is it ok to ask so much ????

The discussions these are all  focused on using teacher resource to the best potential possible and help them craft the curriculum in a manner that it becomes child centred and using our traditional legacies as sources of learning.In words of Prof Yashpal, the child will not learn only because he has to, but because the  thirst for knowledge is ignited.and that the  teacher ,therefore needs to be educated and aware of her role in transacting such a curriculum.

The need of the hour is that a students’ Flight of fancy be fanned with academic rigour and for that school heads have to  think differently and democratically .

All in all, the days are  spent introspecting  with self provoking thoughts which should take us  beyond  our confined mindsets and help break our mental

boundaries . if i am doing that i am doing justice to my profession ,is what the general belief is these days .For schools in the race ,  thinking democratically and differently , conduct of workshops to  reinforce those ideologies has become the call of the day, it is often said that this is how schools respond to the present-time demands  .

So, not only is the workplace supposed to be  an enriching and a learning area  for an educator but it is also a personal space for a re-look. we need to constantly evolve our methodologies and strategies to come up with the dictates of present day stressful lives that the students is exposed to . all I hear these days is  learner profiles , challenging norms and set patterns and value systems and making changes and linkages with the child's life , teaching children the rights from all the wrongs, preparing them for jobs that don't even exist ...... but what about the baggage the teacher carries with herself ? what about her learning style and curves ? who ever taught her to teach the present generation. why is her in capability or inability to tune with the changing trends not accepted as it were ???  

My Human Link : Connections

  While going through the many links I  read through much MORE  than my mind could handle , I needed a break I needed human company ..but at this unearthly  hour ? Who would i find to connect  with ,and where .After aimlessly browsing through sites and finding no human to connect with 

I WAS ABOUT TO SWITCH OFF MY TECHNO WORLD , when i saw the white birdie glow with a little red notification .... And yes ! there it was the sign  I was waiting for , the human link i so desperately was seeking. I checked the " While you were Away " I checked the "New Tweets ". and yes  it was there ...the # chat that would give me a  new lease of life .It was an education network group  and what I learnt from there were few things about myself : My opinions counted , they weren't as irrelevant as I always thought they would be , they were heard and read and retweeted and favourited .Oh what a blissful world ....I  had got accepted and I  was being followed.

And now my tweets are 840 and i believe in my opinions I feel instantly gratified when I am "followed and liked".this is the case with most youngsters seeking their existence and meaning of the same in the  virtual world today . 

IS THIS WHAT WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO INHERIT FROM US ??? Not disregarding the importance of the virtual world and its magic like connections and networking , but why are we becoming victims of the powers of the Digital onslaught .One part of me  the parent creams and shouts and rebels against this exposure , but the 'rational  teacher side' of me encourages the usage of technology , integrating it into our lessons , coming out with novel and innovative ideas of digitalizing learning .

I'll keep coming back to this endless debate and ill make my insides respond maybe a pitless hole this one but i intent getting to the bottom of this and prove a point ..... wonder what that is ! 

Is a teacher replaceable ? can technology replace teachers?

TEACHERS' teachers

we are churning out teachers and teachers and opening schools like hives , but no thought ever goes in the planning and future . nor is there any teachers training in the real sense of the word, nor do i see too many people trying to bring about a change in the systems… as a result theres a lot of school hopping as jobs in the corporate sector……to find their calling but what is it that beckons them and who knows what is to be offered to whom?
there should be aptitude tests for teachers too… it is such a waste of human resource. Big cities have faulty systems; whos monitoring smaller towns like Gwalior , or Meerut … i interact with students from there and know for a fact that teachers are transacting this CCE in the most messy manner possible.

PARENTING ......opening new Vistas

Parenting - a word loaded ... A word with many many leads ......A world full of unanswered questions!And Adolescence, a phase of life beginning in biology and ending in society where person's most biological, cognitive, psychological, and social characteristics are changing from what is typically considered child-like to what is considered adult-like. And never the twain shall meet ??? or they do, they Can !! It was with this positive thought in mind and a challenge at hand that we decided at the Middle school level to organize a parenting workshop for on Saturday April 11^th, 2015.The workshop was intended to operate as per a structure with a focus on –

• Parents getting in touch with their years of adolescence to connect to their own world of anxieties, fears and questions

• To acquaint the parents with the 6 domains of Child development which an adolescent goes through.

• To share an action plan for building a connect and a strong relationship with their adolescents.

•  To address parental concerns and queries 

So Parwarish,an Institute of Parenting was brought to make a difference in the area of this nature. The dictionary meaning of parenting means ‘the upbringing and care of a child’. Thus, parenting is the work of not just the parents but also of the teachers. Parwarish ,established in 2008, focuses on bringing education and science in the area of parenting through specially designed workshops that cater to the requirements of parents and teachers of children from all age groups.It is always aimed to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we look at establishing connections with our children and students with the changing times only the complexity of the issues changes but the basic issues remain same. So what is required? Through the two and a half hours workshop we were empowered as teachers and parents to find our own solutions to everyday issues and work towards creating a stimulating environment for the children. For the adolescent, this period is a dramatic challenge, one requiring adjustment to changes in the self, in the family, and in the peer group. In contemporary society, adolescents experience institutional changes as well. Among young adolescents, there is a change in school setting, typically involving a transition from elementary school to either junior high school or middle school; Understandably, then, for both adolescents and their parents, adolescence is a time of excitement and of anxiety; of happiness and of troubles; of discovery and of bewilderment; and of breaks with the past and yet of links with the future.But I felt confident that each one of us sitting through the workshop that Saturday morning were very focused on bringing about the changes in ourselves, because Sushant Karla our workshop leader and company head made it very clear “the workshop was about us and not the children, we are here to make a difference in ourselves not in the children.”  The journey into our childhood and the connections we then established with the childhood or teenage years of our children made us realize where we could BE THE CHANGE and not ‘be’ our PARENTS. The process of metamorphosis made many of us think of our role in that process; it was rightly pointed out by a parent that our role as adults in Chrysalis of "Meaningful Transformations" of our young ones is Just that of the support..

The Stick. “Just A stick “one would think, but if you see the actual role of the stick ... it is THE MOST IMPORTANT ROLE ... so it really depended on us whether we wanted to be that stick providing support all along or have the “ Butterfly “ deformed with our constant interventions! I was forced to think again ...It was not going to be easy, but I am sure it would be well worth it for all us teachers and parents to step back and watch ....just be there in case our children needed us ...they should be able to look back and feel our presence, and not always “have” us around .All in all, the entire workshop was an enlightening experience, one that I will value and share most fondly. One that taught me not only how to be a better teacher but look within the Parent Me. An experience that made me see what everyone was going through and the children would probably be  confronted with through their personal “Roller coasters”. A life learning ,and a consolation that I am not alone that we all our in it together . I am feeling “empowered”.

Dil ki tanhayeeyaan

Kehte hain saaya bhi kabhi ho jata hain begaana..saath dete dete thuk jaata hai woh shayad.
Socha tha apne saaye ko nahin le kar chaloongi apne saath jab tuk tum doge apna haath.
Par ab sochti hoon...kahin darr toh na jaoge tum? Mere andheron mein leen toh na ho jaoge tum?
Ho gaye jo tum ghum kaise dhoondogee tumhein ? Kiss se churaoongee woh chund lamhein?
 Kahin tum par bhoj toh nahin ladh rahee
Kya hoga karna yeh sahi?
Ek awaaz ne dastak de kar pukaara toh tha
Kya woh thee tumhari sadaa ya dil ko hua koi gumaan?
Kehdein kya sabko na humko pukarein hum ruk gaye hain ab yahaan???

This I loved...

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.