The online tutoring business has grown by leaps and bounds with the advent of the internet and the arrival of technology. Laptops, tablets, etc have made it easy to get information and disseminate it from the comfort of your home, or café, or anywhere else. Anyone with a thorough knowledge of the field can start a profitable tutoring business from home. To gain the trust of your audience, it is necessary that you create an environment of reliability and professionalism, that is conducive to the liking of students.

Besides the obvious mentioned above, there are also a few other things you need to keep in mind before you venture into the world of online tutoring effectively.

Firstly, you need to have a clear plan in your mind as to what, where, and how. Every business requires an initial investment so budgeting should also be considered. A good marketing strategy can ensure your business will be off to a flying start. Successful businesses begin with successful plans.

Having the best environment to work in is as important as the matter itself. A high-speed internet connection, a good device, and a brightly lit, quiet spot are vital to your class. You may think a simple video call will work, but to create a striking impression and raise the level of service offered, it would prove to be more beneficial to you and your students if you can use tutoring software like Google Classroom or Zoom or Scribblar which have been created for the purpose and will allow you to allocate assignments, check homework and provide reference material for later. Online coding courses now offer a more formalized and structured approach to teaching web development. These courses help enhance coding skills to create games & even build websites. Depending on what skills your child needs to learn you can opt from an array of resources available online. Code Monkey is one such platform that has award-winning courses that teach computer programming to children in a gamified manner. Many schools in Dubai, UAE use this platform to offer an engaging and enjoyable curriculum for schools and after-school clubs and camps. Considering that coding is the future, especially in places like the Middle East and GCC region, it also offers many self-paced, online courses to learn coding at home.

Code Monkey recognizes the tremendous need for coding in a child’s future and provides it in a playful and effective way. Its courses and games ensure that the child’s interest is retained and they return every day to complete their tasks and goals.

Create a social media presence where you can market your business as well as provide lessons to expand credibility. This would also include setting up an online payment gateway for yourself so that payments can be made smoothly with records. Online tutors usually demand charges based on experience, intended subject, and educational qualifications. It would be prudent to do your homework and research on coaching of similar subjects, with the same experience level. Determine an acceptable price and increase it after some time in the work.

Spreading the word through family and friends is the fastest way of marketing and that too the good word. Social media apps such as Facebook or Instagram too can advertise for you at very nominal rates.

Becoming familiar with the necessary requirements as stated above is a must-do since online tutoring is a business that can turn out to be a profitable venture. Your online availability should be prioritized and that will ensure your students feel connected and will say a lot about your work commitment. A sound plan along with a sound work ethic will make you exceptional among others.

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Story time is always fun-time! Children eagerly await their turn in school or at home, when they finally get to listen to stories narrated by their teacher or grandparents. It is much like an unwinding activity after a tiresome day they had studying in school.

Research suggests that most of what we learn in classrooms is not remembered, but a ‘good story’ sticks with the child for a lifetime. Moreover, if the story has a ‘moral’, it helps us learn important lessons. In today’s fast-paced world, we agree that scheduling time to narrate a story can be a tedious task, nonetheless it won’t be a futile exercise. Here are some tips to help you prepare beforehand and make storytelling an absolute pleasurable session for kids.

#1 Create a Conducive Environment

When you walk into a movie theater there is an instant change of ambience which makes you excited about watching it in the first place. In the same way, a storytelling session should be held at a place where the environment is calming, there are no distractions, and the storyteller should stand at a spot which is visible by all children. Place some cushions on the floor to make students comfortably seated in a circle. Dimming the lights and drawing the curtains, further enhances the appeal. Spray some room freshener to enhance the mood of children naturally. Reading Eggs is a great app that makes reading fun for kids. The app captures 3,000 digital stories and is widely used in the UAE across the Middle East regions.

#2 Keep Objects and Props Ready

Using props in storytelling can really enrich the entire session, as children feel more involved in the process. Their imagination is fueled by seeing an actual prop and they further make strong connections with the scenes, thanks to a tangible puppet before them. Props can be anything like; a sock puppet, flower, maps, etc. basically anything that is related to the story. For example; in the story ‘lion & the mouse’ one can arrange props such as; a net where the lion gets trapped, minifigures of lion & mouse, a make-do paper den for the lion to sleep, a few trees to represent the jungle, and hunter clothes to indicate the hunting scene. With props, your story comes to life and children are able to better visualize the plot, rather than seeing 2D printed pictures from the story book. For vocabulary enrichment, the Reading Eggs app takes it a step further by showcasing phonics lessons in all its 120 modules. To download the Reading Eggs platform for your region in GCC or Dubai, visit our website https://knowledge-hub.com/

#3 Memorize the Story Well

This is a tough one! Remembering the whole story line-to-line may require little skill and memorization power. A simple tip here is to read the story twice or thrice and then imagine or visualize it happening in your mind scene by scene. Think of what is the most important part of the story and pay greater emphasis to it, rather than focusing on the smaller details. For example; the old man opened the door and shouted help! Help! Is a more important fact linked to the story, rather than focusing on things like; the garden was in its full bloom that day and the boy took one step at a time to get to the park. Though every little detail is important, just try to pay little more attention to the main parts. Writing down the plot scene by scene is a great exercise that most ‘theater personalities’ and ‘actors’ follow.

#4 Know when to use Voice Modulation and Expressions

Now that you know the plot and kind-of are confident with the wordings, the next step is to act it out. Kids won’t get excited by a flat narration, they like drama, action, enaction. Voice modulation makes simple words turn into articulated modules. It draws emphasis on certain ‘phrases’ such that the story doesn’t sound too dull or boring. A good storyteller does his research and knows how to imbibe the character within himself. For example; the sound of an evil witch is screechy and loud, while to enact a poor peasant you would use a soft-spoken tone. You should also focus on when to speak slowly with emphasis on every word and when to speak fast, depending on your storyline. Similarly showing the right facial expression & body gestures is a great plus point. However, don’t forget to sustain that eye contact with your children.

#5 Time the Story

All good things have to come to an end! While practicing in the mirror, time your act so that you don’t go overboard on the main day. If you are allocated a 20 minutes time-slot, add a buffer of +/- 10 minutes, but don’t exceed it. Also, remember to leave some time for questions, as children get super excited to know more about their favorite character from the story and ask questions related to him/her. Structure your story well, because it shouldn’t be that you are rushing at the time of conclusion, just because you spent too much time in narrating the introduction.

Finally, wear your most precious gift, a smile, and present yourself before your tiny audiences with confidence.

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What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when we say ‘coding’? Well, most of us are under the impression that coding is a set of complex sentences that the computer understands, thereby giving us the final input, which could be; an app, a computer application, or a robot. In the past few decades, coding is picking up pace and so much so it has become a part of our school’s regular curriculum, especially in Institutes across Dubai and other developed Middle East regions. Love to code, or have to code by compulsion, whatever the reason is, here are some cool facts that every enthusiastic coder needs to know.

#1 Coding Has Over 700 Languages

Did you know there are about 7100 languages in the world! And if you feel coding is only about Python and Java, think again! Coding has over 700 languages in use today. Woh! The most common ones are very widely used and talked about, but there are languages such as; GO, Kotlin, R, and Swift, which exist, but lesser known & used.

#2 Where did the name Coding Bugs come about?

A ‘bug’ is commonly referred to as an error that causes the computer program to crash or function in a funny manner! Bugs can affect the performance of the codes that were curated and in-turn create havoc in the software. On an average it is normal to have around 15 and 50 bugs per 1000 lines of delivered code. But hey are these bugs actual insects? Where did it get its name from? In 1946, Grace Hoper joined the Harvard Faculty where she worked on Mark II and Mark III systems. One day she traced an error in Mark II due to a ‘moth’ trapped in relay and carefully took it off and stuck it into her log book. Since that day, the term bugs got associated with an error. Very interesting indeed!

#3 The Birth of Java Language

Another amazing fact, Java language was initially termed as ‘Oak’! This is because, James Gosling named it after an ‘oak tree’ that stood outside his office, when he programmed the language in 1989 for Sun Microsystems. Later it was renamed as Java, based on the Java coffee machine in Indonesia. Developers use Java to construct apps in the laptop, gaming consoles, and pack phones with the latest software to make them more efficient. Apps such as Code Monkey, are excellent platforms that support the child’s coding journey and make it interesting. Today, children of age 4 and above are performing wonders, with the CodeMonkey platform.

#4 Computer Virus called Creeper

The Covid-19 virus had us all in a panic and we have seen how it took-over our lives. Similarly, a computer virus spreads by inserting its own faulty code and then spreading from one network to another. If you want to learn more about computer viruses, pick up this book by John von Neumann in 1949 – ‘Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata’. The world’s first replicating computer virus was produced in 1971, but it didn’t have any malicious intentions, though a message popped-up which read as follows; “I’M THE CREEPER; CATCH ME IF YOU CAN”.

#5 Coding played a Role in World War II

Here’s one example where coding was used for the wrong reasons! Early during World War II, the Nazi troops sent secret encoded communications that had devastating effects. Britain collected a team of mathematicians and engineers to develop machines that would crack German codes. It was called; Colossus, an electronic code-breaking computer that remained classified until the 1970s. The person responsible for this was an English computer scientist, Alan Turing, who deciphered Nazis’ code machine ENIGMA with cryptologic and mathematical skills.

#6 World’s First Computer Programmer was Female

Ada Lovelace was born in London in December 10, 1815 and is the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron. She was an extremely talented mathematician and worked with Charles Babbage to design the earliest mechanical computer. From there on the coding journey started, by writing the first algorithm.

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Did you know that around 250 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube every single day? It’s not uncommon to get addicted to streaming video content on your smartphones and tabs all through the day. The more you start consuming digital content, the more it becomes a habit and there is no turning back from there!

The video advertising business has boomed manifold and marketers find it to be a feasible option to invest in digital commercials, rather than go for traditional TV Ads. The simple reason is that digital medium is economical, and the viewership is vast, running into millions of users, as compared to the super expensive TV or radio Ads.

In order to run successful online campaigns, the key ingredient is to be creative. Out-of-the-box ideas have a direct impact on ROI, sales, and the much-talked-about viewer engagement ratio. However, that doesn’t mean brands have to pay a hefty salary to hire video editors and UX designers. Nowadays there are platforms available that make it easy to edit content through numerous ‘video maker’ apps even though you have no formal background in video making. Here are a few tips that can help you get started;

#1 Length of the Video

Every time you watch a video on YouTube there is an Advertisement that pops up compelling you to watch it until viewers are given the option to click on the ‘skip’ button. Most of these videos are long and irrelevant to us, so immediately skipping them is the most viable plan of action. As a brand, it would hurt to not have your audience at least give a good glance to the content. According to research, the ideal length of the Ads should therefore be only 15 to 30 seconds, because short & crisp messaging is in vogue and here to stay

#2 Meaningful Storytelling

Is it really possible to tell a story and get the message across in a mere 30-second video? Well, the answer is yes! There is just about enough time for brands to elicit an emotion from their viewers through intriguing scenes and a thought-provoking storyboard. The idea is to sell the brand proposition or product to a completely new audience while entertaining him. However, remember not to go overboard and make the commercial too complex, or your viewers will miss the key points, and fail to understand the gist. Feel free to experiment with animations, background music, narrations, and frames, to get the best shot out of your commercial.

#3 Use Call To Action

When your beautiful video campaign is about to conclude, don’t just leave your audience empty-handed. There needs to be a call to action (CTA) button which prompts the users to actually take the next step, whether it is visiting a landing page or watching similar videos. The most common CTAs are; book a call, get a product demo, sign-up for our webinar, etc. If the person has clicked on the landing page link, make sure it navigates them to the product/service page that they wish to purchase or avail of. This could lead to a potential immediate sale and create a win-win for both parties.

TechnoCommercial by TechnoKids

TechnoKids as we know is a very interesting computer-based curriculum specially curated for schools that encourage tech literacy. This platform is widely appreciated and accepted by schools in Dubai and also other Middle East regions. Their learning modules are pretty fun to practice and cover a vast range of topics that are relevant to 21st-century learners. Now coming back to video commercials, the TechnoCommercial module is precisely formulated to get Middle School kids acquainted with the process of curating commercial videos. The moderator will encourage students to use Blender, an online computer graphics software tool to teach video production techniques, without the need to purchase any additional fancy video editing software. Imagine your little ones making their very first video commercial using TechnoCommercial and presenting their vision of marketing & advertising strategies to the class. In such a manner, students across UAE and GCC regions are encouraged to become digitally savvy and gain some confidence, even before they enter the real world.

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Before students learn about numbers and the order of counting from 1 to 100, they first learn the basics of matching and sorting. These two concepts are the very basic foundation for developing cognitive capabilities in students. As we delve further into the topic, let us know what visual discrimination means.

What Is Visual Discrimination & why Is it important?

Visual discrimination is a term used that gives the child the ability to detect differences in objects, shapes, patterns, and symbols. In everyday life, children are exposed to so many things around them and sometimes these objects are absolutely new to them, as they are seeing them for the very first time. Our eyes see the object and our brain compartmentalizes them and makes meaning out of what the eyes see. It is thus important for children to learn and distinguish objects based on color, shape, appearance, and size so that they can identify & relate to what they are observing around them.

Matching

Matching means describing things that are of the same design, color, shape, etc. Basically, objects that are identical or alike, are said to form a match.

• Learning matching skills in preschool-grade will help kids to match the real object with the printed image. For example, there are flashcards of fruits lined up and there is a basket of real fruits. So, the child places the real mango on the flashcard that has a mango picture printed. In this way, they learn to form an association and also develop better memory of what a mango looks like.
• As a part of sensory play, students are often asked to match bottles that make the same sound. For example; there are a set of bottles lined up and each one is filled with different objects like; seeds, stones, grains, sand, etc. The same set of objects is repeated twice in different shakers, and now the student has to shake the bottles, listen to the sound, and match or pair the bottles that sound similar. This improves concentration skills and toddlers feel more confident about themselves.
• Matching helps students identify letters and numbers, as they go on to pair, A to A and Z to Z, in a more organized fashion. For slightly older students, increase the level of difficulty by giving them words to match, cat, bat, mat, etc.
• Most schools in Dubai and other Middle East regions rely on phonics, where students need to learn the ‘sounds’ of the letters. Matching games can be played with this concept as well. Show the student the sound /r/ and ask them to match an object which begins with /r/. So, matching ‘rag’, ‘rope’, and ‘rose’ to the/r/ sound is what is expected to be done by the child.

As an adult, you can encourage matching games setting the right environment, and keeping resources easily available around the classroom. Make sure kids choose a quiet spot and are not distracted when they are practicing matching activities. Another tip is to produce clear printouts of objects and letters so that it is easily visible and can be matched seamlessly.

Sorting

Sorting is basically arranging information or objects in a particular fashion, as advised by the teacher. The idea is to make the data more organized so that one can easily analyze it and comprehend the meaning of the input. By practicing this, kids can learn to group objects into different categories and then speak about the similarities of the objects within the category.

• One of the most basic forms of sorting is, to bifurcate things according to their colors. So, if there are 10 objects some of the red color and some blue color, children need to correctly identify and make two piles with the respective representations. This activity proves that the child is on the right path and can process information available before him or her.
• For mature learners, sorting can be introduced to arrange numbers in ascending & descending order. For this, one needs to know forward counting & backward counting and be able to arrange the numbers accordingly.
• Sorting as per textures is another interesting game for preschoolers. Present to children a number of different papers or materials that are; soft, bumpy, smooth, silky, rough, etc., and allow them to match the same type of surfaces together. Along with learning the characteristics of similar objects, notice that your child will also be learning what’s the difference among these. For example, a silky cloth seems very smooth and even slips from your hand, while sandpaper will feed very rough and can hurt your palms.

There are numerous puzzles, worksheets, and even mobile apps that offer sorting games for students to practice.

The Mathseeds platform available in GCC and UAE regions has become a popular Math tool for kids of 3-9 years. Their lesson plans are specially designed by expert educators to target learning in a fun manner and reinforce important Math concepts learned in school. To download the Mathseeds app, simply visit https://knowledge-hub.com/

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