What is the Difference between TOEFL and IELTS?

If you aren’t an English native speaker, you’ll almost always be required to sit an English language proficiency test as part of your application to study abroad at an English-speaking university.

The two most accepted English language tests worldwide are the International English Language Test System (IELTS) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) tests.Whilst both accurately test your level of English and are widely accepted across over thousands of institutions worldwide, the two tests are different in their approach, structure and teaching criteria, so you should think carefully about which one you’ll choose to sit.

Read our guide to the differences between IELTS and TOEFL to help you decide which is best for you.
What is IELTS?

The IELTS is an English language test that is used for educational, immigration and occupational purposes, and is accepted by over 9,000 institutions across 130 countries worldwide. Jointly administered by the British Council, University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and IDP Education Australia, IELTS uses British English, and is more likely to be favoured by UK and institutions in Commonwealth nations such as New Zealand and Australia. Depending on the entry requirements of your study programme, you might need to take either the Academic or General Training IELTS exam.
What is TOEFL?

The TOEFL test seeks to test your ability to communicate in English in specifically academic, university and classroom-based settings. It is accepted by over 8,500 institutions across 130 countries, including the UK, USA and Australia, as well as all of the world’s top 100 universities. TOEFL is administered by US-based organization the Education Testing Service, and so is conducted in American English. This test is more likely to be favoured by American institutions.
Aside from the different styles of English each exam is are based on, TOEFL exam questions are almost entirely multiple choice, whereas IELTS requires you to respond to a range of different question types such as short answer, gap-filling and short essay tasks. The IELTS is significantly shorter than the TOEFL exam, taking approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes versus four hours to complete.

General differences
Aside from the different styles of English each exam is  based on, TOEFL exam questions are almost entirely multiple choice, whereas IELTS requires you to respond to a range of different question types such as short answer, gap-filling and short essay tasks. The IELTS is significantly shorter than the TOEFL exam, taking approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes versus four hours to complete.

There is only one type of TOEFL exam that is done entirely on the computer, whereas there are two types of IELTS that are both completed on paper. Students applying for English-speaking tertiary programmes will need to sit the Academic IELTS exam, whereas the General Training exam is used to meet immigration and some occupational requirements.
IELTS and TOEFL favour different modes of thought and problem solving. As TOEFL is primarily multiple choice, students will need to be able to think analytically to weigh up the differences between their options. IELTS requires more use of memory, and draws on broader comprehension skills as students are faced with different question styles.
Exam Structures

Speaking

Whilst both exams have a speaking component, the IELTS speaking test is taken face-to-face with an examiner.

In the TOEFL exam, you’ll answer six questions into a microphone which are recorded and later sent to a group of six reviewers. Your IELTS speaking score will only be determined by a single examiner.

The IELTS test will take between 11-14 minutes and may not necessarily be on the same day as the other exam components, whilst the TOEFL will take about 20 minutes and is alwWhere the IELTS exam features a range of different accents... read the full article here.

About author:

This post was written by Hotcourses Abroad. Prepare for your English test with their useful articles and guides. You can also search for universities overseas which offer English courses.
Send an email to vickywecksolutions@yahoo.com for further enquiries.

Brilliant apps for teachers by TEDed

What are the best apps for teachers? We asked TED-Ed Innovative Educators and the TED-Ed community. Below, 25 awesome apps recommended for teachers, by teachers.

For teaching students how to present, create and code

TED-Ed
More than 250,000 teachers use TED education tools to spark student curiosity and explore presentation literacy skills. “TED-Ed is an outstanding resource in my classroom,” says TED-Ed Innovative Educator Jennifer Hesseltine. “I use the online platform to add engaging content to topics that we are studying. I have also given students the opportunities to help in the process of creating TED-Ed Lessons by choosing videos and creating questions to include.”

Haikudeck
Students can create beautiful presentations with this app. “It’s great for pairing short poems and images,” says TED-Ed community member Jessica Dawn Kaiser.

Duolingo
If the benefits of a bilingual brain motivate your students, try this app. “Duolingo revolutionized the way people learn languages,” says TED-Ed community member Dhruv G. Menon.

Draw and Tell
This app can increase creative confidence in kids of all ages. Just draw something, tell a story about it and share your creation. For TED-Ed community member Ginnie Harvin Pitler, this app is a classroom favorite. “I’m an elementary teacher and believe in creation apps over consumption apps,” she says.

Animoto
Students can easily create and share their own beautiful videos with Animoto. “I’m a huge fan of this simple yet powerful digital storytelling tool for iPad and the web,” writes TED-Ed Innovative Educator Jennifer L. Scheffer in an this ed tech roundup. “The app allows students to select a theme, music, images or videos, add captions and/or two lines of text, and within minutes a slick video is created. The finished product can be shared via social media, uploaded to YouTube, or embedded in a student’s e-portfolio. For a great introduction to Animoto, with a built-in lesson in digital citizenship, have students create an ‘About Me’ or ‘Year in Review’ Animoto.”

iMovie
This popular app is another teacher-recommended choice for student video creation. “My students enjoy using iMovie for group projects,” says TED-Ed community member Chris Gilley Callaway. Check out the Apple apps for educators, too.

Instructables
From science experiments to merit badges, this app offers instructions for more than 100,000 DIY projects. Looking for a classroom maker project? You’ll find it here. Did your students create something awesome? Encourage them to upload their instructions and share their ideas.

Hopscotch
Students can learn computer science fundamentals — via game design — using this app. For more ways to teach core coding concepts, check out Scratch.

Tinkercad
After students get inspired by the open-source wonderland at Thingaverse, turn them loose to start designing their own 3D objects with this app.

For everyday classroom needs

Evernote
Teachers love this notetaking app — for good reason. “Evernote has allowed me to get rid of handouts. I just don’t make them anymore,” writes TED-Ed Innovative Educator Nicholas Provenzano in this blog post. “All of my projects are shared with my students through our shared notebooks, and all assignments are posted on the Assignment shared notebook that is available for parents on my website. Traditionally, these handouts would be viewed by students then trashed. Now they can view them on Evernote and trees can be saved.” To learn more from Nick about how to use Evernote in the classroom, read The Epic Evernote Experiment.

Explain Everything
Basically, it’s an interactive whiteboard. “It’s one of the most versatile apps you can have in your toolbox,” says TED-Ed community member Caroline Taylor-Levey.

Educreations
This app makes it easy to create new videos for learning. For example, “it’s a great tool for explaining math strategies with voice, pen and screen recorder,” says TED-Ed community member Melissa Julian. ”It also lets students make learning resources for other children to use.”

Oxford Dictionaries
Every classroom needs a good dictionary or two. For TED-Ed community member Nuria Carballal, Oxford Dictionary works well. Meanwhile, TED-Ed community member Chie Sipin Bjarenas recommends Dictionary.com. “It’s a quick way to answer ‘what does [insert unfamiliar word] mean?’” she says.

For collaborating on school projects

Social Media as a Collaboration and Productivity Tool

It is so easy to focus on the negative aspects of social media, but we encourage you to look beyond those challenges and consider the ways that social media has changed communication, improved collaboration, and our own personal and professional learning. Social media technology is a transformative tool, one that is reshaping how students, teachers, and school leaders learn and work.

There is a whole set of social media tools that can be used to improve collaboration and productivity. Here are a few of our favorites.

Scheduling Meetings – Our favorite tool, because it’s free, is Doodle. You can use it to identify potential meeting times based on work schedules and then invite participants. It provides an easy-to-read report once people respond to the invitation.

Twitter Chats—Many schools and districts use twitter chats and hashtags to provide ongoing discussions about key topics or initiatives.

Enhancing Collaboration –A wiki is a combination of a website and a place to post, revise, and edit work. They are especially useful for working with groups. What’s most powerful is that a wiki allows members of a group to collaborate on planning and implementing projects without having to constantly meet. Membership in the wiki can be controlled and the wiki keeps a record of any changes made by members. Our favorite is Wikispaces. There is a free plan for K-12 schools that is free of ads.

Maintaining Meeting Records – We like Meeting Diary as a way to keep online records of meetings we’ve attended, along with the agenda and a summary of major decisions.

What Parents Really Want to Know during parent-teacher - conferences

According to Jim Gomes, he highlighted a list of what Parents want to know during conference based on his personal experience of teaching full time for 35 years and conducting in excess of 1,000 parent-teacher conferences. Please see list below:

current grade and most recently t results;

behavior—positive or negative;

homework completion;

participation, including how students relate to their peers;

areas for improvement, both academic and behavioral;

upcoming evaluations; and

action plan to improve student grades and resolve other issues.

Being able to address each of the above items accurately will require some record keeping in the form of checklists and anecdotal comments.

Hint: Don’t be surprised that the majority of parents who show up for conferences are the parents of high achievers. Therefore, it is a good idea to either send a note home or call the parents you need to see the most to set up a conference..

Innovative Tips for Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences

Vickywecksolutions is pleased to present these professional development tips shared by author and educator Jim Gomes.

Have a Student Secretary for Parent-Teacher Conferences*

Select a volunteer from one of your classes to act as your secretary during parent-teacher conferences. Thank the student for volunteering. Familiarize the student with both the benefits and the secretary’s role as outlined below.

Benefits:

• The student secretary accumulates valuable volunteer hours.
• The student also gains experience dealing with adults.
• This illustrates to parents that teachers see their students as valuable by empowering them and by providing growth opportunities.
• It sets a professional tone for the meeting.
• It helps the parent-teacher conference process run much more smoothly.
• It saves the teacher time.

The Secretary’s Role:

• Greet parents in a friendly manner.
• Set up appointment times if not prearranged.
• Distribute a welcome sheet (see Tip 87).
• Take down contact information of parents who arrived but were unable to stay.
• Keep the teacher on schedule.

There may be no better time to make a good impression on parents than on this night. Having a student secretary can help you make the most of it.


Provide a Welcome Sheet for Parent-Teacher Conferences

After welcoming parents, the student secretary should supply them with a welcome sheet that may contain:

• a warm, inviting title such as Welcome to Parent-Teacher Conferences;
• your name, subject, meeting room number, and conference time;
• an introductory paragraph that thanks parents for attending and lets them know you are looking forward to the opportunity of discussing their child’s progress with them;
• contact information such as phone number and extension (and/or professional e-mail address at your discretion), and times when you can be reached;
• times when extra help is available for any student who seeks to improve;
• information regarding tutoring programs that are available at your school—high achievers may wish to become peer tutors (see Tip 64);
• a MEMO section that provides information about policies or procedures you wish to highlight (e.g., frequency of major tests, the need for parental signatures and the meaning of the year-to-date mark), upcoming tests and assignments, and what students are currently studying; and
• a NOTES section where parents can write important information discussed during the conference.

A well-designed and informative welcome sheet demonstrates that you are organized, well prepared, and thoughtful. It also helps to set the tone for a professional encounter. As an added benefit, the welcome sheet is a huge time saver, cutting the length of many conferences in half.

Nigerian Government to Feed students in 2016

On Tuesday the 22nd of December 2015, President Buhari  presented the 2016 Budget to the National Assembly and Nigerians at large.

According to the president, the proposed budget which amounts to N6.08 trillion will help revive the economy.

While elaborating on how the 2016 budget will impact the different sectors, the president mentioned some of the plans for the education sector to include feeding of public primary school pupils and free education for science, technology and education students in our tertiary institutions.

He also said that the the Federal Government will collaborate with with states and local governments to tackle the “chronic shortage’’ of teachers in public schools across the country by recruiting, training and deploying 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders to strengthen basic education, especially in rural areas. 

Social Media in Schools?

Social media has become a simple and effective means for individuals and workplaces to communicate these days, and schools are not exempt. I have provided principals and school administration with a list of tips for using social media to best communicate timely information.
As a result of its almost universal access across all demographic groups, social media often reaches more people more quickly. It also reaches audiences than traditional forms of communication . Principals can use social media to improve communication, provide information during school safety situations, increase collaboration, and enhance professional development.”

These days, many parents turn to school’s social media pages for information before turning to any other resource.

At VickyWeck we suggest that principals should take advantage of this and actively encourage parents to visit school social media pages by:

frequently updating content
providing easy navigation
having a clean, professional design
frequently linking to additional content

Since Social media technology is a transformative tool, one that is reshaping how students, teachers, and school leaders learn and work. We will spend time to discuss and point out the benefits of social media for establishing a Professional Learning Network (PLN) as a means of free professional development, as well as enhancing collaboration between educators.

How best to Motivate Students

1. Take a genuine interest in your students.
Learn their interests, hopes, and dreams. Ask them about what is happening in their lives. In other words, lead with your ears and not your mouth. Don't, however, just make it a one-way street -- share some of your own stories, too.

2. Act friendly in other ways.
Smile, joke, and sometimes make a light, supportive touch on a student's shoulder.

3. Be flexible, and keep our eyes on the learning goal prize.
One of my students had never written an essay in his school career. He was intent on maintaining that record during an assignment of writing a persuasive essay about what students thought was the worst natural disaster. Because I knew two of his passions were football and video games, I told him that as long as he used the writing techniques we'd studied, he could write an essay on why his favorite football team was better than its rival or on why he particularly liked one video game. He ended up writing an essay on both topics.

4. Don't give up on students.
Be positive (as much as humanly possible) and encourage a growth mindset.

What does it mean to be a great teacher?

What does it mean to be a great teacher? Of course credentials, knowledge, critical thinking, and all other faculties of intelligence are important. However, a great teacher should be much more than credentials, experience and intelligence.

What lies in the heart of a great teacher?

You are kind: a great teacher shows kindness to students, colleagues, parents and those around her/him. My favourite saying is “kindness makes the world go around”. It truly changes the environment in the classroom and school. Being a kind teacher helps students feel welcomed, cared for and loved.

You are compassionate: Teaching is a very humanistic profession, and compassion is the utmost feeling of understanding, and showing others you are concerned about them. A compassionate teacher models that characteristic to the students with her/his actions, and as a result students will be more open to understanding the world around them.

You are empathetic: Empathy is such an important trait to have and to try to develop in ourselves and our students. Being able to put yourself in someone’s shoes and see things from their perspective can have such a powerful impact on our decisions and actions.

You are positive: Being a positive person, is not an easy task. Being a positive teacher is even harder when we’re always met with problems with very limited solutions. However, staying positive when it’s tough can have such a tremendous positive impact on the students and everyone around us. Looking on the bright side always seems to help make things better.

You are a builder: A great teacher bridges gaps and builds relationships, friendships, and a community. Teachers always look to make things better and improve things in and outside of the classroom. Building a community is something a great teacher seeks to do in the classroom and extends that to the entire school and its community.

You inspire: Everyone looks at a great teacher and they want to be a better teacher, they want to be a better student, even better, they want to be a better person. A great teacher uncovers hidden treasures, possibilities and magic right before everyone’s eyes.

Online schools 'worse than traditional teachers'

A major report, based on research in 17 US states with online charter schools, has found "significantly weaker academic performance" in maths and reading in these virtual schools compared with the conventional school system.
 The National Study of Online Charter Schools, the first major study of this growing sector, has taken a wrecking ball to the idea that pupils learn as effectively in such an online setting.
The report, from researchers at the University of Washington, Stanford University and the Mathematica policy research group, found online pupils falling far behind their counterparts in the classroom. In maths, it was the equivalent of pupils having missed an entire year in school.
Low achievement in these schools, identified by this research, has raised big doubts about this approach.
The online schools relied much more on students driving their own learning and often determining the pace at which they advanced.
And the biggest problem identified by the researchers was the difficulty in keeping online pupils focused on their work.There is less teacher contact time in virtual schools. On average, pupils in bricks-and-mortar classrooms received the same amount of teacher time each day as the virtual pupils received on-screen each week.
 Apart from the challenges,the study also highlights certain groups who benefit from online schools - such as rural students with limited options, students at home with health problems, those with families moving around the country and those who for whatever reason did not fit in with a conventional school.

Trian the trainer.

Dear Educator,
Over a decade ago, whilst a young trainer, I once confessed to myself that I had failed as a trainer. I had met with a group of teachers who were physically present for my training, yet ‘absent’. I observed that they were simply humouring me and would probably not change their practice.  This contradicted the reason for which I had been invited to their school and I knew that there would be no change in that school.

Unknown to me at the time, I had encountered a well-researched and documented phenomenon called  ‘teacher resistance’. I did not know at the time that it existed, nor did I know how to deal with it.  Months later, during my M Ed in Trainer Development (teacher training) I learned about it and the causes of its deep roots within a school.

In this Train-the-trainer course, I will be addressing teacher resistance; its causes and how to deal with it. All school heads, proprietors, school consultants and senior teachers need to understand this if school improvement and achievement are to be pursued.  Indeed, the quality of our interactions with our teachers is as important as the curriculum that they are asked to implement.

Pedagogy and andragogy are two distinct areas of education we must appreciate. While the former describes how to teach children, the latter deals with how to teach adults. Treating adult learners (teachers) as children learners is a no, no. If we want our schools to change, school leaders need to change their approach to teachers.

In this course, you will be learning the following:
• Introduction to Teacher Education (PRE-SET versus INSET)
• Perspectives on teacher education (training versus teacher
        development)
• Models of Teaching (Apprenticeship; Applied Science; Reflective
        Practice)
• Pedagogy versus Andragogy
• Teacher Observation versus Teacher Supervision (types and
        practice)
• Skills for teacher development
• Strategies for teacher development
• Planning a Training Session
• Change Management

A workbook will be given to every participant for on going self-study during the 3 month period of mentoring after the course. This 3-month period will include peer review of at least one of your own training after the course. Only successful participants will be awarded our certificates.

Two streams of training are planned for two different dates. Both trainings are the same with a slightly different focus for the two distinct groups of participants please  call 08063633166 for further details or visit www.vickyweck.org. . 

Former Nigerian Vice President's Wife Lament!

WIFE of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Mrs. Amina Titi Abubakar, has lamented what she described as the unfavourable and unconducive climate, which the Nigerian educational system presents children with special needs.
According to her, most children with disabilities find it difficult to fit into conventional schools because of peer discrimination and sundry learning barriers.
She therefore, pledged to forward a bill to the National Assembly, to give some respite to individuals suffering from autism in Nigeria among other similar health challenges.
The bill, which is being proposed through one of her pet project, Hope House Initiative, will among other issues, seek to establish the Special Needs Commission, which will in turn provide exclusive platform for multi-agency involvement in rendering special needs services.
The bill would also seek to amend the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, by extending its functions to provide special needs education for children with learning difficulties.

In education push, Tanzania to punish parents of children out of school

Tanzania prepares to introduce free basic education for all, the government has warned that it will punish parents who fail to ensure their children go to school.
In a major policy shift, primary and secondary schooling will be free for all Tanzanian children from January, as the government joins its East African neighbour Uganda in offering universal education free of charge.
George Masaju, Tanzania's attorney general, warned that parents deemed to be holding back efforts to create a literate society by keeping children out of school would face punishment.
"Causing a child to drop from school for any reason is a criminal offence because you offend his fundamental right of being educated," Masaju said late last month at a graduation ceremony at Feza School in Dar es Salaam.

Why everything Centers on Education?

Everything in life centers on Education because it is the process that facilitates learning. There is no doubt that knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits of a group of people are transferred to other people, through storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, or research which all evolves around education. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves in a process called autodidactic learning. Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational.