Category: parenting

about me, Education, Online learning, parenting, school

Are you an Night Owl?

A Learning Leader
Night Owl

If you have been struggling all your life to wake up early to start your day before the Sun rises but haven’t been able to successfully incorporate it quite yet!

Welcome to the club of Night Owls! you must have heard that, to be able to make most out of your day, to be successful, you must get up early and most probably you would have spent some years in your childhood growing up learning the poem… 

Early to Bed and Early to rise!
Makes a man Healthy, wealthy and wise!

Well! it is certainly a debatable topic in todays era, when night shifts, collaboration and travel around the world has made night shifts a commoners life style . A lot of people has their favorite time to work as evening and night time.

Literature often romanticizes night owls. The fact that they keep unusual hours, and that they are most productive in the evenings or even at night can make them seem mysterious — both appealing and somewhat frightening.

Definition

A night owl, evening person or simply owl, is a person who tends to stay up until late at night, or the early hours of the morning. Night owls who are involuntarily unable to fall asleep for several hours after a normal time.

Characteristics of a Night Owl

Usually, people who are night owls stay awake past midnight, and extreme night owls may stay awake until just before or even after dawn. Night owls tend to feel most energetic just before they go to sleep at night.

Some night owls have a preference or habit for staying up late, or stay up to work the night shift. Night owls who work the day shift often have difficulties adapting to standard daytime working hours.

Night owls have often been blamed for unpunctuality or attitude problems. Employers, however, have begun to learn to increase productivity by respecting body clocks through flexible working hours.

Some research has found that night owls are more intelligent and creative and more likely to get high-paying jobs than larks. However, they lag behind larks in academic performance, and they tend to have unhealthier eating habits, as well as higher rates of smoking.

Some night owls, with great difficulty adopting normal sleeping and waking times may have delayed sleep-phase disorder. Morning light therapy may be helpful in shifting sleep rhythms for the night owl.

Given the high number of people who are naturally inclined to go to bed late and wake up late, it is essential to understand what impact their rhythms may have on their health, and why. In more general terms, research about individual body clocks and sleep-wake patterns can help us build a healthier and happier society.

What are the best habits in the night considering you are a Night Owl?

sleep routine
  1. Always brush your teeth before going to bed and if possible, take a shower.
  2. Read at least 10 pages of a book. If it’s not fiction, so much the better.
  3. Stretch before bed. This will relax your muscles and help you get a good night’s sleep.
  4. Always have a pen and notebook near your bed. Sometimes ideas that will change your life can come to mind at 2 AM.
  5. Have a glass of water before sleeping. If you don’t, at least do it first thing in the morning.
  6. Write down 3 things that you are truly grateful for. Keep a journal to track the progress of your day. Also write down your expenses.
  7. Choose the clothes that you will wear the next day.
  8. Pack your suitcase for work or study tomorrow. Make sure you are not missing anything important.
  9. Spend 10 minutes without thinking about anything.
  10. Inhale Exhale.

Changing perception towards Night owls

Researchers say “If, as a society, we could be more flexible about how we manage time, we could go a long way towards maximizing productivity and minimizing health risks,”

“If anything, it’s actually economically illiterate not to offer this as you have a whole host of people working way below their maximum potential, which morality aside is simply bad business,” the same person asserted.

And night owls do have their advantages, which researchers also acknowledge. One study from 1999 argues that “early to bed, early to rise will likely make you anything but wise,” finding that night owls score better on intelligence tests than morning larks.

As an educationalist and parent, I feel that we need to understand that for today’s generation of our children and students we need to understand and accept that Not being a morning lark is not a crime at all and night owls are still Wise owls!

With hopes to have a more positive perception towards night owls, and while this happens, let’s follow what our heart, body and soul says…

“Listen to the night as the night knows your truths, your stories, your aches, your dreams, your cravings, your forgotten memories, not so forgotten.”

Victoria Erickson

“I will always write.
I will capture nights all over the world
and bring them to you.”

Henry Rollins

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Be like a lion! Choose your battles wisely!

A Learning Leader
Be a lion! Choose your battles carefully!

Flies don’t spare anyone. These flies even try to trouble the king of the jungle especially when it is resting. Just imagine that if lion decides to teach lesson to these troublesome flies by catching and killing them. Lion will have to forget that it is the king of the jungle and , when it decides to run after them, catch them and kill them. But lion is just not bothered about them. Once in a while,it will lift its tail, swing it to make flies fly and and then just before get they come again gives a strong swish again. It is hardly bothered about the flies. Even if a lion decides to fight with these flies, mostly the flies are near its tail and it would not be able to catch the flies, because it will keep running in circles, round and round, reach nowhere and finally collapse out of frustration.

In our lives, there are many ignorant things and small problems (flies of our lives) happening around and they are bothering us. Quite often we fall in to the trap of chasing these flies around and decide to eradicate them at once, we forget our life goals and instead waste our time and energy on them. In the end, we miss our true goals and reach nowhere because we were trying to teach those flies a lesson and wasted our entire energy while in doing so hence it’s been said …..

Choose your battles wisely !

Use your energy where it is required for example a lion only uses it’s energy to catch its pray or to settle down it’s territory. It might fight a full fledged battle to impress or earn the interest of a lioness but never so it wastes its energy on the flies though they certainly trouble it when its taking some rest after a long and eventful day.

We can translate it in our life by choosing where our focus should be, it should be your earnings, income source to feed you and your family. Secondly your territory means- your existence or or your self worth-how people know you and finally, the loved ones in your family. Rest all are just the flies. Give them a swish here and there but don’t battle against them.

Another important thing to notice is that flies bother the lion only when its dormant. But, when the lion is it in motion and running, no animal, small or big, comes anywhere close. so remain fully active and focused on your goals and the small problems will stop troubling you.

What you choose to focus on will grow!

Be it problems or solutions or the journey towards your goals!

What you choose to focus on will grow!
Be it problems or solutions or the journey towards your goals!
about me, Education, HIndi, Online learning, parenting, short stories, skills

Folktales -6

A Learning Leader

Whatever you want to become in life? Patience and wisdom will always lead your path!

A short story to depict the learning from India’s rich yet simple to understand treasure of stories!

जीवन में जो कुछ भी बनना है?

धैर्य और समझदारी की आवश्यकता हमेशा होती है।

एक बार एक नवयुवक इस भ्रम में पड़ गया कि उसे जीवन में क्या करना चाहिए। उसे यह नहीं सूझ रहा था कि क्या करें, कहां जाए ? ऐसे अनेक सवालों के भार से वह अपने आप को बहुत कमजोर समझ रहा था। भ्रमित और बोझिल मन के आगे लाचार था। जब कुछ भी नहीं कह कर पाया तो उसने सोचा चलो अपनी दुविधा और इस भ्रम को अपने गांव के पास आश्रम के साधु को बताया जाए। ऐसा तय करके वह नवयुवक गांव के पास वाले आश्रम में तपस्या कर रहे साधु महाराज के पास गया। वहां जाकर उस नवयुवक ने बहुत विनम्रता से साधु महाराज को दंडवत प्रणाम किया और अनमना होकर होकर बैठ गया। सरल हृदय साधु महाराज ने उस नवयुवक से पूछा, ‘बेटे विचलित से लग रहे हो, क्या बात है। इस उम्र में इतने निराश और व्यथित क्यों हो?’ वह नवयुवक बोला “साधु महाराज, “मैं इस भ्रम में हूं कि मुझे क्या बनना चाहिए। निर्णय नहीं कर पा रहा हूं कि गृहस्थ बनूं या साधु-संत। कुछ भी निर्णय नहीं हो पा रहा है। मुझे कोई रास्ता दिखाओ।” साधु ने पूरे मन से उस नवयुवक की बात सुनी और बोले “बेटा, तुम कल 11:00 बजे मेरे पास आ जाना। हम दोनों मिलकर इस समस्या का समाधान ढूंढ लेंगे।”

A young man

साधु महाराज की बात सुनकर नवयुवक अपने घर चला गया और अगले दिन जल्दी ही ठीक 11:00 बजे प्रसन्न मन से साधु महाराज के पास पहुंचा कि आज उसकी समस्या का समाधान हो जाएगा। साधु महाराज उसकी प्रतीक्षा ही कर रहे थे। उसके आते ही वह उसे साथ लेकर कुछ दूर एक ऊंची पहाड़ी पर कुटिया में तपस्या कर रहे अपने गुरु के पास ले गए। जैसे ही उस पहाड़ी की तलहटी में पहुंचे तो गांव के उस साधु ने नवयुवक से कहा, “बेटा, इस पहाड़ी पर कुटिया में मेरे 80 वर्ष के गुरुदेव तपस्या कर रहे गेन। तू उनको जोर से आवाज लगाकर नीचे बुलाना और जब वे इस पहाड़ी से नीचे तुम्हारे पास आ जाएं तो तुम कहना, “क्षमा करें गुरुदेव। मैंने तो ऐसे ही आपको दर्शन के लिए बुलाया है। आप वापस जा सकते हैं।” साधु महाराज ने नवयुवक को कहा कि ऐसा तुम तीन बार करना। वे नाराज नहीं होते।”

इतना कहकर वह साधु महाराज पास ही एक झाड़ी की ओट में छिप कर बैठ गए। अब नवयुवक ने वैसा ही किया, जैसा कहा गया था। इस पर वे 80 वर्ष के वृद्ध संत पहाड़ी से नीचे आए और नवयुवक से बोले, “कहो बेटा, क्या परेशानी है।” उस नवयुवक ने कहा, “महाराज मैंने तो बस ऐसे ही आपको दर्शन करने के लिए बुला लिया। क्षमा करें, आप वापस जा सकते हैं।” संत बोले, कोई बात नहीं, प्रसन्न रहो।” इतना कहकर हुए 80 वर्ष के संत भरी दुपहरी में पसीने पसीने होकर वापस पहाड़ी पर अपनी कुटिया में चले गए। साधु महाराज के कहे अनुसार उस नवयुवक ने उस 80 वर्ष के संत को दो बार और नीचे बुलाया और वह सरल और सहज हृदय के संत उस नवयुवक को अज्ञानी समझकर बड़े कष्ट पाकर भी पहाड़ी पर अपनी कुटिया से बार बार आए और चले गए। ऐसा करते उस नवयुवक का दिन बीत गया।

कुछ देर में साधु महाराज आए और बोले, आओ गांव चलें। दोनों गांव चले गए। साधु महाराज ने उस नवयुवक को अगले दिन फिर 11:00 बजे बुलाया

An Indian saint

अगले दिन वह नवयुवक फिर ठीक समय पर साधु महाराज के पास आ गया और साधु महाराज उसे फिर अपने साथ लेकर गांव के एक बूढ़े गृहस्थ के पास ले गए वहां जाकर बैठ गए। वह गृहस्थी कोई पुस्तक पढ़ रहे थे कि अचानक अपनी पत्नी से बोले, “भाग्यवान सुनो, मुझे भरी दुपहरी में नहीं दिख रहा है। दीया जला कर लाओ, अंधियारा हो गया है। उस ग्रहस्थी की पत्नी आज्ञाकारी थी। बोली, “जी, अभी जला कर लाती हूं और वह तुरंत दीपक जला कर ले आई। गृहस्थ ने कहा अंधियारा मिट गया। इसे वापस ले जाओ।” अपने घर दो अतिथि आए हैं। भोजन बना लो, उस गृहस्थ की पत्नी ने बिना कोई प्रश्न किए भोजन बनाया परंतु सब्जी में नमक डालना भूल गई।

जब तीनों ने मिलकर भोजन करना आरंभ किया तो पता चला कि उनकी पत्नी भोजन में नमक डालना भूल गई है। वो गृहस्थी तुरंत बोले, “वाह! क्या स्वादिष्ट सब्जी बनी है। नमक मिर्च एकदम सही मात्रा में डाले गए हैं।” इतना सुनकर इन साधु और नवयुवक दोनों ने चुपचाप भोजन समाप्त कर लिया। साधु महाराज ने उस ग्रहस्थी से विदा ली और उस नवयुवक को साथ लेकर आश्रम पर आ गए।
अब साधु महाराज बोले, “बेटा, अगर साधु बनना है तो मेरे गुरु जैसा बनना जिनको 80 वर्ष की उम्र में भी आपने तीन बार पहाड़ी से नीचे बुलाया और वह शांत रहे क्रोध नहीं किया, सरल बने रहे, आपकी बात मानते गए, आपको आशीर्वाद देते रहे।और यदि गृहस्थ बनना है तो उस गृहस्थी की तरह बनना जिन्होंने भरी दुपहरी में अपनी पत्नी को दीपक जलाने के लिए कहा तो उनकी पत्नी बिना कोई प्रश्न किए दीपक जला कर ले आई और बाद में उनकी पत्नी से सब्जी में नमक नहीं डालने की भूल हो गई तो उस गृहस्थी ने नमक की भूल का सुधार किस प्रकार किया कि “कितना स्वादिष्ट भोजन बनाया है।”

lighted candle /Diya

जो भी बनना है उसमें इस प्रकार के धैर्य और समझदारी की आवश्यकता होती है। अब तुम अपनी योग्यता स्वम तय कर लो।
इति शुभम।🌹🙏

Story credit:

Mr. Dalchand

A Storyteller by heart

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Storytelling has its own charm in learning and teaching. Native stories make a strong impact, with ease of understanding as they are deep rooted in culture and community. Hindi being my mother tongue never left its space in my heart. I strongly believe that in early childhood teaching in mother tongue is definitely the easiest way to reach to a child’s heart.
Indian folklore has been passed through generations over the centuries, with the words of wisdom which benefit young and old equally. I plan to share these short stories aka folk tales every once in a while to my audience, use them as a warm up activity, lunch break filler, going home time activity or simply read to your own children. Stories have their own magic!
Education, Online learning, parenting, school, skills

Learner Centered Pedagogy

A Learning Leader

In 21st century, Learner Centered Pedagogy has spread globally and has been widely endorsed as a “best practice” in education by international and national educationalists. 

In spite of its prominence in education policies, implementation has been challenging, and changes to classroom practice is limited as teachers and learners struggle to make the shift , just like the recipient of a donor organ may reject it after a transplant.

What is Learner Centered Pedagogy?


It refers to a pedagogy that places learners at the center of the teaching-learning process. Students are more active and engaged, and the process turns knowledge transferred into a negotiation between teachers and students. Furthermore, this pedagogy starts from learners’ interests and objectives, it carries out a learning process based on practical situations and materials, using the current technologies to favor this process. In the process of teaching and learning, learners are at the heart of curriculum design, classroom interaction and evaluation techniques.

Learner centered classroom in a nutshell is a classroom where the lesson on not focused on the teacher and transmission of information. Most of the classrooms are where the teacher is like a conductor and controlling every aspect of the lesson, the teacher micro-manages the lesson, asks questions and speaks during most of the lesson-time.

learner centered classroom

In a learner centered class the responsibility for learning is placed on the learner. learners work in small groups helping each other asking questions, they might evaluate their own progress of the work , rather than have teacher mark everything. Learner centered classrooms are more co-operative and organic, rather than top-down instruction from the teacher.

Learner centered classes help learners to become more independent and more responsible for how they learn (learnability). Learner Centered Pedagogy views learners as active participants in their own learning, with their education shaped by their interests, prior knowledge and active investigation.

Learner Centered Approach & Online teaching learning process

As the pandemic has hit the online teaching-learning button for all teachers and learners, Every organization wants to get the maximum benefit from its online teaching learning initiatives. A key element of any successful online program is to keep the learners engaged in the course. A learner centered approach is a proven way of keeping learners engaged, and thereby ensuring effective Online Learning. A learner centered approach is one where the complete Online Learning experience is focused on the learners.

Advantages of Learner Centered Pedagogy in Online Learning

learner centered online teaching learning pedagogy
  • Better learner engagement
    The first step towards the success of any Learning program is participation. A learner centered pedagogy addresses all the essential needs of learners, ensuring learners get a personalized and convenient Online Learning experience.
  • Better knowledge retention
    Given that a learner centered approach places high emphasis on relevance and engagement, it greatly influences learners’ interest levels with more engaging and simulating content. 

  • Boosts overall performance
    A typical learner centered program will have a lot of scenarios, case studies, role plays, etc. with a lot of engaging and interactive content will help learners grasp the content more effectively. This way, learners are more likely to apply their learning at work, leading to improved work performance.
  • Develops problem-solving skills
    A learner centered Learning course has a lot of real life examples, including games, quizzes, and challenges which will force learners to think of solutions. This kind of training develops problem-solving skills, which is useful when learners encounter similar problems in real life situations.
  • Fosters collaborative learning
    Learner centered courses provide the opportunity to foster collaborative learning. The Learning program should be designed in such a way that learners have to involve their peers, which makes learners come together to solve problems, and thereby share learning. This approach not only encourages collaboration but also promotes teamwork.
  • Makes learning enjoyable
    Use of games and stories in Online Learning makes learning more fun. A learner centered approach provides a lot of choices to learners. With these elements like videos, ppts, story etc. learning is no longer perceived as boring and monotonous.
  • Provides personalized learning.
    All learners do not have the same learning needs. Some may just like to understand the basics of a concept, while some may like to understand a course in detail. Also, some learners may already have some knowledge about a topic, whereas some of them will be entirely new to the concept. A traditional Learning method will treat all learners the same way, and may not respond to the needs of different types of learners. Things are different with learner centered program you get the option to learn the basics or dive deep into the topic.

To conclude, as opposed to other approaches, such as a content centered pedagogy or a teacher centered pedagogy, learner centered pedagogy  provides many more benefits, why not give it a try when learning is just taking a new shape.

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about me, Education, leadership, parenting, skills

An open letter to parents part-2

A Learning Leader

Foundation of raising a genius….

To see the truth,
to know the way,
I cast a spell in every way.
By the power of three
I conjure thee
To give thy truth unto me.

Dear parent,

We all have that one moment when we see a perfect child and a perfect parent, and all our self doubts over power us to think; what am I not doing right?

Just like me, you must have wondered what is that magic formula? what is that spell? which helps Parents in raising a genius child!

let me reveal the truth to you through an experienced , behold !

When Tiktok was taking last breaths in India before its ban, I saw a very interesting Tiktok video. The video was on effective upbringing of our little ones. The orator in the video emphasized on the fact that right from the childhood, we should inculcate in our child’s mind that “She/he is a genius and a god gifted child”.

Could parenting be that simple!

I found it an intriguing idea to try and was eager to see its consequences.

Earlier, I used to get angry easily and scold my child without taking a note of the surrounding people, thinking that he is not old enough to understand complexities of self respect. His usual reaction would be like, he would not talk for sometime and then after a while he will pretend to forget everything and would start talking normally. A real consequence was when he would try to lie around to save himself from similar incident. That shocked my nerves, I never expected my child to become a liar. I found myself guilty and wanted to find a perfect solution for this problem . I thought and thought that what a wonderful thing it will be if my child stop committing mistakes at all ,oh! my world would be perfect.

I decided to apply this formula, I started praising my child in front of other people for small yet good deeds, no matter, how least commendable they were? I started to make him feel that he is exceptionally good, sort of god gifted. I completely stopped scolding him in public and tried to make him understand, that what he did was wrong and why, but most importantly only when we two were present.

Few days went without much to notice then I could observed a drastic change, a visible winning attitude and a boy with effervescent self confidence could be seen. He started talking to me more than ever before. I was flabbergasted that a boy of this age has this many tales to tell in which he proved himself over his friends in classroom which he never shared with me. He was bubbling with self reliance and self confidence. He, in trying to get more praises from me, started doing most of the things himself. He started carrying things for me even if they are heavy or carry my mobile if I had my hands full. He, the same little boy who would do even a single thing after saying 5-6 times followed by scolding at least 2 times was doing the tasks in advance without being told and was even willing to help me out in dusting. I was speechless. He has became my adorable loving boy from a irritating boy.

I am continuing with practice of putting the beautiful thought in his mind that he is a boy with exceptional talent and awesome qualities which is a boon over others. I was overwhelmed by the astonishing results of this experiment. I believe this strategy can make the child conquer the unconquerable things. to the least, children are going to achieve much more than their usual capacity. I believe every parent will see positive results by using this strategy to make their children ultimate winners and successful happy citizens.

World famous writer Dale Carnegie has written in his book “How to win friends and influence people”

Happiness is followed by a cause and vice versa.

Dale Carnegie

. This means that if we keep ourselves happy, things which will cause more happiness will follow automatically. The same thing applies in case of children ‘s mindset also if we successfully become capable of inculcating the thought that our child is a genius and god gifted, the intelligence will surely follow and god gift talent will surely bestow on him.

Hence the magic spell to have genius child is as simple as that as telling him/her that you are genius and I believe in you!

Go ahead, cast the spell of positive words and see the magic unwinding yourself!

Thanks,

A teacher and a parent

Story credit : Pooja

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