#KYC: Know your Child

All you need is a ‘MAUCA’ (मौका) to Know your child in the classroom #KYC: Know your Child

On January 21, 2023 I attended a continuous professional development workshop organised by CED (Centre for Environment and Development) in collaboration withSahodaya school complex. It was a 5-day workshop but the reason of mentioning 21st January is quite special.

The key speaker on January 21st was Ms. Gurpreet Kaur, Chief Manager, Education and Training at Shri Educare limited, CED 21.

While she was delivering her presentation, one of her slides caught my attention – It read KYC - Know your child.

At that moment I decided this can be a motivational title to write my thoughts upon and here I am sharing my thoughts on #KYC.

Is it essential to know your child? Indeed!

Knowing your child is essential for being able to provide them with love, support, and guidance as they grow and develop. It involves paying attention to their interests, personality, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as staying connected with them through communication and spending quality time together. As teachers, we may feel that we are meeting the child only for 40-45 mins in a day but the impact that we leave on them on the daily basis is for the lifetime.

In the classroom, knowing your child means understanding their learning style, academic strengths and weaknesses, and social and emotional needs.

All you need is a ‘MAUCA’ to Know your child in the classroom.

Monitoring academic progress: Keeping track of your child's SWOT analysis can help you understand them better.

Advocacy: Being an advocate for your child by advocating for their needs and ensuring they receive appropriate support can play a vital role.

Understanding of learning style: Knowing your child's learning style can help you in adapting teaching methods to better suit their needs.

Communication: Regular communication is important to know about your child's academic progress, behaviour, and their interests.

Awareness of social and emotional needs: Paying attention to your child's social and emotional development in the classroom can help you support them and address any concerns.

When a teacher knows their student, they are able to provide individualized support which helps them understand students’ learning style, academic strength and weakness and can help the teacher tailor their teaching approach to meet the student's unique needs.

Knowing your child foster a positive classroom environment and can help the teacher build strong relationship with the students and create a positive and supportive classrooms. Not only this, if you know your child you can address to their concerns quickly and effectively and can enhance their academic success.

Next time when you enter your classroom, remember it is very important for you to know your child to set up a Happy Classroom.

Divyanshi Mehrotra 
Educator 

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Shalini Solanki

When implemented, little thought can bring big changes in ourselves, others, and the world. Emotions, care, empathy, belongingness, togetherness, and respect take birth from thoughtfulness and understanding. To feel for someone or something, one must think, relate and understand. Our day-to-day experiences make us think about anything and everything, which helps us to help others. 

We have a wonderful birthday return gift policy in our school. The birthday boy/girl can give the return gift to nature. Nature has made us, and we can return something to it. According to our school policy, the birthday child can plant a sapling in the school garden and watch it grow with them. This makes them realize their responsibility of keeping the environment safe, green, and secure.

 

Recently there was a birthday in my class, and this child got the sapling in the pot. I asked her to come along and plant the same in the school garden, and she requested me to keep it outside the classroom in the corridor as it will receive the required sunlight and air. She also promised me that she will take care of that sapling and water it on regular basis. Other students said that photosynthesis will happen just outside the classroom. They were very excited and linked it with their prior knowledge. Now the next question, which was asked the birthday girl was if she is absent on any day or for days, who will take care and water the sapling? She thought and asked her peers. Almost everyone got ready to help her. It is just a wonderful feeling to share that we are able to keep our promise and not only the birthday girl, but the entire class takes care of it. This small thoughtfulness has brought unexpected changes to my class. These children at this young age are not only trying to save nature but learning to help each other. Also, understanding the academic concepts clearly.

Shalini Solanki

Gyanshree School, Noida

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Laxmi Kant Bhatt

THOUGHTFULNESS: A sound mind is capable of making distinctions and clarifying, capable of the various modes of discourse that we talk about so often in writing: description, illustration, persuasion, and explanation. A sound mind can make decisions, inquire, and learn how to learn. We want people to be able to practice these various aspects of thoughtfulness alone and with others, verbally and orally, in written form with multiple subjects and with a core kind of knowledge and wrong kinds of activities, given their ages.

UNDERSTANDING: Student-teacher understanding has displayed many advantages in the classroom. First, students who share a positive understanding with their teacher develop more vital social-emotional skills. In addition, these students are more likely to absorb more academic knowledge. The result of a strong student-teacher relationship is that it allows students to feel confident through exploration and taking risks in their academic tasks. In short, students with a positive student-teacher relationship demonstrate more robust performance in the classroom. However, creating an environment that incorporates mutual respect is one of the most significant impacts of a positive student-teacher relationship. One way an educator can build a strong relationship with a student is to explicitly define learning goals and expectations positively. This could look different for groups of students or individual students. The strong connection will allow educators to be aware of their student’s learning and adjust their learning goals and expectations as needed.

Similarly, the educator should enable opportunities for students of all learning styles to participate in class discussions through oral and written communication. In addition to academic advantages, positive student-teacher relationships improve mental health and assist students in developing self-worth. Often, students look up to their educators as mentors. With this in mind, students will likely feel pride when the educator encourages them in their learning and social interactions. Social competence, problem-solving abilities, autonomy, and a feeling of a bright future or purpose are protective elements that boost resilience. These all can be developed in a supportive teaching atmosphere. As noted, students benefit from positive student-teacher relationships. Likewise, educators benefit as well. While creating solid relationships with their students, educators are strengthening their own interpersonal and professional skills. Educators are more likely to respond effectively to stressful situations by improving their interpersonal communication skills. In addition, educators can form relationships with parents and coworkers. In summary, students and educators benefit from creating positive student-teacher understanding.

L.K Bhatt 
The Doon Girls' School

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Roopa Bhattacharyya

Thoughtfulness is the state of thinking carefully about something. It is the quality of being kind, thinking about other people's needs, and showing concern, which is empathy. Children taught kindness and empathy are likely to grow into adults who consider how they might demonstrate more empathy and kindness in their regular interactions.

While many of a child's everyday activities, such as playing, going to school, etc., will provide natural opportunities to develop these critical traits, there is plenty we can do to proactively develop a child's thoughtfulness in the classroom.

Some of the tools that we may use are as follows-

Brainstorm ideas as a class

The brainstorming exercise develops thinking carefully about something and also develops ownership. We can have students brainstorm independently by passing out a notecard to each child and instructing the students to write down something nice that someone else did for them lately and how it made them feel. Once the students are done, collect the note cards and read them aloud to help the students understand acts of kindness.

Random acts of kindness

Once students understand what acts of kindness are, introduce them to random acts of kindness. Sharing this idea with students can encourage them to show kindness to their friends and families in unexpected ways. One method is to use complimentary notes or positive sticky notes. Provide the class with a supply of sticky notes and explain that anyone can take a sticky note at any time and write down a compliment for another student. They should sneak the sticky note onto that student's desk when he or she is not looking to make it genuinely random and fun.

Acts of kindness challenge

Give the students a goal to meet, such as performing three kind acts per week or noticing five kind acts per week. To keep them excited about the challenge, give them star stickers to add to a classroom chart or a paper cut-out to stick on a bulletin board when they meet their goal. As a teacher, we should make sure to practice some kindness ourselves. We can give each student at least one compliment before the end of the day. Before letting our students go for the day, tell them that you purposely complimented each of them during the day and that you noticed a positive change in the classroom mood. Explain that these positive changes are expected outcomes of practising kindness.

Understanding can be defined as sympathetic awareness. To understand the world around you, you need to develop empathy. You show empathy when you sympathise with someone and also display this. Empathy expresses itself in different dimensions – emotion, content, authenticity, timeliness, understanding the other person's feelings, what he is seeking, and reacting promptly.

Enhancing empathy in students is essential. The following tools will help:

Group Circle

The Group Circle activity encourages good listening skills and empathy. The children sit in a circle and pass a "talking piece" around. This is similar to passing the parcel. When the music stops, whoever has the "talking piece" has to speak for a minute on a given topic like, 'I really enjoyed ...', or 'I like my friend ____ because of ...' The exercise helps students relate to one another and can encourage them to accept and share feelings that may be difficult to talk about.

Nice things

Instruct each student to turn to his /her partner and share these positive "talking stems" or prompts:

 One nice thing in my life is…

 Something nice that happened is…

Encourage the kids to be creative with their "nice thing". Assure them that the "nice thing" can be as small as eating something they liked for dinner last night. Next, ask volunteers who would like to share their "nice thing" with the class or who have given their neighbour permission to share their "nice thing". Sharing the "nice thing" will put the students in a more positive frame of mind and make them feel heard and affirmed by others.

Partner Up

This fun and easy activity will encourage your students to help one another. It's as simple as assigning each student a buddy or partner — you can allot or let the students pick their own buddy. Students will work with their partners and turn to their partners first when they need help. For example, if a student misses a day of class and needs copies of handouts, she should first ask her partner. Or, if a student is having trouble with a concept being taught, he should check in with his partner to see whether he or she can explain it before asking another person.

To make sure students get a chance to work on their relationship skills with a wide range of people and personalities, have them switch buddies regularly. They can find a new partner each week, every month, or any period that works for your class.

This activity will give your students ample opportunity to build communication skills, practice accountability, and be kind to one another.

Roopa Bhattacharyya

Ahlcon Public School

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Nitin Sharma

The next activity conducted in the school was The Joy of Giving. Here, students were requested to bring their old belongings, which are no longer in use but in good condition to be given to the needy. For this activity, a Joy of Giving corner was established in the school; daily, students brought some valuable items for others. The more thoughtful you are of others, the more brilliant they will be of you. The more you respect them, the more you will win their respect. Thoughtfulness is a manner which is kind and considerate of others or acts with thought and good sense. Here I would like to share one activity done in the classroom to write one positive thing about your friend. To my goodness, the students wrote one entire paragraph about their friends for that particular quality.

A few days back, I got a complaint regarding a student regarding her behaviour with a school maid, so in this context. I had taken one session in that class where a discussion was done with the students on student code, wherein we discussed the kind of behaviour the students must exhibit in the school, classroom, with the school maids and even with the maids at home. A conversation was brought up on gratitude; we should be thankful to our mothers for the delicious food they cook for us and never disrespect them by saying I will not eat it because it’s not tasty. After this session, that girl realised her mistake and felt sorry for her behaviour. Also, in school, when a student gets sick, the classmates share get well soon cards with them.

Your one act of Kindness can change the world of others. It gives us a feeling of happiness, which is also suitable for our wellness. In the school, on my floor, daily, I see a girl student who cannot walk properly, and two of her friends are always with her to hold her bag and help her up the stairs. Some students are very kind and lend a helping hand to each other whenever someone is in need, which is good for our society as we’re gonna get responsible citizens.

Conducted one activity in the class on Understanding and thoughtfulness where students expressed their views on thoughtfulness and shared their examples on Understanding.

Understanding

Mutual understanding is the backbone of every happy accurate understanding. Good and evil go hand-in-hand; everyone has some positive and negative aspects as well; we must embrace all of this in our understanding. Similarly, Understanding is very Understanding a student Understanding You need to understand your students to teach them. Try to listen to your students; what their need is. The same goes for a student. One should understand their teacher and show their best behaviour. Misunderstanding can lead to conflicts to make any relationship successful. Understanding is the key.

In the end, I want to share that.

“ Understanding is an Art and not. Everyone is an Artist.”
But with the right tools and your efforts, you can learn the art!

~ Thank You!

Road Ahead - Sandeep Dutt on Radio Gham Chhaya

Episode Description

Sandeep Dutt carries a vast legacy - He is the owner of Tne English Book Depot - Dehradun's Century-old bookshop - he has turned his passion for books into sharing his knowledge with the world - an author, mountaineer, Chairman of The Fabindia School as well as a School Improvement Coach with 200 podcasts in his kitty - his practical knowledge is gems for those who are seeking paths for self-improvement. Hear him on our programme Path Pradarshan on Saturday - 28 January 2023, at 4.30 PM only on Radio Gham Chhaya at 90.0 FM #learningforward #joyoflearning #mygoodschool Radio Ghamchhaya is a Nepali Community Radio which is the first ever radio station established by the Gorkhali community, broadcasted in 3 languages, the radio station itself has a story.

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Jaspreet Kaur

Thoughtfulness and Understanding 

Thoughtfulness is the state of being absorbed in thought. A steady gaze reflects thoughtfulness. The quality of being kind and thinking about other people's needs. There are numerous tools, but here I want to share three main tools I  would like to use in my classroom for thoughtfulness in students. These are communication, critical thinking and collaboration. 

Communication: -The first tool I would love to enhance my students' communication skills. This is the essential tool of the 21st century for thoughtfulness. It gives the power to express thoughts and feelings amongst others. These are writing skills,  speaking skills and listening skills. 

Critical thinking: - The second tool I want to inculcate is critical thinking. Critical thinking is a kind of thinking in which you question, analyze, interpret, evaluate and judge what you read, hear, say, or write. This is essential for every student; with this tool, learners can analyze every situation and get fruitful results. 

Collaboration: - The third tool I would like to inculcate is collaboration. When students complete their tasks collaboratively, they learn teamwork. When students work in teams, they know how to manage time and resources. Collaboration plays a  vital role in students' life. 

Understanding Empathy  

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It's the ability to understand another person's thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view rather than your own. It differs from sympathy, where one is moved by the thoughts and feelings of another but maintains an emotional distance. Giving people your full attention in meetings, being curious about their lives and interests, and offering constructive feedback are all empathic behaviours.  

I will conduct various activities to inculcate ethical values and empathy among my students. I will advise my students to help their friends without laughing at them. I will ask my learners to work on listening to people without interrupting them. I will ask my students to strengthen their connection with others to learn more about how they feel. Moreover, we can see the world from another person's perspective when we feel empathy. This can lead to a more compassionate response and a deeper understanding of their experience. You may be the sort of person who gets elated for someone happy. You want the people around you to experience joy. When they're joyful, you feel that and can partake in that emotion together. 

Ms. Jaspreet Kaur 

Kamla Nehru Public School, Phagwara

Humility and Appreciation - Ruchi Chaudhary

How many times have you avoided an arrogant person? Whether it be the kid in kindergarten who boasts about his toys, or the coworker that never seems to accept any advice, I’m sure you’ve never been in a rush to collaborate with those solely and blatantly concerned about themselves over others. Naturally, individuals want to collaborate with others who will listen, respect, and value their input. Applying humility to your own life opens up the opportune door of collaboration!  

Activity: 

I ask my students to greet everyone, say ‘Thank you’, and ‘Please’. Similarly, teaching them to apologise and say ‘Sorry’ when their actions hurt another person is essential. Helping them understand how apologising is a form of giving respect. Teaching them to accept a compliment genuinely. If they are appreciated for the smallest of their work, like handwriting, ask them to get the praise with a ‘Thank you’ and say something they like about the other person. 

Lesson on Humility  

Humility cannot be imposed. It is important not to confuse humiliation, bullying and beating down with education in humility. When you put humility in your own life, you immediately set yourself up to inspire others — that’s a special gift. So, it’s time to start practising humility! 

Appreciation  

Students, especially those in high school, face enormous pressure to succeed. Add to that hormonal and physical changes and non-stop digital media streams — students can lose sight of the good things in their lives.   

When was the last time you took a moment to appreciate the students around you, not for what they’ve learned, accomplished or done for you, but just for being in your life?  

In my recent class, 9 B, most of the students are average in their studies, but they all are different in their everyday behaviour. They are well-behaved, disciplined, and always follow the teacher’s direction; after getting appreciation from almost every subject teacher, they are improving their grades too, which happened because of the power of appreciation.  

Ruchi Chaudhary 

Mussoorie Public School  

Art and it's importance - Subrata Sarkar

Nowadays, Art is taught in every school to develop students’ strength to explore their emotions, opinions, and ideas through a required medium. Paintings and sculptures are popular forms of Art. Art is an expression of the reality of your core. If you can see the unique side of a situation which can’t be seen by the majority, you are an Artist. Art should be taught to every student to know another side of life.

Art is not only doing sketches and paintings but also managing our lives and making our surroundings beautiful by documenting that particular moment. Knowing Art is about creating a separate room in your mind. For example, ancient people used to live outside without homes; even now, only four walls and a ceiling are enough to protect themselves. Still, your mind will not be satisfied only by that, and you will need more unnecessary things to make the room beautiful because it’s a matter of your feeling.

Instead of four walls, you desire a beautiful architectural form and arranged environments around you. Documenting the moments through Art reminds us about our human revolutions so far. When studying Art or observing an object, you are trying to connect that particular object, feeling and knowing better about something or someone else. At that right moment, you may find a different meaning or perspective. That perspective is your contribution. So, Art helps build a relationship with everything around them, even with a single insect, and an artist can respect all their existence. That’s why an Art guru always seems to suggest observing things. Here Drawing is the best form of keeping something in detail.

Art is a practice of seeing life uniquely, and students may explore the bright side of negative things in life in terms of their career, visuals, feelings, opinion and many more. That’s why the mother of Art is combined with expression like singing, painting, dancing, writing, performance etc. At this moment, if the page of Art is wiped out from your life, your life will go blank because whatever you are wearing, how you are behaving, whatever you are talking about or making your life very simple & intelligent are the fundamental fragments of Art. Think once why only a particular thing is extraordinary for you, although plenty of similar items are available. If you can understand Art, that means you’re a devotee, or if you create Art, you are unique. As like we can feel a song profoundly but can’t sing. So, for the students, Art makes them realise how important their feelings are in the present time.

I have a task for you if you accept. Have you ever wondered why only something that you like in the universe without reason? Everyone loves flowers, even you also. If I ask you why do you love that? Why is it beautiful? Tell me the exact reason for the beauty of that flower? “I just like it” is not the answer. Go near a beautiful flower, observe it carefully along with your copy, and start writing about its beauty–it’s not a simple task. I’m sure your mind will go blank. You may feel but hard to express. It will be a unique achievement if you try and can write a few lines. That’s the supreme achievement in Art, as you deeply feel something and can make someone feel the same in the same density is a big challenge for an artist. This is how your mind is getting to be mastered.

Sometimes I am amazed by how ancient people struggled to document Art forms in caves in 40,000 BC. Today’s yield of success is derived from them. They were unique. If you start a journey of Art History towards prehistoric, you will be mesmerised at every turn. “Without our past, there is no future”.

ART: Art is an expression of values or emotions and the connection between qualities of a relationship (it could be anything), creating a form of whatever you think of. 

Subrata Sarkar
The Fabindia School

विचारशीलता और आपसी समझ - ज्योति तड़ियाल

Thoughtfullness अर्थात विचारशीलता, चिंताशीलता, सोच विचार या सोच समझ।

अनेक अर्थ स्वयं में समाहित किए यह शब्द पूर्णता प्रदर्शित करता है। किसी भी विषय पर कार्य करने से पूर्व विचारशीलता अति आवश्यक है। कार्य को सही दिशा में कार्यान्वित करने के लिए विचारशीलता अत्यंत आवश्यक है। कक्षा कक्ष में भी सोच विचार के द्वारा ही सभी कार्य सुगमता से पूरे होते हैं। कक्षा कक्ष में कार्य की सफलता हेतु तीन प्रकार के उपाय अपनाए जा सकते हैं –

पहला किसी भी कार्य को करने से पूर्व विद्यार्थियों के मध्य उसकी सोच समझ विकसित करना। जब कार्य को भली प्रकार से सोच समझकर किया जाता है तो उसका परिणाम सुखद ही होता है।

दूसरा आपसी समझ । किसी भी कार्य को दो दिमाग अधिक अच्छे से कर सकते हैं परंतु यह तभी संभव है जब दोनो दिमाग एक दिशा में सही तालमेल के साथ सोचें। विद्यार्थियों को इस बात के लिए प्रोत्साहित किया जाए कि उनके मध्य सही तालमेल बना रहे, तभी प्रयास सार्थक होंगे।

तीसरा है सावधानी। किसी भी कार्य को करने से पूर्व क्या क्या सावधानियां आवश्यक हैं यह भी कक्षा कक्ष में चर्चा का विषय है हर कार्य में सावधानी से ही सफलता प्राप्त की जा सकती है।

अपने विद्यार्थियों के मध्य विचारशीलता को सही प्रकार से परिभाषित करना आवश्यक है। कक्षा कक्ष में इसे सही रूप से कार्यान्वित भी करना आवश्यक है। किसी भी कार्य की सफलता उस पर किए गए सोच विचार व सोच समझ पर ही निर्भर है।

Understanding के हिंदी पर्याय हैं – सहमति, समझदारी, सामंजस्य, तालमेल व आपसी समझ।

सहमति व सामंजस्य के द्वारा ही हमारे भीतर समानुभूति की भावना उत्पन्न होती है। विद्यार्थियों के मध्य इस भाव को विकसित करना अत्यंत आवश्यक है।जब हम दूसरे के कष्ट व परेशानी को दया की दृष्टि से न देखे अपितु उस पर समानुभूति व संवेदना का भाव रखें तो इसे ही empathy व समानुभूति कहते हैं।

कक्षा कक्ष में ऐसी परिस्थिति उत्पन्न करी जाए जहां कुछ विद्यार्थी स्वयं को किसी कार्य में असमर्थ पा रहे हैं, उन्हें सहायता की आवश्यकता है । उसी समय कुछ विद्यार्थियों  को उनका सहायक बनाया जाए। वे उन विद्यार्थियों की सहायता इस भाव से करें मानो वे स्वयं ही इस परिस्थिति का। सामना कर रहे हों। धीरे धीरे यह भावना सभी विद्यार्थियों में विकसित हो जायेगी। सारे विद्यार्थी इस प्रकार समानुभुति की भावना से पूर्ण होंगे और सबकी सहायता करना सीख जाएंगे। इस प्रकार निश्चित रूप से वे उत्कृष्ट नागरिक बनेंगे। 

यह एक शाश्वत सत्य ही है कि समानुभूति व सामंजस्य की यह भावना जीवन में भी विद्यार्थियों के लिए अत्यंत फलदायी रहेगी व कुशल नागरिकों का निर्माण करेगी।

ज्योति तड़ियाल
द दून गर्ल्स स्कूल

Unity and Caring - Sukhpreet Kaur

The significance which is in Unity is an eternal wonder. – Rabindranath Tagore

Unity or teamwork occurs when diverse abilities and insights join together to achieve a common goal. It is sustained by concentrating energy, accepting and appreciating the value of the array of participants and the unique contribution each can make and remaining loyal to one another and the task. It inspires more substantial personal commitment and more extraordinary collective achievement. The nature of society is different. Each individual who grows up is separate, unmixed and non-repeatable.

Unity:-

In Grade V, I conducted one activity on The United Nations (UN) based on Unity. Students were divided into 5 teams. Students researched various works of the United Nations in India. Topics for the teams were:- 

TEAM-1 Poverty and Urbanisation

TEAM-2 Health, Water, and Sanitation

TEAM-3- Education and Employability

TEAM-4 Gender Equality and Youth Development

TEAM 5 Climate Change, Clean Energy and Disaster

Each Team was divided into roles. Buzz (Team), Affinity (Questionnaire), Teach and talk (presenting conclusion) and Critics.

The task was given to them during winter vacations. The presentation was in the second week of January. I was happy to see the work presented by them. Even I asked them what they learnt from this activity? I would like to share the learning shared by a few participants of Team -2:

It was a great acTeamty. I learned about how the United Nations manages Health, Sanitation and water for needy people worldwide. I discovered my team member's hidden qualities and learned to manage them together. I learned how to work in Unity, also. This was my best activity in 5th grade. Thank you, Ma'am, for giving us such a great activity!

Thank you, Ma'am, for this activity. I liked the group work and how Parvi properly managed all of us. I would like to be in Parvi's Team in future, also. I learned when people me shouting how to manage them politely from Parvi. And thank you, Ma'am, for this united activity.

I was excited to hear about our topic when we presented the activity. I found this activity to be unique because of its Unity. I learned that Unity makes our work easy too. Thank you, Ma'am, for this great activity.

As a facilitator, I guided my students about the topics and explained the value of a team. Students worked well in the Team. I was amazed to see the handholding of each Team during the presentation. Students who were critics used their power and role for the betterment of everyone. With maturity and self-reflection, more research work will happen in future. I would like to share one quote from Rabindranath Tagore "Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."

Caring:- 

Indeed this quote speaks the truth of life. The picture was my assignment for the students. I displayed this picture, and I felt silence in my class. Suddenly one student wrote the word kindness on the whiteboard. This was the trigger for our discussion. While discussing values in my class, I observed different views and opinions. Then I shared another picture which was related to success.

I asked what is most important to them– achieving at a high level or achieving at a high level and caring for others. I received mixed responses. I did this survey with the age group of 10-17 years old children. I was distraught to see the result when I observed 75 per cent chose to achieve at a high level, and 25 per cent decided to perform at a high level and to care for others.

The 25 per cent age group was 10-12 years old children. So it is essential to inculcate values from the initial phase of life. I would like to end with the English proverb - As you Sow, So Shall you Reap. Sukhpreet Kaur
Gyanshree School, Noida Happy Teachers JOL Cohort 2022

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Rishona Chopra

Thoughtfulness and Understanding are deeply related. Thoughtfulness creates Understanding. Understanding a person is essential in a classroom, for a teacher to child and a child to the teacher. Children need to understand their peers and teachers.

We all have this mutual respect for the class teacher in our class. Although we sometimes do trouble her, sometimes we love her a lot. On her birthday, we make cards and give out toffees to the entire class in happiness! When absent, the whole class expects her to be unwell, and we make a big get well soon card for her. The entire class's Understanding of their teacher creates a togetherness, and the teacher's Understanding of the children is unique. She cares for us, has fun with us, and is something we could never repay. 

Not just within a classroom, but thoughtfulness for animals, your parents, your friends and any person in the world. Even giving water to a dog, opening the door for a child, and pointing that someone's shoelaces are untied. It all counts and shows your thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness for mother nature. If thoughtfulness existed for everyone and everything, everything would be a whole deal better.

Thoughtfulness is just when a thought comes to you to care for someone. Just simply that thought creates Understanding. A little consideration, and a little review for others, make all the difference.

"A thought of kindness, 
A thought of caring,
Just that one thought creates an Understanding.
And understanding leads to Empathy."

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School