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TEACHERS.NET GAZETTE
Volume 4 Number 1

COVER STORY
Corks are popping! January is awards month in the world of children's literature. Esme Codell writes about contenders for the Caldecott award for best illustration in American children's literature, the Newbery for best writing, the Coretta Scott King award, and others...
ARTICLES
Teachers.Net Again Joins NEA in a Seussian Reading Celebration! by Kathleen Alape Carpenter, Editor
New Tax Law Provides $250 Deduction for Educators by Kathleen Alape Carpenter, Editor
Maslow's Theory of Hierarchical Needs -- Alive and Well in the Classroom by Chuck Brickman
December 14th update from Operation Deep Freeze by LT. Marshall Branch
Editor's e-Picks - January Resources by Kathleen Alape Carpenter, Editor
A Time for Change by Bill Page
If We Want… by Bill Page
H.O.T.S. Activities for Use With the Classroom Word Wall by Michelle Stankevicius
Mid-Year Mark: Closing the Curriculum Gap for ESL Teachers by Jen Cullerton Johnson
Writing Tips for Teachers by Joy Jones
Practice Doesn't Always Make Perfect - Even For "High Stakes" Testing by Dr. Dorothy Rich
Attention Teachers! Homogeneous is [not always] a bad word! by Janet Chapman
Dividing With a Difference by P R Guruprasad
A Primer for Teaching in the University by Bikika T. Laloo
Bits and Pieces - Various Small Articles by The Teachers.Net Community
  • Chatboard Wisdom
  • Dictionary Skills Activity
  • Understanding Voice Control
  • Person of the Year
  • Snowperson Glyph
  • 100th Day Activities
  • January Columns
    January Regular Features
    January Informational Items
    Gazette Home Delivery:

    About Bill Page...

    Bill Page is a teacher. He has patrolled the halls, responded to the bells, struggled with the innovations and has had his share of lunchroom duty, playground duty and bus duty. Bill is currently in his forty-fifth year as a teacher, and through it all, he has learned, he has been successful, and he has had the opportunity to have a wide range of experiences that he now shares with others.

    In various newspaper and journal articles about Bill, he has been called " A Teacher's Teacher," and America's Favorite Classroom Teacher" -- all because he speaks from his own unique experiences, his own common sense ideas, his own original teaching strategies. He is a regular contributor to Teachers.Net Gazette.

    For 30 years Bill has presented district wide staff development programs and seminars throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has spoken to hundreds of thousands of teachers, and has taught fourteen different courses at eighty-six universities including twenty-six consecutive summers at the University of California at Riverside, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara and Davis -- all while maintaining responsibility for junior high classes of "troublemakers" who were rejected by other teachers.

    Bill Page was originator, program director, teacher trainer, and demonstration teacher for Project Enable, a six-year research program for middle level at-risk students, funded by the U.S. Office of Education through CEMREL, Peabody College and The Kennedy Child Study Center. He is eminently qualified with the experience, knowledge, expertise, materials, research and success to offer fresh, effective and proven, teaching strategies that assure increased achievement for all students, including those most at risk.

    Bill does not present himself as an "expert." He says his college training was worthless. He does not have a masters degree, or graduate courses, and says he "was not contaminated by all that nonsense." Instead, he offers his testimonial as a classroom teacher who discovered his own educational philosophy and arrived at his own teaching concepts and his own successful techniques.

    Some of Bill's unique and innovative experiences include these:

    • Bill has run "completely individualized classrooms" going from September to June without ever addressing the entire group. And, he has done it at elementary, middle, and high school levels.
    • He has gone for many years without giving an F to any student on anything ever and has helped other teachers to do the same.
    • He taught a civics class of 527 ninth graders in an auditorium for a year
    • Bill taught a completely individualized math class of 93 seventh graders.
    • He taught in a "wild" innovative school where they eliminated the halls, walls, bells, classes, grades, report cards, textbooks, schedules, and curriculum and used a teacher controlled, variable, flexible schedule that changed daily.
    • He taught in districts of 10,000 teachers, 300 teachers, and five districts in-between.
    • He graduated 8th grade from a one room country school with 27 kids in all 8 grades.

    For additional information on Bill Page and his Teaching, visit www.theacherteacher.com
    Bill invites comments and questions at his e-mail address; billpage@bellsouth.net.


    Teacher Feature...

    A Time for Change

    by Bill Page


    Times have changed and "we can't go home again." But we can:

    Change ourselves,

    Change our attitudes,

    Change our expectations,

    Adjust teaching methods,

    Apply sound techniques,

    Develop new strategies,

    Increase teaching responsibility,

    Examine old attitudes,

    Encourage student participation,

    Critique the teaching-learning process,

    Renew educational procedures,

    Recommit to student-centered learning,

    Involve the kids in decisions,

    Reduce negativism,

    Use grades to motivate kids,

    Be alert to the possibility of our bias,

    Have Class Meetings,

    Listen more to the kids messages,

    Utilize new technology,

    Use a team approach,

    Use multi-modality learning,

    Use authentic learning,

    Use pair-share or study buddy format,

    Use production-driven activities,

    Use unit and project activities,

    Use hands-on activities,

    Use small group interaction,

    And make teaching satisfying again.


    If We Want…

    by Bill Page


    If we want teachers to teach in an inclusive, diverse classroom, they must be empowered to make changes day by day in their classrooms in accordance with the needs of each student--not the needs of the class or majority of the class members, or school policy, predetermined curricula, programmed instruction or whims of the politicians.

    If we want a democratic society, we must provide students with "hands-on" experiences with democratic principles and procedures in their daily school life.

    If we want responsible, self-actualized, self-disciplined students we must create conditions in which they have the opportunity to learn and practice responsibility, initiative, discipline and self-control.

    If we want students who are productive, industrious and committed, they must be involved in an integral part of the planning, the decision-making and the evaluation of their own learning.

    If we want students who are respectful and caring human beings, we must examine our own behavior toward them -- students learn what they live.

    If we want students who value ethnic differences, cultural diversity and individual differences, who respect human rights, and who are prepared to live in a pluralistic society, we must create conditions that teach those values as an integral, continuous part of their daily school lives.

    If we want students to be engaged in learning, to have a good attitude toward school, to be interested and enthusiastic about school subject matter, and to continue learning through life, we must make schools interesting, lively, exciting, and relevant to each student.

    TO CONTINUE USING TEACHING METHODS OF THE PAST IS NOT JUST MISEDUCATION; IT CONSTITUTES MALPRACTICE!


    By Bill Page, teacher, parent, and realist.
    Comments:
    billpage@bellsouth.net


    Visit Bill Page's Web Site: www.teacherteacher.com for articles that can be downloaded free. Bill enjoys answering questions by e-mail: billpage@bellsouth.net.

    Bill Page is available as a staff development program leader and he has audio and video tapes available for teachers, administrators, and parents:
    For information or brochures, check his web site or call toll free: 1-888-471-4385


    Gazette Articles by Bill Page:


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