Thursday, September 30, 2021
Teacher Jokes
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Conan visits an Elementary School in Haiti
Elementary School is a place where I still teach from time to time. It brings back so many good memories from my own elementary school days. But imagine the state of mind of a child in one of the most poor countries in the world where the basic facilities that we take for granted are considered luxurious in our country? These specials by Conan are some of my most favourite.
Monday, September 27, 2021
Helping Children with learning disabilities
Learning disorders are caused by genetic and/or neurobiological factors that disrupt one or more cognitive processes associated to learning via altering brain functioning. These processing issues might make it difficult to master basic abilities like reading, writing, and math. They can also obstruct higher-order skills including organisation, time management, abstract reasoning, long and short-term memory, and attention.
(adapted from LDAAmerica)
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Kids express themselves through Music
As mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, Conan is easily my favourite late night host of all time. In this clip, he went to an elementary school, interviewed the kids, explained to them how to express themselves through music and came up with an excellent snippet for the show. Must Watch!
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Asperger's or Assburgers?
In this hilarious clip, Cartman from South Park has some sort of disease. Watch it.
Friday, September 24, 2021
Don't Kiss and Tell
For most kids and teens, more sex education occurs through experimentation and peer interactions. In this clip from the 80's sitcom, Growing Pains - a kiss - though not the first - and the feelings, emotions and consequent reactions are shown.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Parenting Effectiveness Training
Do parents need to take a class in order to better parent their children? In the old days, learning the art of parenting was almost exclusively by observation and tradition. In modern times - child psychology, motivation, peer pressure and many other issues need to be known by parents. In any case, for certain parents, the structure of a formal class/course can be useful.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
How do kids perform on Piaget's Conservation Tasks?
Conservation tasks are a product of the work started by Piaget which aim to test a child’s ability to see how certain things remain the same in certain respects even as you change certain characteristics of them. In this clip, a very good visual depiction explains the basics of the approach.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Early Childhood Education in other Countries and Cultures
It is very interesting and educational to find out about the early childhood development programmes in other countries and cultures. When doing a study of this sort, one gets a better understanding of the opportunities present in other systems and we also become aware of possible drawbacks of our own system. In any case, the outcome is always educational. In this clip, a wonderful presentation is made of the ins and outs of a Japanese Childcare Centre. Very Inspirational.
Monday, September 20, 2021
Kid has had enough of Pre-School
After watching this, I seriously thought of whether this was a staged video or was it really real? I don't think that this could be staged by a parent or child. Look how much sass this child has!
Sunday, September 19, 2021
The Problem of the Over Achiever
Over-achievers in school are children with special needs. Their full personality needs to be harnessed. Not only their intellect needs to be fully developed - but also their heart - the faculty of feeling needs to be developed. What happens to a child with a high IQ when they experience their first apparent failure?
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Teaching Children Responsibility
At what age is it too early to teach children responsibility? Responsibility extends to all aspects of life. In this clip, the child entered a science fair which later let to the formation of an actual company. What an achievement for a child!
Friday, September 17, 2021
The IQ Test
The problem with assessing children based on standardized tests is that it fails to look at the child as holistic individual and merely reduces the child - with all his / her potentialities to a mere statistic. The problem is that there are no many tests available that can measure the real potential of a child and hence we are forced to use, at least partially some of these tests.
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Cracking Women's Psychology
Well, who else but the Simpson's could ever manage to crack this enigma that we are? Although meant to be amusing and entertaining, many a grain of truth can be found in this clip.
Playing truant from school
OK- so us teachers included - almost everyone I know has bunked class at least a couple of times in their lives. But what happens when you get caught? The results are often serious and frightening to the child and later in life, hilarious to everyone else.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Learning new desired behaviours through positive reinforcement
OK - so this is not exactly geared towards children but its implications are very clear. A desired behaviour can be achieved and an undesirable behaviour eliminated through the proper implementation of positive reinforcement.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Child abuse and its effect in the classroom
For many teacher, their sense of reality is shattered when they come upon a child who is seemingly being abused by a parent or guardian. Of course parents have the right to discipline their child - but what are the limits to this? Is spanking OK or should it be illegal. When does discipline turn into torture and when does it become a crime?
Monday, September 13, 2021
Male and female roles and responsibilities
Children learn from example. They learn from observation and they learn from their own innate sense of right and wrong. For many kids, based purely on their family and social structure, their perceptions about the roles that males and females have to perform is outdated.
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Children having their first puff
Peer pressure is something that all children have to confront sometime or the other. The act that the child is pressured to perform varies in intensity and kind. For many children, the offer to fit in and be cool and smoke the first cigarette is all too alluring.
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Why do so many children have a problem with Math?
Math has always been a subject in which I find that most students have a problem. It is not based on the actual difficulty of the subject itself - but more based on an incorrect approach to the subject.
Friday, September 10, 2021
Asperger's Syndrome and its effect on the development of the child
It is not true that any and every person with Asperger's will never amount to anything in life. Ideas like these which I have seen very often is not based on any fact but merely on outdated perceptions. If anyone thinks that Asperger's is a disease which means that you will never amount to anything in life- let us remember that Elon Musk - amongst many others - has Asperger's.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Kids ideas about parents
The truth is most important. But also - our perceptions about the truth are equally valid and important. The ideal situation is when our perceptions of reality are based upon fact and information and not merely upon imagination and conjecture.
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Career Day for Kids
Most kids wait for the day when they can bring their parent/guardian to school to explain their unique / special career. In this episode, Kelso -- well, let's just watch it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
How Parents quarrelling affects Children in later life
When children see the constant squabbling of their parents - it has a tremendous effect on them - often scarring them for their entire lives. It also leads to deep psychological issues in the child which bleed into all the child's interactions with other people.
Monday, September 6, 2021
Divorce and its impact on Children
A wholesome family system is vital for the development of the child. What happens when the marriage of the parents does not work out? What effect does it have on the child - both at a young age and later in life?
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Pavlov's Dog and Contagious Confusion
Well, what can you say when Kelso makes such wonderful sense. Here the effects of someone with an imperfect understanding of a concept tries to explain that concept to someone else is highlighted.
Saturday, September 4, 2021
Each Child Develops Differently
Comparison between siblings is quite natural. But how to deal with a situation in which identical twins have markedly different levels of developmental achievement? Situations such as these bring forth a lot of issues that parents need to confront.
Friday, September 3, 2021
Parenting Problems 1
Working parents having issues with children when they stay at home. Perhaps this was the first time that Ray realized the stress that Debra used to go through on a daily basis.
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Why do kids have so much homework?
With the explosion of the information age, school work and other activities are expanding and kids are sometimes stressed out with no time to be kids. Homework is necessary but a healthy blend of homework and leisure needs to be struck.
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Keeping Everyone Happy
Its not possible to keep everyone happy all of the time. It is a noble quality to want to live harmoniously with everyone but the constant need to live one's life according to someone else's expectation is energy sapping and unproductive.
What is a typical day for a teacher?
All our experience of school and our teachers are unique to us - yet there are some things which are common to all. As students, we only see...

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Teachers are the backbone of society and the sad part is that, for the work that we do, we are sadly underpaid, under-appreciated and always...
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Elementary School is a place where I still teach from time to time. It brings back so many good memories from my own elementary school days...
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Some of Jimmy's Jokes are way too hot for me. But sometimes he makes me chuckle. Although this guy is from the UK he does come to the US...