My Good School Dil Se - The Doon Girls' School

My Good School Season 1, Episode 3 - 'Dil Se' means from the heart! "My Good School Podcast - Dil Se" is about the stories that explain how schools can achieve significantly better teaching standards, foster a sense of community, and help students reach their fullest potential. The My Good School Community shares how they connect, communicate, collaborate and create an environment where the joy of learning is brought to life.

Dr Ashok Pandey, the show host and Director Ahlcon Group of Schools, speaks with the stakeholders of The Doon Girls' School at Dehradun. Joining him for this show is the Principal Ms Sumali Devgan, the co-founder Ms Monisha Datta, teacher Ms Mohini Chauhan, student Shivangi Bhupendra, ex-student Shubhangi Prasad and parent Ms Seema Jain.

Sumali Devgan has extensive educational leadership experience. Having worked and headed a variety of Indian and International schools, she offers diversity and a high level of professionalism. 

Monisha Datta started her career as a software developer and corporate trainer; she co-founded The Doon Girls School, in 2000 and Dehradun Boys School, in 2007.

Mohini Chauhan, a passionate teacher of The Doon Girls School, is a qualified computer Educator who joined the DGS 17 years ago and has been the significant strength behind all the innovative and experimental development at school.

Shivangi Bhupendra, a student at The Doon Girls School in 2017 in grade V. Another nature enthusiast, a budding photographer, a passionate conservationist with a fire in her belly to find out more about making a difference on this planet. She is articulate about her concerns and quick to take action. A silent and diligent worker does not neglect any task assigned to her. She is the Cultural Secretary at the school.

Shubhangini Prasad, an ex-student, hails from her boarding school upbringing at The Doon Girls' School, Dehradun and Mayo College Girls' School, Ajmer. Her graduation in Business & Management and Graduate Diploma in International Relations from the University of London International Programs made her understand the futuristic outlook of the universities abroad. A public speaker and an entrepreneur, Shubhangini aims to give innovation the centre stage of the educational arena. Besides this, she devotes her time to honing her skills in Odissi dance, for which she holds a diploma degree. She strives relentlessly to leave her mark in the education world.

Seema Jain, an outlier as a parent, followed her heart and selected The Doon Girls' School for her daughter. A mother of two when searching for a Gurukul, and took the leap of faith. She found the school the best learning space for her daughter, where values come alive, and every child is unique. As she calls the school a home away from home, listen to this proud mother shares her life story.

The Doon Girls' School is an exclusive girl's residential school from grade I till class XII. Its campus is in Dalanwala in Dehradun, the capital of Uttarkhand in India, home to some of India's finest schools. IThe school believes in enabling the children to think so that they can dream big. Only when we believe can we perceive and make things happen. The motto "PENSER, C'EST VOIR" says the same - "To Think is to See ".

Find out more: https://thedoongirlsschool.com/.

Listen to the story

My Good School Dil Se
The stories explain how schools can achieve significantly better teaching standards, foster a sense of community, and help students reach their fullest potential. My Good School Community shares how they connect, communicate, collaborate and create an environment where the joy of learning is brought to life.

My Good School works to:
- Empower students by creating an environment for their personal and social development.
- Encourage students to become involved in activities beyond just study; this helps develop confidence, knowledge and networks.
- Experiential learning is a critical factor in the student's progressing successfully through adolescence.

Find out more https://goodschools.in.
Listen to our stories on Vurbl: https://vurbl.com/station/my-good-school/.

Robotic Telescopes for looking at the Planets, Sun and Objects

See how you can learn to explore space via a network of robotic mountaintop telescopes.

Control the telescope from your own home and explore space with your community.

Slooh Student Demo

What is Slooh? - Slooh is a subscription-based internet telescope service with a patent for real-time
astronomy.

- Slooh is an online astronomy curriculum from elementary school to college.

- Slooh pioneered social astronomy and has formed a global community exploring space together.

Our mission: 

- Light pollution and the concentration of population in modern cities have blinded us to an essential aspect of our environment, one in which our ancestors had far more appreciation

- We aspire to reclaim this lost realm and with it a sense of perspective regarding the world beyond ourselves

- Rebuild our collective connection to the night sky by giving educators new ways to incorporate astronomy into the curriculum.

Creative: Am I the one?

“Creativity” – I googled this term and found these 7 possible ways through which we can make our children creative.

• Make Children Question Things. ...
• Provide Opportunities to Express Their Intelligence. ...
• Teach Them Multiple Ways to Solve Every Problem.
• Trigger Their Curiosity.
• Engage Them With Activity Boxes.
• Encourage Children to Read for Pleasure.
• Give Them Free Time & Space.

And it’s a challenge in front of the entire education community to adopt the above methods excellently and make our kids the new age – Picasso, Einstein or Shakespeare. We have enough thoughts. Let’s look at it retrospectively.

Fear kills creativity

The real reason why we don’t’ move creatively ahead always is fear. People are afraid that they don’t have the talent, or they’ll be rejected, judged, insulted, criticised or ignored. They have tumbling piles of fear. 

• Abundance starts with appreciation and a feeling of being accepted by the community. Including appreciation and acceptance in our methodologies can tap the hidden potential in our children.

The Art of making mistakes

We keep instilling this very idea in the minds of our children that they have to be right, and by the time they become adults, they lose their capacity of committing mistakes. They become frightened of being wrong. We stigmatize mistakes. By this, we are educating people out of their capacities.

• Allow mistakes to happen in a classroom – Children are not frightened of being wrong. They are not frightened of making mistakes. 

In the words of Picasso -All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.

I believe passionately that we don’t grow into creativity; we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it. Creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. 

Story: A small incident from a grade 2 drawing class gave me a clear picture of confidence taking the shape of creativity.

A girl was drawing something in a class, and the teacher asked – What are you drawing?

The girl said I am drawing a picture of god. 

The teacher asked, but nobody knows what god looks like.

The girl answered - “They will in a minute.”

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes and grow.

Nibbrati Rathore is an educator at the Gyanshree School, Noida

She is a Life Members and volunteer on the National Training Team of Learning Forward India.

You can join Learning Forward, find out more at 

www.SchoolEducation.com.

Freedom and Peace - Reah Sikand

We often hear words such as freedom and peace, and every individual has their own interpretation of these words. Freedom for some could be sharing their point of view; for some, it could be attending a dance class or music class, and for some, it could mean wearing the clothes they like. When we teach kids freedom, it mostly means giving them space and the right to make their own decisions, they will definitely make mistakes and go wrong at times, but that is the best way for them to learn what freedom means. If we as adults keep spoon-feeding our kids, our kids will never be independent. Kids need their space as much as adults do; they don’t need people telling them what to do all the time. They definitely need to be guided by adults, but they also need to make their own choices.

I knew a kid called Sara, who was 6 years old, and her parents were very strict with her and never let her have junk food, so when her parents would not be around, she would eat so much junk that she would get sick. She knew she didn’t have the freedom to eat junk with her parents, so any chance she would get, she would eat so much junk that she would fall sick. We need to help kids become responsible citizens, and for this, freedom is important. Sometimes we adults go wrong too, and kids should have the freedom and right to correct us. 

Peace everybody's need for their mental health and physical health. Peaceful kids are happy kids; peace is essential for people to be happy. If the environment you stay in and work at is peaceful, you will definitely be a happy person. Sometimes we need to compromise a little and push our egos aside for a peaceful environment. Kids look up to adults as their role models, and when they observe our values, they automatically learn them from us. We need to help kids understand that fighting and hitting is not the only way to resolve an issue. We need to teach them ways like communicating their problem with each other, and talking it out would be more helpful. We as teachers sometimes get angry with them and sometimes raise our hands so for them they think it’s normal to shout and raise their hand, for kids to learn values from us we adults need to understand these values and work on them, kids will learn by observing us. 

Peace and freedom are essential for all of us, and with these values, we can become better human beings, better teachers and better parents. 

Reah Sikand
Drama Teacher at The Doon Girls School - India

Joy Of Learning PLP Cohort 2020-21 www.LFIN.Academy

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ये हमारी सीख " आइस्कीम मेकर से "  लेख़क सुबीर चौधरी

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