Static Methods in Python

[Kris]

Hi,
  I am a newbie to Python. With a background in Java, I was attempting
to write static methods in the class without the self as the first
parameter, when I got an error. I did a search for the same on Google
and found out that there was no consistent approach to this. I would
like to know what is the prescribed approach for the same. Any
thoughts, pointers about the same would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Kris