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Methods: Conducting Writing Workshops

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:27:31 +0000

The writing workshop is the heart of the successful writing classroom. In these workshops, instructors use student papers (in part or in whole) as the basis of discussion and instruction. If you're lucky enough to teach in a smart classroom, student work can be projected from Blackboard or via a document camera. If you're not in a smart classroom, you can share papers the old fashioned way (i.e., photocopy them). Talking about student writing in class signals to your students that their writing is important. Treating student writing as one of the many course texts lets them know that they have, indeed, entered into the ongoing conversation of scholarship. GUIDING PRINCIPLES: To run a successful writing workshop, you'll want to read the materials we've posted regarding Active Learning, Collaborative Learning, and Diagnosing and Responding to Student Writing. The first two will explain how and why engaging… – (Source: dartmouth.edu, via Todd Finley, English Companion Ning Group)

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US lessons on education spending

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:52:09 +0000

British education may be down in the dumps over government spending prospects, but in the US the picture is rather different. This week President Barack Obama announced a big cash boost for schools and for university students. In his state of the union address, President Obama announced a $4bn (£2.5bn) increase in federal spending on elementary and secondary schools. That is an increase of over 6%, one of the biggest rises for many years. He also announced an even bigger cash increase in student aid to provide more federal grants for poor students and to ease the impact of student debt repayment. In future, graduates in the USA will be "forgiven" their outstanding federal loan debt after 20 years or, if they enter public service, after 10 years. In the US, central government accounts for only a relatively small proportion of the total amount spent on schools and colleges. For American schools, the main budget provider is the state, and many US states are now.. – (Source: bbc.co.uk)

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The New Writing Pedagogy: Using Social Networking Tools

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:42:51 +0000

The Web as a writing space is still primarily an unknown, scary place to put students. But as research is showing, students are flocking to online networks in droves, and they are doing a great deal of writing there already, some of it creative and thoughtful and inspiring, but much of it outside the traditional expectations of “good writing” that classrooms require. The ePals Global Community is just one “learning space” example that has connections spanning 200 countries and territories. With ePals Learning Space, which is a virtual workspace to create, share and manage educational content, students, who are interacting with peers, and educators can take part in project-based learning in a collaborative and controlled environment. How we begin to teach students to flourish in these more complex, online social spaces is a fundamental question many schools are beginning to tackle, not necessarily because they want to but because they realize… – (Source: DistrictAdministration.com)

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Malaysian ‘Allah dispute’ under control despite vandalism

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:40:11 +0000

Extremist groups in Malaysia may be exploiting the controversy over a Catholic newspaper’s use of the word “Allah” for God in order to foment “sectarian hatred,” a leading Catholic priest in the region has said. Though groups have vandalized several places of worship, the situation is reportedly “under control.” Several individuals or groups of provocateurs in the country are attacking and profaning places of worship closest to the heart of believers of several religions to provoke a reaction, the Rome-based Fides news agency reports. The process is similar to past conflicts in Indonesia, Nigeria, India, and other countries. “There is concern now that extremist individuals or groups are seeking to foment sectarian hatred in Malaysia by using the case of the controversial use of the name Allah for non-Muslims,” said Fr. Augustine Julian, Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Vandals have targeted 11 churches… – (Source: catholicnewsagency.com)

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12 Resources for Giving Constructive Feedback

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:49:52 +0000

[When grading, I do not only] take the time to make notes of the grade, I also write goals to achieve for the next assignment. Moreover, I provide checklists and rubrics with my expectations. If the students meet these expectations, then they receive the grade. I learned to do this from some of my favorite college instructors. They always provided the students with clear guidelines and commented on why points were taken off. [...] Why do only a few instructors provide constructive feedback? – I believe this is due to two main reasons. First, many instructors probably do not realize what constructive feedback looks like. I believe constructive feedback is: specific: the student knows exactly what you thought was positive and what needed improvement. – private: make sure the other students do not know who made the worst grades. – immediate: provide the feedback as soon as possible when the assignment is still in the student’s mind… – (Source: teacherrebootcamp.edublogs.org)

The rest is here: 12 Resources for Giving Constructive Feedback

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Online-Fachvortrag: How to use a Wiki for transatlantic collaboration

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:00:38 +0000

Einladung zum Online-Fachvortrag in englischer Sprache am 9. Februar 2010 (via Jürgen Wagner): Guest-speaker Mélanie Auriel – an EFL teacher in France – has been cooperating with her American partner for 2 years. She’ll talk about the potential of a Wiki as a collaborative tool, about how to edit a wiki, about its integration into EFL teaching, about what can be achieved, and critically evaluate all this… – Leitung: OStR Jürgen Wagner & StR Verena Heckmann, Referentin: Mélanie Auriel, Teilnehmende: Lehrkräfte aller Schulformen – Termin: Di, 09.02.2010 20.00-21.30 Uhr (Adobe Connect Pro Server) – Anm.: Auch Nicht-SaarländerInnen sind als TN zugelassen, sollten sich aber entweder über die Datenbank des LPM anmelden oder ihre Teilnahmeabsicht verbindlich an JWAgner@lpm.uni-sb.de oder Vheckmann@lpm.uni-sb.de mitteilen und den Zugangslink und Datum, sowie Anfangszeiten notieren. – Online: Anmeldung: http://tinyurl.com/yessud8 – Zugangslink: http://breeze.lpm.uni-sb.de/transatlantic/ – Schon vor Beginn der Veranstaltung sollte der geführte Soundcheck absolviert werden. (Zugang über den gleichen Link) – Die Teilnehmenden benötigen lediglich ein handelsübliches Headset (Kombination: Kopfhörer und Mikrophon) zur Teilnahme, zusätzliche Software muss nicht installiert werden. – Die Veranstaltung wird aufgezeichnet und unter einer Creative Commons Lizenz auf dem Server des Landesinstituts für Pädagogik und Medien (Saarbrücken) veröffentlicht.

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Young Adults’ Choices: Book Recommendations

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:22:32 +0000

Since 1987, the Young Adults’ Choices project has developed an annual list of new books that will encourage adolescents to read. The books are selected by the readers themselves, so they are bound to be popular with middle and secondary school students. The list is a trusted source of book recommendations, used by adolescents, their parents, teachers, and librarians. – (Source: reading.org, via Meredith Stewart, English Companion Ning Diigo Group)

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Getting Your Students Reading Blogs

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:32:05 +0000

Have you had a chat with your students about learning English by reading blogs? While they're aren't that many blogs specifically aimed at English language learners here are a few of the one's we really like: Anne Hodgson's: http://annehodgson.de/ – Toby Crawley's: http://bite-sized-english.com/ – Markus Brendell: http://www.der-englisch-blog.de/ – Neal Chambers': http://www.englishspark.com/en/blogs – Berni Wall's: http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/ – Nik Peachey's : http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/ – Jeffrey Hill's http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/ – Clare Whitmell's: http://www.theenglishweb.com/ – Chiew P Nang's http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com/ – Sue Lyon Jones': http://esolcourses.blogspot.com/ – Dominic Cole's: http://alittlebutoften.blogspot.com/ – I also feed in Sean Banville's Breaking News http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ – And sometime next quarter I will restart my own How to Learn English (more on that soon)… – (Source: KalinaGo.blogspot.com)

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The Book of Eli: Movie Review

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:25:46 +0000

Another postapocalyptic adventure, ‘The Book of Eli’ stars Denzel Washington as a pacifist warrior who becomes a sort of messianic figure. – [...] I was just recovering from “The Road” when along comes “The Book of Eli,” starring Denzel Washington as a wanderer in the wasteland of a proverbial not-too-distant future. It’s 30 years after what is doomily referred to as “the last war,” and water is so scarce that people bathe with leftover wet wipes from KFC. – Washington’s character is essentially nameless, although if you stick it out long enough – or bother to recall the movie’s title – you’ll know him as Eli. [...] Eli just wants to “stay on the path,” plodding ever westward to the Golden Gate Bridge. (A good alternate title for this film would be “Escape to Alcatraz.”) Washington doesn’t look as if he’s having much fun, and who can blame him? Perhaps he agrees with me: Apocalypse movies, like apocalypse heroes, need some laughs, too. – (Source: CSMonitor.com)

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Nearer, My God, To Thee: Religion in Amerika

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:02:23 +0000

Wer sich in den USA mit Evangelikalen unterhält, muss auf die entscheidende Frage nicht lange warten: „Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?“ Oder einfacher: „Are you saved?“ Die Mission ist das vorrangige Bedürfnis, „to save souls“ die größte Befriedigung der Evangelikalen, eine Richtung innerhalb des Protestantismus, die sich auf die Bibel als zentrale und einzig wahre Grundlage ihres christlichen Glaubens beruft. Welcher konkreten evangelikalen Gruppe man genau angehört, ist dabei zweitrangig. Nicht errettet worden zu sein, stellt aber einen Mangel dar, der unter Umständen zum Stigma werden kann. Die Schar der Gläubigen in den Gemeinden rekrutiert sich in der „ersten Kolonie“ Virginia noch stark entlang ethnischer Zugehörigkeit, so auch in der First Baptist Church der 300.000 Einwohner zählenden Stadt Roanoke, deren Mitglieder fast ausschließlich der weißen Mittelklasse entstammen… – (Quelle: fu-berlin.de, via rpi-virtuell.net)

See the rest here: Nearer, My God, To Thee: Religion in Amerika

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MLK & Media Literacy (Resource)

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:56:47 +0000

Project Look Sharp announces its newest media literacy kit, Media Constructions of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's the link to the curriculum materials, which includes 11 short video clips available through YouTube. – Here's a full description: Title: Media Constructions of Martin Luther King Jr. – Audience: Middle School through College. – Description: The kit, designed for high school English and social studies classes, includes – video clips, slides, print handouts, readings and teacher guides for 4 lessons that explore the ways in which King and his legacy have been portrayed in various media forms. The first lesson follows a chronology of King’s life through interactive decoding of rich media documents (comic books, billboards, songs, music videos, etc.). Lesson 2 uses excerpts of King speeches from 1963, 1967 – and 1968 to examine his views on social change. Lesson 3 explores the portrayal of King in magazine covers, advertisements, web… – (Source: EnglishCompanion.ning.com)

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Signs of a turning tide on tests

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:28:34 +0000

Just like the difference between the climate and the weather, there are long-term and short-term trends in education. So, while it still feels as if schools, particularly in England, are wading through deep drifts of accountability – everything from Sats and league tables to Ofsted inspections – there are growing signs that a long-term change of direction has begun. The latest sign was this week's report from the Commons Schools Committee. It delivered a message we don't often hear from politicians: trust the teachers. The MPs argued that the "complexity" of the school accountability system in England is creating "a barrier to genuine school improvement". The report highlighted the "adverse effects" that often flow from a target-driven school culture and criticised Ofsted for taking a narrow, results-based view of learning in schools. There have been many other signs of a turning of the tide. The government in England has abandoned the Sats at age 14. In Wales… – (Source: bbc.co.uk)

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U2: Rock’n'roll’s answer to the Book of Common Prayer?

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:50:58 +0000

Is Bono really a true crusader for Christianity? Two Italian journalists have examined his lyrics and discovered Biblical allusions in almost every song – When the day comes for Bono to approach heaven's pearly gates, he can rest assured that they will likely swing open. If his attempts to eradicate African debt, Aids and malaria aren't enough to earn him a halo and a pair of wings, then the U2 frontman can now also cite the official endorsement of the Vatican. In a 4 January article in the Italian-language edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See's daily newspaper, Gaetano Vallini makes the case that Bono is a true crusader for Christianity, and his lyrics a veritable treasure trove of Biblical references and allusions. The singer has made no secret of his religious beliefs. Raised by a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, he, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr were once members… – (Source: guardian.co.uk)

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Irish Befuddled By New Blasphemy Law

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:39:48 +0000

A new blasphemy law went into effect in Ireland with the new year, and it was greeted with a certain amount of bemusement. Uttering anything abusive about matters held sacred by any religion is now an offense punishable by a fine of some $35,000. The law was immediately challenged by atheist groups. The Irish government says it had to put the new law in place to uphold the country's Constitution. The Irish Constitution, written in 1937, contains a line saying that blasphemy is an offense punishable by law. But the law that sustained the constitutional provision — the 1961 Defamation Act — was being repealed and lawmakers said they were required to replace it. The new statute has had people of all beliefs and none scratching their heads. Michael Nugent, head of the group Atheist Ireland, says the law is silly and dangerous. "It's silly because it's essentially a medieval religious law, and it's dangerous because it incentivizes religious outrage," he says. To test… – (Source: npr.org)

Excerpt from: Irish Befuddled By New Blasphemy Law

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Critical Thinking

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:24:35 +0000

[Im Feed kann dieses Video nicht angezeigt werden.Klicke zum Blogeintrag um das Video anzusehen.] Thanks to Venessa Miemis and Mathieu Gandon for sharing! Beiträge ähnlichen Inhalts:Developing Questions for Critical Thinking The revised cognitive domain introduced by Lorin Anderson in the... britilit – Critical thinking through creative learning BritLit offers contemporary literature as an English language learning tool.... Critical pedagogy [...] Beiträge ähnlichen Inhalts:

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Secondary schools in England given 53,000 free books

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:20:56 +0000

More than 53,000 free books are to be sent to England's secondary schools in an attempt to get more pupils reading. Each secondary school in England will receive 15 books from a list of 260 that includes traditional and modern classics, as well as fact-based titles. Schools where more than 30% of children are on free school meals will be able to choose 25 books. Ministers say they hope the £500,000 scheme, called Everyone's Reading, will open up "new worlds" for young people. Among the 260 different titles on offer are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything and sports books. Schools pick the titles from a list divided into themes, including "laugh", "explore", "imagine", "boggle" and "fear". The list was drawn up by Eileen Armstrong, school librarian at Cramlington Learning Village. – The scheme is jointly run by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the School Library Association… – (Source: bbc.co.uk)

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Web-supported language learning at its best: EnglishCentral.com

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:32:11 +0000

EnglishCentral.com – Practice speaking English while you watch great videos. After picking a clip from a great variety of topics, you get the transcript as the video plays, you can click any word of the subtitle for more information on intonation. You can record the sentence you have just heard via your microphone, and get instant and differentiated feedback on how you were doing, respectively your pronunciation. EnglishCentral.com lets you keep track of your results over time, thus supporting long-term improvement. Teachers can build classes of students, and track their progress. Students still will have to register, but as EnglishCentral is a free service with little to no ad noise, this should not cause serious problems. Learning goals can be set for your students by assigning them a specific number of points (based on quantity and difficulty) they must earn e.g. each week. As a teacher, you can not only put together a video channel of the clips offered on site, but also suggest new videos (e.g. from YouTube) which will then be “speech enabled” by EnglishCentral, and added to your channel. – All in all, a clear thumbs up, this is a fantastic addition to the Foreign Language Classroom!

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Is It Possible To De-School Society? – George Siemens

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:04:33 +0000

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Nazareth dwelling discovery may shed light on boyhood of Jesus

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:09:22 +0000

Finds suggest Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses, populated by Jews of modest means – Israeli archaeologists today unveiled what could be the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus – a find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period of Jesus's boyhood, according to the New Testament. – The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres. It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority. – Based on clay and chalk shards found at the site, the dwelling appeared to house a "simple Jewish family", Alexandre said, as workers at the site carefully chipped away at mud with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls… – (Source: guardian.co.uk)

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Buffalo Bill Cody – Video, Documents, and Lessons

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:41:31 +0000

Buffalo Bill Cody is one of the most iconic figures of the American West. American Experience, produced by PBS, has an excellent one hour program about Buffalo Bill. You can view the entire program for free on the PBS video website. In true PBS form, there are some excellent lesson plans for teachers to use in conjunction with the video. To provide student with context of where Buffalo Bill Cody fits in with the history of the American West, check out the American Frontiers interactive timeline. – What prompted me to share this resource (which I used in class last year) about Buffalo Bill Cody is this document from the National Archives that appeared last week in their daily document RSS feed. This document is the Land Entry Permit filed by Buffalo Bill Cody. The permit details the costs incurred by Cody. – In general American Experience is a great resource for high school and middle school US History teachers… – (Source: freetech4teachers.com)

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Speech Writing: How To Write A Good One?

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:41:59 +0000

Speech writing is in lots of ways similar writing a paper, apart from that there is no penalty for spelling and punctuation mistakes. You should not try to write words in your speech that you are not relaxed pronouncing or don't know the meaning of because it can lead to a less fluently delivered speech. To be able to write a high-quality speech is a lot like making a good cake. Having the right elements is key for it's success. Every speech writer should follow these simple 4 steps to confirm you can deliver a successful speech. – Step 1: Start with the most significant idea/point on your outline. Consider HOW you can give details (show, tell) to your listeners in the most effective way for them to easily understand it. Ask yourself: How do I need to tailor my information to meet Joe's needs? For example, do you tell personal stories illustrating your main points? This is a very powerful technique. – Step 2:… – (Source: EnglishCompanion.ning.com)

Read the original here: Speech Writing: How To Write A Good One?

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Jon Stewart Takes On Obama-Fox War

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:08:02 +0000

Jon Stewart devoted half his show last night to the Fox News/Obama "war" sparked either by White House Communication Director Anita Dunn or the cable network's constant attacks on the president, depending on how you see it. The former accused Fox of acting on behalf of the Republican party, the latter accused the president of being Stalin. Apples and oranges. – Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente struck back at the White House after Dunn's remark saying, "It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part." (Full disclosure: I worked for Clemente at ABC News.) Fox went on to define its news hours as 9am-4pm & 6-8pm, parameters which exclude Cavuto, O'Reilly, Fox & Friends crew, Glenn Beck, Greta Van Susteren, and Sean Hannity from the news category and leave a bunch of people you've never heard of… – (Source: HuffintonPost.com)

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7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:55:51 +0000

What is good writing? Ask an English teacher, and they’ll tell you good writing is grammatically correct. They’ll tell you it makes a point and supports it with evidence. Maybe, if they’re really honest, they’ll admit it has a scholarly tone — prose that sounds like Jane Austen earns an A, while a paper that could’ve been written by Willie Nelson scores a B (or worse). – Not all English teachers abide by this system, but the vast majority do. Just look at the writing of most graduates, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s proper, polite, and just polished enough not to embarrass anyone. Mission accomplished, as far as our schools are concerned. But let me ask you something: Is that really good writing? – I think most good writers listen to the way English teachers want them to write and think, “This isn’t real. It has no feeling, no distinctiveness, no oomph. You’re the only person in the world who would willingly read it. Everyone else would rather chew off… – (Source: copyblogger.com)

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Seven principles of input based language learning

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:59:20 +0000

1) We learn languages by listening, not by speaking. [...] The greater our interest in the native speaker, or what he or she has to say, the better we can learn a new language. – 2) Language learning is a gradual, morphing and unpredictable process. [...] Some new words and patterns resist our efforts to learn them, until suddenly they just click in. – 3) Meaning is easier to learn than grammar. – 4) When we read, we are also listening and speaking. – 5) Listening prepares us for reading. – 6) Learning to notice, and noticing to learn. [...] Noticing is best done while listening and reading. Deliberate noticing, divorced from listening and reading, should be a minor component of language learning. – 7) When we speak we should focus on listening and noticing. [...] It is best to avoid artificial classroom activities like role playing or other situations that involve speaking with non-native speakers… – (Source: thelinguist.blogs.com)

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Wikibooks: Library of Educational Textbooks

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:42:05 +0000

Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Currently, Wikibooks has grown to include over 38,010 pages in a multitude of textbooks created by volunteers like you! – (Source: pdonaghy.blogspot.com)

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The rise of the religious left

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:08:26 +0000

The enormous political clout wielded by evangelical Christians in the United States is usually seen from the outside as a coup for rightwing zealots against any agenda that might be called "progressive". But we should think again. The recent revelation that Michael Moore's Catholicism emerges in his latest film as a centrepiece of his critique of capitalism is really no surprise. The claim in Capitalism: A Love Story that free markets are inconsistent with Christianity has wrong-footed Moore's rightwing critics, but the right's bid to monopolise religion has been challenged for some time. – As Austen Ivereigh points out, Moore's anti-capitalist preaching is quite in keeping with Catholic traditions of social activism. What's less known is that evangelical Christian churches – the supposed mainstay of rightwing politics in the US – are showing a leftwards drift. In fact many commentators believe that the presidency of George W Bush, which undoubtedly… – (Source: Guardian.co.uk)

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Visual Tense Charts

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:53:19 +0000

These visual explanations of each English tense provide visual clues for all major tenses of English. Each tense has a dedicated visual clue card with an explanatory sentence. These tense charts help learners use visual intelligence to understand key tense concepts. Basic tense usage and sentence construction is provided following each visual tense chart… – (Source: esl.about.com)

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Education in GB (Classroom materials)

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:05:29 +0000

Interaktive Übungen zum Thema "Education in GB": Primary and Secondary Education in England (Eine interaktive Lückentextübung zum Thema "Education") – The British School System (Ein interaktives Kreuzworträtsel zum Thema "Education") – Woodlands Junior School, UK (British Life and Culture: Introduction to Education in England – ein Link zur Woodlands Junior School) – Structure of Education in the UK (Ein Link zum European Education Directory) – Internet Archive: British School System (Ein Link zum Audio Archive – Open Source Audio Files) – Text: Education in England… – (Quelle: schule-bw.de, via TeachersNews.net)

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The ‘youngest headmaster in the world’

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:03:51 +0000

Around the world millions of children are not getting a proper education because their families are too poor to afford to send them to school. In India, one schoolboy is trying change that. In the first report in the BBC's Hunger to Learn series, Damian Grammaticas meets Babar Ali, whose remarkable education project is transforming the lives of hundreds of poor children. – At 16 years old, Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world. He's a teenager who is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family's backyard, where he runs classes for poor children from his village. – The story of this young man from Murshidabad in West Bengal is a remarkable tale of the desire to learn amid the direst poverty. – Babar Ali's day starts early. He wakes, pitches-in with the household chores, then jumps on an auto-rickshaw which takes him part of the 10km (six mile) ride to the Raj Govinda school. The last couple of kilometres he has to walk – The school is the best in this part of West Bengal. There are hundreds of… – (Source: bbc.co.uk)

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Nobel Prize To Obama Defended

admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:19:49 +0000

The announcement drew gasps of surprise and cries of too much, too soon. Yet President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday because the judges found his promise of disarmament and diplomacy too good to ignore. – The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee – four of whom spoke to The Associated Press, said awarding Obama the peace prize could be seen as an early vote of confidence intended to build global support for the policies of his young administration. – They lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease U.S. conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen its role in combating climate change. – "Some people say – and I understand it – 'Isn't it premature? Too early?' Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee… – (Source: HuffingtonPost.com)

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Validation: Video-Fabel auch für Lehrkräfte?

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:12:18 +0000

[Im Feed kann dieses Video nicht angezeigt werden.Klicke zum Blogeintrag um das Video anzusehen.]
Bei kalinago.blogspot.com entdecktes Juwel: Ein Kurzfilm über.. nun, eigentlich geht es um einen Parkhaus-Ticket-Kontrolleur, der etwas aus seiner Rolle herausfällt und damit Einiges bewirkt… – der mit Preisen überhäufte Film spricht vielleicht auch Lehrkräfte an, die trotz zur Profession gehörenden Lobens, Motivierens und Unterstützens nicht selten viel zu wenig selbst in diesem Sinne gestärkt werden. Also, Lehrkräfte, hergehört: Ihr seid klasse, Ihr macht eine hervorragende Arbeit und Eure jungen Lernenden werden das auch eines Tages erkennen und zu schätzen lernen!

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Free eBooks Search Engine

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:08:15 +0000

There are a lot of places to find free ebooks on the Internet, but jumping from collection to collection can become very time-consuming. Free Book-s is designed to save you the time of jumping from collection to collection. Free Book-s is a search engine that scans many collections of ebooks to find free content that matches your search. I gave Free Book-s a test drive using academic terms like "physics" and terms like "fly fishing" to see what kids of results would be generated. In both cases I found Free Book-s returned very relevant results. – Applications for Education: Free Book-s could be a good resource for locating ebooks to supplement the print resources you have for your courses or to replace print resources… – (Source: FreeTech4Teachers.com)

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Time to Act (PDF)

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:06:05 +0000

An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success – To reach the goal of providing quality literacy instruction for all our nation’s adolescents, we must systematically link instruction to the growing knowledge base on literacy and inform it with uptodate data relating to outcomes and best practices. – We must also find and support good teachers and provide them with the right professional development opportunities. Schools, districts, states, and federal policymakers all have vital roles to play in the process of re-engineering the nation’s schools to support adolescent learning. Accordingly: 1. The Vision: Literacy for All draws on uptodate research showing that adolescents need a higher level of literacy than ever before, both for college-readiness and employment in the new global knowledge economy, and goes on to describe how our current state of knowledge already equips us to re-engineer… – (Source: carnegie.org, via EnglishCompanion diigo group)

eTwinning: Praxishandbuch überarbeitet

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:04:24 +0000

Das Praxishandbuch von eTwinning führt Schritt für Schritt an Projekte mit dem Netzwerk für Schulen in Europa heran. Die neuste Ausgabe kann jetzt online abgerufen oder in gedruckter Form bestellt werden. – Der Aufbau des neuen Praxishandbuchs folgt dem Ablauf eines eTwinning-Projekts: Alle Schritte von der Anmeldung über die Planung bis zur Durchführung werden vorgestellt und mit Beispielen aus der Praxis veranschaulicht. Ergänzend finden Interessierte zahlreiche Checklisten, Arbeitsblätter und Zitate von Lehrkräften aus der Unterrichtspraxis. Das Praxishandbuch dient als Begleitmaterial zu eTwinning-Veranstaltungen, ist aber zugleich so konzipiert, dass die Lehrkräfte es eigenständig nutzen können. – "KISS – Keep It Small and Simple" lautet das Motto des Schulen-ans-Netz-Projektes eTwinning. Einfach anmelden, eine passende Partnerschule finden, das Projekt gemeinsam planen und mit den Schülerinnen und Schülern loslegen. Auch Lehrkräfte mit geringen… – (Quelle: lehrer-online.de)

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Visualising the Tenth Dimension

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:39:53 +0000

Complex but fascinating, useful to visualize mankind’s limited options of realization… via azuriana.blogspot.com Beiträge ähnlichen Inhalts:Röyksopp: What else is there? Imagine driving in your car at night, going just a... Slatebox – Visualize Everything Slatebox is a slick, new tool for collaboratively creating mind... Top 11 things teachers must know about technology 1. Technology is not a monolith: Technology [...] Beiträge ähnlichen Inhalts:

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How Obama’s Pep Talk Became a Publicity Headache

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:50:39 +0000

What started as a simple question on a suggested lesson plan tied to President’s Barack Obama’s national pep talk to students ended up as the first major political misstep for a recently minted U.S. Department of Education team that’s launched an aggressive campaign to reform K-12 schools. – While pushing Mr. Obama’s larger message of personal responsibility, hard work, and persistence in education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his staff spent the days leading up to the Sept. 8 televised address deflecting largely partisan warnings that the president would impose his policy views on a captive audience of schoolchildren. – Within 36 hours of the first charge that Mr. Obama would “indoctrinate” students with his “socialist” agenda—leveled in a Florida Republican Party leader’s press release—the issue had caught fire in the blogosphere, before jumping to talk radio and cable news shows and then the major TV networks… – (Source: edweek.org)

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Sean Banville: The use of MP3 files in the classroom

admin — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:15:30 +0000

Einladung zum Online-Fachvortrag in englischer Sprache mit Gelegenheit zur Diskussion: Sean Banville referiert und diskutiert zum Thema: “The use of MP3 files in the classroom – as a management and pedagogical tool” – Abstract: The advent of mp3 technology has opened up a wealth of opportunitiesubun for teachers to create purposeful recordings and exploit listening in the classroom. The presenter will demonstrate how he uses mp3 files for a range of purposes, from classroom management and games to providing student feedback and school news. – Der von Jürgen Wagner udn Verena Heckmann moderierte Online-Vortrag findet am 22. September 2009 von 19-21 Uhr statt – Zugangslink: http://breeze.lpm.uni-sb.de/mp3/ (bitte machen Sie spätestens 30 Minuten vor Beginn den Soundcheck). – Weitere Links zu Sean Banville: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ – http://newsenglishlessons.com/ – http://www.esldiscussions.com/ – http://www.famouspeoplelessons.com/ – http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/ – Blogpost und Aufzeichnung zu Seans letztem Online-Vortrag

(per Mail von Jürgen Wagner)

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Make History – Collective Telling of 9/11 Stories

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:57:44 +0000

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Make History is a site that was developed by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to give people a place to share their stories of September 11, 2001. Users of the site can add images and video along with text telling of their stories. The stories will be geo-located and displayed on a Google Map in a unique use of Street View… – Applications for Education
A lot of today's high school students and most of today's middle school students are too young to have fully understood all of the ramifications of that day. Make History could be a good site to have students explore to get a better understanding of what happened and how people felt on September 11, 2001… – (Source: freetech4teachers.com)

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Obama’s National Address to Students

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:45:04 +0000

[Im Feed kann dieses Video nicht angezeigt werden.Klicke zum Blogeintrag um das Video anzusehen.] Beiträge ähnlichen Inhalts:Getting Your Students Reading Blogs Have you had a chat with your students about learning... Classrooms Go High-Tech to Engage Students The measure of a technology-enhanced campus used to be the... National Writing Project The Pearson Foundation and the National Writing Project [...] Beiträge ähnlichen Inhalts:

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President Obama’s "Back to School" Remarks

admin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:06:47 +0000

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. – It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other. – So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country? – Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you… – Source: whitehouse.gov)

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EFL Classroom Idea: The Forest

admin — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:17:29 +0000

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Escapism, suppressed emotions and a rising willingness to resort to forms of violence as a means of problem-solving have long been decisive aspects (not only) of teenagers’ personalities. “The Forest” (Creative-Commons-licensed BY-NC-SA , so you are on the safe side as for using and remixing it in the classroom and beyond – direct download: AVI – MOV; subtitles & press material: the-forest.de) frankly addresses all of these aspects without raising a pedagogical finger and without offering all-too-simple answers. That is why after first watching “The Forest” I was blown away, not only by its artistic qualities and incredibly well-done animation, but also by its content. What strikes me most is that the Animated Short succeeds in unbiasedly voicing a teenager’s perspective on life – with everything adults may find to be typically short-sighted and exaggerated. In my opinion, this (besides the many intentional story blanks crying out to be filled) is exactly what makes “The Forest” a fantastic choice for classroom discussions and activities.

Here are some “quick & dirty” ideas. – a) Pre-Watching: 1. Describe your last visit to a forest. Pay special attention to what you smelled, heard, saw, thought and felt (differentiation: have students create texts/pictures/poems, ideally on the occasion of a brief trip to the woods; alternatively, you could use Secret Garden’s “Nocturne (YouTube, Score) to create a suitable atmosphere). – 2. Have students finish this in groups: “In the world of my dreams, school/family/social/environmental problems…” (e.g. placemat activity for that). – 3. Using my TheForest-Wordle, have students take guesses, or create story lines about what exactly “The Forest” might be about. – b) While-Watching/First Response: 1. First watch/contact should not be burdened by any task. – 2. Collect spontaneous responses/ideas for discussion/further work (have two students collect those using XMind or bubbl.us). – 3. Give responses structure/develop team topics (by rearranging results from 2. – ideally, this should be done by students rather than by you) & form teams (ideally everybody should be allowed to choose their team/topic). – 4. During their second watching of “The Forest” students pay more attention to details important for their team topic. – c) Post-Watching: 1. To make sure everybody is on the same page as for content, a re-telling of the clip may be useful. Fell free to use some screenshots for visual stimulus. – 2. In their respective team, students enrich their topic’s mindmap branch, and decide upon further activities.

Gallery

Further activities largely rely on your students’ motivation and interest. If they really need kickstarting, you could offer the following options: 1. Fill in the blanks: What exactly are Antonia’s problems, and how do you deal with similar problems? – 2. Tell Antonia’s story from her father’s/teacher’s/friend’s perspective. – 3. Write at least four diary entries that mirror Antonia’s experiences, feelings, and development. – 4. Discuss: Is Antonia’s “solution” a good/understandable one? Consider and develop alternatives! – 5. Surprisingly, Antonia escapes from prison three years later. She has become a different person. – Tell this story! – 6. Antonia is pardoned 25 years later. Three weeks afterwards, she is dead. – Tell this story! – 7. How can peers, parents, teachers and others help prevent tragedies like Antonia’s? – 8. Comment: “Society only works for brainwashed people, and school is the common tool to achieve this aim.” – 8. What are the secret values, and possible dangers of day-dreaming? – 9. Is your inner peace a utopian state until you have finally escaped the grip of society and its rules? Or is affirmation a faster way to your personal luck? And what are you supposed to do if you have to answer this question at the age of 12[/14/16]? (last set of questions contributed by director David Scharf)

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Free Printable ESL Flash Cards

admin — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:02:24 +0000

Welcome to ESL Flashcards! Download 100's of free flash cards. Every set of flashcards comes in color and 3 different sizes to make teaching easier. The Big set is great for vocabulary presentation, the Medium set is good for teaching small groups of students and playing language learning games. The Small sets of pictures are great for ESL games such as Down-Pass or Go Fish. Use the flashcards for teaching English, Spanish, Chinese or whatever language your students are studying. Best of all, they're all FREE! Currently there are 968 total images and 2904 total flashcards. Enjoy! – (eslflashcards.com, via Nik Peachey's quickshout.blogspot.com)

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Life in 999: A Grim Struggle

admin — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:39:14 +0000

Today's world is measured in light-years and Mach speed, and sheathed in silicon and alloy. In the world of 999, on the eve of the first millennium, time moved at the speed of an oxcart or, more often, of a sturdy pair of legs, and the West was built largely on wood. Europe was a collection of untamed forests, countless mile upon mile of trees and brush and brier, dark and inhospitable. Medieval chroniclers used the word desert to describe their arboreal world, a place on the cusp of civilization where werewolves and bogeymen still lunged out of the shadows and bandits and marauders maintained their lairs. – Yet the forests, deep and dangerous as they were, also defined existence. Wood kindled forges and kept alive the hearths of the mud-and-thatch huts of the serfs. Peasants fattened their hogs on forest acorns (pork was crucial to basic subsistence in the cold of winter), and wild… – (Source: Time.com, recommended by the EnglishCompanion diigo group as a useful Beowulf companion)

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LetterGenerator and ideas on how to use it

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:22:52 +0000

E-mail and text messaging have changed the way people communicate, but the personal letter still has a place. This online tool shows children the parts of a letter and discusses why they might send one. Children can write a letter or two and put them in the mail. It’s a rare treat to receive one these days! – Here’s What to Do: Children begin by viewing a sample letter and learning the five key parts: the heading, salutation, body, closing, and signature. After choosing to write a friendly or business letter, children are prompted for the necessary information and offered suggestions. For instance, children will get advice on appropriate closings for a business letter (Sincerely or Yours Truly) and learn about the option of writing a P.S. in a friendly letter. There’s also a printable tip sheet on addressing an envelope… – (Source: readwritethink.org, via EnglishCompanion diigo group)

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Radio-Locator.com: Foreign Radio Stations in your classroom

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:35:08 +0000

Radio Locator, formerly the MIT List of Radio Stations on the Internet, is a search engine that helps you locate radio stations that are broadcasting the Internet. You can find radio stations by US zip code, by radio genre, or by country. – Applications for Education: Radio Locator can help foreign language teachers find radio broadcasts that they can use in their classrooms for student listening exercises. Radio Locator could also be useful for social studies teachers who would like to bring the sounds of other cultures into their classrooms… – (via Freetech4teachers.com)

Read the original: Radio-Locator.com: Foreign Radio Stations in your classroom

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Grids for Story Chain activities

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:31:47 +0000

Excellent idea for the Language Classroom: Wizard English Grid Template (PDF) – and even more ideas on how to use it: a) Wizard English Grids to create vocabulary learning resources, b) Wizard English Grids for Word Bingo games, c) Wizard English Grids for Syllables Practice & d) Wizard English Grids for “Finding Out”…

Source: JasonRenshaw.typepad.com

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Einladung: Online-Vortrag mit Nik Peachey

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:39:55 +0000

Nik Peachey: Web 2.0 in the EFL classroom – Online-Fachvortrag in englischer Sprache am 8.9.09 von 19-21 Uhr: new and exciting opportunities for educationalists, particularly in the field of languages and communication; greater potential for collaborative learning, personalised development and user created content; exploring a variety of web based ‘2.0′ type tools; looking at how they can be exploited for language learning and development. – Zugang: http://breeze.lpm.uni-sb.de/web20/ – Bitte spätestens 30 min. vor Beginn den Soundcheck durchlaufen – Referent: “Webhead” Nik Peachey ist Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer, Webmaster mehrerer sehr efolgreicher Blogs, z.B. Nik’s Learning Technology Blog (Tips, resources and teaching materials to help EFL and ESL teachers use ICT and new technology) http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/ – Nik’s Daily English Activities (for autonomous EFL/ESL learners; find simple online activities for language improvement and digital literacy) http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/ – Nik’s Quickshout blog (News, Links and Opinion on Learning, Technology, Web 2.0 and EFL, ESL) http://quickshout.blogspot.com/ – On blogging and social media http://bloggingandsocialmedia.blogspot.com/ – Darüberhinaus stellt er auf YouTube einen eigenen Kanal mit kostenlosen Videotutorials zur Verfügung: http://www.youtube.com/NikPeachey – Nik gehört zum Autorenteam des gemeinsamen Newsletters des British Council und der BBC http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ – Siehe auch seinen Gastbeitrag zu Fremdsprachen und Neue Medien: Social Networks and the Web 2.0 revolution http://tinyurl.com/6ajnfy — Moderation: Jürgen Wagner und Verena Heckmann… – (Quelle: Jürgen Wagner)

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8 Ways to Practice English Outside the Classroom

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:13:05 +0000

We all know learning a language takes lots of practice, both inside and outside the classroom. For those looking to incorporate English into every day life and accelerate the learning process, here are: 8 Ways to Practice English Outside the Classroom – 1. Travel to an English-speaking country. If you have the financial means, spending time in an English-speaking country is probably the best way to get lots of practice in English. As an added bonus, you can also visit different English-speaking countries to get used to hearing different accents. – 2.Hang out where people who speak English hang out. Check if your town or city has a place where English speakers gather, such as bars, pubs, libraries, or coffee shops. If they don't have formal meeting places like this, just hang around popular tourist attractions that tend to attract English speakers. – 3. Take a class in something else that interests you in which the instructor only speaks… – (Source: english-conversation-online.com)

Here is the original: 8 Ways to Practice English Outside the Classroom

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Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

admin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:29:19 +0000

An age of illiteracy is at hand, right? Andrea Lunsford isn't so sure. Lunsford is a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, where she has organized a mammoth project called the Stanford Study of Writing to scrutinize college students' prose. From 2001 to 2006, she collected 14,672 student writing samples—everything from in-class assignments, formal essays, and journal entries to emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. Her conclusions are stirring. "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," she says. For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions. The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them. That's because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, a stunning… – (Source: wired.com)

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UK: Youth drop-out rate hits new high

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:39:22 +0000

Record numbers of young people are not in school, college or work in England, official figures show. – The ranks of 18-24-year-olds considered to be "Neets" – not in education, employment or training – has risen by more than 100,000 in the past year. – Chancellor Alistair Darling has insisted the government is doing all it can to avoid creating a "lost generation" of young people. – But the Tories accused ministers of making "empty promises". – The statistics show that in total, 835,000 18 to 24-year-olds are now Neets, up from 730,000 for the same quarter last year. – The figures, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, which are for the second quarter of 2009, also show a surge in the numbers of 16 to 18-year-olds considered Neets. There are now 233,000 Neets in this age group, 13,000 more than the first quarter of 2009, when the figure stood at 220,000. – In the second quarter of 2008, 209,000 16 to 18-year-olds were Neets… – (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Here is the original: UK: Youth drop-out rate hits new high

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