Find out how this teacher uses Skype to help her students study foreign languages from native speakers.

Looking to learn a new language this summer? Then give this list a good look. The folks at Universitiesandcolleges.org have created "The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources," which pulls together materials found across a range of different media. Here, you'll find podcasts, open courses, iphone apps, and more. And the list notably includes our ever-popular collection of Free Foreign Language Lesson Podcasts, which will teach you about 40 different languages. Just download the podcasts to your computer or mp3 player and you'll be learning new languages on the go, at no cost.

Linguee verwendet man wie eine Suchmaschine. Man sucht nach einem Wort oder einer Phrase und findet Satzpaare, die das Wort oder die Phrase exakt oder in ähnlicher Form enthalten. Falls die Suche nicht erfolgreich ist, hilft es meist, die Suchphrase zu vereinfachen und erneut zu suchen. Das Suchergebnis wird übersichtlich nach Vokabeln gruppiert und nach Häufigkeit sortiert. Durch Klick auf den Knopf "Beispiele +" werden mehr Beispielsätze angezeigt.

A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhardt, the most blistering indictment of K-12 "math" education I've ever encountered.

Oslo (NTB): Norske lærere er de mest fornøyde i hele OECD-området, viser en ny internasjonal undersøkelse.

- De snakker om endringene i arbeidsmarkedet, hvor tradisjonelle mannsyrker som ikke krever særlig mye utdanning er borte. De mener derfor at det må bli normen at alle barn fullfører videregående utdanning og helst går videre til høyere utdanning. - Deres løsning på problemene ligger i å øke ambisjonene til den enkelte elev, sier Walkerdine. Ambisjoner (aspirations) blir presentert som nøkkelen til å endre forholdet til skolegang i arbeiderklassefamilier. - Denne ideen, at det bare mangler en enkelt egenskap, er fullstendig overforenklet, mente professoren, og pekte på det gamle industristedet hun har forsket på som eksempel. - Dette samfunnet har levd av tung jern- og stålindustri siden 1700-tallet. I løpet av disse hundreårene har det utviklet seg et samfunnsfellesskap som baserer seg på familie, solidaritet, et hardt liv, stolthet, sterk fagforening og en klar følelse av klassekamp, kollektivisme og støtte i lokalsamfunnet. - I denne settingen gir ikke ambisjoner særlig mening. Ambisjoner er individuelt, noe som gjør at du ønsker å gjøre det bedre enn andre, mens hele poenget i disse samfunnene er at man hjelper hverandre, påpeker Walkerdine. Myndighetene kan ikke gå inn i disse samfunnene og forvente å finne, eller skape, ambisjoner i forhold til utdanning, mener Walkerdine.

The Language of Mathematics: Table of Contents

Technology in learning

As many of you know, this past weekend was the gaokao (高考), China's brutally long standardized college entrance exam. The test differs from region to region and student to student (depending on whether they have focused on sciences or the humanities), but all students are tested in Chinese, Math, and a foreign language (usually English). All students also choose and answer one essay question from a bank that includes some that are the same nationwide (in addition to some questions that differ locally). Here are this year's national questions. How would you do?

American children have it easier than most other children in the world, including the supposedly lazy Europeans. They have one of the shortest school years anywhere, a mere 180 days compared with an average of 195 for OECD countries and more than 200 for East Asian countries. German children spend 20 more days in school than American ones, and South Koreans over a month more. Over 12 years, a 15-day deficit means American children lose out on 180 days of school, equivalent to an entire year. American children also have one of the shortest school days, six-and-a-half hours, adding up to 32 hours a week. By contrast, the school week is 37 hours in Luxembourg, 44 in Belgium, 53 in Denmark and 60 in Sweden. On top of that, American children do only about an hour's-worth of homework a day, a figure that stuns the Japanese and Chinese.