Ways to Build Students' Self-Esteem

One of the most difficult tasks for any teacher, whether beginner or experienced, is building self-esteem in students who clearly show a low level of confidence. The older the student, the more we struggle to build up his/her self-esteem, since we have to overcome several years of low personal opinion. The factors which cause low self-esteem are numerous and probably known to all of us: negative family atmosphere, absence of role models, taunting by peers, and lack of opportunities to demonstrate one's real skills.

The components of self-esteem are four: what he/she thinks of their personal value, the kind of work they do and its consequences, personal achievements or lack thereof, and, most importantly, what they believe other people think of them. Simply talking to the students with positive words will never be sufficient; the task requires the following from all teachers:

Observe and Evaluate

Pay attention to each child's demeanor. Their non-verbal language almost always reveals their attitude towards themselves. Are they slouching, keeping their head down, not looking at you in the eye, isolated, very few or no friends, or are they defiant, strutting with an apparently superior attitude?

The defiant child has not learned to trust adults, sometimes with good reasons. The isolated (from all other students) child may have been abused, or severely taunted as inferior, as dumb, as unskilled, by previous teachers (it happens, unfortunately) and by peers.

Regaining Trust

Your task as a teacher is to gain their trust, an arduous task indeed. Allow me the recent example of a diffident student who finally granted me his trust. I met Javier (not his name) approximately 2 years ago in my high school where he arrived as a shy, timorous freshman. After observing him for 3 months, I noticed that he occasionally wore the shirt of a famous Mexican soccer team. Since I am a former player, I thought I had found the key to his mental door of trust.

I started making conversation with him, after helping him out with his English essay, and discovered that the team he really admired was the Spanish Barcelona. I began mentioning some of the key players and how well the team had played that Sunday. Little by little, he opened up to me, until I discovered that he felt neglected in his family because he was the "sandwich" brother. He now confides in me by retelling almost every incident about his personal life. His grades are going up at the same time he accepts who he is and what he can and cannot do.

Successful Tasks, The Key To Self-Esteem

Any student can experience success in school, even when their low level of intelligence presents serious obstacles. Some of the disabled children (Learning Disabled, Health Impairments, Physical Disabilities, etc.) are especially susceptible to low self-esteem. They even believe that they incapable of learning. "I am dumb," is an expression that I have heard too often.

We, the teachers, have the mission to devise tasks that less gifted children can perform successfully. If these accomplishments are followed by congratulations (sincere and genuine), the student's self-esteem will shoot up immediately. Too often, schools and teachers devise lesson plans that expect the same from every child. That is a very serious mistake. We must differentiate not only in the way we present the material, but also adapt it to the time some students take to finish.

See Them Outside Of School

All children love physical and/or artistic activity and schools provide them with multiple opportunities. Take the time to go to their games or activities after school. You have no idea how happy they are to see their teacher on the sideline or in the audience. Talk to the parents and tell them how much progress Adrian has made in the last few weeks. They in turn will mention this to the student who will feel elated that his/her teacher talked to their parents in such a positive manner.

Patience and Time, Time and Patience

Yes, the task is arduous; do not expect immediate results. Do not even expect positive results in every case. Some children may have been damaged too much and need expert help (psychological). For every student for whom you have made a difference, there are many others who need your attention, your patience, and your time. Isn't teaching wonderful?

J.C. Sprenger has been teaching at a local high school for 6 years as a special education (inclusion) teacher. Before that, he was a university professor in Mexico (10 years) teaching English to Mexican students. He has a B.A. in psychology and a Master's in Education. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, he now makes his home in Brownsville, Texas. He has been a freelance writer for 15 years in newspapers and recently on the Internet.

For more information on becoming a teacher in Texas and teacher jobs, check out http://www.TexasTeachers.org.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J.C._Sprenger

Self Esteem - 10 Tips to Building Superior Confidence For Success

A lot of people, including me, have struggled with low self - esteem at one stage of their lives or another. That lack of confidence can cause a person to perform below standard, even whilst doing the things that he is good at. The reason could be a low self - evaluation or thoughts of not being good enough or that somebody else can do it better. Lack of confidence results in failed examinations, interviews or even auditions. The best candidate does not always win. The modestly - gifted one may take the cup home if he faces a less - confident opposition. I wish to share ten things from some of my experiences that helped me in building my confidence.

1. I have learned that whatever I do I must do it badly with enthusiasm until I have learned how to do it well. Then I proceed with confidence to do far much better.

2. Self - esteem does not come from positive self- talk only but it also derives from taking positive action that is contrary to what others may believe to be true about you.

3. I refer to a time when I was in high school and I loved to sing but I would always do a terrible job and I'd be criticized, laughed at and mocked by my peers. I discovered many years later that it was not the lack of talent but a lack of confidence.

4. I always strive to be a top performer in any domain or activity I choose to participate. Over the years I have refused to allow anyone to classify me, define me or compare me to somebody else. I have gained confidence through experience and there is no replacement for a tough mental attitude and experience that comes through repetition.

5. Popular talent shows that are beamed on television worldwide may be responsible for exposing the talent of exceptionally gifted young people, but it is my opinion that they have destroyed others in the process, who lacked in confidence. Some of the criticism does nothing to edify or encourage the one who has more passion than talent and needs an extra "push".

6. You need courage to be confident. Courageous, daring people did not become like that overnight. They risked being made a fool of a number of times by doing what nobody else had done and continued to do what they believed in. The great inventors of our time were not confident neither were they sure that they were going to succeed, but they had the wherewithal to withstand criticism and forge ahead until they succeeded.

7. The fact that I write and speak doesn't mean that I had all the confidence I have when I began my career, but I invested time and energy and sacrifice working on my charisma, proficiency and presentation and seeking the advice of wiser men and women and now I walk with confidence in my step and boldness.

8. The most intimidating thing about being a salesperson is rejection from customers. Some people are so negative that they have to say "no" seven times before they say yes so you keep asking for the order. When you have built your confidence levels you will be able to understand that you are not the object of their rejection but it is the product or proposition that is being thrown out.

9. Knowing who I am in the grand scheme of things as a child of God has given me the knowledge that there is a place of assignment for me in the world and I have discovered it and I occupy it with confidence.

10. Building superior confidence is not about esteeming yourself more highly than you ought but it means you are secure enough in who you are to humble yourself and love your neighbor as yourself.

I believe you have what it takes to build superior confidence for your success.

Fitzgerald Mujuru is an author motivational speaker, marketing consultant and musician. He is the author of soon to be published book, "Power Thought For Today" motivational series. He is the pioneer of Jeduthun Music which has been recording and doing live shows in the last ten years. You can visit him on http://powerthought4today.wordpress.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fitzgerald_Mujuru

Building An Online Community Team: The 5 Roles You Need To Fill by Richard Millingtonl

An online community manager plays five roles. Friend, recruiter, editor, enforcer and entrepreneur.

1.The friend: engages people individually. He participates in an online community, he messages lots of people to get them involved, he takes the time to cultivate loosely interested members into regulars.
2.The recruiter: persuades people to join the online community. He finds people that have something to contribute and builds relationships with them to join and invite others to do the same. He ensures steady supply of members to replace those that leave.
3.The enforcer: The enforcer keeps things clean. He removes the naughty posts, scolds the bad members and ensures nothing gets in the way of members participating in the online community.
4.The editor: Implements much of the community strategy. He solicits content, decides who/what matters. He has the power to shine a spotlight on members of the community and reward positive actions. Whenever you want the community to do something, he motivates them to do it.
5.The entrepreneur: is to an online community what a business development manager is to a business. He looks for opportunities to add value to the community. Creates alliances, advocates on behalf of the community and generates the income.
If you’re community is growing and you need to recruit more people, it makes sense to split these roles. Let the editors focus on content, the entrepreneurs focus on business development and the recruiter recruit.


http://www.feverbee.com/2010/07/onlinecommunityteam.html

Spanish Vs English

In a test carried out to find out which language would be easier for a computer to learn, Spanish came out to be the easiest, by far. These results shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Spanish is a well structured and fully matured language, with roots deeply attached into Latin, arguably the best structured language ever. The Spanish language has been developed over many centuries, the work of many scholars and educational institutions and has been enriched with contributions from a wide selection of cultures from all over the world.

Although as far as foreign contributions goes, English is richer, although its lack of logical structure makes it a language where exceptions are the rule and rules are exceptions.

Trebor Jung once said that:


"English is essentially bad Frisian, old French, Latin, and Greek, with a grammar that pretends to be like Latin but is really like Chinese or very dumbed-down Germanic (depending on how you look at it)."
I pretty much agree with those statements.

English as spoken by a native British person sounds kind of harsh to foreigners and even without understanding what they're saying, some aura of preposterousness can still be detected, specially in the way they end the sentences. American English sounds friendlier, at least to me, and although is not music to the ears either, is more melodic and easier to understand.

Don't get me wrong. I love the English language. I like its directness, its flexibility and its pragmatic attitude when dealing with new concepts. And as the international language of choice for about every citizen from every country on Earth, it has none or very few and far behind competitors.

What I like most is its ability to create new words to deal with new situations, in a simple but effective way. In that sense of simplicity, English is far richer, because it's able to convey a whole concept into a single word on its own right.

It is impossible, for example to translate any of the meanings of the word "Spam" into just one Spanish word.

In Spanish every word must be approved first from some kind of out-of-touch-with-reality linguistic authority before it can be officially used. And it can take years before that happens, if ever.

In my uneducated opinion, that attitude is just not practical in today's world and slows down the development of languages. However it doesn't get as ridiculous as in France, for example, where the Wise Men pretended that people used a expression that sounded something like "international spider web of computers" in French instead of the already implanted "Internet".

As an European who was fascinated with the American Way before actually going to the United States, I had always held this idea of American people as being a smart bunch of entrepreneurs who had the magic formula to make lots of money through innovation and multicultural contributions.

But once you get there, you start to understand that maybe that was some characteristic of past generations, but far from today's reality.

One of the things that struck me the most was the marginalization of the Spanish language in the States. While the rest of the world is increasingly learning Spanish, the United States of America have chosen to ignore a world language already implanted in their country since Day 1 and currently spoken as a first language by over 20% of its population.

Countries like Switzerland have their kids learn 2-3 languages at very early ages. This policy has created a large pool of people capable to travel and make business with the rest of the world. Any other nation would pay a fortune for having such a large share of its population speaking a second language, which incidentally happens to be the one language understood by all people South of its border.

As of 2007, Spanish has 325,529,636 first language speakers. That makes it the second most popular language spoken worldwide, after Mandarin Chinese with 882,475,389 speakers and ahead of English with 311,992,760.

So, why all this animadversion towards anything that smells of Spanish? Why are all those ignorant law-makers trying to erase a language and a culture that is so intrinsically rooted into the foundations of their own country?

It's a non-sensical mystery that can not be be unraveled without taking into account the power of the media serving private interests.

Spanish is considered to be a second-class language in the States and that's due to some recent historical misconceptions.

It is often forgotten that Spain was the country that backed up the American Revolution, providing military and financial support. It did so, clearly not so much because of its love for Freedom, but rather because of its historical vendetta with Britain.

But still, the facts are the facts, and what it is today the first power on Earth, owes its birth largely to Spain. So much so, that without Spain's help, it just could have not happened, and the world today would play in a different scenario, maybe better, maybe worse, but surely different.

Spain provided financial avail and paid for many expenses generated during the first years of the new-born United States of America. This is proven by the fact that Gavez, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, in recognition of his work and help to the American cause, was taken by George Washington to his right in the parade of July 4th.

Furthermore, more than half of the US. territory belonged to Spain, and except Puerto Rico, that was taken by military force together with Cuba and the Philippines at the end of the 19th century, the rest was amiably transferred or interchanged for some amounts of money (a million dollars for the whole of Florida's peninsula is what I call a bargain).

By the way the symbol for the dollar ($) originates from the Plus Ultra drawing depicting two columns and a waving ribbon representing Spain's overseas colonies.

Up to the Spanish-American War, relations between the two countries had been most friendly, but after the campaign against Spanish interests orchestrated by William Randolph Hearst, the press tycoon who was a personal friend of Roosevelt, the idea of Spanish as enemies took hold.

Hearst's New York City paper, the New York Morning Journal, became known for sensationalist writing and for its agitation in favor of the Spanish-American War, and the term yellow journalism (a pejorative reference to scandal-mongering, sensationalism, jingoism and similar practices) was derived from the Journal's color comic strip, "The Yellow Kid."

That twisted perception has dragged over the years up to today, and it's about time that the United States comes to realize what its real roots are and starts to take advantage of its Hispanic resources.

Bilingualism makes people smarter and more tolerant to other cultures, and frankly, those are two traits that the largest part of today's American society is in need of.

It's a win-win situation that only the most ignorant and stupid would fail to realize in its full potential and take proper advantage of it.

Besides Spanish is the language of the future. Ask any computer about it if you don't believe me.

Original Post and Discussion at:
Google Groups.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rafael_Minuesa

Language Learning - Three Ways Learning a Foreign Language Can Improve Your Life

With people all over the world learning English and most countries requiring a reasonable level of proficiency in their school students, why should an anglophone bother to learn a foreign language?

First, learning a foreign language broadens the way we view the world and shatters our cultural arrogance. As you struggle to learn the way people express a familiar idea in a different language you see new relationships through the words and phrases that are used, and sometimes come to see that familiar idea in a whole new way. Even at the early stages of your learning you can experience these 'aha' moments which fuel enthusiasm. Words are powerful things and the realisation that there are other ways of expressing ideas, and the difficulty of learning to express them accurately in a foreign tongue helps us to overcome our tendency to arrogance to those who do not agree with us.

Second, learning a foreign language may open up an opportunity to help others. On an informal level this can be done through providing directions or translation help to strangers whom you encounter casually, but you can also formally volunteer to serve foreign migrants in your own country who may need help settling in, or whose children may need help with their schoolwork. If you are travelling, even a slight knowledge of the language will often give you a chance to help others by asking directions or reading signs for them, and it will certainly make your own travel more enjoyable.

Third, trying to express yourself in a foreign language is a most effective antidote to pride as you struggle to understand the other speaker, and to get your mind and mouth around the words to respond, but, as you progress in your language learning you will gain confidence in your ability to communicate in the language and sense your achievement. At the same time, you will quickly realize how much there still is to learn which will help you to persist in your study and hopefully find real enjoyment in learning and seeing progress.

No matter what language you learn or what method you use to learn it, language learning takes effort but the benefit of even a basic level of competence are amazing. If you find yourself bored, depressed, or simply in search of a challenge there are few pursuits more rewarding than language learning and the internet makes it possible to choose almost any language for study and find helpful courses and materials.

Find some useful resources for foreign language study at http://www.mosteffectivelanguagelearning.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Hoplite

A Good Way to Find a Language Teacher Or Student Online

Today, there are many people around the world want to learn one or more foreign languages; also there are the same many people who want to teach them. But how would a "potential student" find a "potential teacher", or vise versa? Internet offers us a great solution.

Bailing English is a collection of online ads focusing on foreign language tutoring services. For people who want to learn a foreign language, they could post their interest by specifying what kind of teacher they prefer: their age, gender, price, nativeity, special expertise such as medical, business, verbal or writing; then they will have a chance to put a detail description about their preference. User will also need to leave their email addresses so they could then be contacted if anyone who sees their postings wants to contact them. For people who want to teach foreign language, they could do exactly the same thing by posting their expertise and experience onto Bailing English to find some students.

Bailing English also offers some great features to help users find a match quickly and precisely. It uses some criteria such as language, age, gender, price, and special expertise to match teacher and students automatically. Users can save a lot of time from this auto- searching function. Furthermore, for users in different countries, to get a sense of how much the other party is asking for the service could be hard too; so Bailing English offers a tool to help users calculate currencies. Users only need to enter their desired amount in local currency, the system will calculate and convert it to another currency in just a click. While Bailing English is built as an English website, it does put into its consideration to make posting and searching convenient for all non-English-speaking users. It offers an auto-language tool to quickly convert its entire website from English to any major languages used around the world. This feature will greatly benefit people who speak very little English. Everybody, now, can find a good match easily and quickly. Our world can finally talk.

http://www.bailingenglish.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Du

Content Marketing for Facebook

Content marketing on Facebook is gaining popularity for many reasons, including the amazing tools at your disposal and the ease of marketing to a wide audience quickly. To make sure that you are using the site to its full potential, there are a few ways to make sure that you are effectively using the site for marketing without chasing away potential customers.

Make Your Marketing Personal

One powerful way that Facebook works for marketing is that it offers a personal glimpse at the person or business doing the marketing. People don't read marketing pieces on Facebook to get a cold and impersonal sales pitch. They like the site because it feels like a personal dialogue with the various people and companies that they follow. Businesses that cultivate this personal aspect of the site make it more inviting for users who are deciding who to follow.

No matter what you are selling, your content marketing on Facebook should make people interested in you as a marketer as well as in what you are selling. Without that personal aspect, your marketing items are simply commercials, and commercials are easily turned off without another thought. A compelling marketer with plenty of interesting content, however, is intriguing and worth another read.

Don't Flood Your Followers

To keep a regular readership on Facebook, you do need to keep updating it with new and interesting content. Status updates, your Twitter messages, interesting links, video and other marketing items are useful for making your content marketing multi-faceted and up to date. However, if you update with new content every hour, filling your pages with hundreds of links, pictures, 1000-word articles and more, you will overwhelm your readers with too much in too little time.

Most Facebook users do spend considerable time on the site, but they don't want to do it all on your pages. To get the most followers possible without scaring them away with a bombardment of advertising, strike a balance between new content and networking with other Facebook members. Going out and networking with others will help with cultivating a following more than filling your pages with as much as possible.

Remember Your Readers

One important thing to remember about content marketing on Facebook is to remember the readers. They aren't on Facebook to work- they are there for a little recreation. Your message doesn't necessarily have to be light or humorous, but it is important to make sure that you can see it from the perspective of a reader. If you were cruising Facebook and stumbled upon your pages, what would tempt you into reading further? Is your information difficult to navigate? Does it give readers any reason to pay attention to what you have to say? If not, consider what you enjoy reading on Facebook. Think about what it would take to keep you engaged and interested in the content you read.

Some marketers add contests, informational videos or other items to their Facebook pages to keep them interesting. If you can surprise and engage readers with personal, interesting content, you have the tools to market effectively.

Darren Olander is dedicated to teaching others how to create a success online through internet network marketing strategies. He is a site owner, article writer, coach & marketing consultant enjoying the benefits of working full time from home. You can learn more about him at DarrenOlander.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darren_Olander

Using Social Media to Grow Your Business - How to Use Social Media Sites As a Marketing Strategy

Social media connects people in the online world to form relationships for personal and business purposes. Online marketers use media sites to build communities, discuss business issues, share expertise and build their brand and to establish themselves as experts. Social networking sites enable a marketer to advertise freely, expand market and to text marketing messages. Therefore to maximize the use of social media as a marketing strategy, you need to know how to use it effectively and efficiently.

How to use social media sites

1. Target your audience and choose your networking sites

What social networks are your clients visiting? What social media website is specific to your industry? Not all media sites will be good for your business. Choose the appropriate site and go to where your audience is and start conversation.

2. Set goals

Now that you know your audience and where to market to them, you need to set your goals. Is it to drive traffic to your website or to generate leads for your business? Or is it just to get your company's name out there for brand recognition? Your goal determines what you do with the social networking sites. Remember that your goals should be realistic and achievable.

3. Social media tools

There are tools that surround social networking like blogging, RSS feeds, viral video, etc. Choose the tools that you can combine with your social networking comfortably and will also enhance your business. Learn how to use them and incorporate them.

4. Create profiles

Create profiles on the social media sites you have chosen. Include a photo for people to closely identify with you. Talk about yourself and your business. People want to know more about you and your business before they buy whatever you are selling.

5. Success factors

To succeed with social networking campaign, you need to be transparent, honest, and relevant, committed and value minded. You need to build trust and loyalty with your audience. Offer suggestions, provide feedback and answer specific questions. Furthermore, do not always try to sell to them. Try to understand the need of the consumer instead of forcing yourself on your customer.

6. Remain active

Stay active in your media sites and relevant communities. Monitor and engage in conversations regularly and appropriately. Do not allow your networking presence to lie dormant. Make your audience to look forward to reading your next posts and to hearing what next you have to say.

Using social media as a marketing strategy enables you to achieve much within a short time but it requires time, consistency and perseverance in order for you to grow your business with it. Be patient for the results; wait for the fruit to ripe. Remember if it works for others, it will surely work for you.

Ngozi Nwoke is a business and marketing coach. MLM home-based business is easy on-line. Want more information on how to grow your business? check http://www.ngozinwoke.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ngozi_Nwoke

Holiday Season Specials!!!

Holiday Season Specials!!! I'm offering private online English and Spanish classes at only $5usd per class untill the end of 2010. FOR NEW STUDENTS ONLY!
Hurry....contact me, and take advantage of these special Holiday rates.

eckates@aol.com
skype: enrique.kates

Social Networking: The Future by Mark Suster

Social Networking: The Future by Mark Suster
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/05/social-networking-future/

Social Networking: The Present

Social Networking: The Present
Mark Suster

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/04/social-networking-present/

Social Networking: The Past by Mark Suster

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/03/social-networking-past/

A Simple Formula For Your Online Community by Richard Millington

Specific Audience + Clear Benefit + Existing Desire – Business Needs

Specific Audience means targeting an audience that you can identify by their behaviours and past actions. They should recognise each other as a member of the community and must have crossed a boundary that outsiders haven’t.

Clear Benefit is the reason why having a community is better than not having one. Why would the specific audience talking to each other benefit every member?

Existing Desire is the desire to speak to each other. The specific audience should already speak to each other, or have the desire to do so.

Business Needs are the restraints you put on a community so your business benefits. You might have found the specific audience, identified clear benefit and recognised an existing desire all to ruin it by making them subservient to your interests. Anything that benefits you and not the community, is a business need. Eliminate them.

5 Steps to Build a Twitter Marketing Strategy

http://tinyurl.com/32w579e

12 Twitter Stream Aggregators To Make You Smarter

http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/02/12-twitter-stream-aggregators/