For some reason this has always been a favorite month of mine.  Maybe it is because it is between seasons.  With February, winter seems to be on the wane and if it continues, one knows that it won't last long.  I have also always enjoyed the February holidays.  Valentine's Day...the day of love...always conjures up special memories.  We so often forget to use the word "love" in our daily lives and with those who mean the most to us.  This one day of the year is a gentle reminder of the importance of a simple word that means so much. 

As a traditionalist, I am partial to the history surrounding our founding fathers, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  A friend came into my home once and was surprised that I had the inaugural addresses of the U.S. Presidents out on one of my tables.  I think there is much that can be learned by studying our past leaders.  It is important to anchor ourselves to a solid past.  With all of the bumps, bruises, warts and scars....there are lessons aplenty for individuals, families and organizations in examining history. 

Speaking of history, this month I will be traveling to San Diego to help my Aunt remember some important dates in our family's history.  She is writing her memoirs.  What a wonderful legacy for all of us.  So often we are too busy to take the time to document important events that provide the foundation for our children and succeeding generations.  I remember going through stacks of photos that my mother was keeping....we had no idea who the people were and why they were special to her.  And unfortunately, I am guilty of the same thing.  My goal for this year is to begin to organize my writings, jottings and photos into some order so that they have meaning to me as I age and to my children and their children. 

Every day is special.  There is so much to see and to do....and to listen to that the possibilities are limitless.....oh that there was more time to do all that I would like to do today.

Enjoy this very special month.!

Primary

• The Color Red
• Rainbow Children
• Months of the Year - February
• Animals That Live In The Cold
• Animals in Winter
• Polar Animals
• Snowy Days
• he Olympics    

Intermediate                                                                                           

• Travel the World With Folk Tales
• Making Sense of Data
• Snow
• Honest Abe
• The Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.
• Diversity Map

Middle/Junior High School

• Together Town
• Carbohydrates:  Fuel For You
• Muscles
• Icebergs and Glaciers
• George Washington:  Father Of Our Country
• The Underground Railroad
• What It Takes To Become President of the United States

High School

• Langston Hughes
• Probability
• Energy Pyramids
• The Heart                                                                                                                        

New lessons are added to e-Tutor on a regular basis.

Black History Month

Find information and links at this edition of  KnowledgeHQ .   Click on the Back Issues button for more activities and information.

Picture Courtesy of:   http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/other/mlk/poster2001/preview/poster.jpg

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

Herbert Hoover

Of the forty-three presidents of the United States, only one was an actor...Ronald Reagan.  One was a tailor...Andrew Jackson.  And one was an engineer....Herbert Hoover.  Abraham Lincoln and Harry S. Truman were the only storekeepers.

Most of the individuals who became Presidents were lawyers.  In fact, twenty-six of the forty-three presidents were practicing attorneys before being elected.  However, the most popular profession was school teaching.  Seven presidents worked as teachers.  They were:  John Adams, Millard Fillmore, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Three presidents were military men before taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

George Washington, was of course, a military leader, Jimmy Carter was a naval officer, Ronald Reagan served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and George H. Bush was a navy pilot during Word War II and George W. Bush was a pilot for the Texas Air National Guard.  But these were not their principal occupations.  Washington was a farmer, Carter had a peanut business, and Reagan acted in the movies and on television.   Twenty-seven of the forty-three presidents saw military service. 

Adopted from Scholastic, Inc.

Learn more about the U.S. Presidents at http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/.

The answer for all our national problems....the answer for all the problems of the world...comes to a single word.  That word is "education.".

Lyndon B, Johnson

Analyze to Save Time

Time is just flying by.....in the form of long hours at work.   Still, you have been late in some of the things you have tried to accomplish.   Often resulting in delaying others. 

When your inability to handle your time affects others, you need to find out how you are really using time.  ironically, this means spending a few additional  seconds to log in what you are doing and how long tasks take you.   In the long run, though, these few seconds may save you hours each week.

Watch your time by setting up a time log for one week.  For each day, take a sheet of lined paper and draw five vertical columns.  Then: 

• Identify the day's goals at the top and the time by which they need to be accomplished.
• Title the first column "time."  Underneath, write in the time you start each activity.
• Label the second column "activity."  List each throughout the day.
• Write down the total time each activity takes in the next column.
• Assign a priority to the activity in the fourth column.  Use "1" for urgent, "2" for important, "3" for routine and "4" for trivial.
• Leave the far right column for comments....could you be performing the particular activity at a better time?  Are more important activities being pushed aside for the trivial?
• A week of time logging will give you an opportunity to reflect on which tasks can be pushed aside and which should be brought to the fore.

Adopted from Dartnell's Teamwork

Our most common link is that we all inhabit this planet..

John F. Kennedy

Many students will soon be preparing for those annual tests that have become so much a part of the public school experience.  Different types of tests are tackled in different ways.  It is important for your child to recognize what kind of test it is and plan the right strategy.   Here are some special helps for your child to remember:

• In a true/false test
  Everything in the statement must be true for the correct answer to be "true."

  Watch for key words.  Always, never and only frequently point to a false answer.

  Sometimes, usually and typically tend to point to a true answer.

• On a matching test
  Check first to see if you can use an answer more than once.  If not, be sure to mark off the answers as you use them.
  
• On a multiple choice test
  Watch for qualifying phrases which can change the meaning such as:  the only, the last, which one is not an example of.

• On an essay test
  Prepare for essay tests ahead of time by thinking of essay questions which might appear on the test.

• Organize relevant information from the text that answers these questions.
• Write out actual answers to your questions using as much detail as possible.
• If your answers aren't satisfactory, begin again.

Be sure you answer the specific question that is being asked.

Breast Cancer Stamp

The notion that we could raise $16 million by buying a book of stamps is powerful! As  you may be aware, the US Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland. 

Instead  of the normal $. 34 for a stamp, this one costs $. 40. The additional $. 06 will go to breast cancer research. A "normal" book costs $6.80. This one is only $8.00. The Breast Cancer Research stamp is the first U.S. stamp in history to have its net proceeds above the cost of postage earmarked for research organizations. It takes a few minutes in line at the Post Office and means so much.  If all stamps are sold, it will raise an additional $16,000,000 for this vital research.

Just as important as the money, is our support. What a statement it would make if the stamp outsold the lottery this week. What a statement it would make that we care.  I urge you to do two things TODAY:

1. Go out and purchase some of these stamps (or order online at http://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl/home.jsp.)

2. E-mail your friends to do the same. 

Many of us know women and their families whose lives are turned upside down by breast cancer. It is important that we take a stand against this disease that  kills and maims so many of our mothers, sisters, friends.   It takes so little to do so much in this drive.  We can all afford the $1.20. Please help and pass the message on.

Excerpts from a Dear Friend

Active Learning

By practicing "active learning,"  you can use your study time efficiently.  These techniques should help you get the most out of the time you spend on homework.

• Draw Conclusions From What You Are Studying.   This is sometimes called "making inferences,"  and it is important for all learners.  Drawing conclusions helps you concentrate on new material and makes it more meaningful and easier to remember.  If you are reading about the invention of electricity, for example, try to think about how your life would change if electrical power suddenly went off...forever.

• Create Analogies.  Analogies are like mental bridges between what you know and what you would like to learn.  For instance, suppose you were studying the transportation system of the 1800s.  You may not know much about transportation 100 years ago, but you do know how we get around today.   So, you create analogies....in the 1800s, horses were the primary means of transportation, like cars are today.  Yesterday's passenger trains are like today's jet planes.  And trucks move freight in the same way that horse-drawn wagons did a century ago.

• Categorize Information.  When you are faced with a lot of information to learn, it often helps to group the material into categories.  In science, for example, you don't study "animals."   You study reptiles, or mammals, or fish, or birds or some other group.   Similarly, in a music class, you don't learn about "instruments."   You may first learn about string instruments, then woodwinds, then brass, then percussion.

Adapted from Homework:  Helping Students Achieve, AASA

Page 4

People criticize me for harping on the obvious.  Perhaps someday I'll write an article on the Importance of the Obvious.  If all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.

Americans have not fully realized their ideals.  There are imperfections.  But the ideal is right.  It is everlastingly right.  What our country needs is the moral power to hold to it. 

It has always seemed to me that common sense is the real solvent for the nation's problems at all times...common sense and hard work.

Calvin Coolidge

Have you ever thought about the difference between talking with and talking to someone?

Talking with someone puts you and the other person on an even footing.  it gives more than one person a chance to express a belief or opinion.   Talking to someone, on the other hand, is being....well, patronizing, or worse, domineering, even tyrannical.  So only one person has a chance.

Every child knows the difference between being talked with and talked to.  But many of us, when we talk....and children are the audience...don't stop to distinguish between with and to.  We respond to the needs of the moment...what must be said.  As adults and parents, we feel responsible for what our children do and for what happens to them.

We feel especially responsible when we have done our best and a son or daughter is not responding.  Whenever you want your children to know what you think and desire of them, you might keep in mind a few things that will help you focus on talking with, rather than talking to, them:

• Communicate as clearly as possible exactly what you mean.   Listen to your words and think how they might be misinterpreted if they don't reflect exactly what is on your mind.
• Listen to what your children are saying.  Try to understand exactly what their words mean.
• Whenever you talk with your children, take an even, reasonable, conversational tone.  If you show anger, make sure later that they understand its cause.  You can explain it without being overly apologetic.
• If your children have subjects they are enthusiastic about, let them teach you something about those areas of knowledge.
• Contribute your wisdom.  You have had the opportunity to learn a great deal from your experiences.  Don't feel put down when your children say "in your day" or "in olden times, when you were a kid...."    Remember that young people are interested in how things were done in the past, and they haven't lived long enough to have your sense of time.
• Encourage your children's curiosity, interest in discovery, and intellectual independence.  Ask questions that make them think about their interests and want to learn more about them.
• If a child is having problems in or out of school, don't waste time blaming yourself.  Although you certainly share the responsibility for your children's development, yours is not the only influence on their behavior.  Touch base often with your children about the problems they may be having.  Be practical and help them look for solutions, both short- and long-term.

Keep in mind that you can't shield your children from the problems of the real world.  Nor can you keep accidents from happening.  Some attempts at good parenting may be overzealous.  By trying to avoid being too protective and solicitous for your children's concerns you can help them to become truly independent people.  An adult who is independent can also appreciate the warmth and support of close human relationships.  Talking with a child is one of the best ways to show that you understand the value of that warmth and support and know how to give it.

National Education Association

Of all the presidents who served this nation,   George Washington and Abraham Lincoln stand well above the rest.  They were different from each other in many ways.  Washington was an aristocrat....aloof and serious.  Lincoln was just the opposite.  Born in a log cabin, Lincoln was folksy and had an incomparable sense of humor.

Despite their different ways, each accomplished great things.  Deep down, however, both shared the same moral and ethical values.  Both were devoted to their country and the welfare of their fellow citizens.  Both were religious.  Both were models of honesty and integrity.  

Their lives are an everlasting inspiration and example to all who aspire to lead others. 

Page 5

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. 

Theodore Roosevelt

Fabulous February Links!

The Heart: An Online Exploration:  Explore the heart. Discover the complexities of its development and structure. Follow the blood through the blood vessels. Wander through the web-like body systems. Learn how to have a healthy heart and how to monitor your heart's health. Look back at the history of heart science.
http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/heart.html

The African American Journey:  A comprehensive look at the history of African Americans and their struggle for freedom. http://www2.worldbook.com/students/feature_index.asp

Good Grief, Charlie Brown: For 50 years, Charles Schulz drew and wrote Peanuts, the most successful comic strip of all time, with a family of characters many grew to love. You might want to bookmark the official Peanuts place and wallow in reminiscences of the daily strips and seasonal specials.
Peanuts: http://www.peanuts.com/

Not Quite 20,000 Leagues, but Under the Sea For Sure:    The fascination with undersea adventure seems part of the human experience. The Web takes it further.  In Extreme 2000: Voyage to the Deep, a multimedia celebration of ongoing research by scientists in submersibles more than a mile below the surface of the Sea of Cortes. The site draws on many disciplines - geology, biology, ecology, photography, journalism, and, of course, oceanography and  features videos, maps, interviews, and mini-quizzes to hold the attention of next-generation explorers.  
http://www.ocean.udel.edu/deepsea/

NASA Images from SRTM: Can you find your house? These images taken on the latest space shuttle mission are pretty amazing. Learn the difference between radar images, high resolution images, and anaglyphs. Look at Planet Earth from a new  perspective.
http://www.nasa.gov/newsinfo/srtm_images.html

Where Do Languages Come From?  The Exploratorium produced this series of exercises to demonstrate similarities and differences between words of several languages. Great for tying geography lessons into language arts curriculum. These activities, like Be a Word Historian, are created to be completed either online or offline.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/language/

American Memory from the Library of Congress:  American Memory consists of collections of primary source and archived material relating to American culture and history. Topics include: African American, Civil War, Conservation Movement, Architectural History, Early Motion Pictures, Variety Stage, Woman Suffrage, the papers of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, and much, much more (there are currently over 70 collections). This is an ongoing project, so you'll want to check in often.
http://memory.loc.gov/

The History Net:  As people look at what's going on in the world today, they may feel the need to dig a little deeper than the immediate story that they see on TV.  This site is basically US history as seen through its wars and conflicts. You can read about American Expeditionary Force in World War I or the aeronauts of the Civil War. Tales of bravery and treachery, espionage and subterfuge.  We still cling to the hope that some day war will be relegated to Web sites such as this and history books.
http://www.thehistorynet.com/

Happy Valentines Day!

From the Staff at Strategic Studies Corporation

 
Copyright © 2002 Strategic Studies Corp.
http://www.strategicstudies.com