Online Education Blog

Besides conducive teaching-learning situations, there are many other factors which influence the development of a child. Proper adjustments with surrounding environment that a student has to face on a daily basis both at outside and inside of the school is one of such major factors that can shape the life of a child.
By nature a child needs some psychological, biological and social needs to fulfill in order to maintain the mental and physical equilibrium and those needs vary at different stages of his life till adulthood. But when he can’t fulfill those needs (personal and social) due to various problems that might come on his way, he is lead to behave in an abnormal way which is being called maladjustment. Apparently, there are many reasons for the child to develop those harmful habits. Some might be due to disturbance at home, some due to peer-group pressure, school and teacher related or simply personal.
During my teaching career so far, I have come across quite few of those so called maladjusted students as it is not too difficult to mark out the differences between a well adjusted student from that of a maladjusted one. A well adjusted student always seems to behave in a balanced manner showing maturity in thinking and understanding others.
There are also numerous signs suggested by psychologists which I can follow to identify maladjusted children. Foremost among them is to observe how they behave in the classroom. A maladjusted student behaves awkwardly most of the times as he is withdrawn and shy in his nature. He is also very self conscious as he is there to prove something which might not be actually possible for him with the level of IQ that he possesses. But still he feels responsible to achieve that high aspiration which he was forced to develop for some reasons.
These children also are always charged emotionally. Some create tantrums that causes big headache for peers and teacher at school and family members at home. Some of them might get excessively aggressive. They tend to be very sensitive too and like to remain to themselves only.
Additionally, a child who can not adjust with the environment that surrounds him might also express his discomfort in many other ways. He might be very anxious, fearful, tensed and feel very insecure. Normally, he would suffer from inferiority complexes that force him to strive for higher achievements than he is capable of thus creating imbalance in his otherwise normal life. If so, he would also suffer from delusions or impractical thoughts and imaginations.
Personally, I would deal with these types of children with very delicate care. I think the most important thing to deal with them is to reach out to them and get as close as possible so that I would know what type of problem the incumbent is going through. In my view, except some family problems such as economic status of the family and so on, a teacher can really help maladjusted children to come to terms with life and adapt with the surrounding environments that exist around them. If they have personal problem, I would befriend them, act as a friend, philosopher, guide and show that everybody has some or the other problems of their own but still they carry on with their life and take those problems in their stride. An individual must learn to take both success and failures as it is part of life and one must remember that there is always success after any failure.
On the other hand if they have problems in adjusting with the society, I can definitely make them understand that man is a social animal and nobody can live outside society. So, I would have encouraged them to participate more in co-curricular activities both at the school and outside of it. I could also show them that through interactions with other members of the society, one can only learn from others that would enrich them more in knowledge and experience. I would also advise them to participate into interest specific peer-groups as those groups can really cultivate the creativity and imaginative talent that would have lied hidden within them otherwise.
The might also suffer from psychological problems such as emotional distress, temperamental disorders, fear or anxiety. If I find anybody having psychological problems, I would first try to know the root cause of the problem and then try to convince them to consult a psychologist. If still no result, I would inform their parents about their children having some problems and request them to look into the matters very delicately.
So, as I teacher I could play a great role in helping maladjusted children

This is summer-time again and time for some educational tours, learning via adventures and learning of new things - be it about new society or a new place or new cuisine or a new language. In short, it is a very important learning period for youths and teens. Here, I’ll discuss just few points on language learning.

Language summer camps are a real adventure for everyone involved. Teens just can’t get enough of it. Summer camps are not only great for students, but also for teachers who are looking for summer work and fun to fill their free time. Being a teacher in a summer camp requires different skills and a different approach compared to tutoring in regular language courses. The most important thing is that the learning process must be fun. Summer camps are very popular amongst students from 8 to 18 who are curious about the world around them, excited about new experiences and eager to enjoy every minute of their lives. That is why the language summer camps in interesting destinations offer countless possibilities for entertainment and adventure, all blended with a rewarding study of a language, usually in authentic ambiance. Teens who want to master the English language often choose an English summer camp USA because of the huge variety of different destinations in the country, programs and the environment of native speakers. What qualities does the perfect English teacher for a summer camp have, other than excellent language fluency?

- If you love working with children and express yourself in an easy to understand way, you have the most important quality to become a teacher.

- If you have creative ideas and extraordinary methods for teaching that grab students’ attention and motivate them to think and use their imagination, you are one step closer to the image of the perfect teacher for a summer camp. Camps have the main purpose to entertain children, the learning process is meant to be inspiring and interesting for students. Teachers just have to get under teens’ skin and show them that they will have a better understanding of the world around them if they master different languages.

- Empathy. If you want to be a brilliant teacher for a summer camp, you should be able to really understand students. Summer camps give much more than excellent language preparation for teens. During the programs, young people live separated from their families; they are put in new situations and meet people from different walks of life. While this is a really interesting experience, it can also be a bit difficult for some of the students to adjust to. A teacher is more than a language tutor. You will be a friend to the teens and will give them support and advice when needed. Teens gain maturity and grow as people. They learn how to explore new cultures and places, how to build a team, to live independently, to interact with different people. You, as their teacher, will be together with them during this process. Even more, the best teachers know how to blend the new experiences in the educational process together with fun so that the teens learn the language.

Summer camps are a wonderful opportunity for experienced teachers, as well as for college students, who are willing to work in this field. In camps, you will gain valuable experience of working with children from different ages and will learn for which group your skills and knowledge are the most appropriate.

In March, I posted here about the five assignments that I was to finish long before this day. It is another matter that I have not yet finished all of them.

But as you can see that there is one assignment (the last one) - ES-344 that is on TEACHING OF ENGLISH. In a vast and diverse country like India where more than 375 languages are spoken and the culture is so diverse - there must be a common language for office works and the British gifted  English.

However, I realized that  the theories of teaching English do not only imply on a single language but they are most common and useful for all other languages.

Many people believe that teaching foreign languages to students across the world can be challenging for teachers, and I definitely agree. The cultural sensitivity, the contrasts in basic understandings about gender rights, the way of thinking and values are specific to each continent, and even for each nationality. For that reason teachers, who tutor international students should be extra tolerant, understanding and patient in the learning process. The best case would be if the teacher is bilingual and masters the mother language of the student. However, this is not the most common situation in courses with international students, especially if the class consists of people from several different nationalities. The good communication between you, as a tutor and the students is the key to the success of the course. The teacher should find ways to get into the students’ shoes and try using their logic when understanding the grammar, the vocabulary and the pronunciation which will give him/her ideas as to which exercises and methods will be the most effective. There are several things I recommend you to do to prepare yourself to be a better teacher to international students.

- Browse some information about the culture and the social practices in the native countries of your students. This will help you to have a better picture and idea of what their world is like and how they communicate with each other. Students will appreciate your interest in their traditions and will be eager to show you interesting sides to their cultures. As a teacher you can support them in expressing themselves in the language you are teaching.

- Translation tools always help. Dictionaries, online translation instruments, tables and all kinds of materials in different languages are especially helpful for teachers and for students. Imagine you are teaching English to a class with students from Spain, but you don’t speak Spanish. The learning process will be much easier and smoother if you use tools for fast and precise Spanish translation. Dictionaries are a very good instrument, but not all of them are up-dated with the new words in certain languages. Therefore, my advice is for you and your students to take an advantage of the newest tools on the internet for translations.

- Be up-to-date with the newest teaching techniques and be flexible in using them. Students are different and you will be a better teacher if you have an individual approach for each person. It is especially valuable when teaching students from different walks of life.

Teaching to a multicultural class is an experience of lifetime. It will broaden your horizons and develop your skills and qualities as a teacher and as a person.

I have not posted here for quite sometime and my regular readers would know the reason behind it. I’m on my final few weeks of finishing all my assignments and once all of us submit our assignments, I’ll start publishing them part by part.

Today, I am just getting little bit personal and would like to let you know why I became a teacher and didn’t pursued other professions though I had little stint in the entertainment/service sector as an executive way back in 1997. So here we go…

I sometimes ask myself why I chose to be a teacher! Since kindergarten, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I was older, I always said, ¨I want to be a teacher¨. I don´t know exactly why or whether I was conscient that being a teacher is a tough job, but this idea stayed with me over the years and, step by step, became a reality.
We have all had a teacher in our lives, actually more than one. We even loved some of these, or hated them. Children are the ones who notice when a teacher does his/her job well, or when he/she has no aptitudes or capacities to teach the others. There are people designed for this career, who have teaching in their blood. Anyone can be called ¨teacher¨, but not everyone can be a ¨Teacher¨- in capitals, which means they are deserving respect and trust. And this is what I want to be, a Teacher.
I guess that my passion is caused by the fact that I realise that each of my students may become of value for this world, since they are the basic ingredients of a thriving community. This motivates me to achieve my professional goals - to send information and to hammer out personalities.
Being a teacher is much easier nowadays than it used to be. There are so many schools that offer Elementary Education degrees, that being a teacher is only one step away from you. One can even choose online degrees, and this means a lot of time is saved and, your desires are quicker to fruit. But before making a decision, you must realise that this job requires courage, confidence in a better future for your students, and being in a permanent search of new things; it requires innovation and discovery.
As far as I´m concerned, I think this is a very difficult profession, but a profession that also brings satisfaction. It´s about encouraging students´ attitude, so, if you are not handy with listening to others´opinions, your place is anywhere else apart from a school. Being a teacher means having in mind all the time that children undergo dramatic developmental changes and you are the one that has to guide them through this challenging and exciting time. The education that children receive from you can determine the outcomes they will experience as adults. So you have a big responsibility, but as hard as it is, it´s one of the most rewarding careers. Nothing calms me more than spending my time with children, being part of their lives, watching them creating, and on an endless quest for knowledge. Nothing pleases me more than knowing that I get the opportunity to develop the minds and attitudes of those who are the world´s future.