Give your child half an hour to relax if he has just come home from school. Get him a light nutritious snack. Don’t feed him junk food or sweets as the sugar and preservatives will only make him hyper and he won’t be able to concentrate on his homework.

Avoid getting your child distracted. Study time should be study time. Turn off the TV or radio for the duration of the period. Make sure that his study space is clean and free of clutter. Check the lighting and ventilation condition. Make the area comfortable.

If you endeavor to help you child, sit with him and focus solely on him. Avoid multi-tasking while helping him with his homework so that your child knows that study time is an important task and that it demands attention.

Let him take a five minute break after each subject. Just make sure that he understands that a five minute break does not mean 10 minutes of Wii. Explain to him that the earlier he finishes his homework, the more time he gets to do whatever he wants. Don’t forget to check his work so that he’ll also understand that quality too is also important. So that even if he finishes quickly but turns up shoddy work, he’ll have to repeat his homework and thus spending more time than necessary.

Secretary Lapus recently spoke in the recent 3rd National ICTs Basic Education Congress and he revealed the Information and Communications Technology for Education (ICT4E) – a strategic plan that will take five years in development and a budget of P2 billion  (and that amount is slotted for 44,300 primary and secondary schools for only the year 2009).

Ultimately, the ICT4E seeks to “revitalize schools, link students to global resources and enable them to critically seek and analyze information, create new knowledge and products and eventually develop habits of self-learning.” All of these to transform students into “dynamic learners, values-centered and responsible citizens.”

Source: PDI

If you are prone to this, then you will find this post useful. Here are some easy steps on how to remember what you’ve read:

1. Associate words or ideas with personal experiences. It is easy to remember  important details if you can relate them with things that you are more familiar with. For example, it will be easier to remember dates in your history lessons, if they also coincide with friends or family members’ birthdays.  Perhaps, the United States Civil War can be associated to a Justice League episode.

2. Make an outline of your reading material as soon as you are done absorbing it. Write this on an index card. So when you review, all you have to do is look at the outline and then the details will come back to you as you recognize the flow of thought.

3. Highlight the key words. If you are allowed to make marks on your books, you can use a pencil to underline the key details, or even a highlighting pen. You can also write notes on the margin.  Just in case you prefer to keep your reading materials pristine, you can always take down notes using your trusty pen and paper.

Let’s face it. Reading resources nowadays aren’t cheap, and what with the constantly rising cost of living, ways of saving some cash are indeed very welcome. Why don’t you, students, help your parents a bit by being a little more resourceful when it comes to looking for academic resources?

Go to online libraries

There are lots of open source online book sites out there. All you have to be is smart enough to look for them.

The Internet Public Library is vast! It provides not only thousands of books but also research papers and articles. It is also quite credible since it is a project of various institutions. The only downside to this is that you cannot download the books and so you have to read them online. Another online library that is as credible as the IPL is Google Scholar . It features mostly articles and e-books, some of which you can download and read offline.

One other popular site is Wikibooks, which is much like Wikipedia. There are many well-archived books you can look at here. Yet, like when using Wikipedia, you have to be able to discern which resources are legit and which are not as books are edited frequently by the world wide wiki community. My advice is that use this site not for your main resource but for added information.

Students can be taught basic web development through designing their own blogs. They can write at least three paragraphs worth of  entries per week. These entries should still observe correct  writing mechanics such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Subject matter can be given by the teacher or can be chosen by the students; it really is up to the teacher.

The actual work can be done in computer class. The English teacher can obtain all the saved pages of a class in one disk to be corrected.

Divide your bulletin board in parts. Have one remain unchanged throughout the school year. As children enjoy some level of consistency, having something that remain constant will help the students’ comfort.

You can assign  the rest of the board to the students. You can have them grouped by months so they can  be in charge of the bulletin board – decorating it, posting announcements, etc.

Get the board ready by the first day of school.  Remember to always keep the board interesting, fun, and very educational.  Aside from the usual classroom announcements, you can have the students assign themes per month. They can write fun facts about Christmas, or they can post the “best stories” or “picture assignments” for Valentine’s.

Among the many toys manufactured out there, which are the ones that would actually help in the correct cognitive and motor development of your pre-school children? Here are some tips on choosing the right toys for your tots:

1. Electronic learning toys. Take advantage of technology. There are many affordable electronic based toys out in the market today. However the best ones are those that your children can interact with. Aural toys such as those with, “The cat goes ‘meow, meow’” features may give your children a good start on learning.

2. Computer software. In this day and age, one is never too young to learn how to manipulate computers. And believe it or not, there are already software programs aimed for kids. Programs that target motor skill development (hand and eye coordination, etc) such as sketch  and color software  will seem like games to them.

3. Building blocks. Develop the creativity of your children. Children like it when their imaginations are unleashed, and these simple and inexpensive toys are just right for that. Just be sure that the toys you buy use 100% non-toxic materials.

4. For girls (and even boys), playing house and holding tea parties are still top choices. They all teach kids the basic social skills and even teach them how to do practical household tasks.

All of these toys won’t be of any use if you, parents, do not interact with or supervise your children during playtime. They will never understand the importance of the skills they are learning  from the games they are playing if you are not there to facilitate.

Designed to challenge Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer, the new Google Chrome is bound to kick some er, bottoms.  It is reported to be easier and faster while offering ” enhanced address-bar features and other elements that are very different from those on other browsers.” Good news (for some) is that the product will be be open-sourced.

Source: Yahoo! News

Go audio

There are some people who learn better aurally. If you are one of them, then take advantage of this skill by listening to language tapes and CDs, songs,  radio drama, or even foreign language shows and movies to aid you in your study. Just 15 minutes a day will help you improve your listening skills, and you’ll also be able to catch the correct pronunciation of difficult words. One other tip, if you’re watching a foreign language film, try to switch off the subtitles.

Computer software

There are also foreign language software programs available in the market. If this is a little too much on your budget, then browse through the world wide web. There are now a lot of internet sites that cater to foreign language students. They often have exercise sheets and practice exercises. They even upload audio and video tutorials.

Memory cards

This can be helpful especially if the language you are learning use a different set of written characters (i.e. Chinese and Japanese). Cut index 3 x 5 cards into three and write one character or word on each. You can use these cards to help you memorize while you are sitting in your car or school bus on your way to school.

Study buddy

Study with a friend or some friends. The best way to study a foreign language is to practice the language. You can also find a pen friend who is a native speaker of the language. Just be careful in choosing one, especially if you’re resource is the internet. Otherwise, have fun talking in tongues!

Travel!

If you can, and are really serious in your foreign language studies (and see it as a good investment for your future career), perhaps you can try and persuade your parents to either take you on holiday to the country of your chosen language, or  enter exchange student programs. There is nothing like immersing yourself into the culture of the language you are learning. You’ll be able to learn the appropriate cues in certain social contexts.

Be clear with your instructions. Confusion will only produce more chaos. Short and direct are the key words here. And be definite, if you say “stop and listen,” then do not be lenient. Make sure that everyone does stop exactly what they are doing.

Try calling their attention without appearing to be too sharp. After all, one never likes to be called, “pssst” by anyone, right? We don’t want our students to feel degraded, as they are after all, human beings too. If you want to be respected, you need to be respectful too.

Do not be too boisterous. Be calm and reassuring. An excitable call would only raise the  exuberance, and therefore the noise level, of the class.

Make sure that when you do call your students attention, make sure that is absolutely necessary. Constant interruption can only lead to students ignoring your calls for attention in the future.

The constancy of pulling a class back to attention can be exhausting and at times, discouraging. A consistent and firm approach to this aspect of classroom management will reap benefits in the classroom environment, enhancing teaching and learning effectiveness.