Monday, March 30, 2009

Pursuing a Career in Early Childhood Education

If you are a friendly person who likes to help people, a career in early childhood education might be a good fit for your personality. Teaching is both an exciting and rewarding career where you get to watch young people develop as a result of your teachings. With a teaching degree in early childhood education you can work at daycares, you can become a preschool teacher and sometimes can even qualify to teach kindergarten.

Because daycares typically limit the amount of children per adult, you are going to really get to know each individual child. This is a huge plus to many potential daycare owners as with the limited size of daycares you get an opportunity to really build a bond with each child. As a day care worker you can either work at an existing day care or you can start your own from the comfort of your own home. Being a day care worker provides great flexibility if you want to take care of your own kids but still generates an income. Not only will having your own daycare generate you an income, but it will also save you money by allowing you to take care of your children instead of somebody else who you would normally have to pay.

Becoming a preschool teacher is extremely exciting for people who love kids. In preschool you will be teaching your students the fundamental social skills they will need to be a functioning member in their future schooling. Since preschool is typically most children's first time attending classes with other groups of children, each day at school is a new adventure which not only makes it fun for the kids, but also for you as their teacher. Preschool teachers will provide basic education to their children, spend time creating interesting crafts and will help their students learn how to socially interact with one another.

While not all people with early childhood education diplomas are able to teach kindergarten, in some cases you may be able to. Kindergarten is one of the most rewarding grades to teach as you get to be the children's very first impression of what school is all about. You will teach the children the basics behind the alphabet, counting, and further their social skills. After a year with you in kindergarten, children will be prepped to learn how to properly read and write.

If you love kids, have patience and love to teach, take a look at the Early childhood education program

If you're looking to become a teacher but need to stay at home with your kids then find out how you can get your teaching degree online.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Choosing a Degree That Will Make You Rich

As a student or someone considering obtaining a degree or career change, you have a lot of options. Unfortunately too many options can create uncertainty and confusion, but ultimately you want to select a career path that you will enjoy and allow you to make a healthy income. Degree programs and particular schools are charged with recruiting as many people as possible to make their institution profitable. That means you have the challenge of tuning out the marketing gimmicks and pay close attention to what is best for you.

Just because you have a degree does not mean you will make money or that you will enjoy your job. For instance, you could spend years working towards a master's degree in social work. Social workers, however, on average make a relatively low income. On the other hand, you could spend many years studying to become a doctor or a lawyer, yet you may be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. So not only do you have a stressful career that consumes every waking moment of your life, but you're deep in debt.

Meanwhile, there are people making six-figure incomes and enjoying what they are doing by earning a certificate in information technology or automotive mechanics. Some people have an ability to motivate and make millions of dollars giving speeches as they travel the world. The bottom line is that there are many options for you, and you'll want to closely assess your skills, interests and goals before you decide on a degree. Your decision can make you a millionaire.

Find the highest paying careers before you spend your time and money pursuing a degree. Before you continue to invest in an education, don't make the fatal mistakes. Discover the best degree for you...

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The Use of Podcasts in Education

Education researchers have discovered there is more to learning than meets the eye and that just telling or showing students information in the form of lectures and presentations may not produce as good a performance from them as finding a way to keep repeating that information without boring them to tears.

The basic premise is that when a student is shown information, they will absorb, at best, just 20% of the content. When lecturers, for example, combine showing information with giving the same information verbally, the retention rate rises to 30% but when students are able to return to that same information, over and over again, their ability to absorb it more than doubles to 70%.

With this in mind, a growing number of study courses, particularly those aimed at adults re-training or returning to the classroom are introducing Podcasts so that students can return, at their leisure, to lectures they have already attended or may have missed due to other commitments.

So what is Podcasting, according to Wikipedia a podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files which are distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.

Many of the students who sign up for the intensive, year-long Postgraduate Diploma in Residential Landscape Architecture course are switching careers and juggling family and other responsibilities alongside their garden design studies so introducing "anytime, anywhere" access to "repeats" of information will now form a key component of the learning tools available to them.

We would be interested in any feedback from readers on their own experiences of this type of learning mechanism.

The tutors at the Oxford College of Garden Design, for example, are currently working on a comprehensive range of Podcasts that, in effect, capture all the lectures given on the UK's top-rated garden design course.

The next intake for the diploma course, which is run from the Oxford Brookes University campus in Oxford, will be October 2009 but before then, Duncan Heather will be running a series of four-day "taster" courses which gives prospective students the chance to see if they have an aptitude for design. The taster mini-courses this year will run in March, May, July and September.