Community Service Bilingual Tutoring - Is It Helpful to Volunteer For a Job?

Community Service Bilingual Tutoring - Is It Helpful to Volunteer For a Job?When you decide to volunteer for a job, whether it's at a non-profit organization or an employer, there are many other good reasons for volunteers who need to get trained in a class called 'Community Service Bilingual Tutoring'. This class is for people who need help learning about English.As you can imagine, classes can be challenging and they are not like classes taught at the local high school or community college. Class takes place on a daily basis while meeting with people in a one-on-one environment. Class subjects vary from French to Spanish, from Latin to Greek, from Yiddish to Spanish, and more.One of the great things about community service programs is that they are designed so that they do not look like any other classes, as they have a variety of different ways to teach. For example, in addition to a group session, these programs also allow for conversations, to teach songs and stories, and even t o teach each person how to speak a second language. But all of the conversation is in the specific language that the student needs help with.There are other sessions that take place in the same way as a conversation, but it is not spoken in English. So for these participants, the purpose of the class is to teach their second language without going through all of the common problems of other language learning methods.Community service bilingual tutoring classes are always taught by people who are experienced in teaching in a classroom setting. They know what works and what does not, and also what kinds of communication are most effective in teaching these skills to someone who is learning English.Most importantly, this program will put the student's attention on the language and help them learn the language well enough to begin speaking it in everyday situations. Because it has the other benefits that a bilingual language course would, it can really change a person's life. It can mak e them feel more confident in their new language and help them become fluent.And it also helps to learn English as a second language, if that is the desire of the student. That way, it is easier to practice speaking the language in situations where only a native speaker can be present. It also is useful for those who need more practice with their English skills, so that they can then go on to talk on a regular basis.

GCSE Poem analysis Praise Song for My Mother by Grace Nichols

GCSE Poem analysis Praise Song for My Mother by Grace Nichols Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, the Caribbean country of Guyana and moved to the UK in the 1970s. Her poetry is inspired by her Caribbean heritage, folk tales, tradition and her move between cultures. We have written a GCSE poem analysis of Praise Song for My Mother by Grace Nichols. What is the poem about? A praise song is a traditional African form in several traditions, increasingly made relevant to Western world in recent decades, used to list and explore the attributes of a person.   There is an easily grasped relationship behind this one, which really invites a reader to consider their own relationship with their mother. Praise Song for My Mother by Grace Nichols You were water to me deep and bold and fathoming You were moon's eye to me pull and grained and mantling You were sunrise to me rise and warm and streaming You were the fishes red gill to me the flame tree's spread to me the crab's leg/the fried plantain smell replenishing replenishing Go to your wide futures, you said Overview The poem is written in the past tense, prompting a question.   When written, was the poet’s mother dead or simply so distant that the memory of what she once was had priority over what she still was?   But this means that either way, the poem is an exploration of memory and descriptive power. Form and structure The poem has five brief stanzas of uneven length, the first three regular, the fourth extended and the fifth very brief.   The lines themselves are not metrically regular, making this really a piece of free verse.   The poem is strongly repetitive but also has a strong shape on the page and when spoken aloud.     There is a real sense of growth as the lines increase in length, then contract again, something like waves on the sea. Language The poem is a collection of metaphors, each depicting the subject from a different point of view.   ‘Water’ is the easiest place to start â€" life-giving, flowing, liquid and expressive â€" and it prompts the poet to describe her mother with three words ‘deep and bold and fathoming’.   To call a person ‘deep’ may now have the sense of complexity or seriousness, but here it summons up deep sea water, ‘bold’ the braveness of waves.   ‘Fathoming’ is slightly nonsensical.   To fathom something is to sound it â€" to test its depth â€" but is the poet’s mother trying her own depth?   No â€" rather she is being fathoms deep.   She is active, not passive. The way the poet stretches the sense of this word is itself repeated.   ‘Mantling’ must be an action related to a ‘mantle’ or cloak, but how?   Did the mother wrap herself around her daughter in protection?   Did she clothe her daughter with her own resources, her own wealth, her own skills?   Nichols is very ambiguous with her language here. To be ‘rise’ is another of these tests.   The poet’s mother was, we are told, the rise that brought as much to her daughter as the sun rising in the morning, yet the exact manner of what that gift was and how it was brought is hidden from us, both by the inability of language to really express it and by the shield of privacy that the poet holds.   Yet she seems to let these go as the poem continues. The next images will all have very personal connotations, and perhaps that is the point.   The poem describes a generic feeling of awe, love and gratitude to a parent while keeping a little specific mystery.  The ‘fishes red gill’ seems to me to be another image of vitality, since the oxygen-rich gills quickly fade in colour once a fish has been taken out of the water.   The ‘flame-tree’s spread’ implies a degree of shelter, although an exotic one, and the ‘crab’s-leg’ a favourite, well-loved family treat.   I would interpret the / marking as an indication of quick movement â€" of one idea breaking in on another, and the image â€" or flavour â€" of fried plantain over-taking the poet’s imagination and demanding priority!   Even tastier than crab â€" even more precious â€" fried plantain!   And all of this is the mother’s habit of ‘replenishing’ â€" filling up her daughter â€" filling her up so full that even the word is repeated. Yet finally the mother’s greatest gift is the freedom she gives her daughter to leave and live her own life.   The ‘wide futures’ might well be outside traditional African or Caribbean heritage, yet however far the poet has travelled, and however far she has ended up from her mother, she has remained able to talk to her directly, privately, colourfully, humorously, and with love. Free verse - Poetry without a regular fixed pattern of metre or rhyme Metre - The pattern of stress, beat, rhythm or emphasis that is created by words in a sentence or line. Need an extra hand with some  English? Why not book a  GCSE English tutor  to come to your home from the  Tutorfair  website? For More GCSE poem analyses: Nettles, The Yellow Palm, My Last Duchess, and Medusa Try out our other Tutorfair blogs  to find more great GCSE resources New Maths 9-1 GCSE Five Strategies to improve Academic Performance Find this useful? Leave a comment.

Mike Rowes Big Break English Listening Exercise

Mike Rowes Big Break English Listening Exercise I actually heard this little excerpt on my favorite radio station, National Public Radio or NPR. This is a great resource to listen to interesting stories and regular news. NPR is like the United States version of the BBC. This is a really funny interview with Mike Rowe, former host of the popular show Dirty Jobs, talking about his first job on television.For Rowe, working at QVC, a television shopping network was his big break. Do you know what a big break means? See if you can answer this after you listen to the radio show.1. Where did he audition for the QVC? 2. What did have to do for the interview? 3. How much does the cat sack toy cost? 4. I _____ say that its a good idea but, its an idea. 5. How many times was he fired? 6. It was the perfect __________ ground for what would come many years later, with Dirty Jobs. 7. What is his whole career based on?What is your strangest experience with a job interview? Have you ever had a big break? What is the strangest job youve ever had?

Mind Over Matter How to Stop Translating in Your Head

Mind Over Matter How to Stop Translating in Your Head 3 Ways to Stop Translating in Your Head Its like grasping at straws at the beginning of learning a language.Youre trying to make sense of anything.Anything.The strings of sound coming at you are difficult to decipher.Been there, done that.Albeit exciting, theres a lot of confusion as you start out in a new language. You have to use every strategy available to you to break the code.Direct, or literal, translation is typically one of those strategies we employ. We take every word and filter it through our native language.Make no mistake, translating in your head is a habit that will prove to be incredibly helpful in the beginning. However, if you rely on it too much, itll burden you later on.Were going to take a good look at the whole process of mental translation and show you why it could be detrimental to your language learning experience if youre unable to get past it and start thinking  in your new language.Well take you through the different methods you can use to start quitting the habit and progress even further with your new language. Why You Should Stop Translating in Your HeadReal translation is accurately articulating a feeling or a concept in another language. Thats useful, of course.  It allows things like classical literature to be accessible to speakers of all languages.But thats not exactly what youre doing at this point in your language learning experience, if youre not currently a professional translator.What many language learners do in the beginning is closer to finding the words in their native language and then settling for the direct translation without considering the implications. For example, using ????? (??????) to mean see in Japanese.In this Japanese example, you have to consider that this is the honorific form of the verb. On a very basic level it does indeed mean to see, but thats not what native speakers are going to understand when you use it in regular conversation. When you start learning about a language on a deeper level, those direct translations you relied on wi ll quickly cease to be as helpful as they were in the beginning.You might be at that stage where youre still reasonably satisfied with your process and not too bothered by translating. Eventually, you might notice that all that translating is holding you back.To see why, think about the process thats taking place when you translate in your head as you read, speak or listen to foreign languages. The crux of the issue here is that there are far too many variables to consider.Because of all the differences that exist between languages (word order, verb tenses, cases, etc.), trying to go back and forth becomes cumbersome and unnecessary.Its tiring just thinking of the whole mental process where you hear or read a sentence, then try to internally match every word to the equivalent in your native tongue. The whole process ruins any reading or social experience youre having and its just exhausting.Its even more exhausting when you think of the elements that might prove to be more important to communication and understanding. In Mandarin, for example, theres pronunciation to consider, like ensuring you know the difference between ? (ma) â€"  mommy  and  ? (ma)  â€"  horse. (Wouldnt want to get those mixed up, would we?)You also have to consider the fact that not every word you come across is going to be completely translatable.Russian, for example, has a vocabulary famous for the number of words within it that simply cannot be accurately translated to English. ????? roughly translates to mean yearning or melancholy, but ask any native Russian speaker and theyll tell you that the English translation doesnt come close to conveying t???? in all its complexity and depth. Youre not going to learn how best to use it if youre always thinking about how it translates to your native tongue.3 Ways to Stop Translating in Your HeadFortunately, there are a multitude of ways for you to break out of that habit and were going to show you a few of the best methods. Hopefully some, if n ot all of these will work for you.Whatever solution you choose, remember that practicing with your foreign language a lot is necessary.Using a platform like FluentU will help accelerate the process of thinking in that language.  FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into language learning experiences. Once youve gotten enough exposure to natives speaking their language fluently, youll forget all about translating!1. AssociationThe first method you could try is image association. In the beginning of your language learning experience, youll probably find that you tend to associate new foreign words with the equivalent in your native tongue. Instead of allowing yourself to do that, try associating a word with a clear image or feeling instead. This technique has been proven to work better than simple translations.Instead of associating the Portuguese saudade  with the English word longing, try to really understand the feeling of missing someone or something that exists far away in time or space, if it exists at all. Instead of associating the words such as the Spanish word perro with the English dog, try actually picturing a dog instead.This simple change in your learning technique will aid you greatly when you start using what youve learned out in the real world. When a Spanish speaker says, un gran artículo (a great article), youll know what that means almost instantly because youll associate both gran and artículo with a feeling of greatness and an image of articles (particularly this lifesaver of an article!).When you start doing this, youll stop having to filter and immediately associate the word with a meaning.2. Use sticky notes to your advantageTo help with this, a second method and a classic, is to stick sticky notes on everything around you! Okaymaybe not everything per se. Just plant a sticky note on objects you want to learn the foreign name of.You can make your own or you can u se the wonderful Vocabulary Stickers , which has the labels already made for you!If youre learning Italian, youll want a sticky note with frigo or il  frigorifero on youryou guessed itâ€"fridge! Whenever you see that word out in the world, youll think of that object and know what it means.and that youll have to go grocery shopping soon.You can take it even further after youre confident with basic nouns and start adding things like adjectives, qualifiers, prepositional phrases or entire sentences, like a soft couch, a very long table or I put the milk in the fridge.This is a great method to use in conjunction with the others, especially if youre more of a visual learner and need a way to bridge the gap between what you read in textbooks and on apps with what you see in the real world.When you repeat the words you see while looking at the objects theyre attached to, youll start to slowly wean yourself off of having to use your native language, because those foreign words youre trying to learn will be attached to something you can easily visualize.3. Constant internal narrationThis method is especially great for those who can easily understand what everyone is saying but seem to hit a mental block when it comes to expressing themselves. When you hear those foreign words, you seem to understand them but when the time comes for you to talk, youre at a loss and you resort back to translating to make sure you find what you believe to be the right words.If thats you, you definitely need to practice actually speaking without too many pauses. You can do it. After all, you already know the right words, clearly. One of the best ways to practice is by narrating your every action. You can start by being literal then progress by describing what you do, what you see, hear and feel in more detail.After a while, when the time comes for you to actually have a conversation, youll find that youre able to find the right words without ever having to really consider what they mean in your native tongue.Maybe you come across something you genuinely dont know how to describe without resorting back to your native language. Theres a solution that doesnt require you to cheat like that. Monolingual dictionaries  are a fantastic way of learning without translating. For example, theres Vocabulary.com for English, Duden.de for German, Zdic.net for Mandarin and many more.There are a lot to choose from, and best of all, they come as apps now! Theyre also a great way of gauging your progress. The more clear a definition is to you, the more fluent youve become.The best way to stop translating is to surround yourself completely with the language if you can. Youll stop translating over time as you grow accustomed to foreign words. These methods will help you do just that if youre unable to travel or engage with a community of native speakers. Theres always a way.It takes timeAs we said before, translating in your head isnt bad. In fact, when youre just starting to learn a for eign language, your habit of mental translation is actually beneficial.It helps you flesh out your vocabulary and it helps you identify weak areas.If youre seemingly fluent in casual conversation but find that you have to translate internally when youre talking about something like science, youll know what you have to work on.Weve given you a few methods here from image association and sticky notes to narration and immersion but the one thing you have to remember is that no matter what you do, language learning as a process takes time.One final solution to this problem is to just let it run its course.Sooner or later, as long as you keep studying and trying, youll stop translating. Its inevitable. And One More ThingWant to get a closer look at FluentU?FluentU has a wide variety of videos, including movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover over or tap on the subtitles to instantly view definitions.FluentU Interactive Transcripts You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs quiz mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.

How do I find a teaching job abroad

How do I find a teaching job abroad Teaching abroad can be a very rewarding experience. You’re placed outside of your comfort zone -- and often times, teaching in a foreign country where students speak a different language. You’ll learn things about yourself and grow as an educator, too. Countless teachers have told us that they are able to take what they’ve learned as educators abroad back to their home country. (Read more about this on our blog post about Angela and how teaching in Kazakhstan helped her succeed in the American classroom.) On top of that, you’ll find that you’ll have some amazing opportunities to travel as well. Teaching abroad sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? “How do I find a teaching job abroad?” you may ask. Here are the key steps that you should take to find a teaching job abroad: Understand what teaching jobs you qualify for, based on your qualifications. You will need a Bachelor’s Degree at the minimum to teach. If you have a Bachelor’s Degree along with a valid teaching license issued by your regional teacher licensing authority, you will have a lot more options and can teach in certain regions including the Middle East. If you don’t have a teaching license, you can still teach! Be sure to check the requirements of each job posting, as an ESL certificate, such as a TEFL certificate, may be required. Chances are, you’ll be well-positioned to teach in Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Thailand, after you have obtained your TEFL certification. Some positions may also need post-qualification teaching experience as well, but any teaching-related experience is a plus. Research countries that interest you and make a list of top 5 countries. Now that you have a general sense of where you can go based on your educational background, do a little bit of research to find where specifically you’d like to go to teach abroad. Perhaps you have always wanted to travel to a specific country or you have visited a country in the past and loved it. There can be many reasons for why you want to teach in a particular country. Visit our “destinations” map to learn a bit more about the different countries and their culture and notable geographical information. Prepare your resume or CV and gather your certifications. If you haven’t already, make sure your resume is up to date and highlights all your relevant experience and education. Check out this webinar recording on how to complete your teacher resume. Register for a Teach Away account. If you haven’t already, applying for teaching positions through Teach Away is more reliable than flying out to a foreign country and applying for jobs when you’re there.This way, you’re able to apply from the comfort of your home -- definitely less stressful than moving yourself and your whole family to a foreign country and trying to find a job! Register for a Teach Away account here and make sure you upload your resume you prepared in step 3 and carefully fill out all your information. You’ll want to take at least 30 minutes to ensure you have added everything. Search for teaching positions in your desired country and click “apply” on the jobs that interest you and that you qualify for. Use our job board and the filter functions to find the right jobs for you. Make sure you read the job posting to see if you qualify for the position before clicking “apply”. Get ready for your interviews. If you’re a candidate of interest, one of our placement coordinators will be in touch with you for a pre-screen interview conducted over phone or video call. Like any job interview, be sure to prepare so you can convey your answers confidently. If things go smoothly, you’ll advance to a second round of interviews, either virtually again, or in-person. Make sure you prepare for this interview too. Get that job offer! At this point, you may be offered that teaching job overseas! Your Teach Away placement coordinator will liaise with you to prepare you before your big move.

Seven Computer Skills Your Child Should Have by GCSEs

Seven Computer Skills Your Child Should Have by GCSEs Building on the foundation established during primary school, secondary school students rapidly expand their repertoire of computer skills. Media classes are one opportunity to expand basic computer knowledge while middle school students will find themselves using computers and mobile devices in and for many classes as they advance toward high school. Both school supplied and personally owned computing devices offer practice and applications to bolster digital expertise. By GCSEs students should expect to have mastered or become more proficient with the following tasks and skills. Improved Keyboarding Skills Practice makes proficient and middle school students should take every chance to improve their keyboarding speed and accuracy. Students will be using typing for documents and communications, including emails and online classes or portals. Word Processing Students will be required to complete assignments using specific formats. The ability to set margins, tabs and use the broad range of editing and search tools within word processing programs or applications will be stressed. Headers, footers and page or section breaks will become routine. Expect homework or projects to be accepted online as a requirement or a convenience. Creative Digital Presentations Using graphics, animations, slideshows and videos will make projects and presentations intriguing and entertaining. Adding narration and music and applying a variety of visual details are ways to make final products appealing and looking professional. Saving projects to physical media such as flash drives or DVDs should become routine. Cloud applications may make physical saving unnecessary. Advanced Spreadsheets Improving on the basic spreadsheet functions learned in primary school, middle school students should be able to plan and design spreadsheets to display and compare date in meaningful ways. Spreadsheet functions will be explored providing many practical applications for the more complicated requirements of school assignments and even personal applications. Exporting And Embedding Spreadsheets Students will be able to design a spreadsheet or set of spreadsheets as part of a larger presentation or project. Graphing and other accessible ways of displaying data will need to be competently exported and embedded in documents and other presentations. Understanding Of Basic Web Design Middle school students will learn the fundamentals of web design, including using hyperlinks and inserting text, images and links onto web pages, perhaps of their own design. Classroom web pages or personal web sites may be created or maintained. Basic Understanding Of Platforms And Servers Grasping the rapidly evolving options of stand alone personal desktops, local servers and remote or cloud based services will develop, depending on the systems used by the school, instructor or district. Saving to the cloud and working remotely, including completing online classes if appropriate, will be introduced and mastered. Individual schools and districts will introduce these concepts on their own schedules. Personal and mobile device use instead of desktops may impact how quickly concepts are adapted and added. Expect much variation.

Teach Away Telegram - November 2014

Teach Away Telegram - November 2014 Join us for a Twitter chat with one of our Placement CoordinatorsWe’re very excited to announce that on Thursday, November 13 from 8 - 9 pm GMT, we’ll be holding a live Q&A on Twitter with our Placement Coordinator, Alexandra Capistrano. She’ll be taking over the @teachaway Twitter account for 1 hour.Alexandra has been working as a Placement Coordinator with Teach Away for just over a year. Before that, she was teaching abroad herself at a conversation school in Okayama, Japan, and was an Assistant Language Teacher at a private high school in Matsuyama, Japan. She loves to travel and has been to the UK, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Morocco, South Korea, and the Philippines. As one of our Placement Coordinators, she is currently working with private schools in Abu Dhabi, Macau, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan. When she’s not finding the best candidates for teaching positions overseas, she’s either assuming her duties as the resident Teach Away DJ or sharing cute dog p hotos with the office.Our Twitter Q&A will be your chance to ask Alexandra anything to do with teaching overseas in one of the countries she focuses on, or about her own personal teaching experience.To participate, all you have to do is tweet us your question by including the hashtag #askteachaway. Alexandra will retweet the question before she tweets her answer, that way everyone can follow the Q&A.If you’re not on Twitter, click here to sign up. Once you’ve signed up, or if you already are, just follow @teachawayMake your next Skype interview a successThe Teach Away job board currently has more than 100 jobs posted for both ESL and certified teachers that reach every corner of the worldâ€"and for a number of these jobs, the schools have requested at minimum a remote interview with candidates. If you’ve never had a remote interview before, you may make the rookie mistake of thinking that because you’re not meeting in person, you don’t have to put the same amount of though t and preparation into it. Make no mistake: Skype interviews require the same effort. Here’s how you can make a great impression, even from a distance.Clean up your surroundings and minimize distractionsBefore your interview begins, make sure you’re going to be in a quiet room that’s free of distractionsâ€"for both you and the interviewer. Pick a room with a door so that you can minimize interferences from other family members and can shut out other household noises. It’s also important to let everyone else who lives with you know that you’ll be participating in an interview and need to conduct a distraction-free meeting.Set up your computer so that the wall behind you is clutter-freeâ€"a neutral background is best. A clean, organized space will show your interviewers that you too are an organized and thoughtful person.Keep a professional profileThough you might think that with a Skype interview, your first impression will involve you, you’re wrong. Before you connect fo r your video interview, your interviewer will be seeing your Skype username and your profile picture. Before you provide your Skype details, make sure that you’ve chosen a profile username and picture. If not, create a new one. Skype is free afterall!Dress the partAs we mentioned, many people interviewing for a teaching position abroad might be inclined to dress casually. Don’t! Psychologically speaking, getting dressed up professionally from head to toe for an interview makes you feel more professional. There's lots of evidence that shows the way we dress affects how we feel not only about ourselves but about our work, so stepping out of pajamas for an hour will help get your mind in a more professional mode. Go the whole nine yards: wear more professional slacks as well, even if you think your interviewer will have only a waist-up view of you.Practice makes perfectIf you’ve used Skype to visit with long-distance friends or family, you’re likely familiar with the awkward qu estion of where to look. This will be no different during your interview. The best thing for you to do is just practice your interviewâ€"better yet, record it if you can. Observe where you’re looking as you play the recording back for yourself, and try to train yourself to look at the camera instead of your own reflection on the screen.Show your interviewers that you’re presentWith long distance interviews, giving signs of life are sometimes necessary. Technology isn’t always perfect, and sometimes with slower internet connections Skype has video lags, so showing your interviewers that you’re still actively listening and participating through more verbal cues is helpful. Try to use simple words like “yes”, “right”, or even an “mhmm” to let everyone know that you’re still tuned in.Make yourself a cheat sheetIf you think you’ll feel more comfortable or prepared with notes in front of you, go ahead and make yourself a short cheat sheet with some point form notes . You can keep these in front of you but out of the way of your camera to refer to if necessary. But don’t fall into the trap of reading aloud verbatim: familiarize yourself with what you’d like to say in general, and make sure your notes are easily scannable so you don’t have to spend time studying them during your interview.Prepare to problem solveTechnology can be tricky, so be prepared to address any technological glitches like a weak connection, or interference or feedback. The chances are, if the problem is annoying you, it’s likely that it’s annoying your interviewers as well, and you don’t want to risk answering the question inappropriately because you didn’t hear the question in the first place. Although you might be nervous to draw attention to the problem, being quick to acknowledge the problem and find a solution shows that you’re a problem solverâ€"always a desirable quality in a teacher!Manage classroom behavior with ClassDojoThe creators of ClassDojo a ptly named their tool after a formal training place. Well-suited for any K-12 classroom, ClassDojo helps teachers improve classroom behavior through a comprehensive award system that awards merits or demerits in real-time to students for various behaviors.Since statistics show that teachers spend on average more than 50% of class time managing behaviors, ClassDojo aims to inject more instruction time back in to lessons by engaging students in behavior management.Students can earn points for demonstrated good behaviors like working hard on a specific task, asking thoughtful questions, and being cooperative or helpful with other students. When they’re awarded points, a pleasant noise lets them know so. Bad behaviors such as time wasting and class disruption lose students their earned points and a different, less harmonious noise lets them know. Whatever device teachers have available to them can be plugged into speakers for the rest of the class to participate in the process. Report s can even be generated and shared with parents to engage them in the process.ClassDojo works with any classroom, any device including regular web browsers, and is free for teachers. Try it today!City spotlight: Astana, KazakhstanAstana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, is known as “the city of the future,” though only 15 years ago, it barely existed. With little surrounding development for 1,200 km, Astana was quickly developed to look like something from a science fiction novel, with a skyline that boasts many futuristic structures.With so many remarkable buildings in one city, you’ll have no shortage of sights to visit. Architect Norman Foster designed many of these structures, including the Baiterek Tower, nicknamed “chupa chups” by locals because of its resemblance to a giant lollipop. Standing at 100 meters tall, it’s a great site for city views, and also houses an aquarium, a restaurant, and an art gallery. Another must-visit location is the Khan Shatyr, the worldâ €™s largest tent at more than 10 football stadiums in size, which features a giant shopping mall, an amusement park, an indoor beach, and even its own monorail.With a climate of extremes, having an indoor city like the Khan Shatyr proves helpful. In the summer, typical days can reach up to 30 degrees Celsius, while the winter months, the temperature can reach as low as -40 degrees Celsius, making it the coldest capital city in the world.Astana wasn’t always the capital of Kazakhstan though. Seven years ago, President Nursultan Nazarbayev decided to move the capital from Almaty, a city in the southeast, to Astana, which was previously home to not much more than a gulag prison camp for Soviet traitors. This allowed for a lot of modern development to be erected quickly, and the population has more than doubled to reach 750,000 since 1997.As a nomadic nation, Kazakh people appreciate wide open spaces and congestion isn’t such a concern in the city. For hundreds of years, Kazakhs her ded sheep, horses, and camels. This nomadic way of life has influenced their cuisine as well since herders relied on these animals for transportation, clothing, and food. Meat in various forms has always been the primary ingredient of Kazakh cuisine, and traditional cooking methods rely heavily on boiling. Local tastes do allow for variety though, and everyone will find something to enjoy when going out to eat.  If you are looking for a new international adventure that will take you off the beaten path, but still like the comforts of city life, Astana might be the place for you. Explore the largely unexplored and have a look at our open positions in Kazakhstan.