Usha Raman
Access to information is quick and easy these days. There is no dearth of information or the ways in which we can find it. Therefore it is easy to become overwhelmed, get lost, and be confused. As teachers it is necessary that we tell our students how they can sort through and use the right kind of information to further their learning. But to teach our students that we first have to develop our own strategies of dealing with information overload.
Usha Raman
How can we help create school spaces where all those who work within it can be trusted? With schools too not being exempt from the ills of society, it is time to explore ways in which schools and teachers can be more vigilant and respond better to cases of child abuse and sexual harassment.
Usha Raman
The recently released ASER serves to remind us of our failure as educationists once again. With children displaying abysmal reading and writing skills, the fingers of blame are pointing towards the teacher. But when we have an education system that produces ill-equipped teachers, can we blame the teachers alone? We have to find solutions to equip our teachers with good teaching-learning skills so that they in turn can produce good learners.
Usha Raman
The recent Peshawar tragedy has forced us to ask some questions. Have places of education become unsafe? Are children living in violent times? How can children trust their teachers? While the Peshawar massacre is an outcome of politics between nation states, the violence that happens within school spaces needs to be tackled. For this, children need to be educated about their own safety and given physical and intellectual tools to protect themselves.
Why do stories matter? Well there are a couple of reasons. One–stories are perhaps one of the most inexpensive teaching aids. Except for your imagination you need little else. Two–stories perk up any classroom and subject matter. Three–stories help develop very important learning skills–listening, reading, and speaking.
Usha Raman
How can a teacher build positive classrooms, one where the students are all responsive and more engaged? One way is to bring about a change in the seating pattern at least occasionally so that students see and think differently. Students could also be given a say in how the classroom should operate. This way their sense of ownership in the education process increases. These are but small shifts in everyday learning, but could certainly lead to more positive attitudes and behaviour.
Usha Raman
Amidst planning for her lessons, taking care of additional duties in school, handling irate parents, a disgruntled management, and bored and disinterested students, what exactly keeps a teacher going? The answer is the joy and hope she derives when she walks into her classroom and looks at her students each time.
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.
The last issue of the magazine marked our 25th anniversary and celebrated the role of teachers in today’s complex education scenario. What we would have liked to have done, but did not have space for, was a glimpse into our Read More …
In its 25th anniversary year, Teacher Plus continues to celebrate teachers and the work they do across subject areas and at all levels. What began as a germ of an idea, has,in the course of its winding journey, taken on an independent space as a magazine for school teachers with some great writers and a loyal readership. This issue has some of our oldest contributors sharing their association with us and how their own journey has been. Read on to discover some amazing ideas that our teachers are brimming with.