By: Leigh Melander, Ph.D.

Education is failing in the United States. By saying this, I know that I join the ranks of the self-appointed Cassandra's who hurl our hands up to our foreheads and sing the doom of a nation. But it's true.

And most of the wailers miss the point. Underlying the political agendas, funding battles, culture wars, and the simultaneous disrespect for and outrageous expectations of teachers, there is a much deeper failure.

Think of a moment in your life when you were completely caught up in learning something. In that moment, learning wasn't about facts, tests or grades, succeeding or failing. Instead, it was an all-consuming, joyful burst of energy and pleasure at finally discovering something. Of understanding something. To borrow from Shakespeare, it was an instance of god-like apprehension, comprehension of our place as partners in a creative universe.

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The new 5th generation video ipods provide an unprecedented simple and elegant means to produce high quality audio files for a great variety of uses in education.  An ipod with a microphone is now able to record .wav files that can be translated into .mp3 files using  free iTunes or other software, store text, download information from websites, or store and display equivalent-to-VHS quality videos all in a whopping 30 or 60Gb mini hard drive.   Video text or audio files can all be displayed on the ipod screen, a TV screen using a media cable, or on a computer.  Files from an ipod simply mount on the desktop of a macintosh computer to be clicked for viewing, or they can be viewed through iTunes which synchronizes the files of the ipod with ipod itself.  ITunes is also available free for PC computers.
Apple computer is rewriting the road map for audio recording with 24 bit recording capability from a handheld device.   Previous ipods had 8 bit recording that many felt was barely sufficient even for podcasts.  The new ipods are simple, attractive, and very much more powerful.  Many people of various professions are awaiting the release of microphones that will make the recording possible.  The apple website will have details in the coming weeks.

Recording  and producing audio files using a handheld device is a powerful step ahead in education for several reasons...

1. Coolness factor.. -ipods have a simplicity of design combined with powerful capabilities; they are the ultimate in "cool"

2.  Listening and speaking are a challenge with many different types of learners. ESL students need considerable practice listening.  Hearing the sounds of English is one of the greatest challenges and requires practice.  North American children are saturated with visual stimuli, and are notoriously bad listeners, report many teachers.  Having an easy way to get students producing audio and listening to audio is a huge and necessary step for many kinds of learners.

3. Makes movie making and multimedia more possible.  Making audio files and soundtracks is not possible in noisy computer rooms.  Ipods provide an opportunity to produce audio in a variety of quieter locations.

-radio plays
-personal or group responses  to literature, media  or field trips
-oral questions - test study -language practice  
-oral presentations such as book reports
-content area presentations -music recording
-recorded debates or class meetings
-drill of basic math facts -ESL oral questions
-listening practice and enrichment for English language students
-school podcasts

Peter Stocker is a teacher in British Columbia and the author of Literature lessons plans including Rime of the Ancient Mariner Unit at Literature Enrichment.

If you have always dreamed of writing, and being publish, 2006 could be the year you finally get to it! Thousands of people, many of them teachers are writing ebooks and marketing them online. If you don't think this is for you, think again.

Former teacher and Vice Principal Glenn Dietzel, now author and President of Teacher eBooks, provides everything you need for finding the author within! His website, www.teacherebooks.com, is well work visiting.

Visit Teachers Ebooks

 
Many people think the love of reading is something that can be taught.

What is frustrating for us are the constant claims of Balanced Literacy and Whole Language folks who say that their method "turns kids on to reading." In reality, they might get turned on, but too many very soon will figure out they can't read well.

This reminds us of the elementary school which used MathLand for its math curriculum. The kids loved it, the teachers loved it, and the parents loved it. It was full of fun activities and the kids were really turned on to math. The school soon found out that the kids weren't really learning much math, but they were having a lot of fun. (We might suggest that the kids weren't turned on to math as much as they were turned on to MathLand.)

This highlights a basic premise behind Progressive programs: by employing creative and fun approaches to teaching, without much rigor, you can teach the love of a subject by teaching the child to love the subject.

This is patently false.

Children may be enthusiastic in a Balanced Literacy classroom, but hand them books (with no illustrations) that they've never seen and their enthusiasm will be tempered by their ability (or inability) to read well. Children in a new-new math class are equally enthusiastic, but take away the calculator and ask them to do the most elementary problems, and all of a sudden reality smacks them between the eyes.

What teachers have known for millennia is that the best way to turn a student onto reading is by teaching the child to read . (Of course, by "teaching a child to read" we mean using the time-honored phonics method.)

We've heard hundreds of stories by parents who've used phonics instruction to teach their children to read (or supplement the instruction received in the child's whole-language-based classroom), who say that after so many lessons it just "clicks" and then the child is off, devouring books on his or her own.

In the preface to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann, Haddox and Bruner, the authors write: And because the program works, something very nice happens: perhaps not on the first lesson or on the fifth, but long before Lesson 100 your child will turn on to reading. The child's surroundings are full of written words that the child will read with great pride. While countless parents use phonics to attempt to undo the damage wrought from Whole-Language based reading instruction, we've never heard of a parent using Balanced Literacy or Whole Language to supplement phonics instruction.

Why? You guessed it, phonics instruction seems to have an uncanny ability in simply teaching kids to read, period.
Quoted From - ReformK12.com, dedicated to improving our schools by focusing on effective and practical education reform.

We are very pleased to announce our much delayed Affiliate Program for Webmasters.

Here's how it works:

We have made available 20 totally unique and one-of-a-kind Games, Lesson Plans and Activities for teachers.

An "affiliate program" simply means that you recommend our products to your newsletter subscribers and/or website visitors and you get paid a 50% commissions on everything they buy. Basically, we pay to you (handsomely) to sell our products.

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Fractions Hazard
Here is a great way to get students really interested in reviewing fractions! Quiz Master or Jeopardy style game on adding, subtracting, and simplifying fractions!


Includes 30 different printable cards and complete instructions!

Learn More >>>

Math Lessons
Lesson Plans, manipulatives, and resources for teaching fractions and equivalent fractions.
Literature Enrichment
Rime of the Ancient Mariner Unit and well known fairy tales in Play format.
Teacher Ebooks
Ever thought of writing but don't know where to start? Glenn Dietzel will show you how to get it out in 29 days…Guaranteed!
Characterization
Lesson Plans on Character, including Characterization in Harry Potter, building character and more..
Becoming a Better Teacher
Tips and tricks, classroom secrets and more from Veteran teacher Christine Morrison.

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The author can be contacted at:
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