Home Schooling
by Clifford Morris
Just as baseball, basketball or/and soccer coaches strive for success by continuously thinking and working harder to win, so also can parents, teachers and tutors improve the many minds of those under their educational charge. That is the goal behind the following list of links.
Please excuse any repetitive pedagogical principles, successful studying strategies and learning suggestions.
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Associations Involving Education and Learning
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Building Beautiful Boxes
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Chess The objective of the
game of chess is to
checkmate your opponent's King. Checkmate or just "mate"
occurs when the King is attacked and unable to escape
capture on the next move.
For years, I was a teacher. I often included this "oldest
skill game in the world" as one of my classroom subjects. In my opinion, this
board game teaches
the following skills:
As an aside, the front cover of the August 2006 issue of Scientific American (Volume 295 Number 2) highlights an
informative psychology and brain science section entitled Secrets of the EXPERT MIND (see pp. 64 -- 71). There,
author and chess player Philip E. Ross comments that i) the key to chess success lies in effortful study, ii) we can become
good at any thing, and iii) that it is motivation, not innate ability that is a more important factor for success. In this
most informative article, Ross comments (and I quote directly) that
K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University and
[Neil] Charness [argue] that there must be some other mechanism that enables experts
to employ long-term memory as if it, too, were a scratch pad. Says Ericsson:
"The mere demonstration that highly skilled players can play at almost their
normal strength under blindfold conditions is almost impossible for chunking
theory to explain because you have to know the position, then you have to
explore it in your memory." Such manipulation involves changing the stored
chunks, at least in some ways, a task that may be likened to reciting "Mary
had a little lamb" backward. It can be done, but not easily, and certainly not
without many false starts and errors. Yet grandmaster games played quickly and
under blindfold conditions tend to be of surprisingly high quality.
To read all of Ross's excellent article, go to
http://scientificamerican.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945
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Home Studying Ideas
Best Way for Students to Study There has been an ever growing body of research evidence suggesting that we do not study in the same way. While this common sense approach to learning represents a welcomed message for parents and students, numerous classroom teachers continue to teach a large number of their students in the same way, often using a teaching style that has proven to be successful for the teacher but not for all of their students. This is incorrect teaching -- proof that common sense is not all that common. The following commentary < click the above link > attempts to address this common issue and at the same time, offer suggestions for possible improvement. If teachers require their students to receive information in a way that does not correspond with their dominant learning modalities, to perform under classroom conditions that interfere with their preferred learning, or to demonstrate learning in such a way that fails them to use their more dominant intelligences, then such teachers create within their students forms of artificial stress, reduced motivation, and repressed performance. Along this same line of thinking, there is a considerable body of research evidence suggesting that many special education students who have been formally categorized, for example, as learning disabled (LD) are, in fact, not LD students per se but assessed and taught incorrectly in terms of their dominant learning style. Perhaps a more positive way of describing their LD is that they simply learn differently!
Dictionary and Thesaurus by National Geographic
Exam Preparation This site assists students in evaluating test preparation skills and offers suggestions for improving study and test-taking skills. Includes information and tips on proper planning, organization, daily preparation, and intensive review.
How are your note-taking skills? This (Ohio University) site assists students in determining how effective they are at taking and using lecture notes. It offers suggestions for evaluating and improving note-taking skills in such areas as organization of ideas and topics, the use of examples and details, and formulating clear ideas.
How are your time management skills? This (Ohio University) site assists students in evaluating and improving time management skills and offers suggestions on maximizing time through effective planning. Allows students to develop personal detailed plans for days, weeks, and/or semesters to aid in time management.
How are your reading skills? (Another Excellent Ohio University Site)
LD = Learning Differently Most people are different and special from one another in the following ways: (1) in terms of their learning abilities and learning styles, (2) by their physical abilities and attributes, and (3), in how they think of their more dominant and less dominant intelligences. However, those who have been identified as exceptional pupils differ from most other general students to such an extent that they require an individualized educational program (IEP) in special education and / or special services to meet their specific learning, cognitive needs, and combinations of most dominant intelligences. Such exceptional girls and boys receive special education or special services because it continues to be the common belief that such specialization will help these special needs students reach their fullest potential. One way to group these exceptional individuals is according to the prevalence of the exceptionality in our current population. For this discussion, I shall zero in on one special type of communicational exceptionalities, namely the student who has been formally diagnosed as a learning disabled (LD). Most mainstream educators and psychologists think 'learning disability' upon first hearing the abbreviated label LD.
Learning Skills "The University of Victoria Learning Skills Program ... assists ... students in the development and practice of efficient study techniques, effective learning methods, and high-level thinking skills that are important for success in university ..."
Phonics Once upon a time, actually, around the mid 1960's, and within the wall of many North American classrooms, a majority of state-funded public school primary teachers taught students how to read using the phonemic awareness philosophy, or, for short, using phonics to teach very young children how to read. In its most simplest of form, phonemic awareness stipulates that youngsters attend to sounds in words by mentally manipulating them. This systematic teaching of phonics included stories that reinforced taught letters and demanded that students apply what they has learned immediately. One such reading series that I particularly enjoyed when I was a novice teacher was called Language Patterns. The reading philosophy behind this series was echoed by hundreds of other studies on grade one reading; students were making bigger gains in word recognition, word decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, and spelling than students using other more visual based reading programs. By grade two, many students in this "old language" reading program were already independent readers.
Home School Legal Defence Association
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Literary Classics and other
E-Content Aesop's Fables @: http://www.aesopfables.com/
Children's Classics @: http://www.worldwideschool.com/
Complete works of William Shakespeare
@: http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
Creative Commons @: hhttp://www.creativecommons.org
Internet Public Library @: http://www.ipl.org/ Short Stories of Chekhov and
Wilde @: http://www.bibliomania.com/
M N Newspapers
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Private Schools
Private School Affairs Private schools allay the concerns of parents worried about sending their children into today’s dangerous and permissive public school system. Private schools promise strong discipline and an enriching environment. But what exactly do private schools offer – and can they live up to the hype? To read more about them, click on the title just above.
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Reading and MI S Some Simple Sayings
T U V W Writing and Emails: Emails can be a convenient, easy and excellent avenue of improving writing skills.
That is, anyone can use email services to compose a written commentary
and then send that message to another. One strategy that has
proven to be successful for me is for the novice writer to send her or his
typed paragraphs to another and more experienced writer. The
stronger writer can edit the efforts of the novice and then email the
improved version back to be corrected by the novice writer.
For example, original errors could be isolated within brace [error
placed here] or curly {error placed here} or round (error placed
here) brackets and immediately followed by the better
version. This quick and handy communicational avenue can often
result in the novice writer becoming a much improved writer.
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Most recently revised on:
Thursday, 30 November, 2006