cutting, rewriting. But it brings a sense of excitement. It is an act of creation.
First find out WHAT happened in history. Later you can find out WHY. It is safer to leave the "why" alone until after one has not only gathered the facts but arranged them in sequence, in sentences, paragraphs and chapters. The WHY will emerge. The process of transforming a collection of personalities, dates, gun calibers letters and speeches into a narrative eventually forces the "why" to the surface. It will suddenly appear and tap you on the shoulder, but not if you chase after it first before you know what happened.
Barbara Tuchman, Practicing History, Essays in Search of History.
This page is sponsored by newFCAT.com, the new attitude ... because
Friends Can Achieve Together Philosophy
Clement Tingry, the visiting student from Franc, invites students to contact him.. Clement invited students to write to him at clement_tingry@hotmail.com or they can leave a “commentaire” at clem92140.skyblog.com
I believe international email, when supervised by parents, can lead to good opportunities and cultural interchange. I hope your student will take up this opportunity.
I hope your family participates in the Geography contest …
Mr. Mac
The "Computer Photo Badges" Program
You can earn your computer badge if you can do these actions
Take a photo using 640 size
Take a movie using 160 and 640 sizes
save it on a computer
Change the size of the photo (to use on a web site)
save the original and the smaller size photos on a CD (BURN)
Get a Yahoo.com ID
Learn to use geocities.com (create your own free web page and paste your photo in that web page.)
Send the web link to Mr. Mac at s2314@tmail.com or mistermath@comcast.net
The "Computer Badge for Office" program
MS Word
Make a document, insert a photo and adjust the photo.
Make a web site on a CD using MS Word, using at least four interconnected web pages
Make lines and boxes
MS Powerpoint
Oh boy! Make a slide show
Insert a photo in the presentation
Show different types of fonts
MS Excel
Make a budget with at least 4 categories
Calculate the percent of each category
Make a second budget showing some changes
Make graphs with these figures
SAMPLE DATA
Average height of students in 6th grade
Average height of students in 7th grade
Percent of students above 5 feet, percent below 6 feet
Take a deep breath...exhale and another deep breath...exhale
Close your eyes, exhale, take a deep breath and exhale. Open your eyes.
I met a mother who reminded me that one of her children got a 1520 and another one got around 1000 and the other two got somewhere in between. She loves them all, and they all are making contributions to society. All graduated from college, none of them beats their spouses and none of them has been in a fatal car accident. She asked me, "Isn't that more important than a test score?"
Visit www.WhatShouldStudentsLearn.com
"Hey! Lighten up! It's just your life that you're preparing for!"
Do something useful like visiting
BCC SAT Call 954 201-2459 to register SAT WORDS
Mr. Mac works with DVD, video and audio.
His web sites:
FREEENGLISHLESSONS.COM I'm an ESOL teacher
DoubleMoonShot.com Inspired by a comment by Thomas Friedman
GRANDMOTHERSAYS.COM Kay Latona's ideas
IHATETOREAD.COM Let's read graphic novels
LOOKFORPATTERNS.COM Gifted students
MATHFORARTISTS.COM math for artistic thinkers
NEWFCAT.COM for an expanded FCAT (including portfolios)
PAT-HARRIS.com If you don't like math, you might want to get over your anger to get the best results from math tutoring
ROADLOVERS.COM an online travel newsletter
STEVEMCCREA.COM My marketing company
TEACHERSTOTEACHERS.COM My first site with Cary Elcome, perhaps the most creative EFL teacher on the planet
BUILDINGINTERNATIONALBRIDGES.ORG My effort to build bridges by Internet through email
TeachingtotheTest.org inspired by Marc Greenblum
DEMOCRACYBONDS.COM a response to Thomas Friedman's call for a "moon shot" effort for new energy sources
GLOBALCOOLINGCAMPAIGN.COM plant trees and Plant-Trees.org
VISUALANDACTIVE.COM My teaching style
What is your story? What do you want to communicate?
The following web sites show some of the work Mr. Mac does with clients. Need a simple web site? Get your brochure on the Internet using www.godaddy.com and www.Geocities.com
Clients
International Oasis Leslie954 Language School
ARTIFACTSEEKER.COM An art buyer
DRKURTWAGNER.COM a plastic surgeon
EDUCATIONALEXCELLENCE.NET an excellent teacher
GAIGLOBAL.ORG a non profit group in Peru
RESOLVETOHEAL.COM Pat Harris, LFMT
SEVENISLES.COM homeowner's community
STREETJUDO.COM Paolo Quaglia's video .
BYTHETAIL.NET Scott Solochek, songwriter
JKMCCREA.COM My sweetheart's site
NOAHSOLOCHEK.COM My great-nephew's site
SCOTTSOLOCHEK.COM Scott's site
FreeEnglishLessons.com Steve's language site
Roadlovers.com a travel portal
SAT VIDEOS www.satVideos.com
CLICK HERE to visit my video samples
Bring a tutor into your home at the fraction of the cost of a tutor.
I videotape some of my classes, so you can join me in learning.
I charge $60-75 an hour, depending on the course and the subject, but you can view an hour or more of my teaching for less...
call 954 646 8246 for discounts and special arrangements, such as "partial refunds" when you return the CD or DVD or VHS to me.
Rent a tape or a DVD from the SAT VIDEOS library
Each tape is $20, postpaid in the USA.
If you return a tape with your order, you get $8 off.
Subjects currently available
Math with Leslie (ONE) for the Artistic Learner
Wet Math with Dr. McAlister DinoDiver.com
The founder of Ocean Engineering at Florida Atlantic University gives his tips on how to find a favorite reef and other useful tips.
Math with Viviana SOCIAL MATH for the Interpersonal Learner
SAT with John (May 30, 2005) A male approach or a hunter approach.
Including 5 tips to prepare for the SAT, with a remedy for learning vocabulary
FIVE HOURS (including May 23)
Three DVDs or three VHS
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A List of Web Sites that some teachers have recommended (for more reading practice!)
This paper should be near your child’s computer – in easy reach.
There will be additions to this list…this is just the first edition.
These sites are suggested because parents ask teachers “where can my child learn more?” This list is for “Extra Learning.” Your child can not get extra credit by visiting these sites except by special arrangement and agreement with a teacher. These sites are NOT for extra credit. These web sites are for Extra Learning. This is the first of several lists that will be sent home during the year. Please keep this list in a prominent place. You can also find this list at www.TeachersToTeachers.com
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FCAT
www.newFCAT.com (to help with FCAT preparations, FREE)
www.fcatexplorer.com (you need a user ID and password)
EXTRA ACTIVITES
www.LookForPatterns.com (when you are finished with homework – time for more!)
www.infoplease.com/homework (lots of categories to explore)
www.thebeehive.org click on “SCHOOL” in the left hand margin “Homework Help”
school.discovery.com/students/ Lots of activities from the Discovery Channel
http://www.factmonster.com/ Big green screen with many categories
Cultural Understanding and Pen Pals www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com (to learn about interesting cultures) Get an email account with a disposable service like yahoo or hotmail to participate
OTHER LANGUAGES Spanish.about.com a general web site for learning Spanish
Italian.about.com A general web site for learning Italian
http://www.homeworkspot.com/middle/foreignlanguage/ links to other sites
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SCIENCES
http://www.homeworkspot.com/middle/science/ help for Science homework
http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm Quizhub.com lots of fun and education
http://www.refdesk.com/homework.html a useful gateway to a variety of web sites
SOCIAL STUDIES www.History.com (of course!)
www.nationalgeographic.com (for social studies)
www.WhatDoYaKnow.com A site created by a Social Studies teacher in Palm Beach County.
http://www.bpl.org/kids/socialstudies.htm Boston Public Library’s page for Kids (fun)
http://www.socialstudies.org/ National Council for Social Studies
www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/res.cgi/Subjects/Social_Studies for teachers. Did you ever wonder where teachers learned so much? www.Geographyolympics.com They created a world puzzle.
Lifetime Transitions and Anger Management
www.Pat-Harris.com (audio letters are available for you to download and hear)
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www.DowntownAcademy.org our school’s web site!
READING Practice reading on these sites.
http://www.ncte.org/middle/topics/content/117565.htm National Council for Teachers of English has a book list
www.snopes.com Read about urban legends and find the truth.
www.gutenberg.org Over 10,000 books online (FREE)
http://www.refdesk.com/homework.html More Homework Help
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1333/kids.htm For kids who love books
http://nancykeane.com/rl/ Book lists to give you ideas about what to read next!
SEARCH on “reading for middle school”
Middleschoolhub.org a collection of interesting quizzes Quia.com more quizzes
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MATH
www.algebra.com (for general help with math)
www.mathForArtists.com (an artistic and visual way of learning about math) Click on “challenging problems” for interesting math exercises. http://www.math.com/ Good pages for review
www.number2.com (for advanced math training) nctm.org (the National Council for Teachers of Math)
www.RetireThePenny.org A math exercise
Take the Middle School Math Challenge http://www.figurethis.org/index40.htm
Test Your Math Skills (requires Shockwave plug-in) http://timssonline.cse.ucla.edu/index02.htm
Internet Math Library http://mathforum.org/library/
Math Counts-Math for Middle School http://206.152.229.6/
Franklin Institute-Open Ended Math Problems for Middle School Students sln.fi.edu/school/math2/index.html
Ask Dr. Math http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/
Do you have other web sites that you enjoy? Send your suggestions to mistermath@comcast.net or smccrea@downtownacademy.org
More Ideas for Summer Reading
(and reading throughout the school year)
Why not subscribe to interesting newsletters?
To subscribe from the Save Darfur Coalition email list, visit this link.
For interesting stories about history...
To hear about the next Shuttle Launch, go to www.NASA.gov and look for the SUBSCRIBE button
World Science [mailto:emailnews@world-science.net]
* Animals may plan ahead, studies find: The investigations may be important for
understanding the evolution of foresight, according to an expert.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060518_planfrm.htm
* Shedding light on the origin of flowers: New research may help clarify a question that Darwin
called an "abominable mystery." http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060517_flowerfrm.htm
* Bananas could die out, group warns: Humans are wiping out wild bananas, and commercial
varieties may not be able to survive, U.N. officials say.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060517_bananafrm.htm
******************************** Do you have friends who would like to join World Science? If so, just send us their email addresses (after making sure they actually want to sign up) and we will add them to the list. Send the addresses
What is the Apollo Alliance? Why is it called "apollo"?
http://www.apolloalliance.org/about_the_alliance/
Do you like reading thick books (a little each day)? BIBLE VERSES & TRIVIA - "Positive, Encouraging & Inspirational Messages" To SUBSCRIBE: http://www.gophercentral.com/sub/sub-bibleverses.html
How about a Quote A Day? To SUBSCRIBE visit: http://www.gophercentral.com/sub/quoteaday.html
www.youtube.com/v/xvKCCQ2p2q4 Another video about "relationships"
Dashing through the year
In one room every day
Oh, the pain we have
When science comes to play.
When reading time is here
We all jump up to cheer
Because we're acting lots of plays
in books and magazines.
Oh, Art is fun,
math is cool,
Science is a drag.
Whenever language comes around ,
The writing makes us mad .
Oh, DATA rules
'cuz it's cool
So that's just what they say .
I know most people love it here
But some don't want to stay
Lyrics by L----a Ak---ah Al---a and others
This song was first performed at the DATA December 2004 Talent show
Reminders
Classroom Management, ways to inspire students, inspiring teachers.
Return to TeachersTOTeachers.com
Study at www.newFCAT.com
What kind of learning style do you have?
www.studyguide.org/learning_styles.htm
Learning Types (Introvert, Extravert, Intuitive...)
www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/Success/LSTIntro.htm
One-Page Inventory of Multiple Intelligences
pss.uvm.edu/pss162/learning_styles.html
44 questions -- an online test for MI
http://www.crc4mse.org/ILS/ILS_
explained.html#Anchor-ACTIVE
Learning Styles explained on META MATH site
http://www.metamath.com/lsweb/dvclearn.htm
More Books about Learning Styles
www.learningchoices.com/learning_style.htm
Online Survey from University of South Dakota
http://www.usd.edu/trio/
tut/ts/stylest.html
Learning style inventory from Marin County
http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/
~don/Study/13styles.html
MiddlesSchool.net List of Surveys
http://www.middleschool.net/Learning
Stratagies/learning.htm
Language Learning Tips
http://www.askoxford.com/languages/culturevulture/
general/learning_tips/?view=uk
Online Learning Style inventory from
Learning Difficulties web site
http://www.ldpride.net/learning_style.html
http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm
What motivates middle school students?
http://www.middleweb.com/StdntMotv.html
Career Service page
http://www.csp.msu.edu/pages
/qg/questschool.cfm
Classroom Management
A Behavioral Approach
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/
manage/rules.html#Consequences
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/
col/manage/behmgt.html
Reinforce Positive Behavior/
Redirect Inappropriate Behavior
Anticipate occurrence of positive and inappropriate behavior
Hold students accountable
Provide specific feedback regarding behavior and expectations
Focus on positive behavior; teacher attention to inappropriate behavior can be reinforcing
Effective praise will:
be contingent on display of positive behavior
specify clearly the behaviors being reinforced
be believable by the student
Methods of coping with inappropriate behavior:
Negative reinforcement focus on behaviors to be increased
Satiation: have student(s) continue behavior until tired of it
Punishment: deliver negative consequences when inappropriate behavior occurs; does not necessarily lead to positive behavior
http://www.brains.org/index.htm
Www.6seconds.org
Emotional Quotient
Multiple Intelligences
Why type of learning styles do you have?
brains.org/store/exceptional/pg1.htm
For "Exceptional Brains"
MI and assessment -- Patricia Bolanos http://www.glef.org/php/interview.php?
id=Art_963&key=005
Theory into Practice MI
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_
m0NQM/is_4_43/ai_n8686065/pg_3
http://rvms.nbed.nb.ca/beauty.htm
Middle school that is using MI
Middle School project with online sites for research
http://www.biopoint.com/msla/projects99
/learningstyles/curpage.htm
http://www.familyeducation.com/quiz/0%2
C1399%2C3-2740%2C00.html
Inventory on line from FAMILY EDUCATION site
http://brains.org/articles.htm
If this is true... why should teenagers drive? Certainly not at night...hmmm
http://help4teachers.com/newsletter.htm
How the Adolescent Brain Challenges the Adult Brain
by Dr. Kathie F. Nunley
What makes the adolescent brain so challenging to the adult brain? Anyone who has ever tried to parent, teach or mentor the adolescent brain knows it can create some frustrating moments. A lot of this frustration can be blamed on some of the biology unique to the adolescent brain.
In any aged brain, the region responsible for basic survival needs (eat, flight/fight, sex) are handled by a region known as the hypothalamus. For obvious reason, the hypothalamus is powerful, influential and ready to function right from birth. Biologically speaking, if this area was not given top priority, the animal may not survive for long.
One of the frustrations with adolescents is due to the fact that hormones, environment, and learning, make this survival region of the brain a "hot area" in adolescent brains.
In addition, the basic survival drives of the hypothalamus don't always agree with the social structure, morals and safety of society. For the more "civilized" human behaviors we need to involve higher regions of the brain. Higher brain regions, in the cortex, can over-ride the hypothalamus. Although these regions are not given biological priority, they are the "logical" parts of the brain and are responsible for deciding when basic hypothalamus drives may not be in our best long-term interest.
A region called the prefrontal cortex plays the role of arbitrator in making these critical decisions. It quickly sizes up the situation and makes a determination which then drives our behavior. It is the prefrontal cortex then that tells us when to act on our anger, or curtail it, eat that second piece of dessert, or go without, seek immediate gratification or hold off for the long term.
Unfortunately some people have a poorly developed or poorly functioning prefrontal cortex. These people have a hard time controlling impulsive behaviors. Head trauma, alcohol and drug abuse as well as possible genetic predispositions can all lead to a dysfunctional prefrontal cortex. Maturity also plays a big role as this area takes about 20 years to fully develop. Hence, adolescents may have problems quickly sizing up risks and making good ong-term decisions.
Other biological factors make adolescent brains even more hypothalamus driven. Children learn what to do with anger by watching other people in their sphere of influence and what they do when they are angry. Peer-influence peaks during the teen-age years which means that key role models for an adolescent are other adolescents.
The hormone, oxytocin, found in the brain during romantic relationships, tends to settle and stimulate the hypothalamus during the beginning stages of the relationship. Anyone working with adolescents knows that they are always in the midst of "new love", which only further hampers logical decision making.
So adolescents appear to have at least 3 strikes against them when it comes to using logic to weigh the risks in dangerous or sometimes even everyday types of decisions. The more primitive regions of their brains are strong and tend to drive behaviors. The immature region responsible for the logic of long-term benefits does not always override the impulsive, survival-oriented hypothalamus. Add any additional trauma to the mix such as abusive households or drug and alcohol use and the issue becomes even more severe.
The biology of brain shows that adolescents still need strong adult guidance and help with decision making throughout the teen-age years . Time and good role models will fortunately allow the brain to eventually mature to match the body.
Kathie F. Nunley is an educational psychologist, author, researcher and speaker living in southern New Hampshire. Developer of the Layered Curriculum™ method of instruction, Dr. Nunley has authored several books and articles on teaching in mixed-ability classrooms and other problems facing today's teachers. Full references and additional teaching and parental tips are available at: http://Help4Teachers.com Email her:
Kathie (at) brains.org
RUBRICS are helpful, according to this advisor...
By Dr. Kathie F Nunley
Advice to teachers: You cannot be too clear when it comes to expectations. Make sure your students (and their parents) are very clear on what your expectations are for every assignment. One of the biggest sources of frustration and fuel for argument is grade confusion. Students need to know, going in, what your expectations are. You as a teacher also need to know what your expectations are.
We've all been in that position where we give an assignment only to be grossly disappointed with the product turned in. We may say to ourselves, "I don't know exactly what I wanted, but I do know this is not it" Never put yourself or your students in that position. Before you give an assignment, ask yourself, "what do I expect to see?"
For example, I may offer an assignment for students to make a poster on the evolution of the plant kingdom and make that assignment worth 20 points. Does that mean that every poster turned in will be worth 20 points? Of course not. So, what does a 20 point poster look like? What does a 15 point poster look like? A 10 point poster? At what point would the child get no credit? Write down your answers. Try to be very specific. Avoid terms like "good" or "creative". These are terms interpreted differently by everyone. Creative may mean an original work not copied out of the textbook or using ideas from more than one source. Good may mean that it shows 7 different transitions or is in full color or makes good use of white space or took a great deal of time to design.
Write down your criteria. Share it with the students ahead of time. I make criteria or "rubrics" for all the different types of assignments I offer. I post those rubrics on the wall around the room, color coded based on the assignment type.
Students want to do well. Tell them what you want and give them a fair chance to do it. If they fall short, you have a much easier time defending your grade to both them and their parent.
These look like useful books... visit brain.org ofr more information
IN THEIR OWN WAY: DISCOVERING AND ENCOURAGING YOUR CHILD'S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES by Thomas Armstrong -- Does your child have a favorite subject, activity, or hobby? Children learn in multiple ways, and educator Thomas Armstrong has shown hundreds of thousands of parents and teachers how to locate those unique areas in each of our children where learning and creativity seem to flow with special vigor. 290 pages.
A MIND at a TIME by Dr Mel Levine. Probably one of the best books written for parents and teachers on the practical application of learning styles. Dr Levine founded the "All Kinds of Minds Institute" and writes this dynamic book to help all of us understand the indiidual differences in children.. Hardcover. 350 pages.
DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH LEARNING STYLES AND MEMORY by Marilee Sprenger -- Marilee Sprenger is one of the biggest authors and experts in the field. Every teacher's library should include one of her books. This book gives educators practical strategies and applications for accessing these 'sensory pathways' and connecting learned content to the real world. Corwin Press. 163 pages
THE NEW DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN by Betty Edwards --This wildly popular and now classic book has a new edition. Edwards helps creative abilities by teaching the skills of drawing through unusual exercises designed to increase visual skills.
G ardner describes PORTFOLIOS and Observations (videotaped performances of understanding) as the new tools for assessing students. Here's a book that looks at portfolios...
http://www.heinemann.com/shared/products/E00363.asp
Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios
A Window into the Learner’s Mind
Evangeline Harris Stefanakis, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Heinemann / 0-325-00363-7 / 2002 / 192 pp / paperback + cd-rom
Availability: In Stock
Grade Level: K-8
List Price: $22.00
Savings: $2.20
Online Only Price: $19.80
Table of contents
Sample chapters
Also available from Evangeline Harris Stefanakis
People who bought this also bought...
EMAIL this page to a friend
Introduction by Bruce Torff, Foreword by Deborah Meier, Thomas Hehir
Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences suggests that culture, language, and environment all influence how an individual's intelligence is expressed. In this guide, Evangeline Stefanakis provides concrete suggestions for translating Gardner's theory into curriculum and assessment practices in the context of urban classrooms. By combining the collection and analysis of student work in comprehensive portfolios, she offers a framework for teachers to improve the assessment of diverse individuals.
Stefanakis is especially well suited to the task of combining theory, philosophy, and practice on this topic. She has helped teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders understand both MI theory and how to use portfolios to personalize their teaching to better serve all students, including those who are bilingual and have disabilities. She worked with the Harvard Project Zero on the Massachusetts Schools Network on a three-year effort to implement schoolwide portfolio assessment in thirteen urban and rural schools. The contents of this book, which include principal and teacher stories from the Cambridgeport School, grew directly from this experience.
In eight concise chapters, Stefanakis takes teachers through proven strategies for creating personal student profiles and portfolios as "windows into learners' minds." Her book provides:
a positive focus on children's assets—what they do know, rather than what they don't
a guide on applying the theory of multiple intelligences to personalize learning
short, practical, classroom-based content on implementing portfolios (Grades K-8)
proven ways for teachers to expand their practices for reaching an even wider, more diverse, and challenging range of learners by differentiating instruction
a companion dual-platform CD-ROM featuring a range of student portfolios and reproducible assessment forms.
Understanding what students bring to the learning environment and how to accommodate their needs has challenged educators for generations. Here is an important addition to the literature on multiple intelligences and on practices that recognize, honor, and embrace children's diversity.
French Phrases
Basic French to practice in School
Mix in sentences any French you know…
S’il vous plait, open la porte.
Seel vu play (Please open the door).
Puis-je aller au toilette?
Poo eee je al LAY oh twa LET?
Can I go to the bathroom?
J’ai besoin d’aller au bureau
Jzay buh ZWAN dall LAY oh boo ROH
I need to go to the office
Je veux ecrire quelque chose.
Je ve AY CREER kel keh SHOWZ
I want to write something.
L’ordinateur ne marche pas.
The computer doesn’t work.
Ou est mon stylo? Where is my pen?
Ooo ay mohn steee loh?
Aidez-moi! (s’il vous plait) Help me! (please) AY DAY MWA
Comment allez vous? How are you?
Tres bien, merci. Very well, thank you.
Merci beaucoups. Many thanks.
Il fait beau aujourd’hui. It’s nice weather today. Eel fay BOH oh djour doo iii
Quel age avez vous? How old are you?
KELL AHggg a VAY VU?
J’ai treize ans. I am 13 years old
dJAY TRAYzz ahhhhn
(I have 13 years is how you say it in French)
ce n’est pas important. It’s not important.
seh nay PAZ am por tawn
Quelle heure est-il? What time is it?
KELL errr AY TEEL
Il est une heure de l’apres-midi. It’s one pm. EEL ay OON er de LA PRAY mee dee
Il est deux heures et demie. It’s 2:30
Eel ay DE zerr ay duh MEE.
Il est neuf heures et quart. It’s 9:15.
Eel ay NER verr ay KAR
Il est onze heures et cinq It’s 11:05
Eel ay awz err ay SANK
Il est dix heures et dix minutes. It’s 10:10
Eel ay DEE zerr ay DEE MEE nooots
Pouvez vous attender deux minutes?
poo vay VU ah tawn DAY de meee NOOT?
Can you wait two minutes?
l’autobus va partir dans trois minutes!
LotoBOOS va parTEER daw TWA mee noot
The bus is going to leave in 3 minutes!
Spanish Phrases
Let’s learn a Spanish Poem
by José de Espronceda
Canción del pirata
Con diez cañones por banda,
viento en popa, a toda vela,
no corta el mar, sino vuela
un velero bergantín.
Bajel pirata que llaman, 5
por su bravura, el Temido,
en todo mar conocido
del uno al otro confín.
La luna en el mar rïela,
en la lona gime el viento, 10
y alza en blando movimiento
olas de plata y azul;
y ve el capitán pirata,
cantando alegre en la popa,
Asia a un lado, al otro Europa, 15
y allá a su frente Stambul:
«Navega, velero mío,
sin temor,
que ni enemigo navío
ni tormenta, ni bonanza 20
tu rumbo a torcer alcanza,
ni a sujetar tu valor.
Veinte presas
hemos hecho
a despecho 25
del inglés,
y han rendido
sus pendones
cien naciones
a mis pies. 30
Que es mi barco mi tesoro,
que es mi dios la libertad,
mi ley, la fuerza y el viento,
mi única patria, la mar.
Allá muevan feroz guerra 35
ciegos reyes
por un palmo más de tierra;
que yo aquí tengo por mío
cuanto abarca el mar bravío,
a quien nadie impuso leyes. 40
Y no hay playa,
sea cualquiera,
ni bandera
de esplendor,
que no sienta 45
mi derecho
y dé pecho
a mi valor.
Que es mi barco mi tesoro,
que es mi dios la libertad, 50
mi ley, la fuerza y el viento,
mi única patria, la mar.
A la voz de «¡barco viene!»
es de ver
cómo vira y se previene 55
a todo trapo a escapar;
que yo soy el rey del mar,
y mi furia es de temer.
En las presas
yo divido
lo cogido 60
por igual;
sólo quiero
por riqueza
la belleza
sin rival. 65
Que es mi barco mi tesoro,
que es mi dios la libertad,
mi ley, la fuerza y el viento,
mi única patria, la mar.
¡Sentenciado estoy a muerte! 70
Yo me río;
no me abandone la suerte,
y al mismo que me condena,
colgaré de alguna entena,
quizá en su propio navío. 75
Y si caigo,
¿qué es la vida?
Por perdida
ya la di,
cuando el yugo 80
del esclavo,
como un bravo,
sacudí.
Que es mi barco mi tesoro,
que es mi dios la libertad, 85
mi ley, la fuerza y el viento,
mi única patria, la mar.
Son mi música mejor
aquilones,
el estrépito y temblor 90
de los cables sacudidos,
del negro mar los bramidos
y el rugir de mis cañones.
Y del trueno
al son violento, 95
y del viento
al rebramar,
yo me duermo
sosegado,
arrullado 100
por el mar.
Que es mi barco mi tesoro,
que es mi dios la libertad,
mi ley, la fuerza y el viento,
mi única patria, la mar.» 105
De: Antología de los mejores poetas castellanos, Rafael Mesa y López. Londres: T. Nelson, 1912.
TRANSLATION
http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poesia/pirata.htm
(1808-1842) Canción of the Pirate
The breeze fair aft, all sails on high,
Ten guns on each side mounted seen,
She does not cut the sea, but fly,
A swiftly sailing brigantine;
A pirate bark, the “Dreaded” named,
For her surpassing boldness famed,
On every sea well-known and shore,
From side to side their boundaries o'er.
The moon in streaks the waves illumes
Hoarse groans the wind the rigging through;
In gentle motion raised assumes
The sea a silvery shade with blue;
Whilst singing gaily on the poop
The pirate Captain, in a group,
Sees Europe here, there Asia lies,
And Stamboul in the front arise.
“Sail on, my swift one! nothing fear;
Nor calm, nor storm, nor foeman's force,
Shall make thee yield in thy career
Or turn thee from thy course.
Despite the English cruisers fleet
We have full twenty prizes made;
And see their flags beneath my feet
A hundred nations laid.
My treasure is my gallant bark,
My only God is liberty;
My law is might, the wind my mark,
My country is the sea.
“There blindly kings fierce wars maintain,
For palms of land, when here I hold
As mine, whose power no laws restrain,
Whate'er the seas infold.
Nor is there shore around whate'er,
Or banner proud, but of my might
Is taught the valorous proofs to bear,
And made to feel my right.
My treasure is my gallant bark,
My only God is liberty;
My law is might, the wind my mark,
My country is the sea.
“Look when a ship our signals ring,
Full sail to fly how quick she's veered!
For of the sea I am the king,
My fury's to be feared;
But equally with all I share
Whate'er the wealth we take supplies;
I only seek the matchless fair,
My portion of the prize.
My treasure is my gallant bark,
My only God is liberty;
My law is might, the wind my mark,
My country is the sea.
“I am condemned to die !—I laugh;
For, if my fates are kindly sped,
My doomer from his own ship's staff
Perhaps I'll hang instead.
And if I fall, why what is life?
For lost I gave it then as due,
When from slavery's yoke in strife
A rover! I withdrew.
My treasure is my gallant bark;
My only God is liberty;
My law is might, the wind my mark,
My country is the sea.
“My music is the Northwind's roar;
The bellowings of the Black Sea's shore,
And rolling of my guns.
And as the thunders loudly sound,
And furious the tempests rave,
I calmly rest in sleep profound,
So rocked upon the wave.
My treasure is my gallant bark,
My only God is liberty;
My law is might, the wind my mark,
My country is the sea.”
—James Kennedy (translator)
From: Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the Spanish by English and North American Poets, collected and arranged by Thomas Walsh. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1920.
Basic Spanish to practice in School
Start mixing in your sentences any Spanish you know…
Por Favor, open la puerta.
(Please open the door).
Favor de abrir la puerta
(Please do a favor and open the door)
Puedo ir al bano?
Can I go to the bathroom?
Necesito ir a la oficina.
I need to go to the office
Quiero escribir algo.
I want to write something.
La computadora no funciciona.
The computer doesn’t work.
Donde esta mi lapiz? Where is my pencil?
Ayudame! (por favor) Help me! (please)
Como esta usted? How are you?
Bien, gracias. Fine, thank you.
Muchas gracias. Many thanks.
Hace calor hoy. It’s hot today.
Cuantos anos tiene usted? How old are you?
Tengo trece anos. I am 13 years old
(I have 13 years is how you say it in Spanish)
No es importante. It’s not important.
Que hora es? What time is it?
Es la una de la tarde. It’s one pm.
Son las dos y media It’s 2:30
Son las nueve y cuarto. It’s 9:15.
Son las nueve y cinco. It’s 9:05
Son las diez y diez minutos. It’s 10:10
Puede usted esperar dos minutos?
Can you wait two minutes?
El autobus va a salir en tres minutos!
The bus is going to leave in 3 minutes!
A note to my students...
1. It's important to TRY to speak another language. REPEAT and PRACTICE to give your muscles the new positions... as many times as possible. REPEAT and REPEAT.... even if it sounds silly.
2. A new language is a door to new friends and understanding. It's fun to see what an ad means.
Write to me with your questions. Let's make your questions useful to other students... we all have the same ideas and fears inside...
Audio Learning
www.geocities.com/talkinternational1/lookaudio
Virtually every lesson on this web site can be converted to AUDIO learning just by having someone READ the problem to the student...
How can we learn a language? By using the language in our classes and in our daily lives. If yo uknow the word for "Cat, then you can say, "Where is the chat?" Then you can graduate to:
Where is the cat?
donde esta el gato? Spanish
Dove e il gatto? (DO vay ay eeel GAH toe?) Italian
Ou est le chat? ooooo ay le Shah? French
Call me at 954 646 8246 and practice your accent over the telephone...
What time is it?
French: Quelle heure est-il? Kell errr ay teeel?
Spanish Que hora es? Kay o rah ess?
Italian Che ore sono? Kay oray soh noh?
Where is the pass?
French: Ou est le pass? ooooo ay leh pahsss
Spanish Donde esta el permiso?
Italian dove il permisso?
Can I use this?
French: est-ce que je peux utiliser celui-ci? je pe ooo teee lee zay se looee see?
Spanish: Puedo usar este?
Italian: Posso utilisare questo? po so oo tee lee sah ray kwest to
I need to eat something
French: J'ai besoin de quelque chose a manger.
Spanish: Necesito comer algo
or Tengo hambre I'm hungry
Italian ho bisogno di mangiare qualcosa.
Yes, you can use these simple sentences:
Disculpeme, puedo usar este eraser? (Spanish)
Excuse me, can I use this eraser?
You don't have to know the word for "eraser"...just get started and use what you know.
Learning a language is largely an audio process, so let's start with some phreases... Learn other languages and look for patterns in:
LEARN ITALIAN
Che = “que” like in Spanish. RULE: Ch = K in English.
Ponte Vecchio = VEK kio
A is like AH or LA! MAMA
E is like AY or DAY
I is like eee or SI!
O is like OH but short
U is like oo in moon or tune
Mama Mia My mother
La vita dolce the life sweet (it's backwards)
RULE: C is "CH" in front of I and E
Cibatta (it’s a kind of bread)
Chee BAH tta
To speak Italian, we need to make the vowels short.
Here are some sentences and questions you can use in class.
Che fai? What are you doing?
Che giorno è... what day is
Oggi today
domani tomorrow
Che giorno è oggi? What day is today?
Oggi è giovedì. Today is thursday
Domani è venerdì. Tomorrow is Friday
Scusi skoo see Excuse me “Es SKOO sa may”
Hello (for good morning and good afternoon)
Buon giorno bwon jorno
Hello! SALve! Good Bye = ArriveDERci
sal-vay ar-reevay-DAYRchee
Hi! Ciao! Bye! (with friends and children) Ciao! chow
Pleased to meet you Piacere di conoscerla
pee-a-chayray dee ko-no-SHAYRla
Good evening (after about 5pm) Buona sera
bwona sayra
Good night Buona notte bwona not-tay
How are you? Come sta? Fine thanks, and you? bene grazie e lei?
komay sta benay grats-yay ay lay
How are you doing? Come va? komay va
Until tomorrow A domani Until soon A presto
a do-manee a presto
Colors
black nero nayro
blue blu bloo
light blue azzurro az-zoor-ro
navy blue blu marino bloo ma-reeno
brown marrone mar-ronay
gold oro oro
green verde vayrday
grey grigio greejo
orange arancione aran-chonay
pink rosa roza
purple viola vee-ola
red rosso ros-so
silver argenteo arjayn-tayo
turqoise turchese toor-kayzay
white bianco bee-anko
yellow giallo jal-lo
* SHAPE
big grande granday
fat grasso(a) gras-so(a)
flat piatto(a) pee-at-to(a)
large grosso(a) gros-so(a)
long lungo(a) loongo(a)
narrow stretto(a) strayt-to(a)
pointed appuntito(a) ap-poon-teeto(a)
round rotondo(a) ro-tondo(a)
small piccolo(a) peek-kolo(a)
square quadrato(a) kwad-rato(a)
tall alto(a) alto(a)
thick spesso(a) spays-so(a)
thin magro(a) magro(a)
tiny piccolino(a) peek-ko-leeno(a)
wide largo(a) largo(a)
What's your name?
My name is...
Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo...
komay tee kee-amee mee kee-amo...
How old are you?
I'm ... years old
Quanti anni hai? Ho ... anni
kwantee an-nee a-ee o ... an-nee
Are you Italian? I'm American
Sei italiano(a)? Sono americano
say eetal-yano(a) Sono ameri CAN o
Where do you live?
Where do you
live? (plural)
Dove abiti? Dove abitate?
dovay a-beetee dovay abee-tatay
I live in London
We live in Glasgow
Vivo a Londra Viviamo a Glasgow
veevo a londra veev-yamo a glasgo
I'm at school
I work
I'm retired
Vado a scuola Lavoro Sono in
pensione
vado a skwola la-voro sono een payns-yonay
I'm...
married
divorced
widowed
Sono... sposato(a) divorziato(a) vedovo(a)
sono... spo-zato(a) deevorts-yato(a) vay-dovo(a)
I have...
a boyfriend
a girlfriend
a partner
Ho... un ragazzo una ragazza un amico(a)
o... oon ragats-so oona ragats-a oon a-
meeko(a)
I have ... a sister I have one brother
I have no brothers
Ho ... una sorella Ho un fratello Non ho fratelli
O so REL la non o fra TEL li
I'm here...
on holiday
on business
for the
weekend
Sono qui... in vacanza per lavoro per
l'weekend
sono kwee... een va-kantsa payr la-voro payr
lweekend
Ma che fai?
But what are you doing?
Seasons/Stagioni
The names of seasons are not capitalized in Italian.
la primavera
l’estate
l’autunno
l’inverno Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Months/Mesi
The names of the months are not capitalized in Italian.
gennaio
febbraio
marzo
aprile
maggio
giugno
luglio
agosto
settembre
ottobre
novembre
dicembre January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Che mese è? (In che mese siamo?) – È settembre. (Siamo in settembre.)
What month is it? (What month are we in?) – It’s September.
Days of the Week/Giorni della Settimana
The days of the week are not capitalized in Italian. The week begins with Monday.
lunedì
martedì
mercoledì
giovedì
venerdì
sabato
domenica Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Che giorno è...
oggi
domani
Che giorno è oggi?
Oggi è giovedì.
Domani è venerdì. What day is...
today
tomorrow
What day is it today?
Today is Thursday.
Tomorrow is Friday.
Telling Time
Questions | Answers
A. Express the following times in Italian.
1. Sono le sette e ventuno di mattina.
2. Sono le nove e dieci di mattina.
3. Sono le quattro e ventiquattro di pomeriggio.
4. Sono le otto e mezzo di sera.
5. Sono le quattro meno un quarto di mattina.
6. Sono le nove di sera.
7. È l'una e un quarto di mattina.
8. È l'una e un quarto di pomeriggio.
Questions | Answers
B. Convert the following times into numerical values.
1. le sei e un quarto di sera
2. le undici meno un quarto di sera
3. le otto meno cinque di mattina
4. l'una di notte
5. le tre meno un quarto del pomeriggio
6. le sette di sera
7. le cinque e venti di sera
8. le tre e diciassette di mattina
Questions | Answers
C. Rewrite these sentences, using an alternate time expression.
EXAMPLE: Sono le quattro e cinquanta.—Sono le cinque meno dieci.
1. Sono le tre e quindici.
2. Sono le otto e quaranta.
3. È l'una e trenta.
4. Sono le undici e quarantacinque.
5. Sono le sette e cinquantanove.
6. Sono le nove e quarantatrè
Telling Time
Questions | Answers
A. Express the following times in Italian.
1. 7:21 A.M.
2. 9:10 A.M.
3. 4:24 P.M.
4. 8:30 P.M.
5. 3:45 A.M.
6. 9:00 P.M.
7. 1:15 A.M.
8. 1:15 P.M.
Questions | Answers
B. Convert the following times into numerical values.
1. 6:15 P.M.
2. 10:45 P.M.
3. 7:55 A.M.
4. 1:00 A.M.
5. 2:45 P.M.
6. 7:00 P.M.
7. 5:20 P.M.
8. 3:17 A.M.
Questions | Answers
C. Rewrite these sentences, using an alternate time expression.
EXAMPLE: Sono le quattro e cinquanta.—Sono le cinque meno dieci.
1. Sono le tre e un quarto.
2. Sono le nove meno venti.
3. È l'una e mezzo.
4. Sono le undici e tre quarto.
5. Sono le otto meno uno.
6. Sono le dieci meno diciassette.
ENGLISH ITALIAN
ankle la caviglia
arm il braccio
armpit l'ascella
artery l'arteria
body il corpo
bone l'osso
brain il cervello
calf il polpaccio
chest il torace
collarbone la clavicola
elbow il gomito
finger il dito
foot il piede hand la mano heart il cuore heel il calcagno hip l'anca index finger l'indice knee il ginocchio larnyx la laringe leg la gamba middle finger il medio muscle il muscolo nail l'unghia nerve il nervo pinkie il mignolo rib la costola ring finger l'anulare shoulder la spalla skin la pelle spine la spina dorsale stomach lo stomaco thumb il pollice vein la vena wrist il polso
bread il pane — dark bread — il pane nero — rye bread — il pane di segale — whole wheat bread
— il pane integrale breakfast la colazione — eat breakfast — fare la prima colazione butter il burro cereal i fiocchi di cereale coffee il caffè — black — nero — decaffeinated — decaffeinato — with cream — con panna — with sugar — con zucchero croissant il cornetto egg l’uovo — hard–boiled — sodo — soft–boiled — alla coque — fried eggs — uova fritte — scrambled eggs — uova strapazzate fruit juice il succo di frutta — grapefruit juice — succo di pompelmo — orange juice — succo d’arancia — tomato juice — succo di pomodoro honey il miele hot chocolate la cioccolata jam la marmellata milk il latte — condensed milk — il latte condensato roll il panino sausage la salsiccia slice la fetta tea il tè — with lemon — con limone — with milk — con latte
§ C’è (from ci è) and ci sono correspond to the English there is and there are. They state the existence or presence of something or someone.
C’è tempo; non c’è fretta.
There's time; there is no hurry.
Ci sono molti italiani a New York.
There are many Italians in New York.
§ C’è and ci sono should not be confused with ecco (here is, here are; there is, there are), which is used when you point at or draw attention to something or someone (singular or plural).
C’è una parola difficile in questa frase.
There's a difficult word in this sentence.
§ C’è and ci sono also express the idea of being in or being here/there.
Scusi, c’è Maria?— No, non c’è.
Excuse me, is Maria in?— No, she isn’t.
Com’è
§ Come is used with all persons of essere in questions to find out what people or things are like.
Come sei?
What are you like?
Com’è il museo d’arte moderna?
What is the museum of modern art like?
§ Come + essere is used in exclamations.
Come sei biondo!
How blond you are!
Com’è dolce questo caffè!
How sweet this coffee is!
Come sono buoni questi panini!
How good these sandwiches are!
§ Note the word order: come + verb + adjective. The subject, if expressed, is at the end of the exclamation.
Com’è grande questo museo!
How big this museum is!
§ Exclamations of this kind are used much more frequently in Italian than in English.
Com’è bella questa casa!
This is really a nice house! My, what a lovely house!
Now... call Mr. Mac and practice on the telephone. 954 646 8246
Features of the Visual and Active
Portfolio Method
Adding an element of relationship.
(cellphone and email contacts, invitations to lunch or snacks outside the classroom)
Building the curriculum from relevance. (What does the student want to know or learn?)
Creating opportunities to learn through action, through performances of understanding and mentoring..
Evaluation is through recorded exhibition so that the student has to feel and see the gaps and know where the next step is.
Independent Work Time takes up a larger part of the class schedule. Building a portfolio is more important than running through a check list of grammar and vocabulary (listen, speak, write, read).
EVERY PART OF THE CLASS CAN BE VIDEOTAPED for later review (since some students find it difficult to make notes and pay attention). The videos can be converted to a video on CD at a rate of about 2 hours per 700 megabytes.
The individual education plan for each student is built around a system that collects materials for a portfolio. For procedures about "how to use a camera," see LookVideo page (where there is a pronunciation rubric).
The visual and active portfolio method of learning languages is based on the work of the following theorists and practictioners.
Montessori, don't do for the student what the student can do for herself.
Kay Latona, well, duh! (as in "isn't it obvious?")
Jack Latona, backwards history and O'Neill's history
Jared Diamond, synthesis and story telling
Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence
Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat
Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences and learning styles
Dawn Elrad, parking spaces, the shopping mall
Ms. Bacallao, Hispanic Unity, parking spaces
Lois Hedland, Teaching for Understanding (portfolios)
Dennis Littky, the Three "R"s, mentoring, respect students by asking them to do "real work."
Royal Society of Arts RSA CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults)
Huetinck, Teaching methods for Secondary School Math
Pat Harris, application of standard principles in family therapy and counseling, particularly "reframing"
Marshall Thurber, frequency of contact, memorization of poetry
Lee Brower, Positive Focus
Luia Forbes, tutoring methods
Dan Pink, new perspectives on right and left brain (A Whole New Mind) and entrepreneuring (Free Agent Nation, which is really about "how to apply what you learned in and out of school")
Robert Ornstein, Whack on the Side of the Head (and other works)
Rob Becker, perspectives of the cave man
Dr. Nancy Snyderman, ABC TV special about "the Brain Game"
Mrs. Z., HACC, the importance of portfolios
SAT Tutoring systems (how to organize a tutoring session)
FreeVocabulary.com, for the list approach
Alison Gopnik, Berkeley, the teacher as bseball coach (see the Jan. 2005 article)
Marc Greenblum, use of video and digital cameras in the classroom
Paul Wagner, video pioneer, former president of Rollins College, use of film cameras on campus
Dennis Yuzenas, visual and active methods
Beakman, active methods
Bill Nye (the Science Guy), visual methods
Dr. Robert McAlister, how to run a science fair
KnowYourType.com, Briggs Myers approach
Brooks Emeny, People to People initiatives
US Coast Guard, its boating course
Dr. Michael Merzenich, therapies based on "brain plasticity," Brain Gym, positscience.com
alz.org, Maintain Your Brain
Madeleine Hunter, the MH Lesson Plan
BreakthroughCollaborative.org (a way of getting students to teach other students.)
Some of the work connected with the Visual and Active Portfolio Method appears on these web sites (developed by S. McCrea)
LookForPatterns.com
TeachersToTeachers.com
MathForArtists.com (learning styles)
This page will give you a synopsis of the Visual and Active Portfolio Method. Specifics on how to best implement the system can be obtained by contacting S. McCrea. For information about licensing the use of this synthetic system, please contact 954-646-8246.
came to know that “there is another way” after trying to teach 6 classes of 20 kids, 45 minutes per class. The focus was on presenting the material efficiently and effectively. The Madeleine Hunter method of teaching is the standard of “good teaching.”
The research by Howard Gardner makes it clear that the Hunter method is effective in ensuring that more than one teaching method is used and more than one learning style is given a chance to “latch onto” the material.
However, most people who study Gardner did not go one step farther. They didn’t read pages 161 and following about how to evaluate the learning.
Even we who have taking the RSA course for CELTA (teaching English to Adults) have a false sense of knowing what to do next after presenting the material of the day. We know we have to check understanding and then move on to connect the material to real examples in English for practice. The effort is designed to ensure that materials are presented to a variety of learning styles.
However, let’s take a moment to breathe and reflect on the purpose of the language school (and on any class): it is not to present an effective curriculum. The purpose of a school is to meet the needs of each individual student. The idea expressed by Gardner and put into action by Dennis Littky is to ensure that teaching changes to meet the needs of the individual student. The steps include:
Adding an element of relationship.
(cellphone and email contacts, invitations to lunch or snacks outside the classroom)
Building the curriculum from relevance . (What does the student want to know or learn?)
Creating opportunities to learn through action, through performances of understanding and mentoring..
Evaluation is not through written tests but through recorded exhibition so that the student has to feel and see the gaps and know where the next step is. Through feedback from the teacher and (if the student isn’t shy) from the audience (and self evaluation after looking at the video), the student then knows the next layer of learning that needs to take place.
Independent Work Time takes up a larger part of the class schedule. Building a portfolio is more important than running through a check list of grammar and vocabulary (listen, speak, write, read). The expectations of the students are changed, because most people who go to Littky’s school have to be persuaded to see that studying only what you want to study will lead to a rigorous result.
How can effective teaching and “Teaching for Understanding” (the code phrase developed by Lois Hetland, Ed.D, a disciple of Howard Gardner) be accepted by students who have come to expect “traditional classrooms”?
Samples of a portfolio created by other students and standard “packages” showing what students have produced is a good example. Performances of Understanding can be produced at lower levels of proficiency, but this method is more obvious at advanced intermediate.
EVERY PART OF THE CLASS CAN BE VIDEOTAPED for later review (since some students find it difficult to make notes and pay attention). The videos can be converted to a video on CD at a rate of about 2 hours per 700 megabytes.
The key is found by making a parallel set of key standards. The Met Center, Littky’s group, does not teach Math, History, Science and English – they ask students to develop their own goals for qualitative and quantitative reasoning, empirical reasoning and communication. These areas can be supplemented with ESOL or EFL structure and and the EFL teacher can restate what needs to be sought by the students. In the Visual and Active Method, the students learn skill areas or interest areas, not artificial "chapters" related to grammar and vocabulary.
(Some students will not accept this functional description of a language class, and they will need to pursue the making of a portfolio based on the structure of the textbook.)
We can see some similarities – and therefore the materials developed by Littky have some relevance to all methods of teaching. The Madeleine Hunter model remains in place (to support students who want structure) and the classes have a textbook and class time (as they do in the Littky school). The key focus is on asking the student to seek outside learning opportunities that are connected to their aspirations. An executive at a power plant in Japan should spend time touring a plant… but do more. He should sit and shadow the mentor. The chapter on Mentoring in Littky’s book shows that there is not always a burden of mentoring… there is a feeling of adding a dimension to the mentor’s job. “I get paid to show another person why I love my work.”
PORTFOLIO
The focus for teachers could be on pushing and guiding students to develop a portfolio to show that students have demonstrated or performed understanding by making presentations. The exit portfolio can be a CD with performances on video showing basic skills of pronunciation and grammar (with students teaching units to the camera). The teacher can then ask students to go out to the “real world” to video themselves in situations with shopkeepers and volunteer situations.
BAD EXAMPLE of mentoring
I was studying Spanish in a small program in Chalchihuites Mexico near Zacatecas and the program offered an “experience in real Mexico” working side by side Mexican employees. I filed cards for 3 hours in the city hall. Yuck. It was safe because after the initial hand signals I didn’t have to talk or listen for the next three hours, yet I was “immersed” in the culture of the work place.
GOOD EXAMPLE of mentoring
One of my students, Johana, said that she loves being corrected by young kids. “They tell you exactly the truth.” The EFL teacher (Mr. Mac) got her the volunteer sheet for Virginia Shuman Young Magnet school and she plans to volunteer two hours next week in a school. That’s using English in a real sense. A photo of that opportunity or a video camera on Johana can be part of her portfolio.
CLASSROOM NEEDS
Small cameras if the student doesn’t have a digital camera.
Burning software on a laptop in the school. It's best that the computer is NOT connected to the network.
Portfolio system (clear plastic sleeves with three punched holes for storage in a three ring binder) needs to be set up to engage the students.
List of potential mentoring and volunteering locations in the area of the school.
SUMMARY
Most students learn another language better in a classroom that is visual and active.
Students can be pushed to create portfolios to show their understanding. (See Gardner, Littky and Hedland)
Students can be pushed to find relationships outside the classroom to pursue interests and build their vocabulary through use in mentorships and volunteering positions.
Video equipment will allow students to bring back information that they want to practice.
Video equipment in their home allow them to practice pronunciation and listening on computers (see the series of CDs that I distribute to my students).
This Visual and Active Portofolio Method can be licensed (if you wish to receive the consulting support by S. McCrea)
S. McCrea is available for training staff in the use of the Visual and Active Method. Since some organizations don't use the vocabulary of portfolios, the seminar can be rescaled to the vocabulary limitations of the audience.
See below for a description of the Communication Workshop
TITLE: “How to Improve Communication Using All Seven Ways of Learning.”
1. Discussion of the importance of right and left brain. What function does the right brain primary serve? What function does the left brain primarily serve?
2. Discussion of personality types. Seven Ways of Learning, Knowyourtype.com as the source of info plus male/female brain differences. What possible difficulties can we anticipate? How can we adapt our communication to reach all types of learning styles?
3. Exercise with magnetic sticks to demonstrate other learning styles.
4. If there is time, the discussion could open up with some readings (homework for those who want the homework) and a chance to discuss by email some of the topics we covered in the training.
The more interesting aspects of the work of Thomas Friedman and Dan Pink (which are perhaps less specific for the work place) can be left for people to correspond with me about. I’m also interested in interviewing anyone who wants to be a mentor on video (see www.MentorsOnVideo.com).
For a Procedure about How to Collect a Video, see my memo to a potential client
From a class on February 16, 2006
These are notes for a class that happened yesterday
I walked in and asked each person to think about a topic.
"Each person will talk for 2 minutes about any subject. You choose."
We took about 10 minutes for the students to feel comfortable with the idea... I
even recorded a short talk about the best city in Central Florida
(I wanted to get the student's inner mind talking like this: "Oh, the teacher did it, so I need to record something now.")
Then I asked each person to take turns with the camera. We added new
words like "tripod" and "focus".
After each person spoke, I wrote errors on the whiteboard and we went over pronunciation
problems .
"Can we watch the videos"? they asked.
They are like 6th graders. It is sweet.
After watching again and re-noticing the errors, I asked, "Do you know
how to copy these pictures on a CD?"
Two students wanted to learn how to transfer photos from a computer to a CD, so a third student taught them. My input was 2 blank cds and two paper covers, plus the use of a laptop comptuer with CD writing software and an interface for accepting a camera's memory card, plus a digital camera. Very animated students and they were happy to get copies on CD.
Fabulous use of technology and the "method"
Visual and Active Method of improving your SAT score
In 1975 I scored 590 math and 570 verbal. A teacher at my school (Mrs.Maxwell) gave our class a hint: "Do every math problem in the book and you'll see the patterns that you need to follow. There are only about 100 types of math problems that they can throw at you. Next, learn EVERY word in the vocabulary list. You will save time. While other students are looking at the context to figure out the meaning, you will already know what inauspicious means."
TIP 1: Give a reward.
I sat that summer on a lake every morning for three hours, making words more animated. Since I liked to do math problems, I told myself, "You get to reward yourself with a page of fun math after you do a page of learning vocabulary." It worked. My vocabulary score jumped to 720 and my math score hit 800.
TIP 2: check off words that you know. And know them well before you check them. I made myself imagine using the word in an interesting or funny or stupid situation. AEGIS means shield, so I imagined five tall letters AEGIS and I was standing behind them, protected from arrows.
Tip 3: Do the easy problems first on the wirtten test. If you take the computer test, as some people do for GRE, then you have to answer each test question in order.
Tip 4: Breathe deeply.
Tip 5: Sleep a lot, at least 7 hours each night.
Tip 6: Drink water and keep well hydrated.
Now, let's look at the different ways of handling interest.
Principal x interest rate = income
$1000 x 5% = income
Prin? x 5% = $50
$1000 x rate? = $50
Don't be lazy! Exercise your brain and look for different ways to ask the same question.
What's the area of the circle?
What's the circumference of the circle?
If the diameter of the first circle is 2, what is the diameter of a second circle with TWICE the area of the first circle?
If you have questions, call me for a free 5-minute talk to make sure you have learned something from this web site. I will also
Why do you invite students to call you? Because I want you to visit my web site about BIBBI, the Building International Bridges By Internet project....
Learn about getting a PENPAL
Three different ways to do probability
1. FIND THE TOTAL NUMBER.
40% of the people in class have blue eyes. 50 people have brown eyes and 10 people are grey-eyed. The brown and grey-eyed people represent 30% of the class. How many people are in the class?
2. THE ORDER IS IMPORTANT... There are 4 red balls and two yellow balls. What is the probability that I will pull out a red ball and then a yellow ball?
3. The order is NOT important.
What is the probability of pulling out one red ball in the above example?
NOW... where can you go to practice SAT, GRE and FCAT?
PrincetonReview.com
www.NewFCAT.com has information about "atttitude" and how to learn about different learning styles.
Visit LookForPatterns.com for a change of pace.
Visit MathForArtists.com if you hate math or if you enjoy the colors of math...
TIPS FOR Writing the Essay (new in 2005)
A good essay develops your opinion on a subject. You need to show good critical thinking... consider all possible angles! Don't exaggerate!
Make it well organized. If you want to make three points, then don't give four!
Try to avoid the standard "tell them what you will tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them."
Example:
There are four reasons why I would choose Miami over New York as a place to hold a family reunion.
1 Sunshine (give an example with a nice story)
2 Cost (another story)
3 Friendly people (example)
4 Easy to get around (example)
It's nice to see family. Why not see family in a friendly affordable place where it's not raining and there's plenty of parking?
"Movies, soap operas, TV shows and radio shows are competing for the minds of our young people. If we are going to have a chance at educating them, we need to use the same methods -- audio and visual."
Paul A. Wagner in Collier's Magazine, 1949
rigins of the Visual and Active Method
I've seen good teachers.... they have entertained me and engaged my imagination.
As a teacher, I aim to catch people's Attention, grab their Interest, build a Desire to learn and then incite them to Act on that desire...
It's called AIDA and it works in advertising to get products sold.
I believe that cameras and video players and video recorders and CDs should be in every classroom... and so did Paul A. Wagner, a pioneer in the "visual aids" movement. Dig this:
-- as a teacher-trainee, he played in class a recording of John Gielgud and then recorded his students when they tried to read the same passage in Julius Caesar.
-- as a student on a college campus, he worked with other students to shoot films with a borrowed camera. A local lab donated the developing and the film was projected in the local theater.
-- he arranged for a camera for students at Rollins College to shoot a newsreel with the news of the campus.
This is standard material now on some high schools and in some middle schools where a special class is given a chance to use AV equipment....
But Paul A. Wagner did his work with cameras before World War 2. ...
VIDEO THE TEACHER
THis story is raised because some students (perhaps most students?) who find school boring would be energized if they were videotaping or digitizing their teacher. Why not let the students who are AUDIO (and not taking notes) do something useful, like videotaping you, the teacher?
Video for TUTORING
Many students forget what was taught and don't take good notes. It's a skill to take notes while someone is talking. So why not videotape the tutor? then twice the vocabulary can be delivered!
- Video the student's performance
- Let the student evaluate his own understanding
- Let the student videotape again and improve his presentation
- Give students videos to practice with at home...
A Letter To the Gifted Student
(and almost everybody is gifted in some way)
The idea behind a “Program for Gifted Students” is to give you a variety of challenges and to ask you to apply your skills to unfamiliar situations.
You can read more about “what does it mean to be gifted” by searching GOOGLE:
Search: “teaching the gifted child”
Please ask questions: 954 OH MUCHO 954-646-8246
Even if nobody has said, “You are a gifted child because you scored 125 on the XYZ scale,” you can still be gifted. Almost everybody has a gift. Many people have several gifts. Your challenges are:
a) Can you discover your gifts?
b) Can you use your gifts?
c) Can you develop your gifts?
If you want some more guidelines and direction, ask a teacher. If no teacher has time to assist you, call me.
Mr. Mac
954 OH MUCHO
mistermath@comcast.net
“What should I do?” and “Can you help me find a project to do?” are the two questions I hear most often.
Remember: Turn off the TV and turn off the video game.
The best project is the project that comes out of your head.
Write about or talk about or think about something that bothers you.
Describe a problem and then describe a solution. That’s the best work.
Good luck. Get to work. Start playing. Have fun. And be serious about your fun.
Make notes and talk to a camera about your thoughts and your projects.
collect your thoughts in your IWTRT book
I Want To Remember This
IWTRT
Rubric or Checklist for a Performance of Understanding
Based on the work of Lois Hetland and others
Evaluation of the Student’s Performance of Understanding
Name of Student: _____________________________________
Date: ______________
Topic for Performance of Understanding: ______________________________
Checklist for Presentations (based on work by Patrica Crosby and Pamela Heinz)
Information
Gains attention of the audience with an interesting detail ___
The student explains why the topic is interesting to him/her ___
Uses gestures to enhance the speech ___
Shows enthusiasm about the topic ___
Maintains eye contact with the audience ___
The student’s speech is clear and audible ___
The speech is not rushed (the student speaks at an appropriate pace) ___
Answers questions from the audience ___
Organization
Uses visual materials to clarify important points ___
Communicates beginning, middle and end of the presentation ___
Many specific words are used ___
(“glamorous” or “fabulous” rather than “nice” or “good”)
Main ideas are supported with details ___
According to Howard Gardner, “Measures of understanding” may seem demanding, particularly in contract to current, often superficial, efforts to measure what students know and are able to do. And, indeed, recourse to performing one’s understanding is likely to stress students, teachers, and parents, who have grown accustomed to traditional ways of doing (or NOT doing) things. Nonetheless, a performance approach to understanding is justified. Instead of mastering content, one thinks about the reason why a particular content is being taught and how best to display one’s comprehension of this content in a publicly accessible way. When students realize they will have to apply knowledge and demonstrate insights in a public form, they assume a more active stance to the material, seeking to exercise their “performance muscles” whenever possible.
http://www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/newfcatexpand.html
How to use the camera in the classroom: See the recommended procedures on LookVideo
Headaches and remedies for using a video in a classroom
Teachers don’t need to know much about a camera. They can trust a student to set the camera correctly and use the camera reliably.
Or the teacher can be SURE and can check the following areas of concern:
AREAS OF CONCERN
(using the Canon Optura model)
What can go wrong? Remedy in italics
Funny color Check the mode dial (it might be on CANDLE or MOON and the colors are not natural)
Wrong recording speed Go into the MENU and find the TAPE SPEED. Select the speed that you require.
Recording onto the memory card instead of the tape (or tape instead of the card) Some cameras have a switch. The Optura by Canon has a switch on top of the camera called the TAPE/CARD switch.
Out of tape or out of memory on a memory card Keep tape handy. Keep enough memory cards available or find a procedure to transfer movies to a laptop computer for later retrieval.
The recording setting is too small or too big
TAPE: VCR Setup > REC MODE > SP or LP
Canon Optura offers 320 and 160 modes.
Turn camera on, set to CAMERA, press FUNC button, scroll down with the SET wheel to 320 or 160, select the size you want and press FUNC to set the selection. 640 will fill a TV screen. 160 will give a smaller view, about 1/9th or 10% of the size of 640. Translation: 640 might give 2 minutes of recording on a 32 meg chip. 160 will give 20 minutes. Find the recording setting on the camera. 320 mode is 2 times larger than 160 mode.
The Still pictures are too “high quality” I can get only 25 pictures on the small 16 meg card Get a bigger memory card or reduce the intensity of the card. Page 89 and 90 of the manual for the Optura. FUNC > scroll down using the SET wheel to the last icon, adjust the Fine or Normal setting and the density 640 x 480 is fine for photos sent by email.
How do I take a photo? Photo button on top of the camera. It works with tape or the memory card.
How do I put a movie on the card?
Select the CARD (button next to the view finder).
Hit the RECORD button (for movie on tape or on card)
How do I erase a photo or movie from the card?
Hit FUNC and then look for the TRASH icon.
Where is the memory card? Under the camera.
Zoom in or zoom out Look for W (wide) and T (toward or telephoto)
How do I change the tape cassette? Look for the EJECT button
How do I transfer the image to a computer? Use a card reader or the USB cable (the connection is below the camera lens in the front of the camera)
The alternative remedy is to find an inquisitive student who wants to practice written English and you can ask the student to find the answer using the manual…
copyright 2006 by S. McCrea
Materials described in Visual And Active Portfolio Method for teaching language is copyright 2003, 2006. www.visualandactive.com
This description of these guidelines is available for license from S. McCrea.
Guidelines for Teachers who want to use video in the classroom
Reasons for Video in the Classroom
1. There’s no need to take notes – the video can capture the words more accurately.
2. The student performance can be collected in class and evaluation and later feedback can be given after class (allowing for more activities in class)
3. Students can carry away (at the end of the course) a portfolio of performance (before and after). Even 6 months later, the memory of the course can be heightened and recalled just by looking at a short clip.
4. Students’ sense of value is extended. “That course was worth it – I got this free CD with a lecture about pronunciation on it. I just have to listen to it and practice.”
5. Elements of real learning can be documented using video. The work of Howard Gardner and others (such as Lois Hetland) look to creating a portfolio of performances of understanding as the best way to teach for understanding. See references below.
Reasons against Video
1. the camera is sometimes disruptive or distracting.
2. students at a lower level sometimes don’t want to be put on tape or video (“Wait until I know more English”)
3. because everyone knows that the video is available, notes might not be as accurate and most students will NOT check the video before the next test or as a way of reviewing material. (Remedy: teachers can make a summary of notes and pass those notes around with the CD or DVD).
4. “bad hair day” or not enough make up. Students sometimes are worried about their appearance, even after being assured that we are looking for audio performance. Remedy: keep the camera available for the student to perform another day. Or keep the lens covered during the video recording.
5. Extra work. There’s no doubt about it. Videos create extra work for teachers. Since most teachers are paid for hours in a classroom, the handling time for videos will involve time contributed by the teacher, resources contributed by the teacher and equipment (laptop or recording equipment) provided by the teacher. The real losers are the spouses or companions of the teachers, since editing and burning time for the CDs takes time away from the home life. Videos in the classroom have reduced time spent on chores in the home for at least one teacher who uses these techniques. Remedy: teachers who use video in the classroom can be reimbursed for the value that they deliver. Since a typical video CD takes at least 60 minutes to compile and burn, plus distribute, the teacher could be compensated for that time.
Teachers who use video tape and camcorder in the classroom will have 60 minutes or 90 minutes of video images available.
The tape can be edited more easily than a typical short movie made on a digital camera.
The quality of the image and the size of the image on videotape is usually superior to the image size and quality of videos on digital cameras (usually stored on flash memory cards).
Some organizations might be tempted to set up a sophisticated recording studio for teachers to use...The typical “Authoring of DVDs” procedure will produce a consistent product, but …
a) the product will need to be kept in at least two formats (depending on the region of the world where the DVD will be played)
b) the production of the DVDs will be limited to those who have access to the equipment listed in the “Authoring” memo.
A suggested alternative: video onto CD. Smaller format videos are easier to handle since the recording goes to a format that is read on computers worldwide. The difficulty with DVD’s current regional nature can be avoided. CDs are cheaper (30 cents or less) compared to DVDs (90 to 110 cents each) and the volume of the empty space on the disk is less stressful. (“Here’s your video. Too bad I had nothing else to put on the DVD – it’s just two minutes long.”)
A suggested procedure
Suggestions on how to collect individual performances
1. practice a speech with a partner. I asked everyone to talk with a partner about the weekend. “What did you do?” After checking verb forms (this was a lower intermediate class and some past forms were missing! “Last weekend I go to Miami and I saw many thing. I visit a shop with many pink birds. I did buy one.” It was a fabulous opportunity to capture mistakes.)
2. ask each student to go outside the classroom (talk in the hall)
3. ask another student to hold the camera.
4. Before the class ends, ask “Is it okay if we put all the videos on one CD?” It will be a souvenir, you can assure the students.
5. THE NEXT DAY, hand out the performances on CD. Before you hand out the CDs, make sure each student agrees to appearing on the CD with others. Once the CD is burned, it can’t be altered.
6. Keep a copy in the office. Two months later, repeat the procedure and then the students have a record of progress.
7. For teachers who don’t like using video, a student in the class can be given the task of collecting student performances. Alternative: hire a teacher who comes in specifically to “pull out” students for recordings.
Difficulties
1. Less mature students might not take a reliable video (“hey, you are upside down now, Koichi!”). Remedy: do the video yourself, or ask a reliable student to hold the camera.
2. Video image is shaky. Remedy: put the camera on a tripod.
3. sound quality is poor. Remedy: increase the quality to 640 (from 160) and find a way to empty the memory card
Multiple uses of video
1. feedback to the student (allow the student to critique himself)
2. feedback from other students (student can hear what others say, and can avoid such contact
3. individual feedback from the teacher (teacher can make notes on a performance rubric or checklist, giving details of the student’s pronunciation and pointing to strong points and areas that need work).
4. Long-term progress can be monitored of individual students.
5. AVOID using these student performances for promotional purposes, since some students might think, “Oh, no! I might end upon the web site!”
Challenges
1. It is tempting to try to capture spontaneous performance in the classroom. This works if the student is the only person talking. If there is pair work, the camera needs to get VERY close to the student to get the audio clear enough above the din of the multiple pair-talking.
2. When students take over the camera, they sometimes don’t know when the camera is working. REMEDY: make sure the REC (red light) is visible when the recording takes place. Practice using the video, making tests to ensure performance.
3. students want to video their performance NOW. REMEDY: explain that the class needs to move on and that other students need a chance to talk.
4. A loquacious student might use up your memory stick. REMEDY: bigger memory card. You can also suggest to the student that a video on tape might be better for that person or a session after class is available.
5. the quality of the video is lower than possible. Usually I record small performances in 640 mode instead of 160 mode. The 160 allows for 20 minutes on a 32 meg stick. 640 might be less than 2 minutes. Ouch! REMEDY: bigger memory card and more memory cards
6. I don’t have an extra memory card. REMEDY: find a computer that accepts files (many computers in a language school are restricted from taking in files for fear of viruses, so many teachers assume that it’s difficult to get a place to “park” files – a laptop reserved especially for photos is a potential solution, since the copying can be made in class…) Dump the contents of the memory card onto the laptop and then erase the card, then the videoing can continue.
7. Other challenges appear on www.visualandactive.com but the essence is “think flexibly.”
8. How about the extra space on the CD? A typical student performance might be 5 meg or less and the CD holds 700 meg. REMEDY: The teacher can make a video ahead of time to practice pronunciation. The teacher’s video can be added to the group performances of the class (assuming that all students want to see each other’s performances and allow their images to be shared around).
Additional Suggestions
A video-on-CD or Videos on DVD program can hold greater allure and can build a measure of respect if teachers and students are introduced to the concept of using the video as part of a “portfolio building” exercise. Within the context of a portfolio, the video gains added importance:
The video is not just a tool to remember one particular lesson
The video is not just a gimmick to give a souvenir of a particular course or visit.
The video is not just a way of selling a school’s effort to “offer something extra.”
Within a context of a teaching method, i.e., building a portfolio of performances by the student, the video is an important record of student growth. The student can view the video to identify errors (gaining self-awareness and building the skill of listening to oneself).
The student gains a feeling that the teacher really takes time for each individual in the class. (A student without a video gets a clear message that the teacher doesn’t keep track of each individual – thus, when a student receives his/her own video on CD, the student gets the message that “you are important and I’m watching your progress.”)
HOW TO ORGANIZE THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE VIDEOS
It would be easier if every student decided that it would be cool to have a copy of the performances of other students. Then the teacher can make one CD and give a copy to each student.
It is necessary to build a sense of camaraderie and trust. In the example of the classroom where I first used digital movies to capture student performance, I had to assure each student that nobody else would see their video to get some students to open up. This made the process of making copies difficult for two of the students. The rest of the class did not need the assurance of privacy, so making copies for them was easy: I put the 8 students on one CD and made 10 copies (for the 8 cooperative students and for the 2 students who did not want to be videotaped).
I suggest a policy of “everyone gets a copy of the videos” even for the students who don’t participate. The non-participants can benefit from hearing the accents of non-native speakers (and they will enjoy looking at the video two years later… “Oh, yeah, I remember that guy. He was funny when he said THIS and THAT and BREATHE.”).
References
Any institution that adds video as a part of a commitment to building portfolios of student performances will build value in the program by quoting from the work of Howard Gardner and people like Lois Hetland (who work with Gardner) who discuss “teaching for understanding.” The video is the most reliable way of capturing evidence that the student understands new material. Written tests are reliable for a portion of students, but can often capture only a portion of the possible ways of using new information. We all can think of someone who does well on tests but freezes when asked to give a summary of two or three important points. “If I just could write down my thoughts” is a common excuse or justification for non-performance under stress.
There is a collection of schools called Big Picture Schools (a movement founded by Dennis Littky, Providence, RI) that bases its students’ work on exhibitions. Imagine a school where there are no tests, just a stand-up public demonstration (“test by exhibition”) of what you learned in the past eight or nine weeks.
The procedures given in this memo are based on the work of Howard Gardner (multiple intelligences and the description of performances of understanding) and others (Lois Hetland for suggestions on portfolio assessment and rubrics for evaluating student performances).
The bibliography at www.VisualandActive.com gives additional references for a method that I compiled for use in middle school, high school and adult classes in language school. Currently, the one additional reference that is missing is www.BreaththroughCollaborative.org (which is important to ensure that students of higher ability are mixed with lower achievers or younger children so that the higher achievers have experience with teaching what they learned).
Training in the use of video in the classroom can be extensive and teachers using video in the classroom are cautioned to read more into the work of Howard Gardner. To find a better method of assessment, Gardner tells us, we must be prepared to invest more than we currently spend (in time and other resources) on assessment. Video may provide a way to more effectively assess student performance.
Particularly helpful quotes from Gardner (potentially helpful, if the teacher invests time in learning the multiple uses of video)
============================================
Multiple Intelligences is most usefully invoked in the service of two educational goals. The first is to help students achieve certain valued adult roles or end-states. If one wants everyone to be able to engage in artistic activities, it makes sense to develop linguistic intelligence for the poet, spatial intelligence for the graphic artist and sculptor, movement intelligence for the dancer and musical intelligence for the composer. If we want everyone to be civil, then it is important to develop the personal intelligences.
The second goal is to help students master certain curricular materials. Students might be encouraged to take a course in biology so as to better understand the development of the living world. If individuals indeed have different kinds of minds, with varied strengths, interests and strategies, then it is worth considering whether pivotal curricular materials like biology could be taught AND ASSESSED in a variety of ways.
Gardner, Intelligence Reframed, p. 167
Other references (taken from VisualAndActive.com)
Jared Diamond, synthesis and story telling
Daniel Golden, Emotional Intelligence
Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat
Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences and learning styles
Dawn Elrad, parking spaces, the shopping mall
Ms. Bacallao, Hispanic Unity, parking spaces
Lois Hedland, Teaching for Understanding (portfolios)
Dennis Littky, the Three "R"s, mentoring, respect students by asking them to do "real work."
Royal Society of Arts RSA CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults)
Huetinck, Teaching methods for Secondary School Math
Pat Harris, application of standard principles in family therapy and counseling, particularly "reframing"
Marshall Thurber, frequency of contact, memorization of poetry
Lee Brower, Positive Focus
Luia Forbes, tutoring methods
Dan Pink, new perspectives on right and left brain (A Whole New Mind) and entrepreneuring (Free Agent Nation, which is really about "how to apply what you learned in and out of school")
Robert Ornstein, Whack on the Side of the Head (and other works)
Rob Becker, perspectives of the cave man
Dr. Nancy Snyderman, ABC TV special about "the Brain Game"
Mrs. Z., HACC, the importance of portfolios
SAT Tutoring systems (how to organize a tutoring session)
FreeVocabulary.com, for the list approach
Alison Gopnik, Berkeley, the teacher as bseball coach (see the Jan. 2005 article)
Marc Greenblum, use of video and digital cameras in the classroom
Paul Wagner, video pioneer, former president of Rollins College, use of film cameras on campus
Dennis Yuzenas, visual and active methods
Beakman, active methods
Bill Nye (the Science Guy), visual methods
Dr. Robert McAlister, how to run a science fair
KnowYourType.com, Briggs Myers approach
Brooks Emeny, People to People initiatives
US Coast Guard, its boating course
Dr. Michael Merzenich, therapies based on "brain plasticity," Brain Gym, positscience.com alz.org, Maintain Your Brain
Madeleine Hunter, the MH Lesson Plan
BreakthroughCollaborative.org (a way of getting students to teach other students.)
Some of the work connected with the Visual and Active Portfolio Method(tm) appears on these web sites (developed by S. McCrea)
MentorsOnVideos.com
LookForPatterns.com
TeachersToTeachers.com
MathForArtists.com (learning styles)
Copyright 2003, 2006 S. McCrea
=====================================
A performance rubric for pronunciation
Student name ________________________________
Date of performance _______________
Feedback from teacher ______________________ Smile, you are on digital video!
Pronunciation
Vowels
Hate break cat hat
Pete seat pet pen head
Bite alive driver bit fish sit give river
Hope through hop stop pot
Cute you moon sun cut up money Monday enough
Foot could push pull
House south loud
Dog Saw Bought taught talk
Boy oil toy
Car four for turn person
Consonants
Bathe bath
Breathe breath
that this those these Think thing
Notice that “ou” can have six ways to be pronounced.
Words that need practice
_________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Does the student sound like a river (flowing) or like stop-and-go traffic?
Does the student look at the audience?
Does the student use hands now and then to support the talk?
Check one:
___ You made a good effort! Bravo!
___ Next time, don’t be scared! It’s okay!
Teaching Gifted ChildrenRenzulli, Joseph S. (2000). The Multiple menu model: a practical guide for developing ... Teaching young gifted children in the regular classroom. ...
creativeteaching.org/
teaching_gifted_
children.htm
Let's start with assumptions that most people born before 1950 have about school and learning:
1) If you pay attention in school and do the work, you will be a success.
2) If you can't do something (if you can't perform a skill like writing or reading with good comprehension), then you lack the brain power or you weren't using your natural abilities. You weren't paying attention.
3) The remedy (if I don't understand) is to repeat and repeat until you get it right. It's not the teacher's fault... I just need to keep trying until I get it.
If teachers bring in the innovations of the 1970s, 1980s and later, they would introduce the following changes in their classrooms:
1. Teachers would collect their own lectures or performances of understanding (and distribute CDs with audio tracks) to allow audio learners to pick up the information. Teachers would learn how to use Digital Video, how to store videos and how to edit and share videos on CD.
2. All students would build portfolios of their performances and artifacts that show understanding. Written tests would not be very important. Videotaped performances of understanding would be important.
3. Teachers would invite mentors into the classroom. (Oh! That will mean there is less time for lectures and the teacher might lose control of the class). Teachers could give academic credit for time spent in internships outside the classroom.
4. Teachers would have dinner with each student, meet the parents and other people who give the student emotional and nurturing support. teachers would share email addresses and exchange cell numbers.
5. Teachers would visit a BigPicture.org school and learn how these topics come together in the classroom.
For Teachers
Why should teachers videotape their lessons? Why should we videotape students and their exhibitions? http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/tfu/info3e.cfm
My main criticism of the FCAT and SAT is that these written tests are incomplete. A written test is a partial snapshot and not a complete picture. To prepare for a test, most tutoring sessions can be recorded for the student to learn from… especially from their own statements and errors.
Performances of Understanding and portfolios are the better way to judge and measure understanding…
------------------------
Students might acquire pieces of knowledge from books and lectures, but without the opportunity to apply that knowledge in a variety of situations with guidance from a knowledgable coach, they are not likely to develop understanding. Performances of understanding, or understanding performances, are the activities that give students those opportunities. Performances of understanding require students to go beyond the information given to create something new by reshaping, expanding, extrapolating from, applying, and building on what they already know. The best performances of understanding help students both develop and demonstrate their understanding.
Key Features of Performances of Understanding
Performances of understanding are activities which require students to use what they know in new ways or situations to build their understanding of unit topics. In performances of understanding students reshape, expand on, extrapolate from, and apply what they already know. Such performances challenge students' misconceptions, stereotypes, and tendencies toward rigid thinking.
Performances of understanding help students build and demonstrate their understanding, Although a "performance" might sound like a final event, performances of understanding are principally learning activities. They give both you and your students a chance to see their understanding develop in new and challenging situations over time.
Performances of understanding require students to show their understanding in an observable way. They make students' thinking visible. It is not enough for students to reshape, expand, extrapolate from, and apply their knowledge in the privacy of their own thoughts. While it is conceivable that a student could understand without performing, such an understanding would be untried, possibly fragile, and virtually impossible to assess. It is a little like the difference between a daydream about how you would like to behave in a particular situation versus how you actually behave when the situation arises: the daydream and reality might turn out to be similar, but then again they might not. So performances of understanding involve students in publicly demonstrating their understanding.
(NOTE by the tutor: This is why a portfolio can contain a videotaped exhibition or presentation by the student. I videotape my students and myself to give students a model for them to study and emulate.)
=====================
For discussion
Please call 954 646 8246 with your comments.
S Mac, Tutor mistermath@comcast.net
For more information, contact Steve at 954 646 8246
Here is an exercise
Write the names of mountains, rivers, regions and cities that you know in Italy.
Go ahead, do this now.
Now. Don't wait. If you read ahead, you will spoil the experience for yourself.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DID YOU GET 16 NAMES ON A PIECE OF PAPER? OKAY... CONTINUE READING.
If you like, draw a map of Italy and place the names in approximate location to each other.
If you can do this well, you are a visual learner and performer.
Now do the same exercise with South America, India and China.
Ah ha! Are you Eurocentric too? I am. What can we do about this situation? Write to me.
s2314@tmail.com
A Linear, Sequential presentation of
the Visual and Active Method
The following year-by-year description helps us see how, through small innovations, our view of "how to learn" has changed -- or should have changed.
1980 (approximately)
A Whack on the Side of the Head (Robert Oech's creativity exercises -- it is possible to generate a creative mind or to train people to be more creative and open minded)
1984 (approximately)
Howard Gardner publishes his concepts about several ways of learning (and several ways of teaching to reach those people.
1995 (approx)
Dennis Littky opened "the Met" www.MetCenter.org in Providence, Rhode Island. The school experimented with asking students to study their passions.
1998
Discover Magazine on TV had a show about Brain Differences. Rob Becker appeared.
1998 (approximately)
I saw Rob Becker in his one man show, Defending the Caveman, in Fort Lauderdale.
2000
Dan Pink starts the research for Free Agent Nation. The idea is basic: when you own your own business, you are often more in control of your working conditions. The difference between opening a bsiness in 1950 and 2000 is that now we have hybrid businesses (some of us get health care plans from a part time job while working at a home-based business).
2002 June
Brain Game aired. Dr. Nancy Snyderman (host) presented information about gender differences in brain structure and strengths (women tend to sense differences in temperature, hear better, ,whle men tend to have better 3-D visualization)
2003 January
A kid, Mike, in Hallandale Adult Community Center, a second chance High School, said, "This is cool. It's like math that is here. We get to do it math. This is Physical Math." Okay, I wanted to call it visual math and active math.
2005 January
Alison Gopnik describes how we learn (NY Times article). The best teacher is a coach, not a lecturer.
A Whole New Mind: Dan Pink presented the Right/Left Brain differences in a new way, with a focus on design (a Masters in Fine Arts is the NEW MBA).
2005
Marshall Thurber starts the Positive Deviant Network. Read that again. It's a positive thing. (Think about the concept of "standard deviation" and four sigmas.)
How can teachers pull these pieces together in the classroom?
To left-brain learners, this list is scattered, all over the room, unorganized and hardly related to whatever we are studying. (Why is it important to mention Bangalore, Right Brain thinking, social style of learning and positive deviance when I'm in a class about muscle therapy or economics? I'm just here to get my master's degree so I can get a raise.).
To right-brained learners, this list is just the beginning of hte discussion. Students that want to add to my list get it (they're probably right-brained): school is best when it is about learning, not about a particular subject. Learning about how to learn more efficiently is the best use of class time
What would happen if a teacher introduced Dan Pink's "six elements" into the classroom?
What if every student in a class expected to include China, India and countries in South America in the class discussion? (in the way that we include England, France and Itlyt in
If you are a substitute teacher, what is your responsibility to ensure that students get a chance to review some of the topics addressed on this page?
What are the connections between the forces that shape our world?
A Prayer for Students
Let this course be an opportunty for me to prepare for a world that I don't yet live in.
Let me ask questions that use the new insights about brain research to help the teacher discover new ways of teaching.
I seek an open mind to viewpoints from Asia, Africa and South America. Help me overcome my Eurocentric and North American focus.
What would Dan Pink say right now
A Prayer for Teachers
What can I do better today in my class? What insight or innovation can I bring into the class that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago?
What would Howard Gardner suggest to me now to reach the social learner? What exercise can i introduce to engage the visual and audio learners? How can I use technology to enhance the understanding of my students?
What method should I modify? How can i improve my presentation and how can I use brain research to support changes in my teaching style?
This section is under construction
The visual and active portfolio method of learning languages is based on the work of the following theorists and practictioners.
Montessori, don't do for the student what the student can do for herself.
Kay Latona, well, duh! (as in "isn't it obvious?")
Jack Latona, backwards history and O'Neill's history
Jared Diamond, synthesis and story telling
Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence
Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat
Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences and learning styles
Dawn Elrad, parking spaces, the shopping mall
Ms. Bacallao, Hispanic Unity, parking spaces
Lois Hedland, Teaching for Understanding (portfolios)
Dennis Littky, the Three "R"s, mentoring, respect students by asking them to do "real work."
Royal Society of Arts RSA CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults)
Huetinck, Teaching methods for Secondary School Math
Pat Harris, application of standard principles in family therapy and counseling, particularly "reframing"
Marshall Thurber, frequency of contact, memorization of poetry
Lee Brower, Positive Focus
Luia Forbes, tutoring methods
Dan Pink, new perspectives on right and left brain (A Whole New Mind) and entrepreneuring (Free Agent Nation, which is really about "how to apply what you learned in and out of school")
Robert Ornstein, Whack on the Side of the Head (and other works)
Rob Becker, perspectives of the cave man
Dr. Nancy Snyderman, ABC TV special about "the Brain Game"
Mrs. Z., HACC, the importance of portfolios
SAT Tutoring systems (how to organize a tutoring session)
FreeVocabulary.com, for the list approach
Alison Gopnik, Berkeley, the teacher as bseball coach (see the Jan. 2005 article)
Marc Greenblum, use of video and digital cameras in the classroom
Paul Wagner, video pioneer, former president of Rollins College, use of film cameras on campus
Dennis Yuzenas, visual and active methods
Beakman, active methods
Bill Nye (the Science Guy), visual methods
Dr. Robert McAlister, how to run a science fair
KnowYourType.com, Briggs Myers approach
Brooks Emeny, People to People initiatives
US Coast Guard, its boating course
Dr. Michael Merzenich, therapies based on "brain plasticity," Brain Gym, positscience.com
alz.org, Maintain Your Brain
Madeleine Hunter, the MH Lesson Plan
BreakthroughCollaborative.org (a way of getting students to teach other students.)
Some of the work connected with the Visual and Active Portfolio Method appears on these web sites (developed by S. McCrea)
MentorsOnVideos.com
LookForPatterns.com
TeachersToTeachers.com
MathForArtists.com (learning styles)
Links for gifted programs
Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular ClassroomGeneral Principles for Teaching Young Gifted Children
ericec.org/digests/e595.html
Teaching Gifted ChildrenRenzulli, Joseph S. (2000). The Multiple menu model: a practical guide for developing ...
creativeteaching.org/
teaching_gifted_
children.htm
Professional Training for Teachers of the Gifted and Talented"
The Role of the Teacher of Gifted and Creative Children." In PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION OF THE GIFTED, edited by WB Barbe and JS Renzulli. ...
www.kidsource.com/kidsource/ content2/professional.gifted.html
Education - Gifted IndexParents will find these suggestions helpful when they work with their child's teacher. Should Gifted Students Be Grade-Advanced? ...
www.kidsource.com/kidsource/
pages/ed.gifted.html
Gifted Children and Gifted Education Publisher - Prufrock PressFree Online Resources for Teachers and Parents of Gifted Children.
www.prufrock.com/
Gifted Child Today - Leading Gifted Education Journal for Teachers ...
www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/ prufrock_jm_giftchild.cfm
Teaching Gifted Children
www.canteach.ca/links/linkgifted.html
Gifted EducationA special education resource guide for teaching gifted children. Prepared by Ministry of Ed. of British Columbia.
specialed.about.com/od/giftedness/
Council for Exceptional Children...
www.cec.sped.org/
Teachers ResourcesThe Hollingworth Center for Highly Gifted Children
www.ri.net/gifted_talented/teachers.html
Students: Read some of these pages and then write to me. Tell me about the main idea of these documents.
(Mr. Mac, why are you asking us to do these tasks? REPLY: In Dennis Littky's schools, BigPicture.org and Metcenter.org, the students are asked to describe their favorite topics and then the academic work is built around the interests fo the students. I want the Gifted Student Program to follow the same approach. I will suggest topics for your attention but it is up to you to challenge yourself with the level of difficulty.)
Lucky Accidents, Great Discoveries and the Prepared Mind
A scientist and educator once said,
"There are many lucky accidents...but only a few great discoveries, because you need a prepared mind to recognize the usefulness of the accident."
Then he repeated that story 14,000 times over his lifetime, teaching everyone he met that we need to prepare our minds for the lucky accidents so we can make a great discovery.
The scientist's name was Hubert Alyea and he was a class mate in my father's class at university.
CLASS WORK (or homework):
1. Do a google search on "Hubert Alyea" and you'll find out more.
2. Now google "Lucky Accidents, the Prepared Mind
3. WRite a page of NOTES (in your own words) aobut what you have read.
4. NOW, look around you and observe. What do you think you can learn from your environment?
5. Send your notes to me with at least one question.
Map Puzzles
Puzzle Maps
A modest proposal...
Dear teachers and students
Www.abroaderview.com sells a remarkable idea: Why not allow students to hold the nation of Zaire and then guess, “What countries are next to this country?” The puzzle sold on www.geographyolympics.com
Www.Puzzlemethis.com sells a puzzle of the world for just $10 that has about 300 pieces.
Second cities: No second cities
Too big for desks: The broaderview puzzle is 3 feet wide. Even the Puzzlemethis puzzle is too wide for a “desk-chair” (which typically is a foot wide).
Too many pieces for one student to assemble in 10 minutes, leaving time in a 45-minute period to complete a worksheet.
Some pieces are so small, they are difficult to handle and easy to miss when dropped.
The solution is to make 11 to 14 puzzles, each measuring about 8 by 11 inches.
Each one will have 20 pieces and a worksheet to guide the students’ eyes to work in pairs at the borders.
North America
Central America
Northern south America
Southern south America
West Africa
Southern Africa
Eastern Africa
Middle east
Australia and environs
East asia
Middle asia
West asia
Eastern Europe
Western Europe
I believe that the key is LESS about holding the actual piece of the map (showing the exact borders of Zaire) and it’s more about OBSREVING the borders. This method also allows a smaller scale, so the map will be larger (if you don’t understand that sentence, do a search on Google for “large scale, small scale maps”). A larger map that focuses just on Western Africa will allow second cities to show on the map. For schools that don’t want the fancy or durable cardboard version of the puzzle, why not just print the map without the names on the puzzles (found on my web site) and you can have a FREE Mr. Mac Puzzle.
www.LookForPatterns.com and click on Mr. Mac’s PuzzleMaps
You can help develop this series of maps for your class room at no cost other than your time (or your student’s time).
a) print the maps
b) color the maps, if you want to!
c) glue the maps on cardboard or file folder.
d) cut the pieces. Make no piece smaller than 3 cm by 3 cm.
T ry these "Travel Tests" using a map...
Fabulous idea for the interactive site. I'll be out of town collecting more data for the next Geoquiz.
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Topic 1: Brazil.
1. Find the capital
2. What's the distance between Rio and Sao Paulo, between Sao Paulo and Florinopolis, between Florinopolis and Porto Alegre? Hmmm. What is similar about these distances?
3. What countries does Brazil touch?
4. what is the name of the largest waterfall in South America?
5. Look on Google: who is the president of the country?
EXTRA CREDIT: When was slavery ended in Brazil? How many years before or after the USA ended slave trade?
Send your answers to globalcooling@comcast.net ... You will be entered by your email address (one entry per email address) and five winners will be selected at random to receive >>>> (whatever a neat prize might be, perhaps a pen or one of my cool 20-piece puzzles that I’m creating in paper and cardboard) Extra Credit wins a special entry in next month’s grand prize drawing: a CD called “SAT Prep, the Visual and Active Method” (retail value: $25).
---------------------
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Why is it a good idea to take a country,
think about its major cities,
think about the countries and oceans on its borders
think about rivers and mountains?
well, you could be preparing for the next www.geographyolympics.com
Look at the announcement...
-----Original Message-----
From: Wooldridge, Jane [mailto:JWooldridge@herald.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 9:51 AM
To: d8m6@aol.com; nandorique@yahoo.com; jack.jackson@bellsouth.com; jackie577@comcast.net; jk.mccrea@comcast.net; gracehum@bellsouth.net; aixa.rey@tenethealth.com; cjg22@cornell.edu; smalpers@yahoo.com
Cc: Sawyer, Sidonie
Subject: Geography Quiz entrant - Congratulations
Dear Geography Quiz entrant:
Thank you for taking the time to enter The Miami Herald's Where in the World? Geography Quiz, sponsored by Spirit Airlines. This letter goes to those of your who finished in the Top Ten in the online Geography Olympics. (I can tell by the e-mails that some of you also entered in the newspaper version, and we appreciate your interest!)
Congratulations! Your answers qualified you to participate in our live Geography Bee finals at the Herald's Travel Expo, slated for 2:30 p.m., Sunday, March 20, at the Coconut Grove Convention Center, on our main show stage. Please arrive no later than 2 p.m. and make your way to the Speakers Lounge, located behind The Herald Living Room. We will begin with the youngest age groups and move to the adults, so the process may take some time.
Please let us know by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, if you'll be attending so we can have an accurate head count. You can let Sidonie Sawyer know at 305-376-3471 or at ssawyer@herald.com <mailto:ssawyer@herald.com>. On the day of the show only, if you have a problem and cannot attend, please leave a message at 305-376-3629.
Entry tickets to the two-day expo are attached. We ask each person to limit themselves to three tickets.
The finals round will work much in the same way as a spelling or geography bee. Each finalist will be asked a question by our geography expert, Roger Andresen of A Broader View. To proceed to the next round, the finalist must answer the question correctly. The "bee'' will continue until a single winner remains. Questions are provided by Mr. Andresen, who will decide whether the answer qualifies as correct. His decisions are final.
On Saturday, March 19, Mr. Andresen will also conduct a Just for Fun Geography Bee at 3 p.m. on the Herald Living Room Stage. This bee will be conducted by computer in a game simulating The Geography Olympics, found at www.geographyolympics.com/miamiherald/ <http://www.geographyolympics.com/miamiherald/>. The prize will be a copy of Mr. Andresen's Global Puzzle, published by A Broader View.
Your ticket is good for both days. Please check out our Travel Expo show guide in the newspaper on March 13, and plan to join in the family fun and expert panels in our expanded, two-day event.
Jane Wooldridge
Travel Editor
The Miami Herald
1 Herald Plaza
Miami, Fl 33132
Level 2
Have you visited the other areas first? Start on Level 2 only after you try the other pages...
A tube and tape
If a tube has a length of 30 cm (12 inches) and a diameter of 8 cm (3 inches), how long would a tape be that goes two times around the tube while going from one end to the other (starting and ending on the same side of the tube)? How would you go about estimating the distance?
An Ice Shield
Arthur C. Clarke wrote the description that appears below. Can you draw the ice shield? Assume that 1 cubic meter of ice has a mass of 1 metric ton (1000 kg) (it's probably closer to 1.04 cubic meters, but let's keep it simple)
What does "ablation" mean? Your answer can include a proposed shape for fitting the ice blocks together. How big should one of the ice blocks be?
Magellan, like the first primitive spaceships, carries an ablation shield ahed of it. Almost any material would do as long as we use enoug of it. It's hard to find anything better than ice.
The cone had shrunk to a thin disc.
“That’s the result of drilling a hole fifty light-years long through this rather dusty sector of the galaxy. I’m pleased to say the rate of ablation is within five percent of estimate. We’re still good for another ten light-years, but that’s not enough. Our final destination is seventy-five lights to go. We would like to take a hundred or so thousand tons of water from you. We must build another iceberg, up there in orbit, to sweep the path ahead of us when we go on to the stars.”
Dimensions of the ship: 4 kilometers long, one km in diameter.
"We plan to make standard sized blocks, each weighing six hundred tons, flat, hexagonal plates. We'll need 250 of these plates."
Pages 66-67, The Songs of Distant Earth, Arther C. Clarke.
Advertisement: There's no time to kill....
There are so many interesting mind exercises to do and engage with your special gifted mind ... don't stop thinking! Albert Einstein carried these thought experiments when he commuted... Relativity and tram cars... If you don't know the story, contact me at s2314@tmail.com
Now, back to the regular program...
5 Seconds with every step up...
I read this factoid somewhere: Every step up saves you 5 seconds, extends your life by 5 seconds. I don't know if it's true, but I bet that you can guess how this estimate was arrived at (why not 2 seconds or 10 seconds?)
I created my own rules (since I don’t have a stairmaster or a set of stairs to go up)… My rules appear below... you can create your rules for how many miles you need to walk to extend your live by a minute and how much time is taken off for each cigarette you smoke and how much time is lost when you eat ice cream.
Yes, there are a lot of factors to consider, but ... you can do it. Use your imagination... Consider estimates and the assumptions that you need to start with to arrive at the final figure. Become an analyst...
Do you want more exercises? Ha! When you are ready, I'll tell you the web page address for the next exercise... but you must first submit your answers and your reasoning. Perform your understanding, preferably on videotape or DVD.
From www.everything2.com
The Songs of Distant Earth
(idea) by m_turner (2.5 d) (print) ? 1 C! Sat Mar 16 2002 at 20:32:43
The Song of Distant Earth was written by Arthur C. Clarke as a sort of response to Star Trek. Based upon an earlier story with the same name (12,500 words published in 1958) , Clarke felt it necessary to 'answer' some of the problems he saw in the "space operas" and "space westerns".
In the introduction, Clarke admits his enjoyment of the various "science fiction" movies and television series that grew in the late 70's and early 80's. However, he feels that calling these "science fiction" to be incorrect and more likely fall in the area of "fantasy".
In his novel, Clarke presents a very realistic view of the future of space travel (with one possible exception, though still very grounded in real science). Consider Earth in the early 21st century discovers that the sun will go nova in about 1000 years. In the years following, probes and seed ships where sent out. The latter, containing the necessary stuff of life to start a colony on a far off planet. I am moderately amused that Clarke, a well known visionary, puts the decoding of the human genome at 2600.
Many of these seed ships failed. Some never made it to the destination. Others, succeeded, started a colony that eventually reverted to barbarism. Two seed ships where sent out by religious organizations - one by the Mormons, the other by an organization known as "the Daughters of the Prophet" (I assume indicates Islamic influence). However, most seed ships were decidedly non-religious. One such seed ship that left from Earth in 2751 was headed for a planet that eventually became known as Thalassa (Greek word meaning "the sea").
One of the tasks for the people planning the seed ships was to select what information should be sent along with to preserve some culture of Earth. Storage was limited and by no means could include the vast information (literature, music, visual) that we constantly produce. In an effort to prevent the religious conflicts that accompanied the last thousand years of Earth, the material was carefully selected to be secular and contain no mentioning of God.
The people of Thalassa were raised in a completely secular society on an almost utopian world that consisted of a giant ocean and two small islands in the tropical latitudes. There was food enough for all - life was rather idyllic. Some would say too idyllic such that procrastination was a major trait of Thalassans. Politically the largest amount of dissent was a radical vegan group on the north island that felt that anything that is or was alive should not be food. The only major disaster was the eruption of volcano "Kraken" 300 years after first landing. This eruption damaged the deep space antenna and contact was lost with Earth (about year 3200, only 400 years until nova).
For the next 500 years the Thalassans lived in a social stasis. Rarely was there enough minds in any one field to produce the necessary critical mass for any breakthroughs. Meanwhile, on Earth resources were squandered at an amazing rate - there was nothing to live for. Less than 100 years before the nova there was the discovery of the quantum drive that allowed a space vessel to tap into the quantum fluctuations and thus did not require any fuel for space travel. In 3617 the Magellan left Earth with a few thousand people in cold sleep. In 3620 the sun went nova, sterilizing the inner solar system. In 3827, the Magellan arrives at Thalassa to rebuild the ice shield.
-----------------------------
There is no warp 6
Clarke touches upon many topics that he feels are 'wrong' with the science fiction future fantasy. Faster than light travel is impossible - all the travel is slow. Technology advanced species are few and far between, if any. However, that doesn't give humanity the right to colonize another planet if there is no one to contend with. Clarke also explores the creation of his own Utopia and the meeting of that culture with Humanity.
All in all, this is a superb book though it must be read constantly thinking of how Clarke is pointing at the flaws of popular "science fiction" series.
ISBN 0-345-32240-1
^^^That's the book...^^^
-- Mr. Mac
Gifted Students need to ask....
Remember, go to www.visualspatial.org and www.gifteddevelopment.com
http://www.a-b-center.com/abc/pages
/5.php?page_name=Home
add to the newfcat or
learning styles web site
http://www.jocrf.org/YNGweb.html
http://www.careertrainer.com/
Request.jsp?lView=ViewArticle
&Article=OID:113429&Page=
OID:113430
http://www.heav.org/tvhe/v10_i1
/TVHE_Vol-10-1_Pg16.pdf
The Johnson O’Connor Aptitude Testing Program
What aptitudes do you possess? Our program measures the following aptitudes and teaches you how to use them effectively in planning your education:
Graphoria: Clerical ability, or adeptness at paperwork and dealing with figures and symbols. Useful in accounting, banking, bookkeeping, insurance, and secretarial work.
Color Perception and Color Discrimination: The ability to distinguish red-green colors; the ability to distinguish fine variations in color. Useful in the productions of paints and fabrics, interior decoration, and the visual arts.
Ideaphoria: The ability to rapidly produce a flow of ideas. Useful in sales, journalism, advertising, and teaching.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to reason from the particular to the general, to form a logical conclusion from scattered facts. Useful in research, psychology, and diagnostic medicine.
Analytical Reasoning: The ability to organize concepts or to arrange ideas in logical sequence. Useful in editing and computer programming.
Numerical aptitudes: The ability to use numerical information in solving problems and to perform arithmetic operations. Useful in financial analysis, economics, accounting, and bookkeeping.
Structural Visualization: The ability to visualize the structure of three-dimensional forms. Useful in architecture, engineering, medicine and geology.
Music aptitudes: The abilities to remember rhythms and tone sequences, and to distinguish between fine differences in pitch. Useful in dancing, playing musical instruments, and learning foreign languages.
Memory aptitudes: The abilities to remember two-dimensional designs (useful in photography and architecture) or numbers (useful in remembering phone numbers and addresses); to learn new words (useful in learning vocabulary and foreign languages); to spot and remember visual details (useful in inspection and detective work).
Finger Dexterity: A quickness and accuracy in delicate finger work. Useful for surgeons, file clerks, and factory operations.
Tweezer Dexterity: The ability to work with small tools. Useful in dental hygiene and watchmaking.
Grip: The amount of force that can be applied with the hands. Useful for firefighters and police officers, it seems to reflect nervous energy or drive for active work settings.
Vocabulary: In addition to aptitudes, our program also measures your knowledge of English and mathematics vocabulary. This knowledge of words is crucial to success in higher education.
One thing you can do right away is work on your vocabulary. Vocabulary is acquired, unlike aptitudes, which are inherited. Your knowledge of words depends on your education, the subjects that interest you, how much you read, and the amount of time you spend on your different hobbies. To learn more about how you can build your vocabulary, visit Four Steps to Building Your Vocabulary. To learn about the Johnson O'Connor vocabulary development program, visit the Wordbook page.
Appreciation begins with recognition. What are the characteristics of giftedness?
• Do you have a passion for justice?
• Are you perfectionistic?
• Are you highly sensitive?
• Do you take on more responsibilities than anyone you know?
• Do you have gifted friends and relatives?
• Do you have a great sense of humor?
• Are you perceptive-seeing through the image to the reality?
• Are you intuitive?
• Has your honesty gotten you into trouble?
• Do people often seek your advice on their personal problems?
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/
Articles/Do%20Gifted%20Students%
20Have%20Special%20Needs.html
Divergent thinkers are good at thinking "outside the box"...
Visit www.snopes.com and any site with URBAN LEGENDS to see what happens when people don't think "outside the box" and they follow the one logical steps that lead them to one possible conclusion...
Sometimes there are other ways to approach a problem.... be DIVERGENT...
FOR EXAMPLE: Did you hear about the "gasoline boycott plan"? WE should not buy gasoline from any company that buys oil from an Arab country ....
Let's imagine that every person followed this advice. The non Arab oil
sellers would soon run out of oil or gasoline.... They would go on the market to buy more oil and people with arab oil would sell their oil to the nonarab sellers.
Visit www.snopes.com to see further evaluation
Then write back to me to confirm your amended understanding....
CONVERGE on the answer...
Don't look at the bottom of the page...
(not yet)
Try this for yourself.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 =
David Anderson suggests:
Try
111,111,111 DIVIDED BY 0.9 = ________
Dave\
987654321
123456789
567890987654321
98765432123456789
Hmmmm....
his list of links was created by Dr. Robison at FAU.
Her course on Math Methods helps teachers implement the goals of the National Council for Teachers of Math
Great Math Websites
NCTM Illuminations (http://illuminations.nctm.org/)
VISIT THIS SITE: NCTM Illuminations - The Gateway to Standards-Based Mathematics Education. Internet resources to improve teaching learning of school mathematics based on the NCTM Priniples and Standards for School Mathematics.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics (http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/)
VISIT THIS SITE: This site provided virtual online manipulatives for match the NCTM standards document.
Mathematically Sane Web Site (http://mathematicallysane.com/popular.asp)
This takes you to the Mathematically sane web site and specifically to the most popular of all the articles posted. However, go to the home and look for additional articles on many, many interesting math topics. (many found in analysis and evidence section)
ENC (http://www.enc.org/thisweek/calendar/)
http://www.enc.org/features/calendar/
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse: A superb site that provides a calendar of math & science activities along with numerous web sites and resources. You can sort by month or category of activity.
Free Worksheets (http://www.freeworksheets.com)
Need reinforcement or remediation? These free generated worksheets are for you.
Math Forum (http://forum.swarthmore.edu)
Wonderful resource of lesson plans, software and links to other great math related websites.
Kaidy Math Activities (http://kaidy.com)
Many math games are directly online. But be aware...some really make you think.
Math lessons (http://www.etap.org)
Need help learning math at home? This is a good site for you.
Math games online (http://www.funbrain.com)
K-12 math games that are both challenging and fun (online)
Fun School Web Site (http://www.funschool.com)
Good site for more games.
Texas Instrument web site (http://education.ti.com/)
Texas Instruments education page providing information on using the calculators wisely in your classroom
Calculators in the classroom (http://www.t3ww.org/t3/index.html)
Lessons from other teachers on the use of calculators in the classroom
Geometric Solids: virtual manipulatives (http://www.scienceu.com/geometry/facts/solids/handson.html)
Rotate many interesting geometric solids to discover Euler's formula for yourself.
Council for Competitiveness (http://www.getsmarter.org)
Online games, MSTV, career education tools, student pages and an online self-assessment quiz for elementary, middle, and high school math and science.
Math Games Creator (http://www.quia.com)
VISIT THIS SITE: A great site to generate your own games that will help students learn facts. LOOK FOR THE DRIVER'S LICENSE EXAMS (practice)
Ed Helper Web site (http://www.edhelper.com)
Good site to generate worksheets and quizzes and to look for good word problems.
Math Counts (http://www.mathcounts.org/Problems/2003Competitions.html)
VISIT THIS SITE: The Math Counts organization provides excellent questions used in many of their competitions. Especially interesting are the problems of the day. (or week) This link takes you directly to the 2003 competition questions.
Ask Dr. Math (http://mathforum.org/dr.math/)
Dr. Math can answer any of your mathematical questions. Good lesson plans and useful information as well.
MacTutor's History of Mathematics (http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk)
Useful information for all mathematics teachers about the history of mathematics. Also good links list available here.
Biographies of Woman Mathematicians (http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/women.html)
Excellent biographies of famous mathematicians who happen to be women :-)
Famous Mathematicians (http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/madprofiles.html)
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora. and you thought famous mathematicians were only white males...think again!!!
VISIT THIS SITE for interactive activities...
Learning Styles
VARK questions (http://vark-learn.com)
The VARK survey entered and scored online.
Home work tips and learning styles (http://www.homeworktips.about.com)
Howard Gardner theory of multiple intelligences. Either enter "learning style" in the search engine or click on the "what's your learning style" side bar for a dozen test and quizzes, including Dr. Gardner's inventory.
Teens helping Teens inventory (http://www.ldteens.org/study_patterns_&_learning_.html)
An inventory on a web site for learning-disabled teens.
OSWEGO web site(Learning Styles) (http://www.oswego.edu)
In the site's search engine, type in paragon learning style. This is a 48 question test that is self-scored. For ages 9 and up.
Science & engineering learning style inventory (http://www.crc4mse.org)
Click on the sidebar for self-test. The instrument gives 4 categories: active/reflective, sensory/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global.
How to Learn (http://www.howtolearn.com)
Learning styles inventory and free newsletter for helping students
LD Pride (http://www.ldpride.net)
Tons of info on how to work with your learning style...including career tips
On Line Psych (http://www.onlinepsych.com)
An amazing variety of tests, quizzes, surveys to get you thinking about yourself and others
Surf Aquarium (http://www.surfaquarium.com)
An alternative instrument for assessing multiple intelligences, and other resources for teachers and students
Lesson Plans
http://ibinder.uwf.edu/steps/
Useful for Teachers and Parents (students! Look here to see what lessons might be coming in your future!)
STEPS website (http://ibinder.uwf.edu/steps)
Steps will walk you through the major elements of writing a lesson plan...but be sure to include all the elements mentioned in the COE lesson plan guide.
Economics in Math (http://www.econedlink.org)
Great lessons on wise investing and other economics topics
Teacher Readiness Quiz? (http://www.effectiveteaching.com)
Take the online test to see how prepared to teach you are. I found the questions (and answers) quite interesting.
Free Stuff (http://www.ed.gov/free)
The government does offer free educational materials.
Activities and Lessons for K-12 (http://www.learner.org)
Learner web site offeres good lessons and activities for K-12
Standards, assessment & curriculum web sites
Florida DOE (http://www.firn.edu/doe/doehome.htm)
The Florida Department of Education website includes so much more than just the standards.
Eisenhower National Clearing House (http://www.enc.org/reform/documents)
National standards documents for math and science education.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://standards.nctm.org/document)
Principles and Standards - Table of Contents - On this site you will find the electronic Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. NCTM's visionary document for teaching mathematics at any level.
Middle School Curriculum (http://showmecenter.missouri.edu)
The Missouri Showmecenter show cases several middle school curriculum projects. Check them out.
Compass web site (http://www.ithaca.edu/compass)
Compass (Curricular options in mathematics for all secondary students) web site that highlights several exemplary standards based curricular projects
NAEP question search engine (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/search.asp)
Web site of National Assessment of Eductional Progress report card search engine. Do a new search and select math grade 8 or 12 from the 1996 test. Select 3 questions, print both the questions and the performance data for the questions.
TIMSS (http://wwwcsteep.bc.edu/TIMSS1/AboutTIMSS.html)
The Third International Math and Science Study provides information about what we SHOULD be doing in math.
Performance test matched to TIMSS (http://www.getsmarter.org)
An online exam for 8th and 12th grade. You take the exam (about 30 questions) and it matches your scores and testing time to the TIMSS study and other people who have taken the exam.
Middle School Math Exam on Content Knowledge (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/eyk/)
20 middle school math and 20 middle school questions to use in self-testing your knowledge and comparing it with international peers
Washington Post article on teacher testing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8963-2003May19.html)
Washington Post article on teacher testing from May, 2003
For Home Schooling Parents (and other Teachers)
Catalogs in Mathematics Education
ETA/ Cuisenaire Catalog (http://etacuisenaire.com/index.htm)
Great resource for manipulatives and teacher books.
NASCO catalog (http://enasco.com)
Great catalog plus much more... lessons, activities, and educational kits Integrating math/science : Population Education (http://zpg.org/education)
This site offers excellent lessons on conservation and population education. It incorporates math, science, and social studies into a single lesson.
Scholastic web site (http://scholastic.com)
Scholastic publishes the Instructor magazine. Good ideas on all subjects is included.
Mindware (http://www.MINDWAREonline.com)
Looking for brainy toys for kids of all ages...this is the one
Key Curriculum Press (http://keypress.com)
The makers of Fathom and Geometer's Sketchpad. Software and resources as well as many textbooks
Merrill Education (http://www.merrilleducation.com)
http://vig.pearsoned.com/store/home/1,4158,store-8561_id-0,00.html?
The makers of your textbook as well as many other texts.
Walch publications (http://www.walch.com)
Many math resources and some free activities.
Sunburst (http://sunburst.com)
Excellent software amoung other things.
Integrated Math & Science - GEMS (http://www.lhsgems.org)
Great Explorations in Math & Science from U of CA - Berkeley - Lawrence Hall of Science.
Integrated Math & Science - AIMS (http://www.AIMSedu.org)
Integrated Math, Science and Technology activities and resources
Didax (http://didaxinc.com)
Manipulatives and resources.
World Teachers Press (http://www.worldteacherspress.com)
Reproducible math books
Professional Journals & resources
NCTM webpage (http://www.nctm.org)
You will find a few select articles from Teaching Children Mathematics and The Middle School Mathematics Journal.
Scholastic (http://www.scholastic.com/Instructor)
The Instructor magazine often features an article about the teaching of mathematics.
APA style (http://www.apastyle.org)
The most accurate way to site your references.
NCTM Illuminations site (http://www.nctm.org/illuminations/)
Online interactive math at it's best!!!!
Mathematically Sane web site (http://mathematicallysane.com/)
A good source of articles about the reform movement in mathematics.
Mathematically Correct Society (http://mathematicallycorrect.com)
A good web site about the anti-reform movement in mathematics
More Math Links at MATHLINKS
http://www.shodor.org/ Interactive activities...
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/monty/
What are other skills that all students need?
Do you know how to type?
Without looking at the keyboard?
Every student needs to know how to make a simple web site... start with geocities.com...
Creative Writing
Emotional Intelligence
Social Skills
How to ask questions
How to speak to an international visitor
An Exercise
These are directions from a web page at www.usps.gov
http://www.usps.com/consumers/domestic.htm#priority
Nonmachinable Surcharge: An additional $0.12 is required for items weighing 1 ounce or less with any of the following criteria:
a. Square letters.
b. The height exceeds 6-1/8 inches, or length exceeds 11-1/2 inches, or thickness exceeds 1/4 inch.
c. The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5 (length is the dimension parallel to the address). EXERCISE: SHOW EXAMPLES: IF THE HEIGHT IS 4 inches, the length must be between ____ inches and ___ inches. Now convert to centimeters. (5 cm = 2 inches)
d. It has clasps, strings, buttons, or similar closure devices.
e. It is too rigid or contains items such as pens that cause the thickness of the mailpiece to be uneven.
f. It has an address parallel to the shorter dimension of the mailpiece.
Tutors can teach you these subjectshttp://www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/challenging.html
Right / Left
First Exercise: use your other hand (the non-dominant hand) to
eat
open doors
cut meat
serve food
play an instrument
shoot a photo with a camera
paint
use a screwdriver
Second Exercise: Learn to drive on the other side of the road.
Why not just try to learn the countries where the car is RHD (right hand drive)...?
Here's a start: the capitals are
L__d__,
D_b__n,
G__r_e_o_n, ...
Geography
1. Select a country. Name its capital and draw the borders of the country. Name the:
rivers
oceans
other countries
high mountains
major cities
connected with this country.
For example...
Mont Blanc
Atlantic
Bay of Biscay
Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Spain, Andorra
Rhine, Rhone, Dordogne
Can you guess the capital of this country?
The Capital is.... see below.
2. Learn some phrases in another language...
3. Ask people from other countries to visit your class or go to festivals and talk with poeple about their customs, laws, newspapers.
Here's a short essay that I created for a school alumni newspaper...
Are you an International Visitor? Come to my classroom
In 1969 the US dollar bought 4 Swiss Francs. Today a ten-dollar bill nets one-third or about 13 Swiss Francs. I was lucky to attend a school in Switzerland during the 1970s and, like millions of students in my generation, time spent in Europe was part of my education.
I hope that students I teach today will visit Europe, Africa and Asia, but each year this hope appears less likely to turn into reality. The shift to a weak dollar appears permanent as the US switches away from producing and focuses on consuming products made in Asia and Africa.
The international experience that I bring into my classroom is stronger than any direct experience my students will have of other countries in the next ten years. I carry videos from trips made in 1994 and photos from my days as a school boy in Switzerland. This column is an appeal to visitors from Europe, Asia and Africa: take a moment and think how lucky you are. A visit that cost you $1000 in 1999 now costs $700. If you spend the same $1000, you’re staying two or three days longer. So why not spend 30 minutes of that time in a classroom (with antoher 20 minutes spent trying to find our downtown academy)?
Here’s what a typical visit is like: you walk into our front office. The principal, Mr. DiSebastian, has already briefed you by telephone about what to expect and he’s attempted to determine if you are a threat to our students. If you pass this polyglot’s test (he speaks German, a bit of Turkish and Spanish and he’s been a principal in Honduras, St. Croix, and Istanbul), you’ll find yourself standing in front of 20 kids, many from Fort Lauderdale’s inner city. They are learning Spanish but rarely make opportunities to use the language. They occasionally see tourists and they practice giving directions in our language arts class. But the best way for my kids to learn is to meet someone like you.
Alison Gopnik of the University of California at Berkeley recently wrote in the New York Times that learning involves watching adults.
“So here's the big question: if children who don't even go to school learn so easily, why do children who go to school seem to have such a hard time? Why can children solve problems that challenge computers but stumble on a third-grade reading test?
When we talk about learning, we really mean two quite different things, the process of discovery and of mastering what one discovers. If this kind of learning is what we have in mind then one answer to the big question is that schools don't teach the same way children learn. Children seem to learn best when they can explore the world and interact with expert adults.” (Gopnik describes research done in Guatemala involving how children learn to make tortillas). She continues, “This may sound like a touchy-feely progressive prescription. But a good example of such teaching in our culture is the stern but beloved baseball coach. How many school teachers are as good at essay writing, science or mathematics as the average coach is at baseball? And even when teachers are expert, how many children ever get to watch them work through writing an essay or designing a scientific experiment or solving an unfamiliar math problem?” Seems obvious, until you look at how science, math, languages and other subjects are usually taught in schools. If there isn’t an adult in the classroom who has been to another country, how can you (the students) watch how a Frenchman orders a coffee? Isn’t that what travel is about, the Great Educator? Isn’t immersion what we need to do?
This is the price that our country is paying for a weak dollar. We get lots of tourists and our exports are increasing, but our citizens forget or don’t know what it’s like to be in a foreign city that speaks a different language using different currency and a curious alphabet.
Why do kids come to the USA to practice English? They studied that language for 8 years in their country, but now they want to take the routinized practice into the field and test their knowledge and improve while in the workshop of the live culture. Why did I and millions of kids go to the Louvre and Prado and the Spanish Steps? To see for ourselves what we read about in books. To discover and learn in a different way than schools can offer.
My fear as an educator is that my students will get ONLY the textbook knowledge that I transmit about other cultures, even watching excellent videos and news reports from BBC, and they won’t have that instant when someone from another culture asks a question with a hard-to-interpret (and hard to replicate) accent. I can’t prepare my kids for everything, so I’m writing this plea to visitors from other countries to suggest: why not give an hour to a local school? You’ll leave behind your email address and kids will remember that day for the rest of this year. Your visit will change the attitudes of my students. (“Frenchies ain’t all proud and stuck up. I remember Mr. Mac brought in some guy from Paree and he was all right. He even said something nice about President Bush.”)
I hope that any visitor, even a visitor from my old school in Switzerland, will take time to look up our school in downtown Fort Lauderdale and give yourself over to the class. The students ask questions that I would never dream them capable of asking (“Have you ever killed someone?” was directed to a visiting soldier and “What do you do to renters who don’t follow the rules—throw their stuff outside the apartment?” to a local landlord who came to speak to the class). I’m at times embarrassed for them and pleased and it’s all for the good. So take a moment, think about an international place that you know well, and come to our school and share your insights. If you live in another country, all the better that we can see and hear you, because the weak dollar is keeping many of this generation from having a direct experience (that my generation had) of people on other continents.
An end note (with an appeal): I’ve long held the following (arrogant / elitist / “isn’t it obvious?”) attitude when I walk into a job interview. What are your qualifications to teach at this school? ANSWER: I’ve always thought, “I went to Aiglon College. I’ve seen the best and I’ll just be modeling Mr. Hyde today. For Math, I will reconstitute Mr. McWilliam and for a substitute position for English, I’ll be Mr. Senn and Hartwell. Wait to you see my TCFStunt.”
Of course, I usually recite the litany of certifications that we alternatively certified teachers collect, but the thought is there. I’m applying for a job that I learned 30 years ago and I carry those lessons with me.
There’s recent brain research to confirm what most of us already knew: the best teachers are coaches, not lecturers. When we learn by watching and then doing under the guidance of a coach, we learn. When we listen to someone tell us about something, that’s what we do: we passively absorb instead of actively integrating the learning in ourselves.
Someday I’m going to sit in on an interview with a candidate and I’m going to ask, “Why are you qualified to teach at this school?” Someday I’ll see on the resume “Aiglon College” and I’ll add, “Is it because you have seen the best and you carry them in your head?” That’s why I support alumni giving. Someday an alumnus/a from Aiglon will teach at my school.
Anyone wishing to impose/share an international perspective on my middle school students can start by writing to Globalcooling@comcast.net or s2314@tmail.com (my cell phone in the classroom or call 954.646.8246) and sending us a message. Join the “BIBBI” network by visiting www.teacherstoteachers.com and click on BIBBI. And support Aiglon’s scholarship fund. It will help reverse the Euro’s ascendancy by helping children of alumni (and others) to attend Aiglon – and someday, a graduate of Aiglon will be in a Florida school applying for a job (bringing a little of Les Dents du Midi to children), thanks to scholarship support from you and me.
The capital of the country mentioned above (in section 1) is Paris.
Extend the learning of your classroom... bring in someone who has visited other countries and who can tell stories about those visits.
A Math Teacher in Europe
A Math Teacher in Bali
A Math Teacher in Africa
A Math Teacher in Hawaii
Geography is generally assumed to be a visual or spatial skill... but it can also be AUDIO when you hear different accents or when you hear stories about different countries.
Geography can be a musical skill, since you can hear the music of different regions of the planet.
geography can be artistic, when you look for the colors and patterns of the shapes of countries and the shapes of Finnish glasswork or the shapes of Venetian glass art, etc.
Social Learning Style
Do you like to talk about the books and homework that you are studing? Do you like to wrok with friends and classmaters? Do you like to talk in class...? Then you probably use a social or interpersonal style of learning.
Have you heard of "cooperative learning"?
You are going to learn how to improve your ability to work with other people. It's a lot of fun! (If you don't like working with a team to come up with a solution, then let's try to come up with different ways that groups can work together.)
Exercise 1
Find a book of puzzles and work with other students to discover the answer. Some of the examples of these types of problems can be found by going to Google and looking for "cooperative games."
Exercise 2
Go to WhatShouldStudentsLearn.com and complete the form with other students. Then read some of the comments made by other teachers. Then...hmmm... what do you think your group should do next?
If you need a hint, contact Mr. Mac 954 646 8246. Write a list of the items that your group agree to do. Then send the list by email to talkinternational@yahoo.com....
Exercise 3
Look for "United We Solve" exercises. You can learn about these items from my Math web site at www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/math
Exercise 4
Come up with new ideas and send them for inclusion in this web site.
Exercise 5
You are on a trip... and the ship sinks. Yes, you are on a cruise ship and for some reason that you don't know, you and the rest of your class (or you choose the number of students) are floating in the water with the following items in the water. There's a small island about 300 feet away from you. What will you do? Here are the items.
A book of matches
a plastic bag 20 cm wide and 30 cm long.
a first aid box, with a pair of scissors,
20 feet of elastic wrapping gauze,
a rolled up newspaper,
a floating cushion that is 2 inches tall, and 16 inches square, filled with foam,
a pink sweater
forty feet of rope (3/4 inch diameter or thick)
What will you do?
Coming soon.
Send your email address to s2314@tmail.com and I'll notify you of the update...
"I think you are a good soldier with sloppy impulse control."
Nicole Kidman in The Peacemaker
1. Spend fifteen minutes each day practicing ACTIVE Listening (when you REPEAT in your own words what you hear the other person saying).
2. Meet a new person each day.
3. Join an organization and volunteer your time.
4. Read a book about etiquette and "how to use the social graces."
5. Read about people who are organizers and fundraisers, people who deal with people.
Suggestions from Thomas Armstrong
Mr. Mac, why is your class so noisy?
That's what many students ask. I answer, "It's okay for students to discuss the problems. They just need to whisper. Students learn when they discuss and learn from each other."
Sometimes this style of learning is okay... Many times there are students who don't like the noise, so they need to sit outside the class to find a quieter place to study...perhaps alone, perhaps with a smaller group.... we need to find the right balance between "noisy" and "creative and cooperative.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/
la-oe-gates1mar01,0,6675841.story
COMMENTARY
What's Wrong With American High Schools
The approaches of 50 years ago cannot work today, Bill Gates says.
By Bill Gates
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, is co-founder of the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation.
March 1, 2005
Our high schools are obsolete.
By obsolete, I don't just mean that they are broken, flawed and underfunded — although I can't argue with any of those descriptions.
What I mean is that they were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Today, even when they work exactly as designed, our high schools cannot teach our kids what they need to know.
Until we design high schools to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting — even ruining — the lives of millions of Americans every year. Frankly, I am terrified for our workforce of tomorrow.
The idea behind the old high school system was that you could train an adequate workforce by sending only a small fraction of students to college, and that the other kids either couldn't do college work or didn't need to.
Sure enough, today only one-third of our students graduate from high school ready for college, work and citizenship.
The others, most of whom are low-income and minority students, are tracked into courses that won't ever get them ready for any of those things — no matter how well the students learn or how hard the teachers work.
In district after district across the country, wealthy white kids are taught Algebra II, while low-income minority kids are taught how to balance a checkbook.
This is an economic disaster. In the international competition to have the best supply of workers who can communicate clearly, analyze information and solve complex problems, the United States is falling behind. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates in the industrialized world.
In math and science, our fourth-graders rank among the top students in the world, but our 12th-graders are near the bottom. China has six times as many college graduates in engineering.
As bad as it is for our economy, it's even worse for our students. Today, most jobs that pay enough to support a family require some post-secondary education. Yet only half of all students who enter high school enroll in a post-secondary institution.
High school dropouts have it worst of all. Only 40% have jobs. They are nearly four times more likely to be arrested than their friends who stayed in high school. And they die young because of years of poor healthcare, unsafe living conditions and violence.
We can put a stop to this. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them.
We have to do away with the outdated idea that only some students need to be ready for college and that the others can walk away from higher education and still thrive in our 21st century society. We need a new design that realizes that all students can do rigorous work.
There is mounting evidence in favor of this approach. Take the Kansas City, Kan., public school district, where 79% of students are minorities and 74% live below the poverty line. For years, the district struggled with high dropout rates and low test scores. In 1996, it adopted a school-reform model that, among many other steps, requires all students to take college-prep courses. Since then, the district's graduation rate has climbed more than 30 percentage points.
Kansas City is not an isolated example. Exciting work is underway to improve high schools in such cities as Oakland, Chicago and New York.
All of these schools are organized around three powerful principles: Ensure that all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work; that their courses clearly relate to their lives and goals; and that they are surrounded by adults who push them to achieve.
This kind of change is never easy. But I believe there are three ways that political and business leaders at every level can help build momentum for change in our schools.
First, declare that all students must graduate from high school ready for college, work and citizenship. Every politician and chief executive in the country should speak up for the belief that children need to take courses that prepare them for college.
Second, publish the data that measure our progress toward that goal. We already have some data that show us the extent of the problem. But we need to know more: What percentage of students are dropping out? What percentage are graduating? And this data must be broken down by race and income.
Finally, every state should commit to turning around failing schools and opening new ones. When the students don't learn, the school must change. Every state needs a strong intervention strategy to improve struggling schools.
If we keep the system as it is, millions of children will never get a chance to fulfill their promise because of their ZIP Code, their skin color or their parents' income. That is offensive to our values.
Every kid can graduate ready for college. Every kid should have the chance.
Let's redesign our schools to make it happen.
Visual and Active SAT or GRE Prep In 5 sessions
Welcome to the Visual and Active way of improving your vocabulary and your understanding about math. It’s also known as SAT Prep.
Let’s start with your homework. Every week you should learn at least 50 words from www.freevocabulary.com... Like this.
You will find with the CD a photocopied list of words. This is what you should do (I’ve made it easy on you… you have everything you need to get started). Even if your printer is broken, you have the first 50 words on paper in the packet.
Step 1… Fold the paper so that you only see the words, not the definitions.
Step 2 … read the full list, and put a check mark next to every word that you can GIVE A SYNONYM and USE IN A SENTENCE. “Garrulous.” Man, I hate my class in SAT. There’s a student who is so garrulous, he’s always arguing with the teacher and then he’s talking all the time on his cell phone without leaving the class. He’s so argumentative and talkative.
Step 3…Unfold the paper. It’s time to go back, each day, and read and study the words I don’t know. Hmmmm, read read read. So, gregarious means like… social, friendly. Okay. It’s not egregious… okay. I gotta make a connection. Gregory is so friendly, he’s always talking. He’s smiling, he’s gregarious.
Step 4…go to the library or to the book story and get VISUAL SAT with cartoons and a list of hot words. Or go to www.teachersTOteachers.com and get your list.
Step 5…number2.com. Visit and register and get started.
Step 6… smile, breathe, remember that the SAT tests only about 2/7ths of who you are and most jobs require none of what you’re being tested on. The SAT is NOT a great predictor of success in life or in college and we are playing a game here.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. Have a good class…
How do I know all this? I have ADD. I nearly flunked out of my first year at university. It took me nine years to get through college. The first time I took the SAT, I got 550 math, 570 verbal or 1120. The next time I took the test, I got 1520, that’s 720 verbal and 800 math.
How did I do it? I spent three weeks without TV and I did every problem in the prep book.
Do you have to do every problem to make a jump in your SAT scores? No. But do you want to take the chance? The idea is that there are about 120 math problems that they can throw at you. Just 120 variations. There are about 30 variations of problems in verbal….and 5000 vocabulary words. You need to learn at least 1000 of those words to hope to understand enough of the SAT to score an increase.
This is a game. Do you want to play by my rules or by the rules that you invent? Your choice. C’est a vous de decider!
This course has 5 sessions.
You don’t have to come to any of the sessions. That’s your choice. If you come to at least 3 of the sessions, you will get a prize and anyone who makes all 5 sessions and who completes all of the homework will get an additional prize.
If you come and you want to sleep, that’s your choice.
If you want to talk on your cell phone, c’est votre choix.
If you want to ignore the teacher and work on your own section of the SAT book, esta es su decision.
My name is Mr. Mac and I’m your SAT Prep teacher. If a substitute teacher gave you this CD or video, then it’s because I’m with my wife in a fabulous location or we have a family emergency or I’m on business, teaching in another state.
In this short video I will describe the theories of learning.
The Baseball Coach
Mistakes are good.
Teachers made mistakes.
Teachers still make mistakes.
Learning styles
Linguistic and logical
Analytical and numeric
Converge / diverge
Details LEFT, big picture RIGHT
Visual audio Movement
3-D, special relationships
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Musical… look up Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences. Google him.
I also want to pay tribute to the teachers who
Walk around Ms. Donna Elrad parking lot hands on
David Rhodes for short term to long term
Dr. Sally R at FAU. She showed me how to use manipulatives (things to move by hand) Mano a mano manual
The trainers for Broward County Public Schools, with their use of the Parking Lot and well-timed training sessions.
If you don’t understand why I mention these people, make a note and email me at s2314@tmail.com or call me at 954 646 8246 or hit my web site at TeachersToTeachers.com or email me at talkinternational@yahoo.com
Make the link connect what you know to something new. Make multiple connections. The rule of 7 exposures to learn new words.
The rule of 72 to double
4% for 18 years, 6% for 12 years, 10% for 7 years, 7% for 10 years…
The multiplication table.
“But I’m just not able to learn math. I don’t have the ability. My father can’t do math, he’s an artist. My gene pool just can’t figure it out. I’m not a rocket scientist.”
In Europe and Asia, people don’t gasp when you tell them “I am a physicist.” Or “I’m studying calculus.” If you can’t do the math, they assume that you just haven’t spent time to learn the subject, not that you don’t have the ability. In USA, it’s about having the right kind of brain. In Europe and Asia, it’s about spending enough time or getting the right teacher to help you understand the subject.
That’s the brilliant conclusion here. I might not be the right teacher. I usually am convergent, I zip right to the main answer (which is okay for most math problems). I had to learn to DIVERGE.
I am visual and musical and 3-D. I’m lazy and that’s a good thing… I don’t read the passage. I read the questions and then scan for the answer. “Oh, it’s not about baseball. It’s about the Amazon.” I get the answers quickly and I often don’t need to read the entire passage. Remember, this is NOT a test about understanding a book. That is the IB international baccalaureate. This is not about learning 10,000 words in another language. This is NOT about learning calculus. The SAT is about finding the answer on the page. In most questions, the answer is given to you. You just have to select it.
Mr. Mac, when do we get started? Now. I have to stretch to analyze, to use bigger words (I hate reading), and so I might not be the right teacher for your learning style. But someone in this room might have the key for you. Get to know your classmates.
Some of you are right now saying, “Huh? I came here to learn how to boost my grade in the SAT. That’s verbal, writing and math. Why is he singing? Why is he jumping around?”
A math teacher told me: I don’t use manipulatives. I like to keep my classroom simple. One text book. This person did not have Mrs. Robison as his trainer. I did and that’s why my classroom is filled with toys, things to touch, rulers, calculators, pens, paper. I trust that you will touch but not break, that you will borrow and return. Yes, you can take something home with you for the week…. Just bring it back.
EQ is Emotional Quotient, like IQ or intelligence quotient, and EQ is a lot more useful. Go to www.6seconds.org.
This is the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Learning and we worship Gardner and Goldman. I’m learning with you. Some students might be offended by the idea that religion is a set of principles and theories and that I’m saying that a religion has no spiritual truth and that Mr. Mac makes fun of Catholics.
This is not the place to get into a debate over Darwin or about what happens after death. It is a place to have fun and smile, breathe and walk around.
PARKING LOT – Park your questions!
I learned this from Josie Bacayao… Visit hispanicunity.org and see where I got my UNITY reminder band.
If you have a question that has nothing to do with this class, please put it on a post-it note or on a scrap of paper and I’ll deal with it during the Parking Lot time of the session.
I have ADD, I get scattered very easily and it’s why I’m good at a multiple choice test. Just show me something interesting. This course takes place in the evening and jumping around keeps me awake and I hope you are entertained.
EDU-TAINMENT… education as entertainment. If you are laughing, you are paying attention, you are not asleep and you might be learning. I learned this from Dennis Yuzenas, yuzenas@prodigy.net or go to www.WhatDoYaKnow.com -- you’ll learn something there.
BRING QUESTIONS TO THE CLASS.
It’s not for me to select the problems to do on the board. It’s for you.
Why do you video tape the sessions? If someone is sick or late or wants to review (you don’t have to take notes in this class … especially if you are visual… it’s hard to pay attention and take notes, especially when the teacher doesn’t stop talking.)… the video is available for review. You can also use the video to file a complaint to the college about me and the video is there for you to prove that I used obscene language or called the war in Iraq “a necessary war.” You can show that I’m a liar. That’s your choice. That’s why I have the video.
Again….Do every question in the book like this. If you look at the reading or math section and you say, Hey, I know how to do that problem, then check the problem and move on. If you can’t do the problem in 30 seconds, put a question mark and move on. You are reading the problem and saying to yourself, I feel confident that I know what to do next. If you don’t have that feeling, then put a question mark and ask me to show you how to do it in class.
INTERPERSONAL
I insist that people work in pairs. I will not force you to … because some people are intrapersonal and prefer to work alone. Einstein might be here today. He was NOT an interpersonal social learner.
I will sometimes look at the problem and say, “Go ask Vincent to show you how to do that problem. If Vincent can’t show you, then I’ll show the whole class.”
Is this fair to Vincent? Yes, because when he has a weakness, he’s going to go to another student. You have in this class at least 4 other students who will be your mentors and show you something new. Most people are visual and social learners, so you will learn from your peers and interpret what I say by listening to your partner. “WHAT DID MAC SAY?” and your partner, who might change from hour to hour, will say, “Oh, I was confused too until I remembered that FOIL is First, outside, inside, last. See F O I L.” Questions? Call me. 954 646 8246.
I don’t take a break unless the majority of the class insists on the break. The break, if we have it, will be for 5 minutes, unless the class as a majority forces me to make it 10 minutes. I stay until 9:30 because that’s the kind of teacher I am. More is better, and we can get more if you limit your questions … sometimes I will be 5 minutes late to a class. Big problem. Unless you take advantage of that time and talk with your partner. And every student in the room is your partner.
BUT I WANT TO BE A PRIVATE PERSON, I don’t want any jerk that I don’t know to have my email address or my cell phone number. Live with it. Get a yahoo.com account that you can throw away after class. You will get more out of this class if you put more into it. We will meet for 15 hours and you need at least 120 hours to raise your SAT scores.
Did I get your attention yet?
You need 180 hours of focused effort to learn a language. Why not give 4 hours a day for the next 30 days? Just to improve your English and writing and math understanding.
You will wear a name tag or you won’t
You will work with a different buddy each session, or you will stay with the same pal or work alone. It’s your choice.
Performance of your understanding. It is not required, but if you want a POU, raise your hand. I’ll put your understanding to the test as you explain how you came to the answer… or show another student.
Structure of the class: what structure?
Motivation by Mac Mactivation™
You will begin by copying me in using words in crazy ways…
Then the problem of the day is put on the board. I put one up maybe 5 problems and you try to solve it. Work in pairs or small groups. Repeat for 170 minutes. Then we go home.
No breaks which means you can leave anytime you want.
If you talk, you whisper. You form small groups, when I come over, you either perform your understanding of a problem and I check your understanding or you follow along with that person who is talking or you
Anyone talking with friends can do it outside. If you choose to use your money or your parent’s money with social club, fine, do it outside.
Homework. Read every problem in the thick book. Simple.
Look at every word in freevocabulary.com
Check off the words you know.
Put question marks on problems you can’t do in the thick book.
Visit number 2.com and print the problems that you don’t get.
Send me email if you have problems. talkinternational@yahoo.com
Good luck Bonne chance Buenta Suerte
Intrapersonal Page
(You learn from inside yourself...)
If you want to use your INTRAPERSONAL way of learning, then look at the book or homework that you have to do in a new way:
relate to it with a personal feeling or inner experience.
1. Make a collage
Gather photos, colors, use pens and crayons, create and draw pictures and glue materials together to make a collage (it means "things stuck together with glue" in French).
Look for the "subpersonalisties" in your collage. Some parts of yourself are "speaking" to you.
2. Write 10 positive things about yourself. Positive Self-talk is important for everyone.
3. Read SELF-HELP books.
4. Keep a Journal so you can know yourself better. Before you go to bed or during the 15 minutes while you are starting the day, think about your thoughts and feelings.
5. Keep track of your dreams... what did you dream about last night?
6. Write your autobiography.
7. Start your own business.
Read biographies of people who made a difference.
(Suggestions from Thomas Armstrong's book Seven Kinds of Smart
This is the first class that I give about being a gifted student. Each of us has been given this remarkable spirit and opportunity ... if we received this ability, then someone gave it to us, so we are all gifted in some way... let's all get started.
IF YOU DON'T like to work or don't like school, you are probably gifted and you need to be pushed in a room without distractions. Let's pretend that your name is Thomas...
Thomas will start coming to be tutored 3- 3:40 pm and will be watched over by Mr. Mac.
Thomas' mom agrees to pay for 3 hours of tutoring per week, if possible divided over 4 or 5 days, and we will re-evaluate the amount of “sensory deprivation” that is needed for him to complete the class work. THE GOAL IS TO SHOW THOMAS HOW TO WORK. Gradually distractions will be added. THE GOAL is to have Thomasl working in the classroom without interruption. He will say some day: “I can stay focused. I choose to stay focused. I will ignore the sounds and sights around me. I am really curious about what happens next on this page.”
The method that will be tried involves keeping Thomas in a quiet room to complete the day’s class work. I will attempt to come to school usually on Mon. Tues. Thursday and Friday 3:45 to 4:30 pm (3 hours per week) and during that time we will attempt to complete the day’s class work.
When possible, the sessions will be videotaped.
My plan is to sit with Thomas for 45 minutes or longer, depending on what we can accomplish. We will video the sessions so that he knows that his mom is able to watch exactly how well he’s doing. (Positive expectations: "see, mom? I sat still for 45 minutes and I finished my work. I got up only when I got permission.")
Rewards will be earned. We will make a list of rewards and find out which ones are rewards that can be approved.
We will identify some of Thomas’ strengths. We know that he has a strong sense of humor and we will try to make the class work funny and interesting.
OUR first exercise is to build our vocabulary about “SMARTS.” We will create a way to remember the types of smarts and we will try to see which smarts we have inside us. If we don’t have a “smart” in one area, we can use other smarts to help us. For example, if we aren’t good with math, we can use our imagination to help us. If we don’t like reading, we can use something else to make the reading more interesting….
I am good at __________ so I will use this skill when I have to do __________ (choose a subject you don’t like right now…)
How can we learn a new word or math skill?...
Verbal: Put things in your own words. Write it down.
Visual: Draw a mind map of the ideas. Create a sketch or schematic. See it unfold in your mind as if it were a movie.
Physical: Use flash cards to arrange and shuffle the ideas. Act out what you've learned. Mime the activity or information.
Musical: Compose a jingle or rhyme to describe it. Listen to music you like as you learn it.
Mathematical: Outline the ideas. Devise (create) a formula to explain it, i.e. Awareness times Behavior equals Mastery. A x B = M
Introspective (INSIDE YOU): Think about what it means to you. Reflect on your past experiences to find validation of what you are learning or how you can use it.
Interpersonal (SOCIAL): Discuss the subject. Teach it to someone else. Turn it into a team activity, each one teach one.
Thomas Armstrong’s Seven Kinds of Smarts:
Identifying and Developing Your Many Intelligences!
By Eve Young
www.jobscareers.com/articles/ thomasarmstrongs7kindsofsm.html
Did you know that you can be smart in 7 ways?
No way! Either you’re smart or your dumb, right? Not anymore. According to a number of “experts” (smart people!), the old concept of intelligence, as defined by IQ test scores, is passe.
For many people that offers a breath of fresh air. How many times have you been frustrated because you know that you are “smart,” but you just can’t seem to convince other people (i.e. your teachers, bosses, etc..)? Why? Because you didn’t score well on achievement tests, or get good grades in school. Or because when you try to write something or give an oral presentation, you either go blank or fumble around.
You aren’t alone. Thomas Armstrong has written a refreshing book, “7 Kinds of Smart” affirming that – yes – there are many (7 to be exact) ways to be smart and that each is unique and valuable. Interestingly enough, the different forms of intelligence have been located in different areas of the brain (i.e. left brain is verbal; right brain is spatial, musical and mathematical), through studying people with brain damage due to accidents, strokes, or other medical conditions.
Our society has focused mainly on linguistic and mathematical/logical types of intelligence. Schools act as if these are the only ways to be smart – and that proficiency in these areas is the only measure of success and worth as a human being. As important as these forms of smarts are, the other five forms of intelligence are important and make humanity the rich mosaic of talent that it is!
What are the different kinds of “smarts”?
Word Smart
Linguistic (ability to express oneself in words on paper and aloud and to conceptualize ideas and thoughts verbally). Major form of intelligence used in school, on IQ test; essence of what people normally think of as smart.
Picture Smart
Spatial (art, architecture, engineering, graphic design, photography, etc.)
Music Smart
Musical (composing, playing musical instruments, singing, retaining melodies, pitch, etc.)
Body Smart
Kinesthetic (athletic ability, physical strength, endurance, coordination)
Logic Smart
Logic/Mathematics (reasoning, math, science, computers, technology)
People Smart
Interpersonal (people skills; dealing with others/relationships; working in teams, etc.)
Self Smart
Intrapersonal (self-knowledge – search for enlightenment, inner peace, meditation, spirituality, personal growth, etc.)
Armstrong’s book describes these “smarts” in detail, shows you how to determine which are your strongest “smarts,” and how to develop the ones that are weaker. He also talks about the implications for education and optimizing learning, as well as how to match your smarts with the best types of work. He concludes with a section on what kinds of smarts will be emphasized in the next century.
EVERY CLASS
We will create on paper, in motion and with spoken words.
We will learn at least five new words using the 8 smarts. We will create additional pages on lookingforpatterns.com
EVERY CLASS
We will say the “Many Smarts” creed:
I have many smarts inside me.
I can help my weaker smarts by using my stronger smarts.
My test comes when I speak. I perform my understanding.
I perform when I speak, when I write and when I listen carefully and “diagram my notes.”
Spatial Smart Music Smart
Body Smart Picture Smart
Logic Smart Word Smart
People Smart Self Smart
Every day is filled with interesting challenges.
I enjoy looking for patterns, cycles, and special events.
Typical Exercises
1. Take 5 new words and draw them, find a mathematical connection, dance about it, hum about it, ask how you feel and experience the word, put the definition in your own words, discuss the word with another person. Find confusing words and clip pictures to explain the word.
2. Take lyrics of a song and explain the song in many ways. What are the double meanings? What are the symbols? Who is the audience of the song? Who is the singer? What will happen next? What happened to make the song necessary?
3. Draw a building. Describe the things, events, activities happening in the building. Describe three people and how they will interact. How does the building help or hinder (not help) the people?
4. Cut an article from the newspaper. Analyze it, use the 8 smarts to learn more about the issue. Write questions from the perspective of each of the 8 smarts. 8 views, 8 questions. Then answer the questions.
5. Take an essay question and use the 8 views, the 8 smarts and the 8 ways of looking at a problem. Choose one way and complete the essay. You can use other smarts to assist you in completing the essay.
6. Create another problem. Propose your project to the teacher … how will you perform your understanding?
Now that you have traveled this far, please continue... go to the LIST OF EXERCISES...
EXAMPLE
March 31 we talked about the 7 smarts. We learned a phrase in Spanish and 5 new words for SAT.
April 7 We worked on our stories... we learned 5 new words, we learned some Spanish
April 14 We did the 5 gallon, 3 gallon 2 liter exercise, we learned 5 new words, we talked about our stories that we started last week.
April 21 we went to the main library to work on web sites, both our own and on looking for interesting web sites ... we also made short videos and saved them on a laptop computer then transferred them to CD and burned the CD. Wow. What an hour.
fter the first class, what can we do in the Gifted Class?
Hmmm ... The theme is "Find the pattern" and "Look for something to challenge your mind."
We can look at three containers and estimate how many of the little container can fit in the bigger container.
The small container is 2 liters, the larger containers are 3 gallons and 5 gallons. How many 2 liters in the larger containers? See answers below...
hints...
My students estimated 5 and 9 and they were close. see answers below...
What can students do in a class about gifted learning?
Find websites for learning languages
Take apart components and learn about direct and indirect current, also known as alternating current. What are the standards in other countries?
Look at ac and dc on web sites that are burned on cd
Make a movie, save on computer, save the movies on compact disk.
Look at advertisements
Look at how people study films
-- potemkin
-- samson and delilah, stand in the doorway
-- mise en scene
-- the long shot
-- notice the mastery
Create questions about English that are difficult (like homonyms, such as pear, pair, pare) then bring in a student of English and allow the ESOL student to answer the questions posed by the gifted students... and hopefully they will correspond and visit each other when they traval to France or Europe... or Asia...
ANSWERS
3.74 liters per gallon, so 3 gallons is about 11.4 liters so about 5 sets of 2 liters..
5 x 3.74 is about 18.6 liters... so 9 sets of 2 liters.
This is a list of exercises. If you keep returning to this list, you will be linked to see the other exercises. Just keep coming back here and look for new additions to the list.
Some of the exercises will be easy for you since they need you to use the skill that you already have. For example, a person who loves to be INTERPERSONAL and SOCIAL will find the SOCIAL exercises easier to do than other students. If an exercise is easy for you, help another student who has a difficult time with this exercise. Make yourself stretch and practice some of the other ways of communicating and learning. Please write down your comments. These are ACTUAL EXERCISES that are used in classes with gifted students. If you have not been labeled GIFTED, then please click here. If you don't have time to complete these exercises, click here. If you say that you will do these exercises when you get around to it, click here.
Look for Patterns
Look for Patterns (tm) is a trademark held by Steve McCrea
Content on this page is copyright 2005.
www.lookforpatterns.com
If you look for patterns, if you identify the cycles in life, then you are educating yourself.
Here are some ways to practice looking for patterns:
THESE ARE SOME EXERCISES...
1. track the price of a stock -- choose a stock that you are interested in! www.yahoo.com and click on FINANCE will be a good place to start.
2. HERE is an exercise about an ELECTRIC CAR.
lookexerciseev
3. Analyze the thoughts of Mr. Friedman (he talks about Geo-Green Politics. What does he mean?)
4. Here is the introduction to GIFTED CLASS by Mr. Mac.
Decide on ONE PROJECT and work with it each week until it is completed. This long-term project can be something that you do alone or with other people.
EXAMPLES
- create a yearbook on CD with photos that you collect from teachers and other students
- write a book of short stories
- collect suggestions for "better living" or "tips for studying better" or a cook book and put these suggestions on a web site or in a photocopied book.
- start a school newspaper
- write a column for the school newspaper
- interview one teacher each week and compile the collected interviews in a book for students to keep at the end of the year. It could become part of the yearbook.
- make a video showing an interesting topic
- interview adults, asking them "Tell me about an interesting book that you read when you were a young person."
- create a list of questions from your history or science class and ask adults... You might find it funny because many adults think that they don't need to know stuff from middle school now that they graduated from high school.
Example: Who was Napoleon Buonaparte?
What is photosynthesis?
List the planets in order from the Sun to Pluto.
Jay Leno on the Tonight Show uses this method to obtain funny interviews
POETRY
Memorize poems. If you need some suggestions, go to DATA web page
There are at least 180 essay topics that teachers usually give students... why not start and practice writing some of them? You can get started today! Push yourself... don't wait for a teacher to give you these topics. Then we'll put your creation on the internet for others to read!
QUOTES -- memorize some interesting quotes
Learn another Language... Here is a link to a Spanish page
RADIO
Visit npr.org and see if you can describe each of the shows that are presented (using US Tax dollars). Then visit some other radio stations and compare the content of the shows. Conservative Radio, Rush Limbaugh Show, etc. Do a search on "conservative radio" to learn the names of interesting radio commentators.
TV
www.msnbc.com/today Katie Couric and her team present many useful tips on the TODAY show. What is today's best tip?
NEWSPAPER
Choose three newspapers and read the same story in each newspaper. Find the differences. Sometimes newspaper writers leave out some information or emphasize a certain fact. Can you explain why or guess why?
www.nytimes.com www.latimes.com
www.timesonline.co.uk www.indiatimes.com
Look at newspapers from other countries. See if you can guess the vocabulary. If there is an important story, maybe you can see a pattern. What does "Papa" mean in Italian?
edizione straordinaria
Addio a Giovanni Paolo II www.corriere.it
WORLD
Go to a web site and learn about another country.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
Open any volume of the encyclopedia. Read an article that you find interesting. Now talk about that subject for one minute. What new things did you learn? Can you communicate what you learned by a powerpoint presentation? Or by drawing? or by discussion or can you teach a 5 minute class about what you learned?
COMPUTER SEARCHING
Get a program called www.answers.com
LANGUAGES
What language do you want to study?
Someone called Arabic "angry spaghetti." Do you have a hunger for learning about other languages and other alphabets?
Where can you go on the internet to learn new words in another language?
If you speak English, you can teach to millions of other people. They hunger to know English and you, even if you are not yet an adult, have a skill that these millions of people are willing to pay or trade to get... you speak English. Why not use your talent in some way?
-- volunteer at a language school to give conversation lessons
-- volunteer at a church or other social organization (such as www.hispanicunity.org) which offers classes to immigrants.
(check with your parents before you do these ideas)...
NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Some organizations don't "make a profit" -- what does that mean? How much of their funding goes into fund-raising? 50 percent, 15 percent?
Visit these web sites and compare their revenues to cost of fund raising:
www.treesftf.org
www.treeswaterpeople.org
www.redcross.org
OTHER SIDE OF THE BRAIN
What do you do with your dominant hand?
open doors
eat with a spoon
throw a ball
hit a golfball
shake hands
reach for objects
What can you do with your non-dominant hand?
How can you push yourself to do more? Why are you just reading this list of exercises? Why not DO something, now...?
Send your suggestions for more exercises.
S. Mccrea
PO Box 30555
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303
Teacher 954 646 8246
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Check list for each "gifted" class at DATA
5 new SAT vocabulary words
Review the past words
Discuss our current Long Term Project
Do a puzzle
Learn some words in another language
Practice speaking clearly and succinctly
Memorize a poem or a song
Dance or create a "poem with gesture"
Letter to students
I remember when I was your age. I spent hours doing "extra credit" and I spent some time "wandering" in books and drawing and taking photos.
I asked my teachers for extra credit so I could get a better grade. I don't remember much about those projects.
I remember reading books that I found really, really interesting. I called it "wandering in books." That's what made a difference for me when I became an adult. When I needed a job, I impressed employers with the little facts that I learned from my "wanderings." Employers wanted to know what I really enjoyed doing.
This questionnaire comes from a web page...
Big picture or details?
RIGHT or LEFT ?
The more times you answer "YES", the more you use the right side of your brain. Right means that you don't focus on spelling and details.
You like studying the "big picture."
1. Do you prefer to think ALONE so you can concentrate (rather than think out-loud in a group of students)?
2. Do you use PICTURES to remember things instead of words?
3. When someone asks you to spell a word, do you have an imaginary whiteboard in your mind where the letters appear?
4. Do you enjoy puzzles and mazes?
5. Do people think that you are maturing later than other people? Do you think you are "blooming" later in life than other people?
6. Can you "see" objects in three dimensions? Can you rotate an image of a six-colored cube or beach ball in your mind, seeing each side of the cube or beach ball? Can you see it from the top, from the bottom and from the size?
7. Do you like making something "perfect"? Do you avoid trying something new because you think that you might not be good at it?
8. When you are in a city or on a street for the first time, can you find your way without asking for directions?
9. Do you like to daydream? Is it common that you find yourself thinking about something else instead of focusing on what you are doing (daydreaming while you drive or walk)?
10. Do people tell you that you are good at deciphering people? Can you look at someone you recently met and make accurate conclusions about the person? Are you intuitive?
11. Can you remember a face better than a name?
12. When you open a box that contains an "assemble-it-yourself" cabinet or toy, do you ignore the directions and try to build it?
13. Do you have very good or sensitive hearing?
14. Do the labels in your clothing bother you? Do you cut out the labels?
The more YES, the more RIGHT-SIDED.
These questions are adapted from a list in a book called Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World by Jeffrey Freed, MAT, and Laurie Parsons, Simon and Schuster.
Blooming = like a flower, opening up, ready for life later…
Questionnaire about Learning Styles from ldpride.net
Rate yourself as ALWAYS = 4
Often = 3
Sometimes = 2
Never = 1
1.
1 2 3 4
I feel the best way to remember something is to picture it in my head
2.
1 2 3 4
I follow oral directions better than written ones
3.
1 2 3 4
I often would rather listen to a lecture than read the material in a textbook
4.
1 2 3 4
I am constantly fidgeting (e.g. tapping pen, playing with keys in my pocket)
5.
1 2 3 4
I frequently require explanations of diagrams, graphs, or maps
6.
1 2 3 4
I work skillfully with my hands to make or repair things
7.
1 2 3 4
I often prefer to listen to the radio than read a newspaper
8.
1 2 3 4
I typically prefer information to be presented visually, (e.g. flipcharts or chalkboard)
9.
1 2 3 4
I usually prefer to stand while working
10.
1 2 3 4
I typically follow written instructions better than oral ones
11.
1 2 3 4
I am skillful at designing graphs, charts, and other visual displays
12.
1 2 3 4
I generally talk at a fast pace and use my hands more than the average person to communicate what I want to say
13.
1 2 3 4
I frequently sing, hum or whistle to myself
14.
1 2 3 4
I am excellent at finding my way around even in unfamiliar surroundings
15.
1 2 3 4
I am good at putting jigsaw puzzles together
16.
1 2 3 4
I am always on the move
17.
1 2 3 4
I excel at visual arts
18.
1 2 3 4
I excel at sports
19.
1 2 3 4
I'm an avid collector
20.
1 2 3 4
I tend to take notes during verbal discussions/lectures to review later
21.
1 2 3 4
I am verbally articulate and enjoy participating in discusions or classroom debates
22.
1 2 3 4
I easily understand and follow directions on maps
23.
1 2 3 4
I remember best by writing things down several times or drawing pictures and diagrams
24.
1 2 3 4
I need to watch a speaker's facial expressions and body language to fully understand what they mean
25.
1 2 3 4
I frequently use musical jingles to learn things
26.
1 2 3 4
I often talk to myself when alone
27.
1 2 3 4
I would rather listen to music than view a piece of art work
28.
1 2 3 4
I need to actively participate in an activity to learn how to do it
29.
1 2 3 4
I frequently tell jokes, stories and make verbal analogies to demonstrate a point
30.
1 2 3 4
I frequently touch others as a show of friendship and camaraderie (e.g. hugging)
HOME Seminars by S. McCrea Go to Look For Patterns to find Multiple Ways of Learning Letter to Teachers
Cell: 954.646.8246 globalcooling@comcast.net Other teaching web sites Visual And Active Store
Multiple Intelligences and the FCAT MathForArtists.com Learning Styles The Fed Ex Arrow
Welcome to www.VisualAndActive.com Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Critical Thinking
Lucky Accidents, Great Discoveries and the Prepared Mind
Find the Pattern in the Mapshttp://www.geocities.com/talkinternational1/looklucky.html
Going Farther
"How can I go farther?"
What can I ask my child to do when he/she says "I finished my homework"
1. "Now that you have finished your work for today, is there anything you can do to prepare for a future class?"
2. "Does your teacher have any extra credit work for you to do?"
3. "When is your next test? Can you start studying and reviewing for your test now?"
After all of these questions have been answered, you'll have an idea about how well prepared your child is for the next day of school.
If you feel that your child is ready to "go farther," then here are some ideas...
Hello, Students!
a) Learn five phrases in another language. Excusame, necesito el permiso, por favor. Excuse me, I need the hall pass please.
It's better to learn a phrase about something you really want to know. Try to use the phrases ... tomorrow!
Language Links
SPANISH:
FRENCH:
PORTUGUESE:
Other languages:
ARABIC:
http://www.geocities.com/isaab
dullah2000/ARABICLANGUAGE.html
b) take a series of tests to find out what type of learner you are... When you know more
Visual-spatial (visual and 3-D) learning
Right and Left thinking >>>>>>>>>>>>>
What is your style? www.knowyourtype.com
Find out your style of thinking
musical - sing, invent a song for learning difficult SAT words, write poems
movement - memorize a complicated dance
visual - create a fun and interesting web page
social - do some volunteer work and write about your experiences...
et cetera
c) visit LookForPatterns.com and try some of the activities.
d) write to Mr. Mac and ask for more activities.
s2314@tmail.com or talkinternational@yahoo.com
e) go to Google and search on
"Interesting activities for gifted students"
Where can I find materials for my child to explore?
http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/advancedacademics/
Do you want to learn more about Multiple Intelligences?
Do a search on Google on "Multiple Intelligences" and "Howard Gardner" (the guy who created the theory about multiple ways of learning).
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/
This is similar to the type of tests that Mr. Mac took when he was in high school. You can try it....
The list of "GIFTED WEB SITES" are on www.browardschools.com, then click on
DEPARTMENTS, then click on
Advanced Academics, then click on
Teachers Resources, then click on
Gifted Web Sites
or go to:
advancedacademics/Gifted/websites
A letter to parents
I have been asked by Mr. Di to start working with your child in creating "supplemental" materials for gifted students.
During the break, your child can go to:
www.knowyourtype.com and figure out your type.
www.visualspatial.org and take the test to see if there is a visual/spatial skill. Visual-Spatial Resource serves parents, teachers and anyone who lives with or works with, visual-spatial learners, as well as offering self-help to visual-spatial adults.
In addition, the student needs to write down three projects or things he or she would like to create:
"I want to write a book."
"I want to illustrate a book."
"I want to make a movie."
"I want to create a yearbook from a selection of the photos that have been taken so far this year."
"I want to create a web site with lots of intersting links and I will review the sites to guide people to look for particularly interesting themes."
"I want to solve a problem in the world. I will create a campaign to change or improve or raise money to fix something."
YOU DON"T HAVE TO DO ANY OF THESE PROJECTS. Please come up with a project that you want to work on for the next 8 weeks. Please call me, Mr. Mac, when you are ready to discuss the project and if you can email me, send your comments to s2314@tmail.com
I will follow up with a written letter, sent by post, and perhaps with a phone call. Have a nice WORKING vacation. The student should learn at LEAST five new words from the SAT list.
From Mr. Mac
VISIT THESE WEB SITES AND write down something that you find interesting...
Other web sites
www.nhc.noaa.gov Hurricane center
www.loc.gov The Library of Congress
www.history.com History is fascinating!
Look for Patterns (tm) is a trademark held by Steve McCrea
Content on this page is copyright 2005.
www.lookforpatterns.com
Critical Thinking
IN this set of exercises, you will enjoy finding the patterns of illogical or deceptive arguments.
READ the following from Miss Binta
From Binta Wahid
B . P : 5244
Dakar Senegal
Email: wahid1980@voila.fr
Dear Respectful,
I am pleased to introduce a business opportunity to you, i hope you will not be embarrassed receiving this mail as we have not had previous correspondences on this,I decided to contact you based on the clearance and assurance i got from source that linked me to you.
I hope you will not impede the trust and confidence I repose in you,In brief introduction, I am Miss.Binta Wahid, an Sierra Leone National, I'm 24 years of age now, However i will not forget to ask you about your condition of health i hope you are in good health, Meanwhile i will like to ask you if your interesting to help me, because i will like you to take me as your Sister or adopt me as your daughter.
My late father was working in Gold and diamond company for 17 years but was killed during the crisis in my country, then i managed to escape with my father's important documents that wor th (8.3 million dollars) which deposited in my name for shipment out from Dakar city of Senegal to your Country.
Meanwhile i am here with all the vital documents that covery the Money such as death certificate and statement of account,Secondly if i receive any positive response i will vividly forward all the related documents to you base on interest.
I await your very Urgent and Positive reply as soon as you receive this message. Please, Also send me your private phone and fax numbers so that I can contact you for our oral discussion and also fax you the related Documents to emiciated the claim. Have a great day and extend my regards to your family.
Thanking you for your understanding. I look forward to your earliest reply true my private Email: wahid1980@voila.fr
Your's truly
Miss Binta Wahid.
Questions... hmm, the student should write at least five questions
Visit these web sites and read the problems... then guess the turth or falsehood.... then read the explanation of the site.
Education includes "guessing" by the student to get those neurons pumping and participating....
Google search on "Urban Legends"
"I use snopes.com to stay alert, look smart and reverse cerebral sclerosis."
An Open Letter to a teacher
As you might know, I teach in middle school. I have a visual and active style of teaching, somewhat unconventional, and my principal asked me to change… and I saw an opportunity to move out of the classroom and develop some other skills.
http://www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/newfcatteach
www.teachingtothetest.org is one of the projects I’m working on. It’s vision is connected to multiple intelligences and how the FCAT could be evolved.
I’ve been working with students on how to adapt to the “linguistic/left brain” style of the test and how to approach it if the student has a “artistic/right brain” style of learning and expressing himself.
Two videos that made a particular impact on me were:
The Brain Game by Nancy Snyderman and
Defending the Caveman by Rob Becker. I guess I’ve spent the past three years trying to adapt my teaching (and curriculum) to include these insights, along with Howard Gardner’s research. Cooperative learning (which involves interpersonal learning and emotional IQ, the work of Daniel Goleman and www.6seconds.org) has made me aware that a classroom is not a place, it’s an opportunity. That opportunity extends beyond the four walls, the hours of the class and the materials brought into the room.
Most principals want classroom management and don’t want to hear about this theory of multiple intelligences. So, I’m switching to tutoring and SAT prep courses. I’m videotaping most of the important parts of the class in an effort to document how students are “performing their understanding” (a Gardner phrase). He advocates multiple ways of evaluating -- including video taping and building portfolios to demonstrate understanding. For more, see www.newFCAT.com. and THIS PAGE
I’d like to get your reaction to some of these videos (on DVD and CD). One of my projects or one of the ideas that popped into my head came from research that shows “Middle school students don’t look to teachers or parents as role models…they look at their peers and cool people.” (I’m paraphrasing.)
Hey, if that’s the case, and if most of my students in this underperforming school DON’T want to or like to read, why not entertain them (edu-tainment) and turn classrooms into “Walking Books”?! Don’t judge the book or the person by the cover. Read the book -- listen to the person.
I found out that letting a visitor ramble and talk works with some assertive students and makes for some good watching for some adults (“Amen! I’ve been there!”), but to truly engage students, the ground rules have to be:
RULES FOR VISITORS
1. Two minutes of talking from the visitor and then only response to questions.
2. No answer to a question can take longer than two minutes.
3. When the students are finished asking questions, the visitor leaves.
4. The visitor leaves after 20 minutes. (Better to leave before they want you to stop talking).
“AWWW! Mr. Mac! Let him stay and talk some more!” Well, those visits have been more successful with almost every student in the room. (and the visitor, who usually loves the sound of his voice, is happy to not have to come up with a canned 15 minute speech – he/she can just walk in and answer questions). I can get around the room and monitor behavior in every corner and make sure at least half of the class has participated. The actual time in class extends to 30 minutes (since most visitors end up staying at least 30 minutes and the students STILL want to pay attention, since they know they have to keep asking questions to avoid having to return to reading class).
When the visitor leaves, we make a venn diagram or a spider diagram to visually depict the story of the visitor’s speech/information. It’s a lot more engaging than watching a movie together.
In short, how difficult is it to bring in a visitor? (Plenty – my principal requires a lot of checks and visitors sometimes don’t show because of other commitments). What if the visitor comes in via CD or DVD? Video on CD can be watched on a computer and the student can fast forward through stupid parts and
Thanks for reading through the essence of this program. If you see any parts of this that would be useful for your school or class and you need more of them (I have 8 visitors on CD-video), let me know and I’ll send you the info.
www.visualandactive.com is the essence of my style, a web site that pulls together the visual elements...
www.LookForPatterns.com is the “gifted” student web site with exercises to pull the student into one or more of the gifted ways of thinking…
etc. Eventually I guess my collection of videos and tutoring videos could form an “extended teaching packet” that could be used in home schools or in media centers or in “learning centers” in a corner of the classroom. Until then, it’s just a collection of videos that might be of interest to students who have trouble with math or hate reading or hate the fcat (I have an FCAT prep pair of videos that are fun, which I’ll aim to include in this packet).
If you have problems looking at the DVDs, let me know and I’ll send you the materials on Video. If you have to start with one part, I’d say it’s the Snyderman piece (which I put in my SAT Prep video). Your suggestions and feedback are most welcome. I don’t have a business model yet to distribute these pieces, but it’s a direction that might emerge. I heard in passing that you are pursuing an MBA and I’d like to become one of your clients – I need a consultant who knows how to market a group of materials. I’m thinking a good start would be an Internet store, since it’s hard to find a store to take my less-than professional items that lack fancy packaging. My store could have items like the geoPuzzle that sells for $15 and maybe I could include it in my store.
(You heard about the GeoPuzzle? The guy was a pilot and had grown up on three continents and thought that EVERY kid knew the difference between Austria and Australia, between Guyana and Papua New Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. Oops. So he created a puzzle so that kids can touch the countries. That item is a center piece in my SAT prep because some visual right brained kids who are disengaged with math and vocab prep like to put together puzzles and then draw on the back side of the puzzle. Their ‘performing of their understanding’ of new words is preserved in an artistic rendering of “what is gregarious and what is egregious?” and the NEXT class of students can put together the BACK of the puzzle, looking at the designs on the back that the artistic previous student drew in 8 colors).
So this is a long-winded appeal for feedback. If you have suggestions for improvement and – better – if you have kids who can write or email or videotape their responses to the videos, let me know.
a) Principals don’t like the materials because they are not professionally packaged and there’s some down time that could be edited out. When I bring in materials for kinesthetic and movement learners (especially magnets and puzzles), I’m told that the classroom looks messy and the school is not a place of play. Ouch.
b) Parents generally like it because their kids didn’t take notes in class and now they can.
c) Half of the students think I’m nuts (they don’t like visual learning, they prefer a structured quiet classroom) and the rest of the class are goof offs who don’t realize that they’re learning something (or there is a genius in the class who is happy that I let him study on his own or read his favorite biographies of Rudolf Valentino). The goof offs might be improving…I know that they are happy to “avoid work” and they are actually engaged in something besides talking with friends, text messenging and sleeping. They actually like to work with magnets and learn by doing…
d) most math teachers say, “Manipulatives? That’s elementary school.” Well, it is and some of our students didn’t get it back then… so let’s let them have access to blocks and magnets. “Oh, it’s too messy and disorganized and the students don’t put the materials back and some kids take some of the items and play with them.” Ah, but the joyous moment when that kid puts down the tangrams and the blocks and magnets and says, “I wish you were my teacher in third grade, Mr. Mac. Now I understand fractions.”
I look forward to your reaction. My cell is 954 646 8246 … I’m available as a visitor to a classroom, I give talks to teachers, I can set up an SAT prep classroom for two hours to help students and teahers create ways to integrate technology in the classroom (I bring in a camera, a CD burner, Digital video and a VCR and challenge the students and teachers to make copies of what they produce. Some people have a hard time figuring out how to get the INPUT of the VCR to connect with the OUTPUT from the digital video.)
I work as a professional consultant at $60 per hour plus travel fee. The fee is waived if I’m in town on other business (visiting Disney to collect ideas for visual and active teaching) and if the teacher is a relative there is no hourly fee. J
In the parlance of “freelance consultant,” I’m currently under employed (working as a tutor and SAT prep teacher for about 15 hours a week, so I have time to come up with visual and active ways to make lessons sing and “speak” to and engage students. If you have a fun lesson plan and you want to have it distributed on my www.visualandactive.com internet store, let me know.
P.s. Have you seen the Miami Herald’s travel competition. It’s great! www.herald.com and click on Travel. www.herald.com/travel
You can also get there at www.geographicolympics.com
Become a Visual and Active Teacher
1. Start with the student. Ask each student this question: "How will you use this information? What do you want to do? What do you love?"
2. Ask the student to do something difficult. Perhaps it is talking on the telephone. "Oh, no, Steve, I don't want to ... "
"Oh, I don't need this in my job. I can use email."
Now I know... this is an important exercise. When students try to avoid doing something, then it is perhaps important. We can learn through fear.
3. Learn about "styles of learning." For most students, books are boring. Most students are not linguistic learners. They learn by another way. Only 20% learn by reading. Many other students learn by copying the teacher or their friends.
4. Use Youtube.com and visit BUILDINGinternationalBRIDGES.com
5. Connect with my students. Go to www.FreeenglishLessonsinFlorida.com and find interetsing email addresses. Ask yourstudents to write my sutdnets.
6. Use Skype and hotmail/MSN messenger...
7. Send my class photos and we will send you photos. Write about the photos. It is safer than asking general questions.
8. Look at the list of suggestions at www.geocities.com/stevemccrea.
9. Set up a blog and ask your students to send suggestions. www.FreeenglishLessonsinFlorida.blogspot.com. <<< an example
10. send email each week to your students... more homework.
Send me your suggestions. This method is still getting stronger. Sometimes it works if you are a dancing bear.
A dancing bear gets attention in the classroom.
We don't want to be sleepy!
We want to personalize the education.
This method is based on the work of Dennis Littky.
T his web page is dedicated to Yuko and other teachers who have asked me, "What are some tips for becoming a better teacher?"
The Aiglon Academy rewards students who perform their understanding. (newFCAT.com)
www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/newfcatexpand.html
You can earn Aiglon Academy points when you complete these projects.
Achievers are the first names of students who have achieved points in these projects. Bravo!
1. Certified Greeter Program (5 points)
Learn about the Certified Greeter program by writing to Mr. Mac at s2314@tmail.com and I'll send you the worksheet by postal mail.
Performance: show me a video demonstrating your understanding of the greeter program.
2. Just enough Italian (italian.about.com).
Performance: demonstrate what you learned on a video. Put yourself in at least four situations. Possiamo parlare e mangiare un po.
Achievers: Zallah.
3. Learn Enough (choose your language) and use xxxx.about.com
(5 to 10 points, depending on the depth of
4. Learn more SAT words (20 points)
Performance: show me 100 pages with at least half of the words crossed out plus a video showing you performing 20 of those words)
5. The Luia Forbes Poetry Project (5 points)
Performance: on video speak at least four poems. Extra point if you include William Blake's poem about to See a World... and another point if you can recite the Ride of Paul Revere (abbreviated version)
Achievers: the 7th grade at Downtown Academy
6. Look For Patterns.com (5 points) -- Can you teach another person about the material on these pages?
Performance: you complete a video that describes all of the pages in the LookForPatterns.com ring of pages.
7. The Visual And Active Web Tour (4 points):
Performance: Describe the content on these pages www.VisualAndActive.com, www.NewFCAT.com, www.MathForArtists.com, www.KnowYourType.com, www.ResolveToHeal.com, and other web sites to be added.
8. Snopes.com (5 points)
Performance: Perform on video at least two interesting web pages from snopes.com -- what did you learn? Why was this particular myth or urban legend interesting to you?
9. The Art Museum Performance (5 points)
<<<<< LINKS Select at least two art museum web sites and visit them thoroughly.
Performance: Compare and contrast, speaking for at least 20 minutes on the two web sites.
10. The BIBBI Project (5 points)
Exchange views with a person in a different state or country. BuildingInternationalBridges.com
Performance: send me at least two exchanges of letters by email or by writing, two separate people, plus a video tape describing your views before and after you meet this person "online."
11. Mentors on Video project (7 points)
Read the web page at www.MentorsOnVideo.com
Performance: Capture at least two people on video for a total of 10 minutes.
12. Take the Flat Challenge DemocracyBonds.com
Performance: Create a short video explaining your answers. (5 points)
13. Make your own highquality web site (4 points)
Use geocities.com or angelfire.com or other system to create a web page. Do not put personal information that can be used to contact you (phone, address, photos), but create a web page that celebrates life and teaches something, such as a poem.
Performance: Send me a video to give commentary for your web site.
WOW! More ways to earn points: If you propose a project that is accepted and then you carry it out, you get an additional Aiglon Academy point for initiative.
Points can be redeemed for one of the following:
Each point = 10 minutes of free tutoring with Mr. Mac by telephone (or 5 minutes of in-person tutoring at a location to be determined)
5 points to get a certified Aiglon Academy stuffed animal
10 points for a free DVD (valued at $25) of Mr. Mac teaching
Other fabulous prizes, to be announced.
Wht is it like to be in a tutoring session with Mr. Mac?
I bring together the wisdom and expertise of dozens of teachers who led me to interesting places and thoughts.
Here are a few of my mentors
Steve Alford
David Rhodes
Patrick Roberts
Gordon Dyke
Jeremy McWilliam
John Paul Vornle
Bahman Azarm
Dennis McWilliam
Alexander N.
Dennis Yuzenas
Jon Pederson
Marcantonio Tecchio
Maury Alvey
Esther Aronin
Barbara Brodman
David Naimon
David Newman
David Newton
Marshall Thurber
Bill Mehleisen
Paul Josephs
Fran Bohnsack
Natalie Nadel
Bonnie Rosen
Wayan Merta
Steven Njuguna
Norah Hills
<<< Mr. Mac on a cruise, trying to find the "math at sea"
In the tutoring session, we study a subject that you want to study and I assist you in going to places that you never imagined. It's fun and eventually useful.
Are you interested? Then do a project and earn some Aiglon Academy points so that you can experience an AA tutoring session.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME
Aiglon College is located in the Swiss Alps. www.Aiglon.ch
I attended this school for three years (1973-76). Numerous teachers influenced my method of teaching (which has evolved into the Visual and Active Portfolio Method).
I created the Aiglon Academy to give parents a low-cost way of getting something special for students. This web site is not directly connected to the school, but I will tell you many reasons why you should think about attending this remarkable school (there's also a lower and middle school). Some students go there for 8 years!
Don't let schooling get in the way of your education. (Mark Twain)
Don't let this web page interfere wiht your education. (S. McCrea)
I find that homeschooled kids often have a broader perspective and more passion for learning than students who went through traditional classrooms.
Ten percent of any income derived from tutoring (connected to this web page, such as referrals that turn into clients) is donated to Aiglon College's scholarship fund.
If lawyers associated with Aiglon College do not like my use of the name, I'll change it to Ayglon Academy.
First Questionnaire
Hello Your Name: _____________________________
How do you plan to use English? In what situations?
Travel (where?)
Job (how?)
Answering phones?
Writing a fax?
Entertaining people from English Speaking Countries?
What do you want to do with your English?
What do you want to learn in the next three days?
Your current profession (what job do you do or what do you want to do):
What was your most interesting job? Or where do you hope to work?
Please read about my projects – you are invited to participate.
I teach students who are ages 12 to 14 and some of their parents have not completed high school. Their parents don’t read to them. They don’t read a newspaper and they will probably drop out of school.
I noticed that they like it when I invite an adult to speak in the classroom. I videotape the visit and put the movie on CD. Two months later, the students enjoy looking at the video and they ask additional questions… so then we send an email message to the adult and they continue to learn. It’s more fun than the books in class” (they tell me.
If you would like to be a “Mentor on Video” please talk with me and I will ask you three questions after class on Thursday (or another time if you wish).
Your answers will help students learn something new and become more patient.
The project can inspire some students to “stay in school.”
2. Building International Bridges. If you would like to learn how your email messages can reduce problems in the Middle East, visit www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com -- for example, my niece is writing to a person from Iran and they are learning about each other’s cultures.
Give Steve this paper when you are finished. Then begin work on one of the worksheets.
Steve McCrea
Put your ideas on DVD and video-on-CD
Get your book in print with "print-on-demand"
Box 30555
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303
TELEPHONE 1+ 954.646.8246
www.stevemccrea.com
www.teachersTOteachers.com
www.LookForPatterns.com
Extra Exercise: read this page on NEW FCAT and give me your opinion...
http://www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/newfcatexpand.html
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Additional Questionnaires
Personalized English Course, Swiss Cheese Worksheet (1)
Check List for Skill Learning: There is a theory about language learning... we tend to learn the words we want to learn. We also tend to learn words connected to an activity that we want to pursue.
How about Learning a New Skill and learning words while learning the new skill? (4)
Learning about Urban Myths (and learnikng to avoid them)
Worksheet 5: Resources for Business English
Worksheet 6: How to structure the class (example: discuss headlines, learn one example of grammar or vocabulary, and then each person takes turns giving an executive summary.
The use of these questionnaires as part of a language teaching program can be licensed by contacting Steve McCrea at 954 646 8246. These sheets are provided for informational uses only. They can be used or adapted for use in class after a licensing agreement has been signed.
Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by Steve McCrea