Learning English - A Mania or here to stay?

Learning the English language to make a better world. Ever thought about it from that perspective?
Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English. He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English -- "the world's second language" -- by the thousands.
Watch this video to understand how English can be considered a mania or if its here to stay.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_walker_on_the_world_s_english_mania.html
click on the link above or copy and paste it on your browser.


Kumon’s founder, Toru Kumon, firmly believed that reading is a fundamental part of all education. Children who acquire strong reading skills at an early age often enjoy a more successful educational experience. While we think children should establish a passion for reading early on, we also know that reading skills can be improved at any age. Starting with basic phonics, Kumon Reading progresses all the way through advanced comprehension. Kumon Reading continues to be our fastest-growing program.

Example areas covered:
· Prereading skills
· Phonics
· Vocabulary building
· Grammar and punctuation
· Reading comprehension

The Kumon Reading Program is perfect for:
· Giving prereaders and early readers a solid foundation and a head start.
· Improving overall reading and writing skills at all grade levels.
· Increasing your child’s vocabulary and reading comprehension.
· Developing a love of reading and appreciation of great literature.
Through a series of progressive worksheets, children advance through the Kumon Program, mastering skills and concepts, acquiring invaluable independent study habits and learning techniques and the confidence needed to succeed.
Students complete worksheets at their Kumon Learning Centers and at home. The assignments take approximately a half-hour, leaving children plenty of time for extracurricular activities.

Worksheet Benefits
Kumon’s assignments build on each subject to develop a comprehensive understanding of reading. Each worksheet not only covers specific concepts, but also helps students interpret information, expand their vocabularies and enhance reading, writing and overall comprehension.

The Kumon program is present in 46 countries and regions of the world. As of August 2010, there are 4.250, 000 children enrolled in this program.

Transition to High School

Transition to High School - Tools and resources for students and parents.

WHAT CHANGES FROM GRADE 8 TO GRADE 9?
•Choose your classes - you can choose the classes you are interested in, after grade 9.
• Class Length - all classes are 75 minutes long, not 40 minutes.
• Course Options - you can choose between Academic, Applied, Locally Developed or Essentials classes.
• Exams - you must write exams at the end of many courses.
• Learn the course codes for HS
• Semestered Classes - you have up to four classes per term.
• Summatives - you will be completing summative or "end of course" tasks as a part of your final evaluation.

OCDSB Resources
Colonel By High School International Baccalaureate Program - General Information
List of OCDSB Secondary Courses - description of various program.
OCDSB Special Education Publications
OCDSB Special Education Services Guide for Parents
OCDSB Website
What is the IPRC process?

Ontario Ministry of Education Resources
6 Ways - Proposed changes to improve Secondary Education in Ontario.
Ministry of Education - Grade 9 curriculum.
New Transition Plan To Help Struggling Students Prepare For High School (article)
Ontario Ministry of Education - Frequently Asked Questions
Ontario Ministry of Education - Transition to Grade 9
Programs, Strategies and Resources to help students succeed in Grades 7-12.
Student Success - Learning to age 18 (for parents)

Other Practical Planning Resources for Success in High School
EQAO - Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test and Grade 9 Math Test
Future Building Program - Ottawa trades
Jump Start Your Career - career planning ideas.
Ontario Exam Bank - previous exams used for student practice (membership fees).
Ontario Secondary School diploma Requirements
Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)
Ontario's Designated Provider of Distance Education Independent Learning Centre
Planning for Secondary School - Tips to help parents and students plan their secondary experience. Courses are explained and identified in 11 different languages.
Secondary Schools guidelines for assessment, evaluation, grading and reporting.
Skills connect - trades site.
The Boomerang Project - High School Transition Program Types of courses in grade 9 and 10 - explanation of academic, applied, essentials and locally developed courses.

I hope you will have the opportunity to go through some of these sites and forums. If you find the information practical and relevent, do drop me a line or two to let me know. It is encouraging to hear that and gives me the pleasure to continue to post relevent articles for students and parents at our Kumon Math & Reading Centre.
Thank you,
Sanjit

Our Children....the leaders of tomorrow, we must listen and learn from them.

As a certified Kumon Instructor, part of my mandate is to attend monthly meeting along with other instructors, participate in workshops and study groups and keep working on my worksheets............yes even I do my daily Kumon worksheets and try not to complain about it, especially in front of my children!
Part of our workshops have always included learning from excellent students. For a long time there I just couldn't grasp this idea of learning from excellent students. They are already doing so well so why so much focus on them? Why not focus on those falling behind, those struggling, those trying so hard to catch up to grade level?
At some point, hard to say exactly when this was, I did get my epiphany, my 'aha' moment and realised that indeed only when I observe my excellent students am I able to learn from them in order to apply to my less able students the same strategies, thoughts, styles and motivations. Only when I learn how my excellent students continue to excel and work well beyond their grade level, continuously surprise me and go well beyond my expectations, do I continue to grow and become a better and more learned instructor. When I am limited in my beliefs I hold back my students too, thinking they cannot go forth beyond their age or level. And I am pleasantly surprised at every class day. Every center day brings a new revelation and I continue to learn from all my students, the excellent ones and the ones working hard to excel.

Let me share this lovely, thought provoking video with you.
A voracious reader from age three, Adora Svitak's first serious foray into writing -- at age five -- was limited only by her handwriting and spelling. (Her astonishing verbal abilities already matched that of young adults over twice her age.) As her official bio says, At age seven, she typed out over 250,000 words -- poetry, short stories, observations about the world -- in a single year.
Her breakthroughwould soon come "in the form of a used Dell laptop her mother bought her." Svitak has since fashioned her beyond-her-years wordsmithing into an inspiring campaign for literacy -- speaking across the country to both adults and kids. She is author of Flying Fingers, a book on learning.

http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html
If the link does not work, please copy and paste into your browsers. Do share these videos with your children and other family members too.

The only limitations in life are the ones we set for ourselves. As I always say, "Dream big dreams, for only big dreams have the power to motivate us" Enjoy.
Sanjit

The Logic of Language

The British playwright George Bernard Shaw, in an attempt to reveal the inconsistencies of English spelling, once pointed out that under the “rules“ of English spelling, it would be perfectly sensible to spell the word fish as ghoti.
His reasoning went something like this: if you took the “gh“ from cough, the “o“ in women, and the “ti“ in nation, then “gh-o-ti“ would have the same sound equivalence as “f-i-sh.“ His point is well taken........and a good thing our daily reading doesnt involve such decoding drama!
Whereas other languages such as Italian and the Japanese kana script have much simpler and direct correspondences of sound to symbol, English, it seems, is all over the place. There are more than 1,100 ways that letters in English can be used to symbolize the 44 sounds in the spoken language. This diversity gives rise to sentences that would baffle just about anyone trying to learn the code. Some examples: “The bandage was wound around the wound.“ “The farm was used to produce produce.“ “The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.“

Fortunately for us the very structured way in which our learning program is laid out, allows us to build upon our strenghts and quickly solve what may seem as linguistic puzzles.
Regardless whether its working with children with various learning disabilities and learning challenges or just the 3 year old who is trying to put the new sounds together to make sense to her, its amazing and extremely rewarding to watch when it all begins to come together and the student in the Junior Kumon cannot wait to carry her worksheet to me and show off now that the struggles of the decoding drama have paid off and finally she can read now!
Like one child who painted at my last award ceremony "I can read". How empowering. How powerful. How blessed we are to be able to part with this gift of learning and be allowed to share the opportunity. How humbling too.