Showing posts with label mindfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mindfulness. Show all posts

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Learning Forward Saturday


Quick recap

The meeting focused on teaching strategies for complex topics in English language instruction, particularly for young learners. Teachers shared various creative approaches, including visual aids, storytelling, and interactive exercises, to help students learn spelling, grammar, and sentence formation. The discussion highlighted the importance of making learning fun through activities like counting on fingers, creating stories from images, and using visual materials to engage students. Teachers also discussed methods for teaching challenging concepts such as number lines and question framing, with particular emphasis on using visual aids and hands-on activities to improve learning. The session concluded with teachers sharing their experiences and discussing how to incorporate these strategies into their classrooms.

Summary

Teacher Roles and Cinema Discussion

Neelashi greeted several teachers and discussed their roles and responsibilities. She inquired about the grades offered and the subjects taught, including English, life skills, and cinema. Shahar introduced herself as the headmistress of Sunbeam School, Balia, and mentioned a previous conversation. Neelashi asked about their teaching methods and what they learn from cinema. The teachers shared information about their backgrounds and current positions, with Neetu Pandey noting that she serves as the academic head and a QCT teacher. The conversation ended after a brief discussion of cinema and its educational value.

Mindfulness and Creative Phrasing Exercise

The meeting began with Neelashi requesting participants to observe a moment of silence and focus on their breathing to stay motivated and engaged. She then shared a screen and instructed the attendees to practice using specific phrases, including "toothbrush is dancing," as part of an exercise. Neelashi emphasised the importance of attention and encouraged participants to arrange pens, paper, and pencils for the activity. She concluded by asking Swati to start the exercise.

Creative Storytelling and Sentence Construction

Neelashi led a meeting in which participants, including Swati, Sunita, and others, engaged in a creative exercise on sentence construction and storytelling. Participants shared their ideas, with some focusing on themes like dancing, trees, and cooking, while others contributed by discussing the process of creating sentences. Neelashi encouraged everyone to participate and provided feedback, expressing satisfaction with the contributions. The conversation ended with Neelashi acknowledging the participants' efforts and inviting Gulabiji to share her ideas, despite her being pregnant.

Grammar Techniques and Learning Strategies

The meeting focused on sentence formation and grammar, with participants discussing techniques for organising sentences to convey a single meaning. Neelashi emphasised the importance of recognising prepositions, proper nouns, and helping verbs, and highlighted the need to engage students through enjoyable learning activities to capture their interest. The group has participated in exercises on unseen passages, sentence framing, and question framing using who, how, why, and what. Additionally, Ranoo raised a concern about teaching number line addition and subtraction in the KG section, noting that students were often confused and required frequent review.

Enhancing Student Question-asking Skills

The discussion focused on teaching children how to frame questions and write correctly, with Nidhi explaining that students face difficulties due to WhatsApp and other platforms. Neelashi emphasised the importance of student engagement and suggested using fun exercises to teach complex topics, while also encouraging participants to share their teaching methods and experiences. The group discussed the need to avoid using Blackboard and considered activities like using unseen passages and games to make learning more engaging.

Innovative Teaching Methods for Children

The teachers discussed various teaching methods and activities to help children learn difficult words and concepts. Sunita shared an activity in which children were taught to use complex words by associating them with simpler ones. At the same time, Ranoo described a visual method for teaching number line subtraction through physical movements. The teachers also discussed incorporating unseen passages and highlighting questions in math lessons, with the Shahar teacher suggesting a regular practice for this approach. Neelashi praised her colleagues' innovative teaching methods.

Enhancing Sentence and Imagination Skills

The meeting focused on sentence formation, comprehension, and imagination-building, with discussions on structuring topics and concluding remarks. Neelashi and Ranoo explored models for sentence making and comprehension, while Neetu emphasised the importance of imagination and improvement. Participants were asked to describe images, with Nidhi identifying a peacock in one picture. The conversation ended with plans to discuss life skills and complex topics in future sessions.

Coastal Training and Question Framing

Neelashi and Prarabadh discussed teaching children through coastal training and question framing, emphasising explicit instruction to help them understand concepts. They explored examples like teaching the word "peacock" and discussed who is looking at various objects, with participants contributing answers. Neelashi inquired about teaching materials in Prarabadh's class, including books, images, and boards, and suggested using visuals to engage children. They also discussed challenges in teaching complex topics and reading unseen passages, with Prarabadh and others considering strategies to address these issues.

Creative Storytelling with Children

The group discussed a creative activity for children in which they create stories using visual elements such as pictures and drawings. Sunita explained how they help children develop scenes and stories by guiding them to imagine elements like clouds, peaks, and birds. Neelashi emphasised that there are no right or wrong answers and encouraged participants to share their thoughts and experiences. The discussion concluded with Neelashi suggesting they try another example and asking Gulabee for help in explaining something through muting.

Classroom Activity for Visual Learning

The team discussed developing a classroom activity to teach unseen passages using images and short-story role-play. Gulabee proposed a counting activity involving colours and visual elements, while Ranoo suggested using alphabet recognition to teach spelling. The group agreed to develop a print-rich, visually engaging classroom environment, with Sunita and others providing support to Ritu in implementing the activity. They also discussed using flashcards and focusing on pronunciation.

Word Ordering and Puzzle Games

The meeting focused on discussing a method for numbering and alphabetising items, with Gulabee explaining that both numerical and alphabetical ordering would be needed for correct sequencing. Neelashi demonstrated a jumbled-word puzzle-solving technique and encouraged participants to use jumbled words to practice their skills. The session concluded with Shahar discussing word games and the concept of creating new words from existing ones, emphasising the importance of learning through play and fun. Neelashi thanked everyone for participating and reminded them of the next meeting scheduled for the following Saturday.

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Saturday, March 26, 2022

Do you listen to your guide inside?


My Guide Inside


Designed with Kids, Educators & Parents in mind! 

The principles discussed operate in all people. Globally applicable objectives include:

1. Enhance school students' Personal Well-being with an age-appropriate understanding of underlying principles.

2. Simultaneously develop your education curriculum with communication, Thinking, Personal & Social Awareness & Responsibility.

My Guide Inside innovation is built upon timeless principles, a simple blend of new and known!

The principles modelled, taught, discussed & practised in —My Guide Inside— operate in all people! The focus is on discovering well-being and understanding how we work while also developing academic skills and competencies. All this … plus a variety of creative activities.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEARNING (PDL)

INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE PRINCIPLES IN SCHOOLS

Listen to what the participants have to say

Christa Campsall gives an introduction to the principles in schools. Understanding these foundational principles creates consistently dramatic results for those involved. 

The pilot for India was conducted over five Zoom sessions in February and March 2022; these sessions were born in the morning for Bob and Christa and rather a late evening for the passionate educators in India!


Brinda Ghosh: Principal Gyanshree School
Monisha Datta: Co-Founder The Doon Girls School
Sukhpreet Kaur: Teacher at the Gyanshree School.
Rachna Bharrdwaj: Teacher at The Doon Girl's School.
Nibbrati Rathore: Teacher at the Gyanshree School.
Neelam Waldia: Teacher at The Doon Girl's School.
Bharti Rao: Vice Principal at The Fabindia School
Piyush Rai: Teacher at the Billabong High International School Thane

The My Guide Inside: Training for Educators will be available for free to any educator anywhere, launch date to be determined.

Please know you are welcome to join any of the scheduled "live sharing" Zoom meetings. We envision some of you may choose to host an MGI live sharing for your education community in the future. We are sure we'll all have insights into how to Share It Forward!

About the 3 Principles in just 2 minutes!

"Bob and I enjoyed sharing with everyone!" - Christa Campsall

www.GoodSchools.in
Well-Being Program

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Are We Inherently Musical?: the Sonority of the Soul - Saskia Rao-de Haas

I am always surprised when people think that they are not musical. Consider the following thoughts with me. Nada Brahma, sound is creation, is written in the ancient Vedas. ‘First there was the word’ is written in the Bible. In science we talk about ‘the big bang’ as the start of the universe. Everything produces sound and is born from sound. Even the universe we live in is born from soundThis being the truth, can we still say that we are not musical beings? We have to understand that every living being is indeed musical. If we didnot possess an inborn sense of rhythm, our hearts would not beat in a perfect rhythm. We literally have strings in our throat, our vocal chords that vibrate to create sound: our voice. If we would not have a sense of melody, our voices would be monotone like a robot. We all have a sense of melody and rhythm and most of us have direct access to these inborn instruments!

 

When this inborn talent is cultivated and nurtured, we can create and appreciate music. This is where music education starts; the acknowledgement that we are ALL musical beings.  There is not a single culture known in the world that does not have its own form of music. Music for prayer and mindfulness. Music for community gatherings in song and dance. Music is everywhere around us, but we often do not make full use of its  power. Music in its most restrictive way is seen only as entertainment and part of the ‘entertainment industry’. In this scenario, music is approached only as a ‘performing art’. It is this limited and limiting approach to music that has clouded the minds of politicians, educators, parents and schools on what the role of music could be in education.  It is this attitude that immediately dismisses the importance music education can play in the overall development of children. 

 

This attitude also divides children and later adults as ‘talented’ and ‘non talented’. I have met innumerable adults who think that they are ‘just not talented’ in music. Why? Because someone has told them when they were young that they ‘could not sing’, ‘had no talent in instrument playing’ or were met with indifference of teachers towards music education. Thisperceived lack in talent is seen as a good enough reason not to pursue any form of music education, which has deprived them of countless invaluable lessons that music education can teach. If we were to pursue the same argument, then other subjects like mathematics or science should be ignored by most children too! Discipline, academic skills, social skills, fine motor skills, reading skills, language skills, leadership skills--the list is endless. This is one of the reasons that we created Sangeet4All Music Education Framework. A music program that honours our inborn musicality and makes use of it in education. I will share more insights about the role music and music education can play for the entire school community in the next weeks.


- Vidushi Saskia Rao de Haas 

A world-renowned cellist, composer and music educationalist from the Netherlands. Her Guru Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia said that she has been taught by God, and everyone should listen to her music. The New York Times describes her music as ‘Movingly Meditative’. She is the creator of the Sangeet4All Music Framework, India’s own complete music program for children.

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning” - Plato
Find out more

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Freedom and Peace - Flyers DGS

Listen to our story
 “Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.” Moshe Dayan    

Freedom is a basic right of all living beings. Freedom is an abstract idea that can't be touched, seen, felt, reached or explained. All this gives a vague idea about freedom. But what exactly does freedom mean?

Different people have different opinions, definitions and thoughts about the idea of freedom. Some talk about freedom in the political sense, some talk about social freedom, some about personal independence and some define it as religious freedom. But the fact that everyone wants to be freeholds true in all cases. Education or preaching does not make us free. Freedom is the absence of any pressure from the social, political and religious environment that we live in.

But freedom is not an absolute right, and it too has some constraints or terms and conditions in simple language. At times, freedom is specific to the age group we fall into or according to our social environment.  A popular saying goes: “Your freedom ends where mine begins”.

Freedom is the state of mind of being free, independent, or free from prison. Freedom means to ask nothing from others, to expect nothing from others, and there is nothing to depend on others. Freedom is a choice of a person to live life the way he/she wants. Freedom is to present yourself the way you are, but it doesn’t mean to live only your life, instead help others to live happily and freely. Freedom comes with restrictions. It is a responsibility. Freedom doesn’t mean to live your life freely and make others’ life miserable. Freedom allows us to work together while maintaining autonomy.

Freedom allows us to enhance the expression of creativity and original thoughts and increase productivity. It allows us to invent something new and helps us to live a high quality of life. Freedom of thinking, speaking and actions helps us to take our decisions independently. It is a condition in which we are fortunate to speak, act and be happy without unnecessary restrictions. Deprivation of freedom is like a punishment to a human being in which neither the captivator nor the captive is at peace.

One of our members writes – “Being a woman, freedom means to me to be able to walk alone without any fear, to earn equal wages, to dress-up the way I want, to choose any occupation, to be treated equally and not to feel guilty for living my life on my own terms and conditions.”

On the other hand, peace is a state of mind and heart when we are calm and quiet, with no disturbance, like a still pond with no ripples. Peace is a stress-free state of serenity and calmness that comes when there is no fight and everything coexists in harmony and freedom. Peace helps us to rebuild ourselves; it strengthens us and helps us to restore. Peace is the ability to manage conflicts constructively as an opportunity for change and increased understanding.

Peace means learning from others. It means to nurture all individuals. Peace is a sense of appreciation and respect for all the little and big things in life. A peaceful mind has peaceful thoughts, speaks words of peace and will at peace.

Freedom and peace cannot be separated from each other because we cannot be in peace unless we have the freedom of speech and actions. We get freedom when we allow freedom to others, same as we have peace of mind when we allow it to others. We make the right decisions when we are free to think, and there is peace in our heart. And, of course, when we get freedom from our desires, we get actual peace inside.

Written with enthusiasm by FLYERS DGS - Vijaya Jugran, Urvashi Uniyal, Vandana Goel, Bhumika Vyas & Ritika Tyagi, at The Doon Girls' School in Dehradun.

Friday, January 29, 2021

RESPONSIBILITY and COOPERATION - Triumph DGS

Values are the virtues that we learn and gather from our Parents, family, friends, colleagues, the books we read and the INFLUENCES in our life. They are the foundation for any viable life in society, the vehicles which propel the journey of life in a civilized manner. As we grow older, we learn new values day by day. Values are the basic structure of every living being. They actually denote a good life and are the beliefs that one holds, and are important in our life.

                                                 People will get to know YOU by your values!! 

And here, we talk about the TWO VALUES that complement each other so well that a single value is

incomplete without the other. If one is to MINDFULNESS than the other is the only way to GROW. They make PERFECT pair because to execute any kind of ..........whether it is at home or school or in social platform, it is not possible without seeking the ..........of people around. 

                                        RESPONSIBILITY & COOPERATION fills in these blanks.

When I say, "I am responsible”, This "I" is always in need of support from him, her, them and finally you."I" cannot do anything alone and the combination of all the other pronouns help "I" achieve what one desires.

Cooperation (Literal meaning- Support) and Responsibility walks side by side. These two values are like the wheels of a bicycle. If we are cooperative, then responsibility comes automatically. If we are simple, have the courage to accept the right and wrong, have patience and have the ability to tolerate the flaws, then be sure we will be cooperative and hence will be responsible. Cooperation is the MOTHER of all the other values. Without cooperation, we cannot bring other values together.

Respecting other’s feeling is a RESPONSIBILITY as well as COOPERATION towards others. So we can say that these values are like MIRROR REFLECTION.

We must be aware that we all depend on each other in any way, and nothing can be done single-handed in the world. So, we should make our maximum effort for the team. We should cooperate and pool our efforts to achieve the proposed goal. Responsibility and Cooperation can make us choose between success and failure.

Let’s hear some real-life incidents, depicting the importance of responsibility and cooperation (shared by our team members)

1)      Every year our school conducts a Science Exhibition. In the year 2019, being the head of the department, it was my responsibility to organize it. The cooperation, support and assistance that I received from the entire faculty, including the helping staff, was remarkable. This real-life example made me realize the importance of these two values. Responsibility and Cooperation, the two important pillars of teamwork. So they are essential.

 

2)     Our school is a preparatory school where children mainly prepare themselves for India's top schools. I realised the importance of these two values - when I was allowed to take entrance classes for such children and prepare for the same during this period of the pandemic through online classes. It was challenging to teach the subject and the values when they were not present in the school, but the cooperation I received from my co-teachers, my students, and my daughter really worked. Today, when I met those children after the exam, I realized the importance of these two values with their smiling faces.


3)      मेरा एक बहुत ही होनहार शिष्य है जिसका नाम 'सृजन'(काल्पनिक नामहै। सृजन आवासीय विद्यालय में पढ़ने वाला एक प्रतिभावान छात्र है। सच में अपने नाम की तरह ही अनमोल और पवित्र बालक। जितना पढ़ने लिखने में होशियारउतना ही खेल-कूद और विद्यालय के अन्य कार्यक्रमों में भी बढ़-चढ़ कर भाग लेने वाला। सृजन की दसवीं कक्षा की परीक्षाएँ चल रही हैं और उधर बिहार में उसके पिता 'बोन कैंसरनाम की जानलेवा बीमारी से लड़ रहे है। पर नियति के आगे सब नतमस्तक हैं। पिता की हालत अचानक इतनी बिगड़ जाती है कि वो बेटा जिससे हम सभी को पूरी आशा थी कि बोर्ड की परीक्षाओं में १००% का परिणाम दिखा कर एक अलग ही कीर्तिमान स्थापित करेगा,वह अपनी आखिरी परीक्षा नहीं दे पाया और अचानक ही उसे पिता के पास जाना पड़ा।बीमार पिता की देखभाल में पूरे घर के सपने मिट्टी में मिल गए। उनके इलाज में इतना धन खर्च हुआ कि अब उस परिवार को अपने सपने पूरे करने तो दूर बल्कि जीवन यापन के बारे में सोच कर भी रूह कांपने लगी थी।

आज वह बच्चा एक coaching institute चला रहा है,जहाँ वह केवल उन्हीं बच्चो को पढ़ाता है जो उसी की तरह किसी मजबूरी का या कहें कि ज़िम्मेदारियों का शिकार होकर पढ़ नहीं पाए और उन जरूरतमंद बच्चों को वह मुफ्त में शिक्षा प्रदान करता है।

पर एक प्रश्न जिसने मुझे तोड़ दियावो यह था कि हम हर समयहर जगह और हर हालात में ऐसा कह सकते हैं कि हमेशा हर कार्य के लिये अपना सहयोग देना और हमेशा अपनी जिम्मेदारियाँ निभाना क्या मनुष्य का नैतिक कर्तव्य हैक्या जो सब हुआ वो सही हुआ?

श्री कृष्ण ने गीता का उपदेश देते हुए कहा था कि कर्म किए जा और फल की चिंता न कर सृजन ने जो कर्म और धर्म निभायाउससे उसे मानसिक संतुष्टि मिली जो कि शायद तब न मिलती अगर वह उस समय सिर्फ अपने बारे में सोचता और आज एक सफल आईएसऑफिसर भी होता उसने उस समय भी परिवार के प्रति कर्तव्यों का निर्वाह किया और आज भी समाज और देश के प्रति कर्तव्यों का निर्वाह कर रहा है |      


 
डाल हाथ में हाथ चलें,हम हर मुश्किल आसान करें।

 है अपनी जिम्मेवारी,हो नर या हो नारी,

 जब भी ज़रूरत आन पड़े,जब भी खतरे में आन पड़े,

मिल कर सहकार करेंगे हम।हर चुनौती स्वीकार करेंगे हम।

Proudly created by the inspiring team of Triumph DGS @ The Doon Girls' School, Dehradun - Prachi Jain, Mansi Sondhi Arora, Ritika Chandani, Shalu Rawat, Mohini Bohra Chauhan and Prachi Parashar

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Better Parenting - Punita Chouhan

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.”

Being a parent is tough. Most of us feel like we could do better jobs, but resolving to be more patient rarely works. When children are growing up, positive parenting improves their cognitive, social and problem-solving skills. Positive parenting also affects their responses and helps them grow up to be better humans.

The first step to being a better parent is actually how we treat ourselves, we can only give what we have.  The first and foremost responsibility is mindfulness. Mindfulness means that it brings your conscious attention to our experiences. Awareness allows you to choose your response to what’s happening. We can regulate our emotions by being mindful.

It necessitates considerable parental attention and participation, letting children know you are watching their behaviour, raising the bar in terms of expectations as appropriate, and making clear and fair rules for the children.

“Sacrifice our day so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Courtesy: yourquote.in & familyshare.com

Punita Chouhan, The Fabindia School <pch@fabindiaschools.in>

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