Thursday, August 18, 2011

Teachers Lost In Seas Of Numbers

Teachers Lost In Seas Of Numbers
"Is good "teaching" being replaced by our preoccupation with evaluation?"

It is midterm week. There are no classes to attend, just exams to monitor. Nothing portrays the futility of our "education" process more vividly than our obsession with tests and evaluation.

It takes the better part of a week, and sometimes a month, to devise a testing instrument for the midterm. With over 300 tests to check, I take care to design a test that is easy to grade. I try to do this without compromising the validity of the test, although true validity checks are never done where I teach. After submitting the test with accompanying forms to the faculty, all that

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Sunday, August 14, 2011

How do quizzes bring better teaching?

How do quizzes bring high-efficiency teaching?
Author: Catherin
How do quizzes bring high-efficiency teaching?
We, teachers, with our own infinite wisdom, teach and cultivate students. As one of our teachers' teaching methods, quizzing always plays an important role on teaching. For example, we make quizzes to measure students' learning performance, improve our teaching strategies and get better teaching effects. There are some quizzes that teachers can make to bring high efficiency on our teaching:
1. Personality quiz — Know more about our studentsAs we all are aware that knowing the students' psychology is the premise to perform an excellent teaching scheme. Well, a personality

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

IsraNews - 17 Sivan 5771 - 19 June 2011

IsraNews - 17 Sivan 5771 - 19 June 2011
Parashat Korach - Numbers 16:1 - 18:32

"Some Things Don't Add Up"
by Jerry Waxman

Why is Gilad Schalit still in the hands of Hamas while half the world is pressuring Israel to bend over backwards for a "peace" deal with the Palestinians?

Why is Jonathan Pollard still in prison? And why can't he even get a few hours to go to his Dad's funeral? And why don't people in high places do anything about it?

Gilad Schalit; every soldier's

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Sunday, June 12, 2011

IsraNews - 10 Sivan 5771 - 12 June 2011

IsraNews - 10 Sivan 5771 - 12 June 2011
Parashat Sh'lach

"Israel Is Set Apart"
by Jerry Waxman

This is the first installment of our weekly news round-up. As most other news accounts concerning Israel focus largely on its security measures and problems with its enemies, at Israel MagNet we look for a different story. While politicians and journalists only concern themselves with violent clashes and heated disputes over land rights (and wrongs) we find stories of accomplishment and

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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Harvard's First Woman President Understands Her Significance As Role Model

Harvard's First Woman President Understands Her Significance As Role Model
(VOA News) Drew Gilpin Faust is prestigious university's 28th president Harvard University is arguably one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636, it is among the oldest in the United States.

In 2007, Harvard named historian and scholar Drew Gilpin Faust its 28th president. She is the first woman to hold that position.

“At a press conference right after the announcement of my appointment, I was asked something about what it was like to be the first woman president of Harvard,” Faust recalls. “My response, which I had not predetermined, was to

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Monday, June 6, 2011

Shavuoth 5771

Chag Shavuot Sameach חג שבועות שמח
This story is in honor of the Shavuot Holiday: Feel free to comment.
The Old Man Was Wierd
by Jerry Waxman
The old man was weird. I'm sorry, I don't mean any disrespect. He was just weird. He was always, I don't know . . . joyful. He didn't have any reason to be, from what I saw. But there he was, always grinning and happy like it was the best day in his life. Weird.
He showed up at all the events; weddings, bar mitzvahs, even my

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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Israel MagNet Magazine

Israel MagNet Magazine
The first edition of Israel MagNet Magazine is out, and it's FREE.


Pick up your free copy HERE

Some of the stories in this edition . . . .
First Edition (Who are we?)
Why a Website? ( What is the website for?)
"Don't Blame Obama"
Feature Story "The 11th Commandment"
. . . and More . .
Okay, the first edition is a little rough. But we'll work out the kinks, eventually. Why don't you help?This magazine is of, for, and by Jews. It's a lot

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Monday, May 16, 2011

Arthur Szyk - Artist of The 20th Century

Arthur Szyk (1894 - 1951)
Arthur Szyk was a an artist, a book illustrator, a stage designer and a caricaturist. He was born in Lodz Poland, and showed an early talent for drawing. His parents sent him to study art in Paris when he was a young teenager. His artwork contained contemporary characters and themes, though he also liked illustrating Biblical stories.
In 1914, Szyk made a special trip to Palestine to observe first hand the work of the settlers who would found a Jewish state.

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Saturday, May 14, 2011

Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975)
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. Arendt researched and wrote about the nature of power, and the subjects of politics, authority, and totalitarianism.




Short Biography Hannah Arendt was born in what is now Hanover, Germany in 1906. Her parents were secular Jews. She studied Philosophy at the University of Marburg, where she is said to have had a stormy love affair with her professor Martin Heidegger. She

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Friday, May 13, 2011

Emile Berliner

Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929)
Inventor of the Grammophone and Other Things


Emile Berliner was born in Hanover Germany in 1851. He emigrated to the United States in 1870. He became a citizen of the U.S. in 1881.

One of Berliner's early inventions was an improved telephone transmitter. It was one of the first type of microphone. Berliner worked for the Bell Telephone company for about 6 years. Afterward he became a private researcher.

Berliner's first patent

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Florence Kahn; Jewish American Lawmaker

Florence Kahn



Florence Prag Kahn (November 9, 1866 – November 16, 1948) was an American teacher and politician. In 1925 she became the first Jewish woman to serve in the United States Congress. She was only the fifth woman to serve in Congress, and the second from California. Mae Nolan, from San Francisco was the first. Like Nolan, Kahn took the seat in the House of Representatives when her husband, Congressman Julius Kahn, died. Rather than just fill his term, Florence Kahn

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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Pesach 2011-Thoughts on Freedom-Part 2

"Pesach 2011-Thoughts on Freedom-Part 2"

Here's the deal. I've been planning a project called Israel MagNet in which we all - all of Israel and our associates - pool our knowledge and experiences to arrive at the Truth. Because we sure as chainsaws on an otherwise quiet day cannot rely on any outside sources. (I guess the cliche is "sure as hell," but I am not so sure about hell. I'm sure about chainsaws. It would be very quiet today if someone had not decided it's time to prune the

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Passover 2011-Thoughts on Freedom-Part 1

It is a fitting time to begin this journal. We could say that the heritage of Israel was founded over 3300 years ago when the nation of Israel was freed from bondage in Egypt, and commenced to wander toward their own land, the land of Israel.

That's what this journal is about, I think. No matter where we are in the world, we're always heading for Israel. No matter how hard we try to deny that there is something special about Israel, we cannot ignore the fact that the world is constantly

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