Month: October 2015

Leveraging political incorrectness!

Arun Elassery
In this series we feature a ‘politically incorrect’ school — the Muni International School in Delhi which caters to the underprivileged, has no textbooks, and where the NCERT syllabus is used to anchor the learning. Children here ask questions, explore and discover for themselves. Read on to know more.

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Thoughts too deep for words

Neeraja Raghavan
In this ongoing discussion on how to make a poem a learning experience for a student, this particular article touches upon how the approach changes when teaching university students. From trying to evoke thoughts that are too deep for words, to making students experience the imagery, melody, rhythm and rhyme, the main idea is to ensure that students enjoy the poem.

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A tortoise among the leaves

Geetha Iyer
For middle school students, here is an exciting project on tortoise shell beetles. Since habitat and adaptation are topics that are covered for this class of students, a project on this beetle will prove of immense interest to them. Read up the article to know more.

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Tell me, show me, show and tell me

Geetha Durairajan
What is the essence of Continuous Evaluation? Basically it is all about observation on the part of the teacher to know how the students are faring. If this observation feeds into the teaching, the better, because then the purpose of CCE is served. This article is a wonderful example of what the CCE is all about.

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Small steps toward a paradigm shift

Simran Luthra
A new initiative called City as Lab founded by two young women is gaining popularity among school students and participating teachers. CaL, as it is called, aims to build a network of institutions and experts that support research and inquiry in all classrooms across the country. This interview with the founders gives you an idea of what this enterprise is all about, and if it excites you or your school, you can get in touch.

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Tackling the power tangles

Pritam Benjamin I grew up at a time when power was a synonym for energy and strength, not dominance. It had to do with having, giving, and taking strength; academic, mental, and moral from someone who had it in greater measure than oneself. I grew as a teacher in a time when the meaning of power took on the hues of authority, of control and of being in charge. Nothing wrong here, except that it brought complications into relationships and interaction. Semantics apart, power can be exercised, felt, used, misused, and over-used in every walk of life. Rewind to a time, in India, not so long ago, when almost every teacher was empowered by state, society, religion, parents and students to teach, to mould, to nurture, and dole out what wisdom she had accrued in her experience and education. Guru was next, after God. Submit, accept, and revere was the simple code which defined the teacher-student relationship. Fast forward to the present, where the students are in the classroom not only by privilege and duty, but also by right. The point I make here is that a learned teacher is still a valued teacher, but his job is to see that children or learners go from step to step up the school ladder, after which they are pushed out into the precarious business of living. Living in a world of greater complexity than ever before, how much more magnified is a teacher’s task and role! In the current scenario, children lead very complicated and complex lives. Too early, their problems at home and at school make children clamour for attention, in their need for recognition and reassurance that they matter. The teacher’s profile has changed too. She has more to cope with, to be responsible for, and to struggle with. This is not to deny that teaching can and must still be a vocation that is a noble process of giving children what she knows and what they need in terms of learning and living. She must stay focused on the outcomes of her teaching, demonstrating and handling situations that are complex and draining on her emotional energy. She must also keep learning! Classroom management has happily replaced the term “class discipline” in many progressive educational environments. Posing bigger challenges today than in the past, most experts agree it is a timely acceptance that it is not just status quo a teacher requires in her classroom, but a set of coping mechanisms that include her

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Understanding power play

Gita Krenek I’m going to begin this article with a little story. Long ago, in the days of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain was given a task: he had to break some kind of spell. In order to do this, he had to find out what it was that women wanted almost of all. He travelled throughout the country, asking every woman he met. All the usual answers – jewels, fine clothes, a handsome husband, love – did not do the trick. Then one day he came upon an old woman on the road. Her answer was: power. Needless to say, the spell was broken. The desire for power is of course not confined to women. We can witness little power struggles everywhere. Here is an example that you will see in any little roadside chai shop/restaurant. The customer wants a drink; without looking up, he rudely shouts “water”. He thus demonstrates his dominance over the lowly waiter. The waiter however has to regain some sort of self-esteem, which he does by attempting to assert himself in the only way available to him: he bangs down the glass of water with a scowl. We can see this kind of power play enacted between teacher and student in just about any classroom, any day. The student feels put down by the teacher – made to feel powerless, disempowered – and the only way to feel better about him/herself, to assert his/her own feeling of worth, is to put someone else down (either the teacher or another student). What kind of behaviour would we expect to see in someone who feels disempowered, and who is trying to assert themselves? Disrespect towards the teacher (shouting out answers, inappropriate behaviour, impertinent comments, showing off). Deliberate disobedience. There is an enormous feeling of power, a rush of adrenalin, in defying the teacher. For some children, stubbornness and disobedience can be a way to regain some feeling of their own power. Dominating behaviour in the playground, such as pushing and shoving, fighting, taunting, bullying. Constantly drawing attention to the misdemeanors or shortcomings of others, often with an accusingly pointed finger. Having to be the best/fastest/strongest, each person trying to outdo the other in an aggressive, pushy way. Showing off, gloating about success. Disharmony in the class as a whole. Switching off and feigning nonchalance when being spoken to. “I’m not going to take the slightest notice of what you say.” What kinds of attitudes and

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Balancing the power equation

Julia G Thompson Power struggles between teachers and students are among the most common discipline issues that educators must learn to manage effectively. No matter how many years you have been a teacher or how mature and capable your students are, unless you are vigilant, attentive, and prepared, classroom power struggles can negatively dominate the discipline climate for both you and your students. In a classroom where students and teachers engage in continual struggles for power and influence, no one wins. Instead of a productive, effective, pleasant learning environment, an unpredictable and unpleasant atmosphere will make it difficult for you to teach and for your students to achieve academic and behavioural success. One of the first steps that you can take to successfully manage this problem is to be aware of the various forms that classroom power struggles can assume. Although students who want to engage in power struggles with the adults in their lives can appear in many different guises, there are some ways that teachers can find easier to recognize than others. The defiant student who is openly confrontational, oppositional, and rude. The student who can do well in school, but who chooses not to. The student who too frequently asks to leave the room. The student who has perfected the fine art of eye rolling when you give directions. The student who is consistently tardy to class. The class clown who disrupts the flow of instruction with attention-grabbing comments. The passively aggressive student who consistently “forgets” materials or completed work. The disrespectful student who somehow manages to be rude but enough not to be referred to the office. The student who says unkind things about you or about the class behind your back. The student who complies with your directions but at a deliberately slow pace. Don’t delay action when you suspect a power struggle Sometimes the frustration, stress, and misery caused by a student who wants to engage you in a power struggle may make intervention appear not worth the trouble. After all, unlike some discipline problems, often power struggles build slowly and require long-term solutions. Many teachers find it easy to adopt defensive attitudes such as, “As long as he’s sleeping, he’s not bothering anyone”, and perhaps these: I can’t change this student’s behaviour no matter what I do. Only five more minutes of class left… I can’t change her anyway. Why even try? It’s near the end of the term. Soon this will be another teacher’s problem. If the

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Harnessing parent power

Meeta Sengupta “Even if you are right, what will you gain by annoying the school? You want your child to stay there, don’t you? Then don’t say anything – your child is with them half the day.” I cannot have been the only parent to receive this advice. Level headed though it was, it made me cringe. How do I state my case, how do I fix the problem if I cannot talk to the school directly? Parents worry about approaching the school to talk about problems they have with the school. Some of their worry perhaps stems from a fear of authority that schools represent. But much of it comes from the struggle to find the right approach or the right platform or even person with whom one can have a constructive conversation. And this happens both ways. Teachers too struggle to share tough news with parents. How do you tell parents that their child is annoying, uncooperative, and unreliable? How does one have tough conversations without the other side getting defensive – because once that happens it is war? The parent-school relationship is often adversarial, when ideally they should be part of the same team. Both sides want the same thing, don’t they? Both want the student to do well. The only difference is that parents often only care about their own children and schools are supposed to care about every child – but in reality they care only about students who bring them laurels or are troublesome. Most schools and parents have realized that it is best to work together, each supporting the other towards greater achievement. There are some rare exceptions where schools partner brilliantly with parents and they stand as beacons to others. But often, one has to wonder if all is right in this relationship which should be based on mutual respect. The school to parent engagement is not a relationship of equals. Parents often feel powerless in their dealings with schools, even as schools often feel pressured by parents. Parents rarely claim their rights as customers and schools certainly do not behave as vendors (nor should they). There is no doubt that schools are in the driving seat here – it is the school that decides what time the family will wake up, how much the child will write in a notebook, what holidays are really holidays and so much more. Schools and teachers exercise a power over parents and students that often feels disproportionate. Students, in this

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A problematic mix

Mounik Shankar Lahiri
Do schools which serve a critical function in society also turn out to be spaces that are faced with different kinds of power struggles? What is the kind of internal dynamics that pervades the school space? Does the interpersonal relationship between teachers and other members of the staff, or the power struggle between the teacher and the student in the classroom impact the nature and quality of learning? Our cover story this month is an attempt to acknowledge that though politics is an unavoidable reality in any institutional set up, school leaders need to be aware of how it operates and how it can be regulated.

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