Archive for the ‘Guest Posts’ Category

Five Effective Habits to Increase Your Motivation to Study by Edmond Garrett offers students of all ages key tips for organizing and getting the most out of study time. Be sure to share this sound advice with any students you know.

Early Review

• Make a habit of waking ten minutes early each morning during the week. Spend this time reviewing class materials you’ve already covered. This isn’t a time to catch up on reading assigned chapters or finishing homework you should have done the night before. This time is specifically for quick review of already read materials, such as reading summaries at the end of textbook chapters or reviewing key concepts and definitions.

Scheduled Study Times

• Create a weekly calendar on Sunday laying out your week. Look at the syllabus or class schedule for each of your courses to determine the tests and assignments scheduled for the week. Set aside specific times devoted to studying for each class. Your set aside times are flexible if something comes up during the week, but making a habit of setting this time aside will give you a better chance of following through on your studies.

Share this:

The Importance of Recess and Play by Ken Myers takes on schools that have cut back on recess thinking it will help their test scores. Based on what we know, this makes no sense and Ken does a great job spelling out the reasons why.

• According to CBS News, a Long Island school is banning dangerous recess activities in favor of safer alternatives. No, the children aren’t playing with brass knuckles and mace. Instead, soccer balls, cartwheels and games of tag are no longer allowed unless supervised by a coach. You read that right. Children will be playing with Nerf balls for their own safety.
• The decrease in funding and time allotment for gym and recess is a disturbing trend that is developing across the country. Play is a pivotal part of a child’s development. The human body was not meant for constant rest, especially in children. While classroom topics are important to a child’s breadth of knowledge, exercise is equally important for growing children. The benefits of recess and play go beyond basic physical benefits. Unstructured time allows children to develop social skills, retain new information and create healthy habits that last a lifetime

Share this:

Eat Smart, Be Smart: How Diet Can Improve Mental Capacity by Madoline Hatter

• When we eat, the vitamins and nutrients in the food we consume are processed by our bodies. If you eat a lot of “junk food,” there is a good chance that you will feel like junk. Foods that are more beneficial to your body can make you feel the exact opposite. Healthy foods can also impact your mental capacities and provide the means to maintain a healthy weight,




• A large proportion of people initially go on a diet in order to lose weight. This is the major topic of the first few pages of a Google search on the term “diet.” Although more people are understanding the other ramifications of healthy eating, many are still in the dark about just how profound an impact eating healthier can make on their daily lives. Every aspect of your existence is impacted by the various vitamins, minerals, and macro nutrients that are needed for optimum bodily function. If you are deficient in any of these components, your body won’t be as efficient as it could be.

Share this:

The Internet: Sum of Human Knowledge, or Collection of Scams? by Christine Maddox

• Thanks to Christine Maddox, we have a look at the dual nature of the Internet and what it can mean to learners of all ages. This would be a good piece to have students read and discuss in classes from middle school to colleges. Christine is a great example of how a graduate student can hustle and build her brand while working on a college degree.
• The Internet can seem like a wondrous place full of knowledge regarding virtually any subject you can possibly think of, and perhaps a few things you can’t. Although this vast sum of knowledge can be greatly beneficial to anyone willing to learn, it comes at a price. This collection of humanity also includes every scam and piece of misinformation imaginably conceived. At times, it’s difficult to find the truth among the various “facts” that often contradict one another.

Share this:

Helping Students Find Their Passion is a guest post by Stephanie Green (no relation) that agues for the idea of giving up at least part of the structured curriculum so that students can explore their passion. She also encourages teachers to spend more time helping students determine just what they might be passionate about. Modern instructional technology can be a big help here. This approach has been missing in many schools so be sure to check to see what your school is doing along these lines.

Helping Students Find Their Passion

• How many times did you hear the phrase, “If you only put that much effort into school” or something similar while you were growing up? What if that aspect of life could be the key to engaging students to continue their education or take matters in school more seriously? In the world of education, engaging an ADD child could include using their own passions to capture continued curiosity. This isn’t saying that all children are ADD, but if it works for those who have this medical condition, then why wouldn’t it excel with children who are able to better focus their attention?




• As long as the educational value is legitimate, why not incorporate children’s passions in order to help them succeed? Education doesn’t have to be merely from books that are “assigned” by the district. In fact, home schooled students whose parents have found materials on the Internet generally score much higher than those within the brick-and-mortar system. How can we engage the students in traditional schools to at least meet the productivity of those whom are educated at home?

Finding Their Niche

• One of the first things that needs to be done is to help students find a current niche that they are interested in. While some may have an idea as to what drives them, many others don’t know where their interests lie. This is perfectly fine. However, as a teacher, you should be helping the child discover what they like to involve themselves with. If you’re creative enough, you could encompass any passion into an educational experience – including gaming if that’s what drives them.

Dissecting the Niche

• Many students could be interested in a particular niche because of the glory that is on the surface. By helping your students dig deeper through educational practices, you could help shape their opinions by digging deeper into their area of interest. As in the example above, even video games have a deeper solution to them before players can be successful. A great deal of story development, computation, programming, graphic design, science and more can be incorporated to help your student develop a working video game. The same can be said about any topic once the niche is dissected.

Creative Curriculum

• Here is where your own imagination comes into play. Developing a curriculum from the dissected niche may be quite difficult to accomplish on your own. Although you may have some ideas, why not allow the student to help you develop what needs to be accomplished? As a teacher, you are aware of the levels the student needs to be at during their time in your class. If the student is willing to help you determine what his or her next step should be for exploring their niche, then why not allow them to do so? Once a topic is boiled down to its core elements, a customized curriculum can be developed from the pieces. For example, spelling comprehension and writing skill can be demonstrated by the gamer in the form of the script for his or her “perfect” game. You could even encourage the student to use weekly words to develop his or her plot line.

Importance of Engagement

• One of the biggest reasons why students fall asleep in class is because of the boredom that ensues from some teaching methods. Classrooms that engage students are less likely to have those who catch a few “Zs” in the middle of what could be an important lesson. In order to engage the mind of a student, we have to practice methods that the student can relate to. The material needs to be shrouded in a context that the student finds appealing. If a student is truly drawn to their specific niche, any information about that topic could solidify his or her interest in order to learn more. Putting what the student has learned into practical use in the classroom can keep them be more focused on the task at hand.
• While some teachers may be against methods that are non-traditional, I believe the logic of this approach will work for many students. The same information can be shared with the student if it can be wrapped up in a niche that he or she finds more appealing than lessons from a text book. If the end result is the same, then why not encourage a child to embrace his or her interest and build a lesson plan accordingly?

Stephanie Green

• Stephanie has many years of experience as a nanny. She has always loved children and has continuously been involved in childcare activities. Currently she is one of the writers for HoustonNanny.Com”. If you want to get in touch with her, you can email her at stephanie.Houstonnanny@gmail.com.

Share this: