Tag: leaderhship

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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Education, HIndi, short stories, skills

Folktales-4

A Learning Leader

How truthful we are to our goals ? Do we exactly decide and tell what is our aim? A dilemma between what we want to achieve and what we put on display to the world is always present in front of a person.

A small Indian folktale, showing the importance of being truthful to our aims and goals…

लघुकथा

“लक्ष्य अवश्य तय कर लें।”


एक बार एक व्यक्ति गहरे जंगल में तपस्या करने गया। दिन रात तपस्या करने लगा। उसने दिनभर हवन करने के लिए हवन सामग्री मंगाई और हवन करने लगा। मन्त्रों से देवी को प्रसन्न करने की भरसक कोशिश करने लगा। जंगल में राख के ढेर लगते चले गए परंतु देवी प्रकट नहीं हुई। पर उस व्यक्ति ने हवं बंद नहीं किया।

एक दिन उज्जैन के महाराज विजरामदित्य अपने लाव लश्कर के साथ उस जंगल से होकर जा रहे थे कि अचानक उनकी नजर एक शिकार पर पड़ी। उन्होंने शिकार का पीछा किया और महाराज विक्रमादित्य रास्ता भटक गए। वे उस तपस्वी की ओर निकल गए, उनके संगी साथी बिछुड़ गए। कुछ दूरी पर उन्होंने आश्चर्यजनक दृश्य देखा कि जग जगह राख के ढेर देखे। वो सोचने लगे कि इतने गहरे जंगल में इतनी सारी राख कहाँ से आयी। राख के ढेर क्यों लगे हैं।

महाराज आगे बढे तो देखा कि एक अतिवृद्ध व्यक्ति संत के वेश में हवन कर रहा है, लगातार मन्त्रों का उच्चारण करता जा रहा है। उन्होंने जाकर प्रणाम किया और पूछा “संत महाराज, इस घोर जंगल में राख कहाँ से आई है।” तपस्वी ने कहा, “राजन, मैं मेरे यौवनकाल से अब तक बहुत वर्षों से देवी भगवती की आराधना कर रहा हूँ।” विक्रमादित्य राजा ने पूछा, “क्षमा करें महाराज, इतने लंबे समय तक देवी की आराधना और हवन का लक्ष्य और ध्येय क्या हो सकता है?” इस पर उस संत ने उत्तर दिया “मैं ये हवन देवी के दर्शन के लिए कर रहा हूँ मगर देवी माँ ने अभी तक नहीं दिए हैं। पता नहीं क्या भूल हो रही है।”

राजा को यह बात सुनकर आश्चर्य हुआ कि इन संत महाराज को इतनी लंबी तपस्या के बाद भी देवी माँ के दर्शन नहीं हुए, ऐसा क्यों?” महाराज ने बहुत सोचा मगर कुछ समझ में नहीं आया। महाराज विक्रमादित्य न्यायप्रिय राजा थे और ईश्वर में अटूट विश्वास रखते थे। उन्होंने संकल्प किया कि संत महाराज को देवी माँ के दर्शन तो होने ही चाहिए। राजा ने म्यान में से तलवार निकाली और बोले “माँ ये जीवन आपका दिया हुआ है, आपके किसी बच्चे की इच्छा पर उसे दर्शन न हो तो जीवन का क्या लाभ?”

तलवार को घुमाकर अपनी गर्दन पर रख दिया और काटने को तैयार हुए कि देवी माँ प्रकट हो गई। बोली, “विक्रमादित्य तुम सत्यवादी, धर्मनिष्ठ, प्रजापालक, और गुणी हो, फिर भी आत्महत्या जैसा जघन्य अपराध कर रहे हो।” राजा ने कहा माँ ये संत इतने लंबे समय से आपकी आराधना कर रहा है, सारा जीवन तपस्या लीन रहा, परंतु आपने दर्शन नहीं दिए जबकि मेरे प्राण बचाने के लिए प्रकट हो गई। इसका क्या कारण है?”

देवी माँ ने राजा को बताया “ये संत दोगला है, झूठ बोल रहा है। इसका ध्येय मेरा दर्शन कर आ नहीं है,बल्कि मुझसे पारस पत्थर पाना चाहता है ताकि मन चाहे जीतना सोना बनाये। इसका ध्येय मेरा दर्शन करना होता तो मैं कब की ही प्रकट हो गई होती।”


दोस्तो, कमोवेश यही हम सबकी कहानी है, हम भी अपनी इच्छाओं को छिपाकर दूसरों को कुछ का कुछ कहते हैं। कहते कुछ हैं और ध्येय कुछ होता है। लक्ष्य से भटक जाते है। इसलिये हमारा मन और आत्मा से लक्ष्य निर्धारण होना चाहिये।

Story credit:

Mr. Dalchand

A Storyteller by heart

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!

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about me, Education, leadership, skills

Steps to Success

A Learning Leader

In the times of Covid-19 when our plans have been disrupted by an unforeseen situation, we all need to uplift each other to keep our morale high. Here is a dose of motivation to all of us!

Dictionary

Word: SUCCESS

success/səkˈsɛs/noun

Meaning: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose

A quick Google search comes up with the definition of success as an accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Your individual definition of what success is? may vary, but many would define it as being fulfilled, happy, safe, healthy, and loved. It is the ability to reach your goals in life, whatever those goals may be.

The journey to success is different for everybody. For some it happens overnight, for other it takes years or decades. For some it comes early in life, others achieve it towards their older years but trust me no matter, how much the grass looks greener from other side, its never an easy journey to what we perceive as success .

Well of-course, who doesn’t want to be successful, we all wish to find the mantra of success and to know the steps of being successful,

The first step towards the goal is to Start, as it has been rightly said that

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great!

Once you start, the next steps are…

  1. Try.
  2. Try again
  3. Try one more time
  4. Try differently
  5. Try it again tomorrow
  6. Try and ask for help
  7. Try to find someone who has done it
  8. Try to find, fix what is not working
  9. Try to expand what is not working
  10. Just Keep trying until you succeed.

Don’t be harsh on not completing things on time, sometimes things take more than expected time.

So Dear friends

Ditch the negativity ,

Make a plan,

and Stay focused!

Be an eternal optimist, because positive vibes attracts positivity!

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Education, leadership, school, skills, Uncategorized

Approaches to Schooling:

A Learning Leader

Approaches in schooling,

What can be inculcated,

once the schools reopen?

As the pandemic Covid 19 has given us all the reasons to pause from running the hamster’s wheel and ponder upon what can we improvise upon in our education system? The National Education Policy 2020 has come at the right time, where the schooling approaches can be put in place slowly as we move into the New normal schooling and education in India. Its the time, we can rethink on our teaching methodology, techniques, classrooms management and overall schooling approaches. Changes which begin at small scale and transit through the system are adapted well.

Early childhood Education is being provided through multiple approaches around the world. It might not be practical to shift the whole pedagogy to a different one in Indian Formal schooling system, its definitely viable to pick up best practices from each one, induce one by one in our present pedagogy, not bringing drastic changes but slowly moving towards the improvement.

Here, I will discuss in brief the approaches and philosophies to schooling around the world used in Early childhood Education along with their prominent features.

Preschool Philosophies

  • Montessori 
  • Waldorf 
  • Reggio Emilia
  • High School 
  • Bank Street
  • Creative Curriculum
  • Kindergarten

Montessori

This approach, developed by Maria Montessori in Rome in the early 1900s, is child-centered, with teachers serving as guides. In the Montessori school, play is a child’s work. While there is a focus on academics, the distinguishing feature is that children learn at their own pace. There are special Montessori toys called manipulative that are self-corrective.

Features of Montessori

  • Learning takes place at its own pace
  • Don’t organise the room to specific age
  • Children learn by example
  • Same teacher for all preschool years
  • Mixed age aspect
  • how children learn to work quietly and independently at a task.

Waldorf

If you find a Waldorf school, you can trust that it is true to the Waldorf philosophy, since each school and all of its teachers must be Waldorf certified. This play-based approach is characterized by a predictable structure, providing children with a dependable routine, such as certain days of the week for set activities like baking or gardening, as well as mixed-age classrooms with the same teacher for multiple years.

Features of Waldorf

  • “There is an emphasis on creative learning, reading, singing, acting … It’s great for kids who want that predictability.
  • Home Like Setting-warm and Friendly
  • Natural and Wooden toys
  •  Against traditional grading systems and exclusion of media in the curriculum
  • Does not involve academics 

Reggio Emilia

There are many Reggio Emilia-inspired schools based on the approach developed in the 1940s in the town of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy. After World War II, the community, along with schoolteacher Loris Malaguzzi, came together to develop schools that would help children become better citizens. “The overall philosophy is that kids are really encouraged to explore. The teachers are there to help them explore,”

Features of Reggio

  • Project based approach and curriculum
  • Find it out together approach
  • Child oriented but teacher framed
  • Documentation is an important part
  • Taking photos, making  videos and writing observations

Other Approaches:

There are these few approaches which are popular in certain areas and are a proportionate mix of academic and non academic approaches as well as some features from above. They were introduced to cater different people at different times.

  • High scope – community based program
  • Bank street- Play based learning 
  • Creative curriculum- written formal learning programs by for profit organisations

As, a school teacher or leader we may choose, what fits in our need or circumstances, but its always good to know what does exist in our field around the world.

Education, leadership, skills

Never give up

A Learning Leader

Butterflies are my favorite and the reason is just beyond their beauty and colors.

When you thought the world is about to close over you, it just began and life was more beautiful than ever again.

As a preschool teacher, we have been teaching the famous story of The Hungry Caterpillar for ages every year to every batch.

For those who haven’t got a chance to read this story, The gist of the story is that a tiny caterpillar is born and he starts eating a lot of food over the days which finally starts hurting his stomach being too full and when he is about to give up, he finds himself tightly bundled in his own cocoon, exhausted with pain and efforts, but he gives it a one more try and out comes a big beautiful butterfly with colorful wings flying high in the sky.

Now when we teach this story to the little learners, we have our objectives mostly defined as the child would be able to learn name of the days, numbers, counting, colors and objects etc. and if we wish to add some value education to it we would say the child will be able to learn the importance of healthy food.

But there is deeper meaning to it that I derive , butterfly’s life cycle teaches us an important lesson of life specially to the learning leaders.

A butterfly starts it’s life as a tiny caterpillar who’s only objective is to eat and eat more until it becomes full and then the same food starts hurting it so much, the caterpillar starts building a wall around it in form of cocoon as he feels it’s the end of the world, he is totally cut off from the word for days and just when he cannot bear it anymore, the cocoon starts to break and out comes a beautiful butterfly.

Had that caterpillar has given up to those walls, to the loneliness, to the pain and pressure of growing inside a limited space, he would have never seen the world and the world would have missed a marvel of nature.

So my dear friends,

Be like a butterfly, because just when we feel that the pressure, pain and agony of the world will crush us down, the beautiful dawn and a bright Sun awaits us with a beautiful beginning..

Never give up!

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