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'Career in Engineering' - Seminar by Shivku. Jam Packed Auditorium at Indus Word School Indore

“Do not pressurize your child for IIT. Clearing IIT is only possible if the child is himself willing for it. Pressuring the child for IIT without his interest will not reap any benefits” said Mr. Shiva Kumar Director Indus World School in a seminar held here on Saturday 7^th Jan 2012. Shivku as he is popularly known as, is himself an alumnus of IIT Chennai and IIM Calcutta.

Addressing parents here on Saturday Shivku shared that a change in procedure of entrance in IIT is inevitable in near future. If this happens than for entrance in IIT, the marks of 12^th will also be considered with the joint entrance score.

What does it take to get into an IIT? What is the right age to start the preparation? How can we combine the child’s regular school and IIT preparation? These were some of the queries that were dealt by Shivku for the students and parents of students of cases VII^th  to X^th   

Mr. Shiva Kumar felt that parents of students who are naturally inclined to Sciences and Math and have made up their mind on Engineering should definitely think of giving their wards the early start at class IX itself. For the rest it is worth waiting maybe till class XI. He also mentioned that there is no need for 6 hours a day schedule for 4 years to crack IIT JEE. A good grounding in concepts at the school is sufficient to enable this. So a well designed curriculum with able support from the teachers in class VIII and Class IX will ensure that there is no undue pressure on understanding concepts when the student comes to class XI.

मंथन

अमृत कहाँ होता ,

गर मंथन न होता सागर का .

[शायद आज व्यक्ति भागमभाग में , धन और मन के बहाव में अपने मूल उद्देश्यों को भूल गया है ]

इसलिए

हो सके ,तो करें मंथन मन का ,

करें मंथन विचारों का .

हो सके,तो करें मंथन दौड़ते क़दमों का ,

करें मंथन अपने व्यवहारों का ...

[आज हम विदेशी शैली को ज्यादा ही गले लगाते जा रहे हैं ]

इसलिए

हो सके, तो करें मंथन संस्कारों का

करें मंथन होते अपने व्यवहारों का

हो सके ,तो करें मंथन आदान-प्रदानों का

करें मंथन आपसी संबंधों का ...

[शायद हम आगे तभी बढ़ते हैं जब बुराइयों का विचार करते हैं ]

उजालों की सफलता नहीं होती,

गर मंथन न होता अंधियारों का ...

आजादी भी नहीं होती

गर मंथन न होता गुलामी का ....

[आज हम सब जिस इक नाम का गुणगान करते हैं ]

उद्गम न होता इंडस शैली का

गर मंथन न होता

सदियों पुरानी शिक्षा शैली का.

(यह कविता इंडस वर्ल्ड स्कूल इंदौर में आयोजित human lab.कार्यक्रम में दिए गए विषय के सन्दर्भ में लिखी गयी.यह एक आशु काव्य है जिसके रचयिता श्री गजेन्द्र पंवार हैं जो विद्यालय में गणित विषय के शिक्षक हैं.)

Vedic Maths workshop evokes good response at IWS Aurangabad

The Workshop on Vedic Maths organized by Indus World School, Aurangabad on 23rd December 2011.Workshop received a good response from children and their parents.

Expert Rajeshwari Sharma gave a practical demonstration on how to solve the hardest sums through Vedic Maths system as school children and their parents watched with rapt attention. Earlier, Indus World School director Prof.Aditya Lohana, Headmistress Namita Parthasarthy and Rajeshwari Sharma lighted the traditional lamp to inaugurate the workshop.Lokmat Media Ltd welcomed the guests.

In his introductory speech, Prof. Aditya Lohana briefed the audience on the Vedic Maths.He said Rajeshwari Sharma learnt this system through self-study and has a unique way of explaining it. She has dedicated her entire life to propagate this system, Prof. Lohana added.

Rajeshwari Sharma explained the audience how to solve difficult sums by dividing the numbers. She also answered various queries of parents and students during a question answer session.

Indus Olympics-Bhiwani

It has not been too long that IWS Bhiwani has come into existence. So this was the first year for our children to get a clear idea of sports day. Olympics were held at Bheem Stadium. The students was divided into four houses. Indus Olympics took off with March Past, which was carried out house wise. The March Past was followed by CL Anthem - and then started the series of events.

        The Semifinals for various events were held on 22^nd Dec .The finals for all the events took place on 23rd Dec. Even parents, Grand Parents and staff events took place on the final day. Students were divided into groups including Pre primary and primary wing. All the Students were awarded participation certificate. Winners were awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals for their achievements. Differentset of  parents honoured the students with medals.

Kids felt on top of the world with the new experiences of Indus Olympics.

‘Learning along- Journeying along’

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