Writing to success » person

Translation Tools

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:29:33 +0000

For beginner especially in overseas country which are not using english as their mother tongue, its difficult to learn it from the beginning. But in the era’s of technology and internet everything is possible, with a software you could get your english grammar check. The benefit of software rather than a dictionary are its more thin, and easily to bring cause you could installed it on a portable computer or a handset.

Currently there were lots of Translation tools, and some are equipped with grammar checking. This tools became powerful cause it will help the user using the correct grammar. With this tools student in overseas or newbie english learner could maximize their potential in learning english.

If you want to improve your english skill, the first thing to start is fixing your grammar.
Here are some basic rules that need to be noticed in Grammar:
a. Capital letters only in use for nouns and the beginning of sentences. It could be a noun name of the person and place names.
b. Every sentence must end with a dot (.), An exclamation point (!) Or question mark (?) And provides a space before starting the next sentence.
c. A noun is a word that the good name of the person’s name or the name of the place. While the verb form of an activity or action to do something. In making a sentence, there must be at least one noun and a verb.
d. Only need to use a single punctuation, do not need too much, here is an example of making the wrong punctuation:

- It was great !!!!!
- How are you?.
- She said “I left it on the bench.”

e. Apostrophe proper use of symbols is as follows:

- To write ‘the boy Owned the book’, we can use the Apostrophe ‘the boy’s book’ sign Apostrophe in place after the owner and before the “s”. For exception words that have the suffix s is added only Apostrophe just behind those words.

example:

boy’s toy
(Boys who have a toy / owner of the toy)
boys’ bikes
(Some boys bicycle owners)

- In use for certain abbreviations
example:

I am>> I’m
He is>> He’s
We will of>> We’ll
You are>> you’re
They ate>> they’re

These Grammar basics is referring to facilitate you in forming a proper sentence.
Find the best tools to help you out in your english learning.

Returning to school

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:50:41 +0000

There are many reasons beyond a mere desire to learn that makes continuing your education a very important aspect of your life. While there are those who spend their lives learning new things just for the sake of knowing, most people have more practical and pragmatic reasons for returning to school.
The world has become increasingly complex. Business markets have become global and technology continues to integrate itself into more areas of life than ever before. As career paths become more specialized, it more often requires continuing your education in order to keep up with these changes. Such careers as engineering, chemistry and the medical profession make such rapid changes that continuing education is so important as to be needed just to maintain your place in the job market. more
The amount of money one can expect to be paid on the job is the primary reason most individuals continue their education beyond the high school level. Entry level jobs tend to pay the lowest and least sustainable rates. A degree shows the person has had extra training in the field of their endeavor and is thus more valuable to employers. An example of this is most clearly seen in the health care industry. A basic medical job which requires no college degree may provide between $20,000 to $40,000 per year while the physician who is fully trained should easily be able to command between $120,000 to $500,000 per year depending on their specialty.
Many jobs require a college degree as a mandatory prerequisite for consideration. Rarely will any management position be available for someone who has not been trained in the basics of how to run a business. As the business world grows more complex and international, additional training is required to understand new technologies. Even accountants have to take continuing education courses to stay up on the latest accountancy laws and procedures.
The job market continues to become more competitive. Even those who may have been at a job for years may find themselves being passed over for promotion or a raise. The need to stay current on the demands of one’s profession also prompts continuing education just to maintain their position. It is becoming increasingly important to learn the most current details in the hopes of not being laid off or let go.
Even retirement does not preclude the need for continuing education. However hard someone has built a retirement fund, the situation may arise that on will need to go back into the job market to seek a new career path. The number of “non-traditional” older students enrolling in college courses is at an all time high. Retirement can also bring the need to remain active just for one’s own mental health. Continuing education can not only stimulate the mind but provide a necessary social environment.
Learning can and should be a lifelong pursuit just for the enrichment it can bring. With society as it is, it becomes important just to be more able to maintain as full and satisfying life and lifestyle.

Home-school

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:47:54 +0000

Of course in America there are many options to educating our children. There are public schools, private schools, charter schools, Montessori schools and, of course, the option of home schooling. There are advocates of both home schooling and public schooling. Those of us who dont home school, which is still the majority of Americans, need to fully understand the reasons why people choose to home school their children.

Religious or Philosophical Convictions:

Religion is not permitted in the public schools. Many families feel that religion needs to be a larger part of their childs education than that which the public schools allow.

People who have deep religious beliefs show great passion. These are the individuals who are passionate about their childrens education and feel that only they are able to teach them to the best of their ability and the content that they feel they should be learning. The home schooling parent is in charge, they call the shots and they like it that way.

Socialization:

Some people that dont understand home schooling believe that it is confining rather than socializing. But those individuals that believe that are stuck in thinking about the stereotypical socialization of an age-based classroom. Children that are home schooled are exposed to social situations in a mixed age range. They have age-mates instead of class-mates.

Many home schoolers feel that their children need to be exposed to the appropriate ways to behave not inappropriate. They feel that their child should be exposed to the model behavior of people who have learned to make decisions and handle themselves in various social settings. By being exposed to appropriate modeling of social behavior, home-schooled children will learn how to act appropriately.

Parents of home schooled children can also see when their child gets-it when they model for a younger child appropriate behavior.

Home-schooled children get a reality based social lesson. On a daily basis they see adults they know, love and trust manage and balance life day to day. Modeled for them is academics balanced with real life chores; caring for a sick friend or neighbor, shoveling the driveway and walkway, doing the grocery shopping and dropping of the dry cleaning, cooking dinner while folding laundry, putting laundry away and talking on the phone with Aunt Sara. These are real life situations that home schoolers are exposed to and public school children are often sheltered from or are privy to a controlled school environment.

Academics:

Home schoolers have several advantages over publicly schooled children. The curriculum is designed specifically for them not for children their age and what children at a particular age are expected to know and learn. Public schools differentiate instruction the best they can. However, a home-schooled child has a curriculum tailored to their needs. They may read at a 4 th grade level, spell at a 3 rd grade level and complete math at a 6 th grade level.

A home-schooled child is neither rushed nor not given enough time. There are no other children to keep busy so they are free to work at their pace and move as quickly or as slowly as need be.

Much research has been done on how children learn best. A home-schooled child is not only taught by the person who knows them best in the entire world but also since they are the only student, the learning style never has to be varied. If a student learns best through music, then the curriculum of a home-schooled child can be tailored to meet their needs so they will be more successful.

Home-schooled children get to spend more quality time as a family. They are not trapped in a traditional school setting for 6 hours a day but are free to spend quality time as a family every day. more

It is said that parents are a childs first teacher. Families that home school want to continue to be their childs teacher because they feel that their children need the guidance of their family and God and not the guidance of someone hired to do a job that is naturally theirs from the day their child was born.

Learning from home

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:31:17 +0000

Learning from home and using online education can provide a safe haven for children who are bullied at school. Special Children talked to one mother about the solutions she found for her autistic son
Despite all she’s been through, Catherine Jones remains surprisingly upbeat. A 47-year-old single mother of two sons, she has faced the usual obstacles while raising her family. But in Catherine’s case there was always an added difficulty: Michael, her elder son, aged 15, is autistic and hates school so much that four years ago he came close to killing himself. Today, however, he is in Year 11, preparing to take his GCSEs and talking enthusiastically about his plans for post-16 study. It is an amazing transformation – and a success story that Catherine is keen to share. more
She suspected that Michael might be autistic from very early on. ‘I used to run a mother and toddler group and I noticed his distinct lack of social skills, [his habit of] lining things up in order, avoidance of eye contact, all the classic things,’ she explains. Michael was referred to a paediatrician before his second birthday, but Catherine was told that his tantrums and behaviour were a result of his delayed speech and that with regular therapy the problems would resolve themselves. Catherine dutifully took Michael to speech and language therapy sessions until he started infant school. But far from things getting better, they got worse.
‘He was just beside himself with what I thought at the time was probably separation anxiety, being away from me and his normal routine. He would walk round and round the classroom in circles and go and sit under the tables and try to hide in the cupboards.’ Luckily, Michael’s school noticed his behaviour very quickly and within weeks Catherine had her suspicions confirmed. Michael was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and the process of getting him a statement of special educational needs began. ‘I think the paediatricians had suspected that themselves,’ she now says. ‘But it’s not a label they put on kids lightly.’
Despite Michael’s diagnosis, Catherine still did not know how autism would affect his day-to-day life. ‘At that stage I knew he was bright,’ she says. ‘I knew he had a very highly developed artistic talent. At the age of three he had his own drawing table and he used to draw obsessively. I knew there was a real talent there.’
While she describes Michael’s initial school as ‘super’, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t equipped to deal with his condition. Regular behaviour management programmes, such as reward charts, meant nothing to him. At the age of six he was already claiming to be ill rather than go to school. Catherine had to carry him kicking and screaming to school every day. At the school gates, she handed him over to the headteacher, who wasn’t prepared to let any other member of staff suffer the bruises and scratches caused by Michael’s struggling.
In desperation Catherine approached the local authority, which suggested she look at other schools. She came across a school with a specialist communication disorders unit. Why did she prefer this option to a unit for children with autistic spectrum disorders?
‘Units for autistic kids is that they rarely cater for children without moderate learning difficulties (MLD),’ she explains. ‘They are not aimed at the brighter, more able autistic child. All the units I looked at were either for kids that really were very severely autistic, locked up in their own world, or they had MLD. I couldn’t find anything that I thought was actually suitable.’ For similar reasons, she rejected the idea of sending Michael to a special school. She and Michael both felt that he had little in common with children with other conditions.
As there wasn’t a place in the specialist unit available immediately, Catherine took a risk and moved both of her sons to the school so that Michael would be on roll when a place came up. The move appeared to work. ‘I saw a huge change in him. I would say in the last half term of Year 2 he was probably the happiest I had ever seen him in school,’ she says. She attributes this largely to his teacher and to the support the unit gave him when he was finally able to start there the following September. There were just nine children in the unit with a teacher in charge and two teaching assistants. Michael started each day in the unit, but would spend as much time as possible in the main school. Everything seemed to be going well. But then, as Michael got older, the bullying started.
Looking back on this period, Catherine seems philosophical about what happened next. She points out that children are quick to spot when a child is different and can be remorseless in picking on anyone who stands out. Michael’s condition didn’t help. ‘It’s a very strange disorder because Michael in many ways doesn’t care what people think of him; he is very much his own person. However, when someone is constantly telling you that you are stupid, you are a freak – all manner of things he was called…’
As transfer to secondary school approached, the name-calling got worse. Michael’s tormentors told him he wouldn’t be able to cope with the move, that he was stupid and certain to fail. According to Catherine it was in that final year that he became most unhappy. ‘He decided that as far as he was concerned the answer to this particular problem was to come out of the unit,’ she explains. ‘There was a lot of discussion and we decided we would let him try that.’ But without the support he needed, Michael floundered. ‘Really that’s when things went down hill,’ Catherine recalls.
In September 2004, Michael started secondary school. For the first few days, Catherine was ‘absolutely astonished’ at how well the transfer seemed to be working. ‘I was all set for absolute horror – tantrums and tears and goodness knows what.’ But Michael’s mood was very positive. He was determined to manage without a teaching assistant and insisted that any support he received should be discreet. Within a couple of weeks, however, the bullying started again.
Catherine approached the school, but says she was told that its bullying policy was that the victim should face down the perpetrators. It was an approach she didn’t personally agree with, but regardless of this she felt it wouldn’t work in situations where, like Michael, the victim was autistic. ‘To cut a long story short, they said that they couldn’t do a great deal to protect Michael unless he was really going to come back under the special needs umbrella and have major support,’ Catherine explains. ‘In other words, someone shadowing him.’
While they were considering this option, the situation reached breaking point. Michael was getting increasingly unhappy and was becoming more adamant that he would not go to school. Then one day he came home in what Catherine describes as ‘an absolutely foul mood.’ She rang the school the following morning and asked them to look into what might have sparked this behaviour. It transpired that Michael had been found walking in the middle of a busy road near the school with the clear intention of being knocked down, and had been brought back to school by a police officer.
Catherine recalls that she was sufficiently upset and shocked to tell the school there and then that Michael wouldn’t be coming back. She felt the school hadn’t dealt with the bullying and that it hadn’t shown sufficient concern about this latest incident. The local child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS), which was already aware of Michael’s situation, supported her action and sent out a psychiatrist to make a home visit. Six weeks into his first term, Michael was withdrawn from school.
Catherine says that Michael remained disturbed for some time, but her determination not to send him back to school stirred the relevant agencies into action: ‘All the wheels seemed to be set in motion. We got the local authority, the SEN officers, the welfare officers, psychologists, psychiatrists… all of a sudden it was a round of meetings, assessments and home visits.’ Six months later Michael was offered a home tutor for five hours a week. The tutor was handpicked and over time she formed a strong rapport with Michael. With the pressure taken away, Michael began to feel more in control of his life. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, with his GCSEs getting ever closer, Michael needed more appropriate teaching. It was back to the drawing board.
For Catherine, as a single mother and a largely housebound full-time carer, private education or a residential placement in a specialist school was out of the question. The other possibility was for her to teach Michael herself. However, this would have meant an end to local authority support and she feared it might jeopardise her bond with Michael.
To Catherine’s relief, her local authority suggested online schooling, which Michael began in September 2007 at the start of Year 10. Accipio Learning provides interactive online learning for secondary age pupils in several local authorities, including Catherine’s. The service allows pupils like Michael to continue their studies without leaving home. In other respects, however, Michael’s online school is much like a traditional mainstream one: his teachers are fully qualified subject specialists, he has a set timetable which he follows each week and an attendance report which is fed back to his local authority.
He has homework and he can talk to his classmates, if he wishes, before and after the class. He knows that he has a routine and must log on to his live lessons. The main difference is that he talks with his teacher and classmates via instant messaging and a microphone and headset. Michael doesn’t feel judged in the online space and has complete control of who he talks to and when. In Catherine’s eyes, learning in this way has meant that Michael has received a real education, free of the problems associated with attending a mainstream school.
Now in Year 11, Michael is spending three days a week online with Accipio, one day at an FE college doing a course in creative crafts, and a day at a pupil referral unit where he is studying for GCSE in art. The two days away from home are major outings for mother and son. Michael also attends a martial arts class, which has helped boost his self-confidence. Otherwise, he stays at home, where he is happiest.
Catherine is conscious that many people reading her story might feel that she has made too many concessions to Michael, but she remains confident that she has acted in his best interests. ‘All that I can say is that as a single mother, and having been on my own for the past 12 years, this is what I think is the right thing to do. Michael is a success story; he is blossoming very well; his confidence is coming back; he is now participating well in classes; he logs in without prompting; he has got a routine that he knows and sticks to; he does his coursework on time.
‘Michael came so close to dropping out of the education system altogether and it is wonderful that he now has a real chance to get his GCSEs. Learning in the online school has removed the stresses he felt in the mainstream environment but has still offered him the opportunity to succeed.
‘There must be thousands of other parents in the position I was, at the end of my tether and running out of options. I’m sure many of their children could benefit from this form of learning. It has had such a positive effect on Michael and his prospects and has made our home life so much happier. I’d recommend anyone else in this situation to contact their school or local authority and ask if they can be given access to the same opportunity we have had.’
As for Michael, he has become an authority on online gaming, running internet-based tutorials on strategy. With his talent for drawing he has also developed an interest in animation and is now looking at taking either an online or part-time college course in game design.
Catherine believes that Michael’s passion for his pastime will act as a catalyst for the next stage of his development: ‘He will get half a dozen GCSEs, which is an enormous achievement, and it will give him a platform to go on to further education and have a go at life. He came so close to dropping out totally. He has come such a long way.’