Friday, March 27, 2020

Finding The Right Tutor Friend For You

Finding The Right Tutor Friend For YouA tutor friend will be your one-stop-shop when you are in the middle of a hard work of a college program. You will have someone there to keep you on track with all your assignments and lectures. In order to make sure that you get the right help, make sure that you look for the right tutor friend.It is important that you find the tutor you want to be with. When it comes to this, the first thing that you need to do is to sit down and figure out what you like about the tutor. Then, you will need to talk to your tutor. Before you sign on with a tutor, do your homework because it might take some time before you will find the right tutor friend.However, it is possible to find a tutor at a tutoring service that has their own office or online. You will need to find a tutor through the internet if you want to be comfortable with the whole process. You can find this tutor as long as you know where to look.Once you find a tutor that you like, you will need to ask him or her what they can do for you. You should be able to figure out if the tutor will be able to help you in the right way. Make sure that you ask for suggestions on what you should focus on.This is also a good time to make sure that you make arrangements for the tutor to see you. In this way, you can find someone that is reliable, trustworthy, and professional. If you have friends who work at a tutoring service, you can always ask them for recommendations. Some tutors might only recommend others and not themselves.When you make sure that you have a tutor friend, you will find yourself going through class lectures and studies faster. Also, make sure that you schedule time for discussion with your tutor. Talk to your tutor about your plans for the semester. Also, you need to make sure that you are clear on your study plan.Always make sure that you set a meeting with your tutor at least two days before the start of class. Otherwise, you might miss out on a lecture that you ne eded to see. Also, you need to prepare ahead of time. Take notes in class and make sure that you bring your notebooks with you.

Friday, March 6, 2020

GCSE Poem analysis Loves Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

GCSE Poem analysis Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley What is it about? Love's Philosophy poem is a romantic lover's playful argument, putting forward his case for the union of love. Natural imagery and strong rhyme appeal to the reader's senses, presenting this relationship as something innocent, simple and inevitable.'Philosophy' here means an argument or a way-of-thinking. Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single, All things by a law divine In another's being mingle - Why not I with thine? See the mountains kiss high heaven, And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother: And the sunlight clasps the earth, And the moonbeams kiss the sea - What is all this sweet work worth, If thou kiss not me? Overview The first stanza begins with descriptions of the natural world 'mixing' with itself and pushes this as a good example for the poet and their beloved. This is addressed by the tender and slightly archaic 'thee'. What is then painted is a  picture of an airy, nature-loving poet describing the scene in front of him and his fellow walker. He then  draws a lesson from it, turning to speak to his silent beloved. In the second stanza of Love's Philosophy this address is intensified. The poet instructs the reader, in the position of the beloved, to look around and 'see the mountains kiss high heaven'.The genial, playful invitation of a 'kiss' is an easier finish that the hope to 'mingle' in each other's being.A rhetorical question at the end of each stanza begs a response of some sort - surely, the poet hopes, a wordless one! 'Romantic' and Romantic poetry Our modern use of the word 'romantic' relates to an idealised sort of love. More specifically, to the state of 'being in love', characterised by powerful, irresistible emotions, gift-giving, the idealisation of a beloved and the prioritisation of the relationship above everything else. However, the poetry of the Romantic poets was not just restricted to describing love. William Wordsworth defined poetry as the 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings' in his preface to the Lyrical Ballads. One common theme is that experiences were understood by Romantic poets through their effects on personal emotions. This is partly where our modern 'romantic' love idea comes from. However, poetry by Wordsworth, Shelley and Coleridge often shared other hallmark characteristics. For example, the use of natural imagery and simple verse forms. As this poem by Shelley includes all of these, it is a good example of a Romantic romantic poem. Form and structure Love's Philosophy has a trochaic metre - a pattern of stressed, then unstressed syllables, with four beats in the first three lines of each quatrain and three in the fourth. The two stanzas are each a pair of alternately-rhymed quatrains, rhyming ababcdcd. There is a strong relationship with the archetypal ballad metre used by many romantic poets. The trochaic metre also gives the poem a slightly heavy, dreamy feel when read aloud, particularly since ten of the sixteen lines are full trochaic, disyllabic rhymes (like ocean/emotion or heaven/forgiven). Several lines begin with an extra 'upbeat' (properly called an 'analectic' syllable as it extends the normal length of a line). This slight irregularity helps the poem feel spontaneous, despite the cleverness of its composition. Language The natural imagery in this poem is relatively simplistic and uncomplicated: 'fountains', 'rivers' and 'oceans' are all unmodified and free from descriptive clutter. The 'winds of heaven' and 'high heaven' can scarcely be called richly descriptive. 'moonbeams', 'mountains' and the 'sea' are also unmodified. I think there is an innocence about this sort of language, fitting the scene of two lovers on a hilltop. He needn't describe what we can see with our own eyes, after all. This innocence continues in the description of a 'sister-flower' and its 'brother'. The relationship the poet imagines between flowers is fraternal and childish, so the word 'disdain' feels out of place as the idea of aloofness between siblings. Perhaps the use of 'thine' and 'thou' rather than 'your' and 'you' also reinforces this. In Shelley's day, thee and thou were still in use, but less so among people of higher status. Repetitive uses of 'clasp' describing how the waves hold one another, and how the immaterial light of the sun seems to touch the earth, bring this very physical world to the fore. It certainly has a sensual, if not sexual, connotation, but its effect is rather more repetition to persuade, rather than shock. After all, if everything in nature 'clasps' freely, and if the elements around 'mix' with one another so readily, even obeying the command of God (if, unlike Shelley, his reader still believes in God's command to procreate), then turning down the poet's request for a kiss is like disagreeing with the laws of nature and God, isn't it? For extra support with poetry analysis, why not book a lesson with one of our experienced  GCSE English tutor? With  Tutorfair   you can browse through a selection of great tutors, to find the right one for you. For More GCSE poem analyses similar to Love's Philosophy:  The Farmer's Bride, Neutral Tones,  Nettles, The Yellow Palm, My Last Duchess, and Medusa, Praise Song for My Mother

Want to Do Better in School Develop Plans, Set Specific Goals, and Monitor Progress

Want to Do Better in School Develop Plans, Set Specific Goals, and Monitor Progress Improving Academic Performance It is natural to believe that most successful students either have an above average IQ or work very hard, or both. This is an almost universally accepted perspective. But I think it misses the mark by quite a bit. Students often succeed because of the choices they make and the actions they take. In other words, they succeed because of the strategies they employ. To learn more about the notion of success coming from “what you do” and not “who you are” check out this Harvard Business Review article by Heidi Grant Halvorson. In this article, we’ll describe three basic strategies for improving performance in school. Set specific goals Build a plan Monitor progress and adjust Set Specific Goals The more specific the goal, the better. Why? Because the more specific the goal, the clearer idea you’ll have in your head about what it means to reach it, and thus the better positioned you’ll be to plan out the steps required to achieve it. In other words, the more specific the goal, the more likely it is that you can develop a good plan of attack. Let’s use a simple example. You worked reasonably hard but got a C in your math class first semester, and your goal is to do better in the next semester. If you leave it at that, a C+ might represent meeting your goal, because that’s better than the “C.” The plan required to get a C+ vs. an A will be very different. That might seem obviously, but many people set the goal of “doing better in class” but really do wish they could get an A. They might be afraid to set a goal of getting an A, because they are worried they might fail. However, once you set that specific goal, you are ready acknowledge the steps you’ll have to take to get there. You are ready to develop a plan. Develop Plans When people are planning evenings out with their friends or events like birthday parties, etc. they find it natural to plan. They’ll make reservations, get feedback on restaurants, etc. and develop an outline of how the night will go. But for whatever reason, this is not the natural way that many people approach school. Perhaps it’s because teachers assign homework and announce timing for quizzes and tests, so the whole experience of going to school feels very structured and planned out for you. Although some specific classes are structured such that everything is planned out for you, it is a mistake to think that school in general doesn’t require a lot of planning on the part of a student who wants to be particularly successful. Success in school is about much more than working hard. So, what does it really mean to develop a plan in the context of performing well in school? Well, you can and should plan on multiple levels and these plans should be tied to your goals (see the previous section). You should have a high-level plan for how you approach high school or college (what types of classes will you take, what activities will you pursue, etc.), plans for each year, plans for each course (when will you study for the course, how will you get help, etc.), plans for upcoming tests (i.e., what material will you review, how long will you study, when will you study, etc.) and even plans for how you’ll complete your homework on any given night. Here’s an example of how to think about developing a college admissions plan. Monitor progress and adjust Once you’ve set a goal and mapped out a plan for achieving it, you need to develop a way to measure your progress. In the context of school, that should not need to be a difficult task. If you are in high school, many classes have many homework assignments, quizzes, and tests. So, a simple strategy is to just schedule the time to prepare for and complete all of these to the best of your ability, and then be honest about whether you are on track to meet your goal or not. If your goal is to get an A, you need to, obviously, get an A on a clear majority of these assignments. If you are missing half of the problems on your homework, you are not on track to get 95% of them correct on the next test. So, if you missed a day of class, and are sitting down to do your homework and are finding it particularly difficult, this probably means you are starting to fall behind. Don’t ignore this feedback. Similarly, if you bomb a relatively inconsequential quiz, don’t just tell yourself that it wasn’t worth too many points and doesn’t matter. If you are not understanding certain material in the class, this could start compounding into a situation where you are very far behind, and in danger of doing poorly on an important test, midterm, or final. Summary One common term you may have heard about as it relates to goals is that they should be SMART. Or, Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timebound. In this article, we’ve covered what it means to be specific, and of course to monitor progress, a goal must be “measurable,” which we also covered. A good goal is also actionable, meaning you can envision what to do to go after it. If you think about it, if a goal isn’t actionable, you’d have a hard time developing a plan of attack for achieving it. So, that ties in to our section on developing plans. A good goal is also realistic, meaning it’s something you really could achieve if you work at it. Finally, it needs to be timebound, meaning that you set a specific time by when you plan to have reached the goal. Here’s a good article on SMART goals. If you follow the simple three step process of setting specific goals, developing plans, and monitoring your progress, you’ll be on your way to better performance in school.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

5 Reasons Why Students Should Take Art Or Music Lessons

5 Reasons Why Students Should Take Art Or Music Lessons 5 reasons to take art or music lessons after school The classroom offers students a great environment to learn about core subjects, learn to work in a group, and develop time management skills. Some schools offer extracurricular activities in the sciences, art, and music but most childrens creative experiences are limited to afterschool opportunities. One of the best things for young children to try includes music and art lessons. Creative subjects do all sorts of great things for young minds including the development of great problem-solving skills, thinking outside of the box, working as a team, and learning excellent social skills. Here are five reasons why students should take art or music lessons after school. 1.   promote creativity The most obvious reason to take part in art or music lessons is to promote creativity. Creativity helps keep kids happy and curious and can even help them improve their concentration for when they need to work on English and math. Many children are creative by nature but often lose this creativity as many other demanding assignments take up their time. Afterschool art and music lessons allow kids to discover paint, color, clay, melody, and rhythm and also make them feel happy and excited about learning. 2.   Diversified interests Another great reason for students to do an afterschool creative project is to diversify their interests. Many schools focus well on reading comprehension, writing, and math skills but todays student doesnt have as much of a chance to diversify their personal interests and explore what theyre really good at. Some students have an innate ability in the arts and music while others might learn a new skill or just enjoy their time in a hands-on environment. It’s not essential that kids develop a specific talent but just that they explore new activities and learn to share their new found creativity with others (READ: Los Angeles Tutoring Tips: 5 Study Habits That Help Every Student). 3.   Problem-solving Students who participate in creative extracurricular activities such as art or music can also learn great problem-solving skills. For instance, perhaps a student is trying to create a certain shade of green to paint with, but they only have yellow, blue, and red paint. There is a relatively simple solution to this particular problem but, a young kid will have to think about what they should do next. Once students learn these simple problem-solving skills, they can apply them to other creative projects as well as their academic activities within the classroom. A student who can problem solve can find a solution to any academic or career issue down the road our private San Diego academic tutors are here to help your child with his/her problem-solving skills. 4.   Socialization Students who participate in kinesthetic activities such as art also have the opportunity to socialize in a semi-structured environment. Students might play different parts in an orchestra or be involved in a group art project within their community. They might share materials and a workspace while creating their masterpiece. Kids wont have the same restrictions on behavior as they do in the classroom, but there will be some adult supervision so students can learn how to share, deal with different personality types, and have fun in this type of social situation. 5.   Reduce stress Reducing stress is a real issue for students of all ages these days. Art and music have been known to soothe anxiety and help stressed out students from K through 12 learn how to cope with difficult times. Whether a student is studying for an exam, applying to college, or trying to get through a challenging passage in a chapter book in the second grade, creative outlets help keep kids happy, calm and focused on the big picture. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write

Culturally Responsive Teaching Course Review

Culturally Responsive Teaching Course Review Teachers today hear a lot of talk about overcoming gaps in education - especially the cultural gap between students and teachers. As the students we teach grow more and more diverse, we know how critical it is to engage all of our students in ways that are culturally appropriate. While my teaching preparation program had dipped into some of the theories around culturally responsive teaching, it was pretty light on the practical side. Fresh out of teachers college, I was looking for a flexible professional development offering that would give me the opportunity to uncover best practices, learn new strategies and become better equipped to work with diverse students and parents. Despite the current emphasis placed on the importance of culturally responsive teaching, there was surprisingly very little in the way of professional learning opportunities out there on this very topic. Happily, an online search led me to discover Teach Away Professional Development and their new online course offering,Culturally Responsive Teaching: Connecting with students and parents of different cultures, centered on establishing cultural inclusivity in the classroom and school community. Culturally Responsive Teaching course overview Course name: Culturally responsive teaching: Connecting with students and parents of different cultures Time: 1.5 hours Course fee: $99 Delivery format: 100% online Assessment: Multiple choice exam and written assignment My verdict: Yes, this course is worth your time! Read on to learn more about my experience taking the course. What I learned from the Culturally Responsive Teaching course Professional development courses, in my opinion, need to offer concrete takeaways that teachers can implement in their classrooms right away. This online course offered me all this in the form of lesson plan structures, downloadable activities to help me reflect on my own practice, as well as simple tasks to help me build inclusivity through co-teaching and pedagogical documentation exercises. The course also taught me about the unseen aspects of culture which may play a role in establishing an inclusive classroom. These unseen aspects of culture, like variations in language patterns, tone of voice, facial and hand gestures, and beliefs about gender and sexual orientation impact the dynamics of the classroom. Culturally Responsive Teaching taught me how to carefully address these cultural differences with students and parents, instead of assuming that ignoring the differences makes the classroom a culturally neutral space. It also helped me to understand how to bring students’ families into the school community. In spaces where learners are not all included, we cannot say there is equal access to knowledge and education. Culturally responsive teaching: Bridging theory and practice This course is based upon ample research completed by renowned educational theorists. Notable theories and content highlighted came from Geneva Gay and Fred Korthagen, as well as other prominent researchers in the field of culturally responsive teaching. The best part about Culturally Responsive Teaching, though? It actually moved beyond theory and offered practical strategies for the classroom. For example, two popular concepts in education are pedagogical documentation and establishing critical thinking skills in students through inquiry-based activities. This course offered me easy takeaways to actually tackle these complex activities in the classroom, which hasn’t often been the case in other professional development courses for teachers I’ve taken before. The final assignment gives an outline to create a resource portfolio that would welcome parents and students to your classroom by focusing on cultural inclusion. Instructions are given to develop a lesson plan, resource list, framework and rationale for an area of focus. A comment I hear time and again from other teachers is that the last thing they need is another task piled on them at work. I get it, time is precious! Through this course, I learned that being a culturally inclusive educator does not mean you’re adding another task on top of what you already need to do. One thing to remember is to take the process of becoming culturally competent one step at a time. On the road to becoming a culturally competent teacher Culturally Responsive Teaching helped me realize my own biases and personal assumptions and where I had opportunities to grow professionally in terms of cultural inclusivity. Learning how to include all cultures and understanding differences even in our own countries means identifying what you know and do not know, and this course helps you to do this in a non-judgemental way. Geneva Gay, whose work is often cited throughout Culturally Responsive Teaching, states that schools’ values and actions are not culturally neutral, as one may believe. Everything from classroom discipline, to teaching, to the levels of student and teacher responsibilities reflect the dominant cultural ideology and can cause a disconnect between students’ school and personal lives. The course taught me that culture will be shaped around us and the interactions we have every day with students and their parents or guardians. Just as we teach numeracy and literacy, we must also teach students how to develop ethnic and cultural literacy. By providing information about history and contributions of ethnic groups in class, students will be included and committed to learning and participating in globalized settings. Overall, I would recommend Culturally Responsive Teaching to any teacher, regardless of the subject or grade you teach. It was reasonably priced, useful, easy to follow and - most importantly - relevant to my teaching practice.

Best Online Resources for Chemistry The best science web sites for chemistry help and learning chemistry for free

Best Online Resources for Chemistry The best science web sites for chemistry help and learning chemistry for free While one-on-one tutoring and instruction like we do here at Frog Tutoring is the best way to learn, online supplemental resources are great for any subject. This is especially true if you're stuck on one concept--which is easy to have happen in a chemistry class. Here are some free resources on the internet that are reliable and helpful.1. Khan AcademyKhan Academy is a website from Salman Khan who decided to create Youtube videos after tutoring his niece. He thought that it would be beneficial for people to learn in a practical manner and for all to see. Khan Academy is a great website for all math and science classes due to the in depth problems he goes into as well as the depth he goes into each subject. Khan breaks down each section in an easy to understand way which is extremely helpful for the visual part in chemistry. Now, there is a whole team who actually teach other subjects as well--business, finance, economics, and many more science courses.javascript:nicTemp();2. ChemTub e 3DThis website is great for understanding a bit more on how organic reactions work. The website gives a visual representation of each part of the reaction and show how the electrons move around during each step. This is good for visual learners who have trouble visualizing the mechanisms that go on in organic chemistry. The website also gives an explanation as to what happens during each reaction.javascript:nicTemp();3. MIT OpencoursewareIf you have a problem with the way your professor teaches, maybe you just need another lecturer. MIT opencourseware gives tons of course lectures in many subjects given at MIT. They prepare each lecture around more advanced chemistry courses that follows the class structure found in most universities. Why not learn from the smartest in the field?javascript:nicTemp();4. Interactive Periodic TableThis website gives you everything you need for a periodic table. It tells you the melting and boiling points to the electronegativity to even the amount of valence electrons. It even gives you a list of compounds where you can find everything you need. Everything is right at your fingertips without even looking at the back of a book over and over for your information.javascript:nicTemp();If you've tried these and are still stuck, contact a tutor in your area today by visiting the Frog Tutoring website. We even have pages for your city/area, and if you use the menu or search function. If you don't see a page for your city, don't worry--we have instructors nationwide and many of us also use Skype to help students at a distance. Happy learning!

5 Habits of Successful Students

5 Habits of Successful Students The best students aren't always the smartest students. Many of the most successful people academically aren't necessarily more intelligent than their schoolmates. Instead, they understand what habits will help them rise to the top. Interested in doing the same? These five strategies can help you achieve academic success. 1. Successful students focus on time management Every student has the same 24 hours in a day to complete their task listso why do some students seem so much more efficient than others? They likely have better time management skills. Consider these strategies that successful students typically follow to manage their time: They use a planner. This may seem outdated, but recording deadlines is a good way to reinforce them in your mind. Whether you use a physical or digital planner, this tool is essential for tracking your projects, meetings, and deadlines without letting anything slip through the cracks. They set intermediate deadlines for larger projects. When you first receive an assignment, create smaller deadlines leading up to the final due date. Record these in your planner. They don't try to multitask. Some students believe they are experts at managing multiple tasks, but the truth is that productivity decreases when you multitask. Concentrate on one task for a set period of time with as few distractions as possible. You may be surprised by how much you achieve. 2. Successful students study in the correct locations It may seem inconvenient to leave your home to find another place to study. So why not sit at your own desk? While it may be more comfortable, studying in your bedroom can often lead to less successful results. Think about how much easier it is to get distracted at homethere are many ways you can procrastinate. However, if you settle on a quiet study area away from distractions, you can get more done, and you'll likely do better work because of your heightened concentration. 3. Successful students ask questions Perhaps you sometimes hesitate to ask questionsmaybe you assume your professors or schoolmates will judge you. If so, remind yourself that the entire point of your coursework is to learn. You are only hurting yourself if you don't speak up when you need or want more information. 4. Successful students are present in class There are two meanings to note here. First, you need to be physically present, whether that's in person or in your virtual learning environment for an online course. Think of attending class as your job. Second, consider the second meaning of being presentpaying close attention and contributing to the conversation. This form of presence can help you better retain the content of the class. 5. Successful students don't cram Trying to study all the material for an exam in a very short time may, in rare instances, help you in the short term. But you won't remember the material in the long term, and you'll be short-changing yourself on sleep, which can set you up for even worse performance later on. Setting a schedule that divides your study sessions into smaller daily or near-daily events will assist with your learning, your stress levels and, ultimately, your overall success.