vol 4

June 1998

1. The Curriculum Library reference section is your friend:
Take the time to go through the reference guides available, just to get a glimpse of the variety of activities these guide books have to offer. Some of my favorites

are Alternatives to Worksheets, Art Smart, and the plethora of idea books for using children’s literature in the classroom.

2. Read the periodicals:
I love Ranger Rick’s Naturescope for fun ideas on teaching hands-on science activities, and The Mailbox magazines offer endless thematic ideas. These periodicals are created by teachers for teachers, and their lessons are tried and true.

3. Play with the manipulatives:
When I began working at the Educational Curriculum library, I had time to browse during the slow hours of summer. I had the chance to play with the magnet kits and try on the body (Continued on side 2)

By Harmony Vanhille

The summer months are a much needed break from the stress of studies, and many enjoy taking a complete vacation. However, summer days are also a unique time to browse through the Curriculum Library for ideas for the following year. Teachers and future student- teachers should consider stopping in after a relaxing day at the beach to discover what the library has to offer them. The school year is a busy time, and preparing in advance is highly recommended. As a student-teacher who has been down that road before, I must share a few pearls of wisdom:

Cure the summer blues with game drills

By Harmony Vanhille

Children need some rest from schoolwork, but
there are ways to keep their brains from rotting
without letting them know they are reviewing
basic concepts. The Curriculum Library has a
new collection of manipulatives in the areas of
math, social studies, and language arts.
Disguised as games, children can be conned into
exercising their minds during the lazy summer
months. Boggle is a fun game to build spelling
and word recognition skills.

on famous places. So,instead of watching
television, children can learn about the Taj
Mahal and the Grand Canyon, or memorize
facts about Alaska such as “In summer,
Alaska’s lettuce and cabbage grow to an
enormous size. Why?” These cards are great
entertainment for travel as well. Parents and
caregivers can browse through the library’s
collection for other educational games and big
children’s books to fill the summer hours.

(Continued from page 1) organ apron, and take note of the materials that were available in each subject. Cooperating teachers will ask you to find new materials for teaching the subjects they teach every year, and if you have researched, you will know exactly what to check out for them, without having to think too hard.

4. Save any cool idea you find:
The Internet is full of websites for teachers, and there are endless ideas for lessons on any subject. Print them out! Keep them for your resource file! If something catches your eye while browsing, make a copy! Write down the source! Keep it all on file! Student

teachers–you are going to have to turn in a resource file anyway, so why not start now? Teachers can never have too many ideas, so time is never wasted browsing through the curriculum library collection. There is so much that I still haven’t looked through, and my time here is just about up. The most frustrating thing is finding a great idea after you have taught the lesson. Don’t let that happen to you! Come and see what we have for you! Have fun this summer, relax, go to the beach, and visit the Education Curriculum Library once in a while. I guarantee you will thank yourself later.

By Yvonne Hernandez and Harmony
Vanhille

The Learning Plus® program has been
purchased by the School of Education to
prepare college students for the Pre-
Professional Skill Test (PPST). This is a
college-level test to access job readiness for
teacher certification.
Because of the technical expertise required
to maintain this program, the School of
Education sends computer support regularly
to check on any problems that may arise.
New improvements have been made to
ensure that the program runs smoothly. For
instance, a diskette is now required to
operate the program. This allows students to
take a portion of the test, and then save the
rest for later, without losing their work.
Diskettes are provided by the School of
Education, and are available in the
Curriculum Library.
Because of the way the tests are scored, it is
best to allow adequate

time to take it in one setting, or save a portion for later so the answers are not rushed. The raw score is calculated by the “rights only” method, which means your score is simply a count of the number of questions you answer right. There is no deduction for incorrect answers, so it is best to guess on any question that is difficult to answer. After the first test is taken, the computer calculates a score based on the answers you have given to all previous questions and uses this score to select the questions for additional tests. The computer presents questions that are appropriate for you. This means that different test-takers will be given different questions. Students who take the test several times and have the opportunity to access their weaknesses benefit from the test much more than those who fight over the computer and cram all their preparation in the day before.