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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:

     
    Michael Elsohn Ross...
    Michael Elsohn Ross is the author of more than 30 science books for young readers. Early Years Are Learning Years is a regular series from NAEYC http://www.naeyc.org with tips for parents and educators on giving young children a great start on learning.
    Best Sellers


    Sandbox Scientist - Real Science Activities for Little Kids
    by Michael Elsohn Ross

    $10.36 from Amazon.com
    More information

     


    The Kids' Science Book - Creative Experiences for Hands-On Fun
    by Robert Hirschfeld

    $10.36 from Amazon.com
    More information

     


    Super Science Concoctions
    by Jill Frankel Hauser

    $10.36 from Amazon.com
    More information

     

    Teacher Feature...

    Starting Children on Science Excerpted from Science Their Way by Michael Elsohn Ross in the NAEYC journal, Young Children, based on his book Sandbox Scientists (Chicago Review Press 1995)

    by Michael Elsohn Ross


    Young children are scientists at play. While they're baking mud pies or building worm playgrounds, you may catch them conducting playful experiments. If you listen, in addition to giggling you may hear an exchange of observations or well thought-out theories. In their early encounters with nature, children develop ideas about our world based on experiences with real things.

    Young children love to stick their noses into nature, but they need your help. You can support their explorative play by giving children the time, space and equipment needed for investigating the world around them. Science doesn't require direct instruction, but it does take practice. Your most important role is to encourage, rather than direct, the children's explorations.

    Too much direction can dampen a child's budding interest in science and nature. Activities with lots of choices will allow her to follow her own paths of inquiry. When you give a young child choices in how he experiences science, you'll be treated to a kaleidoscope of unique and meaningful explorations.

    Tools are important too. If you give young children a wide array of equipment, they can pursue many different investigations. Watch the children exploring, and you may observe them pausing to search for the right tool, such as a magnifying glass or a stethoscope. By itself, each tool helps a child focus on a particular avenue of exploration. A child with a magnifying lens is bound to look closely at things, while a child with a mirror may end up playing with light.

    Another valuable way to encourage young children's interest in science is seizing the moment. On rainy days, children can investigate earthworms and puddles. During a snowstorm, bundle them up to explore the crystals in snowflakes. A walk in the park may reveal hidden caterpillars or sparkling rocks.

    Beaches, woods, parks, backyards and even vacant lots are paradise for a child explorer. When you supply young children with a variety of materials and tools, when you help them grow gardens or take in small critters as visitors, you are sowing adventures. It doesn't cost much money. It doesn't need to be dangerous or messy. You just need the time and place.

    One of the best things about science for young children - and about childhood as a whole - is the joy of wondering. Why? How? Where? When? As an adult, you may want to jump in and give the right answers, but if you let go of that impulse, you too may be immersed in the wonder. By sharing your thoughts as a partner, not the source of all knowledge, you can participate in the children's ponderings. Join in the wonder and go where it takes you!


     
     

    In Focus...
    DEADLINE: Civic Education Grants

    From: Frank H. Mackaman
    The Dirksen Congressional Center


    DEADLINE: MAY 1, 2002

    The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants totaling $50,000 in 2001 2002 to help teachers, curriculum developers, and others improve the quality of civics instruction, with priority on the role of Congress in our federal government. Areas of interest include designing lesson plans, creating student activities, and applying instructional technology in the classroom.

    Teachers (4th through 12th grades), community and junior college faculty, and college and university faculty are eligible as are teacher-led student teams and individuals who develop curriculum. Priority will be given to the following disciplines: history, government, social studies, political science, and education.

    Institutions and organizations are not eligible. Inter-institutional consortia and other groups of individual may apply, but grant funds may not be used to defray indirect costs or overhead expenses. The funds are intended solely to produce "deliverables" of use to classroom teachers.

    Preliminary proposals must be submitted by no later than May 1, 2002. Complete information about eligibility and application procedures, may be found at The Center's Web site -- http://www.pekin.net/dirksen
    /grantmichelciviced.htm
    . The Center does not provide an application form. You may find it helpful to review the sample grant proposal at -- http://www.pekin.net/dirksen
    /grantmichelcivicsample.htm
    . Frank Mackaman is the program officer fmackaman@pekin.net.

    The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a private, non-partisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to the study of Congress and its leaders. The Center created the Michel Civic Education Grants to fund practical classroom strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning about civics, with a particular emphasis on the role of Congress in the federal government. The goal of education in civics, we believe, is informed, responsible participation in political life by competent citizens. Current levels of political knowledge, political engagement, and political enthusiasm leave much to be desired. Part of the solution rests in better instructional practices.

    CONTACT:
    Frank H. Mackaman
    The Dirksen Congressional Center
    301 South 4th Street, Suite A
    Pekin, IL 61554
    309.347.7113
    309.347.6432 FAX
    fmackaman@pekin.net
    www.pekin.net/dirksen
     
     


    In Focus...
    The World in Lights

    From: Marisa Sgueglia


    Check the link below...This is really a sight to behold!

    The image is a panoramic view of the world from the new space station. It is a night photo with the lights clearly indicating the populated areas. You can scroll East-West and North-South. Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S. border. Moving east to Europe, there is a high population concentration along the Mediterranean Coast. It's easy to spot London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Check out the development of Israel compared to the rest of the Arab countries.

    Note the Nile River and the rest of the "Dark Continent". After the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg. Look at the Australian Outback and the TransSiberian Rail Route. Moving east, the most striking observation is the difference between North and South Korea. Note the density of Japan.

    What a piece of photography. It is an absolutely awesome picture of the Earth taken from the Boeing built Space Station last November on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions.

    Click here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/
    apod/image/0011/
    earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

     

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