First in a series of articles designed to make life easier for new teachers and student teachers. This information is firmly grounded in classroom experience and gives advice where others fear to tread.
Teaching – A Survival Guide for Students and New Teachers (Part 2)
Appearances are very important to students in schools. They expect heir teachers to conform to a certain dress code. Failure to conform will make your life more difficult.
Teach Your First Grader How To Spell
Our education begins from the day we’re born. While we don’t immediately plunge into school, we’re constantly exposed to new things that help develop our minds. Academics are only part of our long journey to knowledge.
By the time we enter kindergarten, we are ready to begin the reading and writing aspects, but at a slow and steady pace. Too much too soon can overwhelm and confuse us. When we hit 1st grade, we are more prepared to tackle the nitty gritty. I recall my 1st g…
Making Genius
In his excellent book: “Scientific Genius, Dean Keith Simonton of the USC-Davis, suggests that genuises are forming more novel combinations than the merely talented. His theory has etymology behind it: Cogito- “I think”- orginally connoted “shake together”. Intelligo, the root of intelligence, means to “select among”. This is a clear early indication about the utility of permitting ideas and thoughts to randomly combine with each other and selecting from the many the few to r…
Reading Strategies For Struggling Readers
Struggling readers are simply individuals who have not learned effective reading strategies. Don’t be too concerned if you aren’t familiar with the term, “reading strategies;” most good readers never had to learn them; instead, they just use them naturally. Struggling readers, on the other hand, have no idea how their friends can finish their work before they make it through the first paragraph. Why is it that their friends are reading “Lord of the Rings” and they are still r…
15 Strategies For Enhancing Memory
The following strategies are offered to help students develop a more efficient and effective memory. This listing is by no means exhaustive, but rather is meant as a place to begin.
1. Take the mystery away.
The first and perhaps most important strategy is to insure that all students understand how memory works and identify their particular profiles of memory strengths and challenges. Then, students should be taught memory management strategies.
2. Give directions i…
Get It Out Of Your Head And Into a Mind Map
Do you ever feel like you have some great ideas, but when you sit down to write them, they’re not so great? Or even worse, you can’t really get a sense of what the ideas were? In one of my graduate student coaching groups we have been discussing the difficulty of translating partly formed ideas into words on paper. One technique that makes use of a normally underutilized part of our brain is called “Mind Mapping.” What is a Mind Map?
Is Time Your Enemy? Conquer Time with an Unschedule!
Time can be your friend or your enemy. For many people who have free time to accomplish long-term projects or writing tasks, it is a merciless tyrant. It is just too easy to allow the slightly harder task to slide, as you fill in your day with the humdrum and the emergencies.
Junior Faculty Balancing Act: Teaching, Part I
My website poll of 96 junior faculty members has an unequivocal winner. The poll asks, “What is the hardest part about being a junior faculty member?” Over a third of the respondents chose “Teaching takes up so much time” as their response.
Exactly How Time Consuming is Teaching? Surveys of how professors spend their time indicate that professors as a group, from junior to full professors, spend 29-30 hours a week at a minimum on activities related to teaching. Obviously, new faculty, who tend to have a higher teaching load than do full professors, and who are often teaching classes that they have never taught before, probably spend more than 30 hours a week. At some colleges with more of a teaching emphasis, it has been estimated that new professors may spend 50-60 hours a week on teaching.
When it comes to teaching, there are specific actions you can take. Here are some of his recommendations that I believe are the easiest to implement.
What I Know And Remember About Baseball – Teaching
When teaching baseball or any other sport regardless of age, the players in ability to understand what the coach is trying to express is sole responsibility of the coach. Teaching involves respect, clarity, organization, motivation and context.
Is black belt next? Asked the street kid tying his new yellow belt
There are many. many teens out there who may appear normal to adults, or even peers, but who feel a sense of deep failure in one or more area of life. What a great challenge–and opportunity–for those of us who work with them, whether in the martial arts studio, the classroom, a religious or civic setting, or across the dinner table.
Chess Is All About Strategy And Tactics
Chess is all about strategy and tactics. Each chess player commands an army of 16. In beginning players bring out their forces to prepare for combat. Players maneuver to carry out attacks and counterattacks. At the end of the game there are fewer pawns and pieces left on the board. This is when it’s safe for the king to come out and take part in the battle. Here are some tips to improve your chess game.
1. Planning. Is important that you plan your attack. Your opponent wil…