“Agility within and of itself is a strategy.”
The ability to simplify thoughts and transfer them effectively, thinking on foot and solving problems in the most efficient way, and learning in the most effective way requires mental agility.
But what is mental agility?
Mental agility is the ability of any individual to think, learn and quickly absorb new information. Basically, it stands for how well our minds can adjust to new circumstances.
What is the importance of mental agility in children?
Children who are mentally agile not only have the ability to learn fast but are benefiting from improved social skills, the ability to stand up for themselves, strong communication skills, better problem-solving skills and evolved reasoning skills.
JBM, a school in Noida, uses effective ways to train the students’ minds to be agile through logical, problem-solving and Math games for better concentration, learning difficulties and memory problems.
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Effective ways to improve students’ mental agility at home –
Making a regular habit of reading in the family is surely one of the most effective ways to enhance the brain in various ways.
The first and the fastest way to solve any problem may not always be the best way. Children should always be advised to do a little brainstorming to find the root cause of the problem and then look for a permanent solution.
Creativity starts from experiencing new things. Let children look for new things, explore new areas to expand their palate by giving it a try.
Mindfulness activities really work for the whole family and meditation is one of the most mind-calming activities.
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Recognizing a child’s originality is equally significant as it is the pinnacle of creativity.
Original minds are not differentiated by being the first one to see a new thing, but by seeing the old, familiar thing as something new.
JBM, Noida school, openly accepts and respects original ideas to maintain students’ originality. Originality is reinforced by allowing students to produce ideas and products that never existed before.
It grows out of fluency and flexibility, instead, it involves the risk-taking of all creativity skills.
Students must be motivated to be the ones with originality knowing that they will be criticized more, challenged more and compared with the rest. The school aims to make geniuses with their originality and not with their perfection by providing students opportunities to come up with their unique and out of the box ideas.
It’s the children’s original ideas and thoughts that create reality and to create the clearest and vivid picture requires effective visualization. A child’s visualization can go beyond the boundaries and acknowledging and encouraging their ideas can make them different.
Educators in JBM, integrate visualization into everyday learning by making it a part of class every day, by encouraging those who struggle to ask other students and learning through peers’ expression of imagination. Visualization is integrated into class read-aloud and silent reading.
Not only physical images are incorporated but also ideas about feelings the characters might experience, thus enhancing students’ critical thinking skills. Different visualization extension activities work best like using the combination of drawings and mental image-making.
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Visualization opens the door to life-long reading in children. Emphasizing visualization can develop the habit of actively thinking about what they read, which leads to greater retention and understanding.
JBM Global School recognized as one of the best schools near sector 137 Noida and its educators enrich student’s lives beyond the impact they have on them through day to day instruction.
By representing positive demeanour day after day, students are benefited and start contributing to societies by being an individual of high character and self-esteem.
Any child can leave an impact in others’ lives by just being a good, caring, loving and responsible person.
The purpose is to make our children thoughtful, wise, passionate, kind and become fully realized citizens of the modern world as our world needs people who are truly “full of thought”.
Children must be allowed to make connections to other ideas in such a way that will allow them to connect idea to idea, thought to thought, in ways that can be never-ending.
Honouring the children’ ideas and daring them to push further, they learn that the world is a place of ideas where they can live. When educators and parents model thoughtfulness by deconstructing their own ideas, children learn that thoughts are not fixed, final and perfect, making them understand that practice can deepen their ideas.
JBM works on creating an inquiry-driven, project-based curriculum, where students come up with their own ideas, work deeper with them and then build artifacts that reflect their ideas and the path they travelled to develop them. This is how children see the power of ideas manifesting in their world.
How can thoughtfulness be a part of children’s lives?
Too much mere work inhibits deep thought. Thoughtfulness enters only when one wonders about the meaning of the work.
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Questions like Why am I doing this? What is it? Is there any better way of doing this? What could be the possible outcome
Thoughtful children ponder the meaning of what they learn and the consequences of what they do. Children who are thoughtful challenge themselves by asking tough questions, of themselves and of others and they persist in the questioning – Why? What? What if?
So what? and so on. It is essential to realise that without thoughtfulness, knowledge is dangerous. Not only a little knowledge is dangerous, but too much knowledge with power and without thoughtfulness is even more dangerous.
Aiming to be thought leaders, it’s important for children to have good behaviour and communication by exercising empathy towards other individuals and communities and also showing consideration for the needs of others.
Giving it back to the community is the ultimate goal. Further thoughtful children create connections and thoughtful community conversations agreeing to help everyone around them.
As a school, JBM Global – One of the best schools on Expressway Noida thrives to make its students thoughtful as everyone wants to be the sun to brighten up someone’s life, but why not teach our children to be the moon, to shine on someone’s darkest hour?