Acknowledging Homeless Students in the School Setting

Just the other night as I watched television with my family, there was an ad from our local Children’s Shelter soliciting the community for donations of clothing, toys, and bedding. They have several homeless families already and are expecting more this summer. This sparked the memory of a school I was principal of in the early to late 2000’s. Although it was not the closest school located to the homeless shelter, the facility provided education for homeless children. On any given night across America there are at least 1.6 million children that are homeless. Many homeless families do not seek refuge in shelters, they sleep in cars and abandoned buildings, and they move constantly, taking their families further and further away from their communities – as a result school aged children miss scholastic opportunity.
Campus personnel play a critical part in the education of homeless youth. Feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and depression affect many homeless students only because children tend to mimic their family’s attitudes. These families feel that they have been cut off from the world. Behaviors i.e. (spurts of anger, rage, and doubt) are learned from parental units/families. Establishing supportive and respectful relationships with families will ensure they have the services they need. This support system plays an even more critical role for the child’s success. The school setting inherently provides safety, sensitivity, compassion, and understanding. These characteristics are just a few components of a successful relationship and foundation between families and schools. Success involves more than acts of kindness. Schools must advocate against social injustices for homeless students.
Today, some schools will not allow homeless children to register at school without school/medical records, or a home address. Those very schools deny children access to enter their schools. There are many barriers for these children to include health problems, hunger, and a lack of transportation, clothing or school supplies. These children are more prone to having learning disabilities and developmental delays, lower test scores, behavior problems, and are also more likely to have repeated a grade due to frequent absences. When these students progress through the school system in the current climate and eventually become secondary students, they will experience the frequent process of enrolling and dis-enrolling from schools. They take on a different dimension – these students will be in danger of losing their credit hours which will delay their high school graduation and cause them to re-take unnecessary classes. This causes homeless families to lose trust and believe the school is blaming the family‘s instability for the students ability to do the work. These schools do not understand the difficulties they are experiencing.
How to Meet Homeless Children’s Educational Needs
Oftentimes students are placed in the wrong classroom due to the lack of receiving school records. It is crucial that students receive the services they are legally entitled to. Special education and 504 services should begin immediately if the school is aware students were enrolled in these programs at a previous school. If teachers are unsure whether students need these services but believe there is a need because they cannot accomplish the work, talk to students’ families as they are familiar with the last school their child attended and the services their children received. Pick up the phone and call the previous school or conduct a visit to the shelter to get information before the school records arrive. In addition to this, place these children in an effective teacher’s classroom (both academically and behaviorally) that will assess him/her after school entry to determine academic levels. Ensure that children receive free and/or reduced breakfast and lunch, and enroll them in programs the regular student body may engage in such as after school or summer programs. Transportation should also be provided.
It is imperative that school entry delays are minimal in regards to obtaining children’s immunization records, guardianship, and in general the transfer of school records. This works both ways as students are transferring into a school, and as they transfer once they withdraw and go to another school.
Not only does the Steward B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act provide homeless children counseling services, but they also provide parent education and other training programs. In addition to those legalities teachers that work with homeless students can encourage the class to welcome their new classmates and help promote friendships so that homeless children do not feel isolated in their new classroom.
The campus principal and counselor should visit the shelter to answer any questions the families have about their school, programs, and expectations. When there are special events at the school, the school can reach out to homeless families by welcoming them to activities so they can feel a sense of community. It is critical that the school is seen as a positive environment to show sensitivity to children and their families. All school personnel should be role models of a caring, trusting, and supportive environment so that families believe the school is meeting their children’s basic educational needs. Frequent communication with families should include letters, phone calls, and transportation to and from the shelter to conferences and school events. If transportation is an issue for parent-teacher conferences, teachers should consider doing visits to an alternate location such as the shelter, community center or church.
Strategies to Ensure Homeless School-Aged Children’s Safety and Security

1. Ensure that all educators are knowledgeable about the legal rights of homeless children.
2. Educators should collaborate with local shelters to maintain continuity.
3. Educators should provide remediation and tutoring to students.
4. School counselors can provide assistance to students and make an effort to touch base often with homeless students and parents, and their teachers.
5. School districts work with local shelters to provide transportation for students.
6. School districts provide extended day programs after school and during the summer to all students.
7. Teachers assess students early on after school entry to determine education levels of students so that their needs can be met.
8. Schools provide educational program continuity and stability (general education, special education, 504, dyslexia, ESL, LEP).
9. Schools provide sensitivity and awareness training for all school personnel and students.
10. Homeless Liaison personnel in school districts can work closely with the homeless shelter and campus principal.

Homeless student populations will benefit from developed partnerships between homeless families and schools. These families will have a better sense and feeling of support, respect, and feel they are cared about. This will improve academic, social, and emotional development of these homeless children.

How Technology and Education Can Save the World

There is no denying about technology empowering the world in every way possible. Ranging from a little child to a grown up adult, everybody is dependent on science and technology one way or another. According to some people, it’s a bad thing to depend too much on gadgets and computers but in spite of that, we choose to rely on the conveniences of science on a daily basis. On the whole, all minor and major technological up-gradations have helped individuals and offices do multi-tasking with ease. When it comes to the education sector, something of the smilar nature can be seen happening.

Schools and colleges across the world have embraced technology by bringing online school software into the system. Today, technology and education are going hand in hand by providing academic institutes with an easy way to manage and control the system. The traditional methods have started to vanish from the face of earth providing academic institutes with an easy way to not just manage and control schools, but also provide students with interactive technological amenities.

How Have The Methods Of Administration Transformed?

There was a time when principals used to maintain manual book keeping for all kinds of financial transactions and academic records. Admins and teachers had to prepare all important information via the pen and paper approach. School staff had to go through every little detail in order to locate important information on a daily basis. That is not the case anymore because school admins have shifted all important information on the cloud.

Teachers that used to mark attendance through registers are now seen using smartphones for that purpose. Principals who used to print hundreds of handouts and brochures on a daily or weekly basis, can easily circulate important information via the internet portal or the SMS communicator service. Most of the financial records have been automated providing academic institutes with a safe and secure accounts management system.

The digital student archiving system has also made it much easier for admins to locate students in groups or individually via the student ID system. They don’t have to go through stacks of papers or hundreds of excel sheets in order to keep track of a few pupils. Finance department, education department and student enrolment and attendance can all be managed and maintained via cloud-based technology.    

How Have The Methods Of Education Changed?

Students of today want easy access to knowledge and for that, schools and colleges have started to use internet, ebooks, tablet computers, projector screens and so on. Teachers that used to give lectures in class are showing children interactive presentations on projector screens. Children that used to carry heavy textbooks have started to read from tablet computers.

Instead of distributing schedule handouts, teachers are posting timetables and date sheets on the internet portal. Students on the other hand, also find it easy to view appraisal reports; result cards and all sorts of information via the internet portal improving the overall methods of education. Students that used to visit shops to buy books have started to download ebooks from the internet.

Because of technology, students have become more productive providing schools and college with greater margin to flourish in the education industry. There is absolutely no problem in admitting that technology and education go hand in hand providing the world of education a chance to be more creative and innovative. 

Students: Ten Steps to Succeed in School

I have been teaching college success courses for many years to both at-risk students who are taking developmental courses and to students who are beyond the need for developmental or remedial courses. There are some basics or fundamentals which enhance success in high school and college. Here is my list of ten important steps to avoid failure and to achieve success in school:

1. Be in class. Being on time and maintaining good attendance are important. If you are not in class then you are not learning what is being taught, will not be able to take notes and will not see what subject matter your teacher or professor thinks is important. Obviously it is also important to pay attention when you are in class.
2. Take notes. You cannot review the information that is being taught without class notes. Unless you review your notes several times most of the information is unlikely to get into your long-term memory and will be forgotten. It is best to learn and use a note-taking system such as Cornell, think link, outline or another system.
3. Turn work in on time. Start early on assignments and break them into smaller chunks. This is how to make the difficult easy. Use a planner/calendar to record upcoming assignments so that you can keep up with the work load.
4. Take pride in yourself and your work. Do quality work. If something is worth doing it is worth doing well.
5. Set educational and other goals. This will give you a purpose for going to school and this provides self-motivation. Remind yourself why you want a good education and what you want to achieve in school.
6. Set aside enough time to study. To excel in college you need to study at least two hours for every hour you are in class. Do important assignments first. Then reward yourself with play and you will have a stress free mind because you know the important school work is done. Study with concentration for short periods of approximately 30 minutes followed by short breaks in between. Say no to friends who want to play when your school work needs to be done and schedule another and better time with them.
7. Explain lessons to yourself. This is self-teaching. Read a paragraph in your text and then explain what you learned out loud in your own words. Read it again if you did not understand it. Do not go to the next paragraph until you think you understood the preceding one.
8. Create practice quizzes and tests. Self-testing is powerful. Go through your class notes and textbook. Write down every question you think could be on the test. Then give yourself your own quiz and grade it before you take the one in class.
9. Focus your attention. Do not multi-task and divide your attention in class or while reading your textbooks. These are the times when your full concentration and focus are important.
10. Take care of your brain. Getting enough sleep, exercise, water and good nutrition are important for optimum brain functioning. Avoid using recreational drugs and drinking much alcohol because they can impair your brain’s ability to function well.

There are many more strategies for succeeding in school, but without these ten basic steps your success is less likely. You can start following these ten steps now for better grades and enhanced learning.

By Raymond Gerson

Raymond Gerson is an adjunct professor of college and career success courses at Austin Community College. He is author of Achieve College Success and Achieve Career Success and trains educators how to teach these strategies.

Enhancing Cultural Awareness

Young children have a natural curiosity about self and surroundings that motivates exploration.  The educational environment, therefore, should be one that provides the child numerous and varied opportunities to explore, question and discover. The teacher, as the individual ultimately responsible for establishing and maintaining an educational environment that: 1.) promotes self-awareness; 2.) encourages positive, caring interactions; and 3.) promotes pride in cultural heritage, must outline an appropriate plan.
The following strategies can help teachers design an educational atmosphere where each
child feels important, accepted, and respected as a contributing member of the class:

• MAKE DIVERSITY A NATURAL AND NORMAL PART OF THE PROGRAM
• Establish and maintain an educational environment that has representative and positive examples of diverse cultures (bulletin boards, learning centers, etc.)
• Prepare thematic units, lessons, activities and projects that incorporate diversity
• Focus on the “unique characteristics” of the diverse cultures discussed/ presented in the educational environment.
• Provide numerous and varied educational opportunities that enable young children to experience aspects of diverse cultures (Have parents from various cultures to teach children words, songs, stories, etc. Prepare foods from various cultures.  Display clothing and discuss celebrations from various cultures).
• Use literature as a means of beginning a dialogue to identify what stereotypes or misconceptions children have about diverse cultures.  Use this information to develop lessons and activities that introduce, review and reinforce diversity.

Young children are responsive and receptive when concepts and skills are presented at the
appropriate level.  The classroom is an excellent social environment to provide experiences
that are a natural and normal part of the academic developmental process to support efforts
for learning to live with diversity.

Learning through Play

All children are engrossed in exploration and play in order to comprehend and make sense of the world around them. To analyse the importance of play during the early years I offer a brief summary in this reflection of mine.

Before the development of oral language children are engrossed in sensory and physical exploration as a natural process to understand their immediate environment. There are a number of definitions to define play and one cannot deny the significance in the learning that takes place through play. Theorists like Piaget and Vygotsky considered play to be an important part of childhood as a path to the learning process.
Learning through play for Piaget was defined as a movement through practice play, imaginative play, and continuing on to play with a set of rules. On the other hand, Vygotsky thought that children could be assisted in moving from their level of performance to a level of what they could have a potential of doing. Vygotsky believed the zone of proximal development was created through play which was when children could, "operate at their highest possible cognitive level" (Smidt, 2006, p. 46). As children make sense of the world around them Vygotsky thought that those who expressed themselves through imaginary play stood a 'head taller'. This meant that in pretend play, "children reveal more about what they know and can do than in other activities" (Smidt, 2006, p. 46). Like Piaget he acknowledged that play developed into those with rules but highlighted the importance of the social nature of learning through play.
Vygotsky suggested that play is the main source of development in early years. "In play a child deals with things as having meaning. Word meanings replace objects, and thus an emancipation of word from object occurs" (Vygotsky, 1933, p. 11). However, there is a transfer of meanings as a child in imaginary play can think of a stick as a horse as he or she mentally designates the object or property as the word. "Play is the source of development and creates the zone of proximal development. Action in the imaginative sphere, in an imaginary situation, the creation of voluntary intentions and the formation of real life plans and volitional motives - all appear in play and make it the highest level of preschool development" (Vygotsky, 1933, p. 16).
Bruner also showed an interest in play which he described as an approach to, "doing something and not an activity in its own right" (Smidt, 2006, p. 46). This suggests that children can learn through the process of play which is not an activity in itself but a tool to comprehend aspects of literacy, numeracy, and anything in the environment around them. Bruner also believed that through imaginative play children substituted reality in a way, and with that approach created symbols. "In essence, in pretend play, the child stimulates an action in play as if it were real, or the child tries out new combinations and consequences in a what if fashion" (Smidt, 2006, p. 46). I would like to empasise that the lack of pressure during pretend play is of significance in the learning and development of the child.
Children also build on their fine and gross motor skills during play. Suitable outdoor play areas that are set up to encourage this development are essential in early childhood settings in my opinion. If these environments are not available teachers should explore nearby outdoor parks or playgrounds to promote play. Unfortunately a number of children today spend a great deal of time indoors as they watch television and should be encouraged to explore outdoor environments to play.
In Steiner kindergartens children are exposed to experiences that generally occur at home like cooking, cleaning, sewing, gardening, and building. These activities provide a link to what happens at home and creates a sense of well-being and security for the children who can relate to those particular activities.  Children are encouraged to use their fantasy in imaginary play and are exposed to resources that stimulate this type of play. Generally these resources are natural items and materials that are quite often unfinished. The logic behind this is that, "an 'unfinished' toy leaves children free to exert their imaginations, a 'finished' toy ties the child to a certain group of activities" (Trostli, 1998, p. 95-96). For example, if a child has a yellow taxi, play is limited to activities around taxis. Whereas, if the child had a plain wooden car, imaginary play could involve a number of endless possibilities from which the child can extend and initiate their own play. This is similar in concept to what I mentioned earlier with regard to a child imagining a stick to be a horse as he or she mentally designates the object or property as the word. Trosli (1998) also states that Steiner kindergartens, "allow the children's intellectual faculties to unfold naturally so that by the time children enter the elementary grades, they are ready and eager to experience new forms of learning" (p. 97).  
Smith (1998) suggests that there is a gender segregation in play from the early years. Girls tend to express themselves emotionally and develop nurturing skills whereas boys tend to apply and operate through rules and get on better with others that they don't like. If children are left to themselves they generally form groups of the same gender but mix together and play when adults set up roles and situations for children to play in.
Research in the developed world that is spoken of is Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) that presents itself as the most recent knowledge about children. However, this research is only from the US and does not take into account any cultural values and perceptions of other groups of children. DAP's outlook is 'age and stage' and strongly promotes play that is self directed and initiated. However, it doesn't look at cultural and lifestyle issues as well as socio-economic factors (Smidt, 2006). DAP mentions the declining state of imaginary play as children are being led into more adult driven activities and media use and state that, "Active scaffolding of imaginative play is needed in early childhood settings if children are to develop the sustained, mature dramatic play that contributes significantly to their self-regulation and other cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional benefits." (p. 15). DAP also suggest that, "Rather than detracting from academic learning, play appears to support the abilities that underlie such learning and thus to promote school success" (p. 15).
In conclusion, children learn through play that they discover for themselves in their own environment. Play promotes cognitive, social, and emotional development and is essential for physical development during the early years. Te Whāriki states that, "Children learn through play - by doing, by asking questions, by interacting with others, by setting up theories or ideas about how things work and trying them out, and by the purposeful use of resources" (Ministry of Education, 1996). Play eventually leads to creative thinking, and through what they are doing children can reflect on their own play to answer questions and solve problems for themselves to develop an understanding of the world around them.

How Students Struggle with mathematics and why students should choose mathematics

Year after year, the competition level is increasing and the youth of our world facing numerous problems regarding their studies. After an annual survey you come know that the teenagers list math as a subject in which they can face the most difficulties. But the reality is different because math is an objective subject, which means that each math problem has its one right answer or solution, but infinite number of wrong solutions. It is also a sequential subject because what you learn at starting as a basic it is all depended on it and what you have learned in the past will help you to solve your further arriving problems. Mathematics provides us many different opportunities like concept building, problem solving, reasoning and ability to understand the real-world situation. There is a way for students who feel math difficult subject, they can choose mathematics tutor for learning it with easy methods.

Educational Materials:

Twisting the educational material provides opportunities for students to manage with the content developmentally over time. Concepts can be developed with the previous learning throughout the education as students and it also helps students to be proficient and more experienced in mathematics. It is too difficult for the students to learn the same content year by year and almost in the same manner.

The Gap between the students and subject matter:

When the students being taught the subject matter which is not directly connected to the student’s ability and experiences, it develops a gap between the student and subject. This situation may occur if the students are absent frequently due to some reason during the academic year. A student may find mathematics more difficult and advanced if the student is unable to understand the basic concepts of mathematics during the previous school sessions. 

Memory Ability:            

Some of the students lack behind due to the inability of developing well mental strategies for remembering the complete process of algorithm and the combinations of basic facts. But this kind of inability in which students can’t remember the complete algorithm procedure can be removed by practicing it. It also includes the problem regarding the multi-step algorithms or problems which creates problem for the students who are unable to recall the data while solving the mathematics problem. For this kind of problem students should take help of private math tutors or online math tutor, to remove your inability of remembering the algorithm data.

Maths requires practice and patience:

To succeed in math students require practice, patience, plenty of time and mental capacity. Practice makes perfect to the student or learner, there is only a way by which you can command on math and the way is practice.   

Why Students should choose mathematics

A student should choose mathematics subjects in the higher school, not just to prepare for higher education but also to understand the importance and need of math in their life. Students feel math as a boring and irrelevant subject and start avoiding it but their tutor should motivate them for choosing math subject by showing them the advantages of mathematics subject like easier admission in higher education, importance of math in our life etc.

Here are some reasons for which you should choose mathematics:

Math makes you smarter: 

Math helps you to face hard challenges in your life which can be possible only by logical thinking. It helps you to understand the actuality and mistakes of a person, helps you to recognize when people are lying to you or trying to cheat you.

Math makes you capable to compete in global world:

In this global world you have to compete with many people to get your interesting job. To achieve your goals you have to choose math because it will provide you a strength and capacity to compete against people from the whole world.

Choose math to grab opportunities:  

If you don’t choose math subject, you will close door of interesting studies and careers. Student, who wants various opportunities and success in their life, should choose mathematics in high school. 

Advantages of Using ICT in Learning-Teaching Process

nformation and Communication Technologies (ICT) have recently gained a groundswell of interest, becoming a significant research area for many scholars around the globe. One of the reasons for this surge is that nature of ICT has greatly changed the face of education. For most European countries, the use of ICT, in education and training, has become a priority during the last decade; however, very few have achieved progress. Indeed, only a small percentage of schools, in a few countries, effectively used ICT to support and change the teaching and learning process in diverse subject areas.  Others are still in the early phases of adopting ICT.

Balanskat, Blamire & Kefala (2006), conducted a study carried out in national, international, and European schools, with the aim of gathering evidence regarding the advantages and benefits of ICT in school achievements. The study sought to measure the impact of ICT on student performance by trying to establish a link between the use of ICT and students’ results in exams. The findings are interesting. ICT has shown a positive impact on student performance in primary school, particularly in English language, although the effects are less significant in the sciences.  Schools with higher levels of e-maturity (E-maturity is demonstrated when students apply ICT in strategic and discriminating ways, taking into consideration a balance of advantages and alternatives.) show a rapid increase in performances in scores compared to those with lower levels.

In addition, schools with adequate ICT resources achieve better results than those that are not so well-equipped. There appears to be a direct correlation to well-appointed ICT schools and a significant improvement on learners’ performances. Finally, many teachers are convinced that educational achievements of pupils are due to high ICT utilization. In fact, a high percentage of teachers in Europe (86%), state that pupils are more motivated when computers and the internet are being used in class.

Many pupils consider ICT tools very helpful for completing assignments. Also, teachers are attuned to the fact that ICT enables students with special needs or difficulties to achieve and grow as well.  ICT may also help to reduce social disparities between pupils, since they work in teams in order to achieve a given task or common goal. Additionally, students often assume more responsibilities when they use ICT, such as organizing their work through digital portfolios or projects.  The study also showed that ICT has had a significant impact on teachers and the teaching processes.

Government interventions and training seminars have encouraged the use of ICT tools to stimulate teachers.  Indeed, an absolute majority of teachers in Europe (90 %), claim to use ICT to complete tasks such as preparing lessons and sequencing classroom activities.  Therefore, by utilizing ICT, teachers are able to plan their lessons more efficiently. ICT also helps teachers to work in teams and share ideas related to their school’s curriculum. There is also evidence that broadband (a form of high speed internet) and interactive whiteboards play a central role in fostering teachers’ communications and help to increase collaboration between educators.

The ICT Test Bed Evaluation (Underwood 2006), provides evidence that many teachers use ICT to support innovative education. The report states, “New technologies that provide a good fit with existing practices, such as interactive whiteboards, are first to be embedded, but others, like video conferencing, digital video and virtual learning environments are now being incorporated, providing evidence of ongoing learning by the workforce. Training needs to continue to support innovative pedagogy.”

Both of these examples show that ICT is continuously being integrated into the traditional classroom setting. Therefore, ICT can improve teaching by enhancing prior knowledge and introducing new ways of teaching and learning. Transforming teaching is more difficult to achieve, “changes that take full advantage of ICT will only happen slowly over time, and only if teachers continue to experiment with new approaches.” (Underwood 2006)  This evaluation came from a teacher training seminar in Information and Technology (IT) during the Information Technology Management Forum (ITMF) project. It demonstrates that teachers have not fully adopted the use of ICT in education. However, many educators continue to change their way of thinking about the application of ICT in education and the learning process.

Accordingly, although many teachers have increased their use of ICT in lessons where students look for information on the internet and then use it afterwards for subject specific areas, hardly any teachers use ICT for class presentations. Furthermore, teachers do not use ICT to engage students more actively to produce knowledge. Similarly, the e-learning Nordic 2006 study shows an increase in the use of ICT to teach but not to innovate teaching methods, stating, “ICT generally has a positive impact on teaching and learning situations, but compared with the ideal expectations; the impact of ICT on teaching and learning must still be considered to be limited.” (Ramboll, 2006).

Many teachers use ICT to support traditional learning methods, for example, information retrieval in which students are ‘passive learners of knowledge’ instead of ‘active producers, able to take part in the learning process.’ In a document entitled Teaching and Learning with ICT, G. Galea (2002), it is explained how ICT can promote teaching and learning. According to Galea, there are two main reasons to increase the use of ICT in education in the United Kingdom. First, ICT can change the lessons’ pace.  She states that children in modern society need to develop sufficient skills to take full advantage of the new opportunities that ICT offers. Secondly, there is a growing rise of academic interest in the UK, especially in how technological tools can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in schools, and by doing so, help learners to achieve better outcomes.