Strategic Studies: e-News Volume 7, issue 1 [January 2004]

The snow crunches under foot as I take my walk each day. Snow hardened from exposure sparkles in the sun. Sound travels easily through the crisp air. It is only the hardy that go out bundled for warmth as temperatures cling to bone-chilling numbers. Birds and animals are silent. Whether snowing or bright sun there is a peacefulness in the air. The quiet solitude provides time for reflection and thought, for planning, for putting ideas in order and creativity.

Often our days are so busy that we find little time for reflection that is so important to creative thought. This time of year gives us the opportunity to put aside time to just think.

When I am not out walking and working, the quieter days, provide me time to find creature comfort in the books lin

ing my shelves. When reading I find myself part of the scene laid out for me in print and the book's characters often feel like friends. Their joys and sorrows, their trials and tribulations become mine. I enjoy sharing what I have read with my friends and colleagues. Books like good art need to be shared with the ones we love. I hope can find time in your busy schedule to read for yourself and for others.

This is election year in the U.S. It is an ideal time to involve all members of your family in a review of the political system. Students can make charts that show states involved in primary elections, similarities and differences in candidate's backgrounds and/or campaign issues. Project Vote Smart is a good source for 2004 campaign information.

Have a wonderful month filled with warmth and kindness.

A Winter's Day

What could be more perfect at this time of year than to look at a Winter's day. The latest edition of Learning Themes at Knowledge HQ will spark your interest delve more into the subject. You will find information, resources and activities for students, parents and educators.

Learning with e-Tutor:

Fifteen new lessons were added to e-Tutor this month. New lessons are added on a regular basis. e-Tutor has a vast network of writers who lend their expertise and knowledge from around the world.

Fun Pages at e-Tutor Student

e-Tutor provides for the student beyond studying. e-Tutor offers students more than lessons. At the top of the window at the Student site are buttons that offer the student a variety of options. One of those options are the Fun Pages. Each student level is offered age appropriate resources.

Online Projects

Here you will find a list of links that take the student to activities, experiments and projects that are interactive and fun in which the student can participate.

Games

e-Tutor provides you with a list of links to games that you can play after your work is done. Games are added regularly and are targeted at each individual grade level.

News and Sports

Get the latest scoop by clicking on "News and Sports."

e-Read

Keep your mind sharp by visiting e-Read links. Reading material of all sorts and kinds are included.

New lessons are added on a regular basis.

If you are not an e-Tutor subscriber, we are waiting to hear from you. Parents and students, alike are excited about this great way of learning!

www.e-tutor.com

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Soar to new limits by setting your goals higher.

Eight Faces

People's facial expressions reveal what they really feel. Do you agree? Most people do. They presume that how individuals appear is a better indicator of their true feelings than what they say.

Sometimes this assumption is valid. Sometimes it's misleading! People's personalities incline them to adopt one of eight different styles for using facial expressions to convey emotion, say researchers. Below is a summary of the the eight styles. Can you identify your own? Can you identify the style of your family members?

Wihtholders display little or no emotion and may experience emotion at a relatively low level.
Revealers feel and display a wide range of emotions vividly (the opposite of Withholders).
Unvitting Expressors display feelings without realizing it (by blushing, for example), even when they try to keep them hidden and they wonder how others can read them so well.
Blank Expressors wish to express feelings, but others cannot pick them up (the opposite of Unwitting Expressors).
Substitute Expressors think they're expressing one emotion, but other read a different one...for example, they want to be warm and enthusiastic, but appear uneasy.
Frozen-Emotion Expressors always are seen as manifesting the same "frozen" emotion, regardless of what they actually feel.
Ever-Ready Expressors use the same particular expression whenever they first meet someone or start any social event, regardless of the circumstances or the appropriateness of the emotion. They usually follow up with a more appropriate expression.
Flooded-Emotion Expressors display one emotion in all circumstances, an emotion that is characteristic of them. This emotion often is mixed with another emotion appropriate to the situation. Someone might characteristically display annoyance and when feeling surprise, express both annoyance and surprise.

Unmasking the Face: A Guide to Recognizing Emotions from Facial Cues,
Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen

Excellence is the end result of a job well done.

Watch What You Say!

In the course of your conversation each and every day,
Think twice, try to be careful of what you have to say;
Your remarks may be picked up by someone's listening ear,
You may be surprised at what some people think they hear.

Things that you innocently say or try to portray,
Can be changed and greatly exaggerated along the way;
Many stories change for the worse as they are retold
So try to keep any questionable remarks "on hold."

May I give all of you some very sound advice?
When you speak of others, say something nice;
Try to say good things, regardless of who is around,
If you have nothing good to say, don't utter a sound.

You may find that an innocent remark, in the end,
May lose you a close and valued friend.

Henry Lesser

Understanding Your
Child's Development

Being a parent is not easy. Being a good parent is even harder. It is never too early...nor is it ever too late...to begin to try to understand your child's own special point of view on growing up. And the rewards of understanding are always well worth the effort.

The basic ingredients of your relationship should be love and warmth, liberally laced with respect and understanding. The child who drinks in the security of these attitudes from a parent is more able to develop a healthy personality and to grow ever outward into the world. To your child, the most crucial words in your vocabulary may well be, "I understand how you feel."

Every child needs his or her parents to impose some limits on freedom. Otherwise, the world is too big and disorganized for the child to adjust to it. But it doesn't matter very much whether a home is "permissive" or "strict" about the number or kinds of limits enforced. More crucial to a child's development is how the parents place the limits, how they discipline, and how well they understand their child's special needs.

No parent is perfect. You have undoubtedly made mistakes at various stages in your child's life. But an overall relationship of love and understanding will override the small mistakes, the occasional times when you have been too tired or too busy to consider your child's perspective on a problem.

National Education Association

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Strength and purpose turns adversity into success.

Manage Your Time Before It Flies Away

Imagine this...you have your checkbook out and your catching up on some of last month's bills when you ran across one you wrote for several hundred dollars for 'time wasted.' That would be a jolt, wouldn't it? Yet, many of us pay this "bill" every month.

Many of us realize that if we're going to maximize our efforts as parents, we must minimize demands on our time. To come to grips with this problem, it's helpful to put it in proper perspective. As author Alex Mackenzie said in The Time Trap, "Time is a critical resource of which we all have an equal amount and must spend at the same rate of 60 minutes every hour." There is no way to stop or stockpile time. In that sense, we can't manage ourselves in relation to time.

To solve a problem, we must first acknowledge we have a problem and be able to define it. Probably the best way to start is to list personal time waster and then rank them in order of priority. For example, consider this list which, of course, may not be all-inclusive:

Lack of organization

Lack of priorities

Interruptions

Performing tasks alone

Procrastination

Lack of decision-making

Lack of communication

Socializing

Over committing

Poor scheduling

Incomplete analysis of work

Crisis situations

Telephone interruptions

Some of these problems are internal in the sense that the cause lies within our own failings and some are external or initiated by someone else, such as interruptions and socializing. Close examination of time wasters generally reveals that the majority are self-generated but, more important, that all can be controlled.

Public School Administrator

SAT and ACT Tips

What makes some people better test-takers than others? The secret isn't just knowing the subject, it's knowing specific test-taking strategies that can add up to extra points. This means knowing how test-makers thing, what they're looking for and how to use this knowledge to your advantage. Smart test-takers know how to use pacing and guessing to add points to their scores.

Tip 1: Pace your self and keep moving
Knowing that the scored sections of the SAT contain 78 verbal questions to be answered in 75 minutes means that you have nearly a minute to answer each question.

Tip 2: The easy answer isn't always best
Some answers may look complex, but could just contain extra material to throw you off. Read each choice carefully and really think about what the question is asking.

Tip 3: Don't read the directions
By the time you actually sit down to take the SAT or ACT, you've taken all the practice tests you could find and you've read enough test directions to fill a library.

Tip 4: Bring a watch
If you're going to pace you4rself, you need to keep track of the time.

Tip 5: Get ready for the test the night before
The last 24 hours before the SAT or ACT is not the time to cram...it's actually the time to relax. The tests measure how you think and your grip on general high school curriculum, not what you can learn in one evening.

The Next Step Magazine

Determination and perseverance are the ingredients of achievement.

A 'We' Mentality

To often we develop a "we/they" attitude that sets us at odds with others. A valuable lesson comes from an extraordinary leader in elementary education. Marva Collins was a teacher for 18 years in the Chicago public schools. She became dismayed at the negative attitudes many children had about schools and many teachers had about children.

Collins decided the only way to achieve teacher-student harmony would be to start her own school. She began with the premise that every child could learn and she vowed not to let any children fail. By treating her children with respect and caring, by working hard to tech them and by demanding that they work hard to learn, Collins' school survived and the children grew to value it.

Collins writes in her autobiography, "I was determined to instill a 'we' mentality in my students and make them realize the school would only work if all of us stuck together." She pointed out to the students that anything they tore up or damaged would have to be replaced. This would increase expenses and cause tuition to rise. She warned that if that happened, only the children of rich families would be able to attend.

To illustrate her point, Collins brought the utility bills and invoices for school supplies to class. This provided the students with a simple, but compelling, lesson in economics: "Everything has a cost." "See the bill from People's Gas company?" she said. "I want that much learning out of you today."

Marva Collins' Way, Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin

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Either attempt it not or succeed.

Ovid

Creating a Nation of Spellers

As part of our language and communication system, spelling serves the writer in recording ideas and assists the reader in comprehending the message. The process approach to writing emphasizes spelling in its logical context...as an integral part of writing. The purpose of learning to spell becomes evident to students as they endeavor to transcribe ideas into written symbols which can be read by themselves and others. The ultimate goals of spelling instruction is to develop skills that will enhance students' abilities and confidence as effective writers and communicators. Following are important principles and guidelines in spelling:

Conventional or standard spelling assists the reader's understanding and fluency.
Excessive concern for the use of conventional spelling by young students can limit their writing to those words they can spell accurately. This impedes the flow and communication of ideas. Emphasis on correctness can make young students anxious about writing and exaggerate the challenge or difficulty of spelling.
The knowledge and abilities which constitute spelling competence are varied and complex.
Able spellers employ many strategies. Most students benefit from direct instruction in particular spelling strategies. The need for instruction and practice varies according to the individual's development as a writer.
Learning to spell is a gradual developmental process.
Emerging spellers must feel free to experiment with language and take risks with spelling.
When young writers approximate or invent spellings, they practice and apply what they know about letter formation, word structures and the rules of print. Frequent writing experiences extend students' knowledge of the language system.
Proofreading for conventional spellings is part of the writing process.
It is important that students develop a spelling consciousness. Teachers must model, teach and encourage proofreading. Proofreading consists of questioning written language. Uncertainty about spellings in written work progresses to the ability to identify and independently correct unconventional spellings in any written work.

Reducing Stress

Some of these stress-reducing ideas might work for you. Try those that make a difference:

Get up 15 minutes earlier.
prepare for each morning the night before.
Make duplicates of all keys.
Make a copy of your appointments every week or so.
Take advantage of off-hours for banking and shopping.
Don't put up with anything that doesn't work properly.
Unclutter your life. Get rid of stuff you never use.

Time Talk

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Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

Mark Twain

Jumping January Links!

Dolphin-Safe Tuna? Elementary students place themselves in the roles of Tuna Fishermen, Dolphin Activists, and Supporters of Dolphin Protection Legislation to explore the issues surrounding dolphin-safe tuna. Then, they use this information to create a plan for ocean fishing.
http://www.richmond.edu/%7Eed344/webquests/dolphins/

Banned Book Quest: High school students look at different perspectives on censorship in schools, particularly the potential of books being banned by local school boards. Placed in the role of Concerned Citizen, School Library Media Specialist, Lawyer, or Public Librarian, these committees then
develop a recommendation for the board.
http://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/hschool/webq/webq52/banned.htm

Global Warming: Government Representative of Developed Nations, Environmental Impact Specialists, Climate Expert Scientists, Government Representative of Newly Industrialized and Industrializing Nations meet at a United Nations conference to decide what steps, if any, should be taken to slow global warming.
http://students.itec.sfsu.edu/ITEC815/antaramian/

The Reconstructors: Reconstructors is an interactive online game (Shockwave required) that has students work as scientists, historians, geographers, and detectives. Each episode helps students understand more about drugs and enables them to make more informed choices when it comes to avoiding drugs of abuse. The Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning at Rice University designed this website.
http://reconstructors.rice.edu/

The Degree Confluence Project: The creators call it "an organized sampling of the world." People from around the world can participate in this project, where pictures are taken at the exact spot where a degree of latitude and a degree of
longitude meet. Find the nearest point to your home, school or library and see if it's included.
http://confluence.org/

The National Security Archive: Declassified U.S. Government documents are available from George Washington University. Some of these primary sources include "The Real Thirteen Days" (Cuban Missile Crisis), "Fujimori's Rasputin" (background documents that explain Peru's sudden shift in leadership), and the "U.S. and Chinese Nuclear Programs (1960-1964)." Many documents have blacked out areas that contain information that still might threaten national
security.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/index.html

The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920: Browse the exhibits from this Duke University website, or search for a specific term such as auto or soap. Find out more about the products used in America's past.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/

Have a Cow, Dude: You and your students can find out more about milk production and the life of a dairy cow. Check out "The Girls" (milk producing cows), pick one that catches your fancy and register to receive updates by mail, or check back to the website to see how your cow is doing (if she's had a calf or was a top milk producer). This seems to be a real life dairy, so the first cow we picked was sold off because she wasn't producing enough. It's tough in the real world.
http://www.10acresbackyard.com/

Enjoy a Wonderful Month!

From the Staff at Strategic Studies Corporation