Preparing Your Child for the Academic Year: What it takes

Prepping your child for school can be pretty exhausting. It comes with a lot of patience, motivation and pushing from your side to actually even pull your kid out of the bed, let alone prepping them up to the school. While that sure is a responsibility, the other big thing you need to focus on is to make them mentally prepared for the academic year. Some of the CBSE schools in Hyderabad do realise the challenge that this has been and have taken this as a matter of serious concern. Take a look at how you can efficiently pump your kid mentally for the year ahead. 

Kids in general love the vacation period and once that comes to end, some of them are excited to get back and re-connect with their friends. The rest others seem to get anxious. When anxiety takes over, it becomes difficult for your child to cope up at school or even to enjoy the idea of going to school. Some of these tips will come in handy for you as a parent. Take a look.

Talk to your child

The foremost thing to do is to talk to your child. Talk to your child about the first day. More importantly, listen to what he/she has to say. Participate in the ‘exciting’ news that they have to share. This way, they will come in terms with the fact that you are ever ready to any concern or news that they may have about their school. Ignore the first day jitters, instead ask them what they think of their school and how they think it is going to be like. This conversation can really gear them up for the next day and also make them feel excited about the whole idea of going to school.

Go to the school on the first day

Try your best to attend his or her orientation session. This will put the children at comfort, including have to handle the smaller issues of finding where the loo is or where to sit and eat. These smaller confusions, if they are unable to handle, will make them feel insecure and uncomfortable, thus ruining their entire days ahead. Comforting them through the small deeds like these will make them less scared of the new place. 

Enable the practice of routine

It is always a good idea to practice the routine. This way, you and your child will know when to get up and how long it will take for the both of you to get ready for school. Once you figure this out, it is going to be a relaxed pace for both of you. You won’t put your kids in a hurry-bury situation and you also allow them a lot of time in the morning to do their chores in peace.

Take them shopping 

Allow your child to pick up their books and stationery they may need for the upcoming year. This way, they will get excited about going shopping and will prepare them to be excited about the new day. They will also be excited to show their friends their picks. Essentially you are giving reasons for them to be excited about school. The four tips will come in very handy when you start a new academic session with your child. The vacations will accustom the child to a play and sit routine. Getting them back on track could be slightly challenging. Try these tips but also remember to ignore their first day jitters, as they are common among all the kids.

What does the Technology have to Offer for us?

The meaning of learning is now positively changing. Starting from rote memorization to learning through black board instructional teaching, learning has taken a huge leap today. What is fascinating being how the ground rules have never changed, of making learning a better experience. With this in mind, the strategies used and the measures undertaken have improved and increased rapidly and significantly. Technology also has the potential to act as a major tool in terms of connecting with younger generation and as a pedagogical tool. Take a look at why top schools in Bangalore are taking this initiative seriously. 

What are the prospects? 

There is a reason why technology is now being taken seriously and practiced in many schools. The government too has realized the need for it and has taken steps to include them in the educational sector. But, why at all? 

Fostering engagement: The immediate result of technology-based learning is craving space for an interactive and passionate learning. It is always interesting and easier when you study geography with Google Maps or Google Earth, than through a simple picture that is given in a text book. Children the world better with real world examples than through simple images or diagrams.

Enabling real world learning: Concepts are retained better in memory when the kids can relate their learning to real world case studies and examples. An internet facility in classroom will thus quickly put them in touch with such real-world scenarios.

Simulation: How exciting would it be to actually see the mechanism of different machines and how they work, or even the planetary movements? How a cyclone forms or how the dinosaurs lived can now be explained with modelling software. Thus, the access to learning is now enormous and unlimited, coupled with excitement and fun. 

Working groups and competition: Technology provides a ground for students to discuss and debate on various issue. Online mock tests and quizzes are a great way to pump up the motivational level, thus increasing the amount of learning they take away. Opinions on major issues and smaller debates are a sure way to learn, that children will learn to listen from others and receive feedback from them. Working groups will help to create such groups for interactional spaces. 

Role of the teacher: The role of the teacher is reduced to that of a coach, who provides support and guidance. Teachers also help in academic training, problem solving and in decision making. Guidance is essential for a safer way to achieve the goal. 

The role of technology in classroom is truly multitude. What goes without saying is the students are always the gainer. Their experience is made better and the shift of teaching from the traditional methods is sure another excitement that the students will look forward to. While all of this is kept in mind, the schools are also aware of the risks involved in this. Teachers have always been the mentors who monitor the students to make sure they are using the technology the right way. With limited and sufficient access to technology, we can be sure that nothing will ever go wrong.

Digital literacy: The Future of our Education System

Education has a come a long way today. While classroom education is still hailed as the best way to impart knowledge, minor reforms within this sector has given rise to a lot of positive results. With the shift from word-of mouth teaching to black board demonstrations, there has been a significant rise in the overall understanding of concepts by the children. The next major shift was the introduction of digitized modes of teaching. Some of the major CBSE Schools of Hyderabad are utilizing it the right way. 

Role of digital classroom in redefining education

The major aim of education has always been an unequal imparting of knowledge to all the children alike. While this remains grounded, practices undertaken to make it more accessible and understandable to the children have become robust. The buzz word today is digital classroom. They have been known to create a reform in the educational sector. The major goal of classroom education has been to foster a friendly environment to all the students, so that they can learn and clear their doubts without an iota of fear.

They have altered the perspective of the students towards studying. In doing so, they have also helped teachers to prepare lessons in multi-media, that will ensure limitless fun whilst studying.

The classroom becomes the hub for international activities that will create more meaningful opportunities and endless learning, all through apps and other presentation that are more graphic in terms of teaching. For example, there is a lot of difference in drawing a sphere on the board and trying to explain how many sides are there as opposed to actually showing a 360-degree view of the sphere. Two things happen in situations like these. One, the child learns things more realistically and two, a sense of awe is created in the child and thus the child wants to see more and learn more. Graphic representation will ensure the concepts are retained in the memory for longer periods. 

Digital literacy will make the child responsible in terms of utilizing the technology to learn newer things. The digital world today, offers many competitive platforms where actual learning exercises take place through games and quizzes. The child not only gets interested, but also learns newer things in efficient ways. 

Digital learning tools are more far reaching to the students. It has the potential to even motivate the usually unmotivated kids. 

But we sure know that with all these bigger rewards, there comes a price. The role of teachers will get quite challenging and sometimes downright negligible. It can be overwhelming on one hand, but on the other hand, it fosters a space for them to personally grow and participate in newer ways of educating and instilling interest in the child. Digital classrooms have a lot benefits than what we can even start to describe. Various studies are now being conducted to see its cognitive effects on children. Some of them have shown how there is an overall significant improvement in cognitive control mechanisms such as attention, memory etc. Digital literacy is sure the future ahead!