It’s Friday afternoon and your boss asks you to fill a last-minute request for a workshop on Tuesday. You certainly don’t want to upset the powers that be and you definitely don’t want to spend your weekend slaving over content development. So what are your choices? You could say “sorry, try someone else” or you could spend the weekend throwing together a presentation that may not measure up to your standards. Now, there’s another choice - idXready.
idXready, “instructional design Xcelerated and ready-to-go,” is a new type of off-the-shelf training program that will give you a professional program without spending a weekend putting it together! idXready programs are “ready-to-go.” All of the programs include a facilitator kit, speaker notes and a PowerPoint video. Best of all, idXready programs incorporate your learner’s responses into personalized workbooks with online assessments including DiSC, Team Dimensions and the Personal Listening Profile. Each course uses one of the three online assessments to measure behavioral tendencies.
Your participants print their individual personalized workbooks based on the online assessments they complete prior to coming to class. For adult learners, that means the information has immediate interest because it addresses their specific needs. During the presentation, the activities combined with integrated PowerPoint and video engage your learners and make for extremely effective presentations. The often humorous video vignettes present various business situations that reinforce the content and remain with the learner long after the class.
idXready programs also make it easy for you as the facilitator. All of your facilitator notes are included in the “Notes” view of the PowerPoint slides. You can present courses using the notes or customize them to your style. It’s all right in front of you. To keep it really simple, the facilitator notes, the PowerPoint presentation and the participant workbooks are all numbered the same. When you are on Slide 3, your learners should be on page 3 of their workbook – allowing everyone to focus on the content instead of looking for their places. The best part is that you will have given a professional presentation without spending your valuable time pulling together content and practicing your delivery.
Right now idXready is available in 6 titles. Each program is designed to offer 4-5 hours of high quality training with significantly reduced preparation time. Add in the increased participant engagement and learning and it’s definitely a win-win situation for all.
Capitalizing on Team Talents
Collaborative Skills for Teams
DiSC® Powered Selling
Frontline Management: Leveraging the Strengths of Your Style
Improving Your Listening Skills
Reducing Team Conflict
About the author:
Don Bowlby is the Vice President, Operations at Corexcel, a company specializing in online continuing education and workplace training. For more information about Corexcel visit www.corexcel.com
Homeschooling Benefits To Both Parents And Children
Parents choose homeschooling for many different reasons. Some families want to build up their family ties; homeschooling offers the parents freedom to create and pattern individualized and specific curriculum, safety reasons, peer pressure and discontentment with the school system.
Homeschooling moms and dads devote a lot of time guiding and working with their kids, usually having the feeling that modern fast paced living is ruing the closeness of the family.
Family undertakings and activities like shared chores, group projects and games are consistent elements of the homeschool plan, wherein these families benefit from the quality time they devote to each other. Parents believe that homeschooling reinforces the family and permits the children to formulate their own personal decisions and choices without the influence of peer pressure.
One doesn’t have to have or acquire a remarkable educational attainment or background or have plenty of money in order to be successful at homeschooling. Studies show that parents who merely finish high school or even less can do a good job in educating and teaching in homeschool as those parents with education degrees.
The structure that you want for your child’s educational knowledge and involvement will be determined whether you settle to teach from a “homeschool curriculum” package or an unstructured homeschooling approach, offering individualized and flexible time, allowing you to teach subjects in accordance to the child’s development and interest; the quantity of unit or hours of learning per subject would be entirely to your own judgment.
Homeschooling permits the parents to adapt and customize the curriculum according to the child’s learning capabilities. Children needing extra time to spend developing their math skills will be provided with that time, by cutting the period of time spent on subjects that the child is progressing well on so that he/she can have ample time to spend in his weak area.
In addition, parents can also construct the curriculum to meet the child’s personal learning style; some kids’ learn best through hearing, others through reading, and others are hands-on learners. It is only in homeschooling that children can go into and investigate subject matters in such a manner that they “learn best”.
Homeschooling benefits are only as restricted as to the parents’ own imagination and creativity. As the child’s parent, nobody is more familiar with what informative interests your child holds and only in a homeschool and as a teaching parent can you can find out and establish the time required to be used on any subject for your kids to complete and accomplish with the understanding and support that they truly deserve.
Are you considering home schooling your family? Then check out the free "Parents Guide to Home Schooling!" at http://childrenlearnmore.info
Homeschooling for Your Convenience
Homeschooling is an alternative form of education that is fast growing. There are approximately two million people in the country today that undergo homeschooling. It completely fills up the role of institutional learning. In homeschooling, both parents and their children determine the extent of their learning.
Everybody can avail of homeschooling. All fifty states legally approve the practice of homeschooling. What differs from state to state are the laws governing the homeschooling program. Homeschooling can be very convenient for single parents who run a home business. They can have their kids to help them as well. Children of disabled parents can be tapped to take on a medical profession or one that involves social services.
Homeschooling should not be confused with home study or other forms of home-based education. In the latter, the parents and children do not have a say on the content of the curriculum. Examples of these are independent school programs. Home study is usually offered to those kids who for some valid reason could not attend school, say injury.
There is not much requirement for one to administer homeschooling. Some states do not even require a highschool diploma from the parents. There is however, one state which requires some training program for homeschooling before allowing a person to conduct it at home.
Homeschooling is preferred over institutional learning for various reasons. Some find the school curriculum questionable. Some parents think that schools cannot provide enough training to optimize the skills and talents of their children. Some are simply concerned with the issues regarding the safety and security within their local schools. Some children just do not fit in school so parents resort to homeschooling for their kids.
Not much is needed to enable one to administer homeschooling. Even simple household stuff or even pets can be used to demonstrate scientific concepts. One can also borrow tools from friends and neighbors. Books at home can also be great learning materials. If they are not sufficient, the bookstore and the public library are the best sources of knowledge as well as the internet.
If still clueless about the concept, there are many organizations, websites and publications which can help enlighten about homeschooling and offer great help along the process. The library is also one of the best resources for wealth of knowledge as well as the local museums.
Homeschooling can be a very rewarding experience for the family. It provides for more precious time for bonding. It is not necessary for parents to be geniuses to become homeschooling teachers. All they need to have is resourcefulness to find ways to answer their children's questions.
Are you considering home schooling your family? Then check out the free "Parents Guide to Home Schooling!" at http://childrenlearnmore.info