Suggested Activies

Suggested Activities Stress Management Practice relaxation techniques with the learners. Start with the Breathing, then the Muscle Relaxation, and finally the Imagery exercise. Ask the learners to fill out the worksheet about how they felt afterwards. Learning in Class Have the learners practice preparing their minds for class. Write a topic on the board (e.g. the human digestive system, projectile motion, similes) and have the learners think of what they expect to learn during this “class” and what questions they expect to have answered. After 5 minutes, have the learners share their thoughts. *Exam Writing Tips Have an exam prepared beforehand that is appropriate to the grade level and program of study of the learners. Since you will be handing them out, there should be enough copies for each learner in the class. Ideal Learning Environment Have the students experience a bad learning environment and a good learning environment. Set up both environments (“bad” can have loud music playing, people trying to talk to them, little light, etc. while “good” can be quiet and comfortable with good lighting) and have the students do a short math quiz with a time limit in both environments. Compare their scores and see how much easier it was to concentrate in the good learning environment. *Prioritizing Tell the story to the learners. It would be great to illustrate your point with a clear container and some stones, pebbles, sand, and water. One day, an old professor walked into his classroom and said, “we are going to conduct an experiment”. From under the table the professor pulled out a big glass jar and gently placed it in front of him. Next, he pulled out from under the table a bag of stones, each the size of a tennis ball, and placed the stones one by one in the jar. He did so until there was no room to add another stone in the jar. Lifting his gaze to the students, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?” The students replied, “Yes”.

The professor paused for a moment, and replied, “Really?” Once again, he reached under the table and pulled out a bag full of pebbles. Carefully, the professor poured the pebbles in and slightly rattled the jar, allowing the pebbles to slip through the larger stones, until they settled at the bottom. Again, the professor lifted his gaze to his audience and asked, “Is the jar full?” At this point, the managers began to understand his intentions. One replied, “Apparently not!” “Correct,” replied the old professor, now pulling out a bag of sand from under the table. Cautiously, the professor poured the sand into the jar. The sand filled up the spaces between the stones and the pebbles. Yet again, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?” Without hesitation, the entire group of students replied in unison, “NO!” “Correct”, replied the professor. The professor reached for the pitcher of water that was on the table, and poured water in the jar until it was absolutely full. The professor now lifted his gaze once again and asked, “What can we learn from this experiment?” One student quickly replied, “We learn that as full as our schedules may appear, if we only increase our effort, it is always possible to add more meetings and tasks.” “No”, replied the professor. “The great truth that we can conclude from this experiment is: If we don’t put all the larger stones in the jar first, we will never be able to fit all of them later.” Memory Split the learners into five groups and assign each group a memorization strategy to use (acronym, acrostic, rhyme-key, method of loci, and chaining). Have each group then memorize the following list using their strategy. 1. Doctor

2. Apple

3. Soccer

4. Table

6. Cellphone

7.Boerew ors

8. Puppy

9. Flower

*Index Cards

5. Rainbow 10. Earth

To help the learners practice making index cards, find a lesson that is appropriate for the learners (ideally it is something you are planning to teach the learners soon or maybe something in their textbooks). Pass out five index cards to each learner and help them make appropriate index cards.