Virtual Teacher

These guidelines are from my 7-page article, Memory Strategies to Help Students Remember what they See and Hear in the Classroom . Short memorizing rehearsals are more productive than longer ones. Make sure that each practice is no longer than 30 minutes at a time. It is better to have five weekly rehearsals of 30 minutes each than one longer weekly practice (e.g. three or more hours in a row). Memory improves when students use multiple sensory pathways to learn the material. For example, when students are learning visual material, they need to elaborate verbally on what they are seeing. On the other hand, if students are trying to consolidate verbal material, for example, from the history textbook, memorization is easier if they draw a diagram or write smaller bits of information on index cards that they can study visually. When the learning material is both meaningful and organized is always easier to remember. When studying, children need to use organization aids such as t...

Encouraging words are words that aim at building children’s self-confidence or trust in their own abilities to master a skill and to solve their own problems. Children need to understand that it is okay to make mistakes; trial and error are part of the learning process, and this is how we master new and challenging skills. Parents and teachers can encourage children to remain optimistic and positive in their ability to learn new skills or to improve current skills. When the child makes a mistake, simply shifting his/her focus from failure (problem-oriented) to hopefulness (solution-oriented) can do wonders in improving the child’s attitude and self-confidence. We can help children see personal or academic errors and mistakes as both external (not as a personality trait or defining who they are) and controllable ; that is, something that it can be improved through effort and using specific learning strategies . We help children focus on effort by consistently noticing and apprecia...

Parents, teachers and tutors know well that apathetic and unmotivated children represent a problem of almost epidemic proportions in our classrooms, in particular, at the highest-grade levels. The most important question to answer is what a teacher or a tutor can do to motivate a reluctant, apathetic, and/or helpless learner. This is no simple question with an easy answer. One motivational strategy that can help is the use of effort praise . In few words, this is how this strategy works: Minimize the child’s mistakes and praise his effort. Help the child understand that errors and mistakes are part of the learning process, and they are necessary so that learning can take place. It is important that adults pay attention to small changes, so that we can praise those first signs that indicate movement toward the child’s goal (for instance, when we see the child focused and completing the task). Some examples of effort praise are: Your math is improving every day. I’m really gl...

Make sure the child clearly sees the connection between his own effort and school success. Children who perceive this connection are more likely to respond to difficult tasks and failure with less frustration and with positive expectations about the outcome of the event. Make sure that you define effort correctly, telling the student that effort is spending effective and strategic time on the learning task. Just trying harder or spending time doing random activities that are not working is not effective effort. Effective and strategic effort focuses on using learning strategies and procedures, that is, trying hard in a particular way is what leads to success. When the strategy or procedure that the child is using is not working, we tell him or her to try a different strategy or procedure. Teaching children to make strategic effort attributions help them see failure and academic difficulties as problem solving situations in which the search for a better strategy to use becomes ...

The following study adaptations or modified learning strategies are ideally suited for children having difficulty paying attention to tasks and completing assignments. Teachers can easily adapt these strategies for classroom use or to use with several students at a time. Before the child begins to work on a task, have him identify and list the steps for completing it, including a time estimate both for each step and for the whole task. You can write the estimates on a piece of paper or index card to prompt the child when the time to complete each step is near. Write the list of steps on an index card (a key word or a key phrase for each step is enough), and have the child write the same list on a notepad or an index card. As the child completes each step, she crosses out the step off the list. Provide a timer or stopwatch for the child to monitor her work time. Give the child ample warning when an activity is about to change. For example, you can say, “You have five more minut...

A popular belief in interactional and language-based discipline is that, when adults state any direction or command given to a child using positive wording , the child complies faster (and easier) than when we use negative language, i.e. negative directions or a negative command. Typically crowded with harsh terms and spoiled with negative presuppositions about the child’s character or identity, a negative direction tells the child what not to do, for example, “ Don’ t run on the hall” or “ Don’t bang on the table. What’s wrong with you today?!” (Negative presupposition: “There’s something wrong with you.”) In the same category we find the “Stop” command, for example, saying, “ Stop yelling! I’m getting a headache!” (Negative presupposition: “ You are giving me a headache.”) or “ Shut up ! I don’t want to hear another sound coming out of your mouth!” (Negative presupposition: “ Your sounds are annoying.”) Positive directions, on the other hand, give the child an alternative of...

Here are some “tricks of the trade” in language-based discipline so that teachers and parents get better results when disciplining angry and/or noncompliant children. 1.      Lower Your Voice When disciplining, reduce the tone of your voice and speak s-l-o-w-e-r. This helps you both in projecting self-confidence and in remaining calm. Louder and angrier statements, on the other hand, conceal the message beneath all the noise and harsh words that accompany them. 2.      Stay in the Present Do not dwell on past behavior, or something that happened weeks earlier. Correct only behavior that is happening here and now . 3.      Own Your Message Change “You-messages” to “I-messages.” For example, instead of saying, “ You are such a potty mouth!” say, “ I feel uneasy because I don’t like being cursed.” 4.      Challenge the Child When you address misbehavior, keep it simple but keep it ...