Fitness Guide

Any class works if you don’t want to pass the GED math test. It just simply doesn’t matter. To matter you must make a change in yourself. A change that you are willing to commit to!

• You will make the time to study.
• You will admit what you can’t do and learn it.
• No matter what comes you will still work on your GED.
• You will be you! Not someone else who fails.
• You will not quit, ever.

Ignorance can be cured, stupidity overcome. Having the opinion that the world owes you a living is the stumbling block that will hurt you. In the the end destroy you, if you don’t escape its grasping fingers.

Just as you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink. So is a student that goes along with you but doesn’t really want the GED. When he fails, it will be your fault. You are his or her excuse for not passing! Don’t set the student up for failure! Check commitment and personal desire of the student. The student will be responsible for failure or success.

We tend to live up to our public image and struggle to make it less than our private self-image. The one we see in the still of the night and worry about. The weight of guilt is easier to place on others than ourselves. Guilt is meant to be put aside not on others or ourselves.

With a student’s drive engaged what would have stopped him before is just a little pause on the way to the goal. He doesn’t know he’s supposed to quit because he’s tired. Setting an example for his family means getting it done. He no longer has a taste for friends who fail or bemoan what if. You either help him or get out of the way. He can do bad all by himself.

No one walks our path for us! No one faces their fear but us. Failure is the option many choose. They quit. Claiming it was not what they wanted. That they will return one day and walk the path and not quit. Failure is for those who quit trying or are satisfied with not trying.

We are meant to better ourselves by not waiting on others to come and rescue us from what we should do for ourselves.

The goal was passing the GED math test. The measurement was did you? The cost was did you do what you had to? The results I leave up to you. Yes, a man may dream but not spend his life dreaming. Dreams should be lived if you are going to have them.

Those who are schooled in and familiar with the field of dyslexia will quickly admit that one of the principle challenges for the dyslexic student is identifying, spelling, and pronouncing homonyms and homophones.

While today’s technology has made dyslexic software easily available, there is still a need for caution when selecting a dyslexic software program for homonyms.

One of the basic approaches until now has been having the dyslexic student use a spell checker to check her work. Since the dyslexic person will often reverse the order of letters when reading or writing words, a spell checker seemed like a good idea.

The use of the spell checker would allow the student to go back over her work and make sure that all words were spelled correctly. This works well except for homonyms and non-homonym words that have visually similar spelling.

For example a spell checker would not tell you that “red” should be “read” in the sentence, “I red the book last night.” Instead, our dyslexic student would receive a “Spell check complete, no errors found.” message from the spell checker.

A spell checker would also see no problem with the word “super” which should be “supper” in the sentence, “I ate super last night.” Even though this is not a homonym problem sentence, to the dyslexic student, the sentence still may appear correct.

The simple fact is that a spell checker alone addresses only part of the problem. What is needed is a dyslexic software program that identifies words that are not only phonetically similar, but visually similar as well, and then provides a means of correcting such words based on the context of the sentence.

Dyslexic software of this type would address the needs of the student that must deal with dyslexia as well as teachers, groups and organizations that have undertaken the noble task of meeting this most persistent challenge to the dyslexic student.

When choosing among the dozens of dyslexic software products on the market, look for those that do more than just part of the job. The extra effort will require some digging and investigating, but the find will be well worth the time spent for the dyslexic student and those dedicated to helping him.

A google search on the keyword dyslexic software would be a good starting point.

The dyslexic software program, Homonym Words Dictionary, has evolved into an excellent tool for dyslexic student as well as her parents, teachers, and schools. The software gives one the tools needed for learning and mastering homonyms. Click HERE for details and a free demo.

Write out ten sentences on a piece of paper that include vocabulary and grammar covered in class.  Cut out each sentence so you have ten slips of paper.  Each slip of paper will have a unique sentence on it.  Have your students sit in rows of five to six people back.  You can decide how many rows there are going to be and how many students in each row by looking at your class numbers.  This activity will work with large and small classes.

Now, explain to the class that the first person in every row will be getting a slip of paper that contains a sentence in English on it.  This person’s job is to read the sentence and turn the paper face down.  He now turns around and whispers the sentence to the student behind him.  This student listens and immediately turns to the next student and does the same thing.  Once the last student has heard the sentence, he is to say it out loud to the rest of the row and to you.  As the Kansas Teacher Association you will tell him if he is correct or not.  Many times the sentence that the last student recites is very different from the original.  That is OK.  Write the original sentence on the board so students can see what it was supposed to be. 

If you have a larger class you will have to move around the room to attend to each group.  When one row is done with a particular sentence give it to another row.  Let your students have fun and get carried away.  Most people can’t help but laugh at themselves during this activity.  Even though everyone is having fun, and most likely getting a little loud, there is important English practice occurring.  Each student will concentrate extra hard on pronouncing their sentence correctly and listening to their classmate’s English.  I’ve always had fun with this and I bet you and your class will too.

Andrew Lawton

http://drewseslfluencylessons.com