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Online Tutoring: Home-Based Learning at Its Best

Did you know that online tutoring is becoming more and more popular each year? As more students catch on to its benefits, they find that it is essentially just as effective as – if not more than – the traditional, in-person tutoring session.

If you haven’t taken advantage of it yourself then now’s the time to learn why you should consider it. So let’s take a look at a few benefits that may lure you in to the home-based learning experience.

Technology is More Advanced than Ever

As online tutoring becomes more popular, various websites are advancing their services to ensure students get a true tutoring experience. This includes adding technology that makes the connection between the tutor, student, parent and even the teacher more secure.

One example of this type of technology is a student management system called SAM. By using SAM, tutors can record sessions later allowing the parent and/or child to review them at any time. This way, parents can check on their children, and students can review what was studied for refreshers.

Great for a Student with a Physical Disability

If you have a physical disability that makes it difficult for you to get out of the house, or even if you have a temporary illness or injury that leaves you indoors for a specified period of time, you can always hire a tutor to come to your home, but it’s also good to know that you can utilize online services. This is especially the case for the sick student who doesn’t want to pass on their germs to the unsuspecting tutor.

Try Different Tutors in One Service

Working with an online tutoring service affords students the opportunity to maneuver through different tutors in one service. Because you don’t have to make arrangements for any specific tutor over the duration of tutoring, you get a chance to experience different tutoring styles more conveniently. For some, this is an important part of tutoring that they so little get a chance to take advantage of in the traditional experience. It’s not so easy to hire and dump a tutor in the standard experience. But by working with an online tutoring service, you can simply click on another tutor’s icon, or email them, and just like that, you have gained an entirely new perspective to the subject you’re studying.

More Bang for Your Buck

While very often, you’ll find that online tutoring service prices are comparable to traditional tutoring prices, in many ways you get more benefit from traveling the online route. Why, you ask? Well, one reason is that you can take advantage of the convenience that is mentioned above. How many tutors do you know who will wake up out of their sleep to come over at midnight for a tutoring session? Not many. However, because you can easily find a 24-hour live tutoring service online, you can scratch the itch for academic assistance anytime you please.

Online tutoring is a benefit that many students refuse to pass up. If you think you can benefit from home-based learning, it may be a benefit you should take advantage of as well.

TutorsAnywhere.com is a complete online resource that compares tutoring services and products offered by top online companies. If you need to find a tutor for your child, find the best solution for your family at http://www.tutorsanywhere.com/.

Biggest Obstacles When Learning English

There are an estimated 6, 000 languages spoken throughout the world. With so many languages, it may surprise many to learn that learning the English language can be one of the more difficult tasks. There are a number of reasons why students encounter obstacles when they are learning English.

Pronunciation: The English language has no exact pronunciation. Some words contain ’silent’ letters which means they are not spoken. Some letters may be pronounced differently such as ‘ah’ for ‘A’. Other languages such as the German language vocalize every letter and have only one pronunciation. How the stress is placed on certain German consonants or vowels can make English such a difficult language to learn. There are hard and soft consonants like ‘c’ taking on a ‘k’ sound which depends on the context of which they are spoken. There are silent letters in some words and there are some consonants that when put together will project an entirely different sound. (i.e.…’th’) The odd combinations and changing rules in the pronunciation of words makes English much more difficult to learn.

Grammar: The succession of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs has their own particular order for the many different languages in the world. With the English language, the order can vary. For instance, Chinese learners tend to write indirect sentences. For example: “The boy was bitten by the neighbour’s dog.” instead of “The neighbour’s dog bit the boy.” To write proper sentences and passages, English learners have to learn a new and different way of using grammar. Assimilating English into a conversation can be difficult because learners have to use different sentence structures than their native language.

Verb Tense: Some languages have very narrow connotations of verb tense. Often the use of present and past verb tense can make learning English quite complicated. For instance, in certain situations, it may be appropriate to use any of the following tenses: present; past; and future. The verb ’sing’ can be used in the following forms depending on tense: ‘sing,’ ‘sang,’ or ‘sung.’

Learning Tools: Many students are only taught to learn from books so they do not have the chance to practice the speaking language. They tend to lack the confidence when they try to speak the English language in public. Reading aloud can help them improve their English speaking abilities

Slang: The use of slang is common in the English language. Words, terms, and phrases do not have the same meaning that they would normally have in a dictionary definition. Learning the language requires learning the use of slang which means understanding that different slang terms make English an almost entirely different language that has to be learned. Sometimes terms that are used are not even found in the English dictionary. This can make difficult for someone not familiar with the language. This is where television, movies, magazines, and the radio become helpful tools when learning the language.

Gender and Culture: A person’s cultural practices can affect their ability to learn English. For instance, in some cultures a woman tends to be the one to stay home and raise the children. They are less likely to be interacting with English speakers unlike a man who would be out in the workforce interacting with English speakers.

The English language is one of the most widely spoken languages. The inability to speak or understand the native English language can seem frustrating. Although the complexities of learning the language may seem overwhelming, the benefits are well worth the effort. Reading, speaking, and listening to others speak English are an important part of learning the language.

Online School offering free English lessons and great tools to help you to learn English such as online English dictionary, English to Spanish translation.

A Tutor’s Perspective on SHSAT Applications

I’ve been a tutor in New York City since 2004, and since I specialize in working with middle school age children, I have become quite familiar with the high school application process. There are many categories of high school and the application process is by no means the same for each category- because of this, the whole process can sometimes feel even more complex and draining than applying to college. This essay will be about applying to New York City Specialized Public Schools. Other essays will address applying to Independent Schools and Selective, Non-Specialized Public Schools.

The most straightforward of the selective schools to apply to are the Specialized Public High Schools. As I write this, there are nine Specialized High Schools that base admissions on the SHSAT. Three of them are the old, storied behemoths: Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science. Six more are newer and (mostly) smaller: The Brooklyn Latin School, The High School for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at City College, The High School for American Studies at Lehman College, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, and Staten Island Technical High School. There are only two considerations for admission to each of theses schools: New York City residency and SHSAT scores.

Applying is simple, but getting in is hard. The SHSAT is a 2 ? hours long, multiple choice test with a math section and an English section. The math section bears a distinct resemblance to the math section of the SAT. Granted, it only assumes an introductory knowledge of algebra, but the “flavor” is the same. The English section of the test is more unusual. In addition to challenging (but run-of-the-mill) reading comprehension passages and questions, there are also logical reasoning questions and scrambled paragraphs that students must unscramble. As far as I know, the scrambled paragraphs are unique among standardized tests.

Not surprisingly, the best way to prepare for this test is to be a good student. Kids who get in are virtually always kids who pay attention in class, do their homework thoughtfully, and study. Reading far beyond school assignments is also a significant predictor of success. No matter what anyone may tell you, no prep course, no prep materials, and no tutor can fully compensate if these factors are not already in place. (Beyond which, a student who is not academically inclined and interested in working hard is unlikely to be happy in a specialized high school, even if he or she did manage to get accepted.) Unfortunately, being a good student is not enough. It’s an unfair, even tragic fact that many middle schools are not rigorous enough to give their students a fair shot at doing well on the SHSAT. I will address some long-term strategies for students going to sub-standard middle schools at the end of this article. If your child is already doing all of the right things, and going to a rigorous school, there are a number of steps you can take to further improve your child’s chances of doing well on the SHSAT.

Your child can:

• Study on his or her own, using commercially available prep books;

• Take a prep class;

• Study with a tutor;

• Or, a student can do some combination of the above.

Each one of these study methods has its pros and cons. I recommend that parents and children look at the options together, and make decisions about how to prepare as a family.

Independent study is the cheapest way to prepare, by an enormous margin. All that is needed is a few test prep books- they’re not expensive and they can even be borrowed for free from a library. For highly motivated students who have a strong academic foundation, this can be an effective way to study. I’d recommend selecting one prep book (Barron’s is my favorite) and working through it, from beginning to end. You’ll be able to gauge your progress and decide whether you are on track to meet your goals. Ideally, you would start this process in the spring or early summer before the test so that you have plenty of time and can add in other study methods if they are indicated. When self-guided study is effective, it’s wonderful how students can really take full ownership of their success.

Taking a group class to prepare for the SHSAT is generally my least favorite option. There are many places you can go to take a group class, and some are obviously better than others. Unfortunately, the big players don’t seem to get very good results and they do seem to take a big chunk out of their students’ quality of life. Sitting through wearisome 3-hour classes with a bunch of other kids, slogging through huge piles of homework, and getting little personal attention is drill and kill in the worst sense. It’s mind-numbing and not particularly educational. It’s cheaper than private tutoring, but I would call most group classes a false economy.

On the other hand, there are a few group classes that are actually quite good. You should look for small groups (no more than 8 students per teacher) and individual classes that are a reasonable length (perhaps 1.5 hours). The teachers should be experienced and should be able to produce excellent references. Homework and practice tests should obviously be part of the program, but you should not feel that a class takes over your child’s life or your family’s life.

For most students, private tutoring will be the most effective option. The individual attention makes a big difference when working on challenging and potentially tedious material. It’s more efficient, because a good tutor focuses on exactly what an individual student needs and it’s easier to remain motivated when accountability is provided by one-on-one lessons. Unfortunately, tutoring can be quite expensive. Rates vary widely, but $85-$150 per hour is the general range you can expect to pay for an experienced, effective tutor. Tutoring is so expensive largely because tutors must spend a great deal of time traveling between appointments and you are paying for their travel and lesson planning time as well as the time they actually spend with your child.

If one-on-one tutoring is prohibitively expensive for you but would otherwise be your first choice, there are a few strategies you can try to lower your rate. If you know another family that lives very near to you who also wants tutoring, you might consider looking for a tutor together. If you can arrange to have lessons back-to-back, with only 5 minutes or so of transportation time in between, you’ll very likely be able to arrange a discount. Likewise, semi-private lessons (with two or perhaps three students and one tutor) and be much more affordable and still very effective. Most tutors don’t advertise semi-private lessons, but if you ask, you’ll find that many tutors are amenable.

A note on what to do if your middle schooler goes to an academically weak school:

If your child is stuck in a school that leaves a lot to be desired, you can do several things to ameliorate the situation. Of course, switching to a better school is an ideal option, but that is not always possible. Assuming that switching schools isn’t realistic, I strongly recommend that you make sure that your child is getting supplemental enrichment. Exactly what you do will obviously depending on your budget, time constraints, and interests, but you should start as soon after realizing that there is a problem at school as possible. The list that follows is not exhaustive, but it will give you a place to start.

• Read. No matter where your child goes to school, it’s important for him or her to read independently. This becomes extra-important if the school is poor. For middle schoolers, a book a week is a reasonable rule of thumb. If your child doesn’t like to read, read together. Let your child choose his or her own books, and don’t be judgmental about them (unless you feel a particular book is morally unacceptable).

• Do math. Do actual math, not just test prep materials. If school math is severely lacking, consider working through a curriculum or enrichment materials at home. I very much like all of Edward Zaccaro’s books- they are challenging and thought provoking, with good explanations for home study.

• Go to cultural events. Museums, theater, concerts, walking tours, poetry slams, and book readings can all be fun, cheap, and enriching. They are opportunities for exposure to literature, history, art, and science, all of which add to the store of background knowledge which is critically important for effective reading comprehension.

• Take up a hobby. There are a variety of hobbies that provide opportunities to use math and reading in meaningful, concrete ways. Consider robotics, model railroading, building radios, or working in a community garden. You may want to look into joining a club where you and your child can meet more experienced hobbyists and become part of a community.

• Take classes. It is sometimes possible to take classes that will help fill in the gaps that a weak formal education can leave. Be careful though, that these classes are thought provoking and useful rather than just a series of drills.

At New York Academics, we carefully evaluate each student and tailor ISEE Test Prep lessons to meet the specific needs of the individual. New York Academics also offer nyc math tutoring in your home, office, or in a public place.

What is the PSAT and How Does it Help Prepare for the SAT?

If you’ve heard of the SAT exam then it is likely that you’ve also heard of the PSAT exam. Many students choose to take this exam as a form of preparation for the SAT within the same school year, or possibly in the following year. If you’ve never heard of the PSAT, or are just curious about what it is, take a few moments to learn more about it and how it can help you prepare for the SAT.

What is the PSAT?

The PSAT is also known as the Preliminary SAT or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. It is co-sponsored by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). Students in high school have probably already heard about the test in their freshman year, as many schools begin to prepare them for it so that it can be taken in the sophomore year.

The main objective of this test is to give students an idea of what to expect on their SAT exam. It gives them an opportunity to take all of the steps involved in the actual test (testing on the same sections and being timed) without suffering any true penalties. The test is free and offers a great building block to the SAT that is usually taken in the junior or senior year. So students who want get some of the SAT test jitters out of their system can benefit well from taking the PSAT.

How Does the PSAT Help Prepare for the SAT?

As mentioned previously, the biggest way that taking the PSAT helps to prepare for the SAT is that they are virtually identical tests. The PSAT has the same types of sections, including critical reading, math, and writing skills, and all questions are multiple choice. This works out well in giving students a clear idea of what the real experience will feel like.

In preparing to take the PSAT, it’s not much different than preparing for the actual SAT exam. However, it’s not uncommon for schools to make preparation a part of the school curriculum since it is tied with the National Merit Scholarship. With training in the classroom setting to prepare for the PSAT, you can take some of this knowledge with you as you sit down and prepare for the real exam in the following semester or year. To learn when the PSAT is available in your area, visit the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s website.

Getting Additional SAT Help

It’s great to know that the PSAT is an excellent tool for SAT preparation; however, it’s not the actual SAT test. In other words, it’s still a good idea to get specialized help to prepare for the actual exam. This help can come in the form of study groups or SAT preparation courses offered locally. Also, students are finding that online SAT preparation courses are equally capable of preparing them efficient – and with these online courses comes the convenience of preparing from home.

There’s no doubt that the PSAT is a great exam to take if you’re serious about eventually taking the SAT. So before diving into the big test, it doesn’t hurt to consider how you can benefit from this useful preparatory test.

TutorsAnywhere.com is a complete online resource that compares tutoring services and products offered by top online companies. If your child is in need of SAT help, find the best solution for your family at http://www.tutorsanywhere.com/sat-prep/.

Internet-Based or Traditional Tutoring: Which is Best?

Have you heard about all of the great benefits of Internet-based tutoring, but are a little skeptical about its real ability to help you excel academically? You’re definitely not alone in your feelings. It’s not easy to take on something new, especially when it can have an immediate effect on your life.

However, the truth is Internet-based tutoring is very reputable and can be a highly effective form of academic assistance. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s for everyone. So if you’re not sure which whether it’s for you, take a moment to look at the pros and cons of it against traditional tutoring.

Traditional Tutoring: Pros and Cons

Let’s first look at the benefits of traditional or face-to-face tutoring. One true advantage of working in the traditional tutoring environment is having the personal connection with a tutor. Because working with a tutor is similar to working with a teacher, if you find the right match personally and academically, you will have no problems excelling. Also, a personal tutor can read your body language and facial expressions to, in a sense, read between the lines. In other words, if you don’t feel comfortable expressing insecurities, a skilled tutor will likely pick up on them anyway.

On the other hand, a disadvantage of traditional tutoring is that the personal relationship can make it more difficult to switch tutors. For instance, if you have hired a tutor to visit your home, yet you find that the experience is not working out for you, it’s not as easy to fire and rehire a new one. Because the face-to-face tutoring environment is much more personal, simply declining a service and moving on isn’t always as simple.

Internet-Based Tutoring: Pros and Cons

Now let’s look at the pros and cons of Internet-based tutoring. One advantage is convenience. The very nature of online tutoring allows you to gain assistance anywhere there is an Internet connection. This means you can work from home, at school, or even in your local Starbucks. What’s also great about this mode of tutoring is the accessibility. Many sites offer their tutors 24/7. This means, if you have a question at 2:30 a.m., you can log on and someone can help you.

However, there are a couple of potential disadvantages associated with Internet-based tutoring. One is that you don’t get the personal, face-to-face interaction that you have with traditional tutoring. For some, have a personal connection, rather than the disconnected electronic experience, is preferred. Another potential disadvantage of Internet-based tutoring is not knowing who to trust. Because anyone can build a website, it’s hard to know who to hand your credit card over to. So if you’re thinking of going this route, it’s good to check references to determine the various sites’ reputations.

Because it’s often challenging knowing how to choose between the two, some decide they will benefit more from utilizing a combination of both. In other words, they may use an in-house tutor for the personal touch, and also take advantage of the online services for convenience and open accessibility. Of course, how you choose to utilize tutoring services is up to you. But at least it’s good to know there are tons of great options out there for you to take advantage of.

TutorsAnywhere.com is a complete online resource that compares tutoring services and products offered by top online companies. If your child is in need of an online tutor, find the best solution for your family at http://www.tutorsanywhere.com/.

Audience Participation With Wireless Voting; Corporate Meetings

Your annual corporate meeting is finally here and the boss wants you to make sure participation is UP. She wants to know what the employees are thinking about and whether or not they understand the direction the company is headed. And she wants to know now. In short you need to find an Audience Response System.

An Audience Response System (ARS) is the same system used on TV in American Idol or America’s Funniest Home Videos. Each member of the meeting will have a wireless handheld device that allows them to select a response and send that response to the system. The ARS will then take all of the responses and calculate the results and display, as needed, to everyone. These systems have been designed to take information from a large population very quickly so that decisions can be made immediately while a topic is being discussed.

Like your annual company meeting of 500 employees (or 1,000 or 10,000).

And not only have audience response systems grown in their ability to handle large numbers of participants, but they have also diversified and specified into different niche markets. For example, some ARS will allow a participant to give a continuous response on a sliding scale over a period of time. Others will allow you to have 10 to even 20 different responses for a given topic or statement. And still others will give you a straight forward YES, NO, or ABSTAIN.

So in order to integrate an ARS into your meeting, you will want to look at a few qualifiers and then match the appropriate functionality to your meeting. Such as:

Reliability

Most of today’s wireless systems operate on a 2.4GHz Radio Frequency, as do many other wireless devices. So make sure that the location of your event is well protected from outside frequencies that may interfere with your data transmissions.

Ease of Use

For many of the participants at your meeting, this may be the first time they have used an ARS, and this means that the system you choose will need to be very UN-intimidating. The wireless devices should be designed in such a way that the users can choose the correct response. For example, for a YES/NO vote a large button highlighted with green and large text spelling “YES” should indicate that this is the button to press should the member want to give a YES response.

**Side Note: Make sure you choose a system that will confirm to the user what their response was, either with an LED or an LCD.**

Battery Life

Wireless devices run on batteries, like your remote control, and as live meetings can run for some time you will want to find an ARS with a ling operating time to ensure you won’t run out of power in the middle of the meeting. It also helps to find devices that will take standard batteries so that they are easily replaced.

With just these three qualifiers, you’ll be able to narrow down your ARS options and know that you will receive a quality system. You will improve the company meeting and most importantly, you’ll be keeping your boss happy.

Wesley Sutliff is Product Manager of Media Vision USA, the Diplomacy Technology Solution provider in North America including audio conferencing, electronic voting, and simultaneous interpretation solutions for council chambers, courtrooms, boardrooms, and videoconferencing applications

Challenges For Audio Systems in Multi-Purpose Conference Rooms- Part 1: Set-up and Storage

The first challenge to jump out in my mind for audio systems in multipurpose conference rooms, and probably for a lot of others, is where to put all the equipment when it’s not being used. And if you’ve ever been in charge of setting up or breaking down equipment for these rooms, the first challenge that might jump out in your mind is, having enough time to set everything up. These challenges are usually dictated by the equipment being used and as such when preparing to buy your A/V equipment a little foresight to these questions will go a long way towards the solution.

For your microphones and speakers (the equipment that will be in the room) we will look at two different options. Option 1 will consist of wired microphones with table stands using parallel cabling to a mixer. From the mixer a stereo channel output will be sent to self powered speakers on tripods. Option 2 will consist of an all-in-one conference system (push-to-talk microphones) with detachable gooseneck microphones and built-in speakers wired in series to a main control unit.

Right away we look at the lengthy set up time for all the cabling in the first option. If this is a small group of five then the time differences are minimal, but when you get to twenty different microphones your time for connecting and dressing the cables has gone up dramatically for option 1 where as in option 2 the microphones just keep daisy chaining with one, maybe two, cable runs back to the control unit. The other difficulty with option 1 is tuning the room to eliminate any feedback while at the same time making sure everyone can hear each other. This takes time and may not be possible with a one man set up. Conversely, the all in one conference system has an automatic mix-minus built in so that without any additional setup time feedback will be eliminated and everyone will be able to hear each other because each participant will have a speaker right in front of them.

An alternative to options 1 and 2 is using a completely wireless conference system. Using the latest technology in conferencing, a wireless system offers the fastest setup time and the most optimal solution for portability. The latest wireless systems are equipped with the same features as a wired system which provides an excellent solution for audio systems in multi-purpose conference rooms.

There are also differences in storage between these options. Depending on your specific availability for storage of the A/V equipment the differences may be moot, but option 2 requires far less cabling and because the microphones and speakers are all built in, the mic stands and self-powered speakers are not needed either. With less equipment in option 2 the physical space required to store them is lessened as well.

Overall, option 2 provides a faster set up time with generally easier storage. The other benefit is that the system is highly portable. Whether you are changing rooms in the building or going off-site, using a daisy-chained conferencing system will give you the versatility and the efficiency to run your meetings when you want and how you want.

Wesley Sutliff is Product Manager of Media Vision USA, the Diplomacy Technology Solution provider in North America including audio conferencing, electronic voting, and simultaneous interpretation solutions for council chambers, courtrooms, boardrooms, and videoconferencing applications

Techniques You Hope Your Math Tutor Will Employ

When working with any type of tutor, you want to make sure that they are fully qualified to offer the academic assistance you need and deserve. This is especially true for math tutors because the subject is so specialized and difficult to excel in if a foundation is not built.

So if you are looking at a personal tutor, or online math tutoring service, it’s important to know what to look for in both. To help you out, let’s take a look at some techniques you want a math tutor to employ in order to offer you the academic success you desire.

Teach Vocabulary

A major foundation of any math subject is the vocabulary. Because there are so many terms to learn and remember, it’s important that this aspect of learning math is focused on initially as much as problem-solving. So if you want to find a tutor who is able to give you the best in math assistance, it’s good to search for one who feels it is important to focus a good amount of time on vocabulary.

Find the Student’s Strengths and Weaknesses

In math, it is easy for different students to have vastly different strengths and weaknesses. One student may be great at division, while another may be much better at graphs. The tutor’s job is to determine what the strengths and weaknesses are then know how to enhance the ways they’re already strong and strengthen areas where they’re weak.

When talking to a prospective tutor, or reviewing an online service, you want to make sure that the tutor(s) are good at engaging the students. The tutor should encourage students to think on their own so that they can feel confident in their ability to solve a problem when the tutor is not around.

Good at Listening

It’s probably going to be a rarity to find a math tutor who advertises their ability to listen. But if you want to use some type of summoning power to bring to you all of the qualities you hope for in a math tutor, this is one of them. A math tutor who listens is one who is successful. Of course, a tutor will be doing a large chunk of the talking in order to teach, but if he doesn’t know how to listen when a student has a question, concern, or “ah-ha” moment, there is no real proof that any progress is being made.

Address Math Anxiety

While many students have difficulties grasping math subjects, some have what is known as math anxiety, where they are truly intimidated by the subject. When working with a student with math anxiety, encouragement is more delicate. For instance, telling a child “this is easy,” may help a child feel that he or she can complete the problem. However, a child with math anxiety may feel intimidated by this statement because it means it’s easy to everyone else. Finding someone sensitive to this level of insecurity can be very beneficial.

There’s nothing better than finding the right math tutor to work with. So if you or your child are in need of math assistance, it’s good to look for someone who possesses these qualities.

TutorsAnywhere.com is a complete online resource that compares tutoring services and products offered by top online companies. If your child needs help with math, find the best solution for your family at http://tutorsanywhere.com/math-tutors/.

Where in the World Are You? The Many Uses of a Tabletop Globe

Do you know which part of the world you are located? Do you know what countries and bodies of water are in the borders of your state? If somebody asks you the coordinates of your country, or worse, your locality, how would you answer him or her?

But what are the odds of being asked of such a question? So slim, right? Still, if you don’t want to be caught off-guard, why don’t you get a tabletop globe and this little toy could surely take you out from this dilemma. This would not cost you tons of money. Besides, there are other things that a tabletop globe can do aside from pointing you to the right direction.

As a Teacher’s Visual Aid

Especially when discussing about geography or the movement of the Earth, you would find a tabletop globe most helpful. True, this may be too small for your students to see but this is definitely better than nothing. In the absence of an enormous globe or map, this will do.

As your students are still young, they still have 20-20 vision so they won’t have such a hard time figuring out what country is located where. Of course, as kids, they will enjoy being able to spin the globe and understand why there is day and night.

As a Desk Accessory

Who says a tabletop globe is just for kids? Well, you could also benefit from it by making it as part of your desk accessories. Yes, it would be so cool to have one of these to proudly adorn your desk and to create contrast to the overly-corporate look of your table.

In addition, if your office has branches all over the world, you can easily point out to your clients or visitors where your other colleagues are based using a tabletop globe. It’s convenient because you don’t have to ask your Utility Personnel to get you a map or to carry a huge globe into your workstation. Talk about mixing aesthetics and knowledge, what a pair, huh?

As a Gift

A tabletop globe is a great gift idea for executives and businessmen. They would also be unique groomsmen presents. Whatever the occasion is, you will never go wrong with this type of accessory. Since these are fairly less common gifts, tabletop globes as gifts will truly make your recipient happy and grateful!

As a Display Item

Of course! Any item known to man will qualify as a display item. Given that a tabletop globe comes in many designs and styles, putting them together with your other figurines will be a great idea! If you are into Greek Mythology, then choose an Atlas tabletop globe. This is such a literal interpretation of carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders!

A tabletop globe definitely has a lot of uses. And if traveling is one of your passions, then having one will surely make the dream more of a reality. With the world on the palm of your hands, it’s easier for you to materialize those travel plans of yours.

Beautify your workstation by adding a little extra: an executive desk pad or a tabletop globe. How about elegant executive desk sets? Find what you are looking for at ExecutiveGiftShoppe.com.

Being Bilingual Will Help You Learn a Third Language

Due to expanding technology, our world has become a much smaller community. We are now encountering more people with diverse backgrounds and languages. Many people are now speaking languages other than their native tongue. It used to be common to speak two languages but now speaking a third language is becoming popular.

A bilingual is a person who speaks two languages. A trilingual is a person who speaks three languages. It has been discovered that those who are bilingual are better able to learn a third language. A third language learner is a person who has already acquired two languages and is learning a third one.

Research has revealed that bilingual people who are learning a third language can learn more easily, obtain better scoring on oral and written tests, understand instructions and answer questions more successfully, more likely to be involved in classroom activities, more attentive in class, are more enthusiastic about learning, and pronounce words more accurately and clearly..

Those who are bilingual and are learning a third language have been found to have a better understanding of how the third language works because they can draw distinctions between the other two languages. They are able to identify the similarities regarding grammar, spelling, vocabulary, as well as identify similar words, phrases and sentence structures. They are also able to quickly and easily understand the various language rules.. They are also more likely to practice the third language outside of the classroom because their self-confidence is boosted. Those who have a native language that is similar to the language they are learning are able to learn the new language at a faster rate.

In order to fit in to a new environment, some native speakers may be less likely to use their native language. Researchers have found that those who obtain a third language are often more confidant and enthusiastic with achieving a higher education. Bilingual third language learners are more likely to start using their own native language outside of their homes and in places where their language is not commonly spoken. They feel more confident when speaking so they start to enjoy it and speak more often. Their self esteem is boosted making them more successful in other parts of their life. They become motivated to learn new things.

Learning a third language may also be good for your health. In a published study in the journal Psychology and Aging, Dr. Gitit Kav?, a clinical neuro-psychologist from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning. “In my professional opinion, learning a new language can only do good things. Learning other languages is good for you at any age. It allows for a flexibility of thought and a channel for understanding another culture better, as well as your own,” says Dr. Kav?.

There are many benefits to learning a third language. Because language is the principal communication tool, the more languages one learns the more valuable they become in terms of their career. Professionals with several languages are more likely to travel for their work. The UN report on language policies in the 21st century states that ‘you buy in any language but you sell in the language of the client.’

Mastering a third language will improve opportunities in such as areas as government, business, health care, law enforcement, teaching, technology, the military, social services, and many other industries. Obtaining a third language will open up many new doors to success.

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