A new wiki page has been created to link to open content sites or sites that otherwise provide free textbooks and learning materials.
The wiki page is located at http://eslweb.net/wiki/index.php?n=Main.OpenContent.
Citing indirect sources in MLA format
The following reference for citing indirect sources in MLA format was found at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/747/.
Citing Indirect Sources
Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited in another source. For such indirect quotations, use “qtd. in” to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:
Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as “social service centers, and they don’t do that well” (qtd. in Weisman 259).Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.
Overuse of medication
Here’s an article for those of your writing an essay related to use and abuse of prescription medication. Click on the link below for the entire article.
Psychiatric Drug Use Spreads – WSJ.com
By SHIRLEY S. WANGThe medicating of Americans for mental illnesses continued to grow over the past decade, with one in five adults now taking at least one psychiatric drug such as antidepressants, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety medications, according to an analysis of pharmacy-claims data.
Think twice about the J-1 visa
I’ve seen advertisements around Taiwan universities for opportunities for Taiwan students to go to the US for a couple of months and work on a J-1 visa. I’ve always had a bad feeling about it and the students I’ve had who have worked in the US on a J-1 visa did not have a lot of good things to say about the experience. I sensed that they actually didn’t like it and would have complained more openly, but remained vague as to not offend their American teacher. I wouldn’t have been offended. I’m sure most of the jobs acquired through a J-1 visa suck.
It’s not as if the whole J-1 visa program was established to benefit foreign students; it was established to exploit them.
Foreign students walk off Hershey’s factory job in protest | The Lookout – Yahoo! News
Hundreds of foreign students on a State Department cultural exchange visa program walked off their factory jobs in protest on Wednesday.The J-1 visa program brings foreign students to the country to work for two months and learn English, and was designed in part to fill seasonal tourism jobs at resorts and seaside towns. The 400 students employed at a Pennsylvania factory that packages Hershey’s candies told The New York Times that even though they make $8.35 an hour, their rent and program fees are deducted from their paychecks, leaving them with less money than they spent to get the visas and travel to the country in the first place.
Some of the students were assigned night shifts, and said they were pressured to work faster and faster on the factory lines.
Last December, the AP revealed that federal immigration officials were investigating two human-trafficking abuse cases related to J-1 visas. Strip clubs openly solicited J-1 visa holders in job listings, and some foreign students told the AP they were forced into sexual slavery when their passports were confiscated by a ring of criminals. About 150,000 J-1 visas were given out in 2008. Businesses save about 8 percent by using a foreign worker because of Social Security and other taxes they do not have to pay.
Student resistance to collaborative learning
The article linked below reflects my own experiences very closely. I create literally all my lesson plans and learning materials with an eye towards collaborative learning (CL) and computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). And yet over the years I have experienced that students are very resistant to actually working together. I find this resistance perplexing and troubling, but I think this article hits the nail on the head with regards to the reasons behind this student lethargy. In short, collaborative learning requires more effort. Learning, real learning, takes work.
In the most recent couple of years, I have started presenting my students with fairly difficult tasks, but I allow them to work together to solve the tasks. They are allowed to share homework answers, share answers to test questions, and in short copy each other’s work. I give them forums, both on-line and in-class, in which to collaborate. And yet I notice very little real collaboration and cooperation. They are in a competitive mode rather than a cooperative one; this is how they’ve been trained to think.
Students, if you’re reading this, please, wake up and work together! There is no cheating in classes because everything is allowed (except plagiarism)!
Teaching Resources – Why Teachers Do Not Use Collaborative/Cooperative Learning
A cause for concern by teachers starting CL is the initial student reaction. Students have not been trained to cooperate in an academic environment. The primary approach in our schools is one of competition for grades and recognition. Teachers need to sell the concept of CL to the students by making clear what the objectives are and what the benefits will be. Until the students become comfortable with this new method, they will express concerns and doubts. Additionally, CL encourages student input on methodology. Not surprisingly, some of this feedback may be critical. Student criticism may be new to many teachers.Students feel that the lecture method is “easier” because they are passive during the class while apparently receiving the necessary information. In contrast, interactive classes are very intense. The responsibility for learning is shifted to the student, thus raising the level of critical thinking by each student. This situation is both mentally and physically tiring. The students initially respond by complaining and lobbying for a return to the good old lecture days. For a new CL practitioner this can be very disconcerting. To the more experienced teacher, this is just part of the process all groups go through as they learn how to use CL techniques, and begin to see and appreciate its benefits as they move away from the comfortable paradigm of the lecture method.
CitationMachine.net – Why didn’t this exist when I was in school?
This is a fabulous tool. You plug in your reference and citation information, and it spits out a beautifully formated reference and citation in your pre-selected format. Very smart.
Citation machine helps students and professional researchers to properly credit the information that they use. Its primary goal is to make it so easy for student researchers to cite their information sources, that there is virtually no reason not to — because…SOMEDAY THE INFORMATION THAT SOMEONE ELSE WANTS TO USE — WILL BE YOURS!
Example of a fallacy / false argument
Can you tell which type of false argument is being use below?
This was found on 110730 at http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/123616/mom_faces_jail_for_boarding.
Mom Faces Jail for Boarding School Bus to Save Son
Last December Tara Keener did what most any mother would do when she thought her 5-year-old son was in trouble: She raced to help him. Only because it was onto a school bus that she raced, she now faces criminal charges that could potentially land her a year in jail, just for trying to save her son.
The emergency room nurse was walking down her driveway when she saw her son, Xander, slumped over in his seat and other children crowding around him. She says the children were yelling, “Help, he’s not moving. We can’t wake him up.”
When she attempted to board the bus, the driver informed her it was illegal, which is news to me, and did nothing to stop Keener from going to help her son. Wouldn’t you?
Fortunately, little Xander was just in a deep sleep, but there are plenty of things that could have been wrong to cause him to appear so despondent — choking, a concussion, or plenty of other unthinkable things. Despite her good and totally understandable intentions, the driver reported Keener to police. She was charged with unlawfully entering a school bus and is currently awaiting trial. While it’s a third-degree misdemeanor, it can come with a penalty of $2,500 and a year in jail.
Ridiculous, right? Not so. Perry County District Attorney Charles F. Chenot III told The Patriot-News:
The bus company’s main point is, we can’t let one person do this because pretty soon you’ll have all kinds of parents on there. Most parents aren’t a problem, but what do you do when a … sex offender wants to get on the bus and get his kids off? We need to have that protection in place.
Protection, yes, but a little common sense would be nice too instead of blanket policies and rules that take none into account. Hopefully a jury will see the ludicrous nature of this “offense” and realize Keener was just acting like a protective mother. I’d like to say I can’t imagine them doing anything else, but I also could have never imagined that someone would be charged just for trying to save her son.
Did you know it was illegal to board a school bus? Do you think this mother should be punished?
Organ donation debate
Organ donation is about as personal as any topic can be. There are clearly no right or wrong opinions.
- Have a brief (10-minute) discussion in small groups about the general topic of organ donation. Identify important vocabulary.
- Read the following article.
- Students write discussion questions about organ donation after reading the article. Questions should be written as homework.
- Discuss the article in small groups in class.
Authorities to take new look at organ donation regulations
Authorities to take new look at organ donation regulationsSunday, July 3, 2011
CNATAIPEI–Health authorities in Taiwan are preparing to revise the regulations on organ donation and distribution to encourage more people to volunteer as organ donors, said Shih Chung-liang, director-general of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Bureau of Medical Affairs, on Saturday.
The organ distribution regulations will be amended to place volunteer organ donors on the priority list for organs if the need arises, Shih said.
For example, people who have donated liver tissue or a kidney will be given extra points that will put them on the priority list if they should ever need an organ transplant, he said.
Moreover, family members of people whose organs were harvested upon death and those who sign an organ donation agreement will be included on the priority list, he said.
Later this month, the bureau will discuss the plan to change the distribution principles and will propose amendments by the end of August, he said.
He expressed the hope that the planned revisions will help to increase the number of organ donations.
According to data from the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center, there are 7,336 people in Taiwan waiting for organ donations. Among them, 5,542 need kidney transplants, 1,044 require liver transplants, 574 are waiting for cornea transplants, and 131 need heart transplants.
However, so far this year, there have been only 107 organ donors, none of them live, according to the center. The number of donated organs was 407, it said.
In an effort to expand the sources of donated organs, the DOH is also studying the possibility of allowing organ donations from terminally ill patients at the point when their heartbeat stops, Shih said.
Under the existing guidelines, organs can only be harvested from donors who are pronounced brain dead.
In addition, the DOH is also considering amending the regulations to allow live organ donations to non-relatives, Shih said.
“The society has developed to the point where we can begin discussions on the issue,” the official said.
Wordle for word games
Wordle is a pretty cool site. It’s fun to play with and it must have some educational value. Here’s an activity -
Pick a poem or short text that your students have not read and Wordle it. Have your students use the words in the new Wordle thingy (whatever you call them…. Wordles? Wordlets? Wordies?) to compose their own creations.
Later, have the class read the original text.
Another activity would to have the students look at the Wordle and try to guess what type of writing it came from, such as a poem, letter, speech, etc.
Another activity would be to choose a body of text that your students are familiar with, Wordle it, then give it to them and see if they can determine what original text the Worlde was created from.
Lots of possibilities.
Wordle – Beautiful Word Clouds
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.