Tutor Realty Online Consulting

Tutor Realty Online ConsultingTutor Realty is a service that offers tutoring services to real estate agents, owners and real estate investors alike. Through the power of technology and online consultation, Tutor Realty provides the potential students an opportunity to have a real life experience while they learn.Tutors are constantly in high demand in the world of real estate. Each year millions of dollars are spent on self-improvement and professional development programs. As you may already know, some of the best, most successful real estate developers and sellers are self-taught people who went to the heart of their profession and found the perfect mentor to help them along the way. Tutors can help your business thrive as well as growing at a faster rate.With the growth of the real estate industry Tutor Realty offers a wide range of tutoring services. With the advanced Tutor Realty system, there are over 300 professionally designed interactive tutorials available for you to choose from.These tutorials will help you acquire a full understanding of every aspect of real estate; from business ideas, real estate trends, buyer and seller behavior, tenant considerations, legal, financial, marketing and more. You will learn everything that you need to know about buying and selling homes.Other tutoring services offered include full length video lectures and audio presentations, basic real estate training, as well as workshop seminars. If you have a real estate developer in your area you may want to give them a call and set up a consultation with one of Tutor Realty's advisers. They can assess your needs and give you the help you need to build your future career.The tutoring services offered by Tutor Realty are perfect for real estate agents, owners, investors, brokers, and in-house employees. And these are just the types of tutors they offer.Tutor Realty also has a complete suite of Tutor Marketing Software and a Tutor Proplus business plan tool. With these powerful tools, you will be able to achieve and retain leads from your clients and this will drive higher revenue for your business.

End Behaviour of Polynomial Function

End Behaviour of Polynomial Function We know End behaviour can refers to the behaviour of a graph, like it approaches either negative infinity or positive infinity. We know end behaviour of a polynomial function is determinate by degree of the function and leading coefficient. If the degree of the polynomial is Even and leading coefficient is positive then F(x) - , as x - - and also F(x) - as x - + If the degree of the polynomial is Even and leading coefficient is negative then F(x) - -, as x - - and also F(x) - - as x - + If the degree of the polynomial is Odd and leading coefficient is positive then F(x) - , as x - and also F(x) -- as x - - Example 1: Find the end behaviour of the function xsup4/sup-4xsup3/sup+3x+25 Solution: The given function is F(x) =xsup4/sup-4xsup3/sup+3x+25 The degree of this function is 4, its even number We can see the leading coefficient, That is positive. So the end behaviour is F(x) - + , as x - - F(x) - + , as x - Example 2: Find the end behaviour of the function xsup3sup+xsup3sup+3x+2 Solution: The given function is F(x) =xsup3sup+xsup3sup+3x+2 The degree of this function is 3, its odd number We can see the leading coefficient, That is positive. So the end behaviour is If the degree of the polynomial is Odd and leading coefficient is positive then F(x) - , as x - and also F(x) -- as x - - F(x) - + , as x - - and F(x) - + , as x -

Using Passive Voice in English - Video and Exercises

Using Passive Voice in English - Video and Exercises I realized that we dont have a grammar video on the Passive voice when one of my students made a common mistake using the passive voice. Passive voice is important for written English and it is also a really good way to review your tenses, because the passive voice can be in any tense.We use passive voice in English when we dont know who or what did the action or when the action is more important than the who or what. If you want to review your tenses and see some common mistakes English language learners make while using the passive voice, watch the video and do the exercise below:Correct the following sentences 1. The boy found hiding in the closet when the police arrived. 2. Where were you when the accident was happened? 3. More than 10 people found in the van. 4. The book can read in any order. 5. If you find a wallet it should be returning to the owner immediately.Put the following active voice sentences into the passive form 1. Someone robbed the bank on Tuesday. 2. A Brazilian scientist was researching penicillin 50 years before Flemming took credit for its discovery. 3. France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States. 4. The construction company is going to build a house here.

10 Smart Ways for Savvy Language Learners to Make Money

10 Smart Ways for Savvy Language Learners to Make Money 10 Smart Ways for Savvy Language Learners to Make Money Looking for a  new side hustle that puts your knowledge of languages to good use?These days, progressively more people are living, working  and traveling internationally.Consequently, more and more people are committing to learning new languagesâ€"and for good reason! As the world “shrinks” in a sense, the need to effectively communicate across languages grows, both professionally and personally.Schools are heeding the call, with many adding foreign language credits as a graduation requirement. And as the business world expands, big companies like Apple and Amazon are looking for bilingual and multilingual candidates more than ever. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics listed interpreters and translators as one of the top 20 fastest-growing occupations in 2014.But here’s the best news: If you have other career dreams, that doesn’t mean your language skills have to go to waste.Rest assured, there are many attractive and creative options that can comfortably supplement full- time work, make you extra money and keep you involved in languages (while keeping  your brain fresh and letting you reap  the benefits of bilingualism).The growing presence of online businesses, platforms and marketplaces has dramatically increased opportunities for extra income. For professionals with full-time work commitments and those soon-to-become professionals, here are 10 ideas to earn some extra money without compromising your 9-to-5. 10 Smart Ways for Savvy Language Learners to Make Money1. Become a TutorMost students look for time slots in the late afternoons or on weekends, which can fit perfectly around  any  9-to-5 commitment.As for pay, theres quite a range  here in terms of what you can charge.  In metropolitan cities, the average is between $25 and $80 an hour, while in more suburban areas it’s between $12 and $50.Tutoring online is also an easy and lucrative option, as you can teach from your home or anywhere you have an Internet connection. Craigslist can be   a great way to start by creating your own ad to promote your tutoring business. Other popular options with often reliable referral streams are Varsity Tutors and WyzAnt, among others.WyzAnt is a great recommendation if youre looking to teach sessions in-person. This website has grown quite competitive in the last couple of years as the company continues to hire progressively more experienced tutors, who often wind up competing against each otherâ€"especially if they’re listed to tutor the same language in the same area! That being said, this competition allows you to request the rate that youre worth, you wont need to lowball others and get paid less than youd like.If youre more interested in teaching online, Verbling is the way to go. Theres a huge user base, and if youre able to teach a less common language, then youll find a lot of students heading your way. It also simplifies the whole online teaching experience, streamlining your online classroom so you have no need for Skype or another third-party softwareâ€"you can set up your teaching schedule, advertise your skills, communicate with students and hold classes right on this site.2. Freelance TranslationWith your bilingual or multilingual skills, theres also money in taking side jobs translating articles, books, websites and other forms of text. The most common way to land these positions is through word-of-mouth, and theres a big market for it.That said, it’s not exactly easy or simple, as many international businesses often prefer to hire people from lower income countries, where they can pay less for the same job. Standard rates are around 10 cents a word; you may earn more if the text is specialized, technical or scientific.If you have friends, family, or colleagues who are expanding their businesses internationally, helping them translate marketing materials can be an awesome supplement to your income. You can also try listing your services on online freelance boards, like Upwork.3.  App and Gam e DevelopmentThe mobile market outpaced computer use in 2014 and 80% of Internet users now own smartphones.Theres clearly a growing demand, and some say apps are the future of everything! The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, recently stated in a keynote that he believes the future of TV is apps as well, which further expands app possibilities beyond the iPhone and iPad and onto the big screen in the living room.Of course, this option can require a bit more of a time commitment. You’ll need to do your research, as your app will need to stand out among competition. If you’re not tech-savvy, you may also need to find and hire someone to bring your idea to life.If you create an app, depending on the number of people who download it and how much you charge for it, you can make between $5 and $12,000 monthly. Apple’s iOS platform is the most popular, and despite their commission charges, 25% of its app developers make over $5,000 a month!4. Freelance WritingDo you love to write? Do you have something to share about languages, or maybe even international travel you’ve done? Personal blogs can now easily include advertisements and links to Amazon products, which can generate income as people browse ads and click links from your blog.Advertising revenue varies greatly depending on your traffic, so you’ll need to spend a lot of time building your audience first. If you look for paid freelancing opportunities, you’ll notice many companies and websites pay between $10 to  $100 for articles.5.  Make Videos for  YouTube, Vimeo and Other PlatformsWe’ve all heard about the popular YouTube stars making tons of moneyâ€"and while it certainly takes work to get to that status, theres an opportunity to earn revenue from your own personal videos.Anyone can create digital video clips for free through their Google accounts, for example, and earn between .08 and 26 cents for every advertisement view. While this may sound like a small amount, it can easily add up.That said, it’s important to clarify that what makes the money isn’t the video-viewing or clicking itself, but the advertisement viewing. The more viewers engage with the ad (the longer they watch it), the more you’ll make. It also depends on your target keywords, so you may want to do some research on that.6. Sell Your (Original) ContentMany companies and schools pay tutors to create problem quiz sets for language courses. Any creative or innovative language worksheets, e-books or other pedagogic materials can become dollar signs.The skill here, beyond creating unique and quality material that facilities learning, is in the marketing. Pay rates depend on demand and can range from $5 to the thousands.  Some companies only take between 6.5%  to  10% commission and the rest is yours!7. Grade or Score Standardized Language ExaminationsMany universities, schools and testing centers, such as ETS (they administer the GRE and SAT), outsource their grading for the Spanish AP test, for example. Many of them hire from 5 pm to 9 pm (online as well) in the month of May, for example, which is great temporary work to supplement income!To find and apply for these positions, search ETS as well as websites like HigherEd Jobs. Others often post to Craigslist, too. These gigs usually pay between $13 and $40 an hour.8. Teach at a Museum or Community CollegeMany museums are open to hosting courses and easily attract returning students. These gigs can pay between $12 to $45 an hour, or a few hundred to thousands for full course contracts. Community colleges also offer many languages classes, and may be  more likely to hire teachers without teaching credentials.9. Lead a Trip to a Foreign CountryTeaching opportunities abound as more schools and universities see the value in taking students abroad. Depending on your availability, you might consider leading a short-term trip, such as one during a spring break. Check job boards or connect with local schools to see what opportunities are available .You can visit the websites for the study abroad programs themselves and see whats being offered. For instance, check out  Experiment in International Living  or  Organization for Tropical Studies.And if you’re a college student returning from an awesome study abroad experience yourself, see if your university hires campus ambassadors to promote study abroad programs!10. Teach English AbroadAfter Chinese, English is the most spoken language in the world. If you have a bigger window of availabilityâ€"perhaps you’re taking a gap year before entering college, for exampleâ€"consider going abroad to teach English! Many programs hire people without any prior teaching experience.If youre not sure how to get started, check out the resources on Teach English Abroad. They offer TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) courses and paid internships as well as jobs and travel opportunities.Another big perk is the opportunity to save money while you’re living abroad. In China, for exam ple, many English teachers are able to save $500 to $1,500 monthly teaching English after paying off all their expenses. Of course, you’ll need to do some researchâ€"contract length and what’s provided for you can vary.Take advantage of these growing opportunities to keep your language acumen solid and your brain sharpâ€"and profit from it all, too!Jason Linder, MA, is a Spanish tutor with TakeLessons, the leading online marketplace for finding lessons and classes in languages, music and more. Check out the full language guides and resources    and start learning today!   And One More ThingAs a savvy language learner, youll love using FluentU to keep your language skills fresh and always growing. FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you ca n see here:FluentU App Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs learn mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the iTunes store  or Google Play store.

A Lady Orbits Our Moon

A Lady Orbits Our Moon By Lady I mean LADEE actually pronounced like laddie, not lady. She has reached its destination: The orbit of of our good old silver moon. Are you science buffs also excited about LADEEs recent achievement? Continue reading to impress your science teacher. LADEE now probes the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and investigates dust from the moons orbit.  Atmospheres like the moons (called a surface boundary exosphere) are actually the most common type of atmosphere found in the solar system. The relatively thin atmosphere of our good Earth is the exception. LADEE searches the moons atmosphere for lunar dust, possibly helping scientists solve a mystery. Some Apollo astronauts observed a glow on the horizon of the moon before sunrise. Scientists think that this may have been caused by electrically charged moon dust, a theory that LADEE is expected to solve. As well as performing science, LADEE is also tasked with testing a new way to communicate with NASA controllers on the ground. The spacecrafts Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration allows LADEE to send and receive data to and from the Earth via laser.  The  laser communication system is capable of sending six times more data rate from the moon than with the traditional radio system at half the weight and 25 percent less power. I wish LADEE a stellar time (pun intended) in our moons orbit and you the student some extra credit points in your science presentation.  If you need more help about the interesting science topic check out our science tutors. A Lady Orbits Our Moon By Lady I mean LADEE actually pronounced like laddie, not lady. She has reached its destination: The orbit of of our good old silver moon. Are you science buffs also excited about LADEEs recent achievement? Continue reading to impress your science teacher. LADEE now probes the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and investigates dust from the moons orbit.  Atmospheres like the moons (called a surface boundary exosphere) are actually the most common type of atmosphere found in the solar system. The relatively thin atmosphere of our good Earth is the exception. LADEE searches the moons atmosphere for lunar dust, possibly helping scientists solve a mystery. Some Apollo astronauts observed a glow on the horizon of the moon before sunrise. Scientists think that this may have been caused by electrically charged moon dust, a theory that LADEE is expected to solve. As well as performing science, LADEE is also tasked with testing a new way to communicate with NASA controllers on the ground. The spacecrafts Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration allows LADEE to send and receive data to and from the Earth via laser.  The  laser communication system is capable of sending six times more data rate from the moon than with the traditional radio system at half the weight and 25 percent less power. I wish LADEE a stellar time (pun intended) in our moons orbit and you the student some extra credit points in your science presentation.  If you need more help about the interesting science topic check out our science tutors.

Keep Your Ears Open! The Ultimate Guide to Language Listening

Keep Your Ears Open! The Ultimate Guide to Language Listening Keep Your Ears Open! The Ultimate Guide to Language Listening Shhh.Quiet your mind and listen to your surroundings for a second.What do you hear?Are you on a crowded airplane or in a public place? Have you got any music playing? Is someone talking nearby?Your ears are incredibly sensitive organs that end up telling you a lot more about your environment than you might expect.And when it comes to language, the ears and the brain work together with shocking efficiency to make sense of even the most jumbled words in the worst acoustic environments.Of course, that doesnt always seem to be the case. Most of the time it takes me a few listens before I can get all the words of a song, even in English.And lets not forget the massive vocabulary that exists in every language purely to express miscommunication. Huh? Wie bitte?  Apa?But although these are good words or phrases to know, and although everyone needs them sometimes, wouldnt it be great to only have to pull them out in a foreign language as often as you would need to in your native language?A lo t of people say that listening is the hardest thing in learning a foreign language.But Ive never felt that way.For me, building listening skills  has just taken the right amount of time and practice.In this post, were going to look at why working on your listening skills is crucial, and how you can use certain strategies to get your own listening where you want it. Why Its So Important to Spend Time Building Your Listening SkillsConversational competence is essentialEver gotten lost in a conversation?Its happened to me too many times to count.Its tough to keep up with a conversation that you cant participate much in, but its much worse if you cant even understand whats being said.If youre able to understand the other person but your own vocabulary is failing you, the entire conversation and all those missed opportunities become a huge, flashing neon sign telling you where your speaking problems are.Couldnt say when I went to the store last Tuesday? Work on time expressions.Couldnt come up with the word for ukulele? Check the dictionary.By contrast, its infinitely harder to know what to improve when you cant even understand the other persons speech at all.A lack of listening skills will keep you from understanding how you need to improve.And thats just in the realm of conversation. Imagine youre using your language as a tourist. Most tourists just use a simple stock of phrases.When you ask, Whats in this soup? you just need to remember how to say one sentence. But you have to be prepared to understand the answer, whether its chicken, rice or pig brain.You need to develop the ability to recognize vocabularyWithout a base of vocabulary, you have almost no chance of understanding the content of the message that the other person is trying to get across. Its true, you can pick up a lot from context, and in fact, plenty of people learn best from conversations.But if youre in over your head in a conversation, its stressful to try and juggle all the new words youre h earing in order to be able to respond.And conversely, if you have the vocabulary but you cant parse out the individual words you hear, youll be just as lost.Listening practice  and the skills that are gained from it bring your knowledge together with usage to make understanding language a completely automatic experience.Advanced language learners barely even recognize that theyre hearing another languageâ€"it just sounds like someones talking to them.Building listening skills takes time!It takes a massive amount of time for your brain to acquire strong listening ability.Listening is about decoding the sound patterns of spoken language so that you can match it up with the vocabulary and syntax youre already familiar with.In a regular college-level course, youre only being exposed to the language for a handful of hours every week.The reality is, youre never going to be able to teach your brain to decode fast native speech unless you give it a lot of practiceâ€"and that means a mix of intensive and extensive listening exercises. Below, well explain what this means and make it clear exactly how you can build up this crucial skill.Keep Your Ears Open! The Ultimate Guide to Language ListeningIntensive Listening PracticeWhat is intensive listening, and why do it?Intensive listening means spending the time to really break down some challenging native content.Its a lot of effortâ€"thats why its called intensive, after all.But the rewards are huge because youre spending all your energy on actually experiencing and understanding the language as its spoken.Heres how to do it.1. Choose a short clip and listen to it a couple of times.Take a short section of a podcast or video with somewhat challenging speechâ€"no longer than 20 seconds.It should be the kind of thing thats hard to understand the first time, but becomes clearer as you listen to it more.In other words, it should be fairly easy to understand as long as you have a transcript.But learning to understand without  a transcript is what this exercise is all about.The first few times you sit down to do intensive listening, choose something about a topic youre already familiar with.That way, youll likely already know most of the vocabulary used and just need to get your ear tuned to the way the language sounds.For instance, most language enthusiasts are very used to hearing or reading about how people learn languages.For that reason, listening to someone talk about words, language or linguistics in your target language might be a lot easier for you than listening to someone talk about ancient history or modern dance.Or you might like something relatively predictable, like product unboxing videos, recipes or makeup tutorials. If youve seen these in English, youll know they tend to follow the same simple structure.FluentU is ideal for finding content for intensive listening, as it takes real-world videos in a variety of formatsâ€"like commercials, mini-movies, music videos and moreâ€"and on a variet y of topics, and turns them into personalized language lessons. Every video comes with interactive captions (that you can turn off for the purpose of this exercise).In general, at first, youll want to stay away from content that might include a lot of names and dates.Theres a time and place for learning to quickly understand names, dates and times, but its pretty frustrating to be stuck on a word for hours only to eventually realize that its the name of some obscure comedian or politicianâ€"Ive been there.Once youve chosen a clip, youll first want to listen to it twice in a row simply to see what you can pick up.2. Create a transcript of what you hear.Your goal now is to create a word-for-word transcript of everything you hear.So youll need to listen several more times.The best way to do this is actually to start from the very end and work your way back. Listen to the last two seconds, the last three seconds, the last four seconds and  so on.Write down what you can every time.This r epetition will burn the sound patterns into your brain and youll realize you can actually understand a lot more than you thoughtâ€"before you even look anything up.Its like listening to rap music. You dont always pay attention to all the lyrics until you intentionally start trying to understand them.And, by the way, when youre finished for the day, those repeated sections might still be ringing in your ears.3. Check your guesses.At this point, you should have managed to write down most of the transcript.Youll also probably have figured out some words that you dont even know, just from hearing them over and over. This is tricky, and you should be proud of yourself if you managed it!Go ahead and look up whatever word meanings youre not sure about to see if your guesses were correct.After this, if there are still words you cant figure out, let them be for a while and do some reading or vocabulary practice.If you cant recognize the word on seeing it or hearing it, you wont be able to fi gure it out when you hear it at fast native speed.Intensive listening practice is most effective when you know most of the words used but just need to get used to the way natives pronounce them in natural speech.It sounds simple, but this really is something lots of people have trouble with, especially in languages with a big perceived difference between the written and spoken word.This intensive practice really does pay dividends. Its astounding what a difference it can make in your overall ability.But the reason people dont do it all the time is that it burns you out. Youre running your brain at full power for that exercise, and you need time to recharge.Enter extensive listening.Extensive ListeningIts important to balance your intensive practice with extensive practice to give your brain a chance to get comfortable with what you’re learning.And dont worryâ€"extensive practice is a lot less intense.For a change of pace, youre going to listen without looking anything up, just fol lowing what you can and guessing the context.Dont tune out, and dont try to multitask while youre listening. You want to keep paying attention to the content, but not necessarily forcing yourself to understand every word.This is much less mentally taxing and a crucial part of building your listening skills.Extensive listening is also very important for learning cultural nuances and references in your target language.Because any language has so many obscure words and phrases, you simply need an enormous amount of listening exposure in order to get familiar with them.Generally, a two-hour movie will have about 9,000 words of dialogueâ€"roughly the same as a novella or short story.That means youll need to watch four or five movies, or 10 sitcom episodes before you expose yourself to the amount of language you’d get from reading a novel.1. Choose some short episodes of material to listen to.Again, you should be understanding the majority of what you hear, with only a handful of unknow n words every few minutes.If you still feel that your vocabulary isnt large enough, spend just a few minutes of each listening session writing down new words, or do separate vocabulary work at another time.As you consume more and more target language media, youll naturally pick up new words through repetition.Watching a long-running sitcom or cartoon will usually expose you to the same type of language over and over. Boring for ordinary viewers, perfect for the language learner!Of course, if youre not interested in TV, you can substitute podcasts or radio shows.However, be aware that audio-only resources require even more attention because you dont get any of the body language, lip movements or environmental cues that video provides.Just be prepared to compensate for that difficulty by choosing slightly easier material or listening more times to pick up what you need.To start, you could try watching some short comedy sketches, sitcoms or cartoons with familiar plots.An animated show like Doraemon, Peppa Pig or SpongeBob is perfect because the cast of characters is relatively small and the situations are often very familiar.If you miss what happens in one scene, chances are that same scene is going to play out again with only a slight variation later on.You can also look for dubbed versions of movies or shows that you know well from your native language.Even smaller countries usually produce dubbed versions of kids movies to show on TV.And languages like French, German and Japanese are treasure troves of dubbed media from all over the world.At the early stages of extensive listening, you should try to avoid lengthy, involved material like speeches or news broadcasts.Also, I recommend you try not to jump between genres or topicsâ€"get used to a handful of speakers and situations first.2. Listen during a few spaced-out sessions.Once youve familiarized yourself with a TV episode or video, listen to just the audio.Dont pause or take down notes for now. Listen to it a few times spaced out throughout a day or week.Remember or imagine what the characters are doing and how theyre feeling, even if you cant understand every word.This gets your mind more attuned to the emotional context and delivery of the words and phrases you hear.When you see the episode again with the video attached, youll be able to understand much more clearly whats going onâ€"and it wont even feel like you did any studying at all!3. Rack up those listening hours.It takes a lot of time to perfect your listening skills, but did you know that the average American watches over five hours of television every day?If you can turn that television watching time into target-language watching time, youll rack up listening hours incredibly quickly.Plus, theres another secret weapon you can usually count on: dead time.4. Integrate extensive listening into dead time.Five hours of television every day is a nice statistic, but it doesnt help if you personally have a busy, unpredictable life. I know I cant fit that in.If thats the case for you, see what you can do about fitting listening practice into dead time.That means when youre on the go, waiting for a bus, waiting in line, waiting for files to upload, waiting for your dinner to cook… daily life has a lot of waiting!All that time can add up to an hour or more of potential listening time during your day if you just remember to bring your headphones.And what about times when youre doing something else?Its true that true passive listeningâ€"just having your language on in the backgroundâ€"doesnt go very far in improving your listening ability.What it does give you is immediacy.If you can, try simply leaving radio, music, videos or podcasts on in the background as you do other tasks. Its only natural that youll tune out to focus on whatever else youre doing.But when you tune back in, the language is already going and you have the opportunity to immediately catch a few words or phrases.And when that opportunity is han ded to you, its perfectly natural to listen. Compare that with making the mental effort to pull out your phone, put in your earbuds, find the right podcast… what a pain!Basically, by having your target language surrounding you whenever possible, you make it easier to practice listening than to do anything else.After just a few days of really focusing on listening, chances are youll start to see a big leap in your comprehension.As I said above, though, it takes a lot of time for those leaps to add up to the point where you can easily understand pretty much everything you hear.For all my talk about finding short videos with predictable plots and the other advice above, the most important thing is to be interested in what youre watching or listening to.Once youre able to dive into the material you see without having to think about how much you understandâ€"thats when youre on the path to listening success.

Parents of every child in primary school class boycott sats tests - Tutor Hunt Blog

Parents of every child in primary school class boycott sats tests Parents of every child in primary school class boycott sats tests Parents of every child in primary school class boycott sats testsPrimary schoolsThe parents of Year 2 pupils at Bealings primary school have staged a protest over the Sats tests their children are obliged to sit. Such is the strength of feeling against the obligatory testing that a family representative of each and every pupil in the class have signed up, committed to preventing their children sitting the examination. The feeling amongst parents is that year two pupils are too young to be put through the worry of what is an important and potentially stressful examination. Heather Chandler, one of the parents standing up against the school`s policy, is convinced that six or seven years of age is `far too early` to be testing children. `At that age they should be out playing and investigating the world around them, not being taught to do a test,` Ms Chandler continued. `It adds extra pressure they don`t really need and takes a lot of teachers` time away from what they should be doing.` Though the school declined to comment on the matter, it seems the parents may have some support from the Governors, with the Chairman Rick Gillingham commenting `over-testing is certainly something we wouldn`t go along with,` and going on to say that they would not be opposing the parents` actions. According to the education authority Sats stands for `Standards and Testing Agency tests,` but the acronym officially stands for Statutory Assessment Tests. They began shortly after the National Curriculum was rolled out back in 1989 - the first Sats being gradually introduced between 1991 and 1995. They are designed to assess a child`s progress, focusing on English, mathematics, and reasoning skills. Children take Sats at the end of key stage one - around the age of 7, and then once more at the age of 11. The results of the two tests can be compared, with the school being able to tell if a child has fallen short of their expected grade. Schools themselves are also be judged on the results - if less than 65% of their pupils fail to meet the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics they can find themselves facing special intervention orders by their local education authority. The SATs for 7 year olds are actually due to be scrapped by 2023. They will be replaced by a baseline assessment of children`s abilities, to be taken at the start of their schooling in their reception year. This will permit their progress to be followed throughout their schooling. New testing in year six will mean schools don`t have to submit the results of their pupils` English and mathematics at age 11. Ms Greening has praised this proposal, saying it will `free up teachers to educate and inspire young children, while holding schools to account in a proportionate and effective way,` The action by the parents may seem overly authoritarian - they are interfering with their own children`s education by preventing their school from carrying out their assessments. This would be one way to look at things - another might be that during their early years at school children should not be placed under too much pressure. They should be developing social skills, spending time with their friends, learning through play. This is not to say that primary school classrooms should be hosting non stop parties! but there should be a balance - if we make our children`s early years of school too stultifying and academic, too pressurised with exams and assessments, we may be taking something special and pure from their childhoods. Getting that balance right, the balance between work and play, is a difficult challenge - but it is a challenge even adults face. A recent report published the directorate-general Eurostat, the United Kingdom has the longest working week (41.2 hours) out of all the countries in Europe. The issue of Sats is certainly a topical one, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announcing only last month that he would scrap the assessments if he came to power, with the aim to improve teacher recruitment and retention. 9 months ago0Add a Comment