Teaching history through fiction

Chintan Girish Modi
History textbooks are very limited in their approach to the subject and history reference books are too cumbersome to read through unless you are a history aficionado. In such situations historical fiction then becomes the best way to gather more knowledge in the subject.

Handling those unexpected questions

Neeraja Raghavan
There are many studies conducted on the kind of questions teachers ask students but hardly any on the kind of questions students ask teachers. Students can sometimes bowl us over with the kind of questions they ask, and how we respond to them is a reflection of who we are and what our skills as teachers are.

A bag full of fun

C Rama Devi
One of the most ubiquitous items found in a school is the school bag, stuffed to capacity, almost parting at the seams. What if there was at least one day when you didn’t have to carry your school bag to school? This thought gave birth to the No School Bag Day in this school. Here’s what the students do when they don’t take their bags to school.

The power of ‘why?’

Niketa Bakshi
Questioning is the primary form of seeking knowledge, and yet a majority of our classrooms are pictures of silence with children passively listening to the teacher. Over the years, in the name of completing the syllabus and overcrowded classrooms we have squashed this natural tendency in children. It is time that we encourage them to shed their inhibitions and start asking the many questions brimming in their minds.

The Storymaker factor

Sowmya Ravindranath
All of us read and enjoy storybooks. But how many of us try and find out more about the authors of the books we read? A short library course on how knowing the author helps us understand their stories better opened this educator’s eyes to a whole new experience of reading books.

Constructivism and Covid

Pooja Birwatkar
The online classes and forced shutting down of schools has had one positive effect and that is children owning the responsibility of their learning and creating their own knowledge. Now with schools across the country slowly reopening, what is to happen to this trend? Will children accept and go back to the conventional style of learning? Or will they resist it? How can we as teachers ensure that they continue on the exciting journey of learning that they experienced during the Covid lockdown?

Energizing and enlivening the online class

Anuradha C
It is now almost the end of the academic year, and teachers have spent it teaching online. While most have learnt the basics of online teaching by now, not all have been able to teach like they did in physical classrooms. Here are a few tips on how you can bring your online classes alive.

Think like a musician

Aruna Sankaranarayanan
In the second of this four part series on how art forms can positively affect developing minds, the author discusses music and its benefits. Because different aspects of music are handled by different regions of the brain, children who receive any form of musical training, even if only for a short period, display a marked improvement in the way they process information.

“While” away at the window

Adithi Muralidhar
The pandemic forced all of us to stay indoors for long periods of time and this was certainly challenging for many adults and especially the children. But, a few hours by their windows with a little bit of ingenuity on the part of the adults is all that the children need to feel refreshed and not trapped indoors.

Mind games for mindfulness

Deepali Barapatre
Living, in the present times, is like travelling on a bullet train. Nobody has a moment to sit down, to reflect, to ruminate. Unfortunately, we are passing on this need for speed to our children as well. If we are not to lose sight of our goals, if we are to capture the essence of living, then we have to learn to slow down and what better way to do it than through fun-filled mindfulness activities?