They did not learn anything at home, homework is not done, hands are itching to put a two

“Modern children are not at all what they used to be,” we often hear from teachers. – They have much less time, they don’t understand anything in the lesson, they need to study a new topic, but they still haven’t understood that one. And the preparation for VLOOKUP, OGE and USE takes time. ” Teachers are emotionally and physically exhausted, and the efficiency is not very high. As a result, children come home with tasks that they do not know how to do, parents are forced to remember their school years. Teachers are dissatisfied with children, parents with teachers. And children learn to maneuver in this space. 

What should teachers do, especially with the experience of the Soviet school, in this changed time?

Image by emmaws4s from Pixabay

Often at school, children told me: “You explain very well.” I could not understand in https://123helpme.me/hero-essay-example/ any way what I was saying or doing, that the students could understand. One case from the practice of recent years seems to have opened the curtain of the secret. 

Suddenly, during the school year, my voice disappeared. Absolutely. She could only speak in a whisper, but it is impossible to whisper, so as not to strain the ligaments – for the speedy recovery process. The doctor did not give a sick leave and advised not to strain the voice, which was at point “0”. Imagine my surprise when, having worked four days in this mode, I realized that the material had been mastered (and this is in very weak classes). All four days she waved her hands, tapped with a chalk on the blackboard or tweeted diagrams to attract or accentuate attention, pointed her finger at the right places in the textbook to some students so that they voiced the desired task. So I realized that auditory perception in modern children is actually absent, it is needed only for a bundle of actions. But visual, schematic, and bodily-emotional explanations work fine.

Our children, who were born with gadgets in their hands, feel and see perfectly, but often they absolutely do not hear us.

I am a kinesthetic with a figurative-schematic thinking by 80 percent (this is my own diagnosis) and very poorly perceive information by ear. For me, the scariest version of a test at school has always been presentation. I tried to write down everything that I could, and then built the text out of it, brick by brick. To understand what I have heard, I need to translate into my language: into bodily sensations, schemes. For example, a tour guide on any trip is actually an unnecessary paid application for me if he speaks quickly enough, emotionlessly, giving a lot of lengthy information. In the brain, there is complete zero from verbal information. But I enjoy the views and my sensations.

When I came to work at school, then, naturally, when explaining the topic I relied on my perception and it turned out that all channels were involved in the process: visual (with the help of sight), auditory (due to the hearing organs), kinesthetic (the sense organs are involved) and digital (thinking is used). I easily came up with options for explanations, since they were familiar to me.

The point is that there are not so many kinesthetic teachers. Adults are usually visuals and auditors. They do not work for those for whom the auditory canal is virtually zero source of information. At the same time, they do not understand at all why the students do not understand some elementary things. And not out of malice, but because like them, the vast majority of adults. And children fall into the category of “the modern generation, which is now stupid and unable to understand elementary things.” I often find it difficult when I am informed of something new. But I learned to live in it and ask questions that will be translators for me into my language. And the children have not yet learned how to do this.

Speak the same language

It would be nice if the psychological service of schools helped in identifying the leading channels of perception. This would make it easier to find a common language with students. But even if this option is not possible, then the teacher can calculate it himself when explaining new material. The teacher’s task is to keep an eye on the pulse and see the reaction of each child at every minimum stage of the explanation. Feedback is very important. But it is possible only in the case when the student does not receive an answer to the question after the explanation of the material: “You should have listened carefully.” Students should be taught not to be afraid to ask questions if they do not understand something. Usually, the explanation is structured in a visual-auditory format. It makes no sense to explain the second time in the same way. They did not understand once, and they will not understand the second. Look for explanations. Imagine, for example, that you are deaf. How would you explain this topic to him?

Use emotions 

Often, even after the material has been understood in the lesson, the next one gets the feeling that he was working into emptiness. They didn’t learn anything at home, their homework wasn’t done, their hands were itching to put a two mark. But it’s better to pacify your anger, because our task is to teach, not punish. Support the guys even in this situation. Make an image appear that makes it possible to remember in spite of everything. Connect, for example, emotions. I remember that the students could not remember in any way that the appeal is not any member of the sentence. After three lessons in a row, day after day, I asked the same question and saw crazy eyes, as if they were hearing for the first time what an appeal is, in principle, not what else is a member of a sentence, I did the following … Standing in front of them, I said, “Look at me. Remember, the address is not NI-KA-KIM, NI-KA-KIM, NI-KA-KIM (at the same time I jumped finely but quickly in one place and desperately twisted my head from side to side) a member of the sentence. The guys started to laugh at this scene, I’m with them. But there was never a single person who would not answer me after the question: “Which member of the proposal is the appeal?”

Interest is the engine of progress

Interest is the best motivation that awakens attention and activates our thought processes. For interest to be a constant companion in the lesson, it is necessary for the students to be in the subject, and for this, everyone present must feel their importance. Ask weak learners often with questions that they can answer on their own or with your help. React emotionally positively to each correct answer, and to the wrong one, very kindly offer to think about where he broke the logic, ask the class what answer options someone else can offer. Find any little things that you can praise for: “Tanya, what a beautiful letter“ A ”you have today turned out here, but here it is worse. You have very beautiful handwriting, but you hide it from me. ” “Andryusha, I’m proud of you! You have only 15 mistakes in the last dictation. Super! You clever! Last time it was 20. I believe that next time you will have even less. Come at break, I will explain some mistakes to you so that you never make them again. ” How they bloom! Even a grade for work is for them in this case the teacher’s approval. There is a desire to work because there is a perspective. 

Homework for 5-10 minutes

Don’t ask big homework assignments. Better to start each next lesson with a very quick, schematic, frontal or any other option for checking the connection: repeat not the topic, but the system chain of topics. Five minutes from the lesson is not a problem, but you can be sure that in the fifth or eighth lesson, everyone in the class will understand what and how. I remember the happy exclamation of a new student who had never had a higher than “three” in Russian in other schools: “I have the first A in my life in Russian!” And then there is actually a lezginka performed by him.

All these principles, taken as a basis, led to the fact that the children were happy to go to the lesson, took an active part in all its stages, received good, but well-deserved marks, and as a result they passed the exams perfectly. One of the very weak students still writes to me on VKontakte: “I miss YOU” – and laughs that I remembered this after I said with a sly smile that I would not allow exams if I spoke incorrectly.

There is a lot of discussion now that the situation of sudden distance education gives us a chance to change the traditional classroom-lesson school system, build a completely different school, and in general, at least introduce distance education into the school systematically. As if the shape would change the essence …

In reality, so far we see a clear duplication of traditional education online by various methods. And even then not everywhere, but only where the technical capabilities allow. As a compulsory measure.

Image by Mudassar Iqbal from Pixabay