The monthly newsletter
Issue 94 | July 2013 | www.ei-india.com
This Month’s Issue The Power ...................... 01 Duke TIP ......................... 02 Eco Walk ......................... 03 Arzoo .............................. 04 Student Debate .............. 05 Interview ....................... 06 Teacher’s Bite ................. 07 ASSET Poster ................... 08
The Power of Forgiveness It’s a natural tendency to hold a grudge against someone who angers us or hurts those we care about. It’s an extension of that initial surge of annoyance and frustration that comes over us when a student repeatedly disrupts a lesson, challenges authority, or ridicules a classmate.
radical absolution of any and all past misbehaviour, no matter how egregious, is a powerful classroom management strategy.
Frustration and annoyance, however, don’t simply dissipate into the clouds or become internalized into stress. By allowing your classroom management plan to do its job, fulfill its intended purpose, and take the burden off you, your classroom can be gloriously free of tension and resentment. And you can be free to forgive. Forgiveness, in the form of complete and
and gone forever. Greeting your most challenging students with a kind word, being in their company with no strings attached, sharing a story with the one who spent the previous afternoon in time-out . . . are all simple actions of power. Radical forgiveness, which is given fully and freely with no expectation of anything in return, can be a remarkable tonic for your classroom.
But the decisions made seconds after these feelings occur distinguishes those who struggle with classroom management from those who excel in it. A moment’s pause will be most effective in not only curbing misbehaviour but also diminishing the possibility of it recurring. Taking a deep breath helps one realize that an emotional reaction is always a mistake. If this is done often and consistently, it will become a habit, so deeply ingrained that even a brief pause will no longer be needed.
by Michael Linsin
It has the power to soothe bitter, vengeful hearts, melt away heavily fortified walls of distrust, and turn your most challenging students into everyday members of your class. It allows you to demand the highest standards of behaviour without causing friction or resentment. So your students can both like and respect you. Although forgiveness is a remarkable de-stressor, it isn’t simply an internal, personal decision you make and keep to yourself. You must show your students, through your quick smile and open, welcoming body language that every day is a new day and that the mistakes of the past are truly forgotten
By ingraining a calm, methodical approach to misbehaviour, you learn to let go and forgive because it’s right for your classroom, for you and your career as well as for those students who wear the label of a “behaviour problem” like a book-laden backpack slung over their shoulders. Although forgiveness is a gift on the house, what you receive in return can be reason to springboard wide-eyed out of bed every morning feeling: the small, quiet, humble gestures of appreciation; the fulfillment in knowing you’re making a difference; and the lifelessons learned and passed on, rippling out to eternity.
Source: http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2013/01/19/why-forgiveness-is-a-powerful-classroom-management-strategy/ (modified)
Duke Summer Studies Program
The Duke Summer Studies Program for the year 2012-13 was held at Infosys, Mysore Campus from May 12 to June 1st 2013. Working closely with the kids as their Residential Life Coordinator was really amazing! It is unimaginable HOW AMAZINGLY BRILLIANT they all are! Our days used to begin at 7 a.m. and go on till 1 a.m. in the wee hours of the morning! The days used to be a blend of very demanding Academic life and equally demanding Social and Residential life for the students and staff. Academic Life Duke TIP courses are fast-paced and intense, equivalent to one semester of a college course. The students achieved much in just 21 days! Some of the instructors had to drastically UP their syllabus as the students absorbed 3 month's worth of syllabi in 10 days! Residential Life Outside the rigorous classroom atmosphere, TIP students
found time to relax and make new friends in a variety of social and recreational settings. This opportunity to socialize and form bonds strengthened the TIP community both, in and out of the classroom, and resulted in lifelong friendships. The Summer Studies Program provided these gifted students the opportunity to form peer groups with like minded people. For many it was probably the first time that they interacted with a fellow student who understood them! I saw amazing friendships develop in just a few days! After a long day of classes, students were encouraged to participate in recreational activities. Different activities are planned everyday to cater to all types of students- sports, debates, board games, theatre workshops, treasure hunts, etc. I learnt a lot from this whole experience. Every child and staff member cried on the last day of the program. It was really emotional. The whole experience changed my life and within a couple of days the program became a home away from home with all the 100 students and 30 staff members, my extended family for life.
by Ms. Pankhuri Nigam, Head, DUKE TIP, India
Thoughtful Story - Don’t Draw Conclusions An old man was sitting with his 25 year old son in the train. The train was about to leave the station. All the passengers were settling down in their seats. As the train started, the young man was filled with a lot of joy and curiosity. He was sitting on the window side. He put out one hand and felt the passing air. He shouted, “Pappa, look all trees are going behind”. The old man smiled and admired his son’s feelings. Beside the young man, a couple was sitting and listening to all the conversation between the father and the son. They thought the attitude of the 25 year old man behaving like a small child was a little foolish. Suddenly the young man again shouted, “Pappa see the pond and animals. The clouds are moving with the train”. The couple was watching the young man embarrassingly. Now it started raining and some water drops touched the young man’s hand. He was filled with joy and he closed the eyes. He shouted again, “Pappa it’s raining, the water is touching me, see Pappa”. The couple couldn't help themselves and asked the old man,
“Why don't you visit the doctor and get your son treated”? The old man said, “Yes, we are just returning from the hospital, and today my son got his eyesight for the first time in his life.” Moral: “Don't draw conclusions until you know all the facts”.
Eco Walk - Youth for Conservation
On 16th June 2013, 20 students and three green leaders from MEC Public School ICSE and MEC English High School participated in the “Youth for Conservation” Programme at Rama Krishna Mission Campus, Shivanahalli, Anekal Road, Banneraghatta. The trip was guided by Prof. HARISH BHAT, Dr. SANGUNNI of IISC , Swami Vishnumayanandiji of Rama Krishna Mission, Shri A. M. ANNAYYA forest officer Shimoga, Shri k . T. BORAIAH, RFO, B.R.T Wild life Sanctury and Shri CHANNABA SAVANNA Deputy Police Superintendent The students were enlightened about plant
life , insect life, reptiles, birds, ants-ant hills, ecology, forest, western ghat species, identification of a variety of plants and trees etc. This inspired the youth and nearly 200 and above enrolled in “Save Tiger” Programme. A unique experience of saving the “Nadugadde-Netra Island near Bhatkal” to protect its bio-diversity was the one of the courageous steps undertaken by them in the conservation of wild life. Our students talked about it and collected different leaves, flowers, seeds etc. and noted their features. MEC English High School, Bangalore
Arzoo - Ek Aasha (Together We Shine)
An Inspiring Story
around their tiny, yet imaginative world. Some even have written their names.
It is not a posh school. Neither do its children come from a hefty middle class background. Instead, it is a centre of humble appearance and flexible structure, yet imparting high quality learning after school hours, similar to many of India’s top level alternative schools. Located in a space that can be often missed out by educational enthusiasts, Arzoo was envisioned by Sulekha Ali, a young woman in her late 20s way back in 2002, when she was a teenager. Sulekha, a Muslim woman was deeply affected by 2002 riot in Gujarat, both physically and emotionally. For six months, she lived in a refugee camp at Shah Alam in Ahmedabad. After the riots, relief camps were set up in many parts of Ahmedabad to take care of the victims who had lost everything in the carnage. Sulekha’s fate was in Shah Alam camp, which had sheltered nearly 15,000 affected people including children. Her interest in education was boosted when she got involved with children, who were moving around aimlessly. Living in the camp for 6 months was a life changing experience for Sulekha. After her return home, she felt emptiness around her and decided to do something meaningful. Before the riot, Sulekha used to be a simple highly religious girl. She was good at drawing and embroidery and loved to rear goats. But the riot changed her destiny. She broadened her understanding on religions, an idea that lies deep in our psyche. No religion should become a cause for killing people of other religions. The Arzoo centre is located in a hotel basement in one of Ahmedabad’s Muslim dominated area, Jamalpur. The walls of the centre are sketched by children showing life that revolves
One of main thrust areas of Arzoo is teaching and practising tolerance or communal harmony. Immediately after the riot Sulekha was working in a Muslim dominated area. When she came to work in a Hindu neighbourhood, which had also been affected badly in the riot, she was sceptical about her being accepted. She brought a carom board, some puzzle games and waited for children to come and play with her. They came first out of curiosity and slowly got involved. She made them perform small skits on tolerance, the value of education and so on. All these ideas worked miraculously and led to the birth of Arzoo. From then on, both Hindu and Muslim children come to the centre and together they sing and dance. Sulekha is the only member of her family who is college educated. In fact she is an MBA from a community where the gender divide is very strong.
Today, Arzoo has evolved as a driving force to provide moral and value-based education to under-privileged children from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds and the nurture them, building their skills for a bright future. It also strongly encourages female literacy, which is very low among local Muslim communities. In order to increase the female literacy, Sulekha and other members of the centre work with the families to help them understand the importance of literacy. Today Arzoo beckons with hope for a new secular India through education. Truely it is an inspiration for all who believe strongly in tolerance and communal harmony. by Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist
UID Must to Participate in Interschool Sports The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has now made it mandatory for every student to have their own Unique Identity Number (UID) if they wish to participate in interschool sports competitions. The UID has to be generated online by schools using their login and password on a special page created within the board's website. The UID is not 'game-specific' but a generic one, which allows the student to participate in every competition organized by the board across the country. The schools will print the UID card, which will have the student's photograph, and attest it with the Principal's signature. The UID will be a permanent one and won't change even if the student shifts to a new school. The UID will remain with the student till he/she moves out of the CBSE system.
The decision is part of a broader set of initiatives taken by the board's sports department in an effort to streamline its operations. The upcoming academic session will be the first time CBSE participates in the national games organized by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) in an independent category. Earlier, CBSE students would participate as part of the state team where their schools are domiciled. With the independent status being given to CBSE, the Maharashtra state has banned the CBSE students from participating in the local district sports office (DSO) games.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Student Debate Deepens Thinking and Engagement Ben Johnson HS Principal, consultant, author and instructional learning coach corners have been chosen, then the teacher gives the students five minutes to create their discussion platform for supporting their position. The debate, or pseudo-debate, begins with each team presenting their opening argument then in turn; each team has time for presenting evidence and rebuttals, and then the closing arguments. Technique #2: Partner. In training for debates, some students are extremely shy and may work better with just one partner rather than a whole group. The process is the same as the four corner technique, but the debate is between two people, not the whole class. Student debate has the capacity to both deeply engage the students in relevant learning, and to encourage students to be deep thinkers. Debate is more than simply arguing. It has structure and rules that are designed to keep both sides calm. A wise teacher will also avoid generic, trite, or over-debated subjects that engender racial and ideological bias (marriage, marijuana, discrimination, etc.) and make the debate topics relevant to specific content that has been learned during the year. Done with a little bit of forethought, classroom debates will engage even the students that normally do not participate in class.
Technique #3: Devil's Advocate. This is a twist on the debate positions preparation. Instead of supporting their own opinion and platform, the students will also try their best to throw kinks into their supporting argument, so that, in essence, instead of preparing just one argument "pro," they also have to prepare one "contra." Technique #4: Worst-Case Scenario. This is another take-off of debate platform preparation. Students preparing to support their position look into the future at the worst possible thing that could happen as a result of the opposing argument, and prepare their defense from that point on.
Strategy: Debate
Technique #5: Glass Half Empty or Full. This is a technique to help the students view the different perspectives and prepare for arguments from each. Students look at their platform from a positive point of view and from a pessimistic point of view.
The Great Debaters, a marvelous movie with Denzel Washington, which demonstrates the power of debate as an educational tool to prepare students to be college-ready communicators. Aside from showing the drama and conflict of the times, it displays the rigorous training the debate team had to embrace in order to be prepared intellectually, to argue a point of view, to speak clearly and authoritatively, and to think critically on a moment's notice. Below are techniques that you can use in your classroom to make debate a collegereadiness tool.
Technique #6: Magic Wand. As discussed earlier, the magic wand can eliminate the constraints of reality. Also, the teacher can bestow wands that have certain limitations. For example, a wand may make people less than 25 years of age, 20 percent smarter than they were before. The students would then have to adjust their platform argument to accommodate this peculiar restriction. The restrictive wands can work only for green eyes or other student characteristics, or only for those students from a particular class or teacher.
Technique #1: Four Corners. An effective debate mixer is the four corners method. The teacher displays a topic on the white board/overhead/interactive whiteboard and assigns a different position relative to that topic to each corner of the room. Students then choose to stand in the corner that best reflects their personal opinion on the matter. Once the
Hopefully, these will give you some ideas of how to make debates interesting and challenging in your classroom. What kind of debate techniques have you found to be successful? Please share with us in the comment section below.
Below is the debate strategy and the associated debate techniques I outline in my book, Teaching Students To Dig Deeper: The Common Core in Action.
Source: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-debatedeepens-thinking-engagement-ben-johnson
Fun Zone Teacher: Papu, name one important thing we have today that we did not have 10 years ago. Papu: Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can share your favourite joke/s at assetscope@ei-india.com. We will be glad to publish it.
Interview Shagun Agarwal was ASSET Ambassador of Guru Kripa Divine Grace Public School, Bahraich from 2011-2012. She has topped the CBSE Class 10 result from Bahraich city. 1. Whom do you give the credit for your achievement? First of all, I would like to thank GOD for always being there with me at every step of my life. Apart from GOD many people have contributed to my success. Sometimes in life we meet someone who changes our view towards life. Whatever that person says seems like pleasant music to our ears. The founder manager of Guru Kripa Divine Grace Public School, Bahraich, Madam Chavi is one such person in my life. She always told me to have a positive attitude towards life. The way she motivated and inspired us cannot be defined in words. My parents whom I consider the best parents in this world were of immense help. Their mental support and care never let me down. My teachers were really some of the best teachers, who always clarified all our many doubts and answered our incessant queries. 2. What helped you to achieve this feat? A healthy environment both at home and school, time management, working on everyone's expectations and the success mantra conveyed to me by Madam Chavi helped me achieve this feat. The success mantra: Concentrate in the class while the teacher is teaching, revise the topic as the teacher leaves the class and revise it once again at home.
3. Did you expect to top the CBSE, Class10? From the beginning of class 10, I had set my target of getting a 10 CGPA in my boards. I did my best to achieve it and left the results in the hands of GOD. 4. What message do you want to deliver to class 10 aspirants? I would like to tell all the class 10 aspirants to set their goals from the beginning, learn to manage their time and try to be consistent in performance by working hard from the very first day of the session and keep in mind that nothing is impossible if we are determined to achieve it. 5. What did you like about ASSET? And how has the ASSET test helped in your studies? The ASSET test is just amazing. It taught me the importance of learning with understanding. ASSET has helped me in many ways in attaining my goals: Learning with understanding is truly what helped me in my class 10 board preparation because the kind of questions one gets in the board exams cannot be cracked by cramming the questions and answers pertaining to the text book alone. The ASSET test provided me a detailed analysis of my strengths and weaknesses and by working on my weaknesses I could convert them into my strengths.
Video Review Life of the Buddha – A BBC Documentary The life of the Buddha is a BBC docudrama. It gives a proper insight into the social, religious and historical events leading up to the Buddha’s enlightenment and the growth of Buddhism. The film describes the life of Siddharth Gautama, the process by which he arrived at the fundamentals of Buddhism and the archaeological finds confirming the traditional accounts of his life. The film was directed by Kritsaman Wattananarong and the screenplay was written by Aumpira Wongthamma. It was released in 2003. Buddhism is the story of one man’s spiritual journey to Enlightenment and the teachings and ways of living that developed from it. The docudrama begins with the archaeological discovery of Buddha’s birth place at Lumbini by archaeologists of British India in the 19th century. Then it shifts to the birth of Siddharth Gautama. The movie also presents the spiritual practices that Buddha tried and tested. Some of his practices and learning were successful and others were rejected by him. The BBC documentary film shows, how Siddharth became the Buddha, which means ‘the Enlightened One’, as he left
worldly pleasures and royal enclosure and started his journey to become a holy man by studying with religious people. The movie is all about the life of this prince and stages of his extraordinary life, beginning with luxuries and ending with a spiritual escape to experience reality. It is uploaded in You Tube and is a must for students across classes. Videos Reviewed by Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist
Teacher’s Bite that they are working towards a common goal-their future!!
Sr. Noel, Principal, Mount Carmel School, Baghmugalia, Bhopal
Q:
Who has most influenced you to become an educator, and how did they influence you?
My Teachers were the first sources of inspiration as I was always amazed at the power they possessed to mould and transform students. Later, when I decided to dedicate myself to the service of God Almighty, the best way to serve him was to serve his most wonderful creation – man. I believe in shaping and sculpting the kids to grow into worthy, committed and disciplined individuals. There is no better way to do this than being the sculptor (educator) myself!
Q:
What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?
Classroom management is required only when the class is unruly. If the relationship between the student and teacher starts on the foundation of love, care and trust the students themselves would be in harmony with each other and with the teacher. I believe my students are an integral part of me as much as I am theirs. And discipline follows when the students and teacher complement each other, as they realize
Q:
What are your views regarding the ‘Importance of Teacher Training and Development’ in educating Students?
Teacher training is pertinent in today’s fast changing scenario. Like any other profession it is important for educators to keep up with all the development and advancement in the field of education. Looking back at times when we were students, the teaching methodology and pedagogy were absolutely different from what they are today. The students of today are exposed to much more information and technology. Sometimes even more than what we would want them to be. Hence, it is all the more essential for us as educators to take up the responsibility of keeping ourselves updated so as to educate our students about the appropriate and fruitful usage of knowledge and technology.
Q:
What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?
The ASSET test is unparalleled and one of the best ways of assessing students. It sheds light on a student’s weaknesses as well as strengths. It is an eye-opener for not only teachers but also parents, so as to take remedial measures for the progress of the child. The most impressive aspect of ASSET is that it evaluates a student’s skill and understanding and not just mugged up facts. I, as an educator, would recommend it to all the students who aspire to improve and be successful.
Why is April 1st celebrated as the day of April fool? (An Idea from History) Here is an interesting historical fact. Just have a look at the calendar of the year 1752. Go to Google type “September 1752 calendar” and see for yourself. You will notice: 11 days are simply missing from the month. Here is the explanation. This was the month during which England shifted from the Roman Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. A Julian year was 11 days longer than a Gregorian year. So, the king of England ordered 11 days to be wiped out of that particular month. So the workers worked for 11 days less that month, but got paid for the whole month. That’s how the concept of paid leave was born. In the Roman Julian Calendar, April used to be the month of the year, but the Gregorian calendar observed January as the first month. Even after shifting to the Gregorian calendar, many people refused to give up old traditions and continued celebrating 1st April as the New Year’s Day. When simple order did not work, the king finally issued a royal dictum, which stated that those who celebrated 1st April as New Year’s Day would be labelled as fools. From then on, 1st April became ‘All Fools Day’.
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