Why You Must Help Your Kids With Similar Sounding Words

  How often have you found yourself in a position of writing an email or letter to someone and then realised that you have written the completely wrong word. Everyone does it, yet it is so easy to feel highly embarrassed and slightly stupid at the same time.
If you would like to end this problem once and for all and also teach your children about Similar Sounding Words and what they mean you should definitely take a look at the Similar Sounding Words product from sarvagnan-theknowledge.com.
The product is really aimed at children but many adults absolutely swear by its contents and say that there are many examples of Similar Sounding Words that they simply weren't aware of. This learning aid contains over 90 examples of these type of words and the learning revolves around a series of interactive online video's which are proving to be very popular as well as extremely effective.
The way that this learning works is that a family of animated characters who are known as the Stufun family go through each example in an extremely easy to understand manner which children and adults alike will find extremely amusing which can only be described as a good thing as opposed to the more traditional methods of teaching.
Before putting any of their products together, the experts at sarvagnan-theknowledge.com put in a great deal of research to find the best way of getting their point over and this method of interactive learning has proven to be the most effective method, time and time again.
When someone is learning and it doesn't seem like they are learning, ie, because they are having fun instead, the amount of information that they can take on board and more importantly, remember, increases dramatically and this is what sarvagnan-theknowledge.com have achieved admirably with Similar Sounding Words. by  Louise Blake

The Making Of A Good Teacher and Caregiver

  

My interest in children and teaching began years ago when I was a small girl; there was an old, empty small, wood-framed house behind our home. I decided to turn it into a schoolhouse. Yes, you guessed it, my first students were my three younger brothers and older sister. For years I taught school in that little old house out in the country. That is where my desire for teaching began, and has since been my dream and heartbeat. Teaching children can be very satisfying. Think of children as sponges. They are ready to soak up any and all experiences you can provide them. It's up to us as teachers and caregivers to make sure that the children under our care are being taught developmentally appropriate practices. As caregivers we need to cultivate developmentally appropriate learning environments and experiences for young children. If the room arrangement is designed appropriately, it will give you more time with the children and make your job more enjoyable. Young children attach themselves to those who provide interaction, comfort and reassurance through quality interactions. It is believed that young children come equipped with the ability to form strong relationships. They attach to those who respond to their needs in the most sensitive manner. Experiments suggest that even though a person may feed a young child, it doesn't necessarily mean that the child will become attached to them. One way to make parents feel secure when leaving their young child is to make sure their child is at ease in the environment we create for them. As teachers and caregivers we should be:

*Observers-be aware of social interactions of the child with other children, staff, and parents *Programmers-develop plans that facilitate the positive development of children. *Teachers-facilitate social skills and mental knowledge *Discipliners-guide/builder of responsibility and internal focus of control *Nurturers-foster a child's sense of self, encourage, assist and support social-emotional well-being. I have enjoyed the past twenty-four years that I have worked with children in different centers. I am excited about opening my first center and I look forward to the years to come working with young children; what an exciting and rewarding experience. By  Elaine Williams

Is Your Child's Potential Underestimated?

   

It's important to bring home the fact that as parents, we have to put some time and effort in helping and motivating our children get into the habit of spending regular time, on a daily basis, learning and consolidating what is being learnt at school.

Don't we all remember the time when we were excited about sending our kids to Kindergarten? All the preparation, the emotion, expectations, and tears that makes it such a memorable day? We get excited about everything that the child does, we monitor every step of their initial learning and as soon as they are in year 5 or 6, our enthusiasm dampens. It becomes harder and harder to help them with their homework, as the teaching methodologies have fundamentally changed to the extent that trying to help them with what we know would confuse them even further.
It is a known fact that by the time a kid turns 8 he would have learnt 80% of what he needs to know about life. Logically, this means that for the next 72 years he would gradually be learning the remaining 20%, (sic).
Does it not make sense, in that case, to teach the child as much as possible within the first 8 years, especially math and language skills? It is a proven fact that a child can learn and understand multiple languages if exposed to each for at least 3 months at a time.
A friend of mine came from Israel, married to an Irish guy. They spoke English at home as the husband couldn't speak Hebrew. Their 4 year old child, therefore, grew up without a word of Hebrew-except for the occasional ones from the mother--. They went on holidays to Israel for three months; on their return the kid was speaking fluent Hebrew!
Why then, you might ask, do kids not grasp what is being taught at school and need the extra help with homework? There are many reasons; the most logical ones that come to my mind would be distractions and peer pressure. Kids get easily distracted in class and miss important parts of lessons. They are too embarrassed to ask questions or don't want to be called a nerd if they did.
The speed at which children learn is astounding! With all the resources available today, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The internet has scores of educational companies that have spent millions in putting together educational sites that are helping countless number of schools and educational institutions round the globe to better the quality of teaching numeracy and literacy. Both teachers and parents are able to have access to fresh and long proven methods of teaching. These teaching aids are the same as are being used by expensive educational institutions. Many of those sites are readily available for free or for a monthly subscription.
So finding help online is not hard. Parents can easily learn concepts and help their children understand math from an early age. Most of the work needs to be done at home, no matter how little time is spent with a child. Everything that is taught on line (not all the sites, unfortunately) are the exact methodologies used today and would teach the child exactly what is being taught at school. Helping a child 15 minutes every other day can be life changing. Firstly, it would help discipline the child into a routine from an earlier age and secondly, reinforce what he learns at school. This practice is bound to pay off in the long run, without any doubt.
More and more schools are using online resources to teach and help students reinforce lessons taught in the classroom. It's not always that a teacher can provide one on one attention; and it's crucial that the opportunity is given to those students in need to get the help on the spot, and what better medium than the internet? Teachers will be monitoring individual progress from time to time, thus using their time more efficiently. There are countless numbers of teachers out there who really see the benefit of online teaching. Many of them are spending extra hours looking for sites that might fit their students' needs, which could help facilitate them in their teaching endeavors, but who, somehow, couldn't find the ideal solution in their quest. The time has come to change the face of learning and give the opportunity to our kids to access a world of knowledge that is out there, and which has been left untapped for far too long! by  Richard Pidial

Character Education Teaching Kids to be Moral and Ethical

All Character Education activities need to be planned to build a comprehensive program in the school environment. Several ideas need to be infused to help bring the lessons to life, and ensure that all aspects of the school environment support such programs. Let's take a few ideas.
Infusing Character education A very effective way of delivering moral and ethical values is through infusing character education messages. Teachers should read stories about people of strong character to students. They should also ask them to write response journals or debate the sides of a controversial science issue, using the virtues to guide their arguments.
Character education programs in schools Programs and observances around one virtue or theme is a great way to reach and unite entire students in an entire building. Teachers should focus on one idea each month. School Leaders and teachers should equally be responsible to highlight this virtue. While teachers make it a point to address the values, leaders can plan for a variety of activities that spans across the school. And that has proved to work in a perfect way for students to get involved, too. Students can visit classrooms of younger children, write essays or create posters to share what they have learned through these activities or programs. Creating teachable moments Conduct class meetings. That has been always counted as one of the powerful ways to address virtues among students in a single classroom. These meetings should be specifically designed to address and discuss rules and regulations, feelings and perspective of others and the problems that occur, using Character education activities and programs as a guide.
Optimistic Interaction between teachers and students should be with respect, dignity and fairness. It is absolutely imperative that relationship between a student and a teacher should be transparent and good.
Ethical Rules and Regulations The rules, regulations, policies, privileges and consequences, should be consistent with the character education curriculum. Teachers should always check to see that the discipline code honors the same ethics and virtues that are being taught to their students. If it is not, some effort is necessary to bring the two in line with each other.
Show Respect The school administration should take care of their staff's well being. They should make sure that all staff members are treated respectfully and fairly. If teachers or other staff in a school feel frustrated and unappreciated, these feelings are likely to drip and trickle down to the students, even if they are intended to or not.
Therefore, if we are going to implement the above mentioned points, Character education programs can be a really powerful way to enhance a student's ethical and moral values.
Academic instruction isn't the only responsibility teachers have in today's classrooms. More and more, teachers are being called on to teach students about values ... things like making good decisions, the showing of respect, taking responsibility, choosing friends, and having a positive attitude. It's a responsibility that could be overwhelming, considering the limited hours available in a school day, the number of kids in the classroom, and the diversity of backgrounds and personalities each child represents.
Character Education by Just Do The Right Thing" is a practical and powerful tool that equips educators to tackle values training with confidence.
By: Francis David

Alternative Systems Of Education

"While Montessori education could open up creative channels in my daughter, it will not prepare her for the stress and competitions in the corporate world" ~ Hemalatha Iyer
Hemalatha, a member of our New Constructs community, posted her honest assessment of the Montessori method and why she would not chose it for her daughter. While her own mother-in-law was a Montessori teacher and completely convinced about the merits of the system, Hema's concerns are threefold:
1) The Montessori Method is by and large available only till Grade 5. The transition after that to a regular system could be quite difficult.
2) As a middle-class parent, one of the most important things she can offer her child is a good education. The Montessori system is unproven and too much of a gamble.
3) While she would like her daughter to avoid the stress she went through in her own education, the corporate world still values only degrees and grades. To have a bright future, her daughter needs to graduate from the best colleges with good grades.
Many of you have posted feedback to my posts on education. This is clearly an area of interest to all of us as parents or future parents. All of you agree that the current system of education is broken. The alternative methods are still in an experimental stage and have not yet become main stream. The question, then, is what should we as parents do? Commit ourselves - and our children - to admirable but unproven alternatives? Or commit ourselves - and our children - to the traditional but flawed education system?
My wife Girija, far more of a pragmatist than I am, shares Hema's perspectives. As a technology person, I can see Geoffrey Moore's Technology Adoption Cycle as a possible paradigm.
In his book 'Crossing the Chasm', Moore noted that any new technology is first adopted by a handful of Innovators who are eager and willing to try new approaches. Once the technology is relatively proven, the Early Adopters, who are visionaries, get on to the bandwagon. Most new technologies move to this stage relatively easily. However, there lies a big chasm between the Early Adopters and the next big group - the Early Majority, a.k.a. Pragmatists. Most technologies don't make it across this chasm and go down the ditch.
The Montessori system and other alternate systems like the J K Foundation and the Aurobindo system are still on this side of the chasm with the Innovators and Early Adopters. Nowhere in the world has any form of innovative alternative education breached the chasm to become embraced by the Early Majority or Pragmatists who could make it mainstream. The push to get it across the chasm must come from a combination of three forces - employers, parents and policymakers.
As a business leader, I hear enough laments about the quality of people entering the workforce today - their inability to communicate, take initiative or innovate, and the low percentage of graduates who are actually employable.
Among policy makers, education is a high priority, with enormous budgets on programs like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. However, most of the money is going towards hardware - the infrastructure - rather than teaching methods and training. A few states have introduced the Activity Based Learning system, but implementation has been inconsistent because of inadequate training.
Among parents, more and more of us are recognizing the undue pressure on our kids. Look at the increasing rate of student suicides. We all have an uneasy feeling that traditional education is harmful to our kids, and we wish there was a good alternative. These are all indications of a target group that is ripe for transformation.
The idea behind New Constructs is to mobilize an engaged community that can dialog on causes like education. We need to know how to equip our children to pursue their true calling in the Connected Age. Do come forward and share your thoughts on how we can create a groundswell of support for alternative methods of education.  by Sudhakar Ram

How to Use Technology to Increase Student Participation ?

 

One of the biggest challenges for schoolteachers is getting their students to participate in class. Whether it's due to shyness, a disinterest in the topic being discussed, or simply an inability to grasp the material, a lack of participation in class ultimately affects how a student performs on essays, exams, and the class as a whole. However, there are a number of innovative tools teachers can use to encourage more classroom participation.
Technology, in particular, has played a prominent role in classroom teaching over recent years, with teachers utilising all sorts of technological resources for lessons, exam revision, and more. However, technology has also impacted student participation significantly, encouraging students not only to speak up in class, but also to take a greater interest in the material being presented to them. So it's no wonder an increasing number of teachers are relying on technology-based tools to help their students engage in classroom lessons.
One of the most common types of resources includes computer or technology-based games. Technology and computer games are already a big part of youngsters' lives today; so utilising such games in the classroom is a way of applying an already-established student interest to a given lesson. Because students can often relate to such games, it's a great tool for grabbing their attention and encouraging participation.
Another popular resource that teachers have been using to encourage participation is the interactive whiteboard. Interactive whiteboards engage students - often with multimedia features - making lessons more fun and interesting for them. Studies have even shown that classrooms fitted with interactive whiteboards show more student participation than classrooms that aren't - meaning the interactive whiteboard is a proven valuable tool in today's educational world.
Finally, countless teachers have been relying on student response systems to aid class participation. Such systems - often resembling a remote control - allow students to respond to a teacher's question with a click of a button. The information is then transferred to the teacher's computer, which can be projected onto a screen in the form of bar graphs or pie charts, or simply kept by the teacher for assessment purposes.
The idea behind student response systems is that they encourage all students to participate in class - even if there are varying levels of class motivation or lesson comprehension. It's also a great tool for helping shy students participate, as they can contribute without having to speak up or feel uncomfortable in class. Student response systems enable students to answer questions in a game-like format, making participation more intriguing and fun.
With a number of technology-based tools and resources available to schools and teachers, it's now easier than ever to encourage students to participate and ultimately help them get more out of classroom lessons.  
by Adam Singleton

What does Imagination have to do with Education?

  

"Imagination should be utilized in such a way as to bring it under the control, direction and self-discipline of the child.

"In mathematics, even in that pallid thing called arithmetic, it is necessary to observe and realize the existence of a problem, the factors of a problem and to combine these to predict an answer. In the entire field of life, it is imagination which delivers answers.

"If one cannot imagine, he cannot predict. The factors of life are more complex than the factors of arithmetic, but they do not differ so far as mental functioning is concerned; there are simply many more of them. One can teach a child by rote that two plus two equals four, but many an instructor and many a parent with the fondest hopes for the future of a child has, after the education was complete, discovered that the child either cannot or will not utilize the data to resolve problems of his own existence. In such a child the ability to imagine the answer by recombining existing factors has not been developed nor disciplined.

"...As apparently as precise a thing as mathematics yet requires in the good mathematician an enormous amount of imagination.

"...Thus when we are trying to teach a child, whether to be proficient in geometry or in handling his body, we must teach him as well to predict a future state of beingness1; if he cannot predict a future state of beingness, he cannot resolve problems. The prediction of a future state of beingness as a statement almost encompasses the function of the human mind. Prediction of beingness is somewhat different from simple prediction. It is necessary to have the potentiality of imagining what is going to happen to accurately assess a situation.

"Thus it may be seen that the inhibition to the imagination of a child directly results in the inhibition of the child's ability to resolve problems relating to his own environment and his own life." -L. Ron Hubbard excerpted from The Educators Course, pg 127

1 Beingness: Condition or state of being; existence.

Ensure that your child's educational program is designed to develop a healthy imagination, as LRH mentions above that this is the key to a successful future for your child.

If you do not have control over your child's educational program, one thing you can do is play games with your child that have him imagine different things. You can start really young.

I do want to note here that if you don't have any control over your child's educational program; you may want to look into changing things so that you do. As their parent, you are, ultimately, responsible for their education.

Yours for a better future,.  by Cheri Hall

Educational Tools of the Future

A builder is only as good as their tools, and the same could be said for some aspects of teaching.
While it's true that many teachers fulfil their duties by standing before their class and describing concepts in a lecture style, the introduction of more modern technologies could really do a lot to increase the effect of the class.
No matter what you teach, or to whom, you may find that your lessons could benefit immensely from the addition of an interactive whiteboard to your classroom. These incredible tools open up a whole new world of opportunity when it comes to education and can help teachers make the leap from 'good' to 'great'.
With an interactive whiteboard, you can show students graphs, charts, videos, images and notes at the touch of a button. Capable of displaying on a wall anything that can be shown on a computer desktop, interactive whiteboards truly are the educational tools of the future. And you can use them to do all kinds of things.
For example, a primary school teacher might make the most of the tool's ability to edit and insert new data on the spot to encourage pupils to write their very own story as a class, complete with pictures, which can be saved and referred to at a later date.
In university, a debating class may utilise learner response units to enable students to vote on the most compelling arguments, collating the results into instant, easy to read graphs while the votes are being placed. With barely any effort at all, you will be able to quiz students on what they have learned during your class, get pupils to come up and input answers to questions on the screen and truly create an interactive learning experience that your classes will find both immersive and entertaining.
Of course, it's important to remember that an interactive whiteboard is a tool to enhance your teaching while not being a teacher itself - just as the builder's tools merely help the builder create a sturdy, reliable house - so it's still up to you to utilise the tool in the best way to yield the best results.
Once you've spent some time experimenting with the capabilities that interactive whiteboard tools have on offer, it won't be long before you're creating fantastic lesson plans that will help you make that leap to being a truly fantastic teacher.  by Janine Barclay

Some good studying strategies to help you study faster

 

Whether you are in school and have an upcoming test, or you need to study a manual for your job, there are some studying strategies that can help you to learn easier and faster. I am in college myself, and over the past few years I have taught myself how to study efficiently. In High School, I almost never studied but in college it's essential, so over the past few years I have had to teach myself good ways to learn lots of material quickly.

My favorite studying strategy, especially for memorization, is using flash cards. Flash cards can be very beneficial since they're a much faster way of reviewing your material. Instead of having to scan through a notebook to find the terms you need to memorize, they will be right in front of you and ready to learn with flash cards. I usually put a term or word on one side of the card, and the definition on the other. And I often study in both 'directions' with them, meaning I start by looking at the term and trying to recite the definition, and vice versa. Flash cards can make studying for a memorization test much faster.

Another great strategy for studying is to take your notes and just completely rewrite them. This helps you to learn material in multiple ways since you are reading, writing, and constantly thinking about the material. This strategy works best for me when I have to study for tests that require learning many concepts, instead of memorization. If you just rewrite your notes a few times over, you will find that you learned a lot about the material you are rewriting, without even thinking about it.

For studying mathematics and science, the best strategy for me is to just spend as much time as possible doing the hardest problems of the material I'm studying. Learning math and science is usually just all about practice, and there doesn't seem to be any substitute for spending time doing multiple problems. Spend as much time as you need on each problem until you fully understand it, or else you may have wasted your time even looking at it in the first place. Studying for math and science can be tedious unfortunately, but that's just the nature of those subjects.

Studying really isn't that much of a chore once you learn how to do it the right way. If you can apply these studying strategies to your sessions, then you will find you can learn a lot more in a lot less time. You just have to find what strategies work best for you and then apply them, and don't give up. by Mike Gerritsen

How to teach-Anything ?

I felt I had to write this piece because, as a deliberate lifelong learner I am always working at learning something new (currently Internet Marketing, jazz guitar and salsa) but, along with some excellent learning experiences, I have had some poor ones. One of the reasons I keep taking on new things is that for me learning is fun and if it is taught with humour it's even more so and I learn better! I feel its time to share some of my learning because I have been teaching for 20 years, 15 years of those as a qualified secondary school music teacher. Teaching is now under close scrutiny and this has really improved my teaching. Basically, I believe know how to teach.
Most people who go into non-formal teaching come from the skills route. They are good at something - perhaps an expert and therefore feel qualified to pass that knowledge on - mainly because it allows them to continue doing what they love. That is excellent because the first things good teachers need are sound subject knowledge and a love for their subject. The next things most non-formal route teachers have is that they are good with people (otherwise they probably wouldn't have chosen to go into teaching). This is another great plus and in some cases is absent in traditional teachers. However, this is still not enough. The most important ingredients in knowing how to teach are an understanding of how people learn (the many different ways) AND a knowledge of how to check they have learned what you want them to learn. You must be able to assess them in the context where they will deliver that learning.
You have really learned something when you can take the learning and use the skill or knowledge in a different context. This brings me to my most frustrating learning experience (well, its not frustrating anymore - because it has helped me understand exactly how I learn. It just is what it is.)
Salsa. I love dancing and wanted to do something healthy, rhythmical, a bit sexy and fun where I would meet lots of new people (and I have - in fact the singer of the band I'm playing with I met through Salsa). I have had 20 lessons with 3 different schools and pretty well all of them have been wonderfully skillful dancers with excellent communication and a fine ability to transfer their knowledge. Then how come I still can't go to a Salsa club and dance? I've been a musician just about all of my life so have good rhythm. I love dancing and can mix it with the best of them when doing R&B, funk and even have had some psytrance moments. So, what's the deal? Why do I go blank the moment I step on a dance floor? Its the way I learn, the story I tell myself and the way most of them teach. I've worked on the story because I know I learn well in the right contexts. But still......
What they generally do is teach you a new step each lesson - each week. You clearly can't go out and do one step over and over again at a salsa club (unless you want to bore a girl rigid - most girls are there to improve their dancing as well and the guy has to lead) so realtime practice isn't really on yet. So, each week is a totally different step. Hang on, I can't remember the last one and quite often the teacher can't as well. Apart from one school that I couldn't remain at because of distance, my salsa learning hasn't been part of a progressive course with skills building upon reinforced skills. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It appears to work perfectly well for most people. But I am a learner who must see something working in context for the learning to 'bed' in. I have that particular type of learning style. And this doesn't stop at salsa for me. How many of you readers have done a course or class, taken loads of notes only to find that, in a few days you don't really know how to 'do' it? My most successful learning experiences have usually been at life-drawing classes and tai-chi where you do it and do it in context and each time you do it, something is suggested to correct your style. You bed in the learning and then the next week you start from where you are and build on that and so on.
I could expand upon the aspect of doing the skill with non-participant learner (who may have learned the same thing in a different way) or in front of an audience, but I think I'll just stick to how to be better at teaching for now.
When I teach people guitar, I work hard on the context. The art of improvising a solo is very much like dancing. I teach them the skills needed to be able to physically play the solo and then teach them how to construct a solo. I teach them entry points, exit points and styles therein, the different effect that a certain harmony or pitch will create and the shape of a solo. I then play a rhythm part over and over in different ways for them while they try out the construction ideas and how to get the newly learned 'licks' to fit. I assess how well they have taken the learning on board. This informs my next lesson (which is usually the same thing from a different angle that in my view will address the perceived shortcoming). I'm not saying I'm a great teacher, I probably teach in this style because that is how I learn. I just know I get pretty good results.
Now, for a moment lets take this into personal development. Perhaps you've been on a course or workshop and been shown a great technique for clearing an issue or improving an area of your life. This then becomes challenging to put it into context because the thing we usually want to work on has a significant emotional dimension to it. Its not always something you want to do in public. So, it is up to the teacher to work out how the student can learn this technique so they can use it in their own context. They know their stuff but they don't always know how to teach it. I've come home from so many workshops all keen to do some work on issues and, because I'm not sure I am doing it right, having not learned it in the context it would be used, I stall and then sometimes even stop. I don't want to keep asking how to do it because I feel a little bit embarrassed (stupid) as it seems that I'm one of only a few who hasn't got it. I know I'm not, but these feelings do arise. It's also because I don't want to stop others from moving to the next stage. Again, it is because of my style of learning. Now, I know I'm unique - but I can't be the only one who learns in this way!
So, here is my recipe for how to teach anything.
Decide what you want them to learn in what period of time and how you will check that they have Come up with a remedial system for the ones that are falling behind Differentiate the learning to accommodate most learning styles. These are visual, kinaesthetic and audio Set the learning objective at the start of each lesson - the mind likes to know what it is being asked to do Teach it with humour and passion Check that they have learned it in the context they will use it If there are areas still not learned make a not to inform your next teaching experience Start the next lesson picking up the issues from the lesson before and then check again There you have it. How to teach anything. by John Sammers

Motion Creates Emotion And Motivation For Learning In Children Greatly Improving Their Numeracy

  

All motion creates emotion and the focus of this article is to highlight this point and its relevance to children learning and improving numeracy through various learning strategies.

Movement is such an important thing and we all know that children are at their happiest when able to move.

However, the logistics of teaching in school means they if they were moving around all the time it would be total chaos and there would be little or no improvement in their numeracy.

But what about in the home?

The expectation is again that children will sit quietly and get on with learning and homework.

It is really important to realise that this expectation leads to a lack of motivation.

However, the parent at home has a great advantage over the formal setting of the school and that is that children can be encouraged take part in learning strategies that involve moving about. The resultant increased motivation to learn, and to do it for longer periods, greatly increases children's numeracy.

We have developed a number of systems that use movement as one of the keys to learning and tapping into the increased motivation that this brings.Please feel free to download any of our articles and reports particularly those focused on speaking and movement as the key to improving numeracy.

Children can be walking up and down the room, play acting, anything that gets them using movement. So, the whole process becomes more like play and fun and their motivation is raised and their numeracy significantly improved.

You can create a superb learning environment in the home and outside and by using a combination of movement, learning, and memory techniques, you will be able to see a marked difference in your child's behaviour, their ability to retain knowledge, and a greatly improved numeracy performance in the classroom. by  Alan McMahon

How To Study For A Test

  

Do you know how to study for a test? There is a lot more to succeeding in an exam then just having topic knowledge and being able to commit to memory information. Great students have superior test taking tools that they have developed over time. They don't just know the material. Many students who have problems with bad grades do not lack brain power, they simply suffer from anxiety, being unprepared or write exams too slowly. The following article describes 5 tips you can use to learn how to study for a test.
Tip 1. Do you exert yourself on the question that you find the toughest first? The tougher the question is the more effort will be required to complete it. You obviously have the most energy at the beginning of the exam, so why not maximize your psychological energy to challenge the toughest questions first?
Tip 2. Are you confident that you studied the facts enough?Reviewing your comments and rereading some text can help you make sure you are planning correctly. At the end of the day, you need to feel confident with the material that will be on the exam. Also, your notes may remind you or include significant information that your teacher gave you regarding what will be of focus on the test.
Tip 3. Do you study so much at once that you burn yourself out for the exam?Feeling drained from over studying is almost as unhealthy as not studying at all. Study over small intervals by spreading out your study times. This way you can restore psychological energy much more fast. Quantity is often mistaken as quality when it comes to learning how to study for a test.
Tip 4. Do you take calls from your friends during your study time?A simple call from a friend can become a great diversion causing you to lose focus and presenting the unwanted challenge of getting back on task. Sometimes a phone call from a friend can distract you completely from studying. Simply ask your friends to not call during study times and let your family know that you do not want to be disturbed unless absolutely essential. On the other side of things, it may be a good idea to call a friend when you have difficulty with a particular assignment.
Tip 5. Do you review the past week of schoolwork over your weekend?Of course you should unwind on the weekends. It is also an convenient time to review what you have covered the following week. When Monday morning rolls around and your teacher starts off from where you last left off, you are able to keep up. You also are more prepared for that darned pop quiz.
The five tips above on how to study for test are a great start. You need to learn proper skillset and techniques that make it easy for you to sit down and get what you need to do done. You will receive better grades and more time to do the fun things in life.
 by  Bill Redoubt

Literacy Classroom - Greatest way to improve your study method

by  George Bogdan Adonicioaie

Since the ambiance of study environ leaves straight impact on education intensity of the learners, it is important to pay considerable concentration over the devising of a literacy classroom. How a classroom has been set ready for the students reflects a major deal about the success-rate of objective that is to be met through education processes.

These preparations will help applicants to maintain their concentration and awareness towards the education and remind info from preceding schooling. A literacy classroom has to be neither too hot or cold; nor very dingy or confined in its area. In order to have the teens focused on learning and school activities, it is best if the literacy classroom are located far from any noise distracting locations.

A literacy classroom having inadequate illumination system will make for a bad study place as students will face difficulties in reading and writing their lessons. Quite the opposite, the room should be well-ventilated, bright and large so that fresh air and ample light will make it a lot easier for learners to study with focus. The walls of the literacy classroom shouldn't be bare or patchy at all. They should be built with intense and multi-colored graphs that will not just make the area seem attractive but also give vital information to applicants about diverse topics. Educational and subject oriented posters and charts will mentally stimulate teens making them more focused towards their studies and less drawn towards other distractions.

The adequate atmosphere and all services described above are very valuable in applicants' literacy education. Many experts and connoisseurs have associated students' receptiveness to physical conditions of literacy classroom and its surrounding environment. An apt and a suitable literacy classroom atmosphere indeed bring huge comfort level for teens making them attracted in their lessons.

No matter the age of the students, the perfect surroundings has a huge optimistic effect on literacy classroom candidates. Hence the design of the literacy classroom can reflect favorably or not on all young or grownup students according to the surrounding atmosphere and the inside of the room.

At times teachers and trainers do not have major control over the study situate. So, both sides, tutors and teens are able to work together to make their literacy classroom an inspiring and effective classroom. By joining their forces they will discover the means to remodel the study center in a hospitable, encouraging and instructive classroom. If nothing major can be made, mere three to four potted plants will manage to cause liveliness into the classroom making everyone cheerful.

A Short Guide to Effective Studying

by  Abel Mens

High-school, college, and for some of us after college, we spend a great deal of the time of our lives in studying. Studying can either take the form of serious studying to pass institutional examinations, or it can also take the form of leisurely reading to increase the wealth of knowledge one stores in his psyche. Regardless of the purpose or form of studying that I discuss here, I stand for Effective Studying. Effective studying, according to my dictionary, is to be able to read blocks of educational texts, comprehend the information presented, analyze the information, develop your own hypothesis, and then finalize the learning process by writing it down. Of course, in many cases of academic reading, we don't need to abide by the ostensibly complex learning process that I've mentioned here. In this article, I'll focus on the very basics - which we often seem to forget! Here is the sequence of steps that I've followed all my life successfully:

* Critical reading: this refers to reading any block of text slowly and getting the bigger picture. Here, you ask meaningful questions about the information you've just read and then answer them all by yourself. If you can't answer, just note it down and ask anyone who seems to be much more intelligent to you!

* Critical thinking: this goes hand in hand with critical reading. Instead of just reading through paragraphs and memorizing the group of words, it would be much more generative to actually grab the core meaning of the text.

* Critical listening: previous studies on education have proved that we memorize information easily if we actually hear the words. Our brains first store the information in our short-term memory. After continuous revising and writing, the information is transferred to our long-term memory. The reason why I call it Critical listening is because you only read aloud those sentences from the text given that give you a summary, or you read aloud some sentences that you have formed in your own mind while critically analyzing the information presented in the text.

* Writing and revising: writing is definitely a good habit! I once read in the Reader's Digest about a highly-successful neurosurgeon whose mother worked as a maid in her community. Not knowing how to help her children grow up, she took her children to the nearest library and asked them to write down summary reports of each book they have read. This was the turning point in the life of the future surgeon, from being a mediocre student in an unknown family destined to die in poverty and humiliation, reading and writing gave him the inspiration to gather knowledge and gain a strong foothold to survive in society. Now, you should definitely remember that your learning process is not finished after writing down any summary. This is because when we write down anything, our brains automatically ignore any new information relating to the written down text. You should periodically revise the written text and try to memorize to make sure that you have actually grasped the idea.

This is the way to consume information and transfer them from your short-term memory to long-term memory. I hope you have a great day studying!

How to Teach Kids With Fun Methods

by  Jennifer J




Teaching kids are not too difficult if you have known the method. As a mom, you have to care your kids' education not only at home but also in the school or other learning centre. You will be happy if your children have good improvement with their education.
However, sometimes, children will be difficult to be handled at home to study. You need several tips to make your children want to stay with you to study. Just apply these tips below, and see the result.
Keep fun! If you want to make your children like to study at home, keep your learning fun and fresh. As you know, children like to play. It is okay to give several fun games that relate to the lesson. Your kids will not get bored to learn. Even, they will ask for many questions about the games. You can start to give an explanation that will make your children interested and understand well.
Give puzzle! Find out unique and educative puzzles that are offered in many bookstores around your town. Try to purchase puzzles that contain with funny pictures. Your kids will like it a lot. You can ask your children to arrange the puzzles based on the direction. You can apply this fun method to attract your children keep studying with you. It is the effective way to stimulate their brain.
Give reward! You have to appreciate your children if they can answer your questions with the good explanation. Give your children chocolates, cookies, candies, etc. to make them happy and eager to study. You can manage rewards based on your rule.
Be patient! Make sure that you will never get angry with your children. It is important to remove the gap between you and then. If you are patient, your children will not be afraid to study with you. They will be free to explore and tell their ideas. Trust me! Teaching kids are entertaining.

Playing Mind Games As an Adult to Keep Your Brain Sharp Into the Later Years

by  Scott Constable


We all know how important child development at an early age can be, but what do us adults do to keep our minds sharp? Do you exercise your brain to reach its full potential? Here you will find what you need to do to have a sharp brain late into your adult years.
It was previously thought that your brain was structurally complete at around age 6. It was only 12 years ago that researchers discovered that your brain could grow more brain cells late into your adult years. It was found that the brain loses some of its ability to concentrate in the middle age stage, between the ages of 40 to 60. Research has discovered that we can learn techniques to help learn better. You can not change that you are getting older, but you can change the way your brain processes information.
With the growing proof that the brain can keep regenerating itself, a number of companies are developing programs to help you brain get a mental workout. We workout our bodies to keep them in good shape, so doesn't it make good sense to workout our brain to keep it in good shape also. Playing mind games is a great way to exercise your brain. A number of online resources are popping up with mind games that you can play. One of the places that you can go for these mind games is http://www.sharpbrains.com.
There are also some brick and mortar "mind fitness gyms" popping up. They describe themselves as a "health club for your brain". These places have coaches that will work with you and keep you motivated. There are only a handful of these gyms around, so you will need to check your local area to see if one had popped up near you. They have customers as young as in their 20's and as old as over 100. The average age range is people in their 50's or 60's.
In conclusion, keeping an active mind will have anti-aging benefits. It will enhance your daily function and improve your memory to what is equal to turning back the clock 10 years. We do what we can to help develop childrens brain power, so doesn't it make sense to maintain our own brain power.

Exam Stress Be Gone

by  Keith Carey


Everyone has gone through exams at some stage and the one common item between every single person who has ever given an exam is the unfortunate annoyance known as exam stress.
Some exams are not hard to deal with given that they are small tests which do not have much at stake. But there are others such as University aptitude tests and HSC exams that have students on the edge of their seat so much so that they forget what they have learnt. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to get rid of exam stress that works through 3 easy steps.
Talk About It
Chances are that you are afraid of failing your exam but are afraid to admit it to someone especially your parents. However, talking about your fears and how you feel about your exams with a trusted friend or parent can alleviate exam stress. You no longer feal the fears of failure because you have been reassured by another person, who you trust, that everything will turn out to be fine.
Relax The Mind
A great way to reduce exam stress is to completely forget about it. Diverting your attention will reduce blood pressure in your brain and hence exam stress. When you get back to studying, your mind is in a much more relaxed state and the chances of developing the same amount of stress is reduced. Divert your attention with a video game or outdoor activity and realise that you can accomplish your preparation if you just relax.
Study But With Intervals
Probably the best way to reduce exam stress is to actually study with breaks. By studying small amounts of information at a time with regular breaks in between reduces the blood pressure inside your brain ensuring that stress never gets too high. By actually studying, you know your test more and are less afraid of failing because you are prepared.
Taking an exam may seem to be a horrific experience but by following these three simple steps, you will never be tensed by another exam ever again regardless of its complexity.

Homework and Extra-Curricular Activities

by  Stuart Ackerman
 

It is simple to search the internet for homework help tips. Most tips, though somewhat helpful, assume that your child is willing to sit down and simply get to work. Most homework ideas revolve around the ideas that your child needs an uncluttered, quiet space that is well lit and comfortable. Unfortunately, distractions and a disorganized room may not be the real problems.
Many parents have taken the initiative to create wonderfully comfortable environments for their children in order to do their homework. Then, after the novelty wears off, those old habits of homework avoidance kick in again.
Consider this. Your child may have the proper environment to do his/her homework in, but he/she may be doing homework at the wrong time!
Quite often, kids are exposed to after school soccer, dance, music, karate, and other extra-curricular activities. Students attend these activities from right after school to the mid-evening hours. So, when does homework fit in to the timetable? Does your child squeeze homework in between dinner and his or her evening activities? Does he/she do homework right away? Or is homework the ultimate evil that has to be tackled before bedtime?
Every child is different! They have different internal clocks. When is your child's down time? Is it at 4:00, right after school, when you expect him/her to do homework because swimming lessons start after dinner? Or does your child go straight to piano after school, come home for dinner, and start homework at 7:30 when she is exhausted?
You know your child best!
Find out your child's down time and make sure that this isn't when he/she is doing homework. Try to schedule after school activities around your child's high and low times. For example, assume you bring your son home, give him a quick dinner, and rush off to karate lessons. He finally gets home at 7:30 or 8:00, exhausted (after using up all of his energy kicking and punching) and ready to relax. But, he's now expected to do his geometry homework, or edit his report. This won't work.
In this case, you should determine your son's high and low energy times. Perhaps he has an abundance of energy between 4:00-6:00. If so, then this is definitely the time when he should do his homework. Or maybe he has tons of energy at 7:30, then maybe looking for a karate class that begins at 4:30 may be a better choice.
If homework is a priority for your family, you should consider optimizing the quality of time spent doing it. Sit down with your child; agree on an ideal and consistent time for homework, then try to plan other extra-curricular activities.

Mastering critical essay writing skills

by Jacob Adam

A critical essay is a logical examination of one or more works, naturally fictional, even if art plays and movies can be topics. It can take the outline of a book review, a comparison of different presentations of a historical topic, analysis of policy proposals and so on. The simplest critical essay is a review of a single work. Others are including multiple works and need for widespread research and citations.
Critical essays need careful reading, advanced research techniques, scholarly writing, excellent proofreading and the ability to cite references as per the relevant style manual (Harvard, MLA etc). Mastering the skill of the critical essay gives a benefit for during your academic career.
While writing many students makes mistake by thinking word "critical". They meant, it supposed to attack or find fault with the works they are criticizing. It is completely possible to find yourself impressed with an author's work and if that is the case you should say so. But your Assessment should be based on confirmation regardless of whether it is positive or negative.
Follow this basic checklist while starting to write a critical essay. These steps give an elaborated explanation of how to write a critical essay.
1. A systematic understanding of the topic under discussion is completely essential. 2. Second thing is to choosing the critical essay topics , every work of art has numerous scopes to be considered and each one of them can be a subject for your essay.
3. Decide the quality of the result. It is crucial and necessary to take an analysis the work for grammatical errors, spelling checks and language.
The process of writing a critical essay can become a satisfying experience. Following these steps will improve the readability of critical essays. Always make sure whether your essays fulfill with these instructions before proceeding to submission of yours essays.

What Is The Best Time To Study?

by Keith Carey
 
Should you wake up early in the morning to study?
Students have different opinions regarding the best time to study. While many students believe that early morning studying is more effective, others will say that they prefer to stay up until late night to study. In terms of brain power, many students believe that they are more productive at night, which is something confirmed by science.
However, there is one drawback associated with staying up until late night. Most students have to attend schools in the morning and hence the advantages of studying until late night are outweighed by daytime sleepiness resulting from missing sleep. Studies on the subject show that sufficient amount of nightly sleep is necessary for good academic performance. In order to effectively manage your study time, the first thing you need to find out is whether you are a night or morning person. The best will be to try out both methods and see which one works best for you.
If your parents have issues with you staying up until late night, you would need to convince them that human brains function more effectively at night. Scientific proofs can help you a great deal to make your point. If you have decided to study late at night, it is important to decide on a starting time for studying. You should turn the TV off and stay away from all distractions. There is no need to delay studying until late night; 6 or 7 o'clock should be fine.
It will also make perfect sense to decide on an absolute deadline to close books and go to sleep. Sometimes, you may have to go to school late if there is an afternoon exam for which you need to study. If you have approval from your parents, managing your study schedule shouldn't be a problem.

Facebook or Homework? Parameters for Limiting Social Media During School

by Lily Faden

Websites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have revolutionized the ways we socialize, allowing us to contact friends and family, both close and distant, from anywhere and at any time. Upon opening up the sites, we are pulled into the seemingly endless whirlpool of pictures, events, and news taking place in the lives of everyone we've ever known.
However, summer is ending and school is starting back up for the fall. Every hour spent on a social media website is one more hour spent not doing homework, which can be few and far between in the first place. Here are some guidelines for how to balance potentially addicting websites alongside homework and other academic obligations:
1. Keep your "friend" count low.
The more friends you have updating you on the minutia of their lives, the more time you are going to spend reading about minor details that most likely have no impact on your day. Think about how many of your online friends you actually want or need to keep in touch with, and you may find that a certain few old friends are taking up time you could spend doing other, more important activities. Furthermore, "de-friending" someone doesn't mean permanently cutting off ties; you can always search for them later on if you want to reconnect.
2. Disable the chat feature when you have more important things to do.
Arguably, the chat feature is the most addicting aspect of social media sites, and the most dangerous when you have an important homework assignment to finish. Since chatting can become an activity that never ends, it is safer to simply disable the feature in the first place. Better yet, use it as an incentive: finish your assignment first, then re-enable the chat later.
3. Steer clear of extra games and applications that might pull you even further into the site.
Social media sites are addicting enough as it is; the last thing you need to add to your page is another distracting game! Not to mention, many Facebook applications are notorious for gathering and using your information in a way that you might feel violates your privacy. Use the site to keep in touch with people, but don't let it become a video game too!
4. Try doing your homework in a place where you won't be tempted to check social media sites.
Experiment with studying the old fashioned way: grab your books, your notes, some pens, and your music player if you must, and head to the library. Or if you'd rather have a change of scenery, head to a local cafe or a study lounge where it's quiet. If you think you'll be tempted to look at your Facebook page, disable your internet. You'll be amazed at how much more quickly you'll work without the temptation!
© Examville.com Blog 

The Best School Craft Supplies

By : Kathryn Dawson

Arts and crafts at school is one of the most important aspects of teaching. Young children will only learn through fun activities and educational games as when something is boring or dull to a child their mind will simply wander off. There is no doubt that children learn through fun and by doing so arts and craft activities and using a range of craft supplies is the number one method of helping develop their education. There are so many different type of arts and crafts to choose from but the key elements for a successful arts and crafts project are simplicity and creativity.

By keeping projects simple for children you will greatly increase the chance of success. Instructions should be extremely brief, if necessary the project should be broken down into bite sized chunks. By separating the project in this way, teachers can keep more control too as it ensure all the children stay at the same stage of the project. Very long projects that last more than a day should not generally be attempted as children will become discouraged when they don't see virtually instant results. Children only stay focused for short periods and by working with this rather than against it will reap better results.

Craft supplies at school are likely to always include a large number of crayons, coloured pencils and paper or coloured card. Arts projects that involve these tools are the most simple to carry out and they are so versatile that teachers will never be stuck for ideas. Colouring and drawing activities can include card-making for all sorts of occasions, simple origami, making calendars, colour-by-numbers and straight forward painting with non-toxic paints. Another important step for successful projects with craft supplies is to have minimal set up and clear up time. If there is a substantial amount of cutting out shapes beforehand or preparing the activity then there won't be enough time to carry out the task. The children will get bored waiting to start too. If there is any gluing needed with a glue gun or cutting things out with scissors then it's important that there is an adult supervising at the very least or in fact doing it themselves.

Craft supplies must be completely safe for children. This includes non toxic paints that are machine washable and designed specifically for children. The school won't want angry parents caused by paint that won't come out of their children's clothes! For slightly more grown up children, investing in an easel can be a great way to encourage their artistic behaviour. By letting children express themselves through painting and drawing, children can learn a whole manner of things and develop more fully.

When children are at a very young age they are able to soak up and digest information very quickly and easily. That is why it is important the plenty of eduction is provided at this time of their life. Hands on activities, arts and crafts and educational games are the number one way that children will learn. A school should never be lacking in craft supplies as this is one of the primary teaching methods for preschoolers and very young children. There are plenty of suppliers online that provide good value arts and crafts supplies so large amounts of basic equipment such as pencils, card and children's paints can be purchased on a small budget. Anything that is used up should be replaced immediately and there should be a good chunk of time allocated everyday to arts and crafts. It is the easiest way for children to learn, along with games such as numeracy games that help children with vital maths.

Saving money on school craft supplies can be done by looking out for discounts, buying in bulk and purchasing the majority of items online. From children's paints to a children's easel, anything and everything you could need can be found online for lower prices than those found on the high street.

Character Education in schools

Character Education in Schools
 by: Jamie Cruise

Everyone is a character educator whether you are teacher or student or administrator, custodian or even if you are a school bus driver. You can always help to shape the character and behavior of kids in schools you come in touch with. In fact, it’s the way you talk, the way you behave, the conduct you tolerate, the deeds you encourage and the expectation you may transmit. But the big question, are you doing it in the proper way? Either you might be doing it well or you might be doing it very poorly creating a negative impact.

How exactly would you define Character education? “Character education is the deliberate effort that can help people to understand and act upon core ethical values.” Many people believe that any guidance given to children may be called Character Education. However that is absolutely wrong. Any guidance that may help children to mould and build their career only can be called Character Education. But this thinking does a little or nothing to affect the character of the kids. Also some people think that we should develop independent thinkers. But character education may be very modest where a teacher can do few things right and can always involve everyone in the school.

Only popular wisdom can hold that the best way to implement character education in schools. There are many features of this holistic model which are given below:

• Social and emotional learning should be emphasized with academic learning.

• Teaching of cooperation and collaboration in the curriculum.

• Fairness, honesty, respect and kindness should be included in everyday lessons.

• Discipline, leadership and management should be taught in classrooms.

• The teachers should teach about the social skills so that the kids can be skilled at solving conflicts fairly and evenly.

• There should be a place for the kids so that they can express their decision and can discuss about any problem they face.

• The teacher should share about his personal hero or role model and should explain why he she is his hero.

• Hang character education posters in notice board and class room. Also promoting a project for each class will definitely adds value.

Even though it is challenging, but if it is properly facilitated, discussions like this in class rooms develop student’s thinking skills, provide an experience and engage the kids in deep, kind and meaningful expressions about the kind of people they are or what kind of people they want to be.