Internet and Education—One Mom’s Perspective

Written by A.R. Linder


What is allrepparttar hoopla about children needing to be exposed to computers andrepparttar 109355 Internet? Let me share my experience.

My child isn’t a genius. Most aptitude testing has revealed that she is of average intelligence. But somehow this child has managed to consistently score aboverepparttar 109356 90th percentile nationally onrepparttar 109357 Iowa Test of Basic Skills—98th and 99th percentile in math. And, on Georgia’s sixth grade Criterion Referenced Comprehension Test (CRCT) scored 450 out of 450 onrepparttar 109358 reading section, surprising given that math has consistently been her strongest subject. We have just received her scores onrepparttar 109359 eighth grade CRCT with a score 422 onrepparttar 109360 reading portion showingrepparttar 109361 previous reading score was no fluke and exceeding on every other portion ofrepparttar 109362 test. She also scored a 92 on Georgia’s End-of Course Test for Algebra I. In short, she is doing quite well academically in school.

I’m not sure ofrepparttar 109363 exact reasons forrepparttar 109364 performance on these tests, although I believe a lot of it has to do with her hard work, consistent effort, and my persistence as a parent. That persistence has included using every resource I can find and afford to help my child excel. Many of those resources have been onrepparttar 109365 Internet.

Friday night found us in front ofrepparttar 109366 computer playing at a website based uponrepparttar 109367 “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” game. The differences are that allrepparttar 109368 questions are related to science, we can’t actually win a million dollars, it’s absolutely free, and my daughter and I arerepparttar 109369 players. It isn’t unusual for us to spend a couple of hours playing this game. I am always amazed by how much she knows as her age as well as how much I seem to have forgotten at mine.

Many years ago while developing and teaching Air Force training courses for U.S. Space Command, I became fascinated withrepparttar 109370 use of computers in learning. Also while working inrepparttar 109371 training area, I became a fan ofrepparttar 109372 basic premises of Thorndike’s Laws of Learning. Although some would characterize them as almost forgotten and even sometimes discredited, I have foundrepparttar 109373 laws to be helpful in flagging what works and what does not in educating my child as well as adults and youth in other programs I have managed. I have realized much success incorporatingrepparttar 109374 essence of those laws of learning and computer technology as I have dealt with my child’s learning. Thorndike’s laws are pretty simple:

The Law of Readiness deals with ensuring a child is ready to learn--making surerepparttar 109375 student is fed, free from too much worry, comfortable, and well aware ofrepparttar 109376 importance of what is to be learned. In other wordsrepparttar 109377 student must be prepared to learn. One exercise I have done with my child dealing with this law is researchingrepparttar 109378 admissions criteria for different schools. We have also comparedrepparttar 109379 costs of different institutions. We found sites like CollegeTours.com, a site providing loads of information and virtual tours of different college campuses, to be a handy reference for this exercise. We have even gone as far as to look at scholarship requirements using scholarship databases such as CollegeNET.com and CollegeIsPossible.org. We have been doing this sincerepparttar 109380 sixth grade. By understandingrepparttar 109381 requirements now, hopefully, we won’t be running around inrepparttar 109382 junior and senior years trying to get things in order. It is awfully difficult to bring up that grade point average in a couple of semesters, especially ifrepparttar 109383 young person is stressed by time constraints. Getting my child prepared now is my way of ensuring we are prepared whenrepparttar 109384 time comes. A worksheet for this exercise can be downloaded from my website YouthPlay.org.

The Law of Exercise relates to making sure that practice is part ofrepparttar 109385 study routine—especially when dealing with essential facts and rules. The Internet and various software can be very useful in providing repetition in a not-so-routine manner. Games like Basket Math at ScienceAcademy.com where your child actually makes a hoop each time he or she getsrepparttar 109386 correct answer can make rote learning of multiplication tables a tad more interesting than just repeatingrepparttar 109387 multiplication tables over and over.

I remember clearly when I began to dislike math—a subject I had loved until, I believe, I ran intorepparttar 109388 wrong teacher. I remember my worst days in school. I remember my best days. I rememberrepparttar 109389 teachers who were creative and inspiring and know thatrepparttar 109390 best skills I possess today are inrepparttar 109391 areas they taught. That isrepparttar 109392 Law of Effect at work. I look very hard for sites that are good learning websites and share them with my daughter. I don’t want her to be turned off by sites that are really advertising monsters, just enticing you to a point of enjoyment and then launching an advertising scheme where you must make a purchase before you can go any further. Certainly I understand that many websites survive through their ability to sell products, however I believe this can be accomplished without bait and purchase gimmicks.

Goodness, have you ever tried to unlearn something you learned how to do wrong? This isrepparttar 109393 Law of Primacy, which states that what is learned first is learned best. You really have to make sure thatrepparttar 109394 resources that your child uses are good resources. Every textbook is not a good textbook; every website is not a good website; and every teacher is not a good teacher. And assuming that these tools are good simply because they exist or becauserepparttar 109395 school system uses them can cause your child a world of harm. A parent really has to do more than have these tools available. If you tryout a piece of software or an Internet resource and you cannot followrepparttar 109396 instructions, then there is a very good chance your child may not be able to effectively userepparttar 109397 resource either. Andrepparttar 109398 same rule applies with other resources as well. Some sites such as Math.com and MathForum.com gave really simple step-by-step instructions to concepts my child was learning in school, yet I had long forgotten. I was able to refresh my memory and to get her on track using these resources.

Teaching ESL to children in Japan is easy with the right tools!

Written by Craig Desorcy


Kids haverepparttar attention span of an ant! Why wouldn’t they? They have everything they could ever want given to them in a New York second.

Your biggest competition in keeping their attention is their GAMEBOY and GAMECUBE and that is some REAL competition.

Not to worry because I got this down big time and I’m going to give it to you. The Key points I will share with you are GOLD so don’t think because it’s simple you can skip taking mental notes. This act could be fatal to your success in working with kids.

Have you ever watched Sesame Street? I grew up watching that show. I suggest you watch it again to refresh your mind. What you should be looking for isrepparttar 109354 flow of how they educate you. It’s very interesting.

There is a theme for each show and allrepparttar 109355 activities are wrapped around this theme.

Each show may be only thirty minutes. However, in this time they manage to get about 11 to 13 powerful activities into this short time frame!

I call this style “edutainment” - education / entertainment.

In Japanrepparttar 109356 children English classes that are inrepparttar 109357 top 20% are very entertaining and educational.

If you feel you can’t teach kids, don’t worry. On my first day teaching kids I came home after work and told my wife that I would never do that again! But I learned and you will, too. Remember, too, that I had no one to guide me back then but you’ve got me !

Let’s take a walk through one of my kid’s classes together.

My kiddy class has 6 kids from three to five years of age.

The class is forty minutes, once a week, four times a month.

Each child has a nametag. If your school doesn’t have them, you can make them.

Beforerepparttar 109358 class starts I’m playing some kid’s music inrepparttar 109359 background (Ever been to Disneyland? The music you hear setsrepparttar 109360 tone as you approach that awesome place.).

The kids always come a little early, so beforerepparttar 109361 class startsrepparttar 109362 music is playing and I toss a balloon around with them. Onrepparttar 109363 floor or table are their nametags. Help them put them on and soon they can recognize their own name in English.

(You must, no matter what, remember all their names and use them through outrepparttar 109364 class at least five times per student.)

1. As soon as it’s time I put awayrepparttar 109365 ball, put on my hello song and start singing and waving my hand high inrepparttar 109366 air. They will follow because I have built considerable rapport with them beforerepparttar 109367 class started.

2. I sit onrepparttar 109368 floor and pull out a card withrepparttar 109369 letter I on it. I point to myself and say, “I am Michael” and passrepparttar 109370 card. Each kid will dorepparttar 109371 same and if one child doesn’t, then I just move on torepparttar 109372 next child. (I do this with YOU cards, YOUR cards, HE, SHE and so on.)

3. I pull out a bag and ask what’s in it? They have no idea. I put my hands inrepparttar 109373 air and say “I don’t know with a confused look on my face. They all repeat and they have just learnedrepparttar 109374 expression, “I don’t know.” I passrepparttar 109375 bag to allrepparttar 109376 students, they feel it and try to guess what’s inside. If a child keeps it too long I say 3, 2, 1 pass!

4. I tell them to go sit down please because we are now going to play bingo. Each bingo I do has a total of six pictures withrepparttar 109377 English word forrepparttar 109378 picture under it. For example I have vowel bingo that has only “A” words with pictures of things like a ball, apple, ant and so on.

5. After Bingo comes story time. I read a story book to them which has an easy sentence structure andrepparttar 109379 kids can repeat afterrepparttar 109380 second time of reading this book to them One book I use is called “I like.” I like to eat, I like to play ball, I like to read and so on. These books are a set from http://www.scholastic.com/elt/highfrequency.htm They are over-sized books and these are exactlyrepparttar 109381 type of books you want to be using to keeprepparttar 109382 students attention. These books are by farrepparttar 109383 best investment I have made in my teacher’s toolbox since I’ve been here!

5. Now I show them fish cards with many cool colors. We flip them trying to make a set. (Always teamrepparttar 109384 students up in pairs. If there are not enough students you will need to jump in and play.) Before you do this game you may want to drillrepparttar 109385 colors for a minute and ask them whatrepparttar 109386 colors are. Now is a good time to teach them to raise their hand saying atrepparttar 109387 same time say “I know!” If they get it right give themrepparttar 109388 card but get it back quickly so you can playrepparttar 109389 real game.

(While doing activities make sure you are workingrepparttar 109390 room. Letting your students know that they’re doing well, lots of give me fives and smiling! Encourage and support them and they will just love you and your class!!)

6. Color time! (Teaching them color time, story time and other TIMES teaches them that there is a time for everything.) With color time allrepparttar 109391 students have a sketchpad they bought fromrepparttar 109392 dollar shop with crayons. I have them draw a big circle, triangle and square. Next I have a hand out and they say, “Give me one, please.” The handouts are letters with a matching photo they can color. But first they have to say, “Give me glue, please,” so that I can gluerepparttar 109393 handout into their sketch book. I dorepparttar 109394 gluing because I’m fast. The kids use too much glue and are slow and messy which is fine in art class but in a forty-minute class that only meets once a week speed is essential.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use