--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00007 Date: 09/04/96 From: MATT SMITH Time: 10:32pm \/To: CARL BOGARDUS (Read 4 times) Subj: Re: Failing too many students? CB> SK> Here is an article quoted from the August 28, 1996 Daily Report CB> Card: CB> -> *1 FAILING GRADES: GETS TEACHER OUSTED CB> -> Shehrever Masters, a Toledo, Ohio, high school science CB> -> teacher was fired because he failed too many students CB> CB> Hmmm, I am split by this issue - on one side I agree with him as a CB> teacher, CB> on the other side I remember my HS calculus teacher who stated, "If CB> you CB> can't keep up with the best in the class, too bad." He made no CB> attempt to CB> explain what he was teaching and had disdain for his class except for CB> his CB> two "pets" I have mixed feelings about this case, but for different reasons. In law, medicine, and any other business or profession, anyone who "loses" too many soon gets fired by his clients. That's true even though the clients may add greatly to their own problems by not following advice, or for all kinds of other factors beyond the professional's control. I agree with Masters that if he just passed everyone, he'd never be in this mess...although it would be a sham of education. But my question is why _he_ alone (apparently) was fired in a large district for this reason. If his record is demonstrably worse than others at his school, he may deserve it. And even his defense about how he could have avoided this by just passing everyone isn't adequate, since schools must budget for things like summer school and repeaters and can't afford one-man ad hoc decisions upsetting the budget (particularly in financially-troubled schools like that system.). --- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS]) * Origin: NighthawkBBS, Burlington NC 910-228-7002 HST Dual (1:3644/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00008 Date: 08/25/96 From: RANDY EDWARDS Time: 08:23pm \/To: ALL (Read 3 times) Subj: SCO offers free non-commercial Unix lice20:23:3208/25/96 I thought that this might be of interest to folks in this conference. --Randy (Original From: Mike Bilow, 1:323/107) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Monika Laud SCO TEL: 408/427-7421 FAX: 408/427-5448 monikal@sco.com UNIX UNBOUND! SCO Provides FREE UNIX System Licenses To Students, Educators and UNIX Enthusiasts Around The World SCO Forum96, Santa Cruz, CA (August 19, 1996) -- In a move that empowers students, educators and UNIX system enthusiasts with free access to the worlds most popular business computing environment, SCO today announced plans to provide a free license to use its popular UNIX systems, including SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare, to anyone in the world who wants to use them for educational and non-commercial use to enable the evaluation and understanding of UNIX systems. The bold move has far-reaching implications for the future of the UNIX platform and marks the stunning public debut of SCOs stewardship of the UNIX system. It also represents the first time in more than 20 years that the owner of UNIX technology has provided the operating system free of charge to the public. Alok Mohan, SCOs president and CEO, said, "This is only the second time in UNIXs 25-year history that the owner of the technology has made this offer. The last time this happened, a $60-billion-dollar industry was born." The UNIX system was in its infancy when AT&T Bell Labs gave it away for free to colleges and universities to help with research and development projects. Soon, thousands of students were learning to program on UNIX systems. After graduation, they took that knowledge into the corporate world, building a $60-billion-dollar industry. The legacy of AT&Ts gift to universities includes the Internet, the World Wide Web, multiprocessing, and much more. Today, the UNIX system is the software engine that processes trillions of dollars of business transactions around the world. "SCO believes it is time to return the favor," said Mohan, "and deliver the result of more than 20 years of technical innovation back to educators and students worldwide. With the explosive growth of the Internet and the breadth of development tools for UNIX systems available today, one can only imagine what this new generation will do with this open operating system platform." What the Students Will Get The availability of free UNIX system licenses begins with SCO OpenServer license, followed closely by a free SCO UnixWare license. The initial availability of a free SCO OpenServer license provides UNIX system enthusiasts with access to a high-end, commercial quality UNIX product that would normally be out of reach due to price constraints. Students, as well as professionals who use the UNIX system at work, now have an affordable means of running the UNIX platform at home, enabling them to create a home BBS or web site. Whats In Free SCO OpenServer? With a Free SCO OpenServer license, users interested in UNIX technology have access to a fully functional, single user version of the SCO OpenServer Desktop System, which includes SCO Doctor Lite, and SCO ARCserve/Open Lite from Cheyenne, and the SCO OpenServer Development System. The SCO OpenServer Desktop is an advanced, single user UNIX operating system that delivers RISC workstation capabilities and performance on cost-effective Intel architecture platforms. The Desktop System integrates a powerful 32-bit, multitasking, X/Open UNIX system compliant operating system with networking, graphics, and Internet facilities. The Development System includes a set of state-of-the-art C compilers, debuggers, application programming interfaces, and libraries for developing applications. How to Get It Free SCO OpenServer license can be ordered and licensed via the Internet. To place a media order or acquire a license to use the software, go to: http://www3.sco.com/Products. Free SCO OpenServer is licensed for educational and non-commercial use. The license is free of charge. The product media, if desired, costs $19. About SCO SCO is the worlds leading supplier of UNIX server operating systems, and a leading provider of client-integration software that integrates Windows PCs and other clients with UNIX servers from all major vendors. SCO Business Critical UNIX Servers run the critical, day-to-day operations of large branch organizations in retail, finance, telecom, and government, as well as corporate departments and small to medium-sized businesses of every kind. SCO sells and supports its products through a worldwide network of distributors, resellers, systems integrators, and OEMs. For more information, see SCOs WWW home page at: http://www.sco.com. # # # SCO, The Santa Cruz Operation, the SCO logo, SCO OpenServer, SCO UnixWare, and SCO Doctor are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. in the USA and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States an other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. Cheyenne and ARCserve are registered trademarks of Cheyenne Software, Inc. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners. --- Msgedsq/2 2.2e * Origin: Spartacus Lives! at 802-626-4103 * V.34 (1:325/805) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00009 Date: 09/05/96 From: RON MCDERMOTT Time: 07:27am \/To: CHARLES BEAMS (Read 3 times) Subj: RE: ANN LANDERS LETTER CB>We now celebrate "Ain't gonna make it!" day around the first CB>of October every year. Does that refer to the kids or the teachers? ;-) ___ * MR/2 2.26 * MSDOS&PCDOS&CP/M&WINDOWSI'LLFIDDLEWITHOS/2WOULDN'TYOU? --- Silver Xpress Mail System 5.4P1a * Origin: The Dolphin BBS Pleasant Valley NY 914-635-3303 (1:2624/302) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00010 Date: 09/02/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:37am \/To: DALE HILL (Read 4 times) Subj: The Business Roundtable, Part 2 -> The resource page in the guide lists the major players or "National -> Standards Developers" none of which overtly mention standards for LD -> students. Of course the resources are arranged by discipline--it -> *may* be possible that within each discipline, the needs of these -> students are being considered. From the little that I've read to -> date however, my guess is that that's not happening...or if it is, -> it's spotty at best. I looked over the resource list in _Improving -> America's School: A Newsletter on Issues in School Reform - Spring -> 1996_ -> (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/IASA/newsletters/standards/pt5.html) and they -> provide a very similar list of discipline based resources -- again, -> nothing specifically aimed at LD students. The reason I asked, is that I had seen some articles objecting to standards in the past year or two, and usually it had something to do with the LD issue. Either schools were expecting ALL students to meet certain standards, and making no provision for the LD students (which is pretty silly) or else the standards were not very challenging or difficult in order that all students would have a chance at meeting them. (In this latter case, why even bother with standards at all?) -> You teach math correct? Would you know if National Council of -> Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has addressed standards for LD -> students in their work on math standards? I don't know, they seem to -> be *the* source for info on math standards -- it would interesting to -> see how they approach the process. Next time I'm on the web I'll do -> some searching to see. The NCTM Standards for Curriculum, are not standards in the sense we have been discussing in this thread (at least, not the way I've been understanding this discussion). In this discussion, I thought that the use of the word "Standards" referred to what we expected students to accomplish and be able to do. Certain benchmarks that we would expect them to achieve. NCTM's Standards are more of a curriculum document for teachers to decide what they should be teaching in their math classes. It doesn't really discuss student achievement or proficiency. If anything, it assumes that because a topic was taught, students are capable in it, which is not necessarily true. (It has been over a year since I seriously looked at my copy of the NCTM standards, so I suppose it's possible that I'm off here.) I don't recall that the Standards mention anything about LD students specifically. However, they do discuss meeting the needs of different ability students, and offering appropriate courework for them. They even suggest taking kids as far as they are able. Kids who have difficulty with arithmetic, for example, after years of working on it, may as well just be given a calculator and introduced to algebra. Something along these lines. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00011 Date: 09/02/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:48am \/To: DAN TRIPLETT (Read 4 times) Subj: Whole Language 1 1/ -> I may really mean language development. When I speak of language -> acquisition I am referring to the acquiring of language (and -> vocabulary). Personally, (and who knows, maybe I'm just some kind of a nut?) I prefer the term language development over language acquisition for what you were using the term for in your previous post. -> I am basing my use of the term on Brian Cambourne, an Australian -> researcher, I am going to have to make an effort to get ahold of something by this guy, he's been mentioned so much here. -> who, after observing children successfully engaging in literacy -> learning developed a set of seven conditions he believed were -> necessary for successful language acquisition. Cambourne said these -> conditions applied to adults as well as children. The seven conditions sound interesting. However, you do not say they are based on "research" (sorry to keep bringing this up, and I hope it's not too annoying to you, but I am seriously trying to ascertain to some extent through this discussion, how much of Whole Language is just popular fad, and how much actually has any support in science). Again, I find them appealing. But, did he have control groups? Did he conduct a study? I am going to try to get the school librarian to get a copy of this book for me, so I might find some of these answers out myself. My point is, though, that if he hasn't done these things, then really his opinion and observations impress me little more than my own opinions and observations. Not on the same topic, of course. I've done precious little work with reading in early childhood. However, in math instruction I'm fairly experienced, fairly opinionated, and have my ideas what works in the classroom and what doesn't. Where my philosophies and Mr. Cambourne's _may_ be in conflict (and perhaps they are not in conflict at all, but just for the sake of argument), then which one of us is right? Maybe I'm being ridiculous and overly argumentative here. Maybe I should just stop participating in this discussion, because as I said before, I have very little experience in early childhood reading instruction. -> Also from my my graduate course in early childhood this quote found -> in the text book *A* *Practical* *Guide* *to* *Early* *Childhood* -> *Curriculum* p. 102 -> -> "Since the foundation of literacy is language development, early -> childhood teachers must be aware of the development of language, as -> well as the factors that influence its development." I certainly can't argue with that quote. It seems common sense to me. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00012 Date: 09/02/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 10:00am \/To: DAN TRIPLETT (Read 4 times) Subj: Whole Language 1 1/ -> I don't think that there has been research on Whole Language in the -> way that you or Chuck may be -> suggesting. Whole language is based on many studies. Whole language -> is the philosophy that sprang from these studies (or research). If -> whole language were a methodology then it could be studied. It is -> not a methodology. It is a way of thinking or a foundation that -> drives ones educational philosophy. I wonder that research couldn't still be conducted on Whole Language, even though it is a philosophy and not a methodology. The important thing would be a control group and measuring through some instrument before and after what the effects had been. As you write, you doubt there is research of this type on Whole Language. If so (and this is what the AFT writes), then this is too bad and someone should correct the situation. Whole Language advocates would only have more evidence to support their claims and have an easier time convincing skeptics with scientifically conducted research supporting their claims. As you wrote in a previous message, you yourself are not on the far right of the WL continuum. But I have dialogued with teachers who are, I've read articles about and by such teachers, and a lot of them are doing crazy things in their classroom and damaging kids. Maybe they aren't practicing the Whole Language philosophy "correctly" as you would say, and I agree that this is very likely. Nevertheless, it goes on. My main point in this conversation is that (1) I wanted to understand better the definition of Whole Language. I think that has been accomplished. I still think that there are wide discrepancies in the field of education on how one teacher vs. another may define it, but I've learned a lot about it in this discussion. (2) to find out if Whole Language is really beneficial, damaging, or neutral in teaching students how to read vs. more traditional instruction. In order to be convinced on this one, I would want to see real scientific research on the matter. I suppose we may not resolve the second issue here. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDA00013 Date: 09/03/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 05:47pm \/To: CARL BOGARDUS (Read 4 times) Subj: Ford, discipline, etc. -> Will the lab have an instructor or will all of the teachers be -> trained in its use? As I understand it, there will be someone who is hired full-time in charge of the lab. But I don't believe that the classroom teachers will be able to just drop their classes off and have the lab teacher take over. He will not be there with a specific curriculum that he is trying to teach to the kids. It will be more like a resource, like the library, and teachers who bring their kids in will probably want to conference with the lab instructor first about appropriate activities and software. Then they will accompany their class to the lab and assist in the lab activities along with the lab teacher. At least, this is what I envision. In the math department, we are taking care of training our math teachers in the use of software that we would like to see purchased for lab use. So, if I took my class to the lab, I would expect I would be leading them in the activity. I would like the lab tech to remain in the lab during our session, though, in case there were any hardware difficulties. Admin has not spelled out clearly if this is how it will operate, or otherwise. You are the lab tech at your school this year, right? Do you get all the students for one period instruction each day? So you have an actual course to teach? You try to select activities to support the subject area teachers, or you just do your own thing? If you are doing something along the lines I've described here, then it is very different from what we will be doing at our high school. -> We are getting some more government computers, all 286, but I can put -> them in the classroom so students can use what they have learned. I -> may try to make a short inservice for teachers, my students know more -> about computers generally than they do, especially WordPerfect 5.1. I am sure we will be getting at least 486 computers. For high school applications, we want to make sure that the lab is going to be useful for software coming out 5+ years from now. It is already difficult to purchase software that will still run on a 286. It's great for you that you are getting free stuff, but I am certain our admin wouldn't want to set up an entire lab with this type of computer. -> Eventually, I hope to have all of the computers wired to the BBS I am -> setting up. However, I do not know where the $ for such a goal will -> come from--maybe grants? There is a lot of information about grants, grant writing, and available grants on the Web. I have no experience with writing grants, but I know some teachers (not at my school) who have been able to do amazing things with grant money they got. If you have the time, and someone to help you (someone who has written grants before, and ... better yet... won them), then you should try it. Sheila --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDB00000 Date: 09/05/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:28pm \/To: ALL (Read 3 times) Subj: Inventive Spelling Hi All, I know I've been meaning to get out on the Web and use the DejaNews search machine to look for some old message from the k12.chat.teacher echo on this topic. I _really_ am going to do that soon. In the meantime, I was reading that newsgroup today, and someone had started up a thread on this topic _again_. One of the three or four posts seemed pretty good, and I decided to cross-post it here. So, this message was posted on 9-4-96 in k12.chat.teacher. It seems to contain a lot of common sense. ----------------------(quoted message begins)--------------------- Path: news.cyberg8t.com!news.cdsnet.net!news.magicnet.net!news.supernet.net!news.cyb erport.com!news.leonardo.net!news.vbc.net!samba.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!olivea !ames!enews.sgi.com!news.sgi.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!newsp ump.sol.net!news.mindspring.com!usenet From: cfc@perrystreet.com (Diane Unterspan) Newsgroups: k12.chat.teacher Subject: Re: Inventive Spelling Date: Thu, 05 Sep 1996 03:48:43 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 33 Message-ID: <50kt95$ucj@camel0.mindspring.com> References: <50l95g$hbl@nntp.interaccess.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: user-168-121-115-53.dialup.mindspring.com X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 rer@interaccess.com (Richard E. Robbins) wrote: >Today my secretary was very distressed about a teaching method she called >"inventive spelling." She claimed that it would not foster the learning of >proper spelling. When I asked my wife if she had heard of this method of >teaching and what it entailed she indicated that she had heard that it is used >in our local school system but did not know any of the details. it is part of the "whole language"approach to teaching reading (as opposed to phonetics). some people are very cultish and get a bit rabid about their approach. Both have merits. Invented spelling is very good for minds which intuit and infer rules about grammar and it makes these children able to express themselves freely without the constraints of phonetic rules. later the students seem able to relearn how to spell correctly. but some learners need direct instruction in certain areas and don't do alot of natural inferring of the rules. Invented spelling is very frustrating and difficult for them and may get in the way of learning to read. My advice is to make sure that your child's teachers are cognizant of the fact that there are many ways to learn to read and one method can not reach all learners. A flexible and eclectic approach is the most helpful. Hope this helps. ******************************************************** "It is always easier to fight for oneos principles than to live up to them." Alfred Adler ******************************************************** * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DDB00001 Date: 09/02/96 From: CHARLES BEAMS Time: 08:43pm \/To: DAN TRIPLETT (Read 3 times) Subj: The Real Story 2 Responding to a message by Dan, to Charles on <09/01/96>... DT>You make a good point here and you are correct that I am thinking of DT>specific work sheets (the boring, canned, meaningless, busywork kind). DT>What you are describing is not what the type of work sheet to which I am DT>referring. I think I would probably agree with using work sheets that DT>facilitate a lesson or provide a student with a format for recording DT>data, interviewing a person of interest, researching information from DT>library material, etc.. I think this is what you are describing. For the most part. DT>.DT>For many children this type of activity is busy work and it's DT>.DT>boring. DT>CB>So is washing up the dinner dishes, but I do it every day. DT> DT>Charles, you are talking apples and I am talking oranges. If we can DT>make learning more meaningful and get more kids engaged in their own DT>learning don't you think they will be more excited about school? Yes, but teaching only things that are fun should not be our motivating force. If anything, it is just this philosophy about education that has put the U.S. so far behind other nations - we've lowered our standards so as not to "tax" our children by teaching them things that are difficult to learn or that they aren't properly motivated to learn. We must determine, as a nation, what we want our kids to know, when we want them to know it, teach it to them, then test them on it. DT>You really think a kindergartner or 1st or 2nd grade kid cares that some DT>things in life are boring? The fact that some things in life may be DT>boring seems a poor excuse to pass off boring kindergartner as a DT>legitimate way to teach kids. (I said boring kindergartner....we have DT>already established that some WS are good.) I'm afraid I don't follow this. My point is this...if we establish that we want all 3rd graders in this country to be able to read at a 3rd grade level on the XYZ Exam, then I don't care *what* the kids think is boring, we teach them to read at the proper level by the 3rd grade. The adults are in charge, not the kids. DT>CB>Don't you think that an electronic worksheet is still just a DT>CB>worksheet? I don't see the difference except that the computer has DT>CB>a little more color and sound. DT> DT>It's very different in my mind. It's interactive for one, it offers a DT>variety for two, it is entertaining for three, and it's not boring for DT>four, and it usually is a choice that is completely left up to the DT>child. I challenge you to this: Put out match-the-letter usually or DT>count-the-objects usually and also have the computers on match the DT>letter/number games. Which do you think the children would rather do? Okay, I won't beat this argument to death, but in my mind, connecting a picture to a beginning sound is no different if done with a pencil or it is done with a mouse. Chuck Beams Fidonet - 1:2608/70 cbeams@future.dreamscape.com ___ * UniQWK #5290* My other computer's a... er... well, it's a piece of junk o. --- Maximus 2.01wb * Origin: The Hidey-Hole BBS, Pennellville, NY (315)668-8929 (1:2608/70)