Questions Every Teacher Should Be Able To Answer

For most of us, the sense of panic when presented with a Course Outline is thankfully a distant memory. For myself, the memory is not a fond one and it sometimes is the topic of an unpleasant dream. Such was the seeming life sentence for the secondary and post-secondary years: suck it up and do what is expected - do not question.
While the curriculum for secondary and post-secondary courses is very cut-and-dry, such is not the case with elementary education. While there is a prescribed curriculum, the teacher has more flexibility in deciding what, when and how a subject/topic is covered.
It is this flexibility and the immaturity of the young students that prompts many parents to take an active and vigilant role in their child's education.
Terry Heick, in his blog entry entitled, 19 Meaningful Questions You Should Ask Your Child's Teacher, looks at how parents can take a meaningful look at what is actually happening in their child's classroom.
While these 19 questions are not carved in stone, they do provide parents with a starting point for finding out more about the teaching style of the person who is working with their child. Are there more, or other questions a parent could ask? Certainly, and Heick's list will light the fire for further investigation.
Ideally, it would be beneficial if elementary teachers would forgo any curriculum outline, and focus more on providing parents with answers to these types of questions.
P.S. Be sure to read the Comments - they provide a lot of additional insight.
To read Heick's article, click HERE.

English Practice Activities - Listen and Watch

This British Council site is excellent for English Practice Activities.
Participants can either listen and watch on their computer, or download the video and audio files to an mp3 player.

Free Language Practice Activities

All of the audio and video above come with Practice Activities that you can do on your computer while you listen and watch, or, you can print them out and complete them at some other time.

Series Topics Include:

Popping the Question
Time is Money
Family Matters
Dumped?
Big City Small World

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To experience this excellent site, click HERE.

Teaching Good Morals

Many parents are compromised when it comes to teaching good morals to their kids. Parents feel helpless because they believe our society is in moral decline, and so much of what children are seeing and experiencing is contrary to what parents believe is moral.

The internet and social media occupy so much of children's lives, and they abound with people who are willing to do 'anything' to gain attention. Television is rife with violence, self-gratification and criminal acts.

Kindness, fairness and justice are key traits parents want to instill in their children, yet when parents are faced with so many contradictions to their own moral beliefs, it is very tempting to simply abandon teaching good morals.

Despite the seeming hopelessness of parents teaching good morals, there are a few good ideas for teaching goodness to kids in this article by Stephanie Manes.