http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/?utm_source=rss A column about teaching Copyright 2009, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/?utm_source=rss Search for a word in the Visual Thesaurus word http://www.visualthesaurus.com Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1894?utm_source=rss This article is going live on the first day of my last week of school for this school year. As you read this, if you're an early reader, I am packing up my colored chalk and putting away my homework charts for the summer. Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1894 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1862?utm_source=rss When I was in high school, I was a major eco-head. I belonged to Greenpeace, insisted on recycling everything not nailed to the floor, and gave up eating meat, despite my family's innate fondness for... um, meat. I was probably pretty insufferable, but people put up with me for the most part. I remind myself of this phase when dealing with self-righteously insufferable kids as a teacher. Sun, 24 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1862 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1848?utm_source=rss Can teachers manipulate language to their advantage, as a way of shifting their students' perspectives in a more positive direction? It might sound a little Orwellian, but Steven Kushner, who teaches at Bremen High School in Midlothian, Illinois, has found that taking a page from "Big Brother" can be an effective educational strategy. Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1848 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1829?utm_source=rss I do not have any sisters. I have but one sibling, a beloved brother, Poopie (not his real name). I'm blessed in that over the course of my life, I have made very close female friends who feel like family to me, but no actual sisters of the Lord-Help-The-Mister-Who-Comes-Between-Me-and-My-Sister type. Maybe that is why I've long been fascinated with Louisa May Alcott's classic American novel, Little Women (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402714580?ie=UTF8&tag=thevisualthes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1402714580), about four sisters. Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1829 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1814?utm_source=rss It's an age-old quandary: what to do about the lack of a gender-neutral singular third-person pronoun in English? Writing teacher Margaret Hundley Parker tackles this grammatical stumbling block, drawing on her experience in the college classroom — on both sides of the pedagogical divide. Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1814 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1800?utm_source=rss You can keep your Liz Taylor screaming in her white sundresses, and your bellowing Marlon Brando in an undershirt bellowing outside Stella's window: I think Tennessee William's finest work isn't A Streetcar Named Desire or Suddenly Last Summer, or even Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Genius as they all are, I think his most magical, lyrical play is The Glass Menagerie. Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1800 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1773?utm_source=rss Writing teacher Margaret Hundley Parker has a simple lesson for her students: Don't learn grammar from rock stars. Here Margaret explains how rock and roll lyrics with non-standard English constructions can often lead students of grammar astray. Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1773 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1743?utm_source=rss Teachers from across the country write us about how the Visual Thesaurus helps their students increase reading comprehension. Now a federally funded study is taking a closer look at the connection between the Visual Thesaurus and reading. Developed by researchers at the prestigious Education Development Center, Inc. (http://main.edc.org/) in Boston, the study is following eighth grade students with learning disabilities who've been introduced to the Visual Thesaurus. Their findings (http://ncset.uoregon.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=73) show that the Visual Thesaurus can significantly help students struggling with reading comprehension. Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1743 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1734?utm_source=rss Recently, one of my teachers sent me a link to an interview of Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove, given to Fritz Lanham of the Houston Chronicle. The interview contained Mr. McMurtry's very pessimistic viewpoint that the end of book culture is near. Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1734 Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1724?utm_source=rss Hey, have you guys heard about this crazy new thing lots of teachers are doing? It's a little nuts, so you may want to sit down. I was floored myself when I heard, but lots of language arts teachers are using recently-written literature in their classrooms! Like, literature not written by Hawthorne, Williams or Dickinson. Nuts! Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/1724