Tag: leadership skills

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

If you have come this far you must have liked the post so if you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment!

about me, Education, leadership, parenting, short stories, skills

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

If you have come this far you must have liked the post so if you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment!

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!
about me, Education, leadership, skills

Leading a meaningful and healthy life!

A Learning Leader
Leading a meaningful and happy life along with enjoying the success

No matter how we define success for ourselves be it happiness, prosperity, professional achievement, personal achievement,  A Leader certainly needs a medium to climb the steps to success, conquer it and enjoy that accomplishment and that medium is our body.

A leader needs to lead a happy, healthy and meaningful life in order to be a successful leader.We all know the journey to the step-stone of success is extremely difficult and demanding. A shout out to all the leaders to remind us all what we are leaving behind while struggling to achieve our goal and the ultimate success.

The secrets to lead a life that you have lived and not just survived are not hidden. In fact they are pretty simple and known to everyone. However, we often forget these secrets in the hush and rush of achieving superficial success. These secrets will change our world if we imbibe them in our life. The more we incorporate in our day to day life ,the more we come closer to meaningful and true success.

Choose as many as you can and see the outcome:

Love yourself!
  • Love! as it’s the most powerful emotion.
  • Smile!  It’s a free and all time available energy booster.
  • Eat Healthy! you will be happy if your stomach is happy.
  • Exercise! pump up your body and mind with as simple as 30 min. walk daily.
  • Yoga! heal your soul, mind and discover yourself each day.
  • A good sleep! makes you recharge for the day .
  • Avoid judging others! as it adds no positive value to you.
Be real
  • Be Real!  don’t try to be someone else, just to please.
  • Appreciate people, it promotes efficiency and a positive outlook towards all.
  • Practice empathy, you know you have been in those shoes.
  • Practice being respectful, you earn respect, when you give respect.
  • Dig deeper into things, analyze your abstract thoughts and mold them into a concrete idea .
  • Learn to forgive, no one is perfect.
  • Believe that you’re blessed, because you really are.
  • Be thankful, simple cause we got another day to live and of course have got much more than many others.
Yoga Exercise and Meditation
  • Learning something new regularly, as learnability is the only skill that will take you further.
  • Never be hopeless, Hope is the essence of living.
  • Watch your words, it’s a non reversible action.
  • Don’t hurt others with your words, you will realize after a few seconds you didn’t mean it.
  • Sleep in peace and wake in joy, you are ready for the challenges.
  • Eliminate jealousy, what’s the point? be better than  what you were yesterday.
  • Never criticize yourself, positive self talk invites positive things.
  • Don’t expect too much, you will ultimately get what you deserve .
  •  Manage your stress and you’ll fix almost everything.
  • If you respect your own boundaries, people will respect you.
  •  Be childlike and enjoy small moments.
  • Don’t wait for the last minute to get the work done.
  • When your body says stop, listen to it.

Be easy. You are the best!

You are the Best!
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!

If you have come this far you must have liked the post so if you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment!

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

Learnability

A Learning Leader

The most essential skill in today’s time is learnability which is the ability to acquire knowledge efficiently and effectively and use it in a meaningful way over and over again.

We as leaders need to bring up learners who are ready to

LEARN UNLEARN RELEARN

The internet and its increasingly wide accessibility, with the high penetration rates of 4G ,5G networks and smart phones in the country, has resulted in knowledge no longer offering the competitive advantage that it once did. It is no longer a differentiator.

Knowledge has become an increasingly ubiquitous commodity, as every information is available a touch away, learnability is increasingly replacing the knowledge in every context, which once was the single most important trait that the younger student need to be inculcated in. In today’s context knowledge is a perishable commodity, what one learns today will be obsolete by a new discovery made tomorrow.

In such a fast pacing era, training children in critical thinking ought to take precedence over spoon feeding them information.

The current education philosophy was designed hundred of years ago for the purpose of retaining knowledge and information. At schools, we feed children information,we expect them to remember that information and test for accuracy at exams. In real, we actually expect our children to become walking encyclopedia memorizing tons of facts and figures. It might have worked in the past because the information once learned was valid over a long period of time but today the older generation is already struggling with the accelerated changes that happen overnight.

While knowledge and the ability to retain that knowledge is by no means completely redundant yet – but the difference between a great career and a mediocre one is often determined by learnability and the skills possessed by the person -not by his knowledge.

In the rapidly changing world, what defines our success is not what we know, but rather, our ability to learn what we don’t know. Being knowledgeable does not imply learnability but the reverse certainly holds true. One could make a child knowledgeable in a chosen field by feeding her a ton of relevant information; but she may not know how to acquire a new knowledge independently.

Give a man a fish and you him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time.

This is the high time, we need to look for an education methodology that gives importance to developing creative abilities and skills for practical life over drilling in knowledge. our educational philosophy should priorities learnability, creativity and skill development.

If you have come this far you must have liked the post so if you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment!