After a gap of about 6 to 7 years I fortunately got a chance to take up Social Studies again. I’m saying it fortunately because long back being fascinated by the tiny toddlers I willingly opted to leave primary classes and take up pre- primary and made it my forte although earlier I had started my career as a social teacher and taken up this subject till grade V.
As a mentor I keep looking forward to some kind of challenges as otherwise life seems very boring. Now I was to take up Social in grade VIII. I had lost my hold on the subject and needed to brush up, for doing so I went to through the textbooks the NCERT social textbooks. Wonderful! There was so much of research and reform gone in to the books. It was made so child friendly and so mentor friendly. It helped me gain some confidence. I too was excited to try my hands once more as in my school times I really liked this subject. Another thing which motivated me was the compliment which I once got from my son who said, “You teach social better than my teacher”. So the journey began………….
On my first day after the introduction I asked them to write and share what subject they liked the most out of History, Civics and Geography, Why they liked or disliked it. This is how I got a baseline to understand them and their like and dislike. They were very honest in conveying their feelings and thoughts.
Initially I read the lesson in advance underlined the new words find their meanings and went prepared to the class. I did the questions and answers made a note book and make children write them by writing on board. In my school days I never liked Civics as a subject but was amazed to see the same subject made so interesting that I really enjoyed teaching it.
After some time it happened that I got busy as I had other responsibilities too as the instructional head of Indus World School Chhawani campus and at times did not get sufficient time to prepare for the lessons. I thought why I could not be a co learner along with the students and once while starting the new lesson I shared with my students that even I have not read the lesson lets read it together whenever we came across a new word some student looked up for its meaning and shared it with the whole class. Some pieces of information which were new for me too, I asked them I’ll find and get back and even you can find it out and share. This feeling of being not a very polished and typed teacher but new and a co learner gave some good feeling as another thing which, I hate is being typed and framed forever.
So this is how I was enjoying and learning along with my students although there were some struggles too like children had their own choices. There were all different types of learners in the two different sections that I was mentoring.
After some time I was realizing that it was becoming very monotonous and even I was behaving in a typical teacher manner who would come to the class read and explain the lesson get the question answers done conduct the class test and that’s all. Although at the same time I was bringing in some innovations like for their formative assessments and also to make it more interesting I organized a poster making activity for all the children on the topic of ‘Religious Tolerance’ although It wasn’t a huge success as many were struggling with their creative aspect but at least there was something new, some of them made it very nicely too and even I participated along with them, next time they had to collect some cuttings from the newspaper on how Government works for the betterment of the people and how they misuse their powers and we also did some role play. This added some freshness to my teaching.
Later it seemed that every assignment given to them was being done just for name sake and even not all of them were taking it seriously, be it the submission of their home assignments projects class work or any other thing. It was disturbing for me; initially I was regularly making them note their home work in their diaries signing it asking ten times for giving notebooks to me for their correction. Then I lectured them for being more responsible as all teachers and parents do. Whenever I got an opportunity I made them realize that they are responsible for their studies they are doing it for themselves and not for their parents and me.
Gradually I was also building a very good bond with them they also shared lot more with me. We often took some breaks in between when the topics became too heavy to digest. Their evergreen demand of giving a sports period was also accepted once they completed the required portion. They use to play in class too, made miniature sculptures using small chalk pieces and what not. The children also shared what all they found boring and then we decided to do the lessons in more interesting manner.
By chance I got a very informative addition of,’Teacher Plus’ which is a monthly magazine in our library, this particular edition of the magazine was on,’How to teach History ‘and also long back I had attended a session on Itihas walk (An NGO in Delhi which organizes walks for the Delhi students to visit and learn more about the historical places around) which was also somewhere in my mind. It helped me a lot to bring some innovation.
Class VIII History had a chapter on the tribal life of India and how it got affected by the intervention of Dikus (outsiders within India like the traders and money landers and the British).To create interest and develop a better understanding of the lesson the children of the class along with the me unanimously decided to take in up in a different manner. The whole class was divided into different groups.
1. Group 1 had to present a role play on the life of Birsa Munda the tribal chief who inspired his people to rebel against the dikus. They presented the role play in three parts part one consisted of their original way of life part two consisted how their life got affected by the intervention of the outsiders and part three consisted of the rebellion.
2. Group 2 created tribal jewellery using leaves, stones, beads, papermache, straws etc.
3. Group 3 created tribal craft including the kind of weapons they used.
4. Group 4 made paintings and sketching of tribal life
5. Group 5 created a collage of tribal life using photographs from old magazines and with the help of internet they printed black and white pictures.
They prepared everything within a week and did their class presentations on the decided date and day. There on we together decided that for all lessons we will find some ways other than just reading and explaining so for the next lesson one of the students took the lead to decide how they are going to do the next lesson. The class through the democratic system of voting decided on each aspect like what method to follow, who will be the leader etc the next day they presented through a PPT for this they downloaded the PDF of the text book from the NCERT website and each one explained his or her part the other group than cross questioned each other. This is how it is going presently. Our next plan is to visit some historical places of Indore and find more about them. I’m really enjoying doing all this. I’M LEARNING ALONG WITH MY CHILDREN.
By:
Monica Jaiswal
Head Mistress IWS Indore
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