How To-41: "How to Find Motivation to do Homework"

How to Find Motivation to do Homework

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Few students like to do homework and everyone seems to put it off. It is easy to say that you will do it 'later'; and yet, when 'later' comes, you still do not want to do it. But, it has to be done! It is better done earlier than later.

Steps

1. Plan ahead. If you have a study hall, do as much of it there as possible. The more you do when you are in class, the less you will have to do at home. Try to do it in class if time is provided and at lunch, or any other spare time you might have.
   
2. Get motivated. Promise yourself a reward for finishing the dreadful homework, such as an activity you enjoy or anything that you would find enjoyable and doable after you finish. Don't use food as a reward, however! Save a special magazine to read when homework is done or make plans to talk with a friend on the phone as soon as both of you have completed your assignments. Also take advantage of any holidays or vacations that may be coming near. On a Thursday, remind yourself that it is almost the weekend. Remind yourself that Thanksgiving, winter break, or summer break is nearing.
   
3. Break it up. Take regular breaks. Set a timer; take at most 10 minutes of break for each hour you study. A fried brain absorbs little information. Get up, stretch, and move around...and reward yourself for what you've accomplished so far.
   
4. Think of the consequences. What will happen if you don't do your homework? You'll get a bad grade? Your teacher will be disappointed in you? If none of these things seem to apply to you, remember that homework is to help you learn, which everyone ultimately wants. In the real world, knowledge helps you master the rules of the game...and if you don't know the rules, then you just lost the game. If Knowledge is Power...Ignorance is minimum wage.
   
5. Find a place with less distraction. Set up your special study place. No friends, television, or other potential distractions should be present. Your homework place should also have a hard surface, like a table, to write on. If you need to do most or all of your homework on a computer (as many high school students do) make sure to avoid chat programs, unrelated websites, etc. If you have difficulty keeping focused (or awake), consider doing your homework at the library, at a table with some amount of foot traffic passing by it. The quiet atmosphere will help you focus, the surrounding mild activity will help keep you from falling asleep, and if you get stuck, there are those helpful librarians and references.
   
6. Get the work done, savor your reward. Don't cut it short or change the plan. Take as much enjoyment from your reward as possible.
   

Video

Tips

• Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Many classes are full of note memorization, which is best handled by starting small study sessions early and repeating often. Flash cards (written, or on your PDA, or online—there are several good online flash card sites, with many flash card sets already written for you), or flash sheets can be helpful.
  
• Use your spare time at school, and while riding the bus to begin your homework. Do the rest of your homework right after arriving at home. You are still in the school learning mode, and it will be easier to remember all you have learned. Then, you will have the rest of the day and evening free, without having to even think of school, until the next day.
  
• Don't get really stressed about not being able to do homework. There's plenty of help around - the internet, parents, friends etc. If all else fails you can go into school early and ask your teacher to explain the work for you.
  
• If you really don't want to do your homework, then just get everything ready to do your homework: paper, pencil, textbook, and maybe a cup of tea. Then sit down and open the book to the page you need to read. Then read the first paragraph. Usually by then you will feel that you can write the first sentence. Break it down into little bites.
  
• Studies show that during sleep, the brain tends to hold the memories you have right before you go to sleep. Therefore, if you have to memorize something, try to learn it just before you go to sleep. That does not mean you can cram 100 vocabulary words right before you go to sleep; memorize some during the day so that right before sleep you can review most or all of them.
  
• If the homework is going to take a long time (2+ hours) take a 15-minute break every hour. On the break, do not start your reward or anything else that you might be tempted to use as an excuse to not go back to your homework.
  
• Do the hardest work first. This means the more you do it, the easier it gets.
  
• Do your homework on a table or desk, but never try to work on the couch or in your bed. You will get bored, and the bed is so soft, and you'll fall asleep...
  
• Music may often help you concentrate; though try to avoid music with lyrics or very complex melodic progressions, as they may cause you to think more about the music than your homework. Certain classical music and some jazz are good for listening to while doing homework. Trance is the best style of music for studying; many people find studying to trace music very easily because most trance music is pure instrumental and lacks detail.
  
• If there is something you don't understand, write down what the specific question, or mark the page in your book. Then you can ask your teacher for help. If you just go to your teacher and say, "I didn't understand the homework so I couldn't finish it," it will be difficult for her/him to help you if you can't be specific about what was actually hindering you.
  
• It's easier to recall something if you remembered it under a similar environment (known as state-dependent learning). That's why it is important to study at a table and with proper lighting instead of reading on your bed, for example.
  
• If you are an extreme procrastinator, you might try some "structured procrastination". As the suggestion above says, do the easy homework before doing the hard homework, however not just to give yourself a sense of accomplishment, but also to avoid doing the big stuff. When it comes to the big stuff, find another larger task (like annoying chores) to put off in order to do the big homework. While in the long run this method is not productive (eventually you will have some really big things that you keep putting off for smaller ones), it can be more satisfying/effective for a hardened procrastinator.
  
• Some people use 'study drugs' (such as dextroamphetamine) in order to stay awake, and stay focused. While this is an effective way to avoid sleep, be aware that using drugs in this manner may cause unwanted side effects (such as mild depression, anxiety, insomnia, etc.), and is likely illegal. Since psychotropic drugs work differently for different people, this may or may not be an effective way to study. If you have a good doctor, talk to him about your pharmacological options.
  
• Also, think about the better grades you might get if you do your homework consistently.
  
• While doing your homework try not to use a pen in case you need to erase, a pencil would always be recommended for homework.
  
• Make sure you get a good nights sleep the night before. you will be able to work better if you are not tired.
  

Warnings

• Don't get distracted! It's not always easy, but try to stay focused.
  
• If you do homework with a friend, it's easy to get off subject and not do work in time. Of course, it's perfectly fine to be part of a study group if you know you can all focus.
  
• Don't get really worried! It's only homework. Next week you'll be wondering 'why ever did I get so worked up about it?' Think about a few years into the future, after all your exams when you won't ever have to do homework again! Aaah that'll be the day...
  
• Don't get frustrated. If you are having trouble getting through a certain assignment and it takes a long time, temporarily switch to another assignment.
  
• If you can help it, don't go to bed. What will happen is that you'll say, "Oh I'll get up early the next morning to finish it." Then, you either don't get up early enough, or you do, and you're totally worn out for the rest of the day.
  
• If you choose to listen to music, be aware that studies show you perform best on a test when the conditions (light, noise, etc.) are the closest to the conditions you studied with (known as state-dependent learning). So if you can't listen to music during a test, it may actually be better to study in quiet.
  

Things You'll Need

• Calculator
  
• Pen/Pencil
  
• Notebook Paper
  
• Books
  
• Homework assignment
  
• Quiet Workplace/Desk
  
• Timer
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Stay on Top of Homework
  
• How to Get Straight A's
  
• How to Do Your Homework on Time if You're a Procrastinator
  
• How to Plan a Homework Schedule
  
• How to Finish Your Chores and Homework
  
• How to Get Boring Homework Done
  
• How to Be Patient when Doing Homework With Your Young Child
  
• How to Be Self Motivated
  
• How to Unschool Yourself and Your Children
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Find Motivation to do Homework. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How To-40: "How to Use the Experiential Learning Model"

How to Use the Experiential Learning Model

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The Experiential Learning Model, used extensively in 4-H and other groups, is a way to turn ordinary games into learning experiences, primarily with the use of questions. This educational model is a great way to subtly make the most out of a situation.

Steps

1. Do the activity with your group. Before you can use the Experiential Learning Model, you must have something to use it on. After you learn the rest of the steps to the Experiential Learning Model, you will know how to look for good activities to use the model on.
   
2. Reflect on the activity.
   
   • What? What happened in the activity? What were the results? Everyone in the group should share their observations on what was going on. Listen to all observations. Everyone deserves a chance to talk. What did each person do? What was the most difficult thing about this activity?
     
   • Gut. Ask the group what their gut reaction was. If someone was left out, how did they feel being left out? How did it feel to lead? You can link the experience to your target subject matter (if you have one) and the life skills being learned. What problems or issues seemed to occur over and over? How did you feel when a particular thing happened?
     
   
   
3. Apply the activity to other experiences.
   
   • So what? So what happened? How do we apply this to the situation at hand? Generalize the event to connect it to real-world examples. What did you learn about yourself through this activity? What did you learn about making decisions? How does this activity relate to real life outside of the activity? How did you go about deciding what to do?
     
   • Now what? How can you apply what you've learned to a similar or different experience? What is another situation in which this skill can be used? How will the issues raised by this activity be useful in the future? How will you act differently in the future as a result of this activity?
     
   
   

Tips

• Remember what, gut, so what, and now what. This sticks well in the mind of youth and covers the basic steps after the activity is done.
  
• You may want to have everyone sit for all steps after Do. This will help them focus. Sitting in a circle is also a good way to help the group share openly, and ensures everyone can hear and make eye contact.
  
• Think of questions ahead of time, but leave room for questions that may arise from unexpected things that happen.
  
• You can apply the Experiential Learning Model to things other than games.
  
• Modify as necessary.
  

Warnings

• Choose activities appropriate for your group's age and size, and choose an area accordingly.
  

Things You'll Need

• Group of people, any age
  
• Suitable activity
  
• Desire to learn
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning
  
• How to Love Learning About Things!
  
• How to Be Self Learning
  
• How to Make the Most of Your Learning Style
  

Sources and Citations

• Wikipedia article on Experiential Learning
  
• Cyfernet article on The Experiential Learning Model
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use the Experiential Learning Model. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How To-39: "How to Start Learning Computer Programming"

How to Start Learning Computer Programming

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Programming is a lot of fun and extraordinarily useful. While you learn to program, you'll also develop a host of other analytical and critical thinking skills for tackling all sorts of complex problems (not just ones on computers) and it may just help you start a new career or land a new job in software development.
Computer programming is almost always done in some sort of Programming Language. These languages are written so that humans can understand them, but are formal and rigorous enough to input into a machine.
Programming languages are a way for you to express your thoughts about how to perform a specific task. As such, the programming language you start out with will inherently influence how you think about a particular problem. This influence is usually called the programming language's paradigm.
There's hundreds – even thousands – of programming languages out there. (Programmers like to write new programming languages.) You don't need to learn them all to be a good programmer, in fact, many of them use the same paradigm as other languages, so by learning one programming language, you'll probably have a “Reading knowledge” of several others and by able to learn it completely rather quickly.
Some languages are geared for specific purposes. C, Java, etc are meant to be “general purpose” languages for building software and computer applications (like a web browser!) Languages like PHP are meant for dynamic websites (like wikiHow!) And there are others still: Python, Perl, etc are “general scripting languages” meant for performing a wide variety of small tasks.

Steps

1. Start with a good book or tutorial on programming. The book will probably suggest a language. If you need recommendations, you might try Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman. It'll teach you how to start programming in a language called Scheme, which is a very simple language to learn. The book is available online for free at http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
   
2. Get a compiler/interpreter/IDE for the programming language your book uses. A compiler/interpreter is just another computer program, but it will convert ideas you've written in a programming language into "machine code" so you can see things work. If you chose use the book above, try PLT Scheme (http://www.drscheme.org/) If you're starting to program in Java, you could try Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/) If you're using C/C++, try Dev C++ (http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html)
   
3. Read the book! Take examples of the programming language from the book and put them into your interpreter. Try changing the examples and making the program do different things.
   
4. Try putting together your own ideas to form a working program. Start with simple things, like a program to convert currencies, and work your way up a long to more complex things as you continue reading and learning about your programming language.
   
5. Once you start actively programming in your first language, you may want to learn a second one. You'll get the most out of learning a second programming language if you pick one that uses a radically different paradigm than the one you started with. For instance, if you started in Scheme, you might try learning C or Java next. If you started in Java, you could learn Perl or Python.
   
6. Continue programming and trying new things! To be a good programmer, you, at the very least, have to keep up with changing technology. Its a constant learning process, and you should always be learning new languages, new paradigms, and most importantly: programming new things!
   

Tips

• Get a handy reference book. Make sure it's the latest version as languages keep updating.
  
• If you are learning Java then work with netbeans 6.0.1 its very cool and easy.
  
• By heart the syntax is a must. You are free to apply it in your own way. Study some sample programs then start coding your own.
  
• Java has a powerful concept called multithreading. Study it carefully.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Become a Programmer
  
• How to Program in Java
  
• How to Install Java
  
• How to Write Standard Code in C++
  
• How to Create Some Simple Programs in C++
  
• How to Create a Template in C++
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Start Learning Computer Programming. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

On Education-15:

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability - Cicero

How To-5: "How to Return to Learning As an Adult"

http://www.wikihow.com

How to Return to Learning As an Adult

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Going back to study is pretty scary. You might often wonder if you have made the right decision. Everything else seems to be more important and seems to take more of your time. Other people make you feel guilty but ...don't give up. No matter what your age, it is never too late to go back to school and pursue your dreams.

Steps

1. Remind yourself that you are doing this for you in the first place. But if it also means that soon you will have a career which is satisfying and is paying the bills and your children have a new found respect for you, cherish these bonuses.
2. If you are looking to find out what you really want to do and you are already past high school or college age, review the past few years of your life. How have you spent them and what made you happy or unhappy?
3. Consider the things you did that made you unhappy and choose a career that does not include them. For example, if doing bookkeeping at your last job stressed you out you probably should not pursue an accounting degree.
4. Consider the things you did that made you happy and that you felt you had control of. If you enjoyed maintaining the company website at your last job, you may also enjoy taking some online classes in graphic design and web design.
5. Go back to your old school days. What were your favorite subjects and hobbies? What did you want to be when you grew up? Does what you do now have anything to do with those subjects, hobbies and dreams?
6. Review your favorite job activities, hobbies and subjects to figure out what type of classes you would like to take. You don't have to decide "what you want to be when you grow up" right away.
7. Studying as an adult means you need to be organised. Set aside the time to do the homework - make yourself into a role model for the kids. Do homework together. Set up a study centre in your home or track everyone down to the local library for an afternoon of study.
8. Studying as an an adult means learning to cut corners but knowing which corners to cut. Not everything has to be done perfectly - you will give yourself ulcers. Do the best you can and learn from the feedback given to you by your teachers. Your home will survive the odd bit of dust. Teach family members how to vacuum, gain new cooking skills and become responsible for household cleanups.
9. Use every possible learning method to help you manage tests and find out which works best for you. Flashcards; audio tape information to be played while driving the car or cooking the dinner; coloured highlighters for key points; teach someone else; diagrams; lists and learn recall strategies.
10. But most of all believe in yourself. Yes, sometimes study can go awry but ask, ask and ask again for help from a range of people: your teacher, your peers, family, counsellors. Persistence is the key.
11. Celebrate like never before when you graduate!

Tips

• Set up an area at home or at work where you can do your studies quietly so you are ready for your classes.
• Find like minded study partners and share the load.
• Get involved with culture of the study institution - learn to feel at home
• Remember that 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' Thank you Eleanor Roosevelt
• Let your friends, family and work associates know about your intention to pursue higher education so they can be understanding of your needs. Those family members who are scathing of your attempts to improve your education need attention but also need to understand that you won't stop studying.
• Let your friends, family and work associates know about your intention to pursue higher education so they can be understanding of your needs.
• Talk to people who are working in the areas of interest you are considering. Find out what it takes to get and keep a job. Discuss the best and worst parts of the job.
• Candidly discuss your strong and weak points with friends, family and business associates to gain a better perspective of yourself.

Warnings

• Sometimes, but only in very rare cases, quitting is the only option you can have when things go really badly. However, most times quitting is a cop out. For the rest of your life, you will always think, "what if I'd finished that study?...."
• Everyone is capable of learning; the question is only how long will it take and will you put forth enough effort to learn what your studying. Some people are born with a natural ability to read well and others are born with great math skills. It is just a simple matter of how your brain was hard wired from birth to process information. Don't take it personally if you're not great at both as most people are not. Overcoming pride will be your biggest problem most times. Try not to focus on the grade level of the content and just that idea of accomplishing the goals.

Related wikiHows

• How to Cope With Sitting in the Back of the Classroom
• How to Be Knowledgeable
• How to Use a Chinese Abacus
• How to Study English in China

Sources and Citations

• Eleanor Roosevelt http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/ar32.html" rel="nofollow">[1]

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Return to Learning As an Adult. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning

How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Ultimately, we want our kids to love to learn. A passion for learning is quite different from just studying to earn a grade or to please parents or teachers. Those who develop a love of learning at an early age continue the process throughout their lives and are generally more successful, interesting, and happier than those who don't.

Steps

1. Talk with your child about the things you read and hear, especially the things you find interesting.
   


2. Ask your kids how they feel about various issues (current events, relationships, values). Allow them to have opinions without passing judgment. Ask your children to help you understand why they feel the way they do.
   


3. Pursue your own hobbies and interests. Share these with your child, but do not require that he or she follow your pursuits.
   


4. Encourage your kids to have interests of their own. If they show curiosity about a hobby, area of study, sport, or instrument, encourage and support them in any way your finances allow.
   


5. Read books. Read on your own, which sets a good example. Read to your kids, to get them hooked on books.
   


6. Expose your child to a wide variety of experiences including music, plays, sports, museums, travel, reading, dance, games, food, puzzles, ethnic activities, etc. One never knows how what exposure may influence future life choices.
   


7. Play "thinking games" with your kids. These are games where there is not just one answer. Scrabble and chess are examples. Emphasize the value of thoughtful moves rather than the importance of winning.
   


8. Remember that you are your child's best teacher. School, educational games and television, and a shelf full of books all can't accomplish what you can in the education of your child. It doesn't take much effort to inspire a child's brain in the everyday world - the place where they need it the most. Here are a few simple things you can do to engage your child: count the number of houses, black cars, bicycles, etc. that you pass as you drive; search for letters, numbers, or colors on the restaurant menu; when you are going to use a gum-ball machine, hold out a handful of coins and explain the differences, and that the machine will only take the quarter (then let your child pick out a quarter and put it in the machine - they love this!).
   


9. Provide your child with free time. Children need plenty of free time to discover and explore. Don't jam pack your schedule with errands and activities. Give your child time for free play, day dreaming and roaming around in the back yard.
   


10. Start sooner, rather than later. Fostering independence in your child is very important for their brain development and how they feel about learning. Sometimes, activities seem too difficult for your child only because you haven't encouraged them to do it yet. For example, things like peeling their own banana, picking out which shirt to wear, and feeding the family cat, are all things that a young toddler can do. Letting your child do things like this makes them feel more in control of their world, which in turn inspires them toward bigger and better exploits. When the world is in your hands, you want to do something with it, don't you?
    


11. Let them know that school is important by being supportive of the school. Attend school functions, volunteer in the classroom if possible, and communicate with the teacher. Ask the teacher what you can do to help your child.

Tips

• If you demonstrate excitement about learning and are open to your children pursuing their own interest areas, it will be hard for them to resist the opportunities.
  


• Explain to your child why he or she is learning, and how it will be worthwhile (e.g. learning multiplication tables)
  


• Leave interesting books and materials lying around for your child to explore.
  


• Keep it fun....not stressful.

Warnings

• Try not to go overboard about grades. If your child makes a low grade, don't scream and yell, but instead show them what they did wrong and help them understand. For good grades, don't buy big, expensive things to celebrate (at least not all the time). Your child will feel pressured/persuaded to do well and will dread low grades. Giving too many rewards also encourages bad habits and manners, such as bragging, and can lead to complexes (such as fear of failure). Understand that not all children will get A's and B's and that C's are OKAY and considered good, as C's are average.

Related wikiHows

• How to Be Patient When Doing Homework With Your Young Child
  


• How to Teach Your Child to Avoid Drugs
  


• How to Teach Manners to a Toddler
  


• How to Overcome Your Child's Learning Difficulties
  


• How to Make Baby Finger Foods
  


• How to Be a Good Stepfather
  

Sources and Citations

• From Homework Battles To Happiness

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Encourage Your Child to Love Learning. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Be Self Learning

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

These days, if you want to learn something, get a teacher. But you have to pay a cost and these costs are expensive. To be self learning is just great!!!

Steps

1. In order to be motivated, make sure you really want to learn something. If you do not want to learn for learning's sake, become clear about the reason why you want to learn something and try to imagine how it is, when your learning was successful. Maybe you'll find out, that you don't want to learn that thing, so at least you can save some time. If you don't really want to learn it, the time spent on trying to learn it will be mostly wasted.
   
2. Take a look at the information you have at the moment: does it provide you enough stuff to learn? If so, start learning, else gather at least as much information as you need to begin learning. Some people may like it more if they have all the information they want to learn, but it is also possible, that you become discouraged by too much information, so find out how you feel most comfortable.
   
3. As said above, start learning. If possible, do experimental stuff first, because it helps you to get into the topic. Physicists for example often try to explain why something works like they've seen in the experiment, so it would be good if you can do the experiment on your own, make a thought-experiment or get a video of that experiment. Although in some fields like mathematics concrete examples may lead off-road, in most cases it will help you to understand what's that stuff all about. It's not beneficial to learn some formulae, statistics or dates if you can not imagine what they describe.
   
4. If there is anything you can practice, maybe if you try to learn dancing some steps or in school exercises just do them. Albeit it may be tempting to rush through them, for somebody inexperienced it is better to do the exercises in a moderate pace and careful. This prevents sloppy technique or bad habits, which are much harder to correct than small mistakes at the beginning.
   
5. Get more experienced people to judge you. Beside they can correct your mistakes, they - maybe even more important - can tell you when you are already doing something well, which can be very motivating.
   
6. Gather knowledge. One of the most common mistakes is that people concentrate either on the practical or on the theoretical aspects of something. This only leads to stereotypes like the stupid sportsman or the nonathletic nerd. However, it is also very ineffective, because you probably don't use your whole brain, but only the left side or the motoric part. Having an open mind also helps to see connections to things you already like, thus increasing comprehension and motivation.
   
7. Throw time at it. The best learning strategy doesn't help, if you don't spend a decent amount of time in it. According to the topic it even may be enough just to spend everyday half an hour on some exercises or texts. Special learning techniques can make learning easier, but they still require work done by you.
   
8. Organize your learning. At the end of a session look what you accomplished and prepare the next session with some questions or tasks, so the next time you only need to start working on the topic, which decreases the risk of procrastination.
   

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Be Self Learning. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Resolve Classroom Management Issues

How to Resolve Classroom Management Issues
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Unlike a teacher training focus of many universities, few teachers find their day devoted to content. Many teachers find much of their time devoted to classroom management.
As times change, the type of student in any given classroom changes. More teachers report needing help with students who are non-compliant and verbally abusive to both peers and adults. Your training may not have given you the prevention and intervention tools you need to stop the extreme misbehavior that you may be coping with on a daily basis. Here are a few of the most important elements to help you in putting an end to your classroom management nightmare.

Steps

1. • Stop using one-size-fits-all methods and start using specific, and individualized methods. Just like adults, students can be complex. The same intervention may play out very differently from one student to the next. It is absolutely critical that you have a wide variety of methods to draw upon to manage each situation. It's not about which methods you personally want to use, it's about the best method for each student. Example strategy:Not every student understands how to be quiet in class, and much less motivated to do so. Don't just state the rules or expectations, help students establish a habit of meeting expectations. Teach your students that "when the hand goes up, the mouth goes shut". Apply a tailored "intervention" that involves the class as a whole. This will often work well with non-compliant, distracted, ADHD, and defiant students because it is so much fun — especially for the student who gets to lead the intervention.
     
   • Teach school skills and focus on motivation. Giving rules to students who lack the skills and motivation to comply is ineffective. Contemporary children must be taught the nuts-and-bolts of the target behaviors. They also need to be convinced that education matters. Otherwise, rules and consequences will fail to elicit the desired behaviors from students who have no inclination to comply.
     
   • Avoid outdated techniques. Use methods that fit contemporary students and contemporary problems. Years ago, you might have had a small number of unmanageable students. Now, it is common to expect as much as 14% of mainstream students to be classroom management nightmares. Don't use old-style methods to manage today's severely unmanageable students. Learn about conduct disorders, and your most misbehaved, contemporary student.
     
   • Interact with the parents. If you find your daily resources drained on primarily a few students with behavioral problems, consult their parents. You don't need to put off meeting their parents until parent/teacher conference day. Contact them as soon as possible and arrange for a convenient time to discuss their child's behavior and/or needs. Be polite, be respectful, but be direct with the parents. Ask for their guidance and request ideas to address their child's behavior problems. If the child's parents are willing to help or at least cooperate, the experience may liberate a drain on your resources.
     
   
   

Tips

• Never issue a threat you cannot or will not carry out.
  
• Be scrupulously fair and consistent in your response.
  
• Never lose your temper. You are the adult and you must behave accordingly at all times.
  
• Don't fire your big guns until the last moment. Have a set of responses which build up in their severity. Try to resolve the behaviour yourself first and only bring in your line manager when your sanctions have failed.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Survive an Internship in Elementary Education
  
• How to Collaborate in Lesson Planning
  
• How to Use wikiHow in the Classroom
  
• How to Use Web Resources for Teaching
  

Sources and Citations

• Youth Change resource site Article originally excerpted with permission. Link required for article reprint permission per owner copyright.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Resolve Classroom Management Issues. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Education News-2: "Class Room Libraries"

The Tamilnadu Government has instructed schools to establish "CLASS ROOM LIBRARIES" in every class, to inculcate general reading habit among students. Each library will have a minimum of 50 books. This will also help students to improve their general knowledge and to start literary circles among themselves, where they can discuss the books they have read. This laudable measure deserves appreciation.

Education News-1: Selection of Students for IITs

Education News-1: Selection of Students for IITs
(Excerpt from e-mail received on August 25, 2008 from Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam)

I read the brief note by Prof. Indiresan on what needs to be done to improve selection of students for IITs and make the selection more egalitarian.

"The preponderance of candidates from coaching classes denies admission to better candidates who are too poor to afford private coaching." [Very true. Dr P M Bhargava, former director of CCMB, often tells us that we draw our scientists and engineers from a small fraction of India's gene pool. And I agree with him. I have met many first generation graduates, whose parents had not completed even middle school education, going on to win Bhatnagar prizes and getting elected to prestigious academies. The numbers of such people would have been much smaller had there not been programmes of affirmative action in place.]

The solution suggested, viz. "IITs should first identify good schools and let those schools do the shortlisting for them." would also filter out poor students. In our perception today, schools like Modern and Delhi Public School (to take two examples from the capital) are "good". No poor child can enter the portals of such schools.

There is a passing remark on IITs being possibly better off than some recognised US universities: " World class universities like Harvard and Stanford get 10-11 applications for each available seat. It would appear that IITs are much better off with their ratio of 70:1." The large numbers of applications in India can be attributed to factors like our large population, parental and peer pressure and the scarcity economics in education. At Harvard and Stanford, it is likely that only those who have a reasonable chance apply.

Grateful thanks to Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam.