Strategies to Motivate Students Essay -- Education, Learning Teaching

Strategies to Motivate Students In the field of education there is a broad spectrum of strategies to motivate students. Through research only a sample of the spectrum was covered, which consisted of twenty-nine sources. Four interrelated categories were created that individually provide strategies to motivate students. The four categories consist of teaching strategies to motivate students, program structure to motivate students, self-motivational strategies, and parent strategies to motivate students. All of these categories conclude that a positive environment provided by parents, school officials, and the students themselves, act to enhance a students motivational drive to succeed in the classroom. Teaching Strategies to Motivate Students A teaching strategy is any technique a teacher projects in the classroom. Enthusiasm and body language in combination with creative classroom activities are effective tools for teaching. According to Barbara Davis in "Incorporating Instructional Behaviors That Motivate Students" from the Tools For Teaching web site, most students respond positively to a well structured course taught by an instructor who is enthusiastic and shows interest in their students as well as their subject. With this in mind, Davis gives six instructional behaviors that teachers can utilize to motivate students. These are holding realistic expectations, helping them to set achievable goals, informing students of how to succeed in their class, strengthening self-motivation, avoiding to create competition among students, and being enthusiastic about their subject. Davis argues, beneath the same web site in Motivating Students, that instructors can do the following to encourage st... ...is a collection of opinions on the subject about teachers and school administrators around the United States. It contains strategies to stimulate students at home and how parents can properly motivate their children to succeed as students throughout their education. 101 Ways Parents Can Help Their Children Achieve is a booklet distributed by the Educational World, written by school administrators. This booklet provides many creative family projects designed to stimulate their children to want to achieve academically. Conclusion A common ground can be derived from all four of the perspectives relating to the broad spectrum of strategies to motivate students. By providing a positive atmosphere at home as well as in the school, a student develops the desire to succeed in the classroom, and later, utilizes this motivation to succeed in life.

Commentary on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn :: essays research papers

This passage comes from the first chapter of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Huckleberry is explaining how life is with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. He is describing one evening at his new home in their company. This section serves to characterize the two ladies, to foreshadow some events that will happen later in the novel, to create a mood of death, to reinforce the theme of death and rebirth, and to characterize Huckleberry. At the beginning of the passage, Huck describes Miss Watson as a deeply religious person. She talks about the â€Å"good place† (3), as a reward for â€Å"sivilized† people. Twain satirizes religion when the widow says that all a body does in heaven is play the â€Å"harp and sing forever and ever† (3). Indeed, why would she want to sing endlessly once she is dead? But because of Huck’s pure heart, he â€Å"didn’t think much of it† (3). All he wants is to be with Tom Sawyer. So even at the beginning of the story, Huck is already rejecting society because he does not care about going to heaven. In addition, Miss Watson is mean toward Huck. She keeps â€Å"pecking† (3) at him. The word â€Å"pecking† is very important in this passage because it compares Miss Watson as a bird that strikes with its beak. This comparison suggests that Miss Watson is a nag and that her constant criticism is painful to Huck. With the help of Huckâ₠¬â„¢s description, the reader can infer that the two ladies are civilized and educated, but surprisingly, when it comes to slaves, they lose all of their humanity and just â€Å"fetched the niggers in and had prayers† (3). They treat them no better than they would treat animals. Their behavior toward slaves demonstrates how superficial and hypocritical they are. In addition, Mark Twain foreshadows death, which will happen later in the book. For example, when Huck goes up to his room, he feels â€Å"lonesome† (3), he wishes he were dead. In this passage, Twain emphasizes the theme of Huck’s quest for freedom. Huck has a need for liberty. Since he is stuck in a house he feels â€Å"tiresome† (3), and locked in. The author also uses many morbid words to foreshadow death, such as â€Å"mournful†, â€Å"dead†, â€Å"crying†, â€Å"die†, â€Å"shivers†, â€Å"ghosts†, â€Å"grave† and â€Å"grieving† (3). As a result, the death imagery and diction creates a dreadful mood.

Cultural Pathways Through Universal Development

This article examines the independent self vs. interdependent self theories of development. It also presents three theoretical approaches to culture and development: ecocultural; sociohistorical; and, cultural values. Main Ideas: * Culture is a socially interactive process of construction, comprising two main components: shared activity (cultural practices) and shared meaning (cultural interpretation). The Cultural Values Approach – Culturally relevant developmental goals are represented in the form of implicit ethnotheories of development, i. e. , a system of beliefs and ideas concerning the nature of the ideal child and the socialization practices necessary to achieve this ideal. * The Ecocultural Approach, sees the child’s behavioral development and the acquisition of culture as resulting from the interaction between human biological potentialities and environmental conditions. In short, the ecocultural approach emphasizes development as an adaptation to different environmental conditions and constraints. * The Sociohistoric Approach emphasizes processes of social construction, particularly cultural apprenticeship, cultural activities or practices, the use of cultural artifacts, including tools, and the historical dimension of these processes. The primary focus of this approach has been on explaining the child’s cognitive development. Criticisms: * One common criticism of these cultural paradigms is that the approach is too simplistic and reductionistic; the dichotomous binary quality of individualism and collectivism is seen as problematical. * Another criticism of the framework involves the notion that independent and interdependent concerns coexist in the same culture * The core theoretical approach to relationship formation is attachment theory. Attachment theory stresses the evolutionary basis of attachment relationships as a phylogenetically evolved adaptive system with a core of standard assumptions that are supposed to constitute universals of ontogenetic development. Basically, it assumes that maternal sensitivity, defined as the prompt, adequate and consistent reaction towards infants’ cues, is causally linked to attachment security and that this constitutes the normative and healthy developmental pattern across cultures.

Jerome K. Jerome “A Victim to One Hundred and Seven Fatal Maladies”

The text is written by an English writer and humorist Jerome K. Jerome, best known for the comic travelogue â€Å"Three Men in a Boat†. The story is about one young healthy men who thought he became â€Å"a victim to one hundred and seven fatal maladies†. The story is written by a humorist, that’s why it contains a lot of different funny moments and special stylistic devises. The first one we met already in the name of the story â€Å"A victim to one hundred and seven fatal maladies†. This phrase has an ironical tone. We understand that one man can’t have one hundred and seven fatal maladies at once.The title let us to understand that something will be wrong with the main character, but probably the author will just ridicule certain type of people. So, one man after reading some medical books decided that he had all of fatal diseases at once, and came to the doctor to tell about his trouble. The doctor said nothing but wrote a prescription, which he lped the patient to recover, despite it didn’t contain any medicaments. The story can be divided into 3 logical parts – story proper, climax and denouement.The story has no exposition, because it begins directly with activity of the main character, who was sitting in the library and reading a book about diseases. In the story proper we knew the whole information about the central character of the story. Generally, the text is built around such human character trait as hypochondria. The author chose an interesting way to describe this mental instability – the whole text is written with irony. We can feel it already in the beginning of the story: â€Å"I sat for a while frozen with horror; and than in despair I again turned over the pages.I came to typhoid fever – read the symptoms – discovered that I had typhoid fever – began to get interested in my case, and so started alphabetically†¦ and the only disease I had not got was housemaidâ €™s knee†. After these words we understand what kind of man is the main person and may be smb. found himself in it. It’s very funny to read about the man who thought he had all the diseases of the world, but honestly speaking if I was on his place I would be scary because of all these diseases.The main person impressed me because in spite of such number of diseases he didn’t cry, shout or go into hysteric, conversely he apples to himself with irony. We can feel it in his thoughts and statements: â€Å"I sat and thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view. Students would have no need to â€Å"walk the hospitals† if they had me. I was a hospital in myself. All they need do would be to walk round me, and, after that, take their diploma† or during the conversation with the doctor â€Å"I will not take up your time, dear boy, with telling you what is the matter with me.Life is short and you might pass away before I had fi nished. But I will tell you what is not the matter with me. Everything else, however, I have got†. I think that hypochondria of the main personage is in a bad case, because he had not only all the symptoms of the diseases he had read in the book, but even thought up several complications. To describe this the author used antithesis: â€Å"I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at first feel any pulse at all.Then, all of sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a 100 and 47 to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating†. The climax of irony and self-irony of the story, I think, is in these 2 phrases – â€Å"I had walked into the reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a miserable wreck†. It’s very funny and very sad simultaneous, because we understand that the only disease this man had was his mental instability.And the main character itself un derstood that he was absolutely happy and healthy man before he read about the diseases, but after it he felt totally ill, even though he understood nothing in medicine and he could not determine if he had those symptoms or not. The denouement of the story comes gradually from the visiting of the doctor through the situation in the chemist’s up to recovery of the main person. The key role here played the doctor. He knew our personage for a long time and was his old chum, that is why he immediately understood what was going on and what was the matter with the patient.The doctor knew an approach to this person. He wrote such a funny prescription, because he knew that suspicious people like to treat themselves and he knew that the patient would follow each word he wrote in the prescription. And the focus succeeded – the man ate 1 pound beefsteak and drank 1 pint bear every 6 hours, made 1 ten-mile walk every morning, and took 1 bed at 11 every night, and, lo and behold, à ¢â‚¬â€œ â€Å"I followed the directions with the happy result that my life was preserved and is still going on†.Happy end ? So, the story is over, but I think it is the end only for one part of the whole story, I mean the story of the personage’s life. I think it is not the end, because the question is the difficult mental trouble and one funny prescription can’t solve this seriously problem. I think that man would be happy and healthy until he read one more book or article or watched a TV-show about a new fatal disease. People with such problems must consult not with subject matter experts but with mental specialists, and only in this case they will have chance to become really happy and healthy.

AIDS Medicine

In a world where everything seems to have an equivalent price, doing some treatment to alleviate the sufferings from AIDS becomes only a dream for most victims. Because of the high costs of medical instruments and medications for the treatment of the disease, not all people are getting the most appropriate resolution for their health problems. In light of technological advancements in the field of health care, too many people are still on the verge of suffering because of the impact of commercialism to the industry lead by the capitalists’ point of view. The argument presented by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa was the most significant intuition if the world population would really want to arrive at a solution for the problem induced by AIDS. No one else in the world knows better than Mbeki about the sufferings of his countrymen, not because of AIDS but because of a more dreaded situational problem-the cost of the AIDS treatment. Seriously enough, medical products for the treatment of the said disease are very steep for an ordinary person to avail. It is sometimes very ironic that with the availability of the modernized science, there are still very wide gaps which reflect the kind of living different people has. The scope of the problem about AIDS becomes very little compared to the scope of the problems induced by monopolized character of the capitalists. Giving more reasonable prices for AIDS medicines can always be maintained as long as the capitalist sectors will cooperate. Unfortunately, the world is not used to playing at its chances especially when it comes to money. People can sacrifice their ethical and moral responsibility just for the sake of saving even the tiniest penny for profit. Because of such scenario, it was a good opportunity that Mbeki greatly encouraged the international community to stand by what is considered to be of greater ethical goal-to deliver the right medical product and services at costs affordable to the general public. In his deliberations about the process, he was able to signify how each little steps of reform can arrive at a significant resolution. He was very clear on his opinion that making the medicines available at much cheaper prices will bring the worth of scientific knowledge to better perspectives. In such a case, his outlined procedures can be a very effective tool to combat the monopolistic attitude of the investing world. First, it was a very good suggestion to encourage the greater population to step up a call for a cheaper price for all medical products for AIDS. This will at least give a consensus that capitalists are no longer reliable sectors in the aspect of world economic order. Second, Mbeki’s suggestion to let government’s fund or at least subsidize the expenses for research and development is one very good approach to allocate the international capital for an appropriate cause. Thirdly, his call for international unity about setting a particular organized department is one big positive idea. This way, nations will be able to effectively monitor whatever the current market trends will be in terms of medical pricing. Moreover, each of the world states will gain access to a wide number of alternatives to acquire cheaper medicines for their respective populations. Human knowledge is a wonderful gift that should only be used for the betterment of all people concerned. But with high prices of medications for AIDS, this ethical notion may just be compromised especially if people under the poverty line would not be able to avail cheaper medicine products for the disease.

Yahoo's to rise fame Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Yahoo's to rise fame - Essay Example The development of other Yahoo portals outside the U.S. which replicated its business model helped the company to develop. The portals could be accessed by users in twelve different languages. They were also customized to the desire of local users. This increased Yahoo’s number of users greatly, a very important factor as it was user traffic that generated revenues (Jones, 453). The vision by Yahoo to become a global communication, media and retail company led them to go into e-commerce. This strategy was necessary so as to diversify their sources of revenue. The idea was to conduct e-commerce and take a small percentage of revenue as fees. In 1998, Yahoo store was established in line with this strategy. Heavy advertising through radio and television made Yahoo popular. These strategies worked greatly as the number of registered users rose from 26 million to 50 million by the end of 1998. Its share price also rose from $5 to $244 in early 1999 during the dot-com boom (Jones,456). A new strategy to lock in users was developed to reduce the movement of users to other portals. Yahoo allowed users to customize their pages. High degree of customization caused high switching costs and thus making it difficult for users to change. Attractive web content, which was free, also increased traffic to its portal and provided more advert revenues. However, during the dot-com bubble burst, advert revenues fell. This resulted in a fall in the stock price. Competition from new entrants such as MySpace, Monster.com and YouTube further worsened the situation. Google, a new search engine, was also becoming popular. Customized portals such as Amazon .com and social networking portals which entered the market were a further upset to Yahoo. Its content driven strategy came into question as other companies offered for free what Yahoo offered at a fee (Jones, 459). Many analysts believed that it was the over reliance on

St George Cabinet by Philip Webb Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

St George Cabinet by Philip Webb - Essay Example Background of Webb and Morris The St George Cabinet was made with two individuals who worked together, one which focused on the architecture of the cabinet, named Philip Webb, and the other which included the paintings, known as William Morris. The scenes that are incorporated are from the life of the saint and are taken directly from Medieval style architecture and art. The concept which is associated in this piece is one which consists of the Victorian values of the time, specifically which both the artists had1. The idea of the values was based on the sense of morality toward Christianity and reverence toward the older styles of art work. Morris directly influenced this because of his strong association with the Church and the restoration of older Churches that he was continuously involved in. Webb followed this particular concept with the commercial architecture that he believed was taking away from the reverence of religion and morality of the time2. The concept of religion and morality which both represented not only was based on the restoration of religion in which both believed in. ... This was based on the pagan style initiatives which were initially a part of the Church and which were approached by bringing back the original expressions of religion. The approach to several of the works, specifically by Morris, was descriptive of these scenes, the actions of the saints, and the original stories which could be exhibited in terms of religion and ritual3. Techniques and Materials of St George Cabinet The materials that are used for the Saint George Cabinet consist of painted and gilded mahagony, pine and oak and copper mounts. The overview of this can be seen in figure 1. Fig 1: Saint George Cabinet The main concept with the materials was to use the natural elements that would best represent the cabinet, combined with using durable woods to the completion of the cabinet4. The materials which were used were specifically based on finding the natural woods that would hold in durability and strength, combined with finding the materials from easy to locate resources for t he finished product. This combined approach then allowed for the cabinet materials to work in the finished handicraft material5. The techniques that were used in the making of the cabinet and the design are also defined as rare for the time because of the approach which was taken with the shape and building of the cabinet. The architecture of the cabinet, while having a box like structure, also has the Medieval elements from the sides, specifically with the pointed sides to the cabinet. The horizontal look that is held on the stand is also different to the architecture and creates an appearance that was not as popular for the time. Instead, most were interested in the length – wise