On Education-15:

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability - Cicero

How To-5: "How to Return to Learning As an Adult"

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How to Return to Learning As an Adult

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Going back to study is pretty scary. You might often wonder if you have made the right decision. Everything else seems to be more important and seems to take more of your time. Other people make you feel guilty but ...don't give up. No matter what your age, it is never too late to go back to school and pursue your dreams.

Steps

1. Remind yourself that you are doing this for you in the first place. But if it also means that soon you will have a career which is satisfying and is paying the bills and your children have a new found respect for you, cherish these bonuses.
2. If you are looking to find out what you really want to do and you are already past high school or college age, review the past few years of your life. How have you spent them and what made you happy or unhappy?
3. Consider the things you did that made you unhappy and choose a career that does not include them. For example, if doing bookkeeping at your last job stressed you out you probably should not pursue an accounting degree.
4. Consider the things you did that made you happy and that you felt you had control of. If you enjoyed maintaining the company website at your last job, you may also enjoy taking some online classes in graphic design and web design.
5. Go back to your old school days. What were your favorite subjects and hobbies? What did you want to be when you grew up? Does what you do now have anything to do with those subjects, hobbies and dreams?
6. Review your favorite job activities, hobbies and subjects to figure out what type of classes you would like to take. You don't have to decide "what you want to be when you grow up" right away.
7. Studying as an adult means you need to be organised. Set aside the time to do the homework - make yourself into a role model for the kids. Do homework together. Set up a study centre in your home or track everyone down to the local library for an afternoon of study.
8. Studying as an an adult means learning to cut corners but knowing which corners to cut. Not everything has to be done perfectly - you will give yourself ulcers. Do the best you can and learn from the feedback given to you by your teachers. Your home will survive the odd bit of dust. Teach family members how to vacuum, gain new cooking skills and become responsible for household cleanups.
9. Use every possible learning method to help you manage tests and find out which works best for you. Flashcards; audio tape information to be played while driving the car or cooking the dinner; coloured highlighters for key points; teach someone else; diagrams; lists and learn recall strategies.
10. But most of all believe in yourself. Yes, sometimes study can go awry but ask, ask and ask again for help from a range of people: your teacher, your peers, family, counsellors. Persistence is the key.
11. Celebrate like never before when you graduate!

Tips

• Set up an area at home or at work where you can do your studies quietly so you are ready for your classes.
• Find like minded study partners and share the load.
• Get involved with culture of the study institution - learn to feel at home
• Remember that 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' Thank you Eleanor Roosevelt
• Let your friends, family and work associates know about your intention to pursue higher education so they can be understanding of your needs. Those family members who are scathing of your attempts to improve your education need attention but also need to understand that you won't stop studying.
• Let your friends, family and work associates know about your intention to pursue higher education so they can be understanding of your needs.
• Talk to people who are working in the areas of interest you are considering. Find out what it takes to get and keep a job. Discuss the best and worst parts of the job.
• Candidly discuss your strong and weak points with friends, family and business associates to gain a better perspective of yourself.

Warnings

• Sometimes, but only in very rare cases, quitting is the only option you can have when things go really badly. However, most times quitting is a cop out. For the rest of your life, you will always think, "what if I'd finished that study?...."
• Everyone is capable of learning; the question is only how long will it take and will you put forth enough effort to learn what your studying. Some people are born with a natural ability to read well and others are born with great math skills. It is just a simple matter of how your brain was hard wired from birth to process information. Don't take it personally if you're not great at both as most people are not. Overcoming pride will be your biggest problem most times. Try not to focus on the grade level of the content and just that idea of accomplishing the goals.

Related wikiHows

• How to Cope With Sitting in the Back of the Classroom
• How to Be Knowledgeable
• How to Use a Chinese Abacus
• How to Study English in China

Sources and Citations

• Eleanor Roosevelt http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/ar32.html" rel="nofollow">[1]

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Return to Learning As an Adult. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning

How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Ultimately, we want our kids to love to learn. A passion for learning is quite different from just studying to earn a grade or to please parents or teachers. Those who develop a love of learning at an early age continue the process throughout their lives and are generally more successful, interesting, and happier than those who don't.

Steps

1. Talk with your child about the things you read and hear, especially the things you find interesting.
   


2. Ask your kids how they feel about various issues (current events, relationships, values). Allow them to have opinions without passing judgment. Ask your children to help you understand why they feel the way they do.
   


3. Pursue your own hobbies and interests. Share these with your child, but do not require that he or she follow your pursuits.
   


4. Encourage your kids to have interests of their own. If they show curiosity about a hobby, area of study, sport, or instrument, encourage and support them in any way your finances allow.
   


5. Read books. Read on your own, which sets a good example. Read to your kids, to get them hooked on books.
   


6. Expose your child to a wide variety of experiences including music, plays, sports, museums, travel, reading, dance, games, food, puzzles, ethnic activities, etc. One never knows how what exposure may influence future life choices.
   


7. Play "thinking games" with your kids. These are games where there is not just one answer. Scrabble and chess are examples. Emphasize the value of thoughtful moves rather than the importance of winning.
   


8. Remember that you are your child's best teacher. School, educational games and television, and a shelf full of books all can't accomplish what you can in the education of your child. It doesn't take much effort to inspire a child's brain in the everyday world - the place where they need it the most. Here are a few simple things you can do to engage your child: count the number of houses, black cars, bicycles, etc. that you pass as you drive; search for letters, numbers, or colors on the restaurant menu; when you are going to use a gum-ball machine, hold out a handful of coins and explain the differences, and that the machine will only take the quarter (then let your child pick out a quarter and put it in the machine - they love this!).
   


9. Provide your child with free time. Children need plenty of free time to discover and explore. Don't jam pack your schedule with errands and activities. Give your child time for free play, day dreaming and roaming around in the back yard.
   


10. Start sooner, rather than later. Fostering independence in your child is very important for their brain development and how they feel about learning. Sometimes, activities seem too difficult for your child only because you haven't encouraged them to do it yet. For example, things like peeling their own banana, picking out which shirt to wear, and feeding the family cat, are all things that a young toddler can do. Letting your child do things like this makes them feel more in control of their world, which in turn inspires them toward bigger and better exploits. When the world is in your hands, you want to do something with it, don't you?
    


11. Let them know that school is important by being supportive of the school. Attend school functions, volunteer in the classroom if possible, and communicate with the teacher. Ask the teacher what you can do to help your child.

Tips

• If you demonstrate excitement about learning and are open to your children pursuing their own interest areas, it will be hard for them to resist the opportunities.
  


• Explain to your child why he or she is learning, and how it will be worthwhile (e.g. learning multiplication tables)
  


• Leave interesting books and materials lying around for your child to explore.
  


• Keep it fun....not stressful.

Warnings

• Try not to go overboard about grades. If your child makes a low grade, don't scream and yell, but instead show them what they did wrong and help them understand. For good grades, don't buy big, expensive things to celebrate (at least not all the time). Your child will feel pressured/persuaded to do well and will dread low grades. Giving too many rewards also encourages bad habits and manners, such as bragging, and can lead to complexes (such as fear of failure). Understand that not all children will get A's and B's and that C's are OKAY and considered good, as C's are average.

Related wikiHows

• How to Be Patient When Doing Homework With Your Young Child
  


• How to Teach Your Child to Avoid Drugs
  


• How to Teach Manners to a Toddler
  


• How to Overcome Your Child's Learning Difficulties
  


• How to Make Baby Finger Foods
  


• How to Be a Good Stepfather
  

Sources and Citations

• From Homework Battles To Happiness

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Be Self Learning

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

These days, if you want to learn something, get a teacher. But you have to pay a cost and these costs are expensive. To be self learning is just great!!!

Steps

1. In order to be motivated, make sure you really want to learn something. If you do not want to learn for learning's sake, become clear about the reason why you want to learn something and try to imagine how it is, when your learning was successful. Maybe you'll find out, that you don't want to learn that thing, so at least you can save some time. If you don't really want to learn it, the time spent on trying to learn it will be mostly wasted.
   
2. Take a look at the information you have at the moment: does it provide you enough stuff to learn? If so, start learning, else gather at least as much information as you need to begin learning. Some people may like it more if they have all the information they want to learn, but it is also possible, that you become discouraged by too much information, so find out how you feel most comfortable.
   
3. As said above, start learning. If possible, do experimental stuff first, because it helps you to get into the topic. Physicists for example often try to explain why something works like they've seen in the experiment, so it would be good if you can do the experiment on your own, make a thought-experiment or get a video of that experiment. Although in some fields like mathematics concrete examples may lead off-road, in most cases it will help you to understand what's that stuff all about. It's not beneficial to learn some formulae, statistics or dates if you can not imagine what they describe.
   
4. If there is anything you can practice, maybe if you try to learn dancing some steps or in school exercises just do them. Albeit it may be tempting to rush through them, for somebody inexperienced it is better to do the exercises in a moderate pace and careful. This prevents sloppy technique or bad habits, which are much harder to correct than small mistakes at the beginning.
   
5. Get more experienced people to judge you. Beside they can correct your mistakes, they - maybe even more important - can tell you when you are already doing something well, which can be very motivating.
   
6. Gather knowledge. One of the most common mistakes is that people concentrate either on the practical or on the theoretical aspects of something. This only leads to stereotypes like the stupid sportsman or the nonathletic nerd. However, it is also very ineffective, because you probably don't use your whole brain, but only the left side or the motoric part. Having an open mind also helps to see connections to things you already like, thus increasing comprehension and motivation.
   
7. Throw time at it. The best learning strategy doesn't help, if you don't spend a decent amount of time in it. According to the topic it even may be enough just to spend everyday half an hour on some exercises or texts. Special learning techniques can make learning easier, but they still require work done by you.
   
8. Organize your learning. At the end of a session look what you accomplished and prepare the next session with some questions or tasks, so the next time you only need to start working on the topic, which decreases the risk of procrastination.
   

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Be Self Learning. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Resolve Classroom Management Issues

How to Resolve Classroom Management Issues
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Unlike a teacher training focus of many universities, few teachers find their day devoted to content. Many teachers find much of their time devoted to classroom management.
As times change, the type of student in any given classroom changes. More teachers report needing help with students who are non-compliant and verbally abusive to both peers and adults. Your training may not have given you the prevention and intervention tools you need to stop the extreme misbehavior that you may be coping with on a daily basis. Here are a few of the most important elements to help you in putting an end to your classroom management nightmare.

Steps

1. • Stop using one-size-fits-all methods and start using specific, and individualized methods. Just like adults, students can be complex. The same intervention may play out very differently from one student to the next. It is absolutely critical that you have a wide variety of methods to draw upon to manage each situation. It's not about which methods you personally want to use, it's about the best method for each student. Example strategy:Not every student understands how to be quiet in class, and much less motivated to do so. Don't just state the rules or expectations, help students establish a habit of meeting expectations. Teach your students that "when the hand goes up, the mouth goes shut". Apply a tailored "intervention" that involves the class as a whole. This will often work well with non-compliant, distracted, ADHD, and defiant students because it is so much fun — especially for the student who gets to lead the intervention.
     
   • Teach school skills and focus on motivation. Giving rules to students who lack the skills and motivation to comply is ineffective. Contemporary children must be taught the nuts-and-bolts of the target behaviors. They also need to be convinced that education matters. Otherwise, rules and consequences will fail to elicit the desired behaviors from students who have no inclination to comply.
     
   • Avoid outdated techniques. Use methods that fit contemporary students and contemporary problems. Years ago, you might have had a small number of unmanageable students. Now, it is common to expect as much as 14% of mainstream students to be classroom management nightmares. Don't use old-style methods to manage today's severely unmanageable students. Learn about conduct disorders, and your most misbehaved, contemporary student.
     
   • Interact with the parents. If you find your daily resources drained on primarily a few students with behavioral problems, consult their parents. You don't need to put off meeting their parents until parent/teacher conference day. Contact them as soon as possible and arrange for a convenient time to discuss their child's behavior and/or needs. Be polite, be respectful, but be direct with the parents. Ask for their guidance and request ideas to address their child's behavior problems. If the child's parents are willing to help or at least cooperate, the experience may liberate a drain on your resources.
     
   
   

Tips

• Never issue a threat you cannot or will not carry out.
  
• Be scrupulously fair and consistent in your response.
  
• Never lose your temper. You are the adult and you must behave accordingly at all times.
  
• Don't fire your big guns until the last moment. Have a set of responses which build up in their severity. Try to resolve the behaviour yourself first and only bring in your line manager when your sanctions have failed.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Survive an Internship in Elementary Education
  
• How to Collaborate in Lesson Planning
  
• How to Use wikiHow in the Classroom
  
• How to Use Web Resources for Teaching
  

Sources and Citations

• Youth Change resource site Article originally excerpted with permission. Link required for article reprint permission per owner copyright.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Resolve Classroom Management Issues. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Education News-2: "Class Room Libraries"

The Tamilnadu Government has instructed schools to establish "CLASS ROOM LIBRARIES" in every class, to inculcate general reading habit among students. Each library will have a minimum of 50 books. This will also help students to improve their general knowledge and to start literary circles among themselves, where they can discuss the books they have read. This laudable measure deserves appreciation.

Education News-1: Selection of Students for IITs

Education News-1: Selection of Students for IITs
(Excerpt from e-mail received on August 25, 2008 from Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam)

I read the brief note by Prof. Indiresan on what needs to be done to improve selection of students for IITs and make the selection more egalitarian.

"The preponderance of candidates from coaching classes denies admission to better candidates who are too poor to afford private coaching." [Very true. Dr P M Bhargava, former director of CCMB, often tells us that we draw our scientists and engineers from a small fraction of India's gene pool. And I agree with him. I have met many first generation graduates, whose parents had not completed even middle school education, going on to win Bhatnagar prizes and getting elected to prestigious academies. The numbers of such people would have been much smaller had there not been programmes of affirmative action in place.]

The solution suggested, viz. "IITs should first identify good schools and let those schools do the shortlisting for them." would also filter out poor students. In our perception today, schools like Modern and Delhi Public School (to take two examples from the capital) are "good". No poor child can enter the portals of such schools.

There is a passing remark on IITs being possibly better off than some recognised US universities: " World class universities like Harvard and Stanford get 10-11 applications for each available seat. It would appear that IITs are much better off with their ratio of 70:1." The large numbers of applications in India can be attributed to factors like our large population, parental and peer pressure and the scarcity economics in education. At Harvard and Stanford, it is likely that only those who have a reasonable chance apply.

Grateful thanks to Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam.

How to Prepare for an Oral Report

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

An editor has suggested that this article be merged with: "How to Do an Oral Speech on Time" Per the merge policy, if these topics are determined to be similar but distinct, then the articles will remain separate. Please comment on the discussion page. Notice added on 2008-04-30.

Spending long hours working on an oral report can be tedious. We have to research for accuracy, plan the layout, memorize what we are going to say. This might be worth it, but then when it does not turn out as good as you expected, is very disappointing.

Steps

1. Research your topic. If your topic is quite boring, search for some interesting facts about it that will wow your classmates.
   
2. Take notes. Don't be afraid to jot down details. Be sure to use better words than "nice" or "big." Rather opt for words such as "gigantic" or "fantastic."
   
3. Add a little something to it. Why not add pictures or make a life size model from the topic. Drawing a time line, especially if it's a history report, can also work.
   
4. Look over your written report, Add details where needed and exchanging words with those that would fit the report better.
   
5. Practice! Practice! Practice! Look at yourself in the mirror and talk as if you're in front of people. Make sure that you're not leaning or fumbling around when you talk. With a bit more practice, you will be able to ace that report and look good at the same time.

Tips

• Try not to act too enthusiastic about the topic. This makes you look cheesy.
  
• Ask your crowd if they have any questions, and always be prepared to answer them!
  
• Make sure that what you brought in as a demonstration, is colorful and eye-catching.

Warnings

• When you take notes, be 100% sure that you aren't plagiarizing, copying word for word as written.
  
• Make the speech short and to the point. Long drawn out reports are marked as boring and are similar to listening to lectures. Keep it short and simple.

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Prepare for an Oral Report. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Get up from Your Bed Instantly

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Tired of getting late to work? Do you usually wake up and think "why can't I stay just 5 more minutes in bed?" and 5 minutes later you think the same thing, and this repeats itself over and over until lunchtime and you realized that you have missed your work?Do you feel like your legs don't obey to your orders?Do you see yourself as a lazy every morning?So where is the answer for your prayers, the ending of your daily suffering and morning fears?

Steps

1. Shut down your mind. Your mind is your worse enemy, block all your thoughts. Any single thought will origin another one. i.e. "I need to get up because I need to go to work" but then you will think "but I’m so tired...resting more 5 minutes will not cause the end of the world". So don't think anything! If you're having difficulties doing this, try thinking of emptiness. (If your idea of emptiness is a "dark screen" don't think it, think white instead or think in transparency. It may seem hard or even stupid, but visualize a transparent glass in front of your eyes like a layer between your eyes and the rest of the environment you are in.) Also imagine that your cutting off your mind power source. But be careful, these techniques might make you fall asleep. Anyway...try to "Shut up" your mind.
2. Practice. The human mind works by learning and learning requires practice, and practice is based on repeating an action over and over. Keep getting out of bed.
3. Simulate. Turn off the light, shutdown your computer or TV or whatever (or turn it on...in case you usually sleep with your computer turned on) Put everything like the way it is when you're going to sleep, dress yourself like you do when you're going to sleep, wear your pajama or put yourself in underwear...you should be exactly dressed the way you dress to sleep. If you do a regular task before going to sleep (like brushing your teeth or something else) do it now. If you watch your favourite show before sleeping, record it...and watch it now.
4. Set your alarm clock for a few minutes later. Close your eyes like if you're going to sleep and try to fall asleep...it may be difficult. So don't try too hard, you don't need really to sleep, that's optional. When your alarm clock goes on, get up from the bed, It will be easy because you aren't tired. Try not to get up to fast but not too slow. Start moving yourself right away and don’t stop, you can take some seconds until you get up, but don't stop moving. You might prefer to sit on your bed instead of getting up right away. Now turn the alarm clock off.
5. Stretch yourself. Stretch like you do when you get up on your normal "getting up routine" or don't if you do not usually stretch. Just do what you usually do right away after getting up. (no, you don't need to go to the bathroom, do the breakfast etc! don't even leave your room). P.S - To do not stretch yourself while you’re still in bed, if you do that on your daily "getting up routine" stop doing it. Stretch after and not during.
6. Return to bed and to it again. Do this a few times at the different hours of the day, do 2-3 sets at each session. And do 2-4 sessions a day. Feel free to raise the number of sets per session and the number of sessions per day with the time (like if you doing a exercise. Like you do at the gym or at home or even if you don't exercise I'm sure you know what I'm talking about)

Tips

• Do some sessions of silence meditation to help you shutdown your mind.
• Raise the number of "getting up" sessions per day, or the number of sets of do progressively.
• think of something to look forward to that day. it might get you up.

Warnings

• Do not stretch yourself while you’re still in bed, if you do that on your daily "getting up routine" stop doing it. Stretch AFTER and not WHILE.
• Avoid thoughts like "I will sleep just 5 more minutes", "Go legs! move!! come on!!", "It's so cold outside and so hot and comfortable in here" Better...don't even think!

Things You'll Need

• An alarm clock
• A bed
• Some time to practice.
• Willpower
• Patience

Related wikiHows

• How to Wake Someone Up
• How to Find Places to Sleep in the Cold
• How to Control when You Fall Asleep
• How to Sleep for Better Health

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Get up from Your Bed Instantly. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Use the Experiential Learning Model

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The Experiential Learning Model, used extensively in 4-H and other groups, is a way to turn ordinary games into learning experiences, primarily with the use of questions. This educational model is a great way to subtly make the most out of a situation.

Steps

1. Do the activity with your group. Before you can use the Experiential Learning Model, you must have something to use it on. After you learn the rest of the steps to the Experiential Learning Model, you will know how to look for good activities to use the model on.
   
2. Reflect on the activity.
   
   • What? What happened in the activity? What were the results? Everyone in the group should share their observations on what was going on. Listen to all observations. Everyone deserves a chance to talk. What did each person do? What was the most difficult thing about this activity?
     
   • Gut. Ask the group what their gut reaction was. If someone was left out, how did they feel being left out? How did it feel to lead? You can link the experience to your target subject matter (if you have one) and the life skills being learned. What problems or issues seemed to occur over and over? How did you feel when a particular thing happened?
     
3. Apply the activity to other experiences.
   
• So what? So what happened? How do we apply this to the situation at hand? Generalize the event to connect it to real-world examples. What did you learn about yourself through this activity? What did you learn about making decisions? How does this activity relate to real life outside of the activity? How did you go about deciding what to do?
  
• Now what? How can you apply what you've learned to a similar or different experience? What is another situation in which this skill can be used? How will the issues raised by this activity be useful in the future? How will you act differently in the future as a result of this activity?

Tips

• Remember what, gut, so what, and now what. This sticks well in the mind of youth and covers the basic steps after the activity is done.
  
• You may want to have everyone sit for all steps after Do. This will help them focus. Sitting in a circle is also a good way to help the group share openly, and ensures everyone can hear and make eye contact.
  
• Think of questions ahead of time, but leave room for questions that may arise from unexpected things that happen.
  
• You can apply the Experiential Learning Model to things other than games.
  
• Modify as necessary.

Warnings

• Choose activities appropriate for your group's age and size, and choose an area accordingly.

Things You'll Need

• Group of people, any age
  
• Suitable activity
  
• Desire to learn

Related wikiHows

• How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning
  
• How to Love Learning About Things!
  
• How to Be Self Learning
  
• How to Make the Most of Your Learning Style

Sources and Citations

• Wikipedia article on Experiential Learning
  
• Cyfernet article on The Experiential Learning Model
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use the Experiential Learning Model. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.