Today the sun is shining in my part of the world and the weather has started to warm just a bit.  At this time of year I am always in a hurry for Spring to get here.  But there is much cold, rain and possibly more snow that will come our way before warn weather has settled in for good.  Never the less, these bright sunny days give one a chance to experience the warmth the sun has to offer and to anticipate the change of season ahead.  

A friend called excitedly this afternoon to tell me that she had landed a job she had applied for.  She will be stationed in France for part of the time and will be able to work out of her home when she is in the States.  We are all cheering our gray-haired friend.  As one of the "older" generation it is encouraging to all of us that she was able to land such an exciting position.  Many of our friends, neighbors and colleagues have been out of work during these tumultuous economic times.  Many are retiring.  My friend spent eighteen months seeking this position.   With patience and persistence we are most often rewarded with what we seek.  This is hard for our young people to understand when instant gratification is so common to their experiences.   

As our economic and political climate continues to be uncertain, it is important that we surround our young people with a loving and warm environment.   They need to know that what is happening is not a reflection on them.  Answer their questions honestly, but don't overload them with details they are unable to understand and put into context. 

It is rewarding to hear from you and this month we have heard from many.  It is delightful to learn of the many successes your sons, daughters and pupils are having in their learning.  We congratulate you on the great job you are doing in educating our young people. 

Have a wonderful month!

Goals of the E-Tutor Language Arts Curriculum

• Students will be able to read, comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and use written material.

OBJECTIVES

1. Recognize, recall, and summarize information from material read.

2. Understand the various purposes for reading and identify text to accomplish each purpose.

3. Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend text.

4. Apply reading strategies to improve fluency and understanding.

5. Comprehend a broad range of reading material.

• Students will be able to understand the expressed meaning in literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.

OBJECTIVES

1. Distinguish among the types of literature.

2. Understand selected literary works from various historical periods.

3. Understand selected literary works that manifest different value systems and philosophies.

4. Understand the literary elements and techniques used to convey meaning.

5. Recognize literary themes and their implications.

• Students will be able to listen critically and analytically.

OBJECTIVES

1. Understand and evaluate the meaning of spoken messages.

2. Distinguish among different purposes in communication.

3. Identify differing perspectives and points of view.

• Students will be able to write standard English in a grammatical, well-organized and coherent manner for a variety of purposes.

OBJECTIVES

1. Write for a variety of purposes and audiences using appropriate language and style.

2. Maintain a clear writing process to compose well-organized and coherent writing.

3. Use standard English conventions.

Nine new lessons were added to e-Tutor this month.

We are all of us richer than we think we are.  

Montaigne

The Kitchen Is A Great Place To Learn

The kitchen is a magic land; a place to delight all the senses.  That is why it seems that kids are always underfoot when there is a spoon to be licked or a bowl to be scraped clean.

Active involvement is the best way to learn how to cook.  Too many times young people are shooed out of the kitchen.  In order for children to make wise food choices in their own diets, it is essential to excite them about food, its preparation, and its relation to a healthy body.  Through cooking, a child can develop increased confidence, improve motor skills and gain more knowledge about many related fields.  But cooking should also be a time for discovery and fun.  

Food preparation puts a child in touch with nutrition.  Working with foods will help build a child's awareness of the benefits of eating wholesome meals in a well-balanced diet.  

Language skills are strengthened through cooking.  Children can assist you in cooking while learning to write and spell.  Have them copy a recipe, write out a grocery list and find magazine pictures of  the different ingredients used in a recipe.  

Science is easy to tie into cooking in concepts such as where eggs and milk come from and how solid shortening turns to liquid when heat is applied.  Compare the different tastes of foods.

Mathematics can be part of almost every step of food preparation ad recipe development.  Numbers are obviously needed in pricing grocery items, measuring ingredients, figuring out cooking times and dividing cooked food into portions or servings.

Social studies are deeply meshed with food customs.  Children can discover the diversity of cultures that have created our food heritage and delve into the habits and food preferences of the ethnic groups that have contributed to the unique American cuisine. 

As skills develop, the children themselves will probably introduce you to more interests that can be tied to cooking.  Listen to their conversations for ideas....children are your best sources for new approaches. 

Adapted from Racine County UW-Extension, Carole Curts, Home Economist

There is no evidence that the tongue is connected to the brain. 

A Word About Homework

Helping your child with homework allows you to see how well your child is progressing and if he or she is experiencing any particular difficulties.  You may want to check with your child's school regarding the homework policy.

To help with homework:

• provide a quiet, well-lit place for doing homework
• set aside a regular time for doing homework
• provide encouragement and give praise when your child finishes the assignment.  Remember, it is more important to praise what IS done rather than get upset at what isn't done by the child.
• help your child assemble needed homework materials
• review what homework is required for the day/week and help your child develop a schedule
• offer to quiz your child on spelling words or use flash cards to review math facts
• read to your child (even older children benefit from having books or articles read aloud to them)
• contact the teacher if your child cannot do the homework or you feel your child does not understand the assignment. 

Homework should:

• be appropriate for the skill level of the child 
• reinforce skills already taught and not be used to teach new skills
• be regularly assigned throughout the school  year
• be done independently by your child or with some support from you or another adult (for example, review words for spelling tests)
• be graded promptly by the teacher and returned to the child.

Be Alert to Problems

If problems develop for your child, your role as a parent becomes critical.  You may need to find out about resources that will help your child.  When you interact with and support your child, your child is more likely to be a successful learner.  

Adapted from San Diego County (CA) Office of Education

What I've Learned

I've learned that you shouldn't discuss your successes with someone who is less successful than you.

I've learned that you either control your attitude, or it controls you.

I've learned that if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten.

I've learned that it's best not to quit at quitting time.

Live and Learn and Pass It On, H. Jackson Brown Jr.  

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely only after they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Abba Ebben

Getting Kids To Do As They're Asked

Good coaches and excellent parents have some key techniques in common, psychologists say.  They are clear in communicating their goals, they establish mutual respect and they don't label people. 

Labels like "insecure," "lazy," and "lacking in confidence" only harm people's self-esteem, they don't help initiate positive behavior.  They focus on personality rather than upon specific achievements or lack of performance.  Labels are very subjective, depending more on opinion than on facts.  

It is all too easy to apply labels when we are disappointed with a child's behavior.  It is harder to clearly express why we are disappointed...that is, to "pinpoint" unwanted behavior in order to help the child avoid it.  

We may say "Howard is unmotivated, disorganized, and a poor listener,"  when we are simply disappointed that Howard did not clean his room as told.  A much better approach is to pinpoint the unwanted behavior, saying, "I was disappointed when I came home and found your room had not been cleaned."

A still better approach is to pinpoint the desirable way of doing things.  For example, you might say, "It would really demonstrate your maturity if your would clean your room the next time I ask."  The next time, you might also pinpoint a deadline for the expected task and add a thank you in advance.  This signals that you expect nothing less than amiable, timely compliance. 

If the child does not follow through on time, you can create an appropriate consequence.  For the uncleaned room, you might quietly pick up the room yourself immediately after the deadline, but remove some of the child's clothes and toys and store them away.  When you are asked about these items later say, "They were not picked up on time as I requested; so, for now at least, you've lost them.  Whenever you do something helpful around the house without being asked, you will earn one of them back. "

In this way, excellent coaches and parents know how to describe the positive performance they really want, create logical consequences and thus condition young people to the most desirable way of doing things.

Adapted from Illinois Association of School Boards

Monitor Eating, Sleeping Habits

Set and enforce good health habits.  They will pay off for your teenager.  Too many children succumb to the taste-temptations of junk food and the time-temptations of late night TV, which wrecks havoc on their health habits.  Establish good nutrition rules and stock the refrigerator with nourishing snack food.  Setting limits is a sign of love which your children will actually appreciate at the very same time they are arguing against them.  

A youngster may say he or she is not hungry for breakfast before school, but the same child will have trouble concentrating in class from 9 a.m. to noon because his or her energy level is too low. 

Minnetonka Public Schools, Excelsior MN

Weigh the Gain in "Gainfully Employed"

A majority of high school students today have part-time jobs, averaging about 20 hours a week, according a recent national survey.  

These jobs help students develop self-confidence, learn job skills and gain a better understanding of the working world...plus earn spending money!  However, devoting this much time to a job means that teenagers have less time for other activities....and often it's their learning that suffers.

• Be sure your teen's job is governed by your family's priorities.

• If you youngster aims for college, studies are important...more important in the long run than the stereo he or she is working to buy or the car the teenager is going to have to support.

• If the teen wants to begin a career straight out of high school, help him or her to be aware that an employer may value performance in vocational courses more highly than hundreds of hours of minimum-wage work.

National School Public Relations Association

Page 4

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. 

William Jennings Bryan

The Importance of Music 

Music is important in the education of your child.  it is one of the real accomplishments of the human race and the Western world has developed it beyond that of any other people.  Music is one of your child's richest heritages.  To share in this heritage your child should study music,, for the casual contact alone will not unlock its deepest treasures.  

Your child can benefit from a good music program in many ways.  It can:

• Introduce him or her to one of the most significant cultural achievements of the human mind. 
• Be a disciplined emotional outlet for the release of tension. 
• Enlarge her or his potential for creating and enjoying beauty.
• Develop the skills and understandings needed for using music in leisure time. 
• Provide satisfying experiences with groups of peers.
• Build the aesthetic and spiritual values that are so important in the overall development of both personality and character.
• Enrich your child's life for year to come.  

Adapted from National Education Association

Math:  Gateway to the Future

If you want to help your child prepare for the future,  advise him or her to take serious math courses.

• Eighty per cent of students who go to college have taken algebra and geometry, usually starting in the eighth grade. 

• Low-income students are nearly three times as likely to attend college if they have studied both algebra and geometry.

Teacher Today

Page 5

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso

Fabulous February Links!

Plug Into the Brain:   NASA's Neurolab conducts brain research to study behavioral and nervous system changes in space.  You can join NASA personnel and get a close-up look at this historic mission.  
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/

Bucket Buddies:  The spring sessions begins February 28th for students and teachers to work as scientists, in answering the question:  Are the organisms found in pond water the same all over the world?  Even if you don't participate it is a great resource for additional information. 
http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/bucketproj/

History and Politics Out Loud: The site offers a searchable archive of politically significant audio materials for students and teachers.  Students can hear the actual words of great figures in history, from John F. Kennedy, to Winston Churchill, to Nikita Khrushchev, to Martin Luther King, Jr.   
http://www.hpol.org

All Kinds of Minds:  No two students are alike.  This web site highlights the differences in learning that exist in students from all walks of life.  Parents and educators will find a number of resources to help determine why certain students learn while others do not.  
http://www.allkindsofminds.org

Power To Learn:  This web site has access to curriculum-related lesson plans, current events, news and an assortment of links to educational material.   
http://www.powertolearn.com

A Passel of Palindromes:  A palindrome is a word, phrase, verse or sentence that reads the same backward or forward.  Some folks can't get enough of palindromes.  If you are one of them, you should find all you can handle.  
http://www.palindromelist.com

Booker T. Washington:  Booker T. Washington was one of the most influential African-Americans in U.S. history.  The University of Illinois Press offers free access to The Booker T. Washington Papers online.  The thousands of pages are searchable and may be printed out page by page via Adobe Acrobat. 
http://www.historycooperative.org/btw/index.html

Pharaoh Fair:  "The Quest for Immortality:  Treasures of Ancient Egypt"  was an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. last year.  You can take a virtual tour of the show online.  Watch streaming slide shows of selected objects while listening to narratives from experts.  Step inside a full-scale reproduction of an ancient tomb. 
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2002/egypt/index.htm

Remembering Our Astronauts.

From the Staff at Strategic Studies Corporation

 
Copyright © 2003 Strategic Studies Corp.
http://www.strategicstudies.com