Posted on

Innovations In The Learning Sector

Hi friends, I am back with another educational blog. My previous blog was about my take back from my course, ‘Leaders of Learning’ from HarvardX on identifying your theory of learning. Our learning theory enables us to take a stance of learning and understand what kind of learners and colleagues we want to work with and the learning environment we want to work in. It is then that our leadership as an educator will be most effective.

You can click on the link for a quick recap on the different theories of learning

Your Theory of Learning

It is interesting to see the work of Prakash Nair, the President of  Fielding Nair International which is not just an architectural company but also an educational company. He builds schools not based on what schools should look like but what education should look like. His school buildings make sure that a school is a happy place with flexible seating, comfortable furnishing and not plastic or wooden chairs, access to nature to serve the fact if kids look out at nature, their mental faculties become sharper, and tons of daylight. His company makes sure that a school is a place not to accommodate students but a place where learning is accessible.

One of the International schools I worked in was opening up another branch in the same city. The principal invited the teachers to be a part of the design team along with professionals who were going to build it. So the teachers were an integral part in designing this new building. They were there pretty much every step of the way of designing a dream school. It turned out to be a huge success where innovation was invited and applied.

Today’s blog will be about innovations and creativity in the learning sector, a continuation of my take back from the course. Can we remain in our current jobs in the learning sector and bring about innovations in our learning environment? What kind of innovation are we looking at, keeping in mind Clayton Christensen’s distinction between three different types of innovation: Sustaining innovation, Efficiency innovation, and Disruptive innovation.

World and Education are changing at a fast pace that we, as leaders of learning have to adapt and be open to different perspectives. Today, if you are in the learning sector you have no choice but to be innovative to sustain in a turbulent and changing environment where the students in your school are going to be more adept than the adults at capitalizing on the opportunities that are available for learning in the environment.

Most of us work in a hierarchical collective quadrant. We know that what might not change in these schools is the political and social structures that the school sits in. But what could change is the nature and culture of the schools, the nature of learning, and how schools redefine themselves sitting in the hierarchical model of leadership.

          Let us look at some ways in which innovation can be carried out.

1. Optimal learning space created by the learners.

The learning environment plays a huge role as a learning tool. This is only being further confirmed by growing research on the relationship between physical infrastructure and learning based on neuroscience. While it may not be possible, to redesign the entire physical plant, as a teacher, coordinator, or the head of school, it is possible to make the classrooms, libraries, and other facilities more learning-friendly. To begin with, students with the guidance of teachers can be in charge of setting up their optimal learning space. A class discussion led by students and facilitated by the teacher would create a learning space with the necessary must-haves such as peace or calming corner, flexible seating, different types of seating, reading corner, a games section, collaboration space, a space to create displays, independent working area and the layout of the above. I am confident that learners will create a learning environment with more mobility.

2. Reflect on your theory of learning to design a learning environment

Leaders of learning will design a successful learning environment if the environment is built on powerful theories of learning. The leaders must reflect on powerful questions. A leader/teacher/coordinator must ask themselves the reason for choosing a particular grouping plan for children or the reason for different settings of individualized plan. When these answers are translated into a physical design, one will have much powerful results.

3. Transparency amongst adults

A learning environment should be a space where adults learn from each other’s practises. This should be evident to the student learners to teach them a lifelong lesson that learning occurs at every age. Your learning theory should be transparent to the other adults as well as the students because it is like a social contract between you and the learner so there should be nothing mysterious about it.

4. Freedom to access learning

I am currently working as a homeroom teacher in the elementary section of a reputed international school in Mumbai where innovation in learning is invited and appreciated. Being a PYP curriculum, we follow the inquiry cycle and usually have three lines of inquiry. Learners are agentic and we only need to provide opportunities. We do not give agency. While staying in the hierarchical collective set up, I attempted to cross the quadrant and follow my theory of learning of distributed individual mode of leadership. In one of our units, we asked the children to come up with their own line of inquiry and they led their learning.  Our brains are programmed for attention to novelty, change, and curiosity. This takes away the stress from learning and helps learners to get intrinsic gratification to persevere. Needless to say, the attempt was a success.

5. Freedom to choose learning

While it may be difficult to have a personalized learning plan for each child, we could at least give enough choices to the children to choose what interests them. Usually, the curriculum is set by a team of leaders with not much choice given to learners. Access of choice is for their different learning styles. It is time that we give choices to learners about what they want to learn. It may not be possible to have 20 different units running at the same time. But we could surely give them an option of two units at a time to bring about efficiency innovation. For e.g. while doing the theme How The World Works, the learners can be given a choice between Weather and Sound, instead of expecting everyone to enjoy or be interested in one unit. This could be a beginning.\

6. A place for every personality

In Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,  extroverts get their energy from social interaction and introverts gain energy from quiet spaces and a time to think and reflect alone. Peer interaction is the key to learning but can drain the introverts with a lack of motivation. So, a classroom with a choice of large groups, small groups, and independent work will make all kinds of learners thrive.

7. Flipped Classroom

As per the Flipped Learning Network, 71% of teachers who flipped their classes not just claimed an improvement in grades, but improved student attitudes.

8. A classroom library

Leaners should have easy access to reading. While the classroom library can set up as per the unit being taught, there should be a library in the icommons for every grade on every floor giving your students easy access to an array of interesting books appropriate to their grade level vs a common library for all the students that can be accessed on specific days only.

9. Becoming a learner yourself

It is important we attempt to keep learning something new that we are not comfortable. When we take the position of a struggling learner, it sensitizes us to our students. We need to focus on evaluating our own work instead of judging other teachers. While it is important to build our teacher model based on our mode of learning quadrant, it is important that we remember that at the center lies the learning and not the educational model. Remaining flexible is the key to making learning powerful and being innovative.

10. Every teacher is a leader

Maia Winstock says, “If you’re really passionate about a topic, you end up becoming a leader in it in some way.” It is important that we are involved and regular contributors to the planning process of learning. Entering the classroom and teaching what we are expected to teach is transferred to the students not as learning but as a mundane activity that everyone has to be a part of whether interested or not with no light or fire in their eyes. Leaders of learning need to have focus, compassion, and passion. so, teach something that you are passionate about, teach in a way that serves your purpose. This is the most important thing you will bring to your students.

In conclusion, let us foster the change that we seek.  Leave your ideas of bringing innovation in your learning sector in the comment section and let us help each other in being successful innovators in our learning sectors.

Posted on

Your Theory of Learning

I recently did a course from HarvardX and decided to share my learnings from it. The future of learners, as well as educators, is about choice. Learners will choose what, how, and where they want to learn. Similarly, we, as educators, will choose what, where and how we want to teach.

Have we wondered as educators what our mode of learning is?

Each one of us falls into a quadrant of learning with our point of view and theory of learning.

Before we move on to the Modes of Learning, let us reflect on what is learning? Does it have a purpose or does it just happen? Is it for a living or for growing? Should learning take place as an act of freedom or an act of compulsion? What kind of learning matters? Should it be assessed or should it give way for other things? The best way to get these answers is to ask the learner.

The different Modes of Learning are Hierarchical Individual, Distributed Individual, Hierarchical Collective, and Distributed Collective.

  1. The Hierarchical Individual Quadrant can be best understood by a traditional school set up with a particular structure and sequence to knowledge. The student’s progress and learning are determined by tests. It is society along with the school that decides what the learner should learn.

2. The Hierarchical Collective Quadrant can be explained by our progressive schools today that do have a particular structure and levels of content, but the difference lies in the purpose of learning. The school is a micro-society within itself. The learners understand their role as citizens of the country and the world, engage in service activities, and develop a world perspective.

3. The Distributed Individual Quadrant states that Individuals are natural learners and decide for themselves what learning is meaningful to them. Learners will want to learn what adds value to them. Individuals are intrinsically motivated to learn some topics and pursue their interests. Mentor expertise, guidance, quality course content, and maximum student engagement are its key characteristics. The learner sets his own goals and determines his success.

4. The Distributed Collective Quadrant is a network of people with common interests and varying degrees of expertise who come together as a community. They choose to join or discontinue their engagement in the learning community as per their needs and flexibility. Learning here is a collective and social endeavor.

The above gist must have enabled you to identify your preferred theory of learning. Moving forward from Modes of learning to Modes of Leadership. As educators, we will have a multitude of opportunities to lead learning. Today, the opportunities for learning and leading learning are exploding. We need to make conscious choices of our career in the learning sector based on our theory of learning. Our learning theory will help us take a stance of learning and understand what kind of learners and colleagues we want to work with and the learning environment we want to work in. Different learning environments require different types of leadership. Your understanding of your theory of learning will help you decide where you fit in the distinction between schooling and learning.

Would you like to work in a stable established well-defined hierarchical organization in collaboration with the coaches, administrators, community members, and the principal?

Or

Would you like to create a structure for learners that enables them to exercise control over their learning?

Or

Would you like to form a social network of learners and inspire individuals with common interests to share the ownership of learning?

One way to answer this question would be to ask yourself the following questions 

  1. Why do you want to teach or lead learning?
  2. How do you like to spend your time?’
  3. How do you define success?

We must have a tight fit between our learning theory and the learning environment we chose to work in. It is then that our leadership as an educator will be most effective.

After identifying my theory of learning, this is a question that I asked myself. Is it possible to remain in a school set up of the Hierarchical Collective Quadrant and yet follow my theory of learning which is of The Distributed Individual Quadrant and bring about innovation in my learning environment?

My next blog will evaluate the different innovations we can bring about in our learning sector.

Leaving you with a thought…Have you identified your theory of learning?

Posted on

“Mastering Time: A Hero’s Guide to Taming the Procrastination Monkey”

By Mamta Motwani

Hey, young heroes!

Imagine you’re on a grand adventure, battling dragons and conquering quests. But wait—what’s that mischievous creature on your back? It’s the Procrastination Monkey, whispering tales of tomorrow and distracting you from your hero’s journey.

I recently stumbled upon an eye-opening TED Talk titled “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator” by Tim Urban. He introduced me to the elusive Procrastination Monkey, and let me tell you, it’s a game-changer.

The Procrastination Monkey: A Sneaky Distraction

Tim Urban paints a vivid picture of the Procrastination Monkey—a little troublemaker who loves to distract us from important tasks. This cheeky monkey thrives on urgency, making us feel busy without achieving meaningful progress.

Example: Imagine you have a school project due in a week. The Procrastination Monkey convinces you that binge-watching your favourite show is urgent and important. Before you know it, the project deadline becomes a dragon you weren’t prepared to face.

Urgent vs. Important: The Eisenhower Principle

Quadrant I: Urgent and Important

These are the fire-breathing dragons demanding immediate attention. It could be a looming deadline or a critical task needing focus.

Quadrant II: Not Urgent but Important

This quadrant holds the treasures of long-term success. Think skill-building, planning, and investing time in activities contributing to your hero’s journey.

Quadrant III: Urgent but Not Important

Beware of deceptive tasks in this quadrant. The Procrastination Monkey loves to create a circus here—tasks that seem urgent but don’t add much value to your quest.

Quadrant IV: Not Urgent and Not Important

These are the time-wasters and distractions—the low-hanging fruit that won’t contribute significantly to your hero’s journey.

Taming the Monkey: Examples from the Quest

To tame the Procrastination Monkey, you must recognize its tricks and prioritize tasks using the Eisenhower Principle.

Example:

Suppose you have a school assignment due in two weeks. The Procrastination Monkey tempts you to chat with friends or scroll through social media, claiming it’s urgent. Using the Eisenhower Principle, you realize it’s a Quadrant III task—urgent but not important. You refocus on your assignment (Quadrant I), slaying the dragon of procrastination.

The Hero’s Journey: My Time Management Revelation

As a young hero, I’ve faced my fair share of battles with the Procrastination Monkey. The fundamental transformation happened when I embraced the Urgent/Important Principle. It reshaped how I prioritized tasks, helping me distinguish between dragons and monkeys.

Personal Insight:

Once, my co-workers wondered how I consistently delivered quality work on time. The secret? I stopped letting the Procrastination Monkey dictate my actions. I prioritized tasks based on urgency and importance, slaying dragons efficiently and keeping the monkeys at bay.

Time Management Quiz: Discover Your Heroic Skills.

Curious about your time management skills? Take the Mind Tools quiz and unveil hidden strengths and areas for growth. It might just reveal the hero within you!

Young heroes, the Procrastination Monkey, may be sly, but armed with the wisdom of Tim Urban, the Urgent/Important Principle, and the insights from your personal quiz results, you can tame this mischievous creature. Prioritize your tasks, focus on the dragons that genuinely matter, and let the hero within you emerge victorious.

Now, go forth with this newfound knowledge, conquer your quests, and make the Procrastination Monkey bow to your time management prowess!

Posted on

A Classroom Without Exception

One World, One Classroom

ONE CLASSROOM FOR ALL

Can we truly have an inclusive classroom that leads one step closer to an inclusive world?

I recently attended a workshop of a few high school students who spoke about what must be done to include profoundly deaf people in our world which is so sadly separated from theirs. Those 15-year-olds taught me the real meaning of inclusivity. Within one world, we have created separate worlds of people with different abilities. How many of us have ever cared to learn sign language to be able to include the deaf and dumb in our social circle? How many schools admit deaf and dumb in their mainstream classrooms? The question is not whether they can join us. The question here is ‘Are we ready to learn their language so we can truly bring about inclusivity?’

There are many case studies of deaf children and people who have been equally or more successful at communication and in careers such as music that depend on hearing.

We have been teaching our students about Sustainable Development Goals. SDGs are designed to bring people together to improve life for all around the world. Isn’t inclusivity at the heart of SDG 4: Quality Education which talks about ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

We are a long way from complete inclusivity. But we need to begin somewhere. Including Sign Language in the curriculum of mainstream education right from a pre-primary level is a step in that direction. Yes, I understand that adding another instructor may not be in the school budget or adding another period in the timetable may not be practical.

Here are some practical ways of implementing Sign Language in the classroom:

IMPLEMENTING SIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM

1. Teachers can take the initiative to learn sign language themselves and set an example and encourage the children to do the same.

2. The teachers can embrace basic signs for classroom management and quick feedback.

3. Put up a new poster of the basics to begin with, such as numbers, letters, greetings, commonly used statements.

4. Use five minutes in the morning meeting to learn something new in sign language. The children can take turns to teach to involve them in their own learning.

5. Use fun energizers and brain breaks that use sign language. For example, sing a song by replacing some words of the song or the chorus using sign language, dumb charades: the children fingerspell the word instead of acting it out, Around the Room Activity: the children read task cards with sign language and write their answers in the recording sheet. It can be fun and challenging.

6. The vocabulary of the unit can also be taught using sign language. The children learn best when taught in a context.7. Use free websites available that teach sign language to children. The school can register for a free program that teaches sign language and it can be used throughout the school. Five minutes of the morning meeting can be dedicated to learning from the website as a class.

Research has proved that the use of sign language has led to improvement in communication skills in children with cognitive disabilities, language disorders, and autism. Children learn from a very young age that speech has a visual representation. It teaches children the importance of using gestures. Some children learn better what they hear while some learn better when they see. Adding movements and gestures helps the children to retain better enhancing their receptive and expressive language. ASL not only supports and boosts our language development but also brain development.

ASL BENEFITS FOR ALL CHILDREN

Sign Language is a win-win for all. A bridge that closes the gap. We want children to take their learning into society. Learning sign language in school, including deaf and dumb children in mainstream education, will bring our separate worlds together and make, just how it is meant to be.

A CLASSROOM WITHOUT EXCEPTION

Are you ready to take on the challenge and do what is right?

Are you ready to take baby steps towards learning sign language?

Are you ready to prevent deaf people from being isolated?

Are you open to adding Sign Language in Mainstream education?

By Mamta Motwani

Educationist

Posted on

Every Child is a Writer

By Mamta Motwani

Can every child be a good writer?

Can writing be taught? Is it a talent that is gifted to the child or a skill that is acquired?

Every child can strive to be a writer and thrive as a writer. This is simply because every child has things to say. 

To Write is to use your Voice.  To Write is to Share yourself and your life.

Effective writing teachers at first see the child as a writer and then teach strategies that motivate the child to read, share, think, write, and talk about his writing of his own volition.

 Each child has his unique opinion, thoughts, or ideas that move them, and these ideas need to be turned into writing to share with others. Isn’t that the purpose of writing? Isn’t this what gives pleasure to writing or ‘writing for pleasure’ as we call it? It is the satisfaction of producing a final written product that is purposeful and meaningful to the writer. 

Strategies to lead striving writers towards confidence and success.

1. Safe and Non-judgmental Environment

Developing an environment where children are free from the fear of judgment and negative comments is the first step towards positive learning. Creativity and imagination are unique to every child. Every idea whether created or inspired by should be accepted. A Writing Workshop must be a place that will have no right or wrong answers. To open up his treasure of imagination, a child must feel confident, safe, and accepted. The weirdest ideas as well as ideas inspired by other writers should be appreciated. The Writers Workshop should appear as a community of writers thinking, brainstorming, and talking about their writing

2. Self-efficacy and Agency

Psychologist Albert Bandura (1977) defined self-efficacy as a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. 

Children can share their voices as writers only if the topic is meaningful to them. While the teacher decides the genre unit, the children should feel agentic to choose their topic. Whether it is choosing the small moment that is important to them while writing a personal narrative or an opinion that matters to them while writing a persuasive writing piece, the children should be given the agency to choose the relevant topic. Writing what matters or writing what you own builds self-efficacy in children. It makes them feel competent as writers. 

3. Motivation and Engagement

Motivation and engagement are the key factors to ensure improvement in the writing outcomes. Children feel motivated to write once they feel engaged and involved in the process of writing. By providing a safe environment, providing them with the agency, and building their self-efficacy, teachers set them up for success. It leads to developing writing motivation that generates interest and enjoyment in writing. Positive motivation comes from acceptance, appreciation, support, scaffolding, clear writing goals, level-appropriate instructions, and steps for improvement.

4. Modeling

Modeling enables to make the teacher’s thinking and the writing process visible to the students. The students see the text as it is constructed. Modeling in writing can be done in two ways. The teacher can do it in a small group or as a whole class. The class brainstorms and constructs the text or completes a step in the writer’s process as a group and thereby gets clarity on the expectations and the instructions. Modeling must be followed by exemplars of other students’ and teacher’s work.

5. Writing Conferences

Students need positive and meaningful feedback to improvise their writing pieces. Conferring with the student individually allows giving individually targeted instruction and feedback. Some students find it more comfortable asking questions in a writing conference with the teacher rather than in front of the whole class. This time improves the relationship between the teacher and the students. Verbal feedback is less threatening and more clear. The Writing Conference must begin with what the child has done well,  and then move on to the teaching point and end with the next step to be taken. Writing conferences can be a good time to think and discuss the students writing and use their metacognition skills to reflect.

6. Connecting Reading and Writing

We know that being a good reader has a facilitative effect on being a good writer and vice-versa. Does being a voracious reader always translate into being a good writer? No, writing needs to be taught, instructed, and practiced. Reading and writing are not discreet skills and they need to be taught together to bridge the gap between oral and written language. Using mentor texts helps to illustrate what writers do. Students start to notice the skills and strategies in the books they are reading independently which are taught during mini-lessons These mentor texts should also be referred to when teachers confer with students. Writing becomes more meaningful when it is connected to reading.

7. The Writer’s Process

    The Writer’s Process consists of generating ideas, planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, or performing. Children should be explicitly taught each step of the process. They should be given strategies to generate ideas,  graphic organizers to plan their writing, and time to draft freely. Peer feedback plays an important role during revising and editing. Peer conferencing at this stage supplements teacher conferences. Children realize that most writers struggle to get their thoughts perfectly on paper and writing the perfect piece is a process. Children have similar experiences and the powerful dynamics of their relationship make this strategy very productive and collaborative. Editing is the last step before the draft is final and ready for publishing. It is the first thing that the readers read. Due importance should be given to this step. It is surprising to see how efficiently children start noticing and correcting errors in their work. It helps them to aware of their writing.

“Let us leave this blog with a PAUSE and a THOUGHT, ‘ Every child can be a writer because every child has things to say.“

Posted on

An Intentional Piece – Social-Emotional Ethical Learning

                                                                                                By Mamta Motwani

                                                                                                A humanistic educator

Reflecting back on my experiences with children as an educator in the past 20 years, I can confidently say that I have supported the holistic well-being of my students. Until two years back, I did so intentionally without knowing that it was called SEL, Social Emotional Learning. The roots of SEL go back to Ancient Greece when Plato proposed a holistic curriculum in his article to The Republic. Schools often speak of Holistic Development. However, SEL could still be called The Missing Piece in some schools, because it is not yet an intentional part of the curriculum like Math, Science, or English.

Taking SEL one step further, we now have SEE Learning, a term given by Emory University in collaboration with the Buddhist spiritual leader, Dalai Lama.

            SEE Learning that is Social Emotional and Ethical Learning is a term used for the skills and strategies that are taught to the children to foster their enduring capabilities. It is a program to develop mental strength, trauma and resiliency skills, compassion, attention training, and ethics.

I personally believe that no matter how good the lesson plan maybe, but if the children are not emotionally and socially happy as well as ethically strong, the process of teaching and learning will not be a success.

Change is constant in our lives as well as those of our children, is also difficult. It pushes us out of our comfort zones. Today, change is not just constant but also rapid. To deal with change we need skills and capabilities. We need to be taught strategies to not just build those skills but use and transfer those skills in new situations throughout our lives. These skills need to be fostered from a very young age.

Let us explore some situations. Taking the example of a playground, teaching students The Kelso’s Choice enables them to learn conflict management skills and gives them concrete tools to deal with conflict in a positive way. Interactive Modeling by the teacher and the classmates, role play, and dramatization can be incorporated in the class to generate situations of conflict and practice the strategies to manage the conflicts.

Speaking about big and small problems. Our problems create feelings which in turn bring out reactions. Can children or adults distinguish between small and big problems? Do feelings tell us about how big or small a problem is? Identifying if a problem is big or small can help us manage our emotions and in turn our reactions. It is imperative to teach our children that big emotions need not necessarily imply a big problem. A big problem needs to be taken to an adult whereas a small problem can be solved by the children.

So which emotions imply a big problem? Emotions of being afraid, distrust, fear of threat, pain imply a big problem that needs an adult to know immediately. On the other hand, emotions such as anger, jealously, frustration may make a child very uncomfortable, but the problem would be a small problem and the child should feel capable to attempt solving the problem independently using the strategies taught to him.

            Let us now consider a situation in which student A deliberately irritates student B. What strategy would you teach and who would you teach it to? I am confident that we would want student A to understand why his behavior is unacceptable. However, it is equally important to teach student B to deal with student B independently, constructively, and assertively. Interactive Modeling of using the sentence stems could be one of the tools that can be given to the students and practiced in school. –

I do not like that you are…………. because it makes me feel………… I want you to ………………

or

I feel………. when…………….. and I want………………..

E.g., I feel sad when you say unkind words to me. I want you to use your words respectfully.

Above are just a few of the strategies that we could use with our students at school and children at home to foster enduring capabilities. However, children need to return to, reflect upon, and embody these capabilities throughout their educational life in order to become emotionally, socially, and ethically balanced individuals. Hence, SEE Learning needs to become AN INTENTIONAL PIECE OF OUR CURRICULUM.

Posted on

Children’s Questions: A Trajectory to Learning

Have you ever wondered if there is a relationship between brain development and questioning??

We do know that a child’s brain develops more than any other time in his life. The brain is the command center of the human body. A  baby has all of the brain cells (neurons) they’ll have for the rest of their life, but it’s the connections between these cells that really make the brain work. 

Children are curious by nature. They are born with the art of questioning. They want to question things more than answer. Is it because they know less? Well, I would say, it is because they want to know more. This is one way that helps them make connections. 

Little children have a natural desire to learn, which seem to reduce and drop as they grow older. It is because they are expected to stop questioning and start learning. Learning without having a curious mind filled with questions is incomplete learning. Learning without having the opportunities to pour out their questions and inquire is inappropriate learning. Asking questions plays an important role in cognitive development. Having a mind full of questions puts the child on a trajectory to inquiry and learning.

As parents and as teachers, we want our students to learn. We need to make sure to provide an environment and make conscious efforts to provide them with opportunities to make inquiries. It is undeniable that children’s questions can get overwhelming for any parent or child.  You may end up being asked more than 300 questions per day.

As a mother, I have many times told my 10 year old daughter to ask Google instead of me because either I may not have had the answer or the time. Today , I do realise that at that moment, I killed her instinct to know more and took away her opportunity to make connections. I put a stop to her imaginations. Well, I may not have all the answers, but it is my responsibility to keep her fire of inquiry going. Is it possible for me to attend to her almost always immediately? Of course not. My daughter and I came up with a solution to maintain a book called, MY BOOK OF PERSONAL INQUIRIES. She now writes down her questions in her book and we look for answers at our convenient time every day.

I have now started taking interest in finding answers to her questions, along with her. I now show enthusiasm to her questions. I invite her questions with admiration for her thoughts and astonishment for her imagination. In a nutshell, I appreciate her for asking questions and convey how her questions help me learn to. We brainstorm even more questions and exchange wonderings.

This change in my approach towards her questions has not only encouraged her to be more imaginative, and a curious learner but has transformed our relationship.

By Mamta Motwani

Posted on

Children can make The Most of The New Normal

Unpredicatable times!

None of us know till when we will be homebound. The most worrisome thought for parents at this time is to enable children to have a balance between play, screen time, and learning. I am certain that most have been trying to put their children in a routine, which now seems difficult….

My children are 10 and 14. My older one, being in grade 10 is managing to balance his time between learning, virtual classes, fitness, and screen time.

While for my younger one, I have a set up a routine and we use several resources that I am sharing with my readers.

Reading

Reading has multiple benefits such as it exercises our brains, expands our knowledge, builds our vocabulary. It opens a whole new world in front of us transporting us to places beyond imagination. While some children are vivid readers, but many are not. However, as a parent, I have set a rule in the house that my younger one will have to read for 30-40 minutes. She reads twenty to thirty minutes of fiction and ten minutes of non-fiction. What she reads is her choice.  She has the option to switch to listening to read instead of reading to self. There are several websites that have amazing read-aloud. Youtube, too, has age-appropriate read-aloud.

These are few helpful links.

Vooks — Storybooks Brought to Life

www.vooks.com

Discover

Unite for Literacy

www.uniteforliteracy.com

Writing

One of my previous blogs spelled out the importance of low stakes writing. Low stake writing is an important tool that builds confidence and interest in writing. Time should be set aside each day for the child to write what he is feeling, thinking, noticing, or wondering. The time spent on writing should be left open. It could be done on alternate days or thrice a week. Let the child be in control. My daughter may write a poem or a song. She may simply decide to create some characters or use the following tools to write stories.

Story Starters

Keyboarding

Keyboarding is one of the required skills considering the use of technology in our daily life. Ten minutes of keyboarding makes sure she is developing the required skill as well as doing something different. There are many free websites that have the program to practice keyboarding. However, I find The Typing Club very child friendly.

EdTyping Club

Fitness

Sitting at home can make one lethargic, be it a child or an adult. My daughter and I have recently started a routine of adding Zumba to our schedule. We play a youtube video and enjoy a Zumba session together. It sometimes turns in to moments of laughter trying to cope up with movements.

Coding

There are many paid coding programs. My son has completed 50 sessions of WhiteHatJr. He is now working on developing a game. My daughter has been enjoying Coding on code.org. Currently, she is working on developing a dance party. Honestly, I, too, enjoy using code.org with my daughter.

Paid coding program – www.whitehatjr.com

Free coding website – www.code.org

Science

Children are curious by nature. They want answers to questions that we never wondered about. Devoting ten minutes to finding answers to questions can be a great way to enhance the scientific temper of the children. My daughter and I have enjoyed watching Doug who beautifully caters to children’s curiosity. Mystery Science provides ready-made science mysteries for elementary, K-5, school students. Each lesson contains a central mystery, discussion questions, supplemental reading, and a hands-on activity. 

Mystery Science

Movie time with popcorn

Movie nights with family have been fun. It is bonding time during our new normal. We might divide the mover over two days. We cozy and huddle up on the couch to watch our favorite movie every night.

Screen time

This might just be the best time for the children. The children deserve their privilege of screen time if they complete at least some of the above activities. It helps them feel in control of their decisions and actions. It comes across an accomplishment and a reward.

My daughter and I sat down together for a discussion on how our routine should be. We created our schedule. However, we have left it flexible. There are days when we make exceptions to the above schedule and do nothing or everything of the above. But, most of the days, we stick to the schedule.

This blog was an attempt to share valuable resources to use with children during these unprecedented time

Posted on

Read Aloud

Have you ever reflected on the best part of your day?

Last week, I attended a four-day intensive workshop on Responsive Classroom. In one of the activities, we were asked to share the best part of our day. This was something I hadn’t thought of, in a long time.

At first, I thought that it would be hard to come up with one. I closed my eyes to recollect my day.

To my surprise, in a moment I knew that the best part of my day was fifteen minutes before my children slept.

Are you curious to know why?

Fifteen minutes before my children sleep, I do a read-aloud with them.

In my previous posts, I have mentioned that my son is 14 and my daughter is 9. Our lives are busy with structured routines. There are many days when I meet them directly late in the evening. Earlier, we would just focus on completing our night routine of dinner, packing our bags and so on in order to go to bed on time. We would speak for a bit but at the back of my mind, I was worried about the time.

We, then, started with the routine of read-aloud before sleeping. Fifteen minutes of read-aloud turned out to be magical. It helps us to sit together calmly,  connect with each other and strengthen our bond. We discuss several personal and social issues, brainstorm solutions and learn new things that come up as a result of the story. It helps them to get in touch with their own feelings, emotions and gives them the courage to share them with me. They learn different ways of dealing with situations at hand. The last fifteen minutes what I call it ‘the most productive part’ of our 24 hours.

I select books that have limited content with lots of pictures. We stop after fifteen minutes even if the book is not over. I bring home 3-4 books and ask them to choose. We sometimes take turns to read. Children love choice and being in control, don’t they?

I always knew my daughter would take to stories naturally. I wasn’t sure how my son would respond. I was amazed to see that he looked forward to our time together.

As a teacher, I have always done read-aloud with my students, but I now extend the benefit to my children too.

Read-aloud is a proven and evidence-based technique to enable children to cope in times of stress or anxiety and as well as form a positive association with books. It stimulates language and helps them practice listening skills.

The greatest benefit that I have experienced is the positive, healthy time that my children and I spend together every night.

I would recommend every parent to develop this routine with their children and bring a happy, connected, positive and calm closure to a usually fast-paced day.

Posted on

Low Stakes Writing, A MUST for children

How important is it for children to be able to write well?  

Am I talking about writing neatly?

No, I am talking about putting your thoughts down onto paper.

We accept that not every child desires to become a poet or an author. Nevertheless, every child must be confident enough to put his thoughts down well.

Writing is powerful, and the process of writing requires students to form and articulate their own thoughts, opinions, and arguments. Writing requires students to exhibit creativity and thoughtfulness,

Writing assignments cause anxiety for most students. Students have difficulty in writing their own personal statement. Who can express about himself better than himself? Yet, fear of judgment and the belief of not being good enough stops most from even trying.

And not to miss, writing assignments are definitely time-consuming too.

Low stakes writing is an important tool that builds confidence and interest in writing. Low stakes writing is a writing that is not graded and is usually half a page to one page. It should be a regular practice with children at home and in schools. Time should be set aside each day for the child to write what he is feeling, thinking, noticing or wondering. Setting aside ten minutes every day is sufficient. It is his time with his thoughts. Well, it could also be a poem that he wishes to compose or a story that he wishes to write. I would leave the child to make the choice. A child will write without inhibitions if he is not going to be judged. Low stakes writing is the beginning of good high stake writing.

Low stakes writing can be a powerful way for students to develop their metacognition

Metacognition is “cognition about cognition”, “thinking about thinking”, “knowing about knowing”, becoming “aware of one’s awareness” and higher-order thinking skills.

I would suggest that children should initially write on what they wish to. Gradually, we need to frame the thinking behind the writing to develop these skills. The next step could be asking the children to reflect on how their day has been, what they found challenging or what questions arose during an assignment/exam/project, how could they do better, what worked well for me or did not work well.

Low stakes writing is not just frivolous writing. It harnesses the Social-Emotional Learning.

As Cassel has defined, “Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”

Children can be asked to write about their noticing of the way society works. They could be asked to write about their beliefs about the environment or people. Children should be encouraged to write solutions to problems they notice in society.

Research has proved that children who can manage their thinking get higher grades and perform better in standardized tests. Children with strong social skills can maintain enduring friendships and relationships.

Low stakes writing requires and enhances critical and independent thinking in a non-judgemental and stress-free environment.

I have been using low stakes writing with my students. It also seems to be a stress buster for them along with all the other benefits. They call it free writing. Some children decide to be risk-takers and share what they have written. This activates the class and leads to a brainstorming discussion.

I aim to begin the same with my children at home. I hope to share the experience with my readers soon. Do let me know if you try out low stake writing with your students in school or children at home.