How to Know They Read the Syllabus : Important Tips for Every Teacher

The CETL Weekly Teaching Tips Series presents: How to Know They Read the Syllabus: Quiz Questions and Beyond. We can’t help but feel frustrated when students ask for information we have painstakingly provided in the tell-all course document--the syllabus. But let’s admit it: everyone glosses over long documents filled with policy language.

How to Know They Read the Syllabus : Important Tips for Every Teacher

So how can students be held accountable to the content and understand its value to their success? Using a syllabus quiz has become a popular strategy, but there are additional authentic ways to make students adept syllabus navigators. Let’s start with the quiz strategy. Ask questions that require more than a keyword search. Get students to think about situations for consulting the syllabus, such as missing class or holidays. Additionally, use questions to give students a preview of what they will learn.

A quiz like this can also invite students to express concerns. You could end a syllabus quiz by asking a simple yes/no question about whether they are concerned about their ability to succeed in the course. If students indicate they are concerned about the course, the question allows students to write an explanation. Whether or not students add detail, you can follow up with each student who answers YES as you may be able to quell these concerns from Week
1.

Faculty teaching larger courses could follow up with a stock message inviting these students to meet with you on campus, consult their academic adviser, or email you. From this point, plan how you will continue to engage students with the syllabus. Show students how the course is progressing by starting or ending each week with the syllabus. Start or end each week with the question, “Where are we in the syllabus?”

This gives students plenty of practice with the syllabus’ organization and reinforces that class activities are planned within the larger design of the course. Ask students to link class activities to course learning outcomes. Course learning outcomes appear early in the syllabus, but are often glossed over. Connecting individual activities to these learning outcomes shows students how they are building their observable skills, which makes them more invested in giving each activity their best effort. Invite directed student feedback on the syllabus.

This works best at the beginning of the semester, but can be done at any point. To avoid being met with blank stares, use a simple survey or notecards in class to ask students one or a few pointed questions, which could be about what is helpful, what is missing, what would make it easier to use, and about the policies. Whenever students provide feedback, follow up by explaining how you have considered and implemented their feedback. For more syllabus design considerations, visit our Syllabus Resources page. That’s all for now from the CETL Weekly Teaching Tips series.

Read More

When is The Best Time to Publish A Book ?

Are you working on a nonfiction book and wondering when is the best time to launch this book? If you have a book launch coming up and you wanna time it for the best results, this video is for you.

When is The Best Time to Publish A Book ?

Hey there, I'm Julie the Book Broad, I'm an Amazon overall number one best-selling author, and the founder of a fabulous company called Book Launchers. Our super power is caring more about you and your book than anybody else, as we help you write, publish, and sell a nonfiction book that will boost your brand and make you money. When I talk to people interesting in hiring us for publishing their book, the question often comes up: what's the best month in the year to launch a book? Or, when is the best time of year to launch a book?

The answer is almost always dependent on, da da da da, what your book is about and who your reader is. If you want to know when the most books get sold, there's no perfect statistic, but sources like Statista, I'll link below, report that bookstores have highest sales in August, December, and January. Does that mean you should time your launch for one of those months? Not necessarily. It comes down to two things: attention and need. When are you most likely to get the attention of potential readers and influencers who will promote your book, and even the media?

That varies by industry. But many people take holidays in July and even August, so it's hard to get people to focus on your book launch in those months. But if your book is a great beach read, a powerful memoir, or something that people might wanna read on their time off, it could be a great fit. Now let's talk through this month by month. January; this is a great month for launching health and fitness related books, goal setting books, anything bucket list like travel, learning a new skill, planning financial goals, it's a new year, and all the stuff that plays well in the media and on the minds of your potential readers is a good fit.

You'll also wanna look at holidays or awareness months that'll be happening to see if there's a tie-in day. In January, there's Martin Luther King Day, so inspirational books about African-American history, civil rights, peace, and freedom are a good fit. February; this is the birth month of Julie Broad of Book Launchers, so there's tons of tie-ins there, no, I'm kidding. But mi amor, right? This is the month of love, Valentine's Day. Finding love, relationship advice, poetry, anything that ties in with that. It's also American Heart Health Month, so that can be a great tie-in for a lot of book topics.

It's also the start of baseball season, so related books can be a great fit there. Or, football, Super Bowl. In March, well, this is Mustache March, which is a good tie-in for books, right? But it's International Women's Day, Women's History Month, so anything woman-related would have a tie-in and be more likely to get attention. And of course it's the month of Easter, so chocolate, Easter Bunny, Easter eggs, do do do. In April, Wikipedia had a long list of things that April is about, I'm not gonna read them all, I'll just put them on here for you to look at, bloop. Or you can go to Wikipedia and see for yourself.

Oh, and April, it's the start of Stanley Cup playoffs, my friends, ooh yeah, so let's talk about hockey victories. Unless you're a Vancouver Canucks fan, and you've yet to experience what victory is like. In May, it's Mother's Day, gifts for mom, books about parenting, motherhood, tips for moms. May also had a long list of things that were good for this month, like National Bike Month.

Seriously, if my husband had known that May was National Bike Month, he would give his bike a party, bake it a cake, buy it new tires, he loves his bike so much. In June, it's Father's Day. Graduations also happen in June, so career books, inspiration, gifts for grad, tips for grad on budgeting, paying off debt, investing money, all of those kind of subjects, great tie-in.

July and August, as I already mentioned, a time for beach reads. A really cool memoir could do well. But I'll be straight up with you, I'm not a big fan of launching nonfiction books in July and August. It's really hard to get support and attention in these months. You can do it, and we've had a few clients launch in the summer with decent success, but it is a challenge. Media's harder to get, and so are your influencers. Despite the fact that August is a big month for book sales, I think a lot of that has to do with back to school. Which brings me to one big subject. If you have a book that applies to college students prepping for university or back to school in some way, like teaching your kindergartner to do math, or something like that, this could be a great time to get attention.

September; books launches in September seem to do quite well, around here anyways. Everyone is refreshed and it's easier to get attention. Kids are back in school, it's just generally a great month for whatever reason. But again, it's even greater if you can tie into something that's relevant to that month. Like National Honey Month, National Preparedness Month, Prostate Health, National Yoga Month, Pain Awareness Month, and like I said, back to school, so children's books, parenting, education, technical, professional, literature, and fiction, all relevant in September.

October is Breast Cancer Month, Cyber Security Awareness, and it's actually another one with a great big long list. But most importantly, it's Halloween, trick or treat. - Boo! - Ah! November; American Thanksgiving, and the start of the holiday push, which is great for most books at this point, but even better if you've got something that makes a great gift for someone. You know, for that avid poker player, the enthusiastic fisherman, the person who loves all things fitness, and so on.

And of course, the month of December, where cookbooks sell well, tips to manage the budget in the season, how to not overeat, stories about Santa. That was a whole lotta lists, but the point I hope you take away is that the best month to launch your book is one where you can get attention, and maybe that's with an event that you can tie into as an awareness month, or a holiday, or a marked occasion, or a big event that you're a part of. Or maybe it's something like our client who wrote a book about the Los Angeles fires, Robert Kerbeck. He pushed really hard to get his book out just in time for the anniversary of the fires.

That makes sense, but if you can't time it, that's okay. Just plan your marketing and pitching around the events that make sense, and know that the best month to launch your book is the one where you are going to have time, energy, and enthusiasm for promoting it. Have you times a launch? Tell us about it in the comments below. And when you comment on the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet #no boring books swag. Like this tips, smash that thumbs up button, go ahead, try it, it feels so good. And make sure you've subscribed to the channel so we can hang out every Tuesday and Friday when new videos come out. Now, if you're looking for some awesome book launch tips, check out this video right here. And if you want the newest video, go right here. Go ahead, click on one of them, I can't wait to hang out with you, I'll see you there.

Read More

Best Tips to Read More Books , Articles and Blogs

Want to read more books in less time ? If yes then we have good news for you with some expert tips and tricks to read more books , articles and blogs in less time. If you always enjoy reading then this article special for you because here you will find great tips to read more and more with effective way. You know that more reading always improve our knowledge so every reader want to read maximum books and blogs to improve his knowledge. Most of business owner like this thing.

If you are a leader then you definitely need to read more blogs and books because it will improve your quality of speech and knowledge. Short reading is also beneficial for you if you want to improve your network.

Best Tips to Read More Books , Articles and Blogs

It is not a great concern to read books. Actual problem is time. How can you save time to read more books. If you have this problem then we are going to solve your this problem through some expert tips and tricks to read more books , articles and blogs in less time.

Don't Make High Goal

It is important for you to read a book and understand it. If you want to make a goal to read a book then you need to start reading this first. If you have interest in this and enjoying to read this then you can minimize your goal time otherwise maximize your goal time. If you will go to complete it on goal time always then you can't get full knowledge from it. You also don't need to compare yourself with others. If you are thinking about other reader then it will disturb you to get knowledge from a book or blog. You need to make your goal according to your power of reading.

Close if You are not Enjoying

You are reading a book and at a halfway. Then suddenly you feels that why you are reading this book. This book is not beneficial for you then don't worry. You can close this book to read and you can go to read something else. If you are thinking that you are not enjoying in any book or blog then never try to complete because you can't get knowledge from it because you have negative thinking about this. So you always need to read books and blogs that you really enjoy. If you have positive thinking about a blog or book then you can understand writer's sense and can get knowledge form it. If you don't have interest then it will be difficult and confusing for you to understand sense.

Always Put Book in Hands

Now we will talk to save time for reading. So you need to take a book in your hand always. If you are suffering to a place then you can read this. You can read this in morning when walking. You can read this before any meeting. If you will take a book in your hand then you can save minimum ten minutes several times in a day. If you are free any time from his work then you can read this book or blog. If you will do this then it will be habit of you.

You can also borrow time to read book or article. For example if you are watching tv then this is not so important work for you so you can divide this time in two parts and give one part to reading.

Create a Disturbance Free Environment

If you are serious about your reading of books and blogs then you need to make a disturbance free environment. You can go somewhere there no noise allowed. You can go to part there is not any activity. You can also go to your guest room to read book and article. So you always need to read in a room that is so quiet and have no tv sound. You can put your mobile or phone in silent mode.

Collection of Books

If you can save some money per month then you can make a stock of books in your house. As we know that per month we are spending so much money on not valuable things. So we can use this money to make a stock of important books. If you have a stock then you will read more to complete them early. It will be motivation for you to get complete knowledge from these all books. If you have a collection then you always have a next option to read.

Conclusion : So these are our best tips to read more books ,articles and blogs. If you are reading lover then you should apply these tricks in your life. It will increase your ability to read more and also help you to save some time to read more books and articles.

Read More

Important Habits of a Good Student

Are you confused that your child or student is good or not? If yes then this article is for your because in this article we have tried to solve this issue. Generally we found some habits in good and successful students so we are going to include these habits of students in this article. These good qualities and habits makes student successful in life and also help to achieve his goal. So many things like making friends , conversation with old persons , a good diet these all helps a student in his life and these are also sign of a good student.

Important Habits of a Good Student

If you also want to be a good student then you need to read this article till the end and need to use these habits in your life. These habits will help you to being a good student and also help you to achieve your goal easily.

Discipline in Life

Not only in institute but also you need to follow discipline at everywhere in your life. A good student always do his works like sleeping , eating , study on time. It will be called good routine in life of a good student. Discipline is most important thing if you want to focus on your learning and target. If you will not follow your routine then it will be harmful for you.

Planning of Life

A good student always think about his future and plan something special. Student need to take a target of his future on time and a good student will definitely do it. A good student will make a time table for study and prepare for exams on time. He will start his preparation on time and achieve his target with easy efforts.

Keep Trying

A good student will never fear or scared of failure. He will try more and more until he achieve success. This is the best thing in a good student he never stop from making attempt to get success. If he will fail then he can catch his problems and then make it his power next time.

Creativity

A good student always try to make his own ways. He always try to follow his own instruction and paths to learn something and this thing makes him different from all other students. A good student is always creative and think about new ways and pattern to crack exam and beat other students.

Learning form His Mistakes

It is most important for a student that he is learning from his mistakes. If he fails then he need to catch his mistakes and problems and then need to work on it to make it power. A good student always to it to find his mistakes and then work on it. He will prepare for his mistakes and get opportunity to get success next time and this thing makes him complete learner.

Participate in Sports

You can see that a good student is always participate in sports and also lead their team because he have quality to lead team. A good student always think to make himself leader of team as he think to come first in class. This thing will also increase brain power of a student and also know that sports is also necessary for a student. Sport will also remove their tension and burden of study.

Writing Skills

As you can see that a good student have too good writing skills. He is able to note down all things in short what he learned in whole day. Yes a good student will also write in short what he learned. This skill will improve his power of brain to remember. This thing will allow him to get good result.

Time Punctual

A good student will be always time punctual. He know the value of time and he will use present time in good things. He never miss chances to get success and never lost any opportunity. A good student always do his works on time and never be late because he have time manner. He will always try to complete his preparation before deadline.

Conclusion : I hope now you can choose a good student from a group of students. If you also want to be a good student then you need to implicate these habits in your daily life. If you are able to do these things then other things will come automatically which a good student have but these are necessary.

Read More

How to Encourage Students to Take Responsibility for Learning

Do you want to encourage your child or student to take responsibility for their learning then we are ready to help you. In this article we have discussed some top quality tips and tricks to encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. You need to follow these tips and tricks if you also want to do this. These tips are taken from world's top university's researches.

How to Encourage Students to Take Responsibility for Learning

There are two ways to encourage your student. First is teacher who can encourage his or her students in his way. Second is parents who need to take important action with teachers to encourage their child to take responsibility for their learning. So this article will help you to do these things easily if you are confused that what to do or not.

Allow them to take Decisions

You need to allow students to take some decisions so they can think about their future and requirements. You can also encourage your students to take decisions and also can help if they are asking for help. If you will allow them to take actions then they will show their interests and skill in different type of ways. Never go to force a student to choose a way or field.

Don't Ask for Hard Things

You need to ask simple questions to a student what they know. If they will answer these question then their motivation will be increased. Then you can connect hard question to say them to prepare for them. So you need to prepare a framework of question to ask students.

Allow Them to Talk Each Other

You always need to talk less and less. You can allow students to ask questions or problems each other. If you give them permission then they can share their doubts and problems to each other and also feel relaxed. Discuss with each other will increase their interest in learning and in this way you can encourage them to take responsibility for their learning.

Be a Model

You need to tell about your learning tricks and tips to students. It will encourage students for learning. If you will tell them your success stories them then they will be motivated. In this way you can also share your ideas to learn better and also ask students to improve learning methods.

Allow Them to Write Feedback

You can ask your students to leave a feedback about their learning. You need to ask them to write about which part they enjoyed in learning , where is problem in any chapter and what they want next time. If you will allow them to write these things then you can find their abilities and choices. Then you can get a conclusion to motivate them and encourage for their learning.

Test Less

Many teachers think that tests will improve memory power of students but it is wrong. You need to take feedback of them to ask their problems. If you take only few tests in week then they can prepare for them. If you take tests regularly then they will feel bad. So you need to think according to students that what they want. You can collect their feedback to take any decision to encourage them for learning.

Allow them to set Target

Set a target is most important thing in any student's success. If you will go to achieve a goal then you can focus your mind. If you don't want disturbance them you definitely need to set goal. It will encourage you to achieve your target.

Conclusion : So these are our top 7 tips to encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. If you also want to encourage your student or child for learning then you also need to follow these tips immediately. If you allow your students these things then they can take some responsibility to take action for their future.

Read More

Top 5 Qualities of an Effective Teacher , Students Thinking about Teachers

How can we say that a teacher is effective or not ? It only can be determined by thinking of students. Yes there are two type of teachers , one is effective and other is normal. There are so many points that describe qualities of a teacher. These qualities can describe that this teacher is effective or not. If you also want to know that which teacher is effective then you need to read this article till the end because we have included top 5 qualities of an effective teachers.

This is totally depend on students that which teacher is effective because according to students if teacher is fulfilling their wishes with study then he is effective. If this article we are going to show thinking of students that what they think about an effective teacher. We asked to so many students to know qualities of an effective teacher and then finally decided to post this article to tell you top 5 qualities of an effective teacher.

Top 5 Qualities of an Effective Teacher , Students Thinking about Teachers

Only dedication of student is not enough to achieve his or her goal , there teacher also plays a great role in this. There is an effective teacher behind every success student. If a teacher will understand students and try to achieve their goal in right then it will be easy for students to find their target and achieve their goal. So you need to know top 5 qualities of an effective teacher.

Ability to Make Relationship with Students

An effective teacher will make good relationship with students for better education environment. If a teacher is successful to touch student's feeling then it will be easy for him or her to teach student in correct and positive way. He can create safe and productive learning atmosphere. Yes every teacher need to build a connective between student and himself or herself. It will create a way to teach effectively.

Dedication of Teaching

As we know that teacher is a guide for every student so every teacher needs to be dedicated to his work. If student will see teacher dedicated then he or her will also feel good interest in subject. Dedication always motivate every student so every teacher should be dedicated to subject and teaching. If teacher loves teaching then students will feel good connectivity with teacher.

Kind Personality, Caring and Patient

These three things make a teacher different from others. If a teacher is caring for his students then students can share any problem or doubt with teacher. Patience and Kind personality also make a good bond with students to teach and learn. Personality characteristics shows that how can a teacher understand students.

Know Knowledge of Learners

Every teacher needs to know that what their student wants. If teacher know that how much knowledge students have then he or her can teach them effectively. Every teacher needs to increase social awareness and emotional knowledge of students. It will help students to ask their problems to teacher and it will make them free from other activities and allow them to focus in study and learning.

Engage Students in Learning

Engagement of students in learning will decide their future in this field. If a teacher is successful to engage students in learning then he will be best teacher for student. Every teacher needs to motivate students if he or her see students lazy. Teacher also can increase emotional and behavioral attachment with students.

Conclusion : These are top 5 qualities of an effective teacher and what students think about a good teacher. I think now this topic is clear in your mind. If you are going to take admission in any school for your child then you can ask students these qualities of their teachers to choose best school for your child.

Read More

Important Tricks to Remember Study Notes before Exams

It is very important for all students to remember all chapters and topics before exam. There are so many tips and tricks that will help you to remember study notes before exams. You can apply these tricks in revision and also apply before one day of exam. We have covered so many important tricks in this article to help students to summarize their study notes strongly so they can clear their every study note.

Important Tricks to Remember Study Notes before Exams

We covered some important and risk free tips and tricks to remember study notes in simple way to crack any exam without any fear. If you are also an student then you can go to follow these tips and tricks without any hesitation.

1. You need to walk before an exam for minimum twenty minutes. Walk of twenty minutes can improve your memory power and also can boost it to remember all chapters without any load in exam. Some research proved this thing also.
2. If you want to take a test of your memory power and want to know that how much you have memorized then you can try to said it loudly. You need to do it if you don't have believe on yourself and want to know that what you remember.
3. You need to motivate yourself to crack exams more effectively. Yes you can say yourself excellent after every good session of study. If you learned anything correctly in any book then you can give reward to yourself.
4. It is also a good method to memorize study notes with teaching. It will be a good test of you that how correctly you have understand any topic if you are going to teach other students particular topic. If will also help you to find your problems in study notes and also help to find weak points in your course.

1. You need to create a mind map of your study notes. If you will create a mind map of whole chapter or topic then it will be easy for you to remember and understand any topic. It will make a short snippet of whole chapter to remember most important points and these points will definitely strike in your mind in exam. It is a good way to remember any large topic easily.
2. As we discussed in last article that you can make diagrams of study materials. This will also set a mind map of topic in your mind and help you remember it easily. If will escape your mind to take burden of large chapters and help mind to remember it easily in exams.
3. It is also important for you to leave mobile in exam days but it is not so easy as we can say. So you need to use some apps that allow your mobile to stop notifications of different type of apps. These apps will block notifications from all apps that installed in your mobile and you can save yourself from disturbing.
4. Use google as a guide or teacher. Yes if you are facing any problem in topic and chapter then you can use google to find our more things about particular topic or chapter. It will provide you so many things to remember topic.
5. You also can watch short documentary and videos on the topic or chapter to clear your doubts. Yes this is a great way in online education to memorize or clear your doubts in any topic.
6. And in the end i want to give you a most important tip that you need to take a break after some time in study. If you will go to study regular for long time then it will be more harmful for you to memorize things and it will also call sleep. If you want to ignore sleep and tiredness then you need to take a short break in study.

Conclusion : These are top 10 tips and tricks to remember study notes before exams. If you are a student and your exams are near then you should apply these tricks to make your revision quick and study effective. If you will follow these tricks and tips then you can definitely increase marks in upcoming exams.

Read More