Discover The True Meaning Of Music Through Music Education

Music is probably the only known expression that is known to people across the globe. It is worshipped by millions and is the best way to express feelings and emotions. Be it any emotion, sadness, happiness, love, patriotism and so on, through music it can be expressed harmoniously. It is not inhibited to boundaries and religion and unites the entire world with its persona. It is the one thing that binds people together in a single thread. Its power is incomparable and its role in the process of communication is indispensable.

No other source of communication shows up such results that music can bring. Only through extensive music education, an individual could understand the ultimate essence of it. Education is helpful in bringing the importance of this sweet learning process in all our lives. The education of music should be taken seriously by those people who are planning for a successful career in this subject. Music education is a combination of both practical and theoretical skills. It starts from knowing about the history along with the popular icons associated with music towards more elaborate topics.

These days, a career in music is treated equally like any other profession. It is no less when it comes to a full- fledged musical career. Education, in the present time has changed its dimensions drastically and therefore, more and more universities are trying to incorporate music in their co-curriculum activity charts. A lot of educational institutes have even planned for professional music education that would provide a global platform to students who want to pursue a great career in this field. This process helps students to perform well in other aspects of their career as music increases concentration levels to large extent. So, one should consider learning this art in order to learn true values and meaning of it.

Music Lessons provide great foundation to your kid's future. It provides an opportunity of overall growth to your kid. Start Music Education for your kid and within few days you can see the differences.

Online Masters Education Programs

For teachers who want to advance their careers and pay grade obtaining a masters degree in education is a step that really should be taken. In fact, in many educational systems around the nation advanced degree course work is required in order to maintain teaching certification.

For the busy teacher, who wants to enjoy at least a little private life, teaching school while attending classes can be a challenge. There often just is not enough time in the day to fit everything in and still have time to chill out now and then.

Programs that offer degrees in education are ideal for positions such as teachers or administrators within the public education system. Fortunately for the teachers or administrators education master's degree graduates have a host of other opportunities available in the private sector. Therefore working through an online education program can open the door to many other opportunities.

These opportunities are available within educational organizations that perform training and research, provide materials, and other services to educators. And there are many such organizations in America. A master's degree program in education will feature the following online course areas, and more:

  • Childhood development
  • Curriculum theory
  • School Administration
  • Public policy

While in most states a bachelor's degree is required to work in education in addition most states require continuing education courses in order to remain certified. Working towards and obtaining a master degree will usually satisfy those requirements as well as lead to an increase in salary.

Graduates will have the best job opportunities in education. If you are working in, or plan to work in education, obtaining a masters degree is highly important to your career.

Online Masters Degree in Education

Many teachers and students nowadays feel that they cannot enhance their careers without doing continuing education. For these people, an online master degree in education is probably the right choice for them. At times like these, it is very hard to quit your job just to pursue your studies and master's degree to add to your educational background. Because of this, schools have recognized that most of their students are already working students trying to work and study at the same time. The biggest obstacle however, is that sometimes the traditional method of teaching and learning is not always the best for them.

This is why distance education and online education is the best approach for this generation of students. The internet offers a great variety of communications, research, and networking resources that people can use to learn, interact, disseminate information, and socialize. With these resources, schools have found that they are also ideal for teaching. By getting an online education, you are able to attend class right from the comfort of your own home, and still interact with other students and teachers through online real-time discussions.

Getting a master degree in education is possible through this medium and is even a richer experience if you are focusing on an education degree specializing in distance and technology education. Just pick the right accredited master program that will let you learn in this new kind of environment, and you will find that you may enjoy this kind of teaching and actually learn more than you ever expected to.

Child Development Theories

A child goes through many changes on the road from infancy to adulthood. There is a never ending struggle to make sense out of this complex process. There is no end to theories trying to explain it. This article looks at a few of the more successful, or famous, child development theories.

Freud tried to explain much human behavior in psychosexual terms. Interestingly, he even tried to fit infants and children into this by describing their behavior based on shifting sexual interests over time. His oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital phases have become part of our popular culture. Current thinking is that sexuality does not have as much importance in childhood as Freud thought. He has also been faulted for only looking at the male perspective.

Everyone is affected by the environment they live in. The ecological systems theory breaks this down into multiple environments and examines how they affect the child that is in them. Closest in is the micro system, which would include friends, family, and schools. The society as a whole is the macro system. This includes the general level of income and the culture. Changes that affect the child are in the chrono system. This could include the death of a parent or sibling. It also looks at how the different environments affect each other. It has led to significant insights into how the environment impacts a growing child.

Jean Piaget used developmental stages as the basis for his theory of cognitive development. The essence of this theory is that there are discrete stages that comprise the growth of thinking ability. Normal humans almost always go through the same stages in the same order. The first, or sensorimotor stage, is based on direct contact with things of interest. The formal operation stage is the last. A person reaching that stage is ready to think like an adult.

The significance of interpersonal relationships to the growth of children is the focus of attachment theory. It claims that a good relationship with one or more caregivers is essential for a child to reach its potential as an adult. It has been able to influence the design of successful treatments of children's developmental problems.

Erik Erikson developed a theory of psychosocial development that covers an entire life. Get through his initial five stages and you will be an adult. Each stage is a challenge or crisis that must be resolved before going on. His competence stage, for example, focuses on the question, Am I successful or worthless, and is usually encountered between ages seven and eleven.

Behaviorism was a dominant force for a major portion of the twentieth century, and is still significant today. It advocates looking at measurable and observable behavior, rather than speculating on what is going on inside. More recent developments have backed away from this somewhat extreme position. It has been used to gain some insights into child development.

The answers are not all in on the development of children. Some theories have led to important insights and discoveries. Continued progress in this field seems likely.

The Importance of Play in Child Development

Play is universal throughout the animal kingdom - whether it's a puppy chasing its tail, or young birds swooping through the air. The importance of play to youngsters should not be underestimated. Play is an essential part of growing up and researchers believe it's critical to ensure children reach their full potential in life. Research in animals show that brain connections develop during periods of play, and there's no reason to suppose the same is not true of young humans. Parents don't always understand the importance of play however, and in today's competitive world, the temptation is to stop your children "wasting time" and to put the time to what they believe is more constructive use.

For a child, however, there is no more constructive activity than play. When analysing the importance of play, particularly if you're tempted to introduce a more "worthwhile" activity such as flash cards, educational computer games or dancing lessons, you should take into account the following points:

Play allows a young child to be "in charge." Think about this - in their everyday lives, they're small and powerless, always being told what to do, and how to do it. Without an adult around, they're running the show!

Play helps children learn about the world in which they live. They can investigate and discover, test their theories, spatial relationships, explore cause and effect, societal roles and family values. Such is the importance of play, that there's virtually no area of life about which it can't teach a child something.

Play builds self-esteem. Children will often play at something they know they can do well, at which they can be successful.

Play builds social skills. Children will begin playing with inanimate and non-threatening objects, like cuddly toys, bricks etc, so practising their interactive skills. Later, playing with other children will build on this foundation as they learn to share, take turns, assert themselves and begin to empathise with others.

The importance of play with parents shouldn't be underestimated either, as research shows that children whose parents play with them ultimately develop superior social skills.

Play also provides the opportunity for children to work out their feelings. The importance of play in dealing with difficult or unpleasant emotions is immense. A child who's worried about going to the dentist, for example, may deal with the anxiety by setting up a clinic for dolls with toothache.

Play helps with language development. Think of the vast number of words a toddler uses during play, many of them repeatedly, enhancing their language skills.

Play allows children to grow beyond their years. They can pretend to be all sorts of things in play - a doctor, a surgeon, a civil engineer even !!(think of those bricks)

Finally, don't forget to consider the importance of play in stimulating your child's creativity and imagination - making a castle in the sand, or a car garage out of a shoe box, taking an order in their own (imaginary) restaurant or dressing up as a king or queen - these all allow children to stretch the limits of their world and experience the fun in make-believe.

The Importance of Play in Child Development

Play is universal throughout the animal kingdom - whether it's a puppy chasing its tail, or young birds swooping through the air. The importance of play to youngsters should not be underestimated. Play is an essential part of growing up and researchers believe it's critical to ensure children reach their full potential in life. Research in animals show that brain connections develop during periods of play, and there's no reason to suppose the same is not true of young humans. Parents don't always understand the importance of play however, and in today's competitive world, the temptation is to stop your children "wasting time" and to put the time to what they believe is more constructive use.

For a child, however, there is no more constructive activity than play. When analysing the importance of play, particularly if you're tempted to introduce a more "worthwhile" activity such as flash cards, educational computer games or dancing lessons, you should take into account the following points:

Play allows a young child to be "in charge." Think about this - in their everyday lives, they're small and powerless, always being told what to do, and how to do it. Without an adult around, they're running the show!

Play helps children learn about the world in which they live. They can investigate and discover, test their theories, spatial relationships, explore cause and effect, societal roles and family values. Such is the importance of play, that there's virtually no area of life about which it can't teach a child something.

Play builds self-esteem. Children will often play at something they know they can do well, at which they can be successful.

Play builds social skills. Children will begin playing with inanimate and non-threatening objects, like cuddly toys, bricks etc, so practising their interactive skills. Later, playing with other children will build on this foundation as they learn to share, take turns, assert themselves and begin to empathise with others.

The importance of play with parents shouldn't be underestimated either, as research shows that children whose parents play with them ultimately develop superior social skills.

Play also provides the opportunity for children to work out their feelings. The importance of play in dealing with difficult or unpleasant emotions is immense. A child who's worried about going to the dentist, for example, may deal with the anxiety by setting up a clinic for dolls with toothache.

Play helps with language development. Think of the vast number of words a toddler uses during play, many of them repeatedly, enhancing their language skills.

Play allows children to grow beyond their years. They can pretend to be all sorts of things in play - a doctor, a surgeon, a civil engineer even !!(think of those bricks)

Finally, don't forget to consider the importance of play in stimulating your child's creativity and imagination - making a castle in the sand, or a car garage out of a shoe box, taking an order in their own (imaginary) restaurant or dressing up as a king or queen - these all allow children to stretch the limits of their world and experience the fun in make-believe.

Good Parenting Tips

Life is a process; it begins with the birth of an individual and ends when his soul leaves the body. This span of life consists of series of changes. Child care and parenting refers to these series of changes that takes place in a child right from its conception.

The early formative years of a child influence the whole of his life. They are like clay and can be molded into any desired form. The environment in which children live during the early formative years of life greatly influences their life. Even the behavior and attitudes stabilized during the early years goes a long way. That's where the role of parents comes in.

Parenting is not only giving birth to a child but much beyond that. Nurturing a child in the warmth of motherhood and love of fatherhood is a very challenging and crucial job. It contributes to the physical, motor, emotional and social development of the child. It's the duty of every parent to give their children healthy and a wonderful world.

Good parenting helps foster virtues and values and promotes the socio-economic growth of the child. It helps to protect the child from developing any bad habits or behaviors like anxiety, depression, eating disorder, anti social behavior and drug abuse.

Now the question arises, how to become good parents?

Following are some of the useful tips for good parenting:

• Be humble: Your behavior and relationship with others influences your child's attitudes. Every child learns from the environment he is living in.

• Be empathetic: Being empathetic simply means understanding other's point of views. You can build a good relationship with your child if you understand his point of view and his feelings at every stage of life. Seeing you, your child will understand the true meaning of empathy and will never indulge himself in crimes or any wrongful deeds.

• Play with your child: Playing with your tiny tots help you to understand them better. It is one of the most important tools for communication, expression and solving emotional problems of your child. This way you can develop a stronger bond with your child.

• Set limits to your love and affection: Don't show too much love to your child as excess of love can spoil him. As the child grows and explores the world he starts making extra demands that may be harmful for him in the long run. If the parents don't set limits for their children in the early formative years, then in the later years, life will set those limits in the form of pain and sufferings. These limits will promote self discipline in your child.

• Promote your child's independence: It is very important to set your child for an independent life. Teach him the essence of independence and let him take his own decisions when you feel he can. Don't impose your decisions on him as this may develop a feeling of rebelliousness or disobedience in him. Rather you can guide him to the right direction, help him making decisions and develop a sense of self confidence.

• Be involved in your child's life: Keep yourself involved in your child's life by sharing with him the daily experiences. Take out some time from your busy schedule to communicate and make him feel your mental and physical presence in his daily life.

• Don't be harsh to them: Be polite and humble to your child. Avoid harsh disciplines as this will make him more aggressive and disobedient.

• Respect your child: It's truly been said you reap what you sow. If you want respect from your child then it's equally important to respect him and his feelings. The way you behave with them promotes your child's attitudes and behavior towards others. Try to please them and keep them happy in all ups and downs of life. Make them learn to fight the battles of life while staying humble.

Tips for Successful Parenting

It's not the childs fault; believe it or not, poor parenting is the main cause of bad behaviour in children.

Kids can be frustrating, annoying and down right infuriating at times and yet you're still expected to love and care for the little 'angels' through thick and thin.

They won't admit it as often parents don't know any different, but often the problem is due to poor parenting which manifests itself in bad behaviour in the child. This in turn has a negative affect on the home and work life of everyone in the household as strife and conflict dominates the family.

Anne Sprigpitt, owner of Parenting-tips.info says, "Most parents don't realise it, but their actions have a direct influence on the behaviour of their child whether they are a toddler or a teen. Almost everything a child learns in the first few years of its life is from their parents and it is all stored in the child's memory for a later date."

"The biggest problems are due to a lack of discipline, boundaries and standards, and most importantly a lack of affection and display of their love for the child. However, these can easily be resolved by applying simple parenting principles and strategies which can have an immediate and dramatic impact on the behaviour of the child."

"In many cases, children who are repeatedly violent and disruptive in school are found to have deeply rooted problems at home, caused by bad parenting. Once this is realised and acknowledged a number of techniques can be implemented and significant improvements are often found in the child's behaviour in a matter of a few weeks or even days."

Parenting is not easy, but it is not hard either, provided you establish a loving two way relationship with the child, set boundaries and discipline the child appropriately when necessary.

Elementary School Teachers, Counselors, and Career Education

As teachers and counselors, you know that the elementary school years are important. During the elementary school years, your students build visions of what they desire to do in their lives as they contribute to the workforce. With your help, your students remain open to new career ideas and possibilities. As you work with your students, your students do not make premature career choices or career preparations. For your students, elementary school is a time to build awareness.

As elementary school teachers and counselors, you use career education to promote self-worth, skill development, and decision making strategies. Your activities are designed to build self, family, school, community, and career awareness. You use age-appropriate materials that match your students' developmental levels. These activities expose your students to a variety of different jobs, career information sources, and the reasons why people work.

When you prepare to develop age-appropriate materials products, tests and tools, you use career models like the National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG). The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) have domains, goals, and indicators. Each domain represents a developmental area. Under each domain, there are goals or competencies. For each goal, indicators highlight the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the goal. The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) prepares you to make materials that are suitable for your students.

As a elementary school counselors and teachers, you create individual career plans and portfolios. Individual career plans (ICP) -

* Develop self-awareness
* Identify initial career goals and educational plans
* Increase employability and decision making skills

Individual career portfolios summarize career awareness activities and experiences that occur during the school year. In addition to individual career plans and portfolios, you use a variety of resources -

* Career days Career fairs
* Community speakers
* Field trips
* Information interviewing
* Literary works
* Mentors
* Collages, murals
* Educational games
* Job shadowing
* Dramatic presentations

All of the career activities and tools combine academic work with career pathways. Career activities serve as foundations for future skills. As teachers and counselors, you help students build connections between academics and real life situations. You use career education activities to stress the importance of language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.

You show students that Language Arts have many uses in the work force:

* Reading
* Writing
* Listening skills

You provide examples that show how people solve problems when they use Mathematics. Different types of Mathematics include:

* Addition
* Subtraction
* Multiplication
* Division

In Social Studies, your students learn how skills that are necessary to be successful in the global marketplace. In Social Studies, your students learn about -

* Countries
* Languages
* Cultures

Your students learn the importance of Science gaining skills to solve problems. You show your students how applications of Science are used in different industries, such as -

* Food
* Media
* Agriculture
* Automotive industry

The connections between academics and real life situations reinforce, develop, and expand previously learned skills. In summary, as a elementary school teachers and counselors, you help students:

* Know and value self
* Build self-esteem and confidence
* Learn and apply the academic material
* Identify interests and build relationships between the school environment and the work force
* Build academic, communication, problem solving, and social skills
* Increase awareness of the need for future jobs skills
* See the connections between learning in school, academic skills, job related skills, and careers
* See career possibilities
* See themselves as a future contributor to the job force
* Receive empowerment
* Build self-determination

As counselors and teachers, you build self-awareness, family awareness, school awareness, community awareness, career/ work awareness, attitude development, skill development, decision making strategies, and self-worth. You use age-appropriate materials that match the developmental levels of the students. Examples of activities include individual career plans (ICP), individual career portfolios, career days, career fairs, field trips, information interviewing, and library book reports.

After completing career education activities, your students are prone to get higher grades, academic achievement, school involvement, and interpersonal skills. In addition, your students are more adept to complete more complex courses and have higher graduation rates from high school. As your students get older, they will achieve their career visions and goals.

References

1. American Counseling Association, Office of Public Policy and Legislation. (2007). Effectiveness of School Counseling. Alexandria, VA: Author.

2. Angel, N. Faye; Mooney, Marianne. (1996, December). Work-in-Progress: Career and Work Education for Elementary Students. (ED404516). Cincinnati, OH: Paper presented at the American Vocational Association Convention.

3. Benning, Cathleen; Bergt, Richard; Sausaman, Pamela. (2003, May). Improving Student Awareness of Careers through a Variety of Strategies. Thesis: Action Research Project. (ED481018). Chicago, Illinois: Saint Xavier University.

4. Career Tec. (2000). K-12 Career Awareness & Development Sequence [with Appendices, Executive and Implementation Guide]. (ED450219) .Springfield, Il: Author.

5. Carey, John. (2003, January). What are the Expected Benefits Associated with Implementing a Comprehensive Guidance Program. School counseling Research Brief 1.1. Amherst, MA: Fredrickson Center for School Counseling Outcome Research.

6. Dare, Donna E.; Maddy-Bernstein, Carolyn. (1999, September). Career Guidance Resource Guide for Elementary and Middle/Junior High School Educators. (ED434216). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

7. DuVall, Patricia. (1995).Let's Get Serious about Career Education for Elementary Students. AACE Bonus Briefs. (ED386603). Hermosa Beach, CA: AACE Bonus Briefs.

8. Ediger, Marlow. (2000, July). Vocational Education in the Elementary School. (ED442979) Opinion Papers

9. Gerver, Miriam, Shanley, Judy, O Cummings, Mindee. (2/14/02). Answering the Question EMSTAC Extra Elementary and Middle Schools. Washington, DC: Technical Assistance Center, (EMSTAC).

10. Hurley, Dan, Ed.; Thorp, Jim, Ed. (2002, May). Decisions without Direction: Career Guidance and Decision-Making among American Youth. (ED465895). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Ferris State University Career Institute for Education and Workforce Development.

11. Maddy-Bernstein, Carolyn; Dare, Donna E. (1997,December).Career Guidance for Elementary and Middle School Students. Office of Student Services Brief, v9 n1. (ED415353). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

12. Ohio Department of Education, Division of Vocational and Career Education, Ohio Career Development Blueprint, Individual Career Plan, K to 5 (ED449322). Columbus, Ohio, 2000

13. Splete, Howard; Stewart, Amy. (1990). Competency-Based Career Development Strategies and the National Career Development Guidelines. Information Series No. 345. (ED327739). Columbus, Ohio: ERIC Clearinghouse on Education and Training for Employment & Ohio State University

14. U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education. (1994, 2004). National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG). Washington, DC: Author.

15. Williams, Jean A., Ed. (1999, January). Elementary Career Awareness Guide: A Resource for Elementary School Counselors and Teachers. (ED445293). Raleigh, NC: NC Department of Public Instruction, NC Job Ready.

16. Woal, S. Theodore. (1995). Career Education--The Early Years. AACE Bonus Briefs. (ED386603). Hermosa Beach, CA: AACE Bonus Briefs.

Special Education Lesson Plans

Special education lesson plans are specially designed teaching methods or educational techniques for students of all age groups, with mild to profound disabilities. The lesson plans would vary depending upon the child's nature, age, and the extremeness and type of disability. These lesson plans are mainly meant to promote student engagements, to prepare students to function independently and to master skills, to build and support social competence, and to help children and their families lead a problem free life. Special education lesson plans include math, science, music, language and art lessons, computers and the Internet, social studies, physical education and health, and other multi-disciplinary lessons.

Special educators should design presentations to cater to different levels of individual disability. Music, dance, and other art forms are great aids to enhance learning in students with disabilities. Reading, writing, and public speaking can be encouraged by special educators. Well thought out lesson plans will enhance the child's reasoning ability and reading skills, feelings and response, create a sense of personal fulfillment, encourage language development, promote communication, help to achieve motor control and physical wellness, and cultivate positive attitudes towards the school.

The response of disabled students towards the curriculum depends on the nature of the disability, i.e., physical, emotional or cognitive. A good teacher can encourage each student to participate in the learning experience not only with the assistance of well-adapted materials, but also with proper instructional methods which would be practicable in a disabled individual.

One can find sample lesson plans for special education students in books, articles, and on the Internet; however, these lesson plans are to be modified to suit individuals. A special education teacher can design individual activity sheets for each child in consultation with physical therapists, counselors, doctors, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, and social workers.

Special Education Inclusion

Special education inclusion signifies the participation of special education students in regular education classrooms and provision of support services to these students. The main objective of inclusion education is that all students in a school, regardless of their strengths and their weaknesses in any area, become part of the school community. Every student develops a feeling of belonging with other students, teachers, and support staff. In segregated special education, children will not learn how to function in a non-disabled world. For instance, children who are disabled in terms of communication and are emotionally distressed would not communicate and might remain in a more emotionally disturbed state in segregated settings. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) holds it mandatory for schools to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms.

The prime advantage of special education inclusion is that both disabled and non-disabled students are brought together in an environment of togetherness. Children learn to accept individual differences in inclusion education and this would lead to the development of new friendly relationships. Inclusion education also enables active participation of parents in their child's education. The law also states that students with disabilities have a legal right to attend regular classes and receive an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. Although the advantages are many, inclusion education creates an uncertainty regarding the roles and responsibilities of regular classroom teachers and special education teachers. However, researches show that inclusion education can be made effective by a healthy collaboration of special education teachers and regular teachers. With the assistance of services that would be available from the health department, physical education department, occupational therapists, speech therapists, etc., the school administration can aid the teachers to develop active lesson plans for inclusion education. Thus schools can create a cooperative learning environment and promote socialization.

Special Education provides detailed information on Special Education, Special Education Degrees, Online Special Education Courses, Journal Of Special Education and more. Special Education is affiliated with Teacher Education Philosophies.

Essential Bookmarks - Finding Educational Resources on the Web

Finding educational resources on the web is as simple as a few clicks of the mouse. Whether you are a teacher or a student looking, you will find a ton of resources on the Internet, most of them free of charge. Every subject you can imagine is explored in depth on the web. Just be sure to credit your sources properly if you use them in a research paper or a lesson plan and always double check your source to make sure it's reliable.

Below, you will find a compilation of links that are compilations of more links, all educational, all offering resources for students, teachers, and kids. Enjoy!

Weasel World Education Index – A host of links provided for over 30 different subjects. http://www.educationindex.com/education_resources.html

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence – Offers links to great curriculum, homework sheets, and lessons on a variety of subjects.
http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html

Special Education Resources on the Internet – Offers links to those interested in the field of special education, separated into more than 25 categories.
http://seriweb.com/

K-12 Resources for Music Educators – Choral teachers, classroom music teachers, orchestra teachers and more. A list of links divided up by musical focus. Updated frequently.
[http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/resources/staffpages/shirk/k12.music.html]

Microsoft in Education – This is Microsoft's page of links to technological tools, programs, and solutions to educational challenges for both students and teachers.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/default.mspx

NASA Education Enterprise – This is NASA's page of links for its Education Program with tons of activities for all levels education.
http://education.nasa.gov/home/index.html

The EnviroLink Network – This is a compilation of thousands of online environmental resources divided up by environmental topic.
http://www.envirolink.org/

The Educator's Reference Desk – More than 2000 lesson plans, 3000 links to online education information, and 200 question responses for the education community from the Information Institute of Syracuse.
http://www.eduref.org/

Education Index – An index of links to the best online education-related sites sorted by subject and life stage of the student. Search for educational information and links in over 50 categories.
http://www.educationindex.com/

BBC Learning Network – Resources for home and school divided by age group. Sections for teachers and parents.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/

Smithsonian Education – This is the education website for the Smithsonian Institution with educational resources for educators, families, and students that include lesson plans, field trips, and interactive activities.
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/

SearchERIC – A bibliographic database with over 1.1 million education topic citations dating back to 1966. There are more than 100,000 documents that can be downloaded for free by anyone.
http://searcheric.org/

Documentary Educational Resources – This site has a huge collection of documentaries focused on cross-cultural understanding. Search by title, subject, or geography.
http://www.der.org/

National Geographic Education Subject Guides – For teachers, kids, and students. Find lesson plans, maps and geography, photography, news, adventure and exploration, history and culture and more.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/

Discovery Education's Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators – This is a categorized list of sites for teaching and learning to enhance curriculum.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/

Free Teaching Resources For Autodidacts

A person may become an autodidact when he or she chooses to educate themselves in a particular field that is not studied in a conventional manner (schools, group courses, etc). To enjoy a total free of costs self-education you can proceed in searching some free teaching resources

First thing that you can do is to search online some leading universities that offer their free courses via an online teaching platform. Usually, these platforms are structured by days (or hours) and lessons and it will advice you about an effective implementation for the best results.

Some of these universities offering free courses classes are:
- Tufts University that offers Free Open Course Ware classes to the public. It is related to life science and international issues. There are also health-related courses including a series on veterinary medicine, dentistry and agricultural science

- Utah State University provides a free Open Course Ware and free online materials for international educators, students and autodidacts

- University of California at Berkeley presents some free popular courses to learners all over the world

- Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers case studies, teaching videos and all kind of innovative instructional resources to anyone with internet access.

- University of Southern Queensland allows access to free and opened educational resources for all autodidacts around the world. Available courses include the following fields: communication, technology and policy, creating interactive multimedia, introduction in tourism, technology and society, planning your career, studying to succeed, general science, etc

All these presented University programs allow you to check their free teaching resources and they really help you regarding your self-education. Anyway, you should be aware that these courses do not provide a degree, credit or certification. Therefore, I can say that you can get free self-educational courses but this will help you only to improve your skills and capabilities and will not necessary support you in changing your career. In order to change your career you have to apply for courses that provide a degree or certificate and these usually comes along with good money.

Checking the internet, I also observed that one of the most desirable self-teaching programs is the English course. The wealth of online free teaching resources regarding English courses is just astonishing! There are free courses like "Free Beginning English E-mail Course" which contains one lesson per week that presents an introduction and links to learning materials on the site. This course makes a great introduction to the basics of English. There also is "Intensive Grammar Workshop" course that takes learners from an intermediate level to an advanced one of grammar. One more English course helps you expand your vocabulary, as, without a large vocabulary, it is difficult to express what you want.

One more English course is "Free Teaching ESL / EFL Course" and introduces you to discuss the most important teaching aspect: basic theory, grammar, listening, reading and writing skills. This course also presents lesson plans to help you to implement the techniques discussed.

These are just a few examples on how you can get free teaching resources to help you with your self-education. However, is self-education important? Of course it is. It helps us find who we are, to build our self-esteem and finally to get from our life what we always want: happiness.

If you are looking for a wide range of Free Teacher Resources, please check out the Promethean Planet website. Teaching resources, teaching software and Interactive Whiteboard Resources are available.