Introduction to Proper Guitar Posture

Introduction to Proper Guitar Posture Megan L. As a beginner, proper guitar posture is one of the most important beginning steps before you learn about chords, picking, and strumming. Sadly, learning proper guitar posture is often an afterthought to learning to play. Although whether you choose to sit or stand has little effect on your tone or technique, proper guitar posture is important for many other reasons. Why Is Proper Posture Important? Proper guitar posture makes the work of your hands and fingers easier, conserving your energy. It also dramatically improves your skills as a guitarist, and prevents injuries from overuse. Pitfalls of Poor Posture: Poor instrument tone Difficulties playing fast or advanced passages Players may tire more quickly Sprains and injuries, such as tendonitis, particularly in the wrist Proper Guitar Posture: Modern Seated Position Sit with your back straight and your feet slightly apart. While sitting, rest the waist of your guitar â€" the indented part between the guitar’s upper and lower bouts or curved parts on your right leg. Rest the guitar lightly on your right forearm, on the base bout, balancing the guitar. Note: You should be able to able to take your left hand completely off the fretboard without the guitar dropping toward the floor. Elevate your guitar using a support arm between your left thigh and the guitar’s lower side so that your left foot can remain on the floor. Proper Guitar Posture: Classical Seated Position For those on the path to pursuing a classical guitar career, its traditional to play in the seated position only, with the guitar resting on your left leg. This is because this position puts the guitar closest to the center of your body, in the optimum position for executing the difficult fingerings of classical guitar music. The steps for proper guitar posture for the classical guitarist are as follows: Sit with your back straight and your feet slightly apart. While sitting, rest the waist of your guitar â€" the indented part between the guitar’s upper and lower bouts or curved parts on your left leg. Rest the guitar lightly on your left forearm, on the base bout, balancing the guitar. Note: You should be able to able to take your right hand completely off the fretboard without the guitar dropping toward the floor. Elevate your classical guitar by raising the left leg using a specially made guitar foot stool. Don’t Neglect These Important Tips for Maintaining Proper Guitar Posture While in Seated Position: Your legs may be crossed or uncrossed, but your knees should be high enough to support the guitar at or just below chest height. Rest the dip of the guitar on your lap and the body of the guitar flat against your chest. Don’t hunch your back. Point your elbow toward the top corner of the guitar, resting it so that your forearm and wrist can pivot over the strings while supporting the guitar against your body. Be aware of the angle of your fret hand. Don’t bend the arm of your fret hand beyond a 90-degree right angle. Don’t be obtuse acute angles put less strain on your wrist. Proper Guitar Posture: Standing Add a guitar strap for support in standing position. Choose a new, quality strap over an old, worn strap to prevent dropping and damaging your guitar if the strap slips off a pin. Adjust the length of the guitar strap and the height of the guitar until you can reach the fretboard and strings comfortably. You don’t want the guitar hanging too low as this will result in the need to bend your wrists at an awkward angle to play, making fast passages more difficult. Your body should make the adjustment from sitting to standing naturally. However, keep the following tips in mind to ensure proper guitar posture when standing: Keep your back straight, but relaxed. Hold the elbow of your strumming arm forward and square with your body (toward the top corner of your guitar â€" not back behind you) to provide an optimum pivot point for strumming. Be aware of the angle of your fret hand. Don’t bend the arm of your fret hand beyond a 90 degree right angle. Don’t be obtuse acute angles put less strain on your wrist. Bend your left leg slightly for support, so you don’t have to hunch over if you need a better view of the fretboard. Selecting the right tools also helps ensure proper guitar posture: Find your perfect chair. The ideal chair should have no arms. The height of the chair should be such that your feet rest flat on the floor and your lap is flat, not angled. If you are standing next to the chair, the seat of the chair should fall right in the middle of your knees. Pay attention to your stand â€" your music stand, that is. Don’t place it too low or too high. Prevent the head tilting that leads to headaches, back, and neck strain by adjusting your music stand so that your don’t have to tilt your head to read music. Find a great teacher. Opt for private, one-on-one lessons with a great teacher who is well-versed in the ins and outs of playing and proper guitar posture to avoid misinformation and to ensure you reach your fullest potential. While imitating your favorite player may be fun, don’t make it a habit if that player’s posture is poor ­. Remember, proper guitar posture results in better guitar playing and a pain-free body â€" so save your Alice Cooper impressions for when you’re goofing off with your friends. Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of prescreened teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for safe, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo  by  afunkydamsel

How to Record Your Voice

How to Record Your Voice Everything You Need to Record Your Singing at Home for Vocal Training ChaptersMicrophones and Audio Equipment: The FundamentalsHome Studio EssentialsAudacity: The Must-Have Programme for Recording at HomeDigital Alternatives for Listening to YourselfYouTube: Bringing Singers an Audience“To become a singer requires work, work, and again, work!” - Enrico CarusoGene Kelly’s global classic “Singing in the Rain” is without a doubt a product of this lesson and there are far too many other hard-working and talented singers to mention.How many of you occasionally (or always in my case) sing in the shower? Do you dream of becoming a famous singer? Where do you begin?The first step is to record yourself and see how you sound. However, it's almost impossible to turn your bathroom into an Italian opera house without a lot of money and tonnes of pro tools. You’re not a professional musician, after all, and you don’t have a myriad of assistants and record executives to help you do it.Someone who sings alone is barely a singer at all. In order to exist, a singer has to produce music. Whether this takes place in a concert hall or a more intimate venue, they should have recordings in order to show off their music.There are plenty of artists who made it big because somebody important came across their demo.  There are also a number of people who’ve become very popular following some buzz on YouTube or social media.While you don’t have to share your recordings all over the world wide web, it’s important to have some recordings of your voice (if you want to become a singer) in order to share them to the right people at the right times.It’s also useful to have recordings in order to train yourself to sing better so you can see where you’re going wrong.If you want to make a digital audio recording, you're going to need to get some mics, recording equipment, recording software, and turn your guest room into a home recording studio.With that said, let’s have a look at the best ways to make quality recordings from the comfort of your own home. Recording music needn't cost that much. TraceySinging Teacher 4.92 (13) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors PortiaSinging Teacher 4.91 (11) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NicolaSinging Teacher 5.00 (11) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JazzSinging Teacher 5.00 (6) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors PerrineSinging Teacher 5.00 (3) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors TiemSinging Teacher £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors TomSinging Teacher £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MiriamSinging Teacher 5.00 (4) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsMicrophones and Audio Equipment: The FundamentalsThough the answer might seem obvious, do you need to choose top quality equipment?You’ll definitely need a microphone. You'll need to pick a song to sing, too! However, you needn't buy a digital audio workstation straight away, you could always record the audio using a digital voice record er or Dictaphone.While older models could only record onto cassette, you now have the option to put your recordings onto CD, hard disks and pendrives via mp3 files without taking a trip down the studio.The recording quality can vary massively between low- and top-of-the-range products. For what we’re interested in, it’s worth investing in a digital device with a quality microphone that’ll allow you to directly work on audio files with storage for several GBs of audio files.  Brands like Panasonic and Tamashi have been popular amongst amateurs for years and continue to advance with the latest technology. However, the perfect solution is to record your voice directly onto a computer workstation in a studio in your house with a quality sound card.If you’re reading this, we’ll assume that you have a computer (even though you could be reading this on a tablet or a smartphone).  Even if your computer has a built-in microphone, you should consider investing in decent recording ge ar or at least an external microphone since the quality of sound for integrated devices tends to be very low. This isn’t for Skype, after all!Download a free programme like Audacity and start recording your own music. (Source: Thibault Trillet)The best option is to have a large static hanging microphone like they do in professional recording studios or radio stations so that you can avoid picking up vibrations.  Otherwise, you could choose a dynamic microphone with a stand like they use for concerts and stage performance.A preamp is sometimes used. This is particularly useful if you’re using virtual instruments.A pop filter is also recommended so that your microphone doesn’t pick up plosive sounds. It should be placed around 5cm from the mic itself.  Prodipe, Shure, and Behringer make some of the best which can set you back between £25 and £70. However, there are significantly cheaper options.While speakers or headphones aren’t absolutely necessary for recording programmes , it’d be almost impossible to work without them since you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself or cut and edit parts of your audio.  When it comes to speakers, there’s a wide range available that can be connected via USB, headphone jack, bluetooth, etc. Headphones can vary massively in terms of quality and comfort, too.If you want to make high quality recordings, you’ll need to ensure that you record in the best possible conditions. You should opt for wired products as they’re usually both cheaper and better than the wireless products powered by batteries.  JBL and Sennheiser are some of the most highly recommended manufacturers.For all of these products, you can either check online or at specialised music retailers.  We wouldn’t recommend trying to find the right products in massive department stores or supermarkets.Home Studio EssentialsA home music studio can be built (and improved) in stages. Firstly, you’ll need to start with a computer and basic equipment.Small str eams make big rivers and oak trees grow from acorns, after all. By adding new equipment every year, you’ll eventually end up with an impressive setup that could be used to record instruments as well as your voice.The goal is to get the perfect equipment without bankrupting yourself, after all.  You could invest in a USB audio interface with MIDI ports in order to record both the vocals and instruments at the same time.  The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Presonus AudioBox, and the Alesis IO2 Express offer the best value for money.The best programmes offer virtual mixing desks. (Source: Stephen Niemeier)In any case, you should build your home studio in a quiet room so that you can start recording immediately.You could opt for an acoustic screen to isolate the sound you’re recording and there are also “vocal recording kits”, available for around £100 if you’re investing in quality equipment and are sold by most of the biggest brands.Find out more about the best karaoke apps, too. TraceySinging Teacher 4.92 (13) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors PortiaSinging Teacher 4.91 (11) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NicolaSinging Teacher 5.00 (11) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JazzSinging Teacher 5.00 (6) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors PerrineSinging Teacher 5.00 (3) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors TiemSinging Teacher £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors TomSinging Teacher £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MiriamSinging Teacher 5.00 (4) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsAudacity: The Must-Have Programme for Recording at HomeAs we said, if you want to become a singer, you have to sing! However, if you want to get better, you’ll also have to listen to yourself.  This will help you effectively evaluate your own performance, range, and accuracy.Audacity is one of the most popular programmes amongst both amateur and professional singers.  Undoubtedly, the program me is only as popular as it is because it’s available for free. However, it’s also very easy to use and comes with a large range of functions.  It’s not hard to find video tutorials online explaining how to use the programme, either!Digital Alternatives for Listening to YourselfWhen looking at free options, it’s hard to find programmes that are better than Audacity.  However, there are a number of options for testing your microphone, messing about, or doing some serious recording.For example, you could always use the programme that comes pre-installed on Windows: Sound Recorder.  However, this software is very very limited.On the other hand, there are plenty of programmes you could buy. A lot of them also have free trials available so you can see if you like them before you pay for them.Music Creator 7, a semi-professional solution, for example, is available for around £30 (depending on the options you choose).To listen to audio, you can always opt for something like Window s Media Player or VLC and you can also compress audio files (while retaining most of the quality) into mp3s so that you can send them to people you know via Dropbox, for example.  The files you make in your “recording studio” can also be converted for free thanks to a variety of different solutions.YouTube: Bringing Singers an AudienceYouTube’s for more than karaoke videos!While not everyone has the chance to study music or singing in a top university or music school, almost everyone can find a decent music teacher providing private tutorials.In fact, you can even benefit from private singing lessons online with digital resources and a virtual voice coach. Nowadays, you can get better at singing without even leaving your house.  Additionally, making digital recordings is a new way to share your music with friends and people you know.YouTube is arguably the best resource for this. A new singer can find their audience quite easily using this platform.Check out more about singing lessons online.You don't need modern equipment to start recording yourself. (Source: stock.tookapic.com)A video (which could just be the song over a static image) could garner a few views and generate some buzz and positive (and negative) comments from other web users.  Thanks to combining YouTube with social media channels like Facebook, you can get your music out there quite easily nowadays.You should also check out some of the best sites for learning music theory. Or check out singing lessons Manchester, London, Leeds and more.

Professores da LOI English Brad Burgess

Professores da LOI English Brad Burgess Dar a conhecer os professores da LOI English tem sido um trabalho divertido. Afinal de contas, falar com pessoas interessantes é sempre enriquecedor. Esta semana conversei com Brad Burgess, um dos professores nativos da LOI English. Embora seja do Canadá, Brad vive atualmente em Tóquio, no Japão, tendo vivido anteriormente em New York City, EUA.Brad contou que o seu interesse por ensinar Inglês veio da sua vontade de conhecer pessoas de diferentes países, ter contato com diferentes culturas e viajar, sendo que a forma mais fácil que encontrou para poder realizar esses seus sonhos foi exatamente ensinar Inglês. Além disso, Brad disse que se diverte muito ensinando, que gosta da variedade de personalidades com as quais lida diariamente e que isso faz com que o seu trabalho como professor nunca seja enfadonho.Segundo ele, a maior parte dos seus alunos é do Brasil e, por norma, têm níveis de Inglês que variam entre o intermediário e o avançado.  Questionei Brad sobre a pro veniência dos alunos brasileiros que costuma ter, de acordo com as estimativas do professor, cerca de 90% dos brasileiros a quem deu aulas é de São Paulo e buscam melhorar os seus conhecimentos de Inglês para negócios.Por causa dessa grande procura, por parte dos alunos, para a aprimoração do Inglês de forma a conseguirem uma evolução na sua carreira, perguntei se a especialidade de Brad era essa, mas, afinal, não é. Brad disse que o ensino do Inglês é a sua especialidade. Porém, normalmente, é procurado por pessoas que pretendem ter aulas de Inglês para negócios ou que vêm na sua experiência como programador e produtor musical uma mais valia para melhorar os seus conhecimentos de Inglês nessas áreas em específico.Tal como fiz com os outros professores da LOI English com quem falei, perguntei ao Brad quais eram as maiores dificuldades dos brasileiros que estudam Inglês. De acordo com a sua experiência, a pronúncia é, de fato, um problema que tem que ser tr abalhado. Brad acredita que a prática é a melhor forma de melhorar as capacidades linguísticas de um estudante de Inglês. Por isso mesmo, quando perguntei se tinha alguma dica para brasileiros que querem melhorar a sua pronúncia, a sua resposta foi simples: praticar o Inglês, seja lendo ou conversando.Além disso, ter atenção às correções feitas pelos professores, já que é a partir delas que o aluno consegue compreender exatamente onde está o problema, e tentar aprender mais sobre a cultura dos países anglófonos são pontos fundamentais para quem quer aperfeiçoar o seu conhecimento da língua.Brad comentou também que os seus assuntos preferidos quando dá aulas de conversação são cultura, artes e psicologia. Tendo isso em consideração, se você pretende seguir a dica dele e aprender mais sobre a cultura de países que têm o Inglês como língua oficial, ele parece ser a pessoa certa para ajudar!

My first term with the Tutorfair Foundation - Joss Story

My first term with the Tutorfair Foundation - Joss' Story This September saw Joss joining the team as Foundation Director. As we approach the end of his first term, we asked him to reflect on his first few months here and tell us what to expect from the year ahead. I’m so excited to have joined the Foundation this year. I’ve admired Tutorfair’s socially responsible model since I first came across it on a school visit in 2017, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to lead a wonderful organisation in making a real difference. As expected, the first term has been a busy one. The Foundation had been without full-time leadership for the year before my arrival, so there was work to be done organising its various activities into a clear strategy and finding the best route forward into 2020. Over the last two years, the focus has been building and delivering Tutorfair On-Demand as a way of scaling volunteer-led tutoring nationally. Now that Nesta’s Click Connect Learn  has come to an end, we can once again invest in our network of partners and increase the number of local programmes running in London and Birmingham. And we’ve started well this term, supporting nearly two hundred students across various projects and bringing lots of new tutors into the community - including the Foundation’s 1,000th volunteer. What a milestone! We’ve got plenty more in the pipeline for the New Year, with new programmes and partnerships getting underway from January. All of this is made possible by three things worth reflecting on as we head into the Winter break. Firstly, the passionate and positive volunteers that give their time and energy to make our programmes work. These wonderful people have been the greatest surprise to me in my short time here â€" from those who are joining us now to those who are returning for a second or third year with the Foundation. We’d be nowhere without them and simply cannot praise them enough. Secondly, the generosity of everyone who gives to the Foundation â€" mostly those booking through Tutorfair, but also the organisations and individuals who sponsor individual projects or open doors for us. Every penny that comes to our charity is the result of a choice that someone’s made â€" and the cumulative effect of those choices means we get to drive our mission forward. Thanks to everyone who’s helping to keep us going. Finally, the fantastic group of people who work or have worked for the Foundation â€" not least Tas who I suspect is responsible for the steady and inevitable turning of the Earth. Thanks to everyone for their passion and support through a fantastic first term with The Tutorfair Foundation. Here’s to many more. If you would like to volunteer with the Foundation you can sign up here.  If you’re interested in working with our volunteers or supporting our fundraising, get in touch with the team at foundation@tutorfair.com.

8 interview mistakes that can cost you great candidates

8 interview mistakes that can cost you great candidates Probably the most challenging part of the hiring process, and the area most susceptible to error is the interview itself. We all want to hire the best, but we don’t always get the best to accept our offers. At Teach Away, we empower countless teaching candidates and hiring schools to connect, both digitally and in person, every day. Although we mostly see smoothly-run interviews, we do also have a punch list of interviewer mistakes that we’ve seen too often to ignore. If you’re not careful, these interview mistakes will give the wrong impression and lead to great candidates losing interest in working at your school. So, here are our top interviewer mistakes, and our tips to help you avoid them, so you don’t have to see your best candidate for the job walk away. 1) Arriving unprepared. Preparation is key. An unorganized interview is a big red flag to any teaching candidate. Read their resume beforehand. If you’re trying to skim a resume for the first time during the interview, that will be painfully obvious to your interviewee. Candidates can see right through an interviewer who has not taken the time to review their resume, which gives the impression that you do not take the recruitment process seriously. Instead, carefully review their work experience, skills and educational background in advance. This will help you formulate relevant interview questions and to conduct a more thorough interview. The more time you spend looking into the applicant’s qualifications and background, the better the interview will be, and the easier it will be to determine if they are the right fit for your school. 2) Leaving candidates waiting. Be prompt - respecting the candidates time, sets a tone of mutual respect. Schedule interviews and stick to that planned time. Even if it’s just a pre-screen phone interview, call on time and don’t make candidates wait. When a school head cancels an interview or doesn't show up at the agreed time, especially if the candidate has got up in the middle of the night to accommodate a conflicting time zone, the candidate will perceive this as rude and disrespectful, and assume you’re not really interested in hiring them to work at your school. 3) Acting distracted. Stay focused - they’re bringing their “A” game, and expect you to bring yours too. From start to finish, you need to be 100% focused on the candidate. Being distracted during the interview with unrelated subjects, not paying close attention to responses, interjecting with unrelated comments, avoiding eye contact, glancing at your mobile phone for emails or texts, will leave your candidate feeling disrespected. A disengaged interviewer not only interrupts a candidate’s train of thought, throwing a potentially great answer off-kilter - they will also negatively affect a candidate’s perception of a school and likely cause them to pull out of the process. 4) Rushing the interview. You may think you have hit your 10,000 hour rule and can assess a candidate in two minutes. Keep in mind 90% of drivers overestimate how good they are at driving - the same holds true for interviewing. Not only can a candidate turn an interview around, it is easy to forget that this interview is bigger than the two of you in the room. The interview is a critical marketing opportunity for you to showcase your school to a member of the very valuable job-seeker market. Do your school a favor, and stick to your scheduled time - sell your school, even if you know you’re not hiring them.. When you decide to bring in a candidate for an interview, be prepared to take your time. That’s the only way to evaluate them effectively and make an informed decision on the right teacher for your school. A brief interview that doesn't give the candidate the opportunity to really sell themselves, especially if a candidate has traveled to attend an in-person interview, is one of the biggest hiring mistakes we see time and time again at Teach Away. Imagine you’re a candidate excited about the opportunity to interview at this great school overseas. You spend hours researching, thinking of questions and recalling past classroom experiences and lesson plan examples that would be relevant to the open position. Then, after you’ve thoroughly prepared and are ready to excel, all you get is 15 minutes of the interviewer’s time. I’m sure we can all appreciate how unfulfilling and aggravating that would be. So don’t overlap interviews or schedule them too close together. Show respect and take the time to properly evaluate each candidate. They prepared for you, so you owe the same consideration in return. And allocate plenty of time for them to ask questions at the end. An interview is as much an opportunity for candidates to size up potential hiring schools as it is for schools to audition prospective teachers. 5) Not asking the right questions. You’re an educational leader in your school, you likely have a strong opinion on assessments. Take a page from your own playbook and standardize a candidate assessment rubric. This will allow for easier side-by-side comparisons on those tough calls. Also, clear rubrics can mitigate the impact of dangerous halo effects. Make sure to craft questions before the interview that will help you correctly determine a teacher’s experience, qualifications, pedagogical knowledge and cultural fit. Predictable, redundant, rhetorical or overly-complicated questions can frustrate or confuse the candidate. Instead, actively listen to candidate’s responses, and use open-ended questions that ask the what, how and why. This not only gets candidates talking; it will also help you get the information you need to make the right hiring decision for your school. Don’t forget to ask questions that will help you glean candidate’s level of cultural awareness, as well their motivations for moving to the country where your school is located, either. Sidenote: throughout the entire interview, be aware of talking too much, instead of listening. A good rule of thumb - if you’re talking more than half the time, you’re talking too much! 6) Not being upfront. Setting a realistic expectation of the challenges faced by educators in your school and community will pay dividends. It’s not enough to get them through the door - you need them to stay and contribute. Yes, it’s true that in order to recruit and convince your candidate to join your school you have to “sell” them on the job and your school but you don’t need to overstate it. Fill them in on the benefits that a position at your school offers, but don’t embellish and make promises you can’t keep. 7) Being intimidating. Leave the boiler room interview tactics to the movies. When it comes to interviewing candidates, a few friendly gestures go a long way. Remember that the best international teachers will have access to a wealth of employment options so your school should strive to present itself as a welcoming, supportive place to work. A job interview is one of the most nerve-racking experiences a person can go through. Stressed-out candidates can have a hard time putting their best foot forward during the interview, and if you don’t know what a candidate is capable of, it becomes challenging to make the most educated hiring decision for your school. Barraging them with questions is the quickest way to shut your candidate down rather than opening them up. Instead, try to keep the whole interview process as friendly and conversational as possible. Keep your own body language open, and remember to make eye contact with the candidate. If there are any challenging questions you need to ask, it’s best to save those for the end of the interview, when the candidate will likely feel more at ease. 8) Failing to follow up. The international teacher labor market is getting more competitive every day. Teachers have options and need to make commitments. If it's not with you, it will be with another school. When you aren’t transparent about your process (or, even worse, lack a clear one), you’re opening the window for great teaching candidates to move onto other job opportunities, even if initially you were their top school of choice. At the end of an interview, ask each candidate if they’re still interested in the position and take the time to fully inform them of your selection process going forward. Let them know when they can expect feedback and be sure to follow up with them in a timely fashion. And while they’re waiting to hear back on next steps in the hiring process, offer to connect your shortlisted candidates with a teacher currently working at the school. Interviews are your best opportunity to get to know a candidate and determine if they’re the right fit for the job. But finding and hiring the right teachers is tough. So don’t make it even harder by driving great candidates away with these all-too-common interviewing mistakes. Don’t forget, great educators will always have options, and interviews are a two-way street. A positive interview experience can convince a talented teacher to join your team, but a negative experience is sure to tarnish your school’s reputation. We hope you found this helpful and we wish you the very best of luck with your candidate search this school year! This article originally appeared in the New Year 2018 edition of AAIE Connector, the bi-monthly newsletter of the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE).

What to Wear When Teaching Abroad

What to Wear When Teaching Abroad Today’s Guest Blog is written by Erika Phyall who currently works in community relations for the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education’s online master’s programs. USC Rossier provides current and aspiring teachers the opportunity to earn an  online Master’s in Teaching  degree and a  Master’s of Education online. Outside of work Erika enjoys networking, DIY projects, and spending time with her two dogs.What to Wear When Teaching AbroadTeaching abroad is an adventure waiting to be discovered. Teachers work and live in a world that is filled with new sights, ideas, people and experiences. Preparing for your time abroad can be hard if you aren’t sure what to expect.One question many teachers might find themselves asking is what to wear when teaching abroad. Sometimes you will be fortunate enough to adjust your wardrobe at your own leisure once you arrive. However, if your location is more rural or you don’t have the same body type as the majority of the populace, you will want to come prepared for your entire stay. Ultimately, it is important to dress professionally and to tailor that look according to the culture you are working in.One of the best steps you can take to have a successful teaching abroad experience is to be open to change. Living in a different culture can require making adjustments to how you might normally dress. Every country will be different. Some may have a style you love, whereas others may include attire that seems restrictive or difficult to embrace. Choose to accept these adjustments as part of the adventure, and don’t begrudge them as a loss of independence. Remember: You can slide right back into those neon tights or worn Converses with deserved enthusiasm once you return home.A helpful tip to dressing for success starts with professionalism. It’s easy when you’re in a new place to want to forget some of the more pesky professional dress codes you may have left behind. In many countries, howev er, being a teacher is one of the most revered professions in the culture. Both students and parents look to the teacher as a symbol of education that preserves the past and strengthens the future. Dressing professionally shows your respect for the position you are filling and the role you have been entrusted with. General guidelines for dressing professionally include maintaining a neat and clean appearance, wearing minimal jewelry or refraining fully, depending on culture, and always choosing clothes that are modest and workplace appropriate. If you are ever unsure, it’s always best to start off conservatively. Ask your co-workers and look around to see what other teachers or professionals in your school are wearing.The classroom is not the only place where dress code can come into play. Holidays, visiting friends, the beach and many other situations can present themselves where it is important to understand appropriate dress. For example, wearing bikinis in many Asian countries is not culturally accepted. Most bathers wear shorts and t-shirts when going to the beach. Middle Eastern countries are also known for their more modest dress. Embrace your adventurous locale, but be prepared for some mental shifts as well. Dressing in this region can be very different for teachers, and female teachers especially may feel restricted. In many Middle Eastern countries, women are expected to have their knees, shoulders and chests completely covered. Head scarves are also required for women, and dresses â€" not pants â€" are recommended unless stated otherwise by your school. Always ask your school for a recommended dress code so you can be prepared to meet their standards.Teaching abroad can be a real adventure, but as with all journeys, setting off prepared can make all the difference. As long as you follow the advice above and use common sense, fashion won’t be able to obstruct you from the rewards of teaching abroad.Interested in earning a Master's degree through the USC Rossier School of Education? Click here to request more information on your professional development.

Love itself is the Healing Power and Remedy for all Pain

Love itself is the Healing Power and Remedy for all Pain Love itself is the healing power and remedy for all pain. An inspirational message by a spiritual leader from India. This message is also a thanks to Rick Hanson whose teachings have helped Dirk to become more grounded and gracious. Namaste