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As a teacher, you’ll be aware that getting students to engage in group activities can be hugely beneficial. It encourages team work and mutual support; it can bring a competitive dimension to learning which can motivate students to strive harder for results and, perhaps most importantly, it exposes them to other people’s thought processes and problem solving abilities which helps them to develop their own reasoning skills. This sort of collaborative learning teaches students to think more deeply and laterally simply because the answer isn’t supplied by the teacher or a textbook - they have to work it out for themselves. But not all students find it easy to take an active role within a group. Shy students tend to feel overwhelmed when the focus is on them in class and it takes time, patience and skill to draw them out and help them become a confident contributor in group activities. What can you do to encourage these students to participate?
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(sports jerseys or T-shirts with dinosaurs on the front), have them write a book about themselves, bring in pictures from home, and so on. Use the information you learn as starting points for conversation or educational activities.
work on a bulletin board. • Take time to check-in with shy students each day. Engage them in conversation. If they are able to establish a warm relationship with you, they may feel more secure and able to take risks in the classroom.
• Assign them to work with other children in the class who are more outgoing. This • Avoid placing shy children in situations may help promote interaction and new that might embarrass or overly stress friendships. them. • Capitalize on strengths. If a shy student • Teach children to deal with teasing. Help excels in Maths, have him or her tutor them understand words that will help another child who needs help in this area. protect themselves (“Teasing is not nice. I feel hurt when you tease. Please stop…”) • Arrange desks or seats in such a way that and be prepared to intervene. Although shy children are grouped with either some some teasing is inevitable, adopt a children they know or children who are no-tolerance policy on bullying. good at including others. • Maintain contact with the parents. Ask • Teach children how to join group activi- them what the children say about school at ties. For example, on the playground, home. Although a child may be quiet in the prompt the child to ask someone, “Can I classroom, he or she may speak quite play, too?” positively about school.
• Give them a task that will encourage moving around the room and interacting • Figure out what your shy students are with others. Or, give them something to do that will make them feel important, such as interested in. You can ask them to, use interest inventories, notice what they wear erasing the blackboard or hanging up their Below are some points which you can do:
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Akash Thaker The Galaxy School, Rajkot Studies Forensic Science at the Duke TIP Summer Studies Program, 2014
Last year has been thoroughly transforming for me. At the age of 13, one doesn’t expect to achieve something big, something life-altering; certainly not as big as a chance to study under the guidance of the best experts from Duke University. I had never really planned to be a part of this program. I came to know about Duke Tip in the sixth grade. Our teachers informed us that securing a good percentile in the ASSET Exams would make us eligible to give the exam that might qualify us for Duke Tip. In December 2013, 17 people from my class, including me, embarked on a journey with one goal in mind: to go to Delhi for the summer and make the most of it. The exam paper for the Duke Tip was definitely above-level, but wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. With just a few coherent approaches, I could crack just about any question the paper threw at me. After about a month of waiting, the results were finally declared. Ultimately, it was clear that four people were selected. Three of my class mates and I. I was thrilled at the prospect of spending 20 days in Delhi, a place foreign to me, a place where I could learn something beyond what I do every day. After a lot of thinking I finally decided on Forensic Science as my first choice, with Engineering and Problem Solving as a backup. Soon after, I received an email from Duke TIP confirming my place in the Forensic Science course. At last, it was time to embark on the actual journey. Accompanied by my father, we travelled from Gujarat to Delhi by train and then to Haryana by a car. The trip was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. The intense heat of the area only added to the problems. But I was determined to keep the anticipation in my heart alive! As I entered the campus soaring over the buildings in its majestic grace, the Indian flag at the university finally came to view .I could not but admire the vast grounds and the intricate architecture. The extremely hospitable staff led us in and helped us with our proceedings to check in and settle down. After a light lunch, my father and I attended the meeting in which the staff explained the various courses, gave out ground rules and had a ’Question and Answer’ session with the parents. Shortly after, it was time for the parents to leave. I knew I would miss my family, but I was even surer about the adventures that lay ahead. All of us were housed under the watchful eye of a Residential Counselor (RC). The RCs then led everyone to their dorms and introduced us briefly to the place and its rules. We also had some residential activities to break the ice. Post dinner, we went for our first class! It was an amazing experience. To actually study the basics of Forensic Science at 13 years of age was mind blowing! We started out with a quiz in which I scored 85%. And later, in a group activity, the team I was a part of won! I had performed well on the very first day, which boosted my confidence a lot. As the days passed, I learnt more and more about types of crimes, methods of criminals and how to bring them justice. We started out with microscopy, a fun topic with lots of practical work in the lab. As I have always been better with hands-on activities and microscopy was really interesting. As we moved on with the course, we learnt about arson, blood and tool mark identification. We discussed various unsolved crimes, and practiced mock crime scenes. We watched Sherlock – one of the most intriguing shows to have ever been televised! One of my most memorable moments was when we all celebrated our instructor Mikaela Ma’am’s birthday. It was really a heart-felt celebration. We had an amazing time. She was seriously one of a kind. I have never had such a lenient and open relationship with a teacher ever before, and most likely I won’t ever have one again, unless I come back to Duke Tip next year. Mikaela ma’am constantly posed challenges to the class and motivated us to excel at each of them. I really developed myself as a student in her class. Our Teaching Assistant - Sukanya was also a great individual. She had the best handwriting ever, and she always was cheerful! I made two best friends there. Both of them were just like me, and our sensibilities matched too! We joked about it in class, and made everyone laugh and practically ruled during the mafia games. We were a trio like no other! We had some funny experiences and some challenging ones. We stood by each other at all times. The experience at Duke TIP has indeed been a really awesome journey. I learnt a lot in a short span of time, not just academically but intellectually as well! I made a lot of new friends, and with some of them, I hope to surpass distances that separate us and remain friends with them for as long as I can! I am really hoping to come back next year and will work towards that!
Books are one of the best tools for learning, teaching and upbringing. A good book always has a salutary effect on the mind and soul of a reader. It will elevate spirit and thoughts. Visit PitarakART at www.eklavya.in/pitara Education does not occur in isolation from society and environment. At its best, it can help develop a scientific and historical understanding of the evolution of society and be the means for motivating people to effect a change in their living conditions. Eklavyais a ‘not for profit organisation’ which works towards the goal of social change through meaningful education. It conducts researches and evolves curricular models at the micro level and attempts to implement them in the mainstream system to bring about change in the school education system in India. “You can create islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. Or you can attempt to change the entire landscape” – this is the objective with which Eklavya is working on, in varied areas of education since the last three decades and more. At Eklavya, we believe that books are gifts of learning that can be cherished for a lifetime. Towards this, we develop such reading and learning materials that help in developing interests, awareness, imagination, rationality, critical thinking and decision making ability among children and adults. We take utmost care to see that the stories, poems and texts for reading are simple, that they build on the context of the reader and help enhance a thirst for life-long learning in them. We at Eklavya firmly believe that “A Good Book is the Best of Friends”. Therefore, our efforts are also directed towards developing reading habits in teachers, children, parents, on one hand, and then learning to seek and select quality reading material, on the other. Our objective behind publishing is to develop material that is a bundle of hands-on knowledge, understanding and joy for all age groups. We are rigorously working to publish and disseminate high end teaching-learning and educational/literary materials. The overriding concern is to keep the reading material close to the life and environment of the readers and also to produce it at a price that a majority can afford. With the advent of the internet, online book stores, EBooks, EPubs have been critical in influencing the reading habits around the world. It is an era of Electronic Commerce, commonly known as e-commerce. Internet today is the most effective means of communication. It helps in getting information from all over the world with a blink of an eye. Keeping in mind the changing trend and increasing preference for e-commerce, Eklavya has made a two-pronged strategy to reach out to the readers through this medium. On one hand, we have uploaded a number of books developed by Eklavya on the Eklavya website (www.eklavya.in) for free access, on the other, we have designed and launched PitaraKART – a one-stop online educational store.
Through PitaraKART, in addition to Eklavya materials, readers and browsers can procure a range of carefully selected books and educational materials of selected publishers and organisations from India. After doing in-depth research, we have tried to gift our readers a shopping cart that is user-friendly, safe, secure, fast and convenient. Gradually, we hope to grow into a hub of online procurement of all educational and children’s literature. Although we now have and will continue to have titles in English available through PitaraKART, Hindi language readers will be happy to note that PitarKART will always have a focus on Hindi books. Apart from the development and dissemination of quality educational material, the other very interesting and conscious effort made by Eklavya is to practice a “GO-GREEN Approach” in its print-publishing work. Our concerns about the impact of production of paper and use of resource-intensive methods for printing on the planet earth has urged Eklavya’s publishing initiative to research, understand and try out greener options in this area. To reduce our carbon footprint by saving forests, Eklavya’s books currently use paper manufactured out of wood pulp from renewable plantations.
Ms. Ranjana Jangra Principal , Birla School, Kalyan, Mumbai
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Who has most influenced you to become an educator, and how did they influence you? ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Some of my teachers in my school/ college influenced me to become an educator. My Physics teacher in std. IX, Biology teacher in std. XI and Algebra teacher in First year of B.Sc. taught me the lesson that teachers are the nation builders. A passionate teacher can make a difference in the lives of children as well as change society.
What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– According to me the discipline should come from within and not by forcing it upon the children. The need for it should be taught to the children through experiences. A teacher need not worry about indiscipline in the class if she/he is ready with a wellplanned lesson and interesting learning activities to keep the children engaged. Moreover, the teachers should be role models by their exemplary behavior.
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What are your views regarding the “Importance of Teacher Training and Development” in educating students? ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– With rapidly the changing world and the requirements of the society, it is of utmost importance to equip the teachers with appropriate skills so that they are abreast of the educational developments. Teachers not only go through the regular training programmes but also effectively implement the same in the teaching learning process. Regular follow up, monitoring and assessment of the effectiveness of training are equally important. Based on the appraisal and the new developments in the educational field, the training needs can be identified further to ensure the actual growth of teachers. Schools must encourage in-house training programmes wherein some enthusiastic teachers can share his/her learning with others. It will encourage them to try for their self-development and motivate others for the same. The continuous process of in-house and external trainings should be an important part of any school’s development plans.
What is your view regarding the ASSET?
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Even though schools have their own assessment systems, ASSET gives a kind of external assessment which is very scientific, diagnostic and remedial. The best aspect of ASSET is that it caters to the needs of all the stakeholders, students, parents, teachers and the school. The tests are designed very thoughtfully, enabling the students to sharpen their thinking skills which are the need of the hour. It also provides strong resource material for the educators to learn questioning skills. Moreover, there is an addition of some new aspects every year like ETAS, which will help the teachers to know their students well. Bookpost
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