Happy Holidays
The holidays are a perfect time to take a step back and realize all the things we are thankful for. The TCI staff is thankful
for you-our customers. You reach out to us on our Discussion Groups, via e-mail, and face-to-face with our Customer Consultants.
You bring us stories from your classrooms.
We hear about how we've touched your lives and the lives of your students . . . Test scores have increased.
Social studies has become the most exciting class period of the day. Your classroom is revolutionized with our programs and methodology.
Your stories are an inspiration to all of us at TCI. We are excited to hear how our lessons are performing in your classrooms, and we love
the ideas you send us for how to improve our programs. Because of you our work is worthwhile. Your stories let us
know that we are helping change the way social studies is taught. Customers-we couldn't have done it without you.
So thank you and happy holidays!
Elementary Classroom Spotlight: Celebrating the Year's End
By Sangita Patel, Coach Moderator
December brings much excitement to elementary children. Classrooms buzz with life as students create, reflect, and celebrate. Walking the halls of my elementary school, you might see teachers taking photos of students in winter or holiday attire that will become winter trinkets for loved ones. The pictures are cut out in a variety of shapes and attached to clear contact paper. Pieces of colored paper and flat beads are used to decorate the photo, which is then sealed with another piece of contact paper. This can be turned into a hanging decoration or framed with colored craft sticks or twigs.
One fourth-grade teacher has students create a word bank of adjectives that describe winter. Students use these words to create poems, expository text, and illustrations that complete the phrase, "Winter is..."
Our school is very ethnically and culturally diverse. My son's kindergarten teacher has begun a unit on "Holidays in Other Lands." Students bring in clothing, food, and information about celebrations that are important for them during this time of year as a way to share about who they are.
I use December as a time for my fifth-grade students to reflect on their year so far. Students create illustrated timelines that celebrate their successes of the past year, and they write resolutions for positive changes they hope to make. Revisiting our class constitution is one way we celebrate the anniversary of the U.S. Bill of Rights (December 15, 1791), discussing any changes that might facilitate the growth of our class.
How do you celebrate this time of year with your students and staff? Share your thoughts, questions, and Coach genius on the Elementary Teachers Discussion Group .
TCI Technology Improvements for 2009
By Maria Favata, TCI Technical Project Manager
These are very exciting times at TCI. In early 2009, we will be launching our newest technology offerings: TeachTCI and LearnTCI.
With LearnTCI, we're bringing the TCI Approach to the web. Students can read their text online and take the Reading Challenges (students watch a video, listen to a dramatic reading, or look at primary resources and then answer higher order, critical thinking questions). LearnTCI also has special tools for struggling readers like our text-to-audio accessibility tool.
TeachTCI is the "home base" for our teachers. It includes all of the materials found in the existing Digital Teacher Resources, with a new beautiful layout organized by chapter. On TeachTCI, teachers stay connected to their classes, assign chapters to students, and see their students' Reading Challenges scores.
We have been piloting TeachTCI and LearnTCI since the end of August with teachers and students across the country. We have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback and we're currently making changes to the products based on our customers' feedback. Teachers are telling us that students are more motivated to read the text. We're especially excited to hear that our tools are helpful to struggling readers and English language learners. Teachers are now easily connected to their classes and can track progress and successes.
As we launch these new products in 2009, our goal is to motivate students to read their Student Edition and learn the material on their own so there is more time for teaching and TCI activities in the classroom. If you want to learn more about TeachTCI and LearnTCI, post a question on the Classroom Technology Discussion Group.
Discussion Group Aficionados: Exciting Changes Coming in January
Over the course of the next month we will be launching our redesigned Web site. As part of this redesign, we are making some exciting changes to the Discussion Groups. In addition to the four discussion groups we have today (Elementary Teachers, Middle School Teachers, High School Teachers, and Classroom Technology) we will be adding discussion groups specific to each TCI program and chapter. So if you are teaching Chapter 2 in History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals and you have some suggestions on incorporating additional resources, you to share them on this discussion group.
In addition to adding additional discussion groups, we've also added new features to help you easily track your favorite topics. If you want to learn more about what the Discussion Group Moderators are saying about these changes, please visit these groups:
We hope you are as excited about the changes as we are. We are looking forward to unveiling the new discussion groups in January.
Bert's Blog: Using Other Languages in the Classroom
In his latest blog, Bert Bower, TCI's CEO and founder, reflects upon how to best educate our Spanish speaking students. Learn about Bert's past experiences and
join in the discussion.
Bert asks, "Do you agree with TCI's stand on bilingual education?" | 