An Encounter With Metacognition - Nibbrati Rathore

 “I cannot teach anyone anything. I can only make them think.” - Socrates.

If you could trigger thinking in children, you have introduced them to the first step of metacognition. Mostly the thinking process is concealed because people have little understanding of how they think. Concisely we can say - thinking is an internal conversation weighing up different viewpoints. And learning is just a consequence of thinking.

Here is a little story on how metacognition can help and how we are already using it in our classroom. Certainly, we can refine and improve our strategies.

CHAPTER: SHIVA

A student named Shiva took admission in grade 3 under the mentorship of Ms Priya. Shiva was a quiet and shy child. He was a loner, and to make him sit at a place was a nightmare for Ms Priya. He used to score low in almost all the subjects. But could solve grade 7 algebraic expressions on the board.

Does he remind you of Einstein?

Ms Priya thought and devised a roadmap to bring change in Shiva.

1. Connect with the Parent:  Despite her repeated efforts, Ms Priya could not make Shiva gain any interest in studies or sports. Sensing some family problems, Ms Priya invited his father, Mr Raman, for an interaction. Mr Raman came with his bullets ready, to which Ms Priya chose simply to listen and observe. She sensed a disruption in the family which led Shiva caged into his thought bubble.
2. Name it to tame it- Ms Priya started spending time with Shiva during lunch breaks, talking and sharing. When she felt Shiva has started opening, she took his storytelling sessions. Shiva used to set a narrative to which Ms Priya gave names, slowly Shiva started naming his feelings and emotions. And then he started illustrating the incidences which made him upset. Ms Priya knew that Shiva was running away from his feelings to stay normal, but this eventually made him rigid. The whole-brain approach of Ms Priya helped Shiva to connect with his inner unknown feelings and develop horizontal integration between the right and left brain. - By term 2, Shiva started becoming friends with his classmates.
3. Ringa Ringa Roses:  As Ms Priya could not get enough help from Shiva’s parents, she took other subject teachers and the H.M into confidence and shared about Shiva, H.M and all the subject mentors held each other’s hands, sat, and discussed ways to help Shiva. Keeping an account of Shiva’s work, his illustrations, his behaviour with peers and every minute detail was penned by the teachers as anecdotes. This gave teachers enough to support planning their strategies. And now it worked better. - A team is always stronger than an individual.
4. Responsibility – The day Shiva heard his name as “The Word Wall Monitor”, his face lit with joy. This was the first time Ms Priya could see all his teeth and a spark in his eyes. She understood, children need encouragement and validation. By now, Shiva has understood how he can make friends, why sharing lunch is so much fun, how to ask for help, and how to help someone with his homework. Also, by now, he could analyse that he could not understand few topics because of how they were taught.  - She learned that he understands best by writing. So he started taking notes, and that helped.
5. Budding scientist – Shiva made a model on the flow of electricity using conductors in grade 3. This amazed every teacher, and he was lauded for his work. Slowly Shiva realised that he can understand everything which has logic. - He started connecting even grammar topics with examples and logic. 

And slowly, we saw a bud unfurling and blooming.

Now Shiva is in grade 5, and the genius is scoring satisfactory grades but doesn’t leave a chance to amaze the audience with his writings and models. He loves to write now and can express and manage his emotions well. 

Our HM, Ms Priya, the subject mentors, didi - bhaiyya, and even Shiva’s classmates have contributed. 

Reflection
The way that we learn information is determined by the processes that we put in place, and if you are analysing how you are learning the information or how you are thinking about it, you are there. Here if Ms Priya had employed her strategies in any random fashion, it wouldn’t have worked. So for every child, there is a unique formula, which either he knows, or you may know, decoding the formula by the child is metacognition.

- Nibbrati Rathore is an educator at the Gyanshree School, Noida

Footprints of the past - Sukhpreet Kaur

Today's turning point

“Tell me a fact, and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth, and I’ll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.” – Indian Proverb.

Storytelling is a unique way to enable students to understand, respect, connect, and appreciate different cultures and promote a positive attitude in them. It is the art of touching the students' soul and helping them listen to their inner voice. It is a natural mode of thinking. Before our formal education begins, we start learning from Aesop’s fables, fairy tales, or family history. 

During my student life, storytelling was a culture of my family. Every Sunday, there was a session of storytelling by my parents. Stories were of different types and on different topics. It was a magical tool and a guiding spirit for us. 

I, too, love to narrate stories to my students. One day I narrated the following story to my students:

In the past, in our country, it was a custom for shoe-makers to keep an empty chair outside their shops in the morning. As soon as the first customer would arrive, the shopkeeper, after selling the pair of shoes, would lift the chair and take it inside the shop. When the next customer would come to the same shop, the shopkeeper would look around the market and point to a shop with a chair still placed outside and ask the customer to purchase from that shop with the assurance that he will get what he needs.

If the customer would ask why the shoemaker is losing his earnings for someone else, he will say that I have already got my first earning of the day (bohni - in Hindi) and my fellow members need to earn for the day. 

An empty chair outside a shop was a sign that the shopkeeper had not received any customer yet, and all the shoemakers had an understanding amongst them that they have to ensure that each and every one of them must get at least one customer for the day. This ensured that they had a strong community bond, and all of them grew together.

I observed silence in the class. The moment I was about to speak, students started asking me thought-provoking questions like--

• Do such people really exist? 

• Can we inspire someone? 

• Can we change the world the way we want for the betterment of mankind?

• Will our elders listen to us?

I was quiet for a second, and then we shared our feelings with each other. 

 I believe that a story can guide and help students

• to connect with their teacher 

• to enhance their listening skills

• to change their thought process 

• to reflect

• get inspiration for the future 

• to promote a feeling of well-being 

• to relax their body, mind and soul

• increase willingness to communicate their thoughts and feelings

• for active participation 

• enhance their verbal proficiency

• to use imagination, creativity, critical thinking

• to learn cooperation

• to bridge the gap of past and present

• to share their opinions and experiences willingly

So, do share your stories and experiences of your teaching life and inspire all of us. 

Sukhpreet Kaur
Gyanshree School, Noida

Technology : A Boon - Jitendra Suthar

Courtesy: medium.com

Technology is the most helpful style of science for the final population. In straightforward words, technology is from where we take the ideas of science and rework them into gadgets and devices that area unit is helpful to the nation as persons. Once we shop around, virtually everything may be a result of or a style of technology.

For example, the device you’re victimisation right away may be a style of technology created for communication or the white goods in your room may be a use of science that helps to stay your food contemporary and funky.

 
It isn’t straightforward to imagine our lives while not victimisation any style of technology. For the littlest of communications, we tend to show to our mobile phones. Even most of the food we tend to eat is pre-packaged in factories with the help of varied technologies. Thus, imagining a life without technology is not possible. It’s not solely a truth of life however additionally a necessity for all the people.

In fact, the smartphone, that is, a transportable which might connect with the web is changing into one amongst the fastest-growing and most accessible sorts of technology around the world. On a smartphone, you’ll be able to click pictures, browse the web, hear music, and use social media. With the appearance of smartphone technology, the sensible purpose of not solely communication along with your friends is met, however additionally such a large amount of others, as mentioned. Scientists have done such a lot to advance humans victimisation technology, and that we still have an extended thanks to go.

Jitendra Suthar
The Fabindia School
jsr@fabindiaschools.in

Making Mathematics Joyful - Prerna Rathod

I attended CBSE Workshop on 15th July.  The topic was “Joyful Mathematics – Creating a Culture of

Mathematics.” The host center of excellence was Dehradun and the resource person was Mr. Shiv Narayan Hari Sharma.

He started with what was the general thinking of people and students about Mathematics.  It is thought of as a boring and difficult subject. But actually Mathematics is the basic of all subjects.  To make Mathematics interesting and joyful we need to keep the following things in our mind:

1. Connect all topics we teach to our daily lives. 

2. Make our lesson plan keeping in mind the learning outcomes for the students. 

3. Use different types of aids while teaching. 

4. Keep every child in our mind and while teaching keep eye contact with all the students. This will make all students to be attentive in the classroom. 

5. Activity based projects can be given as exercises to make students understand topics. 

6. By making our own tricks to learn formulas. 

Different types of examples were given as how Mathematics is connected to our daily life like in our home we need knowledge of area and volume for decoration,  white washing, making furniture, etc. Measurements and ratios are used while preparing food items. Varieties of geometrical shapes are seen in utensils. In sports, knowledge of probability, data handling, mensuration are required. When we go shopping or do investment then percentage and interest knowledge is required. In today’s world all are using mobile phones where knowledge of numbers is essential. 

Many students have difficulty in learning formulas of Mathematics.  A teacher has to find tricks, which students can remember easily. Like in integers same sign numbers we add and different sign numbers we subtract.  This can be written as S.S.A (same sign add) and D.S.S. (different sign subtract). In this way we can create our own trick to learn formulas. 

If we follow all these things then definitely Mathematics will be joyful for all students.  No one will be afraid of Mathematics. 

Prerna Rathod

The Fabindia School

prd@fabindiaschools.in

Simplicity and Trust - Richa Solanki

Simplicity means something easy to understand and the quality of being simple. It’s easier to understand other people when your life is simpler. The interaction should also be sincere, it can build trust and this impresses students. If we make things complicated it is harder to understand for students. Choose a simple way to express something then it will build trust and this is connected to simplicity.

Simplicity is staying in the present and not making things complex. Simplicity is giving patience, friendship, and encouragement. Simplicity is accepting the small things in life and being natural whatever you are showing off is not simplicity.

Trust is to know someone and judge them by yourself. The more you spend your time with students the more you will understand them and give them a task and trust them that they can complete it on time and properly. This will take some time until you know their behaviour, how they will react to something. Observing with details will help them to understand better.

And it builds trust because we see simplicity in them. Sharing our problems is a good way of connecting with others and we can share anything with someone if we trust them. So, it important to build a relationship of trust between students and educators and this will be possible when there is simplicity in explanation. Complexity will not help to connect simplicity and trust with each other.

Richa Solanki

The Fabindia School

Responsible Icons: Love Learning Vs Hate Learning

There is an eager wait for the English educator by the students of Grade 6 today, as Ms Mona has moved for a new job assignment to Alwar. There is little unrest also amongst the students as they adored Ms Mona to the core because of her passion for teaching, she connects with the students and her values which she reflected through her everyday experience with the students. All her qualities didn’t only made her popular amongst the students but also invoked love for the English language. It wasn’t easy for the students to see someone else in Ms Mona’s place.

A petite figure entered the classroom with grey hair and short stature. There was a cold silence in the classroom. Students were very sure that this was their new English educator as the face was new. She introduced herself in a very stern tone. Raghav dared and asked her, “ Ma’am are you going to teach us English?". She replied, “indeed child”. There was a sudden whisper which ran across the classroom.

At the first instance, students didn’t look very welcoming towards her and they started being inattentive in her class. They started bunking her classes as well and as a result, their performance dipped. It was the time for Mrs Das to whip her magic wand. She observed the class for a while and then started opening up with the students by talking to them about their interests and hobbies and cracking funny jokes with them. It helped her to connect with the students. She started being with them in their sports classes and converting hers into one. Gradually students started accepting her not as a replacement for Ms Mona but as their new English educator.
 
Mrs Das proved that with a little change in our attitude and a desire to connect with your students can turn around the hatred learning towards love learning.

- Responsible Icons: Manish Rajpal, Bhawna Sharma, Nikita Galphate & Shivani Kanangoo at The Iconic School Bhopal.
Inspiration from Kavita Bhupta Ghosh, author Wanted backbencher last ranker teacher

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Self Organised Learning Environments - SOLE

A MUST WATCH VIDEO - one peaceful hour!

The Future Of Learning Sugata Mitra
Published on Jan 17, 2018

Since the 1990s, experiments with children's education takes us through a series of startling results – children, in groups, can form 'self organising systems' that results in emergent learning, they can achieve educational objectives on their own, can read by themselves. Finally, the most startling of them all: Groups of children with access to the Internet can learn anything by themselves. The mechanism of this kind of learning seems similar to the appearance of spontaneous order, or 'emergent phenomena' in chaotic systems. 

From the slums of India, to the villages of India and Cambodia, to poor schools in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the USA and Italy, to the schools of Gateshead and the rich international schools of Washington and Hong Kong, Sugata's experimental results show a strange new future for learning. 

Using the 2013 TED Prize, he has built seven 'Schools in the Cloud', where Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs) and a 'Granny Cloud' of mediators over the Internet, interact with unsupervised children. The results of this three-year study are not yet fully analysed but Sugata will present some of the preliminary findings. 

We begin to see some glimpses of what schools should be for and what curricular, pedagogic and assessment changes will be required in the future.

Speaker:
Sugata Mitra
Professor and Principal Research Investigator at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK

#HappyTeachers #MyGoodSchool #SOLE #LEARNINGFORWARD#BrewingKnowledge #SchoolsCanChange Gaurav Bhalla Debashis Chatterjee Dilip Chenoy Meenakshi Uberoi Ravi Santlani Rajeshree Shihag and all the change makers who share with us a mission to take Learning Forward 

Learning Forward...your partner for school improvement

Transforming professional learning, 

increasing educator capacity, 

and improved student achievement.

Better teaching

Stronger leadership

Improved systems

www.LearningForward.IN

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We are a California company with a team of bloggers in India. We look forward to working with you to engage you with our audience of over 60,000 women every day! Kanika Gautam 
Marketing Manager and Brand Awareness Coordinator - Indian Moms Connect
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Lead the Gold Holders

Your GOLD chance!

We would like to have a Gold Award holder, work as the Executive Secretary of the Gold Award Holder’s Society. Age 23 – 30 years, previous experience not really necessary, as we believe in ‘dream it, build it!’

Location will be the IAYP India Office in Delhi, and will report to the Communications Manager.

Connect and build a network of 1000 Gold Holders in India by 2013, and make the Society sustainable.

Events, Exchanges, International connections, work with leading businesses and be a leader of the pack.

Your ability to lead and manage a network of Volunteers and potential Gold Holders will help you shine as our young achiever.

Connect with nivedita@dofe.in today, as the offer closes before September sets in .

Sandeep
---

Sandeep Dutt
National Director, The International Award for Young People
Award Programme Foundation
86 Shahpur Jat, Khel Gaon Marg, New Delhi 110049, India
Phone: +91 11 2649 7154, Fax: +91 11 2649 7165, Website: iayp.in
Registered Charity No. TR/27951
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• Instructors and assessors
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The best way to find out more is to visit the National Award Authority website (www.iayp.in) and connect with us. We can tell you about local opportunities to become an Award leader. If there isn’t one, contact one of our zonal offices, who may know about other opportunities.

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Read some of our testimonials to find out what a difference your time could make to a young person doing the Award.

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