Can we ensure Students’ Safety?

Is there dispute about the necessity to ensure a safe and conducive environment for our students at school?  No sensible being will indeed dispute that. Parents and teachers unanimously agree that in  order to achieve maximum success in the educational process, we need to ascertain that not only educational materials are provided;  but also an organized system must be put in place where in students are free from any kinds of fear. What should be done to achieve this? These means of safety is what I am going to look at in further details.

In a particular school, could you imagine that the Bus Driver who takes the children to school was so passionate about snakes even at expense of the children’s safety. On a fateful day, he was so careless that he took a box containing a big snake with him in the Bus. As he was waiting while the children are embarking the Bus, the snake suddenly jumped from the box.  This incident sent the children in complete commotion that resulted in some minor injuries of some of them. Fortunately, this is the type of school always maintain a school-guard. This guard quickly moved to the children’s rescue and immediately killed the snake. In as much as complete order was eventually restored and the children were finally driven home; but how fast do you think the traumatic feeling will be cure on those children and what should be done to that driver who exposed them to such children?

The above is just a tip of the iceberg, however; there are many types of dangers school children might be exposed to. For instance, school building should be built strong to prevent any unexpected collapse of any part. It must be well ventilated so that children are not exposed to suffocation. In the event of any danger like fire, dangerous animals or whatever, emergency exits should readily be available as means of escape. Moreover, teachers should receive training and educational programs about how to deal with emergency situations. They in turn should educate school children about what to do in cases of emergency. It is however, pathetic to note that most teachers do not even know how to use fire extinguishers. These are basic safety tools that one should know its operation.

Furthermore, students are sometimes exposed to other forms of danger, such as bully, racial discrimination, physical, emotional and sexual abuses. Therefore, school administration should set rules and regulations that prohibit these abuses and signs showing weapons on any sort are not allowed in school in school should be displayed. These signs would serve as a general awareness to ensure students safety. In addition, there should be appropriate punishment for those who are guilty of violations.

In conclusion, we should all come together to spread the awareness of students’ safety, so that we can have safe environment suitable for students learning free from any form of harassment. If you know of anything we can do to promote this safety, your suggestions would be most appreciated.

Why Some Students fail to progress in English!

Have you ever witnessed a situation where teaching English as a second language becomes so difficult that you find some of your students unable to make significant progress after a considerable long period of time? Well, stay with me while I explain my own personal observation with some of my students. The other day, during one of my teaching sessions, I asked some of my students to differential between number fourteen and forty and to my surprise most of them couldn’t. But that was only a tip of the bag as when I further asked them to spell their names in English that also proven to be a Herculean task. This made  me worried as I have just been transferred to a new school. Immediately, I started an investigation by discussing  this issue with some teachers and the following was the result my findings:

-Inadequacy of the Course Book

Foundation in any thing is the most important. However, a careful look at the course book reveals that the foundation course  which should enable the students to master the reading and writing skills is absolutely inadequate. The exercises and activities are not well designed and organized to give students the opportunity to grasp the basic of the language. In consequence they continue to face basic problems in reading and writing.

- Students’ attitude towards the language

Most of our students think that it is not necessary to learn a foreign language and as such they are not motivated to devote their effort to learn. This negative attitude is causing frustration to the teachers and impacting their enthusiasm. A teacher who knows that he or she will have to face a group of disinterested students will lack the zeal to do the optimal and students will be the losers in the final analysis.

- Size of the Classroom

Added to the above mentioned problems, teachers usually have to deal with a large class. The number of students far exceeds what is reasonable so this make it very difficult to handle and these uninterested students are taking advantages of the  situation to practice their nonchalant attitudes.

- Lack of cooperation from Paren

The role of parents towards the education of their children can not be over emphasized. But pathetically, most of them are not doing enough to monitor their children’s learning progress.This is dealing an adverse blow on the learning process of their children.

- Solution

For every problem there must be a solution, if we honestly search for one. Contemplation on the above problems leads us to the following solutions:

- Redesigning of the Course Book

I think if the present course book is resign to include worksheet, flash cards, other activities, exercises and necessary learning aids to assist the students to master the basic skills of reading and writing then they may not encounter difficulties in the
understanding of further advanced lessons.

-  The Role of the Teacher

In relation to students’ negative attitude towards the target language, the teacher should endeavor to create a classroom situation wherein students will feel motivated and encouraged to learn the language. The teacher should use inspirational speeches to emphasize the need of learning English in this technological age.

- The Role of Parents

In order for teachers to be successful, their effort must be supported by parents and guardians. This cooperation will create a sense of discipline and responsibility on the part of the students and consequently enhanced the learning process.

 

- Reduction of Classroom size

The number of students in the class should be reasonable to enable the teacher to easily handle them. A class which is relatively small gives the teacher the opportunity to teach well and therefore monitor the progress of the students. So if there is any problem in the learning process it could be solved at the initial stage.

The Best way to introduce Historical Events

Most students may find history subject interesting; however when it comes to associating historical events with the specific dates and places of occurrence this usually present a Herculean task for most of them. Should teachers leave students to their plight without assisting them in surmounting this problem? Or should they find ways of simplifying this task of relating events with dates and places easily for their students? I am in favor of the second option based on a simple method which I have tried with my students. To be frank, the outcome of this method was amazing. In this short article, I would discuss how this method has worked for my students and I believe that if your students share the like of that problem it may work for them too.

Actually, my students used to detest issue of dates in historical events. This has been bothering me for quite a long period of time. What solution should I come up with in order to address this problem? Finally, I decided to make use of mind map to associate historical events and the corresponding dates. In drawing the mind map, I decided choose the pattern that mostly suite my purpose in simplifying the task of my students. Therefore, I chose this particular design that effectively relates events and dates directly. Attached is a sample of the mind map used.

After I introduced this method, I gave them a test relating to associating historical events with their respective dates. It was really a great surprise to see how excellent was their performance and above all how their attitudes towards this issue of dates in history drastically changed from being negative to positive. Do you have any incident to share in your encounter with your students; wherein you have faced a problem and you introduce a successful solution to deal with? If any of you think of such a situation, I would be very much appreciative if you share it with us.

 Below there is a picture of Mindmap I use to explain Historical events .I hope you appreciate it.