The Most Ridiculous School Mascots You’ve Never Seen

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School mascots serve as rallying points for the school’s programs, with a particular focus on athletics. While mascots are usually silent, they get a crowd screaming like a bomb threat. Mascots can turn a cool crowd warm, and whip a warm crowd into a frenzy. So it makes sense that every serious sports team has their mascot costumes, to keep traditions in place and keep up with the other team’s mascot. Here are some completely ridiculous ones you may have never heard of.

Artie the Fighting Artichoke from Scottsdale Community College

An artichoke is a relative of the daisy family, believe it or not. Artie the Fighting Artichoke is just one of the violent plants cultivated by colleges out of a combination of heart and spite. When the 1970s-era student government put artichokes up against rutabagas and scoundrels, it must’ve been an easy choice. Everybody knows rutabagas are wimps.

Fighting Okra from Delta State University

Okra is a plant in the same family as hollyhocks, which undoubtedly qualifies it as a serious contender in the sports world. Delta State students were once known as “the Statesmen,” but apparently visions of Abraham Lincoln and FDR just couldn’t handle the brutal ferocity of okra. If you don’t eat your vegetables or if you try to play with them, they will exact their revenge by forcing you into a pitched battle. Fear the okra.

Green Wave from Tulane University

Believe it or not, the Green Wave wasn’t named for polluted water, but for a song. The Rolling Green Wave was published in Tulane’s school paper in 1920, and eventually became a traditional “salute” to opposing teams. People at sporting events issue green gloves, and when the opposing team leaves the field everyone waves to them.

There are a lot of ridiculous sports mascots, and many are fairly obscure. Sometimes the strangest thing about a mascot is its origins. While you may have never heard of the above-mentioned mascots, checking them out can lead to some serious “can’t believe that’s for real” hilarity.

Filed Under: Colleges & Courses

How to develop the habit of reading

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reading

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Reading is the most effective habit to build your intelligence and memory. You might be born intelligent, but if you don’t have the habit of reading, you will remain an average person. Reading promotes imagination, information organization, information recall, and provides ingredients for imagination.

How does one imbibe the habit of reading? Are there any methodologies for people who have not read a single page in their lives? Yes there are. Here are some tips.

Start slowly and steadily. Read for five minutes every hour. Then stretch it to ten minutes. Set a time in a day for you to read information. Don’t read stuff that will not help you in any way. For example, things written on movie stars. These are entertaining, but a complete no-brainer.

When you travel, carry a book along. Whereever you go, be it on a vacation, or a family function, carry a book. You might not get time to read, but you are carrying your motive along with you. And one day you will be compelled to read the book and finish it.

Read a variety of information. Don’t just read romantic novels or sports biographies. Read about medicine, and engineering subjects. Get used to the demands of thought , reasoning, and logical representation that reading has on your brain. Once in a while read things you love to read. Read comics, and glossy magazines.

Start visiting libraries. You will find people of your interest. Don’t become too much of a bookworm. Over-reading and not doing anything can also be no fun.

Filed Under: Back To School, General Tagged With: , ,

Myths about distance learning

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There are a lot of rumors running riot when it comes to the subject of distance learning. People shy away from distance learning due to many reasons. The chiefest among them is the lack of recognition distance learning courses have by the industry.

Distance learning is also seen as a sign of mediocrity. Meritorious students study in the most expensive universities on scholarships. Bright students study in good colleges based on their scores. And even the poor ones get admission to good universities if they are bright students. So what about the mediocre? They take distance education?

Myth1
Online schools are fake and there for making moneyThis might be true for many universities, but not all. Before enrolling into an online university, prudence has it that you should check its credentials. Check your national government-sanctioned educational body to verify if the online school is legitimate.

Myth2
Learning is less and inefficientLearning depends for the most part on the learner. Online schools can give the same amount of interactivity that a regular school can. Most online schools use advanced video-conferencing technology to help achieve this. Students can ask questions online during a video-broadcasted lecture session. So where’s the difference?

Myth3
Employers don’t recognize distance educationIf you are from a good distance education institute, and your employer still does not recognize it, stop recognizing your employer! Good employers seek knowledge. They are more focused on what you can do. You might be from Harvard, but does that make you Einstein? By the way, Einstein was not from Harvard!

Filed Under: Adult Learning, General Tagged With: , ,

Should the elderly go back to school?

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Elders from Turkey

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When you cross age sixty, you are old in body, but young in spirit. You have experience life. You understand the definition of life, and can explain it to others. While others still search for the definition of life, you are content, because you have all the answers.
Being elderly is being superior, and being wise. It is a time when the quest for knowledge increases. Not for increasing one’s wealth, but for increasing one’s understanding of the gift of life.

Senior citizenship is a time to relax and realize one’s true potential. It is also a time to make amends to one’s wishes and desires. One such wish may be education. As a young, or middle-age person, you would have loved to learn a particular subject. But lack of financial resources, support, or time could have hindered it. To fulfill that desire, it is never to late. And you can still go back to school at sixty.

Senior citizens want to feel accomplished. As they look back at a well-traveled road, they don’t want any regrets. If it is possible for them now to achieve it, this is best time to do so.

When you are a senior citizen, you are actually starting to live life. All these years you would not have known for what your worked. You would not have known when to stop. But age stopped you from going further. And now you have no choice, but to stop working, and start living. There’s no better time to start enjoying life than now.

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Education Phobias ? Do Not Behave Like A Child When You Face This Problem

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Debra Music at TEDx Seattle 04/16/10

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Is your child is suddenly afraid of going to school? Has he or she started complaining about the entire concept of education as a whole? Some kids behave like this only when school is about to reopen. On the other hand, some students will also feel that the discipline involved in education is far beyond what they can handle.

Your first reaction as a parent may be to panic and create a big scene. However, there is no point in behaving like a child to solve such a problem. Instead, you should opt for a smart approach to the entire issue.

Try consulting a child psychologist. You don’t have to take your child along at the very first instance. Rather, you can have a few meetings yourself to find out more about the problem. It may be a case of bullying at school. Or, the child may be worried or concerned about something else. Fights and disputes amongst the parents at home may result in such behavior on the part of the child. It may simply be a way to attract attention.

It is also possible that the child has become afraid of failing because of a particularly tough subject. In such a scenario, contacting the teacher and requesting him or her to pay a bit of extra attention may make a huge difference.

Phobias related to education are very common considering the complexities involved. You would do well to be patient and accommodative. Taking extreme stands in the beginning may scare the child further and may affect the communication process. This will only complicate matters and worsen the behavior of the child.

 

 

 

Filed Under: General, Online Education Tagged With: , ,

Home Schooling For Your Child ? An Option Worth Considering

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Group of children in a primary school in Paris

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How would you react if you were advised not to send your child to school? You would probably reject the advice outright because such a decision will be very bad for the future of your child. Further, your local government will be very interested in knowing why you have taken such a decision when education is such an important aspect of an individual is life.

Well, you always have the option of trying home schooling, right? Many persons are critical of home schooling because such a child will miss interacting with other children of his or her age. Well, there are many ways and means where you can achieve this goal. Do not make the mistake of dismissing home schooling outright.

If you have a spouse at home who is not doing any work, then you would do well to utilize his or her skills to educate your child. There are numerous online teaching resources that can help parents plan education properly. Your child may have a good grasp of certain subjects and may be weak in certain other subjects. In such a scenario, you can speed up the process of teaching and learning as far as the strong subjects are concerned. In the same way, you can slow down and focus on the minute details as far as the weak subjects are concerned.

You can use the money that you have saved to get the best educational resources for your child. You can organize visits to museums and sites of cultural importance on a regular basis to give the best education to your child.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Colleges & Courses, Online Education Tagged With: , ,

Back to School Tips for the Untraditional Student

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Back-to-school time is portrayed in the media and in retail stores as a time for students to stock up and head back to the classroom. This type of situation might be ideal for students who are heading back to a brick-and-mortar classroom, but what about those students who are considered untraditional and heading back to the Internet classroom. Students heading back to the Internet classroom still have back-to-school needs, but they aren’t the traditional stock up on folders, pens and pencils and the latest fashions. These students have  needs that are a bit unconventional.

Here’s a look at some back-to-school tips for distance learning that will help you figure out what you need to do to prepare yourself for the upcoming school year.

Get Yourself Onto a Schedule

Distance learning or online-based classes require a lot of self-discipline. You are required to attend all classes on your own and you must motivate yourself to do your schoolwork while juggling other commitments.

To prepare yourself for the upcoming school year, you need to get yourself on a schedule and stick to it.  Schedules are the best way to ensure that all your schoolwork is done in a timely fashion and that you carve out a small amount of time each day that is reserved just for doing that work.

The best way to prepare for your back-to-school schedule is to sit down and physically write out a schedule so you can see what you need to do each day and how your time is blocked out. Try to integrate that schedule into your daily routine about two to three weeks before your classes actually start.

This will allow you to make sure you are already on and used to a schedule when your classes start.

Perform a Technical Run Through

For the distance learner, technology is the key to the outside world which is why a technical run through is part of the back to school essentials. A technical run through will allow you to make sure that everything is working properly and that you have everything you need to make your classroom experience enjoyable and easy to attend.

A technical run through will include trying out the virtual classroom to make sure you have all the necessary programing and software that you need. It will also include trying out all the ways you can save files and back-up data in case anything were to happen while you were doing your schoolwork.

A technical run through can also include installing anti-virus and anti-malware software as this will prevent anything bad happening to your computer or Internet which would cause you not to be able to attend classes.

Whether you are a traditional or untraditional student, you still have to engage in back to school preparations. So, when will the media and retail stores start incorporating nontraditional back-to-school preparations into their advertisements?

 

Back to School Tips for the Untraditional Student
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Obstacles Defied: Distance Learning

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Life is… complicated. This is the most obvious of truths, gained through endless responsibilities and moments that blur. Your days are shaped to obligations — family, friends, the wheezing commands of your employer. There is no time to spare; there is no relief to seek. You’re consumed instead by duties, and pursuing an education therefore seems to be impossible.

You can’t abandon your cubicle, waste hours trudging from classroom to classroom. There is too much to do — and far too much to risk for the mere cause of knowledge. It can’t be accomplished.

It can, however, if you have the aid of distance learning.

The modern age is one of convenience. Individuals no longer have to fret over the span of miles and continents. The world can instead be tamed by technology (with computer screens offering instant access to information). And this is the cornerstone of distance learning. Individuals utilize virtual classrooms, forums and more to obtain the degrees they crave — while not being forced to have a physical presence on campus. All lessons, testing and conversations are held online; and this ensures that no minutes are lost.

Distance learning also offers the value of personalized scheduling. Individuals choose their classes, slotting an education between their other responsibilities. A seminar could be attended while at work; assignments could be answered from the comfort of the living room. This provides a sense of freedom and allows knowledge to be obtained.

The value of distance learning can’t — and shouldn’t — be denied. Those lacking time must therefore take advantage of what it offers and enrich their (admittedly busy) lives.

Filed Under: Online Education

Why Do People Criticize The Option Of Home Schooling?

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Children in Khorixas, Namibia

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Why are you scared of the option of home schooling your child? You may have studied in an educational institution and may be comfortable with the idea. However, what if your child performs better if you opt for home schooling? It is an option that you must consider and analyze properly.

Discipline

Many individuals are afraid that the child will become undisciplined if he or she stays at home. Well, what is stopping you from setting up a separate space that will be the study room for your child? When you enter this space, you will be the teacher and your child will be the student. You can keep all parental concerns outside and treat the child just as a teacher would behave. Discipline is not something that is attached to any specific place. A lot depends on how you treat the child. In any case, you cannot presume that your child will learn discipline just because it is sent outside the house for school.

Exposure

Lack of exposure to other individuals of same age is not an insurmountable problem. You can encourage your child to participate in sports and this will present numerous opportunities to interact with others. You can encourage your child to be outgoing. Make sure he or she is a member of clubs related to nature and education. A lot depends on how you approach this problem.

Home schooling will be less expensive as compared to sending your child a school. You will utilize your talents better and would have wonderful role model to present if you decide to go in for another child.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Colleges & Courses, General, Online Education Tagged With: , ,

Prepare to Participate

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Perhaps you or someone you love is house-bound because of fear of crowds or another phobia. This person does not want to be limited in his or her opportunities by a low level of education, and yet the fear will not permit this person to leave the house to pursue an education. Happily, the digital age brings the classroom home with distance learning.

Dell has a number of student response system tools available for every conceivable user. The company’s “Interact and Assess” products provide a way for the distance learner to actively participate in class, with buttons that allow the user to answer and ask questions. Responses are not just limited to yes or no. These tools allow the student to enter short phrases in response to open-ended questions. These kinds of tools are even being adopted within classrooms. Students can even take exams and stu

A university classroom. (Jones Hall at Princet... 

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dy through these systems with the ExamView Learning Series. This tool can be selected to be specific for individual state testing standards, which is very useful in the increasingly evaluation-driven educational environment. It is obvious how Dell’s tools will be helpful for those suffering from school phobia.

The Promethean ActivExpression tool can also provide students with teacher feedback. While physical classrooms are now subject to budget cuts and teachers are rapidly being shed from the traditional education workforce, these technologies offer qualified teachers an important tool to reach a broader array of students without even needing to be based in an actual classroom. These tools truly are the wave of the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Back To School, Learning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,
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