I recently opened up a copy of Newsweek and found an article titled “How Dumb Are We?”. Apparently Newsweek gave the US citizenship test to 1,000 randomly chosen American citizens—and 38 percent failed. Considering that all new citizens pass this test (as well as an English language test), that’s a pretty shocking statistic.
How do you think you’d do? Are you pretty confident you’d pass? Here’s your chance to prove it:
Have you ever met someone who inspired you to try something new? I’m grateful to say that I have! In one case, I was inspired by my older brother to pick up the guitar, an instrument I’ve greatly enjoyed playing. On another occasion, a friend’s example inspired me to start riding my bicycle to work, a small adjustment that has led me to make many other healthy changes as well.
Sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on day-to-day tasks that I don’t recognize the unexplored avenues all around me, and I let opportunities slip by. I think of a pair of lines from “Maud Miller,” a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier:
Recently I read an interesting news article about a school district that voted to supply all its kindergarten students with iPad 2 tablets for the upcoming school year. Since the iPad’s release last year, there has been much discussion and speculation on how tablet computers will impact education and technology use in the classroom. Amid all the speculation, I found it interesting to see a forward-thinking example of rolling out such technology district-wide, especially for such young learners.
Don’t miss your chance to learn from experienced dual-language educator Mia Allen. She’ll be sharing strategies for addressing language diversity and learning disability issues in a free webinar that’s being broadcast today at 2:00 p.m. MDT. We still have a few spots left, so register now!
If you can’t join us today, check out our webinars page, where you can download all previous webinars in the Ahead of the Class series.
We’ve already posted some ideas for poetry-themed classroom activities, but just in case you’re looking for a few new poetry books to read with your class, here’s another list from Amy Carr — a former fifth and sixth grade teacher who loves bringing poetry to life for children of all ages. Her list of best poetry books for pre-K to sixth grade students is sure to get you excited about reading your favorite poems with the whole class.
