Screaming! Tantrums! Arguments! Is this what happens to you when you try to get your kids to do their homework? It certainly happens to some of my students when they go home. So perhaps there are some things we can do to help kids do THEIR homework.
Don’t fight – Don’t fight with them. Don’t turn the whole affair into a power struggle, because you will have to do this every time. Instead, encourage them to do homework. Sit yourself down with the books open and promise to help them as much as you can. Setting an example can be more effective than any words. Why not do some of your work at the same time?
Encourage Your Kids – Encourage them with kind words and lots of questions that are easy to answer. Help them with the answers too, if they have problems. If they can’t answer, maybe they don’t understand the question or they have forgotten. Confidence in doing homework is something children really need.
Take Breaks – Remember their concentration on one task is not the same as yours, they have a very short attention span (except for video-games!). So take lots of breaks to help them. But don’t let them take too long a break, 5 minutes is fine.
So, if you have tried other ways and failed, try some of these suggestions. One of them just might! Kenneth
Nearly 70 percent of junior high school students said they have been taught with alternate “reference” books in class despite a ban on such publications, a recent poll showed.
“This result indicates abnormalities in our education system, as ‘credentialism’ is still hurting Taiwan’s junior high students,” Shih Ying, chairman of the Humanistic Education Foundation, told a press conference yesterday.
It boggles the mind: what the heck are ‘unauthorized’ textbooks? What is credentialism and how does it relate to this story? From what I’ve seen of school textbooks, schools rely on particularly few textbooks for outside reading, and too many for classwork.
Ever since the invention of the Rosetta Stone software, teachers have been trying to adapt and create software to encourage language learners everywhere through PC technology. Vocaboly.com is one such vocabulary builder program that helps learners master the more tedious aspects of vocabulary practice. One of the things I have noticed amongst especially young learners is how words are quickly understood, absorbed and forgotten! Among older students retention is often better, but usage is still an issue as students struggle with many aspects of vocabulary: shades of meaning, similar words of different meanings, etc..
Can Vocaboly’s vocabulary software help reinforce this? Well, I decided to give it a try and download the trial software. It installed and removed easily enough, and the trial software worked well enough on install, not crashing the machine. Once setup and running (neither process was difficult), we entered the exercises and could choose between the different grades of vocabulary (TOEFL, GMAT, SAT, GRE) and away we went. There were a number of ways to learn, review and practice words that had made your hit list of words (in the flashcard section at the bottom of the screen). Take a look yourself:
There’s the word ticker which scrolls past each word you want to remember, recall mode allows you to practice remembering, and spelling mode that allows you to practice spelling some of your words. There are also numerous ways to tweak the settings, add words to lists, and a couple of test modes. So for the avid student who likes to acqiore and recall words in this fashion, this could be a valuable and effective way to combine learning and review. There are some additional books of words and tests available from the website, as well as additional support and software, including speech engines (did I say that the whole software is accompanied with Text-2-Voice capability giving students ample opportunity to hear words spoken clearly?).
There were two limitations that may give some teachers pause before recommending this software, especially if you’re teaching outside the US or in a non-US system.
1. a focus on US english at academic levels, there were no mentions of vocabulary focused towards any of the rest (and large population) of the English speaking academic system; so for students entering a US institution, these tests would be fine. If, though, you were teaching students headed to any of the other English speaking countries, you’d be out of luck. There is no mention of IELTS at all anywhere, nor indeed any other English proficiency exam common in those parts of the world. A word to the writers of this software: version 3 – make it deal with non-U.S. English (of which there at least one hundred million of us!).
2. there are actually no contexts for any of the vocabulary items. For example, if you look up ‘abdicate’, the meaning is clearly and concisely given, and a partial example is given. However, there is no complete sentence to highlight how the word would actually be used. It’s a pity: students learning a new word would love to see that. Providing a sample text and/or reading passage would be a good way to site these words in context and make retention easier. For a teacher using this software, you would need to supplement vocabulary practice with more traditional vocabulary books, lots of quality reading and a good dictionary, too. But then, that goes without saying.
If you have students who need additional supplementary vocabulary practice before heading to a US college for higher education, then this package seems affordable and good value. Combined with additional online support, it represents great value at $39.99 especially when you consider that there are more than 12,000 words, each with meaning, phonetic symbol and pronunciation included in the database, and email support and lifetime upgrades are all included! At the very least, it’s easy to try out by downloading the trial and installing it. Unlike most trialware, it’s not cripple-ware so teachers and students should find plenty to be able to evaluate it before buying!
I’ve been following Asus since the launch of their Asus EEE PC 700 in 2007. The breadth and innovation of the company’s products underlines the ambitions of this company to reshape the PC (sans Apple) world by packaging the PC in a variety of new forms: UMPC, SETBOX style, Asus Radio, Video Gaming, …
While the video is in Chinese, you will get to see some great gadgets in the video: first up, of course, is the EBox. There isn’t the same level of interest in this device, but I believe it has a number of advantages that will see this become an extremely popular choice for all sorts of un (and under-) served markets: kids computing, older folks, family computing, simpler networking, classrooms, etc..
The price, the size, and the low power consumption make this a VERY attractive computer for the next generation of household computers. You could put one in EVERY classroom for a relatively inexpensive solution if you need a small language classroom with five or six of these machines; networked together, they’d be quite a cool and effective computer-skills teaching classroom.
Also, running Linux would make many aspects of maintenance relatively simple. Replacement would be the option in cases where the hard drive died, though! But at its current price, that might quite affordable!
Have you considered using an EBOX for your classroom?
These compositions were written and illustrated by students who are studying Parade V. Students were asked to write about places from their own experience. Both teachers think the students did a fantastic job!
Hungry Monster’s name is Andy.
Andy is very hungry.
He can eat apples, bananas, and many kinds of food.
On Monday, he ate one piece of bread.
But he was still hungry.
On Tuesday, he ate two pieces of banana.
But he was still hungry.
On Wednesday, he ate three hot dogs.
But he was still hungry.
On Thursday, he ate four strawberries.
But he was still hungry.
On Friday, he ate five elephants.
But he was still hungry.
On Saturday, he ate six apples.
But he was very big.
He is big. His stomach bursts out!
This story was created by a student based upon the “Hungry Caterpillar” and illustrated with his own drawings and some help from the teacher. It highlights a lot of creativity on the student’s part, and originality in the way he handled the ending!
Just received this note about the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. Check it out
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This afternoon, I had a great idea for an April Fool’s Joke.
Many of our teachers and students use a book called “Ears and Mouth” for teaching basic phonics. My idea: Find an old cover, print up lots of pages of ears and mouths, and attach the cover to the printouts. Make it look like a genuine copy.
Then when the teacher says “Take out your ‘Ears and Mouth’”, she grabs her copy and opens it to find literally, lots of ears and mouths!
That would be kind of funny to an English Teacher in Taiwan!
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