The monthly newsletter
Issue 88 | December 2012 | www.ei-india.com
This Month’s Issue Teaching Social ............... 01 Children’s Day ................ 02 Accidental Inventions ..... 03 Year Planner ................... 04 Thoughtful Story ............ 06 Book Review .................. 06 Teacher’s Bite ................. 07 Anecdotes Relating ........ 08
Teaching Social Skills in Schools We live in a competitive world and being globally connected, we need to understand and experience diverse cultures. We would need to determine whether every child is ready to contribute in a competitive and interconnected world, in our current education system. Experts feel that the focus on the mastery of core subjects has to be supplemented with relevant social and life skills such as: effective communication, collaboration and team building, creativity and innovations. Social skills are critical for survival in today’s world. They are a combination of the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotional state as well as understand and respond to other people. Students need to know how to manage oneself by identifying emotions and scenarios, and developing ways to deal with personal emotional states. Interpersonal Social Skills: As said earlier, the ability to understand others’ emotional states, wants and needs is critical not only for success in school, but also in life, as life demands constant interaction with diverse people across cultures, both at personal and professional levels. Teachers can use tools like team building,
initiating interactions and sharing both by project methods and in classroom situations. Inter-personal skills are sometimes also referred to as people skills or communication skills. Active listening, response, delegation and leadership are core components of interpersonal skills. Some others are active listening, praising, staying on tasks, helping others, etc.
We’ve Got Skills!
Steps to Teach Social Skills: 1. A teacher first needs to demonstrate through videos or stories, a few examples/case studies, highlighting the sufferings of individuals lacking social skills. She could get students to brainstorm lists of social skills and guide them on how to acquire these. 2. While teaching social skills, it is best to focus on just one skill at a time. A teacher can choose the skill by herself By Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist, EI
or let her class decide which skill they would need to work on first. Depending upon time and resources, the teacher might have to work on a different skill each week, highlighting these on the bulletin board. 3. It is not enough to say, “Be nice!” A teacher has to help students identify exactly what they need to do and say in order to improve the identified social skill. The teacher can make a laminated poster for her bulletin board and write the social skills in the box at the top. Then the teacher should ask students to talk about their possible actions and when they would need to demonstrate these skills. 4. After the discussion on the nature of the skills and how they can be demonstrated, she should provide an opportunity to practise these skills, through cooperative learning activities. 5. At the end of the activity, the teacher should get the class to reflect on how well the social skills were used.
Children’s Day is a Day for Children to Engage in Fun and Frolic At Rani Meyyammai Matriculation School, Puliyur, the class rooms were beautifully decorated with flowers and balloons, to make the children feel special. The celebration started with our KG kids planting saplings. The function was presided by our Principal. The students of KG had a Fancy dress competition, which showcased the innate talents of the kids. The best part about Children’s Day is that children didn't wear their regular uniforms to school. Instead they put on their best colourful dresses. In the Primary and Middle sections, various competitions were organized for all classes. The children expressed their creativity and skills. Almost all the teachers were the participants in variety entertainment programs. They celebrated the children’s Day by engaging in various plays, Kathakalashebam, music (songs) mimicry, anthakshari, and fancy dresses with social messages. The teachers disguised themselves as children and presented various programs for their beloved children. Children’s Day is all about respecting and honouring children who are considered to be the future leaders of the nation. Teachers recalled their childhood day while they participated with great zeal. The day was full of fun and relaxation for children. By: Co-ordinators, Rani Meyyammai Matriculation School, Puliyur
The Best Librarian in India
A will to serve combined with a sense of social justice has been the guiding principle of P. Kalyanasundaram, who has spent over 45 years in social service. A Gold Medallist in library Science, he is also an MA in Literature and History. During his 35-year-career as a librarian at the Kumarkurupara Arts College at Srivaikuntam in Tuticorin district, he gave away all his salary for charity and did odd jobs to meet his daily needs. He has also come forward to donate his body and eyes to the Tirunelveli Medical College. Moved by his passion to help
others, Super Star Rajinikanth adopted him as his father. The Union Government has acclaimed him as ‘The Best Librarian in India'. He has also been chosen as ‘one of the top ten librarians of the world'. The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, has honoured him as ‘one of the noblest of the world’, while the United Nations Organisation adjudged him as one of the Outstanding People of the 20th Century’. An American organisation has also selected him as the ‘Man of the Millennium.' Source: The Hindu
Accidental Inventions invented food: the potato chip was born when cook George Crum (yes, really his name!) tried to silence a fussy customer who kept sending French fries back to the kitchen for being soggy; Popsicles were invented when Frank Epperson left a drink outside in the cold overnight; and ice cream cones were invented at the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis. Saccharin Saccharin, the sweetener in the pink packet, was discovered because chemist Constantin Fahlberg didn't wash his hands after a day at the office. Prepare to get icked. The year was 1879 and Fahlberg was trying to come up with new and interesting uses for coal tar. After a productive day at the office, he went home and something strange happened.
But no food-invention has had as much success as Coke. Atlanta Pharmacist John Pemberton was trying to make a cure for headaches. He mixed together a bunch of ingredients. The recipe is still a closely guarded secret. It only took eight years of being sold in a drug store before the drink was popular enough to be sold in bottles.
He noticed the rolls he was eating tasted particularly sweet. He asked his wife if she had done anything interesting to the rolls, but she hadn't. They tasted normal to her. Fahlberg realized the taste must have been coming from his hands -which he hadn't washed. The next day he went back to the lab and started tasting his work until he found the sweet spot.
waiting for! His vulcanized rubber is used in everything from tires, to shoes, to hockey pucks (Meaning of ‘puck’ - a vulcanized rubber disk 3 inches in diameter that is used instead of a ball in ice hockey).
Radioactivity Two words that you don't ever want to hear said in the same sentence are "Whoops!" and "radioactive." But in the case of physicist Henri Becquerel's surprise discovery, it was an accident that brought radioactivity to light. Back in 1896 Becquerel was fascinated by two things: natural fluorescence and the newfangled X-ray. He ran a series of experiments to see if naturally fluorescent minerals produced X-rays after they had been left out in the sun.
Vulcanized Rubber Charles Goodyear had been waiting years for a happy accident when it finally occurred. Goodyear spent a decade finding ways to make rubber easier to work with while being resistant to heat and cold. Nothing was having the effect he wanted.
COKE
One day he spilled a mixture of rubber, sulfur and lead onto a hot stove. The heat charred the mixture, but didn't ruin it. When Goodyear picked up the accident, he noticed that the mixture had hardened but was still quite usable.
There are many stories of accidentally
At last! The breakthrough he had been
One problem - he was doing these experiments in the winter, and there was one week with a long stretch of overcast skies. He left his equipment wrapped up together in a drawer and waited for a sunny day. When he got back to work, Becquerel realized that the uranium rock he had left in the drawer had imprinted itself on a photographic plate without being exposed to sunlight first. There was something very special about that rock. Working with Marie and Pierre Curie, he discovered that something was radioactivity. Source: http://science.discovery.com
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YEAR PLANNER 2013 JANUARY
FEBRUARY
APRIL
MARCH
MAY
1
MON TUE
1
2
WED
2
3
1
THU
3
4
2
FRI
4
1
1
5
3
SAT
5
2
2
6
4
1
SUN
6
3
3
7
5
2
MON
7
4
4
8
6
3
TUE
8
5
5
9
7
4
WED
9
6
6
10
8
5
THU
10
7
7
11
9
6
FRI
11
8
8
12
10
7
SAT
12
9
9
13
11
8
SUN
13
10
10
14
12
9
MON
14
11
11
15
13
10
TUE
15
12
12
16
14
11
WED
16
13
13
17
15
12
THU
17
14
14
18
16
13
FRI
18
15
15
19
17
14
SAT
19
16
16
20
18
15
SUN
20
17
17
21
19
16
MON
21
18
18
22
20
17
TUE
22
19
19
23
21
18
WED
23
20
20
24
22
19
THU
24
21
21
25
23
20
FRI
25
22
22
26
24
21
SAT
26
23
23
27
25
22
SUN
27
24
24
28
26
23
MON
28
25
25
29
27
24
TUE
29
26
26
30
28
25
WED
30
27
27
29
26
THU
31
28
28
30
27
FRI
29
31
28
SAT
30
29
SUN
31
30
MON TUE
窶連 WORLD WHERE CHILDREN EVERYWHE
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
1 2
1
3
2
4
1
3
5
2
4
1
1
6
3
5
2
2
7
4
1
6
3
1
3
8
5
2
7
4
2
3
8
5
3
ASSET
4
5
9 10
6
ASSET
7
SUMMER ROUND Test Dates August 5th - 9th
4
9
6
4
WINTER ROUND Test Dates
5
10
7
5
December 2nd - 6th
6
11
8
7
12
9
6
11
8
6
8
13
10
7
12
9
7
9
14
11
8
13
10
8
0
15
12
9
14
11
9
1
16
13
10
15
12
10
2
17
14
11
16
13
11
3
18
15
12
17
14
12
4
19
16
13
18
15
13
5
20
17
14
19
16
14
6
21
18
15
20
17
15
7
22
19
16
21
18
16
8
23
20
17
22
19
17
9
24
21
18
23
20
18
0
25
22
19
24
21
19
1
26
23
20
25
22
20
2
27
24
21
26
23
21
3
28
25
22
27
24
22
4
29
26
23
28
25
23
5
30
27
24
29
26
24
6
31
28
25
30
27
25
7
29
26
31
28
26
8
30
27
29
27
9
31
28
30
28
0
29
29
30
30
ERE ARE LEARNING WITH UNDERSTANDING’
31
Thoughtful Story
BENEFITS OF STRUGGLING
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from
Book Review
the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.
The Mahabharata: Part 1 and 2: A Child’s View By Samhita Arni, Published by Tara Books
The Mahabharata is India’s greatest epic which tells us an ancient tale of war, kingship, honour and revenge. However, the massive cast of characters portrayed in orthodox literature may not be viewed with the same respect by children. This is established through Samhita Arni’s campact and accessible narration: ‘The Mahabharata: Part 1 and 2: A Child’s View’. Samhita wrote and illustrated this version of the Mahabharata when she was 12 years old. Her Mahabharata is bold and unorthodox in its depiction. She has written the volumes to encourage questions and curiosity, especially in India, where our education system discourages curiosity and rewards rote learning and memorisation. Samhita illustrates this with the example of Nachiketa from the epic. She says, children like Nachiketa are punished and scolded for asking questions that fall outside the purview of the curriculum. Samhita also encourages children to engage with the epic and explore deeper meaning about human society and life through it. In one of her stories, Samhita questions the authoritarian stance of King Yayati: 'King Yayati is cursed to turn old by his Brahmin guru father-in-law (a teacher) when he angers his wife Devyani by falling in love with her maid. Yayati is distressed and his father-in-law relents. Yayati can become young again if he can find someone willing to take up the burden of his old age. The king approaches his sons, but his elder two sons are unwilling to give up their youth. His third son, Puru, the ancestor of the Pandavas and Kauravas, is willing to take on his father’s curse – and so his father rewards him by disinheriting his elder sons.'
In this fate, children turn out to be wiser than their parents and teachers. Authority – in the figure like Yayati who pursue his personal pleasure at the cost of others and his kingdom – is questionable. The books are a worldwide success. They are translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. By Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist, EI
Teacher’s Bite Ms. Jyotsna Brar, Principal, Welham Girls’ School, Dehradun
Q:
Who has most influenced you to become an educator, and how did they influence you?
In all honesty, I cannot think of any individual teacher who influenced me to become a teacher / educator. However, I enjoyed my school days in a well-known boarding school of India and felt that there was immense potential in this job for being able to make life interesting and educative for young people. I began life as a teacher rather tentatively but then found that my students responded so enthusiastically and marvelously that they gave immense meaning to my work. I think my students influenced me to make a career and a ‘calling’ out of a mere job and to keep enjoying it. The challenge of making oneself grow is also very appealing as there is new learning emerging every day and makes work exciting.
Q:
What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?
Essentially, each teacher and each pupil should know what the school stands for and the ethos of the school will begin to determine the actions and decisions of the school community. There should be a written school code and rules which should be clearly communicated to everyone – teachers, students and parents. The rules should be fair and friendly but firm enough to ensure a well-mannered community life of the school. Finally, they must be followed by everyone and must be upheld. I am completely opposed to corporal punishment. I actually believe that if the teacher is screaming or hitting, students has already lost the battle and cannot be called an educator. A school should not require ‘policing’. Children have
to be calmly and gently taught rules and manners repeatedly till it becomes a way of life. Each teacher has to handle classroom management on her / his own. The best way to handle a class is to make it interesting and filled with exciting work for the children to DO. Teachers have to lay down parameters of behaviour expected in their classrooms and then ensure that they are adhered to without the atmosphere becoming threatening. The final aim is to get the children to LEARN, not to remain still and silent, isn’t it? But the class has to be calm enough to ensure that no child is disturbed or prevented from learning.
Q:
What are your views regarding the 'Importance of Teacher Training and Development' in educating Students?
This is the most important and essential aspect of education. We know very little when we embark as new young teachers in a real classroom, no matter which degree or qualification we may have obtained. When we are required to transact a curriculum to a very varied student population, the challenges begin to emerge and they keep emerging throughout one’s teaching life. So it is essential to keep learning more about one’s subject and about one’s work – how to do it better and betterright through one’s working life. I cannot stress on this strongly enough!
Q:
What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?
The ASSET test has made a difference to the quality of teaching in our school. It is a great example of ‘valid assessment’. Many tests and examinations which are carried out in India now – even by boards of education – do not really test what students have understood. ASSET tests do that. The critical aspect of providing feedback to teachers on what their students have not learnt or understood correctly is the best feature of the ASSET tests.
News Bite Permanent Identity Numbers for Students in Classes 1 to 10 in Karnataka On the lines of Aadhaar number of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI), the government has decided to provide permanent identification numbers to all students from class I to class X to check the dropout rate and ensure the enforcement of Right to Education (RTE) Act in all schools in the State. A decision has been taken to fill 4,000 posts for teachers in the government primary schools. The Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Visweshwara Hegde Kageri said that preparations have been made to issue 16 digit numbers to students of all government aided and unaided schools. The unique code numbers have been given to some students and the process is expected to be completed by the end of
December. As part of the drive, every student’s photograph, thumb impression, date of birth, blood group, birthplace, details of parents and address would be collected. The details of each student would be uploaded on the Education Department’s website before issuing the students’ permanent identity numbers. Any government department can access the details of the students. The main objective of the unique code is to track the progress made by students, check dropouts, and misuse of government schemes such as distribution of free textbooks and uniforms. It would help avoid duplication in admission of students, the Minister said.
Anecdotes Relating to Mahatma Gandhi
GE AY MESSA A BIRTHD ly to the llowing rep fo e th t n se ship of Gandhiji orld Fellow W e th f o rs to send organize quested him re d a h o h casion of Faiths, w ' on the oc e g a ss e 'm them a er, 1933): (2nd Octob his bir thday the nd through age can I se ss the e h m g t u a h “W y thro t sending an o n m a I if , n pe g?" life I am livin OF LIFE THE SALT humour k a sense of in th u yo o "D was a ry in life?" a ss e c e n is iji by a t to Gandh u p n io st e qu f I had reply was: "I is h d n a r to ould visi humour, I sh d f o se n se no mitte have com o g a g n lo suicide.
DRINK EVIL ble to u so uncharita "Why are yo d an drink?" aske those who when nt of Gandhiji English stude ndon staying in Lo the latter was . 1 close of 193 towards the those charitable to am I se au c e "B ts of the om the effec fr r e ff su o h w hiji replied. curse," Gand
A PARTING
GIFT A British jou rnalist met th e Mahatma sh ortly before h e d ie d . "H a v e y o u a n y th in g fo r m e , M r. Gandhi?" he asked. "Not u n le ss y o u want m y shawl," was the reply.
THE LION A
ND THE LA MB Gandhiji was asked by Th e Times of India representativ e at Nagpur: "Wha t will becom e of the British, if your Swarajya is established w ithin a year?" He replied: "The lion will lie d own with the lamb ."
HIS RELIG
ION W h il e h e was enga g e d w it h M a h a tm a ji, a young A m e ri c a n missionar y aske he professe d him what religion d and what shape the future religio n of India w as likely to assume. His reply w as very brie f. Pointing to the two sick persons in th e room, he said, "To serv e is my relig ion. I do no worr y abou t t the future."
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