0649075750
info@skywardtutors.co.za
The world has changed drastically. As development has increased, competition has too. This means that school isn’t what it was. Students of today are often faced with extreme pressure. School results are not just results and most often, students use these marks as an indicator of their intelligence and their future.
Students are faced with so many challenges. They need to do well in school, however they can’t just be academic achievers. They need to be all-rounders. The balance between the sports field, cultural sphere and academic commitments is extremely difficult and often leaves students feeling overwhelmed and incapable.
As a tutor, I have seen the impacts of anxiety on academics first-hand. The anxiety is fierce and often leaves students feeling incompetent and frazzled. Their confidence gets knocked, making it even harder for them to achieve the goals they have the potential to achieve.
I will be sharing a few tips that both my students and I have practiced and found beneficial.
This one may seem a bit obvious but is a tip that makes a world of a difference. Weekly schedules that include assessments, assignments, extra-murals, and social commitments helps students prioritise and organise. When you can see the list of tasks in front of you, it makes a busy week a lot less daunting. Practicing effective scheduling means that students can pace themselves and schedule in time to rest and recharge their batteries- all while completing weekly tasks.
This is a very important part to managing anxiety. It is important that students know when to stop. Getting the required amount of sleep enables students to work at their optimal level. Whilst many students believe studying all night will help them in a test or exam, it often does not as the brain is not as rested as it needs to be. It is important for students to develop boundaries and know when to stop and when to take rest.
To parents and those out of school, we can understand why this is an important component to managing anxiety. When you have the right foods in your system, your body is better equipped to handle and overcome stress. Eating regular meals and drinking plenty of water is important and should be taken seriously. Foods that are naturally rich in magnesium assist in reducing anxiety levels. This includes leafy greens- like spinach, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
This is not an exhaustive list of solutions to managing anxiety, but it includes the key components to achieving balance. It is important that we provide as much support and guidance to students during these stressful times. Students should learn to manage their anxiety themselves, but it is important that they are reassured of their capabilities and your support.
Our world is so vast and unique that there are constantly new things to learn and discover. The journey of education is a journey that never ends because there will always be something that we don’t know.
I was taught from a young age that we as people have the privilege of being life-long learners. Many people choose to abandon learning when they’ve completed school or even university, but even if we don’t acknowledge it, we are constantly expanding our knowledge each and every day. The importance of being curious and hungry to learn has been instilled in me and knowledge was more accessible to me because I was raised in an English-speaking household. I think that it is generally accepted that English is the ultimate language of communication in today’s world and subsequently most media, film, literature and research amongst other things are all published in English. This was a fact that was not obvious to me but was rather just a norm, and I especially did not have to take notice of this because my first language was English. When my horizons started expanding and the people that I surrounded myself with started diversifying, I realised just how privileged I am to be able to learn from information written in my home language.
The benefits of learning in one’s Mother Tongue has been researched in schools and it has been found that children learn more effectively when taught in their home language. The studies conducted about bilingual/multilingual education have shown that most children in South Africa whose first language is not English are only exposed to the language when they start school. Although it is easier for a child to learn a new language as compared to an adult, having to learn in a completely new language can be extremely daunting and difficult for a young child. As a result of the language barrier, a lot of children struggle academically not due to their abilities but rather the fact that they have to learn a new concept whilst also trying to grasp a new form of communication. To try alleviate this problem, some South African businesses like Cadbury are trying to publish more educational and fictional books languages of the country like Xhosa and Tshivenda to make literature more accessible for young learners.
The moment that I truly realised the extent of this issue was when I had the task of interviewing one of our tutors. One of the questions that we ask all applicants is how they would make a student feel confident in their abilities. This question usually stumps a lot of people, but this particular applicant answered this question so brilliantly that I was inspired to write the article that I am writing now. She went on to explain that children are most comfortable in informal settings where they don’t feel pressure to speak formally or even feel pressure to speak a language other than their mother tongue. When she mentioned the safety and comfortability of speaking in one’s own language, I realised just how much a child could possibly struggle with a subject based on not their academic abilities but rather the mere fact that the information they have to learn is written in their second or third language. This tutor went on to answer the question by saying that she would make a student feel more confident in their academic abilities by teaching/tutoring them in their mother tongue. As simple a method as teaching a child content in their own language may seem, the impact is astounding and I have not looked at the education system the same since I conducted this interview.
Our brain is one of the most complex organs in our body and also one of the most vital. For millennia, humans have done various tests, experiments and studies on the brain, both scientifically and psychologically, but we will never truly be able to understand everything about this complicated part of our body.
One of the most fascinating aspects about that I find about the brain is how it is made up of multiple parts that all work together, but at the same time are also all so different. I am not speaking of the parts of the brain like the cerebellum or the hippocampus, but rather the two hemispheres of our brain. We have a left hemisphere and right hemisphere and they have polarising functions. People often speak of left-brained and right-brained people, and how the different types have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, a person that is analytical and more maths and science orientated are dominantly left-brained, whereas dominantly right-brained people tend to possess more creativity and are more emotional. Even though a person could use one side of their brain more, this doesn’t mean that the other hemisphere is completely neglected.
One of the first explanations of the functions of the brain I heard about was from my piano teacher. She was explaining to me how the ability to read music and play a musical instrument utilises both hemispheres of your brain. I was a bit confused at first because I knew that music needed creativity and expression, and so I thought that the right hemisphere of our brain would be more dominantly used in this case. What I learnt is that both hemispheres are working simultaneously; the right side working on expressing the emotions of music and using creativity to create new music, and the left side is working on reading the notes on sheet music and duration of the notes and tempo of the piece. This information led me to realise how much multitasking playing a musical instrument actually takes and why it can be difficult to learn. I believed that it was an escape from the everyday tasks, but playing and learning music was actually taking up more brainpower than I expected.
My realisation about the hemispheres of the brain and music led me to do more research about what activities use both hemispheres of our brain. I came across various articles and essays debunking the theory of the hemispheres being dominantly used for analytics on one side and creativity on the other. It was argued that both hemispheres of our brains are utilised everyday and being labeled as a ‘dominantly right-brained’ or ‘dominantly left-brained’ person is inaccurate. This new information went out to say that our personalities do not directly correlate to our brain hemisphere functions and which side is more dominant because scientifically both sides are working together at all times. This idea about left and right brain domination was most likely theorised by a psychologist of some sort because it was a way to categorise people based on their personalities and strengths/weaknesses.
I still buy in to the theory about left and right brain domination because I think that the idea of each side having different functions would explain why some people would be better at maths and science and others that are able to create and make art. I do still think that there are a number of different tasks that require both hemispheres to work in conjunction with each other, but sometimes one side might be enough to manage. The brain is a powerful and complex organ, but we will never truly know everything about it which makes learning all the more wonderful.
By Nerissa Govender
When I was in school my mom made every effort to provide a wholesome lunch box for my sisters and I every single day. She would always pack a main meal, fruit, yogurt, nuts, and a tasty treat. Now that I am working (and have to pack my own lunch), I realise how privileged I was. Not only did I get 30 more minutes of sleep, but I had a balanced, delicious meal that was ready to go.
My mom has always emphasised the value of a well-balanced lunch box and that having too much food was always better than having too little. She gave us every tool we needed to have a successful day at school and one of those tools were food.
When we are overwhelmed by the daily chores of our lives we often neglect our personal needs. I often hear my colleagues, students and friends telling me that they “forgot” to eat a meal. It is absolutely bizarre to me because I know how valuable it is to eat the right foods – they carry you through difficult days and gives you the fuel to keep your body healthy and functioning.
In this article I will be exploring the different vitamins, minerals, and foods you can use to help your mind and body stay sharp and feel good. This list is not just applicable to students, but to anyone wishing to create healthy routines and support their mind and body.
Let’s start with vitamins and minerals. According to womensbrainhealth.org, vitamins B1 (Thiamine) and B9 (Folic acid) are important vitamins which play vital roles in the maintenance of nerve tissue within our brains. Vitamin C, commonly found in citrus, is important in the synthesis of dopamine (assisting with memory, learning and concentration). Essential minerals include calcium and magnesium. Calcium acts as a nerve cell messenger whilst magnesium acts as an essential support to any other vitamin (i.e., taking magnesium with other vitamins elevates the benefits).
Healthline.com has identified a few essential fruits, foods and vegetables which boost mental performance. Berries are known to be high in flavonoids (possess anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties) which increases blood flow to the brain, making the nerve pathways in the brain more efficient. Citrus fruits, similarly, contain high levels of flavonoids. These compounds promote learning and memory and protect nerve cells from injury. Drinking citrus fruit juice may promote mental health performance by increasing blood flow to the brain. Lastly, cocoa products (like chocolate), has the highest flavonoid content by weight compared to any other food.
Cocoa intake can improve memory, blood flow to the brain and reduce mental fatigue.
As I previously mentioned, this list is not exhaustive, so I will leave the links below for you to do a little more digging. If you take anything from this article, let it be the value of your lunchbox at work or at school. Swopping out a packet of sweets with a handful of blueberries may make the world of a difference. Support your brain and body with the right tools and watch what a difference it makes.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/brain-food-for-studying#3.-Dark-chocolate-and-cocoa-products