In 20 Words That Can Affect How Students Think,, we said “Tone affects how students see themselves and their role in the learning process. In fact, a student’s own ongoing internal dialogue and thoughts about themselves and their self-identity as learners isn’t just a ‘factor’ in learning but one of the single most important factors.”
This is central to the principle and practice of Social-Emotional Learning (and strategies for social-emotional learning). It might be useful to take a quick look at some of the key ideas and underlying assumptions about tone in learning.
Tone As A Cause And Effect Of Learning
I. Tone matters. It affects human beings and students are human beings.
II. Tone can be notable in its ‘tenor’ and value as well as in its abundance or absence. That is, tone can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and there can be a ‘lot’ or a ‘little’ of it.
III. Tone can be both a cause and an effect. That is to say, tone can cause ‘something’ or be caused by something. For example, a lack of confidence can create an uncertain tone while another tone might create a distinct lack of confidence.
IV. As a factor in ‘climate,’ tone is closely related to mood and together they contribute greatly to that climate.
VI. Any climate created either is or is not intentionally conducive to creativity, collaboration, and learning.
VII. Students experience some kind of tone in every interaction (even if that tone seems more or less unremarkable—that’s a ‘clinical’ tone). That is, almost everything a student experiences in the learning process has ‘tone.’
VIII. Having established that tone affects students and is (through our word choice, among other factors) adjustable, that means that as teachers, we can adjust something that affects students.
IX. To make these adjustments, we have to know what tone is and how it’s adjustable.
X. Tone is complex and is explicitly and implicitly created through countless sources above and beyond our words but because our words are so easily adjustable, it makes sense to make that simple adjustment while we sort out the other factors that affect tone in the learning process.
This post was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2024
by Terrell Heick
1. In the article, headline, or social share, ‘who’ is saying ‘what’? That is, what specific author and publication are making what kind of claim about what topic or ideas?
2. Is what’s being stated or claimed fact or opinion?
3. Does this headline seem true? (This is especially critical for ‘fact-based’ headlines.) If so, by whose standards? Who would disagree with it and why? How can it be fact-checked? Is the author using ‘grey areas’ of ‘truth’ in a way that seems designed to cause a stir, cast doubt, influence thinking, or otherwise change the opinion of readers?
4. Is this headline entirely ‘true’/accurate or based instead on partially true information/data? Misleading information is often based on partial truths and then reframed to fit a particular purpose: to cause an emotion such as anger or fear that leads to an outcome of some kind: a ‘like,’ donation, purchase, signup, vote, etc.
5. Are there any embedded logical fallacies in the headline itself–especially straw man arguments, emotional appeals, or charged language intended to polarize, rally, or otherwise ‘engage’ readers?
6. Is the topic the headline is based on important? Worth understanding more deeply?
7. Who would this seem to benefit if accepted as ‘true’?
8. Is this information, angle, or ‘take’ new or something that’s been said before (and either fact-checked or debunked)?
9. Is the data (fact-based) or position (opinion-based) inherent in the headline shared by other credible publishers or does it stand in contrast to the ‘status quo’? If the latter, how does this affect the headline?
10. What background information would I need to be able to evaluate its credibility? Where can I get more information on the topics in the headline to better evaluate its credibility? What do I stand to gain or lose if I accept this as true?
11. Does the ‘news story’ accurately represent the ‘big picture’ or is it something ‘cherry-picked’(in or out of context) designed to cause an emotional response in the reader?
For the second set of questions to think critically about news headlines, we’re turning to the News Literacy Project, a media standards project that created a set of questions to help students think critically about news headlines.
12. Gauge your emotional reaction. Is it strong? Are you angry? Are you intensely hoping that the information turns out to be true or false?
13. Reflect on how you encountered this. Was it promoted on a website? Did it show up in a social media feed? Was it sent to you by someone you know?
14. Consider the headline or message:
a. Does it use excessive punctuation or ALL CAPS for emphasis?
b. Does it claim containing a secret or telling you something that ‘the media’ doesn’t want you to know?
c. Don’t stop at the headline. Keep exploring!
15. Is this information designed for easy sharing, like a meme?
16. Consider the source of information:
a. Is it a well-known source?
b. Is there a byline (an author’s name) attached to this piece? Does that author have any specific expertise or experience?
c. Go to the website’s ‘About’ section. Does the site describe itself as a ‘fantasy news’ or ‘satirical news’ site? What else do you notice–or not notice?
17. Does the example you’re evaluating have a date on it?
18. Does the example cite a variety of sources, including official and expert sources? Does this example’s information appear in reports from (other) news outlets?
19. Does the example hyperlink to other quality sources?
20. Can you confirm, using a reverse image search, that any images in your example are authentic (i.e., haven’t been altered or taken from another context)?
21. If you searched for this example on a fact-checking site such as snopes.com, factcheck.org, or politifact.com, is there a fact-check that labels it as less than true?
Remember:
It is easy to clone an existing website and create fake tweets to fool people
AI and ‘deep fakes’ are become increasingly commonplace
Bots are active on social media and are designed to dominate conversations and spread propaganda.
Propaganda and/or misinformation often use a real image from an unrelated event.
Debunk examples of misinformation whenever you see them. It’s good for democracy!
You can download the full ‘checkology’ pdf here and find more resources at checkology.org
I first encountered the 40/40/40 rule years ago while skimming one of those giant (and indispensable) 400 page Understanding by Design tomes.
The question was simple enough. Of all of the academic standards, you are tasked with ‘covering’ (more on this in a minute), what’s important that students understand for the next 40 days, what’s important that they understand for the next 40 months, and what’s important that they understand for the next 40 years?
As you can see, this is a powerful way to think about academic content.
Of course, this leads to the discussion of both power standards and enduring understandings, curriculum mapping, and instructional design tools teachers use every day.
But it got me thinking. So I drew a quick pattern of concentric circles–something like the image below–and started thinking about the writing process, tone, symbolism, audience, purpose, structure, word parts, grammar, and a thousand other bits of ELA stuff.
Not (Necessarily) Power Standards
And it was an enlightening process.
First, note that this process is a bit different than identifying power standards in your curriculum.
Power Standards can be chosen by looking at these standards that can serve to ‘anchor and embed’ other content. This idea of “40/40/40” is more about being able to survey a large bundle of stuff and immediately spot what’s necessary. If your house is on fire and you’ve got 2 minutes to get only as much as you can carry out, what do you take with you?
In some ways, it can be reduced to a depth vs breadth argument. Coverage versus mastery. UbD refers to it as the difference between “nice to know,” “important content,” and “enduring understandings.” These labels can be confusing–enduring versus 40/40/40 vs power standards vs big ideas vs essential questions.
This is why I loved the simplicity of the 40/40/40 rule.
It occurred to me that it was more about contextualizing the child in the midst of the content, rather than simply unpacking and arranging standards. One of UbD’s framing questions for establishing ‘big ideas’ offer some clarity:
“To what extent does the idea, topic, or process represent a ‘big idea’ having enduring value beyond the classroom?”
The essence of the 40/40/40 rule seems to be to look honestly at the content we’re packaging for children, and contextualize it in their lives. This hints at authenticity, priority, and even the kind of lifelong learning that teachers dare to dream about.
Applying The 40/40/40 Rule In Your Classroom
There’s likely not one single ‘right way’ to do this, but here are a few tips:
1. Start Out Alone
While you’ll need to socialize these with team or department members soon, it is helpful to clarify what you think about the curriculum before the world joins you. Plus, this approach forces you to analyze the standards closely, rather than simply being polite and nodding your head a lot.
2. Then Socialize
After you’ve sketched out your thinking about the content standards you teach, share it–online, in a data team or PLC meeting, or with colleagues one afternoon after school.
3. Keep It Simple
Use a simple 3-column chart or concentric circles as shown above, and start separating the wheat from the chaff. No need to get complex with your graphic organizer.
4. Be Flexible
You’re going to have a different sense of priority about the standards than your colleagues. These are different personal philosophies about life, teaching, your content area, etc. As long as these differences aren’t drastic, this is normal.
5. Realize Children Aren’t Little Adults
Of course, everyone needs to spell correctly, but weighing spelling versus extracting implicit undertones or themes (typical English-Language Arts content) is also a matter of realizing that children and adults are fundamentally different. Rarely is a child going to be able to survey an array of media, synthesize themes, and create new experiences for readers without being able to use a verb correctly. It can happen, but therein lies the idea of power standards, big ideas, and most immediately the 40/40/40 rule: One day–40 days. 40 months, or even 10 years from now–the students in front of you will be gone–adults in the “real world.”
Not everything they can do–or can’t do–at that time will be because of you no matter how great the lesson, assessment design, use of data, pacing guide, or curriculum map. But if you can accept that–and start backward from worst-case “if they learn nothing else this year, they’re going to know this and that–then you can work backward from those priorities.
Those content bits that will last for 40 years–or longer.
In your content area, on your curriculum map, pacing guide, or whatever guiding documents you use, start filling up that little orange circle first and work backward from there.
Which Content Is Most Important? The 40/40/40 Rule
Gamification is used in many fields and industries. It is meant to promote customer loyalty in business: ” Find a discount among our 5 latest emails to get 50% off dedicated server hosting.”
It’s a little different in education. Gamification in education aims to provide a more interactive learning experience for students while providing evidence of their progress through rewards.
Gamification plays a key role in modern education and offers many benefits besides just making the learning process fun.
About Gamification
Gamification is the process of making various activities more entertaining by making them into games.
In education, gamification involves incorporating game elements (usually game design) into educational settings and learning materials to boost students’ enthusiasm for learning and skills such as analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. Educational gamification doesn’t mean turning every lesson into a game but rather using game features to enrich lessons.
Games can help educators determine the strategy they need to apply to promote a certain skill or activity. For example, they can propose activities involving competition to promote social interaction or customization to encourage creativity.
In short, gamification is there to increase motivation and interest in learning.
The gamification benefits are hard to deny and very visible; thus, we mention the most substantial ones below.
Better Cognitive Development
Gamification is proven to activate the brain areas associated with cognitive development. Moreover, gamified learning accelerates brain activity and speeds up the development of various skills.
The diversity of ways the task is presented through gamification helps expand the range of situational analysis and problem-solving too.
Higher Engagement Levels
Increased engagement in a classroom is one of the most profound effects of gamification. Conventional learning methods often struggle to maintain the student’s attention and focus frequently leading to worse learning results.
Gamification uses challenges, leaderboards, points, badges, etc., to encourage exploration and curiosity and keep students engaged.
Making Learning Visible
One of the reasons why students aren’t as invested in the learning process as they could be is because it’s hard to define the learning journey without specific milestones and something that represents them.
Gamification helps make the learning process visible. Rewards or points are often acquired after completing a certain task, or there’s a physical result of collaboration to remind students of a certain activity.
Promoting Growth Mindset
Feeling ashamed or embarrassed is very real for students of various ages. There’s also a fear of failure that could potentially be witnessed by other classmates, which is translated into pressure.
Introducing game elements into the learning process creates an atmosphere of effortless self-expression. Plus, it makes failing fun and even something to bond over.
Like in a video game, where you fail but get to try again, this time knowing what you can expect, gamification introduces a perspective where failing is just a part of the process. This way, gamification helps build persistence and confidence.
How Effective is Gamification?
Gamification has many benefits, and thanks to them is very effective. Based on research and statistics, gamification leads to:
Almost 90% increase in student performance.
68% increase in motivation towards learning.
300% homework completion rate.
Faster task completion in more than 50% of cases.
Continuous study improvement for 73% of students with ADHD.
Students desire to be a part of improving the learning process.
How Gamification Can Help Different Students
Gamification can promote an equal environment for innately unique students.
The reality is that the classroom is diverse and students will find one task of different complexity. Gamified lessons can help students approach and complete tasks that seem too difficult or too easy in an enjoyable way, all the while helping learners stay on track with the curriculum.
Gamification can help:
-Break down difficult material. Gamification can put difficult material into an easy-to-digest form for all students to understand it. And even if they don’t understand it entirely, gamified lesson invites them to follow those parts that are easier for them to follow at their own pace.
-Make easy tasks interesting. On the other hand, if the material is too easy for other students, they can lose interest and focus. Gamification, using rewards and challenges they can take on at their own pace, can help those students be more present with their progress.
-Overwhelmed students relax. The reward system is a great tool gamification offers. It can help overwhelmed students feel better about their progress, keeping their focus on one step at a time instead of being overwhelmed by the big picture.
-Anxious and stressed students to focus. Gamified lessons take away the “seriousness” of formal education and bring more fun to learning.
It loves cats, for example. Memes, too. It loves videos, which means it loves YouTube. It loves recipes and Wikipedia and alarming misdiagnoses on WebMd and, among other things (and getting to the point here), quotes. This is partly due to the succinct nature of a quote matching the attention span of readers inundated with unending feeds of new content.
The length of a quote often fits many of the more popular formats internet-wide, including Pinterest-friendly graphics, tweets, slideshows, and more.
So then, the quotes about learning. Below, we’ve hand-picked 52 of our favorite quotes about learning. We tried to choose from various thinkers, from teachers and writers to poets and farmers to philosophers and entrepreneurs to civil rights leaders and, in a few cases, even politicians.
Quotes About Learning: These quotes about learning necessarily reflect a particular view of learning, so in that way, this list is editorialized. At TeachThought, we focus on the human/critical thinking/innovation angle, and the quotes we chose mostly reflect that, just as we did in 50 Of The Best Quotes About Teaching.
We hope you find a few of them useful–as writing prompts, for example. Discussion starters, maybe. Or just as a reminder for you as an educator as to the nature and importance of your craft.
52 Of The Best Quotes About Learning
1. ‘The ability to speak exactly is intimately related to the ability to know exactly.’ —Wendell Berry
2. ‘Any fool can know. The point is to understand.’ –Albert Einstein
3. ‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.’ –Benjamin Franklin
4. ‘It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.’ –Claude Bernard
5. ‘Learning is unifying seemingly divergent ideas and data.’ –Terrell Heick
6. ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.’ –Alvin Toffler
7. ‘All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.’ –Martin Fisher
8. ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.’ –Harry S Truman
9. ‘You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.’ –Lyndon B. Johnson
10. ‘I never learned from a man who agreed with me.’ –Robert A. Heinlein
11. ‘You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.’ –Richard Branson
12. ‘All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.’ –Immanuel Kant
13. ‘Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.’ –Socrates
14. ‘It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.’ –Albert Einstein
15. ‘By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.’ –Confucius
16. ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing.’ –Alexander Pope
17. Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.’ –Immanuel Kant
18. ‘The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.’ –Voltaire
19. “To endure uncertainty is difficult, but so are most of the other virtues.’ –Bertrand Russell
20. ‘It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.’ –Wendell Berry
21. ‘That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.’ –Ralph Waldo Emerson
22. ‘Don’t just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.’ –George Carlin
23. ‘A man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.’ –Albert Einstein
24. ‘If you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t learned anything.’ –Muhammad Ali
25. ‘Anyone who has begun to think places some portion of the world in jeopardy.’ –John Dewey
26. ‘A problem well-put is half-solved.’ –John Dewey
27. ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’ –Dr. Seuss
28. ‘All learning has an emotional base.’ –Plato
29. Knowledge, which is acquired under compulsion, obtains no hold on the mind.’ -Plato
30. ‘Wisdom is learning what to overlook.’ William James
31. ‘Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.’ –George Evans
32. ‘Knowing is not enough; We must apply. Willing is not enough; We must do.’ –Bruce Lee
33. ‘Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest, Learn more than thou trowest, Set less than thou throwest.’ –William Shakespeare
34. ‘Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.’ –Benjamin Franklin
35. ‘We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.’ –Martin Luther King, Jr.
36. ‘Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing ourselves.’ –Paul Solarz
37. ‘Towering genius disdains a beaten path.’ Abraham Lincoln
38. ‘Never let formal education get in the way of your learning.’ –Mark Twain
39. ‘Dialogue cannot exist without humility.’ –Paulo Freire
40. Development is a series of rebirths.’ –Maria Montessori
41. ‘Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.’ –Oliver Wendell Holmes
42. ‘It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.’ –Wendell Berry
43. ‘Even the genius asks questions.’ –Tupac Shakur
44. ‘Expecting all children the same age to learn from the same materials is like expecting all children the same age to wear the same size clothing.’ –Madeline Hunter
45. ‘What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.’ –Buddha
46. ‘Transfer is important, but think first about the learner, then about their native environments. Then, further, let’s hope for the self-initiated application of knowledge. Unprompted. Unformatted. The spontaneous, personal, and creative application of understanding in dynamic physical and digital environments.’ –Terry Heick
47. ‘The human mind is our fundamental resource.’ –John F. Kennedy
48. ‘All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.’ –Carl Sagan
49. ‘The quieter you become, the more you can hear.’ –Buddha
50. ‘Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.’ –Stephen Hawking
51. ‘Ideas without action aren’t ideas. They’re regrets.’ –Steve Jobs
52. ‘It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
53. ‘The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.’–Wendell Berry
54. ‘There are four powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses sight, hearing, and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.’ –Leonardo Da Vinci
We make lasting connections through play, but the role of play in learning is an idea that continues to meet resistance.
Part of the reason could be tone. We like our learning serious, intentional, and academic. This is reflected through a parallel insistence on an outcomes-based learning system where learning objectives are determined and assessments are written before hand, and subsequent instruction is revised based only on data taken from said assessments. (See “10 Ways Data Can Sabotage Your Teaching.”)
And the entire process itself is based on a pile of industrialized and de-personalized “learning standards” that, while well-intentioned and designed to ensure a “common body of knowledge,” dictate the terms of learning from the outside looking in. Image the hubris the must exist to determine ahead of time what a student will understand as the result of a learning experience! (I only pray Grant Wiggins isn’t reading this.)
Like video games, “play” suffers from a juvenile connotation that is unfortunate. Even though the most “professional” adults continue to play, such efforts are often disguised, or apologized for with ridiculous conditions and explanations. Why apologize for creating your own goals and terms for interaction?
3 Factors That Make Play Exhilarating
Ultimately, play offers three critical components for an engaged mind: independence, volition, and curiosity. None of this is to suggest that students should be given iPads, a box of legos, and every app they care to download and frolic about with. But it does suggest some marked shifts on how learning happens.
Charles Darwin’s teacher said he wouldn’t amount to much because he spent too much time “playing” with insects.
But as the video explains, it’s never just play.
Image attribution flickr user bobbyjames; A Visual Exploration Of Why Play Is Necessary For Learning
There are many obstacles to navigate when running a business.
Challenges are around every corner, and one wrong move can cost you. But what if you could remove some of those risks, especially when protecting your business assets? Keeping everything safe can be daunting whether it’s your physical equipment or digital data. But it doesn’t have to be. You can secure your business with a few smart strategies without breaking a sweat.
In this article, we’ll explore innovative tips to help you protect what matters most. Let’s dive in!
Implementing Advanced Security Systems
What is the first thing to consider? Security. This is the backbone of asset protection, both physically and digitally. Gone are the days when a simple lock and key could do the job. These days, businesses need to step up their game, which means investing in advanced security systems.
Think of biometric access for your office, for instance. Fingerprint scanners or even facial recognition can add an extra layer of protection. Technology like this is not just for big corporations anymore; it has become more affordable and accessible for smaller businesses, too. Combine that with 24/7 surveillance systems, and you’ve already added a solid wall of defense.
But what about digital assets? With hackers getting smarter, your firewall alone won’t cut it. Enter AI-powered security systems. These programs monitor your data in real-time, alerting you to suspicious activity faster than you can say “data breach.” It’s like having a digital watchdog, ready to bark at the first sign of trouble. Who wouldn’t want that?
Leveraging Cloud-Based Asset Management
Now, let’s talk about managing your assets, because it’s not just about protecting them, it’s about keeping track of them. Here’s where the cloud comes in. Cloud-based asset management is a game changer for businesses, allowing you to monitor everything from your inventory to financials from anywhere, and anytime.
Why is this so important? Imagine having access to real-time data on your business, whether at the office or halfway across the world. You can check on stock levels, track employee performance, and even see which equipment needs maintenance, all in one place. And because everything’s backed up in the cloud, you’ll never lose your data if something goes wrong on-site. That’s peace of mind right there.
Another bonus? The cloud is scalable. So, whether you’re running a small startup or managing a growing company, it adapts to your needs. Plus, with built-in security measures like encryption, your data is protected at every turn.
You’ve heard the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” right? That’s exactly what risk management software offers. This tool helps you identify potential vulnerabilities in your business before they become full-blown problems.
Picture this: You can spot weak spots in your operations, like financial risks or security gaps, and fix them before they cause damage. Real-time data analytics can also help you predict potential threats, from market downturns to supply chain hiccups. The more prepared you are, the better you can protect your assets.
The beauty of risk management software is that it’s proactive, not reactive. You’re staying ahead of the curve, making informed decisions that minimize risk and maximize protection. And let’s face it, no one likes dealing with a crisis after the fact. Why not prevent it from happening in the first place?
Strengthening Your Cybersecurity Protocols
When was the last time you considered your business’s cybersecurity? If it’s been a while, it’s time to consider it seriously. Cybersecurity is no longer just for tech companies; it’s essential for any business that stores sensitive data, whether that’s customer information, financial records, or proprietary software.
So, how do you strengthen your cybersecurity? Start with the basics: secure your network with strong passwords, firewalls, and data encryption. Then take it a step further by regularly updating your software. Those updates are there because they often contain security patches that protect against the latest threats.
Consider training your employees. After all, even the best cybersecurity system can be undone by a single click on a phishing email. Make cybersecurity a priority in your office culture, and you’ll reduce your risk tenfold.
Regular Audits and Asset Evaluation: Keep an Eye on Things
Here’s something many businesses forget to do: regular audits. Think of them like a health check-up for your company. Just as you wouldn’t ignore your physical health, you shouldn’t ignore the health of your business assets.
Regularly evaluating your physical and digital assets helps you stay on top. Are there any weak spots in your security? Is any equipment nearing the end of its life? Does your software need an upgrade? By staying proactive, you can address problems before they become big.
Third-party security audits can also be a smart move. Sometimes an outside perspective can spot vulnerabilities that you might miss. And once those audits are done, create a schedule for maintenance and updates. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.
Insurance and Legal Protection: Cover Your Bases
Sometimes, despite all the layers of protection, things go wrong. That’s where insurance and legal safeguards come in. Insurance for a business may include everything from theft or property damage to cyber hacks. It is an assurance that you do not stand out in the cold when there is calamity. With modern solutions, you can even look for business liability insurance online, no need to get bogged down by in-person meetings to find the right cover.
Consult an insurance agent on the best policies suiting your business needs. And if you may, consider also consulting a legal expert to ensure all your intellectual property and physical assets are contractually protected. It’s one thing to have insurance, but having legal protection keeps you covered from all corners.
Business may be unpredictable, and even the most cushioned of companies have their share of difficulties. This is why one can never afford not to have a safety net handy in the form of insurance or legal protection.
Stay Ahead with Emerging Technologies
As technology continues to evolve, so do how we can protect our business assets. Keeping up with emerging tech isn’t just about being trendy, but about staying one step ahead of potential threats.
For example, blockchain technology has become a secure way to track assets and protect transactions. Its decentralized ledger system is nearly impossible to tamper with, making it a great option for businesses that need rock-solid security.
Then there’s AI, which can take your security to the next level. Beyond the AI-powered surveillance we discussed earlier, AI can help automate asset management and predict when something might go wrong. Predictive maintenance, for instance, can alert you to issues with equipment before they become expensive problems.
And don’t forget about the Internet of Things (IoT). By connecting your physical assets like machinery or vehicles, to the internet, you can monitor them in real-time. This makes managing everything from maintenance schedules to energy use easier, ultimately saving you money and keeping your assets in tip-top shape.
Protect What’s Yours
In today’s world, protecting your business assets is more than just a nice-to-have, it’s a must. Whether it’s through advanced security systems, cloud-based management, or keeping an eye on emerging technologies, there’s no shortage of ways to safeguard what’s yours. By staying proactive and adopting some of these innovative strategies, you can rest easy knowing your business is well-protected.
So, what are you waiting for? Take a step back and assess your current asset protection strategy. Are there gaps? Could you be doing more? The good news is, that with a few simple tweaks and a bit of planning, you can ensure your business assets are as safe as possible.
Remember, It’s not just about protecting what you have, but it’s about securing your business’s future.
What are some of the most inspirational quotes about life? Well, that depends on what kind of inspiration you’re looking for.
Life quotes range across the human condition, from suffering to possibility, hope to sacrifice, love to loss. The best quotes about life are often those that contain truth, motivation, and insight to some concept that, at that moment in your life, seems poignant, useful, and just the bit of wisdom you needed.
50 Quotes To Inspire
“You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: Rejoice evermore.” –Wendell Berry
“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” –Jack Kerouac
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” –Carl Sagan
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” –Kurt Vonnegut
“Self-improvement is delayed by the establishment of social regulation of education, by the diffusion of true knowledge, and by the improvement of mental faculties.” –Nietzsche
“Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.” –Oliver Sacks
“Men must not only know, they must act.” –W.E.B. Du Bois
“You do not find the happy life. You make it.” –Camilla Eyring Kimball
‘Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” –William James
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” –Winston Churchill
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” –Helen Keller
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” –Henry David Thoreau
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” –Barack Obama
“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” –Ray Kroc
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.” –Kurt Vonnegut
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” –John F. Kennedy
“Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.” –Robert Frost
“Live for yourself and you will live in vain; Live for others, and you will live again.” –Bob Marley
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”–Buddha
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time….” –Jack Kerouac
“Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.”–Joe Clark
“Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” – Vincent Van Gogh
“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” –Arthur C. Clarke
“Be happy not because everything is good, but because you can see the good side of everything.” –Unknown
“The will must be stronger than the skill.” –Muhammad Ali
“One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.” –Unknown
“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle. Love is a war. Love is growing up.” –James Baldwin
“Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.” — Carlos Castaneda
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Henry David Thoreau
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” — Helen Keller
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss
“A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.” –John Steinbeck
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive.” –Tupac Shakur
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” –Marcus Aurelius
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” –Allen Ginsberg
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” — Seth Godin
“Ever’thing there is but lovin’ leaves a rust on yo’ soul.” –Langston Hughes
“The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” — Lily Tomlin
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr.
“Someone once told me that ‘time’ is a predator that stalks us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again.” — Jean-Luc Picard
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Edison
“If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.” –Oliver Sacks
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”–Henry Ford
“Do or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda
“Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” — Chinese Proverb
“Self-improvement is delayed by the establishment of social regulation of education, by the diffusion of true knowledge, and by the improvement of mental faculties.” –Nietzsche
Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a person, after repeated failures or negative experiences, believes they have no control over situations’ outcomes and stops trying to improve or change them.
Below is an example of Learned Helplessness in the classroom.
Instructor: The biggest fear for an adolescent, written throughout this text, is not fitting in. Jesse, you talked about acceptance. Now, to understand how this happens, how it looks, and what it feels like, we’re going to do an activity. This is an on-your-own activity, and it’s not meant to tax you—these are easy tasks. This is just to get you feeling what we’re going to go over.
Everybody, if you would, take out a short piece of paper. I’m going to pass out these papers—keep them face down. And please, no one write on these; write on your own paper.
Does everybody have one? Now, if you would, just do them one at a time. I’ll tell you when to do them.
Instructor: Everybody, turn over the paper and do your own work. This isn’t meant to be hard. These are anagrams—just do the first one only. Go ahead and solve it. An anagram is where you rearrange the letters to form a word.
Once you’re done, I need to see your hand raised. Keep going, and we’ll wait.
Keep your hands up, please. Just do number one. Don’t go on.
Instructor: Alright, let’s move on to number two. Don’t worry about number one. Go to number two and solve it. Again, when you’re done, raise your hand.
Okay, everybody’s hands down. We’re going to go ahead and do number three. For number three, rearrange the letters, and as soon as you’re done, put your hand up.
Here’s what you need to know: you were given two different lists. This side of the room was given three words. The left side of the room was given these: “bat”—what would the word be? The second word was ‘lemon’—what’s the word, Brian?
Instructor: Correct. They were easy words. But here’s the trick: both sides of the room were given the same third word, which was ‘cinorama,’ an anagram for “American.” However, your first two words on this side of the room were not solvable—they were impossible tasks.
I’m sorry about that, but here’s why we did this. I was able to induce something called ‘learned helplessness’ in the left side of the room, very easily, within about five minutes. I want you to think about what happened to you, left side of the room, when you saw the right side of the room raising their hands because they had completed the task.
What happened to you during that time? Jory?
Jory: I felt stupid.
Instructor: You felt stupid. Okay. What else?
Joelle: I felt rushed.
Instructor: You felt rushed. Joelle?
Joelle: I was even more confused.
Instructor: You were even more confused because they had already solved it, and you were still struggling. Chelsea?
Chelsea: I was frustrated.
Instructor: Frustrated. What happened by the time you got to the third word? Because I’m here to tell you, this side of the room is not significantly more intelligent than this side. It was a random assignment. So why did you have a more difficult time with the third word, which was the same word? Brian?
Brian: My confidence was shot.
Instructor: Exactly. What you experienced was a term called ‘learned helplessness.’ How many of you have heard of that term before?
Instructor: ‘Learned helplessness’ is often used in academic literature. Jory, do you know what it means?
Jory: Basically, they fail once or can’t do something one time, and then they apply that to everything in the future. So all future tasks become skewed by that.
Instructor: Exactly. And this is what I want everyone to understand. It’s usually only used in academic research—you’ll see it in educational psychology books, in school textbooks. But I’m going to challenge us to think about how learned helplessness can apply to the social scene. Can someone give me an example of how that might look? Tasha?
Tasha: It’s like when a guy asks a girl out and he gets turned down, he’s not going to keep trying. He just stops asking.
Instructor: That’s correct. Now, I want us to think about girls. We’ve talked about Reviving Ophelia here. Think about how this applies to friendships. Can learned helplessness be induced in friendships? It’s tough to establish and maintain friendships—it’s a difficult process.
If a girl sacrifices her morals once to gain the approval of her friends, or a guy, she’s more likely to keep doing it, right?
Instructor: And I’ll just put this out there to be explicit: If Carl is victimized once in grade school, is he likely to stand up for himself the next time?
Students: No.
Instructor: And what happens the next time? And the next? What we know—and this is what we’ve been learning—is that girls have a cultural pressure to be quiet. Girls have a cultural pressure not to be angry, not to use their voices. So if someone is victimized once—if Alison is victimized once—we can take that same concept of learned helplessness and apply it to social relationships.
So, the moral of the story is, it’s important for girls to practice dealing with failure. Because our gut response, when we fail, is to shut down. And when you shut down, you don’t open yourself up to learning new ways for relationships.
This version separates out the speakers, clarifies transitions, and adds punctuation to make the flow clearer. Would you like any further edits?
Definition: Duolingo is a popular language-learning platform that provides free online courses in multiple languages.
Audience: K-12 Teachers, Students
It offers a gamified approach to language learning, making it engaging and interactive for users. Duolingo offers courses in over 40 languages, including widely spoken languages like English, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese, as well as less commonly taught languages like Swahili, Welsh, and Navajo.
The platform uses a combination of reading, writing, listening, and speaking exercises to help users develop their language skills. Lessons are structured into various topics, covering vocabulary, grammar, and sentence construction. Duolingo incorporates different exercises such as multiple-choice questions, translations, dictation, and speaking challenges to reinforce learning.
One of Duolingo’s features is its gamification. Users can earn points, unlock achievements, and compete with friends to maintain motivation and track progress. The platform also offers a mobile app, allowing users to learn on the go and practice their language skills anytime, anywhere.
What Is Duolingo for Schools?
Duolingo for Schools is designed to make language learning fun, interactive, and engaging for students and teachers. It offers a comprehensive curriculum and resources tailored to fit within the existing school schedule.
The platform aims to foster a love for language learning, making it an integral part of the student’s educational journey. Duolingo for Schools offers teacher customization options, real-time tracking, and rewards to motivate students. This approach to language learning has seen significant success in enhancing Language proficiency and promoting a love for language education within schools.
Four Features and Benefits Of Duolingo
Gamified Learning Experience: Duolingo uses gamification elements such as points, streaks, and levels to make learning fun and engaging. This motivates users to practice regularly and progress through lessons in a playful, game-like environment.
Personalized Learning Path: Duolingo adapts to the user’s skill level and learning pace, offering personalized lessons and exercises based on performance. The platform adjusts the difficulty and repetition of topics to reinforce learning where needed.
Variety of Learning Activities: Duolingo offers various activities, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing exercises. This comprehensive approach helps users practice all aspects of language acquisition, improving their overall proficiency.
Accessibility and Flexibility: Duolingo is accessible on multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, allowing learners to study anytime and anywhere. Its bite-sized lessons make it easy to fit learning into busy schedules, providing flexibility for users of all ages.
