An Oxford Education Provides a Fantastic Platform for the Future

Graduates from the University of Oxford have been outstanding in their different fields around the world. The university’s student population has the highest proportion when it comes to achieving firsts and 2:1s in all of the United Kingdom. These are the reasons why education from Oxford affords its graduates an excellent springboard for their future, both in career and in life in a greater scale.

The distinctive teaching system of Oxford sharpens their students analytical skills, capacity for original thinking and sound judgment. These are what employers are interested in and give very high value to. Oxford graduates are more likely to have all of the eight key employment skills outlined by the Confederation of British Industry than graduates from other universities in the UK, say six in every ten employers. Graduates from Oxford are more confident in themselves because of their education and the demanding tutorial system the university operates with.

Graduate Employment

Education at Oxford facilitates the realisation of students’ potential and the development of skills they will need for life. The school is No. 1 in percentage of graduates who entered professional occupations. They have achieved a very high conversion rate of graduates entering secondary school teaching jobs at 14% and in a very short time after graduation.

Career Services

Oxford has a Career Service unit that is dedicated to helping all students in their search for careers. This special body is composed of experienced advisers and excellent resources. Thousands of employers approach the Oxford careers service to offer jobs to graduates of the university. They work together to match the recruitment needs and the supply of graduates.

Graduate Network

Graduates of Oxford continue to be a part of the university’s community and continue to be connected with them through the university’s Alumni Office. Wherever in the world they may be or whatever their nationality is, they receive further support now as part of the careers market through regular communications from the alumni association in matters regarding opportunities to develop social and professional networks, support in their careers and for facilitating of possible further studies.

Student Preparation

As part of providing a fantastic platform for the future, Oxford University aims that their graduates are ensured that they will excel in the graduate job market where the competition does not stop to escalate. While being students, the now graduates were provided by the university’s Careers Services with the opportunities that reinforced their CVs. In these venues, they were able to get practical experience, meet with employers and get information and updates about vacancies being offered.

Student Job Placement

Students in Oxford are given many more opportunities to acquire more valuable skills and experiences to prepare them for a fantastic future after they graduate. The university has a Career Connect programme wherein students can explore hundreds of vacancy listings for volunteering, internships and work experience. This project also connect graduates to graduate opportunities. Students and graduates are registered and enter information and details to be able to get the matching emails regarding jobs, employers and events.

Employability

During long vacations, many students avail of placements for work experience so that they can experience different careers and eventually find out what they really want to do later. In the process, they are able to get the experience and skills which are very valuable. The best part in the student job placements is that participants are able to get the training in employability skills. These experiences are very valuable also because they are work-based. Oxford education also affords students and graduates with opportunities for international internships. These are how education in and from Oxford make the future of students after graduation a fantastic one.

Students with Dyslexia Learning Difficulties

Dyslexia is the learning disability in reading. Children who have this disability find written words hard to accurately recognise, decode and spell. It is a big cause of difficulty in reading comprehension and the slow growth of vocabulary. Students with this difficulty have greater tendency to be slow in reading and not fluent in reading aloud. This learning disability is neurological in nature and is usually hereditary or attributed to the genetic composition of the person. It is not caused by poor or wrong teaching. On the other hand, students with dyslexia can overcome it if given the proper support and correct instruction. They can become good readers and writers.

The Condition

Children with dyslexia are born with it and have it as a challenge the rest of their lives, just like with other disabilities or difficulties. It is a disorder in the processing of language. It results to slow progress in acquiring the skills of reading, writing, spelling and, on some cases, even speaking. However, it should be emphasised that dyslexia is not a result or manifestation of poor intelligence, poor vision or laziness. People with dyslexia, not only children but also adults, have a disorder relating to the brain. Their brains are in a condition in which it has a different way of processing and interpreting information.

Early Detection

Anybody can be born with this reading learning disability called dyslexia. It is not found to be prevalent in any economic or ethnic population. However, it often occurs in more than one member of a family. In America alone, almost 15 percent experience substantial difficulties in their reading.

Dyslexia needs to be detected as early as possible. Reading and writing are needed in learning. Students with dyslexia are at an unfair disadvantage and will continue to do as long as they will not be identified and given the needed teaching and support. These include alternative ways of learning. With these, children with dyslexia can still succeed in overcoming it, realise their potentials and succeed in life.

Effects of Dyslexia

The effects of dyslexia vary among people. It affects different people in different ways depending on how severe it is and the effectiveness of the alternate learning method being used. There are those who have the difficulty who are particularly struggle with their reading and, as a result, their spelling. Some have troubles with writing. Others have difficulty identifying left and right. There are also people with dyslexia in whom symptoms manifest in very few ways but might have problems later on in the higher levels of schooling when it comes to reading comprehension, grammar, more in-depth writing and other complex language skills.

People with dyslexia will find it hard to communicate in a clear way. They will have problems expressing themselves. Their usage of vocabulary is limited or problematic. They will struggle during conversations because of they have difficulty in composing their thoughts. Some of them will find understanding what other people say a problem. They do not have hearing impairment. The problem is not yet present when they listen or hear. It starts when they process the information they got from listening or hearing. And because they have difficulties with these, they will find it even harder to process abstract thoughts and non-literal forms of communications like for example proverbs and jokes.

Low Self-Esteem

The effects of dyslexia go further than the learning of a person with this condition. As a result of the problem to learn, the child’s self-image is affected. First, young students with dyslexia will experience recurring frustration with learning. This should be addressed as early and as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will be discouraged in their schooling. They will no longer be motivated to continue and overcome their learning difficulties.

Detection, Evaluation and Treatment

Dyslexia can be detected and treated. Once a person shows signs of having it, they should be made to undergo evaluation by professionals. These are usually detected in the slow learning of a child. When the learning of your child is slow, ask professionals for the about the signs of dyslexia. Observe your child and have her evaluated. Parents, guardians and families of children found to have dyslexia should ask professionals about support for students with specific learning difficulties and reinforce their learning inside and outside the classroom.

English Literature Graduates Make Excellent Communicators

Graduates of English Literature and English language courses are outstanding communicators. Their education and training enables them to communicate well. These include critical reading, creative communication and many others. They are able to better listen, understand, converse, discuss and explain because they are well-trained in the global language, English of course. These graduates have an undying love for learning; they are students of life and develop strong professional networks.

Most of English Literature and English language course graduates become teachers of English in high school or college, writers, journalists, reporters, broadcasters, authors and playwrights, among others. But aside from these, many of them also become librarians, school administrators, counsellors, museum curators and resource managers. Further, some of them become insurance agents, sales executives, accountants, investment managers, businessmen, lawyers, military officers, government workers, social workers.

To cite examples which are very verifiable, many well-known personalities majored in English. They include, among others:

Writers, Journalists, Authors, Novelists and Cartoonists

Writer Amy Tan; writer and humorist Dave Barry; writer, actor and comedian Chevy Chase; journalist and author Bob Woodward; broadcast journalists Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer; novelist Steven King comic strip Cathy cartoonist Cathy Guisewite.

In Film, Television, Music and Entertainment

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg; television writer and producer Linda Bloodworth-Thompson; actor Tommy Lee Jones; Christopher Reeve, actor and activist for the disabled; actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster; actresses Sigourney Weaver and Emma Thompson; actor and entrepreneur Paul Newman; comedienne Joan Rivers; and singer-songwriter Paul Simon.

Movie and TV Moguls and Executives

Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner; New Line Cinema co-chairman and co-CEO Michael Lynne; MTV Networks and Nickelodeon Networks president Herb Scannell; and TV executive Grant Tinker.

In Sports

Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno; and NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer.

In Government and Society

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Nobel laureate and Director of National Institutes of Health Harold Varmus; Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner; World Wildlife Fund CEO Kathryn Fuller; New York governor Mario Cuomo; California governor Pete Wilson; and astronaut Sally Ride.

Critical Reading

English literature and language course graduates are trained in comprehending, analysing and critiquing materials. These skills are very helpful in whatever further or other studies or field these graduates would like or need to enter. Reading is the beginning of understanding; and understanding is the beginning of communication. These people are very good readers that they become very good communicators. This is also the reason why these graduates have the advantage when it comes to pursuing related or other studies and industries. For example, this critical reading skills are very good preparation for studying law or whatever complex or highly technical disciplines.

Creative Communication

In relation to critical reading, English literature and language majors also have creative communications skills. Because of their skill in reading and understanding any material, they are able to learn what are relevant in the different fields, conceptualise ideas about them and create attractive and innovative ways on how to communicate them.

Global Language

These graduates are “masters” of the English language which is the widely acknowledged as the “official” language of the world. They are able to communicate well because they can reach and related to most countries around the globe. English course graduates from different continents usually meet as representatives or translators of their places of origin.

Love for Learning

English course students love to read. They do so because they want to know. They want to continually put something inside their brain. To make the long story short, they want to learn. This is exactly where everything about being excellent communicators start. You cannot give what you do not have. There are no ideas to give away if there is no seed of knowledge planted in the brain. There is nothing to communicate if there is nothing in the mind. On the other hand, the fullest minds are those which give the best choice ideas.

Studying Life and Building Networks

Graduates of English are excellent communicators because they can relate well to people. They know more and better about others because they read and learn about them. They read knowledge books, history and news on a deeper and more absorptive manner. This is how they learn about life. The more they learn about life, the more they are able to communicate well with others. And the more they communicate well with others, the more they know about life. And again, the more they know about life, the more they are able to communicate well with others. The cycle of learning does not stop and the level of learning does not stagnant. As they go about this, they are also able to build their network of people connections. All these make English language and literature graduates and students excellent communicators.

Tips for Teaching Comprehension Strategies

The task of comprehension has the goal of getting a picture of the whole text. This is what understanding is about – students need to be able to achieve in their minds what the writer of the text wants to tell them. They have to figure out what it is. In doing this, they have to deal with different possible meanings. These include the ones they are thinking, the ones they think the author is thinking and those which they think other students have in mind.

To be able to comprehend, students need to interpret, consolidate, critique, deduce, infer, parallel, analyse, relate and assess the ideas in what texts they are reading. Students derive a great amount of satisfaction when they are able to successfully comprehend texts being given them because this means that they are able to understand the meaning the material.

Comprehension is a new level of understanding. It is active and insightful. When students are able to comprehend, they are increasing their vocabulary and their language skills. Students develop strategies in reading and understanding. While they get better, they learn how to choose the right strategies to use. They can even use a mix of two or more techniques.

Areas of Manifestation

Teachers know how or where they can observe and assess students’ comprehension of what they read. For students to be able to understand what they are reading, they need to:

1. Information – Identify in the text the important information and recall these information and their location in the material.
2. Structures – Demonstrate the use of knowledge regarding the structures of text and how they are organised.
3. Answers – Write short answers or responses which are reflective. Be able to answer multiple choice questions.
4. Deep Ideas – Be able to perform deeper thinking and express, especially verbally, the thoughts or ideas they derive from such.
5. Descriptions – Be able to give complete descriptions or complete them like in filling in the blanks.
6. Cause and Effect – Be able to identify the presence of relationships in the information given in the text with such relationship relating to cause and effect.
7. Logic – Find connections which are logical.
8. Aids – Interpret graphics and images.
9. Opinion and Details – Show that they are able to view the issue in different perspectives of different parties in interest.
10. Details – Demonstrate retention of specific details mentioned in the text.

Students have poor performance in reading comprehension both in studying and in examinations because they focus more on getting words right instead of seeing to it that they understand the main ideas and overall meanings. Teachers should tell their students to read with the goal of attempting to look for or understand what the writer or author says and actually do so.

Teachers should continually remind their students to do this and to gradually develop such reading comprehension skills with continual deliberate practice. They have to make this a goal and do the needed work to reach such goal. Some education degree programme applicants’ personal statement examples mention strategies for improving reading comprehension skills in the future students they will have as one of their specific dreams.

For teachers to help their students improve their reading comprehension skills, they use these strategies. Students can learn these techniques and apply them.

Make Connections

Students can make personal connections with the text. They can relate it to things in their life. This is called text-to-text connection. They can also connect it to another text which is called text-to-text. They can also use text-to-world connection which is connecting the text to something happening in the world.

Predict

Students can attempt to predict what will happen next in the story, anticipate what they will read about in texts or make an intelligent guess on what the graphics say. They should do these with the aid of the information given in the materials and not on mere guessing. It should be an informed, educated and intelligent guess. They should continually evaluate their predictions and adjust accordingly with the new information they come across.

Ask and Answer

So that students can better comprehend texts, they should pose questions and answer them. They should ask with the purpose of clarifying the meaning of the text and deepening their understanding of it.

Monitor

Learners should keep track of their understanding. They must stop and think about the text, check whether they still understand. One way to do this is to ask oneself what does the text mean. If you are not confident about the answer you have given, you have to give it more time.

Visualise

To comprehend the text, students “paint” in their minds a picture of the text they read, graphics they view or audio they hear. The goal is bringing the material to life so that you can vividly imagine it and be able to use all your senses (in your mind).

Summarise

Students should identify the most important information and ideas in the material, put them together and state them in their own words.

An Adult Learning Course Could Change Your Life

The hope for a better future is characteristic of youth. Children and young people are the ones who can shape their future lives now with their education. Because they are still in the early stages of their lives they are helpless and depend on their parents, guardians or adults in general for their present and to help them secure a better tomorrow. It is the adults that already have a life and an important part of it is to do the mentioned role of helpers to the young.

The future of the adults is now. But this does not mean that they cannot make a few or some ”adjustments” to it. For adults who want or need to do so, adult learning courses could change their lives.

Reasons for Joining Adult Learning Courses

There are many different reasons why adults join adult learning courses. Some of them are just interested in the subject area and want to learn about it as an additional or alternative educational qualification. Others want to do it for their children or elderly parents like, for examples, culinary arts for the former and care giving for the latter.

Some adult learning guides and courses help in how to write a personal statement especially for mature people wanting to go back to school to enter a new or different career. Many mature students enrol because they do not like their current job and need the qualification and the preparation for a career crossover. Further, many others need more than one job for financial reasons. For all these people, adult learning courses can change their lives. These will make a difference in it.

Financial Factors

With an adult learning course, mature students are able to address their financial needs. Yes, it could mean some additional expenses and more time to compete with earning money. However, it is an investment. The money and time sacrificed now will pay bigger dividends tomorrow. It is exactly the adults’ need for money that lead them to seek more or other opportunities and learning in adult courses is one and of great value at that.

Challenge to Learn

Outside the outright objective of having an additional or alternative option to open opportunities for them to run the operations of their lives, the challenge to learn is an important factor for the adult learners. With their mature age, they know that their IQ, trainability and retention of knowledge is much lower than young students. Learning in adult courses is a challenge for these mature students. On top of the disparity in learning abilities, they also have jobs and other responsibilities that compete for their time, effort, money, other resources and even their thoughts and emotions.

The mere fact that they are able to attend classes and learn is already a change in their lives not only in their schedules and responsibilities but more so for the enrichment of their character and legacy. As adults, they are not exactly expected to venture back in learning and doing so makes a great difference in their lives and the people around them.

Advancement as Achievement

For the mature students in adult learning courses, taking a step further in their current career or sidestepping to another is an advancement and achievement in themselves. They are not only able to achieve this specific goal in this chapter of their lives, they are also able to advance and achieve something that will not be forgotten or taken away from them the rest of their lives and after it for their children and grandchildren to narrate and appreciate. For them, being able to advance in their career or take the first step towards a new one is an achievement that changes their lives now and for the future.

Support and Community

With adult learning courses, the participating mature students are able to create a support group and community that will be with them now and in the future. As mature people and professionals, they relate among one another in their career or craft, social life, personal responsibilities, dreams and life in general. And when the course is finished, they will still keep in contact with each other because of this. They will value the support they give one another and keep the community even though this time in the future, the time will be lesser. The important thing is that they keep their connections for personal, social and professional or business purposes.

Tips on How to Write a Descriptive Essay

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The purpose of the descriptive essay is to tell readers about a person, place or thing. It does not give a personal account with the goal of imparting message to readers for them to understand and uncover. Its purpose is to tell about the topic or subject and the specific meaning intended in the writing by means of making the reader observe in detail using the senses or sensory descriptions. Use the power of language and the human senses in this task of helping the reader bring the subject to life.

Your goal is to make readers feel that they are really coming face to face with the subject person, experiencing the subject place or examine in hand the subject object. The ultimate indication of effectiveness and success is when your readers, after reading, have the feeling that they have really met the person, gone to the place or held the object which you described in your descriptive essay. Another sign that you have been effective as the writer is that when the readers feel an emotional connection or deep appreciation for the significance of the subject.

Even professional writers need and use steps and tips when doing the descriptive essay. All the more for students. You can use these tips pertaining to the steps in the writing process.

Pre-Writing

You should choose your topic carefully and correctly. In connection with the subject itself, the purpose or reason why you want to write about such is important. Significance and meaning of the topic matter. You do not need to find a subject who or is famous or unusual.

After selecting a topic, you should identify the characteristics or qualities you want to write about in the descriptive essay. Take note of all the details about the topic. Consider the things related to the subject. If you chose a person or an object, you should also take note of the place where the person lives or where the object is located. Have a plan on what aspect to focus on for each paragraph. Lay out an outline in which you can put these in a sequence which has a logical flow.

Further, reflect not only on the physical aspect of the subject but also on the ideas, concepts, memories and feelings associated with the topic especially those which are evoked by it. They are helpful in showing the significance of the subject. For example, applying the key to writing the perfect descriptive essay in economics essays about the concepts of scarcity, poverty and debt can make people be interested in them, understand them and make a difference in their personal finance and their life.

Drafting

Start with an initial draft in which you follow the outline you have laid out. Do this in a manner in which you are giving your would-be readers an experience relating to the subject which is a rich one. Your task is not merely to tell. Your goal and means is to show. One best way to do so is to target all the senses of readers. In showing readers the subject and the message you want to impart to them, do not limit to showing what the eyes can see. Show readers what is heard, touched, felt, smelled and can be tasted. Examples include enabling readers to see the surroundings in the park, hear the noise of the market, smell the kitchen, taste the exotic food or feel the punch.

Revision

After writing the draft, you should review and make necessary revisions to make your work better. When reviewing your output, examine whether it flows in a manner that facilitates a sufficient appreciation of the topic. Identify paragraphs which may cause confusion rather than contribute to your being able to show the subject. Evaluate your work whether in your choice of words and use of figurative language, you were able to involve the five senses, convey emotion and reveal meaning. Ask yourself whether you are able to include enough details to enable your reader to get a complete picture. Assess how you have come in the aim of connecting description to meaning. Check the conclusion you have written if it does have the ability to make the reader identify with it.

Creative Aspects of Photography

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DSLR cameras have the Program Mode that makes it easier and also enjoyable for owners. However, many of them also still want to explore and enjoy the Manual Mode. In turn, the latter has technical and creative sides. The latter of the second two should be given more focus. It enables you to develop your individuality as an artist.

You can learn and be a more creative photographer with help of some creative aspects of photography.

Prioritise Creativity

If you want to be more creative, you have to let loose of some of the technicalities. Using the Program mode at below 100% technical correctness but with a concept that is carefully thought of will produce a photograph of higher quality than one that is shot in full Manual mode. That is correct. However, what it does not have is individuality. On top of this, it means that you have not given sufficient thought to the overall result of your photograph. According to famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams, “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

Perspective and View

Use a different perspective, view or angle. You can take a shot from below or from up above. This is probably the easiest and simplest way of being creative. Despite this, it is remarkable because you are opening yourself to more opportunities to be imaginative.

Be Prepared and Quick

When in events, you have to be ready. Yes, you are ready, but are you really ready with your camera? Again, yes you are. But not really. You need to be prepared to quickly remove your camera from around your neck so that you can take more creative shots. Taking shots with the camera solely hanged from your neck will limit the level of your shots and so also the angle, perspective and creativity. You can also not wear your camera around your neck, you can wrap its straps around your hand and hold on to it. This way, you can change angles, levels and perspectives and, thus, be more creative.

Slow Cook Photography

There are times when being creative means you have to wait. It is like cooking something in the oven for an hour or waiting for a flower to bloom. This is especially so with sports, outdoors and wildlife photographers with special emphasis on the third mentioned. You need to wait for the perfect or right time to take a or the shot. All the more with animals. There are times that you need to wait for that bear to come out of the cave. And while you are at it, you may need to bear with the conditions of the surroundings like the environment which may be cold or hot.

Moderate Taking Shots

Taking many shots is not creative. It is tiring, boring and exhausting. You are not only burning calories, you are burning yourself out from creativity. Being creative is not like being a scientist and doing experiments with trials and errors. It is like being an artist. It is being an artist. You have to take choice shots. You have to be discriminate. Also, limiting your shots will help you prevent creative exhaustion.

Take Your Time

Do not hurry your shots. Do not compromise creativity for anything else. Even when you are already on the scenic spot, for example, you have to take your sweet time before taking shots. You do not need to hurry up. When you look into your lens and start to aim, never click right away. Take your time and try different angles or focus before taking the shot.

Story Telling

A picture paints a thousand words. You can create a story with these words. Yes, it will be the viewers of your photographs who will paint the thousand words by having their own interpretations of the photos. However, as the photographer, you also have the power to create the story and tell it to them, instead of them figuring out what it is.

Mix and Match

You can develop the art of photography by exploring the creative aspects of this craft. The most important ones among them are prioritising and never compromising creativity is the first aspect of being a creative photographer. Perspective and view; being prepared and quick; “slow cooking;” moderation of shots; taking your time and telling stories. Choose which ones are applicable in the situation you are in. Mix and match them.

How to Deal With Divorce

Divorce or break ups are devastating. It could mean that what you wished or hoped for could no longer happen. That is the life with a solid and pure family. But you cannot prevent or escape it if it is really your fate. You need to accept it.

All the more that makes divorce and break ups hurtful is the possible incidental melting down of your world and life. Most of the time, the world of the person in the now defunct relationship revolved around the people, places and things associated with the other person. And, most of the time, it will need to go down with its dissolution.

Break ups and divorce are really hard. However, you can manage to survive, do the right things to do, make the most of what is left, do more and emerge from it as a better person.

Move On

Overall, what you need to do as the break up starts is to move on. You have come to the decision to leave the relationship after you have weighed things out. You decided that it is better to go than to live a life of anger, hatred, conflict and misery. This first step of leaving is your first step of moving on. Now, you need to continue doing so.

Heal

To be able to move on, you have to healed of the wounds you have sustained during the relationship. Remember that you left because that life was not healthy. Aside from these injuries, you also have to deal with new ones. They are the ones you are and will be experiencing in the next couple of days or weeks. They are the wounds of leaving and staying away.

Here are what you can do to help you heal.

1 Having Different Feelings is OK

Feel bad. Feel sad. Feel wrong. Feel unwanted. Feel guilty. You feel all these feelings one at a time or two or more at a time. It is ok. Know that it is indeed ok. Further, you will feel lost, confused, exhausted, worried and many others. But do not worry too much that these feelings will not be gone. They will. Gradually.

2 Take a Break

Give yourself time. Give yourself a break. Do not be too hard on yourself. Yes, indeed, you can loosen up a little in work and at your new home. Take just enough time to adjust. Do not hurry it.

3 Don’t Do It Alone

Talk to trusted friends about your divorce or break up. Talk to more friends about other things in life. What is important is that you do not go through the pain alone and you do not “live” alone.

Grieve

The body, including the mind and the heart, works to respond to stimulus and help itself and yourself in whatever emotions you feel in reaction to the stimulus. Yes, there is science in this. Grief is a natural reaction to loss. Leaving a relationship means losing not only the person but also what he or she brings into it and to give to you. If you are the one who left because of the bad or ugly things, you still also have to deal with losing some good things, too. They can be the better times of companionship, experiences together and your wishes, hopes and dreams. You can be afraid to feel the loss and accept it because it is or will be hurting. But you need to. You must. It is necessary. Feeling and bearing the pain that grieving brings is what will help you move on. And remember that nothing lasts forever; everything is temporary. Thus, your grief will be gone sooner or later.

Here are some specific advice regarding grief.

1 Don’t fight it.

2 Talk about it.

3 Remember that your goal is to move on. This means that you will and should not dwell on grieving.

4 Think of the future. You still have a future. You can still make a new life, have new dreams and actually achieve them.

Get Help

In the process of moving on towards a new life, you will need to get help from people. You have just left the old life and you start with what is left of you which could even be virtually nothing. To “assemble” a life, you need to have people to help you and to be part of the life.

The following are some specific actions on how to get help.

1 Be with People

As mentioned, talk with trusted friends. Go out with them to nice places, do some nice things and create new nice experiences with them.

2 Get Advice

Ask your trusted friends for advice. You can also approach professionals in the fields of relationship and health for very helpful advice.

3 Build a New Network

Most of the time, you also leave a whole life of people when you leave a relationship. You will need to create a new one. Develop it slowly and gradually. Take your time. When there is an opportunity to do it quick and big, you may. A new network of people will help you live a new life.

Take Care of Yourself

Remember that you left to preserve your wellbeing. If you were the one who was left, you also feel abandoned and you will also grieve. You need to, also, preserve yourself. In the process of grieving and moving on, you may be lost and forget to take care of yourself. You should not. You should always remember to take care of yourself.

You can follow specific effective ways in taking care of yourself.

1 Daily Personal Time

Give yourself even at least one hour to relax and do what you love. You can also do things which can improve yourself like maybe studying a subject or learning a new skill.

2 Prioritise Yourself

Remember to always make yourself the most important person in the world. This is how it should be in the first place. You are the most important person in the world. You should love yourself. Define what you really want, what your principles and values really are and do everything to promote them.

3 Get a Life

Yes, you need to get a life. If you want to love yourself, you should live. Develop a daily routine. This will keep you busy.

4 Take it Easy

Do not make big decision, as much as possible. Avoid drastic moves. Being in a state of great grief, anger, hatred, depression or any other emotion will hinder you from thinking carefully and wisely. You need to take things easy first.

5 Don’t Overindulge

Yes, you can spend some money sometimes or drink. But you need to watch it. Do not overindulge. Take care of yourself. Take care of your money.

6 Do New Things or Old Ones Pre-Relationship

Now is the time to do the things that you are not yet able to do or those which you loved doing but was not able to during the relationship. You are free now. Some old favourite activities before your relationship may no longer be as fun now but you can try doing them again. Take the time to try them again and try to see whether you can still enjoy them.

Learn

The break up is a very painful experience. It is a very big loss. You may be leaving many bad things there but there is still so much more loss to it. The most you can do to come close to neutralising the loss is to get what some value that you can from the experience. One big part of this is to learn from the experience. We study history to learn from the experience of the people that came before us. And we want to learn because we want to avoid the mistakes that they committed. The same goes with your failed relationship. Look back and look at where you may have done things the wrong way and contributed or lead to the failure. Carry these lessons to start a new life.

Parenting Tips for Those with a Deaf Child

We believe that it is always fun and games for children. Most of us adults think that children are having the time of their lives. But it is not purely enjoyment that children experience. They also struggle. Their “job” in this world is not only to play, they also need to learn. This is where a certain amount of difficulties come in. All the more for children with disabilities, like hearing impairment or deafness.

Parents who have deaf or hearing impaired children are one important role players in making the lives of their sons’ or daughters’ better, easier and more enjoyable. Children with hearing difficulties can still make the most of what life can offer. They can still communicate, socialise, learn and enjoy. Parents should not feel bad about their hearing impaired children and themselves. They can help facilitate their children to enjoy life and they have big help from technology.

Know that You are Not Alone

Parents with children who have hearing impairment are not alone in their struggles. There are also other parents like them. Moreover, all parents deal with the challenges of raising children. Even children without hearing difficulties or any other disabilities encounter some developmental struggles in different forms or times. Each child develops uniquely.

Know and Understand Your Child

A parent who has a child with hearing impairment has more challenges, indeed. There is no sure, perfect or fast solutions. However, they can learn many solutions and use the ones which suit their situation. Learning about the specific circumstance of your child is important. Know and understand what challenges your child faces so that you can equip yourself better to support them.

Know How Hearing Aids Can Help

Hearing aids augment the hearing capabilities of children with hearing impairment. Well informed parents know that it does not have the purpose of restoring the hearing of their children. They know that it will not. However, they know that it will improve the quality of the life of their children.

Adjust

Raising a child who is hearing impaired starts with making adjustments. After you have detected that your child has difficulty in hearing, had him or her diagnosed by a physician specialising in hearing and having have your child wear a hearing aid, you need to adjust to the new life that just started and will be ahead.

Seek Help

As parents with children who have hearing impairments start to adjust, they discover that the more they get involved, the easier life gets both for their children and for them. Be comfortable and do not hesitate to approach your teachers, audiologists and other professionals to ask questions if you have any. They have the best intentions to help and support you in taking care of your hearing impaired child.

Love, Accept and Encourage

Teachers, audiologists and professionals involved in the care, support and education of children with hearing impairments strongly advice love, acceptance and encouragement. These are what they say are the most important things that parents should give to their hearing impaired children. Understand them and be patient with them, encourage them to do better and praise them every time they do so. Listen and pay attention to them especially during times when they want to say or express something to you, even the small things.

Suggested Activities

Do activities which show and make your child loved, appreciated and cared for with your child. These bonding times stimulate your child and make them relaxed and confident. Experts highly suggest that parents sing songs with their hearing impaired children, do physical activities with them, read bedtime and stories to them. They also recommend you smile as often as possible to your child because it means so much more to him or her who is hearing impaired.

Secrets of Highly Successful Women

We want to succeed in life. We set goals, plan how to achieve them and should actually do the work involved to be successful. This is easier said than done. It can be made easier to do with the help of advice from people who have been there and done that. If we want to be successful, we should seek the words of wisdom of those who have been there before us and succeeded and even continues to succeed.

One person who is successful is Gail McMeekin. She is a popular creative coach and bestselling author. She is one best source of advice on how women can succeed. Aside from being successful herself, she is also a source of some more advice from some more successful women. All of these she assembled in her book ‘The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women: A Portable Life Coach for Creative Women.’

I am making this book part of my “To Buy” list. And as such, I am very excited to look into what can I expect from this book. I researched about it and, again, am writing and sharing what I think are my take of its points.

Overview: Fight and Win

According to the author, McMeekin, women can be successful if they are creative in setting their goals, in planning how to achieve them and in actually carrying them out. In doing this, there are many specific challenges they must hurdle first. These include thinking too small, underestimating the need for change, fearing the future and the lack of self-confidence.

McMeekin says that for women to be successful, we have to rise above the mentioned challenges and blocks. She interviewed some of the most successful women of today to get some tips and combined them with her own successful strategies. She outlined these into (1) dismantling limiting beliefs; (2) taking positive and calculated risks; (3) making career changes fuelled by passion and purpose; (4) “filtering and focusing” to give their creative ideas time and space to evolve; (5) prioritising; (6) overcoming procrastination; (7) decluttering and creating workable workspaces; and (8) finding resources and support.

(1) dismantling limiting beliefs

Yes, we have to start with identifying what are our beliefs and which of them hinder us from being successful. We may have believed in things which are not true and they can be the ones who are hampering our work towards success. They can be our fears and worries.

(2) taking positive and calculated risks

This can never be overemphasised or can be repeated too much: with higher stakes come the higher rewards. This principle is very visible in economics, accounting and finance. if you want to get more, you have to pay more. If you want to gain more, you have to invest more. If you want to get more, you have to sacrifice more. However, you should always measure what you give up and what you hope to achieve so that you can decide better whether to push through, postpone or call it off at all.

(3) making career changes fuelled by passion and purpose

This is plain, simple and clear: to be successful, you have to do what you love. You cannot love what you do. You cannot make yourself love what you do not love in the first place. If your job now is something that you really do not love, you have to change your career. Do so with a job you love to do. And because you are passionate about it, you can easily find meaning and purpose in it.

(4) “filtering and focusing” to give their creative ideas time and space to evolve

Yes, you need to think of creative ideas. However, you should not hurry to carry them out. You must take it a little bit slower. Make a “feasibility study” of your ideas. Choose the best from among them and refine these choice ones. Do not hurry this up.

(5) prioritising

We need to assess and reassess what is important to us. We have many goals. There can be one overall goal but it is composed of many small ones. We may need to compromise some or let go them. In this process, we need to define what is important to us and what are our values so that we can prioritise and be able to choose which goals to hold us non-negotiable, which are secondary and which to let go.

(6) overcoming procrastination

Many women, and men, put off tasks needed to be done. These tasks are as simple as emptying the rubbish bin or as important as tasks in our goals. This can even be goal setting itself. We sometimes put off career plans like looking for another job which is better than what we have. We sometimes say “maybe next month,” “maybe next year,” “maybe never…” We have to overcome putting things off to later.

(7) decluttering and creating workable workspaces

One hindrance to success is the limited room to move. This is a physical limitation of space that translates into a mental room limitation. Many successful women realised and discovered that they are not effective at creating thinking when the surroundings are full of clutter and that they are very successful in creative thinking when the environment is organised and neat. Even a computer with many sub folders and useless old files can hang a cloud of mess at the back of your head and hinder your thinking power.

(8) finding resources and support

We have to move it. Sometimes, we are not able to do so because of our limitations. Thus, we have to be resourceful enough to find ways and means to carry out the tasks in our plans. We have to get the help and support of others.