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TEACHERS.NET GAZETTE
Volume 3 Number 4

COVER STORY
Harry & Rosemary Wong remind us, "Leaders lead and they lead by caring enough about the success of their teachers that they will roll up their sleeves and model instructional leadership."...
COLUMNS
Effective Teaching by Harry & Rosemary Wong
Promoting Learning by Marv Marshall
4 Blocks by Cheryl Sigmon
Ask the School Psychologist by Beth Bruno
Online Classrooms by Leslie Bowman
The Eclectic Teacher by Ginny Hoover
The Busy Educator's Monthly Five (5 Sites for Busy Educators) by Marjan Glavac
Ask the Literacy Teacher by Leigh Hall
Visual Impairments by Dave Melanson
Instant Ideas for Busy Teachers by Barbara Gruber and Sue Gruber
ARTICLES
Reflecting Upon Read Across America
Earth Day Compilation
The World in Lights
Take a Seat at the Bottom of the Class
Starting Children on Science
Tips for teachers being bullied!
Mr. Choose-A-Chart
Teaching Perseverance Through Adversity-A History Lesson
It's An Early Spring!
Memo to Staff: Our Computer System Crashed-We Have No 'Backups'-You're Not Getting Paid for a Month!
Keep Your Online Community Alive!
Curricular Science the 'Curry' way!
Geography Awareness
Principal of the Year Ray Mellberg
eBook Technology
Respect Means...
Creative Uses for Digital Cameras in the Classroom
Teaching Gayle to Read (Part 4)
Young Lawyers Ementoring Magnet Students
The Welcome Mat of a High School On-Line Community
Plato Lives...
The Asphalt Classroom
26 Teaching Tips for the Dog Days
Using Storytelling in the Classroom
Recapturing the Courage to Teach
To Leave No Child Behind
TEACHER INSPIRATION
If you say you CAN'T, it means you WON'T
Something Nice a Student Did Yesterday...
ON-SITE INSIGHTS
When Your Child Comes Home Messy
Praise vs. Encouragement
People Don't Play...
REGULAR FEATURES
Apple Seeds
Special Days This Month
Poem - Song of a Second April
The Lighter Side of Teaching
  • YENDOR'S Top Ten
  • Culprit Management
  • Schoolies
  • Woodhead
  • Handy Teacher Recipes
    Classroom Crafts
    Help Wanted - Teaching Jobs
    "Why Do We Have Night" from the Lesson Bank
    Upcoming Ed Conferences
    Letters to the Editor
    FYI
    The School Web Page: A Vehicle for Innovation
    Eighth Emerson Prizes Awarded in Boston
    Student Nanoexperiments Will Help Future Astronauts on Mars
    The 11th Annual National Institute for Early Childhood Professional
    International Conference on Computers in Education
    SESSIONS ANNOUNCED: Congress in the Classroom 2002
    Teacher Network United States Mint
    DEADLINE: Civic Education Grants
    Gazette Home Delivery:


    About Jay Davidson...
    Jay Davidson has been teaching in San Francisco since 1969; he teaches first grade. He is the author of Teach Your Children Well: A Teacher's Advice for Parents, which is available for $12.95 at Amazon.com.

    He can be reached through his Web site at www.jaydavidson.com.
    His column appears Thursdays in the Daily News.

    Email: teacher@jaydavidson.com.


    Best Sellers

    Teach Your Children Well: A Teacher's Advice for Parents
    by Jay Davidson

    $12.95 from Amazon.com
    More information


    Teacher Feature...

    It's An Early Spring!

    by Jay Davidson


    With our early warm weather this year, spring has come sooner than usual. It's a rejuvenation process that we can see all around us, as well as feel inside ourselves. It's a wonderful time to plant seeds.

    This is an activity that is easy to work on together at home and it can be a fun lesson for children to learn about the way things grow.

    You may buy seeds, but you can also sprout several things that you probably already have in the house, such as a potato, sweet potato, or carrot top. You could also see what happens when you plant seeds from fruit or vegetables you eat at home.

    The Tiny Seed is a wonderful book by Eric Carle. It chronicles the cycle of a seed being planted and growing into a flower. This is but one of many cycles of life that children can learn about in order to appreciate the wonder of the world around them.

    Another Eric Carle book, Pancakes, Pancakes, chronicles the steps it takes to be able to put pancakes on the breakfast table -- from harvesting wheat to making the pancakes themselves. It is a great example for showing children that what they eat had a beginning in nature and didn't just pop out of a box purchased in the grocery store. It's a wordless book. As such, you may describe each picture to your child. On re-tellings, your little one will be able to "read" the story to you.

    Many other books explain the benefits of plants to people. I have found that children as young as first graders can understand the process through which plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen, while people do the opposite. This is an example through which we explain to children the relationship that people have with plants, and how important they are to us.

    Planting seeds and watching them grow puts children in touch with a vital force of nature. It is an easy way to give them this connection, and leads to a respect and understanding of the process on which we all depend for food and oxygen.


     

     
    Teacher Feature...

    Geography Awareness

    by Jay Davidson


    I was reading a story to my class. It took place in Paris, and the Eiffel Tower appeared in the background. One of my students surprised me by knowing the name of the Eiffel Tower, that it was in Paris, that Paris is in France, and that France is in Europe.

    He distinguished himself among his peers, as many of them had no similar sense of geography.

    Parents are in an excellent position to help children become aware of geography and the terms associated with it. For example:

    • When you shop for groceries, look for labels on fruit, vegetables, and other food items to indicate the country or region of origin.
    • Look on the labels in your family's clothing and other household items.
    • Talk to your child about your family's country of origin.
    • When you hear people speaking other languages, teach your child to be respectful of this. Most people, if approached in a friendly way, will be delighted to teach you and your child a few words of their native tongue.
    • When communicating with family members who live outside your immediate area, talk with the children about the city, state, or country in which they live.
    • Whether your favorite source for news is television, newspaper, radio, or the Internet, the media is rich with references to other countries.
    • Use direction words such as north, south, east, and west to describe where you are walking or driving. Relate these words to the directions used on maps. The same principles are involved whether you are using a road map or atlas.
    • Use geography terms with your child. Hundreds of them are attached to place names. Children who understand common terms such as bay, delta, foothills, mountain, peninsula, swamp, and woods may enjoy learning less familiar terms such as continental slope, escarpment, isthmus, shoal, and veldt. (On my website, I will include more than 200 terms, from alpine tundra to zone, with this column.)

    When your child shows deeper interest, move from the atlas to books that cover history, language, and customs of other peoples. In so doing, you will have a child who is well prepared for geographic references wherever she encounters them.

    Use the following as an example of the magnitude of words that are related to geography.

    These geography terms appear on page 111 of Teach Your Children Well: A Teacher's Advice for Parents, by Jay Davidson.

    alpine tundra
    Antarctic
    archipelago
    Arctic
    area
    arm
    atoll
    badlands
    bank
    bay
    bayou
    beach
    berg
    bitty berg
    bluff
    bog
    breakers
    breakwater
    brink
    brook
    butte
    canal
    canyon
    cape
    capital
    cascade
    cataract
    cave
    cavern
    channel
    chasm
    city
    cliff
    coast
    coastline
    continent
    continental divide
    continental shelf
    continental slope
    country
    county
    county seat
    cove
    crag
    crater
    creek
    crest
    crevasse
    dale
    dam
    dell
    delta
    desert
    dike
    district
    divide
    drainage basin
    dune
    elevation
    embankment
    escarpment
    estuary
    field
    fjord
    foothills
    ford
    forest
    gap
    geyser
    glacier
    gorge
    grassland
    growler
    gulch
    gulf
    gully
    guyot
    harbor
    headland
    headwater
    highland
    hill
    hollow
    horizon
    iceberg
    inlet
    island
    isle
    isthmus
    junction
    jungle
    key
    kilometer
    knob
    knoll
    lagoon
    lake
    land
    landing
    levee
    locks
    lookout
    lowland
    marsh
    meadow
    meander
    mesa
    mile
    mount
    mountain
    mountain pass
    mountain range
    mouth
    narrows
    national park
    oasis
    ocean
    ocean ridge
    ocean trench
    oxbow lake
    palisade
    pampas
    panhandle
    pass
    passage
    pasture
    peak
    peninsula
    piedmont
    pier
    pinnacle
    plain
    planet
    plateau
    point
    polar zone
    pole
    pond
    port
    prairie
    precipice
    promontory
    province
    quarry
    quicksand
    rain forest
    rapids
    ravine
    reef
    region
    reservoir
    ridge
    rift valley
    river
    saddle
    sandbank
    sandbar
    savannah
    sea
    sea arch
    sea cave
    sea stack
    seamount
    seashore
    shoal
    shoreline
    slope
    sound
    source
    spit
    springs
    stalactite
    stalagmite
    state
    steppe
    strait
    stream
    summit
    swamp
    tableland
    temperate zone
    territory
    timber
    timberline
    torrid zone
    town
    trail
    tributary
    tropical zone
    tundra
    valley
    veldt
    village
    volcano
    waterfall
    watershed
    wetlands
    wharf
    whitewater
    woodlands
    woods
    zone

    Visit www.jaydavidson.com for more information about Jay Davidson.

     

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