Reverse the Page

Today’s task? Analysing a business segment report.

Reaction? Silence. Confusion. Hesitation.
The data felt unfamiliar. The faces looked lost.

So I gently said, “Let’s reverse the page.”
📄 On the other side: a student report card.

Subjects	Unit Test 1	Unit Test 2
Maths	78	85
Science	82	80
English	70	75
Social Science	65	68

“Now tell me what comes to mind.”

Suddenly, the classroom lit up. The task was familiar. Their faces softened, eyes sparkled with understanding. They compared test scores, calculated percentage change, and spoke confidently — using the language of their own experience.

💬 “The student is doing well in Maths.”
💬 “Needs to work on Science.”

I asked, “How do you know that?”
They built tables, performed calculations, and explained their reasoning:

Subjects	UT1	UT2	Change	% Change
Maths	78	85	+7	8.97%
Science	82	80	-2	-2.44%
English	70	75	+5	7.14%
Social Science	65	68	+3	4.62%

Then I said, “Now flip the page again.”
“Can you tell how different segments of the business are performing?”

This time, they smiled. It wasn’t alien anymore. It was familiar.
Familiar patterns. New data. Same logic.

(Not sharing the solution here- Can you try and analyse the segment report and tell me which segment is the best performing segment) 

Sometimes, all it takes to unlock understanding is a simple cue:
➡️ “Reverse the page.”

Don’t just give answers. Activate prior knowledge.
Engage the affective domain (emotion + familiarity) to assemble new understanding. 

Because learning isn’t a straight line — it’s a journey of discovery, struggle, and small victories.

Gurdeep Kaur

The Teachers Academy Ambassador 

 

Art and it's importance - Subrata Sarkar

Nowadays, Art is taught in every school to develop students’ strength to explore their emotions, opinions, and ideas through a required medium. Paintings and sculptures are popular forms of Art. Art is an expression of the reality of your core. If you can see the unique side of a situation which can’t be seen by the majority, you are an Artist. Art should be taught to every student to know another side of life.

Art is not only doing sketches and paintings but also managing our lives and making our surroundings beautiful by documenting that particular moment. Knowing Art is about creating a separate room in your mind. For example, ancient people used to live outside without homes; even now, only four walls and a ceiling are enough to protect themselves. Still, your mind will not be satisfied only by that, and you will need more unnecessary things to make the room beautiful because it’s a matter of your feeling.

Instead of four walls, you desire a beautiful architectural form and arranged environments around you. Documenting the moments through Art reminds us about our human revolutions so far. When studying Art or observing an object, you are trying to connect that particular object, feeling and knowing better about something or someone else. At that right moment, you may find a different meaning or perspective. That perspective is your contribution. So, Art helps build a relationship with everything around them, even with a single insect, and an artist can respect all their existence. That’s why an Art guru always seems to suggest observing things. Here Drawing is the best form of keeping something in detail.

Art is a practice of seeing life uniquely, and students may explore the bright side of negative things in life in terms of their career, visuals, feelings, opinion and many more. That’s why the mother of Art is combined with expression like singing, painting, dancing, writing, performance etc. At this moment, if the page of Art is wiped out from your life, your life will go blank because whatever you are wearing, how you are behaving, whatever you are talking about or making your life very simple & intelligent are the fundamental fragments of Art. Think once why only a particular thing is extraordinary for you, although plenty of similar items are available. If you can understand Art, that means you’re a devotee, or if you create Art, you are unique. As like we can feel a song profoundly but can’t sing. So, for the students, Art makes them realise how important their feelings are in the present time.

I have a task for you if you accept. Have you ever wondered why only something that you like in the universe without reason? Everyone loves flowers, even you also. If I ask you why do you love that? Why is it beautiful? Tell me the exact reason for the beauty of that flower? “I just like it” is not the answer. Go near a beautiful flower, observe it carefully along with your copy, and start writing about its beauty–it’s not a simple task. I’m sure your mind will go blank. You may feel but hard to express. It will be a unique achievement if you try and can write a few lines. That’s the supreme achievement in Art, as you deeply feel something and can make someone feel the same in the same density is a big challenge for an artist. This is how your mind is getting to be mastered.

Sometimes I am amazed by how ancient people struggled to document Art forms in caves in 40,000 BC. Today’s yield of success is derived from them. They were unique. If you start a journey of Art History towards prehistoric, you will be mesmerised at every turn. “Without our past, there is no future”.

ART: Art is an expression of values or emotions and the connection between qualities of a relationship (it could be anything), creating a form of whatever you think of. 

Subrata Sarkar
The Fabindia School

Think About Yourself - Byju Joseph

Courtesy: quotemaster.org

Think about yourself and plan your own life. If you don’t decide your own future, someone else will do it for you. Each time you fail to control your own life, you give control of your life to someone else. Your failure and success stories depend only upon you. You get what you make out of your life. There may be circumstances that won’t favour you. Don’t allow them to control your aim and to destroy it. You have to fight to achieve it and it is possible only when you are there. Never assume that somebody else will do it for your success. The way to success is not crowded, you have to make it all alone and at the end the reward is going to be only yours. There are people who blame others or their circumstances but in reality it is just the way to escape from their own responsibilities. You can find excuses, but you have to keep in mind that your life is hundred percent your responsibility, you just can’t run away from it. After all you are doing this to yourself only. You are not doing this for the sake of others or to satisfy them. 

Some people may go against you, that they may try to bring you down. But it depends on how you respond to it. Keep in mind everything remains powerless unless you provide power to it. There may be hardships, there may be circumstances that won’t favour you; keep in mind that if one door shuts down at you, the other one opens up for you, but you have to take off your eyes from the closed one firstly. Lookup for other chances; life always gives you chances to succeed. If it is not in one attempt, maybe the next one will be for you. You never know until you try.

Each and everything starts from your thinking. It all depends on the way you think. Your thinking becomes your reality; it is very true.  Imagine good things and good will happen to you. Imagination is just the way of making reality first in our minds. It is exactly like a blueprint which we make before constructing a building. Each and everything should be planned before it is executed in real life. Otherwise, it won’t make any sense. You will get all messed up without your planning in mind. It is like getting an overview or an idea about a certain thing in your life. Thinking is so powerful; it can make you more and more powerful.

Byju Joseph
The Fabindia School
bjh@fabindiaschools.in

Important Gift For Oneself Is Being Honest - Kavitha Devda

Courtesy: beaninspire.com

What do you mean by ‘To be honest to ourselves’?

 Why one should be honest to themselves?

 

Being honest with ourselves is actually a great thing. If we will not be honest to ourselves then how can we expect from others. When we lie to others or if we cheat them then they will not know at that time but we ourselves know the wrong thing done with them. After doing anything wrong if we regret or apologize even then it makes us feel guilty and ashamed. Though we can hide from others but cannot hide anything to ourselves. 

In life, you can cheat others by fooling them but when it comes to cheating yourself, it is quite impossible. You cannot hide anything from yourself, as your inner person will remind you of all your mistakes. We can imbibe many values in us at any age. It is never too late to do anything or anything in life. It is not difficult to say that I am honest or I never lie, but when you try to do that it still makes you feel think. 

“The most important thing is always to be honest with yourself without hesitating about things that matter a lot”

Kavitha Devda 

The Fabindia School 

kda@fabindiaschools.in

Good Teachers Explain, Great Teachers Enliven

A good teacher goes to the classroom and explains the lesson or his/her topic. The teachers' aim is to make children aware of that topic and children should learn the answer for their assessments and secure a good position in the classroom.

The great teacher teaches in the classroom with live examples of their life and with the clear aim of explaining that topic. The children can then use their experience in future and the knowledge in their daily life.  For an example, if a teacher teaches them Electoral Politics she can show the children complete process of voting in the classroom.  Thus, in future they can use their voting writes properly and can become a good citizen of democratic India.

Our Learning from the book Can You Teach A Zebra Some Algebra, by Debashis Chatterjee
- Ishu Chouhan, Kusum Sharma, Urmila Rathore and Rajeshwari Rathore.
The Fabindia School

Can You Teach A Zebra Some Algebra

Speaking for the topic Can You Teach A Zebra Some Algebra, if we talk about a zebra which is an animal, it’s mind is not able to develop the skill of concentration and intellect to learn something. But a human mind is able to develop the skill of concentration and intellect. So that's why we are able to learn things but not a zebra. If we connect this topic with our classroom, there are so many students and they all are different from each other, our purpose is that every child should learn. Learning will be possible when they will concentrate and intellect.  So, to develop and increase the skills of concentration and intellect, we need to focus on following things. 

• Teaching should be interesting and use of audio-visual aids
• Better interaction with the students
• Asking thinking based questions
• Connecting the topic with real life.
• Group discussions 
• Focus on basic knowledge  
• We should give then chance to think and come to the conclusion for the given topic so that they could develop their own opinion.

Our learning from “Can We Teach A Zebra Some Algebra” by “Debashis Chatterjee”

Gajendra Mewara, Monika Vaishnav, Jaffar Khan, Hirender  Lal - The Fabindia School