thinkingschool-blog

[thinkingschool-blog]

The problem is that we assume that children are empty slates, and that we need to teach them everything. But it's not true. We are good at self-learning. Read more at "why my son loves google? (http://blog.miyav.in)

Read Quote of Manikandan S Thirumal's answer to Education: What would it take to revolutionize the Indian education system? on Quora

#google #student #children #parents #khan acadmy #wikipedia #teacher #talent identification

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Be Smart Online - Protect Your Children

Guest Post By Rita Rova

Among all the threats lurking on the World Wide Web, the ones to our children are the worst kind. Your child may witness adult content, share inappropriate data, or in the worst case scenario fall victim to a paedophile. In order to protect your child’s online experience, you need to be aware of all the strategies available today.

  An aggressive policy in restricting your child’s access to the Internet may result in a build up of frustration and outbursts of anger which could affect multiple aspects of the child’s life. As devices with Internet access are readily available everywhere today, it is not only a bad idea to forbid your child from using the Internet, it is also absolutely impossible. A successful protection campaign involves many different aspects that should be taken into account.

  First of all you need to discuss the situation with your child; they should understand why they need to be protected and why you have installed limitations to their use. After all, when you tell them to brush their teeth every night, you explain why it is important, don’t you? Children, though not as knowledgeable as adults, are also logical beings and need to understand the reasoning behind life occurrences. You do not need to use any words that would make you or your child uncomfortable – simply explain that there are some bad people online who pretend to be someone else in order to cause harm to your family. It is simple enough to understand and may contribute a great deal to your child’s safety, now that they are a bit more careful about who they communicate with. The discussion is the most important action you need to take as you can protect your children at home, but they would have to be responsible anywhere else they use the Internet.

  What you can do at home is first consider the position of the computer. It is preferable that it is located in a common room, such as the living room, where an adult is present at all times. This way you, the other parent, or relatives may supervise the child’s online experience without appearing like you are prying too much.

  Secondly, show interest in your child’s online activities. Sit with them every once in a while, ask them which chat rooms they use, which social networks they have signed up for, what kind of games they play, etc. When you know which websites the child usually visits, you can more easily spot differences in the future.

  There are plenty of parent control tools provided by browsers, Internet providers and software developers. They can all implement safeguards to prohibit the child from entering an undesirable website and provide you with information about the child’s activities. Each solution, of course, offers varying degrees of protection, so you need to carefully evaluate what exactly are your child’s needs.

  Make time to go through the child’s email and various website accounts. Do it once a week, every couple of days, or however often you deem it necessary. If your child is receiving alarming emails or messages you can take action to prevent future contact. You should also carefully examine the phone bills every month to see if any unfamiliar or suspicious numbers have called your home, or your child.

  Be aware that as your child is growing, the strategy will need to be altered accordingly. Always inform yourself about new popular technologies used as you cannot protect your child from something you don’t understand.

Protecting children online is a difficult task, but with enough information and with these basic steps in mind, you should be able to ensure your children’s safety.

 About Author

Rita Rova writes technology articles for LoveMyVouchers.co.uk; the UK voucher code website that helps you purchase protection software for your PC for less. 

#children #online #parenting #protection software

[thinkingschool-blog]

An elite School which asks it's students not to come daily

The Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty was a national hero for his success as both a statesman and military leader. But despite his fame, power, and wealth, he considered himself a humble and devout Buddhist. Often he visited his favorite Zen master to study under him, and they seemed to get along very well. The fact that he was prime minister apparently had no effect on their relationship, which seemed to be simply one of a revered master and respectful student. One day, during his usual visit, the Prime Minister asked the master, "Your Reverence, what is egotism according to Buddhism?" The master's face turned red, and in a very condescending and insulting tone of voice, he shot back, "What kind of stupid question is that!?" This unexpected response so shocked the Prime Minister that he became sullen and angry. The Zen master then smiled and said, "THIS, Your Excellency, is egotism."

Best way to learn something  is not by having it explained  to you, but experiencing it yourself, first-hand. The beauty about it is no need to force the learner, no need to repeat and no need to test it whether one learned it or not.

      Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India  attempted a novel method in learning. Instead of teaching about child labour, it asked it's student to be a child labour for a day. They have done what millions of child from poor families does every day, making incense sticks with their hand.That experience profoundly impacts children to vigorously ask the owners of establishments, shops to stop employing children. Similarly they learn about plight of poor by being with poor and selling their products in streets. Big Picture Schools in USA followed an interesting process. They asked it's middle school students to stop coming for school for two days in every week. Instead they assigned internship for it's students in various organizations including nursing homes, restaurants, media studios, tourism bureaus,corporate finance departments. They were instructed with a specific mandate of identifying and solving significant problem in place where they did internship. At the end of the term, all students asked to present their work (in more than one form, including videos, demo, user interviews, photos and written reports to Jury consisting of Teachers and experts. Teachers were unanimous in their view that this students might not have proposed great solutions, but they had very deep understanding about the topic they chosen, which in turn spills into immense gain in knowledge in various science, maths and social concepts. By immersing school students in professional work related to their interests, internship program promote skills and knowledge necessary for achieving life and career goals.

It may not be possible to experience every concept in science & social science domains, but a thinking principal in a progressing school can design process to make a every student to experience powerful concepts. Remember the words of Howard Gardner, renowned thinker & researcher on Educational methods, "We have this myth that the only way to learn something is to read it in a textbook or hear a lecture on it. And the only way to show that we've understood something is to take a short-answer test or maybe occasionally with an essay question thrown in. But that's nonsense. Everything can be taught in more than one way. And anything that's understood can be shown in more than one way."

#Gardner #Big Picture Schools #experiential learning #internship #multiple intelligence #projects #schools #students

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He may fail in IIT entrance, but he can .....

At the age of 13, Aidan Dwyer from Long Island, New York has built a novel design solar panel for increasing the efficiency of solar cells by applying the biological principles of how a tree captures maximum sunlight. At this age, you can visualize leadership and thinking skills of the Aidan Dwyer.

What he has done is not a mind-boggling invention. Neither had he mastered the high school physics and mathematics. Probably, he may fail in our high standard JEE entrance for IITs. But he has thinking skills, he solves practical problems. He is the innovator, and he is a thought leader. He can solve people’s problems. Ultimately, that is what drives America and the world. That is what leadership is about. Remember, to solve practical problems in any field, it requires a leader, who thinks creatively, who sees the patterns and brings original solution. Let us not confuse that skill with solving arithmetic problems in mathematics and science. Neither it is nothing do to with how many shields you own in Quiz competitions.

Now as a parent, I want my son to become like him, showing interest in something at early age, not necessarily in science/technology. Whatever field he chooses, he should be a thinker. Now what should I do about this? Shall I leave it to that fate that leaders and original thinkers/innovators are born in, not trained? No. I always believe the education should be all about training him how to think, how to experiment, collaborate and create, apart from training in basic language and arithmetic skills. Somehow that is missing in our school system. We stop just giving set of knowledge, which was documented decades ago. We are happy that by testing how much knowledge our child grasped out of delivered. Some board exams even not bother about how much students understood, rather it will test how much you can recollect. Somehow we never train them to question existing schema, never train them to create knowledge.

As a parent, least we can give is giving opportunities to create, encourage them to do experiments and push them to explore on their own.

#Adian Dwyer #best schools #children #IIT #innovation #JEE entrance #parents #solar cells

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Why monkeys are not becoming humans now?

That was a beautiful question, asked by 11-year-old boy, when I conducted a workshop on creative thinking at a school. It took some time for me to get an answer for this question. The boy who asked the question will understand better about the evolution, because there is process/thirst for knowing the answers in his mind. During first thirty minutes of the session in our workshop, students were tight lipped, not interacting much. However, the moment they sense that I was not treating like their teachers, they interacted more and more freely. When they feel that, someone is talking with them like a friend, they feel at ease and two-way communications starts. Even then, a lot of students answered with text book answers, where they could have answered with common senses. It’s because teachers want answers from the text book.

We conducted a small test to find how many students are original thinkers and how they think creatively. One of the questions asked was to list out parts, which are present in Mobile phone and cycle. I thought they will figure out things such as metals, plastic. But one boy surprised me with an answer of “bell/ring”. He told both have alarm bells. Such is the creative thinking in young children. But sadly, our schools never give the opportunity for students to think, to solve real problems, to learn by their natural curiosity. Rather, they go for pushing vast and outdated knowledge to children’s mind irrespective of caring about their interest and curiosity.

When I conducted a similar workshop in the next time at a school, I observed same pattern. Students were never experiencing a two-way communication between teacher and students. Students were given continuous authoritative orders, as if they have no mind. I think, as parent and teachers, to cover up our failure to provide an environment, which stimulates their curiosity and engages them creatively, we simply pass the authoritative order  to compel them to do something which they don’t like. In a world, where technology generated a decade ago becomes obsolete and information and knowledge on everything is available at the click of the mouse, we need to find new roles for schools. Current schools are designed in an era, where access to information and knowledge is hard and controlled by few institutions. But today knowledge is created and disseminated with active participation of a vast number of people. Wikipedia is the fine example of such an effort. We need to prepare the children in how to connect with the practical world, how to select and critically use the knowledge resources. Most importantly, we need to prepare to a student to question existing knowledge and systems. However, this will never happen, if we keep killing their confidence and curiosity by just pushing “syllabus” and evaluating and stamping the students based on marks/grades in the exam from that “syllabus."

#child's creativity #evolution #humans #mobile phone #students #syllabus #teachers #thinking tools #wikipedia #workshop

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Introducing internet to children- 7 best tips for parents

it took some time for all of us, to find out the best ways to use internet for our personal and professional life. But when my uncle asked to teach his son on how to use internet, I was not prepared. It took some time for me to compile and tell. Based on that interaction, here are the top seven ways you can teach to your child on how to use internet..

Read more at miyav hubpages here

#computer #internet #technology

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Which is the best school for my child?

  School admission process for next academic year starts now. For the next two months, parents will be anxious as they toil in getting admission form, collecting relevant admission procedures and ensuring a seat in best school in the city. Though lot of schools offer now admission forms through websites, still majority of the schools comfortable in issuing physical admission forms. All over the web, you can find queries like “which is best schools in Chennai”, “Top schools in Bangalore”, “Which is best school in Hyderabad”. Every parent wants to give best education to chid, so they want to put their child in best schools in the city. But how does one compile the best schools list? Obviously probable list starts with schools in vicinity of the house. But there are parents who are willing to send their child to any distance to the best school he believes. A careful look at the parent’s discussions in the web forums gives me the idea that parents consider the following parameters before finalizing the top three/four targets.

1. Existing “brand value” of the school (for example Chettinad Viyasharam, PSBB in Chennai, DPS, NPS schools in Bangalore make into top without any analysis/doubts in most of the parents).

2. Academic rigour

3. Range of extracurricular activities 

4. Facilities and infrastructure

 5. Student-teacher ratio

In all these analyses, parents completely misses most important question. Instead of concentrating on the question of “what is the best school for child?” they should put more emphasis on “how do I bring best in my child”. Schooling is just one aspect in learning, character development, skill and talent refining. Best foundation for exploring life laid not only in schools but in home environment, extended family circle, neighbourhood society, after school activities. Instead of thinking that I had put in best school so his education will be taken care, good parents always conscious of providing opportunities/environment that stimulates child passion in some field. Infect there is a higher chance that the child find best mentor/teacher in after school activities, since these programs are conducted in informal friendly environment with fewer children than the threatening environment of schools. One of my colleagues, both are working, put their children in the best school in the city, but the schools insists on sending children by 2.30 PM. So they put them in a day care centre, where the lady in charge simply put the TV on charge to keep children “active”. Then they have tough time in finding another “best day care centre”. So let’s not outsource learning to schools? Instead keep asking “which are the best schools in Mumbai” keep reminding yourself “how to bring best in my child”, because children are not empty boxes to fill with bookish knowledge rather they are active learners by themselves. So let’s provide opportunities for them to discover their passion.

#after school activities #best schools #best schools in chennai #best schools in hyderabad #chettinad vidyasharam #day care centre #DPS #kids #national public school #parents #passion #pssb #school admission #teacher #top schools in bangalore

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What did parents of Edison, Gates and Ambani do to their kids?

Yesterday my wife asked my five year old son to take a bath. Usually he fills the water in the bucket and using mug he pour it overhead. But yesterday is not one of those days. He filled the water in another wide round bucket and went inside. My wife got annoyed and started scolding for next five minutes. She could not accept the fact the he is not doing what he supposed to do. When we grow up, our mind accustomed to habits and we do what is “standard operating procedures” of life. But children are not like that. For them every day, every event and everything are new. They like to explore every moments in life, whereas we live our life under clutches of our mind and common perceptions set by the society.

But great parents never allow perceptions set by the society/“standard operating procedures” of life come in way of providing best opportunities for their children. When the school teacher told Edison’s mother that her son is not fit for learning, she never accepted that perception. Instead she believed that there could be better way of teaching for her child and she did exactly that. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint."

Bill Gates was confronting teenager.  Her mother struggled to control him as his son rebelled over everything, a normal syndrome with high energetic and intelligent teenagers. What his parents quickly did was amazing. They afforded the young Bill Gates, independence unusual for a 13-year-old, allowing him to take off at night to use the computers at the University of Washington. He spent a lot of time away from home, living in Washington, D.C., as a congressional page. Once they saw his passion on computers, his parents allowed him to take a break from school his senior year to work as a programmer. What Bill Gates’s parent did was, believing in their son’s ability not following the conventional procedures.

These are words from Mukesh Ambani. “Our own childhood was totally different. I guess when you are left on your own, you find your true potential. I remember my father never came to our school even once. Nevertheless, he was hugely interested in our all-round development for which he did some amazing things”. Dhirupai Ambani, father of Mukesh Ambani hired a private teacher for his children but not for academic. The teacher took them to difference places in Mumbai to expose them to different strata of people, environment. He took him to villages for camping, travelled together with them in buses, trains where they can see the life of ordinary people. “These experiences have helped us a lot, but at that time, we were not very aware of all the learning that was going on. My father shared with me his passion for business and entrepreneurship from very early on. Even when I was in high school, I used to spend long hours at office on weekends” said Mukesh. There are parents who never share any details about their profession with their children, as if what they were doing is illegal. Sharing what one is doing is more important because it is real. It is in front of you.

In 1960s, in India, having daughters were considered liabilities, to be married off with hefty dowries. But Magsaysay awarded Kiren Bedi’s parents were different; they had a vision ahead of their time and defied convention in upbringing of their daughters. They believed in giving their girl children the best of the education which was not right thing to do at that time. So was Biocon founder, Kiran Mazumdar’s father. He defied the common perception to ask her daughter to pursue a profession same like her brothers. So the history is full of parents, who defied the convention to make their kids into stars.

Courtesy: MoneylIfe mazagine: For Mukesh Ambani Interview Excerpts

#Bill Gates #children #Edison #Kiren Bedi #Mukesh Ambani #parents #upbringing

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Why my son is not watching TV? Top 3 secrets

Initially I was not conscious about this fact. Now it is known to everybody in my family and circle that my son rarely watches TV. Occasionally he demands me to put National geographic or Discovery Channel and that to hardly three to five hours per week. I don't know whether it can be purely attributed to my parenting style. However compared to his friend’s, neighbour’s parents, something we have done differently that might have changed his behaviours.

Now let me describe what he does. In the evenings after he come from school, he opens his big container having old broken toys. I had given him a complete screw driver set to open the toy's outer cover, fix any moved parts. So most of the times, his time goes on disassembling or assembling things. This may be one hour time sped on few days.

Then there are lots of activity, picture and colouring books to spend time. This is a good time pass and most of time; he asks doubts about the name of the animals or some details about the pictures. With assembling boxes or kind of toys, once he finished some work, he usually takes picture of his work with the Nikon coolpix camera I had given. The more you trust him, better he handles the delicate items.

Then there are friends for him to play outside and also he brings friends to play with his books and toys. And he asks me to play games, kind of educational non serious games, I collected. And he just switches over to one activity to another on his own.

So what are the things I did to bring this behaviour? First thing is we never watch TV for more than five to six hours per week. Especially if my son is there, I asked my wife simply not watch movies, bolywood songs. As a family, we watch together National geography, Discovery. My wife used to put those cartoon channels, whenever he refuses to eat. But then given the language and kind of stories shown in cartoon channel, we simply stopped putting those channel. I can tell you that it's parents TV channels; watching time determines child's behaviour.

Second factor is providing what kind of learning environment in the house. Lot of parents in pursuit of keeping good looking room, simply put books, toys, cameras and similar other things in tightly locked cupboards. We rather put all those things in working tables, floors so that everything is infront of him. So he took them without asking anybody. Lot of parents over look this. Often I see, only remote control in the centre table. Obviously a child uses what is in front of him.

Third factor is how you spend money for your child. In Coimbatore, hardly people visit Odyssey book store. But go to any restaurant, number of families is multiples of those in book store. I regularly visit to stores with my son, and often he chooses what he wants. So he has the interest to play with the things he bought. In tier towns, parents often spend more money simply by putting in best schools, but hardy they any money for learning aids in outside formal schooling system. It is strong belief that schools are only learning places. Given the way, our curriculum and spoon fed teaching, I believe that child's future life is decided in how the home is.

#activity books #better parenting #child activities #kids programms #toys #TV watching

[thinkingschool-blog]

What story should I tell today?

  Night times are always fun for my son. But for me, it's gives me kind of mental challenge, as I need to generate new and interesting stories every day. You can't repeat the stories of yesterdays, as he promptly reminds me that it is already told.

But why do children like stories so much, while adults didn't found any interest in kids stories. I had observed that whenever I told him very interesting stories, a kind of mystery feelings surrounds him. I think children enjoy that feeling. I also observed that when I show the same story in video format, that feeling is missing. I think  story telling gives him space in mind to imagine and construct his own image as opposed to story videos which compels the senses to observe only what is shown. 

Now let me come to problem of storytelling for kids. First I started the habit for him by telling the simple stories, which I heard when I was young. But then problem started in two levels. One is finding new stories every day. Next one is the method and style of storytelling itself. Let me give some idea of how I am solving the problem of finding new stories for my child.

Internet is surely good place to find stories. Google says on average 1.2 million monthly searches done on its search engine to find children stories. Usually Akbar Birbal,Tenali Raman Series are handy for me. Yesterday I found this good one about pole stars. But problem is apart from time spending in searching, you have to devote time to read the stories. And then you have to remember them well. 

However I found that the method and style of narration is also important as finding new kids stories. When I first started, the story ended very fast, as i was just concentrating on sequentially telling the facts/events. It's because that's how we spend most of our day time. Then slowly I realized that you need to shift to different gear when you tell children stories. So I was narrating more about the places, scenarios where the story is happening like ever long, never ending mountains, thick forest, big fort, white horse. However real breakthrough came, when I invented characters like Rakkachi (Tamil equivalent of Asura), who can change in to any animal's appearance in day time). So every day Rakkachi becomes one animal and suffer some encounters. Once character is invented, then it becomes easy to narrate with logical events. But then there are some people who claim that storytelling can be a opportunity to educate some serious concepts. Hope I will put my hand in that and share it with you. As of now, for another month I think this Rakkachi can help me from storytelling blues.

#children short stories #children stories #children story #creativity #kids stories #storytelling

[thinkingschool-blog]

Five ways to bring a real star in your child

World famous author Malcom Gladwell wrote on his book “Outliers” that what makes Bill gates and Steve Jobs as star achievers from their peers, is the opportunity they got at very young age to practice a skill and pursue their passion.. No doubt that opportunity was consciously provided by their parents...As a proud father, here are my practical tips, I follow with my child to make him a star..

  Create a Learning  Environment

Identify your child’s unique talent/passion

Give emotional security than knowledge at early years

Best school in the city may not be best for your child

Success comes by exploration, trials, not by single exam

5_ways_to_bring.pptx Download this file

#activity books #best schools #better parenting #emotional support #genius people #kids #learning #miyav #miyav learning #parenting #schools #talent identification #www.miyav.in