Handwriting – The mirror of Knowledge!

Is it difficult to decipher your child’s Handwriting? Unfortunately, you aren’t the only parent who has this issue. Many parents and instructors claim that today’s youngsters and teenagers don’t have the same quality of handwriting that the same age of children had in the previous generations.

There are numerous explanations for this. However, the fundamental cause is that some children used to write too fast. When they try to write fast, their handwriting may look messy and unreadable. So..what’s the best way to deal with it? “Make an effort to write neatly.” But how do you do it?

We doubt you might be wondering how to encourage your child to write neatly with better handwriting. If so, here we have shared a few causes of lousy handwriting. Also, we have listed a few activities and approaches to help youngsters and teens improve their handwriting.

But, before we go any further, it’s essential to understand why handwriting improvement is crucial and what abilities are required to do so.

Why is it essential to improve my handwriting?

In every sphere of life, communication is the key to success. Therefore, when you cannot communicate verbally, your writing should speak for you! But, if your handwriting is not legible, how would you communicate with writing? Hence, it is essential to have good handwriting. Also, there are other benefits that good handwriting offers. Some of them are listed below:

Benefits of improving Handwriting

• Enhance brain-power (studies have proven that concentrating on writing improves memory and brainpower. This is because continuous writing practice will store the data in a kid’s mind)
• Improves Clear and Legible writing (with better handwriting, your data will be accessible for the readers to understand)
• Increase Grade points in academics (improvement in handwriting will not just enhance your brainpower. It enhances your grade points in academics since it is in a readable form for the teachers)
• Develop Fine Motor Skills (Fine motor skill is nothing but improving hand movement and finger strength)
• Enhance Confidence
• Promotes Patience
• Improves personality
• Generates neat writing even when you write faster.
• Provides clarity in thoughts

What are the characteristics of Handwriting?

Whether it is an everyday writing practice or a personal signature, every person has a unique handwriting style. Even identical twins won’t share the same style of handwriting. But, the basic characteristics of handwriting remain the same for all. What are they?

Letter spacing: Some people write with a lot of white space between the letters, whereas others write with a lot of black space. However, the space between characters in a word should be consistent.

Letter separation: Letter spacing isn’t the only factor in beautiful handwriting. Word separation and joins are included. Hence, whenever you write, lift the pen when it is necessary.

Line Quality: Like letter spacing and separation, line quality plays a major role in legible handwriting. The qualities of a great line include fluidity, consistency, thickness, and so forth.

Diacritic placement: The punctuation marks, dot on letters (e.g., i’s), and cross on letters (e.g., t’s) are all examples of diacritic placement.

Line adherence: Some children’s writing soars above or dives below the line. This allows for sloppy handwriting to emerge. Hence, children should be taught to write on a line.

How to improve handwriting?

If you want to enhance your child’s handwriting, figure out whether he or she is right or left-handed. There are options accessible for both left and right-handed people to enhance their writing. So just focus on it.

Hey, hang on. Before that, observe where and how your child is having difficulty. This will help you build better handwriting skills with your child.

Let’s review the most typical handwriting challenges that every writer encounters.

What are Handwriting Difficulties?

Behind every good handwriting, there lie smaller skill sets associated with visual perceptual, sensory-motor, and cognitive domains. So, if a person or writer fails in learning any of these skill sets, they may face handwriting difficulties. Besides, several other elements cause handwriting problems. Some of the most common things are:

• Poor fine motor skills
• Poor coordination of right and left side of brain and body (bilateral integration)
• Poor visual-motor integration (visual perception and eye-hand coordination)
• Poor visual tracking (eye movement)
• Poor postures and muscle tone
• Poor cognitive skills.
• Poor pencil grip
• Slow and effortful writing
• Inconsistent hand dominance

Common Handwriting Problems

1. Letter shapes

Every child struggles to learn the shape of a letter while learning it for the first time. For example, learning English letters takes longer for children. This is because seeing different-sized letters, lowercase letters, and uppercase letters may confuse you.

Note: Lowercase letters are smaller and have more edges and curves. Hence, it may be more difficult for certain children to write.

2. Problem with spacing and joins

As previously said, good handwriting is characterized by space and word connections. However, some children struggle with word spacing and join. This is because certain words are made by combining two words with the help of an apostrophe or a hyphen. As a result, grasping the concept of space might be challenging at first.

3. Positioning of the body

Writers should sit in a comfortable position before starting to write. When writing, body posture is crucial. For instance, the writer’s elbow should be up against the body if the paper is laid straight. However, if the paper is set at an angle, the writer will have entire body movement and mobility, including wrist extension and flexion.

4. Smudged Work

If you are a left-handed person, then you might have this problem. What was it? When you write something, your hand follows the writing line, and it will automatically smudge.

5. Difficulty in holding the writing instrument

Many children hold their pen or pencil with their whole hand. It doesn’t allow them to write perfect shapes. Also, some kids hold their writing tool too close to the tip; it may hide the words when writing. Due to this, their writing either flows above or falls below the line.

Soo…If your child is having trouble with any of these issues, assist them in developing the necessary handwriting abilities. How? Try involving some fun activities to improve handwriting skills. Here are some best activities to observe and assist your child in developing Handwriting abilities. Shall we look at them?

Activities to improve Handwriting skills:

1. Sensory activities

What skill you’ll gain: Visual-Motor Integration – Enables your hands to accurately replicate what your eyes see (eye-hand coordination) Example: Shapes, Letters, and Numbers.

Activities:

• Teach your kids to practice letter shapes and numbers using color paints or sand. You can also write any letter in the sand and assist your child in tracing it over.
• Matching shapes – If you have alphabetical blocks, allow your child to match them.
• Join the dots – draw the letter shapes in dotted format and train your child to join them using pen, pencil, or marker.

2. Puzzle or building block

What skill you’ll gain: Fine Motor Skills – finger movement and dexterity skills. This manipulates and controls the pencil grip.

Activities:

• Building block
• Puzzle
• Cutting paper
• Create fun messages

3. Playdough, clay, or slime

What skill you’ll gain: Hand & Finger Strength helps a kid hold a pen or pencil for a longer period.

Activities:

Kids are usually attracted to playing with dough, clay, and slime. Hence, make use of any materials. With clay or dough, you can make shapes and toys. This will strengthen your hands and fingers.

4. 3D structures

What skill you’ll gain: Visual perception – increases writing abilities by ensuring adequate letter spacing and font size.

Activities:

Play with blocks – some block games include geometric shapes such as cubes, squares, hexagons, pentagons, and other shapes. You can encourage visual vision in your children by playing such block activities.

Closure:

We hope that the information provided above has given you a better understanding of why improving handwriting is essential and what causes sloppy writing. All you need to do is: just grab some tips from an expert and implement them in your kids’ writing!

Why is water so blue? Have you ever explained that to a three-year-old? Well! I guess he will believe you whatever color name you say. Children believe in us and learn by imitating and repeating what they see. They watch and repeat everything that you do. Thus, they will follow suit when you read it out to them too.

Since early childhood is the best time to develop reading skills, introducing your kids to early reading games which are fun can do wonders. Children learn to read games as quickly as 2 or 3 years of age. Therefore, reading should be engaging and fun for a child, not tedious. Giving kids a daily reading list is the worst approach to convey that idea.

The benefits of reading games online will hook your little one up. Thereby keeping them engaged for a long time. Children learn quickly while playing games. Small games played daily will help their young minds work. These fun reading games for kindergarten can go a long way towards equipping them with reading skills. 

Reading games are fun and promote fast learning. Moreover, it can help teachers and parents entertain their children while fostering a love for reading. Online reading games will expose kids to a variety of skills. A majority of reading games online are free to download and play. 

Let us have a look at the 10 most fun online reading games for kids which inspire them:

1. Cause and effect:

Skills: From cause to effect

Most kids, or all I would say, love ice creams. This game makes kids practise the cause and effect reading skills more efficiently. The kids have to drag the scoops, which is the cause and place it on the cone, which is the effect. The scoops are placed on the left and the cones on the right side. Find the correct answer and place it on the respective cones. There are many quizzes, lessons and incomplete questions to be solved. The kids can save it in the worksheets offered and later take a printout of the game.

2. Sight word smash:

Skills: Sight words

Sight words are significant for kids in the initial years. This reading game will speed up the reading from an early age. It is one of the popular games for kindergarten. Kids get exposed to plenty of words such as Dolch and fry. Find the word after listening and smash the block. Altogether remove the block the second time by smashing it.

3. Monkey in the middle:

Skills: Middle sounds

Young children learn how to combine sounds to create words. They need to drag the monkey to his vine to retrieve the letter. Students practice short, three-letter words by combining short middle sounds. Once they finish the three correct answers, they get to play a short game. 

4. Letter dance party:

Skills: letter recognition, comprehension

The children learn all the letters through a dance party with snuffy and the big bird. They can practise letters by tracing the letters. They get to dance with the big bird too. They entertain kids through colorful balloons and gifts to keep them entertained.

5. Explore with Molly:

Skills: Reading comprehension, the storyline

Kids will love to explore molly’s town, where she is busy with neighbours friends. Her neighbors are busy picking up blueberries. This is an easy-to-understand story game for young children. Molly has new recipes for kids to follow and shows them her map to understand cultural differences. She also has a backpack with many amazing things stored to show kids.

6. Super Why:

Skills: Letters recognition, reading and rhymes

The kids will learn about letters written on bones. They learn about alphabets and their sounds. They connect the alphabets to learn the sequence of the alphabets. It is an excellent children’s game for learning letters, reading, and rhymes. Children learn to read while playing with their favorite Super Why character. Super Why, Wonder Red, Prince’s presto and Alpha Pig. They are going on a treasure hunt, thereby exploring maps. They also earn sovereigns.

7. Alphabet bubble:

Skills: Phonemic awareness

Playing Alphabet Bubble helps to increase phonemic awareness. Match the letters to words that begin with the appropriate letter sound by popping bubbles. The image of the word is shown to the child when a match is made.

8. Match the opposites:

Skills: Identifying opposites, Reading with symbols

Kids in kindergarten must understand the meaning behind the words to master the language. This is a fun and engaging matching game for early learners. The kid’s pair cards that are based on opposite attributes, such as big or small, hot or cold, and fat or thin. To play, they drop or drag the cards next to each other.

9. Letter and Number tracing:

Skills: Practice numbers and letters

Tracing is a fun way for kids to practice letter and number formation. Students can trace uppercase, lowercase, or number letters. A guide will show where each stroke should begin and end. The kids will listen to music while they trace. They can choose from pop, rock, classical and island musical themes. The book ends with a fun bonus game in which kids arrange numbers and letters to create a musical beat!

10. Shape and color BINGO:

Skills: Finding shapes and colors

Finding colors and shapes or both never got more fun. There are 2D, 3D shapes or both. The kids will enjoy playing this reading game to find colors too. There are grids of colors where children can match the color. They also get to collect 20 Bingo Bugs.

Conclusion:

Kids love anything that is challenging for them. So, when it comes to reading games too, they find it enjoyable. Learning something through play is always fun, and they are more than willing to learn. How much time a student spends on a game is closely related to reading. So, keep reading because online reading games help children develop essential life skills.

Great reading exercises should encourage a child to begin reading. Reading games make learning a fun and engaging experience. Is it, however, expected of children to love reading? That will depend on the child and the love for reading. It also depends on how motivated they feel to do so. A child who enjoys reading will do an activity and devote more time to it. As they get more engaged, they will learn more. 

Meanwhile, let them read well because now is the right time to play!

One of the most effective habits a child can develop is reading. Books have a significant impact on our thinking. Reading allows us to travel from one world to another. Especially when we immerse ourselves in the lives of fictional people. We somehow put ourselves in the protagonist’s shoes and think. We become mindful and aware of the characters’ circumstances. Thus, we become more tolerant and patient with them and the others around us. Neither television nor video games can create this kind of awareness.

The benefits of reading from an early age can help with the child’s overall development. Be it cognitive, vocabulary or critical thinking. Children absorb everything around them like sponges. Even when they are listening to us speak, their minds are active. So, the more a child reads, the more active his brain becomes and develops better. Thereby improving concentration, memory and knowledge.

How parents can start reading to their children:

Start Reading to your child from an early age. This will help their brains to develop, strengthen your bond with them and much more. Children love the sound of language when you read it out to them. So, starting young helps a child to incorporate those words into their vocabulary. It enhances their learning skills and spark’s a child’s imagination. It expands their knowledge and stimulates curiosity. It also develops their listening skills. When reading becomes a part of who they are, it becomes as easy as talking and eating. 

Reading with them once a day at a fixed time can help them greatly. Make it a part of their routine. Spending a good 30 minutes or more will make a massive difference to their lives. You can keep your child hooked by reading different books and encouraging variation. Because boring stories can put your child to sleep. Keep motivating them to read along with you and correct them when wrong. With a little bit of patience, your child will keep improving. 

When you start reading to your children, you cultivate a lifelong habit. You get to spend quality time with them, and this leads to a unique camaraderie between you and your child. The children also look forward to that particular time you get to spend with them. Start with short stories, singing or using books of different languages. Encourage your child to read out aloud or ask them to read with you. This will help the child to feel confident and foster a love for reading. 

How reading helps in a child’s development:

Children learn in many ways and more through reading. Books not only benefit the brain but also the body. It helps to improve a child’s physical and mental or emotional development.

Following are a few ways reading can influence a child physically and mentally:

Physical and Mental Benefits of reading are:

1. It develops your child’s brain-reading- and can enhance a child’s brain function. Books are an excellent way to improve children’s language skills. It enhances their memory, which is vital for academic success.
2. 2. It improves their fine motor skills-Your child will be able to turn the pages all by himself after a while. This leads to hand-eye coordination. Pointing to a word or letter encourages children to do the same. Thus, fine-tuning their muscle movements when they hold pens or draw.
3. It improves sleep patterns-Reading stories during bedtime helps kids to relax. This routine, when practiced regularly, keeps the mind calm and improves their sleep. 
4. It reduces stress-Curling up with a good book not only helps in reducing stress but also enhances sleep. When our mind is set on a single task, it is like doing meditation. When the brain is in a meditative state, it has been shown to reduce stress levels and relax our minds.
5. Social skills improve-Kids need to be focused on improving their social skills. Once they are focused, they will be great at social interactions. Reading also helps them be patient with others, making them better at resolving issues. And reading improves focus and concentration.
6. Expanded vocabulary-A child will learn new words and try different ways to express the exact words. They get exposed to a variety of words and concepts every day. It also improves their grammar and makes them more articulate. 
7. Imagination and creativity-When your child reads a book, their minds create images. They are trying to recreate a scene from a book and develop their version of it. Thinking outside the box helps them to boost their creativity and spark curiosity.
8. It improves concentration-Reading regularly to kids can enhance their concentration. Your child is trying to focus on the words and keep their attention to what you are saying. This may help them to improve their discipline skills too.
9. Develops empathy-Reading exposes kids to different stories and learning about new emotions. This leads to the emotional and social development of a child. The child can then correlate their emotions with words and find a way to express themselves. As a result of this, children become more empathetic and compassionate.  
10. Lasting and a healthy bond– Reading is an excellent way for both parents and children to connect. Reading triggers interactions with your child that help them to express themselves. Thereby forming a lifelong lasting bond with them. 

Reading is fun:

Reading is fun because books don’t judge us. It gives us the freedom to be who we want to be. It transports us into a whole new world. Reading provides a sense of wellbeing and nurtures your little one. Children like being read to with their parents. It creates a positive attitude toward literacy in a young child’s mind. It also sends out a strong message that reading is worthwhile. Give them the books and watch them reap the benefits. A commitment to lifelong learning is sure to follow. 

So, what are you waiting for? 

It only takes a few books, some motivation and some time.!

Math is not everyone’s cup of tea. Many people have difficulty learning math. There are many reasons for this. But the most common cause is anxiety.

Have you ever felt stressed or anxious whenever your math teacher asks you to solve a problem or when you are doing your math homework? Of course, this could be a sign of math anxiety. But is it possible to overcome math anxiety? Absolutely!

How?

We are here to help you. Our math blog details a few tips and techniques to help people experiencing math anxiety. However, before you move further, you should know how to spot math anxiety.

What is Math Anxiety?

Math anxiety or Math Phobia – a feeling of fear, stress, uneasiness, nervousness, and tension. In other words, Math anxiety is an emotion that a person feels when confronted with mathematical problems.

As a parent or a teacher, you may wonder what causes math anxiety and how to recognize that your kids are anxious when learning math. Here, we’ve gathered a few causes, early signs, and symptoms of math anxiety that you should look for in your kid.

Causes of Math Anxiety

Math anxiety is usually connected to a negative math experience. It lies in fear of failure. However, there are a few other causes that may trigger math anxiety.

• Time limitation or Tests: When a kid is on a Math test, the time limitation puts more pressure on a child to complete a problem. They may worry about the times while answering the question. Possibly, due to this, the kids may forget the concepts.
• Embarrassment: If a student didn’t score well, parents or teachers might scold them for their math error. It may frighten the kids and result in negative outcomes.
• Influence: Kids grow up by seeing parents and listening to teachers’ words. So, if a teacher or parent has a negative attitude about math, their kids also get to develop the same attitude towards math.

Signs and Symptoms of Math Anxiety

There are two major aspects you need to consider: (i) How the body deals with (Physical symptoms) and (ii) Behavioral changes.

Physical symptoms

Children who experience math anxiety have some common symptoms. These include:

1. Rapid Heartbeat:

When a person is nervous, the body goes into fight-or-flight mode, which causes heart rate and blood circulation to increase.

2. Sadness or Worrying

The kids may seem unnecessarily worried or stressed when doing math problems. This can distract them from learning Math.

3. Sweating

Those who suffer from anxiety often sweat. This is because when we are in panic mode, our nervous system alerts the body about overheating, which leads to sweating.

4. Restlessness

Having restlessness is another anxiety sign children and teens show. However, kids suffering from math anxiety are less likely to experience restlessness.

Behavioral Symptoms

Physical symptoms of math anxiety can be hard to detect because kids commonly experience them in many situations, like exam hours. You need to pay more attention to other identifiable signs, like behavioral patterns. Certain behavioral changes are common in kids with math anxiety. These include:

1. Hard to concentrate

When we say the word math, some kids get stressed. This is probably due to math anxiety. When we feel stressed, we start messing up with math concepts. As a result, a student may not be able to concentrate.

2. Negative self-talk

Students with math anxiety often make critical statements about themselves when they are anxious. In the end, this might disgrace them and make them incapable of solving math problems.

3. Inferiority complex

Kids sometimes feel inferior when doing math. It is another sign of math anxiety. Inferior people may feel embarrassed when faced with math problems. Moreover, they tend to keep their doubts without asking for help from teachers.

How do you Overcome Math Anxiety?

Here are some tips that can help you to overcome math anxiety:

1. Manage Stress and Relax

Stress management and relaxation are among the best ways to overcome anxiety in kids. With this strategy, you can avoid being anxious and concentrate on the math concepts. All you need to do is just meditate and take a long breath. It will help your mind to stay relaxed.

2. Fight back the negative thoughts

Negative thoughts are the biggest enemy of humankind. You need to fight back your negative thoughts because they may lack your self-confidence level in doing math. So, try to build your confidence with positive thoughts.

3. Try solving easy problems

Learn math by solving easy problems first. Solving easy problems can improve your mental health, boost your self-confidence, and help you focus on the hard problems.

4. Think positive

Imagining or visualizing is the most effective way to cope with stress. When you visualize reaching your goal, you are in a better frame of mind. To be competent at math, you need to act and think like you are proficient at it. Maintaining a positive attitude will motivate you to remain focused and active when solving math problems.

5. Practice regularly

You can lower your anxiety in math by practicing regularly. Make sure you do basic math calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division whenever possible. So, pick up a topic that has been covered in the class and work on them. For instance, if you want to practice counting, adding, and subtracting, you can use coins.

6. Play games

Playing funny games can help you cope with math anxiety. Because games can divert kids’ minds and make them more interested in math. Therefore, you should consider playing Monopoly or other number-centric board games.

7. Get Help

As a kid, you can’t learn math on your own. Instead, look for a person or an online tutor who can help you understand and solve your math problems. Online tutors are well-trained professionals who help kids learn mathematics effectively based on how they learn. Therefore, hire an online math tutor if you need assistance with math problems.

Bottom lines

Dealing with math anxiety is common in kids. It happens at any point in every kid’s life. But it doesn’t mean you can’t get rid of it. These are some tips that may help you overcome math anxiety. The real battle, however, must begin in your mind!

Cultivating good study habits can make you more efficient at studying. But how do you develop them?

Successful students are not those who devote a lot of time to learning. All it takes for people to develop and maintain effective study habits. Creating effective study habits is the first step toward becoming a successful student. 

Developing a set of skills that will serve you well in the future is one of the best ways to boost your grades. Learning how and how best you learn begins with cultivating strong study habits.

Studying does not have to sound boring or like a chore. A good study habit can make studying enjoyable and rewarding. You can start building on your practices to make your study habits more disciplined. 

Today, it is common for students to procrastinate and slack off while studying from time to time. It can sometimes be difficult to sit quietly and absorb information. With so much social media around the kids, the distraction is even more. 

But what if this article told you that you could genuinely build your study habits? Let us find out how:

Understanding how habits are formed:

Habit is an intriguing concept!

Why is it that we never forget things like eating and sleeping? This is something we do simply as if we were on autopilot. The art of habits is amazing. We form them and stick to them easily.

To start with a habit, write down what is on your mind what you would like to do the next day. Then, the next day, try to execute your written work. The more you write and execute, the better the brain will adapt. Eventually, the brain will be used to a cycle and make you accustomed to a pattern. 

The thing about habits is that it works differently for everyone. Some may form early, and others may form late. But in the end, we all form useful and efficient habits. 

Discover your learning style:

Every learning style is unique!

Many of us are in the process of discovering our habits. But, of course, it takes as much time for us to figure as any habit. The key to adapting to a good study habit is discovering what learning style you fit into. Once you identify that, your journey of cultivating good habits begins.

Most of us learn through seeing, hearing, and experiencing. Visual learners learn through seeing and reading. Auditory learners learn through listening and speaking. Kinesthetic learners through touching and doing. You can use simple activities to find out which category you fit into. 

Your learning style will help you perform better and get good grades. Each learning style is unique for every student. And every student absorbs information in different ways. Whatever your learning style, pick the best that suits you and works for you. 

Organizing your life:

Being organized is liberating!

Organizing your papers and other things helps you get straight to studying without having to lose time. Sometimes, the mess you have created outside plays havoc on your mind inside. By having a cleaner and more organized setting, you will be much more focused.

A good way to start the day is to plan it. Putting it in writing helps you focus on things way better. So you know how much to study, how many hours to study, and what to study. Just casually strolling the book or having random plans would mess up the day. 

Organizing helps you in breaking your workload into smaller chunks. Thereby helping you with a smarter study habit to develop. Dividing into smaller parts not only helps you focus but also remain calm.

Some techniques to use to get organized are: 

• A calendar or a planner to keep track of all your assignments
• Use coloured folders to demarcate them
• Mark the files or documents to avoid the last-minute rush
• Create a timetable and stick to it

Staying focused to avoid a rut:

Being focused helps you grow!

A good study habit forms when you clear the mess was strewn around in your room. The more the mess, the more it could deter you from revising. The things scattered around the house are the major distractions and can impact concentration. Eventually, making you lose focus.

Mobile phones consume a lot of your time and life. Turning off your mobile or keeping it on silent helps. You can take breaks in between to check in case of emergency calls or reply to messages. Another way is to keep the phone away for a few hours till you have studied. 

Social media has taken over our lives, and how. They are a major distraction, especially for the younger generation. While we can’t ignore them completely, we can avoid a few hours while studying. After all, your education is far more important. Furthermore, you will be able to detox your mind by avoiding social media for a few hours a day.

The golden rule to change your habit:

Is there truly a golden rule to habit change?

Habit-forming can work both ways. It has its perks as well as its downsides. When you set a good or a bad habit, you will fall into it sooner or later. And even you know it, they will become a part of your daily routine. So, be very careful of what you follow.

The golden rule of habit transformation is to identify habits. Our brain can develop thoughts, and when those thoughts are repeated, they become habits. For example, when your brain comes up with an idea, pick it up quickly. When you pick up the same ideas continually, they become a habit. By ignoring the negative thoughts, you focus on the positive thoughts. Thereby building good study habits for life.

Bottom-lines

Building habits take time, but once you have built them, they last a lifetime. Be consistent and stick to your study routine to maintain it throughout your school years. 

So what are you waiting for? Plant the seeds of good studying habits and watch them grow!

Login instead of walking in!

With the current pandemic situations, distance learning has become common among students. However, many children still have difficulty switching from a traditional classroom to an online learning environment. Hence, keeping students engaged isn’t always easy. So, teachers need to take extra measures to engage students effectively. But how?

Here are some tips and tricks for teachers to keep their students engaged during online learning. So, make sure to implement the following in your live session.

How to Engage Students in Online Learning?

1. Explain how the online class works

Before you begin your teaching, explain how online education works. Because for some students, it might be the first online class to get started with. Create an introductory video session to access the necessary software and hardware. It will help the students to stay tuned in the virtual classroom without any delay or technical issues.

2. Help to set up learning space

A slight sound may distract the students when learning. Especially at home, students may easily get distracted. Encouraging students with a positive environment will make them more engaged in online classes without sound distraction. So, help the kids set up a friendly workspace with essential tools like headphones, webcams, etc.

3. Build Student-Teacher interaction

When a teacher and student are physically distant, creating a social connection between them becomes more complicated.

In the classroom environment, teachers used to be more friendly and chat with the students before beginning their class or in the midst. But, when it comes to online teaching, teachers also have problems like login issues and subject portion completion. Hence, they may concentrate on their teaching part.

However, a good student-teacher connection makes the learners more comfortable asking subject questions that students have in their minds. Hence, it would be best to build a friendly relationship with your students as a teacher.

4. Begin with an Agenda

Before teaching the topic, begin with an Agenda. Providing a plan or schedule at the beginning of the class will help the students know what topics will be covered in today’s session. So… start the teaching session with a layout or bullet list and offer them prior knowledge on what will be taught in the particular session.

5. Build Strong Community

One of the best ways to spice up students’ engagement in online learning is “building a strong community or group.” How?

Create a group like a message board, social media groups, etc. You can easily connect with your students through the groups to share the study materials during teaching and non-teaching hours. Even it will be helpful for the students to ask subject-related doubts to get clarified whenever they have them. Also, with this technique, you can let your students know that you are available for them whenever necessary.

6. Let them collaborate

Distance learning can make the students feel isolated since every student is in a different learning space. To fight the feeling of isolation, help them collaborate by assigning project works in groups. When they are in a group or with a partner, they can combine the creativity of their ideas and share individual perspectives. In addition, they can create a relationship with one another. It will make them feel more comfortable when participating in class.

7. Communicate

You’ll never know whether a student feels bored or sleeping unless you ask in remote teaching. This is because, in a virtual classroom, some students might be uninterested in listening while others feel shy to interact or fall behind. So, communicate with the kids in the middle of your class by asking questions or chatting.

Further, there are multiple formats accessible for the students and teachers to communicate in online learning. For instance: sending email, forum discussion, etc. Why don’t you get in touch with your students?

8. Include games

There is no doubt that students love games. Some kids even have a passion for fun games more than their studies. So, why don’t you try adding games to your teaching?

There are many ways to add games to kids’ studies. However, you don’t need to develop a full-fledged game. Instead, use a few game elements like a quiz competition. Adding game elements in teaching make the students more interested in listening to the lectures. Also, reward your students with badges or certificates for their win and participation. It will encourage the students to concentrate on their subjects.

9. Feedback

If you want to check whether your student is engaged in the online class, why not ask them? Every student won’t be honest when a teacher questions them directly. Instead, create anonymous polls and ask the students to answer what they feel about your teaching. It will be a great way to assess how interested they are in your lecture and how interactive they are in your session. Further, you can create a discussion session with your students and find their needs in your teaching.

Without feedback, students and teachers would never know what they are experiencing in the online course. Therefore, always provide constructive feedback and keep your kids engaged in the online classroom.

10. Motivate

Motivation usually drives the kids on the right path. It helps the students to face their difficulties in assignments on their own. Also, it encourages them to stay motivated and build confidence in their learning. So, please don’t force the students to complete their assignments. Instead, let them learn how to work things in their way. This will allow the students to stay active in the virtual classroom.

Closure

There has been a consequent growth in online learning for the past few decades. In addition, Covid -19 pandemic has transformed education from traditional classroom learning to online learning. But, online classes are not familiar among students and teachers who are not used to them. So, for some people, online learning would be hard to stay active. Try implementing the tips mentioned above and lead your learning and teaching journey ahead if you are among those!

We wish the best for the future of your young talented students:)