| The good life is
one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Bertrand Russell, English author and philosopher
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| What's In
It for the Team? |
You may not think your self-confidence affects your teammates, but it
does. Self-confidence impacts your ability to communicate, be productive and create
top-quality work. When you feel a rush of self-doubt, give up:
- Thinking about past failures;
- Dwelling on worst-case scenarios;
- Defusing praise that’s given to you; and
- Placing unattainable expectations on yourself.
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Contribute to the team by:
- Knowing what’s expected
- Sharing ideas
- Keeping promises
- Revealing your skills
- Participating in training
- Listening and giving feedback
- Volunteering for extra assignments
- Complimenting work well done
- Attending all team meetings
- Pitching in during emergencies
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| Good people are
good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. William Saroyan, American playwright
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| School Bells Are Beginning to Ring |
 As our children begin to return to the classroom, there are things we
can do that will make the transition for from home to school easier for both parent and
child.
- Make sure children get to bed on time so they get up on time the next
morning.
- Discourage children from watching television in the morning before
school. It’s hard to pull them away from the set.
- Older children can take turns making breakfast.
- Have the children choose and lay out their clothes, shoes, school
supplies, and other things for school the night before.
- Children can rinse breakfast dishes as soon as they finish eating.
- Set aside a place for books and other materials brought home from
school.
- Family members should share in getting ready in the morning: parents
help children, children help parents, older children help younger children.
- Organize a task chart so that chores are evenly distributed.
- If children are stalling in the morning, set a timer and tell the
children you expect to have certain activities completed when the timer goes off.
- Make it a point to have telephone numbers of each child’s
teacher(s) and administrator(s) with you at work.
|
 A people without history is like wind on the buffalo grass.
Sioux proverb
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Page |
| Illinois Teachers Use e-Tutor to Take Technology to New Heights |
 Teachers in Frankfort District 157C in Frankfort, IL, started out
their school year right this year! These technology leaders made e-Tutor an integral part
of a Language Arts and Social Studies program, suddenly achieving technology and
curricular goals in an exciting new way.e-Tutor’s
Social Science and Reading lessons are at the heart of this new cross-curricular program.
Teachers use the unique "Tweaking" feature to customize e-Tutor lessons, easily
meeting needs of individuals and small groups. Special "stop and think" reading
questions are inserted into lessons at strategic points, so teachers can assess the
application of reading strategies as well as using the automatic grading features already
present with e-Tutor. Teachers are even inserting special graphics that students will
associate with their particular reading program.
 In addition to assigning the wide range of
lessons offered by e-Tutor, Frankfort teachers are using e-Tutor’s Lesson Wizard to
create their own online lessons for students. With no previous HTML or programming
experience, classroom and reading support teachers are creating exciting lessons that can
be taken at an individual pace by children. These impressive lessons are fully formatted,
complete with graphics and embedded Internet links to relevant sites.
Frankfort’s teachers are putting the power of the Internet into
the hands of their students in a safe and structured way. e-Tutor’s communication and
assessment features help teachers to hold kids accountable for their learning, and
engaging lessons help students to make the best use of the Internet. The future is bright
in Frankfort, Illinois!
Kylie Wiltjer, e-Tutor
Instructional Technology Representative |
| The foundation of every
state is the education of its youth. Diogenes
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Start Reading Early With Your Child |
| You are making magic for your
child every time you open a book to read to him! Children who develop an early love of
reading are children who are bound to succeed. Even the youngest child, in fact,
especially babies, can gain valuable benefits from reading. So the more you read to your
child, the better. The U.S. Department of Education Commission on Reading issued a report
stating, "Reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for
building knowledge and eventual success." Here are ten tips to encourage successful
readers: |
- Even the youngest children benefit from the sounds of your
voice. Start reading to your child at birth.!
- Don’t let a day go by without reading to your child.
- The more animated you are, the more your child will follow the story.
Be silly. Use an accent. It’s showtime.
- Don’t rush. It takes time for a young child to settle into a
story.
- Don’t be afraid to veer from the text. Improvise!
- Satisfy your child’s curiosity! Take questions…at all times
and at any time.
- Never stop reading aloud. Even when your child has mastered reading
on her own, she still benefits from more complex stories and the sound of your voice.
- Make sure reading isn’t just a passive activity for toddlers.
Join in the fun, and watch what happens!
- Plop your baby on your lap during reading, or cozy up on the couch.
- Own lots of books! A child should have his or her own library.
Adapted from Children’s Book of the Month Club
|
Teacher: "Why must you always talk during history lesson, Cathy?"
Cathy: " I wasn’t talking, sir. I was
networking." |
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 July 28, 2000 was a day when I felt rewarded and fulfilled in my job.
Back in April I came aboard the e-Tutor sales force as an Instructional Technology
Representative. Following weeks of program and sales training, I was sent out to sell.
After pounding the pavement, I had the opportunity to speak with the Director of an
academic summer camp for children grades 6 through 8. I presented our program to him, and
he immediately saw the great benefits e-Tutor had to offer his students. That was my first
sale!After six weeks of camp, commencement day
had arrived. I was honored to be invited to the commencement ceremony. After watching the
students and the teachers receive their awards for outstanding performance, the Director
of Camp wanted to thank one more person who made the summer camp such a success. He said
he wanted to thank a young woman who approached him in May about a wonderful opportunity
to integrate technology into the classroom. As he announced my name and e-Tutor, Inc., the
children began to cheer and then chant "e-Tutor"! It was very invigorating and
exciting to hear the students’ enthusiastic cries for e-Tutor. I was awarded with a
T-shirt, a plant and a booklet of each student’s work.
The T-shirt was designed by a summer camp student and is an
illustration of what was learned that summer. The
student included a drawing of a computer where www.e-tutor.com
appears across the monitor.
The booklet I received contains one assignment from each student.
While looking through the book, I came across a writing assignment in which the student
praised e-Tutor. He feels e-Tutor is a wonderful program and should be implemented into
all the public schools.
I could not have asked for a better first sale! To hear the
students’ cheers, see the name e-Tutor included on the summer camp T-shirt and then
read the praises of an e-Tutor student user was very rewarding. I have always believed in
the benefits of e-Tutor but now, after the camp’s commencement, I see the power it
has to generate and create excitement in student learning. And that is our mission!
Molly Meiners
Instructional Technology Representative for Chicago Private Schools
|
 Summer
afternoon….summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful
words in the English language.Henry James,
quoted in Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance
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| Teachers Earn for Themselves and Their Classrooms |
| Teachers from all over the world are earning money this summer writing lessons
for e-Tutor. They are using the LessonPro template at http://www.lessonpro.net.
Lessons have come in from as far away as Russia and Japan. They have covered all subject
areas and all age ranges. Exciting lessons that make you want to learn such as: BE A BUD TO A SPUD
MAKING SENSE OF CENTS
TILLIE TOOTER’S TALE OF AN AMAZING ODYSSEY
FRECKLE JUICE BY JUDY BLUME
INCREDIBLE INSECTS
DANIEL BOONE, GREAT AMERICAN TRAILBLAZER
Nearly 100 lessons have been accepted by e-Tutor so far. Where
is your lesson? If you want to earn dollars for your class (or for yourself) go to
LessonPro and sign up today. It is easy!
|
Andy Warhol was wrong: in the
future, everyone won’t be famous for fifteen minutes. But everyone will have their
own web site."
Jon Winokur, Author Top of Page |
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Illinois and Chicago. e-Tutor was the highlight
of a summer program for inner city youngsters in the Chicago area. We hope to be in your
town or city soon. Please encourage your schools, friends and neighbors to visit our site
to see the exciting possibilities for teaching and learning that you will find there.
visiting antique shops and scouring the
countryside for treasures. Our car is loaded, by the time we arrive at our destination,
with trinkets, books, shovels, plants, rocks and you name it. But the biggest treasure of
all is what we have learned about the people across America. Their friendliness and
willingness to help, to stop and listen, to share their stories, and to laugh with us is
something we can’t put on our shelves or walls, but is something we will carry in our
hearts forever and bring out to share with the rest of the family at our gatherings and
reunions. 
Alaska the destination of
choice this year! Our CEO and Marketing Officer, plus my brother all went to Alaska this
year, all on separate trips. The stories are great and the pictures, even more stunning!
Sandy went hiking among the grizzlies, Scott went kayaking among the whales and Ern went
barnstorming with the bush pilots. Each spoke of the beauty, vastness and grandeur of the
country….how it puts everything in perspective… .that the biggest problems,
become small among the magnitude of the space. Oh, if we could bottle that and keep it
close by, for those times when everything seems to overwhelm us. Try putting yourself into
one of the pictures and see if you get a sense for what our colleagues and family
experienced.
