SAVE OUR EDUCATION
Every post here is a carefully
thought out Q&A regarding
EDUCATION.

I hope that each post will serve to help
students, teachers and parents
to understand more about
EDUCATION.

5 Most Essential Aspects of Education

Question:


What are the most important aspects in education?


Answers:


(A) Languages


Every parent teaches their babies how to talk. It is essential one knows how to utter understandable sounds. In the present world, you are better paralyzed than dumb! Stephen Hawking.


Know the lingua franca of the current world. In these few centuries, the English language has been the lingua france of the world. Learn that language and you will have access to all the world's knowledge.


Don't be a dumb American, who can only speak English and think that they can rule the world! Learn more than one language! Be wary of increasing in important of other languages. For example the Chinese Language. Who knows China will overpower US in economy power, making Chinese the lingua franca. You don't want to reach 30 years old and regret not able to speak an importnat language.



(B) Communication and Marketing Skills


If you can make sounds, you can talk, but it doesn't mean you can communicate. Communication is an important art that every needs to learn.


Ever seen some professors in universities who speak English but actually is conveying Martian? Or some people who just can't seem to join in the fun conversation that the whole group is having?


Learn how to communicate effectively.


Normally people who can communicate well, they can easily learn how to market themselves and products. No matter what level of society you are at, you need to know how to promote yourself, especially if you want to go up.



(C) Basic Math and Money Matters


Math is one important subject that you need to know at least the basics - addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Everything in this world is made up of numbers - how many cells your body has, how many atoms planet earth has, how many starts in the galaxy, etc etc. Human just like to count. Number are just unavoidable. So, math is important!


Most people, learn math to count money! We should not just learn how to count numbers but also how to manage numbers. Every parent hope that their children will be able to sustain their own lives financially. Every teacher hopes to have a millionaire from their class. Every student wants to live good life and have a stable job. So, money management is a vital part of math that is lacking!



(D) Creative Thinking and Developing Skills


Creativity is the key to all doors in whichever field. In science, one needs creativity and innovation to come out with new scientific stuff. In art, creativity produces new packaging, advertisements, piece of art, etc. In business, creative business builders often have the upper hand. Everyone needs to be creative.


Some people are only creative but no determination. There is a need to help creative people to develop their skills into greatness.



(E) Leadership and Teamwork


Archimedes once had a bath himself to determine the density of gold. Isaac Newton starts thinking of gravitational force when an apple dropped on his head. Einstein locked himself up in his room to come out with his theory of relativity, brownian motion and photoelectric effect. ALL THESE DO NOT WORK IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

This century values teamwork. We seldom see a Nobel prize won by 1 single person anymore. It is usually 2 or 3 people winning one single Nobel prize. We don't see anymore Picaso or Michelangelo showing off their own piece of art, but we see an advertising company. Business are built on teams.

Only in a team, we can differentiate a leader and a follower. Leadership skills can be taught, depending on the level students are at. Different students with different strength in different fields can lead the team in solving tasks which require the skill they are good at. Thus, different people get to lead, more leaders can be raised, making the team more rounded.


Please do send in your comments and point of views
I appreciate every little help

How Can You Teach Better?

Question:
HOW CAN YOU BE A BETTER TEACHER?

Answers:

(A) ANALOGIES, STORIES, AND EXPERIENCES

Stories always work! Remember this. It will go to the extend that students do not even remember the concept but only the story alone! Some students will even remember it for life!

Once, my Chinese Language teacher was teaching Chinese idioms, he shared about the story behind. I scored A for Math but not Chinese. After 5 years, I can still remember the story. But I can't remember the Math that I learn in that year!

You can also share about your experiences to further enhance students' memory of something you want them to remember.

As for science and math subjects, analogies work well in helping students understand better.


(B) DEMONSTRATION

I had a Physics teacher, who wanted to demonstrate to us on potential energy. Guess what he did! He stood on the table! He said, "I do this so that you can remember for life!" and it works!

Experiments are also a form of demonstration. I still remember, my science teacher used me as a test subject to teach students about receptors. For science subjects, it works perfectly well with a clear experiment. Please don't use overly complicated experiments!

Sometimes, instead of you, as a teacher, performing, get your students to perform instead. You can have drama class for language subjects. Act out a verb!


(C) SEE, HEAR, AND TOUCH

I once attended a course that taught me, people learn through 3 mediums, see, hear, and touch! Each individual has different strength in all 3.

Most of the time, the teacher either help students who are strong in seeing or hearing. How bout students who are good at touching?

A complete way of teaching is having all 3 mediums on one single topic!


(D) GAMES

Most people should know the book - Rich Dad Poor Dad, written by Robert Kiyosaki. He says that playing games is the best form of learning. It is not real life but people learn when they win or lose. This will help them in the future.

I seriously believe that playing games helps!


(E) GROUP DISCUSSION

This could be one of the most effective way of learning and also the least effective. Group discussion requires self-motivation from students themselves. But if you could make students do group discussion, and you teach as well, it will result in a quite complete learning experience for students.

Ways to incorporate group discussion, have a project that students will have to do. Preferably chosen by themselves. As you teach, while students learn and use it in their projects, they will benefit a lot from it.



Please do send in your comments and point of views
I appreciate every little help

Why Students Don't Listen In Class?

Question:
Why students don't listen in class?
OR
Why students seem like listening but they are not?


Reasons:

(A) STUDENTS DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS IT FOR!

Obedient students will just study what they are forced to study. But disobedient students will question WHY and WHAT are the SUBJECTS for?

Without knowing the reason, students will not develop the interest towards it. As a result, they do not listen in class. Most students will not know why they need to learn chemical reactions in Chemistry or nuclear reaction in Physics.


(B) STUDENTS ARE FACING PERSONAL MATTERS!

If you are a teacher, you might be thinking, what does a student's personal life got to do with me? Well, if they don't do well in studies, it got to do with you!

Some students just need attention. If a teacher can be a little involve in the students' lives, they will have a friendly teacher. Class will be more interesting though you are boring.

(C) THE SURROUNDING!

This can be clearly seen. If you surrounding is bad, of course, students will not listen. Comparing a hot, stuffy room to an air-coned, comfortable room. Which one serve as a better classroom? Obviously the latter.

Possibly surrounding distractors:
1. Temperature - Not too hot and not too cold
2. Sound - a classroom beside a construction site is definitely not the most conducive place to study
3. Ventilation - proper air-flow of classroom is important for the brain.
4. Equipments - Sometimes, being too high tech can be distracting!
5. Friends - type of friends either serve as aiders or distractors.

(D) THE TEACHING METHOD IS BORING!

Sorry to teachers, if your teaching method is dozing people off, you can either improve your teaching skills or find another job.

As the older we grow, the less motivated the teachers. The worst teachers are normally professors. They are good in their field but once they open their mouth to teach, it is not much different than asking a dog to teach. Because we don't understand a single Martian he/she is talking about.

(E) TEACHERS DO NOT LISTEN TO STUDENTS!

A speaker once told me, when you start talking, don't get in love with your talking. Especially female teachers, once they start talking, they don't stop.

Do stop and listen to what your students got to say, questions to ask, problems to solve.



Please do send in your comments and point of views
I appreciate every little help


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Let us improve the current
EDUCATION SYSTEM
for a better future!