Helping to Build Students' Confidence

As a teacher for many years, I have found that students, like us, need to feel confident in what they do. and say.  The classroom is a breeding ground for the building and sadly the destruction of confidence and self worth.   Our students are from different socio-economic background where concepts of school are developed.  as a result, they come with preconceived  ideas as to how learning should be.  Depending on their backgrounds, so come with self esteem that is ideal, but there are others who come as almost empty shells of human beings.   Therefore as teachers we need to be careful in how we handle our students.  We can either make them or break them just be our actions.

As teachers, we should be careful of the things that we say to our students.  We have to ensure that we  study the classroom setting and out for the following:

1. poor eye contact
2. lack of clarity in speech
3. momo-tone in conversation
4. use of lines in drawing (hard or soft)
5. poor interaction in class
6. lack of speed for work
7. silence
8. limited work

These signs and many more are indicators that something is emotionally imbalanced with the students.  Therefore, as teachers, we must recognize these signs and try to rebuild confidence by the way we utilize structures, strategies and techniques in our teaching practice.  Here are some suggestions that were used by other teachers which have yield results in the rebuilding of confidence and self esteem in students:

1. assigning manageable roles
2. errands
3. grade them for class participation
4. use them as positive examples before the class where it is warranted. 
5. mastery learning (to build conceptual understanding of content and skills)
6. rewards for improved work
7. include them in competitions to represent their school
8. ensure visits at their home and talk with parents
9. invite them to church and positive value building functions
10. expose them to a career expo or a college open day
11. field trips

There are more but what is important is for teachers to recognize that students have delicate emotions and must be taken care of by teachers who help to cradle their emotional development.  Our role as teachers is not an easy one and just as we expect other teachers to look after our children, we should do the same for the students we teach!  Watch what we do and say, listen more, notice the signs and act on them after confirmation of a behavioural theory. Let us build a community of confident students so that after graduation they will help to create a workforce with individuals with confidence and self worth.

How Should Students Keep the Minds Occupied During Holiday Breaks?

There are simple tips one should adhere when gone away from school:

1.  Read appropriate newspaper clippings or articles to help improve communication and thinking.
2.  Do puzzles, quizzes and problem solving games to develop reasoning skills.
3.  Be involved in activities that help to develop reasoning skills and logical thinking.
4.  Limit the amount of television shows and computer games used unless they reinforce good             learning.
5.  Listen to good music at a medium frequency that will not affect your hearing in the later years.
6.  Help family members and friends in activities that will help build good self esteem
7.  Go to church or a place of worship and be in tune with your spiritual and moral side and allow it to grow.

As a teacher, I find that students return from long breaks not having a sense of readiness for school.  Many have had problems adjusting and as a result, their learning outcomes are negatively affected

Parents and guardians, for this Season, ensure that your children are gainfully occupied.  The mind is a lovely soul that always needs something to keep it active.  Therefore feed that soul with positive activities.

Happy Holidays!

The Tablet, The Remedy for Education

Some time ago I wrote an article in a local newspaper called, "The Tablet, an Expensive Pill to Swallow."  That article stimulated much debate among stakeholders in education as to the affordability and practicality of the mass introduction of such a device in schools.  In my article, I mentioned some shortcomings and gave suggestions regarding the use of that device in schools.  However, our Minister of Technology, in various interviews made assurances that improvement of various infrastructure was in the pipeline to facilitate island wide internet coverage, thus justifying the attempt in implementing such an innovation.

Fast forward one year later, the various communication networks have made fair efforts in upgrading the data services and communication networks in the Caribbean.  There is much more affordable data services on cellular networks.   More gadgets have been imported for the ordinary individuals to have a 'mobile computer' in their hands thus exposing the learner to information normally  that would be paid for in a public library.  More students now seem to have an innate gift to utilize smart devices using them for their own benefit thus they have a sense of readiness for the tablets.  Due to the initial novelty of the first set of tablets, students were distracted and great misuse of the device emerged in the social media.  Now that most persons are sensitized, the general thinking is that more energy can be placed in making good use of the tablets in schools.

What has now happened is that several schools have been selected to pilot the tablet innovation.  The selection of these schools seems to be based on learning needs and not based on good academic performance.  The traditional institutions who have tablets in their schools had taken the initiative to invest in the purchase of the same.  The vision is to have specific software and applications installed in order to assist students in reinforcing concepts and improve the acquisition of skills and knowledge to make them become more educationally eligible useful beyond high school.

What is hoped, is that the government or the relevant ministries will purchase publication rights or gain permission from publishing houses to provide e-book versions of the many heavy textbooks the back burdened students carry in their over packed school bags.  Not only will this reduce the stress  of carrying heavy texts to school, but also allow students to have easier access to authentic and credible information on pre-selected websites to use in their reading and research. Teachers may find that their preparation for contact time can be reduced due to the availability of resources at the students' fingertips!

Having tablets in school can be one of the remedies in education.   Those devices can store data and be the cradle for e-books for students.  Yes, the cost is a factor, but to be honest, anything that has a value must have a cost.  There is no such thing as free education, but an investment of the same will have a financial positive multiplier effect on the technology exposed population.  Maybe the tablet indeed can be a good remedy after all!

Teachers Need to Keep their Work at School

Teachers in Jamaica, no matter what level, have a high sense of commitment to their work which is seen throughout all levels of education.  However, those who are from the primary level tend to be over worked thus not having insufficient time in marking assignments.  One of the remedies that this set of teachers made in the turnover of marking papers is to carry the students' work home.


This in itself has always been a bad idea because not only that marking at home takes away contact time from their children but interferes with the social and physical relationship with their spouses.  At times, the partners complain bitterly to their friends about not being able to sleep in their beds in peace, while their spouses mark piles of books in their matrimonial bed.  When emotions get high children and neighbours become audience to quarrels and fights because one spouse complains to the other about not having the intimate services of their teaching partners.



I believe that these teachers need to be more considerate not only to their families, but to themselves.  It is unfair to carry home the stresses of work home, but most unfair to carry the world of fingered books into their beds.  If books could tell the roads they have travelled, the skin would crawl and disinfectants would cleanse the invisible visitors that attach themselves to each book that comes from different homes!  Teachers, over the years have put their families at great health risk when they carry the students' works at home.  It is time teachers put a stop to this practice and manage their time better at work.


Even if the work should be brought home, it is with great wisdom that the students' books/papers should be placed in a work/study area and not in their bedrooms.  Too many times family relationships become strained due to the dedication of the teaching parent.  True teachers always put in the extra mile to ensure that their students get back their marked work on time for them to see how well they have done or how to improve on their learning. Unfortunately, this kind of loyalty always comes with a cost when it is not managed well.


It is best that teachers find and develop additional kinds of summative assessment  for their students and spend more time at  home focusing on fulfilling their roles as good parents and partners  to their own families.

Contact Time with Students

It has been a great debate over the years for our nation's teachers to spend more time in the classroom.  Our Ministry of Education, over the last three years, has hemorrhaged the teachers' holiday/recuperation period by adding two more teaching days per term.  This year is no different and now not only are they trying to shorten the days of rest for teachers, but are now mandating them to go to professional development seminars conducted by education officers who themselves are exhausted with work.

All this, because there is the perception that teachers have too much time on their hands to find additional funds to improve their standard of living.  One talk show host mentioned about the amount of teachers who are driving better cars and living in luxurious houses and that teaching seemed to be a money making business instead of that of educating the population.  There were mentions of teachers having after school classes where students must pay a cost.  Investigations were secretly conducted to find out the cost of these services and publishing how much money a teacher makes conducting private classes.

 Persons with doctoral degrees have presented interesting data showing that many of the poor results of CSEC examinations, sit squarely of the feet of teachers who waste time in staff rooms or gossiping in corridors leaving the children unsupervised.  So the question is, should all teachers' family time be punished because of the actions of a few?  This seems to be an issue of management and accountability at each affected school.

It is situations like these that make teachers have to work within the scheduled hours.  Seeing that the good teachers are hardly given much credit for overtime services to their students, and becoming more verbally abused on the roads due to bad publicity, more teachers are taking a military approach to the teaching time with their students.  Not to mention the way freeze that the teachers have accepted for the last four years!

Now, the Ministry's response is to cutely cut into the recuperation periods of teachers much to the dismay of the family of the affected teachers.  Soon, more families of teachers will be  dysfunctional because of the lack of family time with all its members.  So many spouses have left their family unit because their teaching partners hardly have enough time to hold their families together.  Yes, this opens the door to another debate but if a survey is conducted, I am sure one would find that more teachers have found themselves in divorce court than the norm.

Addressing the issue of contact time, this should be an issue for the school board and management to handle, instead of giving the cold blanket treatment to every school.  Making use of the available time and resources should be the ministry's goal and not to rob good teachers of family time which is already short.

Simple Tips on Lesson Planning

       Lesson planning is not a fan of many teachers, but one must admit that without a plan things can go very disorganised.   Learning should be organized in  order for the intended goals, objectives  and learning outcomes to be achieved.  Anyone who teaches, must be reminded to several things:
After choosing the lessons the;
    1.  goals and objectives must be relevant to the lesson
    2. objectives must match with the student abilities.
    3. content must be easy to read and comprehended by students.
    4. structures, strategies and techniques used to teach the lesson are used effectively.
    5. assessment used should actually measure set goals and objectives and that is to the advantage of         the student and not be viewed as a negative  tool.
    6. evaluations for each lesson should look out for successes and weakness displayed or                experienced.   Both teaching and learning outcomes should be evaluated to ensure that good teaching and learning are achieved and make the necessary changes where needed.

     Teaching has moved from the old days of just plain "chalk and talk," to using any innovative means to ensure good information transfer, developing of skills and successful passing of final assessments for students to transition to another level of learning.  There are so many gadgets that can be used to enhance learning.  However, without proper planning, desirable learning and teaching outcomes will not be a reality for all stakeholders.



     This is my take on the matter, after many years of teaching, it is clear to me that proper planning is always good and as teachers, we need to embrace it and not look at a class and condemn them because of how they look or their socio economic status.  Teachers, please plan to transform students into better learners and make yourselves  become better teachers.