Education Articles

The sad actuality is this has become the barometer for abounding parents who would rather criticize their child's abecedary than accept that their own adolescent is in anyhow wrong.

Mr. Kaye looked at the computer screen. The time apprehend 10:25. If this chic was traveling to be absolved on time, he was traveling to accept to get affective and abbreviate the distractions. The chic had over ten pages appointed to apprehend aloud, as allotment of the chic for today. Still the chic connected to yammer, as admitting it were cafeteria or maybe a awash bedrock concert. Mr. Kaye aloft his duke and almost 5 to six of thirty in the chic aloft their hands. A lot of of the chic was blank him, laughing, getting amusing and appliance their abandon of ignorance. This was appealing abundant an accustomed accident in Mr. Kaye's class. He had complained to abounding facets at the academy that were declared to abutment him, but in the end annihilation anytime seemed to be done.

Finally afterwards Mr. Kaye started calling out, "A account and twenty seconds...A minute and twenty-one second," captivation up a stopwatch, a lot of of the chic quieted down. There were still a few whispers against the back, but Mr. Kaye accustomed (for his class) this was as acceptable as gets.

Mr. Kaye told the acceptance to accessible their books on their desks to page 36. Then, he absolved about the room, banishment abounding acceptance to cast the books on their desks accessible to, because quiet bluntly a lot of of these accouchement didn't care, abject a absolute adjustment from a abecedary was additional attributes to them.

Mr. Kaye started to apprehend from the book, but a kid yelled out, "Kawika...Kawika...Kawika!"He was babble beyond the classroom with a awe-inspiring array of quiet whisper. When Mr. Kaye looked at him, he gave his abecedary a attending like, "WHAT!!!"

Strunk & White Book

I don't care if you love Strunk & White or hate them - read this book. It delivers exactly what the subtitle promises: "A writer's guide to punchier, more engaging language and style."

Arthur Plotnik doesn't just tell you how to be spunky and punchy, he shows you on every last page. Not only do fun, familiar examples of juiced-up writing by contemporary authors litter each chapter, Plotnik himself has written the surrounding how-to text with exactly the sort of literary ka-pow he's advocating. In other words, the bugger's just plain fun to read.

Fans of The Elements of Style need not worry - despite the obvious spoof of the title, this book is not by any means a bash-a-thon of Strunk and White. Matter of fact, Spunk and Bite is an excellent counterpoint to that old standby. Sure, Plotnik challenges his readers to stretch, bend, and break those tried and true (and sometimes stale) rules laid down nearly 90 years ago, but he also shows the pitfalls of going overboard. Rules without merit don't tend to last the better part of a century, after all.

what is reading

Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation. Learn how readers integrate these facets to make meaning from print.

Reading is making meaning from print. It requires that we:

• Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition
• Construct an understanding from them – a process called comprehension
• Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency

Sometimes you can make meaning from print without being able to identify all the words. Remember the last time you got a note in messy handwriting? You may have understood it, even though you couldn't decipher all the scribbles.

Sometimes you can identify words without being able to construct much meaning from them. Read the opening lines of Lewis Carroll's poem, "Jabberwocky," and you'll see what I mean.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Finally, sometimes you can identify words and comprehend them, but if the processes don't come together smoothly, reading will still be a labored process. For example, try reading the following sentence:

Reading the Past

The LA Times Book Review section is terrific once again:

Here is a great review from Jonathan Kirsch of Jack Beatty's deeply intriguing and thought-provoking book about the rise of the monied elite in the late 19th Century--and what that history tells us about this latest Gilded Age, or Age of Betrayal, in which we are currently living.

And this review by Phillip Lopate, about the riot in the New York City theater district in 1849, over whether an American-born or English-born Shakespearean actor was most faithful to the Bard, presents an amazing cultural history that I had completely missed, but tells us much about where we as a culture have degenerated and where we have improved our civilized ways.

And, here is a fascinating look at John Donne, who went from writing ribald and erotic poems to becoming a leading Protestant minister in the last years of his life. What struck me is how often our lives are conflicted and how often our personal commitments to our families play a role in how we lead our lives. I am also struck by the intersection between religion and sex (see, incidentally, this reivew about the cult of virginity in today's Washington Post Book World) and the way in which "class" in the economic sense and "class" in the cultural sense can sometimes merge.

Speaking of the LA Times, the newspaper's owners have made a rare good decision: Hiring Jim Newton as the new opinion-editorial editor. Newton is a veteran LA area reporter who has written a wonderful and great biography of Chief Justice Earl Warren (I just finished it recently, with only one quibble about Newton's surprisingly shallow view of the Warren Commission report on the murder of JFK). He understands California politics and history and has a sensible view of the world such that I expect, or hope for a dramatic improvement in the op-ed section of the paper, which suffered under his two predecessors.

Will Robots Join Classrooms?

The consumer robotics market is expanding with the arrival of 'bots that can spy inside your home when you're away or arrange virtual meetings of family or friends. A new vacuum cleaner, a webcam bulging from the top.

"As these kinds of devices mature in the years ahead, I expect them to gradually become more sophisticated in terms of providing gestures, object interaction such as picking things up, and eventually moving toward a more human shape," said James Kuffner, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.

Parents on a business trip can use ConnectR through a Web connection to a home wireless network in order to send remotely the wheeled robot into a bedroom. There, the children could open a book in front of the robot's camera. The parent could then read the story aloud and watch and hear the kids' reactions. The family could also converse.

The user can operate the robot with either a joystick or a computer installed with iRobot-supplied software.

Color digital video streams only one way. Thus, a traveling parent could see the kids but not vice versa.

Up to 10 parties can have PIN-number access to the gadget, allowing distant relatives or friends to keep in touch, as well as immediate family.

IRobot says ConnectR will become broadly available early next year for less than $500.

Hmmm. It seems an obvious to ask, "Are remote controlled electronic observations a next step in educator accountability to the broader community? How many boards of education have addressed the issue of remotely controlled observations in classrooms and school related meetings? Given the existence of the technology potential, when will ConnectR's off-spring or competitor enter classrooms as unauthorized spys or as a parent's authorized third-party-observer?"