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Monday, July 7, 2008

Parent Involvement in Education Plays An Important Role To Student Success


Being an educator and a parent I believe that parent's involvement in education, plays an important role in child development or success.

A recent review of the research literature by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory found that,

"clearly, parent involvement is effective in fostering achievement and affective gains at all levels, and schools are encouraged to engage and maintain this involvement throughout the elementary, middle school and secondary years".

Parents need to be involved throughout the school year reading to their children, helping with assignments, participating in parent events at the school and establishing a working relationship with teachers
."

Child Development Institute was founded by Robert Myers, Ph.D. Dr. Myers is a Clinical Child Psychologist with 25 years of experience working with children, adolescents, families and parents.

You can get information on child development, parenting, family life, teenagers, learning, health & safety, child psychology and mental health including ADHD.

What you can get at the site?

* Parents resouces

* Child Development : Information on child development including prenatal, physical, intellectual, language and social development.

* Parenting Parenting information on child development, discipline, family life, teenagers, learning, health & safety and child psychology plus news for parents.

* Psychology page provides information, research & practical guides for parents on various mental disorders found in children and adolescents. Also provides information on promoting health psychosocial development in kids and teens.

* Improving Your Child's Learning Ability: Information related to assisting parents in helping their children and teenagers to improve their learning and study skills. Techniques on how to develop motivation, attention, comprehension, organization and creativity are provided.

* Child & Teen Health and Safety Issues:
Providing information on health & issues for children and adolescents from leading experts and professional organizations.

More links:
- East Renfrewshire council

-

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Now students can get FREE home work help via internet

Often children or students need help in homework, but they don't get help around them. May be they are away from their schools, class mate or tutor, to get timely guidance. What about getting onlline homework help?

This is called One-to-One Online Tutoring.

This free offer is from SWAP Library Network a non-profit project from Government of Australia.

Through this online site, Children and Young Adults can get Free Homework and Exam Help from Qualified Tutors via the Internet.

This free service allows anyone to come to any of the SWAP library branches or log on from home, Monday - Friday, from 4pm to 8pm and receive expert help from real tutors via the Internet.
Online Tutoring is simple to use. Learners just log on from home or from designated computer terminals at their local library, enter their year level and the subject they need help in and are immediately connected to an expert tutor in an Online Classroom for help.

Subjects covered include:
Mathematics (yrs 4-6, yrs 7-10, yrs 11-12 general, intermediate and specialist/extension)
Science (yrs 4-6, yrs 7-10, yrs 11-12)
• General biology, chemistry, physics
English (general English, essay writing, grammar, usage, punctuation)
Assignment research (humanities and social science subjects)
Study skills (time management, note taking, exam revision).

Learn from Qualified Tutors in an Online Classroom:

Students and tutors can review specific homework, exam, and assignment questions using features such as controlled chat, an interactive white board and shared Web browsing. Tutors and students can type maths equations using a special equation tool, review educational Web sites using a shared browser tool and much more for a rewarding learning experience. The tutors are certified teachers, professional tutors, post-graduates and advanced undergraduates from top Australian universities. They all have years of tutoring experience, are experts in the subjects they teach and have passed government background checks. They also love to teach and share their knowledge online.
Your tutor is online and waiting to help you Monday to Friday from 4pm -8pm!

Remember: This offer is from Australia, so better to check the timings with your local timings.

Just follow these simple steps to connect to your tutor.

1. Go to the Your Tutor website: salibraries.yourtutor.com.au
2. Enter your library card number and begin!

In order to use Your Tutor all you need is a connection to the Internet and a web browser with the flash plugin installed.

"Jerry Burm" - helping us raise children into happy adults

I din't review "Jerry Burm" in my previous post, because I felt that her sites need a seperate post. Because we all want to raise our children happy adults. There is a lot to learn for parents and teachers who can discover "learning disability" among them or children. I hope that learning can show us a way to recover from any kind of disability symptoms.

Jerry Burm believes that:

"People are born with certain traits which they received form their parents genes. However, the way in which a person develops is partly the responsibility of its environment. The younger the child the more impact the environment has on the child. Those experiences become their “world view” with which they look on all further events happening throughout their life, it becomes their representation of the world. The sooner we provide the right conditions the better. There is always the possibility to reprogram our mind but this is much harder than having a good start in the first place. So it’s up too us the adults to provide as much as possible the right conditions so the child can develop in to a happy person."

"Today was build yesterday; therefore, the young individual is our future and the foundation for tomorrow’s society."

Jerry Burm is Giving Children an Optimal Start in Life. It is a learning expedition on how to most effectively raise children into happy adults.

The goal of the site is to publish clear guidelines for the child’s environment (i.e. parents, teachers, child care takers…) on how to achieve this goal.

At her site Happy dyslexic which helps dyslexics achieve their potential and be happy, she Jerry Burm says about her site and herself:

"I discovered I had dyslexia at the age of 42. It was a positive experience to finally know the explanation for some aspects of my character.

In general, I was not so unhappy with myself, yet I wanted to improve certain skills, like being a better writer, reader, listener, being less confused and express myself more clearly. There were also a few things about myself, which puzzled me and I expected to find some answers after my search for more information about dyslexia. After finding answers to those questions, it was like discovering a part of me that I didn't know before, I had the feeling I could piece it all together.

Life is much easier if you know how you function
."

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Download millions of e-books at "Wrorld E-Book Fair" -2008


I am always in search of free stuff at the net and the regaular readers of this blog know that I share my free stuff links with them. Today I am here to inform you about an event which is a revolutioanary offer of downlading FREE e-books from the world wide web. For students, kids and teachers of course, this is a good chance to read your favourite e-books online, or you can save the books at your computer as well.

"Word E-Book Fair" is providing golden opportunity for reading lovers to downlad millions of e-books FREE of cost.

More information:

Third Annual World eBook Fair: July 4th to August 4th
Just two years ago The First World eBook Fair came on the scene with about 1/3 million books, doubled to 2/3 million in 2008, and now over one million.


Created by contributions from 100+ eLibraries from around the world, here are the largest collections.

As of midnight Central Daylight Time July 4, 2008 these are the approximate numbers:
100,000+ from Project Gutenberg
500,000+ from The World Public Library
450,000+ from The Internet Archive
160,000+ from eBooks About Everything
17,000+ from IMSLP

Grand Total = 1,227,000+

• Full Text Search of 500,000+ PDF eBook Titles in 100+ Languages.
• Open Access to eBooks from 7/04/08 to 8/04/08.

Which collection they are offering?

Search the collection page.
Start from this link: Browse the collection.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Tips and ideas to learn about behavior management

Behavior manangement is a skill which parents and teachers should learn to deal with children. This article would help you to get many tips and ideas from various sites. I have given links to the sites, which offer behavior manangement tips and ideas for parents and teachers.

Let's learn what is behavior management?

Wikipedia explains:
"Behavior management is similar to behavior modification. It is a less intensive version of behavior modification. In behavior modification the focus is on changing behavior, while in behavior management the focus is on maintaining order. Behavior management skills are particularly of importance to teachers in the educational system.Behavior management is all of the actions and conscious inactions to enhance the probability people, individually and in groups."

* LD Online offers an article on the topic:

When someone mentions behavior management, our first thought may be about controlling students or stopping them from performing inappropriate behaviors. We expend a great deal of energy managing students so that inappropriate behaviors will not occur.
Read the full article: Behavior Management: Getting to the Bottom of Social Skills Deficits
- Behavior Management Ideas

* Ask Dr. Sears is a site from William Sears, MD and Martha Sears, RN, who wrote 40+ pediatric books, articles in parenting magazines, and their appearances on more than 100 television programs such as 20/20, Donahue, Good Morning America, Oprah, CBS This Morning, CNN, NBC's Today Show and Dateline. After raising eight children and practicing pediatric medicine for more than 30 years, they have answered questions from thousands of parents. Their site provides a lot of articles on discipline and behavior
- Descipline and Behavior articles

* FREE e-book "Rules for Unruly Chilren":
This e-book offer is from "Parenting.Org" an online resource for free parenting help.
Rules for Unruly Children, written by Richard L. Munger for use by Boys Town, is meant to change your child's problem behavior as quickly as possible, using simple techniques that will work with most children. This book offers parenting approaches that:

- Can be learned quickly
- Can be used immediately
- Gives quick results
- Work with most problem behaviors

You can download FREE e-book "Rules for Unruly Chilren" from the link below. And please note that to get the e-book you should enter the U.S. A or Cananda address at the available form.
- Sign up page to get the book

* Intervention Central offers free tools and resources to help school staff and parents to promote positive classroom behaviors and foster effective learning for all children and youth. The site was created by Jim Wright, a school psychologist and school administrator from Central New York.

Visit to check out newly posted academic and behavioral intervention strategies, download publications on effective teaching practices, and use tools that streamline classroom assessment and intervention.
- At download section you can get link to many topics like as:

- Curriculum-Based Measurement: A Manual for Teachers. This 106-page manual gives instructions that educators can follow to prepare, administer, and score Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) probes in the classroom. [106 pages/File size: 3.39MBA Manual for Teachers

There are many other manuals and reports which you can download from the download page.

* This article is from "BehaviorAdvisor, which is from Dr. Mac (Tom McIntyre), a former teacher of students with behavior disorders and learning disabilities, is now a Professor of Special Education and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Behavior Disorders at Hunter College of the City University of New York. An entertaining presenter, and author of 3 books and over 100 articles, he promotes practical, positive, and respectful management of defiant and aggressive behavior.

- Your Child Has A Behavior Disorder”

* This article is a series of training manuals provided by "Project PARA" which conducts research and develops training materials for paraeducators and teachers who supervise them. Based in the College of Education and Human Sciences Department of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The project provides Web-based self study programs that offer school districts resources to provide introductory training for paraeducators and/or the teachers who supervise them. These resources are offered free of charge to schools and teacher training programs.

- "Teacher Vision" provides many printables and articles helping you manage classroom descipline. Behavior Management

*

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A family blog from a parent

I usually review the sites which are related to teaching, learning, parenting and so on. Today's blog is from Rozz_Lea Rozie, who is a business Development Executive from Malaysia and a mom blogger. Blog is very colourful and especially I liked it for a personal touch. The topics you can find the posts about are:Random Daily Happenings, Family, Children, Life, Personal, Friends, News, Events, Thoughts, Poems, Foods, Cultures, Nature, Books,Travel and writings.

I spent a lot of time to see the posts and I was amazed to read some very appealing posts. As in her post "Morning thoughts" she says:
"You may not realize this, but it is nevertheless a fact.
If you set out with worry and depression,
of soul toward fate or man, you are giving the key note
to a day of discord and misfortunes.

If you think peace, hope, and happiness,
you are sounding a note of harmony and success.

The result may not be felt at once,
but it will not fail to make itself evident eventually.

Control your morning thoughts.

You can do it!
"

She hasn't mentioned that she likes to read self help topics, but from few of her posts I can estimate that she reads about variety of topics. Isn't it Rozie?

One thing I am confused about that blog is only few months old, but she could manage to write many posts in one month. As in April she had 18 posts, then in May 40 and June with 46 posts. It shows her interest in blog that she is very passionate about it.

Learn about "Children with learning disablities"

Few months age, in a teacher's meeting our principal suggested us to watch a Hindi movie "Taaray Zameen Par" to see a character of a teacher who has to deal with a child having learning disability (Dyslexia). Movie was excellent because I could realize that as an educator we have to deal with many kind of kids and if we don't deal every child individually, we can't say that we are successful teachers.

Every session of reception years brings new challenges for teachers like me. In session 2007-08 I have to fact the same situation, as a girl of 4 plus age was not doing well with activities or studies in classroom. Even at break time, she was notinterested in running or playing around. At the end of the session, I decided to read and search about "learning disabilities" and I suggest every parent and teacher to check if their children have any symptom of any disabiliy. To my opinion having proper knowledge of these mental disorder can help us improve the situation.

To write this article I have taken help from Learning Disabilities.org, which is world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD.

Facts about learning disabilities

- Fifteen percent of the U.S. population, or one in seven Americans, has some type of learning disability, according to the National Institutes of Health.
- Difficulty with basic reading and language skills are the most common learning disabilities. As many as 80% of students with learning disabilities have reading problems.
- Learning disabilities often run in families.
- Learning disabilities should not be confused with other disabilities such as mental retardation, autism, deafness, blindness, and behavioral disorders. None of these conditions are learning disabilities. In addition, they should not be confused with lack of educational opportunities like frequent changes of schools or attendance problems. Also, children who are learning English do not necessarily have a learning disability.
- Attention disorders, such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities often occur at the same time, but the two disorders are not the same.

What is learning disability?

When children have learning problems, their parents are usually the first to notice that something is just not right. Teachers often notice a child having trouble in their class. And when they notice, they want reliable information so they can help their children.

Definition: "A learning disability is a neurological disorder. In simple terms, a learning disability results from a difference in the way a person's brain is "wired." Children with learning disabilities are as smart or smarter than their peers. But they may have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or organizing information if left to figure things out by themselves or if taught in conventional ways."

A learning disability can't be cured or fixed; it is a lifelong issue. With the right support and intervention, however, children with learning disabilities can succeed in school and go on to successful, often distinguished careers later in life.

Parents can help children with learning disabilities achieve such success by encouraging their strengths, knowing their weaknesses, understanding the educational system, working with professionals and learning about strategies for dealing with specific difficulties.

Common learning disabilities:

Dyslexia – a language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding written words. It may also be referred to as reading disability or reading disorder.
Dyscalculia – a mathematical disability in which a person has a difficult time solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts.
Dysgraphia – a writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form letters or write within a defined space.
Auditory and Visual Processing Disorders – sensory disabilities in which a person has difficulty understanding language despite normal hearing and vision.
Nonverbal Learning Disabilities – a neurological disorder which originates in the right hemisphere of the brain, causing problems with visual-spatial, intuitive, organizational, evaluative and holistic processing functions.

Early Warning Signs of Learning Disabilities:

Learning disabilities affect one in seven people according to the National Institutes of Health. Parents, therefore, need to be familiar with the early indicators of a learning disability in order to get the right help as soon as possible.

The most common learning disability is difficulty with language and reading. A recent National Institutes of Health study showed that 67 percent of young students identified as being at risk for reading difficulties were able to achieve average or above average reading ability when they received help early
Below are several early warning signs commonly associated with learning disabilities between the preschool years and fourth grade. Many young children may exhibit one or two of these behaviors; however, consistent problems with a group of behaviors is a good indication your child may have a learning disability.

Early warning signs: Preschool

- Late talking, compared to other children
- Pronunciation problems
- Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right word
- Difficulty rhyming words
- Trouble learning numbers, the alphabet, days of the week
- Extremely restless and easily distracted
- Trouble interacting with peers
- Poor ability to follow directions or routines
- Early warning signs: Kindergarten through fourth grade
- Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
- Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
- Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
- Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)
- Slow recall of facts
- Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
- Impulsiveness, lack of planning
- Unstable pencil grip
- Trouble learning about time
- Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents

Source:
Early Warning Signs of Learning Disabilities

If you go to the site, you would get all the necessary information about the topic, but I am providing some more article links for a quick study:

* A lot of resources and article links at educators page:
- LD Online-Educators

* Parenting a child with learning disabilities or ADHD is a challenge. To assist you, LD OnLine has gathered the information to help you get started in understanding what your child needs, your rights and responsibilities in working with the school, and ways to support your son or daughter at home.:
- Parents

* Each month, Dr. Larry Silver, Matt Cohen, and Dr. Tracy Gray answer selected questions from parents and educators about learning disabilities and ADHD. See the expert advice they've provided to others who've written in. You might find an answer that applies to your own situation!

- Exper advice

What can parents do?
At "Move to Learn" site, Barbara Phelong (who is herself a resouce teacher, having a 35 years of experience in the field of special education )suggests these fun to learn activities, which can help in children with learning difficulties:
-
- Another article at the site may be helpful which is about "Spotting learning difficulties
Note: Site suggests to buy books on related topics, but still you can search for free stuff and get help.

* This article would be of interest to the parents, who don't see hope dealing with their child with learning disability.
- Life Success For Students With Learning Disabilities: A Parent's Guide

* Happy dyslexic The purpose of this site is to help dyslexics achieve their potential and be happy. We can contribute to this by bringing more understanding and a positive view on dyslexia, and ways on how to overcome the disadvantages of dyslexia.

Monday, June 30, 2008

An ultimate resource for parents about child development and behavior

Internet is a rich source of information for teachers or parents in terms of guidance, tips, advice and expert suggestions. Every parent needs guidance on kid's development and behavior.

Your child is a site from University of Michigan Medical School and this site is especially designed for parents as a guide to internet iformation on kids development and behavior.

Mission/Vision:

"YourChild: Development and Behavior Resources is a Web site for parents. It is a clearinghouse for comprehensive information on children's development and behavior. We aim to help parents navigate the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet and provide parents a means to link up with support groups, agencies, organizations, and other tools and resources. YourChild is a resource parents can trust, because University of Michigan experts have evaluated all our information and links."

What you can get from the site?

- Lots of parenting and child development and behavior resources:

- Information to help you better understand your child's development and behavior
Links to support groups so you can find other parents going through the same things as you

- Links to agencies and organizations that may be able to assist you
Recommended books

- Other helpful tools and resources

- Commentary from the YourChild team on controversial or important topics of the day

- Featured links to information about timely topics

- A guide to using the Internet to find the best and most reliable information about parenting and child development

Another source for parents:

* Center for effective parenting provides lot of information for parents and educators.

* A lot of printable PDF files on many topics:
parenting handouts
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