My Experience with Procrastination (Part 3 of ...)

My Experience with Procrastination (Part 3 of ...)

(This writing was motivated by watching my kids go through time management challenges. But decided to share with others too) Actionable item or key takeaway: Do a little a time in order to break out of inertia and get into a flow.

My Experience with Procrastination (Part 2 of ...)

My Experience with Procrastination (Part 2 of ...)

Key Takeaways Take help from others Keep to-do lists and maintain a calendar with all deadlines Use a timer After publishing the Part 1 in this series, I got great feedback from my brother, a self-proclaimed procrastinator.

My Experience with Procrastination (Part 1 of ...)

My Experience with Procrastination (Part 1 of ...)

Actionable items or key take-aways: Do one thing at a time. When you are doing that, do not worry about other items on your to-do list.

Committing Facts to Memory: Is it overrated?

Committing facts to memory. Is that overrated?

Note: The point of this writing is not to argue against memorization. Memorization has its place in education.

Helping Kids Learn Math

Helping Kids learn Math

Edited using input (in italics) from Mr. Stephan Joanides [Mr.

My Experience with Public Speaking

My Experience with Public Speaking

Actionable items or key-takeaways - taking a deep breath before starting to speak in public, speaking slowly, and being alright with making mistakes. Knowing that you can admit to having made a mistake will take the extra pressure off of you to be "perfect".

Grit

Grit

Grit. According to the dictionary, grit is courage and resolve; strength of character.

Not Good Enough

Not Good Enough

Key Takeaways * Realize everyone feels that way * Recall past successes. Talk to yourself the way you would to a friend * Consult trusted mentors * Take a long-term perspective on life I am surprised that I did not write about this earlier.

Golden Age for Learning

Golden Age for Learning

In 1987, one of my professors at Podar College, Prof. Amita Shankar, suggested that I investigate any product on the market from conception to marketing and distribution.

Talking to People who Intimidate Us

Talking to People who Intimidate Us

Actionable item or key takeaway: Talking to people who may have power over you is not easy. But, it is a skill that can be improved over time.

Slowing Down

Slowing down?

All my life, I've worked on becoming more efficient. Meeting deadlines.

Slowing Down (A Perspective on NPR)

Online Writing Class

This website has since been retired.

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A very nicely conceived and executed online writing class.  It is self-paced, customizable, web and email based for upper elementary and middle school students.

http://www.rayofwrite.com/

Online Grammar Class

Just discovered a really interesting site for learning English grammar.

https://www.noredink.com/

A child needs to mention his/her grade, and gets to list her/his interests.  For instance, my son picked Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

On picking Adverbs and Adjectives, he was presented with material to learn about the concepts.  To practice, he got to work on sentences related to his interests.  Really cool.

Parent Coaching on Khan Academy

I recently came across a set of features on Khan Academy that make it easy for parents to understand the progress made by their kids.  These help track stats about the percentage of concepts from a particular grade mastered by the student, the amount of energy being expended by the student (
I assume this takes into account the time spent on practicing and watching videos),  the list of concepts that are mastered, that are being practiced as well as concepts that are difficult for the student.  The Mastery Challenges that involve getting a certain number of questions correct in a row determine mastery.   All in all, this is the first online service I have seen that provides something that gives parents solid data about how their kids are faring.

As far as the kids are concerned, they love to watch their points and percentages go up.  They also earn "badges", and just like stickers, these badges seem to be great motivators.  :)

Here are some screenshots:

Brainpop

Brainpop (there is a website as well as tablet apps) is a wonderful resource for elementary school kids.  It covers subjects ranging from Math to Social Studies, Science to English.  It uses animation to depict a conversation between a robot and a child.  Brainpop jr. features a little girl called "annie".  Brainpop features a little boy.  The kids answer questions from the robot.   The explanations are super clear, and my kids are quite addicted to the app version of this.  Highly recommended!

Blogging from the Babe's Mouth

My 6 year old loves to talk.  When she learned about blogging from Brainpop (more about that later), she wanted to "start a blog".  I brushed her aside initially but after she persisted, I set up a blog for her.  She dictated and I typed.  As the blog started building, I realized that this is such a nice way to capture memories of her life.  I wonder what she will think of this 10 years from now.  I am loving it in the meantime.  Here is a link to her blog: http://medhasarkar.blogspot.com   

Preserving Memories

I, for one, is a sentimentalist when it comes to not forgetting wonderful moments in life.  Kids provide so much fodder for good memories.  To preserve them for my and my husband's enjoyment in our old age, and for kids to read when they grow up, I set up email accounts for my kids as soon as they were born.  As and when I feel there is something I want to preserve, I describe it in an email to them.  The anticipation of hearing their reaction to these events is so wonderful.  I highly recommend this!

iPad Apps for teaching Indian Languages

I overhead my son telling someome "My dad speaks Belongi".  Taken aback, I was not sure whether to laugh or cry.  My Bengali husband, and I, with my Tamil background, had failed to teach any Indian language to our US born kids.  As usual, I turned to the first resource I could think of - the App store on our iPad.

So, I started experimenting with iPad apps for learning Indian languages.  I downloaded apps for both Bangla and Hindi.  I have given up on Tamil since I was raised in Mumbai, and can't read or write in Tamil.

There are two types of apps - those that are like online flash cards that show a picture and say the Bangla/Hindi word for it, and others that let kids trace out letters using their fingers.  So, far these apps have caught my 5 year old's imagination.  She can watch and trace for hours.

Ones I have used so far to teach Bangla are -

Utalk Bengali

Iwritebangla

Utalk Bengali is great for learning words and phrases:

iwritebangla is great for learning to write the letters.  There is something to be said about using one's fingers to trace on a glass surface.  The tactile experience is even more fun than writing with a pen or pencil.

Just found one more app that is highly rated.  Am yet to try it out.  Will do so soon, and post our experience with it - Hashi Khushi Bangla App.

Ones I have used so far to teach Hindi are -

Hindi!

Hindi cards

Learn Hindi

The Hindi Flash cards app such as Hindi Cards work for kids with a lot of patience.  My five year old can go through these.  But, my eight year old, who is not self motivated to learn any language other than English could not care less for these.

Am yet to find apps for Hindi that are truly high quality and captivating.  Will keep looking!

Fidgety Kids

I finally found a physical aid that helps my son sit still in class.  It is an inflatable disc.  Here is the link to it on Amazon:  Chair Cushion.  My 8 year old loves it, and diligently packs it in his school bag every morning since it helps him focus in class.  Not sure if it works for all kids, but definitely worked for us!