Simple Tips - Classroom Management

HOW TO CONTROL A CLASSROOM
You may feel it easier to shout at the class when they are out of control, but this method is not at all effective and is a short-term approach to get their attention.

Try these tips next time before you raise your voice -

• Keep some signals with you. You can have a silence board, or clap your hand three times, put your hands up to show that you want them to be quiet.
• Play some games to distract them from being noisy. You can tell them” if you finish quietly we can play a game” ; but make sure that you play the game once they finish.
• You can always take them out and play an active game if you find them very restless in the class.
• It is sometimes a good thing to ask them " who are the best children in this school?”. This will calm them down. Once they have calmed down you can say “I know, you are the best”
• Praise the children often if they have been good. Say that you are proud of them and that they are learning a lot.

It is all in the way we present ourselves to the child; we raise our voice, children quieten down...again they shout, we raise our voice, children quieten down....slowly this becomes a pattern and children think that they ought to quieten down only when we raise our voice. BREAK this pattern, DO NOT RAISE YOUR VOICE...instead, employ ways suggested here consistently.

Motivating Students

Some Practical Tips to Try:

1. Find out about your students' interests, experiences, hobbies, and career goals. As often as you can, relate the content to students' interests.
2. Use lots of examples, illustrations, anecdotes and stories.
3. Use humour.
4. Be a "real" person. Let students know some things about you.
5. Admit mistakes, lack of knowledge. Don't try to be THE authority. Instead, model where students can find the information. Knowing where to find the answers is just as important as to know the answers.
6. Talk less than your students do.
7. Encourage interaction among students. Use group work, encourage discussion, try brainstorming, role-playing, whatever you feel comfortable with. Try something NEW.
   LISTEN.
8. Give positive feedback, verbally (praise) and non-verbally (make eye-contact, smile, nod).
9. Make sure that the level of teaching matches students' background, ability, and experience.
10. Check that the relevance of what you're doing is clear to the students.
11. Use as much VARIETY in your methods and materials as possible.
12. Be clear about what's going to happen. Use an agenda.
13. Encourage students to make decisions about their own learning -- give them CHOICES, act on their suggestions.
14. If possible, encourage students to have input into how they will be evaluated.
    Ask students how the sessions could be made more interesting!
15. Engage students in their learning. Activity is much more motivating than passive listening or passive responses. The more students DO, the more they will LEARN.

Stubbornness

HOW TO CORRECT IT IN CHILDREN
Stubbornness is sometimes considered to be a valuable trait in people. On its account a person drives towards his goal and does not give up easily, what ever be the task in hand. But in a growing child this trait when exhibited to his parents, results in conflict, unhappiness and a great deal of waste in energy. Such children are usually considered as non cooperative. This sort of a behavior arises when the parent tries to force the child against his will to do what the parent wants him to do.

It is interesting to note that stubbornness does not arise when you forbid something to the child. Yes, one must make sure that the child has learned that NO and DON’T really means just that. The parents themselves usually end up teaching the child how to be stubborn even before the child is four or five. Many parents who try hardest to prevent it do most to promote it.

There is just one simple principle to prevent stubbornness in a child and promote cooperation instead. “Pain tends to inhibit or prevent; pleasure to promote”. All animals, especially man , tend to do again and again what has brought pleasure and avoid repeating what has brought pain. So as a parent, therefore, make things pleasant when you want the child to do something your way; and painful only the few things you want him never to do again. Parents should limit the negative commands. Give positive suggestions instead.

For example if you want the child to arrange his books or sleep , you request the child to do so. Then you let the child choose and as a parent you will try to set the stage so he will. If you fail to win his cooperation, you have to accept it as it has been a request from you and not a command. By accepting his choice, you are respecting his decision. Always show great satisfaction over his cooperation, making it pleasant so he will be ready to cooperate the next time.
Once you start punishing the child for disobedience, you start connecting in his mind pain with a request. The more he thinks this way, the less he cooperates with your request.

Always remember -
Whether you command or request , be sure first that the request is simple in the beginning where you know, he would love to do that job.
If you are sure you should make a positive command (not to be confused with positive suggestions) and therefore administer punishment for failure to obey, punish him only IF HE DOES NOT OBEY…not UNTIL HE OBEYS.

Child and Concentration

I am sure many of us want to know how to get our child to concentrate. We often hear parents complain ”my child does not keep his attention at a stretch on what he is supposed to be learning from books”.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
1. First we should have his vision and hearing checked by specialist and corrected. If corrections cannot be made, we need to take these problems into account

2. Find out through close cooperation with the school, if the child has any learning troubles and if so how to help him with this.

3. Find out if the child is a slow learner. If so, in which area and give him special attention in the same. The child may be more comfortable with home tutoring than being at school. Once he gets familiar and confident in his subjects, he will develop interest in them. Interest leads to success. He will try hardest when he succeeds most. Help him enjoy more successes and celebrate these successes with him

4. At home, as parents we can cultivate some good habits of concentration, which should carry over to school by paying strict attention when the child talks to us. We should also be careful as parents, to have the child’s undivided attention before uttering a request or a command. It is sometimes good to have him repeat the request or command immediately. Also train the child at home to do his regular chores promptly.

5. When your child is a baby provide him a serene atmosphere at home and establish routines with affection. Provide with proper playthings. Do not give too many playthings at a time, as he may start flitting from one toy to another. Encourage and direct your child in creative play, construction blocks and other things that he can make with his hands.

6. Avoid diverting him from a play or activity he is absorbed in. Encourage concentration and appreciate his achievements, even if he plays with the same toy continuously for hours or even days. Encourage your child to finish this undertaking. Try to keep him from beginning many such jobs which you are sure he won’t finish

7. Read to the young child daily from the time he starts looking at a book. It may be a story or a song that takes less that a minute. Allow them to play freely with the peer groups

PreMath

Building Children's Math Skills
When children go to school, they get "formal" lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic. But arithmetic, the adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing of numbers, is just one part of the greater use of math. Math is all about how numbers work.

Math helps children develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Just as the brain is "pre-wired" to learn and use language, it is also a part of human nature to learn and use math concepts.

Children are adventurous. As they begin crawling and walking to explore, they handle objects, and notice the size of their toys. They start to form ideas about their environment, naturally. With these activities, children learn the basics of math.

They learn how to:
Group and sort ; Recognize numbers; Recognize shapes; Recognize patterns; Estimate/predict; Tell time; Addition and Subtraction concepts; Explore spaceAll of above are important "pre-math" skills. They are the basis for learning math in elementary school and beyond.

You use math throughout your day, so just share it and make it fun for children. More than likely you are already helping your child to learn pre-math concepts by the words you use and the activities you do with him. Child care providers and other such programs also use activities that foster math skills in children's daily routines.

PHONICS..

What is Phonics?

Phonics is when a reader learns to use letter/sound relationships to form words and is able to recognize words when he sees them.

This approach to teaching reading and writing is based on hearing all the sounds of English. Each sound is related to a letter or group of letters.

Long before the baby can talk, he is interested in sounds and makes many of the basic ones. He hits on them by accident as he babbles. He may repeat the ones he likes and thus imitate himself before imitating the sounds others make.

And as the child develops some speech he is also interested in sounds various creatures make like bow wow, quack quack, etc. Even before speech develops he hears his mother sing lullabies and sing short songs to him. And this makes the child automatically interested in sounds

Phonics is the system of written letters and letter combinations, which represent the sounds in spoken language, e. g. the written letter, p, represents the sound at the beginning of pony. The written combination th represents the sound at the beginning of three.

Phonemes are the smallest units of spoken language. They are the sounds that form syllables and words. For example, there are three phonemes in mat.

Phonemes include sounds represented by letter combinations such as th. Keep in mind that phonemes are sounds.There are about 40 to 45 phonemes in English. Phonemic awareness helps lay a solid foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.

The goal is not phoneme mastery. The goal is phoneme awareness.

All work and no play makes....

Why play games?
Playing is a child’s natural way of learning. A game has its own rules and interactions. This in itself is a mini social world in which children prepare themselves little by little to enter a society.’

Playing games is often associated with kids. Kids play various types of games, and these games include indoor as well as outdoor games. Kids have a fascination for games. While some of them like to stay indoors, a majority of the kids like to go out and have fun. Both, indoor and outdoor games have their own importance, and negligence of any might lead to an imbalance of health.

Through games and play, children learn to accept rules. They know what it is to play fair, to adjust, to accommodate, not to cheat, how to work with others and how to behave if they win or lose. Games also develop the child’s automatic use of a new language.

Games enhance the child’s gross motor and fine motor skill along with eye hand coordination. Games also create a sense of closeness within the class. Definitely introduction of concepts through games has given better results than traditional teaching methods.

Go Ahead, Play with your child - school or home.
www.milestoneschild.com

Obama-Biden's thought of early childhood education

It is heartening to hear that Early Childhood Education is part of the Obama-Biden's plan in the field of education. Their "Zero to Five" plan aims to impart a stress free environment for the child and the parents. Early head start is a step towards igniting the young minds and nurturing their academic and aesthetic talents.The idea of training the children even before they enter kindergarten is a very forward thought and a possibility.

And we, at milestoneschild.com are making a sincere effort to change the way learning and teaching takes place between the child and the teacher. The need of the hour is to cross academic barriers and move ahead with the children.

As a tutor or a parent do you have the urge to make learning and teaching a stress free activity?

Being a Teacher ?!!?

IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL ABOUT BEING A TEACHER?

Yes, it is a noble profession ! You are the makers of the next generation!

But, is it as good as being an engineer, a doctor, or an architect. Yes, definitely, it is not only good; it is better than all other professions. Consider the raw materials the other people use to create something.

• An engineer uses computers and other instruments to create something useful for mankind.
• A doctor uses his prowess and skill to cure illnesses in the humans.
• An architect adds aesthetics to the dwellings and serves the artistic thirst of the mankind.

Teachers, you stimulate the supercomputer, the brain of the child and create a human being itself.