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The Daily Quote

Monday, October 24, 2011 1:53:32 PM

The Daily Quote

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

~Will Rogers

It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.

~Mignon McLaughlin,

The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

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Welsh Language - Cymry

Friday, December 23, 2011 1:33:32 AM

Welsh Language Lab
Diolch yn fawr Big thank you

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White Colours

Saturday, December 10, 2011 6:56:10 PM

10 comments

Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl

Thursday, December 8, 2011 4:56:41 PM

,

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Scott Cumming (i_artman)

Friday, December 2, 2011 11:05:41 PM

Scott Cumming (i_artman)
The artist - http://my.opera.com/I_ArtMan/about/
His PicRoom - http://my.opera.com/tdjmd1/albums/show.dml?id=7970002[/B]

Backyards, 1955

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NCB image - Suntana's Standards.jpg

Sunday, November 27, 2011 10:41:22 PM

35 comments

NCB_Suntana_Standard.jpg

Sunday, November 27, 2011 10:38:19 PM

4 comments

Sunday, November 27, 2011 10:19:03 PM

3 comments

The Difference Between Thanking and Thankfulness

Saturday, November 26, 2011 8:41:34 PM

While writing a traditional Thank You note can be relatively easy, expressing thankfulness can be thought-provoking to say the least. There is a BIG difference between saying, “Thank you” and “I’m thankful for…”.
Saying thank you is often automatic and done without thinking. Someone passes you a plate at the table and you say, “thank you”. There’s nothing wrong with it but it is generally done without thinking, without thought.

So, when you sit down to write your letter of thankfulness, remember you’re not just saying “thank you”, you’re expressing your gratitude for being blessed, for being chosen, for being gifted.
Write from the heart. Let the words flow.

From: http://www.themomwrites.com/2011/11/gratitude-letter.html

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Tutoring Adventures...

Friday, November 25, 2011 7:11:22 PM

tdjmd1 # Monday, November 21, 2011 6:31:08 PM
I have a 10 years old student -I'm a sort of English Tutor for him. Last days ago, his mom thought I was so rigid, too firm with her boy. 'He's shy and delicate', she said. So I became more flexible and now (today I was with him and explainig her mother this very issue) that boy is so distracted and not willing to learn.

I truly know we need a certain grade of discipline in order to teach and getting good results. In that case, embarrassing kids a little is not that bad discipline, I concur...
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Bentrein # Tuesday, November 22, 2011 8:13:57 AM
Originally posted by tdjmd1:

that boy is so distracted and not willing to learn.




Do you want some advice on how to handle that? I've got tonnes of experience with kids like that...
Originally posted by tdjmd1:

I truly know we need a certain grade of discipline in order to teach and getting good results.


In a class, certainly. But one on one tutoring, certainly not. Well, when it comes to language skills. When it comes to Maths, or Science, or things like that, the student needs to feel some inner motivation otherwise it will never happen.
But even Maths, in one on one tutoring, you should do through games and races.
Easy; drive around town, ask him/her to multiply the last two digit in every license plate he sees. Race him/her who can do it the fastest...
Hard; Baseball. Pitch a ball, he hit it. Tell him a speed and an angle, and ask him how far away the ball lands on the ground before he can make his home-run.
Especially children should remain active. They mostly need reprimanding for touching things that aren't theirs, hurting their friends, and running away from the group - the latter is especially important on field trips (see above).
Children - humans - learn through doing. Nobody learns well from a book. The understanding is soooo much more thorough when it's come to actively. If that makes sense.
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tdjmd1 # Tuesday, November 22, 2011 5:47:51 PM
Originally posted by bentrein:

Do you want some advice on how to handle that? I've got tonnes of experience with kids like that...



Certainly yes.

Look! His mom have told me that boy was abused by herself when he was just a baby. She confessed me about her very big temper: yelling and battering to that boy... her mal-ill-mistreatment; so now he looks like having a double personality. When I exert authority he become introverted but if not... uff! He doesn't pay any attention.

The worst is that boy resembles not having some memory at all. What an absolute mess to me, Ben!

Moreover her mother is doing pressure under him in order to he can get all of his assigments approving.

I almost almost want to give up to that labour...



Quote

bentrein # Wednesday, November 23, 2011 8:06:33 AM
Originally posted by tdjmd1:

The worst is that boy resembles not having some memory at all. What an absolute mess to me, Ben!





1) All children have a memory.
2) All children respond to everything around them, from day one.
3) All children learn best through doing.

1) The fact that he doesn't remember stuff, is because it's boring, and completely irrelevant to his life. What is relevant to his life? May I venture a guess? TV. Every 30 seconds something different, from a very young age, causes tremendous loss of attention span in later age. Loss of attention span means, something gets boring really quickly, and as he loses interest in about 30 seconds, he won't remember anything that's told to him from that point onwards. I'm guessing on the 30 seconds part, but it is the average length of a TV item.
Cure: Long, slow, and hard work. Step one, take a hammer to the TV and never ever let him watch it again. Well, maybe not that strong, but limit his TV time to maximum half an hour a day, also in the weekends. Same for the computer; especially YouTube or related things, but also dumb repetitious games. Force him to go play outside (yes, outside, rain or shine). Do things with his hands and feet. Make a sand castle, play football, climb trees, ride horses. Give him responsibilities - give him a dog to take care of. Or, if you prefer a hamster. Eventually, he will come around and get his brain working again. But without physical activity, it's not going to happen.

2) You beat a baby up, he's never ever going to forget that. It's the worst thing you can do to a baby, because it damages his trust in you (you, being the mother). Anyway, what's done is done, can't take it back. I do not see an immediate fix, other than creating a loving and caring environment. Look at Montessori or in this case perhaps better, Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) methods for creating a warm family atmosphere.

3) Check out Hughes website. This man knows more about the human brain than anyone I have ever had the honour talking to. A very large part of the brain is devoted to the control of the body. So much so, that our cognitive abilities happen in the same places as the control of our body. Thus, to stimulate cognitive ability, we HAVE TO stimulate physical movement. We have to make children run around, walk, play football (or whatever sport), go down slides, walk balances, dance, or whatever else stimulates their body. Without it, their brain will not develop to its full capacity. This is especially important in early childhood. Making little children sit at desks and study books will destroy their future; well, perhaps not that bad, but it will certainly NOT unleash their full potential.

And one more thing. For young children, homework does NOT add to academic performance. In older children, it only improves their understanding of material if homework involves the discovery of (related) new material. Example: In a health lesson, send the children home with a blank piece of paper. Tell them to open the fridge and write down everything they can find, and separate those things into healthful harmful and neutral substances. Have the children jot down the contents of things they're unsure about, and discuss the results in class. That is effective homework. Filling out blanks in a sentence is ineffective homework, because a child will either do it (if he already can) or flunk it. Effort goes in work at school, not at home.

Back to your boy... He's 10. Let me venture a guess that his interests are TV, cartoons, cars and - well if not yet, then soon - girls (albeit embarrassedly).
I don't know what you're tutoring him, but may I assume all subjects? Well, seeing the above, do not sit him at a desk doing his assignments. Homework is stupid.
Maths, multiplication (skip counting). This works best with three or four people; ask his mom to help out. Sit in a circle. Left hand on your knee, right hand on the hand of the person to your right. This way, your right hand can slap the hand of the person on your left.
Go around the circle in this way counting; every slap one more. So start with the table of one; count every number out loud. Then the table of two. Every slap goes one up, so the first slap is silent, then the next person says TWO, then a silent slap, the next person says FOUR, then a silent slap, etc etc. This way everybody has to keep counting in their head, and remember which number to say out loud. With a large group it can be fun, especially with more difficult tables - say 6 and 7. Whoever says the wrong number, is out. Winner gets a bottle of booze, er I mean ice-cream. See, body movement, related to learning. Forget the worksheet(s) until this goes well. Then he can do the worksheet in 10 minutes.
English: Watch Ben 10 in English with him - not more than half an hour a day. Take him out to the playground, and play football with him - but in English only. And every time he speaks Spanish (or NOT English), he loses a point. Take him to a car-shop (the more high end the better) and have him explain the details of different cars to you - in English. For English it would be best to find a tutor to just play games and whatever else who can not speak any Spanish. That way he has to speak English. This way he will learn quicker than from a fill-in-the-dumb-blanks worksheet which he'll have forgotten about by the time he's put the pencil back in the box.
Science: Do experiments. Build a rocket or build a volcano or stick a mentos in a Diet Coke bottle but be careful with that. Let him explain how it works, what happens... Try to relate the experiments to his science homework.
And the next science lesson, he will not have completed his worksheet, but he will be able to tell the teacher in detail how things work. If he has a good teacher, that will do.

Aight, I'm starting to feel this is turning into a book. Sorry Dee for hijacking your blog like this. I will get back to my silent corner, but when someone asks for help struggling to get a kid to learn, I can not help myself...

So remember my starting point: GET THE KID DOING THINGS. If he doesn't do it with his body, he will never do it with his mind.
Quote

LD37 # Wednesday, November 23, 2011 12:42:10 PM
Wow Ben, it's ok..I like to learn a case esp related with learning/student...

Now I have a new student, a boy, he is Indonesian, but was living in Singapore for some reasons, he just came back from there, they said he was study in Singapore in level pre-school, now he is joining in Kindergarten-1. my class, before he moved to Singapore for a while, he was our preschool student too.. Now I need a time to learn bout him..

About Tere's case, I guess, the one who need to be fix is his Mother

One of my friend student. she is one to one tutoring, that girl was detected has DYSLEXIA, and her mother now has opinion to give her homeschooling...do u know how to handle it??

Quote



tdjmd1 # Thursday, November 24, 2011 11:30:17 AM
Originally posted by bentrein:

I don't know what you're tutoring him, but may I assume all subjects?



I'm tutoring him in English Language. Very basic matter. Super easy indeed, but he has a light learning disorder... sometimes I think he´s dyslexic...

Anyways, okay Ben. All of those ideas above are great (Excep for Ben 10, I'd rather something more peaceful though).

Thanks.

Quote

LD37 # Thursday, November 24, 2011 11:50:42 AM
Originally posted by tdjmd1:

sometimes I think he´s dyslexic




Did his mom take him to the children psychologist to know about her son?
Quote

tdjmd1 # Friday, November 25, 2011 2:04:58 PM
Oh, Dee. My experience is what you say to a mom his son has any sort of deficiency... Learning disorder especially, she denies regularly. But, hold on a sec, jejeje! I'm going to tell you what happened with that boy...
Originally posted by Ben:

So remember my starting point: GET THE KID DOING THINGS. If he doesn't do it with his body, he will never do it with his mind.



Okay... I've done it yesterday afternoon.

I asked for him to make a word list -today he had an exam about Meals & Drinks (fruits, vegetables, meats and drinks). So I need urgently he was familiarized with those terms.

Could you believe that boy doesn't know the Spanish Alphabet. Was a little mess to me! Well, firstly I want to know how much he knows about this matter so I say aloud some fruit names 'How's it said fresa in English?'
He wrote 'strawberri'.
Huh... How's it said 'cambur' (banana)?
He wrote nothing. I said, "When you don't know words in English write down it in Spanish instead".
Now I said... 'manzana'. He wrote 'mansana'.
Oh, dear -I thought (Manzana is apple in Spanish, with 'z' though).
I said 'piña' (pineapple). He wrote 'apple'.
Naranja (orange). He... 'apple'.
Patilla (watermelon). Apple.
Melon. Apple.
Uva (grape). Apple (he though and was saying in every time... 'this time's right, yes, it's apple!).

At that moment mommy sent him to the table, yelling him of course.

Okay, here we go -I thought. Look for your English dictionary. Look for 'fresa'. Please copy that in your notebook.

And he wrote 'frsa' = strawberri. Could you believe it?
I beg... please read! And he said me 'That's good'

Spell that word, please!. Ah! he said. That happened over and over again.

Mommy was colaborative and did the better she does at this time... yelling and threating him now and then. Hehe.

Well, after this, mom left us alone and I proceeded to do my part. GET THE KID DOINGS THINGS. He had to looking for those more than thirty words in that English dictionary. We need to use as well a Spanish dictionary cause the boy didn't know the correct spelling of those words in Spanish.

But I have to 'fess you, friends, I almost lost my patience. I stood up me and remain so until the end of the lesson. The boy had the valor of accusing me to his mother... And at that time her mother did her best saying to that rebel boy. "Teresa's doing you a favor. Don't fight her. In time you will do this same thing to others. Teaching them and you'll say..." At this very moment the boy said... 'Teresa taugt me English'.

I sincerely congratulated him because a moment before almost cried. But we all -boy, mother and I, identified the cause of all of his trouble with learning process, his arrogance and pride. The child told me then 'I have to learn. I have to leave me teach'. I said at that moment... 'That's the right attitude, Rafael. Well done.'

From that moment and on, everything starts to flow. He found words faster and easier but they have to go to their Christian meeting in the Kingdom Hall so I have to leave the lesson unfinished. Later we complete it though mobile.

He accompanied me until the door and there, he presented me his personal apologie... "please excuse, I'll do better the next time". I touched his arm and said him, 'Don't worried. I want you to know I'm so proud of you. You recovered very well from that bad mood. Congrats.' And I gave him a kiss and a warm farewell.

I'm happy now again with my little nonachiever. So I want to share this with you, my friends 'fessors, Dee and Ben.

I didn't want to publish this adventure in all detail, but I need to register that boy's progress. Hehe. I'm also so excited for the new experience.

Anyways, I'm going to cut it from here and the publish it in my own blog.

Quote | Edit | Delete

Attached from: http://my.opera.com/LD37/blog/2011/11/05/welcome-to-our-field-trip-again-now-we-were?cid=75572452#comment75572452

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