5 simple ways to encourage your child

Children are at an age where they need lots of love and encouragement to grow up into healthy young adults. You need to encourage them to develop their own thoughts and opinions. So here are a few ways you could use to encourage your children.

One of the first few things you could do is acknowledge their efforts. Most of the time, when we give our children household responsibilities we always forget to let them know that they have done a great job in it. If they didn’t perform their task very well, don’t go straight for the negative criticism. Tell them that they did put in a good effort and give a suggestion in a positive manner. A suggestion given in a kind tone will be taken more positively by your child.


Secondly, when they have done something great, remember to thank them. This is positive reinforcement and will make them proud of the good things that have done. In addition, you are also cultivating good manners in your children by being a good role model yourself.


Next, remember not to brush off their problem aside. How often when your children come home complaining about something, you just brush them off by saying that it is nothing? This would make your children feel that their problems are of a trivial matter and not worth their parent’s time. Next time, your children would not bother coming to you with their problem and they will try and suffer their problem in silence. Instead try listening to what your children has to say and be supportive of them.



Furthermore, remember to tell always show your love to your children. Tell them that you love them all the time. Give them a hug or a good night kiss before they sleep at night. You would want to encourage your child to grow up to be loving, healthy adults. If you hardly express your feelings to them, your children may grow up being cold and unemotional adults unable to express their feelings. Your love will provide them the encouragement they need when they are sad or feeling discouraged.



Lastly, remember to encourage your child’s imaginative side by having fun. Have activities together with them and let their imagination take charge so your adults will grow into fun loving adults. So what are you waiting for, don’t wait till tomorrow to start encouraging your kids. Start now!

sleep during infancy and childhood

The bed on which the child now sleeps should be a mattress: at this age a feather bed is always injurious to children; for the body, sinking deep into the bed, is completely buried in feathers, and the unnatural degree of warmth thus produced relaxes and weakens the system, particularly the skin, and renders the child unusually susceptible to the impressions of cold. Then, instead of the bed being made up in the morning as soon as vacated, and while still saturated with the nocturnal exhalations from the body, the bed-clothes should be thrown over the backs of chairs, the mattress shaken well up, and the window thrown open for several hours, so that the apartment shall be thoroughly ventilated. It is also indispensably requisite not to allow the child to sleep with persons in bad health, or who are far advanced in life; if possible, it should sleep alone.

During infancy.
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For three or four weeks after birth the infant sleeps more or less, day and night, only waking to satisfy the demands of hunger; at the expiration of this time, however, each interval of wakefulness grows longer, so that it sleeps less frequently, but for longer periods at a time.

This disposition to repose in the early weeks of the infant's life must not be interfered with; but this period having expired, great care is necessary to induce regularity in its hours of sleep, otherwise too much will be taken in the day-time, and restless and disturbed nights will follow. The child should be brought into the habit of sleeping in the middle of the day, before its dinner, and for about two hours, more or less. If put to rest at a later period of the day, it will invariably cause a bad night.

At first the infant should sleep with its parent. The low temperature of its body, and its small power of generating heat, render this necessary. If it should happen, however, that the child has disturbed and restless nights, it must immediately be removed to the bed and care of another female, to be brought to its mother at an early hour in the morning, for the purpose of being nursed. This is necessary for the preservation of the mother's health, which through sleepless nights would of course be soon deranged, and the infant would also suffer from the influence which such deranged health would have upon the milk.

When a month or six weeks has elapsed, the child, if healthy, may sleep alone in a cradle or cot, care being taken that it has a sufficiency of clothing, that the room in which it is placed is sufficiently warm, viz. 60 degrees, and the position of the cot itself is not such as to be exposed to currents of cold air. It is essentially necessary to attend to these points, since the faculty of producing heat, and consequently the power of maintaining the temperature, is less during sleep than at any other time, and therefore exposure to cold is especially injurious. It is but too frequently the case that inflammation of some internal organ will occur under such circumstances, without the true source of the disease ever being suspected. Here, however, a frequent error must be guarded against, that of covering up the infant in its cot with too much clothing throwing over its face the muslin handkerchief and, last of all, drawing the drapery of the bed closely together. The object is to keep the infant sufficiently warm with pure air; it therefore ought to have free access to its mouth, and the atmosphere of the whole room should be kept sufficiently warm to allow the child to breathe it freely: in winter, therefore, there must always be a fire in the nursery.

The child up to two years old, at least, should sleep upon a feather bed, for the reasons referred to above. The pillow, however, after the sixth month, should be made of horsehair; for at this time teething commences, and it is highly important that the head should be kept cool.

During childhood.
----------------

Up to the third or fourth year the child should be permitted to sleep for an hour or so before its dinner. After this time it may gradually be discontinued; but it must be recollected, that during the whole period of childhood more sleep is required than in adult age. The child, therefore, should be put to rest every evening between seven and eight; and if it be in health it will sleep soundly until the following morning. No definite rule, however, can be laid down in reference to the number of hours of sleep to be allowed; for one will require more or less than another.Regularity as to the time of going to rest is the chief point to attend to; permit nothing to interfere with it, and then only let the child sleep without disturbance, until it awakes of its own accord on the following morning, and it will have had sufficient rest.

The amount of sleep necessary to preserve health varies according to the state of the body, and the habits of the individual. Infants pass much the greater portion of their time in sleep. Children sleep twelve or fourteen hours. The schoolboy generally ten. In youth, a third part of the twenty-four hours is spent in sleep. Whilst, in advanced age, many do not spend more than four, five, or six hours in sleep.

It is a cruel thing for a mother to sacrifice her child's health that she may indulge her own vanity, and yet how often is this done in reference to sleep. An evening party is to assemble, and the little child is kept up for hours beyond its stated time for retiring to rest, that it may be exhibited, fondled, and admired. Its usual portion of sleep is thus abridged, and, from the previous excitement, what little he does obtain, is broken and unrefreshing, and he rises on the morrow wearied and exhausted.

Once awake, it should not be permitted to lie longer in bed, but should be encouraged to arise immediately. This is the way to bring about the habit of early rising, which prevents many serious evils to which parents are not sufficiently alive, promotes both mental and corporeal health, and of all habits is said to be the most conducive to longevity.

A child should never be suddenly aroused from sleep; it excites the brain, quickens the action of the heart, and, if often repeated, serious consequences would result. The change of sleeping to waking should always be gradual.

teaching a child to walk

Exercise is essentially important to the health of the infant. Its first exercise, of course, will be in the nurse's arms. After a month or two, when it begins to sleep less during the day, it will delight to roll and kick about on the sofa: it will thus use its limbs freely; and this, with carrying out into the open air, is all the exercise it requires at this period. By and by, however, the child will make its first attempts to walk. Now it is important that none of the many plans which have been devised to teach a child to walk, should be adopted the go-cart, leading-strings, etc.; their tendency is mischievous; and flatness of the chest, confined lungs, distorted spine, and deformed legs, are so many evils which often originate in such practices. This is explained by the fact of the bones in infancy being comparatively soft and pliable, and if prematurely subjected by these contrivances to carry the weight of the body, they yield just like an elastic stick bending under a weight, and as a natural consequence become curved and distorted.


It is highly necessary that the young and experienced mother should recollect this fact, for the early efforts of the little one to walk are naturally viewed by her with so much delight, that she will be apt to encourage and prolong its attempts, without any thought of the mischief which they may occasion; thus many a parent has had to mourn over the deformity which she has herself created.

It may be as well here to remark, that if such distortion is timely noticed, it is capable of correction, even after evident curvature has taken place. It is to be remedied by using those means that shall invigorate the frame, and promote the child's general health (a daily plunge into the cold bath, or sponging with cold salt water, will be found signally efficacious), and by avoiding the original cause of the distortion never allowing the child to get upon his feet. The only way to accomplish the latter intention, is to put both the legs into a large stocking; this will effectually answer this purpose, while, at the same time, it does not prevent the free and full exercise of the muscles of the legs. After some months pursuing this plan, the limbs will be found no longer deformed, the bones to have acquired firmness and the muscles strength; and the child may be permitted to get upon his feet again without any hazard of perpetuating or renewing the evil.

The best mode of teaching a child to walk, is to let it teach itself, and this it will do readily enough. It will first crawl about: this exercises every muscle in the body, does not fatigue the child, throws no weight upon the bones, but imparts vigour and strength, and is thus highly useful. After a while, having the power, it will wish to do more: it will endeavour to lift itself upon its feet by the aid of a chair, and though it fail again and again in its attempts, it will still persevere until it accomplish it. By this it learns, first, to raise itself from the floor; and secondly, to stand, but not without keeping hold of the object on which it has seized. Next it will balance itself without holding, and will proudly and laughingly show that it can stand alone. Fearful, however, as yet of moving its limbs without support, it will seize a chair or anything else near it, when it will dare to advance as far as the limits of its support will permit. This little adventure will be repeated day after day with increased exultation; when, after numerous trials, he will feel confident of his power to balance himself, and he will run alone. Now time is required for this gradual self-teaching, during which the muscles and bones become strengthened; and when at last called upon to sustain the weight of the body, are fully capable of doing so.

Exercise during childhood.
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When the child has acquired sufficient strength to take active exercise, he can scarcely be too much in the open air; the more he is habituated to this, the more capable will he be of bearing the vicissitudes of the climate. Children, too, should always be allowed to amuse themselves at pleasure, for they will generally take that kind and degree of exercise which is best calculated to promote the growth and development of the body. In the unrestrained indulgence of their youthful sports, every muscle of the body comes in for its share of active exercise; and free growth, vigour, and health are the result.

If, however, a child is delicate and strumous, and too feeble to take sufficient exercise on foot, and to such a constitution the respiration of a pure air and exercise are indispensable for the improvement of health, and without them all other efforts will fail, riding on a donkey or pony forms the best substitute. This kind of exercise will always be found of infinite service to delicate children; it amuses the mind, and exercises the muscles of the whole body, and yet in so gentle a manner as to induce little fatigue.

The exercises of horseback, however, are most particularly useful where there is a tendency in the constitution to pulmonary consumption, either from hereditary or accidental causes. It is here beneficial, as well through its influence on the general health, as more directly on the lungs themselves. There can be no doubt that the lungs, like the muscles of the body, acquire power and health of function by exercise. Now during a ride this is obtained, and without much fatigue to the body. The free and equable expansion of the lungs by full inspiration, necessarily takes place; this maintains their healthy structure, by keeping all the air-passages open and pervious; it prevents congestion in the pulmonary circulation, and at the same time provides more completely for the necessary chemical action on the blood, by changing, at each act of respiration, a sufficient proportion of the whole air contained in the lungs, all objects of great importance, and all capable of being promoted, more or less, by the means in question.

Make online test using wordpress for esl class

Are you familiar with WordPress? Wordpress is one of most used blogging platform because there are many features in the CMS. Plug and play pluggin from slide show to quiz test is easy to use. As a teacher, we need to be creative. One of the skill you need in recent days is IT. Teaching English using IT support will help your students will enjoy the lesson.

One of the use of Wordpress for ESL teacher is online test. You can create online test with wp. However you should have self hosted wp. It is not a problem because you can find hosting from $1/month.

Pluggin quiz that you can use to create online test is watu. You can create multiple questions featured with picture and any media. How to instal and create online test using watu just follow this instruction!

 
1. GO TO PLUGGIN DIRECTORY
    Add pluggin and type "watu"
   Install and activate!
   See the above image!

2. GO TO SETTING DIRECTORY
    See "watu setting " and click!
    See the above image!

3. MANAGE EXAM

4. CREATE NEW EXAM

5. NAME YOUR TEST AND SAVE!

6. MANAGE QUESTION

7. WRITE YOUR TEST
    Write your test in the available form then save. To add question just click "add question"!

8. COPY THE SHORTCODE AND PASTE IN THE POST
    Paste the shortcode and publish!

9. See the Quiz!

free resource for esl teachers

It is a great site that I found when I was visiting islcollective. one of the member runs a website that is great for ESL teacher. There are a lot of resources from games with PPT, flascards, worksheets, many others. I think the owner had spent much energy to build all the web content.





http://www.eslkidz.com  is a free resource site for Esl teachers, and parents. you can download immediately without signing up. There is a donate button if you want to help the site grow and alive better in the future. I think as a teacher need much more resources to deliver a lesson. This site deserves to be your lists of free resources in your bookmark page. 

When students and parents bully their teacher

Bullying often happens on students. A student who is a victim of bullying in a long period will suffer from mental disorder. It is not different when children and parents bully their teacher. The teacher will also feel uncomfortable and stressful. Does this case take place in your with your students? The case rarely occurs at school but bullying teacher can be easily done in social media.

Recently, most students, parents, and teachers use social media to interact. This advance technology helps teaching and learning easier. Communication between parents and teachers is also more intensive. However, another side is very destructive when many students and parents bully their schoolteacher. Report from BBC news said “School teachers have been subjected to online abuse and cyberbullying by pupils and parents, a study has found.
Research carried out by the University of Plymouth found parents were responsible for a quarter of the abuse suffered by teachers.
Nearly 400 teachers nationwide, both primary and secondary, were surveyed for Prof Andy Phippen's study.
"From the research it appears that kids can be perpetrators as well as victims," he told BBC News.
"The most shocking is the parental abuse."
'Fair game'
Researchers surveyed 377 education professionals nationwide and carried out 10 in-depth case studies.
The study revealed that 35% of respondents said that either they, or their colleagues, had been subjected to some form of online abuse.
Teachers from both primary and secondary schools had been targeted.
"It can affect teachers anywhere - from a small rural primary to a large urban secondary," Prof Phippen said. “ “

Side effects of cyber bullying on teacher are very negative. As a teacher I fell very disappointed reading the news about cyber bullying done by parents and students. Whatever reason, bullying on teachers are not tolerated. A teacher who is a victim of bullying will have some mental disorders.

- The teacher will feel unsafe in the school and classroom. This will affect the teaching performance.

- Cyber bullying will cause hatred. When the teacher identifies the one bullies , he / she can’t talk to the child gently in the classroom because there is a mental block between the student and the teacher.

“ One teacher, falsely accused on the internet of "inappropriate behaviour" with a female student, said he ended up in the care of a psychologist to help him deal with "loss of self worth, depression and the urge to commit suicide".

He was released by police without charge, caution or reprimand, but then faced a "punitive" suspension of five months.

The teacher claimed his local authority investigation was "motivated from the outset with a staunch presumption of guilt throughout".

Prof Phippen said discussions had taken place with teaching unions and the Department for Education (DfE), but many teachers would like to see more public awareness.

"These teachers who have been abused show the classic signs of bullying, including depression and feelings of isolation," he said.

"Schools should not be afraid to involve the police if they feel harassment is occurring.
"Many grass-roots teachers feel there should be far more zero tolerance from schools.”

A teacher is a human. He / she sometimes makes mistakes. Should parents and students respect all teachers? Yes, the should, because if students and parents don’t respect their school teachers, I don’t think there can be other people who are appropriate to deserve respect.

play, learn and donate

It is a great esl site for everyone. You can learn English in a game format. You also donate 10 grains of rice for the correct answer. This site is owned by the United Nations World Food Programme.

What is the site name? it is freerice.com. Freerice.com has two main objectives

1. Provide education for free for everyone.

2. Help stop world hunger by supplying rice for free.



How you can donate your rice ? it is simple. Every time you can answer the quiz, the ad below the box will reload. That’s the income from the site that will be donated as 10 grains of rice for each correct answer.



If you want to make sponsorship you can contact the administrator. Whatever is it, Freerice.com is a great site. You will not only learn, and play but also you share with others around the world. I think you can just spend five to ten minutes to feed the world. How you can multiple your charity? Share the site to all your mates and family. so, the world of hunger can be ended.

Where to Get free books for children

This is free resource. It is a great site with books collection for children. The online library has hundreds of collection. You must sign up to access the full library resources. This site is http://www.wegivebooks.org/, do you want to find wonderful resources for teaching and taking care of your children? This is the answer. We Give Books is a program of the Pearson Foundation and Penguin Group.




This book is for online reading. You need to install flash player so that you can access the library. If you can’t read the book, it can’t be a matter of firewall. You can find great quality book books for children. There are some genre you can find. You can also search from the author, level and ages navigation.

When your students not listening to your lecture

Being a teacher is one of difficult professions. Teaching is not only delivering a lesson but also making your students feel comfortable with you.   When you lecture can not be understood, and heard, you don’t teach your students. There is no teaching at all.

Do your students interact with the material actively of just follow you instruction? A successful teacher will bring students into the real interaction to the lesson.

How to take your students’ attention. It is very important that you should change your teaching style, approach, and methods. The way you speak should make your students feel vigorous and curious. Diction and intonation is very important. Your voice will tell your feeling so don’t talk to your students with anger and high tense. Even you don’t bully your students, their subconscious mind will  detect your inner voice.

Designing classroom and preparing a lesson plan are very important before you enter a class. You should be ready a powerful trap  to attract your students attention at the first minutes before you delivering the lesson. Icebreaker games can be beneficial to make your students stunned. Finally, they will be take out their books deliberately and ready to receive your lecture.

Recomended site for english teachers

Teaching English needs more ideas so that the classsroom will be more interesting. You also need easy and focus exercises. as teachers you need many resources to get the ideas. unfortunately, you will find problems to implement into worksheet. Today you can get all the materials for free. Thousands downloadable materials are free. Those materials are from English teachers around the world. You can also share your worksheet with others. islcollective.com is a great site for English teachers.

how teach your teen earn money

Some teen are qualified to earn money. They also will learn how to manage their income. Teaching them to earn their own money, how to spend it, and how to save it is a precious lecture without a doubt.

Adults today are overwhelmed, and they all need a little extra aid to get through the day. This can mean great earning potential for a newly licensed teen. If you have a teenager that is newly licensed, you will find that the sooner you assist them in finding work, the easier it will be on your pocket.



Suggest ideas with your teen to find creative ways to earn money. This will save you money, but also avoid some potentially stressful situation. Parents of teens everywhere know how stressful it is when dealing with teens and finances.



A great idea for a newly licensed teen is to have them deliver lunch to local businesses.

Working for Someone Else

Your teen should begin by preparing a resume. A resume does not necessarily have to show prior job experience. It could be something as simple as a letter showing that they are well-rounded individuals. If it shows that they have done community service and helped others, or even just have good grades, this will speak volumes to potential employers.



Have your teen prepare the letter and make copies. Then, have them go to local businesses and tell them they would like to meet and greet with the owners. Once your teen delivers the letter and lets the owner know they are hardworking, responsible, and looking to earn some money, there is a good chance that those business owners will hire them.

Working for Themselves

If your teen like to cook or bake, take some time and look into the rules and regulations of your state to see what is entailed in having them own and operate a small catering business from home. It does not have to be anything fancy. If your teen is proficient at baking, perhaps some muffins and small breakfast items would be a good start.



Check and see what licenses are necessary, as well as what type of car insurance they would need. Look into it carefully. Who knows, at the end of the day, it just may be well worth it.



Regardless of whether or not your teen decides to work for themselves or work for someone else, delivering lunch to busy adults is a great way to earn extra cash. If people are having their lunch delivered, it saves them time, which can equate too many positive things for those busy adults. They can then go ahead and make a few phone calls or just relax for a few minutes during lunch.

How to promote friendship for disable children

How To Promote Friendships Amongst Special Needs and Non-Disabled Children

Author: Amanda Clark

Promoting friendships amongst special needs and non-disabled children can be difficult, but can result in lasting relationships. One of the biggest obstacles to promoting such friendships is the social taboo of disability.

This taboo can be overcome by educating children about disabilities. Like everyone else, children are often scared of the unknown; when they are unfamiliar with children who suffer from disabilities they will be more likely to shy away from them. Educating all children, disabled and non-disabled alike, will promote tolerance and acceptance of the differences between them. This acceptance and understanding of one another will pave the way for lasting friendships.

Another issue that may need to be addressed is attention.  Disabled children often require more attention than non-disabled children, which can make non-disabled children feel left out. This feeling of isolation may lead them to act out, either by ignoring the child receiving the attention or by misbehaving to compete for the attention. If both children can participate in the activity, then it is best to include everyone, even if it is geared toward one child or another. This inclusion will help build relationships and will promote an understanding between the children.

Another important part of promoting friendships between special needs and non-disabled children is to try and treat all of the children as equally as possible. Every child is different and requires special care in one way or another, but it is important to avoid calling undue attention to these differences. By treating the children the same they will feel as though they belong to one cohesive group, rather than feeling as though they are two groups of children merged together. 

Once educated, children are often forgiving of the differences in others. With the proper knowledge and the right amount of attention, all children, disabled and non-disabled alike, will be able to learn how to build lasting friendships with one another.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/disabilities-articles/how-to-promote-friendships-amongst-special-needs-and-non-disabled-children-2785790.html

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how to talk to your students

There is a phenomenon that all public speakers encounter when they are addressing a crowd that if you thought about it very much, it would get to you. It is a phenomenon that any teacher who is trying to impart knowledge to a room full of students will experience as well. And if you think about it very much, it will get to you too. That phenomenon happens when you are talking along and you look out at those blank faces staring up at you and you realize that a few, some or maybe all of those minds behind those faces are paying absolutely no attention to you at all.



Whether or not that drives you crazy depends on whether you consider the act of teaching complete when you speak or when the student grasps and understands what you are saying. Very often when you see a teacher speaking you know that this teacher has absolutely no concern for whether the students are getting it or not. They do not consider it their job to make sure the students understand or interact with the material. They are a delivery vehicle and if they enunciate the lecture successfully, they have successfully "taught".



But just saying words into the air whether or not they are heard or understood really isn't teaching is it? Put it in the context of a chef. If you cook a wonderful meal that is delicious, prepare it with the finest of materials and present it with perfect ambiance, is it still a delightful meal if there is nobody at the table to appreciate it and nobody eats the meal? No, you are only a chef when the patron dines on your food and appreciates every nuance of the flavor and the experience of enjoying what you have done.



That distinction is what drives teachers crazy when they feel students are not listening. To a teacher who has a passion for the real act of teaching, their job is not done until the students grasp the material and interact with it, question it and finally grasp it and make that knowledge their own. A lecture not heard, not understood, not "taught" is not teaching at all, its just talking.



Preparing to become a teacher is about more than just knowing how to design a lesson plan and how to organize a class room and make a bulletin board. Becoming a teacher means you become one of those amazing people who can take students from uninformed to informed and from unenlightened to truly "taught". When it is your calling to become that kind of teacher to just talk at students with no knowledge of whether they know what you are saying at all is absolutely unacceptable.



This means that you will have to change your teaching style. It means that you won't be satisfied with just working through a lecture. In fact, it might spell the end of the lecture as a teaching device for you entirely. To really find out if those kids are listening and interacting with the material, you will have to change your approach to an interactive teaching style. You will have to start talking to students or with students and not AT them. But once you do that, the feed back you will get and the quality of your teaching will improve so dramatically, you will never want to go back.

how should a teacher get dressed

One of the keys of the business world is a book called Dress for Success. This book describes how to dress for the roll of a successful business person and that wardrobe will help you step into that role. In many ways the Dress for Success tells us that how we dress for work is somewhat our "costume" and that putting on that costume of a business professional, you naturally begin to play that role.



Most schools will have a dress code that you will have to abide by as a teacher much as they do for the students. That dress code assures that you will dress in a way that is not dangerous or districting or inappropriate to the job of teaching. And that dress code brings you in line with what the administration expects of the students. But aside from those general guidelines, there is a lot of leverage left to you in your dress so you can express your personality in the "costume" you wear to teach school.



The important thing to remember about the outfits you select is that they do send a message to the students. If you dress very formally, you are telling them to address you respectfully and that you are very much the adult here and they are not. Even if students don’t know they are getting your message, they are and even you don’t know you are sending a message, you are. So its a good idea to think about what message your outfits are sending and how you might customize your wardrobe so the students understand who you are and what your expectations are of them just from how you present yourself to them in class.



One big message to send with your costume is, "I am the teacher and you are the students here." This is not a message of superiority. It is a message of distance. First of all, be aware that this distance between you and the youth socially is necessary and must be part of your approach to your job if you want to be success long term. The classroom is no place for a midlife crisis. Even if you like dressing in a stylish or youthful way outside of class, in class dress like an adult and in a formal enough way that your clothing makes a clear demarcation between you and them.



This distinction actually makes your students feel more at ease with you. Students get uncomfortable when the adults over them try to blend in to youth culture too much and become "with it". Youth people like the authority figures in their lives to be clearly designated and for you to live up to your role as authority figure in your behavior, your language and your wardrobe. So dress for success by having your clothing say, I am the teacher and the students will respond in kind.



Your outfits also have to be practical. Sometimes teaching can become a physical event. You must be prepared to bend down to pick things up and to do some level of low key physical labor even with students in the classroom. This means no tight clothing that restricts your range of motion. It means no short skirts that has you worried about the hemline and your legs all day long and shoes that can keep you going for an entire day of very a very active teaching life.



Just as almost every profession has guidelines for how to dress, these hidden messages and quiet efficiencies you include in your wardrobe selection will go a long way toward making your teaching day successful and comfortable. When your wardrobe is right and you are dressing in the costume of a teacher, you will "become" a teacher and step into that role you were born to play.

do you know what do you want to teach

When a person introduces themselves to you as a teacher, the question that you invariably ask is "So what do you teach?" How the person answers that question can tell you a lot not only about how they feel about their calling as a teacher and how they feel about their students as well. Usually you get one of two answers. Either the answer is "Oh I teach the fifth grade" or "I teach Algebra". If the answer is a grade level, the teacher probably handles more than one topic. If the answer is a topic such as algebra, then the teacher is a specialist in that topic bringing that area of knowledge to any gathering of students who are assigned to his or her room.



If you are thinking about becoming a teacher, you might pose the question to yourself of, "So what do you want to teach?" Its a question that is loaded with meaning. Because how you answer that question may determine if you are a person who has a passion for a particular topic that is looking for an audience, any audience, to listen to it being taught or if you are a true teacher. Because if you ask a true teacher what they want to teach, the answer will come back, "I want to teach students."



That analysis may seem a bit snobby but the distinction is an important one. The distinction will tell the tale about how well that teacher will relate to his or her students and how long that such a teacher will last in an academic setting. You can tell when you have met a subject based teacher. They only speak with passion about the topic. They have an absolute fascination which may border on an obsession with the topic area. And they have very little tolerance for anyone who does not share that passion for the topic.



So is that person a teacher? Well in the most general sense of the word, yes he or she is because they do have the job of passing their specialized knowledge along to a student group. But it might be more apt to call such a teacher a lecturer or a recruiter because their real devotion is to the topic, not to the students. A subject based teacher is impatient with students who either are not showing talent and passion for their topic area or who interrupt their subject based monologue with questions which only break his stream of thought.



The root word of the term "teacher" is "teach". The definition of teaching then is to build knowledge and skills in a student. You may have found the use of the term we used "a true teacher" a bit elitist. But a teacher who is in the career field of teaching because they have an unquenchable passion for seeing students become educated and who takes delight from seeing students "light up" when they "get it" is indeed a true teacher.



A true teacher is far less obsessed with a perfect discussion and dialog about the topic at hand as they are obsessed with taking a body of young people and turning them from a random gathering of kids into "students". A true teacher is as much concerned with inspiring a desire to learn as he or she is with the topic being taught. And for a true teacher, the student's experience is more important the outline of the day and if they can take an hour and turn a disinterested youth into a passionate student of learning, that is an hour well spent.



We went through this exercise so you can apply some of these criteria to your own desire to become a teacher. Examine your motivations. If you are going into teaching to make converts to your love of your subject area, you will do some good no doubt. But because you will encounter frustrations and meet students who will never share you love of your topic, the danger of burn out is high and the possibility of a long career in teaching is low.



Be a "true teacher" and seek the good of your students. And if you go into the work to create students from disinterested young people, you are in the right line of work and will enjoy a long and rewarding career in teaching.

what to prepare for meeting the class for the first time

Preparing to become a teacher is a big undertaking. Its easy to get caught up in getting through college with a degree in teaching, passing your teachers certification exam, finding the kind of teaching position you want and getting through the interview that there is one more level of challenge that awaits you that you may not have put some thought into. That is the moment you walk into a classroom and face that sea of little faces looking up at you fearfully and you realize, perhaps with some terror that you really are a teacher and these students expect you to do the job.



Every teacher has a priority for what will happen in that first encounter with the class of students. For some teachers, its important to establish your authority and to let the kids know you are boss and they will be called up on top live up to your expectations. For another, the first goal in that first hour is to just get organized. But its a great idea to think through exactly how you are going to handle that first meeting so you establish a relationship with these kids that will result in a very productive and yet happy and peaceful class time experience each day.



As you look at those eyes staring at you, what do you suppose they are thinking? Well, it isn't really that much of a mystery. They are very curious about their new teacher and the things they want to know about you are not things they will ask you out loud including…



. Is this new teacher mean or nice?

. Will she make us work harder than our last teacher?

. Is the new teacher funny or too serious?

. Will she make us move our chairs

. Is this new teacher boring?



That last question is probably the one that weighs on the minds of most students the most. To a young mind the one crime that should be punishable by death is for you to be boring. They are also wondering what will be the first thing you will say to them to get the relationship started. They are very curious about you as a person and if you will make learning fun or, again that terrible word, boring.



It is a great idea if you take the time to think out in advance exactly what you want to accomplish in this initial meeting with your new class. One suggestion that has some real value is to seek to find a way to move from strangers to friends fairly quickly and to communicate to the students that you want to work with them as a team. If you and your students become one unit with the shared goal of learning what they have to learn to get good grades to take home to mom and dad and to do so without being boring, you will have created an educational setting that will be rich with learning potential.

One way to get that relationship off and running in great shape is to do something unexpected when you address them initially. Tell a joke, introduce yourself with a funny illustration from your childhood or in some other way surprise your new class in a fun and lighthearted way. This communicates to them that you are going to be a fun teacher and that they need to come to class paying attention because they never know what to expect. With that kind of rapport, you will have established a relationship that will only continue to open up and grow more trusting and more productive. And it all started because you refused to be that one thing that students hate. You refused to be boring

how to teach your children about time management

Are you a parent who is interested in teaching your children the importance of time management? If you are, good for you. Time management is a skill that all children should learn, as it may have a significant impact on their future. Unfortunately, many parents do not take the time to teach their children the importance of proper time use. In fact, some parents don't even realize the importance of time management themselves.

Despite the fact that you are certain that you want to teach your child the importance of time management and ways that they can manage their time, you may be unsure as to how you can go about doing so. The approach that you decide to take should depend on your child's age. Please continue reading on for a few helpful tips.

For toddlers and preschoolers, you can use a timer, like a kitchen timer. This is a fun approach to take, as you are essentially creating your own time management game. What you can do is time your child while they complete an easy task. These tasks can be anything from cleaning their room, getting ready for bed, getting washed up for dinner, and so froth. Just make sure that you set a timer with enough time for your child to reasonably do what you are asking of them.

With toddlers and preschoolers, it is important to remember that your child is still young. It isn't always a good idea to discipline them for taking longer than you expected them to take. Just be sure that you talk to your child about picking up their speed and give them easy to understand tips on how they can go about doing so. At this age, be sure to reward your child for beating the time. This reward can be a simple praise, a hug, or a sticker.

As for elementary school aged children, a timer can still be used, but some children do tend to outgrow this approach. Just be sure to talk to your children about time management, its importance, and the consequences for regularly being late. At around the age of eight or so, children are better able to understand what happens when they don't make proper use of their time.

For teenagers, it is important to talk to your child. You will also want to set a good example. Depending on the circumstances at hand, it may also be a good idea to discipline your child. This is actually important to do with schooling. For example, if your teenager isn't able to get their homework done or if they don't study for a test, they may end up with bad grades. After a few warnings, consider limiting the amount of time that your teenager is able to spend with their friends or the amount of television they are able to watch. Doing this, even just temporarily, is likely to teach your teenager an important lesson about time management and the elimination of distractions.

In keeping with teaching a teenager the importance of time management, it is important to not just take away privileges, but to also provide education. Make sure that your teenager understands the importance of time management. In college, your child will be responsible for studying, doing their homework, and other important tasks and they will not have you there to help guide them. The same will be true for the workplace. Unfortunately, this is where many young adults run into problems. Don't let your son or daughter fall victim to poor time management.

As you can see, there are a number of easy ways that you can go about teaching your child the importance of time management, as well as tips that you can share with them. Regardless of your children's ages, the lesson of managing time is one that should be taught. In fact, the sooner that you start teaching your children how to properly manage their time, the better the results will likely be in the long run.

why do you want to be a teacher?

When you think of career fields that call for courage, jobs that may call for loss of life are most often thought of. So the career fields of firemen, policemen or the military are jobs that involve a great deal of courage that we cannot discount. Teachers, by contract don’t really think of themselves as strong or brave individuals compared to these more obvious choices. But it takes a tremendous courage to be a teacher in ways that it is worthwhile to acknowledge as we are doing here today.



The courage of a teacher goes beyond just being willing to stand up in front of 20-30 wiggly children every day and try to guide them through their studies. Of course, standing up in front of that kind of crowd does take a lot of guts. Children are notoriously unpredictable crowd. And while the chances you will see physical harm speaking to a classroom of youngsters are small, it is a public speaking nightmare and facing that kind of nightmare takes a real courage not many need on a daily basis.



Going into teaching as a lifestyle choice is also a courageous decision. Teaching is well known to be both a low paying position and one that affords little thanks to the teacher. Teachers are often the target of attacks by parents all the while they are enduring considerable sacrifices just for the privilege of teaching young people. Many times budgets for schools are cut so that class sizes swell and a teacher who wants nothing more than to be able to mentor and love a small group of children finds a class room of twice that size put before him or her to teach. Or the supplies budget for schools gets slashed so many times teachers will go out with their own money and buy the classroom supplies they need so the young can be educated and the classroom can function despite these problems.



Three is an emotional risk that teachers openly embrace every year they take on a new class. A lot more goes on between a teacher and a class of students as that teacher puts out instruction to make those children better people. A bond and a love develops that is valuable to the educational process. This affection often carries on into childhood for the children who will speak with fondness of that favorite teacher decades ago. But for the teacher, as soon as that bond becomes mature at the end of a year of teaching, those children move on and they must prepare their hearts for a new set of kids in the fall. That emotional roller coaster is a wrenching experience that teachers embrace to be able to continue doing the one thing they love to do which is to teach.



This is not to say that there are no physical dangers or acts of heroism that teachers often exhibit when the need arises. In any urban schools, courageous teachers face injury or worse from students who are gang members who threaten them with dire injuries for being there to do the one thing they are called to do which is to teach. Further, we have documented cases where school shootings put students in danger that teachers put themselves in harms way and even lost their lives to protect their students. We saw this at Columbine and at other crisis situations as well. And that kind of willingness to become a martyr to save a student is a classic example of what it means to be courageous.



As you prepare your career path toward becoming a professional teacher, you may not have ever thought of yourself as courageous. But because of the sacrifices you are about to make and because the only real reward of being a teacher is the joy of imparting knowledge to young students, there is a nobility to what you are about to do that is worthy of recognition and honor. And while society will not necessarily take the time to give honor to the courage of teachers, its a good thing when we do that so it is documented here that teachers are truly a courageous lot and we can all be glad for their influence on our children's lives and on society in general.

application of internet in teaching and learning process

Becoming a teacher today is means learning to teach with new tools and resources that were unheard of only twenty years ago. There is almost no part of the education experience that is untouched by the computer or the internet. So the more you look to becoming a "cyber teacher", the more you will be tapping the great power cyberspace has given us to use for education.



A cyber teacher doesn’t mean that you will no longer interact with your students in class. "Going cyber" means that you will take advantage of the internet even during the course of a teaching day to tap the incredible information resources that are there to make your lessons so much more rich and meaningful.



It is almost unheard of any more for a class room to not be equipped with not one but many internet connections and computers as well as all of the popular software to support the use of computers in the classroom. In fact, more and more students are bringing laptops with wireless internet access to use at their desks which means that the computer is now becoming as common a student tool as the pencil or the protractor for your students.



Staying up to date the latest that is available on the internet is critical so you are offering your students the best teaching available in this modern time. Moreover, you have to stay up to date and "plugged in" to what is going on in cyberspace because your students are knowledgeable about what is happening in the internet world. So to stay up with them, you have to stay current too.



Along with in class research resources, the internet has set up tools for communication that were unheard of before. When you assign group projects, they won't just communicate by sitting around a table and working out the project. They can interact via internet "groupware" such as wikis or Google groups to share information, pool their resources and even split up the work to be done which all can be easily merged into their final project report to turn in to you when they are done.



This new age of communication can be used by you as a teacher to open up communications channels with the students at home and with their parents in ways never known before as well. No longer do you have to worry about laboriously writing out the daily assignments for your students to write down and take home. You can now post them to a class online bullion board or email them to the parents and to the student so every day when the child gets home, the excuse that "I lost my homework assignment" just wont cut it.



To make this work, you also have to make sure the parents are internet savvy. Don’t count on the child to give his or her mom and dad a seminar in cyber education because the speed of cyberspace makes the student life more accountable. But you can schedule computer classes with the parents to show them how to find the student's assignments as well as grades, notes from the teacher or special announcements right here on the class web page in cyberspace.



We are really just getting started tapping the internet to make communications and education more efficient and powerful. Other ways to use this technology includes having the students do their homework online so they cannot say "the dog ate my homework." And because young people are very internet savvy, by making their education life internet enabled, they will be better students. And you will be a better teacher because you took the time to learn to tap the power of the internet to become a cyber teacher for your students as well.

Adapting teaching style to new education system

The last two decades have taught us a great deal about how students work and think and the differences between different students and how those differences change the way those students process information and learn. On the surface, as a teacher, its easy to say, well I cannot change my curriculum to suit every possible learning disability or quirk of personality. That is the old model of teaching that has been in place for many decades. Students came to a centralized class and the way the lessons were presented was what they got and it was up to the student to adjust to be successful or a failure.

The problem with that model is that it puts the weight of the responsibility to be successful in education on the student. That is all well and good at the college level where the students are essentially adults and they are expected to be ready to bare a larger level of responsibility. But at the elementary level, the burden of assuring that the student not only hears the lesson but understands it lies with the teacher. So in the last few years, a teaching style called "differentiation" has come along that utilizes innovative classroom methods to help all students come away with a solid understanding of the material, not just the few who were able to adjust to the single approach the teaching of the old model.


Differentiation begs the question, "Who is responsible for the education of the children?" The system where the children were exposed to a lecture, given an assignment which may have been cryptic to understand and sent home for the hapless portents to decipher what was expected is at best ineffective and at worst just plain lazy.


Modern approaches to education see the job of the teacher as not just to present information and to correct papers. The job of the teacher is to teach and that teacher is not a success until every student in his or her class has learned the information well and can interact with it to demonstrate that the information has become knowledge which is useful and applicable in daily life. This is a high requirement on teachers but anything short skirts the objectives of the teaching profession entirely.


One difference between students that drastically effects how well the student learns is learning styles. Some students are visual learners meaning they do well when they learn by seeing. Others can absorb and process information audibly whereas others must physically interact with the material to truly grasp it. Differentiation changes the way class time is used so the same information is presented in a variety of teaching methods so all students can use each style to fully grasps the material.


Differentiation may not have been possible before we had so many new teaching tools available via the internet. But with online resources, we can tap the power of video online and utilize online activities so that learning is no longer just listen, write it down and repeat it on a test. Learning now is interactive and repetitive in many different ways to the same information is processed uniquely each time. The outcome is the student not only can learn through the learning style that fits his or her personality but that learning is deeper and longer lasting.

Adapting your teaching style to fully tap the power of differentiation will take some time. There are new technologies to learn to use and a new approach to the daily lesson plan to understand and learn to work with. But once you are simultaneously teaching many while addressing the individual learning styles and unique characteristics of each child, you will find the outcome of your teaching so much more effective that you will never want to go back.