When I am teaching at my best...

When I am  teaching at my best, I am like a learner because great teachers are heroes, in the world that has a lot to learn and do their best for the society. I as a learner I will try to be one with my students, help to increase their as well as my knowledge. 

asa.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a Gardener. I  want my students to understand the value of beauty which means the value of studies and their positive effects on their life.I know that on many plants there are thorns which are the hurdles during their studies and I will teach them the ways to overcome those hurdles without being harmed.I will teach them the importance of water, sunlight, and the care which they have to give a plant to survive similarly the respect and responsibility they have to give to their parents, elders and to their country.While teaching I completely understand that all my plants have same basic needs but still the technique of handling all my plants differ. As a gardener i will grow old but my teaching will help the nation to survive in the form of capable individuals.

psa.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like water- good and transparent.

akr.sns@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a role model that positively someone in life, is not a person filled  with selfishness and greed and my role model is my mother.

asa.sns@dbntrust.in

When I am in class, I feel like a deity . It is because deity has a pure heart. They don't have any ill will towards any person. Deity always thinks about his or her child. In the same way I want to impart ethical and intellectual things to my wards.As the deity give us strength to fight against any hurdles, in the same way i aware my students how we have to tackle the odd things.We know the student reflect his or her teacher.In our annual function one of our mention whenever i try to correct my grand son, he usually denied that and say you are wrong and my teacher is right, so it is the duty of teacher to teach their ward not only academics but other things also.

msa.av@dbntrust.in

​When I am teaching at my best, I am like a Parrot keep on answering every query whether  it is meaningful  or not . Parrots are  striking  beautiful  impressive and entertaining  pets to have .  they make  wonderful  companions  their  colorful  patterns and cute  mannerisms , including  picking  things up with  their feet  and  climbing with  their  bills  endears  them  to us all. Similarly  in  classroom my  student  enjoy  with  me  when I am picking each  every  thought   from  them .

skr.av@dbntrust.in

When  I am teaching at my best, l am  like an actor.Teaching is like acting, a high energy performance profession  that requires a person to act as a  role model but when teacher go through training and professional development, the performance aspect of the job is rarely emphasized or taught.

pwa.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a mirror which is clear and transparent for my students.

njl.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a flower because flower gives us fragrance, like flower I always try to spread fragrance in the form of knowledge to my students.

mka.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a Horse to win the goal, to teach the students as good as possible through experimental learning.

rki.sns@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at  my best, I am like a Compass. I tend to think of myself as simply an instrument that helps guide my students toward the better direction of their choice. I didn't say right direction because I believe that what is right for one student isn't for another student.

bki.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a gardener. I fit the season and my desires. I feel that in the classroom, I can allow the students to grow, knowing that some of the students well flourish quickly with little attention. Students grow and flourish in good weather, but can also grow in cold, uninviting situation, just as plants. I hope that the environment that I provide in my classroom is the type of warm, nuturing environment that will allow all the students to grow. I don't want to stunt then growth with negativism.

ksa.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a lion. Lions help where help is needed in the own communities and around the world with unmatched integrity and dedication.If you want to be a great educator, you must connect with your pupils and reach them on multiple levels, because the best teachers are committed to their students well being both inside and outside the classroom.  In the same way I help my children whenever it is needed and motivate them to do best in their life by providing my lecture enthusiastically and taking feedback from my children.

Dr. Nitasha Bali


When I am teaching at my best, I am like a farmer.
Farmer creates the condition of optimal growth. He digs the field, provide nutrients to the growing plants. In the same way, I as a teacher always try to provide necessary conditions to my students. I think if educators work together in this direction, students will grow stronger, happier and more productive.
rsa.av@dbntrust.in

When I am teaching at my best, I am like a "Friendly Potter" because the students are like clay and the potter gives them the shape according to his own will. So I try to impart that knowledge which is beneficial for students for the future life by which they can prosper in life. By doing this I will be able to develop the habit of asking questions. It will make teaching effective in the classroom and they will learn more easily.
ysa.av@dbntrust.in 


When I am teaching at my best, I am like a shadow. Shadow is always with us like that I also as a teacher with my students with their learning and developing stage. I always motivate and encourage them to do their job and become successful in every walk of life.
kbi.mm@dbntrust.in 


When I am teaching at my best, I'm like a lake   ....which has patience, calmness, simplicity and no discrimination for the others. Bearing same qualities and the feelings I impart my knowledge to my students in the class and outside the class.
vda.mm@dbntrust.in

Fear with in

Fear within Teaching

Teaching is one of the most rewarding professions to aspire to. Children are a blank slate. There is a lot of opportunities to have some fun with it too. Kids say ridiculously funny stuff and can be very open minded. Once give the chance to have someone listen. Students behaviour and performance mirror our expectation. “You can do it” and “I won’t give up on you” communicate our belief that students will succeed. 

One of the student Aryan Sharma of 6^th class was a good singer and active participant in other activities but in studies he was not good. He always bunk his classes. When I got the opportunity to teach him, I have the fear that how I manage that type of students who do not have any interest in studies. I motivate him to sit in the class and listen to the teachers what he is teaching in your class. Slowly I have seen the change in Aryan. I gave him special attention in my class and help him to complete his notebooks and motivate him to learn and understand the topics.

I was very happy to see him progressing.

- Ruchi Anand is a teacher at DBN MM School at Jammu.

Success

Success

Life is a struggle and not a bed of roses. Man is not perfect and he cannot ensure success in everything that he under takes. He often stumbles in life for the simple reason that he has face many hurdles.

Human life is the story of numerous failures and a few achievements. Success naturally gives us joy and pride. Failures generally disappoint and discourage us. However, the right approach to failures is not to be disheartened by them. Misfortunes try a man in the same way as gold is tried in fire. Failures should be regarded as stepping stones to success. We should not allow our failures to blind our judgement.

We should learn some lesson out of them. Each time we fail, we come to know the reasons of our failure. We become aware of our weakness and defects. We also discover our hidden powers. The experience we gain each time makes our path to success smoother and easier. We can achieve success in life by removing the pitfalls which caused our failure.

Thus failures are our best instructors, guides and teachers. They make us bold, active and vigilant. Those who fail must succeed one day. The story of “King Bruce and the Spider” should be an eye-opener. Many failures precede the conquest of Mount Everest and the moon. Failures should inspire us to work harder for success. They should not deter or unnerve us.

“The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success”.

THINK

IDEA

TRY

DO

DO AGAIN

AND AGAIN

KEEP ON DOING

SUCCESS

- Arti Sharma is a teacher at DBN SNS School at Jammu, her email is sns@dbntrust.in

Lessons Learned From Great Schools Around the World | Edutopia

Lessons Learned From Great Schools Around the World | Edutopia

Focusing on Values Over Academics
“It doesn’t matter what they become. I tell them every single day, ‘I don’t care what you become—it’s who you become and what you’re going to do with that light inside of you.’” —Teacher at a SPARK School in South Africa

Giving Students Real Power
“It works because we give the students the whole responsibility. . . . Trust is the foundation of high expectations.” —Principal at Unterstrass Comprehensive School in Switzerland

Most schools don’t do anything as drastic as leaving students fully in charge, but every excellent school I have visited understood that helping students develop responsibility means giving them the power they must be responsible for. At Riverside in India, it means using design thinking to create initiatives for the school and outside communities. 

All of the top-ranked schools I visited were different. They were all rooted in their local contexts and informed by the unique personalities of their leadership. But I was truly amazed at how consistently the three practices above reappeared over and over, even in the most distant corners of the world. Together they come down to a belief in people and a belief that education is about experiences as much as content.

Read more

Lets us Improve Ourselves

Socrates, the great philosopher was once asked by one of hisdisciples, “Why is it Sir that you tell everybody who wants to become your discipline to look into this pond and tell what he sees?

“This is very simple, my friend, answered Socrates, I am ready to accept all those who tell me that they see the fish swimming around or stones in pond. But those who see only their own image mirrored in the water are in love with their ego. I have no use of them.”

Man’s greatest mystery is man himself. The purpose of life is to have an ultimate knowledge about one self.

The positive response to our behaviour develops confidence in the development of our personality which is being appreciated where as negative response negates the understanding of one’s self and leads to feeling of inadequacy, discomfort, anxiety and tension. The concept of ‘Self’ is formed by behaviour of others towards one self. Whenever an individual interacts, there is a social self. The gap between the self image and social self, determines the effectiveness of the individual. The feeling of inferiority is rooted in the human beings because a man compares his “insignificance” with the immensity of the universe”. This can be overcome by developing social interest.

There is a saying ,“Courage is the health of the soul.” The inferiority complex can be overcome e by developing courage. It can be overcome if we are not afraid of making mistakes. Both making mistakes and learning how to work on mistakes, demand courage, which will ultimately improve both our social self and self image by reducing the inferiority complex. The process of self improvement calls for reducing the gap between social self and self image. 

- Agya Kour is a teacher at DBN SNS School at Jammu, her email is Akr.sns@dbntrust.in

Parent-Teacher Relationship

Image courtesy NoteZone.Net

Building Relational Trust

Here when we speak of parent-teacher relationship, we believe that teachers have far more impact on a kid than a parent. The general role of schoolteacher and family is to teach children certain skills. Since both have the same goals hence they should co-ordinate with each other for the development of the child. Both should keep in mind that each new opportunity can help to establish the relation between school and the parents, thereby improving the situation of the child and their academic performance. It is up to the teachers to establish the first contact, which is, of course, the most difficult task for the teacher. In this task, teachers can be supported by their colleagues and due co-operation of the parents too. Parental involvement can free teachers to focus more on the task of teaching children. We also believe that this two-way communication between parents and school is necessary for students’ success. They should develop a model of co-operation which will bring the best results, thus it is essential to be aware of the objectives of this co-operation e.g. parents participation in the teaching and educational process, raising parents educational awareness and to know the parents expectations from the school which enables a better understanding of students by teachers and parents. One thing we should keep in mind that to achieve satisfactory results both parents and schoolteachers have to co-operate closely. To make the co-operation with parents by the teachers, teachers should take steps towards a good collaboration, engage parents in collaboration, create good atmosphere for conversation, which makes parents feel involved, show understanding and their concern, monitor the students progress and keep informed the parents, offer help where needed, as after all there is a common target of parents and teachers about the development of the child. To have a better understanding of the atmosphere of the school, social meetings should be organised on the occasions of celebrations of an annual day, etc., do not leave parents with problems- offer all possible help so that they are known and understood clearly and timely, ensure parents involvement in school life too. Simultaneously teacher should also know the family background/culture of the children in which he lives and if possible contact with the members of the family, inform parents about the child’s marks, his/her day to day activities on his “school diary” not just negative and also positive of the child should be reported on student diary.

Whereas on the other hand parents instead of hiding any important information about their wards provide correct information of their wards i.e. About their homework, other activities at home, what their Wards like or dislike after the school hours and the contribution the parents provided to their wards in their studies. Parents should strictly follow the suggestions, guidelines of the teachers, as a result their deliberations which took place during parent teacher meet, parent should also help their children in completing their daily homework given by the teacher, tell the teacher honestly the way they are helping their children in their studies at home and also time devoted by them with the children in their activities. Parents should also at their liberty to write any suggestions, which will help the teachers in development of their children, as the effective educational work implies tight co-operation between parents and class teachers.

- Nidhi Sambyal is a teacher at the DBN Amarvilla School and her email is nsl.av@dbntrust.in

The Fear Within

COURAGE TO TEACH - The Fear Within is an exercise being done by the educators at the DBN Centre of Excellence, they are exploring the professional development journey, and trying to find out what was their biggest fear, and how the overcame the moment. 

The Fear Within 

"One of the blessings of teaching is the chance it gives us for continuing encounters with the young, but whatever eventually blesses us may at first feel like a curse! We are more likely to survive the curse and arrive at the blessing if we understand that we may be as afraid of our students as they are of us—and then learn to decode our own fears, as well as theirs, for the sake of creativity in the service of the young".  - Courage To Teach

The Exercise

Ask each teacher to write brief descriptions of two recent moments in teaching: a moment when things were going so well that you knew you were born to teach and a moment when things were going so poorly that you wished you had never been born.

Image courtesy MindTools.Com

I learnt that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

My first experience of fear in teaching was when I had given the class of Air Force Officers to teach them LINUX Operating System. That time I had the experience of instruction for more than four years, but that time I felt that it was my first class. They all were mature persons, and I was younger than most of them. But when I entered the classroom I was blushed with fear my heart was sinking. I gave my introduction to them and started my lecture. They all were listening to me carefully after that their question answer session started. I made their confusions clear about that Operating system. Then practical session started, they all enjoyed that first class. After completion of that day I was relaxed and my fear within was all gone. Their feedback of the first day was all good. Next day when class started, I was more enthusiastic than yesterday and enjoyed a lot in teaching them.

At the end of one month, of the training session with them, they appreciate my teaching and patience to tackle them to understand the practical on LINUX. That was one of the experiences of mine when I fear most in teaching.

- Komal Bali is a teacher at the DBN Mubarak Mandi School and her email is mm@dbntrust.in

The Heart Tree - Venus Upadhayaya

VISION AND LEARNING: Have you ever observed that anger exists before the reason for that anger exists? Just like awareness or knowledge exists before the language in which we express it. Poets would understand emotion exists before the expression.

There's a great choice and an opportunity available in expression. A language's destiny depends upon how refined emotions does that society/community/civilization cultivates and how refined are its skills of language to express it. Language is very important for the synthesis of learning and skills of language are very important for creating a learning community.

Language is not just identification of sounds and skills of decoding. Language is a refined process of awareness of oneself and the world around. The world you create inside is the world you experience outside and language is a part of that experience.

While in auto to office today I was thinking of a word 'Suryakamal'. A sanskrit word, this word is a combination of two words 'Surya' that means Sun and 'Kamal' that means 'Lotus'. I was wondering how powerful this word is! When you chose this word in your expression you make a powerful choice, you undergo a powerful cognition process that's because of a powerful synthesis of two experiences of sun and lotus and their legacy. There's beautiful poetry in their combination.

The beauty of Sanskrit as a language lies in the way the language combines distant words to create new words that heighten emotion, comprehension, cognition, expression, poetry and exchange. Knowledge is the fundamental on which is built human consciousness and language is the medium that carries that. Imagine your experience of ganga without the word ganga.

Imagine the experience of your beloved without his/her name. Imagine the experience of your country without its name. Imagine the experience of truth without the word truth; it would become so difficult to contain and express our experience of truth without the word 'truth'.

Now imagine how long it would have taken the human civilisation to come to this point where each word denotes a process of refinement and each word carries a legacy of human experience and knowledge.

There lies the vision of my research and center of learning. Dear friends, let me introduce you to the Heart Tree. #thehearttree

(Heart Tree is based on my research into learning, teaching and learning/knowledge communities. This endeavour is supported by few individuals who are my friends. Heart Tree is not a legal, commercial entity currently. Welcome to the spirit of Heart Tree.)

Building Relational Trust

There are a lot of relationships in our lives, in this world like – a relationship between friends, parents, school children, classmates, workmates and even neighbours. A relationship is easy to make, but it is so hard to make that relationship stronger and lasting. A long lasting relationship is very easy to establish if we put the spirit of trust.

Here we are talking about a relationship of teachers with their students that how to build a good rapport with students by winning their confidence. Building trust is a process. In schools/colleges and even universities and other top educational institutes, it is not just; about trust between teachers and students, but between faculty and other faculty and their supporting staff of his institute too.

Improving student’s relationships with teachers have significant, active and long. It is seen that students who have close contact with their class teachers having active and supportive relationships would attain higher levels of achievement than others, students must talk to their teachers frequently without any fear, tell them their problems and receive guidance. The student is likely to trust their teacher more show their engagement in learning rather enter into conflict, show their better behaviour in the classroom, with their classmates, school staff. Positive teacher-student relationship draws students into the process of learning and good manners.

The teachers win the students trust by showing their love for them, sorting out their day to day  problems helping them in their daily school learning activities, devote their time so that students feel home like atmosphere in the school and make the best relationship with their students, as trust within a relationship encompasses much more, as relationship always based on trust. Without trust, there would be no connection we can build with the students.

Teachers who have healthy, positive relationships with their students create a healthy environment which meets students developmental emotional and academic need. Teachers who create a good relationship with their students and win the trust of the students brings success as students attended their periods in the classroom regularly, remained cooperative and show good results in the examination. Teacher must adopt good relationships with their students by showing their pleasure, interact with responsive and respectful manners, avoid showing irritability aggravation, avoid negative attitude, teacher have to make an efforts to spend time individually with each student especially who are weak in their studies, shy in nature & who remained in stress by one or the other reason. This will help to create a more positive relationship with their students, encourage students to participate in games, yoga and give them best possible health tips, give them meaningful feedback, take them in a picnic in some historical, spiritual places.

Trust them so as to create/develop the best relationship among teachers and the students in this new era.

- Anita Sharma is a teacher at DBN Amarvilla School at Jammu, her email is Asa.av@dbntrust.in

Arti Sharma of DBN SNS School shares her thought, you can email her asa.sns@dbntrust.in

It is a very beautiful and awesome thing in the world. Without it we do not proceed in life. To make my notion clear, I take the example of a child who feels secure in the arms of his/her mother. He knows that my mother will not fall me that is called relational trust. Here is an example of  a blood relation, to explain the idea. But I like to make it clear by giving the example of teacher & student. Students usually follow the command of his /her teacher. Toddlers always feel that my teacher is right. He imitates the teacher, not his /her parents. In class 1st of our school, student name (Pragun) follows the command of Shobha Ma'am no one else that is called relational trust. Relational trust is just like a pearl which dazzles when we care it. Otherwise, it looses its charm.
- Meenakshi Sharma is a teacher at DBN Amarvilla School at Jammu, her email is msa.av@dbntrust.in

How the DBN School Teachers define 'Trust'

Teachers in search of Trust

As a part of the Learning Forward Professional Development Exercise, the educators at the DBN Schools at Jammu set out in the quest for Trust...the expression was fantastic, and we share in their very own words and art too!

They express themselves with visuals and writings and work to build a relationship of trust and confidence with all the stakeholders: Management, Parents, Students and Teachers.

Little Flower School, its motto ‘I Will’ has grown from strength to strength...

Dear Mr Dutt,

It was great to have you visit our school and show us how we can work together to build our “ My Good School”?

First of all, we have to understand the child psychology; each child needs space because each child needs some time to understand the concept.

After attaining pre-primary education from home, the child needs to work for her/his social development, and for this, the parents send their ward to school. A school is a place where child gets good education, a loving atmosphere, interaction with peers, motivation  and gains confidence which reflects the child’s identity

Teachers are just like a mirror for the students, so it is first the duty of teachers alone, to develop these the quality in  himself or herself.

Teachers should concentrate on weak students because they need personal attention, in fact, we should give some responsibilities to them, in this way we can motivate them. Teachers should give a chance each and every child to take part in different types of activities; this will develop confidence in the child. Interaction plays an important role because this builds the power of expression and student speaks with confidence, this will thus help the student to learn to share, to help each other, and most important this will help satisfy the needs of the parents too.

The teacher must not teach as a profession, if the teacher behaves as a mother or father, this helps build a good school. Quality in education consists of happy teachers, a good student-teacher ratio, modern equipment, adequate space and classroom facilities.

Finally, a good school has to build the child into a well–managed person. How he or she can deal with the difficulties with confidence. He or she must be able to differentiate between the right or wrong things.

Our journey to becoming a good school will not be complete until each and every child gets the quality education and improves individual behaviour to be a better social being.

In my view, no journey is complete till we reach the destination, a ‘student–teacher–school’ journey is a never ending, as a teacher it is our duty to think  WHAT NEXT----?

We are very thankful to you for giving us your precious time and sharing your experiences with us.

Thanks a lot,

Vibha Mehrotra,
Little Flower School, Dehradun
https://www.facebook.com/littleflowerschooldehradun

Sandeep Dutt was invited by Ms Ratna Manucha of the Little Flower School, to inspire their group of 13 enthusiastic teachers, on the 15th of October 2016. They will together now help build on the vision and mission of the school.

The Great Depression & World War Two - Investment of Bloodshed - Udita Gangwani

Foreword 

A timeline of events that occurred through the course of the Great Depression and World War 2 written based on the home front (Canada).

I chose to create a family of that time and follow them through the span of the twenty years. The family has varied backgrounds and connections which allow the characters to be impacted by the majority of events taking place during the 30's and 40's. The story is written in the form of excerpts from a girl's journal, which talks about the key events that occurred during the time of hardship.

THE BENEDIKT FAMILY

The Benedikt Family is a German family living in Canada with two boys (Conrad and Christof) and one daughter (Evelyn). The mother is a Japanese Canadian (Aina) that married a German. They family is well settled in the 1920’s and are blessed with success and prosperity. Also, the father (Alekzander) has a younger brother who is a businessman in Germany, his brother Gustaf visits Canada once every two years. Both brothers grew up in Canada and hold strong ties with Canada, especially Alekzander who fought for Canada in WW1. This family experiences the Great Depression and WW2 in extreme measures.     

Evelyn Cornelia Benedikt ( June 29, 1921)

9 years of age

Born in Toronto, Canada

Goes to school

Loves watching movies

Christoph Benedikt ( May 1, 1919 )

11 years of age

Born in Toronto, Canada

Goes to school

Reflection of his father ( Alekzander )

How To Win Friends And Influence People

Respected Principal,

Sub: - FAREWELL GIFT AND BEST WISHES TO THE 0UTGOING  STUDENTS

OF THE SENIOR MOST CLASS OF THE COLLEGE/SCHOOL

I offer you my heartiest congratulations for running an Institute of such a  high standard to groom your students academically so that they may succeed in various Competitive Examinations and also in their life.

The current Academic Session will be closing shortly, and the senior most class of your college/school will be leaving your Institute to face the competitions for career courses and then life as it confronts them.  It is customary that the final year class is given a valedictory send-off with all Good Wishes and Blessings by the Principal.

I hope you would feel delighted and honoured if any of your ex-students excel in their career and life. Then why not to help them to achieve that object?

I, therefore, take the liberty of suggesting you to please present them a priceless Memento in the form of a book entitled

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE by DALE CARNEGIE.

This book has been bestseller ever since its publication more than seven decades ago. It has been translated into languages of the entire countries world over thus sold in millions.

This book guides its readers as to how to succeed in their professions and life by developing cordial relations with their Seniors, colleagues and juniors in service, customers in their business and clients in their job and also with their family members.

It will be a lifelong guide and companion of the young boys and girls passing out of your college/school. Not only that, its study will benefit all the members of their families irrespective their age, profession, religion, taste or sex. This book will be passed on to their next generations for their benefit.

Photographs of the School/College building and of the Principal with a farewell address to him/her and also of the members of Faculty affixed at the beginning of the book will add to its value. It will remind the students of their long association with their mentors Principal, Members of Faculty and the School.

I consider help to our youth to achieve success in their professions and life a noble cause. I, therefore, as my contribution towards that offer this book for Rs.65.00 only against its print price of Rs.125.00(About 50% Discount)

With best regards,

Yours sincerely

L.D.Dewan

email. dewanld@gmail.com

(M) 09914066069

Your Child's Health - Dr Gita Mathai

Thank you, Manoj Albert Jeyaraj for sharing.

Infants and toddlers who come to my clinic are often cranky. Instead of the old techniques of carrying them around, distracting them with toys, or my aquarium, today, more and more parents tackle these behaviour problems by immediately handing the child their smartphone. The child can barely walk or talk, but their podgy fingers swipe the screens expertly as they stare unblinkingly at the coloured images flashing on the screen. Parents think that this is a reflection of the intelligence of their toddler. This is far from the case. It is a disturbing and dangerous trend.

All electronic devices, cell phones, tabs or laptops emit MWR (microwave radiation). Long-term exposure to this radiation is carcinogenic. There is still speculation about exactly how much radiation is safe, with conflicting reports and claims.

A child's thin skull bones allow greater penetration of MWR. His or her nervous system and brain tissue absorb about two times more MWR than that of adults. His or her bone marrow absorbs ten times more radiation.

It is recommended that children under the age of two should not use cellphones at all. In all age groups, it is better to place cell phones a few inches away from the ear. They should be carried in backpacks or purses and not in pockets. In the case of laptops, computers and tablets, the minimum safe distance from the body is 20cm.

Tablets are even more popular than cell phones as pacifiers for children. They have a larger variety of passive and interactive programs. The screen is larger (more radiation), it is also held closer to the face (brain). Children soon learn to video themselves. They replay their own videos in a narcissist fashion. This negates the need for friendship or social interaction. They become self-absorbed, and since they are always in control of the happenings on the tab, they are unable to control their impulses. They do not interact with their peers or adults. Children learn and mature by watching adult social reactions to situations.

They become experts at swiping and tapping movements, usually with the dominant hand. Children constantly on these devices develop no dexterity or motor skills. They remain clumsy. They do not use their imagination to make believe and play. With no story telling or reading, lateral thinking, problem solving and the ability to learn maths and science are affected.

As the child becomes older, television replaces family interaction, play and even study time. Studies have documented that increased television viewing time delays and decreases the development of language, vocabulary and social skills. Some imitate the exaggerated facial contortions and staccato speech of cartoon characters.

Children under two years of age should not watch television at all. Those older than three years who watched an hour or more a day were found to fare poorly academically. Their educational achievements by the age of 26 are behind those of their peers. This is because, with television, everything is readily visible, and requires no analysis, reading or language skills. These areas of the brain lack stimulation and develop poorly.

There are educational programmes on television, specifically designed for children. These are seldom watched. Instead, the focus is on mindless serials, and cartoons with unrealistic situations, which can desensitise the child to violence.

Dependence on media for entertainment leads to social isolation and regression of skills essential for survival and success. Also, after school, homework, tuition and relaxation with television, there is no time physical exercise. This has led to an epidemic of unfit or obese children who develop lifestyle diseases in their twenties.

Dr Gita Mathai is a paediatrician with a family practice at Vellore. Questions on health issues may be emailed to her at yourhealthgm@yahoo.co.in , this article was first published in Telegraph India.

गुरु तेरे कितने रूप---

गुरु तेरे कितने रूप,
जितने भी हैं,सब हैं अनूप।
कभी प्रथम शिक्षिका बन,
माँ के रूप में आते हो।
कभी पिता बन,चलना,फिरना
जीवन की दौड़ सिखाते हो।

कभी धरा सी सहनशीलता।
नभ् सा विस्तार बताते हो।
कभी प्रकृति की छटा बन,
जीवन सिखला जाते हो।।
पुष्प से मुस्कान,
कांटो से कठिनाइयाँ
दरख्तों से कर्मठता समझाते।

तुम ही निराकार ब्रह्म हो,
तुम्ही हो साकार,
तुम ही सबके जीवन को,
देते नवाकार।
तुम बिन कैसे भला,
गोविन्द गीता कह पाते,
राम को राम बना,
श्री वशिष्ट तुम कहलाते।
तुम ही तममय् धरा पर,
एक स्त्रोत हो उजास का।

जो हीरा के गुण लिए
तुम साधन,
उस पाषाण की तलाश का।
तुम देते जीवन को दर्शन,
हर प्रतिबिम्ब का तुम हो दर्पण।
तुम हो ईश्वर,तुम हो मानव,
तुम तो हर कण-कण में हो।

तुम ही हो विष्णुस्परूप।
हे गुरु तेरे कितने रूप,
जितने भी हैं,सब हैं अनूप।।

---पूर्ति वैभव खरे--

Poorti.85@gmail.com

Whispers From Nursery

Almost one and half year back i.e. April 2015, I joined N.S.N. A.V primary wing. It has been an amazing experience; I had hardly imagined that it would involve me so deeply in experimenting with pre-school education.However, I found that nursery school could be an exciting adventure for me, an experience of all the staff and as well as for the tiny tots. I want to share what I learnt over the months of association with my tiny tots.
First of all, I want to share with my personal experience as a mother of two beautiful souls, what shortcomings they faced when they were kids,t hat shortcomings I want to fulfil now in these N.S.N kids.

The falling standard of education and moral values which haunt well meaning all over the country can, in my opinion, be directly attributed to lack of improper facilities for pre-school education.
It was once true that ’Home is the first school and parents are the first teachers’. But the economic stress and strain on fathers and working mothers leave them with little time to attend to the necessary educational requirements of a child and the whole burden during the most impressionable and formative years of the child thus fall on the nursery school teachers and other members.What the child learns during 1 to 5 years of age has a lasting effect on his/her intelligence and attitude, and therefore the way education is imparted at the school is crucial for the child as well as for the society because pre-school education is the plinth on which the future superstructure of education is built.
According to saint philosopher Sir ’Sarvpalli Radhakrishnan’- Education is not something to be packed away in some corner of our brain, but what enters our being. Colours our emotions haunts our soul and is as close to us as life itself. The groundwork of such a broad-based education is accomplished at the primary level only.

According to me the first thing a good nursery school needs a right type of teacher who is in a key position to help nurture the habit of thinking and questioning in the child. All this requires a lot of effort, patience and enthusiasm of a teacher. The teacher at this stage serves as a role model for the child for he is like wet cement, anything that falls on it makes an impression
Games both indoor and outdoor are a must for a child.They develop his muscles and also give him invaluable lessons about cooperation, courage and will to do his best and to be satisfied with himself.

Last but not the least true to its name-- Nawal Shanti Niketan - Peaceful but must be filled with children's voice by which they kindle zeal life in the school premises. whisThis school appears to me as a temple of peace and knowledge for which I as a mother would have dreamt for my kids.
Every day is a new experience for me to be with small kids and performing new challenging task with my full courage and dedication.

My sincere thanks to all the staff members for doing their duty towards our school in an exemplary manner

Regards
Anjali Kaul
akl.av@dbntrust.in
DBN Nawal Shanti Niketan
Jammu

Leadership and its paradoxes

I was never a leader because I understood leadership to be titles and reputation and thus I was one of the masses that believed it’s their right to blame leadership for everything happening in their community and professional lives.

In a journalism class, my writing teacher would sit talking everything under the earth, without writing even a single word on the board.  Students were agitated – they wanted notes, dictations, books and he instead in our class was challenging all of that. He was silently questioning deep-rooted attitudes, somewhere trying to liberate those latent faculties that make a human being a writer. But not many are seekers of themselves, of true knowledge! Not everyone wants to be challenged! We all live in self-made bubbles, our kingdoms in which our notions are kings ruling over all subjects of our psyche.

I was always keen to listen to him but maybe was too inexperienced to understand him and his intentions then. I was only twenty-one years old in his class, fresh out of a small town.

Years later when journalism as an industry had disillusioned me and that happened in the first job itself, it was my teacher’s attitude of non-conformity that helped me believe in myself, pitch my voice and have the courage to stand out, take decisions that would normally not be taken in a career. Not that today I have made renown of myself, that was never my goal – but I do see that my wisdom permeates my knowledge, and my quest keeps getting liberated and wider.

Understanding leadership and its fundamentals began when as a volunteer I started gathering a team for an activism driven media. It was a cause I was extremely passionate and selfless about, involved putting up a team of twenty people from around the country. These people came from different professions, were highly skilled and were all there to contribute selflessly to the cause. However, by the time I could implement something I was left with only one collaborator.

If it was a 9-5 job and I was in it just for the heck of it, I wouldn’t have probably bothered. But what I was doing was driven by my heart and spirit and with so much of energy invested in it, as the endeavour progressed I had many questions. I wanted to understand how and why do people blame me for something they haven’t been able to adhere to. I started questioning my skills, abilities, attitude and behaviour. I wanted to for the first time, impelled by a real life situation understand - how leaders lead the team, how organisations work and how synergy is built. For the first time, I understood success isn’t easy, leadership isn’t glamourous – leadership is about relationships, it goes far beyond one’s ideas and perceptions held dear at any point, it involves letting go at every moment. It involves empowering other people; it involves acting foolish to let others take the limelight, and it involves a whole lot of moment-to-moment positive investment in people. In a way it’s like consciously parenting, educating, and mentoring, supervising lots of people together – it’s a tough job, and maybe that’s why leaders are built by tough life situations. They aren’t built by comforts and can’t be built by selfish motivations. They are far and few!

Accept challenges, look within rather than blaming the system and other people or for that matter fate, believe in yourself and your cause and be bluntly honest in looking within for the cause of misery, problem or challenge that manifest outside. Adhere to a value system and make it your prime intention and practice and in due course, as you lose track of identifying yourself special, the world will start to recognise you a leader. Leaders are born and not created! Thus the best mentor will give you an environment that challenges your fears. Whether you jump to flight from the cliff is a choice only you will make.

Venus Upadhayaya is a journalist and a passionate media professional, she works for school staff leadership development and empowerment of young people, her email is venusupadhayaya@gmail.com .