7 Simple Things To Do If you want pass the GES Apptitude Tests.

7 Simple Things To Do If You Want to Pass the Aptitude Tests.

1. Be at the Centre at least an Hour before the Exams Starts.

2. Locate your Exam Hall and Seating Place.

3. Be relaxed and seated.

4. Don't be afraid if you are experiencing Mental Black Out.  It is normal. Everything will come when the Exams Begins.

4. The Questions to be asked, will be practical and not Theoritical.

5. Anybody can pass this Aptitude Tests if only you believe. All questions will be based on all that you have been doing as a teacher and administrator for the past years.

6. Beware of Detractors. Those answers are just there to test your understanding.

7. Pray to the Creator or your object of Worship because in times like this, it is only the Creator who can do everything exceedingly above all things.

Good Luck and May the Almighty Show you Mercy.

CEO, Konnect Klassroom Konsult.

Learning games that help children

Hello,

In this discussion, we would be taking critical look at some fun activities that we can use to teach and develop language in learners.

Fun Activities that help develop language learning in children.

What are some importance of Fun Activities that help to develop language skills.

Importance  of Games:

👉Participating in recreational activities is an effective way to develop language and communication skills.

👉It also helps your children to be more socially confident and may be a way to forge friendships.

👉Games offer a fun - filled, relaxed environment where they can practise using new words and are free to express themselves.

Some examples of Games and playtime activities that integrate language with fun:

Word Games: Expand your children vocabulary with word games. These games can be playedat anytime.

Examples of Games you play includes Scrabble,  Pictionary or a round of Charades, all these encourage vocabulary development and communication skills.

Jokes: Tell children age - appropriate jokes. These jokes may be in any language.  But, it should be in a language children understand. Facilitators can also read kids jokes to develop reading skills among children. You can also encourage children to narrate their own jokes.  Don't seek for perfection. Laugh even if the jokes are not humorous or interesting.

Riddles: Riddles are fun ways to use words and paint pictures. Read or say Riddles aloud to children. Facilitators should encourage learners to read or say their own Riddles. Children should be encouraged to give answers to Riddles.

Rhymes: Children should be encouraged to recite as many rhymes as possible. Rhymes help develop speaking skills and listening skills in learners. These should be done every day of the week. The Rhymes can be in any language. However, Facilitators are encouraged to more of English Rhymes.

Homonyms: Homonyms are words which have the same sounds but different meanings. Encourage learners to play with Homonyms and give more examples. For children in the KG and lower classes, simple words may be used. Facilitators can use Homonyms to play games. This develops and expands learners Vocabulary and Comprehension Skills.

Story Telling: Facilitators should tell learners several stories. These stories can be read or said in class. Learners should be encouraged to tell their own stories either reading or saying orally. These stories may stories they have read or heard.

Songs: Songs help learners learn new words. Apart from harnessing the power of music, it helps learners learn lyrics in songs. Lyrics are the words in songs. There songs which contains meaningful words and sentences which learners can learn from. For example, to quote some lyrics from the song...

Everybody wants to go up to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

In the above lyrics, one can learn Subject Verb Agreement, etc.

Tongue twisters: These are words which causes one to pause or thoroughly check before pronouncing. It helps children to learn and train  children's tongue to pronounce words. This help children to learn the correct pronunciation and enunciation of words.

Teach kids, not content

Hello,
In this discussion, we will take a look at the topic : Teach Kids, Not Content.

Most teachers are busily teaching Contents instead of teaching kids. So we often here statements like this child has problem with understanding English.

We are teachers not because we have a plethora of Content. These kids are not interested in our knowledge base or what we know. They don't care which University we attended. They are not interested in our numerous skills. They don't even care whether we have Certificates, Diploma, Degree or Masters.

Then what do they care about?

Children care for skills that will propel them into achieving greatness. Children what to know the how and how things are done or not done.

Children want their teachers to go beyond the Curriculum.  They expect their teachers to be extra- ordinary.  They want their teachers to be innovative, Creative and resilient.

Children care about the future and what the future has for them. They care about how to simplify what the curriculum asks us to teach. They care about how to do things easily without any difficulty. They care about how to make them fit to live and lived with. This is what kids care about.

So for instance, instead of a teacher teaching children that a Noun is the name of a person,  an animal, a place or a thing. This teacher can encourage children to discover for themselves what a Noun is.

Here is how.
1. First the teacher ask learners to list names of persons. E. g. Mensah, Moses, Mohammed, Daniel, Yaw, Philomina, Mercy, Serwa, etc.

2. Teacher asks learners to list names of places.  E.g. Accra, Swedru, Tamale, Kumasi, Takoradi, Ho, etc

3. Teacher also ask learners to list names of things. E.g pen, book, pin, etc.

4. Then teacher also ask learners to list names of animals. E.g. dog, goat, fish, cat, etc.

The teacher then tells learners that the names of things, the names of animals,  the names of persons, the names of places, etc are all names. These names also means nouns.

Children want to learn what we know in an environment better than what we learnt from.  They want to be cared, guarded and guided to achieve their dreams and aspirations.

So this will make it easier for learners to define and explain the meaning of nouns.

Children want their teachers to go beyond the Curriculum.  They expect their teachers to be extra- ordinary.  They want their teachers to be innovative, Creative and resilient.

So the next time we move into the classroom, it is not our business to tell them what we know or think, but to allow them some time, some guidance to think and bring out what they believe or understand.

Interestingly,
Nobody want to read what doesn't interest him or her.  Even teachers read books that they believe will help them. Our children can think. They are ready to think beyond our imagination. The only problem is that we don't give them the chance.  Our education is based on what "some" people believe and not what they children really need. Our children have needs. They want to be free. They want to explore the environment and bring out their hidden potentials. It is time we give them the chance. The chance to tell us what they believe in. What most people have failed to realised is that today's child is totally different from yesterday's child. Yesterday's method of teaching may not work for today's child. The world is moving at a faster rate. Let me stop here for now.....

In this session, we are going to discuss what the Facilitator should do when teaching Creative Arts.
Creative Arts at the primary school have been group into two main parts - Visual Arts and Performing Arts.

Teachers should:
 design sets of tasks and assignments that will challenge learners to apply their knowledge to issues and problems
 engage learners in creating new and original items/compositions
 assist learners to develop positive attitudes for creative activities
 emphasize the issues of conceptualization, planning and making/composing as key components in evaluating learners work
 guide learners to transform what they know, understand and can do into creative products
 observe and guide learners as they work independently or in groups in the performance of various tasks since both process and products are equally important
 select and plan other learning activities to assist learners acquire, develop and demonstrate the subject specific practices and core competences outlined under the specific indicators and exemplars of each content standard of the sub-strands/strands in addition to what have been suggested
 bear in mind that the curriculum cannot be taken as a substitute for lesson plans. It is therefore necessary that teachers develop a scheme of work and lesson plans for teaching the indicators and exemplars of this curriculum.


Note that:
 Creative Arts is taught as a practical subject. Learners are to be TAUGHT and EVALUATED PRACTICALLY.
 Creative Arts is basically for the acquisition of practical skills.
 Though learners have to be taken through few theoretical lessons, this is to reinforce their learning and for ideation, conceptualization, brainstorming and critical thinking to find solutions to identified problems.
 Learners must observe, listen, reflect, brainstorm, discuss, compose, perform, respond, talk, report, describe.


The teacher should create a learning atmosphere that ensures:
 learners feel safe and accepted.
 learners are given frequent opportunities to interact with varied sources of information, teaching and learning materials and ideas in a variety of ways.
 the teacher assumes the position of a facilitator or coach who: Helps learners to identify a problem suitable for investigation via project work.
 problems are connected to the context of the learners’ world so that it presents authentic opportunities for learning.
 subject matter around the problem, not the discipline.
 learners responsibly define their learning experience and draw up a plan to solve the problem in question.
 learners collaborate whilst learning.
 a demonstration the results of their learning through a product or performance.
It is more productive for learners to find answers to their own questions rather than for teachers to provide the answers and their opinions in a learning-centred classroom.

The teacher is a facilitator or coach who:
 helps students to identify a problem suitable for investigation
 connects the problem with the context of the students’ world so that it presents authentic opportunities for learning
 organizes the subject matter around the problem, not the discipline
 gives students responsibility for defining their learning experience and planning to solve the problem
 encourages collaboration by creating learning teams
 expects all learners to demonstrate the results of their learning through a product or performance.
It is more productive in learning for teachers to use their knowledge, understanding and skills to motivate learners to

Teaching English Grammar with fun

Hello
In this discussions, we are going to delve into fun and interesting way to teach the Parts of Speech.

But,
Grammar should be fun and interesting.
Teachers should not stress themselves telling children grammatically rules and functions. We can do easily through games.
Children love games.

Here are the simple ways to teach the Parts of Speech in English.

Teaching Nouns.
To teach nouns, teachers can use the I Spy Game.
For example, the teacher say something like
1. I Spy something in the class which tells time - (Clock)
2. I Spy something in the classroom which is used for writing - (Chalkboard/Blackboard)
3. I Spy something white used to write in the classroom - (Chalk).
4. I Spy something in the classroom used to make the classroom clean - (Broom). Etc. You can do this for all the items in the classroom. This will help learners to discover that all the items in the classroom are bound.

Also, you can use I'm Thinking of Someone Game. This game is appropriate for teaching Proper Nouns. You can use it to describe the learners or people outside the classroom.
For example,
1. I'm Thinking of Someone Who wears black shoes, white socks,  brown belts, etc Who Am I Thinking of .....(Let children come out with the name).
2. I'm Thinking of Someone Who composed the song  Mahama Paper ......( Shatta Wale). Etc.

Continue with simple to complex description of persons for them to come out with.

Teaching Verbs.
For verbs the Facilitator could use Charades.  In this game, the Facilitator calls out a Volunteer and shows the verb on a whiteboard (Only the Volunteer sees the verb). The Volunteer then act out the verb whiles the rest of the class mentions the Verb.

You can use interesting verbs to begin. For example you can ask the child to mix gari with sugar, walk out of the classroom, etc.

Teaching Adjectives.
In this game we use Clues.
Learners sit in a circle. A Volunteer sits in the middle of the circle. The Volunteer picks a thing at random from a box containing several items. The Volunteer describes the item in two different ways. The Facilitator may time the Volunteer to make it interesting. For example, let say the Volunteer picks a pencil.
Then we may hear something like ....
1. The pencil is short.
2. The black pencil. Etc.

Teaching Conjunctions.
To teach Conjunctions we would use the FANBOYS Game. In this game every child is expected to use a letter from the FANBOYS as a Conjunctions in a sentence.
This can be played by dividing the class into two groups. Each group is to present 7 participants.  Each participants is expected to use any of the letters of the FANBOYS as a Conjunctions to form complete sentence or just calls out a Conjunctions which begins with any of the letters of the word FANBOYS.
For example a Child can write : *Do you want milk or water?* And gets a point. The group which has form more sentences or spell more Conjunctions wins the game.

Teaching Interjections
*What would you Say if ......Scenarios.* is the name of the game. In this game the Facilitator describes various scenarios and ask learners to say what they would say.
For example, Teacher give a scenarios when a child comes directly in contact with a snake. Then teacher ask the question: *What would you Say*
Some answers may be Jesus! God! Etc.

Teaching Pronouns
The name of the game to use here is Replace Noun Games.
In this game the teacher divides the class into two. Each group is given a passage which contains, several repeated nouns. The group is expected to replace the repeated nouns with the appropriate words or Pronouns.
The group that gets all or most of the words correct is declared the winner.

How to keep Records in Schools?

Welcome to today's Sessions on PLC we shall discuss various records that should be kept in every school.
Records keeping in schools are among other things, the most important activities carried out in schools.

What are the kinds of Records in your school?
Every school or teacher should keep records. There are various forms of Records kept in a school. Here are some examples:

1. Teachers Records (Bio - data)
2. Pupils' Records ( Bio - data)
3. Tools and Materials Records
4. Teaching and Learning Records
5. Appraisal Records
6. Pupils' Performance Records
7. Health Records
8. Monitoring and Supervision Records
9. Parents/ Guardian Records

How do you keep Records in Schools?
There are various forms of Records Keeping.
Records in schools can be kept in both hard and soft copy form.

There are various software applications that can be used to keep records. Some are Free whiles others are for Sale.
You can however, design your own simple applications using any Free Spreadsheets Applications such as Ms Excel.

You can also keep records in Hard Copy form by having an Exercise Book and well demarcated.

Why do you keep Records in Schools?
Keeping records is an integral part of our work as educators. There are various reasons why we keep records.

1. We keep records to monitor progress or otherwise of our learners and teachers.

2. Records kept in schools help in teacher appraisal and promotion.

3. Keeping of Records in Schools makes data available for decision making processes.

4. Records kept in schools can be used for classification and assignment of teachers.

5. Education officers take serious attention in records keeping.

It is great to keep records. But, more importantly, records should be easily accessible and readily available.