If we are going to disagree with a cell-phone ban then there needs to be evidence to support why we disagree, with a few of our own personal reasons, research and examples. A couple of ideas that I shared around the use of cellphones were based on features that cellphones have(I added a few more here):

* Use photo feature to capture two blackboards full of writing that students were supposed to copy down after 100 minutes of class time by a history teacher. (Some old resentment here)
* Use photo feature – notes, PowerPoint, diagrams – anything that needs data archiving and retrieval
* Capture video of science experiments for labs and share the results with the teacher to annotate projects or use as part of the process.
* Videojournalist for purpose and product
* Students record notes from their classes by using the voice-mail features – or cell to podcast web tools.
* Use RMinder http://www.rminder.com/ to blast voice and text reminders to students based on assignments and due dates of different events. Can even match to events in outlook, google cal, ical and more.

One of the more obvious tools is Internet browsing and web sites that could be accessed for learning. eSchoolNews as pointed out by Dean, mentions Wink Site for creating web sites that can be accessed by mobile phones. It also has a nice little education section.

Pointed out the following article from What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone? Almost Anything!by Marc Prensky. Which includes some practical examples like the cell phone audio tours of Minute Man National Historical Park, test preparation tools, and mobile phone games.

I also pulled out the following quote which seemed appropriate to the article:

As usual, students are far ahead of their teachers on this. The first educational use they have found (in large numbers) for their cell phones is retrieving information on demand during exams. Educators, of course, refer to this as “cheating.” They might better serve their students by redefining open-book testing as open-phone testing, for example, and by encouraging, rather than quashing, student innovation in this and other areas. Let me state definitively that I am not in favor of cheating. I am in favor of adjusting the rules of test-taking and other educational practices in a way that fosters student ingenuity and creativity in using learning tools and that supports learning rather than administration.

Yes, you can. All you need to do is train yourself to speak English as comfortably and perfectly as you speak your mother tongue.

How do you train yourself? By inculcating certain practices in your daily lifestyle. These will get you closer to sounding like a native English speaker and equip you with a global accent — and you will speak not American or British English, but correct English.

This is the first step to learn any other accent, be it American or British or Australian.

Lisa Mojsin, head trainer, director and founder of the Accurate English Training Company in Los Angeles,
offers these tips to help ‘neutralise’ your accent or rather do away with the local twang, as you speak.

i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are
saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a
hard time understanding you.

Don’t worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech — it is more important that
everything you say be understood.

iii. Listen to the ‘music’ of English.

Do not use the ‘music’ of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of
’singing’.

iv. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation
of words that are hard for you to say.

v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the
language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.

vi. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the
person reading the book on the tape.

vii. Pronounce the ending of each word.

Pay special attention to ‘S’ and ‘ED’ endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you
use when you speak English.

viii. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day.

Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for
speaking a new language.

ix. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is
a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

x. Be patient.

You can change the way you speak but it won’t happen overnight. People often expect instant results and
give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Quick tips

Various versions of the English language exist. Begin by identifying the category you fall into and start by
improving the clarity of your speech.

~ Focus on removing the mother tongue influence and the ‘Indianisms’ that creep into your English
conversations.

~ Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies
and HBO.

~ Listen to and sing English songs. We’d recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis and
Connie Francis among others.

Because the needs of students who come to the Resource Room are so diverse, it can be challenging to structure the learning environment. I have begun managing my Resource Room in the following manner:

 

Setting Up/Getting Prepared

1. I created a chart with three columns. Each column has an arrow pointing downward (one orange, one blue and one green). I laminated the chart so that I could write on it with wipe-off crayons.
2. Each day, I decide how I want to group students. Generally, grouping by ability level or IEP objectives works best. I end up with an orange group, a blue group and a green group. Then, assigning one column on the chart per group, I write student names in the columns.
3. I then assign certain tables as work spaces by placing an orange marker on one table, and so on. My markers are simply folded pieces of manila that stand up. Using this system allows me to set up everything the night before. Students can come in, look for their names on the chart, and group themselves according to color. They usually look over the materials I have already set out. So far, this seems to increase their enthusiasm.
4. I have 1 or 2 paraprofessionals in my room most of the morning. I write brief instructions on sticky notes (the larger ruled brand) and stick the notes on the materials. This usually is sufficient explanation.

Rotation/Instructional Time

1. I provide direct instruction (mini-lessons on a skill or strategy; reading from a Linguistic Reader, etc.) to the first group of students while the other 2 groups work with paras. The paras do a lot of skills games, review and reinforcement/practice activities. When I finish my mini-lesson, the groups rotate.
2. Then, we rotate again! Simple! Sometimes I teach the same mini-lesson to 3 groups. Sometimes my instruction is more individualized. Likewise, paras may do different activities with different groups. It all depends on what the students need on a particular day.

Variation:

One group could do independent work or simple games (SIGHT Word Bingo, for example) if sufficient paraprofessional help is not available.

1. Be Equipped

On the night before the test you should gather everything you’ll need: the admission ticket, a valid form of photo identification, several #2 pencils, a calculator with fresh batteries (for the SAT only), a watch, and a high-energy snack.

2. Don’t Cram
You’ve worked hard. The best thing to do the evening before the test is to get a good night’s sleep. You’ve covered the content and you’ve perfected the skills. Now it’s time to get in test mode — calm, rested, confident, and ready.

3. Dress in Layers
The climate in test centers can vary from sauna-like to frigid. Be prepared for both extremes and everything in-between. You need to be comfortable to do your best.

4. Arrive Early
You may want to scope out your test location before test day to ensure that you know where you’re going. Getting to the test should be the least of your concerns.

5. Don’t Spend too Much Time on One Question
Each question is worth the same number of points. If a question is confusing or too time-consuming, don’t lose your cool. Instead, move on to greener pastures. You can come back to hard questions if you have time at the end of a section.

6. Don’t Look for Unscored Questions/Sections
The experimental section on the SAT is well-camouflaged. Sometimes the ACT contains experimental questions that are scattered throughout the sections. Do your best on every question–that way, you’re covered.

7. Keep Track of Where You Are in a Section
On the SAT, obvious answer choices early in a set may be correct. Obvious choices near the end of a set are often booby traps.

8. Guess Aggressively
If you don’t know an answer, don’t leave the question blank or guess randomly. Eliminate the choices you know are wrong, then make an educated guess from the remaining options. Remember, if you can eliminate even one answer choice then it pays to guess on the SAT. On the ACT, students aren’t penalized for guessing. Only the correct answers count toward their score, so it is better to guess than leave a blank.

9. Be Careful Filling in the Answer Grid
Make sure you’re filling in answers next to the right numbers.

10. Relax
Your attitude and outlook are crucial to your test-day performance. Be confident.

Vowel Detective Game ~ All About Syllables ~ Grades 1-4

Instructions

1. Spend a week writing three letter words with short vowel sounds; think of as many as you can (sample words: bag, beg, big, bog, bug).
2. Spend a couple days writing four letter words with long vowel sounds and silent final e; think of as many as you can (sample words: bake, kite, cute)
3. Spend one day writing the following notes on syllables.
   1. Open Syllables (v•cv)

i.    Vowel is at the end of a syllable (r.4, 5)

ii.    Vowel says its long sound (ba•by, mu•sic, o•pen, si•lent)

1. 1. Closed Syllables (vc•cv)

i.    Vowel is not at the end of a syllable

ii.    Vowel says its short sound (af•ter, nev•er, un•der, win•dow, pop•corn)

1. 1. Ask, “Now that I taught you what’s different about open and closed syllables, what is the same about them?” After they guess the answer, write it: Every syllable must have a vowel.
2. Play Vowel Detective Game to understand how vowels rule the kingdom of words. They are the kings of the alphabet. They dictate how a word is spelled and pronounced. They have the keys to unlock your greatest potential as a speller and reader. Watch their placement for clues.
   1. Write 5-10 (depending on how many kids you have) open syllable words and 5-10 closed syllable words on index cards. They have to be words with two syllables.
   2. Hide them throughout the house.
   3. Have some children look for open syllable words and other children look for closed syllable words. If they find words that aren’t the ones they’re supposed to find, they must leave them in their place.
   4. Whoever finds the most of their kind wins.
3. Have children answer the following questions to assess their understanding.
   1. What is an open syllable? or What kind of syllable has a long vowel at the end?
   2. What is a closed syllable? or What kind of syllable has a short vowel not at the end?
   3. What’s similar about open and closed syllables? or What must every syllable have?

6. Stop for lunch! This is a biggie in my book. I have seen too many teachers prepare for students and not stop for lunch. You need this down time in order to reenergize your body. This is a great time to network and bond with your coworkers. These are the people who will be in your support group when you need it. Don’t take it for granted that they will always be there for you just because you work together. You need to nurture this relationship. You also need to nurture your body. The first few weeks are exhausting and you do not need to get sick during this time. In fact, eating right will help you face these stressful times because stress wears down the immune system.

If you have any other suggestions to add, please let me know in the comments. I hope some of these will help teachers start off their year successfully. It really does help if you feel on top of the world rather than bulldozed by it.

Let’s face it. When school starts, we all face anxiety – the student, the parents, and the teacher. It is a stressful time because we are facing the unknown. The student usually doesn’t know the teacher or the new rules and may even be facing a new school. The parents don’t know what their child will be facing or if their child will be able to succeed. The teacher doesn’t really know the student or what motivates this child. Everyone wants to do their best and be successful so it is always good to start off on the right track.

In 5 Ideas to Ease “Back to School Anxiety” from School Psychologist Blog Files by Erin N. King, there are some great suggestions for easing a child’s anxiety.

“1. Keep your own anxiety in check.
2. Get Familiar.
3. Have a trial run.
4. Talk.
5. Get help if needed.”

These are great suggestions. But what can teachers do to ease their own anxiety in order to help their students? Here are my suggestions:

1. Call parents before school starts. Introduce yourself and give a little background. This will help you know the parent and the parent will have a great impression of you from the start.

2. Get organized. Plan your first week ahead of time. You may not know the kids yet but have a tentative plan of activities. Nothing is worse for you and the students if they get bored. You may have to adjust and modify but at least you won’t be starting from scratch.

3. Make a list and prioritize it. Sometimes I would be so overwhelmed by the beginning of school that I would have tons of things I needed and wanted to do. It helped me focus if I made a list and started doing the things that had to be done immediately. When I was able to cross them off the list when completed, it helped me feel like I accomplished something and kept me from feeling defeated.
4. Determine your rules and consequences before school starts. Find a way to post these in your classroom before the students show up.

5. If possible, set up your classroom before your first day of work. (My husband would kill me for saying this because he hates the thought of me working and not getting paid. I always felt like this extra effort helped me from going crazy so it was worth it!) The first week of work usually involved lots of meetings and paperwork. When I didn’t have to worry about setting up my classroom, it helped me focus on other things I needed to do.

6. Stop for lunch! This is a biggie in my book. I have seen too many teachers prepare for students and not stop for lunch. You need this down time in order to reenergize your body. This is a great time to network and bond with your coworkers. These are the people who will be in your support group when you need it. Don’t take it for granted that they will always be there for you just because you work together. You need to nurture this relationship. You also need to nurture your body. The first few weeks are exhausting and you do not need to get sick during this time. In fact, eating right will help you face these stressful times because stress wears down the immune system.

If you have any other suggestions to add, please let me know in the comments. I hope some of these will help teachers start off their year successfully. It really does help if you feel on top of the world rather than bulldozed by it.

Stress is dangerous and can have negative effects on our health when we it gets out of control. In such cases stress can:
Limit the ability of our actual performance andMakes us suffer, both physically and mentally
manage exam stress by forhealth

Symptoms of Stress
–Reduction of performance:Difficulty in concentration, mental blockade (black out), difficulty in organizing information
–Physical symptoms:Headaches, abdominal pains, rapid pulse, sweating, tremor, nausea, muscle tension
–Mental symptoms:Negative thoughts, low self-esteem, irritability, and insomnia

Causes of examination Stress
Examination stress has many different sources. The combination of different factors, namely the thoughts and emotions that each student has, is responsible for creating the stress.
–Lack of Self Confidence
Perhaps the number one cause that creates stress on students is the sense that they do not have the ability to cope with the demands of the exams. This is a subjective belief, and really does not mean that the student does not have the skills to pass, but fears that they do not have confidence in themselves.
–Competition
Another critical factor that causes examination stress is that there is intense competition for the limited available places in higher education. This means that some people will stay out of them. Another fear is that students believe that the effort made for reading will be “lost” if the student does not pass the exams.
–Negative thoughts
Negative thoughts generated by the student before the exams are a very important cause of stress: how difficult and endless is the material to study, how many things you have to remember, the fears of what will happen if they do not pass the exams, the believe that if they do not pass the exams their future will be lost and they will feel like a loser, and in other words, the thoughts of all those catastrophic scenarios, which deny the opportunity to the students to believe in themselves and put all their energy and focus on preparing for the exams.

During the days of the exams, students and parents redouble their efforts for success. These days the anxiety and stress of children, who are nothing but «disguised» fear of possible failure in examinations, grow. Certainly what is needed to know and remembered by candidates and parents is that to some extent, stress is normal and creative. Stress mobilizes us in difficult and challenging phases of our lives and helps us to make maximum efforts to achieve our goals!
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How to manage stress before the exams
–Learn to face the exams, despite your fear for a possible failure!
–Take care for your good preparation
–Create a schedule – organize your time
–Do your exam revisions with your friends
–Test your skills and knowledge with other friends
–Meet with other friends and try to ask each other question
–Try to explain to your friends what you have understood from studying, if you can explain to others, then you have understood … otherwise, you need further iterations!

Analyze the situation realistically
Take a piece of paper and write down what is exactly causing you stress and anxiety, next to each problem write possible solutions. Take a break and discuss with your parents, or your teachers (if possible) your fears and doubts
Visualize and beat your fears
Attempt a mental representation of the actual conditions that cause you stress (i.e. «imagine in detail the actual conditions that make you feel stressed…»). When you do that you will notice that the more often you imagine and visualize the exams the more familiar you will become with them…! When you can deal with your fears in your imagination, you can also deal with them in reality as well!
Organize your study environment appropriately
Create a pleasant study environment, without strong lighting and sounds.Make sure that the room has enough fresh airClose windows and download the rolls.Turn off TV, radio, and telephone. If there is still noise, you can use ear-protectors.Find a comfortable position and lie down or sit in such a way that the head, the neck and your shoulders are in a convenient alignment, creating a channel for proper breathing.Empty your mind from any other thoughts.
Try relaxation exercises
For 15 minutes per day, focus on diaphragmatic breathing and try to relaxReplace your thoughts: “I won’t be afraid”, or “I will definitely succeed”, With more realistic thoughts: “Even if I am afraid, I will do everything I can to overcome any obstacles in order to achieve my goals”.Spend a little time for physical exercise on a daily basis
Make sure to rest and sleep well
Take a daily morning bath with lukewarm waterHow to manage stress during the examsDuring the exams, it is important to be stress free.
Always start completing an exam paper with what you know well. This will help you gain confidence and help you answer the more difficult questions.
Combine inhalation and exhalation with positive thinking.

Apply Conscious breathing
Knowing to apply correctly the process of breathing can help you relax, unwind and «clean» your mind, with only a few breaths. The conscious breathing, based on yoga techniques, is a particular method for balancing the autonomous nervous system that affects psychological disorders and stressful conditions.
When you feel a wave of anxiety or stress coming in on you, group your attention to the way you breathe. Invite your breath to become slower, more integrated. Feel the air filling your lungs. Try to match how much air you breathe and how much air you let out. During exhale consider that you are getting stress out of your body.
Once you feel the first signs of panic reiterated a word or phrase that helps you calm (e.g. «calm», «relax», «I am next to you whatever happens…», etc.

How to manage stress after the exam
Make a gift to yourself; go out for a walk with a friend.
Vision you success and prepared yourself for the next day.
Relax as much as you can and try to engage with pleasant activities.

How parents can help their children to manage the exam stress
First of all make sure that you are available to hear the concerns and fears of your children, before you give any advice to them!
Try not to give advices that do not have to do anything with reality!
You can use any of the statements below to raise your children confidence:
«Anxiety of failure is normal»
«We are had similar circumstances similar anxiety…”
«Even if you do not pass, there are alternatives…”
«If you do not pass the exam the only thing that will make my unhappy is that you will not be rewarded for your efforts…»
«Any failure is a learning opportunity! …”

Whether it is their family life; their relationships or finances, friendships; everyone wants to change something. Goal setting is the first step to do that. Though, many of us are great at trying to set goals but most of us are practically inefficient of following these goals.

Think about it. How many times have you determined on a particular course of action and simply didn’t follow determined way of doing it? Quite often many of the individuals behave in this way.
Unable To Follow the Goals
Sometimes the toughest part of the accomplishing any goal is the setting of goals itself. The easiest way of looking at this is to think of each and every New Year. Actually it is the resolutions, which form the largest part of New Year’s celebrations but not the parties and the get-togethers.

We all like to attend and talk about New Years Eve parties; the resolutions for the New Year are the most common source of conversation.

The only trouble is that most of us set the same resolutions every year, and every year, we are unsuccessful to achieve these goals. After all, we would not make the same resolution every year, if we were successful in achieving those goals.

You need to know the fact about what is really holding you back. Goal setting and motivation go hand in hand. The goal is your journey and the motivation your fuel to get there.

You may have gallons and gallons of fuel, but no journey to go on. You may have many goals, but no fuel to get there. What can avoid you from going on that journey? There are many more things holding you back than you understand.

Goal Setting Techniques
Make sure that your goals are your own and no one else’s
Deciding what is important for you to accomplish in your life and making your options based on this knowledge
Motivating yourself to attainment to ensure their accomplishment
Building your self-confidence based on the measured attainment of goals
Separating what is significant from what is unrelated so that your focus is in the right place

By setting goals you can:
Improve your self-confidence
Increase your motivation to achieve the most out of life
Achieve more in your lifetime
Plan to eliminate attitudes that hold you back and cause unhappiness
Improve your overall performances in life
Increase your pride and satisfaction in your achievements
Advantages of Goal Setting
Concentrate and focus better
Are happier and more satisfied with life
Show more self-confidence
Suffer less from stress and anxiety
Perform better in all areas of life

Reward Yourself
When you have accomplished a goal, you have to take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal accomplishment, and observe the growth you have made towards accomplishing other goals. You should reward yourself appropriately, if the goal was an important one.

Think of the goal like this, why would you prefer to ignore any achievements that you have made? In doing that, you are minimizing the importance of your achievement, which will induce you that it wasn’t that important in the first place.

Nishanth Reddy is an author and publisher of popular self help blog.