In the Footsteps of Tagore: A Journey Through Art, Music, and Poetry

🎨 Meeting Melody – Why We Gathered

To honour the birth of Rabindranath Tagore, exploring the rich tapestry of his contributions to literature, music, art, and education.

📜 Echoes of Insight – What We Discovered

• Tagore was a true renaissance soul, shining in poetry, painting, music, and prose.

• His works resonate with devotion, love, patriotism, and the beauty of nature.

• He believed education should touch the heart and hands, not just the head.

• His worldview blended East and West, creating universal harmony in his art.

🖋️ Verses and Vistas – His Literary Soul

• Received the Nobel Prize for Gitanjali, a soul-stirring collection of poems.

• Wrote plays, novels, and poems rich with spiritual and emotional depth.

• Themes included inner awakening, human connection, and love for the natural world.

• Translated his own work to reach global hearts.

🎨 Colours of the Quiet Mind – Tagore the Painter

• Took to painting in his twilight years, letting emotions flow through bold strokes.

• His artworks carried a quiet melancholy and abstract beauty.

• His visual expressions echoed the voices of modern European artists.

• Through his brush, he painted what words could no longer say.

🎶 The Music Within – Tagore’s Harmonies

• Gave birth to Rabindra Sangeet, a lyrical blend of cultures.

• Wove together Indian classical, folk, and Western melodies.

• Penned songs for his stories and poems, giving rhythm to his words.

• His music remains timeless, sung in hearts across generations.

🌱 Learning in Light – His Vision of Education

• Founded Visva-Bharati, where nature, creativity, and curiosity danced together.

• Believed learning should be joyful and deeply connected to life.

• Arts and music were as vital as reading and writing.

• Saw education as a path to inner peace and global harmony.

🌸 Seeds for Tomorrow – What Comes Next

• Plan a soul-nourishing school trip to Shanti Niketan.

• Encourage students to explore his stories, paintings, and songs.

• Reflect on his ideals of unity and peace in our diverse world today.

As we conclude this tribute, let us carry forward Rabindranath Tagore's timeless vision of humanity, harmony, and creativity. May his words continue to inspire us to seek beauty and truth in every aspect of life.

Love Learning Vs Hate Learning - Mohini Rai

When an 18-year-old boy still remembers his kindergarten teacher, who taught him in the school when he was just 3 years old, that is a love learning. And the reason for this is the memory which is alive deep in his heart. The boy can still cherish those old memories of him with his teacher singing and enjoying the nursery rhymes being in her hands, moving round and round and round in circles and dancing with his teacher “Beauty maa’am”. It is not less than a miracle remembering the name of the teacher when the boy was just 3 years old. So in one sentence I can say that love learning last with the last breath of the life and it passes through generations and generations.

 It is true that I am a teacher by chance but the interest of teaching is in my blood. This is what I believe. I am a good teacher, no matter inside the school campus or outside the school. Of course initially joining the job of a Teacher was my need but gradually this need converted into interest and has become a part of My Life. It is true that life cannot be led without money. To survive in this world and to be alive we need money. Hence I also needed money and did this job. But I started getting connected to my job deeply when I experienced the joy of this job by receiving the sweet and loving reflections from my student. Teaching in a school is a soulful job. Each and every day makes you feel alive. You will experience ups and downs but when you will come before your students, you will forget everything, all bad phases and tensions and you will get involved with your children in a positive way. In this whole process if a teacher can touch one single heart out of 40 students, teacher should understand that his work is done well.

 As a teacher I do not focus on the negative parts of my job. Of course sometimes I get panic when I am overloaded with work. But the next moment I calm myself, sit silently and then I think that I will do my best whatever is the task assigned to me and even if I fail in completing my work that is also a learning for me. I take my work as a continuous learning process. There is a famous saying that ‘everyone can't be Jack of all trait’. I also can't be the Jack. But I can try at least. Personally I believe that everyone should maintain a balance between a family life and a professional life. We have our responsibilities and roles towards both. We cannot avoid any of them. So things should be planned in such a way that it should not disturb each other. I also believe in equal distribution of work in any system. Because those who are good performer are over burdened with more and more work whereas those who perform badly are for given front Work. Sometimes such things disturbs the balance in the system as well as in personal life also. I also want to say that system should analyze and provide equal opportunities to all the employee. So that all will work with a happy framework of mind.

Now let's talk about love learning and hate learning. A class full of 40 students includes 40 different personalities with different interest, IQ, hobbies, behaviors, values, family backgrounds, society etc. Hence they all perform differently in their assessments. It is usually being observed that children are weak in major subjects which are based on concepts and this does not happen in 1 day or one month or 1 year. Students get weak and year by year. Becoming weaker in any subject may have numbers of reason. For example a child could be weak in math or science because of not attending classes regularly, being busy in co-curricular activities, or because of dislike for the subject or subject teacher. But the less marks does not decide child's wisdom or his potential. Also there are different types of children for example some children learn under pressure whereas some learn when they are happily ready to learn. So a teacher must develop a rapport with these students. 

In the starting period teacher should get some time to understand students mindset so that learning can be done in a positive way. Until and unless a child is not connected with the teacher, the subject being taught by the teacher will be difficult to be understood by the child. Gradually student will develop fear or hesitation with the subject teacher and hence stops asking questions. Day-by-day he/she will keep on moving to the next topics with piled up doubts in their mind. That is how they become weak and weaker day-by-day in the particular subject. Becoming weaker in the subject ends up the interest in that subject. And the student finds the particular subject boring and stops paying attention. Also try to run away from that subject and ignores the subject teacher. Hence love learning can only be done if the child is happily ready to learn.

In my opinion a teacher should look presentable and approachable. Each student observes his or her teacher minutely, a small talk by a teacher means a lot to the student, a small encouragement done by the teacher can be a big effort in bringing change and improvement in child's performance.. Once the child gets connected to the teacher it means teacher has won the half battle. Because the child will put his or her best effort in making the particular teacher happy, the child will try not to leave chance of complaint, it will focus more and more. That is how the child will start moving towards this step of Improvement.

MOHINI RAI

Sunbeam Suncity School and Hostel 

Heart vs Mind - Mizan Ali

Parenting often requires parents to act more as facilitators rather than leaders. Parents tend to interact with their children based on their own past experiences, offering advice like, "We've faced this before, so you should do this or that." However, this approach can sometimes be flawed because society, its systems, and circumstances evolve with each generation. One constant, though, is ‘emotion,’ which manifests differently at various stages of life.

Adolescence, in particular, is a phase marked by heightened emotional turbulence. This includes competition with peers, romantic attractions, concerns about appearance and style, and sometimes confusing friendship with love. In these moments, teachers and parents need to understand the adolescent mindset and respond to mistakes or unexpected behavior with patience and empathy. It’s essential to consistently remind children of their goals and encourage them to prioritize their individuality. This helps them manage their emotions and prevents feelings from overwhelming their sense of self.

Mizan Ali
Sunbeam Indiranagar

Heart Vs Mind - Sunbeam School Indiranagar

Listen to our podcast.

Parenting is such a challenge that parents must be facilitators more than leaders. Parents behave with children based on their experience, and while sharing their experiences, explain to them that we have also faced such a situation, so they should do this or that. Still, we parents make this mistake because the time and the system of society keep changing, and the circumstances keep changing in every generation. If something does not change then it is 'emotions'; which are different at every age.

Adolescence is such a stage of age in which the confusion of emotions is intense, for example, competition with friends, attraction, awareness about one's looks and style and considering friendship as love, etc. In such situations, we teachers and parents should understand the children's mental state and take the mistakes or unexpected behaviour done by them in a usual way. In such situations, children should be repeatedly reminded of their goals. They should be given the mantra of keeping their personality paramount so they do not let emotions dominate them.

Shalini Tiwari

Chandrani Singh

Shilpi Chakraborty

Vijeta Wilson

Sunbeam School Indiranagar Varanasi

Soft Influencing - Nikita Rajpurohit

If you come around a post, a story, a meme, or a hashtag on social media, please don't follow the herd blindly and start sharing it. The reason is that you all have been brainwashed in some or other way, which is known as Soft Influencing. It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. 

All these mainstream idols have been fed a golden spoon of dollars to share such content which might not seem to be harassing or targeting anything, but they build a particular image of something deep down your subconscious mind.

For example:- The latest Baba ka Dhaba controversy, where most social media users didn't have any idea about who's right or who's wrong, but still everyone was becoming the jury of this activity. The heart saddening thing is that so-called social media influencers are so corrupted that they can defame their own caste, society, country or even their own family. 

There could be a hundred-page book where I can factually prove that soft influencing is damaging us mentally daily. The only hope is that the new generation should be smart enough to understand the dual side. Importantly, they should distinguish between influence and manipulation and learn how to protect yourself from the unwanted influence of others.

Nikita Rajpurohit

nra@fabindiaschools.in

The Fabindia School

Simplicity And Trust - Optimizer BHIS

Leadership is an achievement of trust

We must be the poets of our own lives and of a new generation. Every teacher works hard to instill the values of simplicity and trust in the lives of his/her students. Have you noticed that simplicity and trust go hand in hand? The story of Rahul upholds both the values which are the greatest treasures of a human’s life.

Rahul was simple and kind but lacked good communication skills, was academically poor and had illegible handwriting. Ms. Ritu, his class teacher, tried using simple strategies to improve his weakest areas since the exams were approaching. However, the outcome was not encouraging. She had a counseling session with Rahul and realized that he wasn't afraid of hard work but was terrified of failure. The complexity of the subjects just added to his fear that eroded away his confidence.
            

Ms. Ritu decided to explore alternative ways of helping Rahul. She tried simple methods by creating situations where he could rely on her. She first made him realise that she trusted him completely - a slow but steady process. Later, she analyzed his study pattern, gave practical suggestions and then reminded him to read the lessons thoroughly by creating mind maps.

The simpler she began to make the concepts, the more it helped improve Rahul’s efficiency and focus on studies. He started scoring good marks in weekly tests as well as improved his communication and writing abilities.  The class began to notice and appreciate his efforts. Ms Ritu often reminded him of the famous quote “It is always the simple that produces the marvellous”.

Rahul believed in those words strongly and it encouraged him to thrive as a student in the class. When he shared his story of transformation with his classmates, he never forgot to highlight his teacher's trust in him. The teacher praised his simplicity, his patience and faith which had brought him success.

“Be all in or get all out. There is no halfway.”

Optimizer@Billabong High International School Thane - Madhubala Saji, Kalyani Chaudhuri, Ajita Bhoir, Rupal Trivedi, Kshama Rajgor, Momita Banerjee, Sanket Patel.

Writing Skill:Usman Gani

Students who learn to write a complete sentence at a young age are more likely to apply that knowledge and develop that skill into writing complete paragraphs as they age. Mastering writing at an early age is associated with higher outcomes on standardized testing and overall performance in school. Good writers are good readers. Writing gives voice to our inner thoughts and allows us to share them. As a form of communication, writing can transcend time and is a way to pass stories from generation to generation. 

It has been said that the best way to improve anyone’s reading is to have them write. Writing focuses students on phonics, comprehension, mechanics, developing their voice or perspective, and communicating this perspective to others. Gone are the days of diagramming sentences.  

Balanced Literacy focuses on developing the many skills that good readers and writers possess, in an authentic method of communication. Writing makes for better readers and improves comprehension and critical thinking.  

Usman Gani #HappyTeachers

The Fabindia School, Bali

ugi4fab@gmail.com

21st Century Educators

The Educators at The Iconic School are reading Kavita Ghosh’s Book for the Level II of the Learning Forward India three-year Professional Learning Program. 

The 21st century portrays a plethora of opportunities for every individual of the society. This calls for a great change in systems and skills of individuals. School education will become the first platform for this change. The stakeholders of this change are the school management, Educators and students. The change here means that most of the school systems need to be upgraded or revised. These systems include focus on the overall development of the student,  hiring Educators who are ready to experiment and are progressive in thoughts and actions.  The management needs to revise the conventional policies that give enough freedom for the school, educators and students to evolve.

The defined change can lead to multiple developments as the potential of every individual is recognized and catered. In such an environment  the education system will be able to provide opportunities and challenges to students to create  their individual development path as As per their interest. This conducive environment will build a human Possessing  21st century skills. Therefore the partnership between schools and parents need to be extremely strong in order to support the interest of the individuals. The need of the hour is to move beyond the conventional methodology of recruiting the Educators. The progressive educator need not be an excellent academician,  but should possess the skills to address the diversity in the classroom respecting and bringing out the best from every individual.

- Helpful Icons 

Soham Anand: 'Right' to become something!

The problem with today's young generation is their falsely intense belief in their geniousness and  insanity to become something, be it at the cost of sacrificing  all morality and ethics. Their 'Right' to become something, in term of material wellness, with total disregard to value behaviour is what is threatening and scary.

Their  real life is often the life  they do not live. Our young generation live a borrowed life, not theirs. The conflicts and strives, the disappointments and disruptions are the direct outcome of this borrowed life style.

The spirit of compassion and empathy has no place in their scheme of things, even if it is on the surface. Scrape the surface little deeper and you see callousness and unimaginable crudeness. Lust and greed has overtaken all the finer qualities and graces of life.

The maddening rush, the shrill noises, deafning crescendo, to become something, is so painfully loud that the less fortunate one are left behind to struggle and die.

Stepping on someone's toe to climb the ladder of success doesn't evoke any regret or repentance, rather it is the done thing. Today's spirit has less to do with compassion and sympathy, more with deodorants and perfumes.