What is it Like to Attend The University of Texas at Austin

What is it Like to Attend The University of Texas at Austin The tutors behind Varsity Tutors are not just here to teach theyre sharing their college experiences as well. Larrissa is a Houston tutor specializing in Psychology tutoring, Reading tutoring, ISEE prep tutoring, and more. She studied Communications at The University of Texas at Austin and graduated in 2009. See what she had to say about her alma mater: VT: Describe the campus setting and transportation options.How urban or safe is the campus?Are there buses or do you need a car/bike? Larrissa: There are plenty of ways to get around UT-Austin the bus system being the most useful. There are university buses that run around campus, the close surrounding areas, and the areas that are made of mostly student housing. In addition to that, every UT student can ride an Austin city bus for free with their student IDs. I didnt have a car in Austin until I started graduate school, and I did just fine. You can take buses to the grocery stores and everything! As for safety, I would say there are the same safety concerns as every big school, especially those in the middle of a growing city. It isnt recommended to walk across campus alone at night, and there are student groups that will walk to you and escort you anywhere on campus. The UTPD officers are also very helpful with these things, and there are emergency call boxes everywhere on campus ! VT: How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? Larrissa: The professors are typically pretty available, depending on their work-loads and class sizes. Sometimes you have to wait to see a professor but they all have office hours and are pretty good about being in their office during those hours. The TAs are almost always available and spend a great deal of energy meeting with students, in and outside of their office hours. Academic advisors go through busy seasons with registration being the biggest rush of students. As long as you have a little patience and plan ahead for those times, there is never a problem. VT: How would you describe the dorm life rooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Larrissa: Dorm life at Texas is a great time. There are dorms to fit every lifestyle and need, but I would recommend joining a residential FIG. They are basically groups matched by dorm and major, so you are in som e of the same classes as people living in your dorm. It creates a small community within a huge campus and makes it feel like home FAST! There are cheap, yummy dining choices and delicious expensive dining choices and everything in between. UT does a great job of making sure they have pretty convenient things for students! VT: Which majors/programs are best represented and supported?What did you study and why? Did the university do a good job supporting your particular area of study? Larrissa: The business school at UT is highly ranked nationally, and the engineering program is top as well. That being said, every major at Texas is backed up with the international credibility of The University of Texas. I studied Communications for my undergrad and masters degrees. I chose this because I had an intense fascination with how people interact with each other, but not on a clinical scale like Psychology majors. Being a Communication Studies major had a ton of benefits in school, and no w outside of school. It is so translatable to many different professions, and I got to study exactly what I was passionate about. VT: How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Larrissa: The residential FIG definitely encouraged friend-making, as do all of the social/spirit groups at UT. There are many Greek organizations, and organizations that have the structure of Greek ones without the Greek letters. The incredible part about UT is that anyone can start a club with 2 friends and $15. The more incredible part about UT is that someone else probably already started the club and you can just join! 50k students means a lot of people with similar fringe interests, and everyone wants to find a niche there. Its awesome! VT: How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services?Do many reputable companies recruit on campus? Larrissa: The Career Center is pretty he lpful, and many of the colleges have their own Career Centers. You can choose to go to the University-wide one, or one just for your college (like the College of Engineering). The career fairs that are hosted by individual colleges and the university as a whole are really neat! There are so many companies hiring so many different types of people that most people go to career fairs every year, on the job market and not! VT: How are the various study areas such aslibraries, student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? Larrissa: Of course, during finals time, the libraries can get pretty crowded. When that happens, there are plenty of other places around campus to go study. Empty classrooms, dorm lounges, outside, nearby coffee shops theyre all available. Once you go to school there for awhile, you develop your favorite spots to study. Mine was always the Life Sciences library, in the base of the UT tower. It is whats left of the original libra ry at UT (the stacks) and looks like a library that would be in Hogwarts. Its so beautiful and peaceful. VT: Describe the surrounding town. What kinds of outside establishments / things to do are there that make it fun, boring, or somewhere in between?To what extent do students go to the downtown area of the city versus staying near campus? Larrissa: Luckily for students at UT, you dont have to choose between campus area and downtown campus is basically downtown! If you want to do it, there is probably a bus to take you close to where you want to go. Austin is a place for dreamers and doers, and its beautiful. You absolutely never run out of things to do there! Im originally from Austin and even when I return back there, there are new and old exciting things to do that are new to me! VT: How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Larrissa: The student body is pretty huge. I think it was over 50,000 students when I attended, so I am sure it is higher than that now! Class sizes range from 25-600. It really depends on the class type and how many credit hours you need to take it. As you progress in your academic career at Texas, your classes get smaller. There are definitely times that the class size is overwhelming, but the workload is formatted differently in big classes to make up for it. Big classes use scantron tests while smaller classes write papers. Its just a matter of how you learn and work. VT: Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most.Larrissa: I definitely had some professors that were exceedingly challenging, but I will never forget the incredible team of Drs. Daly and Vangelisti. They both changed how I see myself, the world, and school in different ways but amazingly influential just the same. Dr. Daly is the reason I pursued Communication Studies for my undergrad, thanks to his Interpersonal Commu nication class (one of the classes that has 500+! Hes THAT good!) His beautiful wife, Dr. Vangelisti is the reason I pursued graduate school, thanks to her love of research and desire to shape young minds into what they want to be. I cannot speak highly enough of the CMS department, the College of Communication, and The University of Texas. The motto What starts here changes the world is truly fulfilled and I could not be happier to forever be a Texas Longhorn. Much love, and Hook Em Horns! Check out Larrissas tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

Getting Help with Academic Support

Getting Help with Academic Support Improving Your Grades with Academic Support ChaptersWhy Get Academic Support Tutorials to Avoid Falling Behind?How Can Struggling Students Get Academic Support Tutorials?How Much Do Private Academic Support Tutorials Cost?How Often Should You Get Academic Support Tutorials?“A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.” - Eliphas LeviIn the UK, 100,000 students per year are leaving school “without basic qualifications”. This is a 28% increase since 2015.  Of course, students can struggle at any time during their schooling, not just when they leave. From reception to sixth form, students can start to struggle with any subject and once they do, it can be a slippery slope if they don’t get the right help.So how can academic support tutorials help with this? CalumDrama School Entrance Teacher 5.00 (15) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ToriSpanish Teacher 5.00 (1) £15/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors OliviaSchool support Teacher 5.00 (2) £21/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MarkESOL (English) Teacher 4.76 (17) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors YuweiChinese Teacher 4.33 (6) £19/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JenniferMusic reading Teacher 5.00 (1) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LouiseAutoCAD Teacher 5.00 (3) £60/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RickyPercussion Teacher 5.00 (7) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NicolasGuitar Teacher 5.00 (2) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MyriamOrganic chemistry Teacher 5.00 (13) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JonathanEconomics Teacher 5.00 (9) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors Oluwakemi imoleMaths Teacher 5.00 (1) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AlexPhysics Teacher 5.00 (1) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AdamSinging Teacher 5.00 (14) £48/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ValentiniMusic reading Teacher 5.00 (2) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MilenaMaths Teacher 5.00 (5) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RashmiEconomics Teacher 5.00 (1) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsWhy Get Academic Support Tutorials to Avoid Falling Behind?Falling behind or struggling in a class can occur when a student loses interest in their classes or schooling in general. This lack of interest can come about for several reasons: struggling to understand certain concepts or topics, struggling in the classroom environment, economic or social factors, boredom, the relationship with the teacher, health problems, etc. Try to work out why your child is struggling at school. (Source: coyot)A child doesn’t need to go to school if they are homeschooled, but the child must get a full-time education. The school leaving age in the UK is 18, but once a child reaches 16, they can either stay in full-time education, start an apprenticeship or traineeship, or spend 20 hours a week working or volunteering while in part-time education or training.While the government is tasked with ensuring that students don’t fall behind or struggle during their schooling, it still happens quite regularly, which is where academic support comes in.So why choose tutoring services for a struggling child?Home tutoring and online tutoring can help students to:Improve their academic performanceCatch up in classes they’re falling behind inGain confidenceStart enjoying schooling againConsolidate their knowledgeExam and test prep: GCSEs, A Levels, etc.Start enjoying a certain subjectOrganise themselves betterWork regularlyDevelo p their critical thinking and study skillsStimulate their curiosityAsk questions they wouldn’t ask in classGet personalised help according to their strengths and weaknessesFind the necessary motivation to keep studyingGain new perspectives on their futureA private tutor can make a student feel more comfortable in their studies and allow them to develop their skills in a way they otherwise can’t in class.Find out more about the benefits of private tutorials.How Can Struggling Students Get Academic Support Tutorials?Before you start looking for academic tutoring, you need to take a step back and think about the student’s needs. Ask yourself some important questions to help you find the private tutors for your child:Their age and level: primary school, secondary school, college, sixth form, etc.Their difficulties: methodology, comprehension, speaking, writing, etc.Availability: evenings, weekends, lunchtimes, etc.Online tutorials or face-to-face tutorials?One-on-one tutoring or g roup tutoring?BudgetShort-term or long-term academic support? Put together a list of your criteria before you start looking for a tutor. (Source: FirmBee)Once you’ve got your answers, you can start looking for your private tutor. We recommend you filter your responses in terms of where you live and budget so that you can find effective private tutoring.Here’s an example request for a private academic support tutor:“Hello, I’m looking for a private tutor to help my son Paul with maths. He’s in primary school and needs help revising throughout the whole year. He struggles with geometry and remembering certain aspects of the course. He worries about maths regularly. He needs to develop a learning methodology that will help him learn effectively.We’re available one night a week after 17:00. I would prefer it that you come directly to our home. Could we organise a meeting to work out hour many hours he’d need and how long the tutorials would last?You can also get in touch with tutors on sites like Superprof. Have a look at the classifi ed ads and don’t hesitate to get in touch with various tutors.  There are academic support organisations that you can get in touch with to find help for your child. Usually, you’ll need to get in touch, usually through a contact form, or by getting in touch directly with them.There are also free solutions, too. Have a look around for free academic support offered by charitable organisations, workshops, etc.You can also find plenty of academic support services online. There are plenty of academic support services and resources you can get online. If you have the time, you can also use the resources to help your child.How Much Do Private Academic Support Tutorials Cost?Generally, academic support tutorials cost around £20 an hour. However, this average isn’t representative as the cost can vary wildly according to the service you’re getting.The student’s level: primary school students tend to pay less than secondary school students or sixth formers. Generally, the more a stu dent knows, the more the tutor will have to teach them.The tutor’s qualifications and level: the more qualifications a tutor has, the more they’ll charge for their experience. A student working as a tutor won’t charge as much as a professor with a doctorate, or example.The tutor’s experience: a tutor just starting in teaching will charge less than a tutor with years of experience.The subject: maths, physics, chemistry, and biology tend to cost more than the humanities.Location: rates are higher in big cities than in the country.Competition: if there’s a lot of competition, the rates tend to be lower as the tutors compete for students.The number of tutorials: if you’re hiring a tutor for a long time, there’s more chance that they’ll offer you better rates.Travel: some tutors will factor their travel costs into their rates if they have to travel a long way to provide the lessons. Private tutorials are often tailored to the student. (Source: rawpixel)It’s difficult to work out the average rate for tutorials with so many factors to consider. You can find tutors for as little as £10 and others for upwards of £60 per hour. You need to find a tutor that meets your requirements in terms of service and budget.Find out more about the cost of academic support.How Often Should You Get Academic Support Tutorials?It’s easy to think that academic support means plenty of tutorials. However, this isn’t always the case. You also don’t want to inundate a struggling student with work as it can demotivate them. One-on-one tutorials are a great way for students to regain confidence. (Source: Wokandapix)Similarly, a student’s attention span will vary according to their age. Primary school students can only really concentrate for around 30 minutes, twice a week. Any more than that and the tutorials won’t be as effective.By secondary school, students can spend an hour either once or twice a week depending on their needs. Of course, you don’t want to increase the student’s work too much and stress them out.By the sixth form, when they’re more used to studying regularly, you can have 2 to 3 hours of academic support per week according to the student’s needs.During the holidays and summer, they can always get intensive academic support tutorials for 2 hours a day throughout the week. In this case, it’s a good idea to have them in the morning when you’re more motivated.Find out more about how often you should schedule private tutorials.Now you should have a better idea of what priva te tutoring and online tutoring is all about.No matter what subject you need help with or which skills you want to learn, you can find experienced and talented private tutors on Superprof. Regardless of the subject, there are three main types of private tutorial available: one-on-one tutorials, online tutorials, and group tutorials. Each has its pros and cons and some types work better for certain subjects than others.One-on-one private tutorials are between you and your tutor. The lessons will be tailored to you, your goals, and your learning style. Since this entails a lot of work outside of class from the tutor, you'll probably pay a premium for them. However, with every minute in class spent teaching you, these are also the most cost-effective type of tutorials available.Online tutorials are similar to private tutorials since they are between a single student and tutor but the tutor isn't physically in the room with you and is instead teaching you remotely via a webcam. With few er expenses and the ability to schedule more tutorials each week, the tutor can charge less per hour and they often do.Finally, group tutorials are when several students are taught in a single class by a private tutor. These students may already know each other or be strangers. You won't have the tutor's undivided attention like in the other types of private tutorials but the cost of the tutorial will be divided amongst all of the students in attendance, making it cheaper per student per hour.Many of the tutors offer free tutoring for the first hour so try a few out and see which type of tutorial and which tutor is best for you.

Algebra Homework HelpThe ultimate solution to Algebra Homework Help

Algebra Homework HelpThe ultimate solution to Algebra Homework Help 0SHARESShare If you haven’t been successful in getting an amazing algebra homework help till now, you can hold the helping hand of Tutor Pace. You will get a full-fledged homework help from us; something that  youve  always dreamed of. Incredible algebra homework help We offer a complete homework help online that caters to the needs and requirements of students completely. Students can ask any problems and can bring any doubts from/to our great algebra tutors. Our tutors are dexterous enough to answer any question. In addition to doing homework, students get to learn different algebra shortcuts that help them in their tests and exams. Regular feedback from highly-qualified tutors let the students improve their grades and scores by a huge margin. Students get all algebra homework answers in quickly and smoothly. So, forget about submitting incomplete and low-quality assignments. Enjoy our homework help online Tutor Pace gives you a grand liberty because you can learn 247 anytime at your pace and from your place. It’s exactly when you require, we appear for your assistance. Whether it’s morning or it’s night, we promise to make your career bright! Get Algebra Homework Help Online Now [starbox id=admin]

How to Survive Your First Italian Conversation

How to Survive Your First Italian Conversation Suzy S. Are you nervous about speaking  Italian for the first time? Below, Italian teacher Nadia B. shares some tips on how to survive your first Italian conversation Youve memorized a long list of  Italian vocabulary words, and youve practiced repeating them out loud with your Italian teacher. But, are you confident enough in your skills to  have an Italian conversation with someone other than your Italian instructor? The following tips and tricks will teach you how to navigate through your first Italian conversation. These tidbits will help you communicate with and comprehend your conversation partner, as well as avoid  some of the most common challenges facing Italian language learners in conversation. Lets get started! 1. Ask Your Partner  to Speak Slowly If your Italian conversation partner is a native Italian, you might find that  he or she will  become animated and start to speak rapidly. Dont worry, this is very common among native Italian speakers. If youre having trouble understanding your partner, you can try the following phrase: Parla/parli più lentamente, per favore, which means Please speak more slowly.  In this phrase, parla is informal and parli is formal. 2. Take Note of Hand Gestures Another thing that happens as Italian speakers become more animated is their use of hand gestures. Take note of these hand gestures, as they  can help you gain comprehension. Check out this link to  see the many hand gestures that Italians often use. Familiarize yourself with some of the gestures, and see if you can catch them in use in actual conversation. 3. Phrases to Use When You Dont Understand If asking your partner to speak slowly doesnt work, here are some phrases you can use if theres something you dont understand: Potresti/Potrebbe ripetere la parola/la frase, per favore? (Could you please repeat the word/the last few words?) In this phrase, potresti is informal and potrebble is formal. Cosa vuol dire ____?  (What does ___ mean?) If youre really not able to understand what your conversation partner has said, you can resort to: Non capisco. (I dont understand.) Non ho capito. (I didnt understand [a specific thing].) 4. Substitute Words You Dont Know If youre  following what your partner is saying,  but youre having trouble expressing a particular idea or thought, try to work around it. If you cant think of a particular word, or dont know the word, you can try to describe it using words you do know. For example, if you didnt know the word for bookstore in Italian (la libreria), you could say, E dove si compra un libro. (Its where you buy books.) If youre really stuck, and the person youre conversing with speaks some English, try the following phrase:  Come se dice ____ in italiano? (How do you say ____ in Italian?) 5. Keep it Simple Lastly, remember to keep it simple. Using simple sentence structures and basic vocabulary words can go a long way. Remember these common building blocks of sentences: The verbs to be: essere and stare Subject pronouns: io (I), lui (he), noi (us), etc. Common verbs:  mangiare (to eat),  parlare (to speak),  andare (to go) Helpful  prepositions:  di (of),  da (from),  accanto (beside),  davanti (in front),  indietro (behind),  giù (below) Useful adjectives: interessante (interesting),  bello (beautiful),  amabile (friendly), difficile (hard), facile (easy) 6. Ask Your Partner Questions In addition to using the above structures to create varied conversation, dont forget that another way to increase the richness and depth of your conversation is to ask the person youre conversing with questions about themselves, or ask for more information about what he or she has  said. Use the following question words to gain more information: perché (why) come (how) quando (when) dove (where) che cosa (what) chi (who) Use these tips and consult your  Italian teacher to help prepare for your first Italian conversation. Most of all, enjoy yourself! Its sure to be full of fun  and learning, and its only the beginning of many adventures in Italian to come! Post Author: Nadia B. Nadia B. teaches Italian in New York, NY. She graduated summa cum laude from New York University, with a double degree in Italian Language and Literature and Classical Music Performance.  Learn more about Nadia here! Photo by  Giulia Mulè Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher

LOI English Book Club

LOI English Book Club LOI English is introducing a new kind of course for upper-intermediate to advanced English speakers, the English Book Club. In this class, you will read some of the best novels in the English language, then discuss them in a weekly group class led by a native teacher.We love reading, and know that a lot of our students do to. We think this will be a fun new way for English students to maintain their English with reading and weekly conversation. The teacher will help with vocabulary lists and reading questions given out before each class, and can explain difficult parts of the novel during the weekly class.Classes will be $40 per month, which includes 4 classes of 1 hour 15 minutes each. There will be 5 students in each class. We will need a minimum of 5 students for a class, so make sure to share this with your friends via Facebook and Twitter! Groups will meet live via WebEx, a high-quality online video conferencing platform.To register for a class, click here and fill out the form, or email us.

How should I use the Virtual Writing Tutor in 2020

How should I use the Virtual Writing Tutor in 2020 After nearly eight years of development, the Virtual Writing Tutor is becoming a potent resource for students and teachers. Here are some ways you can start using the VWT to help your learners learn faster and better. New ways to use the VirtualWritingTutor.com Free grammar check The Virtual Writing Tutor started its life as a simple grammar check website in 2012. Now, eight years later, there is a lot more to it, but the grammar checker function is still the most popular feature for most of the approximately two hundred thousand visitors to the VirtualWritingTutor.com per month. Perhaps, the biggest reason for its popularity is that it is a 100% free grammar checker, forever. There are other grammar checkers that you can pay for, but I am working hard so that you and your students always have a free option at hand. My theory is that a free online grammar checker can be a source of lifelong learning, but only if students get enough positive experiences using it for the grammar checker to become a beneficial habit. Asking students to use the VWT once or twice a semester is not enough. Heres my advice. How can I use the grammar checker? Whenever you ask students to write something for homework or in the computer lab, ask them to check it for errors using the the Virtual Writing Tutor. Give them a point for using the VWT to eliminate their errors. Tell them that the development of revision strategies is one of the objectives of the course, and give students writing assignments to do every week. Repetition and perceived benefit are the keys to the development of beneficial habits. Read student testimonials about their experiences using the Virtual Writing Tutor. Students cant always see the errors in their own writing, so a quick grammar check on the VWT is a fast and often effective way to eliminate embarrassing errors. Regular use of the VWT makes common errors more visible. Students revise better after a semester using the VWT, even offline and during writing exams. Thats been my experience. Extensive versus intensive correction Research suggests that the best way to influence student accuracy is to provide focused feedback on errors. That means that if you teach past tenses in the presentation and practice stages of your lesson, you should only give feedback on past tenses during the production stage. This is what we mean by intensive corrective feedback. Still, there are many glaring errors that take a long time to explain but are so frequent that teachers cannot ignore them in a students writing. Correction of these incidental errors is sometimes called extensive corrective feedback. The best way for teachers to provide extensive feedback on their errors is to get students to run their texts through the Virtual Writing Tutors grammar checker. Its quick and easy and builds that habit of revision into a weekly routine. Grammar checkers cant detect all the errors in a students writing for two primary reasons. Its partly because not all the error detection rules have been written yet and partly because the system only checks one sentence at a time. A grammar checker such as the VWT cant use the information in the surrounding context of the paragraph or the world at large to determine if the student has used the correct tense. But if a grammar checker is inherently limited, doesnt that mean that it should be avoided completely? No way. Online grammar checkers may be the only solution to the problem of error fossilization. Is there a solution for error fossilization? Ill get into trouble for writing this with at least one of my colleagues, but fossilization is a problem with the instruction not a problem with the student. Think of it this way. The error “I have 17 years.” originates in the students first language, French. Alternatively, consider the widespread use of the first-person pronoun I incorrectly used in lowercase. Through repeated practice of the error without consistent corrective feedback from a teacher or peers, errors like these can become stable and resistant to feedback. After correcting the student twice or three times, a teacher may feel that correcting the student has become a lost cause and pronounce a gloomy prognosis: fossilization! Frequent, repeated, immediate feedback will destabilize even the most entrenched errors. I have seen it myself. In a classroom full of students, more than half of my low intermediates start the semester saying and writing i have 17 years. Through the inherently communicative and repetitive weekly narrative writing assignments in Actively Engaged at College, all the students will have eliminated that error by week 15with the exception of the one student who didnt use the Virtual Writing Tutor. An online grammar checker is the cure for fossilized errors. A fossilized Allosaurus skull. Allo? Allo? Self-Scoring Pen Pal exchange One way to build the revision habit in students is surreptitiously through a self-scoring pen pal exchange. You can set up the exchange between students in the same class or between students of different classes or colleges. As they write about their day, their family, their routine, neighbourhoods, favorite food, memorable day, and a memorable trip, the system counts their errors, their words, and the target vocabulary from the lesson, generating a score. Students seek to maximize their scores by correcting their errors and replying to their pen pals. In this way, using the Virtual Writing Tutor as a revision strategy aligns with their desire for higher grades. When scores align with objectives, students have a better chance of succeeding. The Virtual Writing Tutors Pen Pal Exchange System Automated Argument Essay Evaluation There is so much you can do to help students learn to write better argument essays using the VWT. Here are my step-by-step suggestions. Download an argument essay writing project idea below. Controversial Debate Topic AssignmentDownload First, ask students to sign up to research one of these controversies: abortion, climate change, animal rights, body image, feminism, immigration, or internet censorship. Get groups to research their topic on https://idebate.org/debatabase Ask each group to work together to create a glossary, card game and online matching exercise using the VWTs Glossary Creator. Get each group member to outline an argument essay using the argument essay outliner. Have students draft an essay and get automated formative essay evaluation from the VWT.Have students submit their final drafts to you for your summative feedback and evaluation. Automated Cover Letter Evaluation Lets face it. Some students are sloppy. You show them a standard format for a letter that could get them the entry-level job to start an exciting new career. And what happens? They get it all wrong. So, what do you do next? You spend 10-20 minutes showing them whats wrong with your trusty red pen. Dont get me wrong. I see value in reading students assignments and dramatizing the presence of a reader by commenting on student writing. It is what weve been trained to do, but performing an autopsy on sloppy work is not a very efficient use of our time. Wouldnt it be better if they could just run their letter through the VWT to get the same feedback in two seconds flat? Faster, explicit feedback with a formative score is better feedback. Thats my hypothesis. I have been working with Laurent Nicolas at Andre Grasset College to bring you just such a system. Give it a try. Glossary Maker If you do little else, plan to use theVirtual Writing Tutor’s Glossary Creator this year. Its new and its wonderful. Students can learn so much from this new glossary maker. It takes approximately one and a half minutes per glossary term for a student to do all of the following: add a termgive the part of speechadd a definition in sentence case using the integrated Google definition searchgenerate a text-to-speech pronunciation modeladd an automatic translation It takes another one and a half minutes per glossary term to add the following: images fromWikimedia Commonsauthentic example sentences from theLextutor Concordancer For a 10-term field-related glossary, it will take about 30 minutes. For a 20-term glossary, it should only take about an hour, the perfect activity for students during a computer lab hour. By the end of the hour, students will have a published glossary, a card game to play next class with their classmates, and an online matching exercise to share with classmates in the same program during the next lab hour the following week. Screenshot of a glossary made with the Virtual Writing Tutor An automatically generated card game from a glossary created with the Virtual Writing Tutor An automatically generated online matching exercise from a glossary created with the Virtual Writing Tutor Screencast Creator Every semester, I ask my intermediate students to create two screencasts per semester. Each time, I tell them to write a script and check it for errors. I tell them to use the VWTs text-to-speech button to help them with their pronunciation. What do they do despite my instructions and cajoling? They wing it. The improvised result is predictable. Students work long and hard to produce a screencast filled with avoidable grammar errors and word choice errors and filled with avoidable pronunciation errors, too. I am thrilled to announce that by the end of February, the Virtual Writing Tutor will have a step-by-step screencast creator to help students produce high-quality field-related screencasts for the blogging project that we do with Actively Engaged Online. Of course, you wont need the textbook to get your students to create screencasts with the free system, but it will help if it is your first time teaching blogging. In any case, soon enough, those days will be behind us. If I get my way, there wont be any more avoidable errors and mispronunciations filling up YouTube. My students field-related screencasts are otherwise quite watchable. They just need a little VWT magic polish to make them really shine. New features There are many new features to the Virtual Writing Tutor that you can try. Dont wait another year. 2020 is the best time to start using the Virtual Writing Tutor with your students if you havent started already. I have so many new features planned. On top of automatically evaluating narrative writing tasks, I intend to build a career FAQ blog post creator with embedded meaningful paraphrasing exercises and a listicle creator. You wont believe how good 2020 is going to be! Contact me if you have any questions. Please follow and like us:

5 Best Middle Schools in Austin

5 Best Middle Schools in Austin Austin is a great place for families to raise their children, and there are a lot of fantastic schools for Austin children to attend. Frog Tutoring was curious to know the most impressive middle schools in town, so we decided to take a look at the data.After researching the best middle schools in Austin we now have the concrete proof just how great they are. For our first ranking in our school district series, we’ll show you how we calculated the Texas Education Agency’s metrics from the most recent report (2014) to rank each school that met their standards. While the TEA Index is pretty comprehensive, Frog Tutoring decided to evaluate a couple additional factors in the study we found. The following methodology was used in calculation:STAAR Expectations (48%): When taking the STAAR test into consideration, we look at the percentage of students who met or exceeded the expectations of the test in a given year.TEA Index (48%): We utilized the Texas Education Agency’s 4 areas of ac ademic excellence, which consist of Student Achievement, Student Progress, Closing Performance Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness.Class Size (2%): Student-to-teacher ratio is important for an individual’s learning, so we took this into consideration.Online Reviews (2%): We have weighted each school’s popularity score based on Facebook reviews, Greatschools.org reviews, and K12.Niche.org reviews.If you’d like to see a more in-depth look at the TEA’s metrics for accountability standards, please click here. To determine a definitive ranking for the top middle schools in Austin, we combined these 7 factors to create one number to compare and contrast the success of each middle school.We can't wait to share with you what we've found out about the 5 best middle schools in Austin!1. Richards SchoolRichards School comes in at number one, with an 22:1 student-to-teacher ratio, and a school size of about 764. In the most recent report card from the Texas Education Agency, Richards was recognized in the following areas of distinction: Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, Top 25% Closing Perform Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Because of all of these distinctions, it’s no wonder that 61% of Richards students have met or exceeded the standards of the STAAR test.2. Fulmore MiddleFulmore Middle School comes in at number two, with an 22:1 student-to-teacher ratio, and a school size of about 952. In the most recent report card from the Texas Education Agency, Fulmore was recognized in the following areas of distinction: Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, Top 25% Closing Perform Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Because of all of these distinctions, it’s no wonder that 55% of Fulmore students have met or exceeded the standards of the STAAR test.3. Kealing MiddleKealing Middle School comes in at number three, with an 21:1 student-to-teacher ratio, and a school size of about 1188. In the most recent report card from the Tex as Education Agency, Kealing was recognized in the following areas of distinction: Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, Top 25% Closing Perform Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Because of all of these distinctions, it’s no wonder that 77% of Kealing students have met or exceeded the standards of the STAAR test.4. Lamar MiddleLamar Middle School comes in at number four, with an 23:1 student-to-teacher ratio, and a school size of about 895. In the most recent report card from the Texas Education Agency, Lamar was recognized in the following areas of distinction: Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, Top 25% Closing Perform Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Because of all of these distinctions, it’s no wonder that 56% of Lamar students have met or exceeded the standards of the STAAR test.5. Burnet MiddleBurnet Middle School comes in at number five, with an 18:1 student-to-teacher ratio, and a school size of about 1138. In the most recent re port card from the Texas Education Agency, Burnet was recognized in the following areas of distinction: Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, Top 25% Closing Perform Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Because of all of these distinctions, it’s no wonder that % of Burnet students have met or exceeded the standards of the STAAR test.Frog Tutoring Austin Tutors are proud to present the best middle schools in Austin based on statistics released by the Texas Education Agency. Please share in the comments any personal experience that you have had in the Austin Independent School District!5 Best Middle Schools in AustinCreate your own infographicsNote: We wanted to take a second to explain our methodology, and how we arrived at factoring in each area of success for our rankings. First, we made an extensive spreadsheet (which you can take a look at for yourself here), and collected all of the data that we needed for our results. Then we converted each factor into a perc entage and multiplied that number by the percentage of how much it’s worth in our ranking system. Let’s look at an example: LASA High School’s TEA Index ranking is 318/400.235 / 400 = 79.50%Since this is 22% of our total, we used the percentage above to measure how much it’s worth in our ranking system. Which in this case is 22% of the total score.79.50 x .22 = 17.49%If you’d like to know more about this process, please contact our coordinator, Judith, at judith@frogtutoring.com.

HD Beijing School

HD Beijing School HD Beijing School Opening in September 2017, Beijing HD Bilingual School is brilliantly located in the Dongba area, northeast of Beijing City. Dongba is found within the Citys Chaoyang District and is developing into Beijings new international CBD, complete with high-end commercial and recreational spaces. HD Beijing is an important addition to this high-profile district, offering an outstanding international education that blends the best of British and Chinese curricula on a beautiful campus. HD Beijing not only benefits from being part of a successful network of HD schools in China (HD Shanghai HD Ningbo), but also from a strong relationship with Hurtwood House, our partner school in the UK. HD Beijing draws on Hurtwoods experience and expertise at providing an all-round education where children, not only achieve excellent academic results, but also develop interests and skills to prepare them for the challenges of life beyond school. With this in mind, HD Beijings curriculum offers a broad range of opportunities designed to develop intellectual growth, physical and emotional health, artistic endeavours, creativity and service to others. The School is committed to fostering truly bilingual and bicultural students, enabling them to gain competency in both Mandarin and English, as well as preparing them culturally for life in an increasingly interconnected world. Our curriculum is taught using a dual-language immersion approach; students benefit from lessons delivered by native speakers of English and Chinese, with some subjects taught with both teachers in the same classroom. As well as supporting students to become bilingual, the low pupil to teacher ratio enables HD Beijing to deliver a highly personalised approach to learning. In keeping with our partner school, Hurtwood House, HD Beijings ethos, values and curriculum help to foster a strong and supportive school community. The Schools staff are strongly motivated and enjoy participating in all aspects of school life. Teachers who have not experienced a bilingual programme before enjoy the challenge and learn new and transferable skills in the process.