Fuelling students’ interests

R.S. Praveen Kumar Shaila Kumari lost her father at a young age. This shock could not shake this gritty tenth grader. As an SR Sankaran fellow, she also has to act as a teaching assistant in her class. As the vice-captain of Kammadanam Social Welfare School, she has to organize weekly inter-house competitions. In summer, she also aspires to be a co-counsellor for the prestigious Young Leadership Camp and Voice for Girls Camp. Despite her many responsibilities, Shaila maintains her position among the top ten in her class consistently. Like Shaila, thousands of student-Swaeroes*of our schools are involved in innumerable extra-curricular activities that bring boldness into brains and a breather from the blitz of lectures in the classrooms. But many wonder if the students get time to complete their studies. Are the parents not worried about academic achievement at all? Indeed, education is serious business at the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS). For the past three decades, this state-owned organization has been providing quality education to thousands of marginalized children across the state, in its 134 schools. This Society has chiseled out innumerable icons in various fields from these communities. When it comes to the state Board examinations, these schools have consistently maintained a lead over others including many private schools. However, despite these achievements, critics have always felt that the true potential of these schools has never been fully tapped. Out of pure passion, I opted to head the social welfare residential schools. My first ever visit in 2012 to one of the Hyderabad-based schools left me shocked. Classrooms were comatose and children looked disoriented and the many faculty members were obsessed only with getting 100 per cent results. The major annual task was completion of syllabus by January and pushing the children into the cycle of revision till the board examinations. Sadly, the children of 5th to 9th classes missed the attention of teachers once the board examination schedule began. Many parents turned skeptical. Things almost reached a tipping point. The need for change was palpable. After a thorough scrutiny, we, at the head office, regrouped into a committed team and began visiting the schools and brainstorming with the teachers on the ground. We visited some of the well-managed schools outside our society as well. We invited some NGOs doing great service in their domains. We returned with loads of stories, huddled together and came out with a strategic plan called P-5 that covered all five domains of residential education:

Read More »

A joyful space

Arun Elassery

Welcome to the world of a Waldorf school. Abhaya is one of the four Waldorf schools in Hyderabad and fast becoming one of the best.

Read More »

The secret life of succulents

Geetha Iyer

If you have a garden you surely have one of these plants. Perhaps you know it by a different name. Here’s peeling off some of the misconceptions surrounding the succulents.

Read More »

Being there

Bubla Basu

Teenage is a very difficult phase for any child to go through. These are confusing times for them, times when they are unsure of themselves, times when they develop a ‘crush’ on their favourite teacher. Knowing that this is difficult for the teacher as well, let us try and understand our young adult students and help them through their teenage years and not avoid them.

Read More »

The human face of math

Monica Kochar

How many students have you come across that fear math? This fear is the result of, knowingly or unknowingly, reinforcing the belief that math is a difficult subject and that math teachers are strict. As teachers it is up to us to make the subject accessible to all students and this we will be able to do when we understand that math need not interest all students and therefore we need to find ways to bringing the subject to them through their interests–be it sports, art, language or music.

Read More »

What does DNA look like?

Saraswathi Jayanthi and Vinay Singh

We have seen images of the DNA, 3D models, read about it but would you like to actually see the DNA? Try these experiments in class to extract the DNA from two different kinds of cells.

Read More »

Who is your enemy?

Lakshmi Karunakaran

Teaching and Learning Moments with Teacher Plus is a radio show that Teacher Plus produces in collaboration with the Universtiy of Hyderabad. This show features artists, writers, and poets who talk about their learning experiences with their art and how they are sharing this with their students. In this interview we talk to Palestinian theatre artist, Faisal Abu Alhayjaa. To listen to the interview click here http:\\tinyurl.com/jk5h94b

Read More »

The journeys of the mind

Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur

In cover story we have talked about how a school envisions the travel it undertakes, in this article we have a few children narrating their experience of travelling.

Read More »