Month: January 2015

Teaching and Learning Moments with Teacher Plus

Teaching and Learning Moments with Teacher Plus is a programme on education and various aspects of teaching and learning in and outside the classroom. With new episodes every week and different guest speakers coming in and sharing their experiences and points of view, we plan to bring you discussions and answer your questions on practices in education. Write in to editorial@gamart.in with your questions. Season 2: Episode 11: Bringing out the best in one’s students As we continue our talk with award winning film maker and theatre director K.M. Chaitanya, we learn how active and enthusiastic teachers manage to bring out the best in their students. Chaitanya talks about how his teachers in college and university and later the directors he worked with pushed him to achieve things he never thought he could. Like his teachers, Chaitanya says with his students (assistant directors) he engages in such a way that they learn to become independent and come to believe in themselves and their work. Episode 10: The story of my life K.M. Chaitanya, film maker and theatre director is the artist for this week on Teaching and Learning Moments. Through this interview Chaitanya takes us on this fascinating ride of his life of growing up among academicians and theatre experts to changing course to learn math and science and then coming back and finding himself in theatre. Episode 9: How would you like to learn art? This week we feature Polish visual artist Anna Okrasko. In this interview Anna describes her journey as a student of art, an artist, and a ‘non regular’ teacher of art. Having been a student in a very traditional and in many ways restrictive school of art in native Warsaw and then moving on to a more liberal and open-minded school in the Netherlands, Anna believes that art is an expression of the individual self and it is up to the individual to find his/her path to learn art. No teacher can teach art, a teacher can only guide. Episode 8:  Being free of  identities Have you discovered your passion yet? Do passions remain with you? Does your identity spring from your passion? Can you ever be free of the expectations and restrictions that an identity forces on you? Find answers to these questions as you listen to our final episode with documentary filmmaker and singer, Shabnam Virmani. Shabnam shares with listeners how she began singing and what impact that has had on her as a person, how it has

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Dangerous times, dangerous spaces

Usha Raman

The recent Peshawar tragedy has forced us to ask some questions. Have places of education become unsafe? Are children living in violent times? How can children trust their teachers? While the Peshawar massacre is an outcome of politics between nation states, the violence that happens within school spaces needs to be tackled. For this, children need to be educated about their own safety and given physical and intellectual tools to protect themselves.

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Negative thinking for positive results

Sinny Mole

Rules in math learned without understanding are the root cause of many misconceptions that children have. For instance, when teaching negative numbers, teachers must ensure that children master the concepts and for this a familiarity with vocabulary is essential. Numbers are abstract for some children but when the numbers have meaning or relevance to their own lives, it becomes easy to understand. Here are some activities that simplify the concept of negative numbers.

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Fun with patterns and ideas

Yasmin Jayathirtha

Have you tried puzzle templates, anagrams, crossword puzzles, mazes and word searches to make your chemistry class both fun and doable ? If your children find it hard to remember the details like formulae, names, terms etc in chemistry, here are simple and effective ways you can change your class from being boring to being a lot of fun.

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No mantra for motivation

Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur

Does external motivation really work? According to the authors, it rarely works and instead, they suggest internal motivation. The best way to do this is to provide an environment for children that will make them feel motivated from inside. Read on to get a few tips.

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Round and round about

Sheel

Can you think of a number of objects that are round in shape? If you care to look around, you will find them everywhere in all the utility tasks that you do on an everyday basis. Our theme for the Project this time is Wheels. From mathematics to language to art, the wheel and its circular motion is present. Read up this interesting article and get your class to do a project on wheels.

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Short on time

Manaswini Sridhar
How can children at the primary level be taught life skills and study skills that will guide them throughout their lives? Most of the concepts related to these skills need to be taught in a way that children will understand and appreciate. This can be best done through games and activities and not through abstract lectures. A few games are discussed in this article.

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Before the bell rings

Wrapping up a lesson at the end of a class can sometimes be disappointing. More often than not, children are in a hurry to leave and they can be seen chatting with their friends while the teacher tries in vain to get some answers out of them. Here are a few five- minute activities that can effectively wrap up a lesson.

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Multi-threaded math

Ragini Ramalingam
Is mathematics only about numbers? Is it too abstract? How can one get interested in this subject? This article explains why mathematics can be a life-changer and how it is linked to other sciences.

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