Bits and Pieces

A bird which is ignored, disregarded as filthy and most of the time perceived to be having no qualities to be called 'beautiful'. Hence, what is worth about its nest!! I got to observe a crow-couple and their friends setting up a place for themselves for their short 'fruitful' family time.  This nest at our home is built on a lemon tree (not sure if technically it's a tree or a shrub). The nest is rather too shabby. I thought they are doing a poor job if it. Later observed, they are actually building a fortress. Meticulously planned to wave off any threats. A lemon plant naturally has thorns and hence any external interference should be low. But, the crow-couple had other ideas to up the game of security. They had gathered more thorny twigs and laid all over the plant. So many, if not hundreds of these twigs have been laid around the nest. I wonder, why would a crow do this. I assume it is done so that no other animals can easily approach the nest thwarting their pl

Pedagogy of the Oppressed- Insights for reflection Written by educator Paulo Freire  Published in the Year -1968 I had a wonderful experience reading the book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ by Paulo Freire. The book tries to bring a model for liberation to the oppressed through dialogue and action. I would like to list some thoughts struck my mind while reading the book. People think that if and only if they suppress someone they can live as a ‘man’- to suppress becomes the way to live and the way of living. This suppression need not only be landlord-peasant type of suppression. But suppression of any form. A person does not realize that he is knowledgeable and he knows something. The awareness of self is very much lacking. This need not only be bookish knowledge or from any formal education but rather a knowledge about the self. Large number (or may be less number) of participants are seen in the discussions on decision making. However, we see people staying quiet and listening t

MY REFLECTIONS ON THE READING OF TOTTO-CHAN! Written by: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi Year of publication : 1981 Introduction to the book. The book was really a very great reading experience for me. It gave me a small idea of the kind of thoughts and feelings children have in their tender minds. This book helps us give a wonderful picture of a kind of progressive education through unconventional teaching. It talks about different skill and needs of a child that should be attended with great importance. This is a real time experience of a world famous lady who was once expelled of a school while studying for primary due to her hyper activeness, joined a school named Tomeo which was founded by Mr. Sosaku Kobayashi. The new school where the child went had class rooms made of unused rail road cars (train compartment). The teachers in that school had immense understanding about the importance of freedom. The children were given freedom to choose what should be done. The book makes the r

I attended the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Training (CCE) for the Primary School Teachers, The training was conducted by the Department of Education, Puducherry with the collaboration of Azim Premji Foundation. 9 th August 2012, The training program started at around 9:30 AM. The first activity was of introducing each other. There were about forty primary school teachers from different schools of puducherry. The teachers introduced themselves by saying their names prefixed by an adjective which best suited to them and also the reason which they have choose teaching as a profession. The activity went interesting. After the self-introduction of the teachers the facilitators projected some photos in front of the teachers. The photos showed some children as well as teachers clicked from different situation. The teachers were asked to discuss on the photos; about the emotions, background and also the teachers were asked to connect these photos with the experience from th

Thursday, 19 July 2012 An Inspired Teacher. Julia Weber, a single-teacher school teacher in the United States. She proved that inspiration and enthusiasm of a single teacher can make huge differences. Having the best infrastructure does not mean q uality in education. A teacher who is continuously innovating, reflecting and acting plays a key role in achieving quality education.  Using locally available resources is very important and effective in teaching. If the local community is thoughtfully involved in the schooling processes, most resources needed for learning can be easily organized. Currently, in most schools, irrespective of the management, the community is kept either out or they are only involved in a unproductive manner. Most places the community is not aware of what is happening in the schools. The schools are seen as building where something is taught, and this ‘something‘ is not known by the community. The idea of peer group learning is an effective way of

Learning by doing… Always we hear about this term, but when we experience it, the multidisciplinary action which comes in a single activity can be observed. When we analyze, everything which we know is only learned by doing.  Learning by doing will enable us to understand the nature and the kind of life and surrounding we have. Understanding of the concepts of mathematics really was a very wonderful session. But one thing which struck my mind is that, when an assessment is done and the result is been got that there should be changes in the teaching, how the teacher will improve himself/ herself. Is it that the portions ahead will be taught in an improved way or the taught one will be re-visited?