As you see on the news many teens lives are taken away because driving under the in influence. Most cases are from being under the influence. Some people get distracted and accidentally lose control. Teens plus teens equal disaster. I have lost someone that was very dear to me. When we received the news my family was shocked. It was my uncle. So I caution you to drive safe and not under the influence. Here are some tips that I would use. 1. To be a successful teacher, you need to understand a few things about motivating a student during driving sessions...
- Check frequently to ensure that your teen understands
- Keep things moving by giving your instructions in real time
- Point things out as they happen
- Act more as the co-pilot than taskmaster
- Keep an eye on the road ahead of you at all times
2. Other teens in the car is one of the greatest risks...
Friends lead to excitement, distractions and peer pressure
Fatal crashes with teen drivers are more likely to involve passengers
Teens are less likely to wear seat belts when driving with other teens 3. There are all kinds of distractions that can take our eyes off the road. Here's a way to help maintain your attention:
Keep both hands on the wheel while driving
Don't talk on the phone without a hands-free accessory
Wait 'til the next stoplight to change that CD
Don't drive with passengers until you are more experienced
Parent's Tip: Don't remind your teen of all the possible distractions. Instead, enforce keeping your hands on the wheel and you'll avoid most of the distractions that cause serious crashes.
3.To help your teen understand, take the time to review the issues and responsibilities associated with driving and consider making a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement using the outline below as a guide...
- Issue - Curfew
- Responsibility/Rule - Weekday evening curfew of 10 pm and a weekend evening curfew of midnight
- Agreement - Coming home after the curfew will result in the curfew being set one hour earlier for one week
Parent's Tip: Treat your teen with the same respect by allowing them some control over the rules of driving.
4. Driving requires commitment and discipline - from both the student and the coach. The best way to demonstrate these traits is to establish a practice schedule and stick to it.
- Commit to the 100 hours of supervised instruction (100 hours is only 2 hours/week for a year, or 4 hours/week for 6 months)
- Make it routine--set aside a specific day and time for driving practice (Put it in your day-planner if you have to; this is an appointment for safety)
- Go with the flow--when the lessons require driving at night or in bad weather, make adjustments
Don't cancel, reschedule--when you have to work late or something else unexpected comes up, don't cancel your driving date, reschedule it.
Parent's Tip: Demonstrate to your child that you are making this a firm commitment to their safety
5. If your teen can spend 10 hours getting hand-cramps from the latest video game, he or she can spend ten sessions meandering through your local countryside or back roads, to develop driving hand-eye coordination. Anytime visibility decreases, have your teen:
- Slow down
- Access the situation
- If visibility is only 100 feet ahead, you should be doing no more than 35 MPH. If it's at 50 feet, it's 25 MPH, and so on.
Parent's Tip: Build up to an hour or more per session. It will help your teens mind and body become more accustomed to driving and build more confidence.
Just remember that person might be you behind the wheel. So take the safety percussions
Hi Eddie!
Thanks again for dropping by my blog and leaving me such a warm comment. I've just been reading through some of the posts on your blog. If you hadn't told me I never would have known you were a grade 5 student. You're so articulate. (You express yourself so well.)
I was drawn to this post as the one to leave my comments because, as you know, I teach senior math at a high school in Winnipeg, Canada.
It's true what you and the other folks that have left you comments say about math -- it's everywhere. Even in our own bodies.
There are some very special numbers in math that you'll learn about in high school. They're so special that we give them special names because we can't write the whole number on any one piece of paper. Pi (pie) is one of them. Maybe you've heard about it when you learned about circles. 3.1415926.... and on and on it goes. There's another special number called "e" and another one called phi (like "fly" without the "l").
Phi is approximately 1.618 which seems weird I know, but it gets weirder. If you measure your height and then the distance from the ground to your belly button, then divide your height by the belly button distance it's going to be pretty close to 1.618.
Measure the length of your arm (shoulder to finger tips), then measure from your elbow to your finger tips. Divide the long length by the short one ... you'll get 1.618 (Phi) again.
This is even true about your fingers! Take the length of any finger and divide by the length to the second knuckle from your finger tip you'll get phi ... again! Do this again with the two smaller lengths of the same finger and you get phi again!
There's a building in Greece called the Parthenon. When they built it 2500 years ago, they made all the doors and windows so that the length divided by the width equals 1.618. Some folks call this number The Golden Ratio ... a very pretty name for a very special number. We don't know why this is, but when things are made so that their length divided by their width is phi they just look pretty to us.
So, why am I telling you this. Well, two reasons:
(1) It's another example of how math is everywhere ... even in places you wouldn't think to look.
(2) You can get better marks without your teacher even knowing why she's giving you more marks. The next time you do a project, it might be on paper or it might be on presentation board, cut it just so ... so that the length divided by the width is 1.618. It'll just "look prettier" to your teacher and he/she won't even realize it ... and you'll get a better mark. ;-)
Keep studying your math Eddie. There's a lot to learn and sometimes it's really hard, but if you get through some of the hard (and boring) stuff there's a whole lot of really cool stuff you'll be able to learn as well. Don't even get me started about the Fibonacci Sequence. ;-)
PS: There are special symbols that we use for Pi and Phi but your blog won't let me write them. I'll bet you can find them if you search on Google. ;-)