Category Archives: Edu Tips

How to Assess Private Middle Schools for Your Child

Private schools have been the choicest for many parents owing to the benefits and distinctions. If you are a parent eager to join your child in the best of the private middle schools in Jacksonville FL, you must have been spoilt with choice. The long list of schools that comes up with a simple internet search can perplex any parent to choose the best one from private middle schools in Jacksonville FL.

Here are certain pointers that help you assess a private middle school that suits your child the best.

Student Life

Your child needs a happy and lively learning environment at school. It must be free from bullying, over-discipline, and a stressful environment.

Ask the school management you are considering to give you a peek into the student life. Walk around the campus and see the facilities your child would experience when he joins the school. Look at the students in the classroom to understand how engaged and happy they are with their learning.

Teachers learning curve

Teaching is a constant learning journey. The teachers in the school must be regularly up to date with the latest teaching methodologies along with the latest advancements in the subject.

Check with the school the skill and learning development programs it offers to its teachers. Happier and knowledgeable teachers lead to happier and skilled students.

Assessment methodologies

Assessments can be worrisome for some children. Besides, the assessment methodology can differ from school to school. Some schools consider extracurricular activities for merit grading, while some consider only academics to assess children’s learning.

Clarify your doubts related to assessment with the principal to make sure your child enjoys stress-free learning.

Mission and Vision

A school’s mission and vision explain how they envision their student’s learning and progress. They explain why the school is established and how they would love to carve your child’s future.

While choosing the best school from the private middle schools in Jacksonville FL, make sure their vision and mission align with your thoughts about your child’s learning and future.

Fee structure

Tuition fee is one of the key aspects to consider while assessing a school. Various schools have various fee structures. Some schools include the cost of transport, books, extracurricular activities, etc. in the tuition fee while others charge each of these separately.

Some schools allow installment-based payments, some demand single-time payments. Thus, the tuition fee is one thing you cannot miss discussing with the school management while choosing a middle school for your child.

Technology usage

A school with technology-enabled learning can engagingly teach concepts. With changing times and children getting closer to technology, you must check with the school about their technology usage in the classroom to deliver a better learning experience to their students.

Class size and curricula

Private schools have a reputation for focusing on smaller class sizes. It benefits your child as they would receive individual care and attention in the classroom. Hence, you must check with the school about their student-teacher ratio to know more about this.

Similarly, curricula can differ from school to school. Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, IB are some of the curricula that schools adhere to. Gather details on the curriculum the school follows to understand their teaching and your child’s learning experience in the school.

Parental involvement

As a parent, you would want to involve in your child’s schooling age. Whether it is during the parent-teacher meetings or special occasions such as school anniversaries, sports meets, and other occasions, schools that encourage parental involvement are welcoming.

• Does the school allow you to visit the campus during working hours to see how the learning is going on?

• How may you contact teachers or the school management should you have any queries about your child’s progress?

• Will the school provide any login to check your child’s life learning in the classroom?

Clarify such doubts with your prospective school to know that they encourage a healthy parent-child-school involvement to offer wholesome learning to your child.

Conclusion

Schooling is a stage that lays a foundation for every child. Taking time to research and assess the school in every possible way ensures that your child will join the best school that shapes him into a happier individual you shall be proud of.

Why Private School? A Look at the Potential Benefits

The decision about the choice of the school is one of the crucial decisions that parents make for their children. They start planning and saving for their child’s schooling as soon as possible. It is because the type of school children studies in can determine future success and impacts their overall thought process. There are various types of schools available out there – private schools, government schools, preschools, boarding schools, to name a few. Thus, it can be overwhelming for parents to decide on the best school for their children from the results of “private schools near me”.

Public schools and private schools both have their benefits. The tuition fee in public schools can be affordable. Many public schools hold a reputation for their quality education. At the same time, the benefits that private schools offer are plenty.

Interestingly, studies indicate that parents prefer private schools. The myriad of benefits they extend to children and parents encourages parents to join their children in private school. As we move ahead in this post, let us take a closer look at the advantages private schools offer to both parents and children.

Limited students in each class

Private schools implement the state rules in abiding by the student strength in each class strictly. According to the NCES Schools and Staffing Survey, the class strength in private schools is one-third of public schools. Thus, students in private schools get better opportunities to interact with and clarify their doubts with teachers. Teachers can also deliver personal attention to students owing to this feature. Thus, check with the school management about the class strength when filtering the best school for your child from “private schools near me”.

A solid foundation for global opportunities

The syllabi and the curriculum a school follows can make a vital difference in laying the foundation for your child’s future. Private schools often fared a step ahead in teaching a better curriculum to their students. It helps them to gain an edge in competitive exams like SAT and university entrance exams. Additionally, private schools offer a holistic learning environment where your child gets to master sports, arts, theatrics, and extracurricular activities. Thus, admission into a private school can open up global opportunities for your child solidly.

Skilled and dedicated teachers

According to a study done by Fraser Institute in 2007, the qualification and dedication of teachers is a prime reason parents prefer private schools. A distinction about private schools since their inception is, they attract trained teachers by rewarding them with better pay and growth opportunities. This reflects in the happy and dedicated teachers that become crucial forces in drawing students and parents towards private schools.

Wider doors for parental involvement

As a concerned parent, you would want to understand how your child is growing up at the school. It feels welcoming if the school can open up the doors for parental involvement. Private schools encourage the participation of parents through various activities. Be it regular parent-teacher meetings, or inviting them as speakers to share their thoughts during gatherings and organizing picnics with parents, private schools always stay a step ahead in encouraging parental involvement.

Better standards of conduct

Schooling is a journey. There arise many instances that demand amicable and immediate resolving from the side of parents or the management. Private schools are proven to deliver and adhere to better standards of conduct. No wonder that owing to their efficient conflict resolution and quick addressing of needs and concerns, parents have been vouching for private schools for generations.

Conclusion

Both public schools and private schools possess their advantage. However, in the areas mentioned above, private schools gain an edge. For some reason, admissions into private schools can be very competitive. The tuition fee might be a bit higher. But as of now, we understood that quality education and better standards of learning demand investment. For all the good reasons, the tuition fee has always outweighed the advantages they offer to children. The tuition fee you pay for private schools is an investment for your child’s brighter future. It gives them wings to grab better opportunities and prepares them for the technology changes.

How Do Art Lessons Give a Fresher Perspective on Kids’ Life?

kid art lessons

Life is huge. Life is deep. Life is challenging and life is testing. Children will not know how deep and testing life can be. It is important to give them an understanding of how life should be. Constantly spoon-feeding them and providing them whatever they asked for immediately could lead to a notion that life is like this and kids will find themselves troubled when facing challenges of life later on.

Hence, parents should give an early understanding of how life will be. There are various ways to achieve this amongst which kid art lessons are one beautiful way. Confused how? Let’s move on in this post to understand better.

Arts are comprehensive

Art can bring any feeling to life – happiness, emotions, tragedy, love, failure, success, and many more. When you teach children art lessons, they will understand that life is a lot more and will know how to deal with them in real life. Whenever they feel like expressing an emotion or get out of a situation, they will choose art as the medium. This is a good aspect for their mental health and emotional health as well.

Arts are colorful

Colors express emotions. Your kid will understand how to express emotions and feelings through colors when you choose a good kid art lesson for him. The mentors there will help to recognize the potential of your kid and bring the hidden talent outside. If your child is single or struggling with expressing emotions or mingling with new persons, arts will help to unleash their ideas and thoughts beautifully.

Arts are affordable

Some hobbies do cost parents. Like sports training, or trekking and scuba. The good thing with arts is they are pocket-friendly for parents. They don’t burden their budget and are useful even if their parents need to enroll multiple kids or siblings.

Arts are easier to access

Be it offline or online, you can encourage your child to pursue arts easily. If you are worried about sending your kid outside due to the testing times we are in, you could consider enrolling them in virtual classes. Else, you can also choose multiple YouTube videos and reputed art classes online and train your kid with their guidance. Thus, art classes are accessible and one can choose them according to their convenience.

Arts strengthen and stimulate brain

Studies show that children who are active in arts enjoy better health and brain stimulation. The left and right brain coordination is improved when children are trained in arts. This lets them perform better in academics and in life too. Another piece of good news is that kids who excel at arts can grasp math and science easily as per child psychology experts.

Arts strengthen family bonds

By spending a little time with your kid by involving yourself in arts along with him, you have great success in strengthening the bond between you. After a long and tiring day, you can relax with your kids by kicking away the stress. When you do so, your child will have a sense of happiness and security that parents are spending time with them and participating in their interests. This will encourage them to do the greater things and carves their mindset.

Arts teach observation and patience

Children will understand the need for patience when they have to get the final form of their art. Similarly, they will learn to observe the minutest details of everything to bring them life on the canvas. This will impart these two traits right from an early age which is a good thing every kid should have to achieve greatness in life.

Arts show life from a different perspective

Children when they grow up amidst the arts can view life from various perspectives. Their thoughts, ideas, and expressiveness blooms which designs them into wholesome adults. They can handle life easily and learn to develop a calm mind.

Arts expand their community

When you join your kids in art classes, they come to know many other children of their age. This provides them, friends, and peers, with whom they can share their fun and joy. This will help them in communication skills and give a feeling of friendship and company too.

Arts thus help children in many ways. Can’t agree more, can we?

Reasons Why You Need to Consider a Private Middle School

Choosing schools for children can be tricky. We nurture them at home and all at once, we need to drop them away from home in a new environment, amidst new people. For kids, this can be a challenging transition. When you are checking for a list of private middle schools near me, you should make a very careful selection about the school. Interestingly, many parents prefer sending their children to private middle school to other types of schools.

As we move on in this article, let us understand the reasons why parents increasingly tend towards private middle schools.

Discipline

The private school in Jacksonville FL is known for their discipline. Children will understand how to behave and respect teachers, elders, peers, and parents with the guidance of trained teachers in private middle schools. You will find quality and trained teachers in private middle schools who are thorough in child psychology. They will choose the perfect methods to teach your child the subject as well as the much-needed discipline. Sometimes, private middle schools can be so strict that students can be expelled from schools in case of intolerable anti-disciplinary actions.

Extracurricular programs

For overall growth and learning, children should get enough exposure and participation in extracurricular programs. Private schools provide various extra-curricular activities including and not limited to essay writing, public speaking, arts, dance, dramas, literary clubs, sports, games, and inter-school competitions, etc. They help in identifying and bringing out the hidden talents in your child. Your children will also find mentors who can correctly guide them on how to sharpen their skills and turn into proven professionals in their lines of interest.

Education with a goal

Private middle schools offer many programs along with syllabus-based education. If you want to gift your children education that can meet their future goals, choose from private middle schools near me that have records of past achievements. Their alumni might be working in great organizations or currently pursuing education in internationally acclaimed universities. Checking such records and details will help in choosing a good private elementary school for your child. On these lines, when you choose an elementary middle school, you are already making the right choice for your kids’ education. It is a widely known fact the private elementary schools provide quality education in many ways.

Quality education

Private schools employ dedicated teachers who are well-versed in child education and trained and certified. They know the instructional methodologies of teaching children with care and patience. They are also aware of the types of learners in children and can choose the method that is appropriate for your child. This helps them in the easy grasping of the subject and instills confidence.

Individual attention

Private schools have lesser strength per class. This means your child will get personal attention from their teachers unlike in other schools which may have a high student ratio per one teacher. Many private schools have around 15-20 students per one teacher and do not exceed 25 students per teacher in many cases. On the other hand, this may not be feasible in public schools, as there can be a high number of students in every class. Due to the better individual attention, you will receive valuable feedback during the parent-teacher meeting as the teacher can observe and mentor your child from closer.

Care and safety

Private schools being strict in the implementation of discipline and rules will ensure that your child is free from bullying and harassment from peers or teachers. They will consider all aspects of student safety and provide a nurturing environment where your child can gain knowledge peacefully and in a happy environment. Private schools have constant surveillance all around the premises that will ensure that your child is in safe hands. Also, when it comes to maintaining hygiene, sanitized surroundings, and healthy classroom ambiance. This is one of the most indispensable aspects of the testing times we are in.

To summarize briefly:

Private schools promise better individual attention for your child. They have a low number of students per class which assures individual attention to your child. The curricula and teaching in private schools are far better and oriented towards your child’s future goals. It is your turn now to choose a private school that will shape your child into a wholesome individual.

What Study Abroad Programs are Offered?

People see Studying Abroad Programs as experiential education across the world. When you decide to study abroad, you will see the world as a classroom. Each destination will act as an interactive textbook where you will be experiencing certain things such as history, art, culture, fashion, and food in real-time despite reading. You might have traveled overseas already and might be having the taste of exploring abroad, but studying makes a lot of difference. If you are thinking of studying further, choosing abroad, interacting with new people, new places, knowing their history and culture will be the best choice.

For Whom Study Abroad Programs Are?

As a growing student, you may feel about venturing out, building confidence, participating and learning by practical experiments, and traveling. You will have tons of choices for putting forward your efforts, such as studying marine biology and rescuing birds from oil spills. But the harsh truth is you are living in a non-coastal state. It is even possible that you are willing to learn and understand ancient history & archaeology practically from an urban jungle. All such understandings generate from what you have, and what you are eager to have, or the place where you belong to.

Knowing other cultures will help you out in knowing what the global landscape is going through. Rather than just studying what’s written in the books, you can explore and live in such places, can get the participation element. Each person who is willing to get out of the box and have all such experience for whom abroad programs is an ideal choice. Live your life at best by opting to study abroad.

To Find Study, Abroad Programs Look For What, Where, and When:

You can avail of universities with study abroad programs for numerous countries across the world. But you cannot randomly choose any country and say I want to study there. Everything needs proper planning and information. We suggest you follow appropriate steps, including what to study, where to learn, and when to begin with it. All such things are quite essential to accomplish better things in your life.

What do You want to Study?

Its quite evident that the programs are available for different categories and subjects as per students’ choice. Suppose you are confident and know what you want to study brilliantly. Could you select your field and begin with it? But if you are confused, you can take advice from a counselor and decide which will be the perfect subject for you as per your interests and intelligence.

You can choose your subject as per the country where you to study too. For instance, if you are a musician and want to pursue music, you should choose Vienna. If technology seems fascinating for you, go for study to Japan, in case of art history, Italy will be an ideal choice and much more to the list. Do in-depth research before jumping down to any conclusion.

Where to Study Abroad?

If you have already decided which country you want to go to and pursue your studies, Bingo!! Start looking for an appropriate college for studying abroad programs. You can choose any country which you think is a perfect fit for your studies. It can be Spain, Italy, the UK, Ireland and many more popular countries highly known for studies. Apart from the country, you can specifically choose a city where you want to study and explore your practical knowledge and experience. The list of countries for studying abroad is vast, and each country has its nuances. So we suggest you choose the appropriate one that will be a perfect fit as per your personality and lifestyle.

When Are You Willing to Go Abroad?

Planning is crucial, and after deciding what and where to study, the next step is when you want to begin with your studies. Decide the time, either MayMester Intercession or the Summer term. You will have to choose time-specific programs. As per your suitability, choose an ideal plan and then stick to that program. Make other necessary preparations, and that is all you have to finalize your study program.

Fulfill Your Professional Development Requirement with the Educator Programs

Creativity is an indispensable tool in the 21st century. This matters even more to professionals in the education sector or people who run businesses around the same. Many workshops today offer creativity training as part of the program curriculum. Teachers, professors, and educators can make use of such educator programs and workshops to fulfill their professional development needs. Such programs help foster creativity not only within themselves but also among their students. Educator programs centered around professional growth are open to educators from colleges and universities, who and often get sponsored to attend them workshop as part of their professional development. Many a time, the cost for these workshops and related travel charges may be tax deductible if the course is taken up for education purposes. The program may also come with independent credits when taken up as part of completing work and advanced degree.

What creative professional development programs include

Professional development for teachers, professors, and educators revolve around tools and techniques that can be implemented to help yourselves and the students in becoming more creative, collaborative, artistic, and skillful. Such tools also foster out of the box thinking, self-confidence, and leadership in the participants.

Map making is also another focus area in creative educator programs. Through this tool, you learn how to make journey maps or scrolls for yourselves or the students. These maps help you explore processes, progress, and possibilities of classrooms projects, or those relating to research.

Time management is crucial to professional development for educators. In a world that is dominated by multitasking activities, educators and students seldom feel that they have enough time to create. Professional development programs centered around creativity teach participants how to stretch time and use them in small blocks in order to do satisfying creative work on an ongoing basis.

Nurturing oneself is a quality that is important not just to students, but also to teachers. A someone in the teaching profession, you often spend long hours of time encouraging and supporting others that you forget to nurture themselves. Educator programs bring a shift in this and enable you to appreciate yourself as much as you do to others.

Perceptions are important to professional development. Your perception as an educator has a huge impact on your teaching style and the interactions with students. Through creative training program, educators and teachers learn effective techniques that help you alter perceptions physically and emotionally. This is done through cameras, cut out shapes, kaleidoscopes, mythology, memoir writing or intergenerational interviews, which assist individuals in expanding the sense of the world that you live in. Participants also use the natural surroundings to generate ideas, and build better perceptions.

Who can benefit from a professional development educator program

Whether you are a kindergarten teacher, a high school tutor, or even a university professor, you can benefit immensely from such workshops conducted for professional advancement. Educators from a wide range of fields such as Sciences, Humanities, Information Technology, Arts and Craft, Philosophy, Psychology, and so on can participate in these programs that help them advance in their careers. Though such programs are usually conducted for the teachers themselves, they can often also be altered to include a class of students as well. Such tailor-made programs benefit not just you as a teacher but also the students, in fostering their creativity and enhancing their innate curiosity.

Assistance in attending educator workshops

Many schools and universities offer financial assistance to teachers and professors who take up such creative training for professional advancement. Providers of such workshops also often give out certificate of attendance and CEUs for attending the program. These programs can also often be taken with a specific number of credits allotted to them, as part of independent study courses. This is even more helpful when students participate in such programs along with you, in order to complete an advanced degree. They can also benefit you if you are engaged in research work.

In all, educator programs that a tailor-made suit professional development needs of teachers and other educators end up being turning points in their careers, as well as in the life of their students.

How to Hire Mobile Learning Companies?

mLearning is nothing but eLearning on smartphones is just a generalized description of what it is. There are so many underlying layers, so many advantages and flexibilities available, mLearning is the advanced cousin of eLearning that fits into our 5 inch smartphones. It offers portability more than anything for people on the go and encourages more participation in return, resulting in high engagement and interactivity. Phones’ ability to make a 5 inch tablet a house of the multimedia platform opens up tremendous options that organizations could explore.

You can either develop mLearning courses in-house or hire a mobile learning company to do it for you. Outsourcing the work to third parties has its own advantages over in-house design and development. In-house development can be expensive, time consuming and even unnecessary if your requirement is seasonal or temporary. You need to hire a dedicated team who will specialize in everything, right from design and content to visuals and user experience. In addition, when you outsource your mLearning requirements to a mobile learning company, you will gain access to the expertise of professionals who are well versed in the eLearning and mLearning industry. You will be offered the latest trends and techniques used in the industry to keep your mobile learning efforts stay ahead of the competition. Given the expertise, the company can also process immediate and bulk requirements and deliver in time. Timely delivery can help you plan your training sessions and keep up with the planned duration. In this article we will see how to hire a mobile learning and what parameters need to be considered while choosing.

Things to Consider While Hiring Mobile Learning Companies

1. Previous Work

One of the best ways to decide if a company can deliver your objectives is by looking at the company’s previous work. Ask for a demo or a glimpse of the previous work they have done for their clients. Taking a sharp look will help you understand the design language they follow, the level of user satisfaction they can achieve, content development strategies, ingenuity of ideas, engagement and interactivity level. Are these qualities sufficiently displayed by the company in its work? Everything you need to know about a company lies in the quality of work it produces and the returns their clients reap over time. Which brings us to the second parameter to consider while hiring mobile learning companies; talking to previous clients.

2. Previous Clients

If you can go through a company’s website or enquire with the sales manager, you can get a list of previous clients the company has had. You can look for any related clients to your industry and keep up with the competition is up to. You can talk to one of the previous clients and ask for their honest feedback about the mobile learning company you want to hire. Enquire about the client relationship the company maintains, delivering capabilities of the company, time management and price as well. Talking to one of the previous clients and getting an honest opinion will let you be a better judge of things and move forward.

3. Deliverables

There might be instances when the mobile learning company is not able to cater to your requirements or doesn’t equip the resources to meet the deliverables mentioned. Be very specific with the company about your expectations and judge if the company can really deliver excellence and innovation as promised. Moreover, turnaround time also plays an important role while considering hiring a mLearning company. There might be instances when you have to curate a material from scratch or instances where an existing eLearning material must be modified for smartphones. Their respective turnaround times are different and the company must be able to both the types of requirements.

4. Expertise

Lastly, there is no need to mention that the mobile learning company must specialize in mLearning and stays ahead of its game. You need a company that can envision a future where learning takes place on smartphones all the time. You need a company that can bring that vision into reality with its ingenious ideas, ease of use, engagement and returns. You need a company that is wholly mobile and bustling with ideas and innovation to make learning on mobile more mainstream and engaging.

Importance of Education in the 21st Century

It is no doubt that education is a basic human right and every human being is entitled to be educated and taught things that will help him/her live in a civilized society. This might be the nth time you are reading or listening to someone say education is very important. But why is education really important and relevant, especially in the 21st century? Read on to know.

1. Knowledge

First and foremost, one needs education, at least a bit of formal education to have a strong foundation of knowledge about the world we live in. One must have the basic knowledge of health, food, society, civilization, nation, money and other things like this that are mandatory for a decent living. Education fills this knowledge gap in a very systematic manner and prepares us for life. All of these things might seem silly once we grow up, but once upon a time when we were kids, these were ingrained in our brains without our knowledge.

2. Identity

Every human being is unique and gifted with a skill, talent or special ability. Every human being has his/her own identity and it is education that helps us realize our true identities. Education helps us identify ourselves with the society and understand where we stand and in comparison to what. The realities of life are so beautifully presented to us that we start exploring ourselves inwardly and give an identity to ourselves. Moreover, society too gives you an identity of its own and your educational qualification plays a major role in the identity you earn for yourself.

3. Financial and Social Security

Education helps us have a steady financial and social security. Without basic education it will be impossible for one to manage his/her finances. Even basic things like signing a check, creating a bank account, credit & debit seem complex and difficult to understand. If you want to lead an independent and fearless life, financial security is very important. Education is also important for social security as it fills confidence in you and places you in a particular stratum of society where you don’t have to command for respect and dignity, whereas it is automatically granted to you.

4. Job Security

Thirdly, in the competitive world we live in today, securing a job without basic education is painfully difficult. Education enables us to communicate with people, understand languages, process transactions and comply with regulations. Without formal education, employees might never believe that you are capable of sustaining a steady job. Education in fact plays the most important role in securing a job, higher the education, higher the job status.

5. Helps You Find a Purpose

Lastly, education exposes to you a multitude of thoughts, views, opinions and people. Knowingly or unknowingly they will have a profound influence on you and subconsciously guide you to perceive life in a particular way. If you are educated and well aware of knows and how of the world you live in, you will have clarity about what you are doing and what you will be doing, and eventually you will find the purpose of your life.