For those of you interested in reading about technology and language learning, eSchool News has assembled a small collection of articles and links.  I don’t particularly like all the commercial links, but I do like the attached research.  There’s a very interesting article on the importance of vocabulary chunks in language learning.

My friend who knows me well got me this book for my birthday.  The Disorganized Mind by Nancy A. Ratey focuses on how coaching people with ADHD can overcome their challenges.  I haven’t read it yet, but the author is the wife of John Ratey who wrote Driven to Distraction. If you have students or [...]

Here’s another study about infants and language development.  Two scientists from the University of British Colombia collaborated with a French researcher to study language preference and discrimination in newborns.  Their research found that when babies are exposed to two languages in the womb, after birth they respond to both languages and can distinguish between them. [...]

I find it fascinating that, according to some new research, the cries of newborns mimic the melodic patterns they have heard while in the womb.  We already know that babies learn to recognize their mothers’ voices in the last weeks of pregnancy, but medical anthropologist Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg in Germany has [...]

A study in Canada concluded that people interviewed on rainy days tend to receive lower ratings than people interviewed on sunny days.  They found that being interviewed on a rainy day was equal to a 10% lower mark on the medical college admission test.
When I heard this, it made me wonder about the affect of [...]

Is the bombardment of information technology good or bad?  Are we being constantly distracted or enriched?  Is it possible to learn anything if you are constantly switching between email, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter?  I have had numerous debates trying to answer these questions.  My instinct has always been in favor of technology and now my [...]

Whenever I travel to another country, I find myself watching students on the streets and playgrounds and sneaking glimpses into school courtyards.  I know that I am looking for some insight into their school system or at least a small look into the life of a student.  Usually I don’t figure much out, except to [...]

Since my mom is in Argentina visiting my sister and I’m crunched for time as the end of the quarter projects start to pile up, we haven’t been doing such a great job of posting.  But never fear, we are still here!
A couple of weeks ago, I finished a storytelling class, which all of my [...]

Do you need more sleep?  By Friday morning, is getting an afternoon nap your priority for the afternoon?  What percentage of teachers do you think are sleep-deprived?  According to an article in Your Total Health, almost a quarter of all teachers say their teaching is hampered by lack of sleep.  The study concluded that about 43% of [...]

Emotion recognition is difficult for children with autism and teachers use many strategies to help autistic students understand facial expressions.  The Transporters is a new DVD series that was originally developed at Cambridge University in England and was recently adapted to American English.  It uses animated vehicles with real human faces to show emotions in [...]