What is it Like to Attend University of Louisville

What is it Like to Attend University of Louisville The tutors behind Varsity Tutors are not just here to teachtheyre sharing their college experiences as well. Sarah is a Louisville tutor specializing in math tutoring, economics tutoring, and more. She earned her Bachelors degree in Political Science from University of Louisville in 2011. See what she had to say about her time at University of Louisville: Describe the campus setting and transportation options. Sarah: My school is in Kentucky, but believe it or not we did wear shoes to class (most of the time). Louisville is a small but fun city and the university isnt far from downtown; it is not quite urban, but it is definitely not rural! The campus and surrounding area are growing fast, providing more fun things for students. There is public transportation (buses) that students have access to for free, and the city is working hard to become more bike friendly. There are bike lanes on most streets. I didnt have a car my freshman year on campus and had no problems. As for safety, I never felt very unsafe, but crimes do happen. I had my car broken into three times in five years. You have to be careful and make smart decisionsdont go out alone at night, for example. The school also has a service to provide rides to cars when students are on campus late and parked far away; use this service! How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants at University of Louisville? Sarah: Once I got past the eccentricities of my grumpy first semester bio professor with a gruff demeanor and a penchant for sarcasm, I found professors (Dr. Grumpy included) to be extremely availableespecially in the smaller classes I took in my political science major. I always sat in the front and engaged in classes so the professor knew my name and face. Remember, professors are there to help studentsbut not students who show up after failing exam 2 and missing most classes and ask do you think you can pass me still? Show up! The same goes for advisers and TAs. With hundreds of students on their rosters, or their own classes, they cannot track you down, but they will always do their best when you seek out their help. Really thats what it comes down to: show up, be proactive, and people will help you both during school and after. Remember youll probably need a reference or letter of recommendation from some of them too. How would you describe the dorm liferooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Sarah: Ah, the vast social capital of the university! I truly believe you get as much value in the interactions and social life of college as you do classes! Wait, parents, hear me out! The university provides trainingsometimes trial by firein relational lessons which are critical in all of life from being an employee to an employer, from being a best friend to dealing with difficult people, and from being a child to a parent. Living with someone in a dorm is a great opportunity to learn both boundaries and compromise. I absolutely encourage being a part of one or more student groups on campus. I was a student athlete, was very involved in a Christian campus ministry, participated in events with the Portuguese and Russian clubs, and did community service. You may wonder how I got my schoolwork done with all my extracurricular involvements, but these things motivated me to be a better student too. Also, meet international students! Youll learn about new culturesand have places to visi t down the road! Which majors/programs are best represented and supported at University of Louisville? Sarah: UofL is a big public schoolwe have a lot of great programs, but it is well known for engineering and business. I studied political science, though. We have a little building on campus with tiny classrooms but we had excellent professors who were knowledgeable, passionate, supportive, and fun! We had a computer lab with free printing too (shhh, we try not to tell everyone that). The program prepared me well tooI got accepted into top grad schools in my program on their training and recommendations and we are a small program. The university has great resources for tutoring in almost any subject, a writing center to help with papers, and a great library for your research. They are open to interdisciplinary studies and are very helpful and accommodating. And as a large school, there is always a faculty member who is an expert in your weird little nicheexcept maybe oceanography, since Kentucky is landlocked. How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Sarah: I am outgoing but truthfully, Im wicked (Northeast term there) awkward! So I am super glad that I walked into a group of incredible friends on day one through being a student athlete. I was a part of a group of people with whom I had something in common on day oneand I continued to pursue those groups. I mentioned earlier joining clubs and I think this is imperative to finding good friends, especially if youre a little nervous about making friends. At UofL there are 15,000+ undergrads. Odds are pretty good there are some friends waiting for you! As for Greek life, it has been growing. I wasnt in a sorority, but those are one of many great opportunities to join groups and make friends. Try out a few clubs or groups from sororities to sports. Youll make friends, get free food, and have the time of your life! How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services? Sarah: Well.... this is a service that I probably wasnt as proactive as I should have been with. I did take a personality test to help me choose a major but that changed about four times. I also did a mock interview with them which was helpful. Ive attended career fairs and I know they have reputable companies including YUM! Brands, Chase, GM, and even the FBI who recruit there. Many programs have their own career center. I was in the business school often for my econ classes and they have an excellent internal career support program. The engineering school gets every student set with a co-op (their fancy word for paid internship) for a semester and people have worked with Marathon, Boeing, General Electric, and more. How are the various study areas such aslibraries, the student union, and dorm lounges at University of Louisville? Sarah: You can always find space if you look! Popular areas do get over crowded, but there are spaces in the back of the library, basements of buildings like the business school, and small computer labs where youre guaranteed to find quietand maybe even complete solitudefor hours. If you prefer busy, there are coffee shops on and close to campus that are great for students. Describe the surrounding town. Sarah: Alright, so Im from the Northeastwhich means I had some preconceived notions about Kentucky and I didnt even know how to say Louisville (Loo-a-vul). Some ideas were right, some were wrong! Snow removal capabilities met my low expectations, but the variety of activities and liveliness of the small city delighted me. Lately, Louisville has made it into all sorts of top 10 places to visit for food or Foodies Delight articles with its great restaurants (my favorite is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican taqueria where everyone speaks Spanish), but you can get everything from gourmet McDonald's to melt-in-your-mouth Ethiopian. A few city highlights: Churchill Downs (if you havent been to Kentucky during Derby, youll be amazed), a walking bridge from downtown to Indiana which is hugely popular, local establishments on Bardstown Roada favorite hangout for students much more popular than downtown, 4th Street Live, where they close a portion of the road to traffic and host events like concerts downtown, and youre not far from some great hiking, camping, and climbing spots too. Weve had Ironman here (one of my favorite events), and all the basketball you could want! How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Sarah: As of this year, there are around 15,962 undergrads on campus. Its a medium-size public school. I like the size because it is big enough to have a lot of different opportunities, but small enough that even four years after graduating, I could go back and visit campus and see people I know. I knew I wanted small classes which is part of why I ended up studying political science. I found I loved the subject of international relations, but I also loved the more personal, discussion-oriented, small classes there. I had maybe 10-15 students in most of my upper-level major classes and 20-30 in lower ones. My smallest class, a six-hour Portuguese class, had four students in it, and we learned a ton. My biggest classes were general education classes, but if you pay attention and show you care, it makes the class feel much smaller. Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. Sarah: I had so many wonderful experiences from college that its hard to choose one, but Ill tell you a surprising one. I had a general education history class that I wasnt thrilled to take, but I followed the protocol I set for myself and sat in the front and engaged. I dont even know how many students were behind mea lot, mostly using Facebookbut I felt like it was a small class because I chose to sit in front and engage. The professor taught history through the lense of revolutions and international relations and it was fascinating! It was an unexpected surprise and helped me choose to study international relations (political science) for my major. My willingness to sit in front and give the class my best effort paid off and it was one of my favorite classes, and the professor has my utmost respect for teaching a great class and engaging those of us who were interested even though he knew most people were only there because they had to be. Check out Sarahs tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

Biology Animations Online Biology Tutors Tutorpace

Biology Animations Online Biology Tutors Tutorpace Animation is one of the modern technologies of the computer applications. It is playing an important role in our day to day life. The meaning of the word animation means to bring to life. It creates an illusion of movement.Animations are effective teaching tools in biology. It is designed to improve understanding of some of the main concepts taught in Modern Biology and Biochemistry. Animation is possible because of a biological phenomenon known as persistence of vision. Objects that is seen by the peoples eye remains chemically mapped on the eyes retina for a short time after viewing. Combined with human minds need to conceptually absolute a perceived action. Animation makes a visual impact. Animation is a way for students to express their understanding of biological processes and for teachers to assess students understanding. Itreveals different levels of student learning and makes them think. It makes the students to take ownership of the learning and make them to understand the concepts and makes a mental picture in them. It helps to focus their learning. Animation is a component of online learning unit. Animations can definitely help any student to gain a better understanding of what biology is all about

5 Simple Things to Add to Your Next Vocal Warm-Up

5 Simple Things to Add to Your Next Vocal Warm-Up Suzy S. Singers, you probably already know the importance of a proper vocal warm-up, whether youre practicing or performing. But heres something smart to keep in mind warming up goes far beyond breathing exercises and scales! Even if youre technically just standing still, in reality your whole body is working when youre singing.   Your muscles are active from your head to toes as you stand straight and tall.   Your blood is pumping and your abdominal muscles are definitely engaged as you inhale and exhale.   Basically, your entire body is your instrument! Pretty cool to think about. We love these recommendations from the Finding My Singing Voice blog consider adding these unconventional warm-ups to your routine: 1. Drink water Most singers already know how essential proper hydration is, but just the act of swallowing is beneficial, too. 2. Drink hot tea For singers with allergies, tea can help to wash down phlegm and clear the nasal passages. Other hot drinks will also work, but watch out for too much caffeine it can dry the vocal cords. Tea has additional health benefits (it’s loaded with antioxidants) and half the caffeine (or less) of coffee. 3. Yawn Yawning is the ultimate throat and palate stretch! 4. Stretch Singing involves the whole body, and unnecessary tension anywhere can have a negative effect on the voice. A good side stretch can help open up the ribcage and free up your breath. (See also: Can Yoga Help You Sing Better?) 5. Meditate Mindfulness meditation is the practice of focusing the mind, usually by observing the breath and disengaging from thoughts. It’s a great way to calm anxious nerves and tame self-criticism. Now its your turn what other activities or routines do you practice to get ready for a performance?   Head on over to our Facebook page and share them! You might also like Find Your Voice as a Singer: 4 Tips That Work Singers: Do You Make These 4 Common Errors? Using Scales to Improve Your Vocal Range and More Photo by Synergy by Jasmine.

The Importance of Differentiated Instruction for Students

The Importance of Differentiated Instruction for Students Differentiated Instruction: Does it Matter to Students? ChaptersAs Things Stand NowConcern for Special Needs StudentsTechnology in the Classroom: Helpful or Not?Teaching and Learning with Differentiating InstructionPeople often reflect on their Glory Days â€" the Bruce Springsteen definition, not the Little Mix album.The term glory days can mean any time in their past that the speaker believes is better than now.Per the chart-smashing Springsteen song, most feel their glory days were during secondary school, usually playing some sport or generally being very popular.For this writer, the time spent in secondary school was anything but glorious.Trapped in a teaching model that did nothing for my optimal learning style â€" kinesthetic learning, mediocrity set the tone for every class’ mark and borderline failure was where my exam scores hovered.To make matters worse, for a lack of explanation of why I consistently performed so poorly, I was mostly thought of as a bad student.It was only later, in vocational training, when we got hands-on w ith the equipment and tools, that I discovered I learn best by doing rather than listening or seeing.In spite of hefty criticism levelled at the concept of individual learning styles, there is substantial evidence that students have a preference for how they receive information, giving overall validity to the concept.Among all of the educational initiatives being bandied about and all of the struggles the Department for Education is undergoing, trying to improve teaching methods and students’ scores...Could taking into consideration how a student learns be all it takes to optimise public education? Or is there more to this story?Come with Superprof now. Let’s explore some of the greatest concerns of crowded classrooms and how teachers can make the best use of time and resources to maximise their teaching strategy.teaching strategies to employ and no learning strategies to devise.Concern for Special Needs StudentsAmong all of the advances made in educational philosophy, the ackno wledgement of learning disabilities ranks as one of the most accepting, and one of the most divisive.Dyslexia is a prevalent learning disability in which students with an otherwise normal capacity and desire to learn are hindered by their brain’s inability to process language.Causes of dyslexia are thought to be both genetic and environmental. However, students all over the globe struggle to learn because of dyslexia; it affect between 3% and 7% of learners worldwide.A similar condition, dyscalculia, renders even simple maths learning a cause for frustration and anxiety.Although dyslexia was identified as a neurological impairment in 1881, through the subsequent century, failures of dyslexic students to master learning concepts was often  equally  attributed to poor educational practices and poor student motivation.Historically, students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were labelled naughty children when, in fact, their inability to sit still and pay attention was due to a developmental neurological disorder.This condition too is prevalent worldwide; between 5 and 7% of the global student population is thus afflicted.Here again, although awareness of ADHD as a medical condition dates back to 1902, it only became widely acknowledged and managed in mainstream education in 1981.Identifying special needs students and assessing what their needs actually are went a long way towards levelling the academic playing field.Unfortunately, special education initiatives did nothing for students without special needs who nevertheless struggle to learn.Some teachers assign homework online; otherwise, technology hasn't made much impact on learning Source: Pixabay Credit: FirmBeeTechnology in the Classroom: Helpful or Not?Visuals are a powerful teaching tool.In the early days of formal education, classroom visuals consisted of a blackboard and possibly a world map. Perhaps a frieze demonstrating the proper way to write letters in cursive script adorned th e space above the chalkboard.As technology advanced, so too did classrooms: overhead projectors (1930), video (1951) and... who could forget the Banda worksheets (1923), with their purple ink and smelling of alcohol?That mimeograph machine gave the teacher more latitude in curriculum development. No longer limited to textbook content, teachers were free to devise more varied content and even include diagrammes and charts.For learners who are more inclined to visual learning, all of these advances were giant leaps towards their learning preference.The wireless radio made its way into classroom in the 1920s. Shortly thereafter, stations started broadcasting on-air classes â€" the precursor to today’s online and distance learning.Astoundingly, for all of the technological advances in the last 100 years, using technology in the classroom pretty much stalled after the PC (personal computer) went mainstream.To be sure, curricular requirements have expanded to include coding and keyboard ing classes, but they still follow the traditional teaching model: the educator speaks and the learner does.So, while technological advances have helped students learn, essentially they are confronted with the same teaching methodology that has dominated educational philosophy for centuries.Find out what the best tutors know about differentiation in the classroom...Merely repairing a dam leak overlooks the possibility of its imminent failure GeorgeB2Teaching and Learning with Differentiating InstructionIn a sense, you might say that all of the instructional strategies devised to date are akin to plugging a cracking dam with bubble gum: they address the current emergency but do nothing to remedy the bigger problem.Improving the learning experience of those with special needs and outfitting the school classroom with a variety of learning implements are valiant efforts â€" nobody could fault the education professionals for that.However, they fail to take into consideration a few basic facts:1. Grouping students by age rather than by intellect or different learning styles inevitably leaves portions of the student body with their educational needs poorly met.2. The traditional teaching model feeds students information but does not teach them how to use that information, or even how to learn.3. Multiple intelligences are not considered in the traditional learning plan.4. Summative assessments â€" periodic exams do nothing to evaluate a student’s potential for learning, only for how well s/he retained recently taught material.Again: no one is faulting hard-working teachers or parents who do their best to support their children’s education program.Our thesis embraces student-centered learning â€" the very foundation of differentiated learning.Differentiation calls for students to work in small groups, arranged by aptitude and intellectual ability.Furthermore, the students’ learning preferences are taken into consideration:Primarily visual learners would be given lots of different material to look at and draw conclusions fromPrimarily auditory learners would benefit from listening to recordings of learning materialsPrimarily kinesthetic learners would be tasked to build or otherwise create materials that would support conclusions they’ve drawn from their studies.No matter which learning style any student prefers, assignments would be tailored to their interests.Teachers, no longer at the front of the class (and hoping that students are paying attention), circulate around the room, providing individualized guidance and contributing to group work, all while conducting a formative assessment on each pupil as the work progresses.For teachers, this might sound like a nightmare of classroom management. But for students...When teachers differentiate instruction, student learning soars!Through targeted learning activities, students discover their strengths and are afforded the learning process that suits them the best.In a learning environment th at fosters inclusion of gifted students as well as those with special learning needs, student achievement is all but assured.Finally...Contrary to the nightmare scenario envisioned above, when educators eschew direct instruction in favour of differentiation strategies, they find their rooms filled with responsive students ready to hone their thinking skills and comprehension of whatever topic Teacher would embrace that day.Briefly stated, differentiation of instruction is understanding by design â€" a concept every student could benefit from.Isn’t it about time to take the pressure off of the teachers? To let students set their learning goals and be permitted the necessary avenues and tools to reach them?That would be effective teaching indeed!Now read our full guide to differentiating learning!

Learn Afresh For Exams With Online Tutors After A Great Spell Of Holidays

Learn Afresh For Exams With Online Tutors After A Great Spell Of Holidays 0SHARESShare Holidaying is part of student life and great holidays are sure to boost one’s spirits. Getting back to studies after a spell of marvelous holidays and facing the ensuing exams is crucial for students. Online tutors rush to your help on such occasions and guide you through your crucial hours of exam prep with easy methods and fruitful suggestions. What do online tutors do for your exam prep? Understanding your capabilities: Even you could not have gauged your plus and minus in learning a subject with such a precision as online tutors do. They help you in the eleventh hour with strategies that show you the gateway to pick up scores in a subject Easy tips for writing strategies and problem solving: Even a genius needs ways and means to express his knowledge or else his attempts in writing an exam go waste. Tutors online explain how to prep for an exam, how to manage your time and what to prep. They give you the prep material as well to make your job easy Reviews and practice sessions: Reviews, feed backs and practice sessions provided by Best online tutoring service providers place you in the track and help you understand the level of your progress .Many of them provide coaching courses in short durations to help you score with ease and redouble your skills in the subject Boosting the confidence: It is but natural to feel hazy and unclear about subject preps after lots of fun and festivity. Tutors online understand your hang overs and refresh your mind with techniques that enhance your confidence in the subject and reassure your learning scales for getting into track without delay It is not just tutoring, online tutoring companies like Tutor Pace undertake. It is rather sharing your educational burden to minimize it and bring forth good benefits like great scores in the oncoming exams. Avail the college online tutoring services to enjoy the benefits. [starbox id=admin]

The Real Secret to Improving Your Bands Sound

The Real Secret to Improving Your Bands Sound Suzy S. Do you want your band to sound even better? (Who doesnt?!) Here, San Diego, CA teacher  Maegan W. shares her secret for improving the groups sound as well as your individual musical skills Do you think a metronome is just a personal preference for some musicians? Are you one of those musicians who KNOWS your time is perfect and unmatched? Well Ive got news for you it probably isnt as spot-on as you think. Most fights in bands are due to someone being off-time, and unable to accept that it is them. The truth is that most people honestly believe they are on time. As a drummer, I learned a long time ago the only way to know for sure how good your timing really is, is to use a metronome. Im not suggesting that you always play, practice, and perform with your metronome not all music calls for that. What I am suggesting is that you take your musicianship to a whole other level, and take your power back! There is no greater feeling than knowing 100% where each note, beat, lick, and fill fits in the time and space of the song. Singer-songwriters and guitar players Im calling you out. I challenge you to use a metronome when practicing and learning songs. I have played with so many amazingly talented musicians, guitar-playing singer-songwriters who performed and sounded fantastic alone, but when it came to a band setting, they were like complete beginners. Dont let this be you. Here are some ideas on how to get comfortable with the metronome as youre singing or playing guitar with your band: 1) Listen to your songs against the click. This will help you to see where everything really lines up, and how much time you actually have to do whatever you want to do or play. 2) Devote at least 10% of your practice routine to practicing with the metronome. I recommend more like 50-90% but baby steps are fine for people not used to practicing with the metronome. 3) If youre in a band, have The Talk. This will hold everyone equally accountable for doing what they can to improve their personal timing, which will improve the bands time as a whole. Also having a group practice where the drummer listens to a click is helpful too. It instantly builds trust and competence. (If there is a problem member that cant admit or see their faults, it may be helpful to have some practices where everyone can hear the click through the speakers, to shine light on what needs extra attention.) 4) Be humble. Learning that your timing sucks can be a hard realization, especially for sensitive musicians. This can bruise the ego and come out as anger. Remember the point is not to be right or make someone feel defeated. The point is to improve your bands sound, as well as individual sound. The metronome is the Truth, and sometimes the Truth hurts. 5) Slow down! The best way to really lock down any song, riff, groove, fill, or solo is to slow way down. Take the tempo down to half or 3/4s of the original tempo and practice in slow motion, to let your brain and muscles learn exactly where everything fits.  Do this until your muscle memory learns the movement of the piece. Then when you speed back up, do it gradually in increments of 5 or 10 bpms until you arrive back at the original tempo. Then push past 10 or 20 bpms so you truly have it mastered. You never know when you will need to play it faster or slower, but with this practice, you will be prepared no matter what the speed. These are just a few ways to incorporate the metronome as youre playing guitar, singing, or whatever part you play in your band. I hope this is helpful and remember, its about taking baby steps. This is not something you just want to brush off. Being a master at time will make you a more valuable musician, and more confident in your skills too. It may be tough at first, but anything worth learning is. Go easy on yourself and/or your band. It is challenging, but I know you can do it! Maegan W. teaches drums, songwriting, and more in San Diego, CA. She earned a degree in Percussion from the Musicians Institute, and has been teaching private lessons since 2004.    Learn more about Maegan here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by Jessie Hodge

Learning How to Learn 3 Techniques to Improve Test Scores

Learning How to Learn 3 Techniques to Improve Test Scores Improving Academic Performance MyGuru is slowly undergoing a bit of a transition. We certainly want to continue to be known as the premier source for extremely accomplished tutors who deliver highly customized 1-1 in-person and online tutoring and test prep in Chicago and a steadily growing number of cities. However, if you want to improve your performance in school, expert feedback and customized instruction from a private tutor doesn’t necessarily need to be a part of your plan. It is almost certainly a good idea, if you have the financial resources to pursue private tutoring. But, there are other tools, approaches, and strategies you can use to do better in school, and we want the MyGuru brand to be known for its ability to empower students to take control of their education, study more effectively, and develop strategies to meet their academic, professional, and personal goals. We want to deliver much more than the ability to connect with a private tutor. We want to deliver powerful insights about building intelligence, studying effectively, and improving academic performance.To do that, we'll consistently digest, organize, and share practical, actionable, but science-based advice and perspectives on using the power of mindset, deliberate practice, stress reduction, proper sleep and nutrition, time management, strategic planning, and other techniques, which may or may not involve working with one of our private tutors. I’ve been reading books and blogs and interviewing expert tutors and academic partners for months in an effort to develop content that supports this vision for MyGuru. I also recently completed an awesome course called Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help you Master Tough Subjects. The course covers mental tools, approaches, and strategies to help you change your mindset, study more effectively, improve your memory, become a better problem solver, and think more critically, particularly in math and science coursework. This blog post is actually my final project for the course, which I’m writing and producing in response to the below prompt. The project I was asked to complete was â€" “Depending upon the nature and content of your project, your project may be used as an exemplar for future students, or your project may be incorporated in some other way. Ideally, this project could be used, not only to affirm your own understanding of the material and how it relates to your life and goals, but can also be used to help other students and also be of assistance to teachers and independent learners at any stage in their progression through a life of learning. The key requirement of the project is that it is linked to multiple themes covered in the course. Beyond that, there is enormous flexibility.” My Final Project for Learning How to Learn There are a variety of ideas, concepts, and strategies I learned in this course that can help students in general (that’s the whole point of the course), and some of them were more or less applicable to students studying for or taking standardized tests. In this final project, my goal is to take three ideas that were discussed in the course and explain how students studying for the ACT, SAT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, and many other tests, could apply them to improve their test scores through better studying or more effective test taking itself. In this project, I’ll briefly share three videos that discuss and help students apply three powerful concepts I learned in the course. Strung together, these videos create a nice base of information that should put students on a better path as they prepare for a standardized test. In future blog posts, I’ll reference these videos again and expand on what is covered in each of these videos. The concepts I’ll cover are: Focused vs. diffuse modes of thinking â€" which is about how our brains actually digest and process information in two different “modes,” one of which tends to be underutilized in most academic settings Mental chunking â€" the way in which your brain groups ideas, facts, and concepts into “chunks” that it can more readily access to solve problems and answer questions Hard start, easy finish â€" what I would describe as a “medium risk, high reward” approach for performing well on tests by choosing which questions to answer first Video 1 â€" Focused vs. diffuse modes of thinking In this video, I’ll explain how the focused vs. diffuse modes of learning, combined with an understanding of how progress is typically made when learning an academic discipline, can help students get comfortable with their progress and ability to answer more difficult questions correctly as they prepare for and take standardized tests. Video 2 â€" Mental chunking Now that students have watched video 1, and know how and when to attempt to employ their focused vs. diffuse modes of thinking, my next video discusses the power of mental chunking when it comes to learning and applying new concepts when preparing for and taking standardized tests. In the video, I’ll define “mental chunking” and use an example of how to apply it. Video 3 â€" Hard start, easy finish: prioritizing questions when taking a standardized test In videos 1 and 2 we discussed different modes of learning, how progress is typically made when preparing for a big standardized test, and how a student could use the diffuse mode of thinking and the power of mental chunking to answer more difficult questions (or to save time when answering easier or medium difficulty questions). In video three, I’ll discuss a strategy for getting the most possible questions correct when you actually sit down and take a standardized test. It offers some contrarian, but potentially very effective, advice on which questions to answer when. Summary I hope you enjoyed the videos. I would highly recommend the online MOOC (i.e. massive open online course) Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help you Master Tough Subjects (it starts again in January, 2015) as well as course instructor Barbara Oakley’s new book A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). About the Author Mark Skoskiewicz is MyGuru’s founder. He received a B.S. in Finance from Indiana University and holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He founded MyGuru in 2009 based on his experiences as a private economics, finance, and accounting tutor, as well as his experiences personally studying for the ACT and GMAT. He is passionate about “learning how to learn” and, in addition to the course on which this blog post is based, has completed Growth Mindset training.

English Classes with TED Sir Ken Robinson on Changing Education

English Classes with TED Sir Ken Robinson on Changing Education Were continuing our English Classes using TED talks with a talk by Sir Ken Robinson animated by RSA on the modern education system. According to the TED website, heres why you should listen to what Sir Robinson has to say about education:Sir Robinson.Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way were educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.Why dont we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that its because weve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. We are educating people out of their creativity, Robinson says. Its a message with deep resonance. Robinsons TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? Everyone should watch this.A visionary cultural leader, Sir Ken led the British governments 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. His latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, a deep look at human creativity and education, was published in January 2009.Below you can watch the animated version of Sir Robinsons talk. This particular talk is not subtitled, but the illustrations should make it much easier to understand. Beneath the video youll find a list of reading questions.What are the two main reasons Sir Robinson says every country is trying to reform education?How has students perception of education changed in recent years?During what period was the modern (European) education system developed?What does Sir Robinson say is Deep in the gene pool of public education ?Where do people start to lose interest in the United States? What does Sir Robinson mean by this?What adjective does Sir Robinson use to describe the ADHD epidemic?According to Sir Robinson, what are we doing to children to get them through education?What does he compare the modern education system to?What is divergent thinking?What happens to our ability to use divergent thinking as we go to school?You can email us your answers, write them in comments, or take an English class with us and discuss this video.