CARES is teacher empowerment

MANILA, Philippines - The Computer-Aided Resources for Educators and Students or CARES program is a parallel program of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers in the USA. Teachers are trained on to make use technology in designing, implementing, and assessing learning experiences to engage students and improve learning while enriching professional practice.

In our present time, it’s an enormous challenge to excite the creativity of the students who have become accustomed to passive learning. Through intensified Teacher Empowerment training, teachers are given tools to promote, support and model creative and innovative thinking by helping students solve authentic real world problems using digital tools and resources.

Teachers would be delighted that there are portable digital tools that would aid their classes any time, any day. These are called science-box, a science laboratory inside a box. With this teaching tool, they can explain temperature, renewable energy, and much more.

Most of the language learning solutions now have a built-in speech laboratory and guided writing laboratory. With a lot of intercultural model texts, videos and audio, students get well rounded experience in learning the language that in use to give them fright. Learning the language with the use of a digital solution will allow more repetition and privacy for the learner. Computers will never get tired of and will not laugh listening to the students’ tireless charades of broken English grammar, mispronounced words and questionable intonation.

These are just samples of what digital resources that teachers could be using in their classrooms. For free trainings and orientation on more of these kinds of digital resources for teachers, they can call Genetic Computer Institute at tel. no. 7254383. They can also check-out technology integration programs at www.geneticschools.net.

MORE countries now want their citizens to learn English.

Associate professor Phyllis Chew of Nanyang University in Singapore made the observation during the Cebu International ESL (English as a Second Language) Conference at Diplomat Hotel, Cebu City last Saturday.

She said that the trend is the result of the change in the status of women in society, increase in migration and transmigration, knowledge explosion and information technology, the writing revolution, and the rise of a global language.

“Teachers need to know these changes. English, it seems, has raced ahead of its competitors. For the last 20 years, so many want to learn it,” she said.

Chew said Singapore, for one, is attracting many Koreans who want to learn to speak English.
The Philippines, India and Malaysia are among the Asian nations that are known as good English teachers because they have been using the language as their medium of instruction, she noted.
“The fast way of mastering English now is through content. And speed is crucial in the process. Many learn English quickly because this has been used as a medium of instruction when they started school. They have been immersed in an English acquisition-rich environment since they were young,” Chew said.

Being known as a nation with a pool of good English speakers, she added, will boost the influx of international students who want to learn English.

The Koreans made up 27.83 percent of Cebu’s tourist market from January to June 2009. According to the Department of Tourism, most of them come to Cebu to study English.
Meanwhile, the knowledge explosion and information technology (IT) across the globe also signaled the need for teachers to incorporate IT in their methodology for learners, especially the young, to easily cope and “survive” in their studies, Chew said.

The IT aspect of learning is characterized by digitization of learning materials, production of e-books (electronic books) and creation of Ebraries (electronic libraries), she said.
“Integration of IT also makes online education possible and enables learners to do many things (while on the Internet),” said Chew.

She pointed out that a good method of teaching English will depend on existing variables—such as time, type of students, place and culture—that teachers have to assess before conducting their lessons. Tuesday, August 11, 2009 http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/more-nations-want-english-language-skills

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks Are History

At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers’ science lectures.

Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for “digital sections” of several English, history and science classes. And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create — and share — lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.

Around the world, hundreds of universities, including M.I.T. and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, now use and share open-source courses. Connexions, a Rice University nonprofit organization devoted to open-source learning, submitted an algebra text to California. 8/8/09 NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html?_r=1&hp

Writing your employment letter hints:

1. Write a comprehensive introductory letter that clearly explains why you are qualified for the job. Don’t just put in a resume, especially one that looks like it was edited three years ago.

2. Spell check! It gives a very bad impression to have wrong spelling or grammar in your application.

3. Be careful when putting attachments that cannot be opened. Case in point: Be careful not to save it in Microsoft Word 2007 format as this is a new format and cannot be opened by companies that are still using Word 2003 or Word 2000.

4. Don’t use an e-mail address with a weird or goofy name.

5. Don’t ask a friend to send or e-mail your application.

6. Specify the job you are applying for. Don’t make the company evaluate what job suits you best.

“Around 20 to 30 years ago, even our taxi drivers could speak straight English. Now, many of them have a problem speaking the language clearly,” Gullas said.

Gullas pointed out that in India’s recent economic boom, their citizens with English skills were the ones who benefitted from it. “This is because they are the ones cornering the good-paying jobs,” noted the educator-turned-lawmaker. He said those without the skills were left behind. “Without access to gainful employment, they remain mired in poverty, amid the economic boom there,” he further stated.

Congressman Gullas, Cebu

Fame, fortune for Web tutors in education-crazy South Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - For a teacher who never sees his students and instructs only online, South Korean Woo Hyeong-cheol makes a lot of money, $4 million a year to be exact.

Woo is not affiliated with any institution that is part of the official school system, but the 46-year-old math instructor is considered one of the best cram school tutors in education-obsessed South Korea, with his Web-based classes as well-known among test-taking teens as top-rated TV dramas.

"School teachers are concerned about creating moral people. We focus more on getting the students better grades in a short amount of time. That's why we are needed and popular," said Woo, who commands a salary higher than almost all of the top baseball players in the country's professional league.

Woo is among a group of about a dozen instructors raking it in because they are thought to be the best at raising scores.

Click here to read the complete article 7/2/09 Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200983_pf.html

Male teachers an endangered species?

Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus said male teachers were a vanishing breed, accounting for only a very small portion of the entire teacher population in the country at present.

IN THE LAST Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET), a total of 26,812 took the elementary level test while 23,975 took the secondary level exam.

Only one male examinee -- Gian Carlo Auxilian, a graduate of St. $Anthony’s College in Antique—made it to the top 10 in the elementary level.

In the secondary level, 11 of the 25 topnotchers were men, including Benedict Barayuga of Central Luzon University and Gerard Vincent Mendoza of the University of the Philippines-Diliman who tied for first place.

Out of the total 50,787 who took the April LET, 3,458 men passed the test or 25.8 percent of the total passers of 13,384.

More men passed the high school te2,194 or 37.09 percent of the total passers in that level -- compared to the 1,264 or 16.9 percent of total passers in the elementary level.

Professional Regulation Commissioner Nilo L. Rosas believes “male teachers can be as nurturing, caring and competent as their female counterparts.”

Click here to read the complete article 6/28/09 Philippine Inquirer
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/learning/view/20090628-212873/Male-teachers-an-endangered-species