10 strategies every teacher should adopt to help their students adapt to new environment

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Vijay Kumar Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Makoons Group of School, suggested some strategies that help teachers in enabling the preschoolers to adapt to a new environment –

1. Building Up A Bond Of Friendliness: Teachers should essentially take care of fostering a bond of friendship with their students. This brings them closer to their teachers, eliminates the anxiety of being away from their parents, and makes their interaction with learning much easier.
2. Observing Patience: Handling early kids requires a lot of patience. Teachers, for this reason, must necessarily exhibit enough patience in their approach toward their children so that they may refrain from scolding them for their minor childlike errors.
3. Indulging Them In Fun and Games: Fun and games have their own importance in the educational sphere of preschoolers. They help them become interactive, eliminate classroom monotony, stimulate their mind towards exploration, and make learning fun.
4. Inviting Family Participation In Classroom Activities: The institution must invite the active participation of parents in different classroom activities of the children. This builds up communication, makes learning engaging, and helps the parents and teachers in understanding each other’s approach towards the children.

Employing the strategies mentioned above can enable teachers to help the kids adapt to the preschool environment where students feel empowered to embrace change and flourish, thus helping them grow up into well-rounded individuals completely. Bringing her expertise to the same, Rosy Ahuja, Vice President – R&D at Bachpan Play School, said, “Parents face a great deal of apprehension after their children’s preschool admission. That apprehension mainly surrounds the new environment in which children have to adjust while being away from home for the first time in their lives. The role of teachers is huge in bringing credibility to the entire school by making the apprehension of parents go away.”

Here are 6 strategies that teachers can deploy to provide students with a seamless transition –

1. Create a Welcoming Environment: A welcoming classroom environment can help reduce the stress level of students. Make use of soft lighting, colourful decorations, and paintings to make students feel comfortable.
2. Get to Know Each Other: Teachers and students should build a good rapport. Try to interact with every student individually and foster open communication and a sense of trust.
3. Establish a Routine: One of the best ways to make students comfortable in their new environment is by establishing a routine and providing them with a sense of consistency and security.
4. Encourage Autonomy: When you encourage autonomy, it develops children’s self-help skills and goes a long way in nurturing their strong sense of self.
5. Acknowledge the Emotions of Students: Students go through intense emotions, especially when the environment is new and they hesitate to trust and build relationships. Try to acknowledge and address them.
6. Seek the Involvement of Parents: Seek parental involvement through regular updates on their children’s progress, PTMs, and events and activities. Ongoing communication is the key.

These are some general guidelines and strategies for teachers to help their students adjust and adapt to the new school environment they find themselves in. Feel free to improvise on them and contribute to every student’s personalised and active learning by transforming the classroom environment into a comfortable learning space.