3 Fun Hands-On Lesson Plans For Teachers To Use

YORKTOWN, Va. (Dec. 12, 2008) Boatswain's Mate...

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Teaching kids of all ages can be fun and a learning experience for many teachers, but often times, teachers may end up stumped at how to reach their kids and get them to understand the lesson that they are trying to impart.

Children have complex minds, and even more complex attention spans, and oftentimes the regular lesson plans just may not cut it.Here are some fun hands-on ways for your students AND you to have a great time while learning the lessons you are trying to teach:

1. Film Canister Farming have your students explore what exactly it is that makes a seed grow, and what the life of a plant involves. Use film canisters to plant and grow seeds within the classroom for each student to learn from.

 

2. Live Butterfly projects this is a fun way to explore nature with your students and have them learn the cycles of butterflies and how they live, eat and migrate. Either take them to a friendly butterfly garden or order butterfly kits to supply each kid with their own caterpillar, and watch them grow in classroom, then set aside a day to set them all free outside when they finally become butterflies.

 

3. The Body’s Five Senses this lesson is a great way to explore each of the five senses that the body possesses. Have each student go to different stations that are set up with different smells, textures sounds and tastes to discover the ways your body learns about new things.

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Planning Your Lessons Around the Net

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The Internet has opened up innumerable chances to learn whatever you want. While your students might not take the time to really think about this power, it’s all around them and they undoubtedly know about it. The average school child can go online with a level of ease their parents should respect, and within an hour or so become virtual experts on their topic of choice. You can use this to your advantage in teaching them.

Part of the fun of going online is being able to learn through searching for things and finding other things. The entire process of the Web involves getting caught up in things, which can inspire a great classroom discussion of a student’s search pattern. It’srare that a search instantly finds everything. You can find basic facts like that, but trying to uncover anything really significant will naturally involve more than just a quick jaunt to the nearest search engine. Research is always going to involve some degree of thought, no matter how much technology automates the process.

When young children become involved in their educations beyond merely sitting there and being talked at, the process becomes a lot more effective for everyone. While some conspiracy theorists would think there’s an Orwellian motive behind the flaws in the educational system, it isn’t really in the world’s best interests to keep people dumb. You can contribute to making your students smarter by encouraging them to think independently, and use the vast power of the Internet to bring fresh insights and interesting perspectives into your discussions. Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking kids aren’t smart enough.

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The Trouble With Blackboard

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Blackboard is one more online operation that has successfully sold itself very well, but tends to function poorly in all but the most idealized circumstances. While it has improved over time and has a great idea behind it, often far better functionality can be achieved on an instructor’s own website. When an individual person can produce something superior to a large, nationwide network, it gives one pause to wonder how it can be publicly traded.

The Internet is a place where a lot of education goes on. Right now people all over the world are learning all sorts of things. A person can learn how to parallel park, how to disable an attacker in three easy steps, or even how to make a really mean quiche. The educational opportunities online are limited only by what you’re searching for. From that point onward, it really is all about how ambitious you are and what you want to find. Unfortunately, Blackboard has tried to take universities and align them with resources it has trouble delivering.

While the Internet has grown into a lush garden of knowledge, sites like Blackboard try to keep things contained. Instead of trying to have a tightly confined network, a site like Blackboard would do better to make more efficient use of the existing cloud. From there, it could even link into a teacher’s own website, and make use of materials it doesn’t have to maintain. Once a site adapts to using the Internet as the massive stockpile of information it is, there are typically a lot less problems with keeping it all together and properly functioning.

Choosing Your Desired Field through Online Degree Programs

When it comes to choosing a profession, it is important to consider many aspects to ensure that you make the decision that best suits your interests and situation. Additionally, it is equally important to look into the various programs that are available that pertain most to your specific career path. Unfortunately, not every profession has a particular program that provides the training needed to be successful.

The best way to get around this is to explore the possibilities of degree programs that are available online. Below are a few reasons why choosing a field through online degree programs is an easy and effective process.

Wide Range of Options

One aspect of finding a field through online degree programs is the wide range of options that are available to you. Unlike sifting through potential programs available at a brick and mortar institution, online institutions found at sites such as elearners.com have a wide array of easily to choose from options that can help eager students make the right decision pertaining to their career choice.

Convenience

An additional aspect of choosing a potential career through online degree programs is the level of convenience that is associated with going to school online. By opting to take classes online, students can enjoy the convenience of being able to log in to their classes at whatever time is most convenient for them. Due to this fact, people who were too busy to physically go to class on-site on a regular basis are able to obtain a degree in a field of interest to them without dealing with the stress of schedule conflicts.

 

Helping Children use Their Intelligence

There have always been students whose abilities overshadow their fellows. In some cases, these students even outshine their teachers, even from a young age. While most teachers feel honored to have such a brilliant student in their midst, a lot of times the student feels a lot worse about the arrangement than the teacher does. Typically, these are the students most likely to clown around in class and act the fool, just because they get bored.

This boredom tends to come about because a student isn’t being sufficiently challenged intellectually. A student in this boat will tend to see their education as nearly pointless, because they tend to grasp what their teacher is talking about immediately. At that point the teacher just keeps talking, trying to hammer home the point to the lowest common denominator. While the smart student might be fine with this for a moment, it won’t be long before they’re cracking wise and trying to get something more interesting to be talked about. A lot of times the subject is just too easy for them.

However, a wily teacher can use this intelligence to its greatest advantage through actually encouraging this student to do research on a challenging topic during class time. While it might at first seem like administering special treatment, if you set up a few challenges leading up to this, it can be a great way for other students to push themselves to perform at the top level, and be assigned difficult projects as well. You can even set it up so that the student reports in once they get what you’re lecturing about, and test their comprehension speed.

Enjoying the Benefits of Online Learning

Online learning is becoming more popular, especially as people learn of the benefits that can be gained from doing this. A few of the benefits are listed below; you may think of others as well.

Online learning fits well into regular daily schedules. You can “attend” class whenever it’s convenient for you — before or after work, on weekends or whenever. Online learning is usually less stressful. Because you have so much control over your class schedule, and, yes, because you can go to class in your pajamas if you want to, it is easier to earn your master degree at earnmydegree.com. Online learning puts reference sources at your fingertips.

You don’t have to schlep down to a library or other reference buildings to get the information you need. You can pull it up on the Internet. When you use the sources provided by the website when you earn your master degree, you’ll know the information you are getting is correct and reliable.

Online learning lets you work at your own pace. You’re not “locked in” to specific class times or to the specific material that is currently being taught. Once you’ve mastered the material, you can move on to the next phase. Online learning can be more cost-effective. When you earn your master degree at earnmydegree.com, you may save more money than if you had attended a “traditional” college. Financial aid is still available to those who wish to take advantage of online education, so you still have this benefit, also.