CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Effectively manage 40 children in 40 mins period...A situation which most of the teachers in India dread.  Albeit teachers have the intention of catering to every child but it seems an impossible dream to provide focus to each and every child sometimes 45 to 60 children in a class with only 35 to 40 minutes. That’s less than a min to each child, and then she has to finish her syllabus, check their copies, give them Homework, create discipline in the class and the list goes on…

Schools and the school system in India has tried to crack this code by limiting the no. of students in a class. But that is again an impossible task given the population of India, the no. of schools and the no. of teachers available. Some high end privately owned schools have had the luxury and funds to cap this but state owned schools have no choice but to have 50 to 60 children to a class.

So, how? That’s the question that’s been haunting the India education system for years.
Let’s dismantle this problem piece by piece.

Step 1:  The context needs a shift. Teacher don’t have 40 min with a group of 50 children. They have approximately 14 years (for a k12 school) or 12 years (for a 1^st to 12^th school) This is a shift in the way we look at the time horizon. A very small percentage of children change schools. We need to shift this micro level view of a period of 35/40 minutes to a time period of a child in the school system. It’s not about a particular teacher impacting a child but a teacher impacting that child. The moment this shift happens the pressure of time with a child shifts.

Step 2: The shift which the teacher has to bring in their view is that she is not teaching a class but a group of individual students. They need to start addressing individual students vs. addressing the class as a whole

Step 3 : Know your student. Spend time in getting to know each and every child in their class. As a teacher you may be shocked at this suggestion. Where is the time? Would be your question. There is a syllabus to complete, then FAs, SAs, checking, sports day, annual day and other functions and the list goes on. As it is we don’t get enough periods to teach. But remember students don’t listen or respond because they are not connected to the teacher. Once the connect is made they respond and respond quick. If you invest the first few periods in building the connect then it pays off really quick and large.

Step 4: Move from being a teacher to a facilitator. The era of teacher being a knowledge provider is long gone. The role needs to shift to facilitate learning in the classroom.

• Create groups
• Ask them to work in groups
• Learn and teach each other
• Move around in the room moving from one group to another
• Make them responsible to manage their groups – nominate a leader

There are two ways of reading and evaluating the above. One is (where the default mode of thinking goes) – this sounds nice and utopian but it’s not practical or doable or have tried this before and it did not work. The second way would be to say – Let me try! But remember doing step 3 and 4 without Step 1 and 2 (in that order) is a complete waste of time and will ensure failure.

Wishing you a great way ahead in making a difference to each and every child

THE WORLD HAS CHANGED...!!

Parents:  
Year 1990, parents constitutes of Mother and Father.

Year 2013, parents constitute of Mother, Father and MEDIA – Yes! Media has become the 3^rd parent. 

These were mere means of entertainment earlier but now movies, TV serials, advertisements, cartoons etc. have huge impact on them. They pick up language, behavior, relationships, moralities, religion, values, what to buy, what to wear, what to eat, what to play.. and the list goes on.  As biological parents, we may not like it, we may not approve of it, we may even hate it but the truth is Media is the 3^rd parent. The parent that literally spends the most time with them. 

Let’s make a start today. The first step is to accept the power of Media, the shift we are asking you to make is the shift from ‘parenting vs. media’ to ‘parenting and media’. Media / technology is great – lets embrace it, let’s look at ways and means to leverage it, rather than fight it.'

Let’s look at the world - It has changed most rapidly and most dramatically in the last 20 years.  Few examples are…

•          Facilities have grown
•          Parameters of success have changed
•          Technology is changing by the minute
•          Knowledge is freely available
•          Moralities have undergone drastic shifts

And the list goes on…..

What worked 20 years back does not work anymore.

In these few years we have seen the following too:

•          Stress levels going up
•          Mental, emotional, physical and social health issues growing all across
•          Suicide rates, psychological disorders, drug addiction, alcoholism  etc increasing at an alarming rate
•          Family values, respect, morality, safety taking a plunge
•          Competition replacing Cooperation….

We as parents haven’t looked at these aspects as a shift in the environment and the CRITICALITY to adapt to the environment.  Parenting was thought to be a natural skill for parents. Given the dynamics of the environment, the methods learnt from the last generation don’t work anymore.

It’s like a driver who has been driving in India for years and can call himself/herself to be an expert lands up in US. In US the person would have to acquire new skillS

•  Left hand driving – the need to switch hands for every control,
• Driving on the right side of the road – no more free left turns!
• Traffic rules (and even the need to follow them)

And it’s a different world to “know” about these changes but it’s another world to drive in this situation.

For parenting too - New Contexts, new methods, new skills need to acquired, learnt and practiced.

A few start points with our children could be

1. It’s a competitive world out there, they too are under stress to perform – there is a need to be a ‘listener’ to your child: merely being a provider won’t work anymore. Being a sounding board for them is critical. The way to enter their world is to first know their world.
2.  Technology is a part and parcel of our everyday life. Cell phones have become a part of the body! We carry them to the loo too. No point fighting technology, embrace it. It’s possible that we are not conversant with the functionalities – but the way forward is to learn
3. Lets learn – emailing, internet, e-commerce, availability and sharing of information, facebook, sms, etc.  has brought in convenience in our lives. Let’s use them – let’s leverage technology. A few areas would be

•             Learn emailing – the schools are moving to sending updates and homework on mails.
•       E-commerce: buying and selling over the net
•       Internet: knowledge is available – many times over on the net. Schooling and teaching is no longer about providing knowledge, it’s about applications and
•             Reading books, magazines, dailies, weeklies etc. – keeping ourselves up-to-date brings us in touch with current world (the world of our children)

Having said that it’s critical to update ourselves, we all KNOW that, but most of us still don’t take the first step. Let’s go over a few barriers which will come up so that we can be conscious of these and we can prepare ourselves.

1. ‘Learning’ is a four letter word! It reminds us of the school days – subjects, tests, exams, results.
2. The thought “ab is umar mein kya seekheingey" 
3. There are enough issues in our life already, I don’t want to add one more.
4. English!– “mere bas ka nahin hai” what will others say “I don’t even know the language”

True but remember those school days – even when learning was difficult and stressing, it was the most enjoyable time of our lives. Learning and enjoyment are two sides of the same coin. Put half an hour of ‘learning’ in your schedulers, it’s easier than it sounds.
There are enough avenues available, for example.

•  Internet has all the content, go to google baba and ask your questions you will get enough videos and learning material.
• Book stalls are full of self help books – they are after all not that bad.
• Ask your child to teach you! they would make great tutors and they learn while teaching you. (Secretly it keeps them away from the things you want them to be away from!!)
• Contact your child’s school, they would be keen to support you
• Ask the experts!

So let’s begin today!! Let’s walk this road of learning with our children. It’s a great path to tread and let’s partner with them!