ASSETScope March 2016

The Monthly Newsletter

Issue 124 | March, 2016 | www.ei-india.com

Learn at the world’s top...

Jed-i Explore

COVER Story

Misconception Series

by Saga Briggs

Refuse to Be a Boring Teacher: 6 Ways to Have More Fun We’ve all had that teacher – the one who speaks in a monotone voice and reads aloud from the textbook. And we’ve all had the opportunity not be that teacher.

We’ve even had our moments, recognising that flash of interest in our students’ eyes, smiling as the bell rings because the energy is so high and no one wants the period to end. How do we extend these moments? How do we create an environment that keeps students stimulated and craving for more?

How do we have more fun?

One study of student boredom suggested that almost 60% of students find at least half their lectures boring, with about 30% claiming to find most or all their lectures boring.

“Although a range of factors may contribute to these findings, they do prompt the question of what it is about the learning experience that might be deemed ‘boring,'” says Dr Sandi Mann, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire.

Mann and her colleagues found that

students adopt a variety of strategies to cope with boring lectures. The most popular are daydreaming (75%), doodling (66%), chatting with friends (50%), sending texts (45%), and passing notes to friends (38%). Over a quarter of students leave the lecture in the mid-session break.

“This ‘class cutting’ is potentially the most serious consequence, since previous research has shown a link between attendance and grades.”

One of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent boredom is to have fun yourself. If you are having a good time, the chances are that your students are having a good time too.

How to Have More Fun Teaching 1. Discover new things together: It’s much more fun for both parties when students and teachers learn new things together.

Your job is, of course, to educate, but why can’t that process include the joy of shared discovery? Make it a point every day to let down your authoritative guard, humble yourself, and enjoy the lifelong

journey together–even if it’s just for a few minutes.

2. Incorporate mystery into your lessons: Learning is great fun when it’s surprising. Don’t just disseminate information; cloak it in mystery. Highlight the weird, the unusual, and the unique. Ask questions. Start with a curious detail that can only be addressed by diving into the background of the subject and thoroughly exploring it. Pose a mystery at the beginning of the course and let your students work towards solving it throughout the term.

3. Be goofy; show you care: Let loose; laugh; make fun of yourself.

Don’t worry about sacrificing your authority. In fact, the latest research says authority stems from showing you care about your students, and making them laugh and feel good is one way to do that.

4. Participate in projects: I had a creative writing professor at university who would bring his own material to class for the students to use at the workshop. It was great fun for all of us, and enjoyable for

him as well. Stepping down to our level and actually participating in an activity he assigned himself made us all more engaged in the task because he was willing to be a part of it.

5. Avoid “going through the motions”: If you feel yourself slipping into a rut, spending the same hours exactly the same way each day, stop and reassess your teaching process. It’s so easy to let it all become automatic, especially after twenty-plus years in the field, and to use the same lessons and techniques year after year with different students. But if it’s not fun for you, it won’t be fun for your students either. Make an effort to be fresh, try new things, take risks, make mistakes, enjoy the moment.

6. Flip your lessons: Flipping your lessons will help you avoid boring in-class activities. If students watch lectures or correct their own homework the night before, you can spend the course period focusing on deeper learning.

Everyone will appreciate the chance to reflect.

Source: http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/refuse-to-be-a-boring-teacher/(modified)

LEARN AT THE WORLD’S TOP UNIVERSITIES THIS SUMMER Educational Initiatives (EI) is excited to announce that some of the world's most renowned gifted learning institutes have joined forces with ASSET Talent Search to give academically talented students the best opportunities to enhance their potentials.

This association offers endless opportunities for the participants of ASSET Talent Search including the chance to partake in the residential summer enrichment programs and online courses offered by these institutes.

ASSET Talent Search now a gateway to Renzulli Creativity Program ASSET Talent Search is proud to announce that students participating in the talent search will now be able to apply for the Renzulli Creativity Program conducted at the University of Connecticut, USA. The program designed on Dr. Joseph Renzulli's work on gifted education, is a unique opportunity for participants to develop their 'Creative Productivity' to achieve higher levels of learning and creative thought.

What Is It About?

The program assists in developing 'Creative Productivity' by using Dr. Renzulli's instructional techniques to leverage student motivation and curiosity, to investigative, creative and entrepreneurial characteristics in student.

Who Qualifies?

Students scoring above the 80th percentile in the ASSET Talent Search, in any one of the subjects – English, Maths or Science, are eligible to apply.

Students are also required to be nominated by their teachers (the teacher will nominate them on the Renzulli Three Ring Conception of Giftedness requirement: Intelligence, Task commitment and Creativity).

Renzulli Creativity Program At University Of Connecticut USA The Renzulli Creativity Program conducted at the University of Connecticut in USA is a three-week summer enrichment program where participants across the globe come together to develop their creative thought by developing unique solutions to real-life problems related to their selected area of study.

Benefits of Attending • Heightened levels of creativity • Increased academic performance • Higher test scores • Broader thinking and creative problem solving skills • Enhanced visual, oral, written, construction, performance and presentation abilities • Heightened research, collaborative, teamwork and leadership skills • Evolve to producers of knowledge from consumers of knowledge

For more information on ASSET Talent Search, write to us at talentsearch@ei-india.com

Applications for the Program begin from February 15, 2016 To April 30, 2016.

For more information on The Renzulli Creativity Program, visit: http://lpilearning.org/renzulli-creativity-program/

Jed-i Explore Today, many parents with global aspirations seek exposure to their children beyond standard textbook content. Explore is the first such program in India to foster curiosity and imagination among high school children. Above all, students enjoy what they learn. We believe this joy is a very important aspect of the development of a child.

Explore emphasises new age survival skills by focusing on mathematical, algorithmic, and logical reasoning, along with exposure to programming and hands-on building. The program complements - school learning.

Explore has already run multiple batches successfully, covering students from more than 20 schools in Bangalore.

The main benefits from the program are 1. They enhance their problem solving skills.

2. They learn the need for patience in solving challenging problems.

3. They learn how to approach a new subject.

Jed-i was co-founded by Dr. V Vinay, former professor of Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science. Dr. Vinay co-invented the Simputer and was awarded st the 1 Dewang Mehta Award for Excellence in Information Technology. He has also been a recipient of the C. V. Raman Award by the Karnataka Government. He is actively involved with the Indian National Olympiad in Informatics. He has been a past President of the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science.

We are starting a fresh batch in April. The number of seats is limited as these sessions will be handled directly by Dr Vinay. For more details, please call 09686700188 or visit our website at http://explore.jed-i.in. Registrations close by Wednesday, March 16th.

MISCONCEPTION Series Scientific literacy & Scientific methods The time shown in the clock is

D. 7.6%

Q

Class 3: Scicence

C. 28.8% No. of students P 22399 A

between 2 and 3 in the afternoon

B

between 9 and 10 in the morning B. 13.8%

between 2 and 3 in the afternoon or in the night C P D

between 9 and 10 in the afternoon or in the night

1 Why was the question asked in ASSET test?

Only 28.8% answered correctly

4

In clocks, since there are only 12 hours, a 24 hour day needs the clock to run two complete cycles of the hour hand to record time.

This question was designed to test whether students will apply this logic and figure out that the clock could be showing time for the afternoon as well as the night.

2

How do we handle this?

•

Students need to be shown how the hands of the clock move throughout the day. This can be done by showing them a fake clock whose hands can be moved. This clock can then be used for teaching as well as assessment. Start by asking them what time the students wake up and then run them through the day, while changing the hands on the clock to match the time. Draw their attention to how the hands are moving.

•

After discussing what they do during the day, tell them a story about a little girl of their age and describe a normal day in her life. Move the hands of the clock according to the story.

•

When it reaches the point where the character in the story goes to sleep, ask students what will happen to the clock.

Point out to the students that the clock runs on a battery and that there usually is no On/Off switch on it and thus, the clock runs all the time without stopping.

•

Let the students give instructions on movement of the hands of the clock while the girl in the story is asleep. Investigate students' thoughts on how the clock moves and how the next day begins. If students are not aware of how many hours make up a day, provide them with the information.

•

It might be confusing for students to understand that midnight is the beginning of the next calendar day, but they should realize that as the hours pass, it will become the next day. At this point, link the hours of the day to the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

•

Encourage students to keep track of the time during the day starting from 6 in the morning, if possible.

What did students answer?

29% of the students answered this correctly, whereas 45% chose the wrong answer, A. Possible reason for choosing A: Students have probably never woken up at this time of the night to check the time and have always associated a quarter to 3 as some time during the afternoon.

Possible reason for choosing B: These students are probably confusing the minute and the hour hands of this clock and think that the time is 9:15. However, they are choosing this option over option D, which suggests that they think 9:15 is a time only observed in the morning.

Possible reason for choosing D: Few students have chosen this option and are probably making a random guess.

3

A. 44.5%

Learnings Students start learning to read time by class 2. However, even in school, their concept of time usually depends very strongly on their school time-tables or what adults think they should do at a particular time. As a result, although they have been equipped with the skills to read clocks, most children probably don't find the need to do so.

Students are expected to keep in mind that a day has 24 hours whereas the clock shows the time for only 12 hours and hence, there will be two sets of each hour in a day, i.e. 6 o'clock will occur twice and so on.

For more information on ASSET, write to us at info@ei-india.com

TEACHER’s Zone Errata: A question in our Class 5 Social Studies ASSET Paper (U round – Q. 12) had an error about the mountain peak K2. We have corrected it in the online and future versions as follows: Shown here is the world's second highest peak K2 (8,600 metres from sea level) located in the northern most part of India.

However one of India’s neighbouring countries also claims the area. Which one?

A. Nepal B. Bhutan C. Pakistan D. Bangladesh

The ASSET registration for 2016-17 has begun. For registration please call us on the toll free number: 1800-102-8885 or write to us at * info@ei-india.com.

Bookpost

Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd. A-201, Baleshwar Square, Opp. ISKCON Temple, S.G. Highway, Ahmedabad-380015 Phone : 91-079-66211600 Fax : 91-079 66211700 Email : info@ei-india.com Website : www.ei-india.com

We would like to receive your feedback on the contents of ASSETScope and the activities of EI. Please send your comments / opinions / suggestions to bindu@ei-india.com, assetscope@ei-india.com or to the postal address mentioned on the left. This is a platform meant for you and it would be great to exchange ideas with you.