Why teachers can’t deliver real personalized learning

It is heart wrenching to imagine what it must be like for a small child to go through the experience of seeing her mother sent to prison. That tragedy is compounded when the school where that child should be able to find help and support is dismissive of her emotional needs.

But from my experience as a teacher, I can understand why something like that would happen. Unfortunately, the real problem isn’t just that a handful of teachers and school administrators at a particular school were insensitive to a child.

The real issue is that the design
of our traditional education system affords teachers and administrators few good options for handling such challenges without neglecting their primary responsibilities.

In a traditional classroom, students do not learn unless the teacher is in control by managing and guiding the learning experience, giving students directions, and making sure they all stay on task and on pace. Because of this reality, a decision to stop and address the emotional needs of one student inevitably means temporarily neglecting the academic needs of the class.

Sometimes, sending a student to a school counselor or administrator is a way to minimize this tradeoff. But when the student is gone from class, she misses valuable instructional time and falls behind. And in an education system based on whole-group instruction, teachers’ work grows exponentially when they have to catch individual students up.

More generally, when many students are already behind academically and
where such crises in their personal lives are far too common, focusing on social and emotional needs can quickly undermine teachers’ and administrators’ efforts to close achievement gaps and change the ultimate life trajectories of their students.

The reality is that our traditional education system was designed to utilize teachers as lesson planners, graders, and managers of whole-group instruction, but today we also expect them to be counselors, mentors, and individual learning specialists.

It is unreasonable to give teachers these additional roles without changing the
structure of their work. But too often we just stack teachers up with additional responsibilities and then expect them to be able to juggle everything with superhuman deftness.

To solve this problem of human capacity constraints, what we need are new models of schooling that use online learning to both personalize learning to each students’ individual needs and also free up teachers from some aspects of their work so that they can focus more on the academic, social, and emotional needs of their individual students.

Fortunately, we already have some promising models for addressing these challenges. As Rick Ogston, the CEO of
Carpe Diem Learning Systems said in Rick Hess and Bror Saxberg’s book, Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age , “When you’re leveraging technology like we are, people want to look at us in terms of technology.

But the secret sauce is not the technology, it’s the relationships.” Similarly, Diane Tavenner, CEO of the Summit Public Schools, has said in the same book of her school’s blended-learning approach, “Our model has more of the stuff that teachers got into education for.

There’s more meaningful one-on-one work, more opportunities to get to know their kids very well.”

When we talk about personalized learning, we often focus on using technology to tailor instruction to students’ individual learning needs.

Equally important, if not more so, is the way personalized learning can make
education more humane. Personalized education is about not only personalizing the instruction students receive, but also the relationships between teachers and
students.

Courtesy: www.christenseninstitute.org

Can this be truly called Schooling or a School 2?

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'Politicians hire our teachers'
Continued from here

http://enlightenmemore.blogspot.com/2015/02/can-this-be-truly-called-schooling-or.html

Expressing worry, the school principal told our correspondent that he sometimes receives calls from politicians telling him not to ‘disturb’ some particular teachers because they are working for them on other duties.

He said, “Politicians are not helping matters. In a situation where politicians call me to say a particular teacher is working with them, knowing well that the
teacher is fully employed, what do I do?

“It would have been better if they would rather tell us that they are no longer teachers so that we can forget about having them in the system, but that is not the case.”

An Abuja-based political analyst, Mr. Teniola Ayodeji, suggested such action could have been connected to the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan hails from the state and there would be lots of political activities there.

He said, “Elections are here again, remember, and it’s the President’s home. But if politicians are engaging teachers and calling the principal not to disturb them, then there is a big problem in this part of the world.

“It’s the President’s home and the state of education is perhaps expected to be far better than this. If the ‘President’s children’ are suffering like this, I wonder
what is happening to children in some other remote communities in the country.”

Ayodeji suggested that if politicians are hiring teachers for assignments that pay better than teaching, it is possible militants also hire young boys for their violent campaign.

He said, “It happened in the pre-amnesty era when militants from the state recruited young boys into their fold.
“They need young men to do that. All they need is to lure them with money and this can make some of the male students quit schooling.”

Teachers demand better welfare

Though the principal didn’t disclose the salary packages of his teachers, he said they were well paid, being one of the richest states in the country.

Meanwhile, two of the four schoolteachers who were around, said they had good reasons for not teaching regularly.

One of them, who pleaded anonymity, said it was cumbersome travelling on water from the state capital Yenagoa where he resides to the community to teach because of the risks involved.

He also said if the government could construct a road that links the community with Yenagoa, “life would be
better for us and the students.”

He said, “It is not easy travelling on speedboats everyday to teach. If there is good road, movement to and fro and teaching these students would be easier.

“Look at the students also; they don’t have the privilege of going for excursions outside this community. They only go to the farm or the river to swim after school.
Many of them have not seen cars before. They only see canoes and boats.” Another teacher, who pleaded anonymity, said he lives in Yenagoa because of the presence of better social amenities in the city.

He said, “My family lives in the city and I don’t think it will be easy abandoning them to stay in a place where there are poor infrastructure. There is no good water source here, no light, no road, and many others.

“Many times also, we don’t always get boats on time to travel here to come and teach, so we return home. These are the challenges.”

Youth corps members take charge

Almost all the students said they were most times taught by NYSC
members posted to the school. They said if that was not the case, probably no learning would be taking place. Victor said, “We need more corpers (youth corps members) to teach us.

“Our teachers come once in a while because they travel a lot, but the corpers are always around. They are
permanent. As one set goes, another comes in. They are our friends.”

The situation has, however, led to some of the youth corps members complaining of fatigue and some illnesses.
One of them, Matthew Awoga, a Mechanical Engineering graduate, said he usually experiencesvstress and sometimes develops headache because he alone teaches Mathematics from JSS 1 to SS 3 and Introductory Technology from JSS 1 to JSS 3.

Waving a cane at the JSS 3 students as they were making noise, he complained, “If you saw me when I just resumed in this school, I was a fat person, but now
I’m lean. Teaching has drained my blood. It’s not easy.

“The teachers don’t teach them, they leave the job to us. I pity the students sometimes because I know they don’t get quality education. We are only trying our best as we are not professional teachers.

“Many of them only come around when they have issues with their salary payment, otherwise, you won’t see them.”

While he spoke with our correspondent, the school principal and a teacher, whom Awoga described as a ‘ghost,’ emerged from the principal’s residence, a stone’s throw from the school.

The teacher had just arrived from Yenagoa to inform the principal, that he would not be available in the school for more than two days in a week as he was
‘busy’ doing some other things outside the state.

Our correspondent overheard their conversation before they switched to vernacular.

Companions with wild animals

Because of the swampy nature of the school environment (and the community generally), due to the fact that it’s a riverine area, We learnt from the students and the youth corps members that
wild reptiles, especially snakes, are occasional ‘visitors’ in the school premises.

Vincent Christian, a JSS 3 student, was bothered. He said, “There are wild animals here. We kill snakes and scorpions because they sometimes lurk around the school environment.

“Many times when we are cutting grasses or playing in the field, we see them and kill. We see big snakes at times close to the window.”

Toilets, food vendors, miles away from school
premises

Another reason why most students in the school don’t learn for more than two hours in a day is because there are no toilets in its premises. In addition, because there are no food vendors in the school premises, some go out and never return for the day.

“We go back to our houses, riverside or bushes if we want to defecate because we don’t have toilet in the school premises,” Godspower Blessing said. “Some of us also go home to eat and don’t return, especially if
there are no teachers around.”

The school principal, Sofoni, confirmed it is true. He commented, “We are trying everything possible to stop the loitering of students but there are certain factors that are militating against the measures.

“In a big school like this, we have no toilets. So when a student walks up to any teacher or me that they are going to ease themselves, we cannot stop them.

In disguise of going to ease themselves, some of them never return to the class.
“They spend the remaining school period in the town or even if they return, they come very late.

Lack of toilet facilities is a big problem here. “Also, for those living at the far end of the community, by 11:30am when the school is on lunch break, they go home and never return for the day.

“You can’t stop them from visiting their parents to have lunch. By the time they trek that distance, even if they want to come back, it is already around 2pm when school closes.”

Poor infrastructure, impediment to learning

Non-availability of teachers is not the only problem; the students complained that they lacked facilities that could facilitate their learning.

The weather was cold due to harmattan when our correspondent visited, and this made the students to shiver – another reason why the students said they wouldn’t be able to learn well even if teachers were around to teach them.

In almost all the classrooms, there are broken windows and ceilings such that if rain falls, it leaks through the ceiling and this also makes the students shiver.

Apart from broken windows, seats and ceilings in the school, the students said they had no laboratories to do practicals and no library to study while their
teachers are away.

A JSS 3 student, Clarky Igburu, 15, said, “We have broken ceilings, no windows, no doors, the harmattan is affecting our us. The cold is affecting us, we cannot
learn well.”

Christian also said, “The environment is not good for us; most of us don’t want to come and study because we feel cold and the environment is not good for us."

We need better classrooms

Not having enough and well-furnished classrooms, laboratories and library also contribute to the reason why the students don’t spend more time learning.

For instance, all the SS 2 students were combined in one classroom and so when a teacher walks into the class to teach, the ones who don’t offer the subject leave the classroom – to an empty one, most times making noise there.

Due to idleness, some leave the school premises and go home.

“We can just walk home if we feel there is nothing to learn again for the day, that is why we go home early even when we come late,” one of the students,

Moses
Ayibakari, said he would have loved going to the library to study each time he leaves the class for subjects that he doesn’t offer, but there is none.

He added, “There’s no library. For us science students, we don’t have laboratories to do practicals.

“We learn computer education in the textbook, but we have not seen any in this school. We learned that the
world now is a global village, but we don’t have computers in this school.

“We want to be part of the global civilisation. I also learnt that the forthcoming Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination will be computer-based, but
we don’t have knowledge of how it works.”

For Sofoni Ebimo, Thankgod Godgift, Firstman Woyinkuro, Doralby Sekibo and some others who said they wanted to become computer scientists, non -availability of the equipment may hinder their ambitions.

“I want the government to come to our aid. I also want to learn how to use the computer because I want to be a pilot, flying planes,” Favour Gumugumu said.

A JSS 3 student, Ebibonimighe Gumugumu, 13, also
said, “We need library. The one we have is not normal. There are no books in there. We also need a computer lab, light and sports facilities.”

Blessing Godspower, of JSS 2 class, confirmed what Ebibonimighe said, “There are no textbooks in the
library.

“We have not learnt anything today because there are no teachers to teach us. We don’t know many of them.
Some of them are not coming. I want them to be coming so we can learn many things.”

Ebikeme Igburu, 16, also said “We lack facilities in this school. I want to become a medical doctor, but I don’t have a practical understanding of science subjects. We want computers and electricity.”

The principal, Sofoni, is worried.
He said, “Now, WASSCE is making it compulsory for students to write computer study, civic education and
some entrepreneurial subjects, where are the computers?

“Even if we have them now, can they learn how to use them to write the exam between now and April (2015)?

These are some of our challenges.”
On the electricity issue, We found out that
the community doesn’t have electricity and so all the residents depend on the community generator which is
switched on at 6pm every day for about six hours – at the time when many of the residents would have gone to bed and the students would not be in school.

Poor academic performance

Talking about passing examinations, this seems to be the least challenge for some of the students – because writing seems to be the greater one, as our correspondent earlier found out.

Despite the fact that the state was rated 4th in performance in the 2013/2014 academic year by the West African Examinations Council, an educationist, Mr. Tariowei Abule, said the rating does not depict the true situation of things.

He said, “Don’t forget that growth is different from development. It’s just like Nigeria having the largest economy in the world, but still having low development.

“Passing examinations does not mean real learning is taking place. There are ways results can be manipulated. The process is the real deal, which cannot
be manipulated.

“Many of them pass the exams, but cannot further their education or cope at the tertiary level because they got their O’Level certificates through malpractice.

They cannot prove what they have.”
Also, when another educationist, who lives in Yenagoa, Mrs. Amaebi Owei-Tongu, learnt about the plight of the
students, she said there was no way they would learn well.

“These situations will adversely affect their overall performance and I don’t know how they would be able to pass examinations,” she said.

Baffled how they could then be able to write and pass national examinations, our correspondent asked a youth corps member.

He explained that some of the teachers and his colleagues ‘help’ the students during such times.

For the ‘help’ – a word used for ‘malpractice’ – the latter pay for it by cash, though. A former student of the school, an undergraduate of the Niger Delta State University, Amasomma, Bayelsa State, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We also paid for the
help we received during our time.

“I am not happy saying this, but that was the situation we found ourselves in. It’s the way they could compensate us for not teaching us well. They assisted
us by writing answers for us and allowing us to take textbooks into exam halls.”

‘We need help’ Sofoni admitted there was little he could do to restore the old glory of the 50-year-old school whose motto is
“Show the light.”

Rather than being in light, he admitted the students are ‘living in darkness.’ He said, “In a school environment, what should be paramount is the teaching aid.

We don’t have enough classrooms; the ones we have are not furnished with
good seats. Many of them are in bad shape. The conduciveness is not there for them.

“Then in a big school like this, teachers should be accommodated to reduce their travelling on water expenses. Some have to travel back to Yenagoa where
they reside by 2pm every day, so hardly do you find them anytime after that. They would have sped off.

“Also, look at my office (looks cramped, untidy and not conducive). Who can believe a cubicle like this is a principal’s office?”

He also blamed the students partly for their woes. He added, “The students are also to blame for their poor performance.

I was a student here in the late
1970s and then we used to read a lot. We did study in the night.

“We were always reading and competing among ourselves, but students of this school nowadays don’t do that. They love staying idle and not taking initiative.

They are not too serious about learning.”
On not being “serious about learning,” one of the teachers said there are a few students from JSS 3 to SSS 3 classes who have children that they look after.

Pointing at one of the female students in SSS 2 who is 16, he said, “She has a two-year-old child and always sleeps in class.”

The young girl was ashamed to talk afterwards. However, Sofoni said the situation could change if the government would help.

He said, “There are politicians, senators, and House of Representative members from this community, but once they go out there, they forget about us.

“If not, we would have road and other facilities. If the government comes to our aid, some of these problems will be resolved and there will be better learning for these children.”

Courtesy: www.punchng.com

Can this be truly called Schooling or a School 1?

http://enlightenmemore.blogspot.com/2015/02/can-this-be-truly-called-schooling-or_5.html://enlightenmemore.blogspot.com/2015/02/can-this-be-truly-called-schooling-or_5.htmlrief argument ensued between some of the Senior Secondary School Two students of Southern Ijaw Secondary School, Oporoma, a riverine community 45 minutes away via speedboat from the capital city of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

A young male teacher, Matthew Awoga, had asked one of the students, Emmanuel Alabo, to write the word ‘malaria’ on the blackboard to test his spelling skill
before the English class would begin properly.

Trembling as he held the chalk, Alabo dragged his feet to the front of the class, and after making several attempts to write the word, he eventually wrote
‘marleria.’

Perplexed, the teacher asked the rest of the class whether Alabo was right. While a part of the class said he was, another part argued he was not. Some other students were confused – they could not tell whether he was right or wrong.

The teacher was embarrassed; nonetheless, he called another student, a female, to write the word.

But the girl never attempted to write it. She bluntly said she had no idea how to spell the word.

After spending several minutes in front of the blackboard, she dropped the chalk. “Sir, I don’t know how to write it,” she admitted

Wanting to ‘disgrace’ the SSS 2 students, the teacher dashed out of the class to select three Junior Secondary School Three students “who would teach the seniors how to spell.” But Awoga got more than he bargained for.

One of the JSS 3 students, Efe Moses, simply wrote ‘maleria.’
Likewise, Faith Income, 15, was asked to write same word, but wrote ‘asieg,’ a non-existent English word.

Firstman Woyinkuro, also from JSS 3, eventually bailed his classmates and seniors out by writing the correct word The class clapped for him.

Interacting with the students later, they said it was not entirely their fault that they were unable to write words properly.

The students said they had not been receiving English lessons for a long time and that the teacher was a National Youth Service Corps member posted to the school.

Going late to school

The time was 11:35am when some of the students entered the school premises, chatting and playing along — until they all entered their different classrooms.

For the next one hour, the students in the Junior Secondary School 3 class sat on almost broken wooden seats idly, some resting their arms on the desks, anxiously waiting for the day’s lesson to begin. A young male teacher walked in with cane and a Mathematics textbook.

At his sight, they all sighed.
The teacher, another serving National Youth Service Corps member in the school, taught the class Mathematics till 2pm.

The lesson was over for the day.

The JSS 3 students learnt for an hour on that Monday. Unlike in Yenagoa, the state capital, where students were seen boarding taxis, buses and tricycles to go to school at about 7am, the students of SISSO told our correspondent many reasons why they needed not to resume early.

They said one of the reasons they resume late is because their teachers are not always available to teach them.

“Instead of wasting my time if I come early, I prefer staying at home helping my parents with some house chores,” a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School 2
student, Wisdom Victor, said.

Opening his dusty Biology notebook for the class’ last lesson on the subject was
in October. The boy forgot to date the lesson.

“We don’t have a Biology teacher again. Since the corper (corps member) who was teaching us passed
out last year, we’ve not had anyone to teach us again,” he said.

Victor, who wants to be a medical doctor, lamented that he was unsure of how he could achieve his dream without having an adequate knowledge of his favourite
subject – which is also a prerequisite for studying Medicine.

Ghost teachers, ghost students

From every indication, Victor, his classmates, juniors and seniors may keep going to school late, sitting idly in classes and having a one or two-hour lessons, as long as their teachers don’t bother, a position the principal of the school, Mr. Austin Sofoni, agreed to.

Although he did not disclose the number of teachers the school has, Sofoni said they are “many.”

However, on the day our correspondent visited, there were only about four of them present, including two corps members.He lamented that many of them are not committed to teaching and are also “difficult” to discipline.

He said, “We have a problem with teachers. Many of them are not always around. They don’t come to teach these children. Though we have many, most of them are not committed to the job and they are difficult to control.

“It is so because they are paid through their bank accounts nowadays; I could have withheld their salaries if it was like before when they were paid by cash.

“Though I can still do it [withhold their salaries], the process involved in doing so is not easy. Even if I succeed in getting their salaries unpaid, getting them paid afterwards is not also an easy process.

“When I consider all these things, I pretend not to know what is happening, but I truly fear for the future of these students.”

The situation has adversely affected the attendance of the students. Many students have since stopped attending classes while some others have dropped out of the school.

Aside Victor, another SSS 2 student, Orderere Agada, said she sometimes arrives in school very late because many times, her class only has one or two lessons in a day. She added that there are days when no lesson holds.

She justifies her lateness to school: “We need more teachers to learn. Some of us, even I, sometimes arrive in school by 11am or 12 noon because there are many
times we don’t learn anything. What’s the point in coming early?

“There are days that if we have more than two lessons, we are surprised. It’s unusual. Many of our teachers
live in Yenagoa.

“Our friends stay at home, especially when they are not sure whether there would be any lesson for the day.

They only come if we tell them teachers are around. We are determined to learn, but we lack teachers.” Moses Ayibakari, 15, also in SSS 2, said, “We don’t
have a Biology teacher since last term.

We also do not
have a Geography teacher. We are pleading with the government to send us more teachers.”

Courtesy: www.punchng.com

Continues here

Global standards for teaching and learning

HEAD of School, City of Knowledge Academy (CKA), Ogun State, Abiola Lamikanra, has urged education managers in the country to
incorporate global techniques in the routine of teaching and learning in all schools.

This, she said should be in tandem with regular training of teachers in contemporary trend and practices, arguing that they are the group that transfers knowledge to the students.

Addressing reporters shortly after a facility tour at the school, located at Itanrin, Ore-Sagamu expressway, Ijebu-Ode, Lamikanra stressed that the objective of every school should be, among others, prepare students that are global in orientation and at par with their counterparts around the world.

According to her, “Teaching children about global issues is very imperative and raising a child in a 21st century requires a common sense; one century is not different from another,
the only thing that happens now is that we are more global in perspective, we are all very connected, whatever happens in Australia in one minute, the whole world knows the next minute, so to be able to get our children participate globally we have to be very active in the use of technology and this should be the target of all education managers.”

“At CKA, while grooming our students with our ethical pillars which is culture, character and confidence, we also explore other avenues.

There is a programme we call Physical, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, where they discuss personal responsibilities and other life skills.

“We pay a lot of attention to the acquisition of life and organisational skills, time management and interpersonal relationships. There are other programmes they take in conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and fixed mindset versus growth mindset.

All these are designed to ensure our students are well equipped to cope
with future academic requirement, they are not examination subjects, we are simply teaching them the ABC’s of this life,” she said.

She further stated that there are virtual learning platforms, where teachers engages students and parents could as well access it, urging school managers to make effective use of such platforms.

She said, “In CKA, technology is used as a tool not for decoration, when the children are in class they make effective use of the interactive board, they have their netbook with them and as the teacher is interacting with them, they are exploring the Internet together.”

On the ethical pillars of the school, she said, “Our emphasis is also on culture, character and confidence. We have explored the dimensions of character in today’s world, in terms of accountability, honesty, responsibility and leadership. Having good character is important
to us all in maintaining a good position in a society.”

“For the culture, we do not want to produce children who do not have a trace of their culture, not just their culture but to also have respect for other people’s culture. On the aspect of confidence, our children have confidence in themselves, they can go anywhere in the world and participate actively in any programme.

We build their self-esteem and that is important in educating a child in today’s world.

However, after the tour of facility, which
revealed that the school is indeed a home of knowledge, some parents of the school who were present at the school’s open day ceremony, expressed joy at the tremendous academic and infrastructural achievement of the school.

Teaching an Entirely New Topic

When presented with new material, standards, and
complicated topics, we need to be focused and calm
as we approach our assignments. We can use brain
breaks and focused-attention practices to positively
impact our emotional states and learning.

They refocus our neural circuitry with either stimulating or
quieting practices that generate increased activity in
the prefrontal cortex, where problem solving and
emotional regulation occur.

Brain Breaks

A brain break is a short period of time when we
change up the dull routine of incoming information
that arrives via predictable, tedious, well-worn
roadways.

Our brains are wired for novelty because
we pay attention to any and every stimulus in our
environment that feels threatening or out of the
ordinary. This has always been a wonderful advantage
because our survival as a species depended on this
aspect of brain development.

When we take a brain break, it refreshes our thinking
and helps us discover another solution to a problem
or see a situation through a different lens. Consider
trying these with your class:

1. The Junk Bag

I always carry a bag of household objects containing
markers, scrap paper, and anything that one would
find in a junk drawer -- for example, a can opener or
a pair of shoelaces. Pick any object out of the junk
bag and ask students to come up with two ways this
object could be reinvented for other uses. They can
write or draw their responses. Once students have
drawn or written about an invention, they can walk
the room for one minute sharing and comparing.

2. Squiggle Story

On a blank sheet of paper, whiteboard, or
Promethean Board, draw one squiggly line. Give
students one minute to stand and draw with their
opposite hand, turning the line into a picture or
design of their choice.

3. Opposite Sides

Movement is critical to learning. Have students stand
and blink with the right eye while snapping the fingers
of their left hand. Repeat this with the left eye and
right hand. Students could also face one another and
tap the right foot once, left foot twice, and right foot
three times, building speed they alternate toe tapping
with their partner.

4. Symbolic Alphabet

Sing the alphabet with names of objects rather than
the letters.

5. Other Languages

Teach sign language or make up a spoken language.
In pairs, students take turns speaking or interpreting
this new language for 30 seconds each.

6. Mental Math

Give a set of three instructions, counting the sequence
to a partner for 30 seconds. Example: Count by two
until 20, then count by three until 50, finishing with
seven until 80. Switch and give the other partner
another set of numbers to count.

7. Invisible Pictures

Have a student draw a picture in the air while their
partner guesses what it is. You could give them
categories such as foods, places, or other ways to
narrow the guessing.

8. Story Starters
A student or teacher begins a story for one minute,
either individually or with a partner. The students then
complete or continue it with a silly ending.

9. Rock Scissors Paper Math
With the traditional game, the last call-out is "math."
With that call, students lay out one, two, three, or four
fingers in the palm of their hand. The best of three
wins.

Focused-Attention Practices

A focused-attention practice is a brain exercise for
quieting the thousands of thoughts that distract and
frustrate us each day. When the mind is quiet and
focused, we are able to be present with a specific
sound, sight, or taste.

Research repeatedly shows
that quieting our minds ignites our parasympathetic
nervous system, reducing heart rate and blood
pressure while enhancing our coping strategies to
effectively handle the day-to-day challenges that keep
coming. Our thinking improves and our emotions
begin to regulate so that we can approach an
experience with variable options.

For the following practices, the goal is to start with
60 to 90 seconds and build to five minutes:

1. Breathing
Use the breath as a focus point. Have students place
one hand close to their nose (not touching) and one
hand on their belly. As they breathe in, have them feel
their bellies expand. As they exhale, they can feel the
warm air hit their hand. Students will focus on this
breath for only one minute. Let them know that it's
OK when thoughts sometimes come into the mind
uninvited. Tell them to exhale that thought away.

2. Colors
Visualize colors while focusing on the breath. Inhale a
deep green, and exhale a smoky gray. Have the
students imagine the colors as swirling and alive with
each inhale. If a student is de-escalating from an
angry moment, the color red is a great color to
exhale.

3. Movement
For younger children, direct students to stand and, as
they inhale, lift an arm or leg and wiggle it, exhaling it
back to its original position. For younger grades
beginning these focused-attention practices, it's good
to include an inhale and exhale with any type of
movement.

4. The Deep-Dive Breath
We inhale for four counts, hold for four, and exhale
slowly for four counts. You can increase the holding of
breath by a few seconds once the students find the
rhythm of the exercise.

5. Energizing Breath
We pant like a dog with our mouths open and our
tongues out for 30 seconds, continuing for another 30
seconds with our mouths closed as we take short
belly breaths with one hand on the belly. We typically
take three energizing pant breaths per second. After a
full minute, the students return to four regular deep
inhales and exhales.

6. Sound
The use of sound is very powerful for engaging a calm
response. In the three classrooms where I teach, we
use rain sticks, bells, chimes, and music. There are
many websites that provide music for focus, relaxation
and visualization. Here is one of my favorites .

7. Rise and Fall
As we breathe in and out through our noses, we can
lie on the floor and place an object on our stomachs,
enhancing our focus by watching the rising and falling
of our bellies.

When we are focused and paying attention to our
thoughts, feelings and choices, we have a much
greater opportunity to change those thoughts and
feelings that are not serving us well in life and in
school. When we grasp this awareness, we see and
feel the difference!

How do you stimulate or quiet your students?

Courtesy: http://www.edutopia.org/blog

Isn't this essential?

An essential thing that should be present in any educational institution is a LIBRARY..... It basically consist of Books, the Personnel, the Building and the users.

What is so essential about it
We get information there anytime we need them

It allows for inquiry method of learning -where individuals learn all by themselves, when curious about something
It encourages accidental learning and enlarges the horizon of the learner
Allows for further research, questions, solutions
It boost the problem-solving instincts of our wards
It helps to foster intuitive thinking in the classroom


What does it take to have a library:

A spacious, well ventilated, well positioned and quiet room
A role of  nice and durable shelves arranged as letter 'U' or letter 'E' with spacious walkways
A librarian to oversee the library
Library organogram showing authority chain
Library assistant to check on library users if they are not breaking the library rules and regulations
Front desk personnel to keep records of everyone that come to use the library
Someone to always return used books to their rightful place neatly on the shelves
We need a neatly demarcated tables and individual chairs to encourage privacy in the library
Library rules and regulations, and air fresher
A photocopy machine to make copies of pages of books that the students needs information from
An air-conditoner, constant power supply
Another sections with computers and Internet service to access E-books, online books
A printer to also print some needed pages
Books, Encyclopedias, World books, World Record books, magazines in the library - for both the students/wards and the teachers
Teachers copy of textbooks  should be kept there, books on understanding an age range(toddlers, teenagers, pre-teens, etc)
One need to use a number code or letter code to code the way books are arranged on the books shelves
Have a plan to buy at least 2/5 books every 3months to update the library

While i was in school i loved the Library much than my classroom, i spent about 40% of my school hours in the library. I have been late to the classroom severally because i was in the library, i have missed classes because i was in the library.

Whenever i go into the library i am very curious, but when am leaving the library am more confident, my mind works faster,up my head is up because i now understand better.

The library was my hostel room in my school days, i wasn't leaving in the hostel, so when my friends where leaving the lecture premises for the hostel, i will also say am going to "my hostel" with a wink, with them knowing am going  the Library till its evening, before i leave for home.

I love Libraries! Am sure there are students/ wards in your school that their heart yearns for a school library and they don't have one......

Schools, learning does not only takes place in the classrooms only!