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5 steps to make asynchronous learning student centered interactive learning.
Distance Learning has become the prevailing mode of learning for the majority of students during the pandemic. The two forms of distance learning are asynchronous learning and synchronous Learning.
Many people, after experiencing the synchronous learning for the previous two years, believe that it is beneficial. Especially if teachers plan and implement interactive sessions with the 5 E model and active learning strategies such as the Kagan strategies . On the other hand, many parents and students still consider asynchronous learning an ineffective learning and they classify it as assignments that must not introduce new concepts. How can we as educators change this misunderstanding?
What are the 5 steps to make asynchronous learning student centered interactive and effective learning?
Plan for asynchronous learning using the 5 E model.
# 1- Engage students using an interactive tool Google slide, Padlet, Jamboard, etc. by a brainstorming question.
Catch your students attention from the start. Post something they are curious about and interested in. Let them Brainstorm for the posted question in one place using any of the above tools. Your students will get inspired by their friends interaction!
#2- Push your students to explore the concept at hand.
Provide your students with online resources that help them explore safely. This can be: online articles, videos, recorded sessions, animations, stimulations, online games. etc. You can ask them to work individually or as team. They can record their findings on any of the the interactive tools listed above.
#3 Now it is the time to explain.
Who can do this part? The teacher, the student or any educational material can do this part.
You can provide students with a place to post their questions in the go. Afterwards, you can either ask for peer help to answer the questions or you can do it yourself. It is education! Always Light a fire!
#4 Here, comes the best part where you have to elaborate on the studied concept.
Extend and elaborate by connecting the concepts to daily life situations. Also, you can differentiate and elaborate based on students need and interest! Students exploration will inspire you in this step!
#5 Finally, the evaluation part.
Actually, I see this part in every step. It is an ongoing process that will help students in their learning and will help you to modify your teaching.
But , who said, you are the only one who will do this part?! Always think of self evaluation and peer evaluation!
Until my next blog, happy learning!
Neyoulla
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Living thing, Non-living thing or what?
I have always been connected to the nature of science NOS, to the questions that students ask about controversial scientific topics and to the debates we hold in the science classroom. However, this time I had this debate at the personal level with my nephew Zayd – a 6 years old grade one student. The two of us were watering the walls of a newly built garden room.
Cement Wall I highly recommend creating a role for kids in home duties while taking all safety measures into consideration. This helps them thrive and learn by observation ( Watering concrete few days following the pour strengthens it since the chemical reaction that helps strengthening the concrete needs water). The time we started watering the wall Zayd said: “Why are you washing the wall?”
Me: Actually, I am not washing it! I am watering it!
He looked with his curious eyes and said ” Why? Does it need water?”
Me: Yes, it needs water! Water strengthens the concrete added to join the concrete blocks that are used to build the wall.
Zayd: But it is non- living thing! Why does it need water?
Zayd related this to his science lesson. He studied this year about Living things and non -living things and this is the definition of Non- Living things in his Fusion Book!
Non Living Things Here, I said “Yes, it needs water to become stronger! But it doesn’t grow and reproduce!
Zayd said: “The wall was short two days ago! And now, it is tall!” He laughed and said: : “Is the wall growing?
Me: ” Yes, you are right! Now, it is taller than the previous time we saw it. Do you know why does it become tall?”
Zayd: “The worker stacked the blocks above each other and the wall became long”
Me: ” Yes, You said it! the worker stacked them 🙂 So, it is not growing by itself!
Here, I noticed from his sparking eyes that he got convinced by my answers!👍
Being science majored, I was able to follow up with the curious kid ( Zayd) till the end. However, many parents and teachers are killing kids’ curiosity. Parents by saying “you will know this later” and teachers mainly by redirecting them to the lesson plan process and procedure. We, as educators must nurture kids’ curiosity as it is a way to enhance their creativity. From my experience, I found that the question parking lot is a good strategy to follow up with students’ questions while at same time staying on the lesson plan track.
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Bringing Humor into your Classroom!
Recall the teacher(s) who you remember the most from school days. Give it some thought! Why do you remember her/him more than others? What is this memory that has stuck in your mind after all these years? What makes a teacher memorable?
Your mind is now flashing back to those old days! And, most probably those gold days! You may laugh or feel nostalgic and it will show on your face! Surely, this is not due to a concept that your teacher has explained at that time! or an objective that you have accomplished! Or, even a skill that you have mastered! This is eventually due to your feeling when your teacher cared about you, listened to you, was kind with you or made you laugh! Now, you will not remember the words that she/he said and was beyond this feeling, but surely you will remember how the words made you feel!
Teachers who impact you are rare, but their impact is monumental. It is rare to have teachers who care about creating happy moments with their students and bringing humor into the classroom! Many teachers value bringing humor to their classrooms and try doing so. However, they lack the necessary skills to merge between a disciplined and a happy class. These teachers still relate teaching to seriousness and strictness. They believe in this as a mean to maintain order and discipline in favor of maximizing students’ learning moments. A teacher told me once that she has to be strict all day or else she will loose control over her students. She said that the moment she tries to informally talk and laugh with her students, they stop working and start talking and playing around in uncontrolled way. Afterward, she has to put huge efforts to regain classroom control. This pushes her to be strict all time!
Here, I recommend authentic teachers who build a culture of mutual respect. Teachers who live the moment with their students and enjoy it while enforcing classroom rules and regulations. Teachers can be strict without being mean! Strict in implementing the consequences they agreed on with their students for every action being good or bad. Consistency in enforcing the rules and the consequences is a key to make your rules a habit and consequently the key to success!
Teachers must find a balance between creating a learning environment and having joyful classroom moments. These practical strategies will help bringing humor to the classroom while maintaining an adequate learning environment:
- Add to the lesson plan cartoons and comics related to your subject matter.
- Assign a homework asking students to create jokes related to the lesson. Let students share the jokes in the classroom. Students enjoy their friends jokes and may laugh out loud for a silly joke!
- Make fun of a situation that happens in your class or even from your shape. For example; you can make fun from your shape if you are a fat teacher, by asking for a bulldozer to help you stand up from your chair.
- Tell a funny anecdote about a situation that happens with you! You may even create it!
- Play on words (Generate puns). Teachers have to be witty to be able to play on words and make fun of them. However, if you don’t have the ability to do it yourself, search the net for a way to play on the intended words. Check this pun generator for some hilarious ideas. Include it in your lesson plan without students noticing that you are rehearsing a joke! For example, consider yourself a grade one teacher and every time you want to ask them to add a question mark, you say add the “question shark!” Then, you pretend that you said it by mistake! Can you hear these kids laugher and giggles? I can!
- Add physical act outs to your performance. Instead of just telling your students about a butterfly flying in the sky, you can fly like it in class while telling your story. Moreover, Meow like a cat and bark like a dog in Kindergarten and lower elementary classes whenever the class concepts require this will add a lot of humor to the class routines.
While using humor in the classroom always consider the following:
- Never laugh on your students’ mistakes or behavior.
- Consider the age level of your students while telling a joke. What makes you laugh may not make you student laugh and the reverse. Also, be sure that your joke matches your students’ level of understanding or else you will laugh alone.
- Know your students well and gain their respect before you you bring humor to your classroom.
Cultivate any opportunity to make your students enjoy your sessions while keeping the standards up to your expectations. Kids allover the word are suffering nowadays from emotional distress! let the classroom be the place where your students talk, laugh and learn. And always make sure that your class is the space for your students to express themselves freely and respectfully without fear of judgements. Share with us a memory from your school days that you owe for such hilarious teachers.
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The effects of boredom on students’ learning and the 10 golden rules to assure learners’ interest in your classroom.
In the previous post, I identified the 10 reasons behind students’ classroom boredom. Now, I will tackle the effects of boredom on students’ learning and the 10 golden rules to assure learners’ interest in your classroom.
Effects of students’ classroom boredom on their Learning:
The major effects of students’ classroom boredom on their Learning are:
- Inattentive students during the session.
- Detrimental effect on academic achievement.
- School avoidance.
- Risk of dropping out.
We are all aware of the fact that one of the above effects may lead to the other effect and so forth. For example, students who are inattentive during the session may feel disconnected from class, and consequently they will be at the risk of dropping out. Or in another way round, students who are inattentive during the class will face difficulty maintaining their good academic achievement. This by itself may lead to their dropout. Teachers, parents and students have be aware of the vivid and apparent correlation between inattentiveness during the classroom, academic achievement, school avoidance and dropping out. They have to work hand by hand to break this chain by finding means and methods to suppress students’ classroom boredom and elevate their interest in learning.
The 10 ways that help you assure students’ interest in your classroom:
- Ask thought provoking questions to wake up students’ brains and get them buzzing. Be alerted to the fact that this point works with high achievers who feel the challenge to compete answering such questions. On the contrast, low achievers will feel embarrassed and adopt the passive engagement. Hence, we advise to differentiate the questions by asking two levels questions and giving students the choice to answer the one that appeals to them.
- Encourage open discussions and debates in your classroom. Ask an open ended question and give the chance for all students to answer. Encourage them all regardless of the level and the value of the given answer. In such discussions, you hear every voice in your classroom!
- Use one of your hidden powerful tools; your voice to keep students attached to your classroom discussions. Change your voice pitch and tone during the session. Sometimes, you have to use an expressive, sincere voice while the other time, it must be a harsh one. knowing how to best use your voice is a talent that you have to develop. I believe that it looks like playing an instrument; you have to practice playing to best use it.
- Use a variety of engaging teaching methods that boost your students’ engagement and learning. We all know that “Normal is so boring.” so let us avoid normal in our teaching! Always think of the varied teaching strategies and methods while preparing your lesson plan! They can be simply and easily added to your lesson and will effortlessly amplify your students’ engagement:
- Use gamification to enhance your students’ engagement. Integrating gamification into your lessons is crucial to turn repetitive, plain, boring material into interesting, motivating and quickly attained concepts. Gamification appeals to students as you are taking them to their comfort zone to introduce abstract concepts.
- Engage students by using humor in the classroom. When properly used, adding a little fun and excitement to you classroom is like the pepper you add to your food to differentiate its taste! It keeps students on task and guarantees enjoying the learning process.
- Give your students time and space to move in your classroom. Students mustn’t sit still all the session! Prepare activities that require their structured moving. In this way, you channel their energy into a learning activity!
- Add the brain breaks to your lesson plan to help your students focus. Surprise your bored grade three students by saying ” Saymons Says write on your white board a noun! Saymons says: raise your board up! Saymons says erase the white boards! By a small twist you ignited the fire in your class and you can see the sparkle in the eyes of your kids! Always evaluate your students’ mood and twist accordingly!
- Add attention grabbers to put your students smoothly back on task! You can use any of these attention grabbers (getters) to attract your students without shouting and screaming in class. They are best used to start a lesson, for the transitions between activities or to direct the class.
- Add cheers to praise your students and motivate them. These are additives that help connect your students to the learning process and encourage them to participate effectivity during the session.
Attention Grabbers Turning the above ten points into teaching habits and routines will trigger students’ interest in learning and keep them on task. However, In spite of all the aforementioned points, teachers have to expect some students announcing that they are bored during the session! Don’t be surprised or frustrated! “Bor-ing,” is a word you hear from kids even while they are playing.
Additionally, even though some view boredom as a prime enemy of education, others see that boredom has its positive effects and a little of it is a gift to boost creativity.
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10 reasons for classroom boredom.
Classroom Common Challenges and Suggested Solutions!
We make the learning journey easier for you! One classroom management tip a day keeps your stress away!
Challenge:
Students get bored in the classroom.
Solution:
A major and pronounced dilemma many teachers face is students’ boredom in the classroom. Teachers, parents and students claim that boredom is the root cause of losing interest in school. Hence, we have to address: What is beyond students’ boredom? What is the impact of boredom on students’ life and their learning? and, How can we tackle boredom in the classroom?
Shot of a young boy looking bored at his desk in a classroom Let us start with addressing the reasons beyond students’ boredom in the classroom. As all of us know, half the solution is identifying the reasons behind the problem (actually the most crucial half).
The 10 causes beyond students’ classroom boredom:
- Teaching in slow pace, explaining easy concepts, and repeating the same ideas, cause boredom specifically for gifted students and high achievers. These students complain from attaining the concepts quickly and getting bored from listening to the teacher repeating and simplifying the same concept for their classmates over and over again.
- Lack of interest in the subject, due to its abstract concepts, technical terminologies and/ or lesson irrelevancy to daily life, is a common initiator of boredom in the classroom. Students always ask: Why are we studying this lesson? How do we use it in daily life? How knowing these terminologies will help us in life? How is it related to my future career?
- Lack of motivation is a common cause of boredom. Some students aren’t intrinsically motivated to learning and at the same time they don’t find any incentive to perform well. They disconnect from the learning process
- Lack of challenge is at the base of students’ boredom in the classroom. We all know that “A life without challenges is boring.” How about a school day with six or seven continuous teaching hours without challenge!
- Low achievement in the subject and lacking the essential skills needed to stay on task. Low achievers may not be able to follow up with the lesson. They got detached from the class discussions, activities. etc. This leads to their boredom.
- Socially Isolated students who are not able to build relations with their classmates are vulnerable to boredom.
- Lack of discipline in the class may cause boredom to a group of students who fight to learn amid all the noise in the class. Those students will get bored after several attempts to stay connected with a helpless teacher who is not able to manage the class.
- Monotonous Classroom is one of the dreadful reasons beyond students’ boredom since it almost affects all the students in the class regardless of their level. This results predominantly from traditional teaching methods where teachers teach on the board and the students passively listen and share while seated all day on their chairs.
- Teachers’ stiff facial expressions and monotonic voice tone are natural triggers for students’ boredom in the classroom. Don’ t expect students to stay attached and connected to the class discussions in such cases! Teachers’ facial expressions must convey messages and their voice tone must put the class on fire!
- Lack of autonomy is a hidden cause of boredom. Students feel controlled by the educational system and trapped by its requirements. Some consider they follow the wants and the needs of the school and their parents without themselves having a say in the decisions.
I advise each teacher to reflect on the implemented learning process and try to identify the reasons behind students’ boredom in the classroom. Addressing the problem will help solving it!
It is good for us as teachers to put ourselves in the students’ shoes. Let us spend one day in students’ place and reflect on it! We can’t say I used to learn this way! Things has changed since that time. Some of our students come to school emotionally unprepared to learning! These students are the product of an unhealthy parenting! Parents must be guided to the proper way of raising their kids. Moreover, our students are the product of a digital era that is shaping their needs and preferences and hence it must shape our educational system.
Till the next blog with the suggested solutions that help us successfully tackle boredom in the classroom.
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Ohh these mystery kittens 🐱 🐈⬛ !
It was a beauteous and pleasant afternoon, calm, warm and breezy. A perfect change from the stormy and snowy winter we had this year.
I was tutoring a group of five students on a large balcony. As I told you before, one of the Neo Vision college programs is an in-person after school program.
Students were focusing on their learning when we were continually interrupted by the low -pitched sound of kittens. We thought that the kitten mewing sound is coming from the nearby fields. With time we allocated the origin of the sound and recognized it coming from the balcony closet. I approached the closet cautiously and slowly. I opened it to be choked by the presence of the three kittens pictured above. I called my students to join me and observe these beautiful creatures.
We enjoyed watching them for a while, then we continued our regular work.
Next day, I wanted to check on the kittens to be surprised with an empty closet!!! As if I had dreamt the whole scenario. I searched for them everywhere knowing that cats are notorious for hiding in unpredictable places. But my search didn’t yield any result.
Till now, I am still asking myself: “Where did these kittens go?” The closet is high! It is easy for the cat to jump up into it alone! But, how did it jump down from it with the three kittens?
This brought to my memory a similar incident that happened previous year. A cat (maybe same one) had its kitten in a box on the same balcony. That year, I shifted the kittens box from one place to another. I came 2 hours later to see the box empty!
Learning in the outdoors. I wondered! Why did the cat move its kittens? How did it do move them quickly? Did its instinct help it moving them that quick? Did it hold every kitten and jump with it from the second floor to the first floor? Questions with no answers!
I admit that I don’t know that much about cats life! However, now I am curious to search and know more about these tiny mysterious creatures.
Next year, I will have an overnight watching the kittens! I would like to spot the cat moving its kittens. I would like to know how will it move them safely from such a high place? I am curious to know how much time does it need to move them!
I found here an interesting website that has answers to some of my questions.
https://excitedcats.com/stop-a-cat-from-moving-kittens/: Ohh these mystery kittens 🐱 🐈⬛ !
Happy blogging till we meet again!
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What High Order Thinking (HOT) Questions can you ask in Organic Chemistry?
Recently, I assigned a Chemistry formative assessment for my grade 12; LS and GS students* in the Functional Groups chapter.
The main objectives of this chapter are:
- Classify organic compounds into families based on their functional groups.
- Identify the functional group(s) present in the organic compounds.
- Name organic compounds from their structural formula.
- Draw the condensed structural formula of organic compounds.
The most frequent exam questions when it comes to this chapter are:
- Name the following organic compounds. Here, the condensed structural formula will be given.
- Draw the condensed structural formula of the following compounds.
- Identify the functional group in the following compounds.
As you can easily notice, the type of the aforementioned questions are first-order level thinking questions according to BLoom’s taxonomy.
As mentioned above, to evaluate students in this chapter, I usually draw organic compounds from the different families ( Alcohol, Aldehyde, ketone, Carboxylic acid, Ester, etc.) and ask students to nominate them or I ask them to draw the listed compounds ( Organic compounds from the different families). See sample quiz!
However, for this formative assessment, I wanted to shake up the ordinary. I wanted to find to what extent we can ask high-order thinking questions in this chapter. I wanted to check by myself the limitations and the points of strength of such type of questions. I performed the following quiz (HOT question) for my students.
Quiz: Organic Chemistry Nomenclature (HOT question)
Draw the condensed structural formula of 7 different organic compounds from the families you encountered in the Functional group chapter. Nominate them.
Strengths of this quiz (HOT question)
- Reduces Paper consumption. Lebanon is suffering from an economical crisis that urged schools to ask for reducing papers consumption.
- Fosters students’ independence and autonomy. Students were free to choose any compound and nominate it. They revealed verbally their enthusiasm to this open question.
- Encourages and motivates students. One of them said when I orally asked the quiz question: ” This is cool”.
- Helps students think of all the IUPAC nomenclature rules to avoid irrelevant choice of organic compounds.
- Helps students process the material more deeply. Students will not only check the correct answer after the quiz. They want to know why the compound they have drew in the quiz doesn’t make sense and what modifications they have to do to make it correct. etc.
- Reveals students’ misconceptions.
Limitation of this quiz (HOT question)
Time it needs to correct such a quiz as compared to the previous aforementioned quiz. It took me time to check each compound and the way students named it. Every time you have to count the chains and be sure they have considered the longest chain as the main one. etc. However, the joy of reading the variety of my students answers outweighs the time needed to grade them.
This quiz question can be extended to a home research:
- Does this compound occur naturally?
- List some of its properties.
- Where is it used? Does its usage have downsides? Do its usage-benefits outweigh the downsides? etc.
Here is a sample of my students’ answers. Always proud! Almost all of my students excelled in their answers. I have added a sample to show the variety of answers, and the possibility and the easiness of making mistakes!
Student answer Sheet Enjoy teaching! And always think of it as a passion and not a profession! Or else, if you are teaching in Lebanon, you will quit it! See the reasons 🙂
Note Point: In Lebanon Grade 12 is divided into four tracks: Life Sciences (LS), General Sciences (GS), Literature and Humanities (LH), and Sociology and Economics (SE). Upon completion of grade 12, students sit for the official Lebanese Baccalaureate exams in their respective tracks. Successful students receive the Lebanese Baccalaureate Certificate of Secondary Education (Shahaadat Al-Bakaalouriya al Lubnaaniya l’il-ta ‘liim al-Thaanawi – Al-Thanawiyah Al-Aamah Al-lubnaniah) or the Technical Baccalaureate (Al-Bakaalouriya al-Fanniya) (CRDP).
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How to help your kids with their homework?
Are you a parent struggling with his/her kids to do their homework on daily basis? Do your kids say that they hate school because of homework? Do they consider homework a boring and daunting task?
Don’t worry! You are not alone in this! A large group of parents share this challenge!
One of the major struggles that parents have with their kids during their school life is doing their homework. Kids have the tendency to procrastinate or not to do their homework. Why do kids have this tendency to procrastinate or not to do their homework? How can parents deal with it?
Students have the tendency to procrastinate or not to do their homework for the following reasons:
- Feeling Overwhelmed by the task at hand. Many kids constantly feel overwhelmed by their homework either due to the excessive amount of homework or due to its difficulty level. Some kids find the assigned homework boring as they have to practice and drill the same type of homework for many times. However, others may lack the understanding of the lesson concepts and consequently they will not be able to solve the related homework.
- Poor time management skills. Students may lack time management skills. They may consider that Homework takes from their free time. Or it can be as simple as that they don’t know which homework they have to start with.
- Meaningless and irrelevant homework. Kids don’t see the importance of doing the homework. If students realize the importance of doing the homework, they will feel compelled to do it.
- Absence of adequate teachers’ feedback on students’ homework. Many teachers assign homework and solve them the other day with students in class without giving students a specific feedback on that homework. Adequate feedback helps students learn from their mistakes, inspires and motivates students to perform their homework and submit them on time.
- Inappropriate home learning environment for kids to study and to do their homework.
- Forgetting to do the assigned homework. This may be a reality even though many teachers doubt it! Think twice before you act!
Many studies correlate doing homework with good academic achievement and many don’t find homework an added value to the students’ academic life! I will not discuss this controversial issue here. I will merely concentrate on the indirect negative effect of not doing homework on the students’ physical health and academic achievement. Parents and teachers must realize that procrastinating and not doing homework has an alarming indirect impact on the kids’ academic achievement. In many cases, kids will feel worried for not doing their homework. Indirectly, this can cause frustration, anxiety and distrust feeling. Which in its turn has its negative effects on the students’ physical health and their academic achievement.
It is good to be aware that in the majority, students have their logic reasons for procrastinating and/or not doing their homework. Parents and teachers must guide and support students to overcome the challenges and benefit from the homework. Additionally, if students don’t have a logic reason, we must not forget that we are all humans who, by nature, like to do the easiest things and take a step back from doing the things that overwhelm us. Hence, parents and teachers must cooperate to help kids!
How can parents and teachers help kids with their homework?
Recommendations for Parents:
- Plan and develop with your kids your family homework schedule. Let them decide and agree on the time they feel comfortable to do the Homework during the day. This will develop with time into homework schedule routine. Be sure that the other family members are not doing something more interesting like playing outside, watching TV …etc. You can make it your time to read a story, a magazine or do some boring home stuff close to your kid. Your kid must not feel that the homework is preventing him from spending nice time with others ..
- Break Homework into chunks with a break between them. It’s good for kids to go outdoor and play before the second homework round if needed!
- Ask your kids to estimate the time they need to do each homework. This will help them developing time management skill.
- Ask your kids to share with you what is their homework about. Be sure that they are able to do it alone before you start with your own work. This is recommended for K to 6 grade.
- Encourage them on the go. It is good to give your kids positive feedback if you see they have done the homework adequately in the specified time! Also, it is good to have homework weekly or monthly reward!
- Don’t help your kids if they don’t need your help! And whenever you help them, be sure it is a minimal one. It is good to push them if you see that they are struggling. However, doing part of their homework will have its negative aspect on them. You can instead ask your kids to prepare a question to ask their teachers about it in class next day they go to school.
- Create with your kids a homework station. Let them decorate it and display the homework schedule in the specified zone. We advice it to be a Technology free zone. However, these days technology is a part of your kids’ school life. You can agree with your kids to use your own device for their study to decrease the distractions. Or agree with them to have control over playing the games installed on their phones, if any, during homework-schedule time.
- Encourage your kids to inform their teacher when you see together that the homework is not clear or if you see it is a boring repetitive one ! You can even call the school to inform them about this issue! In some cases teachers have to differentiate the homework according to the students’ level and learning style! Most teachers are aware of this and differentiate homework based on their students’ needs.
- Set home consequences for procrastinating or not doing a homework. Agree with your kids on the consequences and apply them strictly when needed!
- Be consistent in your follow up with your kids. Stick to the homework schedule and be sure that the kid perform them in the homework station. Again, don’t forget to apply the consequences when the kids violate the rules you put together!
On the other hand, many parents can’t help their kids with their homework for any of these reasons:
- Busy parents. This group of parents can’t help their kids because they are unavailable during their kids’ study time. They may have work and/or they may be tired from the work and need to rest after work. This doesn’t eliminate the fact that kids need our attention and they must be a priority in our life. Hence, kids must notice our intention as parents of assuring that someone is helping them in their learning journey and compensate our absence during their study time.
- Kids don’t accept parents’ help in their homework. Here kids can be of two types:
- 1- Kids who feel they are able to do their homework by themselves without parent’s help. This group of kids seek independency and feel proud of their ability to finish their Hw by themselves.
- 2- Kids who don’t need their parents to discover their points of weakness. They feel shy from their weakness! These kids discover their weakness while involved in class discussions and when they compare their level to their classmates. This group of students are smart students who has lacked behind due to uncontrolled circumstances like sickness or absenteeism during pandemic! These need attention from both parents and teachers!
- 3- Kids who want to finish their work quickly regardless of the quality of the work they do. They just want to get rid from the duties without caring about their performance!
Parents for any of the above kids must inform school about the situation and cooperate for the best benefit of the student!
My recommendations for teachers for an effective homework are as simple and as meaningful as this acronym:
H High quality
O Ownership from students’ side
M Minimum possible time
E Extra practice to reinforce concepts/ Enhances skills /
W Worth the time spent to do it
O Objective well defined
R Reflect on the homework
K kids need your feedback on each homework
If we as teachers and parents stick to the above recommendations, I believe that the majority of our students will do their homework smoothly and successfully. Kids Flourish and give their best in a conducive learning environment.
Try our recommendations and enjoy Happy homework time!
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How to handle students interrupting the class to ask questions?
We make the learning journey easier for you! One classroom management tip a day keeps your stress away!
You will find here a challenge that practitioners face in their classroom and a practical solution(s) for it!
Classroom Common Challenges and Suggested Solutions! Challenge #2:
My students interrupt the class discussions, activities, etc., to ask questions.
Solution:
Display a question parking lot in your class.
What is a Parking lot?
A parking lot is usually a chart displayed on the wall in your classroom. The parking lot can be divided into many parts (lots) based on your class and subject need.
What are the parking lots that we may need in class?
- Question Parking Lot
- Exit Ticket Parking Lot
- Inquiry Parking Lot
- Feedback Parking Lot
- etc.
Teachers may choose to have all the parking lots on one big chart, or to have only one of the above parking lots on a chart.
Here, we will concentrate on Questions Parking Lot!
First, design the question parking lot chart with your students. Inform them about how to use the parking lot, the advantages of having a parking lot in class and how will you address their questions.
How to use the Question Parking Lot?
- Students must have sticky notes with them. You can ask your students to have sticky notes with their stationary at the start of the year.
- Students are encouraged to write their questions on the sticky note and stick them on the parking lot.
- Agree with your students on a routine of sticking on the question lot park without taking permission. I see this less disturbing to the class than raising the hand and interrupting the class to take permission and stick the question.
- Agree on having only one question per sticky note. This helps students focus on writing the question and helps you address them more easily.
How to address students’ questions?
- Try to surf these questions while students are engaged in other activities during your session.
- Filter and categorize students’ questions into two groups:
- related to the lesson.
- not related to the lesson.
- Try to answer the questions that are related to the lesson during the session if time permits.
- Assign the others as assignments, activities, researches, etc. if you see value in them.
What are the advantages of the Questions Parking Lot?
- Reduces the number of disruptions during the lesson.
- Encourages students to ask questions. This develops their critical thinking abilities and helps them make connections. Note that teachers may find after reading and analyzing students’ questions, that they have to teach students how to ask questions.
- Fosters students’ independence. Students feel responsible for their learning both when they focus to formulate and develop the question they want to ask and when the teacher uses their questions to develop research questions, open inquiry activity etc. to the whole classroom.
- Leads to self directed inquiry. Good questions lead to open inquiry. I can see this as a cycle, where building on one of the students’ questions to develop an open inquiry activity will motivate other students to ask more thoughtful and deeper questions.
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How to give adequate instructions to your students?
We make the learning journey easier for you! One classroom management tip a day keeps your stress away! You will find here a challenge that practitioners face in their classroom and a practical solution(s) for it!
Classroom Common Challenges and Suggested Solutions!
Challenge #1: Inadequate instructions
Solution:
-Prepare your instructions ahead of time.
-Make them short, logical and clear.
-Develop a routine for giving instructions. Be consistent in following this routine throughout the year.
-Use an attention grabber associated with giving- instructions routines. It must be a part of the routines and it must ring the bell at the level of the student to stop doing anything at hand and focus.
-Give your instructions while students are focusing. This must be done:
- before distributing any handout, manipulative, etc. to students.
- before starting any activity
- before changing the seating
- before going outdoor, if the activity necessitates going outside the classroom.
-Ask one of the easily distracted Students to repeat your instructions to be sure that students received them the way you want it.
-Always make your instructions as bullets and points. And announce them as first, second and third ( if more one instruction must be given)
-It is good to have these routine on board so that you point to them every time you give instructions. This is another visual representation that helps enhancing the routine.
-Hold students accountable for the given work.
Education Consultant — Neo Vision FDA College
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Let us look at the positive half full part of the glass!
I always like to look at the half full part of the glass! Actually, I see it half full and I wonder why people mention the half empty!! Let us look at it from another perspective! The half full represents something that you owe! Something that you enjoy! Something that makes you happy! All this and you think of the empty half!
Ok! I understand when you look at the empty half part of the glass as a goal that you want to achieve! A task that you plan hardly to accomplish! Or a challenge that you are ready to take! But, my advice to you is not to stress yourself on the way to reach your goals and fulfill your dreams! Here are some useful tips that you can follow to manage stress. I would like to add one tip to this list: Plan! Plan! Plan! This one tip will help you, both, avoid stress and manage it! How? Simply, by adding the “manage stress tips” to your work plan! This is the perfect reminder to stop your work and focus on tips that help you manage your stress before it overcomes you!
Do you know? As for me, the most important tip to manage stress on the way to achieve my set-goals is “Go easy on yourself!” Now, it is your turn to Check and share with us the stress management tip you have to work on first!
But before, jot down on a paper, or simply think of your accomplishments and celebrate achieving them! You deserve it! Have a fruitful Sunday!
See the glass half full!
An exemplary learning community.
Neo Vision College 