Mentor Buddy has launched!

After almost two years of hard work I have finally managed to launch the beta version of Mentor Buddy. The official launch was on 27th January 2010. I'm planning lots of updates for this website and I'm ready to deal with any errors which might arise.
Please keep in mind that MentorBuddy.com is 100% free for both teachers and students so go ahead and sign up for an account and let me know what you think. I'm open to any suggestions and will answer any queries that you send my way.
Here is the link to the website.
Enjoy! :)

Mentor Buddy - latest updates

Hi everyone,

This will be a quick post about recent updates regarding the web application (Mentor Buddy). I am aware of the fact that the website was supposed to be launched in late November but we are currently still busy working on the last feature. We noticed that there were some bugs in the messaging system and we're making sure that they're all gone before the official launch. At this point we don't know when that will be exactly but rest assured that it won't be later than February.



The web application will be launched in its Beta version so if there are any teachers interested in beta-testing the website, please leave us a comment under this post and we will register a free account for you. Please note that if you decide to beta-test this app, your students need to be involved as well.

Thanks for your patience.

The Mentor Buddy Team

Teaching tips: Using technology in the classroom. Part 2

Making sure that the learning process is as relevant to your students interests as possible ensures a more successful teaching and learning experience. And what can be more relevant than young people's heavy dependance on technology? Web 2.0 applications, mp3 players, gaming consoles and cell-phones all form part of today's generation, so it is a very good idea to use these tools in your classroom as a means to deliver some of your lessons.


Here are some ideas that can help you get going:

• Youtube: The video sharing website has a wealth of educational videos if you know how to properly use the search feature. You can quickly find a relevant video and show it to the class as part of your lesson.
• Twitter: Among other things, you can use Twitter to keep in touch with your students while they are away from the classroom or to encourage group-work. Check the previous blog post for a more detailed description.
  
• Mp3 players: there are many ways for using an mp3 player in the classroom. They're great for listening comprehensions and are extremely helpful for teaching foreign languages.
• Blogs: encourage each student to start a blog and use these periodically to compliment particular subjects. You can tell them to write an article and publish it in their blog and then encourage them to comment and rate each other's work.
• Gaming consoles and video games: there are many educational games available on the market. Many of them available on popular hand-held consoles such as the Nintendo DS. Make sure that you read online reviews about the video game and that you plan on how these will be used in the classroom before committing yourself to buying them.

Any other ideas? please share them by leaving a comment. Thanks! :)

Teaching: The power of Twitter in education

N.B. This post is mostly written for teachers who are still fairly new to Twitter.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two years, you'll know about Twitter: the micro-blogging site which lets you post 140-character updates about any topic or, simply, about life in general. Twitter has become one of the most popular social networking website, competing with Facebook and Myspace.

Many teachers have realized that Twitter can be a powerful teaching and learning tool if used properly. I will be making a small list of the different ways you can use this website in the classroom.

• Follow other teachers: If you're new to Twitter you need to become familiar with its most basic feature: following. When you are following a person you will start receiving posts, or 'tweets' from them in your public timeline. If they follow you back, they will receive your own tweets in their public timeline. This is a great way to share ideas, important links, etc. with other teachers from around the world. It would be best if you follow teachers who are teaching the same age-group and subjects. Get familiar with the search feature which allows you to browse specific tweets before you hit the follow button.
• Groups: while Twitter doesn't officially support the creation of groups, you can use third-party services such as Tweetworks or TwitTangle to create and maintain groups. You can create groups about any subject that you might be covering in class and ask your students to join them. Encourage students to take part in these groups by asking questions or stimulating a debate. You can discuss important points, mentioned in the group when you next meet in the classroom. You can also use groups as an online meeting place, where students can voice...tweet any concerns, questions, queries etc while they're away from the classroom. This is a great way to keep in touch with your students. Edit: Twitter now supports the 'Lists' feature which is very similar to Groups.
  
• Hash Tag: this is an official Twitter feature and is similar to groups. You create this by putting the '#' sign in front of a keyword and place it in a regular tweet; for example: "let's discuss #medievalArt here!". By clicking on the keyword, you will be shown all the tweets which have that particular keyword and hash tag. A great way to use this is by allowing students to tweet while watching a video in class. Let's say that you decide to show a video about Medieval Art during an art lesson and students tweet their opinions/questions while watching the video. You can then access all the tweets submitted during the lesson and discuss all the points in detail. There are many advantages to using this method such as not having to stop the video to reinforce important points or ask/answer questions, and allowing shy students to actively contribute to the lesson.

I admit that there are many other ways to use Twitter as an educational tool. If you have any more ideas please leave a comment with this post :)

Education Tips: Develop your Educational Philosophy

Hopefully none of you have decided to become teachers so that you can enjoy the summer holidays. If you are still studying to become a teacher and this was the main reason for choosing this type of career: STOP NOW or you're in for an ugly surprise. Unlike regular jobs, teaching is a vocation, a strong desire to affect the future by educating young minds. Truth be told, teaching involves more work than most other jobs. The amount of planning and preparation involved takes a lot of time and, often, teachers have to work during their free time. Because of all this, it is important that all teachers develop their own philosophy that helps them stay motivated while doing their job. This is a list of questions that need to be considered while writing your educational philosophy:

• What is your definition of a good education? Why is a good education necessary?
• What defines a good teacher?
  
• How can you, as a teacher, contribute to education as a whole? Teaching is not only about following textbooks and correcting students' work; you need to involve yourself on a more personal level...think of ways to make education more effective and share your success with other educators.
• How will you make teaching more effective? (this can be tied in with the previous question)
  
• How do you feel when you think about expanding your students' knowledge?/As a teacher, what do you owe your students?

By writing down your educational philosophy you will be able to more easily understand what makes education important and, thus, helps you understand the importance of your role as an educator so that, ultimately, teaching becomes much more rewarding.

As per usual:
Please feel free to share more ideas with us by leaving a comment with this post.
Take care, and as always, I'll keep you posted.

Teaching tips: Dealing with difficult parents

As if our job is not made hard enough when we're given unruly students, we sometimes have to deal with difficult parents who seem to be hell-bent on making our lives more complicated. It is important to understand that these parents where once students themselves. As we all know, traditional teachers were allowed to use discipline policies which are generally frowned upon in today's modern classroom. Some traditional discipline methods included whole-class punishment, psychological abuse and, for the older parents, even corporal punishment. Of course things have now changed but it should come as no surprise that some parents regard teachers with great distrust; for them we are, and always will be, the scary dictators who ruined their childhood. You have a certain responsibility to show difficult parents that times have changed, show them that you are their friend and that you and them share a common interest: the success of the student. Showing them how concerned you are for their child's long-term well being is key for obtaining a healthy relationship with the parents. These points may help you deal effectively with difficult parents:

• When talking to them, make sure that your eyes are at the same level as theirs. Don't let them look down at you. If you are sitting down, then stand up.
  
• Listen attentively and don't interrupt. The need to justify yourself may be strong but it is important that you take your time to device a proper response.
• Be rational. Offer a reasonable solution to whatever it is that's bothering them and make sure that you both agree on the solution. It is important that you don't make compromises in order to avoid further conflicts, otherwise this may be harmful in the long run.
  
• Mind your Ps and Qs.
• Constantly be assertive, if the parent tries to verbally bully you need to show them that their behavior is unacceptable...if the parent doesn't get the gist then show them that you won't continue the discussion unless they change their attitude. This is EXTREMELY important, failing to do this might cause the situation to quickly get out of hand.
  
• If the parents try to haress you outside the school, then you have the right to call the police. Your responsibility does not extend outside your classroom.

Please feel free to share more ideas with us by leaving a comment with this post.
Take care, and as always, I'll keep you posted.

Teaching tips: The importance of teacher collaboration

As every teacher already knows, the job of a teacher is not only restricted to the classroom. Teaching involves a lot of time spent on planning lessons, creating resources and assessing students' work. Most people who are not teachers do not always appreciate how much time all this takes. Teacher to teacher collaboration can definitely make teaching easier by reducing time spent on planning and creating resources. It can also make teaching more effective when teachers give insight about the abilities or interests of individual students. I will be listing the different ways of teaching collaboration.

• Communication between colleagues: simply communicating with other teachers who are involved with your students' education is enough to find out more about the weaknesses, strengths or interests of the students. Use this knowledge to create more targetted lesson plans. For example: you might learn that your students are very interested in painting, so you might find that using the theme of art in your lessons will help students learn better.
  
• Share resources: why spend time creating lesson plans or resources when another teacher has already done this? Resources do not have to necessarily belong to your students' age group. Talk to the teachers who was teaching your students the year before and ask them for the lesson plans used for a particular subject that you are going to be teaching in the near future. Use this information to tie-in your lessons with what the students have done in previous years. This is a great way of introducing a new lesson.
  
• Share the work load: if you know of teachers teaching the same subject as you, then it might be a good idea to plan your lessons together. Decide on who does what; for example you can work on the lesson plans while the other teacher creates the resources to be used for those lessons.

Please feel free to share more ideas with us by leaving a comment with this post.
Take care, and as always, I'll keep you posted.