Learning Never Stops

I grew up on a diet of Dickens, Hardy and Austen. I devoured their books. And the images that still stick to mind are the boarding schools. A shiver runs down my spine as I think of Dotheboys Hall in Dickens's novel Nicholas Nickelby . "It is a school where there are no holidays, no trips home for the abused and neglected pupils of Mr. Wackford Squeers." The tension when Nicholas asks for another bowl of soup! The Lowood Institute in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre intills equal terror in the readers.  "... run by the hypocritical ogre Mr. Brocklehurst, the students never have enough to eat or warm clothes."  The sight of Jane standing on a desk for the whole day, her long, lovely hair chopped off as a punitive measure, a figure of shame... Sadly, truth was even more startling and disturbing than fiction. In order to create a realistic picture, Dickens and his illustrator Hablot Browne travelled to boarding schools in Yorkshire to see how th...

This is an exerpt from my son's report card: Abir was very active in this unit and he produced some work to be proud of; notably his brochure based on the Turtle Bay field trip .He did most of his assessments and class projects in good time and enjoyed making a TV commercial. He exhibited an understanding of different media and techniques used to manipulate people. However during his reflection he had difficulty recalling some of the concepts learnt. He is thus encouraged to be a more reflective learner in order to profit fully in the long term from all concepts he is exposed to. And again... Abir fared fairly well in this unit and worked quite well with his peers during most of the projects. He carried out experiments, used all the steps of investigation learnt and he exhibited commendable confidence during his summative presentation where he shared his knowledge on reversible and irreversible changes. He is encouraged to improve his self management skills as he n...

You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count. -Winnie The Pooh I have picked up this post from my classroom blog. Needless to say, I was very moved by this child's reflection. And judging by the flood of comments from other teachers (junior and senior school), as well as her peers, this child sealed my conviction as to why I am a PYP educator! This student's blog post is an example of solitary reflection combined with social interaction- the very purpose of blogging itself! When this child joined our school, one of my colleagues in the administration department pointed out that she hardly spoke a word of English. And if she did, she was more comfortable talking in Telegu, her mother tongue. I wish to praise the whole school's attitude towards learning and empowering children. It made me feel that the onus of m...

The best way for human beings to learn is to leave their comfort zone. Even animals know that. Take the example of the bald eagle that builds its nest sometimes 200 feet in the air, on the tallest of trees. Its nests are usually huge and can weigh more than a ton. The first layer is full of prickly thorns and hard, uncomfortable twigs. This is cushioned by leaves and grass to make it more comfortable for the young ones. But as they grow in size and complacency, mum decides it's time to give them the push. This is in fact the kindest deed she will be doing for them. She slowly starts getting rid of the soft layers. She then stops bringing them food. Finally, in a clinical attempt to get them out of the nest once and for all, she exposes the prickly thorns! The young one are forced to take the plunge. After a few akward flaps, they soon become graceful gliders of the sky. That is how we need to teach the students. We need to make them feel comfortable within the c...

Having different types of teaching strategies will, without a doubt, help any teacher become better at ensuring their students grasp the concepts. I have received so many mails (as a result of blogging) where teachers ask me to share my strategies with them! So here is one. My first lesson was not very successful by the way. After teaching the students about heroes, at then end of 6 weeks I asked them to write a reflection on their learning, a few students still chose a celebrity as their hero. However, all was not lost. They argues that a celebrity can be a hero if they give of themselves to society. I could not argue with that! Using the inductive learning strategy (this focuses on understanding), I tweaked my lesson: Here goes: Organize the junk in your mind through sorting. The students will be learning a unit on social studies. Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify the qualities that make a hero. They will be able to distinguish between a hero an...