At the best of times, many of us as teachers agonize over passing judgment on a student’s work in the form of marks. In a history essay, what makes one student get 72 and another 76? What does the 4 mark difference signify in terms of quality? Can quality and understanding be measured in numerical terms? And what of letter grades? Are they any better? Can we define the qualitative – and quantitative – difference between an A and a B? These and many other questions may assail us as we make the move from marks to grades.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s new mandate on continuous and comprehensive evaluation requiring schools to make a shift from marks to grades is meeting with a mixed response. While on the one hand, there is relief and even celebration, there’s uncertainty and skepticism on the other. We spoke with a few people to get a sense of how the change is being received.

“It is a child-friendly system. Most of us are welcoming the move, especially in the interests of children who are not able to cope. For them, it is a big burden off their head,” says Nandita Khanna, Head of Nalanda Public School, a CBSE school in Mumbai.

Nandita is alluding to the anxiety associated with examination results. Truly, the report card is an all-too-real monster that represents absolute terror for many a child. Seema Taneja, who has been counselling and consulting with CBSE schools for over 18 years now, says, “One finds parents comparing even over half a mark. One hears things like – Why has my child scored less? Why did he get only 18 on 20? Where did he lose out? There is so much pressure.”

Grades are being seen as a healthier alternative to marks, because grades do not equate the child’s capability with a number that might provide an incomplete picture of the child’s attainment levels. Seema says, “Grading offers a broader spectrum of where you approximately lie. I hope that with grading, parents will shift their attention from knowing about their children’s marks to learning about their aptitudes and interests.”

Manju Gupta, Principal of Pallavi Model School, a CBSE school in Hyderabad, says, “When we look around, we see that people who are interested in a variety of activities do better than those who are only academically inclined. So it is unfair to base a child’s future on a three-hour performance.”

She adds, “Assessment needs to be holistic. The new system gives weightage to art, craft, music, dance and yoga. There is a feel good factor for children who are not academically brilliant. We are very happy about this.”

The CBSE’s new grading scheme will take into account a child’s participation in extra-curricular activities, life skills, attitudes and values, along with his or her performance in academic subjects. How one can award grades for ‘honesty’, ‘respect towards teachers’, ‘emotional skills’, ‘creative thinking’, ‘ability to handle criticism’ is something worth mulling over.

Manju remarks, “These things are ambiguous and intangible, so grading is definitely a problem area when it comes to these. The teacher needs to be very observant and objective. That is why there is an emphasis on keeping anecdotal records.”

“A teacher has to be very unbiased. She has to be able to respect opinions that are different from her own. For instance, one needs to sensitize teachers as to what constitutes ‘respect’ and ‘disrespect’ towards teachers, otherwise they may pick on certain students,” says Preeti Sharma, who currently teaches English to IGCSE students at the Aditya Birla World Academy, Mumbai but has taught in CBSE schools for four years before her current job.

Seema feels that schools will have “teething problems” regarding this issue, but one must accept that “the idea of bringing in non-academic areas of development and growth into grading is essentially a good one.” She adds, “All teachers will have to sit together and give their inputs. This will take care of the subjective element involved in grading life skills, creativity, etc.”

Annamma Cherian, a teacher at Ordnance Clothing Factory School, a CBSE school in Chennai, observes, “The CBSE grading system has some safeguards. One single teacher cannot make decisions about a child based on her own discretion. She has to sit with a group of teachers, listen to what they have to say, and then the grade is given.”

Sure, one can produce a list of indicators that attempt to place controls on teachers’ subjectivity, or even ensure grading by multiple teachers. However, is it even desirable to grade all of these things in the first place, and artificially produce normative behaviour? Would such grading create another kind of pressure – the pressure to be seen as a well-behaved, law-abiding, goody-two-shoes student, for without it one’s grade sheet would make a sorry picture?

I am reminded of value education and moral science classes in school, where we wrote about values in daintily decorated books with pictures of Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi et al. Teachers were content to see pages filled with quotable quotes, newspaper clippings, and high-sounding virtuous lines of prose or poetry. How can one ensure that grades reward values-in-practice, and not values-in-lip-service? This issue is of course not unique to grades but affects assessment standards and practice in general.

Preeti has a suggestion. “In the IGCSE board, when we do research work, we get our students started on the American Psychological Association (APA) system right from Grade 6. We tell our children that it is okay to pick information from the Internet, but they need to provide references for whatever they pick. They cannot pass off somebody else’s work as their own, because that would be plagiarism. That they are able to incorporate from other sources shows that they have understood well. This is one aspect of honesty that can be looked at.”

The switch from grades to marks necessitates a change in teachers’ attitudes as well as administrative procedures. And this change can be unsettling on several counts – the subjectivity involved in awarding a grade, the maintenance of elaborate records, working with colleagues to mutually decide upon a grade, giving up the idea of using a number/mark to sum up a child’s performance, and the sudden increase in workload. Any teacher training programmes that seek to initiate teachers into the new grading system must take these issues into consideration.

Preeti says, “Practically every CBSE school has 45 to 55 children per class. The strength of my IGCSE classes is 25, so I know each and every kid personally. With 55 kids and correction and administrative duties, it is going to be a mammoth task for CBSE school teachers to manage the increased workload unless CBSE is ready to introduce a co-teacher in each class.”

While one can make all possible attempts to ensure smooth sailing into a new system, as is the case with everything new that is introduced, there are bound to be doubts and questions. Even resentment. Among teachers, parents or even students.

Nandita says, “Children and parents are very concerned because the grading system is not followed across all boards. They are not sure how grades will work when they want to get admission to colleges that have cut-off percentages.”

Annamma says, “Children who take their studies seriously and do extremely well feel let down by the new system. The student scoring 91 and the student scoring 99 will both get an A plus. Even parents are worried that their kids might be at a disadvantage. Moreover, in Tamil Nadu, the state board students are given very high marks. There is a disparity between them and the CBSE students. With the introduction of the grading system, the situation will get worse. There is a lot of frustration among the students.”

These are legitimate concerns, and the sharing of them ought to be encouraged. It is only through open discussion that all stakeholders will get a fair chance to express where they are coming from, and to negotiate a new system in a healthy manner.

Manju, who has been at the receiving end of such concerns, shares her experience. “Our school has been doing a nine-point relative grading since the last four years, and we are now switching to the absolute grading under the CBSE’s directives. When we introduced the grading system four years ago, there were a lot of issues. It took a little while to convince parents, but we knew that they would eventually see light at the end of the tunnel.”

An important question that might get lost in all this discussion is: Will grading really do away with the hierarchies that we create among children on the basis of their performance? Seema says, “A hierarchy will be there. We can only work towards diffusing it. As you age, your mind becomes more capable with respect to handling stress in a constructive manner. You can’t do away with competition. You can just postpone it. Otherwise, how will the world work?”

Ah, there!

___________________________________________________
References:
http://www.indiaedunews.net/Today/Grade_sheets_and_no_mark_sheets_for_CBSE_class_X_10032/
http://beta.thehindu.com/education/school/article96220.ece
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/traditional-report-card-turns-over-a-new-leaf/576319/
http://beta.thehindu.com/search/simple.do;jsessionid=E869A909BB2516F505E959597AD2953B.route04

The author is pursuing an M.Phil. in English Language Education. He runs People in Education, an online group connecting people and sharing resources. He can be reached at chintangirishmodi@gmail.com.

On the other hand, teaching remains in a state of crisis. Fewer people are choosing to be teachers, most find themselves in the profession because of necessity or convenience, and in some areas of the country, there are simply not enough teachers of the right kind. Training of teachers remains inadequate and patchy. While new-age schools advertise snazzy classrooms and “holistic curricula”, very few sell themselves on the strength of their human resources – the teachers. The education development index shows that the teacher-pupil ratio varies widely, from close to one teacher for 50-odd students in Karnataka to one teacher for 17 students in Sikkim. Mr. Kapil Sibal has repeatedly noted that the key to progress in education is the availability and even deployment of good teachers. It is with a view to doing this that several new teacher education programs have been initiated. But schools are mushrooming at a far higher rate. And clearly it will be a while before there are enough teachers available to fill the needs of these schools – which are based on individualized attention, a high degree of teacher involvement and engagement with students…all of which depend on having a much better teacher-student ratio. But while we work on that, the promise of these new-age schools will have to be fulfilled by the teachers we have, the teachers we are. Are school managements doing enough to support the increased demands on these teachers? When lofty promises are made, lofty ideals must be lived up to, if these promises are to be kept!

Prof. Louis Vernal, Goa

Thank you
I am happy to share that my article ‘To know is to be’ in the February 2010 issue of Teacher Plus got me some highly complimentary responses from past students as well as colleagues in the Theory of Knowledge group. I am delighted to have a chance to focus and get ideas down on paper at this stage of my life.

Kamakshi Balasubramaniam, Mysore

Inspiring new experiences
The article ‘Online teaching: the inside story’ which appeared in the December 2009 issue of Teacher Plus was a very interesting article. The article, in fact, has created an urge in me to try my hand at online teaching. However, with articles like this it will be good if you can also provide additional information which will help readers like me to experience something new. In this case, I would have liked more information about online teaching programmes, how one can begin teaching online, whether one has to register somewhere, etc.

Jaishankar Ojha, Mumbai

With exams and then the long languid vacations round the corner, it is perhaps a good idea to think about how fit our children are to meet the challenges before them. Challenges of facing examinations and the challenge of not letting oneself go after that!

And as the old adage goes, a sound mind in a sound body. Let’s turn our attention to the sound body bit.

We live in an era that is instant – instant noodles, soup, juices, coffee, masalas, even idli, dosa, daal and mutter!! So inundated we are with a flood of instant and processed food, that sometimes our children don’t know any other way in which these foods are made or that they also exist in non packaged forms!

The authors are partners in Edcraft, Hyderabad, a firm engaged in making teaching-learning materials, conducting workshops and providing consultancy services. They can be reached at .

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I am not a parent but as a caregiver I have helped bring up quite a few children and this upbringing has always involved some kind of teaching and learning. Our children do not have in them (pre-wired), the rules of the society they are born into. These codes of behaviour are taught and learnt; along with many other kinds of learning.

As human beings we teach others who are less capable than us to tie their shoe laces, plait hair, make tea, eat without spilling, answer the telephone or the door bell, and to ride a bicycle or drive a car. The list is endless; implied in this ‘educating’ is an informal evaluation, for without it the teaching could never be individualized and fine-tuned. At every stage we need to make sure the person we are teaching has learned adequately so we can move on to the next stage. This is the education and evaluation that was in place long before there were formal institutions called schools (Gardner, 1999).

Such an evaluation (by the parent or caregiver) looked at the performance of a child and judged capability and more importantly, the assistance and help that was needed for that particular child. Four different children in a joint family may have received four different kinds and levels of instruction. One child is good with her hands, and therefore is taught to do embroidery. Another can’t put two stitches together and is therefore taught to hem neatly. Both the embroidery and the hemming are valued; more importantly, they are not compared with each other.

This fine-tuning of instruction carried with it a ‘grading’, but the grading did not have a ‘value’; there was no 70% or ‘A’ grade attached to it. Instead, it had a ‘hmm, not bad, I think this child can now work on her own’ or a ‘I need to help my son a bit more’. The ‘grading’ also carried a capturing of individual growth and the implicit ‘feedback’ that went with it; ‘the rotis are much rounder and thinner these days; I must teach him/her to roll in one direction’. The comparison is not to the perfect rotis that the caregiver can make; it is in comparison to the India map that the child rolled out on day one of instruction! Any successful completion also got talked about with great pride. This was the equivalent of an A+. The child may have made only one simple potato curry and rice or just dal and rice, or rotis, but the statement would be about cooking capability, ‘can cook well.’ If the child needed help, there would be a ‘you know, he/she has actually begun cooking, or can iron with a little help for the collar’, an equivalent of a ‘B’ possibly. Again, what got ironed was one old shirt, with possibly a few creases, but the judgment was a ‘well done’ and about general capability in ironing.

This kind of capability judgment is what we do all the time in education, but one uniform assessment will not fit all classes and students. Every class and student is different and as such the demands and judgments need to vary. Here is where grades win over marks. A 60% cannot be interpreted as both ‘excellent’ and ‘you can do better than this, because I actually expected a 90% from you’. But grades can. An ‘A’ or a ‘B’ can be defined for a particular class and this can be made clear to students and parents. This ‘grading’ is closer to the mother who expects one child to do embroidery and the other to just master hemming. We may not be able to do this in our final summative examinations, but a large part of our teaching and testing is ongoing and formative. As teachers we all know that, like a parent, we make different demands during formative/on-going evaluation. Here is where we can demand different things from different groups of students.

Grading will therefore allow us to both ‘describe’ and vary what we demand across groups of students. This is one advantage that grading has over marks. The other is a solution to the problem of having to take two or three samples of ‘performance’, perceive it as finite, perfect and complete and evaluate it as reflecting capability. 20 – 40 mathematics problems are solved in an examination and depending on whether the student got 3 or 4 or 6 wrong, the marks vary; we are however sure that we have captured difference in ability. A student who has got 96 is seen as better than one who got 92 and so on. But we all know from experience that the child who got 92 or even 88 may actually have a better ‘head’ for mathematics. (How often, have we as teachers said, when we heard of one of our good students getting bad marks in a public exam, ‘something must have happened; this is not like this child at all! Our explanations range from a ‘the evaluator must have made a mistake’, to a ‘maybe the child made careless mistakes’, or even a ‘the child must have been disturbed; this is not his true mark’).

When we move from a ‘concrete’ area like mathematics to something like language (where essays are written) the problem increases in magnitude. First of all, we are not sure of what we are testing when we set essay type questions and we are definitely unsure of the mark we give; there is always variation in marking. The same essay may be given a ‘6’, or a ‘7’ or even an ‘8’ by three different evaluators. Here again, grades (since they have a band and not one particular mark) make evaluation easier.

A similar but different problem exists when students answer questions that ask for more than a mere reproduction of knowledge in science, history or geography. If the question demands higher order thinking skills (application of theory to practice or the need to analyze two conflicting theories and select one with justification) then we may not be able to justify a 7 versus an 8, but will be able to state what we mean by two grades. A good analysis can be easily graded as ‘A’ while a reproduction of the theory as a ‘C’ and so on.

This kind of varying demand evaluation may not be possible in final examination summative evaluation. However, even here, grades, for me, are better than marks. In final examination grading, we will have to drop the ‘I will describe what is for me an ‘A’ type of grading, and adopt the ‘80 – 100 is equal to an ‘A’ grade perspective. But this is still better, for we all know that final examinations test only one small bit of all that we have taught. Two hundred days of schooling get compressed into a maximum of 20 hours of testing across all subjects. A different set of essay questions in economics or history, or a different area in science or geography may have got a much better performance from a student. This is a fact of life and marks, finite as they are, make it seem that we know the exact difference between a 97 and a 95 and a 60 and a 55. We never can, and grades help us live with this inexactitude.

I would like to end with a description of an ‘alternative’ evaluation that a teacher I know practices. She gives all her students a ‘B’ grade at the beginning of her course regardless of how good or bad they are. To maintain that grade, however, they have to work and to improve it, grow from where they were. Thus, demands and feedback were personalized and student specific. Good embroidery and good hemming both got an ‘A’ at the end of the course.

The author is Reader, Department of Evaluation, EFL University, Hyderabad. She can be reached at gdurairajan@gmail.com.

Water is all important. It is everywhere. It gives life but also sometimes takes it. Water travels through all of us, we drink it, it leaves our bodies, it flows in rivers, it sits in lakes and reservoirs, it evaporates into clouds and falls down or high in the mountains as snows. It crawls down the hills in glaciers or rushes down in rivulets and rivers. Animals drink it, plants thrive on it. It is all the same water – going from one to the other. Water has been around for ages and is still new-born and sparkling when it emerges. Water is in an endless cycle – millennia old and fresh at the same time. The water we drink may have seen the reflection of dinosaurs. The flowing of water is the sign of life itself.

In preparing lessons on water it is useful to consult with teachers of different disciplines, as water has so many facets: food and nutrition (health/biology), agricultural development (economics), contamination (chemistry), river basins (geography), floods and droughts and water civilizations (history) and culture (language).
Water binds us together and connects us. It transports us and carries us away. Take for instance this poem by Ted Hughes on the tragic death of Lady Diana, the Princess of Wales, in Paris in 1997.

The author is director of MetaMeta, a company devoted to better water, management and to communication. He can be reached at fvansteenbergen@metameta.nl.

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A teacher, during her teaching years, goes through a variety of situations with her students. How she goes about dealing with her students in these situations can make or mar them for life.

“There is a positive and a negative way to present every lesson in life. Excitement and encouragement are generated with a positive approach. Apprehension and discouragement are generated with a negative approach.”

THE INCIDENT: I was teaching the students of class II when faced with the situation I am about to describe. I had given the class an English test. The students who finished their test in the given time, left for their computer class. There was one boy in class, Anil*, still writing the test.

Anil was a fairly bright and well-behaved child. So I gave him an extra 10 minutes to finish his test and hand in his answer script. After a while, I noticed that he had hidden his notebook in his desk and was copying the answers from it.

I had various options in my mind on how to deal with this situation.
Option 1: I could scold him, tear his answer script and drop it in the trash bin.
Option 2: I could take him to the Head Mistress’ office and have him punished.
Option 3: I could call his parents and speak to them about his bad behaviour.

But I didn’t feel it was wise to tackle the situation with any of the above options. Knowing the kind of child he was, I felt that the situation needed a totally novel or rather a different approach. I went up to him and took away the answer script from him. I explained, “This is not the right thing to do. I wouldn’t like you behaving in this manner in future.”

I asked him to go to the computer class and began the task of correcting his answer sheet. He hadn’t been able to complete the test but I gave him the marks for whatever he had been able to answer.

I didn’t discuss this matter with either the Head Mistress or his parents. I didn’t wish to make a big issue out of a wrongdoing that a child of class II had committed.

A few days later, I had a surprise visit from his mother. She was very apologetic and distressed about the entire matter. She couldn’t believe that her child could do something like that. After giving her a patient hearing, I asked her how she came to know of it. “Anil told me about it himself,” she replied. “Don’t you think then you should appreciate your child’s honesty?” I asked. “By realizing and confessing to his wrongdoing he is making a conscious effort to correct his mistake. I am sure he will never cheat again.”

Anil, in the later years, was selected to be one of the office- bearers of our school … a job which needed responsible and able students.

The author is a teacher at Gitanjali Primary School, Begumpet, Hyderabad. She can be reached at znl260864@yahoo.com.

What is the educator’s objective in working with young children? To me it is to make sure that each child becomes not only an autonomous learner, but a lifelong one. An autonomous learner acquires knowledge through personal participation in an activity. Children learn new concepts and skills through the “process” of practicing and perfecting, at will, either consciously or unconsciously, depending on the child’s age. For example, the preschooler learns the concept of size by manipulating and comparing, say, cubes of different sizes. The infant learns language by observing and mimicking older members of the family.

In the formal pre-school setting, how does one then go about achieving this goal of teaching children concepts? Teachers and parents alike can facilitate their learning by presenting concepts in a way that arouses and holds the child’s interest. This can be done in everyday life, in the most simple and natural of family and other situations. For example, to introduce math concepts you can say, “It is snack time. Can you help me? Thank you. Let’s see, there are five of us and we will each have two biscuits. Look, we needed 10 biscuits.”

The terms “process” and “product” have no meaning for the child, but are important notions for parents and educators. Process is the way the child learns any new skill, be it language, motor, or social. The new skill is the (end-) product. The product cannot be achieved without due process. E. M. Standing, a well-known advocate of Montessori education, aptly says it takes twenty two years to make a man of two and twenty!

In helping the child focus on “process”, the educator faces many challenges, not the least of them being one’s own self. In spite of having had training in early childhood education, one’s own upbringing and cultural biases get in the way. The behavior of adults in some cultures towards young children is close to pampering or indulgence and this flows into the teaching situation, resulting in the young child being treated not as an individual but as a helpless being to be coddled. Such an attitude can interfere with the “process”.

Parents too have high and sometimes unrealistic expectations of their child. They might compare the child’s abilities with those of siblings or peers. They may demand tangible proof of the child’s progress, such as completed samples of a paper link chain or a kite, for example. Occasionally, the gap between the care giving style of the parents and teachers is so wide that it is almost impossible to bridge.

Sometimes, one or more members of the teaching team might become a challenge, too. When a child is being encouraged to become an autonomous learner, independence is of the essence. For example, a three- year old is being toilet trained. This means that not only is the child expected to use the toilet independently, but also undress and dress her or himself. This task will take a fair amount of patience and firmness on the part of the caregiver. It is actually much easier to assist the child than patiently wait for the child to manage the process. But the goal here is to make the child gain mastery of an important social skill. It is imperative that the teacher in charge is not undermined by unnecessary ‘help’ from her anxious team-mates.

The head of the educational institution can cause conflict between the teaching theory and the school’s need to record achievement by insisting on strict adherence to curricula. Each child in the room has her/his own style and pace of learning. Uniform progress cannot take place when process is the focus. This is a particularly difficult challenge for a teacher, because without complete support from the administration, teachers cannot function effectively.

What exactly does process consist of and why is this essential in early childhood education? Process is how the child grows up into a unique individual. But the child is also to become a functioning member of her/his social group. To the keen observer, it is evident that children love to emulate the adults in their lives, thereby learning essential new skills. They need to repeat an activity until they have mastered the skill. Apart from getting the child’s environment ready, there is little more that the early childhood educator can do to foster the learning process. Part of the environment is the psychological environment. At the risk of repetition, it needs to be emphasized that every child develops at his or her own pace. So, it is unrealistic to have undifferentiated goals for a group of young children.

It is important to remember that the teachers and parents are a team, in the quest to make the child an autonomous learner. The parents are the child’s first teachers and early childhood educators can only continue the process. Hence it is an excellent idea to involve parents in the running of the classroom. While some parents are a challenge to deal with, there are others who understand the need for process and bring their children to pre-school with the express goal of teaching them social skills, be it sharing, empathy, or participation in group tasks.

The child’s activity is not goal oriented, very different from that of the adult. It is actually the opposite, since the child is not hurrying along to achieve the (end-) product. For the child, work is play and play is work. Great philosophers suggest that this is how we should all live our lives. The end will result regardless and in spite of our quest for it. We are only required to pay careful attention to the process.

Earlier we mentioned children emulating adults performing everyday tasks. Maria Montessori’s ‘Casa dei Bambini ’(children’s house) consisted of a ‘Practical Life” activities area, where entire shelves were devoted to activities such as pouring (from one jug to another), spooning, ladling, polishing, sweeping, etc., where young children could practice every skill to their heart’s content. This area also included activities that helped the child practice care of self, such as feeding, getting dressed, washing up and grooming. Montessori was fostering “process”. In addition to making the children’s environment conducive to learning, the adult can provide support that Jerome Bruner, the child development expert, terms “scaffolding”. The adult is the role model, demonstrating the process.

How many times have we encountered adults who lack basic skills? One watches helplessly as an adult drags a hapless child across a busy intersection completely oblivious to the teaching opportunity. During social interaction, far too often, grown ups sadly exhibit a lack of common courtesy. We only have to look at the litter on the streets to gauge the collective apathy of a community. Possibly, these situations could be avoided if children are allowed ample time for the process of developing into well-rounded individuals.

Play is work and child’s play!
Whether you are a parent or an educator, ask yourself “do I promote the process or the product”? Then again, whose criteria is the product being measured against? For example, the child is busily creating something according to her/his own agenda. It might not make any sense to the adult. But, does it need to make sense to the parent/teacher at first glance? Observe the child during the process. Discuss the work with the child. If you ask with genuine interest, the child might reward you with an explanation of what has been created. Chances are you will be bowled over with what the end product actually represents. Janet Moyles, in ‘Just Playing’ describes the process of a particular child’s activity. The child painted an outdoor scenery, complete with sun, clouds, flowers, etc., in bright colors, and then proceeded to paint over the entire picture with bold strokes of brown paint, saying “ now it is raining” to the by then mortified educator.

We have so far focused on process. Is not product important? Yes, surely it is. By focusing on the process, one can ensure that the outcome or product is not compromised. Focusing on product prematurely will stunt autonomy, the ability to be an individual. Process prepares the individual to act appropriately now, in the present situation, be centered. We can then dare to dream of a society where all individuals are content and secure with the knowledge of who they are if only we are willing to allow children the freedom of process.

The author is a pre-school teacher at Montessori Children’s House, West Des Moines, Iowa, USA. She can be reached at pummir@aol.com.

I would like to be a Physical Education teacher for the primary section. I have been witness to aggressive sports teachers, and I personally don’t want to be such a teacher. How can I learn to have a more positive influence on my students?

Physical Education (PE) teachers are also ‘subject’ teachers. They should be qualified in their subject (like all other teachers) and should also be able to demonstrate the same kind of sportsmanship that they expect their students to imbibe. The sports teacher (whether male or female) must be as smartly dressed as the other teachers. Spending an enormous amount of time outdoors is not sufficient excuse for a compromise. Given the fact that the PE teacher needs to be physically active and agile, he/she should wear comfortable but smart clothes, such as a well coordinated track suit or other active wear in sober and tasteful colours. Remember, everything depends on the ease with which it is carried off!

PE teachers must be extra cautious about dividing the class into those who can and those who can’t perform! Sports is meant to be enjoyed, even though students may be graded in the subject. Every student must be given the opportunity to participate. The caustic remarks that are hurled on the nervous or ‘incapable’ student, such as, “Can’t you even throw a ball?” or “Are you a tortoise?” are damaging, to say the least, and undermine the confidence of the entire class; they also make the student the laughing stock of the class. Worse still, the student will never be able to enjoy a physical activity, and will sometimes remain physiologically stunted! When a student is struggling with an exercise that he is not good at, or has not been previously exposed to, it is wrong and unfair to ridicule him. Instead, the student must be motivated to focus on another physical activity. The PE teacher should be as enterprising as the other subject teachers in having a number of activities up his sleeve. Remember that non-athletes are more interested in individual events where they can measure their level of improvement rather than compete against those who overwhelm them.

A PE teacher has to be a mentor because this teacher, more than others, will be doling out tips on sportsmanship, on doing one’s best, outperforming oneself and others, and more importantly, how to take failure in one’s stride. Stroking the non-performers is a way of showing them that it is the effort that is more important in life than what one achieves. Talking, cajoling and scolding (but not taunting) are ways of getting students to love physical activity. Praising the ones who have the natural ability for the game, and lauding the efforts of those students who are going forward with trepidation but at the same time making an effort to enjoy the game are ways of making sure that students participate enthusiastically.

The PE teacher makes a very positive contribution in the physical development of the child. Therefore, the body language of the PE teacher must also be positive, encouraging and confident. A PE teacher roughs it out with the students, but that shouldn’t stop him or her from smiling and being friendly! Those who have been encouraged in sports are the ones who continue to exercise or take up a game at a later stage in life. It is these students who also take active part in sports and go on to win laurels for the country.

It is not necessary to encourage students in English if language is a barrier. It can be done in any language the teacher and the student are comfortable in. A pat on the back, a smile or ‘Yes, you can do it,’ will make students go that extra mile for your game and for you. PE teachers have a tremendous responsibility – they are the ones who will make sure that the country has healthy future citizens. With a huge population like ours, we could have many more Olympic gold medalists once our PE classes become more motivating and less daunting, and our schools also understand what a pivotal role these teachers play in shaping the child!

The author is a teacher educator and language trainer based in Chennai. She can be reached at manaswinisridhar@gmail.com.

It’s practically free, it’s colourful and visually appealing; it’s big and malleable; it’s omnipresent in today’s society; it’s current and topical with something to cater to everyone’s interest. Moreover, it is one resource which is comprehensive in terms of multiple intelligence (even though it is primarily verbal in its presentation). These are the reasons we are looking at some games to develop each of the eight intelligences using the newspaper. (To know more about multiple intelligence, look up the internet or visit our website www.geniekids.com/mi. You can also go back and read “Multiple Intelligences: Seven ways to approach curriculum”, the cover story in the March 2008 issue of Teacher Plus).

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligence
Impromptu skit: Get the children to scan a newspaper and let two kids select two people featured in the news items in the paper. Once the selection has been done let them interact with each other with responses based on the person they are pretending to be.

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

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