Supporting Student Success

This Teacher Changes 30 Lives Each Morning Here's Why This Works Every morning, a teacher greets her students one by one - not with rules, but with choice: A hug, A high-five, a nod, or quiet. A ritual so simple. Yet it tells 30 children: You are seen. You are safe. You belong. Here’s what this teaches us about leadership - and how to apply it at work: 1. Honor Autonomy (Self-Determination Theory) When people get to choose how they engage, they show up with more agency. Autonomy isn’t about letting go of structure - it’s about giving room to opt in. Try this: 🔷 Let people set their own work cadence - async, deep focus, or collaborative sprints 🔷 Ask: “What support looks best for you right now?” *** 2. Create Micro-Moments of Connection (Broaden-and-Build Theory) We don’t need hour-long one-on-ones to build trust. A genuine check-in. A name spoken with intention. That’s the glue. Try this: 🔷 Pause to celebrate effort, not just outcomes - a quick voice note, a public thank-you 🔷 Remember small details - a kid’s soccer game, a partner’s surgery - and follow up *** 3. Signal Safety in Small Ways (Polyvagal Theory) The nervous system responds before the intellect does. Safety is felt first. And safe leaders create brave spaces. Try this: 🔷 Ask: “Is now a good time?” before giving feedback or asking for decisions 🔷 Stay calm and present, especially when tensions rise - your tone sets the tone *** 4. Design for Anticipatory Joy (Affective Forecasting) The brain lights up for what’s coming next. The ritual at the door gave students a reason to show up smiling. Try this: 🔷 Drop a kind, unexpected message in the team chat - just because 🔷 Celebrate mundane milestones - 100 days in the role, 50th client call, 1st brave no *** 5. Anchor Culture in Meaningful Rituals (Harvard Research on Rituals) Rituals are memory-makers. They codify values in action - they say, this is who we are. Try this: 🔷 End each quarter with storytelling: what stretched us? what did we learn? 🔷 Welcome new hires not with logistics, but with a story of your team's "why" *** This teacher didn’t redesign the curriculum. She redesigned how people enter the day. You don’t need a big title to lead like that - Just the courage to meet people at the door. 💬 What’s one ritual you’ve seen shift the energy of a space - or want to create where you work? 🔁 Repost to inspire kind actions in the workplace. 🔔 Follow Bhavna Toor for more on conscious leadership.

Why some kids thrive and others quietly fall behind. A new longitudinal study uncovered four parenting profiles and only one consistently supports both academic and emotional development. Here’s what they found: 1. Autonomy-supportive parents These parents set clear rules and allow for independent decision-making. They communicate expectations—but also validate emotions. This was the only group whose children showed gains in both well-being and achievement over time. 2. Controlling parents Think strict, directive, rule-bound—without much room for dialogue. These kids often performed well academically but had lower self-worth and motivation. 3. Cold parents Low on both structure and emotional warmth. This group’s kids showed the worst outcomes, both emotionally and academically. 4. Inconsistent parents Rules and emotional support were unpredictable. Not surprisingly, these children were more likely to experience anxiety and poor performance. The takeaway? Adolescents thrive when they’re given structure and space. Rules and respect. Guidance and autonomy. For any parent, educator, or leader this is the balance to aim for.

PhD applicants - how to find 50 hidden scholarships that fully fund your doctoral studies worldwide. Most PhD students don't know where to find scholarships. They apply to 2-3 obvious ones and miss hundreds of opportunities. I spent 2 months researching every active PhD scholarship worldwide. The result? I found 50 scholarships most students never hear about. Here are the 5 strategies that got me full PhD funding: Start Early → Create a calendar with deadlines 3-6 months ahead → Most people start 4 weeks before deadlines and miss opportunities → Early birds get better recommendation letters Customize Each Application → Study what each scholarship values → Adjust your research proposal to match their priorities → Generic applications get rejected immediately Get Strategic Recommendation Letters → Ask professors who understand what each committee wants → Brief them on the scholarship's specific criteria → One targeted letter beats three generic ones Build Your Profile Beyond Grades → Even one publication boosts your chances by 40% → Conference presentations show you're serious about research → Volunteer work demonstrates commitment to your field Practice Interview Skills → Record practice sessions with professors → Learn to explain your research impact clearly → Most students bomb interviews despite great applications Don't let money stop you from pursuing your PhD. These opportunities exist, but you need to know how to find them. Most students give up too early or apply too late. Smart students start early and apply systematically. Which of these tips would make the biggest difference in your scholarship search? #phdscholarships #phd #funding #scholarships

Formative assessment is like a compass—it is ongoing, diagnostic, and designed to guide learning. It provides students with timely, actionable feedback during the learning process so they can improve before reaching the final destination. Examples include quizzes, think-pair-share, drafts, reflections, or teacher-student conferences. Formative assessments help identify misconceptions, adjust teaching strategies, and personalise support. In this way, they build student confidence and competence incrementally. Summative assessment is more like a snapshot—it evaluates what students have achieved at the end of an instructional period. It measures mastery against learning outcomes and is used to judge the effectiveness of instruction. Examples include final exams, projects, performances, or standardised tests. While summative assessments do not provide direct guidance during the learning process, they reflect the culmination of all the formative learning and feedback that came before.

The academic research tools for 2024 provide researchers with a structured and efficient approach across various stages of the research process. Here’s a quick summary of these tools categorized by their functions: Literature Search: Innovative platforms like Elicit, Connected Papers, and Research Rabbit facilitate extensive literature exploration, aiding researchers in identifying and analyzing relevant studies and research trends. Writing Assistants: AI-driven tools like ChatGPT, WordTune, and Bard assist in drafting and refining papers, while grammar and paraphrasing tools, such as Quillbot, PaperPal, and Grammarly, enhance clarity and precision. Citations: Reference management tools, including Zotero, Mendeley, and JabRef, simplify citation organization, making it easier for researchers to format and manage references. Illustrations: Visualization platforms like Canva, BioRender, and Draw.io aid in creating clear and appealing illustrations, improving data presentation and understanding. Data Analysis: For quantitative analysis, tools such as SPSS and JASP are valuable, while ATLAS.ti and Nvivo serve qualitative data analysis needs, with Otter assisting in transcriptions. Productivity: Tools like Trello, Notion, and Pomofocus assist in task management, note-taking, and time management, boosting productivity and organization throughout research projects. #Ali_Ameen #Ali_Ameen_Academic #Ali_Ameen_DataScience #Ali_Ameen_AI

How much education is enough in today’s India? From 20% literacy at Independence to nearly 75% today. This is not just progress, it is a national transformation. But the more important question we must now ask is: what does it truly mean to be educated in a rapidly evolving, digital world? Because literacy today is no longer just about reading and writing. The new divide is digital. I have seen this up close even within our own families. What feels intuitive to one generation can feel overwhelming, even exclusionary, to another. The inability to navigate technology is quietly becoming the new form of illiteracy—limiting access, confidence, and opportunity. This is where policy matters. Some of India’s most impactful education interventions have not been complex they have been thoughtful. The mid-day meal scheme, for instance, did more than feed children. It enabled attendance, reduced dropouts, and made education a daily reality for millions. Because good policy does not just inspireit removes barriers.And yet, the challenge persists. When children drop out, it is rarely a failure of aspiration. It is often a reflection of economic pressures, safety concerns, and systemic gaps. I recently visited a government school not far from my home, where young girls discontinue education due to the absence of basic sanitation facilities. This is not a choice against education. It is a choice for safety and survival. So how do we redefine ‘enough’? Perhaps not by degrees alone but by outcomes that truly matter: • Can an individual earn with dignity? • Can they navigate systems with confidence? • Can they participate without feeling excluded? That is real empowerment. The road ahead is clear. We must focus on: * Digital fluency as a foundational skill * Safe, inclusive infrastructure—especially for girls * Diverse pathways beyond secondary education that create opportunity, not stigma The question is no longer whether we are educating enough people. The real question is: Are we preparing them for the world ahead? Are we building confidence, capability, and the ability to participate meaningfully in a technology-driven future? #Education #DigitalInclusion #FutureOfWork #India #Policy #Leadership Scale : % of students Source : UDISE + Booklet (2021-22) Ministry of Education Govt of India

Educators are taught Bloom’s Taxonomy and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs but often forget that without one, they cannot truly have the other. Students, even the youngest ones, are sent to us to learn every day, but when their basic needs aren’t met, learning can be almost impossible. If there was one thing I would love every teacher and parent to understand, it would be this- we must Maslow before we can Bloom. Maslow taught us that the following needs must be met in order for children to learn: Physiological (water, food, shelter, sleep and clothing), Safety (personal security, resources, health, property), Love & Belonging (friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection), Esteem (respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom) and Self-actualization (desire to become the most one can be). If a child comes to us hungry, tired, sad, alone, feeling disconnected or unsafe, how can they possibly be ready to learn? As teachers, we must ensure that our students have their basic needs met when they are with us. We must meet their basic social emotional needs whether it be with a hug, kind word or a little extra patience so they can be relaxed and ready to learn. This task can seem impossible at times, especially when you have a full class of little people with big emotions that can manifest as behaviors, outbursts and other challenges, but it is possible. If we take the time to get to know our students, show them we care and become a reliable source of comfort for them, we can help them meet their needs and BLOOM as learners!

I got placed at Microsoft. From a Tier-3 college. No connections. No campus drive. No IIT/NIT tag. Just consistency, late nights, and a strong belief that “maybe I can.” Let me share how you can do it too: 1. Accept the Reality – Then Break It No big names visit our campus. But skills > college tag. Once I accepted this, I stopped complaining and started preparing. 2. DSA is Your Best Friend Pick a language (C++/Java/Python) and go all in. Solve problems on LeetCode, GFG, or wherever you’re comfortable. Consistency > Speed. 3. Build Projects that Speak for You Projects are your real resume. Build something useful. Host it. Document it. These helped me stand out during shortlisting. 4. Make Your Resume Count Keep it one page. Add only what matters. Good projects + decent DSA stats + relevant skills = shortlist ready. 5. Apply Everywhere. Literally. Off-campus is tough. But possible. LinkedIn, company sites, career pages, hackathons – leave no stone unturned. I applied to 100+ places. Microsoft was just 1 of them. 6. Prepare Smart for Interviews Mock interviews helped me a lot. I practiced calm communication, explained my thinking, and always asked questions. Basics of OS, DBMS, OOPs – revise them. 7. Rejections Will Come. Let Them. I got rejected in final rounds. Ghosted after interviews. Ignored by HRs. But I didn’t stop. One YES cancels out all the NOs. Microsoft was that one YES. To every Tier-3 college student reading this: You don’t need a tag. You need a roadmap. You don’t need luck. You need effort. If I can do it — you can too. Let’s break the bias. Let’s build our own path. For tech content: https://lnkd.in/gdAPeuCj #Microsoft #PlacementJourney #Tier3College #OffCampusPlacement #DSA #CareerTips #StudentMotivation

If your daughter plays tennis, read this. The chances of her becoming a professional player are only 0.03%. So why should she play? Because the benefits of competitive sport go far beyond sport itself. An Ernst & Young study found that: -     80% of Fortune 500 female CEOs played competitive sports growing up -     94% of women in C-suite positions played sports -     Girls who compete in high school earn 7% more as adults -     Participation in sports significantly increases the chances of reaching leadership positions later in life Those numbers don't surprise me at all. In fact, they confirm something I've been saying for 30 years; Sport is one of the most powerful educational tools we have. Especially for young girls. If she becomes a professional player, fantastic. But if she doesn't? She still wins. How often in life do you find a win-win situation? You become a pro, you win. You don't become a pro, you still win because competitive sport teaches things that cannot be learned from a lecture. Discipline, hard work, resilience, managing pressure, getting back up after failure, fighting when things get tough. Sport doesn't just teach these values theoretically. It forces you to live them, every day. You don't hear someone telling you to be resilient, you have to be resilient. You don't hear someone telling you to be disciplined, you have to be disciplined. Those qualities gradually become part of who you are. This is also why I've always believed so strongly in combining sport and education. For 30 years, it has been at the heart of the philosophy we have developed at the Mouratoglou Academy. The combination is incredibly powerful. Academic education develops knowledge. Sport develops character. Together, they create something special, and the data keeps proving it. So if your daughter plays tennis, don't only look at rankings, results or whether she will become a professional player one day. Look at the person she is becoming through the process. That may be the biggest victory of all. #tennis #leadership #education #GirlsInSport #WomenInLeadership #TheCoach

If you’re getting started with your journey in Data Science and AI, here are some of the books you’ll find handy. I’m a little old school - I still love reading physical books. I keep them around me, mark them up with notes, and come back to them when I need clarity. Short-form content is great, but when I want to really understand something, I turn to books. Here are some of the books that helped shape my understanding of ML, AI, and data science - organized by where you are in your learning journey. 📘 Beginner-Level For those just starting out, these are accessible but foundational. → The Elements of Statistical Learning - Hastie, Tibshirani & Friedman A must-read classic that builds intuition for regression, decision trees, and ensemble methods. → Data Science for Business - Provost & Fawcett Teaches analytical thinking and how data science impacts real business decisions. → The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book - Andriy Burkov Short, clear, and practical - a great ML overview to read cover to cover. → Python for Data Analysis - Wes McKinney Teaches pandas and NumPy for practical data wrangling and analysis. → Practical Statistics for Data Scientists - Bruce & Gedeck Covers real-world statistical techniques used in DS/ML pipelines. → Intro to ML with Python - Andreas Muller & Sarah Guido A hands-on approach to building ML models using scikit-learn. 📗 Intermediate-Level If you’re past the basics and ready to build deeper systems or models. → Hands-On ML with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow - Aurelien Geron One of the best end-to-end practical guides to ML and deep learning. → Deep Learning with Python - François Chollet Written by the creator of Keras - great for experimenting with neural nets. → Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Martin Kleppmann A fantastic read on the architecture behind scalable data systems. → Data Science from Scratch - Joel Grus Builds algorithms from first principles - great for foundational understanding. → Building ML-Powered Applications - Emmanuel Ameisen Focuses on deploying ML models that deliver real impact. 📙 Advanced-Level For those building large-scale systems or diving into research. → Deep Learning - Goodfellow, Bengio & Courville The definitive DL textbook, foundational for understanding neural networks. → Reinforcement Learning - Sutton & Barto The classic RL textbook - if you’re serious about agents, this is where you start. → RL with TensorFlow and Ray - Ritwik Sathe A practical, engineering-first approach to implementing RL at scale. → Pattern Recognition and ML - Christopher Bishop A rigorous statistical treatment of ML from a Bayesian perspective. → Probabilistic Graphical Models - Koller & Friedman For those exploring structured models and probabilistic inference. → Mathematics for ML - Deisenroth, Faisal & Ong Great if you want to sharpen the math that powers ML algorithms. Happy Reading 📖 ♻️Share this with your network