Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Help!
Three Boy Scouts, in uniform, were fishing in a boat one day when they heard cries for help. They followed the sounds and found another boat capsized as a man struggled to keep his head above water. Being Boy Scouts, they went to his aid and fished the man out.
As it turned out, the man was Bill Clinton. The president toweled himself off and caught his breath, and thanked the three scouts. He asked if there was anything he could do for them.
"I'd sure like a tour of the White House," the first scout said.
"No problem," said Bill. "How's next week?"
"I'd sure love to go for a ride in Air Force One," said the second scout.
"We'll leave aboard her tonight," Bill replied.
"I'd like to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery," said the third.
"I'm sure we can arrange that," said Bill. "But son, you're awfully young to be worrying about that, aren't you?"
"You don't know my Dad," the scout replied. "When he finds out I helped save your life, he's gonna kill me!"
As it turned out, the man was Bill Clinton. The president toweled himself off and caught his breath, and thanked the three scouts. He asked if there was anything he could do for them.
"I'd sure like a tour of the White House," the first scout said.
"No problem," said Bill. "How's next week?"
"I'd sure love to go for a ride in Air Force One," said the second scout.
"We'll leave aboard her tonight," Bill replied.
"I'd like to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery," said the third.
"I'm sure we can arrange that," said Bill. "But son, you're awfully young to be worrying about that, aren't you?"
"You don't know my Dad," the scout replied. "When he finds out I helped save your life, he's gonna kill me!"
Glass
In 1973, Pilkington changed from using the name ‘Pilkington’ on their glass to the symbol which is shown in the first picture. Some 1973 cars could end up with both 1972 and 1973 marked glass on the same car, as in this XA RPO which was a later 1973 car, yet has some 1972 glass.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Luck
"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." --Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and philosopher
One up
This man in a Ford Bronco pulls up next to a guy in a Rolls Royce at a stop sign. Their windows are open and he yells at the guy in the Rolls: "Hey, you got a telephone in there?"
The guy in the Rolls says, "Yes, of course I do."
"I got one too... see?"
"Uh, huh, yes, that's very nice."
Then the man in the Falcon says, "You got a fax machine?"
"Why, actually, yes, I do."
"I do too! See? It's right here!"
"Uh-huh."
The light is just about to turn green and the guy in the Bronco says, "So, do YOU have a double bed in back there?"
And the guy in the Rolls says, "NO! Do you?"
"Yep, got my double bed right in back here — see?!"
The light turns and the man in the Bronco takes off.
Well, the guy in the Rolls is not about to be one-upped, so he goes immediately to a customizing shop and orders them to put a double bed in back of his car. About two weeks later, the job is finally done and he picks up his car and drives all over town looking for the Bronco. He finally finds it parked alongside the road so he pulls his Rolls up next to it.
The windows on the Granada are all fogged up and he feels a little awkward about it, but he gets out of his newly modified Rolls and taps on the foggy window of the Bronco. The man in the Bronco finally opens the window a crack and peeks out.
The guy in the Rolls says, "Hey. remember me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember you. What's up?"
"Check this out — I got a double bed installed in my Rolls."
And the man in the Bronco says, "YOU GOT ME OUT OF THE SHOWER TO TELL ME THAT?!"
The guy in the Rolls says, "Yes, of course I do."
"I got one too... see?"
"Uh, huh, yes, that's very nice."
Then the man in the Falcon says, "You got a fax machine?"
"Why, actually, yes, I do."
"I do too! See? It's right here!"
"Uh-huh."
The light is just about to turn green and the guy in the Bronco says, "So, do YOU have a double bed in back there?"
And the guy in the Rolls says, "NO! Do you?"
"Yep, got my double bed right in back here — see?!"
The light turns and the man in the Bronco takes off.
Well, the guy in the Rolls is not about to be one-upped, so he goes immediately to a customizing shop and orders them to put a double bed in back of his car. About two weeks later, the job is finally done and he picks up his car and drives all over town looking for the Bronco. He finally finds it parked alongside the road so he pulls his Rolls up next to it.
The windows on the Granada are all fogged up and he feels a little awkward about it, but he gets out of his newly modified Rolls and taps on the foggy window of the Bronco. The man in the Bronco finally opens the window a crack and peeks out.
The guy in the Rolls says, "Hey. remember me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember you. What's up?"
"Check this out — I got a double bed installed in my Rolls."
And the man in the Bronco says, "YOU GOT ME OUT OF THE SHOWER TO TELL ME THAT?!"
Glass
The two examples below show the form of Armourglas with and without the ‘Pilkington’ badge. Both are from 1972 cars, but different quarters. The Pilkington badge was introduced between these two quarters.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
RED MARBLES
by Anonymous
I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.
"Hello Barry, how are you today?
"Hello, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good."
"They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?"
"Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time."
"Good. Anything I can help you with?"
"No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas."
"Would you like to take some home?" asked Mr. Miller.
"No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with."
"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?" "All I got's my prize marble here."
"Is that right? Let me see it" said Miller.
"Here 'tis. She's a dandy."
"I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?" the store owner asked.
"Not zackley but almost."
"Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble". Mr. Miller told the boy.
"Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller."
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said, "There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store."
I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.
Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.
They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts...all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.
Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes. Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket. "Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about colour or size ....they came to pay their debt."
"We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided, "but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho ."
With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shiny red marbles.
The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.
I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.
"Hello Barry, how are you today?
"Hello, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good."
"They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?"
"Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time."
"Good. Anything I can help you with?"
"No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas."
"Would you like to take some home?" asked Mr. Miller.
"No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with."
"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?" "All I got's my prize marble here."
"Is that right? Let me see it" said Miller.
"Here 'tis. She's a dandy."
"I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?" the store owner asked.
"Not zackley but almost."
"Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble". Mr. Miller told the boy.
"Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller."
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said, "There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store."
I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.
Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.
They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts...all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.
Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes. Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket. "Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about colour or size ....they came to pay their debt."
"We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided, "but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho ."
With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shiny red marbles.
The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.
Glass part 3
This is ‘ARMOURGLAS’ on an April, 1970 XW Falcon and, as another example, corresponds to the date coding described above.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Practice Being Like a Child
by Jim Rohn
Be like children and remember there are four ways to be more like a child no matter how old you get...
1) Curiosity - Be curious; childish curiosity. Learn to be curious like a child. What will kids do if they want to know something bad enough? You're right. They will bug you. Kids can ask a million questions. You think they're through. They've got another million. They will keep plaguing you. They can drive you right to the brink.
Also kids use their curiosity to learn. Have you ever noticed that while adults are stepping on ants, children are studying them? A child's curiosity is what helps them to reach, learn and grow.
2) Excitement - Learn to get excited like a child. There is nothing that has more magic than childish excitement. So excited you hate to go to bed at night. Can't wait to get up in the morning. So excited that you're about to explode. How can anyone resist that kind of childish magic? Now, once in awhile I meet someone who says, "Well, I'm a little too mature for all that childish excitement." Isn't that pitiful? You've got to weep for these kinds of people. All I've got to say is, "If you're too old to get excited, you're old." Don't get that old.
3) Faith - Faith like a child. Faith is childish. How else would you describe it? Some people say, "Let's be adult about it." Oh no. No. Adults too often have a tendency to be overly sceptical. Some adults even have a tendency to be cynical.
4) Trust - Trust is a childish virtue, but it has great
merit. Have you heard the expression "sleep like a baby?" That's it. Childish trust. After you've gotten an A+ for the day, leave it in somebody else's hands.
Curiosity, excitement, faith and trust. Wow, what a powerful combination to bring (back) into our lives and yes, our schools.
Be like children and remember there are four ways to be more like a child no matter how old you get...
1) Curiosity - Be curious; childish curiosity. Learn to be curious like a child. What will kids do if they want to know something bad enough? You're right. They will bug you. Kids can ask a million questions. You think they're through. They've got another million. They will keep plaguing you. They can drive you right to the brink.
Also kids use their curiosity to learn. Have you ever noticed that while adults are stepping on ants, children are studying them? A child's curiosity is what helps them to reach, learn and grow.
2) Excitement - Learn to get excited like a child. There is nothing that has more magic than childish excitement. So excited you hate to go to bed at night. Can't wait to get up in the morning. So excited that you're about to explode. How can anyone resist that kind of childish magic? Now, once in awhile I meet someone who says, "Well, I'm a little too mature for all that childish excitement." Isn't that pitiful? You've got to weep for these kinds of people. All I've got to say is, "If you're too old to get excited, you're old." Don't get that old.
3) Faith - Faith like a child. Faith is childish. How else would you describe it? Some people say, "Let's be adult about it." Oh no. No. Adults too often have a tendency to be overly sceptical. Some adults even have a tendency to be cynical.
4) Trust - Trust is a childish virtue, but it has great
merit. Have you heard the expression "sleep like a baby?" That's it. Childish trust. After you've gotten an A+ for the day, leave it in somebody else's hands.
Curiosity, excitement, faith and trust. Wow, what a powerful combination to bring (back) into our lives and yes, our schools.
Hair cut
A guy walks in to the Barbershop. Barber says, "What will it be today?" Guy says, "well I want it going with my waves on top, faded on one side, plug the other, and just make it all out of shape and messed up." Barber says, "Now why in the world do you want your hair cut like that."
Guy says, "That’s how you cut it last time"
Guy says, "That’s how you cut it last time"
Glass continued
This is from a replacement door window on an XB four door.
You can see that there is a printed dot above the ‘O’ in ARMOURGLAS, and that ARMOURGLAS is spelt with one ‘S’. This is to allow there to be ten letters in the word, and each letter corresponds to a year in the decade. The years number from the first letter, so, ‘A’ would be 1971, for example; ‘B’ would be 1972, and so on. The decades also roll back around on themselves, so that the last letter, ‘S’ is also the year 1970.
You can also see that there is a printed dot under both the words ‘APPROVED’ and ‘ASRI’. The dots under the first four letters of ‘APPROVED’ mean the four quarters of the year; A = Jan-Mar, P = Apr-Jun, P = Jul-Sept and R = Oct-Dec. Hence the glass above was originally - and originally is an important consideration - struck in the second quarter of 1974, for fitting to an XB Falcon.
The dots under the ‘ASRI’ signify the month within the quarter, and use the ‘SRI’ letters. Hence, in the above glass, the letter under ‘S’ in the ‘ASRI’ indicates the first month of the quarter.
To sum up, the glass pictured above was struck in the first month of the second quarter of 1974, in other words, April, 1974.
The glass above was sourced from Australia to be fitted to an XB that was originally exported to New Zealand.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Bodly language
Students read your body language to know what they can get away with in your classroom. With your body language you signal your priorities -- what is important or unimportant, and what you are committed or not committed to doing. By reading your body language, students can read your mind.
THE BODY LANGUAGE POKER GAME
Poker is a simple game. You either bet or fold. In the body language poker game, teachers fold when they turn a way from the situation before the students have folded. The students fold when they abandon pseudo-compliance and actually get back to work. You have to stay in the game until the students fold.
A note to the uninitiated -- you cannot fool a child. Children can smell a bluff a mile away. Nagging rather than moving is a bluff. Bluffing gets no respect in this poker game.
Walk: Take a relaxing breath, omit silly talk, and walk to the edge of the desk of the student most likely to be the instigator (assuming typical kids rather than abused kids whose personal space is large and who become anxious when that personal space is invaded). Pseudo-compliance by the student will look like a partial turn toward his or her work rather than a full turn. You have just been raised.
Visual Prompt: Bend over slightly, put one palm flat on the table, and with the other motion for the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. If you had a teacher who told you when you were a kid to "bring your chair all of the way around," that teacher knew a thing or two about pseudo-compliance. We start with a visual prompt, however, because it runs a lower risk of generating backtalk than would a verbal prompt. Pseudo-compliance by the student would be another partial turn, perhaps three-quarters of the way around. You have been raised again.
Verbal Prompt: With an accompanying hand gesture, ask the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. The specificity of your prompt leaves very little room for the student to "play dumb." To stay in the game with one more raise, the student must engage in either blatant noncompliance or backtalk. In either case, poker goes from penny-ante to high stakes. For that reason, most students fold at this juncture.
Monitor with Praise: Stay down and watch the student work until you get a stable pattern of work. If the student looks up briefly, his or her body is saying, "Oh, are you still here?" Take another relaxing breath, and stay down a little longer. After observing the student working, thank them warmly and stay down. When you are confident that the student is truly on task, repeat the routine with the second student before standing slowly.
Follow Through: Observe the students as you take a relaxing breath. If one of them looks up, take a second relaxing breath before slowly moving away. Track the students carefully as you work the crowd.
THE BODY LANGUAGE POKER GAME
Poker is a simple game. You either bet or fold. In the body language poker game, teachers fold when they turn a way from the situation before the students have folded. The students fold when they abandon pseudo-compliance and actually get back to work. You have to stay in the game until the students fold.
A note to the uninitiated -- you cannot fool a child. Children can smell a bluff a mile away. Nagging rather than moving is a bluff. Bluffing gets no respect in this poker game.
Walk: Take a relaxing breath, omit silly talk, and walk to the edge of the desk of the student most likely to be the instigator (assuming typical kids rather than abused kids whose personal space is large and who become anxious when that personal space is invaded). Pseudo-compliance by the student will look like a partial turn toward his or her work rather than a full turn. You have just been raised.
Visual Prompt: Bend over slightly, put one palm flat on the table, and with the other motion for the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. If you had a teacher who told you when you were a kid to "bring your chair all of the way around," that teacher knew a thing or two about pseudo-compliance. We start with a visual prompt, however, because it runs a lower risk of generating backtalk than would a verbal prompt. Pseudo-compliance by the student would be another partial turn, perhaps three-quarters of the way around. You have been raised again.
Verbal Prompt: With an accompanying hand gesture, ask the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. The specificity of your prompt leaves very little room for the student to "play dumb." To stay in the game with one more raise, the student must engage in either blatant noncompliance or backtalk. In either case, poker goes from penny-ante to high stakes. For that reason, most students fold at this juncture.
Monitor with Praise: Stay down and watch the student work until you get a stable pattern of work. If the student looks up briefly, his or her body is saying, "Oh, are you still here?" Take another relaxing breath, and stay down a little longer. After observing the student working, thank them warmly and stay down. When you are confident that the student is truly on task, repeat the routine with the second student before standing slowly.
Follow Through: Observe the students as you take a relaxing breath. If one of them looks up, take a second relaxing breath before slowly moving away. Track the students carefully as you work the crowd.
How do I look?
A large woman put on a dress and asked her husband if the dress made her look different.
Her husband said, " You’re asking the wrong person, I saw you before you put it on."
Her husband said, " You’re asking the wrong person, I saw you before you put it on."
Glass
Here are some of the markings on glass fitted to Falcons.
The first is from the rear screen on an XB GT hardtop.
The first is from the rear screen on an XB GT hardtop.
Live now
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -- Annie Dillard
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy, more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and what’s happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever." -- Horace Mann
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to return,' you will become time conscious." -- A. B. Zu Tavern
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy, more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and what’s happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever." -- Horace Mann
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to return,' you will become time conscious." -- A. B. Zu Tavern
Doctor?
Three medical students were discussing what specialties they were planning to go into when they finished school.
One said, "I want to be a brain surgeon. That's the frontier, the cutting edge of medicine, where so many discoveries are being made."
The second said, "I want to be a heart surgeon. There are so many people who need that kind of help; look at all the good I could do."
The third said he wanted to be a dermatologist. When the others had finished laughing, they asked him why on earth he wanted to be a skin doctor.
"Listen," he replied. "Your patients never die, they never get well, and they never get you up at night."
One said, "I want to be a brain surgeon. That's the frontier, the cutting edge of medicine, where so many discoveries are being made."
The second said, "I want to be a heart surgeon. There are so many people who need that kind of help; look at all the good I could do."
The third said he wanted to be a dermatologist. When the others had finished laughing, they asked him why on earth he wanted to be a skin doctor.
"Listen," he replied. "Your patients never die, they never get well, and they never get you up at night."
Can I have a push?
A couple is in bed sleeping when there's a rat-a-tat-tat on the door.
The husband rolls over and looks at the clock, and it's half past 3 in the morning.”
I’m not getting out of bed at this time," he thinks, and rolls over.
Then, a louder knock follows. So he drags himself out of bed, goes downstairs, opens the door, and there's a man standing there. I t didn't take the homeowner long to realize the man was drunk.
"Hi there," slurs the stranger, "Can you give me a push?"
"No, get lost. It's half past three and I was in bed," says the man as he slams the door.
He goes back up to bed and tell his wife what happened and she says, "That wasn't very nice of you. Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on that man's house to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"
"But the guy was drunk," says the husband.
"It doesn't matter," says the wife.” He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to help him."
So the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed, and goes downstairs.
He opens the door, and not being able to see the stranger anywhere, He shouts, "Hey, do you still want a push?"
And he hears a voice cry out, "Yeah, please."
So, still being unable to see the stranger he shouts, "Where are you?"
The drunk replies, "Over here, on the swing."
The husband rolls over and looks at the clock, and it's half past 3 in the morning.”
I’m not getting out of bed at this time," he thinks, and rolls over.
Then, a louder knock follows. So he drags himself out of bed, goes downstairs, opens the door, and there's a man standing there. I t didn't take the homeowner long to realize the man was drunk.
"Hi there," slurs the stranger, "Can you give me a push?"
"No, get lost. It's half past three and I was in bed," says the man as he slams the door.
He goes back up to bed and tell his wife what happened and she says, "That wasn't very nice of you. Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on that man's house to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"
"But the guy was drunk," says the husband.
"It doesn't matter," says the wife.” He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to help him."
So the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed, and goes downstairs.
He opens the door, and not being able to see the stranger anywhere, He shouts, "Hey, do you still want a push?"
And he hears a voice cry out, "Yeah, please."
So, still being unable to see the stranger he shouts, "Where are you?"
The drunk replies, "Over here, on the swing."
XC Tail lights
The XC sedan featured a modification of the XB style, splitting the lens horizontally with a chrome bar to fit in with the trim and fitting white reversing lights. Previously, Australian Fords used the rather unusual system of lighting both side indicator lamps for reversing lamps.
Whereas the hardtop remained the same as the XB, but painted black on some models.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Go ahead, Show those Pearly Whites
by Josh Hinds
Your smile can brighten the world around you. That's right, one of our most valuable assets is our smile. Think about it for a moment... I mean really think about it, your smile is the first opportunity you have to make a difference in the lives of those around you.
With one flash of your pearly whites you can cause a mini- chain reaction from that person, to the next person they come into contact with and so forth. While you may not change the world with one friendly gesture to a passerby, you will have a positive impact on them just the same -- and everything has to start somewhere doesn't it?
So with that said, I hope you'll make the conscious effort not to let this wonderful opportunity pass you by. Sure at times people might look at you a bit funny. However, all and all you'll be amazed at the effect that sharing your smile will bring about.
Best of all as I touched on before, you'll be making a positive impact on another person, who in turn is likely to do the same with the next person they come into contact with. It really can kick off a bit of a snowball effect.
In the end there's no way of knowing just how big an impact your simple act of kindness can have. Who knows... it might even make its way all the way back to you. Now that's exciting stuff, but it all starts with your decision to share that smile of yours -- so don't be stingy with it!
Put your smile to work, starting right now by setting out with the knowing that you have inside you the ability to positively impact those around you.
Your smile can brighten the world around you. That's right, one of our most valuable assets is our smile. Think about it for a moment... I mean really think about it, your smile is the first opportunity you have to make a difference in the lives of those around you.
With one flash of your pearly whites you can cause a mini- chain reaction from that person, to the next person they come into contact with and so forth. While you may not change the world with one friendly gesture to a passerby, you will have a positive impact on them just the same -- and everything has to start somewhere doesn't it?
So with that said, I hope you'll make the conscious effort not to let this wonderful opportunity pass you by. Sure at times people might look at you a bit funny. However, all and all you'll be amazed at the effect that sharing your smile will bring about.
Best of all as I touched on before, you'll be making a positive impact on another person, who in turn is likely to do the same with the next person they come into contact with. It really can kick off a bit of a snowball effect.
In the end there's no way of knowing just how big an impact your simple act of kindness can have. Who knows... it might even make its way all the way back to you. Now that's exciting stuff, but it all starts with your decision to share that smile of yours -- so don't be stingy with it!
Put your smile to work, starting right now by setting out with the knowing that you have inside you the ability to positively impact those around you.
Justice
A man and his wife were sitting in the living room discussing a “Living Will”.
"Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."
His wife got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all the beer.
"Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."
His wife got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all the beer.
XB Tail lights
Both of the XA designs, while very stylish, suffered problems from dirt and dust settling in the recess and reducing the effectiveness of the lamps, and were changed for the XB model.XB sedan.
And XB hardtop
Both versions are flush fitting, and on the sedan moved the indicator to the outside.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Best teachers get top marks from study.
Sydney Morning Herald, John Garnaut. May 21, 2007
SCHOOL students who have good teachers take half as long to learn their course material as those with poor teachers, new research shows. The report provides the first objective evidence of which teachers are adding value to the academic performance of their students - and which teachers are letting children down. "The top 10 per cent of teachers achieve in half a year what the bottom 10 per cent achieve in a full year," says the author, economist Andrew Leigh, of the Australian National University.
Dr Leigh tracked three years of numeracy and literacy exam scores for 90,000 primary school students and matched them against 10,000 teachers. Good teaching - measured by improvements in exam scores - has almost no relationship with teacher experience, qualifications or any of the criteria currently used by most schools to hire or reward teachers. Instead, the best teachers appear to be good at their jobs because of innate factors like personal drive, curiosity and ability to relate to students.
"Most of the differences between teachers are due to factors not captured on the payroll database," said Dr Leigh. The study shows female teachers are more likely to improve student literacy, while males are better at teaching maths. Surprisingly, it shows students in large classes performed better than those in small ones - although it doesn't claim a causative link. It also finds no positive effects of teacher qualifications on test scores, a finding which challenges the Federal Opposition's policy of paying teachers more for better academic qualifications rather than for observed ability.
The study is likely to receive a frosty reception from teacher unions and state education bureaucracies which say exam scores cannot be used to measure teacher quality. But it has been seized upon by private schools and the Federal Government. The executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said Dr Leigh's "groundbreaking" findings paved the way for teachers to be partly rewarded by the exam score improvements of their students. "It's complex but we can't stick our head in the sand and say it's too hard," he said.
The Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, said the report supports her policy of introducing performance pay for teachers next year. "This makes a mockery of education union and Labor Party claims that teacher performance cannot be measured," she said. The schools data for Dr Leigh's study, which includes year 3 and 5 numeracy and literacy exam scores and information about individual teachers, was provided by the Queensland Education Department after NSW and Victoria had refused to make their information available. As well as being used to identify, reward and retain the best teachers, Dr Leigh says his methodology could be used to send the best teachers where they could contribute most. If indigenous students had teachers from the top quarter rather than the bottom, then the findings imply the two-year black-white test score gap could be closed within seven years.
SCHOOL students who have good teachers take half as long to learn their course material as those with poor teachers, new research shows. The report provides the first objective evidence of which teachers are adding value to the academic performance of their students - and which teachers are letting children down. "The top 10 per cent of teachers achieve in half a year what the bottom 10 per cent achieve in a full year," says the author, economist Andrew Leigh, of the Australian National University.
Dr Leigh tracked three years of numeracy and literacy exam scores for 90,000 primary school students and matched them against 10,000 teachers. Good teaching - measured by improvements in exam scores - has almost no relationship with teacher experience, qualifications or any of the criteria currently used by most schools to hire or reward teachers. Instead, the best teachers appear to be good at their jobs because of innate factors like personal drive, curiosity and ability to relate to students.
"Most of the differences between teachers are due to factors not captured on the payroll database," said Dr Leigh. The study shows female teachers are more likely to improve student literacy, while males are better at teaching maths. Surprisingly, it shows students in large classes performed better than those in small ones - although it doesn't claim a causative link. It also finds no positive effects of teacher qualifications on test scores, a finding which challenges the Federal Opposition's policy of paying teachers more for better academic qualifications rather than for observed ability.
The study is likely to receive a frosty reception from teacher unions and state education bureaucracies which say exam scores cannot be used to measure teacher quality. But it has been seized upon by private schools and the Federal Government. The executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said Dr Leigh's "groundbreaking" findings paved the way for teachers to be partly rewarded by the exam score improvements of their students. "It's complex but we can't stick our head in the sand and say it's too hard," he said.
The Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, said the report supports her policy of introducing performance pay for teachers next year. "This makes a mockery of education union and Labor Party claims that teacher performance cannot be measured," she said. The schools data for Dr Leigh's study, which includes year 3 and 5 numeracy and literacy exam scores and information about individual teachers, was provided by the Queensland Education Department after NSW and Victoria had refused to make their information available. As well as being used to identify, reward and retain the best teachers, Dr Leigh says his methodology could be used to send the best teachers where they could contribute most. If indigenous students had teachers from the top quarter rather than the bottom, then the findings imply the two-year black-white test score gap could be closed within seven years.
Help
Pilot: Have you ever flown in a small plane before?
Passenger: No, I have not.
Pilot: Well, here is some chewing gum. It will help to keep your ears from popping.
Pilot (after the plane landed): Did the gum help?
Passenger: Yep. It worked fine. The only trouble is I can’t get the gum out of my ears.
Passenger: No, I have not.
Pilot: Well, here is some chewing gum. It will help to keep your ears from popping.
Pilot (after the plane landed): Did the gum help?
Passenger: Yep. It worked fine. The only trouble is I can’t get the gum out of my ears.
Tail lamps 2
The XA sedan had very stylised tail lamps, reminiscent of the U.S. Dodge Superbee with separate, prominent lenses.
The XA hardtop had integrated tail lamps, but the lenses were recessed and angled.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
School principals rethink merit pay
by Anna Patty Education Editor
NSW school principals are designing their own plan to reward quality teaching in defiance of the Federal Government's push to link performance pay to student results. The body representing 460 high school heads has rejected the Government's "ideologically driven" model. They are wary of Labor's alternative, saying it is still too thin on detail. The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said the council's plan would be "based on merit rather than performance".
"[The federal Minister for Education] Julie Bishop's performance pay is going to be based on results of students in tests and that is a very narrow performance measure," he said. "But teachers who take on additional responsibilities, who undertake additional professional learning, who contribute to the further development of other teachers, merit extra pay." From January 2008, first-year teachers in NSW Government schools will earn an annual salary of $50,250 and receive an increase each year for the following nine years up to $75,000. They will then receive no further increase unless they take up a position as a head teacher, deputy principal or principal.
Top principals earn $119,000. In all there are 21 pay points in teaching, based on merit, years of experience and school size. The principals suggest creating extra salary steps for teachers who, for example, complete master's degrees and use them to help their colleagues. This would recognise the collegiality of the profession, where a number of teachers may contribute to a pupil's development.
The state Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, has also said he is open to a system of merit pay not based on student results. Mr Della Bosca and his state and territory colleagues last month rejected Ms Bishop's proposal to pilot performance pay in schools from next year, saying they would develop their own plans. Since then, Ms Bishop has said schools will be rewarded with up to $50,000 for outstanding results in numeracy and literacy. Schools could divide the money among their best teachers.
Federal Labor has said it would reward quality teaching using a merit-based system that took into account extra qualifications, professional development and working in rural and remote areas. The Prime Minister, John Howard, has said that from 2009 he would tie Commonwealth funding to the states and territories to the introduction of performance pay for teachers, giving principals more autonomy to hire and fire and providing parents with more detailed information on school performance. That information should also include cases of bullying and violence. The principals' plan is separate to another being devised by the national teacher union, the Australian Education Union.
NSW school principals are designing their own plan to reward quality teaching in defiance of the Federal Government's push to link performance pay to student results. The body representing 460 high school heads has rejected the Government's "ideologically driven" model. They are wary of Labor's alternative, saying it is still too thin on detail. The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said the council's plan would be "based on merit rather than performance".
"[The federal Minister for Education] Julie Bishop's performance pay is going to be based on results of students in tests and that is a very narrow performance measure," he said. "But teachers who take on additional responsibilities, who undertake additional professional learning, who contribute to the further development of other teachers, merit extra pay." From January 2008, first-year teachers in NSW Government schools will earn an annual salary of $50,250 and receive an increase each year for the following nine years up to $75,000. They will then receive no further increase unless they take up a position as a head teacher, deputy principal or principal.
Top principals earn $119,000. In all there are 21 pay points in teaching, based on merit, years of experience and school size. The principals suggest creating extra salary steps for teachers who, for example, complete master's degrees and use them to help their colleagues. This would recognise the collegiality of the profession, where a number of teachers may contribute to a pupil's development.
The state Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, has also said he is open to a system of merit pay not based on student results. Mr Della Bosca and his state and territory colleagues last month rejected Ms Bishop's proposal to pilot performance pay in schools from next year, saying they would develop their own plans. Since then, Ms Bishop has said schools will be rewarded with up to $50,000 for outstanding results in numeracy and literacy. Schools could divide the money among their best teachers.
Federal Labor has said it would reward quality teaching using a merit-based system that took into account extra qualifications, professional development and working in rural and remote areas. The Prime Minister, John Howard, has said that from 2009 he would tie Commonwealth funding to the states and territories to the introduction of performance pay for teachers, giving principals more autonomy to hire and fire and providing parents with more detailed information on school performance. That information should also include cases of bullying and violence. The principals' plan is separate to another being devised by the national teacher union, the Australian Education Union.
Tail lamps
To accomodate the changes in the styling of the cars, and to conform to new lighting regulations, the tail lamps of the XA, XB and XC altered through the years also.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Learning From What Doesn't Work
Gay Ivey and Douglas Fisher
Older students can read with enthusiasm and understanding, especially when teachers avoid ineffective practices that promote disengagement.
Educators are flooding the professional learning community with requests for strategies that work to improve reading comprehension in the upper-elementary and secondary grades. In these achievement-driven times, we want to know what works best to raise test scores, improve comprehension, and motivate students to read. The answers are not simple for most students, particularly for older students still learning about literacy. The needs of adolescent readers are complex and varied (Ivey, 1999), even within specific cultural groups (Alvermann, 2001) and linguistic groups (Rubinstein-Avila, 2003–2004). To make blanket assertions about what works for all students would be misguided and shortsighted.
Getting to the bottom of older readers' comprehension and motivation difficulties requires careful, ongoing assessment of instructional practices and students' literacy needs. We believe, like Guthrie and Wigfield (1997), that real engagement in reading is not the product of strategies alone but a fusion of self-efficacy, interest, and strategic knowledge.
What we can report with more certainty are common practices that create barriers to engaged reading and comprehension development. We invite you to consider five ineffective strategies for developing reading comprehension in older students. Before asking “What works?”, it might help to ask “What doesn't work?”
Ineffective Strategy 1: Don't let students read.
A new high school principal “put an end to reading” and gave back to teachers time formerly used for Sustained Silent Reading. He warned teachers that students should be “focused on the instruction at hand” rather than “sitting around reading” during class time. In a discussion about these policy changes, the principal explained, “Students have to be taught. We need more time focused on direct instruction.”
During the next two years, book circulation rates at the high school library plummeted, and the school's overall achievement on the content standards tests declined. Teachers understood why taking away students' time to “just read” might have resulted in a decline in reading scores, but they were shocked that scores sagged in history and science as well.
Compare this with the approach of principal Doug Williams, a former math teacher. He announced to the faculty of Hoover High School, “If we are going to teach our students to read, we need to provide them with opportunities to read.” He allocated 20 minutes each day for Sustained Silent Reading and provided his staff with the resources and professional development necessary to ensure that students had time to read books of their choice (Fisher, 2004).
The result? Hoover has met state accountability targets, and students' average reading level as measured by the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test has risen from 4.3 to 7.2. Although the independent reading initiative cannot take full credit for this, Hoover teachers credit the Sustained Silent Reading time with a significant portion of the increased achievement.
In addition to such schoolwide approaches as a formal Sustained Silent Reading period (Pilgreen, 2000), providing students with time for independent reading during content-area classes increases their motivation, background knowledge, and vocabulary. In fact, students report that having time to read actually affords them the opportunity to think and comprehend (Ivey & Broaddus, 2001). How many years of piano, tennis, or driving practice do we need to excel at those skills?
We often hear the argument that we should focus on the basic skills, even in high school, before using valuable instructional time to let students read. We know of programs for struggling readers that emphasize word-level reading skills for several years to the exclusion of real reading. This kind of instruction certainly helps students read words more accurately, but it doesn't necessarily equate to improved reading comprehension, nor does it increase student motivation to read. Students need instruction, but mostly they need opportunities to negotiate real texts for real purposes. For example, 7th grader Manuel struggled to read materials above the 2nd grade level, but he became more skilled and motivated to read when his teacher found easy books for him to read and Web sites for him to peruse on platypuses and leopards, two animals that had piqued his interest in science class.
Ineffective Strategy 2: Make students read what they don't know about and don't care about.
Insisting that every student needs to read enduring works of literature, Ms. Prewitt distributes a copy of Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958) to each of her students, along with a packet that requires the students to summarize each chapter, identify the characters, and respond to specific prompts.
With no background knowledge and little interest in the book, students read one chapter each night for homework. They complete the assigned section of the packet before discussing the chapter in class. The book takes several weeks to complete; students rush to catch up on the packet work on the final day. One student uses CliffsNotes to hurriedly complete his packet; another student copies from a peer. When asked about the book, Anthony admits, “I don't know what it was about, really. All we had to do was this” (he shows the packet). When asked, “Did you make any connections between this book and your own life?”, Anthony confesses, “I barely read it. I just searched for the answers. Man, it's not like I need to know this.”
Alternatively, Mr. Jackson, a history teacher, was discussing the Reformation with his students. Each student had selected a book from a wide range of texts on the topic and appeared interested in the subject at hand. When asked how he engaged his students, Mr. Jackson replied,
You build on what they know and on what they care about. You also give them books to choose from so they can extend what they know.
Observing this classroom at work revealed a number of practices ensuring that students comprehended the content. First, Mr. Jackson used a wide range of texts and media to inundate students with intriguing information about the topic, drawing also from contemporary issues that would help students see connections between history and events currently happening in their world and in their personal lives. As students worked on generating questions for a game simulation, they reviewed their individual readings from the textbook and several trade books as well as their notes from class lectures, discussions, and a video that they had watched.
One page of Daveen's notes focused on the role of the Pope. Daveen's conversation with us confirmed his interest in and comprehension of the subject. After Daveen explained to us the role of the Catholic Church during the Reformation and the process of selecting a Pope, we asked whether he realized that the Pope had just died. “Yeah,” he said. “I watched it on TV. I'm not Catholic, but it was cool to see history being repeated.” When asked whether he planned to watch the Pope's funeral on television the next day, Daveen grinned and said, “Oh yeah, I'll watch it. You know, Elvis holds that record [for the biggest funeral in history]. I hope the Pope doesn't beat out the King.”
Students can find curriculum-based topics interesting, and they can comprehend what they read in school. Unfortunately, we do not always use texts and methods that highlight what is interesting about the subjects that we teach. Think about how much more compelling students would find a study of genetics, for example, if we used trade books to connect the topic to the fascinating details of solving crimes (Silent Witness, Ferllini, 2002) or of multiple births (Twin Tales: The Magic and Mystery of Multiple Birth, Jackson, 2001).
We are not saying that students shouldn't read the great, enduring works of literature, nor that they should read only adolescent fiction. We are simply wondering whether a whole class needs to read the same book at the same time and whether this practice tends to produce engaged, interested students who are extending their knowledge.
Teachers who understand their students' backgrounds, prior knowledge, interests, and motivations are much more likely to make the connections that adolescents crave. Although volumes have been written on the importance of and strategies for building background knowledge (Marzano, 2004), good teachers understand that making their content relevant also matters. Studies further suggest that we must provide students with opportunities to draw from what they already know—popular culture and media, for example—so they can more easily learn new information (Goodson & Norton-Meier, 2003).
Ineffective Strategy 3: Make students read difficult books.
Four students of various reading levels sit in a cluster to read together Camus' The Guest from their 12th grade literature anthology. Three of these students take turns reading; one follows along. When they reach predetermined places in the story, they stop to take stock of their understanding using the guidelines set forth in a popular strategy known as reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), in which students (1) summarize the section, (2) clarify confusing parts, (3) ask questions, and (4) predict what will come next.
Each student takes responsibility for one part of the process. The three students who volunteered for the oral reading fulfill their roles productively in the intermittent discussions. This strategy appears to help these students make sense of what they read as they move through the text. The fourth student, who is designated as the person to ask a clarification question, seems timid and confused when it is her turn to talk.
When she is finally convinced to take a turn reading aloud, it is clear that the text is far beyond her comfort level. In a paragraph of roughly 150 words, she misreads mused, circumstances, alliance, fraternized, fatigue, essential, and musings, and she takes a substantial amount of time to figure out fluttered, presence, imposing, ancient, community, armor, and heavier. Even with such solid scaffolding as reciprocal teaching, the difficulty of this text makes comprehension too much of a challenge for this student.
If we want students to comprehend what they read, we must begin by letting them experience texts that make sense to them. Unfortunately, we hear of school districts that have declared that to get students reading at grade level, all students must practice reading in grade-level texts exclusively: “The test is written at an 8th grade level, so students have to learn how to read 8th grade passages!” We know of no student who got better at reading by reading books that were too difficult for him, and we know of no student reading at a 4th grade level who learned to read at an 8th grade level by reading only 8th grade-level books.
Ineffective Strategy 4: Interrogate students about what they read.
An 8th grade English teacher begins class with the proclamation. “Today, we are focusing on comprehension.” Any observer can see that this is indeed the intention because one of the state curriculum standards dealing with comprehension is written prominently on the chalkboard. “You need to know how to comprehend what you read on the state test coming up in April,” the teacher explains. With no further discussion, she asks for a volunteer to begin reading aloud from I Had Seen Castles (Rylant, 1993).
Some students follow along as their classmate reads, while others stare out the window, work on assignments for other classes, or whisper to a neighbouring student. After several paragraphs, the teacher interrupts: “Can somebody explain what is happening so far?” After three students fail to adequately summarize the story, the teacher throws out a series of literal-level comprehension questions. Facing blank stares from the students, she ends up giving her own summary. This cycle of assigning the reading, questioning, coming up short, and summarizing continues for the rest of the class period.
Now consider a 6th grade small-group reading of Welcome to Dead House (Stine, 1995). As students read, the teacher interrupts with, “I wonder what those noises are in the house? When I have questions like this, it sometimes helps me to look back in the chapter.” Before she can finish her thought, several students yell out, “The voices are from dead people!” The teacher goes on to tell students that she has seen movies in which the ghost of a person who once lived in a house communicates with the current residents. A student muses, “I wonder whether this ghost will be like Casper.” Students and teacher negotiate the text together.
Despite the long-standing practice of literal-level questioning after reading, we have no reason to believe it actually creates better readers. People often confuse teaching comprehension skills with testing comprehension. This common practice persists in schools despite decades of research indicating that comprehension is a proactive, continual process of using prior knowledge, metacognitive awareness, and reflection to make sense of a text.
When adults think back to what reading comprehension meant when they were in elementary school, they may recall workbook pages that required them to “find the main idea” for a series of unrelated short passages. If you were asked to find the main idea enough times on your own, the thinking went, you would eventually figure out how to do it. We now realize that specific strategies can help students determine what is important in the texts they read and how they can be more strategic before, during, and after the reading so that understanding texts is not such a mystery (Duffy, 2002).
In our work across the United States, we consistently find that many teachers have not yet had the opportunity to study the nature of reading comprehension, even their own. Most new curriculum materials for teaching reading include a focus on strategies, but these materials may not always provide teachers with the theoretical underpinnings of reading processes and of effective comprehension instruction. A good start in the shift from interrogation to teaching would be a schoolwide professional development study of reading comprehension.
Ineffective Strategy 5: Buy a computer program and let it do all the work.
Enter the skills lab. Students wearing headphones sit at their terminals. They look engaged in the task at hand, and they click away on the keyboard and mouse as their teacher wanders around the room. The school recently purchased a reading comprehension program that promises a “complete solution” to the reading needs of struggling adolescents. During the sales presentation, the administrator was told that the program was “teacher-proof” and that students would improve their test scores in a matter of weeks.
But let's take a closer look. As we join Taheen at his monitor, we see that he has the reading program running in one window and a chat room running in another. He periodically glances up from the chat room to answer a computer-generated comprehension question. He gets all the answers right and doesn't seem to be trying. At the computer across from Taheen, Fernando is getting frustrated. He doesn't know the answer, and the computer is unable to offer him any help.
In another classroom, we join Ryan and Clay, two 8th grade students who are most comfortable reading 1st grade-level texts, such as Spider Names (Canizares, 1998) and Tiny Terrors (Kenah, 2004). Although these books are easy-to-read nonfiction, they nevertheless include information that even older readers would find fascinating.
The teacher capitalizes on the students' background knowledge by having them talk as they work on their current project. They are dictating to her a story to accompany an intriguing illustration from the wordless picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Van Allsburg, 1984). They debate the most interesting word choices (for example, hurt as opposed to devastated) while their teacher acts as scribe. They are eager and able to reread this lengthy and complex story—written in their own words—and revise it to make it more interesting and grammatically accurate. Their teacher explains certain conventions of language and draws their attention to literary devices that other authors use as they write. For example, when the boys decide that they need to let readers know early in the story that something bad is going to happen, the teacher locates several picture books that include examples of foreshadowing. This not only gives the students ideas for their own writing but also inspires them to recognize this tool in their strategic reading. This teacher is indispensable.
Although computers and Web sites may reinforce skills, they can't provide the specific feedback that students require. Intervention programs need to increase, not decrease, teacher involvement (Ivey & Fisher, in press). In addition, intervention programs—computerized or not—must be based on assessment information and provide students with reading comprehension instruction rather than focus on a single aspect of reading or writing, such as phonics, fluency, or spelling.
What It Will Take
Improving reading comprehension and instruction in the upper-elementary and secondary grades will require a great deal of time and effort. There is no magical set of strategies you can get from an inservice workshop. Real changes in literacy learning and teaching will most likely result from a schoolwide literacy plan and strong leadership (Ivey & Fisher, in press).
Bringing about such a change means devoting resources to literacy-related personnel and to large volumes of high-quality, diverse, multileveled reading materials in all subject areas. It requires a commitment to providing literacy assessments of all students for the purpose of designing purposeful and appropriate instruction. It means creating a culture of collaboration and peer coaching. Finally, it requires that professional development focus on building teacher knowledge and expertise.
Is this a tall order for schools when the immediate need is to improve their current students' reading comprehension? Absolutely. But we are doing struggling students no favor when we perpetuate strategies that do not work.
Older students can read with enthusiasm and understanding, especially when teachers avoid ineffective practices that promote disengagement.
Educators are flooding the professional learning community with requests for strategies that work to improve reading comprehension in the upper-elementary and secondary grades. In these achievement-driven times, we want to know what works best to raise test scores, improve comprehension, and motivate students to read. The answers are not simple for most students, particularly for older students still learning about literacy. The needs of adolescent readers are complex and varied (Ivey, 1999), even within specific cultural groups (Alvermann, 2001) and linguistic groups (Rubinstein-Avila, 2003–2004). To make blanket assertions about what works for all students would be misguided and shortsighted.
Getting to the bottom of older readers' comprehension and motivation difficulties requires careful, ongoing assessment of instructional practices and students' literacy needs. We believe, like Guthrie and Wigfield (1997), that real engagement in reading is not the product of strategies alone but a fusion of self-efficacy, interest, and strategic knowledge.
What we can report with more certainty are common practices that create barriers to engaged reading and comprehension development. We invite you to consider five ineffective strategies for developing reading comprehension in older students. Before asking “What works?”, it might help to ask “What doesn't work?”
Ineffective Strategy 1: Don't let students read.
A new high school principal “put an end to reading” and gave back to teachers time formerly used for Sustained Silent Reading. He warned teachers that students should be “focused on the instruction at hand” rather than “sitting around reading” during class time. In a discussion about these policy changes, the principal explained, “Students have to be taught. We need more time focused on direct instruction.”
During the next two years, book circulation rates at the high school library plummeted, and the school's overall achievement on the content standards tests declined. Teachers understood why taking away students' time to “just read” might have resulted in a decline in reading scores, but they were shocked that scores sagged in history and science as well.
Compare this with the approach of principal Doug Williams, a former math teacher. He announced to the faculty of Hoover High School, “If we are going to teach our students to read, we need to provide them with opportunities to read.” He allocated 20 minutes each day for Sustained Silent Reading and provided his staff with the resources and professional development necessary to ensure that students had time to read books of their choice (Fisher, 2004).
The result? Hoover has met state accountability targets, and students' average reading level as measured by the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test has risen from 4.3 to 7.2. Although the independent reading initiative cannot take full credit for this, Hoover teachers credit the Sustained Silent Reading time with a significant portion of the increased achievement.
In addition to such schoolwide approaches as a formal Sustained Silent Reading period (Pilgreen, 2000), providing students with time for independent reading during content-area classes increases their motivation, background knowledge, and vocabulary. In fact, students report that having time to read actually affords them the opportunity to think and comprehend (Ivey & Broaddus, 2001). How many years of piano, tennis, or driving practice do we need to excel at those skills?
We often hear the argument that we should focus on the basic skills, even in high school, before using valuable instructional time to let students read. We know of programs for struggling readers that emphasize word-level reading skills for several years to the exclusion of real reading. This kind of instruction certainly helps students read words more accurately, but it doesn't necessarily equate to improved reading comprehension, nor does it increase student motivation to read. Students need instruction, but mostly they need opportunities to negotiate real texts for real purposes. For example, 7th grader Manuel struggled to read materials above the 2nd grade level, but he became more skilled and motivated to read when his teacher found easy books for him to read and Web sites for him to peruse on platypuses and leopards, two animals that had piqued his interest in science class.
Ineffective Strategy 2: Make students read what they don't know about and don't care about.
Insisting that every student needs to read enduring works of literature, Ms. Prewitt distributes a copy of Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958) to each of her students, along with a packet that requires the students to summarize each chapter, identify the characters, and respond to specific prompts.
With no background knowledge and little interest in the book, students read one chapter each night for homework. They complete the assigned section of the packet before discussing the chapter in class. The book takes several weeks to complete; students rush to catch up on the packet work on the final day. One student uses CliffsNotes to hurriedly complete his packet; another student copies from a peer. When asked about the book, Anthony admits, “I don't know what it was about, really. All we had to do was this” (he shows the packet). When asked, “Did you make any connections between this book and your own life?”, Anthony confesses, “I barely read it. I just searched for the answers. Man, it's not like I need to know this.”
Alternatively, Mr. Jackson, a history teacher, was discussing the Reformation with his students. Each student had selected a book from a wide range of texts on the topic and appeared interested in the subject at hand. When asked how he engaged his students, Mr. Jackson replied,
You build on what they know and on what they care about. You also give them books to choose from so they can extend what they know.
Observing this classroom at work revealed a number of practices ensuring that students comprehended the content. First, Mr. Jackson used a wide range of texts and media to inundate students with intriguing information about the topic, drawing also from contemporary issues that would help students see connections between history and events currently happening in their world and in their personal lives. As students worked on generating questions for a game simulation, they reviewed their individual readings from the textbook and several trade books as well as their notes from class lectures, discussions, and a video that they had watched.
One page of Daveen's notes focused on the role of the Pope. Daveen's conversation with us confirmed his interest in and comprehension of the subject. After Daveen explained to us the role of the Catholic Church during the Reformation and the process of selecting a Pope, we asked whether he realized that the Pope had just died. “Yeah,” he said. “I watched it on TV. I'm not Catholic, but it was cool to see history being repeated.” When asked whether he planned to watch the Pope's funeral on television the next day, Daveen grinned and said, “Oh yeah, I'll watch it. You know, Elvis holds that record [for the biggest funeral in history]. I hope the Pope doesn't beat out the King.”
Students can find curriculum-based topics interesting, and they can comprehend what they read in school. Unfortunately, we do not always use texts and methods that highlight what is interesting about the subjects that we teach. Think about how much more compelling students would find a study of genetics, for example, if we used trade books to connect the topic to the fascinating details of solving crimes (Silent Witness, Ferllini, 2002) or of multiple births (Twin Tales: The Magic and Mystery of Multiple Birth, Jackson, 2001).
We are not saying that students shouldn't read the great, enduring works of literature, nor that they should read only adolescent fiction. We are simply wondering whether a whole class needs to read the same book at the same time and whether this practice tends to produce engaged, interested students who are extending their knowledge.
Teachers who understand their students' backgrounds, prior knowledge, interests, and motivations are much more likely to make the connections that adolescents crave. Although volumes have been written on the importance of and strategies for building background knowledge (Marzano, 2004), good teachers understand that making their content relevant also matters. Studies further suggest that we must provide students with opportunities to draw from what they already know—popular culture and media, for example—so they can more easily learn new information (Goodson & Norton-Meier, 2003).
Ineffective Strategy 3: Make students read difficult books.
Four students of various reading levels sit in a cluster to read together Camus' The Guest from their 12th grade literature anthology. Three of these students take turns reading; one follows along. When they reach predetermined places in the story, they stop to take stock of their understanding using the guidelines set forth in a popular strategy known as reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), in which students (1) summarize the section, (2) clarify confusing parts, (3) ask questions, and (4) predict what will come next.
Each student takes responsibility for one part of the process. The three students who volunteered for the oral reading fulfill their roles productively in the intermittent discussions. This strategy appears to help these students make sense of what they read as they move through the text. The fourth student, who is designated as the person to ask a clarification question, seems timid and confused when it is her turn to talk.
When she is finally convinced to take a turn reading aloud, it is clear that the text is far beyond her comfort level. In a paragraph of roughly 150 words, she misreads mused, circumstances, alliance, fraternized, fatigue, essential, and musings, and she takes a substantial amount of time to figure out fluttered, presence, imposing, ancient, community, armor, and heavier. Even with such solid scaffolding as reciprocal teaching, the difficulty of this text makes comprehension too much of a challenge for this student.
If we want students to comprehend what they read, we must begin by letting them experience texts that make sense to them. Unfortunately, we hear of school districts that have declared that to get students reading at grade level, all students must practice reading in grade-level texts exclusively: “The test is written at an 8th grade level, so students have to learn how to read 8th grade passages!” We know of no student who got better at reading by reading books that were too difficult for him, and we know of no student reading at a 4th grade level who learned to read at an 8th grade level by reading only 8th grade-level books.
Ineffective Strategy 4: Interrogate students about what they read.
An 8th grade English teacher begins class with the proclamation. “Today, we are focusing on comprehension.” Any observer can see that this is indeed the intention because one of the state curriculum standards dealing with comprehension is written prominently on the chalkboard. “You need to know how to comprehend what you read on the state test coming up in April,” the teacher explains. With no further discussion, she asks for a volunteer to begin reading aloud from I Had Seen Castles (Rylant, 1993).
Some students follow along as their classmate reads, while others stare out the window, work on assignments for other classes, or whisper to a neighbouring student. After several paragraphs, the teacher interrupts: “Can somebody explain what is happening so far?” After three students fail to adequately summarize the story, the teacher throws out a series of literal-level comprehension questions. Facing blank stares from the students, she ends up giving her own summary. This cycle of assigning the reading, questioning, coming up short, and summarizing continues for the rest of the class period.
Now consider a 6th grade small-group reading of Welcome to Dead House (Stine, 1995). As students read, the teacher interrupts with, “I wonder what those noises are in the house? When I have questions like this, it sometimes helps me to look back in the chapter.” Before she can finish her thought, several students yell out, “The voices are from dead people!” The teacher goes on to tell students that she has seen movies in which the ghost of a person who once lived in a house communicates with the current residents. A student muses, “I wonder whether this ghost will be like Casper.” Students and teacher negotiate the text together.
Despite the long-standing practice of literal-level questioning after reading, we have no reason to believe it actually creates better readers. People often confuse teaching comprehension skills with testing comprehension. This common practice persists in schools despite decades of research indicating that comprehension is a proactive, continual process of using prior knowledge, metacognitive awareness, and reflection to make sense of a text.
When adults think back to what reading comprehension meant when they were in elementary school, they may recall workbook pages that required them to “find the main idea” for a series of unrelated short passages. If you were asked to find the main idea enough times on your own, the thinking went, you would eventually figure out how to do it. We now realize that specific strategies can help students determine what is important in the texts they read and how they can be more strategic before, during, and after the reading so that understanding texts is not such a mystery (Duffy, 2002).
In our work across the United States, we consistently find that many teachers have not yet had the opportunity to study the nature of reading comprehension, even their own. Most new curriculum materials for teaching reading include a focus on strategies, but these materials may not always provide teachers with the theoretical underpinnings of reading processes and of effective comprehension instruction. A good start in the shift from interrogation to teaching would be a schoolwide professional development study of reading comprehension.
Ineffective Strategy 5: Buy a computer program and let it do all the work.
Enter the skills lab. Students wearing headphones sit at their terminals. They look engaged in the task at hand, and they click away on the keyboard and mouse as their teacher wanders around the room. The school recently purchased a reading comprehension program that promises a “complete solution” to the reading needs of struggling adolescents. During the sales presentation, the administrator was told that the program was “teacher-proof” and that students would improve their test scores in a matter of weeks.
But let's take a closer look. As we join Taheen at his monitor, we see that he has the reading program running in one window and a chat room running in another. He periodically glances up from the chat room to answer a computer-generated comprehension question. He gets all the answers right and doesn't seem to be trying. At the computer across from Taheen, Fernando is getting frustrated. He doesn't know the answer, and the computer is unable to offer him any help.
In another classroom, we join Ryan and Clay, two 8th grade students who are most comfortable reading 1st grade-level texts, such as Spider Names (Canizares, 1998) and Tiny Terrors (Kenah, 2004). Although these books are easy-to-read nonfiction, they nevertheless include information that even older readers would find fascinating.
The teacher capitalizes on the students' background knowledge by having them talk as they work on their current project. They are dictating to her a story to accompany an intriguing illustration from the wordless picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Van Allsburg, 1984). They debate the most interesting word choices (for example, hurt as opposed to devastated) while their teacher acts as scribe. They are eager and able to reread this lengthy and complex story—written in their own words—and revise it to make it more interesting and grammatically accurate. Their teacher explains certain conventions of language and draws their attention to literary devices that other authors use as they write. For example, when the boys decide that they need to let readers know early in the story that something bad is going to happen, the teacher locates several picture books that include examples of foreshadowing. This not only gives the students ideas for their own writing but also inspires them to recognize this tool in their strategic reading. This teacher is indispensable.
Although computers and Web sites may reinforce skills, they can't provide the specific feedback that students require. Intervention programs need to increase, not decrease, teacher involvement (Ivey & Fisher, in press). In addition, intervention programs—computerized or not—must be based on assessment information and provide students with reading comprehension instruction rather than focus on a single aspect of reading or writing, such as phonics, fluency, or spelling.
What It Will Take
Improving reading comprehension and instruction in the upper-elementary and secondary grades will require a great deal of time and effort. There is no magical set of strategies you can get from an inservice workshop. Real changes in literacy learning and teaching will most likely result from a schoolwide literacy plan and strong leadership (Ivey & Fisher, in press).
Bringing about such a change means devoting resources to literacy-related personnel and to large volumes of high-quality, diverse, multileveled reading materials in all subject areas. It requires a commitment to providing literacy assessments of all students for the purpose of designing purposeful and appropriate instruction. It means creating a culture of collaboration and peer coaching. Finally, it requires that professional development focus on building teacher knowledge and expertise.
Is this a tall order for schools when the immediate need is to improve their current students' reading comprehension? Absolutely. But we are doing struggling students no favor when we perpetuate strategies that do not work.
You see this ant?
A man was sent to prison for 20 years. He was so bored while in there; he found an ant and decided to teach it tricks - like beg, play dead, roll over, jump hair etc. He served his time and was released. He took his ant with him in a matchbox. The first place he went was to a bar. He sat down, took out the matchbox and emptied out the ant. He then said to the guy beside him, "you are not gonna believe what this ant can do".
He showed him all the tricks and the guy was impressed. He told him that he could make a fortune with the ant. The guy with the ant was excited and called the bartender over and said "you see that ant?" The bartender put his finger on the ant, twisted it and said "sorry sir it won't happen again."
He showed him all the tricks and the guy was impressed. He told him that he could make a fortune with the ant. The guy with the ant was excited and called the bartender over and said "you see that ant?" The bartender put his finger on the ant, twisted it and said "sorry sir it won't happen again."
XC Door handles
XC coupe door handles - similar to those on the XB, but occasionally painted black.
And chromed in others.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The importance of giving ourselves reflection time every day
Reflection is considered an essential practice for those who seek self-knowledge and self-mastery. Why? Basically, reflection brings awareness of how our minds work. Over time, we become watchers, able to detach from the thoughts and emotions that play out in our minds.
With this detachment, we gain the freedom to choose whether or not to act on our thoughts and emotions. We learn to distinguish between objective reality and our mental and emotional dramas.
"Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." Hans Margolius
With this detachment, we gain the freedom to choose whether or not to act on our thoughts and emotions. We learn to distinguish between objective reality and our mental and emotional dramas.
"Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." Hans Margolius
XB door handles
XB coupe door handle style.
Note that the handle is enclosed in its own ‘chromed’ metal housing, and that the handle is finely ribbed.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
New car
“I don’t want a car,” said the farmer to the persistent salesman. “I need a new cow.”
“But you can’t ride a cow along the streets.”
“True. But I can’t milk a new car, can I?”
“But you can’t ride a cow along the streets.”
“True. But I can’t milk a new car, can I?”
Friday, July 20, 2007
Job titles
In an age when everyone seems to be playing the name game of glorifying job titles, the man in charge of the meat department at a grocery store in Wisconsin deserves a round of applause. On his weekly time card he describes his position as
"Meat Head".
"Meat Head".
Door handles
Another subtle difference between XA, XBs and XCs were the door handles.
The XA door handles were separate from the housing in that the housing was a stamped recess in the door skin, whereas on the XB and XC, the housing was an integral part of the handle assembly which fitted into a rectangular hole in the door. XC handles were similar, but in some models either the housing, or the whole assembly was painted black.
Also, the XB and XC handles themselves were ribbed.
The XA door handles were separate from the housing in that the housing was a stamped recess in the door skin, whereas on the XB and XC, the housing was an integral part of the handle assembly which fitted into a rectangular hole in the door. XC handles were similar, but in some models either the housing, or the whole assembly was painted black.
Also, the XB and XC handles themselves were ribbed.
XA sedan door handle style.
XA hardtop door handle style.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The Middle Wife
By an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher
I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom.
When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show- and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant.
"This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday. First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mum's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord." [She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.]
"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mum starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh, oh, oh!' " [Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans.] "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'
[Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.] "My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mum to lie down in bed like this."
[Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.] "And then, pop! My Mum had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!"
[This kid has her legs spread and with her little hands are miming water flowing away. It was too much!] "Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe.' They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff, they all said it was from Mum's play-centre!, so there must be a lot of stuff inside there."
[Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another Erica comes along.
I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom.
When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show- and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant.
"This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday. First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mum's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord." [She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.]
"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mum starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh, oh, oh!' " [Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans.] "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'
[Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.] "My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mum to lie down in bed like this."
[Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.] "And then, pop! My Mum had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!"
[This kid has her legs spread and with her little hands are miming water flowing away. It was too much!] "Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe.' They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff, they all said it was from Mum's play-centre!, so there must be a lot of stuff inside there."
[Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another Erica comes along.
Speeding
A Policeman stops a speeding car and tells the woman driver; "When I saw you driving down the road, I thought to myself, “sixty-five at least.”
The woman replied: "I don’t think that is quite fair. I think this hat makes me look older."
The woman replied: "I don’t think that is quite fair. I think this hat makes me look older."
P5 LTD
It is immediately apparent that although the basic form of the car is based on the XA/XB Falcon and the ZF/ZG Fairlane, Ford made efforts to move the LTD upmarket, both in scale and style. The car featured a distinctive grille with head lamps hidden behind vacumn operated doors. Tail lamps appeared full width at the rear, but design regulations prevented them from being sequential in operation, and the wheel trims, while proving to be vulnerable, added to the impression of style. Being released in August, 1973, some months before the XB GT Falcon, the LTD also has the distinction of introducing four wheel disk brakes onto the local Australian market.While officially titled the P5, the first LTD has also become known as the FA. The FA was manufactured between August, 1973 and September, 1976. 7003 were produced.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Are You A Creative Or A Reactive Thinker?
By Nido R. Qubein
The other day I was talking to a CEO about the educational and development needs of his corporation, and he remarked, "You know, Nido, leadership isn't what it used to be. I used to think I knew what to look for in leaders. Now I'm not so sure."
He continued: "When I first went into business, a strong leader could say 'Follow me,' and people would follow. Now when you say that, your employees want to know where you're going, what you expect to find when you get there, and what's in it for them if they follow you."
His comments were very perceptive. Today's business climate requires a different type of leader, because we're dealing with a different type of work place and a different breed of followers. The old-style leadership was well-suited to yesterday's mechanical-type of organization in which employees were regarded as cogs in a machine and only management did the thinking.
When only managers were allowed to think, you needed leaders who could give orders with authority and employees who were willing to follow without question. But smart executives nowadays realize that you can't remain competitive while running a mechanical organization. You must have a thinking organization, which means that people at every level must be able to think and must be free to think.
As cooperation becomes the norm from the senior management team to the self-managed teams on the work floor, we need to take a careful look at the types of leadership necessary to mobilize this new-style work force. Here are the characteristics I see in successful leaders of thinking organizations:
They help people decide for themselves what to do; they don't tell people what to do.
They lead in the creation of corporate visions. They align their personal visions with the corporate vision and help others in the company to do the same. They expect excellence in those around them, and they make those expectations known. The people on their teams usually live up to these expectations.
They invite people to speak up, and they listen and respond to those who do. They welcome good news and bad news from their associates, knowing that they can't lead wisely unless they are fully informed. Today's leaders can't be guardians of the status quo. They must foster a climate in which the search for higher quality and better methods becomes a way of life. This calls for creative thinkers. Obviously, if you want your organization to think creatively at every level, you need creative- thinking leaders at every level.
Such leaders don't bark orders. They use positive reinforcement to influence people toward the behaviours they desire. They don't isolate themselves from the people they lead. They mingle with them, ask about their problems and concerns, and look for ways to help them. They promote a sense of "family." They don't pretend to have all the answers. They ask for information and advice before making decisions. They don't try to do it all themselves. They make full use of the talents of those around them.
They don't lord it over others. They treat employees, clients, customers and associates with respect. They are not condescending toward any of the corporate stakeholders, but regard them all as members of the team. They encourage a constant search for improvement and a constant quest for excellence. They provide the educational and developmental programs needed to achieve these goals.
Some people think leaders are born, not made. It's an old idea. It gave rise to the traditional leaders -- tribal chieftains and later kings and emperors who passed their authority on to their descendants. This gave rise to the theory that good leaders had to have certain inborn traits, such as physical strength, high intelligence, commanding voices, and aggressive personalities.
Later theories dealt with what leaders do instead of what they are. People led others, it was believed, by performing leadership functions such as organizing, controlling, staffing, and coordinating. Then, in the early part of this century, it was discovered that workers, left to themselves, will develop their own informal group processes, guided by their own informal but powerful customs and traditions.
What's more, when workers were allowed to follow these informal procedures, they became more productive than when they followed the rules and regulations laid down by appointed bosses. This has led to the modern concept of leadership: a process by which management creates an environment in which people voluntarily align their efforts toward common objectives.
The good news is that one doesn't have to be born with certain "traits" to exercise this type of leadership. Leadership skills can be taught to your staff, your associates and your employees, and they can be employed by people of a wide variety of temperaments. My staff and I at Creative Services teach those skills every day, and have been teaching them for two decades. They work.
So when my friend observed that "leadership isn't what it used to be," I responded, "Yes, and thank goodness for that." American competitiveness demands leadership that can come only from creative thinking at all levels of the organization. A team educated in this new style of leadership pays handsome dividends in the competitive global marketplace.
The other day I was talking to a CEO about the educational and development needs of his corporation, and he remarked, "You know, Nido, leadership isn't what it used to be. I used to think I knew what to look for in leaders. Now I'm not so sure."
He continued: "When I first went into business, a strong leader could say 'Follow me,' and people would follow. Now when you say that, your employees want to know where you're going, what you expect to find when you get there, and what's in it for them if they follow you."
His comments were very perceptive. Today's business climate requires a different type of leader, because we're dealing with a different type of work place and a different breed of followers. The old-style leadership was well-suited to yesterday's mechanical-type of organization in which employees were regarded as cogs in a machine and only management did the thinking.
When only managers were allowed to think, you needed leaders who could give orders with authority and employees who were willing to follow without question. But smart executives nowadays realize that you can't remain competitive while running a mechanical organization. You must have a thinking organization, which means that people at every level must be able to think and must be free to think.
As cooperation becomes the norm from the senior management team to the self-managed teams on the work floor, we need to take a careful look at the types of leadership necessary to mobilize this new-style work force. Here are the characteristics I see in successful leaders of thinking organizations:
They help people decide for themselves what to do; they don't tell people what to do.
They lead in the creation of corporate visions. They align their personal visions with the corporate vision and help others in the company to do the same. They expect excellence in those around them, and they make those expectations known. The people on their teams usually live up to these expectations.
They invite people to speak up, and they listen and respond to those who do. They welcome good news and bad news from their associates, knowing that they can't lead wisely unless they are fully informed. Today's leaders can't be guardians of the status quo. They must foster a climate in which the search for higher quality and better methods becomes a way of life. This calls for creative thinkers. Obviously, if you want your organization to think creatively at every level, you need creative- thinking leaders at every level.
Such leaders don't bark orders. They use positive reinforcement to influence people toward the behaviours they desire. They don't isolate themselves from the people they lead. They mingle with them, ask about their problems and concerns, and look for ways to help them. They promote a sense of "family." They don't pretend to have all the answers. They ask for information and advice before making decisions. They don't try to do it all themselves. They make full use of the talents of those around them.
They don't lord it over others. They treat employees, clients, customers and associates with respect. They are not condescending toward any of the corporate stakeholders, but regard them all as members of the team. They encourage a constant search for improvement and a constant quest for excellence. They provide the educational and developmental programs needed to achieve these goals.
Some people think leaders are born, not made. It's an old idea. It gave rise to the traditional leaders -- tribal chieftains and later kings and emperors who passed their authority on to their descendants. This gave rise to the theory that good leaders had to have certain inborn traits, such as physical strength, high intelligence, commanding voices, and aggressive personalities.
Later theories dealt with what leaders do instead of what they are. People led others, it was believed, by performing leadership functions such as organizing, controlling, staffing, and coordinating. Then, in the early part of this century, it was discovered that workers, left to themselves, will develop their own informal group processes, guided by their own informal but powerful customs and traditions.
What's more, when workers were allowed to follow these informal procedures, they became more productive than when they followed the rules and regulations laid down by appointed bosses. This has led to the modern concept of leadership: a process by which management creates an environment in which people voluntarily align their efforts toward common objectives.
The good news is that one doesn't have to be born with certain "traits" to exercise this type of leadership. Leadership skills can be taught to your staff, your associates and your employees, and they can be employed by people of a wide variety of temperaments. My staff and I at Creative Services teach those skills every day, and have been teaching them for two decades. They work.
So when my friend observed that "leadership isn't what it used to be," I responded, "Yes, and thank goodness for that." American competitiveness demands leadership that can come only from creative thinking at all levels of the organization. A team educated in this new style of leadership pays handsome dividends in the competitive global marketplace.
Making work interesting
Way to keep healthy level of insanity in the workplace
1. Page yourself over the intercom. (Don't disguise your voice.)
2. Find out where your boss shops and buy exactly the same outfits.Always wear them one day after your boss does. (This is especially effective if your boss is a different gender than you are.)3. While sitting at your desk, soak your fingers in "Palmolive."
4. Put up mosquito netting around your cubicle.
5. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask them if they want fries with that.
6. Put your garbage can on your desk. Label it "IN."
7. Determine how many cups of coffee are "too many."
8. Put decaf in the coffeemaker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
9. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
10. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
11. When driving colleagues around insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep 'em tuned up."
12. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think?"
13. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a Parakeet.
14. Sit in the parking lot at lunchtime pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
15. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles".
1. Page yourself over the intercom. (Don't disguise your voice.)
2. Find out where your boss shops and buy exactly the same outfits.Always wear them one day after your boss does. (This is especially effective if your boss is a different gender than you are.)3. While sitting at your desk, soak your fingers in "Palmolive."
4. Put up mosquito netting around your cubicle.
5. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask them if they want fries with that.
6. Put your garbage can on your desk. Label it "IN."
7. Determine how many cups of coffee are "too many."
8. Put decaf in the coffeemaker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
9. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
10. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
11. When driving colleagues around insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep 'em tuned up."
12. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think?"
13. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a Parakeet.
14. Sit in the parking lot at lunchtime pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
15. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles".
LTD Part 1
The LTD was launched as Ford’s new flagship model, replacing versions of the imported U.S. Galaxie. It marked a bold initiative by Ford, determined to capture the local top of the range market and become the de facto limousine of choice for government and business. As such, they were happy to alter the basic structure of Falcon/Fairlane and obsorb the cost in the pursuit of the market, and the LTD represented a stretching of the chassis, acquiring more length most noticeably in the rear doors and roof. Interior appointments were of the finest that could be fitted, and so well-equipped were the cars that the options list was almost negligible.
While it is common currency to assume that the LTD name was derived, as for the U.S. equivalent, from the term Limited, in fact it stands for Lincoln Type Design and was a measure of Ford Australia’s aspirations for the car.
Once again, a two letter code was used to differentiate the models.
While it is common currency to assume that the LTD name was derived, as for the U.S. equivalent, from the term Limited, in fact it stands for Lincoln Type Design and was a measure of Ford Australia’s aspirations for the car.
Once again, a two letter code was used to differentiate the models.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Life on the other side
A man was sick and tired of going to work every daywhile his wife stayed at home. He wanted her to see what he went through each day, so he prayed :-"Dear Lord, I go to work every day and put in 8 hours of hard work, while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to know what I go through, so please create atrade in our bodies".
God, in His infinite wisdom,granted the man's wish.
The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as awoman. He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate,awakened the kids, set out their school clothes, fedthem breakfast, packed their lunches, drove them toschool, came home ..... picked up the dry cleaning,took it to the cleaners and stopped at the bank todraw money to pay the electricity and telephone bills.
He drove to the electricity company and the phonecompany and paid the bills, went grocery shopping,came home and put away the groceries. He cleaned thecat's litter box and bathed the dog. By then it wasalready 1:00 pm, so he hurried to make the beds, dothe laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop thekitchen floor.
He rushed to the school to pick up the kids and gotinto an argument with them on the way home which hehad to sort out in a gentle 'motherly' fashion. He setout cookies and milk and got the kids organised to dotheir homework, then set up the ironing board and wasable to watch a bit of TV while he did the ironing.
By then it was 4:30 pm, so he began peeling potatoes andwashed greens for salads. He prepared the chops and fresh vegetables and got everything ready in time foran early dinner.After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed.
At 9:00 pm he was exhausted and althoughhis chores weren't finished for the day, he went tobed where he was expected to make love, which hemanaged to get through without complaining.
The next morning he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed andsaid :-"Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I was sowrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home allday. Please, O please, let us trade back!"
The Lord,in his infinite wisdom, replied, "My son, I feel youhave learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were. You'll just have towait 9 months though, because you got pregnant last night!!!"
God, in His infinite wisdom,granted the man's wish.
The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as awoman. He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate,awakened the kids, set out their school clothes, fedthem breakfast, packed their lunches, drove them toschool, came home ..... picked up the dry cleaning,took it to the cleaners and stopped at the bank todraw money to pay the electricity and telephone bills.
He drove to the electricity company and the phonecompany and paid the bills, went grocery shopping,came home and put away the groceries. He cleaned thecat's litter box and bathed the dog. By then it wasalready 1:00 pm, so he hurried to make the beds, dothe laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop thekitchen floor.
He rushed to the school to pick up the kids and gotinto an argument with them on the way home which hehad to sort out in a gentle 'motherly' fashion. He setout cookies and milk and got the kids organised to dotheir homework, then set up the ironing board and wasable to watch a bit of TV while he did the ironing.
By then it was 4:30 pm, so he began peeling potatoes andwashed greens for salads. He prepared the chops and fresh vegetables and got everything ready in time foran early dinner.After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed.
At 9:00 pm he was exhausted and althoughhis chores weren't finished for the day, he went tobed where he was expected to make love, which hemanaged to get through without complaining.
The next morning he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed andsaid :-"Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I was sowrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home allday. Please, O please, let us trade back!"
The Lord,in his infinite wisdom, replied, "My son, I feel youhave learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were. You'll just have towait 9 months though, because you got pregnant last night!!!"
XY Falcon
The XY marked the apogee of the second generation Falcons, superior in performance to its competitors, better built, fitted with a range of locally designed six cylinder engines, and in GT form, producing the ultimate and fastest Falcon of them all. Popular with police forces, rental companies and the public at large, the XY featured a new plastic grille split in the centre and revised tail lamps. Improvements were made to the seating, safety equipment and steps were taken to provide a smoother, quieter ride. The available 351ci (5.7litre) engine, while similar in capacity to that fitted to the previous model, was a completely new engine design, more modern and efficient, and when locally produced, would power the Falcon through the next decade.The XY was manufactured between October, 1970 and March, 1972. 100,474 were produced.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Views on assessment
Assessment for Learning
Assessment for learning turns day-to-day assessment into a teaching and learning process that enhances (instead of merely monitoring) student learning. Extensive research conducted around the world shows that by consistently applying the principles of assessment for learning, we can produce impressive gains in student achievement, especially for struggling learners (Black & Wiliam, 1998).
Assessment for learning begins when teachers share achievement targets with students, presenting those expectations in student-friendly language accompanied by examples of exemplary student work. Then, frequent self-assessments provide students (and teachers) with continual access to descriptive feedback in amounts they can manage effectively without being overwhelmed. Thus, students can chart their trajectory toward the transparent achievement targets their teachers have established.
The students' role is to strive to understand what success looks like, to use feedback from each assessment to discover where they are now in relation to where they want to be, and to determine how to do better the next time. As students become increasingly proficient, they learn to generate their own descriptive feedback and set goals for what comes next on their journey.
Teachers and students are partners in the assessment for learning process. For example, teachers might have students study samples of work that vary in quality and collaborate in creating their own student-friendly version of a performance assessment scoring rubric. Or students might create practice versions of multiple-choice tests that parallel the content of an upcoming final exam, which they can then use to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses and to focus their final preparation for that exam. Students can accumulate evidence of their learning in growth portfolios. They can also become partners with teachers in communicating about their own learning successes by leading their parent/teacher conferences.
Assessment for learning provides both students and teachers with understandable information in a form they can use immediately to improve performance. In this context, students become both self-assessors and consumers of assessment information. As they experience and understand their own improvement over time, learners begin to sense that success is within reach if they keep trying. This process can put them on a winning streak and keep them there.
When we use assessment for learning, assessment becomes far more than merely a one-time event stuck onto the end of an instructional unit. It becomes a series of interlaced experiences that enhance the learning process by keeping students confident and focused on their progress, even in the face of occasional setbacks.
The goal of assessment for learning is not to eliminate failure, but rather to keep failure from becoming chronic and thus inevitable in the mind of the learner. Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has pointed out that the key to winning is to avoid losing twice in a row (Kanter, 2004, p. 251). He meant that if you lose once and fix it, you can remain confident. Losing twice, though, can raise questions, crack that confidence, and make recovery more difficult. So when learners suffer a failure, we must get them back to success as quickly as possible to restore their confidence in their capabilities. This is the emotional dynamic of assessment for learning.
Scenario 1: Set Students Up for Success
Here is an example of the use of assessment for learning that builds student confidence from the start. Notice who develops and uses the assessment.
A high school English teacher assigns students to read three novels by the same author and develop a thesis statement about a common theme, consistent character development, or social commentary in the novels. They must then defend that thesis in a term paper with references. To set students up for success, the teacher begins by providing them with a sample of an outstanding paper to read and analyze. The next day, the class discusses what made the sample outstanding.
As their next assignment, the teacher gives students a sample paper of poor quality. Again, they analyze and evaluate its features in some detail. Comparing the two papers, students list essential differences. The class then uses this analysis to collaboratively decide on the keys to a high-quality paper.
After identifying and defining those keys, the students share in the process of transforming them into a rubric—a set of rating scales depicting a continuum of quality for each key. The teacher provides examples of student work to illustrate each level on the quality continuum.
Only after these specific understandings are in place do students draft their papers. Then they exchange drafts, analyzing and evaluating one another's work and providing descriptive feedback on how to improve it, always using the language of the rubric. If students want descriptive feedback from their teacher on any particular dimension of quality, they can request and will receive it. The paper is finished when the student says it is finished. In the end, not every paper is outstanding, but most are of high quality, and each student is confident of that fact before submitting his or her work for final evaluation and grading (Stiggins, in press; Scenario 1 adapted by permission).
Scenario 2: Help Students Turn Failure into Success
Here is an illustration of assessment for learning in mathematics used to help a struggling elementary student find the path to recovery from a chronic sense of failure. Notice how the teacher highlights the meaning of success and turns the responsibility over to the student. In addition, notice how the learner has already begun to internalize the keys to her own success.
Gail is a 5th grader who gets her math test back with “60 percent” marked at the top. She knows this means another F. So her losing streak continues, she thinks. She's ready to give up on ever connecting with math.
But then her teacher distributes another paper—a worksheet the students will use to learn from their performance on the math test. What's up with this? The worksheet has several columns. Column one lists the 20 test items by number. Column two lists what math proficiency each item tested. The teacher calls the class's attention to the next two columns: Right and Wrong. She asks the students to fill in those columns with checks for each item to indicate their performance on the test. Gail checks 12 right and 8 wrong.
The teacher then asks the students to evaluate as honestly as they can why they got each incorrect item wrong and to check column five if they made a simple mistake and column six if they really don't understand what went wrong. Gail discovers that four of her eight incorrect answers were caused by careless mistakes that she knows how to fix. But four were math problems she really doesn't understand how to solve.
Next, the teacher goes through the list of math concepts covered item by item, enabling Gail and her classmates to determine exactly what concepts they don't understand. Gail discovers that all four of her wrong answers that reflect a true lack of understanding arise from the same gap in her problem-solving ability: subtracting 3-digit numbers with regrouping. If she had just avoided those careless mistakes and had also overcome this one gap in understanding, she might have received 100 percent. Imagine that! If she could just do the test over . . .
She can. Because Gail's teacher has mapped out precisely what each item on the test measures, the teacher and students can work in partnership to group the students according to the math concepts they haven't yet mastered. The teacher then provides differentiated instruction to the groups focused on their conceptual misunderstandings. Together the class also plans strategies that everyone can use to avoid simple mistakes. When that work is complete, the teacher gives students a second form of the same math test. When Gail gets the test back with a grade of 100 percent, she jumps from her seat with arms held high. Her winning streak begins (Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2004; Scenario 2 adapted by permission).
Redefining Our Assessment Future
We know how to deliver professional development that will give practitioners the tools and technologies they need to use assessment effectively in the service of student success. (Stiggins et al., 2004; Stiggins & Chappuis, 2006). Thus far, however, the immense potential of assessment for learning has gone largely untapped because we have failed to deliver the proper tools into the hands of teachers and school leaders. If we are to fulfill our mission of leaving no child behind, we must adjust our vision of excellence in assessment in at least two important ways that will help us balance assessment of and assessment for learning.
First, we must expand the criteria by which we evaluate the quality of our assessments at all levels and in all contexts. Traditionally, we have judged quality in terms of the attributes of the resulting scores; these scores must lead to valid and reliable inferences about student achievement. As a result, schools have lavished attention on characteristics of the instruments that produce such scores. In the future, however, we must recognize that assessment is about far more than the test score's dependability—it also must be about the score's effect on the learner. Even the most valid and reliable assessment cannot be regarded as high quality if it causes a student to give up.
We must begin to evaluate our assessments in terms of both the quality of the evidence they yield and the effect they have on future learning. High-quality assessments encourage further learning; low-quality assessments hinder learning. Understanding the emotional dynamics of the assessment experience from the student's perspective is crucial to the effective use of assessments to improve schools.
Second, we must abandon the limiting belief that adults represent the most important assessment consumers or data-based decision makers in schools. Students' thoughts and actions regarding assessment results are at least as important as those of adults. The students' emotional reaction to results will determine what they do in response. Whether their score is high or low, students respond productively when they say, “I understand. I know what to do next. I can handle this. I choose to keep trying.” From here on, the result will be more learning. The counterproductive response is, “I don't know what this means. I have no idea what to do next. I'm probably too dumb to learn this anyway. I give up.” Here, the learning stops.
In standards-driven schools, only one of these responses works, especially for students who have yet to meet standards. Assessment for learning is about eliciting that productive response to assessment results from students every time. It can produce winning streaks for all students.
Assessment for learning turns day-to-day assessment into a teaching and learning process that enhances (instead of merely monitoring) student learning. Extensive research conducted around the world shows that by consistently applying the principles of assessment for learning, we can produce impressive gains in student achievement, especially for struggling learners (Black & Wiliam, 1998).
Assessment for learning begins when teachers share achievement targets with students, presenting those expectations in student-friendly language accompanied by examples of exemplary student work. Then, frequent self-assessments provide students (and teachers) with continual access to descriptive feedback in amounts they can manage effectively without being overwhelmed. Thus, students can chart their trajectory toward the transparent achievement targets their teachers have established.
The students' role is to strive to understand what success looks like, to use feedback from each assessment to discover where they are now in relation to where they want to be, and to determine how to do better the next time. As students become increasingly proficient, they learn to generate their own descriptive feedback and set goals for what comes next on their journey.
Teachers and students are partners in the assessment for learning process. For example, teachers might have students study samples of work that vary in quality and collaborate in creating their own student-friendly version of a performance assessment scoring rubric. Or students might create practice versions of multiple-choice tests that parallel the content of an upcoming final exam, which they can then use to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses and to focus their final preparation for that exam. Students can accumulate evidence of their learning in growth portfolios. They can also become partners with teachers in communicating about their own learning successes by leading their parent/teacher conferences.
Assessment for learning provides both students and teachers with understandable information in a form they can use immediately to improve performance. In this context, students become both self-assessors and consumers of assessment information. As they experience and understand their own improvement over time, learners begin to sense that success is within reach if they keep trying. This process can put them on a winning streak and keep them there.
When we use assessment for learning, assessment becomes far more than merely a one-time event stuck onto the end of an instructional unit. It becomes a series of interlaced experiences that enhance the learning process by keeping students confident and focused on their progress, even in the face of occasional setbacks.
The goal of assessment for learning is not to eliminate failure, but rather to keep failure from becoming chronic and thus inevitable in the mind of the learner. Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has pointed out that the key to winning is to avoid losing twice in a row (Kanter, 2004, p. 251). He meant that if you lose once and fix it, you can remain confident. Losing twice, though, can raise questions, crack that confidence, and make recovery more difficult. So when learners suffer a failure, we must get them back to success as quickly as possible to restore their confidence in their capabilities. This is the emotional dynamic of assessment for learning.
Scenario 1: Set Students Up for Success
Here is an example of the use of assessment for learning that builds student confidence from the start. Notice who develops and uses the assessment.
A high school English teacher assigns students to read three novels by the same author and develop a thesis statement about a common theme, consistent character development, or social commentary in the novels. They must then defend that thesis in a term paper with references. To set students up for success, the teacher begins by providing them with a sample of an outstanding paper to read and analyze. The next day, the class discusses what made the sample outstanding.
As their next assignment, the teacher gives students a sample paper of poor quality. Again, they analyze and evaluate its features in some detail. Comparing the two papers, students list essential differences. The class then uses this analysis to collaboratively decide on the keys to a high-quality paper.
After identifying and defining those keys, the students share in the process of transforming them into a rubric—a set of rating scales depicting a continuum of quality for each key. The teacher provides examples of student work to illustrate each level on the quality continuum.
Only after these specific understandings are in place do students draft their papers. Then they exchange drafts, analyzing and evaluating one another's work and providing descriptive feedback on how to improve it, always using the language of the rubric. If students want descriptive feedback from their teacher on any particular dimension of quality, they can request and will receive it. The paper is finished when the student says it is finished. In the end, not every paper is outstanding, but most are of high quality, and each student is confident of that fact before submitting his or her work for final evaluation and grading (Stiggins, in press; Scenario 1 adapted by permission).
Scenario 2: Help Students Turn Failure into Success
Here is an illustration of assessment for learning in mathematics used to help a struggling elementary student find the path to recovery from a chronic sense of failure. Notice how the teacher highlights the meaning of success and turns the responsibility over to the student. In addition, notice how the learner has already begun to internalize the keys to her own success.
Gail is a 5th grader who gets her math test back with “60 percent” marked at the top. She knows this means another F. So her losing streak continues, she thinks. She's ready to give up on ever connecting with math.
But then her teacher distributes another paper—a worksheet the students will use to learn from their performance on the math test. What's up with this? The worksheet has several columns. Column one lists the 20 test items by number. Column two lists what math proficiency each item tested. The teacher calls the class's attention to the next two columns: Right and Wrong. She asks the students to fill in those columns with checks for each item to indicate their performance on the test. Gail checks 12 right and 8 wrong.
The teacher then asks the students to evaluate as honestly as they can why they got each incorrect item wrong and to check column five if they made a simple mistake and column six if they really don't understand what went wrong. Gail discovers that four of her eight incorrect answers were caused by careless mistakes that she knows how to fix. But four were math problems she really doesn't understand how to solve.
Next, the teacher goes through the list of math concepts covered item by item, enabling Gail and her classmates to determine exactly what concepts they don't understand. Gail discovers that all four of her wrong answers that reflect a true lack of understanding arise from the same gap in her problem-solving ability: subtracting 3-digit numbers with regrouping. If she had just avoided those careless mistakes and had also overcome this one gap in understanding, she might have received 100 percent. Imagine that! If she could just do the test over . . .
She can. Because Gail's teacher has mapped out precisely what each item on the test measures, the teacher and students can work in partnership to group the students according to the math concepts they haven't yet mastered. The teacher then provides differentiated instruction to the groups focused on their conceptual misunderstandings. Together the class also plans strategies that everyone can use to avoid simple mistakes. When that work is complete, the teacher gives students a second form of the same math test. When Gail gets the test back with a grade of 100 percent, she jumps from her seat with arms held high. Her winning streak begins (Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2004; Scenario 2 adapted by permission).
Redefining Our Assessment Future
We know how to deliver professional development that will give practitioners the tools and technologies they need to use assessment effectively in the service of student success. (Stiggins et al., 2004; Stiggins & Chappuis, 2006). Thus far, however, the immense potential of assessment for learning has gone largely untapped because we have failed to deliver the proper tools into the hands of teachers and school leaders. If we are to fulfill our mission of leaving no child behind, we must adjust our vision of excellence in assessment in at least two important ways that will help us balance assessment of and assessment for learning.
First, we must expand the criteria by which we evaluate the quality of our assessments at all levels and in all contexts. Traditionally, we have judged quality in terms of the attributes of the resulting scores; these scores must lead to valid and reliable inferences about student achievement. As a result, schools have lavished attention on characteristics of the instruments that produce such scores. In the future, however, we must recognize that assessment is about far more than the test score's dependability—it also must be about the score's effect on the learner. Even the most valid and reliable assessment cannot be regarded as high quality if it causes a student to give up.
We must begin to evaluate our assessments in terms of both the quality of the evidence they yield and the effect they have on future learning. High-quality assessments encourage further learning; low-quality assessments hinder learning. Understanding the emotional dynamics of the assessment experience from the student's perspective is crucial to the effective use of assessments to improve schools.
Second, we must abandon the limiting belief that adults represent the most important assessment consumers or data-based decision makers in schools. Students' thoughts and actions regarding assessment results are at least as important as those of adults. The students' emotional reaction to results will determine what they do in response. Whether their score is high or low, students respond productively when they say, “I understand. I know what to do next. I can handle this. I choose to keep trying.” From here on, the result will be more learning. The counterproductive response is, “I don't know what this means. I have no idea what to do next. I'm probably too dumb to learn this anyway. I give up.” Here, the learning stops.
In standards-driven schools, only one of these responses works, especially for students who have yet to meet standards. Assessment for learning is about eliciting that productive response to assessment results from students every time. It can produce winning streaks for all students.
Work rules
SICK DAYS:We will no longer accept a doctor statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
SURGERY:Operations are now banned. As long as you are an employee here, you need all your organs. You should not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To have something removed constitutes a breach of employment.
PERSONAL DAYS:Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturday and Sunday.
VACATION DAYS:All employees will take their vacation at the same time every year. The vacation days are as follows: Jan. 1, July 4 & Dec. 25
BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or coworkers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend to the arrangements. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early, provided your share of the work is done enough.
OUT FROM YOUR OWN DEATH:This will be accepted as an excuse. However, we require at least two weeks notice, as it is your duty to train your own replacement.
RESTROOM USE:Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. In the future, we will follow the practice of going in alphabetical order. For instance, all employees whose names begin with 'A' will go from 8:00 to 8:20, employees whose names begin with 'B' will go from 8:20 to 8:40 and so on. If you're unable to go at your allotted time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your turn comes again. In extreme emergencies employees may swap their time with a coworker. Both employees' supervisors in writing must approve this exchange. In addition, there is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, and the stall door will open.
LUNCH BREAK:Skinny people get an hour for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy, normal size people get 30 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain the average figure. Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast and take a diet pill. Sondra gets none.
DRESS CODE:It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary, if we see you wearing $350 Prada sneakers and carrying a $600 Gucci bag we assume you are doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise. Thank you for your loyalty to our company.
We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternations or input should be directed elsewhere. Have a nice week. -- Management
SURGERY:Operations are now banned. As long as you are an employee here, you need all your organs. You should not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To have something removed constitutes a breach of employment.
PERSONAL DAYS:Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturday and Sunday.
VACATION DAYS:All employees will take their vacation at the same time every year. The vacation days are as follows: Jan. 1, July 4 & Dec. 25
BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or coworkers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend to the arrangements. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early, provided your share of the work is done enough.
OUT FROM YOUR OWN DEATH:This will be accepted as an excuse. However, we require at least two weeks notice, as it is your duty to train your own replacement.
RESTROOM USE:Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. In the future, we will follow the practice of going in alphabetical order. For instance, all employees whose names begin with 'A' will go from 8:00 to 8:20, employees whose names begin with 'B' will go from 8:20 to 8:40 and so on. If you're unable to go at your allotted time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your turn comes again. In extreme emergencies employees may swap their time with a coworker. Both employees' supervisors in writing must approve this exchange. In addition, there is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, and the stall door will open.
LUNCH BREAK:Skinny people get an hour for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy, normal size people get 30 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain the average figure. Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast and take a diet pill. Sondra gets none.
DRESS CODE:It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary, if we see you wearing $350 Prada sneakers and carrying a $600 Gucci bag we assume you are doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise. Thank you for your loyalty to our company.
We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternations or input should be directed elsewhere. Have a nice week. -- Management
XW Falcon
The XW represented the first real attempt to more definitely differentiate the Australian Falcon from the styling of its U.S. equivalent. The basic structure remained the same, but the Australian car replaced the traditional round tail lamps once and for all with modern, horizontally split lenses, and introduced a heavier grille, with wrap around indicators and side lights, producing a distinctive and now unique design. Mechanical changes were also made, the most important and impressive being the fitting of the 351ci (5.7litre) V8 engine in various versions, a full 49ci larger than the biggest engine fitted to the U.S. version. The Australian Falcon had finally come of age.The XW was manufactured between July, 1969 and October, 1970. 99,953 were produced.
The SEVEN traits of a Workaholic
Nearly a third of people see themselves as workaholics and they are more likely than others to be dissatisfied with their work-life balance, says a Statistic Canada study released last month. The study, "Time escapes me: Workaholics and time perception," found that nearly one-third, or 31 per cent of the respondents aged 19 to 64, identify themselves as workaholics.
The 7 traits of a workaholic:
Unsatisfying work/life balance.
Working more hours than average.
Working more doesn't give sense of accomplishment.
Feeling stressed.
Stuck in a routine.
Inability to finish 'to-do list.'
Exaggerated sense of work's role in life.
The 7 traits of a workaholic:
Unsatisfying work/life balance.
Working more hours than average.
Working more doesn't give sense of accomplishment.
Feeling stressed.
Stuck in a routine.
Inability to finish 'to-do list.'
Exaggerated sense of work's role in life.
Pardon?
Two old friends met by chance on the street. After chatting for some time one said to the other, "I'm terribly sorry, but I've forgotten your name. You'll need to tell me".
The other stared at him thoughtfully for a long time, then replied, "How soon do you need to know?"
The other stared at him thoughtfully for a long time, then replied, "How soon do you need to know?"
XT Falcon
The XT Falcon was a mild restyle of the previous model, with a barely altered grille, but distinctive new tail lamps, circular lamps still, but cut by large rectangular indicator lenses. The V8 engine increased in size to the 302ci (4.9litre) version and there were minor mechanical revisions as Ford placed its Falcon squarely up against it competitors in the marketplace. They were greatly assisted in this with the XTs success in the London-Sydney Marathon rally, where its three entered cars took third, sixth and eighth places, capturing the Team Prize in the process. The XT was manufactured between April, 1968 and July, 1969. 74,394 were produced.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Artists
A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre. After carefully planning, he got past security, stole the paintings and made it safely to his van. However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, that's the reason I stole the paintings. I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh." (And you thought I didn't have De Gaulle to post this!)
I do
At an Italian wedding ceremony, the priest asked the bride, “Do you take Franco Giuseppe-Antonio to be your husband?”
The bride looking very confused said, “Father, there is a mistake. I am only marrying Frank.”
The bride looking very confused said, “Father, there is a mistake. I am only marrying Frank.”
XR Falcon
Whereas the previous four ranges of Falcon tended to follow styling trends set by their full size US parent cars, and were marketed with reference to the ‘Thunderbird’, it was decided with the new XR range, which again followed a US design, to capitalise on the phenomenal success of the Mustang. The styling of the car was inspired by the Mustang, copying the coke bottle style line, and the long bonnet and short boot cue, but retaining the traditional round tail lamps. The result was a car that was modern and handsome and while the two door hardtop model disappeared, this was more than compensated for by the arrival, for the first time in the Australian Falcon, of the 289ci (4.7litre) V8 and some serious horsepower.The XR was manufactured between September, 1966 and April, 1968. 87270 were produced.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
