Education tips and articles » Learning Environment

7 Tips For Planning School Events

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:43:28 +0000

Many schools plan events every year. There are a variety of school events including open house night, science fairs, carnivals and sports tournaments.

School events often support the learning environment and curriculum of the school. Schools often plan events such as science fairs, cultural exhibitions, music performances and art fairs which support the curriculum. They are fun events where children get to enhance their learning and self esteem.

Often fundraisers are operated at the same time as regularly scheduled school events. Sports games and tournaments have concession stands. Evening events such as science fairs can have a dinner added on as a fun family event and fundraiser.

Here are 7 tips to remember when planning school events.

1. Make your school event fun or unique. Even if it’s a carnival or other event that you’ve been doing for years think of twists that will get more students and parents excited about participating.

2. Events take volunteers. Usually a lot of them! Carefully consider how much manpower it will take to pull off the school event you are considering.

3. After deciding on the event type, organize into committees for each aspect of the event. For example: publicity, decorations, food, event set-up, clean up, etc.

4. Better safe than sorry. When planning your event date be aware of conflicting events. Make sure your event does not fall on the same day as other important events in the area. If you are having an outdoor event, have a contingency plan for bad weather.

5. Keep the costs of your school event low! Ask for parents and business leaders to donate supplies.

6. Paying for advertising such as TV and billboards can be a waste of resources. Only a very small percentage of the people who see the advertisement will actually come. Many times the best advertisement is word of mouth. Use free media such as press releases, fliers sent home to parents, email and phone calls.

7. Involve as many pockets of your school and community as possible. For example, let each grade, school club and even community organizations hold their own booth. If you are having a ticketed event, let other community groups sell tickets and keep a percentage of the revenue from tickets they sell.

By: Sandra Sims

Online Study Tips – 6 To-Do Tasks in First Week of Study

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:35:54 +0000

After you have enrolled into an online education program, the next thing to do is preparing yourself to attend online classes. Your first week in an online class can be a little disorienting as you may not familiar with the online learning system used by the school. You need to learn how to navigate a virtual “classroom”, interact with peers and professors through online system and familiar yourself with the online learning environment. Here are 6 online study tips that you can do in the first week of your online learning:

1. Review the course requirement

Once you received the course requirements for every subject, go through the requirements carefully to ensure you can really handle the workload. Many online students tend to dropout half-way of the course after they find out that can’t cope for the course. Don’t let this happen to you, if you find out the course is not suitable for you after reviewing the course requirements, and you decide to dropout the course, do it before the school’s withdrawal deadline so that you can get a full or partial refund of your payment.

2. Buy text books and other materials

Buy all the textbooks and other course materials early so that you won’t fall behind on your online study. Many schools have their own online bookstore or a recommended list of bookstore where you can purchase the course textbooks and other materials.

3. Upgrade computer hardware and install required software

Is your computer meeting the online system requirements? Most online learning system can be accessed directly from general internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, but those online learning system may only run well in certain minimum version of internet browser such as IE 6.0 or Firefox 2.0, then you need to upgrade it if yours is an earlier version. The school may requires you to install their software on to your computer, make sure you read the software requirements and upgrade your computer if necessary before you install the software.

4. Get to known each other with your teachers and peers

Your online teachers may never get to know you if you are in an online course with a lot of students. Take an initiative to briefly introduce yourself by using online course message board to let your teachers aware about you. A teacher who knows a little bit about you will be more likely to help you through the course. Establish yourself as an active member in the online class, take the initiative to get to know your peers and trade your email or other online communication accounts with them. You will your life in online study much easier if you have made up your network between teachers and peers.

5. Plan your learning schedule

You should always balance your family, career (if any) and your online study life. The life balances can only be achieved with a proper time management. Establish a regular study schedule and stick to it with your best efforts. Let your friends know that you are unavailable during these times and plan your family time to fit your study schedule so that it won’t crash with each other.

6. Marks the tests and assignment schedule on your calendar

One of the key factors for success online students is “self-motivation”, nobody will look at your back and remind you on your assignment due date, and the tests schedule. You should be self-motivate enough to record all of the assignments, test, essays and project on your personal calendar once you receive a syllabus, which normally will be given out at the beginning of the online course.

Summary

Get yourself prepared for the classes at the beginning of the online course will help you to go through your learning journey smoothly. Use the above 6 online study tips to get started.

By: Julie Harvard

Five Tips To Find The Best Online MBA Program

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:35:41 +0000

MBA is among the most popular business degree to earn online. The knowledge and the skill in the business administration field is important for people who work in business world, whether you are a self-employed boss or under employed in a corporate. Getting a MBA degree becomes easy and convenient with the available of online MBA degree programs. There are too many online universities and traditional brick & mortar colleges offer online MBA programs, sometimes it confuses you and you may find hard to decide one to enroll due to too many choices. Here are six tips that can help you to find the best Online MBA program that meet your goal.

Tip #1:

The best online MBA program must be accredited by an accreditation agency that is recognized by US Department of Education. Accreditation is important measurement of the quality of a degree program. With a proper accreditation, an Online MBA program is certified to meet a standard education guideline and most prospective employers place an emphasis on this point because it assures them that you will have the skills that meet the job position requirement.

Tip #2:

Most of students taking MBA program are employed full-time. Hence, the best online program must be able to provide the flexibility to adjust your schedule to fit into your busy time for work and family. A good online MBA program should be lenient in learning time, places and learning pace.

Tip #3:

When you enroll in an online MBA program, you will be assigned to difference online classes which monitor and mentor by online lecturer. The best MBA program shouldn’t have too many students in one online class; this will cause the lecturer unable to give good attendance to all the students and gives a good learning guidance. 8-12 students per lecturer are a good ratio for online students to achieve a perfect learning environment with a good attention from the lecturer.

Tip #4:

The best online MBA program should have the best professors who have full of real experience in all aspects of the business world. While searching for the Best Online MBA program, remember to analyze the faculties and understand the school’s academic approach. You can talk to the admission officer through online chat session (most online universities have their admission officer online to answer enquiries live) and get a detail understanding on who are the lecturers involve in teaching the online MBA courses, what are their academic background and experience in real business world.

Tip #5:

Look for the online university that offers online MBA programs has an established alumni program. An established alumni program will have a good networking between school and companies, which will help you to get a promotion or make a smooth career transition worldwide. The best online MBA program should counter in your career opportunities and provides you with career support services through free career seminars to guide you in your resume writing, provides you with tips for preparing interviews & etc. These career support services are important to help you jump-start your career or make a smooth career transition.

Summary

Getting a degree from the best online MBA program is important to ensure your degree have the maximum value in helping your career moves. Hope that the above tips will give you some guides in searching for the best online MBA program that best fit your educational and career goal.

By: Julie Harvard

Tips For Creating a Fun and Educational Playroom For Children

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:45:00 +0000

You can create a fun and educational playroom for children simply by keeping things at their level, both physically and mentally. Bright colors, simple words, sturdy furniture and well made children’s rugs can make your kid’s playroom an adventure in learning as it provides a rich learning environment.

Toddlers learn at a phenomenal rate. Everything they do increases their knowledge base. At the same time, you want your toddler’s playroom to be fun and entertaining. By using educational kid’s rugs, low shelves and child-sized furniture when designing your playroom, you can create an environment that is both fun and entertaining.

Educational Children’s Rugs Serve Multiple Roles

Let’s face it – children sometimes spill things. That’s a fact of life. They also want to learn and play. Children’s interactive play rugs serve multiple jobs, protecting your floor, providing a comfortable play area and offering educational experiences. Children’s rugs can teach geography, the alphabet and animals. They also come designed as miniature communities and cities, and you can even purchase kids’ rugs that will teach your toddler about your home state!

Children’s rugs are designed with toddlers and young children in mind. They are soft and plush and come with plenty of padding. The materials used are easy to clean and durable enough to last for years of enjoyment. Your children’s playroom will be all the more fun with an educational kid’s rug. Children’s interactive play rugs can even help young children learn important social skills as they explore the possibilities with their play group friends.

Sturdy Children’s Furniture Is a Must

As appealing as inflatable or plastic children’s furniture may appear, it is generally unsafe and it certainly won’t last. Children are still learning about the laws of physics that rule our world. Sturdy, well made, child-sized furniture will help your toddler maneuver in their playroom safely and constructively.

By providing child-sized furniture, you will help your child learn how to use their body properly. This type of furniture is also far less likely to tip, causing a fall. In addition, children’s furniture comes in a variety of colors and patterns, allowing you to create a customized playroom, best suited to your kid’s interests and personal style.

Personal Touches Add Educational Fun

You can make your children’s playroom all the more enjoyable and educational with personal touches that you create together. Index cards make great learning tools when used to label common features of the playroom, such as taping a card marked “chair” to a chair. Other labeling opportunities can include walls, tables and dressers. You can also create a word wall using pictures and words of common items such as books, shirts, dogs, family members, trees, cars, and so on. The possibilities are limitless and you can make working with these label cards a game for you and your toddler.

Children love to learn and play. You can make your kid’s playroom a wealth of fun and information with sturdy, child-sized furniture, children’s interactive play rugs and other educational children’s rugs, homemade labels and plenty of books and positive learning games. Your children will enjoy hours of educational fun in their very own playroom.

By: Chris A. Harmen

4 Tips To Students Considering Online Education

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:27:26 +0000

Many students choose to pursue online degree without evaluating their learning style and personality whether they will be successful as online students. Survey results show that many online students failed to complete their degree program mainly due to student’s personality issues. Earning a degree through online education may not be a right decision for all students. Here are 4 important tips to evaluate yourself to ensure you are a right candidate to success with online learning style.

Evaluation #1: Are your education success mainly depend on face-to-face interaction with instructors and classmates?

In online learning environment, most learning materials and communications are in text format, you need to adapt yourself to this type of learning environment if you want to success in this type of study. Many students who failed in their online study find themselves learn better in the courses that conducted in classroom-based. They prefer direct interaction with lecturer and face-to-face communication with their classmates.

If you education success or failure really depend of how the courses being conducted and you are not ready to change your learning style, then considering online education may not be your best option.

Evaluation #2: Do you often get things done ahead of time or you prefer to wait until the last minutes?

Self-motivation is very important in online learning because most of the courses and assignments are in self-paced form. You plan your own time that best fit into your schedule to logon to classes, do and submit your assignments. If you are the kind of person who always put on-hold your tasks to last minutes of dead line, then online education may not be your best choice.

Evaluation #3: Do you always need assistance when you are given written directions for an assignment by an instructor?

If you do, then you might have problem to understand instruction in text format. Most communications for online education such chatting, discussion board, email and downloadable materials are in text format. Although there are helps available if you need any assistance, most of your questions will be answered in email or posted text on the online discussion board. Hence, you need to be able to under text instructions if you want to benefits from the advantages of online education.

Evaluation #4: Are you good in time management & able to divide your time between your work, family and online study?

If you are a working individual who want to get a degree online without giving up your career, online education is good choice because the benefits in term of flexibility and self-paced learning style enable you to achieve both your career and education goal. But, for people who are not good in time management, they tend to lose their focus on their study if they are too busy with their career and family. That’s why many online students who are not able to allocate their time for study tend to quit without completing their online study program.

If the results of the above evaluation reveal a strong self-motivation and preference for a more independent learning environment, you may be an ideal candidate to take your degree online.

By: Julie Harvard

4 Online Study Tips For Online Students

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:41:38 +0000

Nowadays, many people are taking online courses either for self improvement or earning a career credential. But not all will become a success online student and complete the online learning program. You need to be able to adapt to the online learning environment and fully utilize the online resources to help in your online study. Here are 4 online study tips for your reference:

Tip #1: Use Wikipedia As Resource For Reference

Wikipedia can be a valuable resource for online students. There are many topics cover in Wikipedia, find the related articles and information to your subject of study. Because of Wikipedia is a public written encyclopedia, you could contribution your portion if there is any information missing. Keep in mind that all information at Wikipedia is user-edited and it may contain errors, you should double check the information before you memorize it or use it as the references in your online study assignments.

Besides adding information in written format, you could help in recording the read out of the content for Spoken Wikipedia Project. The reading in aloud help you to remember better while the recordings help other Wikipedia users in future.

Tip #2: Join The Discussion Forum

A topic may have different views or opinions from different people; hence you could learn what other people think by joining various online discussion forums for the subject you are learning for. Post your questions to find the answers and answer other people questions will help you to understand better while broaden your view about the topic through the discussion. You could even setup your own discussion forum for the subject of your study and invite others to post their opinion and discuss about a certain topics related to the subject from time to time.

Tip #3: Publish Your Reading Note Online

There are many websites that allow you to share your reading notes with others who are interested or taking the same subject of study as you. Among the popular online notes sharing websites are stu.decio.us and JotCloud.com. Posting your notes online will help yourself to verify the subject you have learned because others who have read your notes will inform you if they found any mistake. In additional, the notes that you posted online will help others in their assignment as well.

Tip #4: Create & Broadcast A Podcast

Learning by creating podcast can be fun and it will really help you to understand the subject of study. There are many sites which you can learn how to create your own podcast; it’s not difficult if you are willing to face the challenge by taking action to create your 1st podcast. The podcast can be shared with others through podcast broadcasting sites so that others who are interested with the topic can be benefited from your production as well.

Summary

Finding new ways of study help you to keep your learning fresh and you will be able to understand the subject of study better. The above 4 tips can help you get started; but there are many other unique ways which you can use to help in your online study.

By: Julie Harvard

Online College Education – The Pros and Cons You Must Know

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:09:42 +0000

One of the benefits of an online college education is that your chances of getting a lucrative and enjoyable job will increase. I’m specifically talking about cases where a job is only available to candidates who (for example) hold a university or college degree. The average person will see an income difference of approximately $1 million dollars over their non-degree competition over the span of a lifetime.

As you are probably already aware online learning can be a great way to get a new diploma or upgrade from your previous education. For someone considering this option the internet is a great place to find relevant and up to date information regarding learning online. The internet does not discriminate against religion, race, education, class, or background which helps build a sense of equality in bettering a student’s education.

Due to the positive atmosphere the internet can create, online education will produce a healthier learning environment and a greater quality of education to all society. Sure, you can always go back to school in a traditional setting, but you can also take classes online. The internet is a powerful education tool.

Distance education teaches various subjects through various correspondence methods. Audio and videotapes, telephone conferences, cable or satellite television, fax, electronic mail and the Internet are the main means of this type of education. It should be noted, though, that not all education programs and training over the Internet are reliable. Also if your computer is over two years old, it could be outdated and unable to handle the demands of attending an online institution.

By: Derek Dexter