Responsibility and Cooperation - Maithreyi Venkataraman

Responsibility & Cooperation

Responsibility is a term we often hear in different phases of our lives, and it can be fulfilled in a limitless number of ways. This is one such value that every human is born with; it’s the cultivation and realization dependent on the environment in which one is nurtured. 

Let’s now take a moment to understand the easiest way to explain the term – ‘Responsible’ – it is the act of being brave enough to accept the consequences of one’s act .

Responsibility in other words is a position / duty given to a person to fulfill. Every person has varied responsibilities at the same time .Eg: A student holds the responsibility of representing his /her school, his/her family, his/her class and, more specifically, their section. At times, a child gets anxious on hearing this word out of fear. 

As they grow older, the responsibility of a person goes through a transitory phase. It is very important that a person be exposed to shouldering responsibilities at an early age. It develops a sense of confidence in a student and teaches them ways to accept and handle their success and failures in a very effective way.

Teamwork activities always encourage one to hone their skills to work in a cooperative manner. A simple activity that I held in my class was – rearranging the furniture of the classroom – I gave a task to the students of my class to rearrange the tables and chairs in a U shape pattern, but without speaking a word, I was amazed seeing the way they understood each other just by their gestures and cooperated with one another to complete the act successfully. I feel this was achieved as I did not appoint any leader to any group, but told the students that each of them is responsible for their own individual actions and for their actions as a whole. 

Ms. Maithreyi Venkataraman

Gyanshree School

Responsibility and Cooperation - Ahlcon Public School

Why do you think that responsibility is an important trait?

Responsibility helps you learn how to handle difficult situations, make good decisions, set goals, and achieve them. Responsibility is essential because it makes you into a better person. Life lessons are often taught through taking responsibility for your actions, mistakes, and events.

When you are responsible for something, you accept that you own the success or failure of it. A responsible person keeps their eyes focussed on the things that matter most. It provides a sense of purpose and builds resilience amidst adversity on an individual and social level. By accepting responsibility, we become more action-oriented and gain confidence. The type of responsibilities we accept in our lives contributes to the person we become.

How can you teach your students to be responsible in school, at home, and outside?

The children are responsible for their own behaviour and words. We need to emphasize this through a reward system. Make the children enthusiastic about any task assigned to them. Once again, a reward system will work on this. Try and improve the responsibility of the children in a continuous manner. This could be achieved through assigning tasks, games, and activities and holding the children accountable for the outcomes.

In school, we can ask the children to represent the class in news reading in school assembly; of course, this will require guidance from the teacher. We must ensure that every child must participate in inter-section competitions. While we may win some, we will also lose some. Therefore, we must instil the spirit of winning for ourselves and the section. This will instil responsibility in the children.

At home, ask the children to pack their school bags according to the timetable and encourage them to polish their own shoes.

How strong is the culture of cooperation in your classroom?

Cooperation is working together with somebody else to achieve something. Cooperation is the sine-qua-non of teamwork. One of the essentials of school education is learning to work in a team. To promote cooperation, we must assign work to be done and games to be played as a team, simultaneously emphasizing the goal and our expectations and emphasizing a compelling cause. The games could be anything from Kabaddi to football or activities like short skits. A balloon and toothpick game is an excellent way to inculcate cooperation amongst the children.

The link added by the Editor is not part of the post's script; it, however, explains the game mentioned above https://youtu.be/q7xY3kDy-Is.

Roopa Bhattacharyya

Mridula Renjit

Ahlcon Public School
Happy Teachers JOL Cohort 2022

Responsibility and Cooperation - Jaspreet Kaur

Why is Responsibility an important trait? 

Responsibility helps to raise our self-esteem, and our relationships with friends, family and co-workers improve ten-fold. Responsibility is essential because it makes you more productive. Without Responsibility, you are more likely to shirk your duties or miss deadlines. On the other hand, people who do not take Responsibility are usually quick to blame others when something goes wrong, even though they have a role in causing the problem. It can increase self-esteem because it encourages you to work harder at achieving desired results. This makes you feel more competent, which boosts your confidence and improves how others perceive you. One of the most essential benefits of Responsibility is that it teaches valuable life lessons. Responsibility helps you learn how to handle difficult situations, make good decisions, set goals, and achieve them. Responsibility is essential because it makes you into a better person. Life lessons are often taught through taking Responsibility for your actions, mistakes, and events in life. Responsibility teaches you to be responsible for other people’s safety, property, feelings, and emotions. These skills are essential for success in any area of life, from personal relationships to your career. Responsibility is an essential moral concept that helps to build strong character. When you are responsible, you act with integrity and honour, even when no one is watching. 

How can you teach your students to be responsible in school, at home, and outside? Give at least 2 concrete examples in each case. 

We can teach Responsibility to students at school while assigning them some vital duties, such as a monitor, cleanliness in-charge, Resource manager and time manager for group activities. We can teach students to maintain discipline when the teacher is not in class. We can teach mischievous students to share daily diaries in class groups. At home, we can teach them to take care of sick grandparents or help their mother with household chores on Sunday and father gardening. 

How strong is the culture of cooperation in your classroom? 

As I am class In charge of Grade V, I always encourage my students to be cooperative with each other. I made a buddy system in my class. In this system, average students are sitting with below-average students. Brilliant students help their buddies to complete their pending work; they do hand-hold. Even when below-average students are not giving answers, I always inspire them to repeat their buddy’s answers. In this way, gradually, the below-average students also gain confidence and a sense of cooperation increases daily. When some special assemblies are conducted, the buddies help each other understand the dialogues and gestures.

Jaspreet Kaur 

Kamla Nehru Public School  Happy Teachers JOL Cohort 2022