Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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14 NORMAL OFFERING GEOGRAPHY. HE school is offering three diferent courses in geography. The two-year students are taking work needed for the first six grades, while the three-year students are preparing especially for the Junior High School. An advanced elective course is oiered for students looking toward supervision or departmental work. Thirty new stereoscopes with several hundred stereographs have been recently added to the geographical apparatus. These are proving a very useful supplement to the valuable collection of lantern slides which have been in use for several years. Several new sets of wall maps, diagrams, text and reference books have been among the more recent acquisitions of the de- partment. C. P. S. 1 PHYSIOGRAPHY. HIS course includes laboratory, iield and class study of com- mon minerals and rocks, agents of change, as heat, air, water and iceg typical formations, as strata, dikes and veins, the properties of, changes in, and improvements of soilsg the making of quicklime, plaster of Paris and cementsg the smelting of ores, the preparation of mineral pigments and quarrying of building stone. Study of physiographic structures and regions in North America as a basis for understanding the present distribution and activities of its inhabitants. The subject opens the students' eyes to the order and adaptability of inorganic nature and makes geo- graphy an interesting because intelligible subject. H. P. S. PENMANSHIP. HE value of a good handwriting cannot accurately be esti- mated. As a commercial asset it is worth much more than it costs to acquire, and as a concrete indication it always shows that its possessor is careful, industrious and systematic. It is more than an accomplishment, it is a modern need and is often a passport to a better position. Good penmanship cannot be bought nor sold as a commodity in the market, but is acquired only by patient, per- sistent practice, and retained by cultivating the habit, early in life, of being painstaking and careful. C. E. D.

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o NORMAL OFFERING 13 Evpartmvnt iirhnw. HE strong teacher is the one who inspires his pupils to be scholarly and efficient. The inspiring teacher must have a clean knowledge of the essentials of a subject, the power to de- velop clear thinking, and a sympathetic manner that becomes magnetic in the class room. The efficient teacher has the power to do the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way. Effi- ciency in the teacher is contagious. The efficient teacher has the power and opportunity to develop leaders. The spirit of the new Democracy calls for teachers who can inspire and guide pupils to public service. A. C. B. MODERN LANGUAGES. ELECTIVE COURSES IN FRENCH, GERMAN AND SPANISH. HESE courses deal with the teachings of modern languages I in the Junior high school. They are open to those who have had good high school courses in these subjects. Practice is given in departmental teaching by the direct method, that is the foreign language only is to be used in teaching, but when a word or passage cannot be understood by the pupils after studying their lesson in the book, shall listen by closed books, when the teacher or some pupil reads the lesson. The speaking will soon take care of itself. F. H. K. ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS. HIS course is intended to include the mathematics of the Junior High School. While no standard course for that school has been established, it seems to be agreed that such a course should include something of arithmetic, of geometry, and of algebra: in arithmetic, such applications of the fundamental pro- cesses as an intelligent citizen needs to know, in geometry at least facts of observation and simple constructions, with their applica- tions, in algebra, the formula, the equation, the graph and its uses, and the simpler operations. These subjects, with fit methods of teaching them, we aim to include in our course. W. D. J.

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NoRMAL OFFERING 15 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. BRIEFLY stated the scope of the work in this course includes C13 general foundation for the first year, C25 specialized work on majors and general work on minors for the second and third years. The groups we have adopted, each subject in a group being a major, are these: 1. Geography, history, and civics. 2. Geography, science Cgeneralj. 3. Mathematics, science. 4. English, history and civics. 5. English, geography. 6. English, a modern language. 7. Special combinations of any of the above subjects with gardening or playground work or athletics. The student elects one group. The required professional studies, psychology, school management, practice teaching, etc., are also majors. It should be understood that this grouping having for its aim preparation for departmental teaching is tentative in the sense that further light is likely to be shed upon our problems as we try out these plans, and prompt modification or readjustment will re- sult from suggestions of sound experience. C. R. S. NATURE STUDY. HE elementary course is economic. The aim is to give pupils the power to plan, plant and cultivate a vegetable garden. To do this, they must test seeds, know and destroy weeds, recog- nize helpful and harmful insects, know the elements of plant physiology. The intermediate course devotes two terms to biology and one to gardening. The elective second year includes grafting, budding, pruning, production of ornamental plants, supervision of school gardens, plans for school grounds. The kindergarten course prepares the students to use the nature study outline in Bulletin No. 14 of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. F. I. D. PRACTICAL TRAINING. TUDENTS in the elementary and kindergarten-primary depart- ments began observation in the training school Sept. 1917, as a means of emphasizing the vocational character of the Normal School Courses. An afternoon session of the kindergarten has re- opened that grade for observation. Departmental work incident to Junior High School organization is presented in the upper gram-