Thoughtfulness and Understanding- Anubhuti Sharma

“A door is much smaller compared to the house, a lock is much smaller compared to the door, and a key is the smallest of all, but a key can open the entire house. Thus a small, thoughtful solution can solve major problems.” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Education can enhance the personality of any human being. And this is possible only when all the values are included in us since childhood. Schools are great places where children spend more time and understand most things from there, whether through the syllabus, educators, or companions. Teachers and students have a huge influence on the formation of values. Thoughtfulness means making someone feel important, being kind and empathetic towards others, the quality of thinking and caring about others unconditionally.

As HM, we interact with our children in the dorm daily, we not only interact with the children in our house, but we are always there for every child. We don’t just focus on the problems because we believe that every child is exceptional and needs attention. We sit and interact with everyone individually to listen to them and make them feel important. We inculcate values like thoughtfulness and understanding by showing care and respect towards children. With this, they learn to respect their elders and their juniors and all the helpers who take care of them. We also incorporate thoughtfulness and understanding by allowing children to perform various activities like taking care of the environment, preserving our culture, taking care of public property etc. And when they do a group activity, they learn almost all the values. They understand each other, care about each other, enjoy freedom in a group, and always feel important and contented. Thus, happy children can make every corner of the school happy.

The most important area where I would like to develop thoughtfulness in students.

First of all, I will try to reduce the feeling of competition among students. I will share my thoughts or stories from my childhood to make them believe that competing with others may make you happy for a moment, but it takes you away from certain values. I will not stop my students from competing. Rather, I will tell them to be their own competitors only then you can enjoy the true meaning of all the values. When we start competing with others, we forget to pay attention to; our goals, team spirit, and patient. Due to which there is a lack of understanding among themselves. I would always encourage my children to celebrate and enjoy success but never get discouraged if they don’t win. Whatever you do, give your best.

Thoughtfulness in action inside the classroom.

We can have circle time, where children can express their views, and they will learn to listen, communicate, respect and understand each other. This ability to understand someone else’s thoughts and emotions will make them empathetic. We can do this once a week. We can celebrate this week in many ways. This will help children build relationships and learn to pay attention to the other person.

Extra-curricular activities such as debate, story-writing or telling, art & craft and dramas are proper ways to explain values. It enhances the skills of critical thinking among the students.

Game 1 & Game 2  (Tap on the link to play the game)

Word Wall Game quizzes were conducted in the classroom to teach the meaning of values to the children.

This week I was teaching the lesson on Being a Good Citizen, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to teach values like thoughtfulness and understanding to my students in the classroom. I did an activity with the children to understand the meaning of these two values.

I gave Sentence Stems to all the children and they were not allowed to change the given words, but they needed to add something to it.

- Anubhuti Sharma, The Doon Girls' School, Dehradun