Topics

31

English / Staff Performance: Stop Misinterpretation Misleading You

« on: June 01, 2014, 05:09:14 PM »

You should be alert for signs of misinterpretation. Sometimes staff performance can be a delicate flower. And misinterpretation is a prime threat to the full beauty of the bloom. But the threat’s not always obvious.

Read the rest of the article below:
http://staffperformancesecrets.com

32

English / Strategies for Motivating Students

« on: June 01, 2014, 05:05:56 PM »

James Middleton, Joan Littlefield, and Rich Lehrer have proposed the following model of intrinsic academic motivation.

    First, given the opportunity to engage in a learning activity, a student determines if the activity is one that is known to be interesting.  If so, the student engages in the activity.
    If not, then the student evaluates the activity on two factors—the stimulation (e.g. challenge, curiosity, fantasy) it provides and the personal control (e.g. free choice, not too difficult) it affords.
    If the student perceives the activity as stimulating and controllable, then the student tentatively labels the activity as interesting and engages in it.  If either condition becomes insufficient, then the student disengages from the activity—unless some extrinsic motivator influences the student to continue.
    If the activity is repeatedly deemed stimulating and controllable, then the student may deem the activity interesting.  Then the student will be more likely to engage in the activity in the future.
    If over time activities that are deemed interesting provide little stimulation or control, then the student will remove the activity from his or her mental list of interesting activities.

The challenge, then, is to provide teaching and learning activities that are both stimulating and offer students a degree of personal control.

Source: James A. Middleton, “A Study of Intrinsic Motivation in the Mathematics Classroom: A Personal Constructs Approach,” Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 26, No. 3, pages 255-257.
Strategies for Motivating Students

Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

    Become a role model for student interest. Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm.  As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material.
    Get to know your students. You will be able to better tailor your instruction to the students’ concerns and backgrounds, and your personal interest in them will inspire their personal loyalty to you. Display a strong interest in students’ learning and a faith in their abilities.
    Use examples freely. Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further. Inform students about how your course prepares students for future opportunities.
    Use a variety of student-active teaching activities. These activities directly engage students in the material and give them opportunities to achieve a level of mastery.
        Teach by discovery.  Students find as satisfying as reasoning through a problem and discovering the underlying principle on their own.
        Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure.
    Set realistic performance goals and help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Design assignments that are appropriately challenging in view of the experience and aptitude of the class.
    Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades.
    Be free with praise and constructive in criticism. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students’ work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats.

    Give students as much control over their own education as possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted.

Sources:

    Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-42.
    Linda Nilson, Teaching At Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 2nd edition, Anker Publishing, 2003, pages 41-44.
    Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, pages 159-168.

33

English / Extrinsic motivations!

« on: June 01, 2014, 05:05:09 PM »

Extrinsic motivators include parental expectations, expectations of other trusted role models, earning potential of a course of study, and grades (which keep scholarships coming).

Students who are extrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

    “I need a B- in statistics to get into business school.”
    “If I flunk chemistry, I will lose my scholarship.”
    “Our instructor will bring us donuts if we do well on today’s quiz.”

Advantages: Extrinsic motivators more readily produce behavior changes and typically involve relatively little effort or preparation. Also, efforts at applying extrinsic motivators often do not require extensive knowledge of individual students.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, extrinsic motivators can often distract students from learning the subject at hand. It can be challenging to devise appropriate rewards and punishments for student behaviors. Often, one needs to escalate the rewards and punishments over time to maintain a certain effect level. Also, extrinsic motivators typically do not work over the long term. Once the rewards or punishments are removed, students lose their motivation.

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Furthermore, research indicates that extrinsic rewards can have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. In one series of experiments, psychologist Edward Deci had two groups of college students play with a puzzle called Soma. One group of students was paid for each puzzle they solved; the other wasn’t. He found that the group that was paid to solve puzzles stopped solving puzzles as soon as the experiment—and the payment—ended. However, the group that wasn’t paid kept solving the puzzles even after the experiment was over. They had found the puzzles intrinsically interesting. Deci argued that the group that had been paid to solve puzzles might have found the puzzles intrinsically interesting as well, but the extrinsic, monetary reward had reduced their intrinsic interest.

Source: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-33.

34

English / Intrinsic Motivation

« on: June 01, 2014, 05:04:17 PM »

Intrinsic motivators include fascination with the subject, a sense of its relevance to life and the world, a sense of accomplishment in mastering it, and a sense of calling to it.

Students who are intrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

    “Literature interests me.”
    “Learning math enables me to think clearly.”
    “I feel good when I succeed in class.”

Advantages: Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining.  Efforts to build this kind of motivation are also typically efforts at promoting student learning.  Such efforts often focus on the subject rather than rewards or punishments.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, efforts at fostering intrinsic motivation can be slow to affect behavior and can require special and lengthy preparation.  Students are individuals, so a variety of approaches may be needed to motivate different students. It is often helpful to know what interests one’s students in order to connect these interests with the subject matter. This requires getting to know one’s students. Also, it helps if the instructor is interested in the subject to begin with!

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

35

English / How to deal with Difficult students in Classroom:How to handle Problem students

« on: June 01, 2014, 04:57:49 PM »

"Handling a class full of problematic students is sometimes tougher then scaling mount Everest."One of my fellow trainer used to say this at least 5 times a day.
I don`t know about him but i have my own secret way of managing problematic students.
From so many years of training experience, I have learnt few thing that every irritating problem in this world has a soothing solution.
There could be..... and I believe there are.......Many hidden reason for a student to be problematic other then just bad behavior(Not going in length of that).Its range could anything from personal problem to social nervousness or from ignorance to unwillingness.
Without going in stupid details, lets come to the point.
I have my own 4 rules to tackle problematic students:-(Forgive me for using I, its not for bragging purpose but to make points clear)

36

English / 10 Stress Relief Tips for the Office

« on: June 01, 2014, 04:54:23 PM »

Here are some tips for alleviating workplace stress:

1. Don’t skip breakfast


2. Go for a walk


3. Stretch at your desk


4. Stick to healthy snacks


5. Watch your posture


6. Learn to prioritize


7. Don’t bite off more than you can chew


8. Keep pictures of loved ones at your desk


9. Take up a stress-relieving hobby


10. Ask for help


Source: http://parade.condenast.com

37

English / Work Smarter, Not Harder: 21 Time Management Tips to Hack Productivity

« on: June 01, 2014, 04:49:12 PM »

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Click on the following link to get the tips :

http://www.creativitypost.com/create/work_smarter_not_harder_21_time_management_tips_to_hack_productivity

38

English / A pictorial metaphor!

« on: May 13, 2014, 10:11:58 PM »

 

39

English / Chomsky: How America's Great University System Is Getting Destroyed

« on: March 02, 2014, 09:10:28 PM »

February 28, 2014  |    The following is an edited transcript of remarks given by Noam Chomsky via Skype on 4 February 2014 to a gathering of members and allies of the Adjunct Faculty Association of the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh, PA. The transcript was prepared by Robin J. Sowards and edited by Prof. Chomsky.


On hiring faculty off the tenure track

That’s part of the business model. It’s the same as hiring temps in industry or what they call “associates” at Wal-Mart, employees that aren’t owed benefits. It’s a part of a  corporate business model designed to reduce labor costs and to increase labor servility. When universities become corporatized, as has been happening quite systematically over the last generation as part of the general neoliberal assault on the population, their business model means that what matters is the bottom line. The effective owners are the trustees (or the legislature, in the case of state universities), and they want to keep costs down and make sure that labor is docile and obedient. The way to do that is, essentially, temps. Just as the hiring of temps has gone way up in the neoliberal period, you’re getting the same phenomenon in the universities. The idea is to divide society into two groups. One group is sometimes called the “plutonomy” (a term used by Citibank when they were advising their investors on where to invest their funds), the top sector of wealth, globally but concentrated mostly in places like the United States. The other group, the rest of the population, is a “precariat,” living a precarious existence.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/chomsky-how-americas-great-university-system-getting?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

40

English / Laura Mulvey

« on: February 22, 2014, 10:24:53 PM »

Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She worked at the British Film Institute for many years before taking up her current position.

Mulvey is best known for her essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen. It later appeared in a collection of her essays entitled Visual and Other Pleasures, as well as in numerous other anthologies. Her article, which was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, is one of the first major essays that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework.


"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" was the subject of much interdisciplinary discussion among film theorists that continued into the mid 1980s. Critics of the article pointed out that Mulvey's argument implies the impossibility of the enjoyment of classical Hollywood cinema by women, and that her argument did not seem to take into account spectatorship not organised along normative gender lines. Mulvey addresses these issues in her later 1981 article, "Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' inspired by King Vidor's Duel in the Sun (1946)," in which she argues a metaphoric 'transvestism' in which a female viewer might oscillate between a male-coded and a female-coded analytic viewing position. These ideas led to theories of how gay, lesbian and bisexual spectatorship might also be negotiated. Her article was written before the findings of the later wave of media audience studies on the complex nature of fan cultures and their interaction with stars. Queer theory, such as that by Richard Dyer, has grounded its work in Mulvey to explore the complex projections that many gay men and women fix onto certain female stars (e.g. Doris Day, Liza Minnelli, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland).

(Source: Wikipedia)

41

English / Questions worth answering!

« on: February 11, 2014, 01:44:47 AM »

“What if a sex-worker’s daughter got into a better university than your daughter?”

Watch this powerful talk by activist Robin Chaurasiya, who left home at 16 to join the US Air Force, only to be kicked out for being a lesbian. She campaigned against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. After returning to India, she started NGO Kranti in Mumbai to empower girls from red-light areas.
In this riveting talk, she asks a profound question,

“What if the daughter of a sex-worker earns better opportunities, a better salary and a better life than your own daughter?”.

Watch this thought provoking talk straight from her heart.

[ Invalid YouTube link ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbviujSGhTw

42

English / Why You Shouldn’t Be So Freaked Out About Your Future?

« on: January 31, 2014, 05:09:57 PM »

You’re scared of the future. Admit it. You always have been. In middle school, you were scared of all your friends going to different high schools and never speaking to each other again. (You were right. Living in a different school district spelled death for many tween friendships but you survived it, didn’t you?) In high school, you were fearful of college, of moving away and adjusting to ‘adult life” (LOL at you for thinking college resembled anything close to adult. At best, it was a very expensive summer camp that lasted for four years!) but then, would you believe it, you did that too. You stuck it out, never dropped out, never buckled under the pressure. Your future quickly became your present and you didn’t run away screaming.

Now you’re scared of what exactly? Your friends marrying and leaving you behind, of once a month catch up lunches with someone you used to call your best friend, of not finding somebody to love you in time and missing out on these so-called important life changes, of being the only one in the room who wants another drink, of getting fired and being taken back to the dreaded feeling of post grad unemployment, of your limbs failing you, of your anxiety keeping you frozen, of never feeling enough pride in your answer when someone asks you “What do you do for a living?” at a party?

Yes, okay, I see your point. Those are valid fears. Those would be things that keep you up at night. But here’s something to consider the next time your fears lead to insomnia and your brain becomes a personal torture chamber: all of those fears you had in the past, those “vintage” anxieties that kept you up in 2004, where are they now?

That’s right, they’re gone. You killed all of them. You got over it. You lived.

I’ve never been a Zen type of person. Quite the opposite, actually. I’m always thinking far ahead, planning and taking the necessary steps that will lead me to where I need to go. It’s a hellish way to live because you’re incapable of enjoying anything in the moment and are, in a way, permanently dissatisfied.

“Where you need to go.” Think about what that even means. It indicates a discontent with your present life, a desire for something else. But, honestly, the kinds of people who are always talking about “where they need to go” are the ones who will never be happy with anything in their life. There will always be another high to reach, a new destination to go to. And if that’s the case, if you can’t even enjoy things as they’re happening to you, what the hell is the point of even existing? You’re never going to sit back one day and be like, “Yup. This is exactly where I need to be. I’m done searching now.” Life will always be about needing that unattainable something else in order to complete the puzzle. It’s a crutch, an excuse to be unhappy and not go after what you want. “I’ll have time to date when this happens, I’ll be better and happier when I can move out of this apartment’ blah blah blah. Stop fooling yourself. Your misery is not circumstantial, it’s a permanent state of being.

The best gift you could give to yourself is perspective and the ability to enjoy today without worrying about tomorrow. Take your anxieties on bit by bit, thus making everything more manageable, and realize that your future is not out to murder you. It’s not a shadowy ghost figure wielding a chainsaw.

Besides, the only way you can ensure having a good future is by living a good present. That’s it. That’s the secret to getting exactly what you want out of life. So start paying attention to what’s going on around you. Otherwise, you might miss everything and give yourself a real reason to be unhappy.


Author: Ryan O'Connell

43

English / Does work-life balance apply only to moms?

« on: December 22, 2013, 07:34:08 PM »

You spend every night at the office, cluttering your desk with takeout containers. Your coworkers with kids are out the door at 5. Does work-life balance apply only to moms?

Ayana Byrd reports on the latest type of workplace discrimination.


When Simone Allen started a demanding job as a litigation attorney at a large Philadelphia law firm a year ago, the 32-year-old packed her after-work calendar to ensure that she wouldn't spend every night at the office: guitar lessons on Monday, Pilates on Friday, and a healthy mix of dates and nights out with friends in between. But in a matter of weeks, her classes fell by the wayside; she couldn't get out of the office in time. And dating? Not in months.
Instead, she's spending most nights poring over her cases—and she's one of the only ones working such intense overtime at her office. With more than 100 lawyers on staff at her firm, fewer than five are single and do not have kids, says Allen, and overwhelmingly, those are the attorneys juggling the extra load. "My coworkers with families make a point to get home by dinnertime," says Allen, who often works through the weekends. "But if they stay late, their families will still be there. If I have to cancel a date for work, that guy won't be around the next night. I figured I'd be married by now, but I'm honestly working too hard to find the person I'd want to marry."
It's the newest form of workplace discrimination: single women who carry an undue burden at the office, batting cleanup for their married-with-kids coworkers. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg's best-selling book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, makes a strong case for women fully committing to their careers, but this kind of non-optional "leaning in" is not what she's advocating. Instead, it's an inequity simmering under the surface in many corporate cultures, says social scientist Bella DePaulo, Ph.D., author of Singlism: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Stop It. According to DePaulo, "singlism" represents the myriad ways that our culture rewards married couples, from discounts on car insurance to preferential treatment in the housing market, while treating singles as second-class citizens—and it's increasing in the office.

44

English / “If you have no kids, you have no excuses.” >:(

« on: December 21, 2013, 05:07:10 PM »

A story in the New York Post poses an interesting question: Are employees without children privilege to fewer benefits in the workplace than employees who are parents? According to the women interviewed for that article, definitely. These child-free workers felt that having a sick kid to nurse or a school play to attend were valid excuses for slipping out early while, say, a personal doctor’s appointment or a volunteer meeting were not.

From the story:

    As the workplace has become increasingly family-friendly over the years, there’s been an unintended consequence: complaints from childless workers — typically women — that they’re leaned on to pick up the slack for those whose attention is divided between work and family.
    …
    “Workers who don’t have children are taking on hours and duties that their parental peers are not expected to take on,” says Laura Scott, founder of the Childless by Choice Project, who has done extensive research on the matter, and says many non-parents feel exploited in the workplace. “The assumption is that they don’t have a life outside of work.”

    That sounds all too familiar to Kristen Bossert, a graphic designer who’s sick of feeling like a second-class employee.

    “I’m the one who always gets stuck at work,” she says. “If you have no kids, you have no excuses.”

Some of the workers quoted in the Post story seem downright contemptuous, expressing frustration that their own milestones, such as running a marathon, are less cause for celebration than a coworker’s child’s accomplishments. “Being a breeder is a choice, a hobby” [one woman] says. “Shouldn’t my hobbies and my choices get me [a free pass] too?”

Yikes.

I typically spend between nine and nine-and-a-half hours each day in the office, plus some night and weekend work. On the other hand, I am never hassled about popping out for an occasional scout meeting or dentist appointment. Andrew and I are lucky in that our jobs are reasonably flexible. We can sometimes work at home in a pinch, and on school holidays, I either send the kid off with friends or invite my mother into town.

A child-free doctor friend of mine once complained that she gets stuck on call every Christmas because her coworkers with families seem “entitled” — her word — to have the day off. One of my mom friends complained about getting the evil eye from coworkers when she recently went part time.




Source: Nicki Britton
Posted on April 9, 2012

45

English / 15 Popular Codes For Smiley Faces & Their Meanings

« on: December 20, 2013, 11:49:05 PM »

Smileys represent the human face and all its possible expressions that correspond to our various moods. They have been around for decades, but the internet brought them real fame.
Online, smileys are a powerful way to transport emotions. The typographic smileys are generally known as emoticons. Placed with care and read with an eye for detail, they clarify the meaning of a statement and improve interpretation.
Meanwhile, chatters across the globe have developed a huge selection of emoticons and smileys on most instant messengers. If you always want to hit the right nerve and never pick the wrong expression, use our emoticon guide to popular codes for smiley faces.
Western Emoticons

Western emoticons are typically written from left to right. Here are 15 of the most popular ones.
1. Smile
: – )   or   :-]   or   :3   or   :> stands for happiness.
2. Grin
: – D   expresses great happiness or a victory.
3. Frown
: – (   or   :-c represents sadness or disappointment. The latter can also mean great sadness.
4. Wink
; – )   or   ,-)   or   *-) indicates a joke or double entendre in what was said.
5. Tongue
: – P   or   : – p     or   :-b is an emoticon to tease, often used as a joke.
6. Open mouth
:-O   or   : – () stands for surprise or shock.
7. Distorted mouth
: – / means skepticism, being annoyed or uneasy.