Creative Teaching - Award Winning Teacher Training Workshop

The National Award Winning Nursery Teacher Training Program - creatiWITTY. Separate programs for Preschool Teachers and Primary Teachers. Triggers new 'creative teaching ideas'. Mail pollencubes@gmail.com for detailed info.

Workshop Leader: Satish Chathanath

About Trainer: Satish Chathanath has 20+ years experience in Creative Industry. He is a Writer, Teacher and a Consultant with twin start-ups that mix Creative Communications, Product Design, Training and Education. He creates teaching aids and learning products for preschool and kindergarten. He is the recipient of Best Teacher Training Award in the prestigious Indian Education Awards, 2016 and Winner of IDA Award in Product/Solution in Early Learning. He also helps companies, brands and individuals to tell their visual stories clear and great.

Reciprocal Teaching

Let’s start with a basic definition for Reciprocal Teaching. “Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting.”  Source

It is a reading technique by which we aim to improve reading comprehension of a student

Here’s an example of what reciprocal teaching is NOT. A lot of times, the activity illustrated below is mistaken for reciprocal teaching.

Your teacher prepared a list of topics and assigned one for each student in your class. You were given about a week’s time to prepare for the topic. You were also told that you could take up to 5 minutes to explain the topic to the class. If you were like most students, you would have first been filled with apprehension or fear. This fear would usually be a fear of public speaking or a fear of lack of knowledge of the subject. Normally, you’ll realize your audience is people you know and so there’s not much to fear. You also know that this ‘seminar’ is mandatory, so you read up on the topic, and actually try to understand it so when you’re in front of others you’re actually able to explain it. You end up learning the concept because to teach anyone anything, you should be able to understand it first. You notice that the audience is usually more receptive. While the class may not pay full attention to the regular teacher, there’s a high chance they’ll pay more attention to a peer who is explaining a concept.

The above illustration is not reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching is actually about helping students understand challenging text they are reading. Challenging text includes poetry, literary novels, unstructured writing and even scientific publications.

In reciprocal approach to teaching, the instructor instills four clearly defined reading strategies that are simultaneously and actively used to support comprehension: The four reading strategies are Questioning, Clarifying, Summarizing, and Predicting. Students are taught to alternatively take the role of Questioner, Clarifier, Summarizer and Predictor while analyzing a text. The Clarifier tries to answer questions raised. The Summarizer tries to succinctly capture the meaning of the text and the predictor attempts to predict what the author intends to reveal in the next sequence. The instructor invariably helps out the Clarifier by answering the bulk of the questions, particularly when the text is very challenging. This technique is effective for small groups of students. There is a wide body of research supporting the effectiveness of this method in novel situations.

Here’s an excellent summary of how to use this method summarized from an article written by Donna Dyer of the North West Regional Education Service Agency in North Carolina)

1.      Divide your learners in sets containing four learners each

2.      Give a small placard to every learner in the set naming each learner's role:

·         Summarizer

·         Questioner

·         Clarifier

·         Predictor

3.      Make your learners read a page or so of the reading material. Motivate them to use note-taking methods. Ask them to underline things they want clarification for. If necessary, get them to use sticky-notes to prepare themselves for the discussion to follow.

4.      When they read the assigned text, the Summarizer first points out the major ideas up to where they’ve read.

5.      The Questioner then steps up and asks questions of the parts they require assistance in:

·         Confusing information

·         Unclear sections

·         Linkages to pre-learned concepts

6.      The Clarifier then tries to clear up the confusing parts and also tries to answer the questions asked by the Questioner.

7.      The Predictor speaks up next. He/She tries to predict what the author will reveal next or, in the case of a passage from literature, the predictor might suggest upcoming events or plotline.

8.      The learners then pass their role to the person on their right, and then the next passage is read. Learners keep repeating this step in their new roles. This alternation of roles is carried out till the complete passage is read.

9.      The instructor is required to guide the learners’ in using the four strategies successfully in their set. When the learner’s improve skills, the instructor’s role reduces.

Why Continuous Training for a Pre-Primary and Primary Teacher is so Important

It is important to understand that teaching is an evolving skill. Great teachers help create great students. In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement, so it is critical to pay close attention to how we train and support both new and experienced educators.

Preschool and primary education is the first exercise in which children are separated from their comfort zone and safe hands of their parents. So, to start with, it has to be a place which is a second home to the child; a place, which has adequate material to draw and make the child feel at ease and safe. A child learns the importance of his own name, things and friends. The skills and knowledge that the child develops in preschool has a huge impact on the aptitude and attitude of the child later in life.

Today, teacher development has moved beyond simple in-service workshops and has expanded into a more robust system of continuing education. Clearly, the one-time erratic teacher training programs yield no good result. At the end of the day, teachers want development and training that is relevant for their students.

What is professional development?

Professional development refers to numerous types of learning experiences related to an individual’s work. Be it any profession, people participate in professional development programs to improve their performance on the job by acquiring and applying new skills and knowledge.

How does professional development help teachers?

In the field of education, research shows that teaching quality and school leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement. For teachers to be as effective as possible, they need to constantly develop their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices for their students. Professional development is the only way teachers can learn so that they are able to better their performance and elevate student accomplishment.

Is it mandatory to conduct teachers training?

Yes. It is essential atleast twice a year as even well experienced teachers confront great challenges every year. Numerous factors play an important role such as changes in subject content, new teaching methods, advances in technology, changing student needs and a lot more. These issues can be discussed upon and may also arrive at a possible solution.

Isn’t online professional development a good choice?

When it comes to learning content and observing demonstrations, online professional development may be useful. Some also provide interactive training among participants, but there are a few limitations. By engaging in online training, the teacher is in isolation, than as a participating member of a team, this may result in losing out on important experiences and insights. An educators’ collective growth has a greater impact than individual learning does.  And above all, one will not be aware of how well the teacher applies his or her learning towards student’s benefit.

How does teachers’ training benefit students?

No teacher is born perfect. A teacher can never know exactly how a student learns and what affects the student’s learning, and how the teacher can change her way of teaching to increase the student’s learning. Whether a student is a high, low, or average achiever, they will learn better if their teacher regularly engages in high-quality development.

What are the different aspects a teacher’s training program helps?

Teacher’s development focuses mainly on learning modalities. Everyone learns differently, that’s nothing new. Learning is a complicated concept as everyone is unique in their own way, and learns in their own way as well. While one student may enjoy reading and being read to, another might learn more if illustrations and charts accompany reading. While one may enjoy physical movement, another student may prefer quiet and serene surroundings.

That being said, there are four modalities, it includes visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (moving), and tactile (touching). The more senses or modalities a teacher activates in class, the more learning will take place. Teachers are constantly trained on these modalities so as to understand what method of learning best fits their student.

How do you determine the value and results of professional development?

The results of professional development can be assessed through surveys, tests, observations, video recordings, and interviews. If students begin to achieve at higher levels, because of the effective methods of teacher training, professional development is worth the cost. Teachers learn new knowledge and skills because of their participation and use what they learn to improve the quality of teaching and leadership.

Teachers have the power to make a change in the school or classroom. If you have experienced a particular training development that helped you overcome a teaching challenge, do share with us your story in the comments below.

Written by Fathima Khaja

Ways to Support Social-Emotional Learning in Preschoolers

Have you ever heard of developing your child’s social and emotional skill? Do you think it is essential to develop this in your little kids? Well here is what you need to know. Social-emotional learning is basically recognizing our emotions, having some control over them, having empathy for others, handling conflict well, and making good choices about personal and social behavior. These skills are critical to every child’s success, be it in school or in life.

Believe it or not, these things need to be taught and the best time to begin is early! Right when they are preschool and kindergarten! And who is a better teacher to your child than YOU? Here are some specific steps you can take to nurture an emotionally intelligent child, and additional resources you can use to learn more about social and emotional learning.

Create an Affectionate-Friendly Environment:

Children love to feel like they are the most special and important, so make sure you provide them with love and affection. Don’t always let your child be independent. Holding your children makes them feel safe and contained. Comforting, singing, and talking to your children also provide an important emotional holding environment. It promotes a feeling of safety and security within your young child. As children receive love and affection from their elders, parents and relatives, they are also silently learning important aspects of how they can express their love and affection to others.

Encourage and Respect Differences:

Every child has a certain belief, values, and traditions. These are often largely influenced by the culture of the family and their larger community. It influences every aspect of parenting: feeding, sleeping, and toileting routines; discipline; communication and more. When you display an appreciation and respect for your own culture as well as the cultures of others, you are teaching your child acceptance of differences and lets them appreciate what is unique in another.

Understand Each Child is Unique:

Not all children are good at everything. Every child has his or her own unique talents and abilities. Whether in academics, athletics, extra-curricular activities or arts and crafts, resist the urge to compare your child to friends or siblings. This will lower their self-esteem. Instead, honor your child's accomplishments and provide support and encouragement and in the meantime also encourage them to concentrate on what they may be falling back on.

Encourage the Expression of Feelings:

Children are not sure how exactly to express their emotions. They may also express it without thought. Teachers and parents can encourage a child’s emotional expressions by responding constructively to them. Punishing or dismissing a child’s emotions does not give the child the opportunity to learn how to respond constructively to those emotions. Respond to a child’s emotions by validating her feelings. For example, ask your child, “What’s wrong?”  rather than saying, “Stop crying.”

Provide Support Occasionally:

You can support your child’s social and emotional skills through scaffolding. It’s built upon what children already know, such as the names of basic emotions, so that they can learn new skills, like how to identify when a playmate is sad or happy. You can guide a child to notice the feelings of another and also suggest possible solutions. For example, “Rose is crying, maybe she feels sad that no one is playing with her, why don’t you go and share your toys with her. I’m pretty sure she will be happy.”

Nurture Your Own Social and Emotional Wellness:

This is the most important aspect. To provide the best for your children, you must first attend to your own needs. You need to ensure that you are nurturing and respecting yourself. Parenting is rewarding, yet so demanding. So before you are about to react a particular way towards your child make sure that you are doing it right and in a calm manner. Children are observing and absorbing lessons about emotions throughout the day, even when those lessons are unintentional. So make sure you are doing it all right yourself.

Written by Fathima Khaja

How Teaching and Visual Aids Help Teachers and Students

Today is an era of digitization. As early as two years, children are exposed to smartphones and internet. They tend to grasp and understand what they see much better that what they hear. Likewise, the process of teaching - learning depends upon the different type of equipment available in the classroom.

Visual aids such as flash cards, storyframes, story boards as well as other supports, in preschool/kindergarten lessons can help your little learner pick up new concepts, get a jump start on literacy lessons and make new connections.

Even if a student is unable to understand the spoken word, the visual aid may help them to better absorb information. The biggest advantage of using teaching aids is that it can help make the difficult into something more understandable. They provide a change from just listening, and pictures typically stimulate interest more easily than words.

Because visuals enable you to appeal to more than one sense at the same time, the students' understanding and retention level is increased. They tend to concentrate much better and participate in the class. Also visual aids improve the independence and self-esteem of all people with learning difficulties.

A recent study concluded that people who use visual aids are 43% more persuasive than those who don't. The study also established that visuals can improve:

•           Communication effectiveness

•           Student’s perceptions of the presenter

•           Teacher’s confidence

There are also numerous studies conducted by educational researchers that show that the average teacher who uses visual aids will come across as better organized, more reliable, more vibrant, and more influential than a teacher who does not use visual aids.

Make it bright and colourful:

Your child's preschool/kindergarten teacher may use visual cues to help the kids understand their classroom better. At this stage, the classroom atmosphere is unfamiliar to these little kids. On the look of the class, make sure it enlightens and wakens them up to their new school space. Visual aids such as classroom rhymeboards or numberschart can help kids to recognize new vocabulary.  

Emotions:

Recognizing and expressing emotions are difficult for the preschooler. That said, an accompanying visual aid can add another layer to the learning. By using a poster that features faces showing different feelings or individual pictures of kids who are clearly happy, sad, angry or frustrated can help preschoolers to recognize and point out specific feelings during emotional times. You can also get creative and create personalized emotions of the child using customizable expressions cards.

Encourage Social Behaviour:

It's not always easy for preschoolers to remember how to treat everyone kindly all of the time. While preschoolers/kindergarten kids are gaining skills when it comes to making friends and understanding that other people have feelings too, it's also perfectly normal for a young child to have trouble sharing or taking turns. Photos, or drawings and illustrations, of kind acts such as helping a friend who is hurt or sharing a toy can serve as lessons on pro-social behaviors.

Importance of Teaching Aids:

No child today enjoys a class where there seems to be one-way communication. Activities, fun, audio-visual aids are all different factors that play an important role in Teaching- Learning process. Here are a few advantages:

1) Motivation

Teaching aids motivate the students so that they can learn better. They show more interest when they have aids they can touch, feel and look at.

2) Clarification

While children may come up with various doubts, through teaching aids, the teacher can clarify the subject matter more easily using such aids.

3) Increase the Vocabulary

Teaching aids helps to increase the vocabulary of the students more effectively. When they see a word quite often, they tend to learn it quicker.

4) Classroom Live and active

Nobody likes a sleeping classroom. Teaching aids make the classroom live and active. They encourage participation. Kids are more likely to participate better in a class making use of visual aids.

5) Direct Experience

Teaching aids provide direct experience to the students. They don’t just see the aid but can also engage in activities using those aids and leaves them with a lasting impression.

Written by Fathima Khaja

5 Successful Preschool/Kindergarten Classroom Management Techniques

As preschoolers and kindergartners are introduced to a classroom setting and encouraged to develop socially, teachers can expect to come across temper tantrums, verbally and physically aggressive or violent behavior or disinterest to stay back in school among their students. While some behavioral issues in your preschool classroom can be resolved with a simple reminder of classroom expectations, love, care and understanding, others can require a much broader approach.

Preschool/kindergarten teachers know that when you’re faced with a room full of three- and four-year-old, clear expectations and routines are vital if teaching and learning are going to happen. As a teacher, it may be your job to introduce the students to concepts such as working in groups, being respectful while others are talking, and cleaning up after themselves. In order to make the children's introduction to school a positive one, you will need some basic classroom management skills and the ability to be flexible. What is important to understand is that, what works for one teacher will not always work for another.

Here are a few classroom management techniques that may work well, encouraging students to come back the next day and engage in interesting activities.

Class Attendance:

The best way to begin your students’ day is with an engaging activity as soon as they walk through the classroom door. Implementing a sign-in activity each day will help you take stock of the children as they are dropped off each morning. It will give you the chance to personally greet each child as well.

This idea may also encourage them to come in early and put up their name on the board before anyone else does. This encourages them to be on time and also make sure they come to school each day so that their name needn’t be on the ‘Absent’ list.

Classroom Helper Charts:

Allowing young children to feel like they are ‘in-charge’ gives them a great sense of empowerment. Having classroom helper each day takes the burden off the teacher and places responsibility on the child. Children who feel empowered are more likely to enjoy school and take more academic risks.

One of the goals of any good early childhood program is to teach independence, by allowing the students to be in control for the entire day they feel incredibly empowered and independent. Having a chart with the various responsibilities and the child’s picture next to it encourages them. Some of the jobs of the leader include calendar helper, pushing in chairs, turning on and off the lights, leading the line, monitoring the class and a lot more.

Pictorial Classroom Schedule:

Children learn best when they are comfortable in their surroundings and they know what to expect next. Creating a visual schedule can help children understand time management. Students will also learn to anticipate what comes next. Making a visual schedule may even put an end to the question, "What’s next?"

It can be the same schedule for a week or a different one for each day. Having each activity represented by a picture and the word on a chart will give your students a visual reminder of what is happening or is going to happen in class.

Classroom Rules Chart:

It is important to have visuals in an early childhood classroom as a reminder of the rules.  Post the rules chart on the wall in several locations throughout the classroom at the children’s eye level so they can refer to it when necessary. The more they look at it, the more it reminds them of the rules. At the beginning of the year, on the very first day, review the rules carefully as a group. Also it is extremely important to keep all classroom rules positive, make sure you have not included the word ‘don’t’ in any of the rules.

Take Home Book Program:

Research has proven that reading aloud daily is one of the most effective ways parents can help their children become successful readers. Unfortunately, many parents do not know how to effectively engage their children in a read aloud. This program can encourage parents to be a part of their student’s education which will in turn encourage and motivate the child to learn better.

•           Provide the parents of your students with step-by-step directions to make reading aloud to their children a positive and productive experience.

•           Communicate exactly what you want parents to do when reading aloud so they will be more likely to read to their children on a consistent basis.

Written by Fathima Khaja

Motivation – The key to Better Learning

One of the most difficult traits of being a teacher is learning how to understand and motivate your students to learn. If there is one thing we know all about children, it’s that they have a very short attention span. That being said, if kids are not motivated well enough and made to believe that leaning is fun and enjoyable, even the best teacher, lessons, books, and activities in the world won't get them excited about learning.

Students who are not motivated will not learn efficiently. They won’t retain information and they won’t be willing to participate in class activities and discussions. Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a key factor in the success of students. Be it preschool, primary/high school or college – teachers can play a crucial role in providing encouragement and motivation to their students. Every child is different. A child may lack enthusiasm for a variety of reasons. Either they have no interest in the particular subject or they don’t find the teaching methods engaging or they may be distracted by various other external factors.

Everyone struggles to be motivated at some point. When you see your students in that place, try some of these fun ways to engage and enliven your class. Even some of the most experienced teachers sometimes lack the skills to keep get all their kids on track, so whether you're a new teacher or an experienced one, try using these methods to motivate your students and encourage them better. Here are few ways you can get the excited about learning.

Praise Students Whenever You Can:

Good job, excellent, great work, looks amazing – kids always love to hear positive words especially from their teacher. To them, the teacher is a know-it-all person and when he/she utters a word of praise, it encourages them and makes them feel like they have accomplished something great. It is an exciting feeling to be appreciated. So recognize some good work in your class and appreciate them loud and clear. Occasionally, organize awards in your classroom and see the difference it has on kids.

Spread Enthusiasm Like a Bug:

Be well prepared for your class. Do not just talk to your student through the class. Show your enthusiasm in the subject and use appropriate activities and materials to support your teaching. Adding fun activities can help students who struggle to stay engaged and make the classroom a much friendlier place for all students. The simple act of explaining what they’re learning out loud will help them understand and remember it better.

Create Leadership Classroom Jobs:

Students love to hold a leadership position or a special task they are in-charge of, in class. They like to feel they are the chosen one. Have classroom jobs like class monitor; update the daily calendar, cleaning the boards, group activity leader and a lot more to encourage them to reach for it. Use a specific criterion of your choosing, and communicate it to them. This motivates them to work harder in order to grab the classroom job. Also give them the opportunity to pick the job of their choice for a week.

Engage students and encourage participation:

It is important to remember every students name in class. Make sure you interact with them by calling out to them. While citing examples, use names from among students as this helps in seeking the attention of the entire class. Maintain eye contact with your students regularly. It helps them feel like they are acknowledged for being around. Rather than restricting yourself to the front of the class, move around quite frequently and ask questions to inspire students to come forth with ideas and feedback. 

What are some of the ways that you motivate your students? Share it with us in the comments section below!

Written by Fathima Khaja

What if this was in your Playschool ceiling?

This is the creative brilliance of an inspired teacher. What are you waiting for? Go on. Get Creative.

A Creativity Workshop for KG and Preschool Teachers!!

Birth of creatiWITTY

It took just 48 hours for us to name our new initiative - an exclusive workshop for KG and preschool teachers. From scores of options we had, we finally settled down for creatiWITTY. But to create the logo it took more than 100 hours with a few rounds of changes of value adds. We shortlisted the best 6 logos and finally chose the ultimate logo came the closest to the core essence we wanted to communicate through our logo - 'creativity through play imagination, experiment and fun.'

Previewing the best 6 logos...