Drink the coffee while it’s hot

A carefully laid out plan may have its advantages and could propel teachers to complete what they had outlined with a sense of satisfaction, but come to think of it, are teachers missing out on experiencing the magic of certain moments in the classroom? Slight deviations in the classroom, prompted by children’s questions and doubts, will serve to help the teacher in putting aside the well laid out plan and go with the children. The outcomes may turn out to be better than the initial expectations.

A lesson in self-assessment

Asutosh
A parent joins a school, not as an adult but as a child, to learn how assessment happens and how children face their strengths and weaknesses. At the end of it, he learns that the novel practice of assessment stays with him for life and not just in school.

Threads and fingers to measure

Anuradha
Here is an interesting and fun account of how both the facilitator and children learn about measurement, mostly using threads and fingers.

Free and unbounded

Girija
When a project is given to children, teachers tend to ask children to follow a given path, which makes the entire learning process rather drab. How about asking children to choose what and how they wish to work on a particular project? This article is a must read in that it explains how children enjoyed working on the project that they chose.

Making science happen

Nayana

When children decide how they want to learn science, they make it happen. They create their own methods and structure and also give reasons for doing what they do. Read up this interesting article to get some tips on how as a teacher, you could make your children choose their own method of learning.

Jungle school

Astha and Bhavana
A spontaneous expression by a ten year old child. Read it for the humour it evokes.

Bad news is the new good

Shivani
In this facilitator’s account of how a child should be guided to thinking for himself or herself, there are a lot of takeaways for the astute teacher. Read up the article to know more.

Listen to their stories

Rashmi
Is story telling a dying art? Are children not listening to any stories now because of the growth of nuclear families? These questions can be happily buried because a parent tells you how one can become a great story listener— that is because children can turn out to be the best story tellers.

Doing it the hard way

Aditi and Ratnesh
A simple article on how learning should be available to children in the future — from and for their life.

Think outside the socks!

Shilpadhar
A classroom session on any subject can spring to life, if the teacher/facilitator also takes care to come prepared with ideas that are out of the box. This works both ways because both children and the teacher feel hugely satisfied at the end of the session. This article has a few examples where such ideas were implemented.