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My name is Kayo Hawkins and I am a Co-owner of Aardvark Learning Academy. I would like to share a few practical ideas to keep studying a new language from my experience living overseas and as a language teacher. I have been teaching Japanese language for more than a decade in 4 different countries to children and adults. I have noticed that successful learners are self motivated and well disciplined, which is an essential skill to continue learning. More importantly, these students` enjoy learning the language and make exra effort to add enjoyment to the proces all the time. Here are a few tips for language learning: 1- Every little bit helps "Even dust becomes a mountain if piled together" is a Japanese saying which means Every little bit helps. Set a time to study the language for 10 minutes every single day. In 10 minutes you can: -Make 10 cards of new vocabulary: write those words, say those words, and memorize. Do not forget to review the ones you already studied. Language learning is all about accumulation of knowledge. -Follow someone who speaks the language on Social Networking or the Internet - Athletes, Musicians, Politicians, they all have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram account. Check out their accounts and learn new words, phrases, and stay connected to the language and the culture. -Work on one page of the workbook if you have one- Decide how much you want to study each day and stick to your plan. 2- Live in that language The reason why it is hard to study a new language is that you do not have opprtunity to use that language. You can try the following solutions: 1- Get your family members or pets involved- Greet your family members in the new language. Teach your family members new words and sentences. Are there any greetings that your first language does not have? Make a habit to say those phrases. 2. Put a poster up in your house- Print out or make a poster of characters, vocabulary, grammar points and put it out where you spend a lot of time. On the wall beside the kitchen stove. On the fridge. On the mirror. In a bathroom. You will always be reminded of the language and memorize them without noticing. 3- Think in the new language Thousands of thoughts come and go in our mind every single day. Do you know how to say some of them in the language that you are learning? Start from something simple such as "I am going to eat lunch" "This coffee is so good!" "It's 10am". It is a great practice to build sentences in your mind when you are actually communicating, since you are required to prepare sentences as quickly as possible when talking. 4- Seek help Once you make those effort at home to try teaching yourself a new language, you will want to use it to communicate. Here are the things you can do: Find a language exchange partner and meet up online. Visit the local library website to see if they are hosting language circles. Seek for professional help from us! Aardvark Learning Academy offers French, Japanese, and English as a second language. You will study the language of your choice with experienced professionals to achieve your goal faster. Language learning is a great way to spend your time, stay positive, and feel the self improvement as you progress in the language.
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ESL-IELTS Speaking Test Pronunciation Practice with Past Tense Verbs: 3 Groups: Free Download :)11/20/2019
By Kristin Rushowy Queen's Park Bureau
Wed., Aug. 28, 2019 timer3 min. read The Ontario government will spend the next year overhauling the math curriculum after another round of provincial testing showed elementary students continue to struggle with the subject. “Every year, the scores have either stagnated” or dropped, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Wednesday after the Education Quality and Accountability Office released results for the 2018-19 school year that he called “disappointing.” Provincial test results show that in Grade 3, 58 per cent of students met the provincial standard — which is equivalent to an A or B — which represents a decline in results from the past three years. In Grade 6, less than half — 48 per cent — met the expectation, a one percentage point drop from the average over the past three years. In Grade 9, results remained stable with 84 per cent meeting the standard at the academic level, but just 44 per cent of those enrolled in applied math — which the EQAO says “is a persistent achievement gap between students in the applied and academic courses.” The EQAO also noted that in elementary schools, “Ontario students’ basic knowledge of fundamental math skills is stronger than their ability to apply those skills to a problem or think critically to determine an answer. In attempts to promote engagement and achievement, it is worth considering how we can further support students’ mathematical problem solving and critical thinking. ” Please see the full article: https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/08/28/ontario-elementary-student-math-scores-continue-to-decline-latest-eqao-results-show.html Disclaimer: This blog is for entertainment purposes only, the views expressed herein are my own entirely and at no time should this blog be used as a basis to inform personal decision making. Rather the blog is designed for entertainment purposes only. Copyright: This blog may not be reproduced, reprinted in any form, digital or otherwise; without the express written consent of Dr Jeff Hawkins, contact aardvarklearning@gmail.com. Introduction As a teacher, I often get asked the following question from students: “Do your children play video games?” As a PhD holder, I can never leave a good question alone so this rather long blog examines this question in more detail and attempts to shed light on the reasons that our family answers “NO”. We do not play any video games at our house. In fact, my wife and myself believe strongly that video games disrupt a child’s attention span and eliminates their options for natural play (real world tasks, not digital world). By attention span, I mean the child’s ability to focus, concentrate and learn with enjoyment without distraction or agitation. The blog touches on 4 themes to illustrate the issue further:
In today’s world, Video Games, Virtual Realty games and even Children’s games and the myriad of delivery Devices (Twitch, Tablets, Android, IPhone) are widely accepted everywhere in society and are conspicuously consumed by millions of Adults, Teens and Children in Canada and around the world. Wherever there is the internet and a device, you can connect to a video game and immerse yourself in the digital world. I may be wrong and often am but it appears to me that when something is widely available in the digital world such as Facebook, Twitter, Video Games, Virtual Reality games; this visual MEDIA grabs the veneer of social acceptance and becomes defacto accepted in society by parents --- by virtue of being widely available in society. Clearly, just because something is widely available in Society does not mean that children should be allowed to engage in the activity. Addictive substances in Canada are highly regulated and parents are rightly horrified by the idea that their child (ages 1-11) would be allowed to legally access and consume addictive substances such as cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana. However, parents generally do not hold the same moral outrage in regard to video games, virtual reality games or social media consumption. Instead, these games are perceived to be harmless and children are allowed to engage in age appropriate Gaming (Video Games and Virtual Reality) without question in regard to how these “Games” could damage their child’s psychological well-being; ongoing brain and behavioral development. 10,000 Hours of Video Games In his Youtube video, The Secret Powers of Time (2010: 5:48), Psychology Professor emeritus Philip Zimbardo argues that the average American teenager: “has at MINIMUM played 10,000 hours of video games ALONE” that does not include other forms of visual media such as pornography, youtube, movies or facebook that these boys watch in addition to playing video games. Zimbardo’s research shows that video games are not a mild form of entertainment but are in fact dangerous to a child’s social (anti-social personality), emotional (self image: cognitive dissonance with reality) and brain development. According to Zimbardo: “Teenage boys brains have been digitally rewired which means they will never fit into a regular analogue classroom where someone talks at you and gives you instructions” (Zimbardo 2010). The addictive nature of tobacco, alcohol or drugs is well known. In my view, Video games, Virtual reality games are far more pernicious than traditional addictive substances precisely because they are intangibles; it is difficult for a parent to observe how Video Games and VR affect the child’s brain - day by day, year by year. With new media, parents must ask: is the child consuming the product (Video Games & VR) or is the product consuming the child? The idea that Video Gaming can be dangerous to brain development is not new. More recent research (2018) on the next generation of gaming – demonstrates the psychological affects that games can have on the brain. Virtual Reality Gaming: “Lasting Psychological Affects” The CBC radio program: “The Ethics of Virtual Reality 2018” discussed the impact that Virtual Reality can have on ‘Gamers’ psychological attitudes and recommends a code of ethical conduct should be developed in order to safe guard against “Lasting Psychological Affects”. The research on VR gaming showed that the study participant’s consciousness (personal attitudes) can be changed after repeated exposures to virtual reality environments. The dramatic finding was that human beings sub-conscious attitudes can be influenced and even programmed by participating in Virtual Reality. In other words, the person is NOT even aware that their behavior has changed after participation in the VR session. Please see the full link to the CBC article below. Unplug for Learning In order for a child or any human being to be successful in life, we must have the ability to focus our attention span on the task at hand for lengths of time. In comparison to the visual kaleidoscope of Video Games and VR, normal classroom situations can appear boring or uninteresting to overstimulated children. The successful student knows the secret about learning; that it can be boring to learn subjects you are not interested in. However, these students are still able to focus their attention in order to achieve a benefit in class. We parents can do several things to create the environment at home where our child’s Attention Span can flourish. Foremost is turn off the video games and keep turning them off, as much as possible. Parenting is not a popularity contest with our Kids; we parents often have to make unpopular decisions to show them the right way to succeed to become a relevant adult in the real world. Tutoring One-One Students that have experienced Gaming find School terribly boring as they are not the centre of attention and are definitely not in control. Here is where Tutoring, One-One tutoring comes in to stimulate and focus the student’s attention. Intense attention from ones Teacher is a motivator for both parties as the student soon realizes:
In the digital age, Video Games, VR and Social Media are waging a war on our children’s attention. Parents must recognize that we are literally in a Battle for our children's hearts and minds, can take a proactive stance to influence how digital media are consumed in their home. We can Unplug to Learn, focus our attention and discover our real dreams and aspirations in the extraordinary world of everyday life. References
By Steve Murphy OCT # 677994, K-8 Instructor for Aardvark Learning Academy, email: aardvarklearning@gmail.com Introduction Teachers, parents, and tutors all know it can be difficult to keep the attention of children, especially boys. A lot of young male students have difficulty staying on task, and this can have a substantial affect on their school work, which then affects their grades. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) appear to be more commonly diagnosed, but even boys who don’t have these disorders can have trouble focusing in school. Personally, I have found ways to help boys become more interested in what they are learning, which has improved their focus and cut down on wasted time in a lesson. Here are five ways to improve your teaching to help boys become more engaged in a lesson. 1. Relatability An easy way to get a student’s attention and interest is to make the work more relatable to their life. One way to do this is to use real-life examples that the student understands and is interested in. For example, instead of using the bland basic questions about Susie having 17 apples and David taking away 5 apples, you can change the names and the objects to something the child likes. Most boys like video games so change the name to their name, change the apples to video games, and automatically the question has more appeal. I often create my own word problems or paragraph topics based on the students’ interests and hobbies. You will be surprised how much more engaged they are when they are talking about sports or video games instead of subtracting fruits or writing about generic school topics. 2. Competition Everyone has a little competitive edge inside of them, but in my experience, boys seem to thrive in competitive atmospheres. I try to use the competitive nature of boys to spark their engagement in learning. Whether it is a game against the tutor or a challenge against themselves, most boys will rise to the occasion. I use competition in one-on-one games against the students such as a simple card games involving math skills. Even though many of these games are based on chance, a little gentle trash-talking about who’s going to win will often perk up the student and sharpen their engagement. If they see that the tutor is into the game and competitive, it becomes more fun for them and ignites their competitive edge. Another form of competition is to use timers to have the student complete challenges in a certain time limit. By simply tracking their scores in challenges such as times tables, each session becomes a new opportunity to break their own record. This gets the competitive juices flowing and gives them a tangible way to see their own progress. 3. Games In my experience I have found games to be the determining factor in whether a boy says that being tutored is fun or boring. Just the word game seems to have a positive effect on boys’ engagement in a lesson. As an athlete growing up as a kid, I found practices to be boring, but the excitement of knowing I had a game that night got me through the whole day. It goes the same with learning. Tell a kid they are going to practice their times tables and they lose interest quickly but find a way to turn times tables into a game and they will have so much more fun they will not even realize they are practicing times tables. So, in a short lesson, it is pivotal to use creative ways to implement games, whether you find them online or create them yourself. Also, I always like to finish a lesson with a game as this leaves the student with a positive feeling as they leave the session, which often makes them more excited for the next one. 4. Short Tasks In the age of technology, it is no secret that kids have short attention spans. So many teachers and tutors like myself know how easily kids’ minds can drift away from a task, and it can be super hard to get them back on track. One solution to this problem is to find shorter tasks with a clear ending. For example, if you hand a student a worksheet with 100 addition problems, their automatic reaction is to worry about how much work is in front of them. Even if you say they only must do the first 20 problems, visually the task seems overwhelming. Therefore, it is more beneficial to find or create a worksheet with fewer problems, so they can clearly see how much is in front of them. Especially for elementary level students, I aim to keep every sheet, task, or game to under 10 minutes. Anything longer than that and you risk losing their attention. 5. Have Fun This is one tip that seems obvious but believe me it is not always the case. To put it simply, if the teacher or tutor does not look like they are enjoying themselves then how can we expect the students to enjoy themselves. Obviously, you can’t be laughing and joking the entire time or no actual work will get done, but find appropriate time to joke with the students, be a little silly with them, and laugh at yourself if you made a mistake to show them that mistakes are okay. Young boys love to laugh and have fun, so showing them that learning is fun can go a long way towards inspiring them to enjoy learning on their own time. Summary These five tips may not work with every boy, because there are always going to be outliers that may not like games or competition. However, generally boys are simple. They love talking about their interests, they love playing games, they love the spirit of competition, they want short achievable tasks, and most of all they just want to have fun. I hope these tips have helped in some way. If you are a parent of a boy with attention difficulties, then here is a video that focuses on what you can do to best set them up to succeed. Whether you are setting up a space for them to complete their homework or preparing them for their tutoring, here are some things that you can do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kR9kqI9yqM |
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