How to counsel aggressive students?

How to counsel aggressive students?

Seek first to understand:
Sure, we can plan out a speech and deliver it perfectly, but if we really want to make a difference, we have to first understand where the student is coming from and what they are thinking. So before you start talking, try to understand their point of view. Then once you understand the underlying reason behind their behavior or decision, you can actually deal with the heart of the issue instead of just the surface problems.

Ask questions and wait quietly for their response:
In order to understand a student’s point of view, you have to ask them questions. And if they hesitate to answer them, you just have to wait. Too often we want to jump in to fill the silence, but it’s okay to let the silence sit there for awhile. Normally the student will speak up eventually if we wait patiently. When they do start talking, try the phrase, “tell me more about that.”

Speak the truth in love:
If we truly care, we will tell them the truth. But at the same time, we must speak with love and kindness for our words to have any impact. The student needs to be focused on the truth being spoken and not distracted by a teacher’s demeaning attitude. Yelling at the student will likely cause him to disregard your message and will just result a hilarious story for him to tell his friends. Instead, speak calmly and kindly so that the student must honestly evaluate his own actions and not yours.

Seek wisdom and advice:
When you don’t know what to do, ask for help. Fellow teachers or administrators can also be a great source of wisdom and advice. So ask them what they would say in a certain situation. Better yet, ask if you can sit in on a conversation they have with a student so that you can see wise counseling modeled in front of you.
Have the great teaching moments!

Ideas for smooth classroom transition

Ideas for smooth classroom transition

Teach straight through minor transition:
In my classes, I didn’t have too many problems with minor transitions because I kept giving instructions as the students were switching out books, etc.  Because there was no pause, and because students needed to hear what I was saying, there was no opportunity for students to start their own side conversations. 

Provide an intentional break:
Other times, you may want to give your students an intentional break. Stretch together as a class, take a brain break and move around, or simply give thirty seconds of free talking time. The key, once again, is to practice the procedure – especially the part where you regain their attention.

Have a way to regain students’ attention:
This could be a chime, a hand signal, or (my personal favorite) call-and-response sayings. What matters is that you practice the procedure enough that you can easily regain students’ attention if/when things do start to go off the rails.

Consider student chants:
When students need to prepare certain materials or find a certain page, you can teach them to chant out loud “page 5, page 5, page 5” until they find it. This technique from Whole Brain Teaching not only keeps kids focused on what they’re doing but also prevents them from chatting with their neighbors (they’re too busy chanting “page 5”).

Use key words:
Key words like “in a moment” or “when I say go.” When you’re giving directions for something you’re about to do, use phrases like “when I say go” to remind students that they’re not supposed to start yet, but you will let them know when it’s time to begin.

Tell students what level of talking you expect:
If you expect students to silently put away one book and get out another, be sure to say that explicitly. If they're allowed to whisper, make that too clear

Choose Career not a carrier

Choose Career not a carrier

On our soil, generally, career is looked upon as a mean to earn bread and butter, where as they fail to understand that career is something beyond making both ends meet. This decision needs to be taken very immaculately as it has an impact on our whole life. 

It would not be misnomer to say Career becomes a buzzword in the months nearing board exams. Irony is that our youth is not enlightened and sensitised adequately during school days. Resulting, in the absence of any concrete guidance children accidentally take up any stream\career without any research, overestimating their skills and strengths. This decision cannot be undone. Time and money invested in any course cannot be reversed. By the time child realised that he is on wrong track and this career is not his cup of tea it’s too late and then it becomes carrier which is to be pulled on throughout the life. Consequently, effectiveness and efficiency is adversely impacted leading to frustration followed by stress and finally life becomes hell. Contrary to it, if this decision is taken with wisdom life becomes happening bringing prosperity and acclaim.

Normally, children are not career conscious. They are mostly influenced by their peer following same suit. They are carried away with the demonstration effect. Un-rationally chasing their friends’ choices put them on wrong track. Parental pressure is also a grave concern. Parents compel their kids to go for particular course ignoring the likings of child.

Children are national resource, hence educational institutions need to take a call to ensure and assist teenagers to make correct choice. With the advent of technology there are scientific ways to assess and evaluate pupils’ interest, strengths and skills. Psychometric tests complimented with professionally qualified counsellors can act like a game changer. Few measures like career counselling, career conclave, interaction with industry experts, parents orientation can ensure better choice. Every career has certain prerequisite requirements which need to be borne in mind before choosing the career like interest, strengths, skills required for the profession, passion, nature of work. Therefore, reconsider and revisit your career decision so as to choose a career not a carrier.

Neeraj Mohan Puri
Principal
Modern Sandeepni School
Pathankot.

For students with disabilities

One of my best friend had a child who was disabled, and my friend took it on her as a responsible person to tend to her child and started a charter caring school for those kinds of kids whomever she met after that.

Her act ran counter to the ideal of inclusive education. Nevertheless, this special charter school was positively accepted by other parents who shared a similar situation, some of whom moved from other states to have their children enroll there

These were the parents who could afford to change their place of residence in order to be near a better school. This is an example of one important determinant of choice in selecting schools, that is parents’ ability to navigate resources, access, and educational opportunities for their children. Parents traditionally enroll their children into schools assigned by the local school district.

However, school choice  policy offers parents a degree of autonomy: they may select a school or an education program for their children beyond the boundaries of neighborhoods and districts (Center for Education Reform, 1993)

Parents also have the option to select charter schools, magnet schools, or private schools. Their choices have considerable impact on the social and academic outcomes of students with disabilities. This being the case, it is important to examine the factors that impact parents’ choice of schools.

Research studies have examined the school selection process and have determined that  parental choice of school is strongly influenced by socioeconomic factors such as race and income  and by the areas in which parents reside.

However, little is known about how parents of children with disabilities chose schools. There is a paucity of research available on the factors influencing the school selection of parents of children with disabilities.

This systematic literature review is timely. First, there has been increasing interests among parents of children with disabilities in exercising their right to choose a school. Considering only the case of charter schools, between 2003 and 2013, the number of public school students enrolled in charter schools increased from 1.6% to 5.1% (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). In 2012, as many as 13.6 % of charter school students were students with disabilities compared to 12.9 % in assigned public schools.

Second, there are concerns regarding the accuracy of information available for parents’ school choice and the consequences of the choice. The lack of accurate information may negatively affect both parents and students with disabilities. Research shows that low-income and immigrant families often make choices based on the publicly promoted assumption that  private or charter schools are naturally better than public schools.

Insufficient knowledge and the desire to provide what they believe to be a  better education may lead parents to make decisions with severe consequences. For instance,  parents who transfer their children with disabilities from public to private schools must pay extra costs that the state voucher they receive does not cover, and they lose partial or full civil rights  protection under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.

Finally, parents of children with and without disabilities have different considerations when selecting schools, yet research on school choice often overgeneralizes parental decision making, conflating the two group

Parents of children without disabilities often choose a school that is academically superior and matches their philosophy, one that is safe and close to home.

However, other factors may come under consideration

AFTER PREPARING FOR SUCCESS,EXPECT IT

AFTER PREPARING FOR SUCCESS,EXPECT IT

After Preparing for Success, Expect It:

Let your bearing be modestly confident, but most of all be modestly confident within. Over-confidence is bad, but to tolerate premonitions of failure is worse, for a bold man may win attention by his very bearing, while a rabbit-hearted coward invites disaster.

Humility is not the personal discount that we must offer in the presence of others, against this old interpretation there has been a most healthy modern reaction. Any man who thoroughly knows himself must feel True humility but it is not a humility that assumes a worm like meekness; it is rather a strong, vibrant prayer for greater power for service, a prayer that could never have uttered.

Washington Irving once introduced Charles Dickens at a dinner given in the latter’s honour. In the middle of his speech Irving hesitated, became embarrassed, and sat down awkwardly.Turning to a friend beside him he remarked, “There, I told you I would fail, and I did.” If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will. Rid yourself of this I-am-a-poor-worm-in-the-dust idea. You are a god, with infinite capabilities. “All things are ready if the mind be so.” The eagle looks the cloudless sun in the face.

Assume Mastery Over Your Audience: In public speech, as in electricity, there is a positive and a negative force. Either you or your audience are going to possess the positive factor. If you assume it, you can almost invariably make it yours If you assume the negative, you are sure to be negative. Assuming a virtue or a vice vitalises it. Summon all your power of self-direction, and remember that though your audience is infinitely more important than you are, the truth is more important than both of you, because it is eternal. If your mind falters in its leadership, the sword will drop from your hands. Your assumption of being able to instruct or lead or inspire a multitude or even a small group of people may appal you as being colossal impudence, as indeed it may be; but having once essayed to speak, be courageous.

BE courageous, it lies within you to be what you will.MAKE yourself be calm and confident. In facing your audience, pause a moment and look them over, a hundred chances to one they want you to succeed, for what man is so foolish as to spend his time, perhaps his money, in the hope that you will waste his investment by talking dully?

PUBLIC SPEAKING:THE SIN OF MONOTONY, DOES IT EXIST?

PUBLIC SPEAKING:THE SIN OF MONOTONY, DOES IT EXIST?

Our English has changed with the years so that many words now connote more than they did originally. This is true of the word monotonous. From “having but one tone,” it has come to mean more broadly, “lack of variation.” The monotonous speaker not only drones along in the same volume and pitch of tone but uses always the same emphasis, the same speed, the same thoughts, or dispenses with thought altogether.

Monotony, the cardinal and most common sin of the public speaker, is not a transgression, it is rather a sin of omission. To tell you that your speech is monotonous may mean very little to you, so let us look at the nature, and the curse, of monotony in other spheres of life, then we shall appreciate more fully how it will blight an otherwise good speech.

If the record player in the adjoining apartment grinds out just three selections over and over again, it is pretty safe to assume that your neighbor has no other records. If a speaker uses only a few of his powers, it points very plainly to the fact that the rest of his powers are not developed. Monotony reveals our limitations.

In its effect on its victim, monotony is actually deadly, it will drive the bloom from the cheek and the lustre from the eye as quickly as sin, and often leads to viciousness. The worst punishment that human ingenuity has ever been able to invent is extreme monotony, solitary confinement. Lay a marble on the table and do nothing eighteen hours of the day but change that marble from one point to another and back again, and you will go insane if you continue long enough.

So this thing that shortens life, and is used as the cruelest of punishments in our prisons, is the thing that will destroy all the life and force of a speech. Avoid market. Monotony is poverty, whether in speech or in life. Strive to increase the variety of your speech as the business man labours to augment his wealth. Bird-songs, forest glens, and mountains are not monotonous, it is the long rows of brown-stone fronts and the miles of paved streets that are so terribly same. Nature in her wealth gives us endless variety; man with his limitations is often monotonous.

Get back to Nature in your methods of speech-making. The power of variety lies in its pleasure-giving quality. The great truths of the world have often been couched in fascinating stories, “Less Miserables,” for instance. If you wish to teach or influence men, you must please them, first or last. Strike the same note on the piano over and over again. This will give you some idea of the displeasing, jarring  effect monotony has on the ear. The dictionary defines “monotonous” as being synonymous with “wearisome.” That is putting it mildly. It is maddening.

How to Conquer Monotony:
We obviate monotony in dress by replenishing our wardrobes. We avoid monotony in speech by multiplying our powers of speech. We multiply our powers of speech by increasing our tools.
The carpenter has special implements with which to construct the several parts of a building. The organist has certain keys and stops which he manipulates to produce his harmonies and effects. In like manner the speaker has certain instruments and tools at his command by which he builds his argument, plays on the feelings, and guides the beliefs of his audience. To give you a conception of these instruments, and practical help in learning to use them, is the purpose of the immediately following chapters. Many speakers still use ox-cart methods in their speech instead of employing automobile or overland-express methods. They are ignorant of laws that make for efficiency in speaking.

Just to the extent that you regard and use the laws that we are about to examine and learn how to use will you have efficiency and force in your speaking; and just to the extent that you disregard them will your speaking be feeble and ineffective. We cannot impress too thoroughly upon you the necessity for a real working mastery of these principles. They are the very foundations of successful speaking. “Get your principles right,” said Napoleon, “and the rest is a matter of detail.” It is useless to shoe a dead horse, and all the sound principles in the world will never make a live speech out of a dead one. So let it be understood that public speaking is not a matter of mastering a few dead rules; the most important law of public speech is the necessity for truth, force, feeling, and life. Forget all else, but not this. When you have mastered the mechanics of speech, you will no longer be troubled with monotony. The complete knowledge of these principles and the ability to apply them will give you great variety in your powers of expression. But they cannot be mastered and applied by thinking or reading about them, you must practise, practise, PRACTISE. If no one else will listen to you, listen to yourself, you must always be your own best critic, and the severest one of all.

To Be a Successful Person

To Be a Successful Person

You must ..............
1. Give Up On The Unhealthy Lifestyle

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” — Jim Rohn

If you want to achieve anything in life, everything starts here. First you have to take care of your health, and there are only two things you need to keep in mind:

1. Healthy Diet
2. Physical Activity

Small steps, but you will thank yourself one day.

2. Give Up The Short-term Mindset

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West

Successful people set long-term goals, and they know these aims are merely the result of short-term habits that they need to do every day.

These healthy habits shouldn’t be something you do; they should be something you embody.

There is a difference between: “Working out to get a summer body” and “Working out because that’s who you are.”

3. Give Up On Playing Small

“Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone, and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

If you never try and take great opportunities, or allow your dreams to become realities, you will never unleash your true potential.

And the world will never benefit from what you could have achieved.

So voice your ideas, don’t be afraid to fail, and certainly don’t be afraid to succeed.

4. Give Up Your Excuses

“It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Successful people know that they are responsible for their life, no matter their starting point, weaknesses, and past failures.

Realising that you are responsible for what happens next in your life is both frightening and exciting.

And when you do, that becomes the only way you can become successful, because excuses limit and prevent us from growing personally and professionally.

Own your life; no one else will.

5. Give Up The Fixed Mindset

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” ― Robert Greene, Mastery

People with a fixed mindset think their intelligence or talents are simply fixed traits, and that talent alone creates success — without effort. They’re wrong.

Successful people know this. They invest an immense amount of time on a daily basis to develop a growth mindset, acquire new knowledge, learn new skills and change their perception so that it can benefit their lives.

Remember, who you are today, it’s not who you have to be tomorrow.

6. Give Up Believing In The “Magic Bullet.”

“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better” — Émile Coué

Overnight success is a myth.

Successful people know that making small continual improvement every day will be compounded over time, and give them desirable results.

That is why you should plan for the future, but focus on the day that’s ahead of you, and improve just 1% every day.

7. Give Up Your Perfectionism

“Shipping beats perfection.” — Khan Academy’s Development Mantra

Nothing will ever be perfect, no matter how much we try.

Fear of failure (or even fear of success) often prevents us from taking an action and putting our creation out there in the world. But a lot of opportunities will be lost if we wait for the things to be right.

So “ship,” and then improve (that 1%).

8. Give Up Multi-tasking

“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” ― Winston S. Churchill

Successful people know this. That’s why they choose one thing and then beat it into submission. No matter what it is — a business idea, a conversation, or a workout.

Being fully present and committed to one task, is indispensable.

9. Give Up Your Need to Control Everything

“Some things are up to us, and some things are not up to us.” — Epictetus, Stoic philosopher

Differentiating these two is important.

Detach from the things you cannot control, and focus on the ones you can, and know that sometimes, the only thing you will be able to control is your attitude towards something.

Remember, nobody can be frustrated while saying “Bubbles” in an angry voice.

10. Give Up On Saying YES To Things That Don’t Support Your Goals

“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” — James Allen

Successful people know that in order to accomplish their goals, they will have to say NO to certain tasks, activities, and demands from their friends, family, and colleagues.

In the short-term, you might sacrifice a bit of instant gratification, but when your goals come to fruition, it will all be worth it.

https://chat.whatsapp.com/CDfv2DaVzsd6LelgECpRDn

STUDENT CENTRED LEARNING AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH 2

STUDENT  CENTRED LEARNING  AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH
Dr.S.Sekar,  Educational consultant & Academic Researcher

PART 2
EXPLORING LEARNING PROCESSES:

One of the most important factors that predetermines students success in learning is confidence.  We need to give our students every chance to develop this confidence, and one of the best ways of us helping them to do this is to assist them to gain greater ownership of, and control over, the process they apply during their learning:
1. Help students to want to learn. 
They may need to be helped to increase their motivation by showing them the benefits they will gain from the achievement of their intended learning outcomes.  When possible, enhance their motivation by making learning fun, interesting and rewarding.  Dont mistake lack of confidence for lack of motivation.
2. Needing to learn something can be almost as productive as wanting to learn it.  When students know why something will be useful to them, even if they find it difficult, they are more likely to maintain their effors till they have succeeded.
3. Provide students with learning by doing opportunities.  Most learning happens when students practise things, have a go, and learn by making mistakes and finding out why.  Care needs to be taken to ensure that learning by doing is focused on practising useful, important things, and not just anything to keep students bysy.
4. Look for ways of giving students as much feedback as is reasonably possible.  Students need to find out how their learning is actually going .  Feedback from teachers is very useful, but teachers can also facilitate students getting feedback from each other, and from various kinds of learning resource materials.  It follows too that feedback must be timely for it to be of optimum use to students.
5. Help students to set out to make sense of what they are learning. It is of little value learning things by rote, or becoming able to do things without knowing why or how.  Getting students to think about how their learning is happening is one step towards helping them to develop a sense of ownership of their progress.  Learning is not just a matter of storing up further knowledge: it is about being able to apply what has been learned, not just to familiar situations but also to new contexts.
6. Provide students with cues about how they are expected to learn from the ways in which we teach them.  If we simply concentrate on supplying them with information, they are likely simply to try to store this.  If we structure our teaching so that they are practising, applying, extending, comparing, contrasting, evaluating, and engaging in other higher-level processes, they are likely to see these processes as central to the ways they should be using for their learning.
7. Use assessment to drive learning productively.  Students are often quite strategic in structuring their learning to be able to do the best they can in the contexts in which their learning is to be assessed.  Assessment formats and instruments can be used to help students to structure their learning effectively, as well as to give them appropriate timescales within which to organize their learning.
8. Encourage students to learn from each other.  While much can be learned by students working on their own, with handouts, books and learning resource materials, they can also learn a great deal by talking to each other , and attempting tasks and activities jointly.

STUDENT CENTRED LEARNING AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

STUDENT  CENTRED LEARNING  AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

Dr.S.Sekar, Educational consultant&Academic Researcher

PART 1
Teaching is one of the most complex processes known to humankind , and there is a vast body of research on the theories and models that underpin successful teaching, learning and assessment.  Practical suggestions have their place in:
1. Supporting busy teachers in balancing the various demands made on them;
2. Helping them to benefit from some of the experience around them;
3. Assisting them in their continuing professional development and reflective practice aspirations;
4. Helping them to carry out their work without reinventing too many wheels.

The range of teaching-learning processes practised by teachers extends far beyond standing up and giving lectures.  We start by exploring some of the most common teaching learning situations, and linking these to the learning processes we wish our students to engage in. 

Some immediate suggestions are then offered regarding curriculum design, and ways in which students key skills can be deliberately developed through the curriculum.

DIFFERENT TEACHING  LEARNING SITUATIONS:
We wont always be able to choose how best to deliver a particular part of the curriculum.  When we do have such an opportunity ( for example, when planning a new course or curriculum element, or when revalidating existing provision), we may find it useful to think about a range of possibilities.  Ideally, we should seek to explore several different methodologies for the delivery of any element of the curriculum, but each alternative will have its own advantages and drawbacks, both economically and peadagogically:
1. Full-time taught courses.
These remain the most usual provision in most modern education institutions, and have potential benefits associated with social interaction between students, and between teachers and students .  Several parts are on preparing lectures and designing assessment to match such course delivery.
2. Part-time taught courses. 
Here there may be limited opportunity for social interaction among students, but teaching may be similar or common to that in full-time provision.
3. Workbased traing programmes. 
These are essentially teaching-learning situations that involve students having a given period of time.  The relevance of the content of the training to students overall needs is more easily guaranteed.
Open,flexible and distance learning programmes.  These cover situations where students work through specifically designed self-study materials on their own.  This may be alongside conventional institution based delivery or at a distance from the institution, at times and places of their own choosing and at their own place.  The institution provides tutorial support, counselling and assessment.
4. Resource-based learning.  |This includes learning workshops, open access and drop-in-centres where the institution offers tuition, councelling and learning support plus access to materials and equipment.  The materials may be print-based, computer-based or multimedia in nature and there may be opportunities for group and individual contact with teachers, as well as access to assessment provision.
5. Online learning.  This methodology includes computer-based learning, which may be institution based or done at networked computer facilities at the students home or workplace locations.  Tutorial support and learning materials are networked to the computer terminals where students study and their study times can be varied to suit their individual requirements.  Virtual or real-time group working is also possible along with one-to-one teacher contact.
6. Collborative learning.  This methodology is used when it is intended that students work together in small groups for significant parts of their learning.  It can be arranged as an institution based process, or for students to undertake in actual situations they are learning about.
7. Independent study pathways.  These are particular elements of the curriculum which individual students are able to chose or adapt to their particular needs or requirements.   They may involve using print-based or computer based learning resource materials, on or off the institution.  By definition they are individualized but will normally involve teacher contact and support.