Every Parent Matters

Back to school! A fearsome thought for teachers, children and parents. The start of a new academic year, new class, new school, new teaching resources. Welcome back, the educational games have just started.

If you’ve been anywhere near the shops over the summer you couldn’t fail to notice the constant “back to school” promotions. They seem to start on the first day of the holiday ignoring the anguish of teachers, children and parents who dread the thought.  Surely holidays are fun and should not be confused with the slog of learning. Fun is relaxed, enjoyable and something you look forward to. School is, however, far from being fun epitomised by adverts relating to shoes, clothing and stationery!  But what if the schooling process could become filled with educational toys, games and fun?  Is this possible? Surely we should be beating ourselves up with textbooks.

We look forward to something we enjoy and tend to put off something we don’t. Most people enjoyed watching the Olympic Games where medal winners excelled through years of dedication. Hard work, hours of daily practice to improve performance proved the difference between Olympians and “also ran’s”. Above all they enjoy what they do.

Performance is dynamically measured, results seen immediately, giving elation with an improvement, and a challenge with a setback.  Determination is the key; Olympians enjoy the challenge to improve.  What about school and homework? Can school be enjoyable? Could a child’s performance at school be measured dynamically using modern facilities or has it to rely on textbooks, tests and end of term reports? The answer lies in the latest educational games where parents and siblings can join in. Modern homework can be set as a game replicating the work in progress in the classroom. Setting homework as maths games, English games or science games is “learning in disguise” providing an opportunity for the child to practice whilst enticing effective parental involvement.

The busy classroom of 30 leaves minimal time for the teacher to encourage practice in the classroom. Yet 75% of learning retention is achieved through practice. The International Olympic Committee can be compared with the national curriculum setting the competition ground rules and standards. Teachers are the team mangers but parents are the individual child’s coach. The one to one relationship giving guidance, encouragement and participation can reap huge rewards in performance improvement.

Recent research by the National Confederation of Parents Teacher Associations discovered a massive 80% of a child’s academic progress is influenced by what they do at home, and only 20% emanates from the school environment. Back with the Olympics analogy it may seem obvious that the coach has a huge influence on an individual’s performance.

Teachers and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, aware of this phenomenon, are urging parents to become more active in the schooling process. This is in no way dereliction of duty but highlights a fundamental shift in the training duties a parent or PTA can now effect. Historically, helping with homework has been difficult because the teaching resources were one dimensional. Text books induce reluctance in parents. Unwilling to interfere they are concerned they would use different teaching techniques, or may appear to struggle in the subject area in front of their children. But the modern educational games, toys and puzzles used in school by the teacher are now available for use at home.

In class these educational games take the form of board games, quizzes, puzzles, bingo, toys and software – and are ideal for home use. The short burst in a class of 30 can be extended to 30 minutes at home on a one to one in fun game. This parental involvement means that the child gets the extra time to practice.  Parents can assess progress dynamically rather than waiting for end of term reports, and children benefit from a coach at home to boost their performance back in school.

Alistair Owens Keen2learn

Over the past 15 years, we have raised the question, “Why do you use educational games?” to our clients and workshop participants. From their feedback we have constructed a list of the ten very best reasons for using learning games. We hope these 10 descriptions will remind and stimulate you to consider learning games as a training alternative; and, then to consider one of our fine, field-tested, fun-to-play, classroom proven products.

1: Games are Fun with a Purpose
Games create a cognitive engagement between the learner and the topic in a flowing, smiling environment. Games celebrate your topic and reward individual and group achievement. Games bring fun and energy into a buoyant learning zone, but with the focus on learning.

2: Games Provide Feedback to the Learner
Learners want and need feedback on their performance. Games give them immediate feedback on the quality of their input — their successes and their errors. With the appropriate corrective feedback, this can become an invaluable learning opportunity.

3: Games Provide Feedback to the Trainer
Games provide a practice field where learners interact with the topic, demonstrating their knowledge and ability to apply the information. By observing this real-time demonstration, the trainer can adjust the subsequent level of lecture, readings and interventions, accordingly.

4: Games are Experiential
Today’s learner needs to do and to try things on her own. Games provide an environment that transforms the passive student into an active part of the learning process where she can connect her own dots and experience her own ideas. Games also remind both player and teacher that energy in the classroom is a good thing.

5: Games Motivate Learners
Games engage players and then motivate them to interact with the topic. This interaction drives players to demonstrate their understanding of the topic in a friendly contest where successes are memorable moments of shared triumph and celebration and where mistakes mean only that the learner is being stretched to his or her own limits.

6: Games Improve Team Work
Games are real-time activities that bring players into teams, demonstrate the rules and roles of working together as a team, and underscore the value of team collaboration. Games give your learners a chance to know their peers as they share the same real-time experiences, allowing for strong networking and bonding.

7: Games Provide a Less Threatening Learning Environment
Because the game format is playful, the inherent challenge of the material, even new or difficult material, is less threatening. During game play seemingly difficult questions and scenarios are “just part of the game.” And, teachers can use the window following classroom responses to build a bridge between the topic and the learner.

8: Games Bring Real-World Relevance
Games allow you to present real-world information in the form of questions, scenarios, role-plays, and so forth. In this way, players learn not only the “what,” but the “why,” of the topic from a real-world perspective. Players also observe their own behaviour and that of others during game play. Post game debriefings give insights into those behaviours in thoughtful examples observed during game play.

9: Games Accelerate Learning
Games allow you to compress your topic and demonstrated learning into shorter periods of time, accelerating the speed of learning. The visual presentation, oral interactions, and active participation of game play appeals to all of the learning styles (visual, auditory and kinesthetic), involves both the rational and experiential mind that helps players remember what they have learned.

10: Games Give You Choices for Your Classroom
Games allow you to add variety and flexibility to your teaching menus. Games allow you to do any or all of the following:

* Vary the level of learner involvement
* Vary the level of skill level and knowledge
* Customize to any size of audience, even one-on-one
* Vary the type and level of activity
* Vary the level of classroom control
* Introduce or review topics, or both
* Vary the mix of theoretical and practical information

Steve Sugar
www.thegamegroup.com

>Steve Sugar (MBA) is the President of The Game Group and the writer and teacher of learning activities and games. Steve is an Adjunct Professor of Management at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and has served on the faculties of The John Hopkins University, the New York Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland University College (UMUC).

The parent homework help dilemma; do you physically help or just make sure they do it? What sort of help is best for the children and the school? Why the worst option is to do nothing and how fun homework help through educational games can come the rescue.

To most children homework is a bore or chore and wastes valuable recreation time. To most parents homework help induces a degree of anxiety; can they, should they help and if so how? To teachers homework is a vital element of lesson practice that results in 75% retention in learning. Compared to the activity in class, where learning retention can hover around 50%, ( National Training Laboratory) homework has a critical role that is ironically predominately beyond a teachers control. Can it be true that one of the most significant elements of the education armoury lies largely outside of the school gates? This is comparable to a car with the turbocharger not working. The performance is limited, the car struggles to reach 70 miles per hour and the fuel consumption is much higher than it need to be.

Homework, perhaps better described as – school work at home, is the single biggest opportunity for parents to turbo charge their children’s education. Modern educational games present a breakthrough to enable parents support to be enlisted as an additional teaching resource. Research has shown that what parents do at home to support learning can account for 80% of a child’s academic success ( PTA magazine).

So how can parents and grandparents get more involved in effective homework help?

The prevailing view of homework is through text and exercise book tasks. Leaving many parents isolated and acting in an overseer role, many children gain support from their peers. Add, subtract, multiply, write a story, and read a chapter are simple tasks set by the teacher to induce the element of practice. Homework has to be set, collected and marked which amounts to a sizeable burden on a teachers’ time. It also gains more teaching time beyond the statutory minimum of 196 days a year. Expressed differently 53% of the year spent in school leaving 47% at home.

The best way to include parents is to make time spent with their children fun. Access to the maths games, English grammar and fun science projects used in school can make a real difference when also used at home. Greater interaction is possible than with conventional homework allowing parents to participate in “homework help” that avoid any conflict with manipulating homework. More importantly it avoids the parent having to be an expert in the subject area.

Educational games become “learning in disguise.” The subject areas, developed in games format introduce key elements of the subject as an interactive computer game, bingo, card or board game etc. The learning process is hidden in the fun; 30 minutes playing these games allows a child to practice maths, English, biology or history with the parent in the role of learning mentor. Witnessing a child’s performance dynamically rather than waiting for end of term or year school reports allows more timely adjustments. Ongoing guidance provided by the teacher avoids wasting precious time.

A survey of teachers in 2007 and a government report from the DCSF reveals unanimous support towards greater engagement of parents seen as crucial in the learning programme. With modern educational games toys and puzzles now available parents have the chance to rekindle their effective involvement and make a real difference to their child’s academic achievement.

They say education is a lifelong journey. Difficult to comprehend when you are at school slogging through lessons and exams but learning can be greater fun when turned into an educational game. Take a practical application and apply as many subjects that have been learned in the classroom.

This morning I took a shower, a frequent occurrence I hasten to add, but today I had one of those eureka moments – a tribute perhaps to that other rather more famous bather. Have you ever thought how much science is involved in the process of taking a shower?

To highlight the point I have used the following abbreviations as each topic appeared during my ablutions.

• Biology (B)
• Physics (P)
• Chemistry (C)
• Maths (M)
• Citizenship (City)
• Psychology (Psy)
• Geography (G)
• Geology (Geo)
• English Language (Eng)

The first question to loom up is why we take a shower? The experience is functional in removing body odours created by bacteria, (B) but also physiological as it induces endorphins that help wake you up and make you feel good (Psy) Removal of body odours also makes you a little less undesirable to others nearby ( City).

The water is fed from a header tank under gravity- thanks to Newton (P) – and as I’m a devout wuss, heated. Energy is consumed to heat the water by the conversion of electrical energy into heat P). This is measured in watts, the result of multiplying volts by amperes (M +P).

Responding to marketing persuasion I have been attracted to the delights of a power shower. The increased force (P) boosts the endorphins (B) but unfortunately uses 12 times the amount of water (Geo) than the gravity shower all of which has to be heated (P ) This is draining the natural resources, literally, of water and power causing environmental concerns (forgot to add the code for the environment – that’s an (E). The availability of water depends on geography (G) and the natural storage which locally are aquifers (Geo).

Being male I have a predilection to B.o.g.o.f offers ( buy one get one free) in supermarkets and anything in blue packaging (Psy) The resultant over purchase of needless stock (M) led to a ban by my wife (City)that means all shower products used have her stamp of approval and sensible supply level.

Today’s showering experience was a cornucopia of non blue ingredients. The shampoo promised a “Fruitful Infusion” to produce a “Dazzling Shine” (Eng) from the passion flower, patchouli and vetiver ingredients(B). The conditioner provided “Tangle free hair with uplifted volume” enhancing the dazzle effect by way of a “Citrus lift”(Eng) from tangerine, lemongrass and aloe vera (B) And the rest of the body below the head was in turn subjected to “Serious pampering”(Eng) from fennel (B) and sea mineral (C) based in a silky smooth shower gel (C).

The post shower application of talcum powder, contained talc mineral (C+Geo). The deodorant, promising to maintain a “desert – dry”(Eng) atmosphere under the arms (B +G) from aluminium zirconium trichlorohydrex (C). The aftershave contained alcohol ( C).

In the space of 5 minutes I had consumed 150 litres of water, 4 kilowatts of energy (P), half an alpine meadow of additives, and drained the lot away to the water treatment works where they will use bacteria (B) to break the ingredients free from the water, and off we go again.

Taking a simple shower will seem a lot busier from now on. My shower involved 34 applications of science and learning and a lot of fun to see just how many links with education can exist.

Alistair Owens operates an educational games web site www.keen2learn.co.uk and writes on educational matters for a wide range of publications.

1. Undervalue your ability to help teach them when they go to school. The skill you developed when they were infants; teaching them to walk, talk, ride a bike, learn about colours, numbers etc should be ignored. Leave everything to the teachers now on.
2. Regard school time as the only time children can learn. Lessons are meant to be hard work and not there to be enjoyed.
3. Treat homework as a chore. It has to done, nobody likes doing it and you don’t want to interfere otherwise it could ruin a good row and you’re very busy.
4. Avoid giving your child help in case its spotted or criticised better to regard your knowledge of school lessons as dated and not applicable to modern teaching techniques.
5. Consider kids free time out of school as sacrosanct. Quality time with children cannot possibly be linked with school work.
6. Believe that TV is the sole means of providing educational input relevant to their lessons.
7. Minimise all contact with the teacher. You’ll find our how your child is doing in end of term reports or parents night. Don’t worry if you wasted a term’s opportunity to help before you found out.
8. Don’t believe the hearsay that the biggest drop in your kid’s performance generally happens when they go to secondary or high school. Fingers crossed they’ll keep up.
9. Always buy presents that other kids have got, have been heavily advertised and hold their interest for about a week.
10. Ignore the range of fun interactive Educational Games & Toys at www.keen2learn.co.uk. They’re great fun for kids aged 3-15, matched to the curriculum and help you take a more positive role in their learning.