5 M's of Management

5 Ms of Management
1.  Men
2.  Material
3.  Machines
4.  Method
5.  Money

from:  http://www.a4lsd.in/sml.aspx

Japanese 5 "S" Discipline: The key to Keeping our workplace neat everyday

Do you want your table/office to look like this even at the end of a busy day? The Japanese has some advice how to do it.

The Japanese are known for their discipline and they have recommended the FIVE "S" for  "good housekeeping techniques" to maintain a clean workplace. 

Japanese 5 “S”

1. seiri (sort)

2. seiton (stabilize, systematic Arrangement, set)

3. seiso (shine)

4. seiketsu (standardize)

5. shitsuke  (sustain)

At the end of the day, you leave your workplace clean and be ready to start the work fresh for the next day. 

IELTS Reading - Skimming and Scanning

Are you preparing teacher-made instructional materials? Here's a guide

Preliminary Considerations in Designing Teaching Materials

(by Howard, J, et. al., Christchurch College of Education, New Zealand[1])

Preliminary Considerations

1. Contextualization

a.  The teaching material is aimed at a specific group of learners or a particular cultural or educational context.

b.   Resources – Teachers should consider the use of the best resources available in their teaching context.

2.   2. Individual Needs

a.  Modern teaching methodology increasingly emphasizes the importance of identifying and teaching to the individual needs of learners.

b. Teacher-designed materials should be responsive to the heterogeneity inherent in the classroom.

c.   In addition, teacher-prepared materials provide the opportunity to select texts and activities at exactly the right level for particular learners, to ensure appropriate challenge and levels of success.

3.  3.  Personalization – The teaching material should tap into the interests and take account of the learning styles of students.

4.  4.  Timeliness – Teachers should design their own materials to respond to local and international events with up-to-date, relevant and high interest topics and tasks.

5.  5.  Organization

a.  The teaching materials should be organized around an identifiable principle and follow a discernible pattern throughout while this can be rather dull and boring. However, without some overall organizing principle, materials may be piecemeal and can result in poorly focused activities lacking clear direction.

b.  Physical organization and storage of materials – Without a clearly thought through and well-organized system, teacher-produced materials may be difficult to locate for ongoing use, or may end up damages or with parts missing.

6.  6.    Quality – The materials should not contain errors, properly constructed, clear in layout and print and durable.

7.   7.  Time – The teachers must passionately believe in the materials.

8.  Pilot Testing (Trial Period) - The materials are pilot-tested before they are used by all the teachers and the learners.  

(*Note: I added number eight.)

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[1] Christchurch College was a college of education founded in 1873 located in Christchurch, New Zealand until it was amalgamated with the University of Canterbury and formed a new Faculty of Education with the university’s School of Education.

News Writing: Bringing Life to the Lead

Breaking the Monotony: Summary versus Feature Lead

            Usually, journalistic writing often uses the summary lead (5 Ws - what, who, when, who, where, why) in writing the Lead of the news story. This type "leads" the reader into the story right away. But there should also be variety to avoid being too “straight” or being too “hard” in writing the Lead. To break this predictability but still using the 5 Ws, we can also use the Feature Lead which brings some imagination and life to the story.

For example, these are the initial information about the news:

What – Hurricane Ike

When – Tuesday

Where – U.S and Mexico

So, the summary lead may be written this way:

“Hurricane Ike hit the U.S. and Mexico on Tuesday killing thousands.”

            But using the feature lead, CBS News wrote:

“Hurricane Ike moved into the warm waters of the Gulf and took aim at the U.S. and Mexican coasts Tuesday after bringing down aging buildings in Havana and tearing through western Cuba's tobacco country.” (September 9, 2008)

            Another example, the information are as follows:

Who – Two American Astronauts

When – July 20, 1969

Where - landed on the moon

            A summary lead may be written, thus: 

                      “Two American astronauts landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.”

            But the New York Times, using the Feature lead, wrote:

“Men have landed and walked on the moon.

Two Americans, astronauts of Apollo 11, steered their fragile four-legged lunar module safely and smoothly to the historic landing yesterday at 4:17:40 P.M., Eastern daylight time.” (New York Times, July 21, 1969)

News Lead: Which style would better "lead" the readers to the story?

Fact:   A serial killer terrorized a town

Lead 1

The people of Townsville are living in fear after a seventh victim of the Townsville Terror was found Monday night at Smith Grade School.

Lead 2

Charlene Simpkins used to be the kind of mom who let her kids walk to the bus stop. She used to leave her front door unlocked so friends could drop in and go for quiet walks alone after dinner. But that all changed when the killer dubbed the Townsville Terror struck in her community.

Use of Native Language in Teaching English

Yes, some methods and techniques in language teaching allow the use of the native language (like Arabic) in teaching English.  In the Grammar-Translation Method, where the students are taught to translate from one language to another, the language that is used in the class is mostly the students' native language. Likewise, the native language is used in the Silent Way to give instructions when necessary to help a student improve his/her pronunciation. It is possible that the sounds in the students' native language are similar or identical to sounds in the English language. In Dessugestopedia, native language translation is used to make the meaning of the dialogues clear. Moreover, in Community Language Teaching, literal native language equivalents are given to the transcribed target language to make their meaning clear. [Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Second Edition. Oxford University Press]

The SQ3R Reading Technique for Beginners

SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review)

1. Survey (read the title, sub-titles, heading, sub-headings)
2. Question (formulate questions about the reading text-Who, what, when, where, why, how)
3.  Read (first reading) (read and MENTALLY try to answer the questions in b)
4. Recite (second reading) (ORALLY answer the questions)
5.  Review (go back to the questions or recall other important details)

ESL vs EFL

ESL versus EFL

What's the difference between English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL)? ESL is used when non-English speaking people learn English in an English speaking country. EFL is used when non-English speaking people learn English in a non-English speaking country. English speaking countries include those countries where English is an official language or is widely spoken. Hence, teaching English in the Philippines is ESL but it is EFL in the Sultanate of Oman. How is this important in the teaching of English? ESL and ESL require very different teaching strategies to meet the aims and objectives of the students.

USEFUL VOCABULARY IN DESCRIBING A GRAPH (IELTS)

USEFUL VOCABULARY IN DESCRIBING A GRAPH (IELTS WRITING TASK 1)

(Note:  The candidate should use at least 150 words in describing the graph.)

1.      INTRODUCTION (FIRST PARAGRAPH) (ONE SENTENCE)

Introduction

This graph shows ...

The diagram outlines ...

This table lists ...

This pie chart represents

This line chart depicts ...

This chart breaks down ...

(Note: In the OVERVIEW and the BODY, describe the TRENDS in the paragraph)

The four basic TRENDS are :

 

•  upward movement 
•  downward movement 
•   no movement 
•  change in direction

2. OVERVIEW (SECOND PARAGRAPH)  - ONE GENERAL TREND IN THE GRAPH (ONE SENTENCE)

3. BODY (MAIN PARAGRAPH) (GRAPH INTERPRETATION) (DESCRIBE IMPORTANT TRENDS)

• Indicating upward movement

Verbs		Nouns
Transitive	Intransitive
(to) increase	(to) increase	(an) increase
(to) raise	(to) rise (rose, risen)	(a) raise (US), a rise (UK)
(to) push/put/step up	(to) go/be up	(an) upswing
	(to) grow	(a) growth
(to) extend, (to) expand	(to) extend, (to) expand	(an) extension, expansion
	(to) progress	(a) progression
	(to) boom/soar/climb	(a) boom
	(to) jump, (to) skyrocket	(a) jump
	(to) reach a peak, (to) peak	(a) peak
	(to) reach an all-time high

• Indicating downward movement

Verbs		Nouns
Transitive	Intransitive
(to) decrease	(to) decrease	(a) decrease
(to) cut, (to) reduce		(a) cut, (a) reduction
	(to) fall (off)    (fall, fell, fallen)	(a) fall
	(to) plunge, to plummet	(a) plunge
	(to) drop (off)	(a) drop
	(to) go down	(a) downswing
	(to) decline	(a) decline
	(to) collapse	(a) collapse (dramatic fall)
	(to) slump, (to) go bust	(a) slump
	(to) bottom out

• Indicating no movement

Verbs		Nouns
Transitive	Intransitive
(to) keep ... stable	(to) remain stable
(to) hold ... constant	(to) stay constant
(to) stabilize	(to) stabilize	stability

• Indicating a change of direction

Verbs		Nouns
Transitive	Intransitive
(to) level off	(to) level off/out, to flatten out	(a) levelling-off
	(to) stop falling/rising	(a) change
(to) stand at	(to) remain steady
	(to) stop falling and start rising
	(to) stop rising and start falling

 

• Indicating the DEGREE or the SPEED of change

 

SAMPLE SENTENCES

1. INTRODUCTION

            The graph shows that….

2. OVERVIEW AND BODY – TRENDS - (DESCRIBE THE GRAPH)

• Indicating upward movement

       There is a dramatic increase in ….OR

      The _____ increased dramatically from ___ to ___. 

• Indicating downward movement

     There is a quick decline in…   OR

     The _____ sharply declined from ___ to ___.

• Indicating no movement

    The ____ remained stable.

    There is stability in ____.

• Indicating a change of direction

    The ___   stopped falling in _____ but started rising on _____ .