Importance of body language in teaching

One of my teaching assistant was once praising another teacher while commenting on her body language. Body language is an important tool which can help you to be a good teacher, friend or a popular confident personality. In our teaching profession we are given many trainings or participate in workshops to make our teaching more effective, techniques to make use of our body language can trigger our success as a teacher and I also believe that skill development should be a continuous process.

Free Powerpoint presentation tutorials for educational puropose

Microsoft office users know that 'PowerPoint' can be very effectively used for any kind of presentation including pictures, text, charts, graphs, sound effects and videos.
Teachers can use this software for educational purposes like as delivering classroom lessons, parent group meetings, trainings, teachers seminars, or sharing any kind of information.

PowerPoint in the classroom offers eight-unit tutorial for K-12 teachers 'how to use PowerPoint to present many different forms of information'.

Teachers can learn the basics on using PowerPoint's toolbars, laying out information, saving, moving your information to the place you'll be presenting it - and much more.

This tutorial is provided free of charge by ACT360 Media Ltd.

* You can get a print out of this tutorial for free from 'this link'

Activities and crafts for preschool kids

Art and crafts is always a favourite time pass for me and for my nursery class kids. I usually search for crafts ideas at the net and participate at many parents, teachers or craft, drawing related online communities. I just pick up some ideas or project instructions, just follow it or create similar or different activities for my students. There are many sites around which offer crafts or art activities for toddlers or preschool kids and most of those sites provide free access for that stuff.

"Pre school learning and crafts" is created by former teacher who describes the purpose of creating this site:

'Using toddler and preschool learning activities, crafts, games, and songs in your everyday busy life can help your child (and you) in so many ways. As a former teacher and current stay-at-home mom, I have noticed that many of the activities for preschoolers I find online don't actually work with my kids. I have to modify them to avoid having to do most of the project myself!'

She has explained it in details at 'about me' page.

She is a stay-at-home mom of three young kids ages 1, 3, and 6.

The easy and fun learning activities and crafts on this site have all been tested by her children and friends. These activities on Preschool-Learning-and-Crafts.com are age appropriate (moms won't have to do them for their kids), have easy to follow directions.

Each month you can receive the "Craft Your Kids Smart newsletter" directly to your email. Each issue will be full of learning ideas, games, crafts, and songs around a preschool theme (Valentine's Day, Animals, Dinosaurs, Weather, etc.)
All of the preschool activities will have easy to follow directions and supply lists.

Subscribe for the newsletter at 'this link'

The site owner has account at 'facebook' and if you are interested to get updated news about her crafts then go directly to her account 'here'

Community place for teachers

Online forums and communities are a good place to get tips, ideas, and news about specific topics. Like bloggers have many forums from which they can get useful information while getting a chance to discuss or share their own experiences. There is a lot of learn at these social community places.

'The apple' is for teachers, which is itself created by a teacher. It brings members of the education community together to support and advance the profession.

You get news, search for lesson plans and read articles written by experts, as well as getting career based posts.
Membership is free for all.

Few post links are given to show the content you can read at the site:

- Classroom Discipline Tips: Dealing with Difficult Students & Parents

- Top 10 Technology Tips for New Teachers

How teachers can learn the use of internet effectively?

It seems very easy to say that we are good in surfing the net or know a lot about 'internet' world. But being an internet surfer and user for more than 6 years, I feel that I am still an infant at the world wide web. There is a lot to learn at it and most important thing is that you need to learn the effective use of it. Now internet has opened doors for students and parents as well. Teachers can easily learn the effective use of internet for their schools or classrooms.

'Internet for classrooms' is created to offer free internet resouces to use in classroom. It is used by teachers, parents and students of all ages. internet4classrooms.com has a huge collection of educational links: free worksheet sites, free software, interactive activities and much more. They answer requests for help, concerns, or anything you want to write about.

They also offer online tutorials for teachers to help them integrate technology in classrooms.

Site link: internet4classrooms.com

Create online stories and art with 'scratch'

There are many graphics softwares which can help you create a lot of art or other interactive stuff. But if you want to teach children with those softwares, you need to simplify it. 'Scratch' makes it easier for young children to learn art and other stuff for free online. You need to download the software programme from the site which your child can use offline as well.


What is 'Scratch'?

It is a programming language for children. You can create interactive stories, games, music and art - and share them online.

According to 'Wikipedia':

'Scratch is a computer application aimed primarily at children that allows them to explore and experiment with the concepts of computer programming by using the simple graphical interface. It was proposed and developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab by a team led by Mitchel Resnick and first appeared in the summer of 2007.

Scratch,which is available free, can be installed on any Windows or Mac OS X computer with various installation options for computers running Linux .'

Site link: 'Scratch'

How to help our kids use digital technology wisely

Internet provides a lot of learning opportunities while surfing at the net but still we need to learn about downloading music, movies and copying computer software and games as there are some ethics which we should follow, learn and teach to our younger generation. We can help our kids use digital technology wisely by providing useful information to our kids.

'Peers2Peers' is a program of 'Wired Kids', devoted to making sure that all young people have a safe, valuable and private surfing experience and that all children have access.

Peer 2 peers.org teaches kids and teens how to help each other surf responsibly. It develops new educational and awareness programs for kids and teens about important issues affecting kids and teens.

They say: 'We think that when it comes to setting the rules for what you should and shouldn't be doing online, you should be involved.'

The public service announcements and animations have been designed by real teens and preteens to help others realize the consequences of movie and copyright piracy online.

Safe and family friendly media usage

As a parent and teacher I am always concerned about the media exposure for kids. It is our duty to think and take steps towards safe and family friendly media usage.
I believe that we need trustworthy information to guide the new generation. Media has become an important part of our lives and the best way to get most and healthy outcome from it to train our kids. We cannot cover their eyes but we can teach them to see.

If you want to be a well informed parent or teacher then MPPA Motion Picture Association of America is the first place to check for useful issues, classification or ratings about the films.
* Check the 'Parental Resources' section.

More useful sites and links:

1- Common sense media

Mission: (In their own words)

'Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families.

We exist because media and entertainment profoundly impact the social, emotional, and physical development of our nation's children. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.'

By signing up for the site you get the stuff in your inbox:
- Age-appropriate best bets for your kids
- Weekly email alert with the latest picks, reviews & advice
You can Post your own reviews and share them with friends.

They believe that "Parents need to know about media content and need to manage media use."

2- www.kids-in-mind.com enables adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for them or their children, according to their own criteria.

3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE & PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10. We also explain in detail why a film rates high or low in a specific category, and we include instances of SUBSTANCE USE, a list of DISCUSSION TOPICS that may elicit questions from kids and MESSAGES the film conveys.

They do not "condemn," "critique" or "criticize" movies. And they don't "praise" or "recommend" movies either, so you are free to make your choice.


3- Rotten Tomatoes offers a fun and informative way to discover the critical reaction on movies neatly summarized via the Tomatometer.

Over 7 million readers each month use RT as a dependable, objective resource for coverage of movies and DVD. It offers more than 250,000 titles and 850,000 review links