Healthy Competition

Everyone knows that person who is a sore loser or worse a sore winner.  Those do not know healthy competition.  Whether you compete against others or with yourself, the gauge must be set on healthy.  How do you know if your competitiveness is constructive and productive?   Consider the following questions: 

1.      After a competitive bout, do you dwell on your failures or your success to the point that no other topic can be raised?

2.     Does the focus of your free time involve some aspect of compensating a failure in your abilities to compete?

3.    Are you thrilled in the defeat of your opponents?

4.    How long do you see your competitive career lasting?

After answering these questions, examine closely your responses.  Do they seem balanced? If another responded like you have, would you want to associate with them?  Now, think of your children.  Are you instilling the competitiveness that will make a reasonable adult?

Learning by Numbers

     Why doesn't my kid get it? Why are other kids so much more ahead of the curve? Why can't he read faster, spell better or just learn his multiplication tables??? WHY???

     Learning, anything, is developmental.  The process of learning is about moving information or skills into your long-term memory.  We can do this with repetition.  The more often we see/ use/ hear the word or task, we learn it.  As a foreign language teacher for over 25 years, I have to remind my students of all ages that the target language will come but it depends on the number of repetitions necessary to move the vocabulary into their long-term memory.

  I, as the instructor/facilitator, can only guess how long it will take.  Each person has a set amount of times necessary for the transfer of information to be placed into the recall section of the brain.  Recalling is being able to draw information without hesitation.  As you are able to store and retrieve without hesitation, then innovation can take place.  INNOVATION. CREATIVITY. NEW IDEAS...Critical thinking.

     If you want to learn more about critical thinking in the classroom to the marketplace, please email me Liz@TLP.education for a copy of my booklet: Thinking Outloud. 

 

No Money to Travel

International camps help ME how???  If you want to know the truth, cultural exchanges educate the host more than the student.  Being part of programs like Oui-Connect.com, you and your family get out of your comfort-zones in the comfort of your own home.  Explaining the whys of American culture, gets you to think, I mean really think, about what it means to be American.  You might not have a good answer. You might just not know. However, the journey you take navigating your international student might be the best research. See your culture in the eyes of another for a few weeks; I bet it will change your life! 

Your student's excitement for what you consider ordinary will make you want to know more about the traditions and customs of the U.S.  One thing, I find intriguing in being part of international programming is being able to go to places I would not visit.  The simple fact that I want to show each student a national treasure, a part of Americana, makes me actually appreciate all that is around me.  

Enjoying the art, history and architecture of your city or region with your student will be an experience of a life time.  Aha moments that will be shared both here and abroad.