A BRAIN TEASER for you and your students to try

Let me share with you a brain teaser I got from Readers' Digest More Tests and Teasers.

Use it in your class as either a day starter or an enrichment activity. You can even have it as a group game to make it more exciting for the students. Use it in any way you like and I'm sure the kids will love it.


SO YOU THINK YOU'RE CLEVER by John Henry Cutler

Here's a quiz that is likely to tie you up in mental knots for an hour or so. Afterwards, you can repair your shattered ego by trying some of these teasers on your students.

1. If 3 cats can kill 3 rats in 3 minutes, how long will it take 100 cats to kill 100 rats?

2. A little Indian and a big Indian are walking down a path. The little Indian is the big Indian's son. The big Indian is not the little Indian's father. Who is it?

3. Which is correct: 8 and 8 are 15 or 8 and 8 is 15?

4. Is it legal for a man to marry his widow's sister?

5. Take two apples from three apples and what have you got?

6. A shepherd had 17 sheep. All but nine died. How many did he have left?

7. A boat will carry only 200 pounds. How may a man weighing 200 pounds and his two sons, each of whom weighs 100 pounds, use it to cross a river?

8. The number of eggs in a basket doubles every minute. The basket is full of eggs in an hour. When was the basket half full?

9. What is the smallest number of ducks that could sim in this formation: two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck, and a duck between two ducks?

10. In which book of the Bible does it tell about Abel's slaying cain?

Answers: 1. Three minutes 2.Mother 3. Neither 4. Only dead men have widows 5. Two apples of course 6. Nine 7. Two sons go first. One brings back the boat, and Father rows over. Then the other sons returns for his brother. 8. In 59 minutes. If the basket is full in 60 minutes, it was half full a minute later, or at the end of 59 minutes. 9. Three ducks in a row, one after the other 10. None. Cain slew Abel.

Making Posters: Fun and Super Easy

Who could imagine that making large posters will only take us a few minutes? With your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, a few clicks on your mouse and keyboard, and a little of that eye for good combination of colors and graphics, I am sure that those great posters will be hanging off your classroom walls in no time at all.

Watch the video, learn how to do it, and try it out immediately!

Brain Stuff for Spelling Teachers

This material was passed on to me by a friend. I found it really amazing. Try it!


Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

I conant blveiee taht I can aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I am rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy syas taht it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be in the rghit pclaes. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

STUDENT FOCUS

A STUDENT...

• is the most important person in any educational institution.


• is not dependent on us - we are dependent on him/her.


• is not an interruption of our work - he/she is the purpose of it.


• does us a favor when he/she calls - we are not doing him/her a favor by serving him/her.


• is a part of our process - not an outsider.


• is not a cold statistic - he/she is a person with feelings like our own.


• is not someone to argue with or match wits with.


• is a person who brings us his/her educational needs, it is our job to meet those needs.


• is deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give him/her.


• is the lifeblood of this and every educational institution.

Source: Lewis University - Cling and Placement

Pay Attention: A Must See for Teachers

**TeacherTube's Top 100 Most Viewed Video***

Since most of today's students can appropriately be labeled as "Digital Learners", why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices?

This presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.

Field Trip: Time to Bond

Aside from providing an opportunity for students to learn outside of the classroom, field trips provide a great opportunity for teachers and students to bond.

Yes, I remember how the bus will be filled with so much gaiety with students' laughter, stories and songs. They share with the me their very own experiences, their crazy but valuable opinions on just about anything, which they seldom do when inside the classroom.

Well, I take this chance to do small talk with every student, especially those who seldom I hear talk in class. I try to spend a little more time with these kids to get to know them better. And often, I notice that after the said bonding, there's a noticeable change in these students' behaviors. They become more open about their thoughts and about their feelings. They are observed to more active and more participative in class. And what's remarkable is they appear happier in the company of their teacher and their classmates.

Indeed, spending a day for field trip has its rewards.

Acknowledge Your Source

Give credit to where credit is due is a popular quote. And often, we, teachers, forget this when we are to share with our students ideas of others which we have read from books, articles, or other other reference materials.

There are actually three (3) ways by which we can incorporate the ideas of others in what we share with our students either in written or spoken forms. This way, we get to give credit to the source of information, and this way, we will never be accused of plagiarism.

1. Direct Quotation: Use the exact words of the source. Place quotation marks to indicate this.
2. Paraphrase: To share ideas without directly quoting but stating the idea in your own words. While you haven't copied word-for-word, you still need to acknowledge the source.
3. Summary: To identify the writer's main idea as expressed in an article, chapter of a book, speech, editorial and other reference materials. Use your own words as well.

The bottomline is to give the source the acknowledgement he deserves for coming up with such notable idea. The next time around, who knows, your great ideas may now be the ones to be cited by your own students.

Back to School

Now that we are to once again embark on another journey as the new school year is about to start (at least here in the Philippines), it might be good to equip ourselves with some simple techniques that will help us make our teaching life a lot more easier and happier.

Here are some Be... ideas that we may try out this school year, and see for ourselves the magic these can do to improve the way we relate with our students.

1. Be generous of praise where praise is deserved. Yes, even little things our students have done well need acknowledgement. It is through providing a sincere compliment that we motivate them to continue on doing what's good and then to eventually excel.

2. Be honest about how you feel. If you are angry, frustrated, excited, glad, worried, it is best for the students to know especially if this will affect them. Example is when you feel sick. Tell your students, so that they know exactly how to adjust to the situation. I remember how I would tell my students how severe my migraine was, so I would appreciate them being more cooperative. And true enough, they would behave as requested.

3. Be attentive. Listen not just to what their words are saying but more importantly to what their voice and body language are saying. Even if a student tells you that he is okay and that there's nothing wrong, but the tone of his voice and his facial expressions tell you otherwise, then take that extra effort to find out exactly how he feels.

4. Be respectful of your students' rights. Do you know that you and your students have the same exact set of rights? If you have the right to voice out your opinion, to give feedback, and to deny a request, then your students have those same rights too. What we need is to do then is to model exactly how these rights are exercised in the classroom. And how is that? With much consideration for choice of words, tone of voice,and body language to go with it.

5. Be considerate of the feelings of others. If you need to reprimand your students, do it in private. A tactful correction in private is better than public humiliation. Humiliating a student in public,aside from prohibitied by school regulations, can force the student to be defensive and to start a fight with you. And when power play begins, you can expect a more difficult life in the classroom, with this student around.

6. Be genuinely interested in all of your students. Try to like your students, all of them, even the dullest and the most troublesome. I know this is easier said that done, but it's worth giving a try. Always look for that goodness, that something likeable about each student and capitalize on it. And that is exactly how a teacher's life becomes enriched by his dealings with students of all kinds.

7. Be happy. Smile. We know for a fact that students never like or rever a terror in the classroom. Smiling with the students, when there's something to smile about, is well appreciated by them. It establishes rapport; it makes them feel comfortable; and it contributes to the conduciveness of the learning environment. After all, it takes 65 muscles to frown, but only 15 to smile.

8. Be personal. Call them using their names. There's something about a person's name that makes a person stop and listen when called by someone. Aside from this helps you easily manage a class if students know that you know them individually and that you may call them anytime, it also gives students a great sense of security when they know that the teacher knows them already.

9. Be ready to help. Listen to their gripes and problems,and find a way how you can help them. You may not necessarily have the solution to their problem, but at least you could enlighten them so as to keep them from turning to the wrong path.

10. Be positive. A positive person creates a positive force that embraces the people surrounding him. Think positive, feel positive, and see how the law of positive attraction works for you and your students.

IMPORTANCE OF CLOSURE

If there's one portion of the lesson that we, teachers, sacrifice due to time constraints, that is no other than closure.

I remember my Assistant Principal reminding the teachers always not to forget ending a day's session using a good closure: a summary of what were discussed and a powerful line that will linger in the minds of the students, making them remember exactly the meat of the day's discussion.

Come to think of it, she was right, we had to utilize the ending portion of our lesson to maximize learning. What we noticed happening to our students during the course of discussion was that most of them would lose interest and eventually zone out. How sad...how frustrating! But that's reality and we just had to live with it.

So, how do you maximize learning when you are already toward the last few minutes of your lesson? Knowing the natural tendency of students to zone out during the most crucial part of the lesson, when you are discussing the most important details, will make us realize that the least we can do is to have them bring home with them even just the main items they need to remember about your topic for the day. And that is exactly what an effective closure will achieve.

Now, you might ask? And how is an effective closure done? There are three steps on how we to make your ending truly powerful and effective.

• First, inform your students that you are about to end your lesson. Since the usual scenario is that they are already sleeping at this time, believe me, when they hear you say that you are about to end, you will once again capture their attention, even more than a 100% of it. You see, they are to excited to leave your class and go to the next class and see the next teacher (who seems more popular than you are). The effect will be that of seeing your students keeping their things in their bags, looking at you intently and listening attentively.
• Second, take advantage of the situation. When you have already gotten back their interest and attention, summarize the most important points you have discussed in your lesson. For every item, add a line or two that will concisely and clearly explain to them what it is about.
• And third, add a punch line (a memorable line) that will capture the main essence of the day's lesson (e.g. a quote or a saying, a rhetorical question that is relating to the lesson, or a preview of tomorrow's activity in relation to today's to excite them a bit). This way, your idea to remember will truly make them remember. Ensure that the line is indeed memorable that it will have the same effect as that of the last song syndrome, that it will continue to linger in their minds hours or even days after. Of course delivery in this case counts.

So, why not try employing a powerful ending the next time you hold a session with your class? See the wonders it will do for you and for your students.