Advice For A New ESL Teacher

by: Douglas Anderson

When you first arrive in your assigned country, the first few minutes can be shocking. The air smells different, the people surging around you are likely different, the looks of buildings and storefronts and wares for sale may all be different.

If you are in modern country, such as Japan, you will likely feel only slightly uncomfortable, as the airport will be clean and streamlined, although perhaps twice as busy as you expected. But signs will be in English, and you will have no problem navigating through the airport to the outside world.

If you are in a third-world country, the airport could be a far cry from anything remotely comfortable, with military soldiers everywhere, a crush of people, strange maybe even repulsive smells in the air, total chaos. If you are alone, this can be especially intimidating.

When I arrive in a new country, I am always surprised at the first few moments outside the airport. The sky looks different, the air smells different, the chaos of people coming and going is different. Finding a bus or taxi or jeepney can be a fun experience but it is more likely to be a trying experience, so it is best if someone can meet you and help you get oriented for the first trip from the airport to your place of residence.

Depending on your guest country, and the resources available, you may get a private room with a private bathroom, or a shared room and a public bathroom.

The school may look a wee bit different from the brochures, which tend to highlight greenery and other colourful aspects. Brochures also don't tell you about oppressive tropical heat, or cold winds from the mountains.

Before starting your trip, you should read up on the culture of the country. For example, in Thailand, people would be shocked if you touched a child's head, or if you washed your underwear and hung it outside to dry.

During my stay in Thailand, I managed a software development project and hired a couple of university-educated Thai women to help. We worked out of my two-bedroom apartment. One moved into the spare bedroom in the apartment, and the other slept on the sofa five nights a week. The one in the bedroom said she lived a long way away and the daily commute was aggravating. Fair enough. But the second one lived 20 minutes away by elevated electric train. I never really understood why she wanted to live with me. Perhaps I was a father-figure for her.

One day, I rounded up all the towels to put in the washing machine. The women had their own bathroom, and the towels were provided by me. The apartment was modern and fully equipped.

One of the women said, "Doug, what are you doing?"

I said, "I'm going to wash all the towels in the machine."

She said, "But you took the white one."

The white one was a cotton bathmat that had been on the floor in front of the shower.

"Yes, I will wash it with the others."

"Doug, you can't do that."

"Why not?"

"It's for the feet."

Apparently in Thai culture, you don't sully your body towels with foot towels.

I said, "Sorry, this is a machine, very hot water, with detergent and fabric softener. I am going to wash all the towels and bath mats together."

She was unhappy with this, had a strange look on her face, like I had said something totally disgusting.

After the towels had been washed and dried, I took one of the bath towels and held it under her nose, and said, "Smell this."

She took a whiff and said, "Oh, Doug, smell very good."

I said, "That's the fabric softener, it has perfume to make the towels smell good."

Then I held the white bath mat under her nose. She didn't move away, although I expected her to. "Smell this one."

"Doug, same same."

"Yes," I said, "and now you know why I washed them together. In your culture, you wash them by hand, and would do the foot mats last. In my Western culture, with machines, we put them all in together and they come out the same."

She accepted that. In this case Western culture overruled Thai culture.

As I write this in November 2007, a British ESL teacher has been arrested in Sudan, which is a Muslim country, for letting her primary school students name a teddy bear "Muhammed". Although this is a very common name in Sudan and other Muslim countries, giving a toy bear this name is apparently insulting to Islam, according to the charges against her. One of the parents of the students complained to police and she was arrested. If found guilty, she could receive many years in prison, a hefty fine, and 40 lashes with a whip.

So learning something about the culture you will be living in is advice you should take seriously.

In Central and parts of South America, for instance, you might think the culture is Spanish, and that is certainly the dominant one, but the underlying Mayan culture is still there, especially amongst people whose primary language is Quechua or Aymara. Don't assume you understand their culture because you know about Mexican or Spanish culture. Do some research first, so as to help you understand where they are coming from, and try to structure your lessons to fit with their culture. This can be as simple as changing place names: don't talk about the Mississippi River, for example, use a local river instead. They will associate with that, but not associate with the Mississippi.

The beliefs and attitudes of your guest country will potentially be different from what you naively expected, so research! research! research!

As you become accustomed to your new daily routine, students, and fellow teachers, you will discover that some of the teachers have become cynical with time. They may have been there 20 years, and never say anything good about the place; they seem to live in a cloud of negativity. You will be eager and fired up and enjoying the challenge; they will talk about police purges, stupid management at the school, incompetent governments, corruption, and whatnot. The list is never-ending. Try to avoid these people. Live your own life, and be happy with the little differences and challenges that are thrown your way.

In Thailand, the vast majority of people are Buddhists. They are taught from an early age to meet adversity with a smile. One time, I was waiting under an awning for a tropical downpour to lessen. I watched a young lady attempt to cross the flooded street in front of me. She stepped in a hidden pothole, lost her balance, and fell face first into 6 inches of dirty water. She stood up, brushed the water off her face, and laughed. If that had been me, I would have been cursing. But she was a Buddhist. She laughed.

Meet adversity with a smile.

A good philosophy to live by.

If your assignment is in a third-world country, find out if the school and/or students have basic supplies. In rural Peru, for example, there might be one small chalkboard for a one-room school, no paper at all, and certainly no pens or pencils. While that kind of school is not going to have English classes, you can still help them enormously by traveling with two suitcases, one for your stuff, and the other filled with notebooks, pencils, chalk, small chalkboards, crayons, art paper, children's scissors, etc. Before you start your flight, contact the school and find out if they need these supplies, or if they can put you in touch with a rural school that does. Those $50 worth of supplies might be more than a rural school has ever seen and will make a big difference.

Another piece of advice: keep a journal of your experiences. If you have Internet access, create a blog and update it regularly. But in any case, be careful not to write anything in your journal or blog that is critical of the school management, the local religion, or the government. That journal will be a treasured keepsake in future years, and remain with you the rest of your life.

After you've been living and teaching for a while in the guest country, returning to your home town in your native country can be a jarring experience: culture shock in reverse. You became an ESL teacher for the fun of travel, the joy of discovering a new culture, and now you're back in Wal-Mart or Tesco standing in a queue behind an enormous fat lady with a shopping cart full of junk. Your mother is glad to see you, but you find your town boring, the food bland and voluminous.

If you are back for good, and have to get a job, you will probably find yourself bored out of your skull working in an office. Your co-workers will have no interest in your ESL experiences and couldn't care less about the things you did and the places you went.

Pretty soon you will be scouring the Internet looking for other ESL jobs; you've got to follow your dreams, wherever they take you...

About The Author

Doug Anderson has a web site with English grammar tips and ESL teacher tips at http://www.learn-faster.org/English

Basic Steps in Preparing for College

by: James Freman

Maybe you or your child or just someone you know is still in high school or even in middle school. It is never too early to prepare to receive and higher education to further your success in life. Have a better education usually means a higher salary and studies have proven that those with a college degree earn more than those with just a high school diploma or a G.E.D.

So now that we are clear that more education means more money down the road in life, what do you need to make that happen? First off we need to make sure we clear up some misunderstandings. Not all colleges are the same, each and every college or university is the same. Each one has their own strengths that they excel in, so before you decide where to attend you first need to decide on what you wish to major in. Once you've decided on what you want to be in your future then you can decide on which campus you wish to attend. And don't limit yourself to just 1 school. Try to pick a variety of places that you might want to attend because the more you try to shoot for, the more chance you will have into being accepted into some college or university.

As mentioned before, not all colleges and universities are the same. This also applies for how much attending a certain university or college charges a student to attend their classes. Some places like community colleges charge a very low amount for their classes and private universities charge extremely high priced amount for just a quarter. But don't get discouraged, there are still ways to pay for them. By applying for scholarships, student aid programs or getting student loans, you can pay for an education that you could have only dreamed of.

So now that you've decided on what you wish to learn about, which campus to attend and how to pay for that education, what's left? Everything else. Before you can even go and get that Bachelor's you first need to quality before your application is to be even reviewed by the committee. And that means your high school education. High school is usually where the acceptance committee will usually start looking at. From your academics to your extra curricular activities they will account into everything that you may have done during your high school year to see if you are even eligible to attend their most prestigious place of learning.

Academics usually mean your grades that you received in your high school classes. From math to English, you first need to learn the basics before you can try and learn the higher forms of these subjects. Academics also include the tests that just about most universities require like the SATs and ACTs. There are after-school programs for students to attend to learn and how to analyze these tests so they can score higher for these exams.

Colleges and universities also pay attention on what activities you may have been involved in during your high school year. From school clubs to after-school community service programs that you may have volunteered for, they will take into account on what kind of activities you participate in to have a much better understanding of you.

So now that you understand the gist of what needs to be accomplished, get out there and jump start your brain of yours so that you can make a better person of yourself.

About The Author

James Freman
http://www.nextstudent.com/

Principles of Educational Evaluation Formulas

by: Luiz Gustavo Arruda

Educational Evaluation may be inherently a process of professional judgment.

The first principle, according to Cann, is that professional judgment is the foundation for evaluation and, as such, is needed to properly understand and use all aspects of evaluation. The measurement of student performance may seem "objective" with such practices as machine scoring and multiple-choice test items, but even these approaches are based on professional assumptions and values. Whether that judgment occurs in constructing test questions, scoring essays, creating rubrics, grading participation, combining scores, or interpreting standardized test scores, the essence of the process is making professional interpretations and decisions. Understanding this principle helps teachers and administrators realize the importance of their own judgments and those of others in evaluating the quality of evalution and the meaning of the results.

To Shadish, evaluation is based on separate but related principles of measurement evidence and evaluation.

To Cann, It is quite important to understand the difference between measurement evidence (differentiating degrees of a trait by description or by assigning scores) and evaluation (interpretation of the description or scores). Essential measurement evidence skills would include the ability to understand and interpret the meaning of descriptive statistical procedures, including variability, correlation, percentiles, standard scores, growth-scale scores, norming, and principles of combining scores for grading. A conceptual understanding of these techniques, to her, is needed (not necessarily knowing how to compute statistics) for such tasks as interpreting student strengths and weaknesses, reliability and validity evidence, grade determination, and making admissions decisions. This author has indicated that these concepts and techniques comprise part of an essential language for educators. They also provide a common basis for communication about "results," interpretation of evidence, and appropriate use of data. This is increasingly important given the pervasiveness of standards-based, high-stakes, large-scale assessments.

Another point of view, offered by Shadish considerates evaluation concerns merit and worth of the data as applied to a specific use or context. It involves a systematic analysis of evidence. Like students, teachers and administrators need analysis skills to effectively interpret evidence and make value judgments about the meaning of the results.

Evaluation decision-making is influenced by a series of tensions to Cook. His basement parts of idea that competing purposes, uses, and pressures result in tension for teachers and administrators as they make assessment-related decisions. For example, good teaching could be characterized by assessments that motivate and engage students in ways that are consistent with their philosophies of teaching and learning and with theories of development, learning and motivation. Most teachers want to use constructed-response evaluation because they believe this kind of testing is best to ascertain student understanding. On the other hand, factors external to the classroom, such as mandated large-scale testing, promote different evaluation strategies, such as using selected-response tests and providing practice in objective test-taking.

These tensions, to the same author suggest that decisions about evaluation are best made with a full understanding of how different factors influence the nature of the assessment. Once all the alternatives understood, priorities need to be made; trade-offs are inevitable. With an appreciation of the tensions teachers and administrators will hopefully make better informed, better justified assessment decisions.

Evaluation influences student motivation and learning. Wilde and Sockey have used the term 'educative evaluation' to describe techniques and issues that educators should consider when they design and use evaluation methods. Their message is that the nature of evaluation influences what is learned and the degree of meaningful engagement by students in the learning process. While Wiggins contends that evaluation tools should be authentic, with feedback and opportunities for revision to improve rather than simply audit learning, the more general principle is understanding how different evaluations affect students. Will students be more engaged if evaluation tasks are problem-based? How do students study when they know the test consists of multiple-choice items? What is the nature of feedback, and when is it given to students? How does evaluation affect student effort? Answers to such questions help teachers and administrators understand that evaluation has powerful effects on motivation and learning.

Teachers and administrators, to Shadish, need to not only know that there is error in all classroom and standardized evaluation, but also more specifically how reliability is determined and how much error is likely. With so much emphasis today on high-stakes testing for promotion, graduation, teacher and administrator accountability, and school accreditation, it is critical that all educators understand concepts like standard error of measurement, reliability coefficients, confidence intervals, and standard setting.

To Cann two reliability principles deserve special attention. The first is that reliability refers to scores, not instruments. Second, teachers and administrators need to understand that, typically, error is underestimated.

COOK, J. Evaluating Knowledge Technology Resources. LTSN Generic Centre, 2002.

CANN. E et al. English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Middle Level (Grades 6-9). Saskatchewan Education. 1998.

HIRSCHMAN, L; THOMPSON, H. Overview of Evaluation in Speech and Natural Language Processing. In J. and Mariani, editor, State of the Art in Natural Language Processing, pages 475 -- 518.

SHADISH, W. Some evaluation questions. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 6(3), 1998.

WILDE, J.; SOCKEY, S. Evaluation Handbook. Clearinghouse. 2000.

About The Author

Luiz Gustavo Arruda, Ph.D. is a biologist, tenure coach and dissertation coach and has as a personal goal helping faculty and graduate students complete research, writing essays, and publish, while maintaining high educational levels and other commitments. In addition to dissertation coaching, he gives classes, workshops and teleclasses on time management, writing, career planning and grad student/advisor relationships.

Monografias Prontas Team - http://www.monografiaac.com.br

Empresa de Monografia didática - http://www.monografiaad.com.br

Psychoanalysis and Educational Practice - A Possible Relation?

by: Luiz Gustavo Arruda

Psychology and psychiatry construct models, clinical habits of behavior, pictures, types of personality, reception systems, etc. Objective of these models would be, in the words of Comte, “to know; to be able to foresee”. To find the common traces to all pathology would serve of practical guide for the therapeutical experient. The illusion would be to arrive in port to the moment when everything in the field is explained of beforehand. To find so many laws, concepts and characteristics where all singular trace is explicable by the generality. Illusion supported from the presumption of the particular individual in this case that of a universal, late or early order for scientific knowing. On the other hand, psychoanalysis operates on the citizen of science. Citizen that is included in this world to be able to consist as such. Science would be the ideology of the suppression of the citizen. And psychoanalysis would operate on what science globe and at the same time leaves to escape, as the interior, the improvisation, the feeling. (COUTINHO, 2000)

The first attempt of an operational joint of Psychoanalysis and Pedagogy can be observed since 1909 from personal texts between the Pedagogical Researcher Oskar Pfister and Freud. The first one produces two scientific texts of Pedagogy where are incorporated ideas inherent to psychoanalysis and requests the adhesion of the psychoanalytical theory to the operational Pedagogy. Freud answers affirmatively and thus a solid interlocution is initiated with an epistolar intercourse during following the thirty years (PATTO, 1996).

The demands of some educators from now on, are of diverse nature in the plan of the joint to know, pedagogy convokes psychoanalysis to a conjunction that tries to restore new fields. The result would be a kind of Psychoanalytical Psychopedagogy. In the level of the empirical problems, school (through its direct and indirect educators), requests the practical and specialized tool that generates solutions to conflicts that burst and interrupt the daily and normative functioning of the institution. For another part, we can find a large number of offers of knowledge and tasks, which, are considered as a fount of deregulation or occultation the same origin of the demand. It has been remembered as the example to the proper Freud in his preface to the book of August Aichhorn where he writes “… the educator must possess psychoanalytical formation” (OLIVEIRA, 2003).

Ana Freud (OLIVEIRA, 2003), is another eloquent example when she speaks to educators in their proper language, and inform them on the infantile development since perspective of the psychoanalysis (psychology of I). She tries to inform the teachers, to make them understand the infantile psychological drives of reproduction in order to understand their learners. She writes a small text recommending psychoanalytical experience as the optimum way to educational preparation.

There are several approaches that try to explain the joint of psychoanalysis e (in, for, with) education. Thus, we see the following intentions among others:

- Psychoanalysis to know the unconscious determination of the pedagogical relation and to be able “to educate in scientific form”.

- Psychoanalysis to decide the problems derived from the presence of the pupils who do not answer adequately to the requirements of the school.

- Psychoanalysis so that the professors “psychoanalyze” themselves.

We can revise the difficulties in the attempt to articulate psychoanalysis, as a discipline that points its ways to know about the “irrationality of the behavior”, with the field of the rationality where is inserted the production and reproduction of the knowledge. In the last years are more and more abundant the works that point Psychoanalysis as a valid way to observe and to work on the delimitation of these fields.

Mezan (2002, P. 214) says:

“… the knowledge of the psychoanalytical theory that acquires the educator will have as barrier that hinders its application the proper sexuality and repression….e what we want to stress,….in all attempt of application of the psychoanalysis to the educative field is that, in the existing difference Unconscious knowing theoretically and clinically, they are played both reach and limits of such aspiration”.

It is obvious for any professional whose object of work is the individual person, the theory of the subject that contributes psychoanalysis must be part of his cultural luggage. Teacher cannot be himself it the edge of the process. We also assume that a professor who has passed through a psychoanalytical process will be more receptive to the aspects of the life of his pupils that in another way would be outside of the pertaining to school work. But in all times, not psychoanalyzed professors had been sensible to the concerns and problems of their pupils. Also we cannot deny that many children or adolescents present hidden problematic individual situations that lead them to answer with effectiveness to school petitions.

REFERENCES

COUTINHO, Maria Tereza da Cunha e MOREIRA, Mércia. Psicologia da Educação: um estudo dos processos psicológicos de desenvolvimento e aprendizagem humanos. Belo Horizonte-MG: Editora lê, 2000.

LAPLANCHE, J. & Pontalis, J.-B. (1992). Vocabulário da psicanálise. São Paulo: Martins Fontes TCC

PEÑA, J. F. (1986). Platão e Banquete. Letras da Coisa no. 3. Curitiba, PR: Monografia Coisa Freudiana - Transmissão em Psicanálise.

KUPFER, Maria Cristina. Educação para o Futuro: Psicanálise e Educação. SP, Editora Escuta Monografias, 2000.

PATTO, Maria Helena Souza. A Produção do Fracasso Escolar. São Paulo, T. A. Queiroz, Editor, 1996.

HASS,C.(2000). A coordenação pedagógica nuna perspectiva interdisciplinar. In: QUELUZ, A. (org.). Interdisciplinaridade. São Paulo, Monografia Pioneira.

FREUD, Sigmund. O Mal-Estar na Civilização; Vol. XXI (1927-1931); Edição Standard Brasileira: Imago Editora Ltada, RJ. Pg.95.

BERMAN,M. Tudo que é sólido desmancha no ar: a aventura da modernidade(trad. Carlos F. Moisés, Ana Maria L. Ioriatti) . São Paulo: Monografias Cia das Letras,1986)

HERRMANN, F. O que é Psicanálise? São Paulo:Brasiliense,1984

HOBSBAWN, E.. A Era dos Extremos: o breve século XX: 1914-1991(trad. Marcos Santarrita). São Paulo: Monografias Cia das Letras,1995.

MEZAN, R. Freud Pensador da Cultura, São Paulo:Brasiliense, 1985.

MEZAN, R. Interfaces, São Paulo: TCC - Companhia das Letras,2002.

OLIVEIRA, M. L. Por que a Monografia de Psicanálise na Educação : fragmentos. In: revista Perfil, Monografia nº IX, 2003, Departamento de Psicologia Clínica, FCL, UNESP, Assis, SP, pp. 25-35.

About The Author

Luiz Gustavo Arruda, Ph.D. is a biologist, tenure coach and dissertation coach and has as a personal goal helping faculty and graduate students complete research, writing essays, and publish, while maintaining high educational levels and other commitments. In addition to dissertation coaching, he gives classes, workshops and teleclasses on time management, writing, career planning and grad student/advisor relationships.

http://www.monografiaac.com.br - Educação em Monografia e Pesquisa

http://www.monografiaalpha.com.br - Ponte entre TCC e Monografias

Ten Steps to Successful Music Teaching in The Early Childhood Classroom

by: Marlene Rattigan

Young children learn by doing, by being actively involved in their learning through exploring and experimenting, through copying and acting out. And so it is with learning music, the foundations for which are best learnt while developing primary language. As such, a successful early childhood music program must incorporate movement and should quite naturally involve learning across the curriculum. The music program, therefore, can form the basis for the whole curriculum.

1. Make it Fun. They are not in your class to learn music, but learning music is what happens while they're having fun. It it's not fun you've lost them. Fun for them may not be fun for you. If it's not fun for you, you'll NEVER be able to convince them that you're enjoying it. You'll start using every excuse not to do the music session because you'll see it as a chore. If, on the other hand, you have a song, a piece of music or an activity you think is really cool, you'll have no trouble engaging the kids as your enthusiasm will carry them through. Sounds pretty logical, yet few class teachers conduct music lessons as part of the daily curriculum. Find a resource that suits you and do something every day - even if for only five minutes.

2. Establish clear rules from day one. Without this your class will quickly disintegrate into a shambles. They must stop when the music stops. This encourages listening skills. Listening is a skill that has to be learnt. Hearing is a sense we are born with. There's a huge difference. If they can listen, they can respond, and they can learn. Teach them about "space bubbles". Have them stand with arms outstretched and gently swing around. No-one is allowed to go inside their space bubble. Anyone who does must sit to the side. They will not want to miss out on the fun so encourage them to join in for the next track of music or next activity. Do not allow "time out" to be a preferred option. Not every child will feel confident enough to participate fully but sitting out is not an option.

3. Young children learn by doing. Get them actively involved. Music at this age is music and movement. This will incorporate story telling through use of percussion instruments or drama; it will involve dance and action songs and also singing. It will also involve interpretive movement - play some gentle classical music and use scarves to stimulate the imagination.

4. Include motor co-ordination activities. This will stimulate and integrate right and left sides of the brain. Musical instruments are played with both hands. This subject is the topic of a great body of research. Children today are generally not physically active enough to get sufficient stimulation to establish neural pathways. If you can do something daily in the way of motor skills, especially cross-patterning activities conducted to music, it will help enormously.

5. Relate activities to their level of understanding. Engage their imaginations. They live in a fantasy world ' take advantage of it. You personally may not feel inclined towards fantasy. It doesn't matter. Whatever engages them is what matters. Whatever you are wanting them to learn can be done best by engaging their imaginations, and fantasy is the easiest. Use drama in any way to engage their imaginations.

6. Praise them often. They respond best to positive reinforcement. A baby is born fearless. No matter how many times the baby falls over when attempting to walk, and despite injuries along the way, he or she will get up and try again, over and over until that skill is finally mastered. It never occurs to the child, or anyone else, that you have to get it perfect the first time. Everyone encourages them which is an added bonus. Somehow along the way though, by the time many children are in mid primary school, they have already been given so many negatives which erode their self-esteem that they give up trying new things.

7. Remember the K.I.S.S. principle and Keep It Simple Sunshine. Only do a few activities or songs at a time in your music lesson. Repeat them often and only when mastered do you add modifications or a new activity. Keep the whole lesson simple but fun. Do not confuse simple with easy. If the class structure is simple, you can easily add in a more challenging activity.

8. If the children are unused to music and movement sessions, do not try to be too ambitious. Five minutes a day may be enough for the first few weeks, depending on the children. Repeat the lesson (maybe up to three or four times) until confidence and competence improve. They need the repetition. You can add modifications for greater complexity and variation or change one or two activities before moving onto a new lesson. Set them up to succeed.

9. Initially the teacher should model the movements but not necessarily do all the running around. Choose a child to model for you (or the Teaching Assistant or even a parent) if you prefer not to or are unable to model the movements yourself. Observe the children's ability to perform the skills in movement, music, drama, listening and social interaction. The music lesson thus contains so many more outcomes. You are then leveraging your time by combining learning areas. That is why the movements need to be modeled appropriately.

10. Finish each session with stretching and relaxation. (Stretches should never hurt.) After a "mat session" music lesson the stretch only needs to be a full body stretch on the floor, after which the children close their eyes and listen to the music. Initially -

Tell them what you want them to listen for, or, tell them a story of what the music is about, or, ask them to tell you what they think the music is telling them.

If you don't relax the children at the end of the lesson, thus utilizing this time for the affective aspect of music, they'll be unsettled for the rest of the day, especially if it's a dance and drama session. When they are used to relaxing at the end of the lesson they will happily lie down and relax but they need to be taught how to first. Each relaxation session, therefore, does not necessarily have to involve active listening but initially it must. Children are sometimes loud and boisterous because they think that's how they are expected to behave. Give them permission to be still and silent and teach them how. They need it.

About The Author

Marlene Rattigan is an Early Childhood and ESL teacher with a background in Music and Physical Education. She has written the Kidz-Fiz-Biz resources - Kidz-Fiz-Biz - learning through drama, dance and song, and Kidz-Fiz-Biz MULTICULTURAL - learning about other cultures through drama, dance and song. To purchase, to receive her free e-newsletter or for further information, go to http://www.kidzfizbiz.com.

15 Secrets To Boost Your I.Q In Less Than 30 Days

by: Dr. Enigma Valdez, C.H.

The same reason that people visit the gym on a regular basis, is probably the same reason you’re interested in raising your IQ. We just aren’t challenged enough physically or mentally. Setting aside time to work your mind out and organizing your various mental muscles can help you to be more creative, solve problems quicker and focus on the things you want.

Contrary to what most people believe, brainpower goes beyond inherited genes. Scientists have proven that intelligence is a combination of both genes and environment. When laboratory rats were given more toys to interact with, they ended up having much smarter rats than the ones that did not have any toys. Studies have also shown that you can grow more neurons with a stimulating environment.

The benefits of being mentally fit are very obvious. You’ll be able to enjoy accelerated learning. If you’re in high school, college or attend a university, you may find yourself having an easier time of your studies and your grade point average raising. You’ll also find yourself being able to think logically more often. You’ll be able to assemble a clear line of logic and reasoning that can help you make better decisions in life. Another benefit is that of increased creativity. Whether you’re into music, art, writing or any other form of art, training your mind can definitely open the flood gates of creativity in those areas as well.

In addition, your memory and focus will increase. Training with certain kinds of memory tools such as pegging and linking can help you uncover new ways to store information permanently and have an easier time of recalling things. Through meditation, your focus can improve greatly. You can start by meditating 10 or 15 minutes a day. Simply find a quiet place and sit or lay completely still, with eyes closed. Then, as much as possible, quiet your mind and focus on your breathing. If you’re not used to doing this, it may be extremely difficult. That’s ok. The more you do it, the easier it gets. As you stick with it, you’ll notice some very big improvements of being able to hold ideas and imagines in your mind much longer and stronger.

So how can you boost your IQ in less than 30 days? Here are the key secrets:

1. Write – when you write down your thoughts, it can be a great tool for you to reflect and make decisions. Some people use journals to write down their thoughts, others have simple notepads or notebooks. Simply writing what you think and feel can help you have a new perspective when you go back and read those words.

2. Meditate – as already stated, you can significantly boost your IQ through meditation. It may not seem logical, that you could boost your IQ by thinking about nothing at all, but it does help you bridge a connection from your conscious to your subconscious mind. And the subconscious stores every bit of data of our lives. Nothing is lost to the subconscious.

3. Be active – if you’re not already active, start a regular exercise routine. Having a healthy body also affects the mind.

4. Have Hobbies – have a regular routine of doing things you love to do, whether it’s fishing, bowling, bicycling, knitting, or reading a mystery novel. The more fun and passion you experience, the easier it will be to process and assimilate new information.

5. Read at least 15 minutes a day – Try to read at least 15 minutes a day. It may be hard to read if you’re pressed for time, but 15 minutes is very doable by anyone of this day and age.

6. Think – involve yourself in documentaries, books, magazines or board games that make you think. Actively challenge your current assumptions.

7. Study IQ puzzles – visit your local book store and buy yourself a couple of IQ puzzles or crossword puzzles. Make sure you get ones that have the answers in the back so that you can work out any mistakes. Go over them again and again. It keeps your mind sharp.

8. Play competitive games like chess. You can log on to the Internet and play with other players around the world. You can also play billiards.

9. Walk in someone else’s shoes – empathy goes along with IQ intelligence. By exploring someone else’s perspective of the world can help you to think through other people’s eyes. Although this is not a logical reasoning ability, it is an ability that can help you think out of the box when you’re stumped on a problem.

10. Create something on a regular basis – find something you can create, whether it’s writing an ebook, building a bird house, planting a flower, overhauling a car engine, or drawing a picture. Use your creative powers on a regular basis.

11. Conduct thought experiments – Ask yourself “what if” questions. Write them down and see how far you can take a certain question.

12. Break out of the routine – try to consciously break a routine, even if just for a short time. If for example you drive the same way to work every day, try a new route. If you sleep on the left side of the bed, sleep on the right side, or even the opposite direction.

13. Explore new cultures – seek different worldviews than your own. Meet people from other cultures and let them teach you about their food, language and traditions.

14. Learn outside of your usual interests – don’t stick to the same old things. If you like rock music, try listening to rap or jazz. If you’re into art or music, get into a programming language.

15. Use your brain more – Force yourself to use your brain more in everything that you do. In many cases its just having the intention to use your brain more that can actually give you surprising results. Logic, focus and creativity are a handful of mental muscles that you should be exercising on a regular basis.

These techniques can definitely help you boost your IQ, no matter who you are. If you’re looking to join a high IQ society, like MENSA, then are two ways to go about it.

The first is to submit your GRE scores. The other is to let MENSA send you a supervised test. In my opinion, if you haven’t completed your GRE yet, you may find it easier to take the GRE after having studied GRE test books. You can get them at any major book seller or http://Amazon.com. By implementing these IQ boosting strategies for the next 30 days, you can significantly increase your Intelligence Quotient.

About The Author

Dr. Enigma Valdez is an internet genius dedicated to helping individuals improve their lives. You can visit his site at Http://www.HighIQ-University.com

To Read or Not to Read?

by: Gigi Reynard

"To Read or Not to Read?" This is the title of a three year study on reading trends in the US released by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The reports concludes that: - voluntary reading rates are dropping - reading skills are "worsening" among teens - adults are becoming less proficient readers

Pretty grim news for people like me who's life is all about books and reading. It was with some trepidation that I downloaded the 98 very dry, dull pages and began to read them. Just as I was beginning to nod off I came across this little gem:

"Opinions aside, there is a shortage of scientific research on the effects of screen reading—not only on long-term patterns of news consumption, but more importantly, on the development of young minds and young readers. (A good research question is whether the hyperlinks, pop-up windows, and other extra-textual features of screen reading can sharpen a child's ability to perform sustained reading, or whether they impose unhelpful distractions)." (To Read or Not to Read p53)

That woke me up. I decided I didn't need to torture myself anymore and deleted the report from my machine.

There is an assumption here that I violently disagree with -- the only reading worth studying or reporting on is a printed page in a book.

With the advent of the first .com in 1985 the written word gained a whole new life. Email, Web Sites, Blogs, Instant Messaging, and Social Networks have created an explosion of words and creativity.

Look around any Starbucks and count the number of people typing on laptops, PDAs and cellphones. Count those reading newspapers. If they are not reading, what exactly are they doing?

My email, RSS feeds and blogs provide me with more reading material in one day than I used to get in an entire month.

I could say that it this is all work related and not in any sense voluntary. I would be lying.

Everyday, I follow links that take me to very strange places. It is so easy to intrigued with some weird factoid and go off on a reading tangent totally unrelated to anything! My personal downfall is when someone sends me a Facebook link. It is very possible that an hour later I am making new friends - after reading all about them. I don't even want to discuss YouTube! Are they unhelpful distractions? Who knows for sure. What we do know (from experience) is that those distractions very often keep us doing sustained reading. AND we are in fact reading things we probably never would have had access to or read any other way. Say what you will, it is still reading. And it is not exactly unpopular.

The last time there was this must energy created around words and ideas was when Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century. His press unlocked literacy and information and gave it to the people. For centuries the book has informed and entertained us.

Electronic reading propels literacy and information to the next level. It takes a one dimensional object and adds to it participation, sound and movement to create a richer, multidimensional experience.

I have always loved books; that is unlikely to change anytime soon. And yet, I find myself increasing feeling claustrophobic and impatient with print. It has been a long time since I picked up a magazine or newspaper. Why bother when I get the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publisher's Weekly on my screen with instant updates, links and feedback opportunities.

Consciously, or unconsciously, we are all in the process of examining and redefining how and why we read.

The NEA is alarmed and gloomy about reading in America. I am not.

Call me a crazy optimist; but the evidence of my own eyes suggests that reading is alive and well and maybe even on the upstroke.


Copyright (c) 2007 Gigi Reynard

About The Author

Gigi Reynard is CEO of eBooks About Everything(http://www.ebooksabouteverything.com). eBooks About Everything is the fufillment of a life long dream -- owning a bookstore. Gigi retired from a high tech company after 25 years as a systems analysit and program manager. eBooks combine her love of technology and reading.