8 Proven Ways to Grab Your Pupils’ Attention

One of the greatest challenges teachers face in their classroom work is that of grabbing the pupils' attention. This is because, except a child's attention is captured, every other effort made in teaching that child would be tantamount to wasting a precious time. Hence, great teachers think and take this area seriously.

The following are some of the proven ways to do it according to Ms Jacinta Chidozie, who is a professional in the field:

Move Around

One of the simplest ways to grab your pupils’ attention is to simply walk around the classroom. All the time, stand next to pupils if you see them reach for objects to cause distractions. Move to the back of the classroom. Pupils need to feel that there is no place for them to hide and slack off while you teach.

Loose the Structure

Too many pupils are accustomed to a specific classroom setup. The best students sit in the front. The shier ones sit in the back where they “hide”. Do away with these physical constraints! Have them all sit in a circle on the floor. Or arrange their desks in a circle. Shake them out of their accustomed structure, and they will pay attention. For they won’t know what comes next.

Eliminate Routines

And speaking of not knowing what comes next… Pupils may wander more easily when they know what to expect and what will happen next. They come in and sit down. You ask them if they did their homework. You tell them to open their books. But what if instead of beginning the class the way you usually do, you do something completely unexpected? What if you show them a video first? They’ll certainly be intrigued!

Make them More Active

Have them do what you would ordinarily do. Have a pupil write on the board, have another hand out worksheets, and yet another help a classmate with something they don’t understand.

Divide and Conquer

Pupils are forced to focus when they can’t hide within a larger group. Divide the class into pairs or small groups for some activities. Walk around and assist as needed.

Play with Your Voice

Change your tone of voice as often as you can. Whisper something, then SAY IT LOUD. (Ever see students jump out of their seats?) Use different accents if you can, I highly recommend it. Pupils get a real kick out of it, and it really makes them listen up.

Use Props

Grab a small, soft ball. Ask a question and toss the ball to a pupil. Prompt him/her to answer your question. Have them throw the ball back to you and choose your next target. Who will be next? They won’t know! Use balls, hats, toys, anything and everything that will make a drilling session more interesting and dynamic.

Surprise Them!

Have a box with the word “Box of Randomness” written on the side. Inside the box have pieces of paper with a variety of actions and things your class will have to do. At any given time during the class, whip out the box and have a student take out a piece of paper that will state something that he/she or the entire class will have to do. You may want to save this box for when you see someone not paying attention. Here are some ideas for your Box of Randomness:

“Pop quiz!” – the entire class has to take a graded pop quiz on a recent topic.

“Random dancing” – play a tune from your phone and have the entire class stand up and dance.

“Your turn to teach” – the student who takes this slip of paper has to stand up in front of the class and teach something/ask the others questions/lead a discussion.

You can have lots of fun with your Box of Randomness, and it’s a great “penalty” for not paying attention.

It may be a hard truth to swallow but when you see your pupils’ minds wandering, there’s something you are neglecting to do.

By Ms Jacinta Chidozie

She is a seasoned and professional educationist with a proficiency on teacher-pupils engagement. A highly celebrated queen in her chosen career with a quest for personal and professional development. You can contact her through her personal email: jacintachidozie@yahoo.com

Microsoft Office Free Video Tutorials: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access

A listing of easy-to-follow full video tutorials on Microsoft Office prepared and developed by Sali Kaceli. Everything you need to know for your job in the corporate environment or classroom or personal career. 

These can give you an edge over your competitors for that job vacancy or your colleagues in office.

Windows 10 Tutorial: A Beginner's Comprehensive Guide of the New Windows 10 

Excel Tutorial: Learn Excel in 30 Minutes - Just Right for your New Job Application 

PowerPoint 2016 Tutorial - A Complete Tutorial on Using PowerPoint - Full HD 1080P

Microsoft Access 2016 Tutorial: A Comprehensive Guide to Access - Part 1 of 2

Everything you need is here.

Credit to: Sali Kaceli

MAKE FREE MONEY IN NIGERIA

10 qualities that contribute to a successful and happy teaching career

What makes a successful teacher? 

If you were to ask any observer you may hear things like, the teacher kept the students engaged via unique teaching strategies, and the classroom basically ran by itself. But, if you were to ask a student, you’d probably hear a different response along the lines of “they make learning fun” or “they never give up on me.”

To be honest, there are countless teaching strategies you can use to achieve success in the classroom, but no matter the teaching style, the most effective teachers have one thing in common—they know how to reach their students in a long-lasting, positive manner.

Here are 10 qualities that contribute to a successful and happy teaching career:

1. Successful teachers hold high expectations of their students.

The most effective teachers expect their students to succeed, they believe in them, and motivate them to keep trying until they reach their goals. As a result, they set the bar high and create an environment where students can push themselves beyond their comfort zone to reach their goals, but also have a safety net to catch them if they fail.

2. Successful teachers have a sense of humor.

If you ask a student who their favorite teacher is, they are more than likely to tell you about the teacher that makes them laugh. They aren’t afraid to be silly and can laugh at their own mistakes. Humor helps create that lasting impression.

3. Successful teachers are knowledgeable in their field.

The best teachers are masters in their subject area. They know their craft and never stop learning. They are curious, confident, and do not need a textbook to teach their students. They stay abreast of their subject and transfer their love of knowledge to their students.

4. Successful teachers use teaching strategies that cause them to think outside of the box.

Productive teachers think creatively and try and make classroom experiences exciting for students. They identify ways to leap outside of the educational norms and create experiences that are unexpected, unique, and ultimately more memorable.

5. Successful teachers take risks.

A popular saying is, “If there is no risk, there is no reward.” Successful teachers know that risk-taking is a part of being successful. Children learn by observing, and when they see you try new things (and watch how you handle success and failure) they too will know how to handle similar situations.

6. Successful teachers are consistent.

Successful teachers are consistent in ALL that they do. Do what you say you’re going to do and stick with it. This applies to enforcing class rules, a consistent grading system, and the expectations for all your students. Do not play favorites or make special exceptions.

7. Successful teachers communicate with parents and students.

Effective teachers know that communication is the key to students' success. They create an open path of communication between parents and students, and recognize that a united front between both groups lowers the chance that children will get left behind.

8. Successful teachers are up-to-date with the latest in technology.

Great teachers take the time to explore new tools and stay up-to-date with latest technology. They are not afraid of what technology holds for education in the future, and are willing to learn and incorporate the new trends into their classroom.

9. Successful teachers make learning fun.

This goes hand in hand with having a sense of humor, but making learning fun doesn’t mean you have to put on a comedy show. Find ways to mix up your lesson plans based upon your students’ interests. When they see you putting in effort to get to know them and mold your teachings around their lives, the more successful you will become.

10. Successful teachers can empathize with students.

The best teachers are patient with students, and understand when they are under stress or have problems with material. They do whatever is necessary to get their students back on track, and are able to recognize that everybody has bad days.

If you’re looking to take the next step in your teaching career, you can learn a lot from what successful teachers do differently. Although it can be quite intimidating to think of all of the things we must do in order to reach our students, it is possible to master these skills one day at a time.

What do you think makes a successful classroom teacher? Feel free to share the qualities.

By Ms Dora Namatebe

She is a professional and trained educationist, with many years of classroom experience. You can reach her through her email @ doranamatebe1@gmail.com

5 Simple Steps to Creating a Stunning Infographics

What is Infographic?

An infographic (information graphic) is a representation of information in a graphic format designed to make the data easily understandable at a glance. People use infographics to quickly communicate a message, to simplify the presentation of large amounts of data, to see data patterns and relationships, and to monitor changes in variables over time. 

1. Select a story for your Infographic

This is the hardest part. What should your infographic be about? What is the core message you want to deliver? For us, this is a discovery process. There are two approaches:

Data driven approach – this is where you already have data and you want to tell the story based on your data. 

Problem/Question approach – this approach requires you to first think about the problem you’re trying to solve or the questions you’re trying to answer with your story.

2. Choose the type of Infographic to visualize your story

You’ve got your story. Now you have to choose the type of infographic you want to use. Wait, there are different types of infographics? In fact, there are loosely 10 different types of infographics. Before you roll your eyes, here are all 10 types:

Statistical Infographics – shows a summary or overview of data with one or more graphs, tables or lists.

Timeline Infographics (time-oriented) – shows progress of information over a chronological time period.

Process Infographics – demonstrates a linear or branching process as a how to, teaches the workings of an object or flow chart showing choices in a decision process.

Informational Infographics – are most likely a poster that summarizes topic with some extra bits of information.

Geographic Infographics – displays data with a location map.

Compare/Contrast Infographics – illustrates notable similarities or differences as a “this versus that” infographic or as a table or simple list.

Hierarchical Infographics – demonstrates a chart with levels.

Research-based Infographics –  similar to the statistical infographic, but based on research. Can be used to compare unlike items with popular sets of data

Interactive Infographics – gives viewers the control to modify the infographic and is web-based.

Word cloud Infographics – displays a cluster of words to show associations between words and concept.

How you want your story to be told determines which type of infographic you should choose. 

3. Get the relevant data for your story

More boring stuff next – getting the data. There are 3 approaches to getting your data to make your infographic.

Your own data – if you took the data driven approach to infographics, you are probably using your own data. Even if you didn’t, your organization or company may have data on the subject or story you want to write about. Ask around. Send some emails.

Original research – OC (original content) is king! Nothing beats OC. You don’t need a research team or a data scientist for this. And unless you’ve got a big budget don’t even think of paying a research or marketing firm for this. You can roll your own survey research with a tool like survey monkey or Google Forms. Or with manual coding of data. We’re writing an article about how we do our own research. I’ll add a link to it here once it’s done.

Data sources – there are plenty of public and private data sources out there. Here is a short list:

Data.gov – this is the US government’s open data website. You can search for all kinds of public data from healthcare data to economic data. It takes a bit of digging to get the datasets, but worth exploring.

UN data – UN data is international/world data on a variety of subjects such as employment, poverty, population, export/import numbers, growth,..etc. There are 34 databases in total and you can filter by country.

Google Public Data – Google has a search engine specifically for searching publicly available data. This is a good place to start as you can search a large amount of datasets in one place.

Pew Research Data – Pew Research is think tank that does a lot of research and polling in the areas of public interest such as  internet, science and technology trends, global attitudes, religion and public life, and social and demographic trends. This is one of my favorite places to visit. They also publish excellent reports and make all their datasets available for download.

World Bank – The World bank has a lot of financial and economic data. Great if you want high level data.

World Economic Forum – WE forum has more nuanced data on a variety of topics. Their data are embedded in their reports.

Statista – this is data aggregator that has thousands of data sets. It is a paid service though you do get some interesting data sets unavailable publicly.

The rough guide here is to find at least one data set or number per story point. At the end of this step, you should have all the data you need to start putting your infographic together.

4. Design your infographic

Ok – you’ve got the story, the type of infographic and the data. Now you have to put them all together into an attractive looking infographic. 

You can choose from any of these infograph templates:

Check This Site

5. Promote your infographic

Congratulations! You’re finally done with the infographic. Not really. If you’re creating the infographic for marketing purposes, you’ve got one more step, and that’s promoting it. After all, there is no point creating content if no one sees it, is there?

Here are some methods on how to promote your infographics:

• Share on all your social channels
• Send out an email newsletter. Check out how to make emails more engaging with infographics here.
• Ask your advocates to share explicitly.
• Post it on social discovery sites like Stumbled Upon, Reddit, Imgur..etc.
• Outreach – find bloggers who will benefit from sharing your infographic.

Credit to: Venngage Team