Posted on by Laura Lee

This teacher would like to know: would anyone like periodic tips for using this crazy language, English?

crazy english         Hello, readers.   This educator, me, misses teaching.  I am wondering if any readers here would like some little English tips I’ve picked up through my many years of teaching English, ELL, and reading?  If so, reply here or send me a message! 

I believe it’s important to give back, and this is one way I can do that.  I’ve volunteered in literacy settings by tutoring or other ways since the 1980s, and I miss it.

So this is a personal post: I am wondering if any readers here would like some little English tips I’ve picked up through my many years of teaching English, ELL, and reading?  If so, reply here or send me a message! 

Thanks for reading in this CRAZY ENGLISH language!

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

A Fascinating BBC Article about Adolescence

teens        The BBC has a number of my most liked websites, and here is an example why.  In a recent article BBC How Teen Years Shape Our Personalities by psychologist and father of twins Christian Jarrett, we learn about current research about the young, which includes, as Jarrett writes:

…long-term studies show that the traits that appear in our teenage years are predictive of a wide range of outcomes in life, including academic success and risk of unemployment.

As an educator, I am interested in learning more.  Jarrett doesn’t write about the teen years just to share knowledge, but also hopes that (from the article) …learning more about the forces that shape teenagers’ personalities, we can potentially intervene and help set them on a healthier, more successful path.

For me, learning that… Another study uncovered a link between self-confidence at school and positive personality development is intriguing.  Are students confident at school because they have more positive personality development, or do they become more positive in their development because they are confident at school?  I wonder.

If you are interested in learning more about topics like this, the BBC does offer to send you their top six “can’t miss” stories each week by signing up here: BBC’s 6 “can’t miss” stories.

I know I am looking forward to reading these top 6 stories each Friday.

What about you? Do you have some favorite news sites?

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

Another fun site for learners, Thoughtco.com

Website      As promised, I’ll keep sharing sites I find interesting. Thoughtco.com

asserts its goal as lifelong learning, and that is why I like it.  If you subscribe to posts, each day you receive some interesting tidbit of information, ranging from science to homework, Monet to gas gauges. (I kid you not–how to fix gas gauges!)

I have no idea who told me about this site, but I like learning something new every day.

Why not give it a try?  And do you have any sites you like for learning something new every day?

Laura Lee

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

ChicagoReader.com article on CPS scandals

pexels-photo-459846     I felt sick reading this article: Chicago public schools scandals

Behind the scandal are kids, living, breathing kids in schools.   Heartbreaking that kids are denied needed special ed. services and that all are denied clean schools.  Oh, let’s not forget the safety aspect of sexual abuse scandals!  Are we creating a generation of traumatized youth from our schools, when schools should be a safe place?

Read more if you can stomach it.  If I feel sick just reading this, what is happening to the students, faculty, and staff that work in these schools?

Posted on by Laura Lee

Link to article about text v. screen reading

                           open-book-library-education-read-159621  As a reading specialist, teacher, and avid reader myself, I am interested     in reading research.   This study shows that students often learn better when they read print v. screen reading materials : Study: text v. screen

For everyday leisure reading, I am fine with a kindle or screen reading. In fact, it’s more convenient so I read MORE. But when I need DEPTH? Then I need paper. Might be true for many others, according to this study.

I am not, in any way, denigrating the power of e-texts to engage us to read. I read so much more now that I can quickly and easily access texts on my Kindle. I am, and my colleagues have been concerned, about the pushing of e-texts in formal education, textbooks on iPads, etc.

What about you?  Do you prefer to read using paper texts or e-texts?

Posted on by Laura Lee

Delaware Charter Teachers Vote to Unionize

From the article:

Laslinkst night, Charter School of Wilmington teachers made a huge vote. They became the only current charter school in Delaware to join the Delaware State Education Association. As such, they will be a part of the National Education Association as well. This opens the door for other charter schools to unionize in the future. Often, when one domino falls…

For more information, go here: Delaware Charter Teachers Vote to Unionize

Posted on by Laura Lee

Chicago: The Measurable Result of Closing 50 Schools in One Day in 2013

Educators could have predicted this! Why don’t we listen to those who in the know?

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Julie Vassilatos read the report of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research about the closing of 50 schools in one day in 2013. She knew that there was no academic gain for the children affected.

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-public-fools/2018/05/in-the-wake-of-the-mass-school-closings-one-measurable-result/

But there was one measurable result that no one talked about: Sorrow.

“The sorrow of children whose schools were closed.

“It’s measurable. The researchers measured it. They liken the losses that the students–and teachers, staff, and families–experienced, to grief. The technical term for it is “institutional mourning.” Children and staff talked about losing their school “families,” spoke of the forced separations like a divorce, or a death. Generations-long relationships with schools ended abruptly after a pained, humiliating school year of battling to keep them open–schools that served as neighborhood anchors, social roots, home of beloved teachers. Most of the 50 shuttered schools have since stood empty and fallow after the closings, untended…

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