Category: May-June 2021

Teachers beyond classrooms

Ananya Pathak
A good teacher is not satisfied with just teaching her subject, she goes beyond to aid the child in life’s trials. Volunteer teachers at Shiksha Swaraj, a resource centre for children, show us how they go beyond their regular duties during this pandemic.

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Unlearn to learn

Meera Bhuvanesh
Teaching is a lifelong journey of learning. Only if you are willing to learn, unlearn and relearn will you make a good teacher. The author reminisces about the school that taught her to become a better teacher.

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The joy of teaching poetry

Vandana Srivastava
Poetry is the most expressive form of writing there is. It is also the medium that can most touch readers and bring out in them a range of emotions. Because of its complex nature, poetry is also considered the most difficult to teach and learn. But it needn’t be. Here are a few tips.

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Themes that go unnoticed

Aishwarya Ramesh
The books that we read have a lot to say to us. While some of these messages are clearly written out, others are more subtly woven in and will only reveal themselves to the careful reader.

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A crucible of ideas

Usha Raman
Home Science as a subject has for long been on the backburner in the practice of school education. The low numbers of students opting for this subject, since itis largely perceived as a course for girls,has not helped either. Be that as it may, sincehome science is an optional subject at the high school level in most boards, this issue of Teacher Plus looks at the theme broadly, both from the viewpoint of home science as a curricular subject and as a tool for overall development.

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Euthenics to human ecology

Kavita Anand
Home science was first termed as ‘Euthenics’ by an American woman Ellen Swallow Richards, with the meaning ‘the science of better living’. Last year the syllabus/term was changed to ‘human ecology’. How has this journey of home science been? Our guest editor, Kavita Anand, puts it all together in an interesting way for readers to decide whether it is an outdated idea, or if it needs to be replaced by a more challenging life skills curriculum for all students.

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A miscellany of life and living, and much more…

Shagufa Kapadia
Home science has been at the centre of much debate and discussion due to its nomenclature. The name confined its understanding to the image of ‘woman, home, and family’. Now it is known as Family and Community Sciences. If all the different fields of study are integrated, they tend to cover several aspects of our everyday lives from family, home, community and society. Shagufa Kapadia, in this article, illustrates a practice dimension known as ‘Field work’.

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Choice, chance and challenge

Meeta Sengupta
The National Educational Policy 2020 has come like a breath of fresh air with its shift towards being more flexible and giving more choices and chances to students. By advocating a vocational and practical approach to learning, the NEP may well give a thumbs up to the home science course because of its multidisciplinary influences. However, in practice, till now the subject has suffered because of the way it has been taught. It is time for home science to upgrade, raise the bar and deliver greater value to students, its practitioners and its academics.

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The syllabus and the textbook

Aashna Gada and Kavita Anand
What constitutes a good text book? How can educators ensure that the text book corresponds to the learner’s needs? While textbooks provide the basic framework of the syllabus, they also help in making the teaching-learning process more systematic. Of late however, teachers of home science have raised several concerns about the newly introduced CBSE syllabus (2019) for grades 11 and 12. What are the concerns of the teachers and what are they doing to set things right?

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