Category: Education

Most children can pick up things quickly – but some children aren’t so good at it. Rightly so, children are not born learners. It is essential to inculcate the habit of learning – so they are good in academics.  Individual personality plays a good part in learning – and disposition when it comes to education and schooling.

More importantly – when your child receives the right motivation – your child can adopt good learning habits.

While for most children – the classroom is the source of learning, interaction, and instruction – academic growth should not be limited to the classroom. You need to motivate your child to learn and discover new things.

How to help chidren learn more effectively

1. Help kids with their learning goals

Kids today are fed with too much information via different mediums, which affects their learning capabilities. When they need an answer – they have available resources and easy access.

You need to help your kids understand the basics of learning – where they formulate questions and understand the concepts. Show your children information resources and books. And tell them to frame questions looking at them.

At the end of the exercise, your child will figure out the concept – and it will help them understand better. Basically, you need to make things easier for them.

2. Play games to encourage learning

If you want to make your child a quick learner – it is essential to encourage them to discover and explore new things. You can introduce them to fun math games, card games and board games – so they become sharp learners.

Yes, board games play a big role in learning – as it intrigues children and they use their imagination power and problem-solving capability. Besides, these games help to strategize challenging situations, which makes things easier for them. With every logical step –  they learn something new that makes them smarter. Mind board games are best for your little ones.

3. Develop reading habits

Reading is the key to learning new things and grasping new concepts. Children who develop a love for interpretation also develop a love for learning. And children who struggle to read – also struggle to learn.

Reading is the first step towards learning – where your child gets comfortable with books. Besides, regular reading helps your child develop better vocabulary and formal communication skills.

It helps your kids explore language art – and gives them an enhanced ability to understand different subjects. As a part of the exercise, you can tell your child to read for twenty minutes daily – and make sure your child reads aloud.

4. Understand your child’s attention span

Kids don’t have the longest attention span – so you will need to understand their attention span. At times, your kid may appear to focus but maybe zoning out. However, forcing them to stay focused when they lack motivation is forcing them to learn. This is not beneficial in promoting student growth.

Take some time out – and help get their focus back. It is a good idea to create a learning schedule – where your kids will learn for fifteen minutes and rest for 10 minutes. They won’t lose their focus – and will be able to concentrate better on their study routine.

5. Focus on your kids’ interests and introduce learning styles

You need to focus on your kids’ interests and likes. Learning becomes fun – when your child enjoys the process. If you wish to help your child become a good learner – you will have to explore topics and dig out interests.

Like, if your kids are fascinated by discoveries in space, get your kid books and resources that cover the topic.

To help your kids learn better, you can introduce new learning styles. If your kids like playing games – make learning interactive and fun. Use video to engage learning and explore learning apps designed to help teachers and parents access the latest tools..

6. Help your kid stay organized

Do you know if your child is disorganized – it will affect his learning process? Your child needs to remain organized – so that he can concentrate better. Though disorganization is common in school children, don’t let it be a habit.

Tell your child to organize books according to subjects. Besides, naughty children spend more time being frustrated instead of focusing on learning. However, you need to be patient to help your child organize and do things rightly. If you lose patience, you will end up shouting, which will mess up the situation.

Celebrate Learning

Apart from all the techniques mentioned above, it’s essential to celebrate your child’s wins. When your child gets a trophy or certificate, encourage your children by giving them something they like.

It will further motivate your child to do better and learn new concepts. It develops positive feedback – and they begin to enjoy the process of learning, which helps them do better in exams.

Make learning fun and interactive for your children, but do not pressurize them with new concepts. Let them enjoy the process.

Many teachers are fond of using PowerPoint as their mode of teaching. Not only does it engage students who individually respond to different types of learning styles, it is more apt to hold the attention of learners who have grown up in a digital world of visual interaction.

In addition to traditional educational formats, many tuition agencies have its tutors incorporating this technique and many aspiring tutors are also encouraged to pick up the necessary skills to conduct lessons using PowerPoint slides.

#1: SIMPLICITY

Teachers should keep their slides as simple as possible. PowerPoint gives a lot of options for teachers to use such as many colors, fonts and interesting transitions and animations. Using them effectively can help to make the slides more interesting but overusing them will be more detrimental than helpful.

Students will tend to be distracted if there are too many animations and transitions. Simply assigning transitions to each slide just for the sake it is the equivalent of playing random keys on a keyboard. All animations and transitions should only be used with a purpose.

#2: THE AESTHETICS

Tutors tend to focus more on their content as compared to the format of their slides. They need to remember that they are making the slides for their students to learn from and make sure that the slides are pleasant for their eyes.  Especially when you are doing an online tutoring job, where your focus is to make the topic easier to understand. This means that teachers should refrain from using bright and annoying colors like yellow and use more pleasing colors like black or white.

Moreover, teachers should also keep in mind that the words on the slides should be big enough such that all the students can read the content comfortably without straining their eyes. Using an education ppt template can be beneficial in achieving these objectives because it can help enhance the visual appeal of the slides and create a more engaging learning experience for students.

#3: MAKE IT READABLE

Teachers should use contrasting colors to signify important parts of the slides. For example, keywords can be bolded or colored with a complementary color of the background. At the same time, teachers should not get carried away with colors as sometimes the color of their words may blend in with their slides making it difficult to read.

Another problem with colors is teachers may use certain combinations of colors without considering how it affects students who are color-blind. This includes color coding of charts and graphs. Thus, teachers should pay extra attention to see if the color scheme that they use caters to color-blind students.

#4: BEYOND WORDS

Reading paragraphs of words after paragraphs of words is not fun for anyone and can easily become boring and tiring after a while. Thus, teachers should add interesting features like pictures, charts, symbols, videos, gifs, etc.

These visual components can be very effective tools to capture the attention of all the students quickly and keep them engaged throughout the entire presentation.

#5: KEEP IT CONCISE

Sometimes the previous tip may not be enough to make the slides more engaging for students. Simply adding occasional images will not make reading paragraphs of words any more exciting. Thus, teachers should learn to make their points as concise as possible. The slides should not be a script containing all necessary information.

It should instead be small pointers that help the teacher refer to and elaborate on the spot. The words that teachers use should also be selected carefully. Teachers should refrain from using complicated vocabulary words that students may not know.

#6: TRANSITIONS

When moving onto a new slide, teachers should use transitions and animations so that they do not present all the information at once. Doing so may overwhelm students as they will try to read all the information as a whole which may be confusing and take away from the main point the teacher may be trying to cover.

Teachers can avoid this confusion by revealing each of their bullet points only when they are talking about it instead of all the words on the slide appearing at once.

#7: PRESENTATION

Following all the previous tips should set teachers on the right path to prepare slides of good quality. However, making the slides is only half the journey; teachers will also have to present it correctly.

Teachers should practice presenting what is on their slides so that during the lesson they are able to present in a coherent manner. Reading from the slides is a very amateur mistake that no teacher should be making and yet it is not too uncommon.

#8: EMPHASIZING ON IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Teachers can use certain tricks to help students focus on the more important part of the lesson. One simple but very effective trick is to blank the projector when the teacher wants to say something important. When students cannot see anything on the screen, they will naturally divert their attention to what the teacher is saying and this can help teachers emphasize which part is the most important.

 #9: CLARIFYING DOUBTS

Sometimes it can be unclear which part of the slide the teacher is talking about. Although students can simply ask and clarify, this problem should in fact never rise in the first place. Teachers should always present with a laser pointer in their hand, constantly pointing to which point they are talking about. Pointing simply with their finger is also usually not enough as it can be very unclear exactly where they are pointing to from the students’ perspective.

#10: PLANNING

It is difficult to plan everything accurately and perfectly before the lesson. Teachers will always run into the problem of the presentation taking too long or finishing too quickly. For the latter, the problem can be easily solved. Teachers should share something interesting related to the topic such as a story or a personal experience.

The first problem is however difficult to solve. Teachers will have to learn how and when to skip slides so that they can save time without it being difficult for the students to follow. This is a skill that only comes with practice. Whether in the classroom, in a home school environment or online with a tutor, PowerPoint is a great way to engage students who respond to different types of learning, such as auditory or visual learning.

Provide additional resources for students, such as engaging study notes.  Start with easy design in Microsoft Word and then create a PDF.

Students are our future, which is why we are obligated to provide them with a well-rounded and hands-on education experience with lots of room for expressionism. This way, students can see higher potential for professional and communal success.  The future is gunning to mesh tech with reality – how can we be as efficient as helpful?

When the time comes, future employers will be thirsty for diverse minds ready to problem-solve, especially those who have been trained amidst the industry’s current transition. Since 2011, we have been undergoing the world’s Fourth Industrial Revolution – also known as Industry 4.0. That’s serious stuff, huh?

This is the time innovators create world-changing gadgets, business models, workflows, systems, and materials to set us up with better circumstances. Ultimately, this pushes civilization forward. The last time this happened was between 1950 and 2002, which is when robots and PLCs were invented.

In short, an “industrial revolution” is any mass transition into new manufacturing processes. When all is said and done, the way we work will have been improved, as well as what we gain from our work. Along with that, we will have created more resources for ourselves.

The primary focus of Industry 4.0 has been inter-connectivity. Electronics, IT, robots, and PLCs were created by Industry 3.0 innovators, which is what modern innovators are

optimizing. Resulting from this, we will have a workforce that includes higher-level automation driven by artificial intelligence and an integration of cyber-physical systems across both global and domestic supply chains.

Here’s another example.  After the First Industrial Revolution, machines and tool were created. This reduced and eliminated animal labor. However, Industry 1.0 took place between 1760 and 1830, so the most advanced machines created at the time were driven by steam and internal combustion engines.

During the Second Industrial Revolution, innovators were eager to improve the current workforce’s efficiency and productivity. So, innovators built the world’s first railroad systems, telegraph lines, and assembly lines. This made shipping and physical labor a lot easier. Furthermore, innovators of 1870-1914 also introduced new materials such as stainless steel and plastics.

What does every innovator have in common? Education. Knowledge is power. A lot of the bright ideas we use today were developed from an innovator’s thought to make a system better. This is why expressionism is an important element of education. Let their thoughts roam free and allow them to build systems to work around their innovative roadblocks.

Students are our innovators-in-training. Parallel to Industry 4.0’s progression, STEM curricula has taken off at all-time-highs. In other words, there is no question Industry 4.0 will have plenty of room for your child to partake. The question is: what will they create?

Check out the infographic below to learn more about Industry 4.0 and how it can help shape your child for the future.

When looking into moving homes, we observe multiple aspects in choosing which neighborhood we want to move our families. There is price, distance, housing quality, and other characteristics that ultimately decide which place we are most comfortable in picking. But perhaps no factor is more important than the neighborhood’s school district.

There is ongoing change happening around our country, along with diversification programs that are thankfully gathering more momentum within multiple sectors. With the transformation of neighborhoods due to population growth, school district funding can change based on numerous local, state, and national factors.

However, planning out your family’s future school district isn’t as simple as statistics on a page.  You don’t have to be a school administrator or a real estate appraiser to educate yourself with this helpful information. Looking into both the way public school districts are funded and the particular school district you have in mind will help ensure that your children have successful educational futures.

Public School Districts

A properly funded and well maintained public school system is what to look for when examining your children’s future school district. First, we’ll be making a clear distinction between private and public schools and observing the latter when it comes to school districts. With private schools, a parent pays a clear tuition fee that the private school operator collects.

Public schools, by comparison, are regulated by local, state, and federal law. Thus, they are operated from a mixture of locally-, state-, and federally-collected and distributed funding. Less than ten percent of total funds come from the federal level (through Title I and other means), with the majority coming from locally- and state-collected funds. About half of these total funds come from local property taxes.

Funding must then be circulated into individual districts. They can then hire appropriate staff, purchase necessary equipment and supplies, and maintain their operating structure (and, if able within their funding, construct new additions to their schools). These days, choosing a new school for your kids has a lot to do with school funding is about distribution, and if a community is progressively or regressively allocating its funding to the students who need it the most.

Progressive School Funding

What does it mean, then, to classify a public school district as “progressive?” Well, there are a few indicating characteristics. An Urban Institute study in 2017 found that there are 35 states–70 percent of the country–that specifically target low-income students with public school funding. New Jersey and Connecticut are examples of states that have progressive funding systems in place at the state level–though this can sometimes result in problems at the local funding level regarding income disparity. When this occurs, states will attempt to correct public school funding that it believes is inequitable.

In particular, New Jersey makes up for this by balancing its local and state public school funding, making it progressive to the amount of $1,453 per student. States differ in terms of progressive vs. regressive public school funding due to economic disparity, as well as differences in legislation. No matter which area you’re moving to, it’s essential to be aware of how your school district is funded on the state and local levels.

Tips for Changing Your School District

We’ve examined the overall way that school districts are funded these days. Still, careful research into your move itself is vital to ensure a comfortable adjustment for your children. It’s essential first to look into a few tips crucial to making the moving process, and changing school districts, an easier one.

You’ll want to be aware of any waiting periods to enroll your child in a certain district’s public school. You’ll also need to ensure that you have your children’s immunization records and medical forms on file, which is more necessary these days than ever before. Look into extracurricular activities such as virtual creative groups, which will help your child expand their new community of friends.

Additionally, email your child’s future guidance counselor about this recent move, and how it (as well as changing schools) may be taking up a large degree of their mental space. This will inform them and make them aware of a possible situation where your child finds it difficult to adapt to the new experience.

But more than anything, it’s vital to take a look into the individual districts in terms of teaching, subject proficiency, transportation management, funding allocation, and other informational aspects to determine for yourself how you view its quality of schooling. We’ve discussed public school funding and its distribution, but that’s only part of the equation.

Schools may rank highly in math proficiency, for example, when compared to the state average. (New Jersey’s math proficiency is 42 percent, for example, while its top five schools in this category all rank at 95 percent or higher.) However, if your child has special needs or is seeking a program that focuses on foreign language immersion, these rankings may not be as useful to you.

Additional factors to consider during your future school district search

Take the time to ask yourself some questions:

What is this school district’s subject proficiency in the topics I want my child to excel in?

What is this school district’s graduation rate?

Which school districts per state have the highest spending per student, and how is it allocated?

Which school districts have the lowest teacher to student ratio?

As parents, we naturally want the best for our children. Moving is never easy and choosing the best neighborhood for our family can be a monumental task that takes dedicated planning. With knowledge of the public school system and having a few tips on hand for the move, you can do your part in researching the district of your future neighborhood and setting your child on the right path for their educational future.

About the Author
Jennifer Walker is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast, and avid beach goer operating out of Southern New Jersey.