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| Congratulations! All the young minds... |
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
School Event, Happy Mother's Day 2011
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International History and Traditions
In most countries, Mother's Day is a recent observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in America. When it was adopted by other countries and cultures, it was given different meanings, associated to different events (religious, historical or legendary), and celebrated in a different date or dates.
Some countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations have adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, like giving carnations and other presents to your own mother.
The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture (compare the celebrations of Diwali in the UK and the United States).
Leadership in You, Michael Jackson, The Rise and Fall of The King of Pop
| The case examines the rise and fall of Michael Jackson (Jackson), one of the most popular and controversial pop stars of the 1980s and 1990s. It describes the rise of Jackson from the son of a steel worker to a pop superstar in the 1980s. |
Issues:
» Study the various phases in the life cycle of a celebrity and compare the same to that of a product or a company.
» Examine the business acumen of Michael Jackson.
» Examine the reasons that can lead to a downfall of a celebrity and draw lessons from it.
PRESCHOOL CHINESE ENRICHMENT, Working Memory
Working memory involves the temporary storage and manipulation of information that is assumed to be necessary for a wide range of complex cognitive activities. Research with children has demonstrated that the ability to learn new words is greatly affected by working memory span - specifically, by how much information they can hold in that part of working memory called "phonological short-term memory". The constraining effect of working memory capacity on the ability to learn new words appears to continue into adolescence.
But, as you grow in experience, building a vocabulary, this constraint becomes less important. The importance of phonological short-term memory is also greater for productive learning (learning to produce a language, i.e., speak or write it) than in receptive learning (learning to read or understand a language). For productive learning, the pronounceability of the new words is very important. The more easily pronounced, the more easily learnt.
References:
· Nation, I.S.P. 2001. Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
· Ellis, N.C. & Beaton, A. 1993. Factors affecting foreign language vocabulary: imagery keyword mediators and phonological short-term memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A, 533-58.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
PRESCHOOL CHINESE ENRICHMENT, Music & Movement
Music training can help individuals especially young children to perceive emotions in speech which may increase their ability to interpret human behaviour. Physical movement helps balance, coordination, self-esteem and body awareness. Movement associated with drama leads to improvements in adaptive social behaviour, body movement and gestures help children absorb ideas better and can act as memory aids.
References:
1. Phill-Silver, J., & Trainor, L.J. (2005). Feeling the beat: Movement influences infant rhythm perception. Science, 308, 1430.
2. Jakobson, L., Lewycky, S., Kilgour, A., & Stoesz, B. (2008). Memory for verbal and visual material in highly trained musicians. Music Perception, 26, 41-55 doi:10.1525/mp. 2008.26.1.41
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