Word Power - Do you have it?

Can what you speak influence your life and who you are?

If we take this sentence into consideration, we can clearly state that your vocabulary can predict your success. In other words, the size of your vocabulary will usually determine the size of your bank account. Word power can be also associated to life power, the power of seduction and we can't deny...it's a great and important power! The famous author of the popular book serie Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki wrote, “If you want to be rich, you have to have a rich man’s vocabulary. Words can make you rich, or can make you poor.” E. D. Hirsch, Jr., is the founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several acclaimed books on education issues and he has also written in a recent article entitled A Wealth of Words, “the key to increasing upward mobility is expanding vocabulary.”  In the same article, he also states that "Vocabulary doesn’t just help children do well on verbal exams. Studies have solidly established the correlation between vocabulary and real-world ability." This topic is really a very important matter.

According to E. D. Hirsch Jr., "Nonetheless, there’s no better index to accumulated knowledge and general competence than the size of a person’s vocabulary. Simply put: knowing more words makes you smarter. And between 1962 and the present, a big segment of the American population began knowing fewer words, getting less smart, and becoming demonstrably less able to earn a high income." So, if you want to be smarter, you should read, study and dedicate part of your time to improve your vocabulary. And if you want to get a good salary, keep on reading and studying. Now you know that it can bring much more benefits than what you could imagine! 

Post Question for the students: How is your vocabulary? What could you do to improve it? Do you think that it is important to learn new words? What new word have you learned lately?
Tip: To know more about it, just click here and read a complete article about vocabulary, written by E. D. Hirsch Jr. 

Parent and Teacher Conference

 

          This post is to thank all the parents that attended the first Parent and Teacher Conference on January 25.

          Although it was on a Saturday morning and we know how the weekend is very special to rest, mainly after a working week, this meeting is a very important moment because it will introduce the school and teacher’s methodology to new parents and explain the changes or some new topic for the ones who have already been with us.

          My students will start the high school period, so it is a great opportunity for parents to meet the new teachers and ask questions about this new phase in their children’s life. Questions like:

      -        What skills and knowledge will the students be expected to master this year?

      -        Are there challenging academic standards and how the students will be informed about the academic standards they are expected to meet?

      -        What kinds of projects and assignments have we planned that will help the students meet higher academic standards?

      -        How will the students be evaluated? How are grades determined in our classroom?

      -        Are summer school, tutoring, or other programs available for students who need more help?

And a very important contribution:

      -        What can parents do to stay more involved in their child's academic progress?

Educate a child, a teenager or an adult is a great responsibility, which must be divided by everyone involved in this process. When the work can be done together, it is easy to achieve the desired results and even go further!

Thank you very much for attending the conference and count on us! 2014 will be a very promising year!

PS.: If any parent couldn’t attend the meeting scheduled by the school, don’t worry. Set up an appointment and I’ll be glad to talk to you! See you!

Carl Sagan Day

 

                  Today we celebrate Carl Sagan Day, a day dedicated to one of the greatest man of our century and someone I learned to admire since I was a child  and a day to celebrate the beauty of science and inquiry. Carl Edward Sagan Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author. According to the Wikipedia website, he is best known for his contributions to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. For me, he is “best known” for writing the book Cosmos, that my cousin and journalist Luciana Cantão (with the permission of her mother), lend me to read it when I was teen. What a brand-new world! The reading was a great delight for me! After that, I found out that the book was part of the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote. Absolutely fantastic! 

                In 2001, when I started working as a teacher in a regular school, Aiael, the Geography teacher, gave me a very meaningful text, that shows how important is the teacher’s role in awakening the student's curiosity to learn anything. The text was an excerpt from the book "The Demon-Haunted World", published in 1995 (no Brasil, O Mundo Assombrado pelos Demônios - A Ciência vista como uma vela no escuro, lançado em 1997). This text was so important to me, it touched me so deeply,  that I still have the original hand written text copied by her. Once in a while; I still read it as a reminder of what I really need to do. How lovely to see (and feel) how science is fascinating and for sure, Carl Sagan has helped me to understand (and feel) that. Congratulations Mr. Sagan, wherever you are.

Post Question: Have you ever read one of the books written by Carl Sagan? Have your ever seen one of his documentaries or series? How did you like them? How do you like to read or to get information about the Universe?

Tip: To know more about Carl Sagan and his work, visite his official website.

Happy Teacher's Day!

What a day!

There are people that God should give "something" of eternity, so they could keep on sharing their knowledge and influence humankind throughout its history ... people like this lovely lady, "Dona Albertina".

She was my teacher in elementary school at EEPG de Vila Gerty (today, Alfredo Burkart ), in São caetano do Sul, and taught me so many good things ... from how to solve math problems with all the complexity of two operations (add and subtract) to how I should behave myself when talking to elder .

Last Sunday I went to Ben-Hur bakery to have breakfast and life generously gave me this wonderful gift - to meet a person who was very important in my life - my teacher!

Today , when I teach , I often get myself  remembering and even acting like these masters who were part of my life - D. Albertina , D. Áurea , D. Isabel , Mr. Pacifico, D. Margareth and Mr. Alberto.

May God bless all of them for their patience and their love, wherever they are! (But if by chance, as I do, God does not know for sure where they are, no problem - He can bless them right here, because all of them are here,  in my heart!)

PS . : I apologize my crying face, I tried to hold it but I couldn't help ...having the chance of expressing my gratitude to someone so special - is priceless!

Happy Teacher's Day!

"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of teh arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit." - John Steinbeck, Author.

Post Question for the students: Who was the teacher that had a great influence in your life? Why? Have you had the chance of meeting him/her again? How was it? If not, would you like to?

Tip: Here in Brazil we celebrate Teacher's day on October 15th, but do you know when is the World Teacher's Day? To learn more about it, just click here and read about what UNESCO is doing to celebrate it!

Getting connected...

Photo by Kátia Veloso

July in San Diego...being with some students in an exchange program.

To refresh this early afternoon, there is nothing like a juice well chilled. And to enjoy this moment even more, a little chat with my family (my husband and Kika). Just a little detail...they are on the other side, I mean, they are all the way down in America. I'm in the north part of America (California - USA) and they are in the south part (São Paulo - Brazil), but we can talk as if they were right in front of me. And what is really amazing, we can communicate in more than one way. I could use my cell phone (which was invented 40 years ago and for sure it is a great option and for many years it was the only option we had) or I could use my tablet (which became very popular after the introduction of the iPad device made by Apple, in 2010). Of course we have had many ways to communicate through these years, but what can really caught my attention is how fast it has improved and how easy it has become during all these years. I know I could use e-mails, but I really wanted to hear his voice...it is much nicer than just read e-mails.

When I was a child, my grandmother used to live in Paraná, another state here in Brazil. Her house was about 500 km (about 310 miles) far from mine and we used to visit her just once a year, in December or January (because it was our school summer vacation) and we used to go there by car. During all the other months, there were only two ways to get some news from my grandparents: somebody that had been there with them and could bring us some news or by mail. So, I used to write letters to my grandmother (she was the one who usually replied them) every month. It's funny that, remembering all that now I have this feeling of "how could I get patience enough to wait days, weeks and sometimes even months (when my grandmother couldn't write me back so promptly) and now, some years later, I can't spend one day without talking to my husband - and sometimes twice or three times a day, depending on where I am or what I'm doing - which gives me a kind of a feeling like if he was here with me, traveling and visiting these gorgeous places in California.

It makes me wonder... if keep in touch has getting better and better so fast...how will we possibly be communicating to each other in the future? I don't know but I like to think that somehow we will be able to use a kind of teleportation - so, even if it could not be for the whole day, at least we could have people we love        for some hours, sharing our good moments and keeping us company!  But, on the other hand, could it reduce even more my patience? Although I think so; I want to believe that there is a way to prevent it...hopefully!

Post Question for the students: How do you usually communicate to people you care about? How often do you get together with your grandparents? Do you enjoy being with them? If you could be teleported anywhere in the world (or in the galaxy), where would you like to go? Why?
 

Tip: To learn more about one of the great inventions, the cell phone, listen to its inventor's interview (Marty Cooper) with the BBC. To watch it, just Click here.