December 20, 2006

Whatever Happened to Good Penmanship?

Have you tried recently to read your students handwriting?  If it wasn't so sad, I'd think we were all raising future Doctors.  Today's students use computers more than written skills to communicate their thoughts.  While this is great in improving their typing, it does not improve their handwriting skills. 

Handwriting Counts!
Why Good Penmanship Will Never Go Out of Style

by Kari Anderson

Unlike many subjects taught in schools today, handwriting is not an exact science. That’s because teachers can choose to teach a style from among a wide variety of educationally acceptable manuscript and cursive approaches including traditional manuscript, modern manuscript, transitional cursive, simplified cursive, traditional cursive and italic. The difference between the styles lies in the slant of the letters and the elaborateness of the loops. Styles range from stick-straight to slanted print to easy cursive (with fewer loops) to elaborate cursive (with lots of loopy letters, especially capitals).  (more...)

 

 

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Being Gifted is a Good Thing...Right?

Is It Good to Be Gifted?

That's a silly question; of course being gifted is good.  Isn't it? By David Palmer, Ph.D 

While a high IQ has a definite upside, there’s also a flipside, according to David Palmer, Ph.D., author of the new book, Parents Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education. An award-winning researcher and educational psychologist, Dr. Palmer wrote his new book to help parents understand gifted testing and gifted programming so that they can make informed decisions for their children. Teachers, principals, and other educators who need to understand gifted testing and placement are also finding the book helpful. Since you serve both parents and teachers, we thought an update on “the flipside” of being gifted was in order. Here, Dr. Palmer discusses the effects of giftedness on children, and the ways parents and educators can help them cope.  (more...)

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Discrimination: Does Title III Apply to Your School?

We are all familiar with Title III and ADA in relation to businesses.  But are you aware that Title III may apply to your school?

Are You Discriminating? 

by Kristen L. Sampo
It is important (and your legal responsibility) to make sure that your school is physically accessible to disabled individuals.
 
Overview of the Law

Since its enactment in 1990, educational institutions have become increasingly familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In fact, it is now common knowledge that Title I of the ADA prohibits educational institutions with 15 or more employees from discriminating against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of a disability or perceived disability.  (more...)

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High Tech Products for High Tech Students

How do you keep students interested when you use old fashion methods of teaching.... you don't.  Today's students live in an electronic world.  We have to use new terchnologies to communicate with them and keep their interest in school.

Interactive Whiteboards

by Rob Meissner
Schools and educators today are faced with an enormous challenge — how to connect with students who don’t know life without video games, the Internet and iPods.
 

Schools and educators today are faced with an enormous challenge — how to connect with students who don’t know life without video games, the Internet and iPods. Many years ago, the premise of going up to the front of the classroom to write on the blackboard was enough to get students to pay attention. This generation of students expects more. They watch their favorite television shows in high-definition and get answers to their questions in a split second on an Internet search engine. Schools and educators around the world have started to harness high-tech teaching tools to bridge the digital divide and make sure students are engaged and excited about what they are learning in the classroom.  (more...)

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Television Improves School Communication

Out with the old and in with the new....  Television improves school communication over the old PA systems.

Improving School Communications With Television

by Ellen Kollie
A television broadcast of your school’s announcements, news and events makes for a more effective communications tool than the old-fashioned PA system.

“Compared to a PA system, a television broadcast adds a visual element to education, which is critical,” says Keith Kyker, educational media specialist at Northwood Elementary School in Crestview, FL. “Much more content can be given with the visual element.”

With 20 years experience in teaching television at all grade levels, Kyker knows what he’s talking about. He and his business partner, Christopher Churchy, have written six educational technology books for Greenwood - Libraries Unlimited. They also develop video production software, have authored a DVD and CD-ROM to supplement their latest textbooks, tackle public speaking engagements and provide education television advice on their Website, www.schooltv.com.  (more...)

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Schools as Learning Environments

The traditional school building design hasn't changed in decades.  It's time to change that and make learning and enjoyable event, even in the cafeteria......

The Learning Building

by Jay B. Richards & Lawrence E. Peterson
Learning environments need not be limited to classrooms — the entire building can be viewed as filled with potential learning environments.
 

After the Civil War the United States began the process of developing the “Industrial Model” school. Box-like classrooms along a double-loaded corridor were seen as the most efficient way to educate and “Americanize” the large number of immigrants coming to the United States. Despite the dramatic changes in architecture, construction science, technology, and lifestyle, the same basic model for school design is still used. While there have been upgrades, improvements, refinements, and enhancements made to the basic model, this improved environment of better lighting, ventilation, and technology is still housed in a box-like classroom along a double-loaded corridor. It seems that design of nearly every other kind of space has evolved, but the “Industrial Model” school remains relatively unchanged since the turn of the last century.  (more...)

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December 08, 2006

Batter Up............

Ahhhhh… for the good old days when “no blood, no foul” meant something.  You mean I could have been rich from the baseball bat to the mouth injury during batting practice when I was in the 6th grade at Franklin Elementary School?  Instead I learned a much more valuable lesson… that I was not a very good catcher…..

Final Thought column by Paul Abramson
 

Banning tag and other children’s activities is not a proper educational response to the problem of litigation.
Tag, You’re It! ….When I was seven, I tripped while running on a school playground, skinning my knee. It was my left knee. I know because, at the time, I was unsure of left and right but I was told – and therefore knew – that it was my left knee that was injured. To read more…

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Are Urban Schools Improving?

Do proficiency tests work?  Are the urban schools improving the education level of those who need it most?  Will it ever get better?

 

The Urban Challenge
by Cheryl G. Riggins, Ed.D

 

There is some indication of improvement in the level of academic achievement among urban school students during the last few years. Enough at least for The Council of Great City Schools to wonder if the schools that educate so many poor and minority students, “may be establishing a beachhead on the rocky shoals of school reform.”
There is some indication of improvement in the level of academic achievement among urban school students during the last few years. Enough at least for The Council of Great City Schools to wonder if the schools that educate so many poor and minority students, “may be establishing a beachhead on the rocky shoals of school reform.” Of course the answer to this question lies in the future. No one should be willing to extrapolate, from the decidedly mixed results of the latest rounds of state and national tests, that urban schools and districts may soon cease their wanderings in the desert. It is, of course, good to feel that progress is being made. But it would be a big mistake to assume that there is an easy solution to making education work for the children who need it most. This is not the case. And yet there is more hope today than there was yesterday. To read more…

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Get Students Connected

Interactive Whiteboards

by Rob Meissner

Schools and educators today are faced with an enormous challenge — how to connect with students who don’t know life without video games, the Internet and iPods.

Schools and educators today are faced with an enormous challenge — how to connect with students who don’t know life without video games, the Internet and iPods. Many years ago, the premise of going up to the front of the classroom to write on the blackboard was enough to get students to pay attention. This generation of students expects more. They watch their favorite television shows in high-definition and get answers to their questions in a split second on an Internet search engine. Schools and educators around the world have started to harness high-tech teaching tools to bridge the digital divide and make sure students are engaged and excited about what they are learning in the classroom. (more…)

 

 

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