Editorial Welcome
Humor Column
Measure Your Test Anxiety
Have Laptop, Will Tutor
Book Review
Brainteasers
Catch the Last Issue!

Welcome to the December 2007 issue of the new Learning Center Exchange!

To submit your compliments, suggestions, ideas, and articles, please contact the editor, Mona Pelkey, at mpelkey@learningassistance.com.
If you enjoy reading our publication each month, spread the word! Share this link with your fellow staffers so that they may receive notices of new issues: http://www.learningassistance.com/join.htm
Deadlines for publication occur on the 1st day of each month, September-June, but we will gladly accept your submissions for review at any time. Guidelines for submissions may be found at http://www.learningassistance.com/2006/common/guidelines.html

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Editorial Welcome

By Mona Pelkey

Dear Readers,
Happy end-of semester and Happy Holidays! This month, we offer Dennis Congos’s self-questionnaire for test anxiety, Kyle Cushman’s review of Thinking for Yourself: Developing Critical Thinking Skills Through Reading and Writing by Marlys Mayfield, Barbara McLay’s humor column, Julianne Scibetta-Messia’s Brainteasers, and my article, “Have Laptop, Will Tutor,” a narrative of observations and musings regarding my first semester as an OWL tutor. We hope you enjoy our offerings, and as always, we invite you to contribute to our publication. If you have a great handout, a recommendation for a useful or enlightening book that deals with learning assistance issues, a good joke, or an article about any topic of interest to learning center staff, we invite you to share with your fellow colleagues in The Learning Center Exchange.
Best wishes for the New Year! See you in January!
Mona

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In the Spotlight: Humor Column

By Barbara McLay, University of South Florida

Measure Your Test Anxiety

By Dennis Congos, University of Central Florida

Some test anxiety can actually sharpen the senses and speed recall. However, when test
anxiety rises above a certain level, it can have the opposite effect. The following diagnostic
test can give you an idea of how much text anxiety you experience and what to do about it if it has become an impediment...
read more

One lively class I teach gets a little too much into their reading sometimes. We were analyzing an article on steps to take if you think you are in an abusive relationship, and we were listing on the board the major supporting details. When we got to the fourth and last step, the article said if counseling failed the abused person should leave, but a male student yelled out, “Leave, hell! That’s all wrong! She should throw the bastard out!” A female replied, “Or the bitch; this says that women can be abusers, too!”...

read more

Have Laptop, Will Tutor: Chronicle of a Writing Teacher

By Mona Pelkey

Book Review: Thinking for Yourself

By Kyle Cushman, Vermont College of Union Institute and University

Many years ago I graduated from college and landed a position as an English teacher at an urban high school rife with gangs, drugs, and crime. Armed with chalk, an overhead projector, and almost enough books for my 150 students, I taught American and British literature, grammar, spelling, and of course composition. Composition was a particular challenge for more than half of my students, because they spoke languages other than English at home. Most of them exhibited little interest in improving their English reading and writing skills; indeed, many of them were just marking time in school, distracted by hormones and the violence in their homes and neighborhoods...
read more

Critical thinking is one of the most challenging study skills for students to master and teachers to teach. Showing a student how to do a citation is a fairly concrete endeavor, while explaining to a student how to think is venturing into the realm of the abstract. Marlys Mayfield’s book Thinking for Yourself is an excellent tool for helping students to improve critical thinking skills...
read more

Brainteasers: December 2007

Compiled by Julianne Scibetta-Messia

Thanks to everyone who joined in this round of fun, especially:
Mon Nasser, Jessica Nettles, and Karey Pharris!!

Solutions to November’s Riddlers

E. The letters represent the initials of continents.

For two children in general there are four equally likely events: boy-boy, boy-girl, girl-boy, girl-girl. Since boy-boy is ruled out, the probability of two girls is one third (or about 33%).

Once. After that you’re subtracting 3 from 36, 3 from 33, and so on.

A decimal point.

Day. Daylight, daybreak, daytime.

Don’t let the holiday cheer steer you clear of the challenges here!

Farmer Brown keeps ducks. He puts two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck, and one duck in the middle. How many ducks does he have?

Two days ago Charlie was 20. Next year he will be 23. How can this be possible?

A sphere has three, a circle has two, but a point doesn’t have any….what?

For those of you who still have your vinyl records at home: How many grooves are there on a long-playing record, 30cm in diaeter, with a 10cm label in the center and a 1cm margin on the outside?

What is this famous expression?
100S549
A3100F
4E621T00
28Y2167

Send your best guesses to: messiaj@acp.edu

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

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