Counting Rings of a Tree

Counting Rings of a Tree

If you walk through the woods, you may see trees that have been cut down. If you look at the stump of these trees, you will see many rings. They start out very small in the center of the tree and grow larger and larger as they get to the outer edge of the tree. You should count the rings. Each year a tree grows a new ring. So, if the tree has twenty rings, it is twenty years old. Next time you see the stump of a tree that has just been cut down, try to tell how old the tree was.

Source: Star reading 3

Facts about snails

Snails are very unique animals. Did you know that snails can hide in their shells? Snails also eat with their foot. On the bottom of one foot is a mouth with little teeth. As it glides over leaves and grass, the snail chews on them and eats them. Snails also have a homing instict, just like pigeons. Even when they're far from home, they can always find their way back. How do they do it? It's hard to say.

Source: Star Reading 3

Teaching Strategy part II

Here's the continuation of my teaching strategy part 1

16. Prepare your lesson in advance, always. Just in case that you still have time, you can preview the next lesson.
17. Make your lesson plan. Students are not interested if they see that you are not prepared.
18. Don't go out during the class. Once the class was interrrupted, it's hard to get back student's interest.
19. Don't let the students go out like going to the bathroom or drink water. Once you allowed one, everyone wants to go out, too. In this case, students will go to the bathroom before the class starts or at the end of the class because they know that they are not allowed to go out once you started the lesson.
20. Be fair! No favoritism! It's hard to do this but you should.
21. When students asked you to buy something for them, don't buy or else you will be broke. They will always ask you to buy something for them. Just imagine how many students you have. hehe..
22. Make some flashcards if possible.
23. Make rules and let them follow your rules.
24. Make sure to check their assigment every meeting and let them know their mistakes.
25. Always give homework.

My student wants to commit suicide

How would you react when you heard from your student's mom that her 4th grade daughter sometimes tells her that she wanted to commit suicide? My student's mom came in the office to pay for her daughter's monthly fee. My student's mom and her adviser were very serious talking at the counselling room. After their conversation and after the parent left, the director asked what they talked about. We were surprised when we heard that our student was thinking of committing suicide. I was shocked! How could a beautiful and smart 4th grade student thinks of committing suicide? I even always sees her smiling in the class and she deals well with her classmates. I dunno what supposed to be the problem is and her mom doesn't know the reason, either.

I need to pay more attention with this student. I have to save her but I don't know how. If I could just live with her and be always beside her. I'm always worried of her. I want to hug her whenever I see her to show that there's someone who loves her except from her family and friends.

I hope and pray that she will be fine and never think of that scary and stupid thing again.

How to train a goldfish

How do you know when goldfish are hungry? Once a man trained his goldfish to tell him when it was hugnry. He began by not feeding it for several days. Then he tied food to one of a rope and a bell to the other end. He dropped the food into the water. When the fish nibbled on the food, the bell outside the bowl rang loudly. He did this for several days. Then the string without food was put in the bowl. The fish bit at the end of the string just like it did with the food. When the bell rang, the man knew the fish was hungry and threw food into the bowl. After several days the fish learned to ring the bell whenever it was hungry.

Source: Star Reading 3

What would you do if your student always swears in the class?

How can you deal with the student who always swears in the class? I couldn't stand him today. Everytime I enter the class, he always says something bad against his classmates. He teased, hit and swore the students who didn't do anything except studied. He's not a kid to act like that, so I told him to stay in the class and I talked to him. I asked if he knew what he did was wrong. He agreed and I asked him again what he should do next time. He said, he always acts like that in the class when he studies with his homeroom teacher. So I asked if he could change for the better. He said he doesn't know. So I said I don't know, either so I brought him in the office to let the director talk to him but he wasn't in. I called his homeroom teacher instead and told her what that student did. Here's what his homeroom teacher said--

"Did you do that to your teacher? It's okay in my class but not to teacher --- . You can do that 4 times a week but behave for one day, okay? Behave when you study with teacher --, okay?" and the student went home.

I was shocked to hear that. Is that right? I got angry not because I want this student to behave well in my class. I talked to him because I want to change his bad attitude not only during my class. Because of those words, the teacher isn't helping the student a lot. The student will think that it was okay to do that again and again in front of others except in front of me, don't you think so? And do you think he would really behave well in front me next time? This student will think it's okay with his homeroom teacher how come that he couldn't do it to me? My goodness!

I told my co-worker about that. I said, that's for the sake of the students and not for me. Students always hear bad words from him so they will also act like him. I told her to tell the director about that so that he can do something for him. She said she already did but the director didn't do anything.

When my boss came, I told him about the student. He said I should have sent the student to him. I said I did but he wasn't in. I also asked if teacher --- also told something about that. He said, "never". Oh, well!

What's the connection of economy to school?

I saw my boss laminating some "dallant" (points that children collect and use as their money during the dallant day that is usually done during Children's Day and Christmas) when he said that Korea is now facing difficulties on its economy. It's true because the former rate of $1 was less than 1,000 won and now it's 1,328 won. Because i'm not aware of the economic growth and I don't care anything about the government and economy, I suddenly asked him what's the connection of the economy to his school business. He said some parents will not send their children to private institute if the economy is very low. Oh yeah, that makes sense. He has the right to be worried! hehehe...