Play: outdoors vs. indoors

R Jeyatheerthan
Two years of COVID, two years of indoors, it is time to go into the outdoors now. With children addicted all the more to the indoors and staring at screens for long hours, we have to put the spring and jump back in their steps and lead them outside so that they are both physically and mentally fit.

Food for thought

Chintan Girish Modi
Pinkoo Shergill Pastry Chef by Vibha Batra is a delightful and funny book about a young boy, Pinkoo who loves baking. How he fights gender stereotypes and his journey to becoming a pastry chef is what this engaging book is all about. Ideal for seven to eleven year-olds.

Sweating the small stuff

Usha Raman
Why does caring for the details matter? Detailing is a skill that needs to be acquired because it is the details that create the magic in any sphere of activity. When we pay attention to the little things, big things can happen giving us a feeling of satisfaction that ‘we did it right’. The little things also teach us some important life lessons. Teachers need to inculcate these skills in their students so that they realize it is the small stuff that leads to perfection.

Teen sexual health: a persistent blind spot

Neerja Singh
Independent studies reveal that there is widespread ignorance among adolescents about their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Although the government has many programmes, social and policy barriers do not allow the needs of adolescents to be addressed. A revised curriculum that addresses all aspects of human sexuality is the need of the hour and schools are the perfect places to start this.

All eyes on the teacher

Simran Luthra
How do schools measure the capabilities of their most crucial employees — the teachers? There are complex interactions at every level, so what practices do the schools adopt to evaluate their teachers? And can teaching be truly measured? The emotional labour that goes into teaching or the time and effort put into preparation cannot just be wished away based on someone else’s judgment. The growth of this ‘performance culture’ will only suppress creativity and innovation in teaching. Teachers tend to bring in their own imagination and creativity into the classroom. So, assessing teachers or teaching has to be holistic and conversation-driven built on mutual trust.

Shifting goalposts, unfulfilled demands

Anuradha C
The insecurities and inequalities faced by private school teachers is a serious malaise plaguing the educational world. Most private school teachers were not paid salaries on par with central government school teachers, especially after the Seventh Pay Commission brought in much needed policy reforms in pay structures. While some state governments did follow up with their own pay revisions, needless to say, this was a token gesture and did not match the central government pay hikes. This article highlights a few steps that teachers and schools can take to ensure pay parity.

Learning that informs life

Sanjhee Gianchandani
The classroom is a space where students learn together, are encouraged to compete with another and are put together on an equal footing so that they can succeed in life. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) helps them deal with their emotions and provides a lens with which they can see the world with empathy and humanity. Here are a few ideas on how SEL can be implemented in everyday classroom routine.

Wayfinding into the homeland and heartland

Devika Nadig
This last article in the series takes its readers to Madhya Pradesh and Indore in particular for a whole school evaluation. Both teachers and students coming back to school after a two-year pandemic break had to face rising struggles with altered attitudes and disinterest in learning. The solution? Arthur Costa’s work on Habits of the Mind.

Fun as a complement to learning

Malay Dhamelia, Girish Dalvi
Educators need to be always on their toes to find ways to make their classes interesting and get students to focus. What better way to do this than to introduce fun activities into the learning sessions so that students not only have some fun but are also learning difficult concepts. Fun activities make learning interactive, exploratory and engaging. So, here are some suggestions on how activities can be designed to have fun and complement learning.