Hidden Cameras In Schools!

It is a known fact that certain crimes and malpractices take place in schools and other educational institutions. I was wondering how can this crimes be eliminated or at least be minimized? In case of hidden cameras are introduced, how effective can these be dealing with theses problems? Before discussing the effectiveness of hidden cameras, let us itemize for what they can be used:

1. To Prevent stealing- There are some students who are in the habit of stealing stuffs from their colleagues. Mostly, they went uncaught in the absence of physical evidences. However, in the presence of hidden cameras there will be sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of the culprit. This will also serve as a deterrent to any potential criminal.

2. To Monitor Indecent Behavior– Character and disposition vary from one individual to another and as such students might subject their colleagues to various types of bully and physical harassment. Some even go to the extent of introducing unwanted sexual approaches. If they are prosecuted to the school authorities they often deny any involvement in such indecent behavior. In the presence of evidence the situation will be dealt with easily.

3. Dealing with Cheating- Examinations are meant to assess students’ abilities; so that teachers can identify areas of weaknesses and strengths. Learning strategies can be diversified to address shortcomings and bring about improvement where necessary. Therefore, if exams do not truly reflect the reality of their abilities, there will not be successful solutions to learning. When students are aware that they are being monitored by cameras they may give up hope of cheating during exams for fear of being caught. They may be forced to prepare well for their examinations and their overall learning performance may finally improve.

4. Prevention of Potential Crimes– In a situation wherein a student might tend to become aggressive because of certain psychological problem; a close circuit camera can be might be helpful in aborting a potential crime. In effect, school administration may deal with students’ crimes by taking appropriate actions against potentially dangerous as well proven dangerous students.

Having enumerated some important benefits of using hidden cameras, I’m still wondering what are the odds of establishing such a technological system? Would there be enough government allocated budget to maintain this system? If funds are used for this purpose, should this money have been better spent on the actual educational system in terms of teachers’ salaries and provision of advanced technology for the teaching process? Would this security system lead students to adopt other anti-security strategies? Or should we deal with the causes of these crimes rather with the crimes directly? Whatever the case might be in a scenario where solutions to prevent crimes have been proved to be ineffective, spy camera will be of great usefulness. Please feel free to share your ideas with me in connection to this issue of using hidden cameras.

 

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.

 

Using Facebook to Teach English

When considering the technological advances in this our age, I was wondering if I could start teaching my students English as second language by using Facebook as the medium. Well, you might be tempted to ask; how intend to go about it?

In this connection, I will first of all create a group in Facebook by using the Groups tool in Facebook and clicking on the Create A New Group button. Follow the steps including making the group public. It will be made public because I would like students can find it easily.

Secondly, inside the group, I can post topic for my students to write on, then I will choose the best three for voting. This competition style stuff will make them prepare well and I hope will improve their writing skill.  Videos, links, and other “wall” items will be posted to assist them in their preparation. In fact, this is a means to continue the classroom in other settings with much flexibility.

Thirdly, using my own personal network, I will invite “guests” into the group so that they can contribute to the discussion boards. There is a real benefit to get other experts talking to your students. The students might establish fraternity with other students and much benefit can be exchanged.

Fourthly, I will make sure my  students always respond to my original post for a grade, and then give points for when they respond to others in the discussion board. Your guests will have to become members of the group to post to the Discussion Board, so let your “guests” drop out of the group early if they are only to contribute to one discussion.

Finally, I would I encourage the students to post a topic of their choice in order to ignite their creative. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to use Facebook for effectively teaching English as second language. Actually, I didn’t do that until now but I am just imagining.

Any comments will be received gratefully.

Involving Students in Self-Assessment

In order to attain success in imparting educational information to students, a number of factors should be taken into consideration. Among these, involving students in the assessment process can be of immense importance. Therefore, in this article, we are going to discuss how to engage students in self-assessment.  The following ideas are some factors that may contribute to an effective student’s self-assessment.

 1-Setting goals– Try to tell students at the beginning of what you expect from them at the end of the class. In this case, they will work according to the goals of a lesson. This can be done by Planing methods for self-assessment concerning  the learning objectives and evaluation criteria. Having this in mind will help students to stay focusing and be able to assess their progress as they go ahead in their studying.

 2-Making competitions between groups– This is another effective method of self-assessment. Indeed, when students know that they are to compete with each other they will take their time to study and prepare well for the contest. At the end of the competition, they will be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses . Students can work on how to correct these areas of weaknesses and then develop their strengths.

 3- Answering homework in groups after been done individually at home– Group work allows for exchange of ideas and as they say: “two heads are better than one”, this makes students benefit from each other. In effect, be able to make a self-assessment.

 4- Making conversation between two students– Two students can be engaged in conversation, while a third judge between them as to who has done better. Furthermore, a series of questions about the objectives can be provided then pair students to conduct learning interviews at the end of class.

 5-Making remedial activity for students mistakes in exam and homework– Such activities are a necessary means for students to make amends for what went wrong in their preparation for their exams as well as their actual performance during the exams.

6. Survey- Expand a unit by distributing a survey inquiring what further information students would like to have and arrange a discovery period for delving and sharing. In this way, students are given the opportunity to voice their opinions about the learning process and make contribution that will aid for their effective evaluation.

 7. Finally, conclude each lesson by asking students to write succinct learning statements in their learning logs about the daily objectives.