How To Improve Your Grades: What To Do

In the introductory part of this topic, we specifically pointed out that learning is more important than good grades. A good grade with no mental power which is the real essence of education is nothing.

So, when learning is taken seriously, how can a student make good grades? If a box is filled with so many junks and just a few important things, it will be very hard to retrieve when you what to make use of the important things. Finding will be very hard. The box is your brain. The more junks like Tvs, video games, social medias, music you keep in it, the lesser space for the important things and when it is time to retrieve, its almost impossible. Junks will keep coming out. What you get is Ds, Es and Fs

Students with poor grades blame it on so many things and people but themselves. “the teacher is wicked, I don’t like him, he is boring” “the examination questions are too hard” “oooo! Its luck”  The truth is, Laziness is the major reason behind low grades.

Students with good grades aren’t all geniuses. They only do some things which the low graded students are too lazy or aren’t just doing. Serious students set goals for themselves and work hard to achieve them. They think of knowledge before grades. Thinking of grades before knowledge is academically disastrous. Students with good grades are organized and scheduled. Good students know that making good grades depends solely on them and not the hard questions, Teachers, luck or any other external factor. The lazy wants the good things and they sometimes fake seriousness so that people won’t call them lazy but in their mind, its empty.

How do you study?

An educational psychological journal states that “an increase in time spent on homework has a positive effect on a student’s grades in school” it further said that “with 1 or 3 hours of home work a week, the average low ability student can achieve grades commensurate with an average ability student who does not do homework.”

You need to be hard on yourself if you want to make good grades in school. Discipline yourself when it comes to distractions when studying. Tv, music or anything that can easily distract you must be avoided.

Where do you study?

No doubt a very quiet and spacious environment is the best to have an effective study. If you can’t get it in your home, look for it elsewhere; might be a friend’s place, or even a public library. Your reading table must be spacious, get all you need so as to reduce the numbers of time you need to stand up, it’s a distraction. Make sure the environment is well lighted and ventilated to reduce tiredness.

I am sometimes not in the mood to read

Some psychologists have advised that it’s better not to study if you don’t feel like so as not to stress one thing or the other in your neurological system, bla bla bla. But tell me, is it every day the adults feel like working? NO but they make it a habit. It’s a must for them to work so that they can take care of their responsibilities. Good grade here is your responsibility and you have to make studying a habit. You will get used to it. This might help. Just as workers get used to their office space, you too can maintain same study spot, be it in your home or in the library.

Your study routine

·         Be organized. Arrange what you are going to study.

·         Don’t just jump into it. Try glance through the whole materials you are about to study.

·         As you glance through jot down points you know you might find hard to grasp.

·         Now, as you glance through and jotting, make questions on your own. Put them down.

With all these, you have just prepared your mind for studying, you have also set a goal – what to achieve at the end of the study. Now, as you study, find answers to the questions you have made for yourself. Now go back to the second step, glance through again and you will realize that you are now more familiar with the material. You should try to set questions again and answer them and answer without looking into the material. This will help you to remember what you have studied. Make sure you plan a break in-between if the material to be studied is lengthy. I made mention of a box in the beginning, as you store valuable information in it, you start to feel knowledgeable, you will be self motivated to want to add more to your box (brain/mind)

Ahhhhhh……. I guess I’ve passed my boundary of 500 or 600 words. Lets conclude this topic in our next discussion we will touch test preparation and dealing with failure.

Like I always say, I appreciate your audience and will be happy and motivated to read your comments and feedback. 

Introduction: How To Improve Your Grades

We have discussed topics that has to do with running a school successfully and we also discussed

parenting. Now we want to give some attention to the students. This topic will meet the needs of all levels of student, from the basic level to the higher institution.

One basic issue that all students worry about is their grades. Grades determine if a student graduates or not. For one to get a good-well-paying job, good grades is involved. Good grades make the parents paying the fees happy, it motivate them and also gives them an idea about their child’s performance in school. So a student cognizant with these wouldn’t want to fail himself or the parents. So it is something worth worrying about.

However, hard pursuit of grades could lead to failure if the student only pursue grades so as to be popular or the ranked high. He would be paying all attention to his grades and not on learning. That is why some students with lower grades outperform those with higher grades when they are placed in real life situations, that is, on-the-job. Pursuing higher grade has lead into what we know as Exam Malpractice, students want to know topics to be on the test before hand, so as to study only those topics. In some areas, these students go as far as wanting to know the exact questions to be set in their tests or examinations.

Education goes farther than making good grades. It means developing a mental power, knowledge or let’s call it Thinking Abilities and Skills. Education teaches a student how to digest raw information and transform it into practical terms. That is what employers are looking out for as they employ. Therefore, we can say that Good grades do not guarantee success in the labour world. When a student has gotten used to cramming, guess works and even cheating in examinations and test, he is only restricting his own thinking ability. Of what use is a first class Honours in Accounting if you can’t even prepare a common cash book? Someone claimed to be a guru in Microsoft Excel and after putting up some figures on a column he was looking for a calculator to sum up.

So it is very wise to see grades as a guide to assess your progress in school not the main goal. Your grades and your abilities should be on the same level.

Now what should be done to improve your grades?

We will discuss the solutions in my next post.

If you have enjoyed this article, do well to tell your friends about it. Share on facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger, Whatsapp etc. You can also drop comments or ask questions. I will be glad to respond promptly.

Parents as First Teachers (Final Part)

Image Crd: yoursomerset.com

I want to thank you all for following me on the topic from the beginning. I planned just to pick out the salient points but I couldn’t just help but go into details. Thank you for following up. I received some comments and the page views also shows that the topic received a measurable read.

Now to business. We have discussed at length what it takes to know your children but there is this thing you also need to know about them. It is how they learn through their senses. Some learn by seeing, some by hearing and some by touching. Our kids learn best by using any of their senses. Some children learn better when what they read is also followed by visuals, pictures. Some of them will prefer to be instructed on what to do through reading, some will want you to say it, they want to hear you, while some won’t learn if they haven’t touched, that is, hand activities. So, you parents need to study your children to ascertain which they learn best with.

You will have to provide your children with the opportunities to learn with all the senses. Don’t restrict them to learning by vision and memorizing. Don’t tell them they can’t learn better with one sense or the other.

Now you need to start visualizing what your child(ren) should be able to have learnt in a given period of time and you have to provide an enabling environment to help them get there.

Here is a sample of a parent’s vision for her Three-year-old child.

“Before my son is five, he should have known about so many things. He should have a measurable amount of ideas about issues and will be able to express himself on such issues. He will be bold enough to ask questions when he is in doubt. He will be respectful and treat others with care. He will be very comfortable speaking English which is the dominant language in our home”

This is a parent’s vision for his child. You should have yours based on your knowledge about your child’s learning pattern as we have shown from the beginning of this topic. It is very wise to have this because it will be like a set goal that will guide you in your children’s process of learning. Imagine a football game without a goal post, the players will just run and run with no course.

You can start over from the part 1 of this topic to the last part. So that you can learn more about how your children learn. Read more articles, make researches, read books, watch informational TV programs. Grab any opportunity to get involved in your child(ren)’s learning process. Build in them a love for learning and most importantly, provide them an environment/atmosphere conducive for learning.

I am so grateful for your audience. But lastly, there is a questionnaire that I will design to help you assess yourself as to how well you are performing as first teachers.

Here is an opportunity to support jimmyedu101.blogspot.com The questionnaire might not be made public but on request.

Just send me an email and I will forward it to you. jimmy.pelemoh@gmail.com

Thanks.

Parents As First Teachers (Part 2)

Image: kumc.edu

It’s my pleasure to have you read the continuation of our hot topic, parents as first teachers. It addition to what we discoursed in Part 1, parents need to make their children feel secure so that they can be ready to take risks involved with their learning process and environment. People and environment influences their feelings. Love, commendation and acknowledgement are the key factors that boost their self-esteem. Show them love in action, commend them when they have done something right.

What and/or what they feel can either improve or hinder their learning. Love, commendation and acknowledgement are key factors that enhance their learning. So, it is the parents’ full responsibility to ensure a secured environment for adequate learning, flourished with love, commendation and acknowledgement. This will prepare them to be able to confront any hostile or unfriendly environment.

Therefore, parents should endeavour to show unconditional and equal love to all their children, Identify the uniqueness of all your children. They can never be the same. Appreciate how they see the world, ask of their opinion.

Do not segregate, that is, preferential treatment, do not always criticize or demean them because of their actions. This is your responsibility as the first parent.

Parents are the role models of their children; hence they learn almost all they know from you and whoever they live with. Children have an innate capacity to process and use languages (Strickland, 1990). That is why they can easily speak your language and any other language spoken in their environment. It will normally take a child 12years to be able to formalize a language. You the parent want to be a language model to your children to avoid bad/dirty or wrong usage of the language. Do not prematurely force your child to learn another language, once they have mastered one, they will easily learn another.

Make sure your children are around effective language speakers, discuss and read with them and you will be helping them master the language. Never criticize them for the way they use or converse using the language, correct them. When discussing with them, allow them express themselves also and lastly, don’t expect them to listen attentively to you all the time when you try to start a conversation.

Children are dynamic creatures, you don’t have to teach them before they get to know that they can also communicate in writing. They know that those things written on papers communicate ideas to other people. Before you know it, they will start scribbling on any paper or book they can find around. Please do not stop them or punish them for scribbling on your diaries, files or Bible. When they are in this stage, clear all your important papers and make available blank papers they can scribble on. It aids their better handwriting in the future. When they scribble their jargons, ask them what they are writing, and they will surely explain to you. Do more of reading and writing with them. They write and they draw, why not display one of their work on the wall, they feel so accomplished and encouraged. They will want to write more and get better.

Reading is one activity children can develop from a very tender age. These children who are exposed to written materials tends to be better readers and writers as they grow, they become the best when they eventually start school. They develop the hunger for information and knowledge. You as a parent can get books with few words for them to own. Talk to them about the beauty of reading. Read to them anything around them. Teach them the importance of understanding what is being read. Allow them pick topics to read. Make sure you have print items like books, magazines, newspapers etc at home all the time. Expose them to different literature styles at a very tender age. Do not condemn them because they don’t want to read or compare them other children who can read better. This is very damaging to their morale and learning process. Even you the parent don t want to read sometimes.

I will have to stop here and continue later in the final part. I never knew I will touch so many things as I have done. Let’s digest these and in the final part of this topic, I will touch children learning through different senses, setting a goal for yourself as to helping your children learn and how you can plan a better learning environment for your children.

To comment just click add comment, you will see a space to enter your comment. Now choose what or who you want to comment as by clicking the arrow. If you have a Google account, you can select Google account. If you don’t, just select Name/URL or anonymous.

I will be looking forward to your comments.

You can follow me on twitter @jimmyEdu_blog

Parents As First Teachers (Part 1)

Image: sfari.org

Femi got tired of his performance in school and has decided to fake being sick every morning just to avoid going to school. The school teacher and management pointed the accusing finger at Femi and his parent for his below average performance. On the other hand, the parents furiously fired back – accusing the school for gross incompetence and inadequacy in the education they give to Femi. The major fact in this story is that Femi is struggling in school and his future is on the balance.

This is a common phenomenon today. We have failed to well define the roles and responsibilities of both the school and the parents.

Parenting as defined is ”the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, financial, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood” Parenting include taking your responsibilities very seriously, using every opportunity to help develop your intellectual development. Children learn basically from what they see and hear. They also learn by what you make them to feel or perceive. Simply, parents can aid their children’s growth and development by interacting with them. The problem in this part of the world is TIME. Our parents barely spend enough time with their children.

By proxy, many parents provide learning environments without a direction or plan and this could either help or defect the children’s intellectual development. How can this be averted?

1.     Parents, you need to understand how your children learn. This varies though. The learning pattern of Femi may be different to that of Chioma. All children have an inborn capacity to learn (Forman and Kuschrer, 1983) Learning starts from the womb. That is why as soon as they are able to speak, they ask loads of questions. Their zeal to learn can either be nurtured or killed, based on the environment they are in.

      Parents, talk about leaning as a self-decided activity, not a command. Relate your daily experience to them as simple as possible. Teach them something about your life experiences every day. Please don’t wait for them to ask you questions before you talk to them. You say you are busy, right? Face the fact; you are working all because of your children. So interact with them always. You are their servant, at least till they enter into adulthood.

2.     Children will always experiment. “What will happen if I touch this yellow thing from this white stick”? You may have told them that is fire and it burns and causes pain. But can you really explain what pain is? Allow them experiment. When they put their finger in the fire or jump from the chair, you don’t punish them, instead teach with the experiment. They learn well when they are curious of so many things. Take the advantage. Get them toys that can make them think and be creative. Please don’t ever leave them to learn on their own or tell them you are too busy to answer their one thousand and one questions.

3.    Our children learn from whatever they can see in their environment. It may be Mountains, Buildings, Cars, People, Moon, Stars etc. They learn from both the good and the bad things. They grow up with this. But you as the parent must be there to help them. A child that his or her parents enjoy viewing violent movies where people are being killed with gun will grow up seeing killing as nothing serious and will enjoy violence as well. I strongly oppose parents buying toy guns for their kids. You need to know what interests your children because it is with this you will select what to teach them. Allow them to explore and be ready to ask their questions.

Watch out so as not to expose them to too many sets of skills at the same time. They wouldn’t be able to be focus and concentrate.

Let us take this bit by bit so that we can assimilate. I will conclude the topic in my next post. I seriously need your comments. Tell me what you feel about my writing, the blog and the topic. Share your own opinion.

Next: Parents as First Teacher (Security, Communication, Reading, Vision and Goal Establishment and Planning A Complete Learning Environment.