Learning to read is a large and difficult task, but children can learn the skill quicker when properly guided by caring teachers and parents. There are several components of guided reading. It is usually taught in a small group of three to six students and the teacher provides an introduction to the material, reading strategies and assistance when the children need it. After everyone has read through the material, the teacher also tries to elicit a response from the students by asking questions about the text or starting a discussion.

In addition to providing the one-on-one attention that students need as they learn to read, guided reading creates a comfortable team environment for learning and teaching. The whole process also teaches children how to approach an unfamiliar text, get through difficult sections and review the material at the end. This is a valuable skill in and of itself because they will need to learn how to select reading material and draw lessons out of what they read in the future.

Praise is an important part of guided reading because it balances out the correction and feedback that students receive. Being recognized and praised for their achievements also builds confidence and makes reading an enjoyable experience.

Before guided reading even begins, teachers, parents and students need to find good books at the appropriate reading level. After all, when the story is too difficult for children to read, it is easy for them to get confused and frustrated. They will also lose sight of the plot which makes reading more boring for beginners.

Guided reading is primarily used by teachers, but there are ways that parents can encourage children to develop their reading skills at home as well. For example, taking the time to read bedtime stories or and a couple small books during the day can make books more attractive to your child. Obviously, building a family library will make it easier for your children to access those books. If you can’t afford to stock a couple book shelves, libraries are still a great place to find the books your children love. It might not be as fast as finding literature online, but children appreciate holding concrete objects and looking at the colorful pictures in lower-level books.

Reading is a skill that children will use for the rest of their lives. It will impact their education, their opportunities and the enjoyment they find in literature. That is why the learning process is worth all the time and resources teachers and parents can afford to provide.

Scholastic (http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/) has all the resources that teachers need to conduct guided reading in their classrooms. There are also reading lists that the students and parents can use independently at home. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.

Walking is one of the best exercises for lifetime fitness. But let’s face it – plain old walking can be a boring proposition for students. As a result, the canny physical education teacher will find ways to make a walk more exciting.

Thanks to modern technology, there is now a fun activity that combines satellite navigation, orienteering, computer skills, treasure hunting…and walking. It’s a super cross-curricular game that your students will love.

Called “geocaching,” (pronounced “geo cashing”) it makes use of GPS units to find prizes hidden by other geocachers.

WHAT IS A GPS?

GPS stands for “Global Positioning System” and these handheld electronic units make use of satellites to pinpoint your latitude and longitude to within three meters. A GPS will help you navigate from your current position to another location using their built-in maps and instructions.

GPS units cost anywhere from $100 and up. As an alternative, some Blackberry units can be GPS-enabled. You can download “Geocache Navigator” for free for 60 days. For more information, see the “Blackberry.Geocaching” website.

However, the big surge in GPS use will come when regular GPS-enabled cell phones hit the market. It is estimated that 500 million such cell phones will be in use, worldwide, by 2012.

GEOCACHING – HOW TO GET STARTED

To start a geocaching quest, log in to the “Geocaching” website. Enter the postal code of your area and you’ll see several local cache locations, each with a short verbal description, a level of difficulty and a location shown on the Google Map website.

To get your GPS co-ordinates, you must first register (it’s free). You can then receive the GPS longitude and latitude co-ordinates. An example might be N43o40.110′W083o23.378′

Your job as a geocacher is to enter the co-ordinates into your GPS unit, then follow the directions to the cache. This will involve a nice hike for your students.

Before embarking on your quest, you could give a cross-curricular lesson on latitude, longitude and satellites…not to mention the use of the world wide web.
ONCE YOU FIND YOUR LOCATION – WHAT TO DO?

Your GPS will get you within 6 to 20 feet from your target. You then have to search to find the cache, which usually will be a plastic container.

Most containers will contain a dollar-store item such as a plastic animal, pencil or measuring tapes. They will also contain a logbook that you can read, and then sign. Seeing who else has been to the cache is half the fun. Take the prize, then replace it with a prize of your own.

CLASS LOGISTICS

You can go geocaching with your entire class, or split into groups, as long as each group has a supervisor. Also, you could also establish a cache or two of your own, in a location you know to be safe and easily accessible.

The good thing about a GPS is that it’s hard to get lost when you have one in your hand. It will leave a trail of “bread crumbs” as you walk – little dots on the display screen that show you how to retrace your steps. However, it’s also good to bring a compass, just in case the GPS batteries die.

And the best thing about geocaching? It will get your students walking – and make it fun at the same time!

Dick Moss (editor@peupdate.com) is the publisher of PE Update.com – a website that keeps physical educators and coaches up-to-date on over 40 sports, fitness and coaching topics. The website also provides a free newsletter, blog and sample articles. Check it out at: www.peUpdate.com

DO YOUR REQUIREMENTS ONLINE

This Georgia Drivers Ed course is entirely online, so where you work on it is totally up to you. The state of Georgia requires all new drivers to complete a Joshua’s Law approved course before being able to take their permit exam, so why not do it in a fun and easy way? This course is accessible from any computer with an internet connection, so you can do it from home, school, work, or even your favorite coffee café that has wireless internet services.

JOSHUA’S LAW ONLINE COURSE

This course is approved in the state of Georgia, which means that it fulfills all the requirements that are necessary for you to take your permit exam. You can come and go as you please with it because you get an unlimited amount of log ins and outs. This allows you to take breaks whenever you need them and it lets you decide when you work on it and for how long.

SIGNING UP ONLINE

You can sign up for this Georgia Drivers Ed course online in just a few minutes, so you can start working on it right away. You will get to pick your own username and password when you register and that way you can log in from any computer location and always be able to access your course.

HAVE FUN TOO

There are eight units that make up this Georgia Drivers Ed course, but each one of them is jam-packed with fun. There are tons of graphics, animations, videos, and audio clips in every unit to make sure you that you have a lot of fun and that you never get bored; too bad all your classes in school aren’t this fun. There are also short multiple-choice quizzes at the end of each unit to help you review what you have just learned.

LOG IN AND OUT ANYTIME

Being able to log in and out of this Joshua’s Law Course whenever you want really lets you be in charge of your studying. Your spot is automatically saved for you each time you log out of your course, so when you log back in you don’t have to waste any time trying to remember where you left off.

GUARANTEED TO PASS

This driver education course does have a final exam at the end of it, but it is way different from anything you have seen before. Every question on the final exam is multiple-choice and it has been pulled right from the course material, so you will be more than prepared for it. Plus, since you can take it as many times as you want you are literally guaranteed to pass it at some point.

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

This course is very user-friendly, but you still may have questions throughout it and that is what the customer support team is for; to help you when you need them. They work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and you can reach them by calling a toll-free hotline, emailing, or even by chatting live with them right from your computer.

Author:
Andrew Jacob – A Driving Instructor and Hobby writer for drivers education articles
Georgia Drivers Education

It’s a face of America that shows no slow down — new immigrants finding new lives in the states are bringing children who face the learning curve of both, getting through regular educational material, and learning a second language. And it’s not something that simply effecting big city metros either, immigrant populations are spreading throughout Middle America, into its small towns and local districts.

This new swath of Americans creates a big obstacle for educators in the classroom and for parents at home teaching these new English-language learners. There are basically two fronts — the new students need to learn how to speak English and they need to learn how to read. The advantage of this is that software plays a great role by introducing both at the same time. Technology provides a tool that can be used at school and at home with learning software.

What Software Can Facilitate in English Instruction

Software has the capacity as a multi-media tool that gives both visual and audio instruction. So that means that you can show how English in constructed in speaking and how speaking is arranged through English words and letters. As an example, instruction software can play an interactive animation where labels and simple English are used. Names of family members can be introduced with their talking image and spelled out name where the English-language learner can be asked to choose in order who the mother is, or who the brother is etc and so on. It’s the synergized coupling of spoken words with the written word meaning that makes a lesson like this so powerful.

On the instructors end, software provides an easy way to gather metrics on student’s scores, where their strong point lie, where they need help while showing how they progress is in the usual class subjects. And often the usual elementary subjects can be taught simultaneously teaching English.

The computer, in all its wonderment, still cannot take everything away that books have to offer. But the combining of a core reading program and computer software gives an extra shot of enlightenment for English-language learners since many books can come with a supplemental media to quiz and challenge the new reader. It often comes as a CD or DVD to run on a drive.
Since teachers need to double their efforts to teach both their usual subject and their English learning students, the software platform will also provide a time to have the teacher work on those who are at a higher level of English speaking.

Scholastic (http://www.teacher.scholastic.com/products/zipzoom/) has a powerful program for called Zip Zoom. This program combines the power of multi-media software, book learning and teacher instruction. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.