Here's What I Found About Adult Education College

 By Ras Reed

It's no longer a surprise that many old people are going for adult education these days.But many people are going about it the wrong way.This article will provide you with useful tips on choosing an adult education college that will really suit your needs. It is not everyone that make the right choice when it comes to choosing a college to attend. The problem of making a right choice is made difficult because of the thousands of colleges and universities out there offering adult education.

One of the things you must look out for when choosing adult education college is the accreditation of the college or university. You should be informed right away that not every college or university you come across is accredited. You may have seen some of them in your mailbox asking you to come and register for their courses. I do to but I always delete them. Why? These are not reputable institutions.The reputable ones don't send mass mails to people asking them to come and register.Look for an accredited college or university offering adult education. When an institution is accredited, it means that the accrediting authority or agency has found it to be genuine. Also, it means that all their courses or programs are accredited which means that you will get good value for money when you attend them. When you complete the program, you become a better person in your office in particular and in the society at large. It is no longer difficult finding one of these genuine colleges or universities offering adult education. Make use of the internet in order to get one in your area. The yellow pages or online forums are another options that you can make use of. It is certain that you will get more useful information from other people.

Another factor you should look at when looking for a college or university offering adult education is the reputation of the institution. You can know more about the reputation of a school when you research the school on the internet. You should make sure that you fully comprehend what is written about a school before ever registering for their programs. Thanks to the internet, you can now meet with other older people searching for adult education. Furthermore, many people that might have heard something about the institution can write it in online forums. These views will help you make a better decision.

Four Quadrant Sorts: How to Group Students for Instruction After Administering Universal Screening Assessments in Math and Reading

 By: mark davoren

Today in education, more than ever before, teachers have to know how to analyze data.  For the most part teachers have mastered the art of administering assessments.  There is no shortage of assessments.  We use screeners, diagnostics, progress monitors, and outcome assessments.  And let’s not forget the good old test prep.  Test prep is probably the most-used assessment of any other.  One of the more useful ways to analyze data and sort kids into groups that I have used is the “Four Quadrant Sort”.  The purpose of this article is to explore several different reading and math four quadrant sorts.

Sort #1 – Reading  -  Accuracy vs. Fluency

                The first sort I like to use is the sort for reading fluency.  We use the data from our universal screener AIMSweb RCBM (oral reading fluency).  The sort is completed using both fluency (words per minute) and accuracy (percent correct) data.  You could also use data from the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency measure, or any other assessment that gives you results in words per minute and accuracy percentages.  You could even take whatever reading passage you want to use, have all your students read it orally for one minute.  Mark their errors.  Use the total number of words, number of errors and words read correctly to calculate their accuracy.  All you would need then is a chart of suggested words per minute, like the one by Hasbrouck & Tindal.

                The first quadrant of the sort is for students that are both accurate and fluent.  Accurate means the student has an accuracy percentage correct of at least 95% (meaning that 95% of the words they read were correct).  You may choose to use 98% as your accuracy cutoff score.  Fluent means the student is above the 25th percentile in words per minute.  This is according to the national norms table provided by AIMSweb.  You may decide to make your fluency cutoff be above the 50th percentile.  These are your “enrichment” students.  The second quadrant is for the students that are accurate, but not fluent.  In other words, these students have accuracy percentages of at least 95% (or 98%, if you choose).  However, their fluency scores are not above the 25th percentile (or 50th percentile).  These are most likely your “benchmark” students.  The third quadrant is for the students that are not accurate or fluent.  They have an accuracy percentage correct below 95% (or 98%).  These students also have a fluency score at the 25th percentile or below (or 50th percentile or below) in words per minute.  These are the real “intervention” kids.  These are the kids we choose assess using a diagnostic.  The fourth quadrant is for the students that are fluent, but not accurate.  This is normally not a very big group of kids.  These students read enough words per minute to place them above the 25th percentile (or 50th percentile).  Their accuracy scores however, are not at the required 95% (or 98%).  These students are most likely to be grouped with your “enrichment” or “benchmark” students, depending on the number of words per minute they read.  If there are enough students in this quadrant and you have the resources, they can be their own group.  

Sort #2 – Reading  -  Fluency vs. Comprehension

                Another sort for reading is one that focuses on fluency and comprehension.  The comprehension measure we use for this sort is the AIMSweb MAZE measure.  It is a sentence-level comprehension assessment.  It is essentially a written version of a cloze test.  Accuracy is not considered in this sort.  You may want to look at or add accuracy into this sort if you have large groupings.  For example, you may want to split each quadrant into two parts:  one part is accurate at 95% and above (or 98% and above), the other part of the quadrant would be those that are below 95% (or 98%).  Essentially you would be taking the four quadrants and turning them into 8 quadrants.  This is assuming, of course, that you have the personnel to have eight groups of students.

                The first quadrant is for those students that are adequate in both fluency and comprehension.  Thus, their words per minute are above the 25th percentile (or 50th percentile), and their comprehension score is above the 25th percentile (or 50th percentile).    These are your “enrichment” students.  [Remember, these students can be divided into two groups:  One group would be those that are adequate in fluency, comprehension and accuracy.  The other group will be those that are adequate in fluency and comprehension, but not accuracy].  The second quadrant is for those students that are adequate in fluency, but not in comprehension.  Their scores in fluency place them above the 25th (or 50th percentile).  Their scores in comprehension are below the 25th (or 50th) percentile.  [You can also split this quadrant into two groups:  Those that are adequate in fluency, not adequate in comprehension, but adequate in accuracy.  Those in the other group will be those that are adequate in fluency, not adequate in comprehension, and not adequate in accuracy].  The third quadrant is for those students that are not adequate in fluency or comprehension.  They score below the 25th (or 50th) percentile on both the oral reading test and the MAZE test.  [If dividing this group into two, one group would be those that are not adequate in fluency, comprehension or accuracy.  The other group would be comprised of those that are not adequate in fluency or comprehension, but adequate in accuracy].  The fourth quadrant is for those students that are adequate in comprehension, but not fluency.  So their scores on the MAZE comprehension tests place them above the 25th (or 50th) percentile.  However, their score on the fluency measure place them below the 25th (or 50th) percentile.  [A further division of this quadrant would mean that one group is adequate in comprehension, but not fluency and they are adequate in accuracy.  The other group would be those that are adequate in comprehension, not adequate in fluency and not adequate in accuracy].

Sort #3 – Math  -  Computation vs. Concepts & Application

For this particular sort, we use the data from the AIMSweb mathematical measures.  DIBELS currently has a math test.  I have not used it, so I am not sure if you can use it for this sort.  If there is a computation score and a concepts & application score, you can use it for this sort.

The first quadrant is for those students that are adequate in both computation and concepts & application.  That is, the scores are above the 25th percentile (or 50th) in both computation and concepts & application.  The second quadrant is for those students that are adequate in computation, but not adequate in concepts & applications.  So they were able to score above the 25th percentile (or 50th) in computation.  They were not able, however, to score above the 25th (or 50th) percentile on the concepts & application measure.  The third quadrant is for those students that are not adequate in computation or concepts & applications.  So these students scored at the 25th (or 50th) percentile or below on both computation and concepts & application.  The fourth quadrant is for those students that are adequate in concepts & application, but not computation.  This should be one of the smaller groups.  These are students whose scores on the concept & applications are above the 25th  (50th) percentile.  Their scores on the computation portion are at the 25th (or 50th) percentile and below.

Sort #4 – Phoneme Segmentation

For those of you who teach kindergarten and first grade students the sort for phoneme segmentation will be an important one.  It’s a little different from the previously discussed sorts, but is still easy to use to determine grouping of students.  The two factors to consider are the fluency with which the student segments the words into phonemes and whether or not they pass the assessment according to the criteria.  Two of the most common assessments for this skill are AIMSweb and DIBELS.



The first quadrant is for those students who can segment all phonemes fluently (meaning they meet the criteria for passing the assessment) and they are accurate at 95% or higher.   The second quadrant is for those students that segment phonemes with 95% or higher accuracy.  However, they do not pass the phoneme segmentation fluency assessment.  The third quadrant is for those students that segment phonemes, sounds, word parts, but their accuracy is less than 95%.  They do not pass the phoneme segmentation fluency assessment.  The fourth quadrant is for those students that are very quick, but not accurate.  Their accuracy is below 95%, but they are fluent in the phoneme segmentation fluency assessment.   They pass the assessment, but their accuracy is low.



Sort #5 – Nonsense Word Fluency

This sort is especially useful for those of you who teach primary level students.  We will discuss two different NWF sorts: one for word reading fluency and one for phonics.  The first one I will discuss is the one where the students are reading words.

                The first quadrant is for those students that are reading whole words.  They are not sounding them out.  Some call this unitization.  The second quadrant is for those students that are reading words a sound at a time, then reading the whole word.  The third quadrant is for those students that are doing some blending.  Perhaps they are reading them as onset and rime.  The fourth quadrant is for those who are decoding the words a sound at a time.

The next Nonsense Word Fluency sort is the one for phonics or alphabetic principle.  In this case the students are not yet reading whole words.

                The first quadrant is for the students that can read the initial and final sounds.  Maybe they will only read initial sounds or final sounds.  The second quadrant is for the students that have repeated substitution errors for consonant and vowel sounds.  The third quadrant is for those students who have errors on the middle or medial vowels, usually deletions.  The fourth quadrant is for students who are unable to read the whole word or recode.

Where do you go from here?

                My take on this whole four quadrant sort for instructional groupings strategy is very simple.  You could take any two pieces of data that you have obtained through assessment.  Identify which one of the skills you assessed is the more basic, prerequisite, fundamental of the two.  This is the one that needs to be adequate in quadrant 1, adequate in quadrant 2, not adequate in quadrant 3 and adequate in quadrant 4.  The next thing to do is to take the next skill you assessed, the higher level one, the one that builds upon the previous one, etc.  This is the skill that is adequate in quadrant 1, not adequate in quadrant 2, not adequate in quadrant 3 and adequate in quadrant 4.

                This may seem oversimplified, but I came to this conclusion through comparing the sort for accuracy vs. fluency in reading and the sort for fluency vs. comprehension and also the sort for computation vs. concepts & applications in math.  In all of these sorts, the skill listed first is the more prerequisite of the two skills in the sort.  For example, accuracy comes before fluency.  Fluency is essential in order to be able to comprehend.  Being able to compute is essential for those working on concepts & application.

                Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about here.  I have not seen a sort for this particular set of skills:  vocabulary and comprehension.  Since it is widely believed that vocabulary skill is a prerequisite to comprehension skill , I have chosen these two skills for this sort. Take your vocabulary and comprehension assessment results.  Determine what adequate scores are on both of these skills.  If you use a published assessment, rather than one that you created, you won’t have to determine what an adequate score is.  That information will be provided for you.

                The first quadrant would be those who are adequate in both vocabulary and comprehension.  The second quadrant would be those students who are adequate in vocabulary, but not comprehension.  The third quadrant would be those students who are not adequate in vocabulary or comprehension.  The fourth quadrant would be those students who are adequate in comprehension, but not vocabulary.

                I imagine this particular sort would be useful for those teachers who have kids that are adequate in both accuracy and fluency.  If there is an accuracy or fluency deficit, you most likely won’t even bother doing this vocabulary and comprehension sort.  Remember, accuracy comes first.

Friendly Body Language for Effective Communication in Teaching

 By: Paul Harrison

Albert Mehrabian at the psychology department of the University of California proved in the 1960s that 55% of all communication is body language. There may have been some debate about the exact figure since then, but one thing is for certain: body language is key to effective communication and is particularly important in teaching. Where our words make up a mere 7% of communication, body language makes over a half.

Of course, to teach effectively excellent communication skills are an absolute must. Thankfully, good body language can help us achieve and maintain those good communication skills.

There are many ways body language can help with tefraching, of which perhaps the most important is to create an approachable—friendly, if you will—image that makes students feel more comfortable communicating with their teacher. There are many keys to creating body language. Here I should like to offer insight into some of the most important. But before getting to that, a word of warning:

Unfriendly Body Language can Effect Even the Friendliest of People

Body language is problematically ambiguous to a degree that, at times, it can make a staple-gun seem like a rocket launcher.  The same gesture may have many different interpretations, some of which will be detrimental to a teacher’s image. Consider for instance the simple body language gesture of scratching the nose. This could have many different interpretations, ranging from lying to having bad hygiene to, of course, just having an itch. Likewise, a seemingly unthreatening body language gesture might appear aggressive to some people.

The Dos and Do Nots of Friendly Body Language

The answer to this problem of ambiguity is to learn which body language gestures to use and which to avoid. This list of dos and donts will help get you started.

Do:

Move and speak slowly and smoothly.

Leave your chest, throat and lower regions visible (except for clothing, naturally)

Show the palms of your hands

Hold your hands at your sides when not using them (rather than holding them behind your back or in front of yourself)

Gesture with your hands when speaking (serves as an invitation for the audience to get more involved and greatly helps when explaining complex theories)



Unfriendly Body Language to Avoid

Do Not:

Hold your eyebrows in a lowered position where they are brought closer together

Show your lower teeth

Use sharp and snappy consonants in your speech which can come across as being angry

Stare at anyone

Clench your fists

Cross your arms over your

Bang on an object or on your legs or other parts of your body

What motivates children to learn?

 By: Linda Warren

Every child learns a little differently.  It would be convenient if each child fit into one of the traditional learning styles, such as visual learner, kinesthetic learner, or auditory learner.  The truth is that each child is a unique combination of these learning styles as well as other points in their personalities that make their learning style unique to each child.

Learning styles tend to explain how a child learns.  Visual learners like to see the educational material demonstrated, they tend to like learning on the computer.  Kinesthetic learners need to touch and feel to learn, they like to build models. Auditory learners learn best when hearing the information presented.  Besides having a way that they like to learn each student has a reason, a motivation, why they learn.

It is important to take advantage of not only the way the child learns, but what motivates the child to learn.

Some children learn what is put before them because they feel some sense of obligation to do what they are told to do.  For these children it doesn’t seem to matter how the material is presented, but that the material is presented. Sometimes these children are called compliant learners.  They do not seem to need external rewards to learn unless you consider the approval of adults as a reward.

Other children seem to need a more tangible reward.  Some athletes are examples of this.  They do the school work because the end result is that if they do their schoolwork they are allowed participation in their chosen sport.  An example might be football players who must maintain a “C” average to be allowed to play in the
game on Friday night.

There are things that are considered rewards, and for each child there is a different reward that is important. Some children are motivated by rewards that are internal.  They learn because it gives them pleasure, or
they are driven to know more about a subject, or they are driven to learn to know more than other children, in a sense to become an expert.  There is a set of children who learn for the joy of accumulating knowledge; in a sense the knowledge itself is the reward

Some children are motivated by the act of completion.  For example, each chapter in science is an exercise to be completed.  When they finish the chapter, they have checked off some mark, and are ready to begin the
next chapter, so that they can complete it.  For that child, the reward is the check mark, not necessarily the
knowledge gained.

Grades are another important reward. Receiving the praise for the grades or the gaining attention for grades can be a reward and a motivator.

It is important to find out what the motivator is for your child.   External rewards, internal rewards, accolades,
privileges, or simply the joy of learning can all be powerful motivators.  Once you find the right combination of
motivating rewards for your child you will better understand what inspires them to learn.  In combination with learning styles, motivational styles can help you get the most learning into your child, with the fewest drawbacks.

Classroom management and social environment of all students.

By: Steve Bross

Introduction:

Taking the proper measures to developing a plan for students with behavioral problems takes a lot of hard work and planning. The most important element is to figure out what kind of actions will trigger the behavior and then try to figure out ways to accomplish the positive reinforcement.  Behavior Intervention Plans need to be very specific an detailed, in order for the teachers and staff to help the student in everyway possible. A good plan will definitely give the student the best opportunity to grow, but the plan is only as good as the student will allow. If a student just really wants to go against the corrections

plan than the process will be a hard path for everyone involved. This is a key element in the education process in order to get past the students issues and allow for the education to develop.

School Psychology Resources Online:

This website is dedicated to providing psychologists, parents and teachers resources that are geared to improving the understanding of what might affect the students performance. The site provides information on specific conditions and disorders, along with a number of links to websites devoted to the treatment options for each condition or disorder. There is another section that provides access to specific books that you can link to and then purchases. The site is a valuable resource for information although after searching a few of the links I found a few sites that the links have gone bad or have not been updated. This is one big problem that will always be with research online.

Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice:

This website does a nice job in providing web links related to emotional and behavioral problems in such areas as education, families, mental health, juvenile justice, child and school safety. Issue Areas, Mini webs and Interactive sections help provide strategies for children at risk of developing serious emotional problems. The most important thing on this site is to provide a solid understanding of the functional behavior assessment and the positive behavioral intervention. This site also has a nice link for already made powerpoint presentations on different topics that could be used in professional development or in the classroom.

Part I – An IEP Team’s Introduction to Functional Behavioral Assessment and Behavioral Intervention Plans

To put things in simple form, the functional behavioral assessment is the problem solving process. As with all student issues the IEP team comes in to figure out the needs of the student. There are a number of plans and techniques to help identify the specific behaviors. This gives the IEP team a starting point to help prepare the teachers involved with the specific student behavior problem. I think most teachers associate these problems as disruptive behavior in the classroom but in reality it is set up to try and stop the behaviors before they happen. I have a an agreement with one of my students that unless the questions are written in red on a slide lecture I will not ask him to participate

in the class discussion this tends to calm his nerves and take in the information with getting nervous.

The requirements specified by IDEA are included the functional behavioral assessments and positive behavioral intervention plans provide the process and guidelines for working with a functional behavioral assessment. Some of these guidelines are as followed:

-       The team should explore the needs for strategies and support systems in order to address any behavior that may impede the learning of a child with the disability

-       Within 10 days of a disciplinary action by school personnel, the IEP team should meet to formulate a functional behavioral assessment to prepare data for developing and/or revising an existing behavior intervention plan

-       States shall address the needs of all in-service and pre-service school personnel as they relate to developing and implementation of positive intervention strategies

Some of the verbiage throws me for a loop in my own interruption, but what I think they are saying is the educator is to be more involved in the efforts of the students planning. The same rules still apply; the steps can not interfere with the academic process.

Most educators still do not believe there is a single cause for problem behaviors. Figuring out the problems a head of time will me most beneficial to the teachers of the students. These assessment can fall under this specific requirements:

-       Indirect or informant assessment that relies on structured interviews

with students, teachers and other adults who have direct responsibility

for the students concerned.

-       Direct assessment which involves observing and recording situational factors surrounding a problem behavior

-       Data analysis after the IEP team is satisfied that enough data has been collected that it should analyzed to determine whether or not there are any patterns associated with the behavior

-       A hypothesis statement is created from the analysis where school personnel can establish the functions of the behaviors and help predict the general conditions in which they are most likely to occur (antecedents and consequences)

Developing the functional behavioral assessments will vary from district to district however many components can be collected by members of the IEP team. As a result of this team effort behavioral intervention plans are formulated based upon collecting, analyzing and developing a hypothesis statement of the likely function of a student’s behavior. The IEP team may want to consider these techniques in the design of a positive behavioral intervention plan:

    Manipulating the antecedents and/or consequences

    Teaching more acceptable replacement behaviors

    Implementing changes in curriculum and instruction

    Modifying the physical environment

The IEP team has a lot of responsibility to try to make the right decisions and establish the right assessments. So much goes into this and I think the best way for me to learn more about this is talk to my coordinator and see if I could get on a team to see hom this really works in real life.

Part 2 – Conducting a Functional Behavioral Assessment:

Teachers face a number of student behaviors that effective classroom instruction and  can become problematic for all students in the classroom. The IDEA guidelines help schools address both classroom and behavior problems for students with disabilities. The first step is to start a functional behavioral assessment which is developed and uses a six step process:

-       Describe the seriousness of the behavioral problem

-       Refine the definition of the behavioral problem

-       Collect information on possible functions of the behavioral problem

-       Analyze information using the pathway analysis

-       Generate a hypothesis statement regarding probable function of problem behavior

-       Test the hypothesis statement regarding the function of the problem behavior

Also, to help collect and study the information a variety of forms may be employed to categorize and document behavior observations using Scatterplots and ABC charts.

The IEP team may use appropriate methods of direct or indirect assessments to record student behaviors. The accuracy of behavioral measurement can become problematic in a number of ways by using untrained observers, observer biases that generates a vague definition of the problem behavior. The effectiveness of the functional behavioral assessment depends on the skills and objectivity of the persons collecting the data. Using the six steps to figure out the functional behavioral assessment is vital to the planning of the behavioral intervention plan.

Part 3 – Creating Positive Behavioral Intervention Plans and Supports:

The next step in the process in creating positive behavioral plan is collecting and identifying the likely functions of a student’s behavior problems. The behavioral intervention plan will include- Strategies, program modifications and supplementary aids and services. When the plan is done right it will provide motivation to meet the required standards of education.

When the IEP team has determined that a behavioral intervention plan is necessary the team should include strategies to:

-       Teach the student more acceptable ways to get what they want

-       Decrease future occurrences of the misbehavior

-       Address any repeated episodes of the misbehavior

The behavioral intervention plan may want to consider the following techniques when designing the behavioral intervention plan:

-       Teach more acceptable behaviors

-       Teach students to deal with setting events

-       Changes in the instructional strategies

-       Offer positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviors

A student with behavioral issues is often the case of wanting a specific reward or reaction. The IEP team should consider plans that are based upon specific outcome behavior. When developing the plan these ideas should be kept in mind:

-       What is appropriate for the individual student’s needs?

-       What directly teaches the target behavior?

-       What will produce positive behavioral changes?

-       What is least likely to produce a negative side effects?

-       What is most acceptable to the team members responsible for

-       carrying out the plan?

-       What is most likely to be acceptable to the targeted student?

-       What is most likely to promote a replacement behavior?

The success of any behavioral plan rests on the ability and willingness of the student. In this case the student is also taught to self-monitor and evaluate there own behaviors. Many educators believe that the use of punishment is often ineffective and counter productive in motivating the student. The use of punishment should only be considered in the most severe cases. In some of these cases the IEP team may necessitate the development of a crisis/emergency plan to address severe or dangerous behavioral situations. As in all plans there may be inherent obstacles that may require the attention of school personnel such as:

-       The definition of the behavior is too vague

-       A bad measurement or data regarding the behavior

-       Poor interpreting the functional assessment

-       Choosing the wrong application of one or more parts of the plan

-       Failure to monitor the plan provided

-       Inadequate system-wide support

-       Teachers lack specific skills and support

-       Failure to consider environmental issues

All said and done, the plan needs to focus on a structure that is in the best interest of the student and learning environment. The plans and outcomes generated must be reviewed and revised as needed to control the students behavioral issue.

A Self Instructional Exercise:

The Center for Psychology at Athabasca University has provided a self instructional website dedicated to the help understand of positive reinforcement. There are three major positive reinforcements to use as guidlines:

-       A consequence is presented dependent on a behavior

-       The behavior becomes more likely to occur

-       The behavior becomes more likely to occur because and only because the consequence is presented dependent on the behavior (Direct Pull)

This website offers an interactive section allowing the visitor to apply the principles of positive behavior. Through a series of questions you are asked to determine if the example given is a positive reinforcement. I felt for the most part the questions were pretty easy to figure out, but what I did like about the questions is the fact that it gave you a scenario to compare things that would happen in your life. I especially like the dirty look question, the only real problem that I have to work on is students holding conversations during lectures. I might try to use some of these techniques to help solve this problem.

Intervention Central and the Behavior Homepage:

This website is devoted to tools that educators can use to help monitor and improve student behavior in the classroom. The Behavior Homepage considers a number of interventions that include:

-       Universal or school wide objectives

-       Small groups intervention for behavioral issues

-       Wraparound behavioral issues

Another part of the website was dedicated to a web quest which is designed to help develop interactive answers to problems using different websites. The information provided suggests that you write down a few questions that you would need to answer about your specific needs for the student. The questions should include who, what, where, how and why. An example question would be … I wonder where I might find more information about the students specific behavior problems that revolve around disruptive behavior in large groups. I played around with the webquest and used student disruptive behavior and got a lot of great information. A few great tips were as followed

-       Break student tasks into manageable 'chunks': Students may misbehave to escape activities that they find too hard or tedious. Consider breaking a larger task into smaller or easier 'chunks' that the student will more willingly undertake.

-       If the student must complete a large number of subtasks, include an

-       occasional 'fun break'.

-       The teacher decides which specific behaviors to select for the behavior contract. When possible, teachers should define behavior targets for the contract in the form of positive, pro-academic or pro-social behaviors.

-       Disengaging Tactics. The teacher's most important objective when faced with a defiant or non-compliant student is to remain outwardly calm.

-       Interrupting Tactics. When students become upset, they may not be able to control the headlong rush of their own anger. In such situations, the teacher can use interrupting tactics--well-timed, supportive techniques that 'interrupt' the escalation of student anger.

This information is exactly what I need to try, I will defiantly be spending a lot more time on this site, as a matter a fact a just booked marked to spend more time on it. Even though I am still considered a new teacher most of my last three years have been just trying to figure out what to teach and how to teach it, and now I am seeing that I have 90% of curriculum in place the smaller details are now becoming more present. Such as how the student are connecting with the material. This web site and the web site used in the web quest are a must have bookmark for all teachers.

Conclusion:

The materials and information that are available for teachers to improve their overall teaching methods is incredible. For the longest time I always asked other teachers in the building on how to deal with certain problems in the classroom.  Although this is always a good start, this particular assignment was a true eye opener.  I found so much information on so many different topics. This information has come to me at the perfect time. Understanding the other half of the teaching spectrum that probably is the most important one, the students learning and improving the social and soft skills.

Uses Of Computers In Education

 By: Abdown Thomas

The science and technology has been changing our life ever since its inception. Especially the greatest invention of human mind that most of the times defeats the human mind itself, i.e. the computer has brought out several jaw dropping changes to our society. Its contribution towards education sector has been truly marvelous. Computers have taken the education systems in the entire world to a different level altogether. It is now used in education sector in various ways and has changed the way it earlier looked to a great degree. Following are the uses of computers in education-

1. Making classrooms effective: The traditional classes have become modern and high-tech with the advent of computers. Students now see multimedia presentations, clips, images, etc. with the help of computers. This gives them a better experience of education as compared to the monotonous blackboard teaching. This way, the power of students to remember or recollect the taught concepts increases as the classroom learning becomes interesting. 

2. Providing online education: Computers not only strengthen the traditional education system but also provide a new mode of pursuing educational courses and degrees. This mode is called as online training mode of education. Through this mode a student can pursue a course, degree or training sitting at home with the help of a computer and internet connection. The curriculum of these online courses is similar to the traditional mode of pursuing the same. Online education system offers several benefits to the students which they can’t avail in traditional education system. This is the reason why millions of people are glued to online education as of today and this count will only increase day by day.   

3. Helps in research work: Computers help students of schools, colleges and universities in their research works. Gone are the days when students would go to libraries, and other Knowledge processing units to complete their research work. With the help of computers students now pursue their research work with ease and get ample amount of information for the same with easy clicks.  

4. Opening a new field of education: Computers not only are useful in education sector but are also the reason for some fields of education. There are several educational courses that exist because of the computers. Some of these courses are IT training, web designing, hardware and networking, etc. Students pursuing these courses have bright future ahead as the computers have actually become the need of today.  

5. Boosting education to a global platform: Education today is no more confined to the walls of a classroom. It has rather gone global. Students, with the help of computers, interact with students from all over the world. They discuss on various topics of common interests, brainstorm with international students and seek advice of international teachers. Indeed computers have armed the education field with some great features.

If you enjoyed reading this article or made use of it in any way, do appreciate the author’s efforts by liking the article virtually. After all, appreciation is all that a creative head expects.