Priya Kuriyan often brings sweet humour to her stories not just through words but also through her incredible art. The decision to bring this story to the teachers' group this Saturday was to have a laugh or two seeing a baby pigeon born in Uttar Pradesh go to school, have birthday parties and travel the world. The struggle that Kamala Mukunda brought in her chapter this week about 'motivation' is real. It touches everyone, each one of us. We are often afraid to say it out loud. How do we incorporate activities that organically build intrinsic motivation in students in our classroom to be curious on their own and take charge of their learning? How do we, as teachers, find ways to have fun while teaching?
On that note, we explored the idea of having scrapbooks for certain topics that the teachers teach and having students experience the real agency in their learning by making these. One teacher gave an example of a Hindi sound and letter she is teaching. She said she would make a list of vocabulary words and have children find these words in their environment and make pictures and write about it. Children love creating and often appreciate just a tiny bit of challenge. Another teacher asked the group what she could do with the social science scrapbook.
This week ended with Jaahbaaz Kishori training in life skills. Midway through it, it felt like life skills should be a part of the B.Ed programme. We often dismiss each other, give feedback without praising, and question without listening, and we are often not listening at all. If we could do just simple things for ourselves as teachers and for our students, we would already have a school that values all aspects of human beings – emotional, physical and mental. How could we leave behind one's emotional life in the learning process? It is a part and parcel of this whole network we are all in.
- Neelashi Mangal, Training and Development Lead at the Learning Forward India Foundation
