Unity and Caring - Shalini Solanki

Unity brings power, and caring gives the power of being in the company of people who love, care, understand, and stand with you in good and bad times. We must have heard the quote, ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall’. Such a short quote has a powerful meaning and feeling. I still remember the award-winning song on the Doordarshan channel, ‘Ek chidiya, anek chidiya’. No matter how small or weak we are together, nothing is impossible.

I got to experience ‘Unity and Caring’ with my students outside the classroom.

All Grade 2 sections went for an excursion to Zoological Park, New Delhi, under the theme ‘Animals Around Us’. I started discussing the trip with my class two days before the departure date to get their ideas and expectations. We decided to make groups of 2 students each in a queue. The partners were accepted on the approval of each student as per the requirements. 23 students were present on the final day, so I made a queue of 11 groups + 01 with me (He needed special care☺). I was surprised to see their unity and caring for each other here. They sat in groups on the bus and counted each other. Students were even concerned about each other’s bags and water bottles. I was so happy to see their belongingness and care for each other.

We finally reached the zoo, and before I counted till 11 to ensure that every group was present after getting off the bus, they counted themselves and told me they were all with me. Each one has taken responsibility. Even if one child had to go to the washroom, the whole class would wait without complaint. We went to see different categories of animals, and I observed that my students wanted to experience everything with their entire group. They were holding hands, walking and enjoying together, sharing caps and giving places to their peers to stand and see the animals. Children made space for the entire class to see the ‘Malaysian Bird’ and ‘Jaguar’ together. They also ensured the shorter ones could get in front and experience the complete view.

What else could a teacher desire? This is itself an achievement to see our children reflecting the behaviour desired by us. Sometimes I feel powerful as I have little contribution to shaping the lives of our future leaders. This feeling is beyond anything that exists.

           

Shalini Solanki
Gyanshree School, Noida

Humility and Appreciation - Mridula Ranjit and Roopa Bhattacharya

HUMILITY
The students discuss the value of humility. The students are encouraged to come up with what
their take on humility is....inputs from teacher ranges from thinking not too high of oneself to
thinking highly about others, and having patience in listening to others' viewpoints to show empathy for everyone's view.

Then students are divided into 5 groups of 8 students each. The students first name their group. Then they make a story to bring out 'humility'. They are given a fixed amount of time, after which each group gets to present the story. The teacher ensures that all students participate. She provides each group understanding of the activity. The creativity of children in story weaving was noteworthy. 

One story that came up involved a rich man who was stranded on the street due to a flat tyre. And who helps him but a cobbler. The novelty in stories ensured the engagement of children.

The impact is that children are engaged and actually talk about the subject with feelings and passion. Another observation is that when activity on one value is done, it automatically encompasses many other matters. The satisfaction of a deal being talked about, discussed, narrated and even acted out is a big takeaway for the teacher.

APPRECIATION
The activity starts with the teacher appreciating the class. Then the class discusses the impact of
appreciation and why it is essential to appreciate. The teacher steers the discussion to discuss
points like appreciation brings in happiness, and the quality appreciated is reinforced.

Next, the student's attention is brought to genuine appreciation and honest appreciation. They discuss how dishonest appreciation breaks trust. (we again observe values cannot be compartmentalized). The students are asked to find a word or sentence of appreciation for their partner, preferably starting with the first alphabet of their names. They say the words of appreciation in front of the whole class.

Our primary children usually complain a lot about their classmates. It was observed that after this activity if the students started to complain, the teacher would immediately remind them to first think of what they had said about their partner. This significantly reduced the complaints among the students.

The teacher's takeaway was the increase in happiness in the class.

Mridula Renjit
Roopa Bhattacharyya
Ahlcon Public School 

JOL Cohort 2022

An Educator Is More Than A Traffic Policeman

An educator has a friendly nature with his class whereas the traffic policemen do not have such nature. An educator is always loyal/ honest but a traffic policeman is not.

Educator has limitless responsibilities he/she has to give a shape to his/her student in many ways like behavioral, manners, discipline, character etc.

Educators make a complete human. A traffic policeman will control and regulates only senior but an educator has to look at all age groups kids to teenagers.

Our learning from “Can You Teach A Zebra some Algebra” by Debashis Chatterjee.

- Ajay Vijayvargi, Kusum Dangi, Tarun Mishra & Usman Gani - The Fabindia School