What a class teacher can do
Harekrushna Behera
Are you a class teacher? And do you find that title a bit too heavy to carry?
Harekrushna Behera
Are you a class teacher? And do you find that title a bit too heavy to carry?
Shalini B It is your first day back at school, you enter your class and see a lot of old faces smiling at you and a few new ones looking a little lost. You don’t want to launch into a lecture about expectations in the new academic year, neither do you want to open the text book and risk being called a boring teacher. The first day back in school is always one of those days when nobody really knows what to do. You’d like to have fun but you don’t want an unruly class either. So, what do you do? Why not play some games that will boost energy, bring your class together and break the ice? Getting to know each other You may have noticed, especially in a large class, that children tend to form groups. While they may know everybody within their group very well, they know little or nothing at all about the rest of their class. You could use the first day of school to play a game that will reintroduce the entire class to each other. Divide your class into pairs. Ensure that you don’t pair friends with each other, for then the purpose of the game is lost. Give the pairs 15 minutes to try and find out three interesting facts about their partners. Once the time is up ask each student what he or she found out about his or her partner. Depending on the kind of time you have you could make the game more interesting by asking each pair to enact a chat show, where one is the host and the other the guest. The host has to get the guest to give three interesting facts about himself or herself. The class could have some fun imitating their favourite TV show hosts! What else can I use this for? Bring any 10 things you find around your house to the class. Scarf, bangle, paper bag, an apple anything. Divide your class into 10 groups. Ask each group to sit in a circle (provided your classroom has space). Put one item you brought from home in the middle of each circle and ask the groups to come up with alternative uses for their item. For instance, a scarf could be used as a handkerchief or a hair band or even a belt. The group that comes up with the most number of uses for its item of course wins! Games for Primary School If you have
Cheryl Rao Teachers and schools are well-acquainted with the intricacies, difficulties and rewards of bringing out the annual school magazine. But what about the sheer joy of a handmade, informal class magazine on a quarterly or monthly basis? This could be an outlet for even the most hesitant child to express ideas and get into a very personalised Hall of Fame – a great way to boost the ego and prepare students for the world outside. How does one begin to set the ball rolling for such an enterprise? Who can the teacher turn to? How does the teacher include students in this activity? Perhaps an alphabetical list would be helpful in starting the planning process and keeping track of what needs to be done. The first thing that should be kept in mind is the Age group of the students for whom the magazine is planned. A class magazine is a reflection of the class, and students need to be old enough to take an active part in its preparation. Starting in class 5 or 6 is probably advisable as the students are young enough to take direction and old enough to be productive and more importantly, the right age to be enthusiastic and full of ideas! Next, the general plan of the magazine, the number and the type of Articles and the Art work to be included needs to be thought about. For this the teacher can turn to the students, who will provide the raw material – stories, poems and drawings on topics initiated by the teacher or collectively, by the students. Along with the articles, there can be a list of Achievers for the quarter. Here, high marks and discipline need not be the criteria. For example, “The class is proud of Rohit. When his parents had to rush out of town to visit his ailing grandfather, he took up the challenge of getting his younger sister and himself to school on time.” Or, “Congratulations, Sunita. Your stint at the blind school was appreciated by all to whom you read from your favourite book.” Bonding between students may be fostered with the formation of a core group to be the editorial Board. Students would love to have the formal designation of Layout Artist or Copy Editor and the teacher can outline the duties of each one on the board in order that there is no bickering amongst them-selves. Such roles can rotate among the students so that every one gets a
D Balasubramanian In school, subjects are taught to provide a broad understanding of our world and how it came to be, the processes that it runs by and the laws that govern it, both physical and social. While subjects are included also to give children an idea of what they may be interested in or good at, so as to make choices of career and vocation, they are also meant to give us the basic knowledge that will allow us to function intelligently and productively. To provide literacy, in the broadest sense of the term. Geography and history provide the conceptual tools that help people navigate through the world as conscious citizens, while mathematics gives us the practical skills to balance our books and estimate our budgets. Science, on the other hand, gives us the means by which we can avoid disease, plan our energy use, argue for better water and sanitation, control our time and resources, and understand the clockwork under the movement of the planets and stars. There is practical value in what we learn in school, but in the race to fulfill the demands of examinations; this value is lost in the business of preparing for tests. It is important that we step outside our textbooks from time to time to think about the subjects we are teaching. Is there a way to see that this teaching makes sense, both to the learner and the teacher? Can we link the subjects we teach to their real meaning for life? If our children are to be truly literate in all the subjects, such links must be constantly made. At the same time, in order to generate an interest in ideas, and in science, teachers can talk about breakthrough developments in a manner that makes two things apparent – the revolutionary nature of ideas and how they affect life in profound ways. Some students may be inspired to go further in the pursuit of science and generate their own path-breaking ideas. Others would (and must) acquire a familiarity with the basic concepts of science in a way that they will remember, and apply when the need arises. We will then have made them scientifically literate. It also is important for us, as teachers, to remain connected with the world around us and what learning means in an everyday sense. As educated individuals responsible for the education of others, how literate are we in arts and sciences of our age? Science literacy, food for thought
Pawan Singh
From home to school and back, classroom to sports ground and back, and then finally to the examination hall, a child travels various distances to be finally considered “educated”.
Chintan Girish Modi In most conceptions of school and places of organized learning, a library is central. In India, where many schools lack even a blackboard (or a teacher!), a library of any description is perhaps considered a luxury. Even in schools where libraries exist, they take many forms and are bound by rules and regulations that constrain use. This issue of Teacher Plus looks at just some of the many kinds of libraries that children, teachers, and communities have access to, in schools and out, fi xed and mobile, formal and informal, and considers ways in which we can extend the idea of the library and its many uses. My dream is to start a library for children. The shelves are over-flowing with books, and each time I pick up a new set, there is a struggle to make space for new friends that come from bookshops and discount sales, from pavements and publishing houses. I wish to create a space where children can fall in love with the magic of stories, wander off into exciting worlds, and begin their journey to learn about themselves and others. The urge to make this happen becomes more intense each time I hear about unimaginative attempts at encouraging reading. There is enough reason to believe that those who take it upon themselves to ‘instill the reading habit’ often end up doing much harm to the children whose cause they claim to espouse. Anmol Kapur is a Class 5 student of Delhi Public School in Hyderabad. He represents the classic case of a book lover who cannot read what he wants to because of adult notions about what is appropriate and what isn’t. He says, “In the school library, there are so many rules. They don’t allow you to read what you like. They tell you that you can’t read Hardy Boys before Class 5 because you won’t be able to understand it.” Grusha Prasad, a Class 8 student from Rosary Convent High School in Hyderabad, has a similar complaint. “The people in our school library are very protective about the books they give out. All the students get books based on the class they belong to. Sometimes, they limit it to Enid Blyton. It is just one room, and all the books are in a cupboard that we cannot touch without permission.” It is worth investigating why school libraries are the way they are, particularly the issue of not allowing kids free access. Shravya, a student of
Nandini Nayar Sometime in June, when most schools reopen for the new academic year, you will spot at least a couple of photographs in the newspaper of small children bowed down under the weight of their enormous school bags. Accompanied by a thought provoking caption, these photographs hold our attention for some time and then we go back to packing our child’s school bag. Occasionally a politician or activist says something about the number of books children need to carry. Shock and outrage is expressed in indignant “Letters to the Editor”. The indignation is picked up by enthusiastic reporters and results in a couple of eye-opening articles on what the school-going child has to suffer in the name of education. But soon all this passes, and little attention is spared for the literal burden the child is forced to carry to school everyday. There is a collective amnesia on the part of parents and educators. A few months into the academic year, even the practical aspects and worries of going to school with heavy bags are submerged under more immediate concerns about exams, handwriting and fears that the child may require tuitions. Earnest meetings with school teachers and note-sharing sessions with other parents invariably concentrate on issues of this sort. The problem of the school bag pales in significance. Bent under the weight of these items, each absolutely “essential” for surviving a day at school, the child wends his way to class. The mind boggles at an education system that demands this kind of slave labour in the name of acquiring knowledge. What’s sad is that invariably it is the younger children who end up carrying huge loads to school. Try reasoning with a child of the primary class, explaining that he doesn’t need all the books at school everyday and that they can be safely left at home. All the books, this tiny child will announce firmly, are needed everyday at school. If you actually remove those that you think are not necessary, you can be sure that these will be sneaked back into the bag. Suggest that some of the books or notebooks be left at home till they are actually needed at school, and the teacher reacts with horror. And woe betides any child who actually leaves a notebook at home. Disgrace and almost certain punishment await him. This brings one to the question – is the acquisition of knowledge linked to the number of books carried to school everyday or even
Pavitra Rao
“In the summer time…,” a song blasts from the radio, while you start your day leisurely, sitting down with a hot cup of coffee in your hand, reading the newspaper to catch up on your daily dose of the news.
Zeba Raziunnisa
For years we have been grappling with issues of poor performers, bullied kids, distressed students and teen suicides, but the recent spate of school violence has catapulted a pressing concern into the limelight – Where are we heading?
Thomas Armstrong
I don’t remember how I learned to tell time. So, when I was asked by a Wisconsin school district to develop a multiple intelligences way of teaching time to a group of first graders, I was initially stymied.
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