Tips on Building Wealth – Education Is the Key

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I attended a free financial education class conducted by one of the independent associates of the International Marketing Group here in Cebu. It was indeed very enriching. I felt all fired up with the mission to eradicate the problem of poverty in this country that I decided to write this article.

I actually learned a lot from the seminar but I can’t put it all in just one article. So, let me just share with you ideas that appealed to me the most. I hope you will also get fired up and join me in this crusade against poverty.

Based on statistical research, it has been predicted that a large number of Filipinos will face an increasing challenge with the future of their financial lives. Wanna know why? Well, let me tell you.

Four (4) Major Challenges of the Average Filipino

  • There is an uncertainty in the labor market. With the advancement of technology, more and more companies prefer to spend on automating their business operations.
  • Most Filipinos are living in high debts but their savings are low or none at all.
  • There is an extremely high cost of education. According to studies, college tuition fees in the Philippines double every six (6) years.
  • As the country is developing, the cost of living in the Philippines is also increasing. Prices of commodities go up more rapidly than a person’s regular wage.

Build Your Wealth Like You are Building A House

The Filipino is indeed facing a weary situation about his financial life in the future. Although some have already learned the value of saving for the rainy days but they have not yet mastered the art of building wealth. Many people are making this mistake. They become so excited about getting rich quick that they go right on to making an investment while neglecting the one thing necessary – a solid foundation.

Building wealth is just like building a house (or any architectural structure). You need to build a solid foundation in order for the house to stand strong. The taller the structure that you want to build, the deeper you need to dig for its foundation.

It is also the same with your wealth. If you want to secure your future, then you need to build a solid foundation for your wealth building. The International Marketing Group has a team of financial advisers who can teach you strategies on how to build this solid foundation for your wealth.

Education is the Key to Success

In everything that we do, there is always a learning curve. We do not get to be masters right away. We still need to study and learn how to do the work. Carpenters were not born with a hammer in their hands. Somebody taught them the skills of driving that hammer. In the same way, we also need financial advisers to teach us the right way to building our wealth.

4 Tips If Your Special Education Advocate is Banned From IEP Meetings

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Are you a parent or advocate who helps children with autism or another disability, receive special education services? Have you been told that you can not attend IEP meetings with parents in a certain district? Would you like to learn a few tips on how to handle this situation? This article will give you 4 tips to use if this situation happens to you or an advocate that you work with.

The Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states that parents have the right to have people help them, who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the student. IDEA also states that parents have the right to be equal participants, in their child’s IEP process! If parents ask an advocate to come to a meeting with them, the advocate is to be considered an IEP team member.

OSEP agrees with this and issued a memorandum on January 15, 2004 clarifying an advocate’s role at an IEP meeting. It states that: Since the parent has invited the advocate to the IEP meeting, this person is considered to be an IEP team member and may assume an active role in the student’s IEP. Some advocates are being banned from student’s IEP meetings because they are considered divisive! Below are 4 Tips to use if this happens to you:

Tip 1: If your advocate is banned from an IEP meeting, send a letter to your school district asking for the state and federal law that allows them to do this. Attach to the letter any evidence that you have that the advocate was actually banned (Letter, E mail etc). Ask for a response within 10 days.

Tip 2: In the same letter, state that according to IDEA you have the right to have people at the IEP meeting that have knowledge or special expertise regarding your child. For Example: Your advocate has worked with your child for over a year and understands their needs, or has special training in the disability that your child has.

Tip 3: Also state that: IDEA requires school districts to develop an IEP for each child with a disability, with parents playing a significant role in this process. Also, that for you to do this you require the help of a qualified advocate!

Tip 4: Send a complaint to your state board of education stating that the school district is violating IDEA by banning your advocate from attending IEP meetings. The actual violations are:

A. School district is preventing you from having a person who has knowledge or special expertise on your child, at the IEP meeting.

B. School district is preventing you from being an equal participant, and playing a significant role in the IEP process.

C. School district cannot give you any specific state or federal law that states they have the right to ban certain advocates.

Parents have the right to bring the advocate of their choice to their child’s IEP meetings. School districts cannot ban an advocate from coming! If this happens to you, stand up to the special education personnel for the benefit of your child’s education.

Getting The Most Out Of An Online Education – Some Study Tips For You

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For most people today, taking an online course can be the most convenient way for them to get a degree or to enhance their current knowledge and skills. But online learning will require time management skills, willpower, very strong motivation, and self-discipline. It can be a very challenging task to finish an eLearning course.

Some Study Tips For Online Learners

Be aware of some online learning practices. You must know that online courses aren’t the easiest way for you to learn but the most convenient one. For you to successfully learn, you must dedicate a considerable amount of your time to attend the program. Moreover, you must fully commit and focus on the learning process, similar to what you would be doing if you are taking up a regular course.

Know what to expect. When taking an online course, you might be expected to become tech-savvy, work with others efficiently, be self-disciplines, and complete all your tasks and assignment on time.

Make sure that your Internet is reliable. Tech issues always happen. To avoid any mishaps, you have to ensure that you always save your work repeatedly. Most importantly, you need to backup all your documents using cloud storage so you can be able to have access to them from your tablet or other smart devices anywhere and at any time. With a reliable Internet connection, you can stay current with your course as well as deal with any sudden changes in your schedule.

Have a devoted study space. Regardless of whether you decide to study in your office or living room, make sure that this place is free from distraction, organized, quiet and available for use at any time. Find a study space where it enables your study routine. It is very important that you turn off your phone of log off all your social accounts when studying. The main point is that you need to study uninterrupted.

Build a study plan. This is very critical, whether you are studying online or in a traditional classroom setting. Online learning must be structured so consider creating a calendar that will help you remember all significant dates and a to-do list for each week. Indeed, this is a great way of prioritizing your study plan as well as staying on track with your studying. Most importantly, you need to stay on schedule.

Take some breaks. When you are feeling frustrated whilst studying, your performance will definitely be decreased. So consider taking study breaks. You can have a change of scenery.

These study tips can work efficiently with online learners. This will help make sure that your online learning is an enjoyable eLearning experience.

Tips To Choose Students For Direct Entry Into Schools Of Higher Education

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This is a common situation that you have to face. Every year, you have to select from a large group of 16-year olds, a few who automatically qualify to join institutions of higher education even before the final examinations.

This poses a big dilemma when these students have almost identical academic results and extra-curricular activities.

Are there other ways of trying to separate these teenage students and choose the most suitable to enter into the respective educational faculties?

Here are some tips that you should seriously consider.

Philosophical Questions

Firstly, you can create some philosophical or ethical questions to slowly see their own personal stand and bias. The coming new workplace will have a big portion of robotics and automation. Thus it is crucial to see if your candidates are not merely book-smart but am also ready to face the new realities of life.

Video Resume

You can instruct them to make a minute presentation describing their strengths and why they fit a particular faculty. This one-minute presentation can follow the style of a video resume and should have clear dialogue and accurate subtitles to allow the assessor to get a first impression.

Referees

You can also contact the referees of these candidates and find out why they want to recommend these students to direct-entry into higher education. It is up to your own experience to discover if these referees merely associate themselves with these candidates just to give blind support but may not know have enough reasons for their support

Extra-curricular Activities

You may have to create an internal system of grading your potential candidates in terms of the results of their chosen extra-curricular activities. For example, a higher grading can be assigned if the candidates have proven leadership responsibilities.

Open-ended Questions

You can give all final-round candidates some open-ended questions and ask them to provide their best replies and analysis to the given case studies. Do ensure that you allocate sufficient time for these activities.

Future Thoughts

Pose a question about where their chosen industries will be headed to in the next few years. This is crucial because you do not want a chosen candidate to switch faculties on a whim. Normally, a good candidate will make an effort to read more about the new chosen path.

Lego

The truth of the matter is this. Lego blocks are very good for any candidate to highlight what is in his mind. The Lego pieces are of different colours and sizes and are only constrained by the deep recesses of the candidate’s imagination.

Team building exercise and observation

You can also follow-up by allowing each final candidate to join a team of senior students who are already in the higher educational institutions. Break them into different groups and give them group projects to do. Remember to delegate the group presentation to be done by each candidate and then allow the other group members to evaluate them. This is very crucial because their peers are very good judges of competency and maturity.

Best of luck for your search.

Tips for Setting Up a Special Education Classroom

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When dealing with special needs children, setting up the classroom may be one of the most important things you can do to make your year successful. Many special needs children regardless of their diagnosis have similar things they find difficult. Below are many ideas to help the teacher arrange and get the classroom ready for the year to begin.

1. Make a visual schedule for students to follow each day.

2. Put tennis balls on the bottom of the chairs to decrease the sound in the room.

3. Be very aware of sensory issues. If a child is overwhelmed by sensory stimuli in the classroom this is going to distract them making it impossible for them to concentrate.

4. Prompt students when they get off task. Sometimes this may be just walking over to the student and putting a hand on their back.

5. Use things like visual supports however make sure the visual supports aren’t so cluttered the child becomes overwhelmed by it.

6. Teach organization. This can be a notebook with all their information in one place.

7. Have open communication with parents so they can follow through and there is a consistent way of doing things.

8. Model appropriate behaviors.

9. Many children have problems with memory, help make flashcards so they can find what they are looking for and help them study.

10. Seek out and understand success as much as possible.

11. Break tasks into smaller tasks. Don’t give them a huge task or a list of assignments and expect them to follow through. They are much more successful when its broken down.

12. Go for quality rather than quantity with classwork and homework. Keep in mind, many children with special needs take medication and remember that the medications are wearing off by the end of the day. Before assigning homework is it really necessary?

13. Make consequences logical and reward often. Come up with a reward system so the children are getting positive reinforcement on a continuous basis.

14. Use privacy boards when there are things going on around the room.

15. Move student’s desk to where there are fewer distractions. Most of the time that will be beside the teacher, up front or beside a quite child.

16. Many times it’s better to use rows for seating if possible. Group seating is just too much stimuli for them.

17. Keep a portion of the room free from visual stimuli, noise and windows.

18. Use headphones to play while noise or soft music to help block out what is going on in the classroom.

19. State directions, write them down, speak them and repeat. Special needs children need information more than once and in multiple formats.

20. Be sure to get eye contact. They sometimes are not “able” to pay attention. Reward or praise them when they do have eye contact. This is very difficult for them.

21. Allow escape if a child can’t deal with a problem. Allow them to go to the assigned area in the classroom where they can go and calm down.

See how these tips help. Please leave me a comment and let me know if they were helpful.