Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Remembering Our First Stage of Education

Remembering Our First Stage of Education Most people have  good memories  of their elementary school days and one of them is recollections of a certain beloved teacher. Why not all? The result of  study  about successful and well-remembered elementary school teachers suggest that most of them actually enjoy working with kids, having fun and always happy to be with them. They can easily communicate with children; familiar with children’s needs, and always willing to understand. Memories of a Person Who Truly Loves Kids Pupils’ idea of a good elementary school  teacher  can be classified into three general categories – personal qualities, relationship with pupils, and teaching techniques. Study of students in grade 2 through 8 suggests that most of them frequently recall teachers who helped them in their work, kind, patient, polite, neatly dressed, friendly in and out class, and with a sense of humor. Moreover, in order of frequency, beloved and easily remembered teachers are those who are kind and thoughtful, having fun with kids, often in good mood, agreeable, friendly with a nice smile, considerate, smart and well-informed. Easily recalled #ElementaryMoments with beloved teacher seems linked to personal and behavioral characteristics associated with teaching efficiency. In practice, this is the ability of an elementary school teacher to create a learning atmosphere for kids, motivate them to take risks in the learning process, become more inventive and accept new ideas. These teachers according to literature are those who take a student of her or his normal frame of reference and help them see new possibilities even in complicated situations through humor. DEVELOPING STUDENTS CREATIVITY AND SELF-EXPRESSION THROUGH CRAYONS Memories of Effective and Inspiring Elementary School Teachers Most people have an implicit and internal definition of effective teaching. Most of us can easily distinguish a good teacher from a bad teacher. Everyone seems knowledgeable of what actually constitutes good teaching such as Ms. May and Mrs. Moody’s former elementary school  students who remembered them as funny but effective teachers. Ms. Daisy May is a kind of teacher who always starts the class with a smile. She is serious about teaching and often gives her students a lot of work. However, despite the difficulty, her great sense of humor made her classroom both fun and educational. Ms. May is kind and friendly in and out of the class but she never jokes about her class requirements. For instance, she was upset and failed almost the entire class when her students did not buy the book she required. Mrs. L. Moody, on the other hand, is a  sixth-grade teacher who is frequently remembered for her energy. She was loud, funny, but serious to her teaching like Ms. May. Although the qualities sound contradictory, Ms. Moody is an effective elementary school teacher who inspired many of her former students (now successful teachers) to pursue a teaching career. These teachers are best remembered for balancing classroom fun and learning. Their ability to â€Å"break the ice† and make students truly excited about coming to class and learn to separate them from the rest. They have the personal, relational, and teaching skills of an effective teacher that most students regard as best #ElementaryMoments.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Write Daily or Not

Write Daily or Not Stephen King (On Writing) and Julia Cameron (The Artists Way) believe strongly in writing daily. A few others, however, argue that writing daily isnt necessary. So whats a new or struggling writer to decide is the best for them? My take on writing daily is this: DO IT EVERY DAY. Until you find a voice, until you know your direction, until you are a hard-core writer and not a hob Unfortunately when you stop writing for a period, or skip weeks between poems or chapters, you lose ground. You backslide. Its like building a house for a week then letting the weather erode it for a couple months, then you go back to it and have to spend several days fixing whats deteriorated due to neglect. And thinking about writing doesnt work. It doesnt count. While it feels good, and you might consider new ideas to write about, its not writing. Nothing is a substitute for putting words down for a conclusion. Now there may come a day when you have so much on your plate, that you feel discombobulated. Too many deadlines, too confused where to take a scene, uncertain whether a character is needed. At that point, take a day off. Maybe even a weekend but only after youve been writing so steadily that you are honed to scribble each day. My light day is Saturday after a busy Friday putting out newsletters, when Im most likely to have family drop in. There have been times when Ive been at conferences and missed three days, but Im itching to get back to business Youll build your writing in layers. Your talent doesnt embed itself into your brain unless its repeated on a steady basis. If you put weeks and months between your chapters, be prepared to have to do a lot of starting over. Like going to college, taking Spanish 1 this year, and Spanish 2 three years from now a lot is going to be lost in the interim. Yes, you might have been writing for years. But how many years would it really be if you tallied only those days you actually wrote? Write daily. Youll be flabbergasted at your rate of improvement.