How to develop curiosity in students?

This is a question that every teacher should ask. An inquisitive student is someone who not only takes a deep interest in learning the subject but also makes learning fun for those around him. So it becomes extremely vital for any teacher to find out what makes their students more interested in a subject and how to keep those interest levels high. We will try to discuss some methods to keep the students curious.

Reward this behaviour

One way to encourage any behaviour is positive reinforcement. As a teacher, it becomes your responsibility to encourage your students to be more inquisitive and should also make it a practice to praise them when they ask questions or bounce off their ideas about the subject, both within and outside the classroom. Not only will this encourage other students to follow this behaviour, but it will also have a positive effect on their overall learning.

Emphasize the quality of their queries

This is something that will benefit your students in the long run. One problem that teachers face is that sometimes the doubts asked by their students are not very clear. This creates an additional hindrance for both parties. To resolve this problem, teachers should highlight the importance of phrasing their questions in the right manner.

Concentrate on the body language of your students

While it is impossible to analyze every movement of all your students, there are some telltale signs that can tell you if your students are not understanding what is being taught in class. Sometimes your student may seem disinterested in class because of which they may start focusing elsewhere. Other times they may seem fidgety because they want to ask something but cannot do so because of a myriad of reasons. Their facial expressions might also portray a sign of confusion or puzzlement during class. Whenever that happens you need to ask them (either publicly or privately) if they need any help with the class. Instead of blaming them for not being able to grasp the subject, you can encourage them to spell out the thing that is bothering them. This encourages the students to open up and express themselves with no fear.

Encourage Creativity

Several times your students will better understand their lessons if they can witness the practical use of its concepts. There are several ways to do so, like practical experiments, essays, assignments, live projects, video demonstrations, etc. Not only will it force the students to think about the concept at hand but it will also help them come up with their own queries which are going to be resolved during the assignment itself. Another thing you can do as a teacher is to relate your concepts to current or popular events to give your students a better context. So instead of giving theoretical knowledge to your students about a particular topic, try to find news items that can help them not only understand but also relate to the subject.

Encourage Question

Your students should never blindly accept something just because their teacher or some other authority figure tells them to do so. Reasoning and logic should dictate their thought process. Doing so allows them to be curious about things happening around them. That is the only way to have an open-minded outlook towards everything in life.

It is important as a teacher to sow the seeds of inquisitiveness in the minds of our students to get the best out of them. Doing so is the best way to ensure that your students take an interest in your subject and grasp the concepts that you want them to learn.

5 Scientific Ways to Help your Kids Learn Faster

Learning never stops. Irrespective of the life stage that you find yourself in, being able to know about something new every day is not only invigorating but also essential. But since like every good thing, learning takes its own sweet time. The challenge lies in utilizing this time in a more efficient manner.

So we have listed down five ways in which you can give a boost to your students’ learning abilities:

Taking Notes

Whether one takes notes during class, lecture or even a conference; writing what the teacher has said in their own words always helps in retaining that information for later use. Note-taking skills also matter because your kids can then understand the topic in a much better way. While taking notes, develop a consistent pattern by using abbreviations and symbols that help in saving time. Using phrases instead of a long sentence is always a good idea. But the most important thing is to write down only what’s important while leaving out the trivial bits. This is something that will come with practice.

Multiple study sessions of shorter duration

Almost all of us have been guilty of leaving our studies up till the last day before exams and pulling out all-nighters to somehow clear the exams. While this may look cool but it ends up adding immense and needless pressure. Instead, having shorter study sessions continuously during study term will be more beneficial. They are more productive and will also encourage a deeper understanding of the subject.

Proper Sleep

Sleep is something that students ignore in the race to complete their work before deadlines. But doing so comes at the cost of your ability to process information. There is a strong link between sleep and the speed of grasping new concepts. Deep sleep helps to increase the capacity of our brains to retain whatever we have learnt, provided that it happens within twelve hours of learning that piece of information. And getting a good night's rest is also good for your kids’ mental health.

Innovate while learning

While learning something new, it doesn’t help if keep doing the same thing again and again. There needs to be at least some modification each time they try to learn a particular concept. They can use mnemonic devices, modify their notes, or connect what they are learning with their everyday experiences. Not only does it decrease rote learning, but it also breaks the chain of monotony. This is important to keep both interest and attention levels up, which in turn helps to process what they are learning. But one thing that is important to remember that minor changes are the way to go. Trying to introduce too many new things will only end up confusing further, resulting in a waste of time and effort.

Learn to use more than one method

While it is important to learn through course/reference books and notes as it will help in exams, learn through different media like videos, podcasts, audios or pictures available in the library or the internet. This is proven to be a more effective method because it engages with and stimulates different parts of the brain. Plus, each medium has its own advantages, which will also lead to holistic learning.

Learning helps to widen the horizon to understand and interpret new things. But it doesn’t have to be a painstaking process at all. Nor does it have to be done under an immense amount of pressure or fear of failure. Using these five techniques will certainly help to improve learning abilities while making the complete process a much more enjoyable experience.

5 Tips and Hacks for Effective Online Teaching

You want to meet people; you zoom call. You want to text someone, you WhatsApp.You want to do an online search for anything; you Google it. Technology surrounds us, not a day goes by without WhatsApp, YouTube or the internet.

While the digital class was trying to decipher its ground with teaching in India. It reached new frontiers with covid. Everyone was exploring alternative ways to continue the class and to continue teaching.

While many states are figuring out the ideal mix of physical classes versus online classes, many are not still comfortable with the physical class. On the other hand, online classes have become a pain in the neck for teachers. For some, it was the technology and for others; it was the uncertainties in classes.

Since many of us are still struggling to teach online, here are some tips and tricks to help you teach online effectively:

1. Plan Your Classes

You and your students are not sitting face to face. And you might be miles apart. The way to cater to the students who are miles away differs from the one who is in the same room. So, as a teacher, you cannot just pick up any topic that comes to your mind. Further planning becomes vital to set the tone of the online classroom. Make sure that students know the syllabus and schedule of the class. They should also have the required materials for the class beforehand, which can allow the students to prepare. Also, since these are tough times for all of us, you can go easy on the deadlines for assignments and projects.

2. Interactive activities

As Online classes are limited to you and your students, they can become somewhat monotonous. It is not always easy to keep the kids excited or create an environment where they can focus on what's being taught. So one way to keep your class engaging is by making your content more interactive. For instance, you can add things like flashcards, graphs, or stories to make your content fun. This does require a considerable effort on your part, but the results are always encouraging. Plus, it would allow your students to engage more with the subject matter, which is always a good thing.

3 Let The Students Do The Work

One goal of teaching is to keep your students engaged with a particular topic as long as possible. To achieve this, you also need a medium that enables you to keep their interest levels high. A study conducted at Harvard University concludes that “Students in ‘active learning’ classrooms learn more than they think”. So the more time a student spends on the topic, the more they learn. To achieve this, you can begin by giving your students opportunities to engage and discuss it further with their classmates. They can also grade their friends’ assignments, debate on different aspects related to the topic, or even engage in some fun games to understand more about the subject.

4. Working Environment

We all know how back-breaking it is to work from home. It takes the right environment and self-discipline to keep from making it a nightmare. You are here at your table teaching or working on the material for 80 percent of your time; you need this place to be well lit, comfortable ergonomic seating and free from distraction. Your place should encourage productivity out of you.

5. Right Learning Management System

Last but not the least, one of the vital is your school management system. A School Management System for School is an online learning platform that helps schools to function at the highest potential. The tool gives access to education resources, course materials, classroom materials, assignments.

It is novel to all, so be prepared with the tool, familiarize yourself with the system and how to work on it. This is because no matter how simple the technology may seem, sometimes it can get overwhelming because of its novelty and structure. This makes the role of technical support equally important for both teachers and students. A detailed guideline on how to reach the support team and make the best use of their expertise will also be very helpful.

The platform is used to help from kindergarten to coaching institute to sail efficiently, by making classes reach remote places in the country.

You could use tools like google classrooms, Edumarshal or allLearn, which is a free classroom management platform and can be accessed through your web browser or even WhatsApp.

Online teaching is one medium that any modern teacher needs to be comfortable with. Considering that tools are getting easier to use by the day, the learning curve is next to nothing. All one needs to do is get started.

Do comment on how you liked these tips, share this among your friends, and let me know if you have any more tips that could be useful for everyone in the teaching community.