Five Simple Ways To Be More Likeable to students

It isn’t difficult to become more likeable to your students. Anyone can make a few changes in how they relate to their students and see results quickly.
Commit yourself to following the list below for just one week, and behavior in your classroom will improve—both because your students will be happier to be part of your class, and because you’ll have more influence over their behavior choices.
1. Relax
Stress will permeate your classroom like a thick fog, creating excitability in your students and negative feelings about you. So before greeting students every day, take a deep breath and shake the tension out of your arms, legs, and shoulders. Just let it go…
You’ll be more likeable, feel more confident, and carry the calm, relaxed demeanor of a teacher who knows what he or she is doing.
2. Smile
Deadlines, test scores, meetings, paperwork. When you’re under the gun, stressed, or not at your best, your smile is the first thing to go. And with it goes your likeability. You can’t be influential with a furrowed brow and a frown.
A smile is the first step to creating a mutual admiration society with your students; the more you smile at them, the more they’ll smile back. And the more you’ll like each other—a little known key to exceptional classroom management.
3. Be Yourself
Too many teachers hide their true personality from students for fear of inciting misbehavior. But enjoying your students and having a good laugh doesn’t cause misbehavior. It does the opposite. It makes you more likeable and gives you more power to command the behavior you want.
Keeping your personality under lock and key stifles your charisma, making you appear dry, dull, and humorless—which is the death knell of effective teaching. It inhibits that part of you that is the most inspiring and passionate; the part that students take notice of and put their faith in.
4. Tell stories
Nothing is more effective in creating leverage and admiration than being a good storyteller. Its transformational powers can put your students into the palm of your hand.
Start with simple 3-5 minute anecdotes. Share your travel experiences, embarrassing situations, or funny moments. As you get more comfortable, branch out to include fictional stories and stories to introduce lessons and units of study. (For more info on how to become a great storyteller, see Dream Class.)
5. Have fun
Having fun as a class is a potent leverage builder, but if you join your class in the fun, if you take an active part in it, your likeability will skyrocket. The key, however, is not to attach a secondary motive. Have fun just for the sake of having fun.
Not only will your students look at you differently after a game of Giants, Wizards, and Elves, but it will provide a wonderful shot in the arm for a sleepy, restless, or unmotivated class.

tips to overcome boredom

Are you bored with your work, your relationship, or your life in general? Boredom is a complex process. There are lots of reasons that one might be bored. The most common one is that you have no idea what to do. Other reasons might be that you feel lazy, tired or just don't want to do the things that are available for you to do. Maybe you have ideas of things but you feel you can't do the things you want to do. Boredom becomes a great concern when it results in procrastination, indecision and feeling listless and jaded. Here are some ideas on how to overcome boredom. 

Try to figure out why you are bored:
Are you bored because you can't think of anything to do? Do something physically or socially active. Doing some exercise can get you into a better frame of mind, as well as the added bonus of keeping you in shape. Social activity (e.g. talking to someone) fulfils one of our basic human needs. Face-to-face contact is, if possible, much better than talking over the phone or Facebook. If it's that bad, google a random activity generator, then promise yourself to do the first activity you see that is possible for you to do. 

Try to do something totally new and learn from it. New situations and actions will activate your brain, allowing it to exercise its learning powers.

Try to be active with an interesting group of people. These can be your regular friends, or perhaps you could join a new group of people interested in similar things to you. There are many clubs in local communties, or online. Join one, and participate in it regularly.

Break out of your routine. While it is important to have structure in your life, occasionally doing something radically different, or at an unusual time, can be invigorating. You need to pay attention to your thoughts and daily activities and find ways not to submit yourself to drudgery and taking things for granted. Be spontaneous 

Change your thoughts. Your thoughts affect your behaviour and mood. By changing your mind about the meaning of your emotion and experiences, you will generate a different attitude. Get inspired with powerful long-range goals. Powerful goals keep you inspired. You can't feel bored at the same time when you are motivated to build a life. Think about one thing you love every day, and when your down have a self pep talk prepared, about why YOU are amazing.


Fire up your imagination. Create mental images to stimulate your thoughts. Visualize where you want to be and what you want to become. Use your imagination to experience a situation that you want to happen in your life. The wonderful thing about imagination is that you can create anything you wish to experience. Looking out of a window, taking a walk in a park, or going to a museum are all easy ways to get inspired.

Talk to other people. If the person next to you is looking as bored as you are, strike up a conversation! Or call a friend and ask if they want to come over for a natter or a game of something. If you have an interesting, thought-provoking person to talk to, the time can pass by pretty quick. You might also learn something. Clubs and communites have many people to talk to, so join one and TALK! Or even walk up to a random person on the street, and start chatting to them!

Be active! Go for a walk or do something physically outrageous. Write down 10 things you can do and 10 you can't yet. Work through them whenever you're bored. You could also try that sport you've always wanted to do, but never have.

Create curiosity. Create your curiosity on what's happening around and inside you. You find life boring because of the repetition or a pattern of some habits or activities. Try to look at and do them differently and get yourself fascinated with other options and possibilities. Watch the news more often, read more books too. It's truly eye opening!

Find, read, hear, watch or do something exciting, stimulating and entertaining. You will probably be more fulfilled if you learn something: mindless media can be absorbing but ultimately not at all stimulating.

Find a new hobby, such as hiking, knitting, drawing, playing an instrument, Board games, Cards, Cycling, cooking or photography. If you are particularly good at one skill, you could teach others to do it, and be helping others as well as avoiding boredom.

Avoid boring people and situations. Get away from people and situations that bore you. You can't just walk out of a relationship but you can give yourself some space to do things that interest and motivate you.

Start a life list and accomplish a new thing every day, or week.
Try some of these ideas:

1. Work for money. Ask for jobs to do around the house for money or even start a business like mowing people's lawns or pet sitting. Pretty soon all that money will add up and you can buy something new that will keep you entertained. 
2. Walk to the mall and pay attention to the people there; what could they be thinking about? Who could they be talking to? What kind of people are they 
3. Bake something. Then you get to eat it afterwards!
4. Catch up on any homework or that you might still have to do. While this can seem like the last thing you want to do, it could be just the thing to get your brain whirring. 
5. Practice sports by yourself or with friends. You won't be bored anymore and you'll be able to show off your skills next game and feel proud of what you accomplished. 
6. Take out your bike/skateboard/roller skates/scooter and get some exercise. Call up a friend and see if they want to come with you.

A glass of Milk, paid in Full

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.
Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk.
He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”
“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.”
He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Year’s later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.
Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room.
Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room.
She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk”

Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.

introduction of e-Learning

E-learning refers to the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. E-learning is broadly inclusive of all forms of educational technology in learning and teaching. E-learning is inclusive of, and is broadly synonymous with multimedia learning, technology-enhanced learning (TEL), computer-based instruction (CBI), computer-based training (CBT), computer-assisted instruction or computer-aided instruction (CAI), internet-based training (IBT), web-based training (WBT), online education, virtual education, virtual learning environments (VLE) (which are also called learning platforms), m-learning, and digital educational collaboration. These alternative names emphasize a particular aspect, component or delivery method.
E-learning includes numerous types of media that deliver text, audio, images, animation, and streaming video, and includes technology applications and processes such as audio or video tape, satellite TV, CD-ROM, and computer-based learning, as well as local intranet/extranet and web-based learning. Information and communication systems, whether free-standing or based on either local networks or the Internet in networked learning, underly many e-learning processes.
E-learning can occur in or out of the classroom. It can be self-paced, asynchronous learning or may be instructor-led, synchronous learning. E-learning is suited to distance learning and flexible learning, but it can also be used in conjunction with face-to-face teaching, in which case the term blended learning is commonly used.
It is commonly thought that new technologies make a big difference in education. Many proponents of e-learning believe that everyone must be equipped with basic knowledge of technology, as well as use it as a vehicle for reaching educational goals.

Various technologies are used to facilitate e-learning.

 Most e-learning uses combinations of these techniques, including blogs, collaborative software, ePortfolios, and virtual classrooms.

Audio

The radio has been around for a long time and has been used in educational classrooms. Recent technologies have allowed classroom teachers to stream audio over the internet. There are also webcasts and podcasts available over the internet for students and teachers to download. For example, iTunes has various podcasts available on a variety of subjects that can be downloaded for free.

Video

Videos allow teachers to reach students who are visual learners and tend to learn best by seeing the material rather than hearing or reading about it. Teachers can access video clips through the internet instead of relying on DVDs or VHS tapes. Websites like YouTube are used by many teachers. Teachers can use messaging programs such as Skype, Adobe Connect, or webcams, to interact with guest speakers and other experts. Interactive video games are being integrated in the curriculum at both K-12 and higher education institutions.
Research on the use of video in lessons is preliminary, but early results show an increased retention and better results when video is used in a lesson. Creating a systematic video development method holds promise for creating video models that positively impact student learning.

Computers, tablets and mobile devices

Computers and tablets allow students and teachers access to websites and other programs, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, PDF files, and images. Many mobile devices support m-learning.

Blogging

Blogs allow students and teachers to post their thoughts, ideas, and comments on a website. Blogging allows students and instructors to share their thoughts and comments on the thoughts of others which could create an interactive learning environment.

Webcams

The development of webcams and webcasting has facilitated the creation of virtual classrooms and virtual learning environments. Virtual classrooms supported by such technology are becoming more and more popular, especially since they are contributing as a main solution to solving problems with travel expenses. Virtual classrooms with such technology also provide the benefits of being easy to set up.

Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards ("smartboards") allow teachers and students to write on the touch screen, so learning becomes interactive and engaging.

Screencasting

Screencasting is a recent trend in e-learning. There are many screencasting tools available that allow users to share their screens directly from their browser and make the video available online so that the viewers can stream the video directly. The advantage of such tools is that it gives the presenter the ability to show his ideas and flow of thoughts rather than simply explain them, which may be more confusing when delivered via simple text instructions. With the combination of video and audio, the expert can mimic the one-on-one experience of the classroom and deliver clear, complete instructions. From the learner's point of view this provides the ability to pause and rewind and gives the learners the advantage of moving at their own pace, something a classroom cannot always offer.

Combining technology  

Along with the terms learning technology, instructional technology, the term educational technology refers to the use of technology in learning in a much broader sense than the computer-based training or Computer Aided Instruction of the 1980s. It is also broader than the terms Online Learning or Online Education which generally refer to purely web-based learning. In cases where mobile technologies are used, the term M-learning has become more common. E-learning, however, also has implications beyond just the technology and refers to the actual learning that takes place using these systems.

In higher education especially, the increasing tendency is to create a virtual learning environment (VLE) (which is sometimes combined with a Management Information System (MIS) to create a Managed Learning Environment) in which all aspects of a course are handled through a consistent user interface standard throughout the institution. A growing number of physical universities, as well as newer online-only colleges, have begun to offer a select set of academic degree and certificate programs via the Internet at a wide range of levels and in a wide range of disciplines. While some programs require students to attend some campus classes or orientations, many are delivered completely online. In addition, several universities offer online student support services, such as online advising and registration, e-counseling, online textbook purchases, student governments and student newspapers.
E-learning can also refer to educational websites such as those offering learning scenarios, worksheets and interactive exercises for children. The term is also used extensively in the business sector where it generally refers to cost-effective online training.

advantages and disadvantages of e-Learning

Key advantages of e-learning include:

• Improved open access to education, including access to full degree programs
• Better integration for non-full-time students, particularly in continuing education,
• Improved interactions between students and instructors,
• Provision of tools to enable students to independently solve problems,
• Acquisition of technological skills through practice with tools and computers.

Key disadvantages of e-learning, that have been found to make learning less effective than traditional class room settings, include:

• Potential distractions that hinder true learning,
• Ease of cheating,
• Bias towards tech-savvy students over non-technical students,
• Teachers' lack of knowledge and experience to manage virtual teacher-student interaction,
• Lack of social interaction between teacher and students,
• Lack of direct and immediate feedback from teachers,
• Asynchronic communication hinders fast exchange of question,
• Danger of procrastination.

Advantages and Disadvantages of eLearning


There are many advantages to online and computer-based learning when compared to traditional face-to-face courses and lectures. There are a few disadvantages as well.

Advantages of online or computer-based learning

• Class work can be scheduled around work and family
• Reduces travel time and travel costs for off-campus students
• Students may have the option to select learning materials that meets their level of knowledge and interest