Celebrating Halloween in Schools

Crisp apples and fat pumpkins, brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges waving from the trees, and cool, sharp breezes signal one thing: Fall is here. And that means costumes, candy, and more candy. Halloween is coming. Children across the country are drawing pumpkins and ghouls in their notebooks, planning their maximum-amount-of-candy routes, and creating their version of the coolest costumes ever. My daughter is no exception.

Yet for many school administrators and teachers, Halloween isn’t as much about enjoying the festivities as it is about surviving the battle. Charles Haynes, Senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, explains it well: “They’re caught in the crossfire between parents who support and parents who oppose Halloween observances in the classroom.”

Obama's School Year Expansion

When President Obama announced his plan to expand the number of hours students spend in school, he was met with mixed reactions. "I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president admitted. "But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan fully supports the idea. "Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Arne told the Associated Press. "I just want to level the playing field."

Tell Me an ExposiStory: Transitioning from Narrative to Expository Texts

Nothing captures a child’s attention like a good story—if only expository texts could hold the same attention. Starting in the fourth grade, and continuing into adulthood, informational texts are the most prevalent texts your students will encounter. How can you prepare them to comprehend exposition and enjoy the experience?

In the Wake of Katrina: An Unlikely Success

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest to ever hit the Gulf Coast, left thousands of people without homes, jobs, and a sense of security. Eighty-five percent of homes and 90 percent of schools in Pascagoula School District of Mississippi were flooded.

Says Glynda Smith, ELL Specialist at Jackson Elementary, "people were living in tents in their yards. Parents were tearing out their walls, and we knew we had to get the kids back in school. They needed to be safe, have something to do, and be out of their parents' way." Twenty-seven days after the storm hit, schools reopened their doors to some new challenges.

What's New 2009

While summer slowly closes its doors, schools across the country open theirs to a new year. Because we want this year to be your best yet, we've worked hard to make Imagine Learning English even better with new activities for students and functionality for teachers and administrators. Take a look at this sampling of new features below, click here for more information on these features, or click here to view an online demo.

Pick It Apart: How to Teach Word Parts and Why

Un. Re. In. Dis. Learn the meaning of these four prefixes, and you've just unlocked the meaning to over 1500 new words. It's no wonder vocabulary development experts, including Patricia M. Cunningham of the What Really Matters series, stress the importance of learning your prefixes and suffixes.

Teach and Enchant: Using Chants with English Language Learners

They’re jazzy. They’re catchy. And most importantly, they’re memorable. Jazz chants were developed by Carolyn Graham, an ESL expert from the American Language Institute at NYU, in order to reinforce language conventions and the proper intonation of English. Students learn lyrics quickly by connecting English's natural rhythm to a catchy jazz beat. And the lyrics stick.