July 22, 2005

I. Teachers and Teaching

1. 'Harry Potter' Conjures Up a Weekend Reading Spree

The sixth installment of the Harry Potter series is getting high marks from Muggle kids across the region, with many having digested the 652-page tome in a single weekend.

2. Course Offers Chinese to Foreign Pre-school Staff

Twenty-nine Indonesian women finished a year-long course in Guangzhou yesterday in a pilot program teaching overseas pre-school teachers in Chinese.

II. Learners and Learning

1. Crossword Puzzle Literacy and Do-It-Yourself Testing

Two minutes — that’s all a stranger needs to size us up intellectually, especially if he or she asks us for help with a crossword puzzle. Grade-point averages, advanced degrees, publications and academic honors — these invisible achievements are far less impressive than our quick and naked knack for identifying, say, a British poet whose first name is John and whose six-letter last name begins with the letter M.

2. Chinese Edition of Harry Portter VI Expected to Debut in October  

The People's Literature Publishing House (PLPH), China's exclusive publisher of the Harry Potter series in Chinese, is expected to release the Chinese-language edition of Harry Potter VI no later than October 15 this year. More than 6 million copies of the previous five volumes of the Harry Potter saga have been sold in China, according to PLPH deputy chief Pan Kaixiong.

III. Leaders and Leadership

1. 45 States Target Graduation Rates Governors Agree to Uniform Standards

The governors of 45 states agreed on July 17th to develop common measures for establishing high school graduation rates, a step they said will help achieve their larger goal of making high school rigorous enough to help prepare students for an increasingly competitive global economy.

2. More Money for the Classroom - the Ultimate Reform

One concern in Texas has been fiscal mismanagement of existing education dollars.  Even the school finance lawsuit currently before the Supreme Court has left taxpayers hot.  “Friday Night Lights” are focused on Texas as legislators seek to reform school finance.

3. Refined School Management in Shandong Province

Schools in Zibo City, Shandong Province have used "refined school management" for two years. It is said that this kind of management can keep everything on campus in order and improve students' academic achievement. 

IV. Curriculum

1. Law Requires Lessons on Constitution

It's not often that first-graders, CIA agents, agriculture inspectors and airport security workers from coast to coast all receive a lesson on the same topic -- and on the same day -- but that is what's in store this September. The subject is the U.S. Constitution.

2. Chinese Students Won the First in 46th International Olympic Math Competition

In the 46th international Olympic math competition held in Mexico on July 18th, Chinese students won the champion as a team. American and Russian teams were respectively ranked as second and third. Chinese teams have won the champion 12 times since 1986.

V. Family and Community

1. Teaching Children to Treat Their Asthma

Dr. Lynnette Mazur had been treating children with asthma and counseling their parents for more than a decade, when her own daughter developed the increasingly common respiratory illness.

2. Students Say No to Teaching-oriented Summer Camps

Many Chinese parents send their children to teaching-oriented summer camps. However, summer camps should allow their student participants to enjoy more relaxing activities instead of continual hard school work, says an article in Nanjing-based Jiangnan Times.