Ideas to encourage positive behaviour

Ideas to encourage positive behavior

·         Be consistent

·         Acknowledge and reinforce positive behavior

·         Catch children behaving appropriately and reward them

·         Give attention to the child sitting near or next to the one who is behaving inappropriately (assuming they are behaving well)

·         Encourage children to ignore other’s misbehavior and praise them openly for complying

·         Praise children

·         Use non-verbal signals, make eye-contact

·         Use proximity control – move closer to the child

·         Establish class rule. Reinforce positive behavior by referring to the rules. Re affirm rules regularly.

·         Establish a whole class reward system.

·         Use individual rewards (stickers, certificates, badges, letters home)

·         Acknowledge individual child’s positive behavior in celebration assemblies.

·         Write their names in the Principal’s reward book

·         Inform parents of children’s achievements

·         Organize privileges, jobs, responsibilities for different year groups

·         Encourage children to be independent and responsible about themselves, their belongings, their work and their school resources.

·         Model desirable behavior

·         Label the act not the child

·         Express surprise at misbehavior

·         Be aware of children in difficulty – do not wait until child is off task before you step in and offer help.

·         Make sure that the task is appropriate – ensure that pace and level is matched.

·         Be prepared to take the blame for mistakes – “Perhaps I did not explain this very well.”

·         Make routines consistent.

·         Value work – mount and display with care.

·         Plan for success

A Research Based Assignment to Middle School Students.

A Research based Home Assignment

Do My Research!

This is an extremely engaging way to provide extended practice of any grammar point. Say you want your students to practice comparatives and superlatives. Tell them you need information on this year's Asianet Filmfare Award nominations. Tell them to go to visit the website en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asianet_Film_Awards

  and give them a list of questions they must answer:

·         Which of the nominees for Best Picture is the longest film? Which is the shortest? The most popular? Earned the most money at the box office?

·         Which film has the most nominations?

·         Which in your opinion is the best film?

·         Compare two of the actresses nominated for Best Actress. Who is older? Younger? Taller? Prettier?

·         Etc…

Just make sure you give them a website to go to, a set of questions to answer or a task to complete, and above all don't forget to plan the assignment with a grammar point or learning objective in mind.

P S Narayanan

Principal

The Elegant Public School

Graphic Organizers - an effective learning tool

Graphic Organizers – an effective learning tool

A graphic Organizer is a visual display that is used to depict the relationship between facts, terms and/or ideas within a learning task. They form a powerful visual picture of the information and this allows the mind to discover patterns, relationships it otherwise may have missed. It uses visual symbols to convey meaning. Its purpose is to facilitate learning by presenting the most complete picture of all the available facts and the potential relationships that could develop among them.

Different structures or designs of a graphic organizer are :

·         Knowledge map

·         Concept map

·         Story map

·         Spider map

·         Cognitive organizer

·         Concept diagrams

·         Series of events

·         Calendar etc.

This makes the curriculum more supportive of students and teachers as it allows them to actually see rather than have to imagine the possibilities contained within.

These organizers make assignments easier for students, first by giving them a lot of information to work with, then by narrowing the focus.

Children can use graphic organizers to better understand how their ideas can be broken down and organized for easier communication.

The teacher can print an organizer with the goal of sequencing and the student can fill in the blanks with his story ideas.

Students can also use these organizers to compare and contrast study techniques to help them decide which one would be the most effective.

Concept mapping is an effective tool as it gives freedom to brainstorm and then it forces them to go back and make decision.

Graphic organizers clear out the clutter and effective use can result in cleaner, more readable writing.

Five Key Responsibilities of a School Principal

1.    Shape a vision of academic success for all students, one based on high standards.
2.    Creating a climate hospitable to education in order that safety, a cooperative spirit and 
       other foundations of fruitful interactions prevail.
3.    Cultivating leadership in others so that teachers and other adults assume their parts in    
       realizing the school's vision.
4.    Improving instructions to enable teachers to teach at their best and students to learn to 
       their utmost.
5.    Managing people, data and processes to foster school improvement.