Encourage your child...............

Each child is different and approach to solve a problem is different from the other.  Each child’s approach is effective in their own way although the solution is unique.  We should not humiliate a child for a wrong answer, but use it as a means to comprehend why he or she has answered wrongly and explain the method of getting the right answer.  To ensure this we need well trained good quality and supportive teachers.  It is not the degree that matters, the way in which the students are understood matters the most.  There should be clarity in teaching. Students should not memorise concepts rather understand it truly. Maths skills have to be developed as we develop other habits such as reading, writing, music, games etc.  It can be developed by parents at home.  We must help the child to understand and enjoy the subject so that it is fun to learn it. Fear sets in their mind when they do not perform well when compared to other subjects. Once the anxiety sets in it is difficult to erase it from their minds. Unless the child is retarded developing the skills is not difficult. First and foremost aim is to be positive.  Teachers should take a constant feedback from the students.  With the help of technology developing mathematical skills have become easier.  We must try and make the concepts relevant to real life.  To improve the numerical skills the students must be exposed to lot of mathematical games.  This exercises the brain and the child formulates her own way to understand any concept.  Positive pressure is developed with these games. The approach to a complex problem is made as simple as possible using their own techniques. The students must be awarded marks for explaining the mechanism of achieving the right answer.  More we encourage them, more they want to do anything.

 

The shift in our education system.................

http://www.onepicten.com/2014/01/1061.html

My first reaction to the cartoon was, "How true!". But, it set me thinking. I went back in time to my school days.They were happy and carefree days . School was fun, but thinking of my teachers. Did my teachers or my school make any extra effort to promote creative thinking, identify talent or special needs or learning styles of a student? Sadly, most did not. Questioning a teacher, or any adult for that matter, was discouraged and frowned upon. I remember very few incidents from my childhood when a teacher went out of her way to help me or any other student for that matter, when we struggled with a subject. Most teachers came to the class, taught and left, irrespective of whether the students had understood or not. The bright ones did while others struggled and some lost interest. The onus and responsibility of learning lay with the students. The few teachers who actually went out of their way to help and guide us are remembered and respected even today.

Looking back in time, I can proudly say that most of us have done reasonably well in life. 

But the same is not true in today's schools as times have changed. Today's students live in a highly stimulating environment, with constant access and exposure to the internet, smart phones, games, television etc. In such a situation, they find the traditional methods of teaching and  learning extremely boring. Too many distractions and  lack of concentration produces mediocre learning. 

It thus becomes crucial that we, as educators, are able to promote talent, differentiate instruction according to their learning styles, provide them with a variety of choices for learning, promote their talent and give them innumerable opportunities for learning and growing to produce brain compatible learning.There is a paradigm shift in our education as we prepare our students for the 21st Century. We, as teachers need to develop skills like critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration etc as we strive to prepare them for an ever changing world.

Thus, the shift in the roles and responsibilities of a teacher and the education system, wherein the teachers now become more accountable for developing 21st century skills in their students.

We are always interested in finding my own ways to learn better and faster. When young we learn lots of new things every day. There is lot of fear in mind before we actually experience something. We always loved sharing our experiences with someone who is close to us. In a formal classroom environment we learn by using all our sensory organs. The teacher supports our learning with her experience and in turn it is a two way process when there is interaction while learning. It is the passion that a person needs to develop towards learning anything. Learning is affected when clues are provided and the person becomes dependent and he/she will never be able to think independently throughout their lives. Internet provides the exact meaning or explanation to us, we need to create new things and experience to retain the facts.

He is matured now.............

It was a Saturday 11th of August. I had invited few of my local friends for a dosa party. I was feeling very lonely without my mother-in-law and my elder one at home. There was no echo of sound in that big house. My son was most of the time in school participating in some activity or the other. The house was full of laughter. I saw there was a long discussion going on with my son Ashwin. I went and sat beside them. “Auntie, you know I had food poison”, the first statement I heard and one sided conversation went on by Ashwin. My friend before leaving was consoling my son. My mother-in-law had sent his favourite chips from Indore with my husband on Monday. He was not excited at all. I came back from school and counted the chips packet. No change. He went to the school hospital and got some medicine. After 2 days of medication there was no improvement. No fever. I compelled him to have food. On August 15th he could not do the physical drill and came back from school without having breakfast. He said ‘mom, I feeling good without food’. It was his games time on Wednesday; I was worried when he had not returned. I went to his school hospital. ‘Mom, doctor wants to talk to you’. Doctor asked me to go for Hepatits test. ‘What did you tell the doctor’ I asked him. ‘physically: I was tired, sore, have no body clock anymore, feelings of toxicity, nausea and dissiness – all kinds of nasty mix I had’. He was on bed from the next day. I searched materials on net regarding the diet. I have not seen anyone having jaundice. Jaundice can prove fatal if neglected. No oil, no fat. He was on liquid diet. I have seen my mother on liquid diet for a year before she passed away. I was positive and made him too. The drive to go back and play games made him eat anything that I gave him (radish juice). Archana came inside “ Ashwin aapko glucon-D leyke aana bool gayi”. Tears rolled down my eyes looking at her. “Bhabhi send him to me I will take care”. He was ready to go to her home because Archana loves talking. He wrote his feelings on facebook. Phone calls poured in. He was happy talking to everyone and explaining the story again and again. He also felt that the noise level is less at home. I realised. My elder one told me ‘Mom, Ashwin is so matured now’. He was worried that I was concerned about his health and never allowed us to discuss about his health. After 8 days he started accepting solid food. He never showed he was feeling weak those 8 days. He strictly followed the doctor’s and his father’s advice. He said ‘I want people around me; I will take care of my health now’. He is waiting to go back to school.

THE ART OF LEARNING!

How do we learn? We learn all the time, explicitly and implicitly. We learn from our daily experiences, from everything and everybody, all the time. All we need to do is to be open to new ideas and changes  and know how each one of us learns best.

It is believed that time is the best teacher! Does that mean that all of us become wiser as we grow older? Maybe yes, but definitely not to the same extent. The willingness and openness to learn and usher in the new, apply what we learn and look for ways and means to learn will ultimately decide  how much we learn and how much we know!
The art of learning, like the art of living, needs to be mastered. 

THE JAIL AT DAGSHAI..............

Seeing is believing!!!

A friend from Kasauli had told me that the Jail at Dagshai has been recently restored and turned into  a meuseum, preserving the 160 year old history of the jail and is a must see for anyone visiting the Simla Hills. I soon got a chance to visit the Jail on a class excursion with the students of my class 10.

The jail was built in 1849 at a cost of Rs 72,873 by the British. Of the 54 cells, 16 were for solitary confinement.

The cells has two doors which are barely three feet apart. The prisoner was made to stand against one door and the front door was closed. The prisoner could only stand and being sandwiched between steel grills left practically no scope for movement. This jail came into limelight when a number of Irish freedom fighters were executed here. Four revolutionaries of Kamagata Maru were also executed at Dagshai

As we entered the jail museum, the silence was unnerving and creepy. My usually loud and boisterous students were seemed suddenly quiet. The girls soon ran out of there saying it seemed haunted to them, their footsteps making thudding sound on the hollow wooden floor boards.

The inside of the jail was another world. The cells for Solitary Confinement of the so called hard core criminals were the most heart wrenching. These cells had no ventilation  not even a tiny hole for a spec of light to come in. The inmates of these cells would have had no concept of day or night. It must have been a permanent night for these prisoners. A small shutter in the door must have been used to give food to the prisoners, or maybe throw the food at them? So many questions cross my mind.

Did these prisoners ever leave the cells to see the light of the day or meet another person?

How could a person remain sane in these conditions?

Were the crimes committed by these people in proportion to the punishment? I know that many of them were soldiers and freedom fighters.

As we headed back to school, our bus crossed the Model Burail Jail at Chandigarh, a child exclaimed, "Ma'am look, this jail has got swings!!!"

"Thank God" I said, "We live in today's world!"

Educating Digital Age through Self-Empowerment

We are witnessing the drastic changes that are taking place day by day in social and educational parameters in the 21^st century. These changes are obvious and well expected but prove unexpected and leave bad experience with those who are not ready to move with the pace of these changes. Educationists call it a ‘period of transition’ from one civilization to the other but I take it as a paradigm shift from ‘being digital immigrant’ to ‘becoming digital native’. Believe or not, this century has gifted us with numerous inventions and comforts, moreover brought us closer through digital means to know more about each other, to share more with each other and to help each other as well. It has poured us into the ink of fortune of knowing new ways of knowing (cognition) to the beautiful phenomenon of this fascinating world. But are we ready (mentally and physically), and open too, to appreciate and practice these ways of cognition for the betterment of the society? Are we educating our young generation, who are the future leaders, in the way that prepare them to bring sustainable changes in the society? I would leave it to you to think and to respond.

Academics, around the world are talking about facilitation culture in the educational revolutions which is the culture of ‘hosting’ the transformation of knowledge to new information from the present status of cognition. Available literature on education and pedagogy, as per my best (limited) knowledge of it, suggest that a good learning environment is the first and foremost requirement that needs to be fulfilled for the pupils learning new facts. Environment will teach them or they will learn themselves from the environment. Again there is a question are we able to create the environment? Are we developing ‘How May I Assist You’ culture in our educational practices? This is the culture of visibility, openness and overwhelmingness towards the learners needs.

We deal 21^st century learners with the traditional old fashioned ways (mentality) of teaching. Here is the situation when anxiety creeps in because there are plentiful differences in ‘styles of delivering’ and the ‘ways of receiving’ the information. Gap is too high. This gap can be filled if ‘we’ (teachers) learn to cater digital natives with the ways they want to learn. But in maximum situations we find ourselves very reluctant (and unwilling too) to change. We need to change our attitude and thinking towards the role of a ‘teacher’ in the existing society. 21^st century teacher is a facilitator like a wonderful host who is extremely humble and sensitive towards the learner’s needs. We have to be ‘a facilitator’ who assists the learner in all respects by winning his confidence and stays behind the learner to gratify his performance. 

  Are the requirements of 21^st century not indicating towards an urgent need to change our ways of thinking? We need to quickly brush up our thinking styles and update ourselves with the latest approaches and tools of 21^st century to facilitate, not only to teach, digital natives. Once we are ‘ready’ with all the measures required to face the challenges, educational as well as technological and their blend into each other, to address the needs of digital natives, we feel very calm, confident and delighted. Then only we would be able to make a difference in the life of ‘a digital native’. Let us take a pledge to stay with, not for, the future leaders on the same page to assist them in their preparation to perform future leadership roles in the society so that they can create their own beautiful world. God Bless all. Amen.  

Communicated to and under publication in "physicsworld" UK