Sitting at one’s desk all day can bore anyone. At least during in-person classes, kids have a chance to interact with their classmates, teachers, and friends. However, the global pandemic has resulted in many schools switching to virtual classes. That means a lot of the students are spending time at their desks, day in and day out. If they’re in their rooms, then that means they barely get enough time to go for an exercise or get some sun.
Also, for many of the pupils, the switch to distance learning has been isolating, making for a difficult and stressful experience. Add their worry and stress over what’s happening in the world and it’s no wonder that their concentration is compromised. If you want to help your students regain and improve their concentration, try out short exercise breaks. Here’s how they help.
Encourages Physical Activity
If your kids are spending all their time at their desk, studying, then that’s going to lead to a decline in the levels of their physical activity. You’ll want to start incorporating small breaks into your classes. These will encourage the kids to try and be more physically active in between their classes. Your students at the Global Indian International Schools will benefit a lot from the physical activity as it helps the circulation in their blood and systems. Better circulation aids better energy levels.
Improves Mood
Exercise improves a person’s mood. If the kids are showing signs of being stressed, anxious, stressed, or depressed, reminding them to take short exercise breaks whenever they could will help them stay in a positive mood. It can also help lift their spirits if they’re feeling sad about not seeing their friends, or anxious about what their future might be like, given the current situation. With a positive mood, your kids will be in a much better frame of mind to tackle their all-day classes and the relentless flood of assignments, projects, and tasks. That’s one way to increase their attention, concentration, and engagement.
Helps Mental Health
The transition to online classes also makes it harder for interactions to take place between kids and their friends. It used to only take a minute to say hello to everyone. Now, the children are finding other ways to stay in contact with their friends. By encouraging exercises in your classes, though, you help them have light moments together where they can laugh and just be kids. That helps improve their mental health. Exercises improve moods and that contributes to better overall mental health. If you are seeing signs that some of the kids are starting to get mentally exhausted or affected, incorporating exercises in your lessons can keep their attention from slipping and can help prevent mental problems.
More Vitality
Exercises help increase the level of vitality and energy that the students have. If you do exercises before you start the class, then you’ll benefit from having alert and focused kids. This is especially ideal if your classes are in the afternoon and the kids have been sitting at their desks for hours on end. The more alert and focused they are, the better they’ll perform in class. Better concentration levels mean increased retention.
Higher Grades
The more alert the kids are, the more information they’ll remember from the lessons. By reminding them or even training them to have short exercises in between their classes or when they review, to motivate them to do that even when they’re not in class, can help them improve their attention and focus not just during your online classes but also for the rest of their sessions. That could help them gain higher test scores and grades.
Prevents Sleepiness
A lot of students find it hard to go back to their old sleep patterns. Some struggle as they cope with the changes and that has affected their sleep, cutting it short, and making them tired and sleepy during their classes. Exercises help wake them, though, so they can pay better attention during your online lessons. If you keep seeing your students drifting off, start your classes with exercises.
Finding the Time
Lack of time is one of the major reasons why a lot of the students fail to indulge in these exercises. What you can do is train your students to manage their time wisely. There are 24 hours in a day. Surely, they can find even 30 minutes to an hour that they can spend on themselves. Also, there are high-intensity exercises that you can do during class to give them a taste of the kind of exercises they can look for and try out for themselves too. Make workouts and exercises a permanent part of their day through your classes and constant encouragement. Not only is this good for their physical health, but it also improves their focus.