Top 5 Things to Consider Before Studying Abroad

Studying abroad can be a wonderful supplement to a college education, but there are several important factors to consider before stepping foot on the plane.

1. Do the classes offered at the study abroad site fit into your course of study?

The last thing you want is to be forced to graduate a semester late because your courses abroad don't fit into your planned curriculum. If you realize that your desired study abroad location doesn't offer the courses you need, or doesn't give enough credit for the courses it does offer, try sending some emails to your school to see if arrangements can be made.

2. The Language Barrier

Some people go abroad to further their knowledge of a language they're already studying. Others go to a country only knowing how to say "hello" and "goodbye." The decision depends upon what you are trying to gain from the experience. While it is fully possible to "survive" in many countries simply by using English, not speaking the language will make it much more difficult to absorb the many customs and nuances of another culture.

3. The Social Scene

What may be a familiar social custom back at home could vary greatly in another country. Before deciding on a study abroad location, do some research on the country's nightlife, gender dynamics, and laws such as the drinking age or smoking in bars. You may find that the city goes to sleep too early for your liking, or that the country doesn't offer any socially liberal options fitting your preferences. The social experience can make or break a study abroad trip, so it's important to do your research beforehand.

4. Food

While it may seem to some like a non-issue, the cuisine in your country of choice can have a serious impact on your enjoyment while abroad. If you've just spend a year keeping off – or working off – the "Freshman 15," the last thing you want is to gain it all back in a country whose eating habits don't quite encourage a healthy lifestyle. Also, many countries don't make it easy on vegetarians, vegans, people with food allergies, or those who eat Kosher. You can learn a lot about a culture through its food; you won't want to have to avoid the cuisine entirely because of dietary restrictions.

5. The Exchange Rate

Studying abroad can be an extremely expensive ordeal, and it's important to think in advance about the cost of living in your new, temporary home. If items such as toothpaste, soap, or even food cost twice as much as they do in your own country, can you see yourself paying these prices for several months? Your trip abroad shouldn't force you to have to take out a loan later on; there are certainly cheaper locations in which to study that will be just as fun and fulfilling.

Author: Lily Faden

Schools Need to Teach New Methods, Focus on Active Learning

Schools are renowned for training well-prepared students who excel in exams, to produce more self-motivated and critical thinkers. The curriculum has been cut, new teaching methods introduced and change are under way to fine-tune methods for assessing students and ranking schools. Teachers around the world are united in their goal to send students from cocooned classroom environments carrying with them the highest hopes of fulfilment in the outside world.

But how best to achieve that aim?

It is generally accepted that the higher the level qualification, the higher the likelihood of today's students becoming tomorrow's success stories. But to first progress to universities or college, and then flourish at tertiary level, high school students must steer-or be steered-through tough years of laying appropriate educational foundations.

For instance, in South Korea, active participation in lessons is a new experience for grade-nine students at Seoul muddle school. They are more used to being spoon-fed as they prepare top advance the following year into 36 months of high pressure learning for university.

In order to avoid the rote-learning path by leading students in new style English lessons where students given a scenario, then related assignments. The exercise was part of the new-style English lessons. The students are given a scenario at the beginning of the class. Liked the Sars situation and they take it from there, working on various assignments related to it that involve writing, oral presentations, research and constructing props. They came up with a rap, wrote a song to be dedicated on radio to the medical staff, and set up a websites , which allows students to pen their gratitude.

The active methods allows them to see how they can apply what they learn and cut across several subjects. In the thank-you assignment, they practized not only English, but also music, ICT, and art and craft. Students expanded their vocabulary and worked on sentence structure when they were forced to use standard English in their rap and song. They learnt music when they had to harmonize the song they composed. Students also drew colorful charts, so their classmates could follow the lyrics as they sang. When they had the task of setting up a tour agency, they learnt the basics of starting a business and some of the problems businessmen face, such as how to attract customers when your business is hit by heavy storms.

Previously, each class was divided into groups, and each worked on one aspect of a project , like the research, writing and presentation. The old methods was subject-based and done in isolation. The Storyline method, on the other hand, integrates what they have to cover with several activities, making it more enjoyable and fun. The best thing about storyline is that the children don't realize they're actually doing real work like comprehension because it's all built in. So they look forward to it and ask when the next topic is coming along when it ends.

Author: YOKE FONG
To observe good practice, exchange ideas and sharing knowledge.

High School Scholarship – Find The Suitable One

If you are a parent and you find that due to financial crisis you are unable to pay the school fees or meet educational expenses of your child's high school, opt for high school scholarship. You must keep in mind that scholarships are out there for all types of students and your child will also be eligible and fulfill the requirements for one or the other scholarship program. If you wish to send him to college you will find that college expenses are extremely high and unaffordable for average earning parents. In fact, scholarships are the best way of funding for your child's higher education.

However, you have to be prepared for the long and time taking search process. It is a simple logic here. Since you need free financial aid and at the same time you want your child to win the award money too, you will have to invest more than enough time to find the most suitable scholarship programs. Make sure the scholarship money is sufficient to fulfill your child's needs and your child abilities match with the requirements set for that scholarship program.

Most often parents do not know how to begin the search for suitable high school scholarship for their child. The first and the best place to start with is the financial aid office of the college in which your child is expecting to attend. Do not approach only one college, you must have at least three levels of preferences so that if by any reasons your child is not accepted in one college, he will be able to get admission in the college of second or third preferences. The guidance counselor might turn out to be extremely helpful here.

Take help from Internet where you will find widest variety of options available. Free scholarship search engines are also there for your assistance. Search through the site and find a scholarship that suits your child. If children of any of your friend or colleague had received the scholarship, ask them about the high school scholarship and get an idea about how to apply for it successfully.

Author: Carl Evangelista

10 Ways to Think Better

1. Time it right
Most older people think more clearly in the morning; most younger people, in the afternoon. Work out when your own best 'thinking time' is and set it aside it for your most challenging brain work.

2. Get a good education - but don't overdo it
Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton says that too much specialised higher education can damage your ability to think creatively. 'You don't become a great novelist by getting a PhD in creative writing.'

3. Listen to Confucius
Writing things down is the number one memory aid used by memory researchers themselves. As the Chinese proverb puts it, the weakest ink lasts longer than the best memory.

4. Kick start your day

Research shows that the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee can help you concentrate. But if you're prone to anxiety, you're probably better off avoiding it.

5. Anchor new memories to established ones
'Think of your existing memory as a scaffold upon which to fit new information,' says cognitive researcher Denise Park. 'Don't isolate new information. Always relate it to something.'

6. Practise, practise, practise
Learning and repeatedly practising new skills appears to change the brain's internal organisation. A study showed that periodic training sessions helped volunteers in their 70s perform better in cognitive and memory tasks than they had when they were seven years younger. 'Practice really helps,' says psychologist Len Giambra. 'A well-practised older person will be faster than an unpractised younger person.'

7. Give your ideas a chance
Many of us are rewarded for our abilities to rapidly evaluate facts and make quick decisions. Creativity demands a much more leisurely and playful approach - a willingness to give 'absurd' ideas a chance.

8. Pick a stimulating profession and an intelligent partner
Intriguing studies from Poland suggest that people whose careers demand they exercise their intellect are more likely to sustain high levels of mental performance during their lives. Marrying someone intelligent may also provide you with ongoing stimulation.

9. Expose yourself to multiple experiences
Creativity often boils down to the ability to adapt solutions from one aspect of life to another. Velcro for instance, was inspired by burrs that stick to your clothing. The 'ring-pull' top on cans was originally based on the way a banana is peeled.

10. Learn from Leonardo
In his book, How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, author Michael Gelb offers several brain-enriching strategies that worked for the ultimate Renaissance man. Among them: learning to juggle and drawing with your non-writing hand.

by: Mendim

Job Opportunity - Bahasa Indonesia Language Teachers

Advertised: 12-07-2010 | Closing Date: 11-08-2010.

Language Studies Indonesia (LSI) was established by Canadian and Indonesian educators, and is Jakarta’s leading language training organisation for the study of Bahasa Indonesia. LSI tailors programmes for expatriates from all over the globe, using LSI’s patented course materials reflecting the world's best practices in modern language education.

LSI has two missions :

• to provide an international standard of Indonesian language education for adults from abroad
• to provide an excellent opportunity for native-Indonesian language teachers.
  

All LSI lessons are PRIVATE (one teacher with one student). Lessons are delivered at clients’ offices during the day, or at their homes in the evening.

LSI’s “product” is its faculty! Given this fact, we devote more time and effort to the recruitment and development of world-class Bahasa Indonesia Language Teachers than we do any other aspect of our operation.

Bahasa Indonesia Language Teachers
(For Expatriates)

Requirements:

IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED FOR AN LSI FACULTY POSITION,

YOU SHOULD....

* Have a university-education (preferably in Education and/or English)
* Be a Native Indonesian with excellent Bahasa Indonesia speaking and writing skills
* Have very strong English speaking and listening skills (in order to work with international clients and LSI management staff)
* Be positive, friendly and extremely service-oriented
* Be highly professional in behavior and appearance (in order to serve international business clients at their Sudirman and Rasuna Said offices)
* Have experience in teaching and/or training others

Regardless of experience, all candidates are required to participate in LSI’s ‘TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR BAHASA INDONESIA STUDIES’ before joining the faculty.

LSI’s careful selection process ensures that clients receive the highest level of professional, friendly and helpful service, from an Indonesian Instructor with solid teaching skills.

To submit your candidature for a faculty position at Language Studies Indonesia

We invite you to contact:
Ibu Ayu – Administrator (021) 7087-2200
Mr Desmond Breau – Programme Coordinator (021) 7087-3300

Or to forward your CV to lsi.desmond@gmail.com

More Jobs >>

How to Make a Graduation DVD Slideshow

To many of us, the age being at school is always pure and sweet. With those who mean the most to you, there are lots of unforgettable memories. It's now time to say goodbye to them. Some of your friends may go off to high-level universities or move away to pursue their careers, is there anything we can do to preserve our memories? What about making a memorable graduation DVD slideshow for them as a graduation gift? And when playing the DVD, the scence will remind them of the happy yesterdays.

A graduation DVD slideshow with the photos that witness the grow-up of you and your friends, the blessings you want to say to your friends, and the proper graduation song becomes the perfect personalized graduation gift for your friends. Then how to make such a DVD slideshow for graduation? Now, this article will tell you how use PowerPoint as the tool to help you create the graduation slideshow.

In the needs of report or seminar in school, there must be Office Suite on most students' computer. As an important part of it, PowerPoint performs the best for presentation. So choose Microsoft PowerPoint as the tool to help you create the graduation slideshow couldn't be better.

1. Prepare resource for the graduation DVD slideshow

* Graduation PowerPoint template
A proper graduation PowerPoint template will bring a graduation atmosphere for the graduation DVD slideshow. Here are some free graduation PowerPoint templates:

indezine.com/powerpoint/templates/categories/education/graduation.html

faithclipart.com/powerpoint/graduation-powerpoint-template.html

* Photos
Scan all the photos you took about your friends and choose the ones that witness the grow-up of you and your friend. The photos from digital cameras could be large in file size, just resize them before inserting to your slideshow. You can also edit the photos to make it look good. Free photo editing software: PhotoScape.

* Graduation song
A graduation song for the slideshow somehow should reflect your feeling about graduation. Here are top 40 graduation songs for you to download.

* Blessing words
Blessing words can be positive reminders for graduates to recall days in school. Here some blessing words for graduation.

2. Make the graduation slideshow with PowerPoint

• Open your PowerPoint and choose the graduation theme PowerPoint template.
• Insert photos. By clicking Insert, and then Picture, you can insert the photos to the slides.
• Insert songs. For inserting songs, just click the Insert and then click Movie/Sound. Choose the digital music file you want to use and click OK. Choose Yes when it asks if you want the file to play automatically.
• Record a video. To be creative, you can further record a video with your camera, and then insert the video into the PowerPoint graduation slideshow. The room you lived together, the basketball court you have lots of fun on, and the library where you read books can all be captured, also with your own voice as the narration.
  

3. Generate DVD slideshow and give it away to friends.

After you finish creating the graduation slideshow with PowerPoint, you can transfer the PowerPoint slideshow to DVD slideshow by burning your slideshow onto DVD disc with Acoolsoft PowerPoint to DVD burner for sending to your classmates as special graduation gifts.

A graduation DVD slideshow is a memento that will be treasured for a lifetime. Make it a meaningful graduation gift. Leave the best time in mind forever.

Author: SunnyY

4 Common Mistakes In Teaching Via Powerpoint

As the lights are turned off and PowerPoint presentation begins, it is the time for teachers to have a vivid and interesting class to their students. As we know, PowerPoint is an essential presentation tool in education field.

According to the research of Dr. Treicher, an experimental psychologist who made two well-known experiments about obtaining information and maintaining knowledge information obtain and knowledge maintain. People can get more benefit from teaching if they can learn knowledge by watching and listening, then exchange their opinions by discussion. So PowerPoint presentation with pictures and even audio can be used to facilitate the teaching effect.

However, there are some mistaken ideas when some teachers have classes with PowerPoint presentation. Here are four of the most common issues teachers should pay attention to.

1. Demonstration effect becomes principal thing

Don't be too dazzling How do you feel about this PowerPoint? Many teachers like to add lots of visual effects, pictures and animations in their PowerPoint presentations, making their lessons like Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, teachers can pay more attention in multimedia teaching. PowerPoint presentation is just a tool and it can't replace the role of teacher. Remember that you are using PowerPoint for giving lessons but not giving lessons for presenting your PowerPoint slides. Besides, the overmany pictures, video and audio files can cause your PowerPoint presentation file size extremely huge. So use these visual effects carefully when it is necessary.

2. Use computer screen to replace the white board

Use computer screen to replace the white board Do you like to watch the slide like this? Some teachers put all things including lecture sheet, test and even whole teaching plan into their PowerPoint presentation. At first sight your presentation looks like a Wikipedia, but you will find it hard to interact with your students during the class because they have already known what you will say next by browsing PowerPoint presentation. On the other hand, PowerPoint presentation is not a teleprompter for teaching. Teacher should lead their students to exploit their creative skills and learn things in a positive way. By sharing knowledge with computer screen only, you just use the computer screen instead of the blackboard to do the presentation job, and you lose the interactive teaching effect which PowerPoint should achieve.

3. Thinking training can be done with PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint is Used in Interactive Class Make your students active The courseware made with PowerPoint is aim to make good use of the combination of video and audio. Students can get more visual impact and better understanding by watching the presentation and listening to the narration. But one more problem is that the presentation cannot be served as an alternative of thinking training. Communication is a must during the multimedia teaching. Teachers encourage their students to ask and solve questions during the classes, but not simply read off the slides. You can also leave five minutes for questioning and solving their questions. This ensures the quality of your lessons.

4. Neglect the importance of review after class

Have PowerPoint class Having class is far away from enough It is a quite tough thing to ask all students to master new knowledge in the class, so the review after class also plays an important role. And that is something bothers many teachers. Since not all the students have MS Office installed on their computer, they may have no chance to have a good review by watching courseware once again. However, you can try some other ways to make your PowerPoint presentation available on your students' computers. Here are some flexible ways for you to make your presentation available to more students such as converting your presentation to video, burning your PowerPoint presentation to DVD , and sharing your PowerPoint slideshow online. There are tons of YouTube-liked streaming video sites for video authoring and sharing. Teachers can upload their presentation video and share knowledge to more students who need it.

PowerPoint teaching is really a good way to teach students and share opinions. However, it is not an easy job since teachers have to put a lot of time and effort in making an impressive and interactive PowerPoint presentation. We sincerely hope you can make good use of PowerPoint program and explore new multimedia teaching by continuing practice.

About the Author:
SunnyY - is a senior expert in eLearning who works at Wondershare E-Learning department. Wondershare Software is an industry-leading learning and training software application provider. You could get more eLearning tool for your teaching and training, such as PowerPoint to DVD Converter, PowerPoint to video converter and so on.

Scholarships - The 7 Best Offline Ways To Find Them

The first stop many students make when looking for scholarships is the internet; and with good reason. Scholarship database websites are very popular, convenient, and easy to use. The appeal comes from only having to type in your personal information once while getting in return many scholarships for which you can apply. However, as popular and efficient as these websites are, the fact is: they are not all-inclusive and do not include many of the scholarships you may find within your local community.

1. School's Career Counselor
If you don't look anywhere else, make sure you at least stop into your school's career counseling office. One of the services that this office provides is access to an updated list of local scholarships. As an organization, business, or individual creates a new scholarship, one of the first things it will do is forward the information to the career centers at the local schools. This information is ready and available to you. Go check it out.

2. Hometown Newspaper
In your local newspaper, you are sure to have seen pictures of students receiving scholarships; this a great resource. Start compiling a list of the awards you see here. Find back issues of the paper online. In the search box use the term "scholarship". You might just find the perfect scholarship for you.

3. Community Service Clubs Organizations
such as the local VFW, Rotary Club, Lion's Club, Jaycees, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc. regularly hold fundraisers for the purpose of providing scholarships to the students in their communities. A quick call to these clubs will get you information about these awards. Your local library or community center in town will have a list of these clubs for you to target. To make it even easier, in most cases the national chapter of each club has contact information for their local chapters online.

4. Religious Organization
A number of religious groups offer scholarship awards to the student members of their congregation. Ask your priest, rabbi, monk, pastor, etc. if an award is available. Also, check the national organization of the religious group as many offer national scholarships.

5. All in the Family
Parent's Workers Union, Place of Work, or Military Service If your parents or even grandparents (don't forget about them) are members of a union, you may be in luck. Many unions provide scholarships. If your parents aren't members but you plan to enter a field with a union, you may also qualify. As an employee benefit, many employers offer scholarships to their employees and their families. Have your parents check with the human resources department where they work to see if there is an award waiting for you. Did your parents or grandparents serve in the U.S. Military? If so, you might be in luck. If they belong to a military association, see if that group gives away scholarship awards.

6. Your Place of Work
Just as your parents' employers may give out scholarships, so might your own. Check with your manager even if you only work part time. You might be surprised at what you find.

7. Extracurricular Activities
Being involved in extracurricular activities is not only fun but looks great on your college application. But did you also know that through your club you may be able to get a scholarship? Ask your club advisor and check the national office of the club to see if there is anything available through them. Some of the clubs that do have awards are Girl Scouts, The National Honor Society, Future Farmers of America, Junior Achievement, and even your fraternity or sorority.

These offline scholarships do take a bit more work and time to find but the payoff can be huge. While the internet is still a very helpful reference, make sure you don't make it your only one. Log off your computer and head on out the door. You may just come home with a handful of applications for scholarships you didn't even know existed.

by: Elizabeth Dennis
About the Author:
To learn more about finding scholarships and view a new scholarship listing every day, come visit The Scholarship Catalog.

Educational Tools For 2010

Interactive educational tools are revolutionising teaching in classrooms across the country. With interactive whiteboards encouraging pupil participation and granting teachers access to a wider range of educational resources than ever before, whiteboards are looking to be the most important educational tool for 2010 - and teachers can combine their whiteboards with interactive tools to improve their user experience and make sure pupils are getting the most out of the technology.

Without the proper tools to unlock its full potential, an interactive whiteboard is just a chalkboard. Interactive whiteboard tools work together to improve usability for teachers and pupils alike - from pens that allow multiple users to interact with the whiteboard simultaneously to remote tablets and slates, allowing pupils to influence the board from their desks.

By providing pupils with their own tablets, many of which can be operated at the same time, teachers can also encourage their independent learning and critical thinking, as well as get them accustomed to the technology at an early age.

Teachers retain ultimate control of all these educational tools however, and by encouraging class participation they are helping children to get more out of their education through the sort of technology they are used to in the modern world, like remote controls. Remote controlled whiteboards give teachers even more freedom in interacting with pupils all over the classroom, while still retaining control of what is displayed on the board.

This also means that whiteboards do not need to be cluttered with distracting toolbars and other input features, ensuring that the focus is entirely on the learning resources being displayed rather than the technology itself.

Interactive teaching tools make it easier than ever for teachers to plan and modify lessons on the go, with many downloadable teaching aids and core resources being easily accessible over the web from various sites. Portable tablets liberate teachers from the classroom by allowing them to work with the interactive content wherever they are.

Schools can even equip classrooms with interactive tools designed for specific subjects, such as chemistry. The days of awkward cell diagrams are over, now that interactive microscopes can be linked directly to the whiteboard to present live magnified views for the whole class to experience on the big screen.

By offering a simple and effective way to interact with a huge range of learning resources, interactive whiteboard tools are the key educational tools for 2010.

by: Adam Singleton

Silabus dan RPP SD, SMP, SMA, SMK - Download atau Request Gratis

Dedicated to the teachers in Indonesia:

Download for free syllabus and lesson plans

Choose the grade or level first than click the lesson that you need to download, most of the files are in PDF format which can be opened using some application software, try to install Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Reader to your computer first, download one of those software from this BLOG, the links appeared on your right side (sidebar).

After downloaded the syllabus or lesson plan file (.pdf), it can be modified with your own name or school lesson plan, by convert this free Syllabus and Lesson Plan (Silabus-RPP) to word document file (.doc) using the converter software or online converter tools.

Request for free syllabus and lesson plans

if there is no lesson that you need on the list, you can request it directly on this site with a simple step, it's very easy, just click Post Comments to request your Syllabus and Lesson plans, type your nickname, email or site address, school name, the lessons, grade or level!

Syllabus and Lesson Plans (Silabus-RPP) by Grades and Levels:


Regular

• Elementary School (SD/MI)
• Junior High School (SMP/MTs)
• Junior High School (SLTP Diknas)
• Senior High School (SMA /MA)
• Vocational High School SMK

Platinum Edition

• Elementary School (SD/MI)
• Junior High School (SMP/MTs)
• Senior High School (SMA /MA)

Islamic and Bilingual

• Islamic Elementary School (MI)
• Islamic Junior High School (MTs)
• Bilingual High School (SMA Bilingual)

(for better searching on Google, don't forget to type keyword "silabus" or "rpp"!)

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