Warm Wishes for 2011 from Inspire!
We begin the New Year by sharing some experiences that have influenced who we are and how we work at Inspire. As you read on you may find likeness with something you have seen or been through in your life.
For every teacher all her students are special. Each class that she has taught stays on in her mind beyond years. Sometimes even a single memory of a student lingers.
Radhika had a student, whom we shall call 'A' for the purpose of this narration. A was a precocious toddler, who wore glasses, that partially covered his droopy eyes. Even as a child he carried himself with immense confidence, looking his teacher straight in the eye and calling her 'Ms Radhika' instead of the usual 'Ma'am'. He always had an opinion about things and a matching wit too. All in all – he was a little guy who could not be missed easily.
During one time around the Annual Day celebrations of the school, Radhika was readying her class for the rehearsals. The children were not the most enthusiastic considering they had to wait for hours for their turns for practice. They would get restless. Some would even cry.
Radhika, aware of this spoke to her class "Children, I know it is difficult, I know it is boring to sit still for so long. But we need to do this so that we can put up a good show. So let's think how we can make the waiting time less boring for all of us." The children came up with several suggestions. After hearing them out Radhika said "Okay, while you wait your turn you can choose between blocks or books. As a class let us decide on one of these that we can take with us. Once we have made a choice we will carry it with us to make the waiting time less boring for us. But on your part, you will need to keep quiet during the practice time."
Children chose to carry blocks. Radhika had guessed this would work. She tried this successfully later in many schools during similar situations. Children always chose blocks and remained engaged and quiet after that.
On that day too children agreed unanimously and grew less restless almost immediately. Radhika, satisfied, turned around to see A staring straight at her. Radhika asked him, "What happened A? Why are you looking at me like that?" Taking his time, as if mulling the question over in his head, wondering how to approach it, A said, "I was just thinking, you are a pretty good dealmaker."
Radhika was stumped. This was totally unexpected from a four-year old, whom she was teaching nuances of proper speech. A, meanwhile walked past her to his place in the waiting area, as if he had said nothing out of the ordinary.
That day, Radhika learnt two things.
First that children are capable of taking decisions and providing solutions. They do not need to be told always to make them understand. Instead their perception of things needs to be given more respect.
Second and perhaps a more important one, that children understand moods and situations much better than what adults give them credit for. They are vigilant and pick up cues from adult talk and behaviour. So a teacher or parent needs to be a role model whose conduct a child can emulate.
Many of Inspire's methods are thus based on lessons learnt from four-year-olds. We have many more such lessons, each unique and interesting.
If you have a similar incident from your life, do share with us.
We begin the New Year by sharing some experiences that have influenced who we are and how we work at Inspire. As you read on you may find likeness with something you have seen or been through in your life.
For every teacher all her students are special. Each class that she has taught stays on in her mind beyond years. Sometimes even a single memory of a student lingers.
Radhika had a student, whom we shall call 'A' for the purpose of this narration. A was a precocious toddler, who wore glasses, that partially covered his droopy eyes. Even as a child he carried himself with immense confidence, looking his teacher straight in the eye and calling her 'Ms Radhika' instead of the usual 'Ma'am'. He always had an opinion about things and a matching wit too. All in all – he was a little guy who could not be missed easily.
During one time around the Annual Day celebrations of the school, Radhika was readying her class for the rehearsals. The children were not the most enthusiastic considering they had to wait for hours for their turns for practice. They would get restless. Some would even cry.
Radhika, aware of this spoke to her class "Children, I know it is difficult, I know it is boring to sit still for so long. But we need to do this so that we can put up a good show. So let's think how we can make the waiting time less boring for all of us." The children came up with several suggestions. After hearing them out Radhika said "Okay, while you wait your turn you can choose between blocks or books. As a class let us decide on one of these that we can take with us. Once we have made a choice we will carry it with us to make the waiting time less boring for us. But on your part, you will need to keep quiet during the practice time."
Children chose to carry blocks. Radhika had guessed this would work. She tried this successfully later in many schools during similar situations. Children always chose blocks and remained engaged and quiet after that.
On that day too children agreed unanimously and grew less restless almost immediately. Radhika, satisfied, turned around to see A staring straight at her. Radhika asked him, "What happened A? Why are you looking at me like that?" Taking his time, as if mulling the question over in his head, wondering how to approach it, A said, "I was just thinking, you are a pretty good dealmaker."
Radhika was stumped. This was totally unexpected from a four-year old, whom she was teaching nuances of proper speech. A, meanwhile walked past her to his place in the waiting area, as if he had said nothing out of the ordinary.
That day, Radhika learnt two things.
First that children are capable of taking decisions and providing solutions. They do not need to be told always to make them understand. Instead their perception of things needs to be given more respect.
Second and perhaps a more important one, that children understand moods and situations much better than what adults give them credit for. They are vigilant and pick up cues from adult talk and behaviour. So a teacher or parent needs to be a role model whose conduct a child can emulate.
Many of Inspire's methods are thus based on lessons learnt from four-year-olds. We have many more such lessons, each unique and interesting.
If you have a similar incident from your life, do share with us.
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