Author: Eduindex News

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Teaching Strategies to Deal with Disrespectful Parents

It’s a problem as old as education itself: The Perennial Problem Parent. Each year, it seems, we need to use inventive teaching strategies to deal with an unreasonable parent.

But with a little forethought, you can overcome this issue. Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, herself a veteran elementary educator based in Upstate New York, shines some original teaching strategies on handling problem parents with grace and respect.

Janelle’s ideas include:

  • Don’t get caught off guard
  • Back up all of your claims with facts
  • Try and be sensitive
  • And more!


Janelle sums up her article like this: “Managing disrespectful, difficult parents is probably not what you thought you signed up for when you went into teaching. However, it’s unfortunately part of the job. Instead of dwelling on how a parent may perceive you or what you could have done differently, acknowledge that you have done the best that you could and offer the parent a chance at a partnership so that their child can have a wonderful school year.”

Have you ever had to deal with a difficult or disrespectful parent before? If so, how did you handle it? Please share your stories with us. Your story may help out a fellow educator.

Get our teaching strategies on dealing with disrespectful parents>>
10 Things to Know Before Becoming a Teacher
Perhaps you’re drawn to the academic profession by summers off, or by the thought of a standard routine each year.
There’s a LOT more to academics than that. You need to be committed to helping your students learn above all, but you also have to contend with tricky entities like parents and more.
Learn what you need to know before becoming a teacher >>
How Parents Can Prepare for Back to School Time
In our ongoing series about planning for going back to school, today we examine the ways in which all moms and dads can get ready for the inevitable – the first day of school.
It’s a stressful time for kids and parents alike, but with our guide on how to prepare, teachers and family members alike can get themselves ready for the yearly ritual. Going back to school can be rough, but with our tips, you’ll be a little more prepared for what’s coming.

Professional Development: Alternative Careers for Teachers

For a variety of reasons, people with teaching degrees often don’t go into the teaching field, or leave it at a certain time. Maybe it’s difficult to find a job, perhaps budget cuts have eliminated their roles, or teacher burnout has reared its ugly head once again.

No matter what has happened, teacher sometimes find themselves seeking out new positions. With that in mind, today’s centerpiece article on TeachHUB.com addresses alternative careers for educators and what they might be. Janelle Cox, a frequent TeachHUB.com (and TeachHUB Magazine) contributing writer and a seasoned educator on the East Coast, outlines some ideas for those seeking other types of jobs. Her ideas include:
  • Librarian/Media Specialist
  • Health Educator
  • GED Teacher
  • And More!

Janelle sum up her article like this, in a paragraph entitled, “School Administrator”: “As a school administrator, your job is to be the head of the school. If you are a natural born leader and love to be in charge, this is a great option for you. However, in order to have this type of career, you will need a master’s degree in education administration.”

What do you think of these alternative career options? Did we leave any out?

Get our ideas on using professional development to your career advancement in 
fields other than teaching>>

Teaching Strategies Using the Sunday Comics

Teachers take note: The Sunday comics, those humor-tinged, drawing-based inserts in every Sunday newspaper, can be wonderful teaching strategies!
The comics’ fun illustrations and humorous story lines can draw in even the most reluctant of readers.
Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, herself a seasoned educator, extols the virtues of the anachronistic comic strip, and offers up ways that teachers can use comic strips to liven up a language arts class. Janelle’s ideas include:
•    Improve Sequence Skills with Comic Strips
•    Change the Dialogue in a Comic Strip
•    Create a New Comic Strip
•    And More!
You can even have students create their own comic strips that illustrate important events throughout history, for instance the first man on the moon or the Emancipation Proclamation.
Do you have any fun ways to teach with comic strips?

Top 10 Teacher Facts That\’ll Make You Proud

With public education currently under attack from many different sides, it is important that we as educators, become advocates for our profession. We need to arm ourselves with the facts, with why we should be proud of what we do, and how well we do it.

With that in mind, here is a list of ten interesting facts that teachers should be proud of. Read them for yourself…and then share them with everyone you know!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Top 10 Teacher Facts That\’ll Make You Proud

With public education currently under attack from many different sides, it is important that we as educators, become advocates for our profession. We need to arm ourselves with the facts, with why we should be proud of what we do, and how well we do it.

With that in mind, here is a list of ten interesting facts that teachers should be proud of. Read them for yourself…and then share them with everyone you know!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Teaching: What I Didn\’t Learn in College

I was an adult student, attending college in all of my seriousness, so eager to learn everything there was to know on how to be a teacher. I wanted to be good, great even, and I studied, and I planned, and I reflected my little heart out. And then I graduated, got my first teaching job and realized that I had very little idea of what it meant to really be a teacher.

So what I didn\’t learn in college is really quite a lot. I didn\’t learn how to gain my students\’ trust, interest or even attention. Instead I learned systems of control, management, and planning that would force students to listen. I didn\’t learn how to teach a child that consistently gets 5 hours of sleep every night because of parent job situation and therefore puts his head down on his desk every day. I learned that each child better pay attention to me because that is what children are supposed to do.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Teaching: What I Didn\’t Learn in College

I was an adult student, attending college in all of my seriousness, so eager to learn everything there was to know on how to be a teacher. I wanted to be good, great even, and I studied, and I planned, and I reflected my little heart out. And then I graduated, got my first teaching job and realized that I had very little idea of what it meant to really be a teacher.

So what I didn\’t learn in college is really quite a lot. I didn\’t learn how to gain my students\’ trust, interest or even attention. Instead I learned systems of control, management, and planning that would force students to listen. I didn\’t learn how to teach a child that consistently gets 5 hours of sleep every night because of parent job situation and therefore puts his head down on his desk every day. I learned that each child better pay attention to me because that is what children are supposed to do.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

BYOD, BYOA AND THE FUTURE OF WORK

The other day I was with a team from a large multinational company. The team was preparing a presentation for the executive committee, and one of the team members proposed using a presentation tool he liked and was good with. But the other team members pointed out that the tool was an online application, and not formally approved by IT, and so it would be unwise to use it for the executive briefing.
This incident is something seemingly normal that occurs every day in the workplace – yet it is the perfect example of employees’ desires to bring their own device (BYOD), bring their own applications (BYOA) and bring their own tech (BYOT) to work to help with their productivity. The willingness of employees to do this was confirmed in the recent study of American workers conducted by Cornerstone OnDemand. The survey found that 37 percent of employees who currently use apps for work would be likely to spend their own money on work-related apps in the next twelve months if they felt the app would help them with their job. Even among employees who do not currently use apps for work, 20 percent expected to spend their own money for apps to increase their productivity.
In a world with thousands and thousands of apps available and new ones appearing each day, it is important for organizations to develop a policy on the use of apps and devices by individual employees. Generally, the advice is to make this policy one of openness to employee devices and apps. But the Cornerstone study reveals that many companies have yet to address this pressing issue.
When asked if their employers had policies on using applications for work purposes that are not provided by the employer, 43 percent said no, and 21 percent said they did not know.
When asked about company policies regarding the use of personal devices (smartphones, tablets and the like) for work purposes, 45 percent said their companies had no policies, and 15 percent said they did not know whether any policies were in place.
What kinds of applications are employees interested in? Here are the numbers:
Now, an IT department could try to provide all of this, but they will never keep up with the flood of apps developed by entrepreneurs. So what is an IT department to do? I’d suggest that they begin the difficult process of redefining their role to providing a basic information access infrastructure, security standards and applications, and then, like the maestro of an orchestra, letting the individual artists show their stuff.
There are, in fact, companies who are allotting each employee a budget to buying technology and then not dictating what the specific tech should be. This is radical I know, but consider the dominant trends shaping the future of work.

BYOD + BYOA + BYOT = BYOM

Internet anthropologist and futurist Stowe Boyd, for example, suggests that first, every job is digital, second that every company is digital, and third that more and more functions can be performed by third parties. But the most important trend that Boyd cites is this: what is really happening with BYOD, BYOA and BYOT is that people want to bring their own mind to work. He calls it BYOM. Think about this. Our personal devices and the apps we favor have become a part of how we live, how we produce, how we think. Perhaps your essential app is one that keeps track of your travel, or tracks your exercise and diet in concert with your wristband, or enables you to conduct your banking anywhere, anytime. And this is not to mention the obvious apps that keep you in touch with your network and up to date, all the time.  What the Cornerstone OnDemand study is saying, I believe, is that people want to bring not just their tech to work, but themselves.

On the Horizon

What is next? On the horizon and just coming into the marketplace are wearable devices. Google Glass is perhaps best known, as an example of augmented reality in which you wear a device that keeps you constantly imbedded in the virtual world even as you interact with the physical world. Joining Glass will be smartwatches that connect you to the Web, clothing, and, before long, smart jewelry and buttons that enable you to live in a world where the virtual and the physical are fully merged. The recent hiring of Burberry’s CEO by Apple is further demonstration of the intersection of fashion and tech. Why would you use such things? To see company information on demand, to access repair manuals, to connect to team members, to do things we do now with the devices we carry. The Cornerstone OnDemand study found that 66 percent of Millennial workers and 58 percent of all employees would use wearable technology if it enabled them to do their job better. If they saw a co-worker using wearable technology, 67 percent would feel curious and 12 percent would feel at a disadvantage.
I remember being at a conference this year of companies in a service-providing industry. A member of the Millennial generation gave a short presentation showing how he imagined their service professionals would use wearable technology in the near future, and he challenged the more traditional thinkers to open their minds to a new way of working. He was living proof of someone who wanted to BYOM to work. Smart companies will be moving in this direction.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Teaching Strategies to Become a Memorable Educator

Think back to your days as a student. Which educators inspired you to do your best? Chances are that that individual was caring, passionate, encouraging, and bestowing and espousing values that will stand the test of time.
Those traits and qualities are good to revisit in your career as an educator, it turns out. Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox looks at some teaching strategies that can help you make a good and long-lasting impression on your students.
Janelle should know: She’s also a seasoned elementary school educator based in Upstate New York.
Janelle’s ideas include:
  • Be Passionate about Your Job
  • Be an Inspiration
  • Always Be Approachable
  • And More!

In a paragraph entitled “Make a Connection with Your Students,” Janelle notes:  “Making a connection with your students is one of the best ways to form a solid relationship with them. Find a way to understand your students so you can build a deeper connection with them.”
Janelle sums up her article in this manner: “Teachers are often the people that inspire us the most. They are the ones that assist us on the path to a successful education and life. And sometimes, the teachers that make the biggest impression on us during our schooling are the ones that push us to do our best. The teachers that we once thought were so hard on us turned out to be the one that made us who are today. You may have not known it then, but looking back, you can see the impact that teacher had on you, and how it affected your future. Be that memorable teacher for your students.”
What qualities do you think a memorable teacher must possess? Share your thoughts and teaching strategies in the comment section below, we would love to hear what you have to say.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Super Bowl Classroom Activities

Arguably professional sports’ biggest day, Super Sunday has become a near holiday in the U.S., with both television ratings and advertising costs skyrocketing each year.
The game’s popularity makes it a perfect event around which to plan all kinds of classroom activities that revolve around just about any subject, from social studies to language arts to history to even nutrition.
Today, frequent TeachHUB.com contributing writer Janelle Cox walks us through several different classroom activities pertaining to the Super Bowl, including Super Bowl activities for the following subjects:
  • Art
  • Science
  • Math
  • And more!

All in all, Janelle’s recommendations will take advantage of the excitement surrounding the game and get your students revved up to learn.
How will you celebrate this year’s Super Bowl in your classroom? Do you have any fun activities planned?
Get our Super Bowl classroom activities>>
Should American Schools Go Year Round?
It’s the perennial debate, and it’s one that will affect families, government agencies, the day care industry and just about every other occupation imaginable: Should American schools go year-round?
A trending, recently published article on TeachHUB.com addressed the debate exhaustively, spelling out the pros and cons and the ways the change will affect lifestyles and industries.
Would the benefits of year-round schooling be worth it? Would it solve the problems currently affecting education? Read our article and formulate your opinions!
Where do you stand in the year-round education debate?
Weigh in on the year-round school debate, and learn more about the issue>>
Subscribe to the TeachHUB.com Newsletter
One of the best ways to keep up with all the goings-on at TeachHUB.com is to subscribe to the TeachHUB.com weekly e-newsletter. Every week, you’ll get an overview of the best educational articles, tips, free lesson plans, and more – delivered straight to your inbox! Best of all, it’s FREE!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Dyscalculia and Other Uncommon Learning Disabilities

Almost 2.5 million American students suffer through what can be diagnosed as a learning disability like dyslexia. These disabilities can hinder a student’s abilities to read, write, spell and speak – and often go undiagnosed.
But dyslexia isn’t the only learning disability from which kids suffer. Two other  examples are dysgraphia and dyspraxia. 
Learn more about the rare learning disability dyscalculia, and other afflictions that could be affecting your students >>

9/11 Teaching Resources

With the 11-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks approaching, now is the time for you and your students to commemorate that infamous day in American history.

We’ve collected some thought-provoking activities, writing prompts, teacher-recommended resources and lesson plan sites to help you out.

Classroom Management: 9 Free Virtual Field Trips

Virtual field trips have become an excellent classroom management idea for teachers and schools that don’t have the budget to take real field trips, or who can’t hit the road with their class for other reasons like insufficient staffing.
To pull off taking a virtual field trip, you class only needs a set of computers (or iPads).
In today’s article, we explore how enterprising teachers can employ classroom management skills to take students around the world, from a forest to the Sistine Chapel to the White House.
Other virtual destinations explored include a cockroach, a human body, and an imaginary zoo.
This article will be helpful for all educators looking to expand their academic horizons by creating an outside-the-box lesson plan.