Category: Education

POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING

Positive thinking is a word we have heard several times and we always advice others to think positive. If someone is upset or worried very lovingly we put our arm across their shoulders and ask to think positive. It is a word we believe in and want to live in. But have we ever thought what is positive thinking?

What is Positive thinking?

Positive thinking is a mental attitude in which you expect good and favourable results. It is the process of creating thoughts that create and transform energy into reality. A positive mind waits for happiness, health and a happy ending in every situation.

So the question now arises why we feel negative or are negative thoughts wrong?

The answer to this question is that like positive thoughts a person may get negative thoughts too. It is a natural process. Being negative for a minute is not wrong as it is natural but being negative all the time is wrong because it gives you mental stress as well as distracts you from your goal.

What are Negative Thoughts?

Negative thoughts can be in the form of fear or worry. Blaming or belittling someone, feeling jealous, comparing with someone, feeling hurt about what someone said, feeling resentful about someone all comes under negative thoughts. So any thought which disturbs your state of mind, makes you feel uncomfortable is negative thought.

Now if being negative is not at all good for health so how to stay positive every time? Here are the few tips I have mentioned which will definitely help you to stay positive.

Tips to stay Positive –

1) Don’t take other people’s negativity personally.

2) Use positive words while talking.

3) Accept yourself the way you are.

4) Always think one day you will achieve your goal.

5) Think failure is an opportunity.

6) Try to smile in every situation.

7) Try to forgive people.

8) Change the way you think.

9) Always focus on solutions rather than getting into problems.

10) Love whoever is around to be loved.

11) Try to spread happiness around yourself

12) Be the positivity you want to see in the world.

13) Spend more time with positive people.

14) Meditate for 10 minutes every day.

15) Follow your passion.

Benefits of staying positive –

1) It reduces stress.

2) Increases our Confidence.

3) Helps to focus on our goal.

4) Helps to make more friends.

5) Helps to live a longer life.

6) Improves our management skills.

7) Improves our decision making power.

These were the tips and benefits of staying positive.

We need to learn to subtract negativity from our life. Every time you subtract negative from your life, you make new room for more positivity. People who are able to discern the positive points in negative situations are the one’s who prosper in long run. So defend yourself against the ‘ negative way’ and make room for a positive day. Realise that life is a series of ups and downs. Concentrate on today. Let go and move on when you must.

Don’t forget –

“What you live today is the result of your yesterday’s thoughts, and what you will live tomorrow is the result of your today’s thoughts. ”

Let’s Talk About It

The silent killer, the grave murderer often unspoken of while it rages wild and uncaged amongst the generation of today. Depression severely affects the mental health and well being of a person. It sprouts from umpteen reasons and some sadly succumb to it. Ranging from young children to senior citizens, this deathly killer affects all.

Depression doesn’t discriminate between the rich and the poor or the gender of a person or their sexual orientation. It affects all. Some manage to escape from free-falling into the hollow abyss of their mind whilst some are compelled into submission. Recently we have seen a spike in the number of suicides taking place around the globe. Some ask for help and are unheard while some fail to reach out for help.

Schools have recognised the need to have counsellors to guide students at the grassroots level with exclusive one on one private sessions. This is an initiative toward helping students manage the syllabus pressure and to help them overcome any personal issue which may be bothering them silently. It is noticed that students often fail to open up to their family members and thus counsellors readily available in schools help the students weed out any trouble which might later spring into a major issue.

Getting bullied, scoring poor marks, low self-esteem, being scolded and mistreated are just a few of the innumerable reasons as to why children suffer from depression from a tender age. Often such issues are not addressed and they lie dormant and appear again in bouts in adulthood when they encounter or are subjected to similar distressing situations.

Depression affects people of all ages. Popular celebrities like Chester Bennington, Tim Bergling took their own lives not long ago. An incredible fan following and riches beyond anyone’s imagination couldn’t stop them from taking their lives. What most people should realise is that money and material wealth cannot feed the mind. One can be surrounded by a lot of people and still feel that he or she is all alone. Depression is a battle of the mind and there are several symptoms which should be recognised as warning signs.

1) Wanting to stay aloof from everyone and not wanting companionship.
2) Drastic increase or loss of appetite.
3) Disturbed sleep.
4) Suicidal thoughts.
These are a few of the warning signs of depression.

There are several helplines available in each country where people assist the one’s seeking help. Universities and Colleges across India have set up a students helpline during this lockdown period where students can interact and discuss their problems with professionals. Being cooped up in their home for months is starting to take a toll on everyone with domestic issues/abuse being reported at various helplines. People are frustrated and are taking it out on their family members. The uncertain future and unemployment have led to increased people seeking guidance at the various helplines.
According to a paper published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), one in every seven people suffers from a mental disorder. People should be encouraged to open up and seek help when required to do so. Depression is a silent killer that snakes up, messing up one’s lifestyle and sometimes even ending it.





Commercialization of Education

Back in the 90s, getting 60 percent on your boards meant having a party in the whole neighborhood; it was a celebration. Today, even 95 percent is not enough to secure your admission in the college and course of your choice. So, what changed during all these years? Not the NCERTs for sure.

India is fast becoming a country where education is just another commodity. With everyone obsessing over education and paying any amount of money to get the best, the real essence of education has been devalued. It is no longer a noble cause; it is a mere means for people to earn a profit, to scam others into paying for a basic necessity.

To educate someone means to impart that person the knowledge so that he or she can survive in society. But the commercialization of education has turned almost every institution into a business or a money-making factory, charging huge amounts for all the facilities that they provide. And the sad part of it all is that these facilities aren’t even required most of the time.

Today, every nook and corner has a new coaching institute being run by someone who is not even a professional of the field they are teaching or tutoring students in. As a result, most of the students going from schools to colleges are not using any prior knowledge from their formative years. Furthermore, the students passing out of colleges are not ready to be employed right away. Yet they are being employed, many even as teachers. A teacher is a pillar of a child’s future, but what will happen if the teacher himself fails to build a strong foundation for his student’s life?

Another important parameter for quality education is having the right infrastructure. The environment of the place where you send your child to study matters a lot. As a student, it is important to keep in mind that nurture plays a huge role in the development of our minds and the correct environment is the first step towards nurturing the feeling of learning in our minds. Schools and colleges are spending way more on advertising their institutions and finding prospective customers in the name of students rather than spending that same money on improving the infrastructure and the facilities available for the students. The parents are falling prey to these lucrative ads, readily paying a huge amount of money to get their ward into the said institution, without even realizing that their hard-earned money will be used to catch other prey. Basically, they are being cheated in the name of education.

Instead of being the solution to a problem, education itself is becoming more of a problem. Even though the education industry is rising, it is lagging behind in fulfilling its social responsibility towards the society.

The education system has to improve, thereby improving the meaning of education. Providing education should no longer equate to just paying the fees. The youth has to be provided with quality education and the whole society has to work together to convey this message to the world.

Image Courtesy: Google

How to Control Your Brain to Stay Positive

Positivity is very important for everyone. It is the way through which you can make life worthy. Positivity is important for an individual’s personality development. It makes you attractive and more confident lifestyle.

Now the question arises, how to stay positive throughout life. So the answer is here, stay in positivity is not a big task. It is all about our thought. What are we thinking? What are the thoughts going into your mind? How do you imagine the world? How you tolerate with any types of situation? How and what we command to our senses?
Our mind is a factory where thoughts are manufacture every time every moment. And our Positive and Negative thoughts are two employees. They manufacture two thoughts. First one is positive thoughts and the second one is negative thoughts. Our mind works on the principle of GIGO, garbage in garbage out, if we put positive garbage inside our brain then our mental appearance should be positive but if we put negative thoughts into our mind then our mental appearance should be negative. Positive employee command to manufacture positive thought whereas negative employee command to manufacture negative thought.

So here we all get how our mind works!! Now next step is that how would you allow your employee to work more effectively. If you want that Positive works more effectively than Negative then you should motivate him to do so. You have to focus more attentively. It is just like the corporate field. If you want to more profit, you need more attention to your weak bone. Positive and Negative employees both work based on our five senses that are eyes, nose, ear, tongue and skin. You need to control all these senses. Because you know that our mind works over the principle of GIGO. You have to manufacture only positive thought only. To manufacture positive thought, you have to command all senses smartly. You should not allow them to watch, hear, speak, smell or touch negative things, not allow to do negative work.

It is all tends to the development of negative thoughts. This is the only way through which you can stop manufacturing of negative thought.

Now we discuss how to control our senses to do so. This can be done through mental treatment. Yoga and meditation are the most famous and it is the only way through which you can avoid and control your senses to do any worst or negative work. Our mind and body both depend on each other. Life is all about balance. Therefore, you have to keep an essential balance for their endorsement. If you do not focus over your body including your senses then negative work will be there which tends to again production of negative thought. And if you will not focus on your brain then again it is similar to active work of negativity and again which tends to the production of negative thought.

The balance between mind and body is most important to keep your personality positive. Manufacturing of thoughts depends on our activity which is commanded by our employee. Your focus will decide activeness of your employee and your employee will decide the growth of factory in the negative or positive side.

textbooks – a barrier for learning

Learning can be the best process of acquiring knowledge, behaviour, skills and attitudes. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event like being burned by a hot stove, but much skill and knowledge accumulates from repeated experiences. Human learning starts at birth and continues until death.
There are several modes of learning. One such is textbook, which often gives the knowledge in a theoretical manner. Some of the recent researches have shown that textbooks alone cannot judge a student. Every human has a talent, but the main problem arises in analyzing it.
Students can also gain knowledge in several ways. One of them is sciensation. It conveys the excitement of doing researches through puzzles, quizzes, lectures and events. By using this methodologies students can gain knowledge with less efforts and also with less usage of textbooks. This process also insist the students not to believe the information blindly. For example, We always follow the learning that “Pronouns are those which are pointing the nouns”.In some cases, there is a repetition of a particular name which leads to confusion. Hence in order to clarify that confusion some other name can be used which are mentioned to be pronouns.
Sometimes while reading a book, it is mentioned that “point to the before paragraph” but why not the same paragraph? It always promote thinking and also check your connection with that matter. The main part of learning is the process of documentation which gives out the complete detail of your learning.
Similarly, the knowledge can also be gained by reading books, listening to several lectures of good, medium, bad teachers for analyzing the difference between them. Brainstorming the textbooks,listing keywords can also increase your knowledge. By gaining knowledge of different domains, we can easily flush our assumptions and dispositions.
While learning or teaching, you should be crisp in the concept which will make you the best. Similarly while attending an interview, you should always provide the best answer relevant to the question asked, which will increase your chance of being hired. One should never think about their co-applicants. The process of acting smart by noticing the co-applicants always lower your chance of being hired. Because the interviewer always notices your actions and identify whether you are really smart or you are trying to act smart.

As said before anyone can learn anything. Learning is always based on their knowledge and skills. Students who did not learn their textbooks have become a great person in their life. Similarly , Students who learn their textbooks have not achieved anything big in their life.

As mentioned in my previous writing Skills are always different from education. The students who gain the knowledge along with the skills correctly can achieve anything in their life. But when they did not learn it in correct manner like understanding but mug up can lead them to a state of not achieving.

As shown in the learning pyramid, when a student get their skills as mentioned above are named as a good learner with good skills and also good knowledge. Whenever a student clear his/her doubt at instant, then the individual can utilize their knowledge to any extent.

One India, One Education Board?

CBSE or ICSE or IGCSE or IB or State Board - The right choice ?

Over the past few years, a number of education boards have come up in India, each with its own syllabus and grading system. This has happened because education falls in the tertiary list and is the shared responsibility of the centre as well as of the states. CBSE, CISCE and NIOH are the central boards with CBSE having the maximum number of affiliated schools. There are various state boards like Bihar and UP Board, Kerala Boards, Assam Boards and many others. Some of the top schools in India are also affiliated to international boards like IB and Cambridge International.

All these education boards have their own pros and cons. While one can argue that the syllabus for sciences are more or less the same, it differs a lot when it comes to social sciences and literature. State boards give more preference to vernacular languages and local history whereas the central and international boards have fondness towards English and other foreign languages. The history taught in CBSE focuses on pan India topics like freedom struggle, ancient empires, world wars etc. India is a diverse country with an equally diverse population and this justifies the existence of so many education boards. However the problem arises when students from all these boards apply for higher education in colleges of universities like the Delhi University.

Delhi University has cutoffs for admissions into most of the streams from English to Journalism. These cutoffs are based on marks scored by a student in their respective board exams. Bihar and UP boards are difficult and have stricter marking scheme as compared to CBSE or Kerala Board. ICSE board is tougher still. So, a student scoring 98% in CBSE might have the same aptitude as a student scoring 82% in Bihar board. The one scoring 98% will clear the high cutoffs of the colleges of Delhi University. An inequality also exists within the boards, as students from state boards are considered inept as compared to students coming from ICSE or CBSE. Parents are also confused and often feel pressurized to send their kids to CBSE or ICSE affiliated school, assuming that these schools provide better education. The rich can easily afford these schools but the poor cannot, resulting in further deepening of the inequalities. So even education has not remained the great leveler that it once was.

It is high time that the governments, intellectuals, teachers and civil societies come together and brainstorm ideas so that they can come up with a solution for all these issues. Let’s hope that the draft National Education Policy 2019 recognizes and addresses these concerns.

THE E-WAY

Like an endless loop of strings, E-learning opens up multiple avenues for the students to choose from the comfort of their homes. Through E-Learning students in India can do varied courses offered by Harvard University ranging from a programming course such as CS50’s Introduction to Game Development to a social sciences course such as American Government: Constitutional Foundations.
Universities and their invaluable courses continents away can be accessed easily without the unnecessary hassle of the physical presence in the classroom.

E-Learning has brought varied courses around the globe in the comfort of one’s own house. E-learning has been successful in bridging the quality of education that one can access in the developing nations. It is a more economical and appeasing form of education in world crises such as the raging Covid-19 pandemic. It has ensured the unhindered transfer of knowledge when one is unable to be physically present in classrooms.  Schools and colleges have taken up E-Learning to ensure social distancing is not an issue they have to deal with so they can solely focus on the quality of education imparted to the students.

Despite its many perks, E-Learning also has its fair share of drawbacks. It is often difficult to cater to and overlook the progress of the students online which would have been a far easier prospect in the in-classroom mode of education. There are different challenges such as poor internet connectivity in the remote places and often the underprivileged do not have access to proper electronic devices. Some struggle with technology and thus are often unable to have a seamless E-Learning experience.

Though it is not without its fair share of challenges, E-Learning has been successful in the re-moulding the education system for the better. It is undoubtedly the mode of education for the future. It has been successful in providing affordable education to people in the different corners of the Earth. It has enabled some institutes to do without the physical infrastructure and additional costs that come along with maintaining physical classrooms.

There are several applications like Zoom, TeamLink, Google Meet, Duo etc which are being used by teachers and institutes to impart lessons to the students. The dangers of video lessons can be seen in the multiple instances of hacking and misuse of these applications. Data are stolen by hackers of the users of the application who misuse the data to their own fruition. The applications should be secured from hackers for seamless usage and to ensure that the users can operate it without any fear of their account being hacked.

E-Learning may, however, lead to a loss of jobs for a majority of people who used to assist in the seamless functioning of the brick and mortar classrooms. Publishing houses may suffer as learning moves online resulting in a sharp decline of hard copy textbooks. Publishing houses too shall have to adapt and move their publications online. Small publishing houses may fade away with time. The implementation of the proper 5G network would ensure an immersive learning experience. Physical libraries are slowly becoming defunct with even libraries uploading their content online. Information is available to Scholars very easily. Research has become easier than before. Some people have found it hard to cope up with the technological advancements while some have become unemployed with technology replacing manual labour. However, technology has changed the world for the better and made our lives easier. We should embrace technology as an inseparable part of our lives.



Military: a career choice for women!

HISTORY:

In 1918, Loretta Walsh was the first woman to be enlisted in U.S Navy. In 1948, a law was passed which made women a permanent part or military services. The first group of women were admitted into the U.S military in 1976. Esther McGowin Blake was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Air Force.

A woman, a slave near Jefferson City, Missouri, Cathay Williams was the first known African American woman to serve in the United States Army, named as “William Cathay” she hid the fact she was a woman.

Opha May Johnson was the first woman to be enlisted in the U.S Marine Corps. She joined in 1918 during World War I.

Colonel Ruby Bradley, a survivor of two wars, World War II and the Korean War. Her military record included 34 medals.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN INDIAN MILITARY SERVICES:

Role of women in the Indian Army started in 1888, during British Raj as “Indian Military Nursing Service”.

In 1992, the army, air force, the navy started including women as short-service commission (SSC) officers.

DIFFERENT CAREER PATH IN MILITARY:

1.) Army: Short Service Non-Technical Commission, Short Service Commission Women NCC, Short Service Commission Women Judge Advocate General, Short Service Commission Women Technical Entry Scheme, Military Nursing Services, Army Medical Corps, Army Dental Corps.

2.) Navy: Naval Architecture, Observer, Education, Logistics, Law, Pilot General.

3.) Cyber Army: Associations of Ethical Hackers and Resource Center for National Police Agencies. This is to meet the long term security challenges in the digital arena.

4.) Air Force: Flying Branch, Technical Branch, Ground Duty Branch.

4.) Army Education Corps: An education centre, run by the Indian Army that develops soldiers and officers of all rank.

WHY WOMEN SHOULD JOIN MILITARY?

1.) Opportunities for women are more- the jobs that were available for women in the military were quite limited. But, this now this is changed in the early nineties. Women who are interested in non-traditional career opportunities might consider a military career.

2.) Health Benefits- the military offers full medical coverage from the moment you join. These benefits apply both to officers and their family members. Spouses and children are also eligible for coverage.

3.)Education and Service- the military covers up to 100% of tuition fees while you are serving for the nation and studying together. Army and Navy have community college programs available. Women who take advantage of these opportunities can earn promotions.

4.) Housing Benefits- there are two housing options for members of the military. They can live on base for free or can choose to live off-base and receive housing rent.

5.)Retirement Benefits- Members of the military can retire in as little as 20 years. This means someone enlisting at the age of 18 could retire when they are 38. And after the retirement, the one who served to the nation get benefits for lifelong. They get retirement money, health services and pension as well.

Challenges women have to face in the military:

1.)Physical fitness- women have 60% of the physical strength of men. They are shorter and smaller than men.

2.)Equipment issue– equipment such as body Armour is made to fit men and must be customized to women’s bodies.

3.)Retention- many women leave the military because they perceive that military policies do not support women’s roles as mothers. Women indicated that they were not treated as equal to the male military officers, which made them leave the military.

 4.) Military sexual trauma: MST is used to describe sexual assault or harassment that takes place during military service. in military 23% of women reported sexual assault and 55% reported some form of sexual harassment.

5.)Gender discrimination: women are more likely to face sexual assault, harassment and gender discrimination while serving their country. Women are 20 times more likely than men to be assaulted during their military service.

Want to increase Blog traffic|SEO

Over 2 million articles are published on the internet every day. So how to efficiently elevate the amount of traffic to your website? After reading these articles all your queries will resolve.

The first way you can share with your friends and family through whatsapp and Facebook. But hardly you can get 500 -600 visitors.

Then comes the second approach when you advertise your website and it is an expensive way. Small Startups and individual can’t work on this.

Then comes the role of SEO(Search Engine Optimization). Many YouTubers and startups are using this technique to boost the amount of traffic to their website without even spending a single penny. The question then arises. What is Search Engine Optimization?

When you search on google or any other search engine, you get a list of website matching with your search. Now a question arises, How google create the list? Every search engines use its own algorithm to create a list for a given query. Then there comes the role of SEO. So how can we optimize search engine so that our Website get secure high rank in search engine? In simple words, whenever someone searches about a particular keyword so that all the traffic come to your website.

SEO is a technique to rank up your website with a relevant keyword or phrase to increase the visitors on your site. The better optimize your site is more frequently your website show up in the Search Engine Result Page, means more traffic.

Companies pay professionals to optimize their website. So that they can rank up site their site in search engine.

White hat SEO VS Black hat SEO

White hat SEO follows use only ethical tactics to rank and follows search engines guidelines. It simply means they can’t manipulate their algorithm to optimize their site.

Black hat SEO violates search engine guidelines and manipulate their algorithm to rank up their sites.

So google updates it’s regularly so that they can close the loopholes that black hat SEO exploits.

Keyword research

Make a list of relevant keywords that people might have searched. Simply you can use keyword tools for research. It’s not hard to find a relevant keyword.

These are some free keyword search tools:

1.Google search Console

2.Google Trends

3.Answers to public

4.Keyword shitter

5.keywords Everywhere

You can access all these tools it doesn’t cost you a dime, but none of them offers all-in-one functionality. Get to know about the tools and use them accordingly so you can get better results.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is a practice to make your web page or content optimize for search engine and users.

Buying a suitable domain name, optimizing your title tags to target optimal keywords is some common On-page SEO practices to make your website SEO.

While to rank up your site you also need to create good quality content. You have to make sure that the title or URL of the article should be user friendly. Make sure Every page on site has a simple and readable URL.

Adding internals links can also increase the chance of high ranking of your site .

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to an activity taken outside of your website to raise your ranking the SERP.

Building backlinks is at the essence of off-page SEO. It’s simply is getting another website (relevant to your own websites) to link your website.

You can do this by contacting influencers (reputable and trustworthy) and ask them to link your website.

By creating good content so others themselves link your website without even contacting.

These are some safest ways to get backlinks.

You can even purchase an expired domain name. Expired domain names are those which have a suitable ranking, backlinks but the person forget to renew the domain name.

In last avoid using PBN like practices since google can find it and most likely ban your site to appear on search.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comment below and have a wonderful day.

IMPRESSION OF COVID-19 ON EDUCATION IN INDIA

What our Prime Minister’s Campaign “ Digital India ”could not  achieve , the Pandemic has done it. Covid-19 has led to the closure of schools , affecting the learning of  around 230 million students. It started in the month of March, when the schools were shut down, but now owing to the present scenario there is no assurance when it would open again.

My Firsthand Experience

It was that time of the year, when my beautiful journey of two years in Institute of Management ,Nirma University  was about to end in March , 2020.With just fifteen days left  in hand for our final goodbye, we’re trying our level best  to  save our tears  for the last days.Just then when the new of increase of cases started coming , we officially received  the mail stating  our journey have come to an halt, keeping in mind the seriousness of the issue. In a span of few seconds, the memories of  last couple of  years  splashed in our minds.  Everyone  was shocked, as they ‘d no clue it would end like this. The feeling of not having been able to take the exams for probably the last time in our lives, didn’t sink much. However, the proverb, “Everything Happens For A Reason”, started  making all the more sense when  the number of  cases started rising, while all of us had reached home safely. Had it not been for the strong decision of our College authorities , we  would’ve bear the brunt.

Did The Pandemic Have A Positive Spin-Offs?

With everything  on stake, Online education  takes off the old saying  “Learning Anywhere, Anytime”. Schools and Companies  have switched to apps like Class Dojo, Zoom, Google Classroom which have made the learning experience convenient and flexible. Teacher’s at all point are making the full use of app like Whatsapp, YouTube for online tuition  classes  in order to reach out to students in their doorsteps. Machine learning has led to the calculation to data driven tools, which  is why Multiple Choice Questions(MCQs) are preferred over Fill in the Blanks for the online test assessment. Apps like Dreambox makes students abide to the subject Mathematics, at their own pace and adapts itself  to every child needs. Blended Learning will be the new cool nowadays. This would ensure transparency and openness in Academics.Collaborating teaching and learning would take new forms and would be monetized.

Let’s Have A Look At The Unfavourable Spill-Overs

The Pandemic have surely brought us to an unplanned situation, not been imagined in anyone’s worst nightmares. The students who were studying abroad in Universities of UK,US New Zealand, Canada had to suffer in terms of their invested money and time. Their careers are at stake. The cross-border movement have surely taken a hit for the next two days. Since in most of the Universities, students were specially from India and China, it would adversely effect them .In order for the education sector to have a digital revolution, it’s very important that the teachers and the students are ready to accept the change . Teacher’s refused to get used to the online methodology leading to Passive learners. Students  who studied in Govt. Schools, are the worst affected  as going to school is the best policy tool available to raise skills.

Covid-19 emergency has changed the teaching style been followed by generations. It’s time to reinvent ourselves and adopt  ourselves to digital transformation .This upgradation to e-learning would not only cut the costs, risks and efforts , but would create the need for the educational sector to invest immediately in educational app development.