New York Lifetime Teaching License

Ni hao in New York

A year after teaching English at a Hunan university Diane Nottle resumes her Chinese lessons in the United States and gets a taste of what her students might have gone through.

"Ni hao! Ni hao ma?" the teacher greeted me warmly as I entered the classroom. "Wo . . . hen . . . hao," I answered. So far, so good. Then she let loose a torrent of sounds that, though incomprehensible, seemed vaguely familiar. This time last year, I was teaching oral English at Hunan University of Science and Technology in Xiangtan. It was almost too easy to live there in my own language, given the eagerness of the students and other Chinese I met to practice their English, but some of the nine foreign teachers (on a campus of 39,000 students) took weekly classes together in Mandarin.

In July, I returned to New York, settled back into my life and barely gave Mandarin another thought. Then the e-mail festooned with bright yellow lanterns popped into my inbox: "Speak Chinese in One Weekend!" It was advertising one of New York-based New School University's On the Go series of intensive weekend courses, offered periodically in languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Arabic. I studied Japanese at the New School for a year in the 1990s (and, full disclosure, later earned my English language teaching certificate there).

The Chinese weekend intrigued me as a way to test what I had retained, a year later.

There are any number of ways to study Chinese in New York: university courses, language schools like Berlitz, continuing education classes like the New School's, and private tutors. Before leaving for Hunan, I had learned some basics using Rosetta Stone, the interactive language software.

On the Go weekends offer 14 hours of instruction in less than 48 hours: three and a half each on Friday evening and Sunday morning, and seven on Saturday. Since Level 1 is meant for what language teachers call "true beginners" - people with no previous exposure - I gamely signed up for Level 2, which proved challenging. In the end, what resonated most about the weekend was not so much the language I could reproduce, but the insights it provided into Chinese culture and the memories it brought back.

The instructor, Deng Yan, English name Judy, is a Tianjin native who went to university in Beijing. Now 51, she has been living in the United States for 16 years; she also teaches at United Nations headquarters and the China Institute in New York. Deng's method was essentially the same as our teacher's in Xiangtan: She handed out the curriculum - 12 pages of basic phrases and vocabulary she had prepared - and worked her way through them as we repeated after her, asked questions and took notes.

Epoxy Brads | Memories to last a life time

Epoxy Brads

Author: admin

Although technically classified, like the Bleriot XI, the Hanriot Monoplane, and the Curtiss Model D, as a “pioneer aircraft,” the Deperdussin Racer, in physical appearance alone, indicates that it does not belong to this category.  Its completely covered, streamlined, bracing wire-devoid fuselage; single, razor-sharp wings; tiny tail surfaces, drag-reducing spinner; faired landing gear; and modern control wheel all reflect advanced technology and speed, placing the type in a “transition” category of its own, between the original, pioneer and later, World War I designations.

It owes its origin to Armand Deperdussin, who was neither an airplane inventor nor a pilot.  Beginning his career as a cabaret singer in Belgium, he pursued several professions, none of which were remotely related to aeronautics, including luring customers into motion picture theaters operated by the Lumiere Brothers as a barker and selling fabric at wholesale prices to French department stores.  In the fall of 1909, he agreed to supply the Bon Marche store of Paris with a Christmas display featuring an aircraft, but, despite his own interest in the budding science, he knew nothing of aerodynamics or design himself, thus forced to approach the Societe de Construction d’Appareils Aeriens to fill his needs.

Instrumental to this display, and Deperdussin’s future, had been 32-year-old Louis Bechereau, graduate of the Ecole des Arts et Metiers d’Angers and chief engineer there.  His reputation had reached “brilliance” stature.

Attracted by its canard aircraft, Deperdussin himself acquired the Societe de Construction d’Appareil Aeriens, located in Bethany, near Rheims, France, in 1910, and renamed it the “Societe de Production des Apppareils Deperdussin,” or “SPAD.”

The intended static display, appearing at the end of the previous year, resembled an Antoinette monoplane with a tailskid.

The flying version, based upon it and retaining the overall Antoinette configuration, particularly in the tailplane, was completed in 1910 and offered in several versions, which varied both by powerplant and number of seats.

The Deperdussin A, for example, had been powered by a three-cylinder Anzani, a 50-hp Clerget, and a 50-hp Gnome engine.

Featuring a long, slender, 24-foot, 11.5-inch spruce and ash frame and a 28-foot, 10.5-inch wingspan covered with oiled cotton, the Deperdussin B, the first version to receive significant attention, succeeded the initial variant in 1911.  Powered by a 50-hp, seven-cylinder Gnome engine and weighing 551 pounds, it sported hinged elevator and rudder surfaces, the latter serving as the deflecting surface for vertical control and attached to the remainder of the fixed, stabilizing fin.  Cables, actuating the aircraft’s wing-warping mechanism, were routed down to a T-shaped lever, itself mounted on the rear cross member of the chassis, and then passed over pulleys on skids before branching out into two wire pairs which connected with an equal number of points on the wing’s spars.  Pilot control was achieved by means of a pinned crosspiece-mounted wheel, its direction of turn differentially deflecting each wing spar—that is, while one was pushed down, the other was pulled up, changing their angles-of-incidence and inducing a bank away from the increased one.

Nystce (Rea) - New York State Teacher Certification Exams with CDROM

The Conspiracy of Ignorance, The Failure of American Public Schools

Adult Literacy And New Technologies, Tools For A Lifetime

The Elementary School Teacher

Teachers College record