WORLD OF EDUCATION

MY FIRST DAY IN A SCHOOL It was September 2007. I was transferred from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir   where I had served for 4 years   as a Principal of a Senior Secondary school. I had to occupy a position which my predecessor had occupied for 8 long years in   this reputed school located in central Punjab. He was a very senior   and effective Principal. Staff was quite curious to know about me. At least they were expecting a change in the administration. Some teachers who were very close to my predecessor were ostensibly upset. Some others were excited to see a new face. There was eagerness on the faces of students too. After addressing Morning Assembly of nearly 1500 students and 60 teachers I entered my office. I was accorded a warm welcome by staff. On my first day I thought to remain confined to my office. I avoided moving out to maintain a low profile.   After doing some routine signatures on handing over/taking over of     files I foun...

INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS OF ADOLESCENTS IN SCHOOLS Adolescents live in a world of their own. Whatever time they spend in school leaves an indelible impression on their growth. They undergo a lot of stress and strain due to biological and environmental factors as they restrain to share their feelings with their parents and teachers. They remain in the strong grip of powerful emotions of love, hatred and jealousy. They want to experiment the adult behavior. Most of school going adolescents keep some friends in their own school and also a few from other neighbouring schools with whom they come in contact during their tuition or coaching classes. And at times they also develop enmity with each other. By and large their behaviour remains under watch in schools. If they are involved in any indiscipline activity-schools try to discipline them through counselling and by   some other administrative measures. But when they attend coaching classes where students from different schools ...

A couple of days back, it was at about 9.00 pm, when I got a telephonic call from a teacher of my school that a girl from Class IX had not reached her home after school hours. My school closes at 1.40 pm. I was on an official tour to some schools of Himachal Pradesh and returned home. Where had she gone? What might have happened to her? Such questions started haunting me. I got disturbed. I got the telephone of her parents and spoke to them. They were also ostensibly perturbed. My phone was picked by a lady who said that she was an army officer. I inquired about the whereabouts of the girl. She told me that an FIR had been lodged in local police station and they were trying to talk to their relatives and friends. But there was no clue. This girl is a distant relative of this army officer who along with her mother stays with her. Throughout night there was no clue.   Next day one of my teachers sent me an SMS that she has been found   in the house of a student of class X ...

TEACHERS ARE LIKE ROADS... Morning Assembly of a school is an extremely important time. Students and teachers are in the receptive mode. Among various items presented in it is: the thought for the day. Sometimes the thoughts are really thought provoking. One day a primary class student presented a thought. He said,” Teachers are like roads. They take us to our destinations .” In the beginning I thought it to be an ordinary thought. But then in my mind I started visualizing roads. I started thinking of roads which are narrow and the others which are wide. I also imagined bumpy roads with pot holes in them. I thought of roads which are super highways. During my service as a teacher for almost 15 years and then as a Principal for 16 years I must have interacted with thousands of teachers. I started finding similarities between the roads I visualized above and my teacher colleagues. I felt that all of my colleagues were not super highways but some of them surely were. They rais...

No school can grow beyond the imagination of its leader. School leadership is to come up to the expectations of its stakeholders. During the last couple of decades the world has experienced sudden outburst of growth especially in the field of ICT. During our times of schooling, the words like computer, pen-drive, PPTs, google, YouTube, email, smart boards etc.  were  almost unheard of but now they are  an integral part of educational jargon.  School leaders during olden days used to be authoritative and students were submissive. But now you cannot lead your school only with that sort of  authority. The only authority you require as an educational leader is the authority to manage well.  Students and parents have become more demanding. They ask questions more frequently which sometimes makes us mum. The biggest challenge before the school leaders is the lower level of achievement of learning outcomes of students in various subjects/classes. That is why some...

I was on an inspection tour to a school in   Keylong. On 2 rd September 2018, after spending 2 days in breathtaking beautiful landscape of Lahul and Spiti, we were on our way back to Manali. I got a call from the Senior Most Teacher of my school in Chandimandir Cantt. exactly when we were about to cross Rohtang Pass. She apparently was exasperated and wanted to discuss something urgently. She said that a student of Class X had hurled a brick on a teacher who very narrowly escaped the attack which would have even been fatal. She further added that the boy had been sent to his home along with a sub –staff and the parents had been informed to come to school on 4 th September 2018. The targeted teacher was in a shock. It was a grotesque incident. During my teaching career I had never heard any such incident taking place in my schools. I joined my school back on 4 th September 2019.The teacher on whom the brick was hurled was   eagerly waiting for me to join school. Sh...

I am going to share my observations of a Math Class which I supervised   last year. This will throw light on how this subject is being taught   by and large in our schools. As I entered Class VIII A , all students appeared to be meaningfully engaged and   were busy in the construction of a quadrilateral. There was pin drop silence. My entry created disturbance to their work. Teacher was also busy in the -construction of a quadrilateral on black board   with the help of a compass, scale and chalk. I adjusted myself on a vacant desk in the end of a row and picked up the text book of a student who was sitting next to me. While the whole class was busy in the construction of a quadrilateral mentioned in the Exercise 4.1, I was busy in the reading of Introduction of Chapter 4 : Practical Geometry. In   the     Introduction was an activity under the heading Do THIS. All students were supposed to do that activity. Or at least the teacher would have de...

Teacher’s   Diary being maintained by the teachers of KVS {after the implementation of B2B} chalks out the   Lesson Plan as per the following format: 1.    Date:………….2.Class/Sec…….3.Subject:………4.Chapter:………5.Periods Required:………. Gist of the Lesson Focused Skills/ Competencies Targeted Learning Outcomes Teaching Learning Activities planned for achieving the TLO using suitable resources and classroom management strategies. Assessment     Strategies Planned Prior to B2B the Teacher’s Diary had the following format: Instructional Objectives List if the Chapters/Content Additional Information Source of Additional Information Home Assignment Exercise Questions prepared to supplement those given in the text book Achievements in the Week This Teacher’s Diary being m...