Learning Forward Saturday

Early Childhood Development and Joy of Learning For Teachers 

Neelashi and Minakshi discussed the importance of maintaining focus during breathing exercises and emphasised the significance of consistent practice for students. They explored suitable books and content for nursery classes, focusing on basic skills and developmental activities while analysing the appropriateness of educational materials for young children. The discussion concluded with plans for implementing educational activities through various methods and addressing concerns about teachers who were absent from completing their assigned tasks.

Next steps

• Rahima is to write down the four points from the National Mission document in her notebook.
• Rahima will create a weekly lesson plan that includes math activities, drawing activities, and an introduction to Hindi stories.
• Rahima plans to implement circle time in her class starting next week.
• Rahima is to create and implement the math game activity with students divided into equal teams.
• Rahima is to establish rules for the art corner in her classroom.
• Minakshi to ensure Rahima implements circle time and the math activity.
• Minakshi to ensure Rahima creates and follows a lesson plan.
• Minakshi to try to get a portable microphone from Sandeep sir or purchase one from AFA.
• Minakshi to ensure absent teachers take notes from Rahima and implement the same activities before next Saturday.

Summary

Breathing Exercise and Team Support

Neelashi and Minakshi discussed the importance of maintaining clarity and focus during a breathing exercise, emphasising the need to clear one's mind and feel relaxed. They stressed the importance of consistent practice and its impact on students. Neelashi expressed gratitude for Minakshi's efforts in organising and supporting teachers, stating that her presence is a boost for the entire team.

Nursery Education Content Review

Neelashi and Minakshi discussed activities and tasks related to teaching nursery classes, focusing on identifying suitable books and content for young children. Neelashi emphasised the importance of understanding nursery expectations and making informed decisions about what to teach, including activities like colour and number recognition. She instructed Minakshi and Rahima to analyse the books together, assess their suitability for nursery students, and discuss developmental activities typically taught to young children. The task involved evaluating the books' effectiveness and deciding whether they were helpful in nursery education, with Neelashi expecting a detailed analysis and discussion from both participants.

Early Childhood Education Standards Discussion

Minakshi and Neelashi discussed the appropriateness of books for young children, noting that while some books help set standards, they may be too advanced for nursery students. They agreed that children should focus on basic skills, such as writing curves and straight lines, rather than covering extensive number ranges. Neelashi emphasised the importance of children using books independently and encouraged Minakshi to explore a document related to the National Mission for Education, which aims to improve literacy and numeracy among children.

Early Childhood Education Concepts

Minakshi and Neelashi discussed the importance of teaching basic concepts to children, including recognising letters and corresponding sounds, as well as understanding numbers, objects, and sequences. Neelashi emphasised the need to go beyond rote teaching and ensure children understand the logic and reasoning behind concepts. They also discussed the lack of awareness about what needs to be taught and the need for improved educational resources, including books. Minakshi mentioned the potential benefits of teaching history and regulations, highlighting the importance of understanding different systems prevalent worldwide.

Educational Activities for Children Implementation

Neelashi and Minakshi discussed implementing educational activities for children, focusing on introducing concepts through finger rhymes, stories, and math exercises. They emphasised the importance of creating lesson plans and establishing rules for the classroom corners. Neelashi suggested using simple math activities, such as addition, and teamwork exercises involving objects. They also discussed the need for teachers to take notes from Rahimaji and implement the activities by next Saturday. Minakshi raised the issue of absent teachers not completing assigned tasks, and Neelashi agreed that action would be taken if teachers continue to miss activities without valid reasons.

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KLF Bhava Samvad Sandeep Dutt in conversation with Jaya Bhattacharji on his book My Good School

Kalinga Literary Festival

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Author Sandeep Dutt (School Improvement Coach, Mountaineer) in conversation with Jaya Bhattacharji Rose (International Publishing Consultant) on his book 'My Good School'.

 

Where passion meets education - Arvind Passey

How many students in these past few decades in independent India use words line zest, excitement, energy, fervour, eagerness, enjoyment, delight, zeal, liveliness, vitality, vigour, and devotion for their teachers and their school days? I am one of those who will say yes, but when we look around and probe hard, the truth is that education in our country generally lacks passion. Most schools have slowly walked straight into the lair of ‘promoters and entrepreneurs’ who hardly ever think ‘beyond just investment and the ROI’. A school after all, is ‘not a venue or a building, but an environment. It is not an escape from the misgivings of life, but a haven of opportunity.’ Sandeep Dutt in his book ‘My Good School’ goes about dissecting the real needs of students, teachers, and community and even points out the sort of actions that may lead to a turn around and send out creative and well-rounded individuals on their sojourn to the next phase of their lives and who not dispensable and inconsequential clones of each other. 

This book is almost like a conversation where a concerned parent, a well-intentioned teacher, and an entrepreneur who is aware of the reality of education today discuss everything from the what, the why and the how of teaching to what it will take to redefine education and learning. The author has been intuitive enough to locate and mark every possible battle-front where school education has been fighting valiantly. The author has taken care not to miss out any vital aspect and has addressed the individual needs of our students, reflected on the kind of school that must be planned rather than keep harping on the need for going to school. The book explores the benefits of experiential learning and involved learning through participation. This obviously brings us to the vital area of having the right kind of teachers. The author quotes A N Dar, former principal of Scindia School as agreeing that ‘many well-known schools are floundering because the school is not giving them the space required by them. There are appraisals and increments and even sacking but the quality of staff is not growing.’ Look at some of the schools and this statement will transcend any doubts that a reader may believe. We know that for a student a ‘school is simply an ecosystem for their personal and professional development’ and that ‘without teachers, a school is just a building, without trained teachers, schooling is not education, and without trained teachers for all. Education for all will never be a reality’. Therefore, those individuals who have been using ‘teaching as a way to pass time as they study, pursue other academic programmes and prepare to get better jobs’ generally end up not giving their best because ‘good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason. It is about caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone’.

If readers of this review get a feeling that the author is simply putting forth problems and issues, Sandeep Dutt takes no time in pointing out that the school administration has an equal responsibility. It is a part of the duties of the administration to make sure that their staff must be involved beyond the classroom, that is, also in the decision-making and effective functioning of the school as ‘leadership at the school is a major catalyst in helping build a good school’. Among the plethora of these ponderings are teacher-student ratio, quality of teachers, academic and administrative support, access to contemporary research, awareness of new pedagogic trends, updated curriculum, academic options for students, and even the often grossly overlooked role of hobbies, sports, and spare-time activities. The book takes no time in pointing out that it is skills learnt at school that build employability and thus grooming teachers to be leaders and mentors, the role of parents and community as equal stakeholders, an intelligent use of the latest technology, and updated curriculum can be just as important as communication skills and proficient English.

What really attracted me to the content in this book is the fact that it says a lot that even the new NEP or our National Education Policy has envisaged and has already begun moving towards making education wholesome and healthy. In my cover story on NEP a few months back I had written that a ‘vital component of this policy is the visible shift from rote learning through modified pedagogy aimed to enhance critical thinking, creativity, scientific temper, communication, collaboration, problem solving, ethics, social responsibility and digital literacy. The objective for this dynamic transformation is set to be achieved by 2022’. This article also points out that the NEP has elements that make training interventions for teachers sturdier as this is the only way to upgrade the doddering literacy and numeracy that exists today. Besides strategic placements of focused training for teachers (other points of focus will be recruitment, motivation, continuous education and career development), a positive increase in the use of technology is aimed at. Even Mr Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE  was quoted as saying that our ‘faculty today must be prepared to bring in creative thinking and thus their critical analysis of the entire system will become note-worthy in multiple ways.’ This obviously cannot be possible unless there is an equally powerful thrust of public investment in education. These are the two pillars besides a single-minded focus on vocational and adult education that are going to lead the nation towards universal access to education by 2030. I have also asked as to why NCERT did not think of developing a national curriculum framework for adult education all these years? The question that I’d like to ask here is if all the giant procedure and process generating institutions work only when a policy pushes and catalyses them? Are terms like ‘being proactive’ actively prancing around only for junior executives in multi-nationals? Yes, policy makers believe that certain changes will improve governance, but isn’t it time that our thinking bodies stopped just waiting for instructions and began generating ideas to maximize resource utilization? Thus it is correct and timely for this policy to suggest the creation of an independent State School Regulatory Authority to handle all sorts of school regulations including the oversight of the system and implementation of accreditation. A separation of functions to eliminate conflicts of interests is obviously included.

This book is definitely an engrossing one because the author expressed issues and their solutions without sounding preachy and text-bookish. He has even remarked that these wonderful things so far as school education is concerned will have to face difficulties of acceptance at all levels, however, ‘to overcome resistance to change, we must win over teachers’ as ‘our education system and policy must encourage innovation and learning’.

Education today is not a choice between an eager child and an enthusiastic teacher but goes way above it. This is all achievable if the elements of change are expressed well as ‘any change in the world must be brought about by the power of expression’. At any level, be it school or higher education, the basic premise for any long-lasting change is a relationship between the teacher, the taught, the administration, policies, society, and parents. It is only when passion meets education that a literacy revolution is born.

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Details of the book

Title: My Good School
Author: Sandeep Dutt
Publisher: Rupa Publications India Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 978-93-90547-40-1

First published by Arvind Passey on www.Passey.info

https://passey.info/2021/02/where-passion-meets-education/?fbclid=IwAR13dH6J-wOYGda-coh-y1y1Xh35u4Hgyt4OUIKILbEm4SY3kV8SHuT2D2w

Is Your Child Ready To Face The World?

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." 

~Alexandra K.Trenfor

A passionate teacher is to be someone in love with the field of knowledge, deeply stirred by issues and ideas that challenge our world, drawn to the dilemmas and potentials of the young children who come to class each day. 

Teachers must be passionate about their field of knowledge and issues facing the children. Teachers must create strong relationships with their students, respect, requirements and create a classroom environment that promotes interest, and provide students opportunities to take ownership of their learning. This can be cultivated by involving students in the design of collaborative projects that both requirements and address student interests and concerns. Teachers need to give students meaningful challenges in the classroom rather than rote or mechanical activities. A passionate teacher has a combination of essential qualities like being accountable, adaptable, caring, compassionate, cooperative, creative, dedicated, empathetic, determined, forgiving, generous, inspirational, fearless, organised, passionate, patient, resilient, resourceful, joyful, kind, trustworthy and a continuous learner. 

A great teacher communicates and networks with the students since that provides a natural support system to students who share similar passions. A passionate teacher can pull the best out of every student. 

A teacher must inspire them to become better students and optimise their time in the classroom. A passionate teacher takes an equal interest in all students and helps turn them into the best versions of themselves.A great teacher makes connections that will potentially last a lifetime. A teacher must understand that each student is different, and it is imperative to embrace those differences that often make them exceptional. A passionate teacher not only teaches students the required curriculum but essential life skills as well. They can take a variety of styles and mould them into their unique style to meet the needs of the students at any given time. 

Teachers should incorporate humour and storytelling in their lessons which will keep students interested in learning.A good teacher should show an interest in their students' lives outside of school, talk to them about their interests and extra-curricular activities that they participate in. One should be considerate while assigning homework .Think about the extracurricular activities occurring on that particular day and try not to overburden the students.

Go the extra mile, communicate with parents. Teachers must be innovative motivators capable of getting even the most reluctant learners to be successful. They should make goal setting a component of their instruction. Encourage ambitious students to set higher goals and help students that lack the confidence to set smaller obtainable goals that will build a foundation for success. Teachers provide character education. They must include character education within their curriculum. The teacher should lead this cause by example to the same character or principles that they work to instil in their students. In this way, a passionate teacher can make a child ready to face the world.     

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." Albert Einstein

A good teacher is like a candle: It consumes itself to light the way for others.

Is Your Child Ready To Face The World? - Dr Anupam Sibal

The book was recommended holiday reading for the school staff at DBN Schools in Jammu.
This review is written by Girja Koul and you may write to her by email gkl.av@dbntrust.in .

Interview of Mr. Sandeep Dutt with Niket Jain

Niket: Your Biodata mentions your profession as brewing knowledge, what do you mean by that?

Mr. Sandeep: It’s very interesting. This always happens to be the first question that is asked of me in every interview. I always ask what is life. It is like a pot in which we put in and take out information. So essentially what we do in our life is create a knowledge base. Whether you study, teach or do anything else in life. This is the key and when I say brewing knowledge, it essentially means what we do everyday. It’s your job whether you are giving, taking or learning each moment you are brewing knowledge. This I feel is the most important thing to do as an entrepreneur.

Niket: Being a Doon School product do you think residential school students have an edge over day school students.

Mr. Sandeep: There is a very simple answer to that. A residential school gives an opportunity to a person to find himself, understand himself and see the world with an advantage which an average young child does not have. And as residential schools focus on real front, on the ground work and training or delivery, they are much better than the others. This is the way it helps the students to learn and lead ahead.

Niket : How did you discover your love for adventure, mountaineering in particular?

Mr. Sandeep: To me life is an adventure itself and is a journey with ups and downs which come in our way. I feel mountains personify a leader. They are high, strong and have value. They give a lot to us and take very little in return which is what a good leader does. And that is why in adventure, mountains have always played the role of a mystic. They symbolize the ultimate for an adventurer. Lot of challenge today is based on mountains. The height of a mountain helps us to reach personal heights as an individual.

Niket: You have won many awards. One of them is the ‘Himalayas Clean Prize. How do you try to create environmental awareness in people?

Mr. Sandeep: What is the most important thing when you talk about environment? You must accept that the only reality in life is the environment around you. To make this comfortable, you have to be in harmony with it. So when we say ‘keep clean’ it doesn’t really mean picking up a broom and ensuring there is no litter around. Litter is only the surface, it’s not the answer. Litter is just what is visible but there is so much more that defiles the environment. When we look at cleanliness we have to work out a way that we leave nature untouched and don’t disturb its pristine beauty. My philosophy of going to nature is just leaving it as it is. That’s what I mean by cleanliness. A very simple thing, when you put up a camp side please restore it to as close as possible. That’s just a small message about keeping a place clean.

Niket: Sir, can you tell us how you are associated with the Duke of Edinburgh awards?

Mr. Sandeep: Essentially, I see my role today as primarily to raise the profile of the awards programme. We have been in India for almost 48 years now. So my job is to promote the award authority, our first task is to promote. Our second task is to provide which means every young person who is of the age minimum 14 and maximum 25 should have access to the award program and third is to make the award more precious to young people. To make young people live the award and not just wear it.

 Kind courtesy Editor of The Review, Scindia School at Gwalior, India