Struggling with Mathematics? – Try Math Lesson Plans

March 6th, 2010 by Admin No comments »

Nowadays teachers provide online classrooms that offer lessons and classes on a wide variety of topics covering all subjects taught in a regular school. Students can get special classes sitting at home through the internet. It is one of the most important subjects that a student learns in his school life. The Math lesson plans are available in a variety of modules and forms. These math lesson plans are designed keeping in mind everyone’s needs. Mostly, these websites also provide a teacher who guides the students with their math lesson plans every step of the way. Other features commonly seen are virtual classrooms where the student can interact with the teacher face to face and sometimes even with other students and this greatly eases the process of learning mathematics. Teachers can easily publish their original materials such as lesson plans, presentations, projects, exams, tests and many other things.

This Poor Peasant Changed the Direction of His Entire Country by Teaching His Children the Bible

January 29th, 2010 by Admin No comments »

You’ve probably never heard of Vicente Menchu. He was a poor farmer from the mountain region of Guatemala. He lived in the tiny village of El Quiche (pronounced kee-chay). And didn’t think he would ever touch the world.

In the late 1970s, when the Guatemalan government began seizing land owned by his fellow villagers, Vicente talked all the people of his village into banding together. His fight against unfair treatment of peasants spread rapidly to other villages.

By 1980, they took their cause to the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City, where Vicente was killed by government troops.

His influence never left Guatemala during his lifetime. But it didn’t have to. Vicente had enormous influence on his children. El Quiche had no schools, so he trained his children at home. He was a big believer in education and taught his kids thorough lessons in the Scriptures. They never had the opportunity to learn physics, chemistry, or advanced mathematics. The academic lessons were fairly basic.

Instead, he taught his kids right from wrong and about the teachings of Jesus and other figures from the Bible.

When Guatemala’s civil war began, many of the villagers were involved in the fight. But his daughter, Rigoberta, decided to fight in a different way. And this is where Vicente’s influence had its greatest impact.

Rigoberta traveled to the U.S. in 1982 as an exile and began to work for Guatemalan peace. She lobbied at the United Nations for the next 10 years trying to get the international community to work for peace in her home country.

“I am like a drop of water on a rock,” she wrote in her book Crossing Borders. “After drip, drip, dripping in the same place, I begin to leave a mark, and I leave my mark in many people’s hearts.”

Slowly, religious and human rights groups began to join her cause and the UN finally stood up and took notice. Rigoberta won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. At the age of 33, she was the youngest person ever to win the award. And, more importantly, the civil war in Guatemala ended three months after she won the award.

Rigoberta used the $1.2 million award to set up a foundation to help keep the peace in Guatemala. Her work has helped relations between the government and the peasants for the last 15 years. And Rigoberta credits what she learned from her father’s Bible lessons as the inspiration for her work. The persistence, patience, and the power of God to use small people to triumph over powerful people helped her see that her father’s death — and teaching — was not in vain.




By: Steve Kroening

Teaching Qualities Desired By All School Districts

January 28th, 2010 by Admin No comments »

Each school district is looking for their teachers to possess specific qualities, regardless of the subject that is being taught. If you are looking for and want to land a new teaching position, make certain that these qualities are conveyed in your resume and/or cover letter:

Passionate about the subject. Ability to reach out to, support, and motivate all students. Talent for differentiating instruction. Demonstrated capability to develop creative lesson plans that promote hands-on learning. Help students develop problem solving, socialization, and other key skills. Ability to increase literacy rates and instil a love for reading and writing.

Why these traits are important to hiring districts:

Your enthusiasm and excitement for a subject, regardless of what it is, is infectious. If students see that Mathematics can be fun, they are far more likely to remain interested and focused. Each classroom is different and encompasses multiple intelligences and learning styles. A good teacher is able to reach out to each student, spark his or her interest, and provide the appropriate support and motivation. Supporting a student may involve providing after-school tutoring, collaborating with staff and parents to develop an Individualized Education Plan or Program, adapting instructional techniques, or simply offering more positive encouragement. Children deserve the chance to learn and succeed, and it is up to you to help each and every one of them. Differentiating instruction relates directly to the point above. Since students learn via different methods, it is key that you are able to be adaptable and remain flexible in your teaching styles. By facilitating auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic learners, you are able to ensure that the children are able to understand and retain the information through whichever manner suits them best. Creativity sparks interest and curiosity and decreases boredom. By keeping lesson plans fun and hands-on, students remain focused, on-track, and eager to learn more. These skills are crucial for progressing to the next academic level, as well as succeeding in the real world. Since teachers are one of the primary points of contact for children, it is crucial that problem solving and socialization skills are modeled in the classroom and fostered by the instructor. Even if you are not an English or Language Arts teacher, you can still utilize literature to instruct students. Convey what types of literary activities you incorporate into everyday lessons and demonstrate what kind of impact it has left on students.

There are several different methods for showcasing these traits in your resume and cover letter. You can put them under your job description or achievements listed under the different job positions; create an areas of expertise section, which focuses on the aforementioned qualities; or highlight them in the introductory paragraph of your resume. Within the cover letter, you may choose to develop a separate paragraph detailing your greatest strengths (i.e. the qualities listed above). Regardless of where you include them, make sure they are somewhere in your documents. If a potential employer sees that you lack these desired qualities, he or she will move on to the next candidate. However, if you make these traits really stand out in your documents, you as a teacher will stand out as well.

Candace Davies, Owner of A+ Resumes for Teachers is certified as a Professional Resume Writer, Certified Interview Coach, Certified Employment Interview Professional, Associate Certified Career Coach, and Electronic Career Coach.

Visit her website at http://www.resumes-for-teachers.com or email candoco@telus.net

For Administrators:

http://www.resumes-for-principals.com/PIE/Principals-Interview-Edge.php

For Teachers:

http://www.resumes-for-teachers.com/ebook/Teachers-Interview-Edge.php




By: Candace Davies