New Ashoka Model Senior Secondary School
Recognised and Affiliated to Punjab School Education Board, Mohali
STUDENT LIFE
Building Social Skills in Children
If children can be associated with an attribute that comes naturally to them, it has to be innocence. All the other qualities that you might find in a child should have been inherited from the people around him/her. Socialisation is what shapes an individual’s character. So it is all the more necessary to establish social skills early in childhood. Would you not like it if your child perfects the art of entertaining guests?
Social skills encompass a wide range of behaviours that are appropriate and effective in situations of social interaction. To help children develop social skills, you should get them to indulge in social activities. You may start by giving them small tasks such as picking vessels for you in the kitchen, keeping the classroom blackboard clean before the beginning of a period, helping siblings/classmates with homework, etc. that will get them to learn to obey and follow instructions. These kinds of tasks will also help children understand that helping others is a good thing. But then, what is more important is to praise their work. That will encourage them to do more of such work, thus making them participative, as well.
At school, and also at home, children need to be provided with ample opportunities to express by writing stories, playing, singing songs, painting, etc. You can plan these as group activities so that children can form groups and coordinate to produce/present something of their choice. The more you keep children in groups, the better they will adapt to sharing and caring for others. When your child is at home, ensure to spend a lot of time with him/her, indulging in activities with him/her. Take him/her to fairs, exhibitions, movies, playgrounds — that will give him/her opportunities to find new interests and make new friends. And if you are a teacher, dedicate as much individual time as possible for each child in your class.
Top Discipline Mistakes Teachers Make
It was a good 10 minutes since Deborah had entered the classroom and there was no sign of the children dialing down. Even her instructions and protests to get the children to be quiet were only faintly heard — such was the noise the grade 3 students made. Have you had to counter any such situation? What do you think Deborah did wrongly here?
If you think she could not control the class because she was short of resources, know that Deborah had all the tools and the temperament to handle the class. The mistake she made was to address the class as a whole. Yes, you need to try and address children one at a time, and in unconventional ways, to have their attention. You would always find one student or a select few initiating the troublemaking process in your class. The rest of the children, maybe in clusters, would essentially be following these initiators. So, to make the entire class stop causing trouble, catch hold of those initiators and teach them how to behave rather than shouting to the entire class. Make sure you find enough leverage to make the students not want to repeat the encounter with you. By finding even one person pulled out, the rest of the class will slow down.
Music
Managing Aggression in Children
“He could have refused when I offered to build the archway. Instead, he stomped on it, broke it into pieces, and, along with his friends, scooped me out of the entry hole I was making for the mud mansion. To top it all, he punched me on my face and called me an intruder. All the others in the group were chuckling at it. I feel belittled.”
Sibling rivalry is one of the common causes of aggression in children. In an attempt to assert what they think are their rights, children often go overboard with their reactions. This is the age when children begin to argue rather than expressing whim. So it becomes all the more challenging for the parents to manage. However, such aggression must be curbed at the outset, because, with time, children tend to apply it outside the house, and parents may not be able to take control over such situations. For instance, if a child is used to resorting to fist fighting with his/her sibling or a family member at home, in a similar situation outside home, he might try applying the same tactic to win.
Why So Serious?
One of the common complaints of Indian parents is that children these days are not serious. Apparently, children do not understand the gravity of the precarious situation they are in, and they tend to lose sight of the holy grail of 'success' for which the parents readily 'sacrifice'. Without belittling parents' efforts, one needs to understand what exactly the parents are looking for. Students are going to schools, their numerous tuition classes, and occasional cricket/swimming/tennis lessons alright. They are getting good marks often. What then is wrong with their 'seriousness'?