Promote Library Card Sign-up Month

A library card is the smartest card of all. That's the key message the American Library Association (ALA) is trying to convey during Library Card Sign-up Month in September. If you'd like information on promoting Library Card Sign-up Month in your school or library, visit this ALA webpage.

Tech Timesavers #6: “License” Your Class Photographers

From Instructor magazine

Before students can check out and use a camera, invite them to become licensed. Provide a short workshop for one to three students. Keep it small so you can monitor students' behavior and handling of equipment. Make a camera license, laminate it, and attach it to a string. Students must wear the license when using the camera. Students without licenses may not use the camera.

Teaching No Longer A Recession-Proof Job

CNN Money (9/10, Luhby) reports that "teaching is no longer the stable career it once was" as the faltering economy "and accompanying state fiscal woes...are decimating the industry." According to CNN, "An estimated 135,000 teachers will be out of work this school year" and "a recent $10 billion injection to education from Congress is" not "expected to help that much. ... The hiring of new teachers has slowed dramatically and fewer veteran educators are staying in the field for their entire careers, said Segun Eubanks, director of teacher quality at the National Education Association."

California Districts Face Lawsuit Over School Fees

The New York Times (9/10, Dillon) reports, "Public schools across the nation, many facing budget shortfalls, have been charging students fees to use textbooks or to take required tests or courses. Now," the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California "is suing California over those proliferating fees, arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education." The suit, "names 35 school districts across California that list on their Web sites the fees their schools charge for courses including art, home economics and music, for Advanced Placement tests and for materials including gym uniforms."

Celebrate Banned Books Week

To Kill a Mockingbird...the Twilight series...Catcher in the Rye...The Color Purple--these are just a sampling of the most frequently challenged books of 2009, according to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). OIF offers a variety of resources for libraries, schools, and other organizations that want to observe Banned Books Week September 25-October 2. For further details, visit this webpage.

Vocabulary Focus on Music and Newspapers

Here are two intermediate to advanced level gap fill quizzes that focus on two of life's most enjoyable free-time pursuits: Listening to Music and Reading Newspapers.

For classes, here are some lesson plans on the same subjects:

Reading and Writing Newspaper Articles
Understanding Newspaper Headlines
Using Music in the Classroom
Talking about Pop Music and Musicians
Using Music for Creative Writing

**From Kenneth Beare

California Schools Pilot iPad Algebra Curriculum

Education publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched a new algebra curriculum delivery system for Apple's iPad. Dubbed "Fuse," the system is being piloted for a one-year period in middle schools in four California school districts.

http://www.1105newsletters.com/t.do?id=5840035:13579000

In Growing Trend, More Schools Being Led By Teachers

The New York Times (9/7, Hu) reports on its front page on "a growing experiment around the country to allow teachers to step up from the classroom and lead efforts to turn around struggling urban school systems." According to the Times, "Driving the establishment of teacher-run schools is the idea that teachers who have a sense of ownership of their schools will be happier and more motivated. But some educators and parents question whether such schools are the solution for urban districts, which typically have large concentrations of poor students and struggle with low test scores and discipline problems."

Study: Stereotyping boys contributes to gender gap

The use of phrases such as "silly boys" and "schoolboy pranks" can reinforce the view that boys are more likely to misbehave than girls, according to a study by a University of Kent researcher in the United Kingdom.

The study said children's beliefs could become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" and influence their achievement in the classroom. Teachers were warned against employing stereotypical language or separating classes into "boys vs. girls" to avoid adding to children's preconceived ideas about the gender divide. Data from the Department for Education showed that 24% of boys in England failed to reach the standard expected for their age group in writing compared with just 13%of girls.

The study was released at the British Educational Research Association annual conference at Warwick University on Wednesday. Read more in The Telegraph
online.

The "right way" to read a book ... depends

Auriane and Sebastien de Halleux are at sharp odds over The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but not about the plot. The problem is that she prefers the book version, while he reads it on his iPad. And in this literary dispute, the couple says, it's ne'er the twain shall meet. "She talks about the smell of the paper and the feeling of holding it in your hands," said de Halleux, 32, who says he thinks the substance is the same regardless of medium. He added, sounding mildly piqued, "She uses the word 'real.' "

By the end of this year, 10.3 million people are expected to own e-readers in the United States, buying about 100 million e-books, the market research company Forrester predicts. This is up from 3.7 million e-readers and 30 million e-books sold last year.

The trend is wreaking havoc inside the publishing industry, but inside homes, the plot takes a personal twist as couples find themselves torn over the "right way" to read. At bedtime, a couple might sit side-by-side, one turning pages by lamplight and the other reading Caecilia font in E Ink on a Kindle or backlighted by the illuminated LCD screen of an iPad, each quietly judgmental. Read more of this article in The New York Times
online.

Study Says K-8 Schools May Be More Critical Than Middle Schools In New York City

Education Week (9/1, Sparks) reported that a new study by the journal Education Next "suggests that moving to middle school can be more detrimental to" the academic progress of New York City students "than staying in a K-8 school." The report posted online showed that "students who move from elementary school to middle school experience a bigger dip in mathematics and language arts achievement than their K-8 counterparts," who tended to be absent more frequently. According to Education Week, the study, conducted by researchers at Columbia University, "found students in K-5 or K-6 schools performed slightly better than their K-8 peers in math and language arts in 5th grade, but when they made the move to a middle school, the situation reversed." NY1 News (9/1) adds that "the study was based on data for city school children who were in grades 3 through 8 between 1998 and 2008."

More US Schools Operating Without Principals

The Christian Science Monitor (9/2, Khadaroo) reports that more schools throughout the US are operating without principals. The concept is becoming more popular as educators brainstorm ways to boost student achievement and the call for more "teacher accountability" grows. The Monitor points out that in teacher-led schools, "teachers' participation tends to create a culture quite different from that in a traditional principal-led school: Teachers can't hide behind the classroom door or complain about policies, because they have to come up with solutions." While most "student achievement...results are still coming in," the Monitor says that some teacher-run schools do have a history of success. For instance, "in Milwaukee, where teacher cooperatives contract with the district to run about a dozen schools, standardized test scores are higher than the district average at some of the schools, but lower at others."

California District Will Hold Teacher Training On Explaining Math To English Learners

District California's Mercury News (8/26, McCord) reports that California's Santa Cruz City Schools has hired a consulting firm to help "teachers better explain math to English learners." Under an agreement with the education firm WestEd, the district will pay $8,000 on "four workshops for middle and high school teachers to offer advice and skills to teach mathematical reasoning and conceptual development to non-English speakers." The workshops will be paid for using Title II funds designated for teacher training. "The days the teachers take off for the workshops will be paid with Title III English learners funding."

Some Academics Argue Family And Consumer Sciences Should Be Mandatory

The Los Angeles Times (8/27, Scattergood) reports on "the evolution of the home economics program," now called Family and Consumer Sciences, which since its inception has evolved "into classes focusing on child development, nutrition, family health, food service and hospitality." One thing that has remained constant, however, is student participation. "More than 5 million students were enrolled in secondary FCS education programs in the 2002-03 academic year," or "about 25% of all students, almost the same percentage" as in the late 1950s. Despite "this upbeat picture" however, "FCS programs are overwhelmingly electives, determined state by state, always under threat of budget cuts and frequently recalibrated to fit an individual school's needs, student demographics and teacher ideology." And because of its malleable nature, "it can also mean that basic cooking skills can get lost." FCS educators stress that the skills they teach are "used every day," and some academics are pushing for FCS to be compulsory.

Gap Fill Quizzes by Theme

Gap fill quizzes are commonly used to improve related vocabulary. These gap fill quizzes are all based around a single theme and are appropriate for intermediate to advanced level learners and classes.

Gap Fill - Shopping
Gap Fill - Restaurants and Food
Gap Fill - Punctuation (learn the rules while you take this quiz!)
Gap Fill - Idioms expressing Opinions and Personal Feelings

**From Kenneth's blog.