Monday, August 20, 2012

Improving Study Skills In Middle Schools


If you have children, you may not have given enough thought to the value of improving study skills in middle schools. Many educators believe it's a critical time in a student's life. Things are beginning to ramp up in school and homework assignments with grades are suddenly becoming a written record for the future. Within the classroom, children are asked to use their brains in ways that will hopefully challenge them as they hadn't been previously. The need for the best study skills possible is crucial.
While it seems as if there are always those students who never appear to have to study much, there are others who struggle repeatedly with effective studying. Innovative middle schools are working harder than before to improve those skills so each student can benefit. It's not just about learning, but it's also about retaining the learned information as the school years progress.
Here are a few tips that will help to improve memory and speed up the act of studying:
- Have a set place to study. It can't be stated enough how important this is. It eliminates frustration, disorganization, and lack of motivation.
- Have the right study tools. A desk or table, waste can, a good light, paper, and lots of pens and pencils are mandatory. What is not mandatory are any outside distraction such as music, television, or even snack food.
- Have a set time to study. A good rule of thumb is either immediately after returning from school before dinner or immddiately after dinner. Don't wait until the late evening before bed as this teaches the student the bad habit of procrastination.
- Encourage note taking in class. Statistically, it's been proven that pen and paper help you remember more of what you're hearing. If your child is struggling to get everything he or she hears down on paper, you might want to teach them some writing tricks such as using abbreviations and pictures.
- Teach memorization. Most middle schools don't require students to memorize to the extent they do in high school, but it's a great idea to teach them now for later. Again, there are some effective memorization techniques easily found online. Word association is an excellent method.
- Focus on areas of need. Middle schools have a way of letting parents know what the areas of need are - it's called the report card. If they are receiving A's in English but C's in Geography, help your child to focus on the weaker subject for a while until grades improve.
Nowadays, with peer pressure and adverse dynamics, middle schools are tough enough to get through. But helping your child to learn and improve study skills is a win/win proposition. It's a way to begin to prepare him or her for the future and get more enjoyment out of the present

Monday, August 13, 2012

Qin Dynasty - Chinese History for Kids


In Chinese history for kids, kids will be learning about the Qin Dynasty. The Qin Dynasty was between 207 B.C. and 221 B.C. The emperors of this time were Ying Zheng, Fushi and Zi Ying. During this period, many ruthless things happened.
The kings at the beginning of this period were either banished or put to death. The kings' books were burned to make sure that nobody could use them. The expansionism of Qin was helped by the military by pushing out the frontiers of both the north and south.
In Chinese history for kids, kids will also learn that during the Qin Dynasty is when the Great Wall's construction began. It was created to block off barbarians intrusions. The Great Wall was a great protector during this period in history.
The Great Wall is not actually a single wall; it is actually four different walls. The Great Wall was created by connecting the walls that different states built, which created the 3,107 miles of the Great Wall. The Great Wall was either added onto or rebuilt from the various dynasties over different periods. The periods that added onto the Great Wall or rebuilt the Wall were the Western Han (206 B.C. - 220 B.C.) Sui (581 - 907) Jin (220 A.D. - 589 A.D.) and Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The Great Wall reaches between the northeastern parts of the Heilongjiang Province to the northwestern parts of Gasui.
When Qin Shi Huang died, Zhao Gao Hu Hai and Ji Shi killed Qin Shi Huang's oldest son. After that act, they turned and let Hui Hai become emperor. He did not have any type of prevention from the rebels of his opposition.
The reason why the Qin Dynasty was going down was the cruel laws, inhumane treatment and high taxation of the peasants. Even though Qin had a strong army with strict laws, it could not stand up to the peasants becoming rebellious towards them. The peasants fought against the government under Qin's power. They fought against the government by using agricultural tools that they turned into weapons. With these weapons, the peasants broke the cloth that was the flag from Qin's power.
The Chinese culture for kids was created by the Chinese history for kids that they will be learning. There are so many actions that happened in Chinese history for kids to learn about that they will benefit from its teachings for the rest of their lives. They will also be able to place the actions from what happened in history into their own lives.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Concept of Digital Technology in the Field of Education


Are you new to the profession of teacher? Are you finding it difficult to get the attention of your students? Do not worry anymore! The concept of digital classroom has now become a reality. This will aid you in your teaching activities at the same time attract the attention of your students.
The digital classroom has brought in a lot of changes to the traditional system of education. The digital technology such as laptops, smart phones, tablets etc are today being used in the classrooms; they are replacing notebooks, textbooks, pens, pencils etc. Today, both the students and teachers have access to a much wider source of information. At a click of a button any information, data, image etc can be downloaded and stored very easily. At times students also get the opportunity to communicate with the experts in their field of learning. Digital classroom enable learning in a very easy manner. In the traditional system, a student had to hand over his paper to his teacher, who would rate the same and hand it over to the student. In the digital classrooms all the writings, blogs, posting etc put by the students can be viewed by a wider audience, who can also review it and give their comments. These to a great extend encourages students. It is strongly supported by a class website that extends leaning opportunities beyond the four walls of the classroom. The website generally contains information such as; general information, assignment dates and details, important events and announcements and so on.
Another feather in the cap of digital technology is the Smartboard. It is essentially a presentation device that interfaces with a computer. With the use of a projector, the images from the computer screen can be displayed on the board. The Smart Board is thus an interactive whiteboard that uses touch detection for user input - e.g. scrolling, right mouse-click - in the same way normal PC input devices, such as a mouse or keyboard etc works. It is used for teaching, during training programs, conducting meetings and delivering presentations. Smart Board helps to get the attention of listeners and encourages their involvement in the subject. It also aids the teachers in making the class more colorful and interesting by using multimedia resources; it helps to bring the class come alive.
Apart from these uses Smart board interactive whiteboards also help students who have learning difficulties, mobility limitations. The Smartboard is of great importance to children who have problems such dyslexia, autism and also hearing impaired problems. Due to all these advantages there is a huge demand for same. Today there are numerous whiteboard suppliers who supply all the required materials. They range from very expensive ones to affordable ones. By conducting a detailed analysis of each of the whiteboard supplier, you will be able to find the one that matches your requirement and fits well within your budget.
Another attracting feature about today's education system is the Smart Class technology. It is an effective way of teaching, where the traditional system of writing on the black board and copying the same onto the notebooks is being replaced. With the advent of Smart Class students are able to see the experiments, incidents and thereby they are in a better position to understand the concept. Smartclass uses digital technologies such as laptops, LCD etc to foster the learning process.