The Magic of Reading and the Everlasting Bond of Teachers & Students ✨📚- Special session with Sandeep Dutt! 😊📖

Teachers Travel With You All Your Life by Sandeep Dutt

Episode 1: Reading My Good School with Sandeep Dutt

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Today was extraordinary as we had the privilege of reading My Good School by Sandeep Dutt in a special session. What made it even more remarkable was that Mr. Sandeep Dutt read the book aloud! 🎤📖 His narration brought life to the words, making the experience profoundly enriching and memorable.

One of the most touching chapters we explored was "Teachers Travel With You All Your Life". It beautifully portrayed the multiple roles a teacher plays— a journalist 📰, a friend 🤝, a guide 🧭, a mentor 🌟, a guardian 🏡, a detective 🔍, and a problem solver 💡. This chapter truly emphasized that teaching is much more than just standing in front of a class with chalk and a blackboard. A great teacher carries their students in their heart, making learning a joyful and meaningful journey. ❤️✨

We realized that learning is fun when teachers deeply understand their role and connect with students beyond textbooks. A good teacher doesn't just teach; they inspire, nurture, and shape young minds for a lifetime. 🌱📚

A Beautiful Quote to Reflect On:

"A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart." 💖

Let's cherish the wonderful teachers in our lives and celebrate the joy of learning every day! 🎉📖🌟

A BOOK FOR ANYONE AND EVERYONE ASSOCIATED WITH SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLING. 

This book is for parents to select the school for their child, as the choice can have a lifelong impact on the growth and personality of the child. A guide for you to look beyond that high-rise building and those perfectly manicured lawns to go deeper in your search for your good school. It will encourage you to observe, question, evaluate, and choose a school that will truly prepare your child for a life beyond the campus, a life beyond theory, and a life beyond algebra. This book will help educators, school administrators, and management build and rebuild such institutions and change the future of learning. 

Enriched with the knowledge, experience, and, most importantly, the wisdom of Sandeep Dutt, a Doon School alumnus and school improvement coach, this book will encourage conversations about our education system and help shape the future of education worldwide.

Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Rachna Bharrdwaj

“Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christ-like, for his heart was meek, and he always thought of others. Our vocation, to be beautiful, must be full of thought for others.”- Mother Teresa.

Today's children are tomorrow's future. If the present is good, then the future will definitely be golden. That is why it is necessary to work on the present. Strengthen the foundation. If the foundation is strong, then the building itself will be beautiful and strong. So we have to inculcate values in children from their early days. This starts from home itself. When the child starts going to school, he gets a bigger family where he comes in contact with his peers and teachers and is also influenced. In such a situation, the teacher's responsibility increases a lot because he carves the captains of the country.

The teacher is a guide, a coach, a facilitator, a leader, and above all, a role model for the students, contributing to the positive growth of her students and setting the tone of the class.

Assigned time in the classroom

In the classroom, foster thoughtfulness by setting aside time for discussion and giving them a thought to work upon. Like I observed during the fruit break, some children waste their fruit. They throw half-eaten fruits in the dustbin. So in our science class while on the FOOD chapter, I discussed the beneficial qualities of fruits, the hard work that goes into growing it and finally how it reaches our home. The children understood and from then on took care that no one wasted the fruit.

Random acts of kindness

Random acts of kindness increase compassion, which leads to a greater sense of interconnectedness in the classroom, and I feel it is contagious too and when witnessed by others, it causes kindness to spread. Give genuine compliments, and praise is an easy way to spread kindness.

In our school, students perform simple acts of kindness. They make cards, write letters to welcome new students to the campus. They become a guide, their mentor and make them comfortable in their new surroundings.

Volunteer Time

I feel with encouraging words, when you appreciate a student's work, he gains confidence. Here the teacher can take his confidence to another level of thoughtfulness and ask the student to help his classmates understand the topic. Let the student experience this feeling of achievement. Now introduce the ‘Volunteer Time’ in the classroom. You will be amazed to see the results. Children will finish their work efficiently and will be ready to help others. Further, this Volunteer time can be used for community service also.

Self-expression Boards

Empathy is important for creating understanding in students. As teachers, we regularly focus on helping children get along despite their differences. But what about students’ similarities? 

 Often empathy breaks down because students do not see how alike they are. Have students get to know each other.

Ask students to list the memories or moments which they cherish, dreams or goals they have for their life. They may also write about the people they admire and why. Now allow students to go around and look at the other's boards, note down the similarities and connections they see between their own board and their classmates. Finally, give them the stage to share some of the connections they have discovered. This will help to create more empathy and understanding.

“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 an entire house. Thus a small, thoughtful solution can solve major problems.” - Dr APJ Kalam.

• Rachna Bharrdwaj - The Doon Girls School, Dehradun

Cherish Service & Relationship

The goal of the International Award for Young People to Cherish Service and Relationship fits like a perfect glove  with the objective of numerous companies, non profit organizations, local community groups and the Government. As all these sectors believe that empowering the youth, the future of a country, the future of the world holds the key to a progressive society.

The Award Partners all believe that the doing the Award develops essential skills such as confidence, improved communication, leadership, resilience and team working- all essential for a fast paced world of today. The Philosophy of the Award to be individualistic, non-competitive and flexible allows for the Award Programme to be integrated into daily lives without any changes in other commitments of a young persons life. As a matter of  fact, the Programme allows very individual to step outside the competitive, fast paced world of today and focus on one's self-development, to challenge only oneself.

For example, the Corporate sector sees the Award as a perfect mechanism to allow young employees to expand on their experiences by intergrating it with existing training and development programmes including apprenticeships, a level, graduate or other schemes; thus enhancing Corporate Responsibility agendas by promoting volunteering, involvement in the community, a better understanding of the environment and a healthier and fitter workforce.

As we move into a new decade, it becomes all the more imperative to partner and "Equip for Life".