Now that you have created a burning desire to be fit, healthy and attractive, and have begun secretly conspiring to satisfy your desires, the obvious question becomes…How?There are so many different types of fitness products to choose from… all claiming to be your perfect fitness, health and physique solution.* So many recommendations…
* So many famous personalities…
* So many advertisements…But which fitness product will work best for you?Here are some characteristics to look for when choosing a fitness product.The more of these characteristics the fitness product has… the better the chance you will succeed in achieving your fitness, health and physique goals.Your Physical Fitness Program Must Be… EffectiveWhile this characteristic seems like a no-brainer… you would be surprised at just how many people are actively using a fitness product that will never give them the results they seek.Many people say they want improve their level of fitness… and get a bodybuilding product.Big muscles are not necessarily indicative of a high level of fitness.Many people say they want to lose fat… and get an aerobic endurance product.Aerobic training is only a part of the fat loss equation, and will not produce the lean, muscular, athletic body most people want… regardless of all the hard work. The point is, make sure the fitness product you choose is designed to get the results you want… or you are doomed to failure before you begin. If you want to increase fitness, improve health and develop an attractive physique… look for fitness products designed to produce these results.Your Physical Fitness Program Must Be… InterestingLet’s face it, if you are not interested in the fitness product you choose… you will not use it long enough to see results.I don’t care if the fitness product was proven to work by thousands of scientific studies… it will have no positive effect on your fitness, health or physique if you don’t do it.And you won’t do it… if it does not hold your attention and peak your interest.No matter how many times you say…”This time I’m not giving up until I get the results I want.”… you will eventually give up if the fitness product is not interesting to you.Don’t force yourself to struggle with a fitness product you hate… look for interesting fitness products that fit into your lifestyle and match your personality.You should look forward to physical training… not dread it!Your Physical Fitness Program Must Be… ModifiableThere is not one fitness product in existence that can be all things to all people… regardless of what all the slick-tongued advertisements say.Fitness products must be modifiable to your goals, needs, abilities and limitations… you must be given a degree of freedom to make the physical fitness program uniquely your own.You have different wants and needs.You have different strengths and weaknesses needing specific attention.You must be able to take an active role in the use of the fitness product… modifying it into your perfect fitness program.Cookie-cutter programs claiming long-term results do not work.Look for fitness products that can be easily modified to your unique situation.Your Physical Fitness Program Must Be… Sustainable The more the fitness product is dependent on machines, devices and other complexities… the easier it is to destroy.What happens when the machine is not available, the device breaks or the complexity you have based you entire fitness program on is lacking?Your physical training comes to a grinding halt!I am not saying you should stay away from fitness products that use machines, special equipment, etc… only don’t choose a product that makes you dependent upon them.You are responsible for your fitness success… not the availability of a piece of equipment, or access to a machine.Look for fitness products that help you sustain physical training in your lifestyle no matter what the circumstances.Your Physical Fitness Program Must Be… ProgressiveThere are many fitness products out there presented as a fixed workout.”Do this over and over again and you will get the results you want.”And the workout may be effective in the beginning… for some people and for a limited amount of time.Unfortunately, any workout program not part of a progressive over-all plan is doomed to failure.This is why you still need fitness products with all the free workouts out there.A workout without a progressive plan is little more than manual labor… and will fail to take you where you need to go.Any improvements you see in the beginning will quickly disappear, leaving you asking, “What do I do now?”Then it is off to look for another workout to try.Make sure the fitness product you choose is progressive in nature… and not just “add more weight” either.Progression on many different levels is probably the most important aspect of any successful fitness program.Your Physical Fitness Program Must Be… MeasurableThe pursuit of fitness, health and physique is a journey… and like any worthwhile journey, it should be documented.The ability to measure your progress will keep you on the track of success… enabling you to see where you’ve been and where you’re going.Make sure the fitness product you choose comes with a workout journal, or that one can be easily made… Don’t underestimate the importance of a workout journal.Your workout journal will help you…* judge if your physical training efforts are getting you closer to your goals…
* decide if you need to modify your fitness program…
* and determine if it is time to switch to something completely different…… ultimately guiding and documenting your fitness success.Look for fitness products making it easy to measure their effectiveness… how else will you really know if it is working for you or not?Use Your Common SenseIf the fitness product…* attracts you…
* speaks to you…
* excites you…
* and ultimately makes sense to you…… it is probably the right fitness product for you.After all, only a physical fitness program you actually do, and that becomes a part of your lifestyle, will give you the long-term fitness, health and physique benefits you seek.Now that you have a burning desire to be fit, healthy and attractive, have secretly conspired within yourself to achieve your goals and know what to look for in a fitness product, there is only one thing left to do… act!In part 4, I’ll show you how knowledge without action us useless.
Part 3 – The Road to Fitness Success – Choose Your Fitness Products Wisely!
A Lesson Plan Practically Incorporating Instructional Technology for Reading Skills
If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.
-John DeweyLesson plan is believed to be a scheme that sets limits to the extent of teaching in a particular time and place with varying formats depending on any educational institutions’ discretion. This presented lesson plan does not claim to switch any other formats of lesson plans but rather tries to basically introduce how a lesson can be integrated with simple forms of technologies while students engage with activities to efficiently refurbish their macro skills and language awareness for effective interaction. Modern language learning does not only entail macro skills and linguistic skills but achieving the essentials how technologies are used in the classroom among learners is a must in a continuously expanding digital learning environment. This semi-detailed procedural lesson plan that adheres to the fundamental and essential components of a learning blueprint seeks to encourage the creativeness of teachers to incorporate instructional technologies in any method it is possible.Lesson Plan for Level B1′s Reading SkillI. Behavioral ObjectivesAt the end of the reading lessons, the B1 students will be able to:1. scan and predict the content of the passage
2. obtain main ideas of the passage
3. gather details found in the passage
4. create inferences from the text
5. use Microsoft word processing fundamentals
6. immerse and utilize technology-related learning tools
7. Appreciate the use of technology in language learningII. Subject Matter
Reference:
Reading 1: Customs around the world
Unit 2: Customs and Tradition
From Pages 36 & 37
Unlock 3 Reading and Writing Textbook for B1 level
By Carolyn Westbrook
Cambridge Press, Fourth Printing 2016Target Student level: B1 from Common European Frame of Reference (CEFR)
Time Frame: 60 minutesIII. Materials:Soft copies of activities for screen display and downloads
Hard copies and soft copies of activity sheets
Projector for passage displays
Internet to surf pictures and to propel the Blackboard
Students’ Blackboard account to download files
Teacher’s Blackboard account to upload files
Desktop computer for class activitiesIV. Procedurea. PreparationSet all the materials as tools in the teaching and learning process. Create classroom as an atmosphere for conducive learning. It is suggested that the behavioral objectives or intended outcomes may be underscored for students’ prior awareness.b. Motivation• The teacher uses this portion as a springboard that links students’ attention to be engaged with the lesson.
• The teacher presents a globe’s picture from the internet in the absence of a globe. The teacher may further substitute it with a Google map.
• The teacher displays pictures of people around the world with varied customary gestures onscreen in a PowerPoint presentation
• The teacher elicits responses from the students on what do these gestures mean. The teacher indiscriminately collates all possible responses and be able encourage students to write accepted answers through a spider gram and relate their accepted responses to the main word in the graphic organizer.
• The spider gram should have a soft copy enlarged by a projector for the students to complete on the spot. All responses should be transparent for the students’ inquiries.
• Students are requested to fill-in the blanks using the classroom computer.
• The teacher may further ask some customary gestures which they are familiar with and may additionally relate the pictures to that of the globe presented in class.c. Presentation of the lesson• Overview some reading essentials through a PowerPoint presentation
• Provision of a background knowledge regarding passage comprehension
• Delivery of some techniques in answering comprehension questions. These ideas are displayed onscreen.d. Lesson ProperDiscussions are followed by activities displayed onscreen. Answers in every activity will be highlighted, circled, underscored, italicized and painted, respectively by the students. Errors of one students’ may be the errors of others so it is beneficial to display answers done by students individually. This involves teacher roles and students’ roles. The teacher strives to adhere on the principles of facilitation rather than lecturing depending on the students” performance exhibited in the process.• The teacher explains scanning and predicting.
Students will response to activity numbers 1 & 2
• The teacher introduces the meaning of main ideas
Students will perform reading activity number 1.
• The teacher discusses what details are with concrete examples.
The students are going to deal with activity number 4.
• The teacher elucidates inference as a part of reading
The teacher explicates by elaborating what ” reading between the lines” means by providing specific examples and guiding the students on the task related.
The students will perform activity number 5.V. EvaluationThe teacher frames or customizes an example of a passage if there is no available authentic passage as a springboard to test the students’ abilities on scanning and predicting the content, obtaining main ideas, assembling and creating inferences from the customized text.
Answers are deliberated by the teacher for common understandingVI. GeneralizationThe teacher accentuates on the importance of reading and how effective reading comprehension is achieved through learners’ abilities in scanning, predicting, determining main ideas, assembling and creating inferences.VII. HomeworkRead the passage, A British Wedding found on page 40. After reading, open your Blackboard account and download two (2) files related to this text.• The first file contains activity sheets that tasks you to fill-in the gaps regarding the passage.
• The second file entails you to complete the tree diagram for text comprehension.
• You are required to bring these sheets for further discussions about Reading Number 2, tomorrow.Incorporating instructional technology in language teaching doesn’t need to be complex or sophisticated. Through the basic technological materials, the lessons become worth-engaging and worth -exploring. Excerpted film clips, film soundtracks, film opening and closing credits, an excerpted dialogue, digital script, film posters, music video, songs, film biography, film trailers, book reviews from the cyberspace internet graphics, music or sounds, reading passages from the internet, popular speeches, pictures, tables, Blogs, Facebook posts and comments, YouTube clips, live or print varied advertisements, recorded recitals, newscast among others, are materials that trigger practical technology -related instructions. As noticed, these authentic materials are media forms and productions that necessitate the employment of multimedia and technological tools. These phenomena further stress that integration of technology in instructions is always interconnected with the interplay of print and audio-visual media and are absolutely operated by multimedia highlighting the fact that the multiple and prolific growth of multimedia are propelled by rising technology to produce media forms which are now advocated by innovative educators in an authentic learning environment in the design of curricula and instructions. Access to these materials yield the occurrence of students’ technological involvement guided by well-designed lesson plans characterized to be specific, measurable, aligned, realistic or relevant, and time-bound (SMART) just as how their behavioral objectives are keenly observed as students ‘performance indicators. Furthermore, the success of technology integration in lessons is measured through the manipulation of technical tools by both teachers and students to attain a two-way pedagogical process.Finally, the educational world of learners in the contemporary times is digital. It is crucial that students must be brought into authentic learning environment for the creation of a real- world to be explored by by productive learners. “Social tools leave a digital audit trail, documenting our learning journey-often an unfolding story-and leaving a path for others to follow,” as Marcia Conner articulates. Every educator embraces the fact that learners and educators in the contemporary times are called maneuvers of a digital age for a more globally digital world through the academe as the hub of a continuing instructive progression.
Benefits of Custom Software Development
Professional software products are an important part of the working process for most companies in virtually every industry. Every company needs management and accounting software, and some sort of software solution for online presence. Larger companies implement customer service systems, human resources management software, sophisticated e-commerce software or web portals with extended functionalities corresponding their field of industry. All these systems are mostly developed by other companies, so-called software vendors, implemented and supported by the vendor or by the internal IT team.There are two main approaches to acquiring software systems for enterprise use. The easiest way for a non-IT company to automate its business processes is to purchase a package of off-the-shelf software and invite software engineers from the vendor company to deploy it. This approach works well with basic online shopping solutions, hotel reservation software or open source project management systems. It is convenient for small and medium enterprises with traditional business models, though larger companies can integrate ready made solutions into their system by customizing some of their functionality, if possible. Nevertheless, standard inexpensive software solutions are not reliable enough when it comes to banking software, healthcare or mobile programming.Ready-made software often fails to meet expectations of large businesses and innovation-oriented fast-developing companies. Their main disadvantage is lack of scalability. Of-the-shelf software is a finished product with limited possibilities for enhancement and upgrade. It may have issues with software integration, or it may be compatible only with software systems of the same software vendor. It cannot evolve along with the company, and sooner or later must be replaced by another software solution, more capable and more expensive. Custom software development can generally lead to the same expenses in the long-term perspective as purchasing new products, as it can be adjusted to emerging challenges and business needs.Custom software systems are always tailored to exact business requirements of the customer and adjusted to his unique business model. They are scalable and normally supported by long-term maintenance agreements, and help comes immediately if the upgrade is needed. Of course, the customer must define his key business objectives as clearly as it is possible from the very beginning, although it is allowed and, in some models of software development, even desired to give feedback to developers, so they can make corrections to the program during the development process. The aim is to ensure the right business logic behind all elements of implemented software and make it work under the real-life conditions.A compromising decision can be made if the company’s funds are limited. Some parts of the software company can be purchased as ready made solutions, and the key systems can be developed by request and put together by software integration. For example, a typical CRM solution and a standard database can be integrated with a custom online shopping portal, some bespoke business analysis software and even with an enterprise mobile application that can provide the complete business data from all those systems. Seamless integration is a highly professional kind of service that requires deep expertise in several fields, but it will be cheaper than developing the whole system from scratch.Custom software development can lead to noticeable expenses. But if the customer owns the resulting product, he can sell it to other companies. There are a lot of options like partner programs with other companies working in the same industry or “white label” distribution. Technology companies can develop the solutions they need for work by their own, but in many cases even they can do electronic document management or buy enterprise software products because of the high level in specialization that is characteristic for the IT industry.