 Find
a special place to tape up cartoons and
other funny items....if your kids like
silly poems, they’ll love Shel
Silverstein’s Where the
Sidewalk Ends (Harper & Row).Some families like to write
stories about funny things that have
happened to them....you may want to
create your own silly stories.
Every library is
full of humorous stories and songs that
your children will love. And don’t
forget the joke and riddle books. Ask
your librarian to recommend a few.
Laughter is not a
cure-all, but it certainly helps.
Introducing
ePALS
We have had the
pleasure to welcome new friends to our
online community this month. As you know
we encourage the growth of an Internet
community that focuses on education and
learning. ePALS has developed a wonderful
service for teachers and schools in
connecting classrooms throughout the
world. We are delighted to have them as
neighbors and hope you will visit with
them soon.
ePALS
Classroom Exchange is a free web-based
service which helps connect international
classrooms via the Internet. Over 7,000
self-registered classrooms from more than
80 countries are currently participating.
Founded in 1996, ePALS now represents
over 350,000 students and teachers,
making it the largest network of its kind
in the world.
Teachers
are invited to create a unique classroom
'profile' describing their classroom and
the type of classrooms they want to
connect with. After being manually
screened, new profiles are added to the
ePALS search engine which can be searched
using a wide variety of search criteria
such as age, grade, language and
geographic location.
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Strategic
Studies is changing and we are feeling
the growing pains. Things that we once
did with a few have grown so much that we
are quickly having to add more staff. We
have recently hired a Director of
Programs and are adding more assistants
to help us keep up with increased demands
for our services. Therein lies the
problem. As we increase staff we disperse
tasks and work roles change. Some tasks
have suddenly shifted and been dispersed
to others. It is natural to establish
routines for tasks one commonly does,
however, that is difficult in a growing
company like Strategic Studies. Dynamic,
vibrant, and healthy we are, and a
challenge to all of us that thrive in
this exciting business. 
Having a good laugh is a
great way to reduce the stress of family
life. 
At a recent dinner meeting I
was seated at a table with a visually
impaired woman. She graciously helped all
of us at the table understand her needs
and quickly learned a lot about us. When
communicating with visually impaired
people, these suggestions might help:
There
is no such thing as a value unless there
are people involved. A value is something
that provides benefit or opens up the
possibility of benefit for someone.
Values do not hang like clouds in the
air. The have to be attached to people.
Values require a constant asking of
questions. 
