Towards “welcoming” classrooms

As schools and teachers are we happy simply producing academically brilliant children? Somewhere aren’t we also responsible for the ‘kind’ of individuals our students will turn out to be when they grow up? Let’s make our schools a more caring, sharing and compassionate place and show our students through examples the kind of human beings they must be.

Stop, hop, and go!!

Ratna Rao

How often have we not heard the joke about a panda who eats, shoots, and leaves? Everytime we hear this joke it reminds us of the importance of punctuation in our language. Punctuation marks can sometimes seem confusing and difficult to comprehend. Here are some fun exercises for you to introduce punctuation and help build an easy relationship for your students with a little bit of grammar.

Students today, doctors and teachers tomorrow

Geetha Durairajan

When we teach we touch the future. And that is why a teacher’s job comes with a lot of responsibility. This responsibility of moulding a future generation we will be able to truly fulfill only when we look upon our students as our own children and teach them the way we would want our own children to be taught.

When teaching poetry…

Neeraja Raghavan

If there is an area more difficult to teach than the others in English literature it is poetry. Some say poems will mean different things to different people, so then how do you teach it? Others say the poet had a definite meaning that he wanted his readers to grasp. But with the poet no more who is to say what the poet thought? Teachers discuss different strategies in our staff room.

What are the consequences?

Gita Krenek

Trying to set right bad behaviour by merely punishing the child may not be the right way to go. Bad behaviour can be beaten only when the child understands why what he is doing is wrong/bad. The child has to realize the effect that his bad behaviour is producing. This article gives you a brilliant suggestion on how to curtail bad behaviour in the classroom.

Learning from the learners

Disha Jain

Refresher courses and professional development workshops are not the only ways that a teacher can improve her teaching skills. There is a very important tool right in your classroom that will nudge you in the right direction when it comes to the way you teach–student feedback.

From teacher to servant

Payal Adhikari

A curious and experimenting teacher shares her experience of having used a novel method of painting, called ‘Play of Paininting’ with her students. These painting sessions became a learning experience for both the teacher herself and her students.

Integrating life and learning

Arun Elassery

A new column featuring some of the alternative schools in this country. The first article in the column looks at The Learning Community, a school in Auroville.

Putting it on show!

Prabha Naresh

Featuring in this times Event is a social science exhibition at NASR school for girls in Hyderabad.

Tweak and adopt

Manaswini Sridhar

Perhaps these are better times to be a teacher in than it once was. At least as far as accessibility to teaching material is concerned. If once you had to go through many a book in the library or sit for hours together for inspiration to strike, these days teaching materials on whatever topic are available for plenty. The trouble is at the click of a mouse you get more than you bargain for. So how does one sort through the endless links on the internet to get just what you want for your class? While you may not get exactly what you are looking for you certainly will find enough material to adopt and tweak it to suit your classroom.