There was no endpoint listening at http://api.microsofttranslator.com/v1/Soap.svc that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.
Our family homeschooled for 11 years. Yes, all the way through high school. I conducted the BOOKMOBILE stops in 34 states, travelled over 80,000 miles of highways, and over 5 years, met face-to-face with over 25,000 families looking for textbooks. What have I learned?
PEOPLE HAVE "INSTITUTIONAL" IDEAS.
Most homeschooling parents use textbooks on their children the way textbooks were used on them!
Most parents were restricted to a classroom and each subject was shackled to a textbook. So when parents think of a textbook, they think of beginning in September at Chapter One and proceeding page by page until it's done, hopefully sometime on May or June. That works. But it's mostly tedious, not very customized to the student?s need, and certainly promotes "sameness."
MATH as a HAMMER. SCIENCE as a SCREWDRIVER.
People will take a book off the shelf and ask me, "Is this one a good math book?" Often I'll point to that book and respond, "That book is a hammer." I'll quickly point at one on the shelf and add, "And that one's a wrench, and that one's a screwdriver. Textbooks are only tools. And tools don't build anything. Who handles the tool makes the difference." I'll go on to explain that a hammer can be found at a yard sale for 25? or an expensive hammer can be purchased for $60.00. The 25? hammer in the hands of a skilled craftsman can do a magnificent job -- certainly better than the $60.00 hammer in the hands of a fool. Textbooks are no different. Any mainline publisher's 7th grade math book will do the job when used skillfully. Skillfully means knowing what motivates the student, knowing when to repeat or jump ahead.
WHO HAS THE BEST CURRICULUM?
One time my son was beginning a 7th grade math text, and on the first day he came to me and complained about how easy it was. I told him all books would start with review, so give it a chance. On the second day he came complaining again. I took a real look and agreed with him. So I made him this "deal." I told him to take the test at the end of chapter 1 tomorrow. If he passed that test with at least 80%, he could skip all the pages in chapter one. He agreed. He did. And we moved on to chapter two. Success. Day three, chapter 3. Day 4, chapter 4. He kept doing very well. Day 5, done. Day 6, oooops! Chapter six was apparently unfamiliar to him. But in those 5 glorious days he had proven he knew the material -- so why would I want him to do it over and over every day? He had also shown he didn't know the contents of chapter six and was very willing to tackle it now. After all, he had just completed 125 pages of that math book in 5 days! Was this any way to teach a child from a math text?! Well, I think so. (1) I was rewarding him for what he knew. (2) He didn?t have to do the same things over and over everyday. (3) He saw immediate results for his good work. (4) I was able to review the items he had missed over the previous 5 tests and discovered a pattern that told me what he was missing, where he needed help. We did similar in English, Science, History, and so on. Yes, we used textbooks. But we didn't let the textbooks use us.
With textbooks, you do not have to "do unto others" what was done to you.
0 comments:
Post a Comment