It can be hard to watch your child grow up into an independent teenager. As they start to spread their wings, a whole new set of worries can come into play. Maybe they’re driving on their own, spending more time away from home, and even getting their first job. But, as hard as it may be to “let them go,” it can also be an exciting time for you as a parent.

This is the perfect time in your teen’s life for you to guide them into adulthood. That includes helping them with their first job search. Teenagers and after-school/summer jobs have gone hand-in-hand forever. As of July 2020, over 46% of teens in the U.S. had some form of employment.

But, finding a job right away isn’t always easy for anyone, let alone a teenager with no experience. Then, there are other factors to consider. How far away do you want your teen to have to go to work? Is the job safe? Will it affect their schooling or extracurricular activities?

It’s okay to have questions and concerns while still helping your child find their first job. You never know, with your help, they might find something that sparks their interest in a lifelong career.

Starting the Job Search

While having job leads is great, your teenager can also go the traditional route of scouring different places for job listings. Today, that will probably consist mostly of looking at job boards online. You can certainly help them along the way. But, this should really be something your teenager takes the reins on. They can look for jobs they’re interested in or local places that are hiring and taking applications instantly.

Many businesses are always hiring. So, it might be worth it for your teen to walk in and ask for an application. Going this route will allow you to go with them. As a result, you’ll have an understanding of where the job is located and how safe the neighborhood is.

For the average American adult, a job search can take months. Granted, most adults in the workforce are looking for something very specific, while teens usually aren’t. But, they still might have to wait some time before getting an interview. Even then, getting a job isn’t guaranteed. Preparing your teen to roll with rejection is actually an important part of the job searching process. It’s a great lesson in how “failure” can help with growth in nearly every aspect of life.

Helping Them With a Resume

Your teen should have a solid resume put together once they start looking for jobs. Having one at the ready will make it easy to apply for jobs right away, especially when you’re looking online.

You might be wondering what they can put on a resume without any prior job experience. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to spice up a resume and cover letter by focusing on “soft skills” (communication, ability to work with a team, productivity). You can also include any extracurricular activities your teen is in. If they are on a sports team or are a member of a club, it will show potential employers that they have a strong work ethic and the know-how to cooperate with others.

Additionally, you can help them look for jobs that don’t require any experience to get started, including:

• Lifeguard at a local YMCA
• Starbucks barista
• Fast food worker
• Stock clerk
• Movie theater cashier

Most of these jobs provide training on-site, so your teen will learn everything they need to know once they’ve been hired. Even if they only work there a short time, it’s a great way to gain experience and have something more to add to their resume.

Teaching Them to Network

Networking can be an incredibly important factor in landing a job, and there’s no reason it can’t start with a part-time job as a teen. Networking can introduce your teen to positive role models that will help them learn communication skills and connect them with the right people to potentially jumpstart their career. In many cases, it’s more important than just searching for a job online or on bulletin boards. The sooner your teenager learns how to network and connect with the right people, the easier it will be for them to do so in the future when they’re looking for a job as an adult.

You can teach your teen networking skills in a variety of different ways, including:

• Attending career fairs.
• Introducing them to your colleagues.
• Having them shadow someone at a job.
• Helping them build a LinkedIn profile.

The more you help them build those skills, the easier it will be for them to land a job now and in the future. Helping them to network might also mean giving them some new responsibilities,  like getting a phone. Even if you think your teen is too young, having their own phone will help them connect with potential leads. Plus, if they do land a job, it’s the easiest way for them to stay in touch with their employer when they’re needed.

While it may not always be easy to see your teenager growing up, helping them find their first job can be a great experience for both of you. Jump into the search with them, guide them along the way, and give them the career advice you wish someone would’ve given you at that age.

When it comes to protecting babies and toddlers, parents obviously focus on the immediate threats they can see.  However, as children get older their worlds expand outside of the home and into the neighborhood, playground and eventually school.  Add computers into the mix and it’s not surprising the task of protecting kids for most parents becomes overwhelming.

How does a parent teach their children about online predators without scaring them?  What types of conversations are appropriate for each age?  Of course, the goal is for kids to feel safe in the world and online as we set up proper boundaries to protect them.  Yet, somehow they need to be involved in the conversation without causing too much anxiety.

Your child needs to be informed enough so they can do their part to understand and know their boundaries.  Your child also needs to know that if they notice certain behaviors that you’ve taught them to look out for, they will be ready to tell you right away so you can protect your kids online.

Here are some ways to help parents educate their kids on the topic of online safety from predators.  We will also share some tips on what a parents can do so that their children don’t have to worry and be overly frightened when interacting with friends on social media or when surfing the web.

How to Warn Children about The Dangers

It’s not uncommon for parents to avoid talking about these difficult subjects with their kids.  The first thing you can feel good about is that there are ways to have these conversations and still remain positive.  For example, when talking about bad people, it’s important to let your children know that most people are good.  A positive way to bring it up is to make it personal.  You can begin talking about kids they know in school,  Some of them are not very kind or they may even be bullies.

Children are not dumb.  They know good behavior when they see it.  And they know bad.  Most people are not mean.  Most are not bullies or cyberbullies online, yet these people still exist.  Now you can transition the conversation to adults.  Some adults are this way as well, even after they grow up.  But most adults who want to hurt people will pretend to be nice so they can get something they want.  Your kids may know other kids like this as well.

The older your child is, the more you can tell them what these bad grown ups online are trying to do.  The teach your kids the signs to be aware of so they can let you know when it happens.

Teach Your Children the Signs of an Online Predator

If you are uncomfortable with the word predator, especially with younger children, you can refer to them as ‘adults who want to hurt others’.  Yes, even kids.  They may seem nice, but they have hidden secret motives.  Just like parents teach their kids to be aware of strangers outside and not get into a car with them, the signs online may be a little more subtle but obvious if you know what they’re looking for.  Online predictors ask personal questions.  They try to get private information from you.

The other element kids need to know is that online strangers lie about who they are, at least at first.  They may pretend to be much younger than they are.  They may pose as someone the same age as your child, or at least just a few years older in their late teens or early 20’s.  This is especially true for teens being preyed upon.

Rule #1 is to make sure your child never gives out any personal information.  This is regardless of a person’s motives.  You can teach them that we don’t even tell people who call from our banks our personal information.  It’s probably someone trying to steal our money.  Just like there are online scams to be aware of, there are people who want to get close to kids and they shouldn’t trusted.

Ban Chat Rooms

One of the most common areas that a predator will target children is an online chat room. If the predator is talking to a child in a one-on-one chat room, they can build a relationship with them. This is what you want to avoid at all costs. Public chat rooms are accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, but you can restrict your child’s access to them.

You have the choice of blocking these websites using parental controls, or talking about them with your child. If your child promises to stay away from these types of sites, that may be sufficient as long as you have a way to check in once in a while to monitor they are not using chat rooms.

Things get more dangerous is someone your child is talking to someone in a chat room lives close by.  Chats can turn into texts and the possibility of meeting.  All the more vital for your child to know that anyone online may not be who they say they are.  This can even happen on social media.

Help Them with Privacy Settings

If your child has a social media or online video game account, their information is readily accessible to whoever wants to see it. You can reduce this risk of possible stalking by helping your child set up secure privacy settings.  Your child may not be interacting on chatroom, but there are online predictors (and predator groups) that find and share easily accessible information about where children live, play and go to school.  Typically, training and helping kids with their privacy settings would include changing the settings so that only their friends can view their photos and posts. This will also block unsolicited messages from people who are not on their friends and contacts lists.

Parents need to also check their own privacy settings. Often a way for online predators to get to children is through their parents social media accounts.  Consider everything you post online about yourself and your kids.  Make no personal information is including or public due to lack of proper privacy settings.

This tip also includes helping your child choose a strong password. Identity theft is a common occurrence even with children and can have disastrous consequences. Teach them to use different passwords for different accounts and make them difficult to guess. Then, you will need to stress the importance of not sharing their passwords with anyone, even with their friends or significant others.

Parental Controls on Computers, Tablets and Phones

Even if you trust your child, there are still many ways that they can be manipulated online.  All of your child’s computers and tablets should have some level of parental control on them.  Let’s not forget that phones are little pocket computers too, and possibly the most dangerous if kids are not savvy to how predictors can access their information.  There are way to protect your devices using built in parental controls that also provide resources to protect children from online predators.

Restricting use a child’s computer to a shared space will make it harder for children to access dangerous websites.  Parental controls also allow parents to limited usage to specific parts of the day so that kids can’t access the internet late at night.  The best parental controls also includes geo tracking and monitoring of texts and suspicious photos.

Stay Aware of Your Child’s Friends

It is a good idea to be aware of what is going on in your child’s life for multiple reasons. Being familiar with their friends will give you a heads up if they start mentioning a new name. You will be able to have a chat about who this new friend is and where they met. It may be a legitimate friend, but if this person sounds suspicious, you will be better prepared to deal with the situation.  Taking the time to talk to your kids about inappropriate dangers online is the first time to implementing all of these strategies.  It’s something parents and kids can and should do together.  This way, no one is left in the dark.

If you want to know more about already existing opportunities in education that you can take advantage now, join us as we look at the latest trends in EdTech.  Topics like eLearning, blockchain for education, gamification and AI are just a few sectors that are changing the education landscape.

The Next Level 2020/21 EdTech Trends for Your Education

Distance learning has already become just not another option but also a major rule for organizing the educational process. Recent challenges have pushed educators to adapt and respond to new opportunities and be proactive to stay ahead of the changes in education.  Many of these have become advantages not otherwise explored.

How Modern Technologies Are Used for Teaching and Learning

The main purpose of any technology recently applied in education should be for the purpose of facilitating the learning process and enhancing performance. This is achieved by applying technical means and tools. The use of new technologies for the most part was previously attributed to various courses and associated educational standards according to individual course activities. Now, it has become obvious that technologies can ensure the greater diversification of teaching methods. That is mainly related to arranging online classes and self-education.

The goal of applying advanced technical tools and arranging education online has been to bring at least the same results. Systems also need to be in place to ensure new types of learning can be measure results effectively. As we can now see that modern technologies can improve collaboration and performance, here are the main approaches to how this has been organized to the present.

EduTrends Enabling a Better Study Experience

Among all varieties of educational innovations, we have prepared for you a short overview of the latest ones and the most interesting, from our point of view. These are also widely-used technologies in modern education:

1. eLearning

Recent challenges that sent kids home from school have certainly opened our minds the idea that electronic learning can be effective.  For some students,  it can be even more effective than traditional classed.  This is only true if the process has been organized well.  When we speak about eLearning we usually mean any kind of education or learning process that is organized electronically.

Such courses enable the delivery of educational materials by using various computers, tablets, laptops, or even smartphones. The major advantage of this learning process is that students no longer need to have a passive role.  You may choose what course or material to take right at the moment. This may be through various podcasts, materials for reading, videos, and other materials. Delivery can be through Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or any other similar tools.

2. Blockchain for Education

The technology of distributed ledger has changed dramatically in many industries and it has also touched education. We can say even more – that is one of the most beneficial tech trends in education students may experience. It is used for arranging the so-called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that enable not only learning, but also the assessment of the gained knowledge and skills. Even more – the approach enables students to have extra benefits during the job-hunting process as they submit results of the completed courses to prospective employees.

3. Video-Assisted Education

Besides the fact that videos are more engaging, you can easily go back and review material or skip certain pieces to arrange your time more freely. Video assisted education is an ed-tech tool already common in school classrooms and not just select online learners. This approach can be very effective for distance learning. Videos, especially animated ones, can enrich any course or lesson dramatically. The resistance for online educators to use this teaching method if often due to a lack of knowledge of how to create or find educational videos for use in their online teaching.

4. Gamification

This current and possibly one of the most exciting trends in education enables learning to interact and be more engaging. This makes real fun of any educational process and can boost engagement and productivity. By striving to get higher scores in any game, the students strive to gain more knowledge and express such on time. And all these things are made in an atmosphere of fun. That can certainly sound amazing to any parent or educator, as long as they see positive results.

5. Artificial Intelligence

This is one of the primary trends in modern innovation in education that can help keep students from being left behind as other progress. It can make basic and other study activities automatic, for instance, in terms of grading. This tool is also effective for arranging the process of delivering study help by tutors. It is also possible to assess and monitor the performance that students have. It is predicted that the role of artificial intelligence in education will increase further, for obvious reasons.

The plagiarism checker is considered to be one of the manifestations of artificial intelligence. The plagiarism calculation algorithm finds non-unique lines in the text. This type of plagiarism check is constantly being improved. Many schools have already introduced plagiarism testing with artificial intelligence.

6. Social Media Networks in Education

Since the birth of social media networks, they have always been a way for students to connect with friends outside of the classroom.  When students are unable to get together in person, which is especially true for eLearners, they can use these same networks to create study groups.  Student to student connection away from school already becoming more widely used by many educational institutions and courses. This is more than reasonable as many students spend a lot of time there anyway. Such networks are also used at the moment as communication tools between the representatives of their educational institutions.

This approach enables the sharing of various educational materials, opinions by commenting on posts and arranging discussions. The success of using social media networks in education makes us believe it is possible to build a new culture of collaboration in the area of education and improve it dramatically.

7. Learning Analytics

The existing landscape for this type of tool has been expanded dramatically. Learning analytics has become even more relevant to higher education.  This tool enables the optimizing of the educational process and measuring the result of such by educators.

Learning analytics has been also used by various online tutors and similar services for obtaining relevant feedback on various matters. When teachers or tutors review the feedback for their students, this enables you to enhance the learning process and make it more productive. For instance, educators can see exactly what type of information (infographics, images, videos) work better. This technology can also identify students that are experiencing various challenges and assist them in overcoming learning difficulties.

Will Virtual Learning Remain Continue to Grow?

We presume that the trend will remain even after coping with the challenges the world is facing. There will also be the need for it in some form and this approach has presented many benefits for students and teachers alike. Virtual learning can save time, offer more freedom, and when done properly can produce the same results as a traditionally-organized education process. Only time will tell whether or not virtual learning will continue to grow or subside to previously normal levels.

What Does the Future with EdTech Look Like?

Regardless of the specifics, we believe the application of various online technologies will remain a trend and implement new aspects of developing technologies. Firstly, Edtech trends seek to bring better accessibility, more safety for online-learning, a focus on emphasizing the correctness of online-learning, enabling less but effective supervision, and ensuring other aspects crucial for effectiveness.

Last Words

Applying various online tools instead of traditional approaches has a good probability of gaining new benefits for managing time and performance. Independence and technical awareness are crucial aspects every student should explore for success in life.  Educators can help by also learning how to offer present new EdTech innovations in their classrooms to ensure no student is left behind.

How to Aid Student Growth In and Outside the Classroom

The phone, a device once used solely for the purpose of calling one another, has quickly become capable of just about everything.  The birth of mobile phones has brought the world to our finger tips, both good and bad.  And who would have believed a decade ago that these smart portable computers would be in the hands of most kids.

With such a powerful device now available to just about everyone, it becomes more and more of a challenge to limit your child’s usage of their phone. Activities available on a smart phone seem endless; playing games, making music, watching videos, and even browsing the internet. Unfortunately, as with many things in life, without moderation and protections put in place, there can be consequences.

Should I Allow My Child to Get a Phone?

Before asking whether how to limit your child’s phone usage, it is probably worth discussing whether your child should be allowed to have a phone in the first place. A phone is an extremely useful tool for your child to have in order to gain a sense of independence, allowing them to attend after-school clubs or extracurricular activities while staying in contact with you.

While your child may claim that all of their friends have a phone and try to use this as a reason that they should have one, it is up to you to decide at what age it is appropriate and not their friend’s parents. By allowing your child to have a phone at a young age, you are essentially granting them access to an unfiltered and unsafe world that they are not be ready for.

Limiting my Child’s Phone Usage

Luckily, when you decide that it is the right time for your child to have a phone, there are still parental control filters that can be installed to ensure that they aren’t visiting unsafe sites, as well as any site that isn’t age-appropriate. It is also possible to install parental control filters to actually limit the amount of time that they spend online each day. While you may think that installing these filters is all you need to do, it is important that the limits that you set are fair and that you also set a good example for your children with your own phone usage.

A Digital Family Alliance

Although parental filters can definitely help, sometimes setting strict limits on your children’s devices while you continue to use yours to your heart’s content can create tension in your household. Creating a digital family alliance is a great way to adopt healthy digital habits together. By being honest with your children, it opens up a dialogue where everyone can contribute, letting each family member explain the difficulties they have when it comes to limiting the amount of time they spend on their phone. After all, how can you expect your children to get away from their phones if you can’t get away from yours?

Is all Phone Usage bad for your Children?

Although we have been talking about limiting our children’s phone usage, it would be wrong to say that all phone usage is bad for them. Having a phone does give your child a sense of independence as well as allowing them to stay in contact with friends and even participate in productive activities.

Today, children can use their phones to learn digital art, how to make music, and even get into photography, the potential is limitless. The point here is that it is important to understand how much time should be spent on non-productive activities such as scrolling through social media or watching endless YouTube videos to name a few. Monitoring the amount of time that they are using their phone for these different activities is crucial to allowing them to enjoy any creative hobbies that they may need their phone for while cutting out the junk food of their digital diet.

Conclusion

So we can agree that our phones are incredibly useful devices when in the right hands. By working together as a family we can create rules that are easy enough for everyone to sustainably adhere to. If you are thinking of limiting your child’s phone usage, make sure to ask them how long they think is an acceptable amount of time to spend on their phones and create an open space where you can discuss your digital week. After all, families can get through anything when they work together.