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TEACHERS.NET GAZETTE
Volume 3 Number 3

COVER STORY
Harry & Rosemary Wong ask, "Is it possible that a school district would have no openings at a time of worldwide teacher shortages? But more importantly, why were there no openings in the Medford School District?"...
COLUMNS
Effective Teaching by Harry & Rosemary Wong
Promoting Learning by Marv Marshall
4 Blocks by Cheryl Sigmon
Ask the School Psychologist by Beth Bruno
Online Classrooms by Leslie Bowman
The Eclectic Teacher by Ginny Hoover
The Busy Educator's Monthly Five (5 Sites for Busy Educators) by Marjan Glavac
Around the Block by Cheryl Ristow
Ask the Literacy Teacher by Leigh Hall
Instant Ideas for Busy Teachers by Barbara Gruber and Sue Gruber
ARTICLES
Every Day is Read Across America Day!
Music is...
Ten Pennies and Ten Dimes
Swinging on the Education Pendulum
Literature Circles
Internet Based Interaction in the Classroom
Intelligence
How to Create A Bad Acceptable Use Policy Document (And Have It Survive)!
Safety on College Campuses
The Montessori Mystery
Playing Baseball in the Classroom - A Flexible, Adaptable Game to Motivate Your Students
Whither Not Social Studies!
When Bright Kids Say, "I'm Bored!"
Book Review: Comprehension Instruction
Teacher Social Groups
Retaining Principals
TEACHER INSPIRATION FEATURE
Today I Learned
ON-SITE GEMS
Things You NEVER Thought You'd Have to Say…or Hear
What Was Your Most Unforgettable Show and Tell?
ON-SITE INSIGHTS
How Do You Deal With Middle School Students' Apathy?
OPINION
Why Reading Scores Across the Nation Have Declined
REGULAR FEATURES
Apple Seeds
Special Days This Month
Poem - Searching for the Gold
The Lighter Side of Teaching
  • YENDOR'S Top Ten
  • A Challenging Foot Feat
  • Schoolies
  • Woodhead
  • Handy Teacher Recipes
    Classroom Crafts
    Help Wanted - Teaching Jobs
    Featured Lesson from the Lesson Bank
  • Here Comes the Train
  • Upcoming Ed Conferences
    Letters to the Editor
    Chatboard Poll, What changes has your district made in an effort to raise test scores?
    FYI
    Action Against Hunger Project
    Explore Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest
    Third Annual Music Education Survey Gets Underway
    Gazette Home Delivery:


    About Dave Melanson...

    Dave Melanson is located in Montreal Canada. He has five years experience presenting seminars and sensitization training to elementary schoolteachers on mainstreaming and integrating visually impaired and blind children into the regular classroom. During the past 2 years he has begun to branch outside of the Montreal area and is now covering other Canadian Provinces as well as the U.S. When giving seminars Dave brings with him a briefcase of 10 pairs of simulator glasses, each allowing the wearer to experience a different type of visual impairment.

    Dave will provide a tape of a previous seminar to any school district interested in booking a presentation in order to demonstrate the topics he covers with regard to integration and mainstreaming a sight impaired or blind child.

    You may contact Dave for more information by e-mail at melanson@teachers.net or by telephone: 514 7683264. Dave can also be found in the Teachers.Net chatroom many evenings during the week, logged on as Dave/Montreal.

    Teacher Feature...

    Teacher Social Groups
    A Way to Relieve and Prevent Stress

    by Dave Melanson


    As teachers, I am sure many of you spend hours each day (some of them on your own time) preparing lesson plans, correcting, researching, and volunteering your time for after school activities. One thing I have come to realize after working in the field of inservice training with elementary teachers is that for the most part, there are very few teacher social groups organized to allow colleagues to do various activities together on evenings and weekends.

    Here in Montreal I am a member of the Quebec Geography Teachers' Association (QGTA) headed by Mr. Camerine Gray, geography teacher at Lindsey Place High School. In spite of its name, the group has become in the past 40 years of its existence not just an interest group confined to geography teachers but a social extension for teachers of all levels and subjects who merely want to get together and enjoy the many weekend and evening activities this group plans on a monthly basis.

    For example, Mr. Gray organizes trips to restaurants of different cultures where we have the opportunity to sample foods from all over the world. Following the meal there is often a guest speaker who gives a lecture on that country that we have just sampled the food from. We also often go on day trips. In January we visited a Sikh Temple. This month visited a black church, sampled a meal from Barbados, listened to a lecture and watched a video about that country. We are also planning to tour an asbestos mine and we visit many museums and art galleries as well.

    I believe that such social activities are good for morale and spirit. Teachers are given the opportunity to socialize and chat and at the same time attend an informative educational and enjoyable event.

    Mr. Gray has often stated that these types of outings and get-togethers are excellent stress relievers where the everyday hustle and bustle and frustrations of the classroom can be forgotten for a little while and can be replaced by laughter and excitement.

    For me personally these social events have helped me to network, and have also been a wonderful way for me to meet many friends in the teaching community.

    I see our yearly Teachers.Net gatherings as being the same sort of positive way to forget about the many frustrations and stress that teachers face in the classroom. My sincere thanks to anyone who has ever decided to host a Teachers.Net gathering as I am well aware that these gatherings take many, many hours of planning and organization. But the reward always comes when that day finally arrives and we all finally have the opportunity to meet each other personally after keyboarding for months, sometimes years, with each other.

    Maybe next time when you are feeling stressed, "down" or frustrated, try to think about that next upcoming Teachers.Net Gathering or plan a social event with your colleagues. Lunch, dinner or karioke, these are things we can all look forward to as a well deserved break from the everyday grind.


    David Melanson, frequent contributor to the Teachers.Net Gazette, has just self-published Integration: A Rewarding Experience, a manual for educators on the topic of working with sight-impaired students. As a sight-impaired person whose parents persisted in having their son placed in "regular" (public school) classrooms, David's experiences, perspective, and advice are particularly interesting and helpful. The manual is interesting and worthy of reading even if one does not currently have a sight-impaired student in class.

    The cost in the U.S. is $10 plus $2 .45 for postage. In Canada: $15 Canadian plus $1 .45 postage. Money orders are preferred. To order the manual, contact Mr. Melanson by e-mail: melanson@teachers.net. Should you have difficulty reaching Dave directly, contact Kathleen Carpenter kathleen@teachers.net with "Melanson Manual" in the subject line.

    To access monthly chats on the topic of working with sight-impaired students, moderated by David Melanson, visit the Teachers.Net Archives.

    Sight Impaired Students, December 12, 2001
    Integration Of Visually Impaired And Blind Students Into The Regular Schools
    Accommodating the Visually Impaired Child
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, Sept. 21, 2000
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, December 6, 2000
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, February 15, 2001
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, May 7, 2001
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, July 19, 2001
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, August 6, 2001
    Working With the Sight Impaired Students, October 23, 2001

    You may contact Dave Melanson by e-mail for information about consulting, sensitization training, and speaking services. Write to melanson@teachers.net.


    Dave has developed several audio tapes from previous seminars he has given on the topic of mainstreaming and integrating sight impaired children. He sells these tapes for $10 U.S. each. If there is any school district that is interested in purchasing a tape, he can be contacted at:

    Email: melanson@teachers.net
    Postal Address:

      Dave Melanson
      702 Riverview Ave
      Verdun Quebec Canada H4H 2C1

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