We all know that A-level exams can be extremely stressful, especially when one does not feel ready or prepared. But do not worry as our top 5 last-minute A-level exam tips below should help you with feeling positive and confident about your approaching tests.
Rather than broadly going over things, we recommend studying several points that are essential to earning all important notes. It is important to use any time you have left to go over these points before the exam, this will quickly jog your memory and refresh any information you may have skipped.
2. Save those hard to remember points for bedtime
Sleep experts claim that going over the most challenging material to remember before bed, although we recommend that you keep it simple and in bite-sized amounts to avoid any stress and restless nights for days ahead of exams.
3. Practice editing essays
As you study for your exams, include a bit of practice with editing essays. Before you take your first exam, locate essays that you have written for mock practice in class or out of them, read over them, and re-write them. On exam day, you will not have time for extensive rewrites of your free response answers, so it is well worth knowing where to focus your energies.
Include this practice in your daily study hour. While you cannot add much information to your store of knowledge at this point, you can improve your exam-taking process. Remember, if you don’t quite get the grades you were expecting retaking exams could be an option.
4. Take it easy between exams
Many students who take exams report feeling worn out after just one – let alone back-to-back exams! Unfortunately, because exams are set by the awarding board, you may face this very situation. If you must complete back-to-back tests, plan to ensure that you will have some quality rest time between exams.
For example, bring music to listen to, and eat a healthy meal (one including complex carbohydrates, protein, and vegetables to nourish your brain). Use your downtime wisely – The specifics of what you do matter less than ensuring that you do not spend the week before your exams tense and anxious.
5. Sleep!
Our brains are at their best when they are rested. If you sit for an exam while exhausted, you will have a much harder time recalling the information you need to earn the big marks. Exams are designed to assess knowledge and skills that you accumulate over months of study, so frantically reviewing your notes the week before the exam will not help you. You can study an hour or so a day to keep yourself focused and on the topic but avoid working late into the evening.
Hopefully, now you’re ready to face the challenge of the A-level exam for the best A-level results! Good luck!
Learning a foreign language is always a good idea.
It can help you in many ways especially if you are going abroad or looking for a job.
It will help you to connect more easily with foreigners and open work opportunities abroad.
For learning a foreign language or new language Lingopie App offers a new and entertaining approach with the guarantee to learn your chosen language fast by watching 8 tv show episodes or movies in that language via their app.
Lingopie is an app that is downloadable from the Google play store and Apple store. You can use it on your android, iPhone, and smartwatch too. It gives you the chance to learn new languages even while waiting for the bus, traveling, and wherever you feel like because you can have it on you.
Lingopie uses foreign language videos, movies, and television shows to teach you new languages. It teaches languages with full enjoyment, not like boring school lessons and lectures. While watching something you are interested in, you’ll learn the vocabulary, grammar, and spelling of your target language. You’re being entertained while being taught.
Lingopie currently offers 8 languages to learn, which are some of the most popular in demand:
Spanish
Portuguese
German
French
Italian
Russian
Korean
Japanese
How much does it cost to start language learning with Lingopie?
You need to create an account to get access to Lingopie language learning. It gives you 3 options/packages. It is more affordable to go for the annual subscription of $65 compared to the monthly one for $12.
If several people want to learn a new language together, the family package for $99 per year can be used by a maximum of four people.
You can test the app for free during the first 7 days once the account has been created. But you need to link it with your debit card, credit card, or your PayPal account.
How to start learning a new language with Lingopie?
You will be able to find videos and shows in the above-listed languages in the app. You can watch whichever video, movie, or show you want in the suggested order based on your language skills. You can conveniently stop and resume it whenever you want. Make sure to select the desired target language for the videos you watch. The app even provides a guide through which it will help you understand the process of language learning and how you can get started.
The uploaded videos and shows on Lingopie are very interesting and fun for the learner and cover various topic areas. Lingopie has quite a friendly user interface and you can customize your learning journey according to your learning needs.
How to find the shows and videos in the target language on Lingopie?
When you get into the videos browsing section Lingopie asks you for your level of learning such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. You need to select your level of learning and start browsing. If you are from a country like India, you need to tag India for browsing so it can show you beginner videos through your origin.
If you stop the show or video in between and want to resume it you need to make a save list or a queue of your own videos, otherwise, you need to search it again which will be easily done.
How does Lingopie help to learn a new language?
Lingopie offers you international films, videos, feature films, animated series, and many more. While watching these you will be able to save the videos and the words which you are unfamiliar with will be marked with the translation and meaning of it in your language to make you understand the language better and more effectively. Even unfamiliar words are automatically saved with their meaning for a later appearance in your flashcard if you’d like to review these.
While watching there will be a script of the dialogues running side by side and if you touch any line from that script, the video will start to play from that line. You can click whichever line you want to jump to.
Here are some additional features that will help you learn your target language faster:
Mashup
Lingopie has one more feature, but it is limited to certain videos only. It is a “Mashup” that is used while the video lines are running in English and each line is even translated into your native language. It is a really good way especially for beginners to start with.
Quiz
Lingopie has a language quiz for you through which you can test your knowledge and understanding by answering the selected questions, depending on your learning level.
Extensive Library
Lingopie has an extensive library that has many shows and movies available in the listed languages to help you learn fast and with ease. Especially for their Spanish, Russian, and French language learners, they offer 90 shows in a library that contains thousands of episodes.
Learning Spanish offers different options such as classic Spanish movies, Cool cult TV, Cartoons, Family&Kids, and many more.
Podcast
Lingopie has released podcasts that will help you learn your target language much faster by being immersed and listening to it when you can.
If you use the app regularly, you should be able to learn your new language with just 8 show episodes or movies at a level where you can communicate with it and comprehend it.
The app is very user-friendly and often provides offers for students and teachers, so contact the team inside the app for more information. It is a great place to start learning a new language easily and fast while having fun so check it out at https://www.lingopie.com/.
It is a modern era in which smart education is provided to children through online platforms. All the material about every kind of topic is just a single click away as remote learning is increasingly implemented.
Moreover, due to the recent pandemic, online learning platforms have gained popularity. No doubt that these EdTech tools have made education easier and more fun for students.
There are thousands of educational tools that can facilitate us with our assignments, thesis, and everyday learning tasks.
Let’s have a look at the most famous 7 tools by which you can accelerate your learning and writing.
1. Prepostseo.com
The https://www.prepostseo.com/ tool can help online learners in many ways. It is a multifunctional tool that can be used by students, professional writers, and website makers.
For students that are related to the online learning process assignments and projects are always hectic work to do. But for educational purposes, Pre post-offer more than 24 tools that contain different types of rewriters, paraphrasers, summarizers, plagiarism checkers, SEO checkers, etc.
You can generate healthy and error-free content by using these tools. Similarly, if a person is learning about websites he can use the website management tools of Pre-post.
A website developer can check his website content and domain authority with these tools. These tools help in running a detailed website audit that tells about the on-page and off-page SEO ranking of websites.
Moreover, you can enjoy many other tools like OCR and text conversion tools. This is free software and requires a no lengthy installation process. Many of the tools of this software can be used through a mobile app.
2. Editpad.org
It is a famous tool among students that helps make notes and text edits. it is a bundled tool. You can check your notes thoroughly with it.
Firstly you can use it as a grammar checker. Just copy your text and it will remove all the punctuation and grammar mistakes from the text. If you have a rough text you can rephrase it using its paraphrasing tool.
Paraphrasing removes all the errors and difficult terms from the text. Content quality is enhanced multiple times and its readability increases. During the rewrite, it maintains the natural tone of the topic and sentence structure.
To avoid any kind of copyright issues you can also use it as a plagiarism checker. Every kind of copied material along with the sources from which the material has been copied is shown in the result.
This online notepad is free to use for note-taking. The interface is very supportive.in every kind of feature, it tells you about the word count and character count so that you can take check the length of your content.
The two best features of this tool are note-sharing and password protection. The notes that you made on Editpad can be shared with another user. You can also protect your notes on Editpad by setting a password so that no other user can access it.
It is supportive of every file format and is secure to use. This is an accessible tool due to its mobile app.
3. Check-plagiarism.com
As the name indicates it is mainly a plagiarism checker. To us, you can upload your file from local storage or can enter the URL if it is a webpage. it will check the plagiarism for you in a second.
Its processing is very advanced and quick due to modern AI technology. It breaks your content into sentences and then checks every sentence for any copied material. If it is found plagiarism indication is given in red. Similarly, unique content is indicated by the green colour.
Along with these indications, a list of the matched source is also provided so that you can compare texts side by side. It is very responsive and supportive. You can check 5 files of different formats in a single check.10000 to 15000 words can be analyzed in a single search.
It is also a bundled tool. You can paraphrase and summarize your text. For assignments, it can help in removing grammar mistakes and citations.
4. Softo.org
Softo.org is a professional tool that can help you with your education as well as with your professional writing career. it offers more than 215 tools for free. For education, you can check its paraphraser, rewriter, and summarizer.
All these tools help in enhancing the text quality. By using them you will get to know about your vocabulary and sentence formation mistakes. You will come across a large library of synonyms that help you to increase your vocabulary power.
On the other hand, if you are collecting data from different sources and have written it in the form of a single assignment then you can use its plagiarism checker. With this tool, you will know the exact percentage of plagiarized and unique content.
It also works as an SEO calculator for your websites. During website learning, you have to check its SEO ranking from time to time. These SEO calculators run a free audit on your website marking the search volume and domain authority of it.
5. Quillbot.com
This paraphraser is a next-level tool. Due to its multi-functionality and diversity, it is very popular among students and teachers.
It adds value and weightage to your content through its seven modes. Content can be made fluent, standard, and creative by these tools. If you want to concise your material you can shorten it similarly you can also expand it.
It gives a proper structure to your broken words and sentences. SEO optimization is also done by this tool. This tool is beneficial for citation and plagiarism. Chrome, Docs, and Word extension are their advanced features.
It has both free and paid versions. Due to its AI algorithm and modern thesaurus usage, it is very helpful for essays and article writing. You can make your projects creative and alive through it. Learning skills can be elevated and error-free content can be produced.
6. 1text.com
This is a very simplified tool that can be used as a plagiarism and grammar checker in academic writing. Its keen analytical processing makes it unique among other tools.
The plagiarism checker is very sensitive to every type of copied material. It can highlight every single check that has been copied. If your material is paraphrased it will pick up the wrong paraphrased sentences.
On the other hand, its grammar checker is very unique. it picks up all the broken sentences and wrong punctuations from the text. Multiple suggestions are provided to remove these mistakes so that you can choose your preferred one.
It is very sensitive to small errors and provides the results in seconds. You can use it freely without having security issues.
7. Wordai.com
This is a very handy tool for students and content writers. it is used for rewriting text. Whenever you write something it may have grammar mistakes. The sentences may have not had a proper structure. All these factors can create confusion in the mind of the reader.
All these problems can be eliminated through this rewriter. it changes the sentence structure very efficiently adding important words to it.in the same word, it removes all the unnecessary words to remove redundancy from the text.
The text quality enhances and originality remains at the point. You can represent your idea in a better way with this tool. The sentences become clearer and more definite. If your text has lengthy sentences it will split into meaningful parts without disturbing the meaning.
You can rewrite a single text about 1000 times. Complete security is given to your content. All the duplicate material is also removed to remain secure from copyright issues.
Conclusion
It is the time for smart education. Most of us use online platforms to gain information about every problem. They are a one-hand solution to everyday problems related to education
Similarly in education teachers and students use online tools that can seep up their teaching and learning processes respectively. Above are the 7 best tools by which you can make your writing clear, expressive, and engaging.
Anyone can use them to boost his career both educationally and professionally.
When the time comes to start thinking about options for your child’s schooling, one of your key considerations will probably be whether you would like to send them to a single-sex school or a co-educational one.
There’s no right or wrong answer, as there are pros and cons to each, so the decision will be entirely based on your own preference.
It is assumed that boys and girls each have their own set of requirements when it comes to the support they receive.
Essentially, they learn differently and need to be helped in different ways, so it would make sense for them to be taught separately. In single-sex schools, the curriculum can be tailored specifically to the gender of the students in a way that inspires and motivates them to learn. However, those who are pro-co-ed would argue that the differences between the way boys and girls learn are an overstatement because their brains are similar enough to respond well to the same teaching style.
Supporters of single-sex education also claim that these types of schools quash gender boundaries, allowing all children to explore different interests and hobbies without being forced into any particular stereotypes or feeling insecure about trying new things. Boys can explore the arts, for instance, and girls can pursue traditionally male sports. In girls’ schools, students are able to speak out without social consequences, which encourages them to be themselves and develop their personhood without judgment.
Another argument for single-sex education is that, particularly during teenage years when hormones are raging, the opposite sex can be quite the distraction. Segregating between genders limits this distraction so that children are able to focus on their education whilst they’re in the classroom, rather than on their love lives.
Benefits of Co-educational Schools
Many people would argue that a single-sex school is not reflective of real life, so, therefore, doesn’t prepare students well enough for the outside world.
To elaborate, a child that has attended an all-boys school might struggle to work well with women when they eventually start pursuing a career, and vice versa. Single-sex schools shelter children in this sense and prevent them from developing their social skills to the fullest extent.
Furthermore, there is the argument that a diverse learning environment can enrich a student’s learning experience because it allows them to challenge one another’s way of thinking and create a sense of balance. In areas where boys typically excel, they will raise the bar for girls and encourage them to excel as well and vice versa.
However, those who are pro-single-sex education would argue that students still have the opportunity to interact with the opposite sex through extra-curricular activities and other personal endeavors.
Final Verdict
So, as you can see, both options have their advantages and disadvantages. If you don’t feel strongly either way, there are plenty of other factors you should consider about the public or private schools in your area that should help you make your decision, like what the curriculum and co-curricular offers, where the school stands in the league tables, and whether or not it feels welcoming and a good fit for your child. Do your research and pay some schools a visit before you make your final decision or arrange a trial for your child.
The business world is constantly changing and adapting to new ideas and innovations, which is why it’s so important to always stay ahead.
Continuing your education and taking online courses is a great way of ensuring that you don’t get left behind and that you’re always picking up new ideas and strategies to implement.
Luckily, there are a lot of different online courses you can take to gain new and valuable skills.
Whether you want to start your own business or simply want to improve your CV, you can find a whole range of great courses online. Many of these courses are designed for professionals working in the business.
Deciding which course to take can be difficult, but this list will go through some of the top courses you can take to improve your business skills.
A competitive strategy online course is designed to give business decision-makers the tools they need to build competitive advantage strategies. In an increasingly competitive landscape, those working in management positions need to understand how to make the most of innovation to help their company or clients stand out from the market.
Whether you’d like to work in management or pave your own way as an entrepreneur, this course can provide a lot of useful knowledge. After taking a course in competitive strategy and innovation, students should have a better understanding of how to use innovation as a tool to build a competitive advantage.
They should also be able to put ideas into practice, making full use of their organisation’s resources to improve performance and profitability. For any aspiring business leader, a solid knowledge of how to build a competitive advantage strategy is vital.
2. Digital Marketing Fundamentals
Digital marketing is the concept of using digital tools and platforms to develop brand exposure and build clients and sales. In the modern world, so much business is done online, and digital marketing is an increasingly important skill for young business leaders to understand. Building a business from scratch will almost always require digital marketing, and it’s a more cost-effective way of generating leads compared to traditional methods in most cases.
By studying a digital marketing course, students can learn more about this area of business, including how they can market their own business more effectively. Aside from being useful for entrepreneurs, it also gives business leaders more insights into how they can boost revenue and develop new marketing strategies.
3. Business and Technology
Modern business revolves around modern technology, with almost all industries making use of some kind of tech. In many cases, businesses that fail to adapt to the latest tech can get left behind as their competitors gain an advantage, delivering better results at a cheaper cost. As a result, it’s more important than ever that those working in business understand the technology and how to get more out of it.
A course in business and technology can provide a useful foundation for business students in helping to learn more about the ways tech can have an impact on business performance. While there are lots of available case studies on tech in business, it’s also useful to learn about lesser-known applications of technology.
4. Pre-MBA Essentials
Students who wish to pursue a master’s in business can gain a lot from a course in pre-MBA essentials. This type, of course, is designed to prepare students for their MBA, providing them with a foundation of business knowledge. This will not only make their studies easier but also give them a deeper understanding of the business world, giving them a better chance of career success after graduating.
Areas covered by a pre-MBA essentials course include finance and accounting essentials, data analysis essentials, and maths essentials. Once finishing the course, students will be better prepared than ever for their MBA.
Now you should have a better idea of which business online courses may be suitable for you as a business student to progress in your preferred subject area. Make sure you check which business industry and niche are in high demand or which market to focus on so that you invest in education that will provide you with a high ROI.
Having a strong command of English as a world language should ideally start at an early age. We give you the most important tips to learn English faster.
And just like the adage that says, “charity begins at home,” parents should consider it important to be a part of the learning process. In addition to what your kids learn at school, as a parent, you ought to supplement it with your own contribution.
You may have a knack for speaking or writing English fluently and wish your child could adopt the same. Young minds at a primary school level fall between ages 6 to 12 and tend to grasp language skills faster than adults.
Therefore, seize the opportunity to teach them English while they are still young.
English tutor Singapore recommends the following 15 language learning tips to achieve faster English language learning results that prepare your children best for English exams and language tests.
1. Help your Child with English Homework
Getting involved in your kid’s language acquisition can be very rewarding. Homework given to them in school enables them extra practice periods after school. Try to participate by guiding them on how to manage the language tasks.
Encourage them by showing an interest in their studies. Dedicate time to teach them how to use online dictionaries like SnappyWords to find synonyms of new words or how to use English language apps to add a fun factor.
2. Speak English More Frequently
Set a rule for your child to speak only English at specific times or throughout the day whether they are home or not. If you cannot speak English at all, there are many English language apps you can download for them to improve their skills. Let them practice speaking more because that is the only way to reach perfection.
3. Be a Role Model
It may get frustrating when your kid is not learning English as fast as you expect. Be patient as well as make it fun for them. Children do not learn if they do not feel comfortable around the teacher or parent when using the language. Introduce famous and popular English songs, poems, or stories to encourage them to use English more often and with more confidence.
4. Let them Read More
Whatever they lay their hands on, be it cereal packs, storybooks, magazines, or newspapers, let them read. Most teachers recommend reading for kids who are learning a second language. There are online stories with subtitles where they can learn by reading along.
5. Sing-Along with Them
Music is an alternative to memorization. Try to introduce your child to singing educational English songs early enough. That will create a fun-filled environment for learning. You can even sing along with them and make them write out the songs to check their spelling. For younger ones, pronounce and repeat the words of the songs for improved memorization.
6. Introduce Advanced Strategies
Expose them to higher levels of English learning like YouTube tutorials or television programs. Studies revealed that children do better when they are exposed to learning standards above their ages. Show them how to read according to the English phonetic sounds. School teachers will also add phonetics to the English language structure following the school syllabus.
7. Play Word Puzzles
If your child is struggling with vocabulary, introduce English games like scrabble or word puzzles. Let them play with you or watch them play with their friends. It will help them learn to spell new words easily and improve their vocabulary and grammar. Encourage such play during their spare time to further enhance the learning experience.
8. Read Bedtime Stories
This is an extra opportunity to add more English language to the learning process. Make every night another memorable period for your child to look forward to. Read stories that are informative and entertaining so that they will be interested in asking about the characters and plot afterward.
9. Try out Hand Crafting
Organize activities like painting, cutting, and gluing. You can also try baking pastries with your kids. All you need to do is communicate with them in English during such tasks, follow English recipes, and so forth. Let them pass you objects or ingredients by asking for them in English. Ensure they also reply in English. Children love to participate in such activities, so it is a great way to make them learn more.
10. Set Mobile Devices to English
Nowadays, children are used to operating their parents’ phones and iPads without help. Most of these gadgets are set in their native language. To improve their proficiency, keep your devices set to English. Their game consoles should also be set to English.
11. Invite your English Friends over
If your child is learning English as their second language, then you should provide opportunities to communicate in English ideally with native speakers. Research has revealed that children who communicate in daily activities in English find it easier to understand the language faster. Ask your friends who speak English fluently to visit your home with their kids to make learning more fun.
12. Give them Positive Language Feedback
Whenever you engage in a discussion with your child, let them take the lead by telling you what they want to say. As they talk, listen to them, and take note of their grammar. If you notice any errors, you can gently correct them by repeating what they have incorrectly said in the correct way. Children learn faster through repetition and consistency.
13. Teach them Self-expression
Encourage the ability to recount details of events or activities around them. Allow them to narrate their daily encounters using the English language. Rephrase their mistakes by constructing correct sentences with them and make them understand the underlying principles.
14. Watch Movies Together
There are good family movies which you can enjoy watching with your children. But if they prefer kid’s movies, then pick up educational ones. Encourage them to role-play favorite scenes. Children are fond of emulating what they see.
15. Perfect their Writing Skills
Make it a duty to check their schoolbooks daily when they return from school. Take the time to go through their English language texts and tasks with them. It will improve their ability to write better. It will also stir their interest more since there will not be any pressure doing that at home.
English language tuition is another option you must support your children’s English language learning at a professional level, especially in preparation for exams or possible academic challenges.
Zoomers are those young people who currently either study in school, have graduated from college, or got their first job. Imagine how broad this generation is and how important it is to find ways to teach and train them in the new digital era.
This article will explore how you can leverage mobile and remote learning to entice this generation of learners.
As Collins English Dictionary puts it, a zoomer is “a member of the generation of people born between the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s.” This generation of people is also called Generation Z, who are characterized as “confident users of new technology.”
What Makes Zoomers Different?
Zoomers have lived with digital technologies at their side most of their lives. They hold gadgets all day, even when on the go: constantly chatting, scrolling, reading, playing games, watching videos, and so on. Smartphones are part and parcel of their life, and this impacts the way they learn.
For instance, zoomers tend to demonstrate clip-based information consumption: they retrieve and process it fast but can’t stay focused long enough to delve into the topic or task. It’s challenging for them to handle large volumes of textual information. They constantly switch between various activities and information channels, and their engagement level drops frequently.
Another point is that zoomers are accustomed to visual, rich media content. Devices have unleashed their creativity, and they use smartphones and other gadgets to shoot videos and take photos for TikTok and Instagram all day long.
All of this makes Gen Zers soak up information in bits and pieces and, in turn, challenges teachers and instructors to reconsider the educational process.
But how? The answer is before your very eyes: learning with mobile devices.
What Is Mobile Learning?
Mobile learning is a way of delivering and accessing learning content via portable devices, e.g., smartphones and tablets.
The term ‘mobile’ refers not only to the devices but also to learners themselves. Usually, they are the ones who need to gain new knowledge quickly while on the go and not be bound by the place, time, and pace set by the instructor. Mobile learning content is digital and multimedia-based, so the approach suits zoomers perfectly.
Below are just some examples of how mobile learning can help teach and train the young generation:
Learners have an opportunity to find and absorb knowledge quickly
They can control the pace of learning themselves and study in their free time
Learning is now more accessible, interactive, and engaging
Learning is fun and fits into other daily activities
Materials are available anytime, anywhere, even offline – in just a couple of clicks
The thing with mobile learning is that you need to break content into smaller units or build it in clips. You can easily create bite-sized learning content with the help of authoring software. Let’s take iSpring Suite, for example.
Build concise mini-courses
With this tool, you can prepare slide-based mini-courses right in PowerPoint Slideshows. They can last from 3 to 10 minutes and contain text combined with images and videos. You even can make your mini-course look like an Instagram carousel post presenting a series of ideas in a concise form. It will help you attract and retain your learners’ attention.
Engage with game-like quizzes
You can also add a quiz at the end of your mini-course. iSpring Suite enables you to create 14 types of questions and game-based activities from premade templates. Adding such interactive assessments, polls or surveys, and exercises to your learning content will serve as a great alternative to mobile games that zoomers love to play. Now they can interact with learning content and have it at their fingertips.
Deliver mobile-ready learning content
To distribute your mobile-ready learning content to end-users, you can share it via a browser link, and post it on your website, social media, or any eLearning marketplace. All learning materials you make with will run smoothly on any mobile operating system. No less importantly, they’ll look good on any screen size.
However, if you have several groups of learners, run an online school, or want to launch mobile training in your enterprise, your in-house learning platform will be more helpful. That’s why you can opt for a learning management system (LMS).
A Mobile LMS App for Centralizing Knowledge
Contrary to popular belief, an LMS is not only for universities. It’s the virtual space that any learners can access to take courses, quizzes, individual learning tracks, etc. And this space doesn’t have to include hundreds of learners, although it definitely can.
An LMS just holds it all together: your online courses, videos, enrolments, assignments, grades, and other metrics. Thus, an LMS helps you set up and automate training processes without manual grunt work.
For mobile learning, LMSs like iSpring Learn are immensely effective because it has a slick app for Android and iOS devices. It’s clear, intuitive, and works even with no Internet connection – while on the tube, for example. The app tracks and synchronizes learner progress, no matter where and when learners study.
And, of course, zoomers will appreciate the system of points, badges, and leader boards that the iSpring Learn app compiles based on their performance. Such a gamified learning experience will most certainly engage and motivate your Gen Z learners.
Little Troopers, the military children’s charity, has expanded its range of free resources to help teachers support service pupils aged 11+. Any secondary school with one or more service students can access the materials online at www.littletroopers.net/little-troopers-at-school.
Released as part of the charity’s Little Troopers at School program, the new resources include worksheets to accompany the charity’s new teen podcast (SQUAD), and new activities as part of the Little Troopers Forces Life Club pack and an online toolbox of videos for teachers. More than 700 schools have already signed up to and are using resources from Little Troopers at School.
Louise Fetigan, founder of Little Troopers, comments:
“Before we created these resources, there was nothing out there specifically for military teens in school. Feedback from students and parents was that they wanted to see military life better recognised and supported in education settings. Now teachers have access to a substantial range of evidence-based resources that they can use with any children who have parents serving in the British Armed Forces.”
From discussion-led sessions about military life to CV workshops, community-focused activity ideas, and even a military child wellbeing course, schools can pick and choose the free resources to best suit their needs and the needs of their service pupils.
New for 2022
SQUAD podcast worksheets: In September Little Troopers released series one of SQUAD – a podcast for military teenagers. Presented by broadcaster Katie Thistleton and professional rugby player Thom Smith, the podcast (available on all major podcast platforms) hands the mic to 15 military teens who share their experiences of military life. Now Little Troopers has worked with an Educational Psychologist to add a series of worksheets to accompany each episode so that schools can make the most of listening to the podcast in the classroom.
Online toolbox: The Little Troopers online toolbox is a series of short videos showing schools how to use Little Troopers resources in the classroom. The toolbox also features an interview with an Educational Psychologist who explores some of the unique challenges that military life can bring and shares expert advice for all education settings. In another video, a group of military parents discusses their views on how they’d like to see schools better support their children through their military journey.
Forces Life Club, new resources: The Little Troopers Forces Life Club Pack encourages schools to regularly bring their service pupils together as a unique group of students. The charity has added eight new activities to the pack with topics including ‘military community’, ‘everything you need to know about me’, ‘peer cooking skills’, and ‘family military life’.
Resource Hub: Little Troopers continues to add new activities to its online Resource Hub for secondary schools. The new activities include ‘how to host a school dinner’, ‘how to write a good CV’, ‘how to organise a virtual mountain challenge’ and ‘how to write a letter to your MP’.
Little Troopers is a registered charity supporting service children who have a parent(s) serving in our British Armed Forces, regular or reserve. For more information about the Little Troopers at School program and the resources available visit www.littletroopers.net/little-troopers-at-school.
Children would presumably be happy to hear the termination of exams announced.
However, have you ever thought about the teenagers or adults who like studying so much and have invested in cracking the A-list exams with all their efforts, and then suddenly the government or local authority and schools or colleges decide to terminate the exams.
What would be the effects on their minds, especially on their mental health, of that eleven-letter word printed on that notice?
Well, let’s find out then what might be going through their thoughts after the sudden shock of that situation!
What are A-Levels?
To begin, what do you think the A-level exams are? It’s not like our general school tests and final exams, but these are the exams of advanced levels, which are internationally accepted and subject-based qualification systems, which help kids enter well-known and internationally popular colleges or universities.
This system is specially offered by British education bodies as a part of the General Certificate of Education (GCE). It was established first in England and Wales as a replacement for the high school certificate and now it is playing a vital role in students’ entrance into universities for further education all around the world.
Understanding the Mental Health Effects through an Example
Let’s take a scenario: a student has an interest in business, which they developed at an early age in primary school. They planned all his steps according to the A-level subject exam they were going to take as a ticket to their desired university.
They’re doing all things perfectly as suggested by their research, like taking subjects that are business-related, spending most of the time-solving problems and giving extra time reading books in the library and articles online. The last week has arrived, and the board has announced that this year there won’t be any A-Level exams conducted.
What do you think about that child’s long preparation? They didn’t make any mistakes but wholeheartedly aspired for further education at their favourite university through this one exam, and now their year has been ruined, their preparation gone to void, right?
Now imagine if that kid’s parents have a poor financial background and how difficult it has been for them to collect funds and invest in their child’s education with the hope that one day their child would be studying in a higher academic institute and graduate with flying colours; albeit, their dream has now remained a dream only and they are not sure that they will see it become reality any time soon.
Possible Mental Health Effects from Exam Termination
This is just the case of one student, but there are lots of students getting ready and training for these exams since they are of the utmost importance for the future of students. A-level exams determine whether they will be able to study at university or college or must settle for a training institute despite the fact that they have the potential to pass more difficult exams.
The problem here is that most of the popular universities have criteria and one of them is passing this exam. If the exam is terminated, then there is no option to reopen the door to enter prestigious education institutions such as Eton, Oxford or Cambridge for aspirants.
Not to mention that most mental health issues grow from seeds to plants as a result of exams and crises like these. Aspirants and enthusiastic students who love to study and get an education in a particular subject or field, the termination of exams can cause depression, stress, and anxiety.
Students with different mindsets take it differently. If a person is capable of handling stress, then they would find a way to manage this shock, but a soft-hearted person could be damaged so deeply mentally that sometimes they are either stuck in the mental health disorders because of chronic repetition or maybe more fatal outputs that would silence their thoughts for a longer period.
Another lens, another view!
Now, let’s take a look through another lens and check out the other effects of cancelling or terminating A-level exams. This could be good news for students who are unable to afford further education or who are weak in their studies but want to learn more anyway. Who knows, maybe because of the termination of the exam, the child might invent another hobby or interest which could be the turning point for their future? If that happens, then it’s a great outcome, right? Don’t you think so?
If universities just knocked down this wall, which some students see as a hurdle between failure and success, then the futures of tons of students might get brighter. Maybe students should not be assessed more strictly but gently with an effective structure so all learners and their parents can see their dreams come true. The pandemic led to the digitalisation of mostly everything, and exams have not been left behind either.
However, it turns out that this COVID-19 home schooling situation with the prolonged relaxation period made people so lazy and rewired into other things that students’ interests in studies went drastically downward, as demonstrated by the performances in school-level exams. If in this pandemic, exams, especially A-levels, are still conducted, then obviously they’ll find a reduced level of grades and an incapability to go through the university’s welcome gates.
Digitalization should be used as a Boon
Plus, nowadays, more people are thinking that exams are not the only way to judge students, so this point should also be considered in figuring out the best way to implement digitisation in colleges and institutes to improve the performance of education systems and students’ focus and interest in particular subjects through improved teaching methods of visualisation.
The feasible and optimal solution would be to take a survey of students and teachers via some structural exams and then decide what to do and what not to do further. Keep in mind that whatever steps the government takes or will take will have an impact on student’s mental health, both positively and negatively; however, the role of the board and government is to pave the way for both sides to be balanced out.
Author Bio
S Patil is founder of myHobbyCourses, an internationally renowned online tutoring platform in the UK offers skills from maths and science to languages and literacy, arts, and crafts to technology and so much more. All you need to grow your intellect! If you’re struggling with Maths problems, solving Physics equations, or you want to learn a new language, myHobbyCourses provides lots of choices to find an online or private tutor for you.
The UK Education Blog team attended this year’s BETT Show at the ExCel Centre in London, where over three days 400+ leading EdTech Solution Providers exhibit, 90+ CPD content sessions take place, 300+ inspiring speakers share their knowledge together with coordinated business meetings and exclusive networking opportunities all wrapped into one.
We couldn’t miss this opportunity to see what’s on display, especially as some of the brands we have worked with previously were present too.
We interviewed a selection of exhibitors that fall into different EdTech categories such as education software, education programmes, education resources and learning materials and share the insights and trends they have discussed with us here exclusively.
We couldn’t resist to say hello to Education AI‘s robot and learned more about this innovative curriculum for schools that covers computational thinking, coding and robotics through online resources on the Education AI platform for teachers and students of all ages.
We spoke with founder and CEO JiaJia Wang, who was very excited to answer our questions about the platform.
We were curious to understand how the curriculum teaches especially younger children at preschool and primary levels computational thinking and coding and she explained that Education AI provides lesson plans and learning materials that are hands-on so that children can access tactile teaching aids and games online as well as offline. She highlighted the importance of social interaction and a personalised learning journey so that every student learns elements such as abstraction, algorithm, decomposition and pattern recognition at their own pace.
We were also ensured that the curriculum is mapped to the English National Curriculum to support every school with the implementation of digital literacy from preschool all the way to A-levels.
2. DrumFit
We love action and had to find out more about DrumFit, speaking with the education partnerships manager Jemma Froggitt, who was very enthusiastic about this web based curriculum. She showed us how to use the in-class equipment together with the lesson planning software and video curriculum library and we were impressed with how easily accessible it is for its users and how it also covers additional important aspects of physical learning such as yoga and mindfulness.
Jemma explained that it is a great resource for all teachers to integrate short physical activities into daily lessons or to add to the school’s existing PE curriculum, including gymnastics and HIIT lessons.
DrumFit also offers CPD courses for teachers and we felt that sitting on those comfy stability balls would be worth testing in the classroom as an alternative to normal chairs.
We spoke with Engino‘s business development officer Alexandros Sisamos, who was happy to explain to us some of the construction sets, robotics and STEM solutions that were on display.
We learned that all their products can be used at home or at school and they offer what they call “the real STEM experience” through their models together with their user-friendly interactive software and apps.
When asked how they enable younger users to access their learning materials, Alexandros explained that some robotics models like the Qboidz are developed for early childhood to easily stack and click different parts together and with the free app, children can follow step-by-step building instructions in a 3D view.
We were also impressed with the STEM Qboidz set for preschool children, which covers interesting facts about each featured topic in combination with building their model, colouring related pictures and other creative activities to learn about shapes, colours and maths.
4. 2Simple
Every teacher is probably familiar with 2Simple or Purple Mash, the UK’s established educational software that provides wonderfully curated creative, mathematics and computing activities even for the younger learners.
Head of Education, Mark Burrows, kindly showed us some of the new features of Purple Mash and Mini Mash, which cover the seven curriculum learning areas and in each area a range of engaging content and tools perfect for individual or group activities are available.
We were impressed by the 30 topic packs covering all the favourite Early Years topics, each containing a range of themed activities and resources perfect to use in the classroom on an interactive board or on iPads.
The student’s work is saved into online trays that can be shared with parents to celebrate what their child has done at school. And the ‘Teacher Tools’ enable the creation of themed resources, like jigsaws, pair games and slideshows.
5. BOOKR Class
Every educator loves story time and so do we, hence why we couldn’t miss exploring BOOKR Class, a platform providing a fast-growing digital library and a Teacher’s Dashboard for tracking engagement and reading activity of the students. We spoke with CEO and Co-Founder Dorka Horvath and Learning and Curriculum Designer Kinga Krämer, who demonstrated how the platform works and what it features.
We learned that every student has access to over 650 books and nursery rhymes as well as 2500 educational games that enhance language skills in an immersive and playful manner.
The platform monitors each student’s individual progress and assigns books and activities accordingly with an AI-based speech recognition feature.
We particularly enjoyed the interactive features that encourage children to manipulate sound effects and play interactive games linked with the stories. What also stood out was that the content is from recognised publishers such as Oxford University Press and only high-quality illustrations are used designed specifically for the users.
Speaking the lovely Elastik team, we learned that this analytics and assessment platform for schools is designed to empower teachers to pinpoint and address unidentified gaps in their students’ learning in Maths, English and Science.
The custom-built software uses the school’s historic data from assessments to provide the teachers with insights into their students learning while saving time by reducing the administrative burden.
We were informed that with Elastik teachers can use the platform to access gap-bridging lesson plans, create bespoke assessments, automatically analyse multiple assessments for their class or school and view ‘bubble’ graphics to identify specific learning gaps.
7. Creative Hut featuring Lego
On our way out, we bumped into CreativeHUT, a STEAM Education resource and service provider, catering for learning from EYFS through to FE/HE.
We spoke with senior creative consultant Michael Lyon, who shared some of their hands on and creative resources that allow children of all ages to develop 21st Century Learning Skills and build confidence in STEAM Learning.
CreativeHUT work with carefully selected partners and industry experts such as Lego Education and Sphero in curriculum areas of Computing, Design, Technology, Science, Art and Maths. We were invited to spin their price draw wheel and won a bag of Lego Education parts, plus witnessed a demonstration of the Sphero RVR programmable robot.
They offer consultancy, training, and ongoing support for educators to enhance the full potential of their pupils.
8. Evouchers
We discovered this voucher platform for schools, parents and communities while roaming through the exhibition and learned that Evouchers offers features to order, control and manage digital and physical vouchers securely and easily.
For schools and local authorities the platform helps to manage the process from live eligibility of data to DfE compliant reporting and families can receive vouchers via text message, email or by downloading them directly from the platform.
9. Canva
We ended our tour through the BETT show by watching a live demo of the online design and publishing tool Canva that is on a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.
During the presentation we learned that Canva Education works with other go-to classroom tools and all the presentations, graphics and designs produced with the software can be imported from Google Classroom or by sharing a class link to Clever for example.
The work and assignments can also be shared or stored via Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams and Remind, or be downloaded to PowerPoint, enabling smoother remote learning and online collaborations.
We think it’s fair to say that we’ve only scratched the surface of what the BETT show and the EdTech industry has to offer, however, by sharing some of the highlights, emerging EdTech trends and insights from the experts we met there with you, we hope you can take away some inspiration.
Here are some discount codes you can use:
www.tts-group.co.uk: BETT2022 for 10% Discount on orders from their catalogue (expires 30th of April 22).
Canva: CANVABETT2022 for 25% off print orders (expires July 22).