HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH STUDENTS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH STUDENTS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM. 

Learning experiences outside the classroom are forms of experiential learning (Dewey, 1897). These experiences are rooted in the simple principle that “experience is the best teacher.” Under this framework, learning outside the classroom is an active process, wherein students encounter authentic problems, construct novel hypotheses, test for real solutions, and interact with others to make sense of the world around them. When we do this, we encounter the world as a whole and are forced to engage multiple modalities, no matter which pairs of disciplinary “lenses” we intended to wear. Because experiential learning is inherently interdisciplinary, scientists and humanists alike would do well to consider the ways in which other disciplines might enrich their disciplinary approach to their field

From the Ghanaian perspective teaching and learning mostly takes place in the classroom where clear cut introductions are given to the child. Most Ghanaian teachers, parents and student has no idea how  to communicate with each other to improve teaching and learning outside the classroom . This COVID-19 pandemic has brought to bare the need to incorporate technology in education in Ghana. Most unfortunately Ghanaian students at large will not benefit even if technology is made free due to poor network connections in Ghana. Research has shown that most of the developed countries were able to achieve higher heights in their education as a result of the ability for teachers to communicate with students outside the school. 

Some technological means to communicate with students outside the classroom are as follows:

Messaging. 

One of the easiest ways to establish a channel of communication with students and parents are through messaging. This means will offer teachers opportunity to send quick assignments to students and even give the parents the chance to monitor student performance. Educators can quickly send messages share information, images and more. This set up communication between students and you or with parents.

  Messages, share files and images, provide live feedback and more. I have found that by simply using a messaging tool, it can also be a way to a meet other classroom needs of such as collaboration and creation. 

A class website or LMS

By creating or setting up a digital learning space through a website or an LMS, you can share resources, post assignments, celebrate student success and classroom events, and be available for student questions anytime.

The information can be updated regularly and you can include a way for parents to contact you or for students to get help when they need. It can be a collaborative learning space where both teachers and students can collaborate , a Google site or even though Wikispaces. These websites can be used to communicate with parents and students. It's an advance way of learning outside the classroom wall. This also even give students the opportunity to work without any pressure. But care must be taken in other for students not to abuse such opportunity. 

Blogging

 Setting up your own blog site for classroom use would be a good way to share updates in the form of blog posts, with students and families. By sharing the link to your blog, students and parents can sign up for the update notifications and stay informed throughout the year.

It could also be a way to include samples of student work, photos of class events, resources for class and more. It can be used in addition to a class website where you create spaces for storing all class information, a calendar, contact information and more. Sharing daily updates and news through a blog can be another quick way to open up the channels of communication with students and families.  

These are just a few ideas for opening up communication with your students and parents, however, each of these options are good for many other uses such as assessments, collaboration, projects and more. If you want to find new ways to use some digital tools in your classroom, try asking the students. They have some creative ideas and will feel valued in your classroom and have a more meaningful learning experience.

I am of the firm believe that inculcating technology in our education can help teachers to communicate with students outside the classroom. 

SSNIT CONTRIBUTION

*OUR SSNIT CONTRIBUTIONS* 

*```THE PLIGHT OF THE GHANAIAN TEACHER*```

*It's Time To Quit Teaching!*

This week, I had an experience with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) which I share in the following write-up because it concerns the future of all SSNIT contributors, especially teachers.

My profession today as a teacher did not come by accident. I said it by word of mouth when I was young and it has come to pass. Some time in 1995 I was asked by my class teacher when we were doing *My future career,* "what do you want to be in future?" To this I answered: "a teacher." He said, "Say it in a full sentence." I said, "I want to be a teacher." I saw a quizzical look on his face. Then, whether by intention or surprise, the teacher asked me a follow up question: "why do you want to be a teacher?" I answered: "Because my father is a teacher." The next comment helped me to learn a new expression: "You want to be in your father's shoes eh? That is good." That was how I got to understand the expression "to be in someone's shoes," and I've never forgotten it.

Several years later, I tried to switch options, but to no avail. It all started in 2002, when my father was taken ill. I saw with my own two eyes how my father struggled and struggled with his ailment. I saw how he applied for a loan from the Rural bank and sent me several times to go and check whether it was ready. And any time I went, the response was negative. It took several weeks before the meagre loan was ready. By then, his health had deteriorated. He died a few weeks later. That was how we started engaging SSNIT for our *survivors' benefits.* It was long and convulated. We were told by people who knew how that it would take us at least two years to receive our claims. It did not take that long but when we were finally given the money, my share of the money could not take me two years through secondary school. Yet, *my father contributed for at least 22 years!*

After secondary school, my options were limited because of financial constraints. I taught for close to three years in five private schools before I arrived at a decision. When I finally settled on it, I  trained happily and taught with passion as a teacher. I've always defended the noble profession and decided to help our country by helping her educational efforts in the classroom. 

Last week, I had a deep reflection on our profession and for the first time, I've decided to quit! Why?

 I went to the SSNIT office to print my Statement- something very few teachers do. They gave it to me.  When I checked, I'd contributed for eleven out of the twelve years of my teaching. Then I noticed  something curious. *In 2014, there were no contributions from June to December. For the entire twelve months of 2015, there was not a single contribution. For 2016, there were no contributions from January to July.*

 So I was asked to go and print two payslips for each of the affected years. I went and paid Ghc 6.00 to get the six payslips. When I checked, I nearly passed out. So I came home and took my time to go through it meticulously. I realized that for all those months, deductions were not made. I tried to find out why and the reason was that in those years, I was the subject of intermittent payments. And any time my salary payment was interrupted, it took at least three months to be restored. And I was not alone in this. Thousands of teachers experienced it, too. Whenever they did this, they did not deduct the arrears. It wasn't easily noticeable. But that was the cause. This was no fault of mine or any SSNIT contributor.

I went back to the SSNIT office to see if we could arrange a payment plan so I could retrieve the employer's part of the payment as mine was made. The officer at SSNIT said I had no chance! He said, *"you have eaten your eggs!"* He further explained that even for some people, the employee's 5.5% is deducted but the employer's 13.5% is not and even in that situation, they never really get to restore it because their system is unable to pick it, so once it's gone, it's gone!

But my friends, what really made me sad was that, *when I calculated all the twelve years of my contributions to SSNIT,* my total contribution was *Ghc 9,429!*

 I checked the number of years I have left in active service, less than 30 years, and I don't need the foresight of a Jewish prophet to tell me that, if I continue like this, by the time I retire, I can't make even a Ghc 100,000. In fact, I'll be nowhere near it!

 So now, my mind is made up. We're all children of God, but we are not called to die like our fathers. Perhaps, if our fathers had had the opportunities we have today, they would not have died the way they did. They they were not lazy people. They accepted postings to some of the most awful places in our country just because of the *Ghanaian child.* My father was called *the village teacher* not because he was a villager, but because he accepted to teach in villages where there were no lights and access to certain basic social amenities. In one village, he taught English, Social Studies and Agricultural Science even though he had trained as a French teacher. And this was because there was insufficient number of teachers.

So I'm putting this out for two reasons:

1. Go to SSNIT, print your Statement and check. You may have issues.

2. Take a second look at our profession. If an opportunity beacons, please don't hesitate!

For now we'll tarry, but if circumstances force us out we won't resist. *The Ghanaian teacher is as apt a candidate for a good retirement package as politicians were.* The last time I checked eight years ago, *the retirement package for a Member of Parliament of Ghana who had served for four years with fringe benefits was four billion old cedis! (4 billion cedis).* They are not better than the teacher who braves the weather to teach at Wechau, Akomfire, Kongo, Afram Plains, Nkowi, Alavanyo, Asuoho Pipie or Sefwi Petekoa. We are way better than this insult of a calling we are handed. Our children will not forgive us if we fail to secure the future for them.

 Thanks for your attention. Have a good weekend and a good reflection.

Yendu Morris Credit 

Strategies To Help Students Memories Information

Introduction

A lot of research has shown that most children forget what they have learnt within the shortest possible time. In. This is true for students everywhere, including in Ghana. It creates a major challenge for teachers, who may also find it difficult to break complex information into simple ones due to lack of teaching and learning materials available. 

Even though these problems exit we as teachers can still work on how to make our students memorise and recall information. In this blog I will explain five, science-based techniques for achieving this goal.

Why do students forget what we teach them?
In the late 1880s, a prominent psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, created “ the forgetting curve .” Today’s researchers still refer to this measure of how much people forget. Without conscientious efforts to reinforce lessons, Ebbinghaus concluded students forget about 56 percent of what they learn within one hour, 66 percent within one day, and 75 percent within six days.

In June 2017, neurobiologists explain in an article in the journal Neuron that without employing strategies to retain knowledge, the brain is “wired to forget”. Information not 
crucial to survival is discarded by the brain as extraneous. Clearly, that’s a huge problem and illustrates the importance of teaching students strategies to retain what they learn. But what are those strategies?
Strategies to help students memorise information 

According to the authors of the Neuron study, one key to helping students retain lessons is to employ strategies to help them form links between new information and existing memories to create a web of connections. Each connection is a strand in the web, and the more strands there are the stronger the web. Another strategy is to make students access lessons repeatedly so they’re not able to simply fade away. 
In practice, there are five techniques you can use to achieve this - 

1. Teachers should assign students frequent practice tests or quizzes.

 When students are given tests or quizzes that they’re not graded on, they’re able to review material in a low-stress environment (stress can undermine memory retention.) it has been proven that when student work under stress free environment they are able to remember what they learnt. This stress free environment gives students the ample time to recall what they have learnt. 
       2. Work on visualization skills.

Teachers should encourage kids to create a picture in their mind of what they’ve just read or heard. For example, say you’ve asked your child to set the table for five people. Have your child imagine what the table should look like, and then draw it. As kids get better at visualizing, they can describe the image instead of drawing it. Most children can learn through visualazation, teachers make sure that their classroom talks to the children by making pictures of concept taught in the classroom 

3. Have your child teach you. 

Being able to explain how to do something involves making sense of information and mentally filing it. Maybe your child is learning a skill, like how to dribble a basketball. Ask your child to teach you this skill. Teachers do something similar by pairing up students in class. This lets them start working with the information right away rather than waiting to be called on.

4. Try games that use visual memory. 

Games improve the mental ability of children and it also makes teaching and learning more meaningful. There are lots of matching games that can help kids work on visual memory, like the classic game Concentration (or Memory). You can also do things like give kids a magazine page and ask them to circle all instances of the word the or the letter a. License plates can also be a lot of fun. Take turns reciting the letters and numbers on a license plate and then saying them backwards, too.

       5. Encourage active reading.

Highlighters and sticky notes are made to make learning more easier: Jotting down notes and underlining or highlighting text can help kids keep the information in mind long enough to answer questions about it. Talking out loud and asking questions about the reading material can also help with working memory. Active reading strategies like these can help with forming long-term memories. Teachers should make sure children have these items with and used them well by helping them to keep or highlight vital information this will help them to memories such information without any difficulties. 

       6. Chunk information into smaller bites.

Breaking chuck information into smaller bites helps students to understand and able to memories them without any difficulties. Students are able to recall such information at any time. Teachers should make it a point to break chuck information into smaller bites for students.

Conclusion
Every teacher and parents becomes disappointed when his child and students aren’t able to recall what he learnt or what he was taught in the school. It’s not the fault of the children since the child wasn’t able to understand or memorize such information. Student become worry when he isn’t able to provide answers to questions ask when he clearly knows that he was taught such topics.
Using the above strategies will help students memories key information. 

Welcome To Teacher Nanak's Blog

Hi, welcome to teacher Nanak's Blog. I use this blog to share inspiration about teaching and Education in Ghana. You can connect with me on social media at.

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