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It’s not at all unusual for high schoolers to volunteer their time in their community. It’s a great way to contribute positively to the world, not to mention meet new people and explore career options. And of course it also looks great on a college application. But there can be so much more to volunteering than most people realize.

 

Just looking at the federal government, there are a great many volunteer possibilities. You can receive disaster training from FEMA, or at your local VA, or even with the Secret Service. There’s a handy search engine to help find opportunities.

 

Many professional associations, such as the American Dental Association or the many medical associations related to faith, speciality or local community, have opportunities. You can volun

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Standardized testing has become almost universal in public schools from coast to coast as school boards have sought to find ways of ensuring teachers and learners are getting the biggest bang for their educational buck. It has created problems, however, as testing can often crowd learning time out of the classroom.

 

Various alternatives pop up from time to time, but as with all educational reforms change happens slowly. An interesting idea, however, is slowly gaining momentum in Florida -- replacing state-based standardized tests with the ACT or SAT exams.

 

Key state senators have said this year they plan to push a bill — though it isn’t filed yet — to reduce testing in public schools. Their proposal, they said, likely would allow a swap of the ACT or SAT fo

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It’s a debate that’s been around ever since the first home gaming consoles began to appear in the 1970s. Before that, people worried whether pinball was destroying the lives of young people (although it’s a bit hard to take that one too seriously today).

 

For as long as folks have been gaming and other folks have been worrying about the effects of those games on the brains of youngsters, psychologists and others have been studying the issue. In other words, we now have around 40 years of research to paint a picture of just what’s going on.

 

Sadly, the picture, even after all these years, remains mixed, which itself is pretty interesting. The truth is, both positive and negative effects of gaming have been found. However, while there are known negative

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Balancing school, sports and life

 

It can be very hard for a young person to devote all the time necessary to get done all that needs doing, especially when they’re heavily involved in student sports. Fortunately, with some planning, ex-marine and current high school coach Jeanne Goodes says it can be done:

 

Use a big desk calendar for school and sports. Write down all due dates for schoolwork, projects, and papers. Write down all sports practices and games. Every week revisit your calendar and make corrections.

 

It’s also critically important to stay on top of everything -- indeed, if possible, to stay ahead of schoolwork and other tasks:

 

Whether this pertains to homework, schoolwork, grades, or sports practices, it is easier to stay ahead of scho

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What is Twitter?

Most teens have heard about and most possibly use Twitter already. As an online social networking and microblogging platform, it allows users to communicate using messages of up to 140 characters from a computer or mobile device. Millions use it to keep abreast of a variety of topics.

Is it Good for Learning?

Twitter can help encourage and grow communication skills. Distilling what you want to say down to only 140 characters is not as easy as some might believe. Critical thinking and writing skills need to be engaged to effectively communicate using twitter. Keeping up with the fast pace conversations and trying to answer a question in one sentence encourages children to focus on the key points.

How to Use it…

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Do you suspect that one of your students is dyslexic? In their Blog 10 Things About Dyslexia Every Teacher Should Know, We Are Teachers said the following: 

When bright students continue to make the same mistakes over several days, and they can’t seem to make a connection between sounds and letters, a red flag often goes up for teachers. Nelson emphasizes that teachers have a very important role because they’re on the front lines when it comes to identifying dyslexia. She says teachers should follow their gut when it comes to screening students for dyslexia. When you see them struggling to remember sound-symbol combinations, Nelson advises, it’s time to take action. Children are generally diagnosed when they learn to read, in kindergarten or first grade, but if you

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Good news! Your math dyslexia can be transformed from a learning disability into a learning super-ability! With the right math tutor, you can gain the type of proficiency in mathematics you’ve always dreamed about. There are several important ways in which a qualified tutor can help a student overcome math dyslexia.

 

Math dyslexia: Overcome fear of math

First and most importantly, a math tutor can help students overcome their fear of learning math. What happens most often with students suffering from math dyslexia is that they become convinced that they are “not good at math,” or even worse, “I’ll never learn math.” This sets up a negative feedback cycle. Every time a student has trouble with math, it sends a negative feedback signal t

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In writing a top-notch research paper, there are two important elements to keep in mind. One is the actual research that goes into the paper, combined with the relentless fact-checking that’s required to make sure everything is accurate. Another is the actual storytelling narrative – the way that you choose to present those facts to your audience to support a specific thesis.

 

The details matter

 

When writing a research paper, too many people assume that doing a quick Google search or jotting down a few notes from Wikipedia is all that’s required to create a research paper. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s the lazy 21st century equivalent of earlier generations relying on the Encyclopedia Britannica for information on subjects or topics

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