Aracha Sinha
How many stories of children succumbing to peer pressure have we not heard? Peer pressure, while not the most desirous thing, is a part of student life, so let us help our students use this pressure to enhance their personalities and not buckle under it.
Year: 2023
Agreeing to disagree
Usha Raman
Debates and discussions are an integral part of a successful democracy. However, in real life debates are shouting matches and in schools they are performances acted out by the students. Can our classrooms become spaces where different points of view can co-exist and conversations be healthy?
Rethinking the social contract
Neerja Singh
Technology is now driving the world and in that sense are our education systems ready to train children for the future? Let us continue the conversation started by UNESCO and re-imagine our educational future.
Creating that sense of belonging
Anindita Bhattacharya
The need to belong has implications on our physical and mental health. A lack of belonging can cause depression or anti-social behaviour. The feeling of belonging, on the other hand, can positively affect academic performance and provide a lifetime of benefits. What skills will help students develop their sense of identity? What opportunities can schools provide to help students belong?
The notion of purity
Avneesh Shukla
How do we know what purity is? What are our reasons for classifying something as pure or impure? Take a peek into this science classroom and find out what the students learnt.
Janaki Ammal: Magnolia Lady
Mamata Pandya
Magnolia kobus Janaki Ammal. If women scientists are a rare species, what is rarer is to have inventions named after them. In the 19th century, Janaki Ammal was a woman much ahead of her time. Her work as a botanist both in India and outside is truly inspiring.
Teaching from the heart
Aruna Sankaranarayanan
As teachers, is it enough if we know our students and the subjects we teach? How important is the knowledge of the self to a teacher? Aruna Sankaranarayanan looks for answers as she unravels the last book in this column.
Teacher etiquette
Anubha Rawat
A teacher makes a good professional not only when she teaches her subject well but also when she conducts herself well. Young children are impressionable and keen observers and therefore a teacher has to always be alert to her actions and words.
Nature education as a two-way street
Astha Chaudhary and Dipti Arora
Environment education in its current form is all very well when it is being imparted to students living in concrete urban jungles, but when we use the same approach and textbooks to teach children living with and off nature, it is wanting. Local knowledge and contexts should be included in EVS to enrich the subject and make it more useful.
Intertwining theatre and learning
Sanjhee Gianchandani
Traditional teaching methods don’t hold a student’s attention for long. And when students are not attentive, they don’t retain what they have learnt. So how can a teacher make her classes engaging enough to allow students to imbibe what they are learning? Have you tried theatre yet?