A new way of learning with the changing technology of today. Learning has never been easier, with online learning you can simple download the App for your smartphone and learn on the go. If you have mobile data usage or are connected to WiFi then simply open the App and start learning. Many online learners choose to take a lesson during their commute to or from work or even on their lunch break.

Having the lessons on your phone means you are not tied down to attending a class at a particular time, you have control of when and where you want to learn. One of the best things to learn online or on your interactive device is a new language. Duolingo is a fantastic site that is completely free, meaning no hidden costs, just pure learning.

Learning with Duolingo is also made fun with reward points and a heart system for getting questions right or wrong, if you lose all of your heart you must start again. The App makes it easy to become addicted to as you collect your points for all of your correct answers. It also encourages to learn everyday by having a streak counter, keeping your learning consistent and motivates you to stay on track.

The Application allows you to choose which language you want to learn, you can even learn multiple amount of languages, although this is more challenging and requires a little more time.

Having an online interactive learning platform allows your learning to fit around your busy lifestyle. Impress your family and friends as you begin showing off what you have learned, you could even encourage others to join the platform and compete with each other.

Whether you want to learn a second language so you can have an extra skill, or you want to show off your lingo on your next holiday abroad, interactive learning is a great way to learn.

I’m sure many of you have heard the phrase “enjoy your school years and don’t wish them away” or the famous “school is as good as life gets”. These should both be taken with a pinch of salt really but after a few years of work when your time at school seems like a distant past, you’ll likely only hold a few important memories. Trying to remember the work you did and the way the building was laid out is hard enough, let along remembering teachers names, fellow pupil’s faces and the food that was served in the canteen.

There will likely be some important lessons that have stayed with you though and you may wonder why. As an example, I’ll never forget the day I learned about irony in English. Mainly because we spent the lesson watching episodes of Top Gear and writing a note each time something ironic happened. Let’s just say I barely put my pen down. That was the day I learned something I knew I would use, even if it wasn’t going to be the most important lesson to learn.

Naturally, you may look back and find that you don’t remember an awful lot about the lessons you didn’t enjoy. You probably remember the teacher’s name because you feared them so much, but the content of the class may be a little harder to remember. It’s always good to look back on your school years but as adults we will naturally remember our fond memories rather than our failures or misfortunes. That’s exactly how it should be because it prepares you for the future and reminds you to aim high. If you’re a student, don’t worry too much, just make sure you give each class your all and you’ll naturally pay more attention to the subjects that interest you.

Being a TA (teaching assistant) is a common starting point for those who aspire to become teachers. Spending time with teachers day in day out, supporting them with their daily tasks is all vital experience that you can take with you into teaching. That said, after several years working as a TA, there is no direct route through to becoming a teacher. You will need to combine teaching studies with your work as a TA so there will be the element of ‘going back to school’. Though many people jump straight into teaching out of university, others work as teaching assistants, but who’s more qualified? Arguable both will be yet those with real hands on experience have the upper hand in our books and by saying you’ve already worked in a school for several years, you’ll be in a good opportunity to get your first job as a teacher.

Some people argue that Sats are cruel because they stress young children out, damage their education and demoralise teachers. There is some truth in this and it looks as though MPs are finally talking about it seriously. Having 11 years olds going through the key stage 2 tests puts an awful lot of pressure on them, and the teachers. Some young students are spending all of their free time preparing for the tests but getting not a lot from it. Too much education and pressure at such a young age can have the opposite effect which many parents argue is the case. It can make students become bored and anxious, and MPs are finally waking up to the fact that Sats are all about the school and nothing to do with the pupils. Hopefully Sats will be completely removed in the next few years as media coverage grows around the issue.

If you look at schools which are very successful, where pupils work hard, make progress and do well, then it is likely that relationships with parents and carers are highly valued. Although there may be some parents who believe that their children’s education should be left solely for schools to deal with and that the teacher is entirely responsible for teaching reading, writing and maths, most parents understand that their child’s success and happiness at school will rely on good parental support at home as well as strong, consistent teaching at school.

If you are a newly qualified teacher in your early twenties, dealing with parents may seem quite daunting, especially when you may lack experience of having children of your own. However, you need to remember that you are the one who is the expert on education and who has a good understanding of how children learn. Do make sure you are approachable to all the parents of the children in your class. For some parents, their own schools days were not happy ones and some find talking to their child’s class teacher a difficult prospect. Remember as well, that you may have some parents who lack confidence in their own skills and may,for whatever reason, find English and maths difficult.

Good schools will communicate well and will support staff to have good relationships with parents and carers by allowing opportunities for parents to come in to school. There may be assemblies or performances for parents to attend where they can proudly watch their offspring on stage. Open days allow parents to come in and look at their child’s work at leisure. Some schools will also offer opportunities to explain about the Curriculum and explain how parents can help their children in constructive ways.

Even if you are embarking on a primary school teacher training degree or early years degree course straight after A levels, it is likely that phonics is something that will be completely new to you. Since 2012, the phonics screener test has been administered in schools to year 1 children towards the end of the academic year. Most schools teach phonics to all Foundation Stage and Key stage 1 children in short 20-25  minute sessions, 4 or 5 times a week.

According to the Department for Education, phonics is a way to teach children to read quickly and skilfully. Reception aged children are taught the initial sounds of the letters of the alphabet, though not in alphabetical order and they will gradually learn to read and write simple consonant-vowel-consonant words (CVCs), by learning how to blend these sounds together. They then move on to look at other letter combinations, like ch, or, ar – these 2 letter single sounds are known as digraphs. Trigraphs are sounds which contain 3 letters – igh, air and ure, for instance.

Once the basics are mastered, then phonics lessons move onto the finer intricacies of the English language.

However, as a trainee teacher who was never taught phonics at school, this can all seem a little like learning a foreign language.  However, it doesn’t take long to pick up the basics and find ways to teach this to young children.  There are lots of phonics resources and games available to either buy or to download from popular teaching websites to help new trainee teachers .

You may feel concerned to learn that your child might be taught by someone without a recognised teaching qualification. There are approximately 17,000 unqualified teachers working in schools in England which is just under 4% of the total teaching workforce.

The government believes that it is essential that schools have the freedom to employ whom they want to teach in their schools and it is certainly true that some unqualified teachers offer outstanding teaching and learning opportunities to the children in their classes. In theory, you must have a teaching qualification to teach in a local authority school whereas this is not always the case in an academy or a free school. However, in 2013 there were more than 9,000 teachers working in local authority schools in England. Many schools may often have unqualified teachers working in specialist subjects like music, sport, art or minority foreign languages.

Parents, however, may understandably feel concerned if they think unqualified teachers are employed solely as a cost-cutting exercise. Salaries for qualified teachers start at around £22,000 p/a whilst an unqualified teacher may earn as little as £16,000 a year.

Whether you’re a teacher looking to update your advice for revision, or a student looking to improve your process, one of the best ways to start improving your revision time is to look at the findings of Psychologists. This is because psychologists spend their time researching how the brain works, including how the processes of learning and memorisation, and therefore revision, works.

Research can tell us a lot about the ways in which revision isn’t as effective as it perhaps should be for certain people. For instance, 27% of boys and 39% of girl skip breakfast, and this is in spite of the wealth of evidence indicating its importance for mental activities throughout the rest of the day.

Another big reason why we aren’t necessarily having as successful revision sessions as most people would have 30 or 40 years ago is because we have a lot more distractions available now. Information and entertainment is available at your fingertips throughout the day, no matter where you are, and this is clearly a double-edged sword when you’re trying to learn a subject.

Doing your revision in a mad rush in the day or days running up to crunch time is also ill-advised. Evidence shows that repeatedly reinforcing information over long stretches of time is the most effective learning method; it also means that you are able to take a generally more relaxed approach to revision; spending just a couple of hours every couple of days going over your material.

Surprisingly, teaching is actually one of the most effective ways of improving your understanding of a subject. In psychological circles, the affect of this is known as the “protege effect”, and it can be a massive help for reinforcing recently learned information.

Last of all, and perhaps most importantly, is to remember to get adequate sleep. Without enough sleep humans can quickly lose a lot of the attention span, and thereby limit the productivity of any time they spend revising, so make sure that you get your 7-8 hours a day!

When trying to decide upon criteria for how we answer the question of where the best places for teachers to work are, the most important factor to consider is teacher satisfaction. This can give you a pretty accurate idea of the experiences that those in the profession have, but besides this area; teacher pay, opportunities for career development, work environment and the average hours worked can all give you added context.

Arguably the most important factor in a teacher’s degree of satisfaction is how their role is perceived in the context of the wider society. Countries where teachers are seen as part of the elite, or at the very least are respected as important members of society, generally show much higher teacher satisfaction. This is borne out in places like China, where teachers are seen as highly important, and Luxembourg, where teachers are seen as the elite.

Another important part is the remuniation teachers receive. This, in many ways, is not just about ensuring that a teacher can afford a high quality of life as it can play a big role in how teachers perceive the amount of respect they receive in society. If they see that other graduate level professions receive far larger pay packages, dissatisfaction will quickly follow.

Work environment; the day to day grind of what teachers go through, can vary a lot depending upon the country/education body in question. Research shows that respect in the classroom is very important in this area. In addition, not having too much administrative work to do can have a big bearing on how good the work environment is.

One thing that is clear to everyone is that teaching is not the career for everyone. The position requires people who are prepared to work in a pretty stressful environment and remain completely reasonable, which is a smaller portion of the public than you might expect. Typically teachers will work long hours too, as they try to work to manage classrooms, which takes up the school day, and then spend a couple of hours in the evening or early morning planning out lessons.

Because of all of these potential reasons not to become a teacher, if you’re thinking about becoming one you will benefit greatly by gaining experience before you start getting your teaching qualifications. You can do this by contacting schools or classroom aide schemes, where you will get to experience teaching as an aide alongside qualified, working teachers. This can be a great way for you to experience the education system from the perspective of teachers.

While working in schools, as a volunteer or otherwise, is one way to gain experience in teaching, there is the second option of tutoring students privately. Tutoring can be a great way to put into practice your teaching skills, although the one-to-one style of it may not be a perfect representation of what teaching a classroom can be like.

It is important that you try to experience education first-hand before you continue with your teacher training qualifications. Depending upon where you work and what other qualifications you have, learning to be a teacher can take anywhere from 1-3 years, which is a lot of time to spend doing something you may not be suited for. Experience can tell you whether or not the profession is right for you.