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In this issue
Caring for the carers
Usha Raman
We all agree that teaching is a strenuous job and while we identify several reasons for this, we never look at care giving as a possible cause that leads to teacher stress and burn out. Of all her different roles and responsibilities, care giving takes a lot from the teacher, both mentally and physically and this is why the school should build a system to care for and support their teachers.
Keep calm and turn your self-care on
Lakshmi Karunakaran
A teacher not only teaches her students but also cares for them and this can cause her a lot of emotional and mental stress. Care-giving requires you to be empathetic, understanding, patient, and emotionally available to your students. In the process of giving so much, teachers hardly notice, until too late, that they are experiencing symptoms of burn out. Teachers should constantly be alert a
In Conversation | January 2020
Juggling freedom and choice
Roshni Mirani
There are a lot of people doing some very good work to improve the education system of our country. In this interview, eminent educationist and founder of the Muktangan Education Trust, Elizabeth Mehta, shares her thoughts on teacher education in India, the challenges and the role of the government in producing better and more effective teachers.
English medium schools: pragmatic or problematic?
Ramanujam Parthasarathy
It is not the first and certainly won’t be the last time that a state government announces its decision to enforce English as the medium of instruction in state-run schools. With the Andhra Pradesh government the latest to join the English medium bandwagon in order to attract parents and children, we must realize that any new measure undertaken to boost public education will have the nec
December 2019
Contextual Teaching & Learning | Cover Story | December 2019
Contextualizing textbooks: Glimpses from Sikkim
Nisha Rajkumar Butoliya
Textbooks hold an important position in classroom teaching and learning. A child’s world can be visualized in the classrooms if textbooks are enriched with the context of children. So when the SCERT, Gangtok, decided to revise English textbooks for grades 1 to 3, teachers engaged in this work felt the need to include and appreciate children’s experiences and
Contextual Teaching & Learning | December 2019
Bringing Hindi alive in Bengaluru
Indira Vijaysimha
How can a teacher get disinterested children to learn Hindi? While Hindi prose can be easy to tackle, Hindi poetry with all the metaphors and similes drawn from nature can be tough to handle. Did the teacher in question manage to achieve a breakthrough? Read on for a lively account.
Contextual Teaching & Learning | December 2019
Engaging with children’s experiences
Shahbaan Shah
Social and emotional learning of young people happens through conversations in classrooms in the municipal schools of Mumbai. Stories from the students’ contexts or their lives help them connect to the learning and also help them talk about what matters to them. This article throws light on how facilitators can build open spaces for student learning
Read more articles from this issueNovember 2019
Cover Story | New Education Policy 2019 | November 2019.
Children and education: why policy matters
Anjali Noronha
Finally after a long gap of more than 25 years, India is ready to overhaul its education policy. A draft of the much needed and awaited New Education Policy was released in June this year to public scrutiny, advice and suggestions. As the committee led by Dr. K. Kasturirangan sieves through the overwhelming feedback received and finalizes India’s New Education Policy,
Notes From A Teacher's Diary | November 2019.
Say it with flowers!
Ajita Banerjee
The saying goes that you learn better when you do. This teacher and her students decided to find solutions to tackle the problem of the large amounts of floral waste generated. Read about their experiences and learnings in this narrative.
November 2019 | Time Out.
Stimulating the reading habit
Chhavi Jain
The reading habit has always been the bone of contention between children and parents/teachers. The adults want the children to develop one and the children believe there are better ways of spending time. Here are a few tried and tested suggestions for you to try and turn your students into readers.
Read more articles from this issueOctober 2019
Cover Story | October 2019.
Embracing risk and uncertainty
Sheela Ramakrishnan
Can a teacher afford to take risks in her class and experiment with newer ways of teaching? Or should she stick to the tried and tested path, of not leaving her comfort zone? The moot question is how can she even begin to think out of the box? The first step would be to nurture a mindset that says that it is alright to fail and to start looking at effort and not re
Ecowatch | October 2019.
What it takes to run an eco-club
Saurav Shome and Archana Dwivedi
Student clubs in schools are often set up with much fanfare and enthusiasm but lose steam midway because the syllabus is given priority. However, some schools do persist in engaging the students and the results are quite noteworthy. In this article, the authors describe the revival of the eco and the science clubs.
October 2019 | The Other Side.
A student’s best ally – memory or intelligence?
Anuradha C
How does learning take place, and what type of learning stands in good stead throughout life? All types of learning have their place such as rote learning, conceptual learning and experiential learning. So, the ideal would be to memorize facts, understand the concept behind the facts and apply that understanding to solve problems.
Read more articles from this issue
Caring for the carers
Usha Raman
We all agree that teaching is a strenuous job and while we identify several reasons for this, we never look at care giving as a possible cause that leads to teacher stress and burn out. Of all her different roles and responsibilities, care giving takes a lot from the teacher, both mentally and physically and this is why the school should build a system to care for and support their teachers.
Keep calm and turn your self-care on
Lakshmi Karunakaran
A teacher not only teaches her students but also cares for them and this can cause her a lot of emotional and mental stress. Care-giving requires you to be empathetic, understanding, patient, and emotionally available to your students. In the process of giving so much, teachers hardly notice, until too late, that they are experiencing symptoms of burn out. Teachers should constantly be alert a
In Conversation | January 2020
Juggling freedom and choice
Roshni Mirani
There are a lot of people doing some very good work to improve the education system of our country. In this interview, eminent educationist and founder of the Muktangan Education Trust, Elizabeth Mehta, shares her thoughts on teacher education in India, the challenges and the role of the government in producing better and more effective teachers.
English medium schools: pragmatic or problematic?
Ramanujam Parthasarathy
It is not the first and certainly won’t be the last time that a state government announces its decision to enforce English as the medium of instruction in state-run schools. With the Andhra Pradesh government the latest to join the English medium bandwagon in order to attract parents and children, we must realize that any new measure undertaken to boost public education will have the nec
December 2019
Contextual Teaching & Learning | Cover Story | December 2019
Contextualizing textbooks: Glimpses from Sikkim
Nisha Rajkumar Butoliya
Textbooks hold an important position in classroom teaching and learning. A child’s world can be visualized in the classrooms if textbooks are enriched with the context of children. So when the SCERT, Gangtok, decided to revise English textbooks for grades 1 to 3, teachers engaged in this work felt the need to include and appreciate children’s experiences and
Contextual Teaching & Learning | December 2019
Bringing Hindi alive in Bengaluru
Indira Vijaysimha
How can a teacher get disinterested children to learn Hindi? While Hindi prose can be easy to tackle, Hindi poetry with all the metaphors and similes drawn from nature can be tough to handle. Did the teacher in question manage to achieve a breakthrough? Read on for a lively account.
Contextual Teaching & Learning | December 2019
Engaging with children’s experiences
Shahbaan Shah
Social and emotional learning of young people happens through conversations in classrooms in the municipal schools of Mumbai. Stories from the students’ contexts or their lives help them connect to the learning and also help them talk about what matters to them. This article throws light on how facilitators can build open spaces for student learning
Read more articles from this issueNovember 2019
Cover Story | New Education Policy 2019 | November 2019.
Children and education: why policy matters
Anjali Noronha
Finally after a long gap of more than 25 years, India is ready to overhaul its education policy. A draft of the much needed and awaited New Education Policy was released in June this year to public scrutiny, advice and suggestions. As the committee led by Dr. K. Kasturirangan sieves through the overwhelming feedback received and finalizes India’s New Education Policy,
Notes From A Teacher's Diary | November 2019.
Say it with flowers!
Ajita Banerjee
The saying goes that you learn better when you do. This teacher and her students decided to find solutions to tackle the problem of the large amounts of floral waste generated. Read about their experiences and learnings in this narrative.
November 2019 | Time Out.
Stimulating the reading habit
Chhavi Jain
The reading habit has always been the bone of contention between children and parents/teachers. The adults want the children to develop one and the children believe there are better ways of spending time. Here are a few tried and tested suggestions for you to try and turn your students into readers.
Read more articles from this issueOctober 2019
Cover Story | October 2019.
Embracing risk and uncertainty
Sheela Ramakrishnan
Can a teacher afford to take risks in her class and experiment with newer ways of teaching? Or should she stick to the tried and tested path, of not leaving her comfort zone? The moot question is how can she even begin to think out of the box? The first step would be to nurture a mindset that says that it is alright to fail and to start looking at effort and not re
Ecowatch | October 2019.
What it takes to run an eco-club
Saurav Shome and Archana Dwivedi
Student clubs in schools are often set up with much fanfare and enthusiasm but lose steam midway because the syllabus is given priority. However, some schools do persist in engaging the students and the results are quite noteworthy. In this article, the authors describe the revival of the eco and the science clubs.
October 2019 | The Other Side.
A student’s best ally – memory or intelligence?
Anuradha C
How does learning take place, and what type of learning stands in good stead throughout life? All types of learning have their place such as rote learning, conceptual learning and experiential learning. So, the ideal would be to memorize facts, understand the concept behind the facts and apply that understanding to solve problems.
Read more articles from this issue