Best reading teachers and students honored by Education Department

QUEZON CITY—Grace Rabelas, a Grade 5 reading teacher from Region V, is P75, 000 richer after being declared champion in the Department of Education 2009 Search for Outstanding Reader Teacher (SORT).

Participated by reader teachers and students around the country, the National SORT and Read-A-Thon contest for 2009 was launched in July. This event honors the country's top reading teachers and their important contribution to the field of literacy. Likewise, it also aims to determine the best individual and team readers among elementary pupils in public schools.

Other SORT winners were Amey M. Esteban (NCR, 1st Runner up) and Eva B. Imingan (Region III, 2nd Runner up).

For the Read-A-Thon team reading, the champions are Lee Amhersita Q. Curias, Lorabelle Aubrey N. Espinosa, and Marie Shandy L. Ladera (Region XII, English) and Frances Marie Kyle Coralde, Rei Marie Galon, and Ericka Abdon (Region V, Filipino).

Winners in the Story retelling English and Filipino are Athanasius G. Barlam (Champion, Region VII), Stephanie D. Dullano (1st Runner up, Region XII), and Cristie Mae P. Garcia (2nd Runner up, Caraga); and Venice Kayla D. Delica (Champion, Region IV-B), Cherry May T. Virrey (1st Runner up, Region III), and Jansen Paul Mabala (2nd Runner up, Region IX) respectively.

For the Oral Reading Interpretation in English and Filipino, winners are Peter John M. Ayalin (Champion, Region III), Shaira Jane Maguiguilid(1st Runner up, Region XII), and Amanda Danielle M. delos Reyes (2nd Runner up, Region IV-B); and Shaina Marie Villareal (Champion, Region V), Lara Grace M. Palay (1st Runner up), and Brian Jude Bulat-Ag (2nd Runner up, NCR) respectively.

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303 Filipino pupils honored for winning 450 math medals in 2009

MANILA—The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has honored a total of
303 elementary and high school students for bringing honor to the country by winning over 450 medals in more than a dozen international mathematics and science competitions in 2009.

Mostly from private schools in Metro Manila, the young achievers were feted in simple ceremonies recently at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology auditorium in Diliman, Quezon City.

DOST Secretary Estrella Alabastro called them “overflowing deluge of hope for the Philippines” and installed them in the DOST’s roster of “honorable young men and women.”

“Our generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers are slowly taking the backseat to give way to fresher faces, fresher ideas who could sustain the gains we have achieved in the science community,” Alabastro said.

Spanish language to be included in Philippine high school curriculum

MANILA (PNA)—The Department of Education (DepEd) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the University of Alcala in Spain to allow the inclusion of Spanish language in the high school curriculum as well as to strengthen educational and cultural ties between the Philippines and Spain.

The agreement was signed by DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus, together with University of Alcala Rector Professor D. Virgilio Zapatero Gomez. It seeks to develop students’ skills in listening, reading, writing, speaking and viewing, which are fundamental to acquiring communicative competence in a second foreign language.

“Bringing back the Spanish language in the school curriculum would help us understand and connect with our past,” Lapus said. “Many of the works of our forefathers, including our national hero Jose Rizal, which were written in Spanish, remain significant up to this day.”

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Globalisation fuels Mauritania's language-learning boom

Literacy in multiple languages is gaining traction in Mauritania, as language schools note a spike in enrolment.

Many Mauritanians are tossing out textbooks that promise to teach English or French in five days and instead are enrolling in the country's growing number of private language schools.

New language centres have opened in Nouakchott and the provinces to meet the strong demand from students of all ages and social classes. Mauritanians' curiosity about other cultures, as well as their need to adapt to globalisation, are even overcoming the gender barrier. Both men and women are studying the most popular tongues, French and English.

"Language studies have become a must, a requirement of globalisation," Mariam Bent Ainien, who is in her 30s, told Magharebia on December 3rd. "Language-learning isn't restricted to a certain age or specialisation. Everyone's concerned about it."

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Controlling a classroom isn't as easy as ABC

Educators, administrators and experts say classroom management—the ability to calmly control student behavior so learning can flourish—can make or break a teacher's ability to be successful. Indeed, experts say that mong the top reasons why teachers are deemed unsuccessful or leave the profession is their inability to effectively manage student behavior.

Take the case of Chris Cox's dim classroom at Daniel Webster Middle School in Los Angeles' Sawtelle neighborhood. Students filed in and took their seats, then immediately began working on a language arts warmup exercise. While Cox took roll, the eighth-graders silently worked. When they went over the answers, students raised their hands and waited to be called on.

Down the corridor, seventh-graders streamed into Brent Walmsley's classroom and took over. Some sat on table tops; others wandered around the room, pausing to grab foamy handfuls of hand sanitizer that sloshed on the floor. As Walmsley took attendance, one boy brushed his hair, three girls sucked on lollipops while one sang Pink Dollaz's "Lap Dance," and a boy in the last row unleashed a barrage of spitballs. The day's warm-up was quickly forgotten.

Same school, same day, similar students, similar teachers—yet profoundly different behavior.

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English department offers modern Greek class

For many students and community members the Greek language seems difficult and out of reach, reflecting the cliché “It’s Greek to me.” However, learning the language is no longer a dream but an obtainable goal.

For those interested in learning to read, write and speak the Greek language, the English department at Shawnee State University will offer a Modern Greek class for the spring semester 2010.

“Many students want to take the class to learn how to read the Bible in it’s original language, Greek, while others are interested in learning the language to gain a competitive edge in their careers," said Dr. Stylianos Hadjiyannis, the professor who will be teaching the course.

According to Hadjiyannis, a native of Greece, thousands of words in the English language have been borrowed from Greek. The language is based on phonetics and the English alphabet, making it easier to learn.

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Mobile phone English lessons a hit in Bangladesh

DHAKA (AFP)—Every morning, Ahmed Shariar Sarwar makes it his daily ritual to call number 3000 on his mobile phone to get lessons in English—his passport to a better life in impoverished Bangladesh.

The mobile tutorial lasts only three minutes, but Rahman, 21, who is studying the textile trade says it is already helping him learn the language, which is key to getting a lucrative job in foreign firms based in Dhaka.

He is among hundreds of thousands of young men who have turned to the novel English teaching service since it was launched last month by a charity arm of the BBC. The aim is to teach the language to six million people by 2011.

"It’s simple and good. It costs three taka (four US cents) per lesson—the cheapest way to learn English in Bangladesh,” Rahman said. “There are a lot of English courses available here, but most rip you off and the quality isn’t so good.”

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Iranian student writes of hope, fear over protest

BEIRUT (AP)—On Dec. 7, tens of thousands of students marched at universities across Iran, in the most significant anti-government protests in the country for months.

The Associated Press asked a 20-year-old philosophy undergraduate at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabei University to record his thoughts and experiences in a diary before, during and after the protests. He provided the AP the diary on condition of anonymity, because some of his friends have been arrested or suspended for contacting the foreign media.

The student has been suspended this semester for taking part in protests. More than 100 other students, including friends of the diarist, have been arrested in recent weeks, some sentenced to long prison terms.

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