Teacher is only a facilitator- Thoughts on Education

When we think about an education system, Students come into the picture and then comes Teachers. Unfortunately, we do not acknowledge the other pivotal factors in system. 

Teacher is not the only key persons who imparts knowledge to the students at school.

There's syllabus, pedagogy practices defined, policies and administration who creates the platform for the teacher to teach in the classroom.

Teacher can only facilitate in a manner so that student learns in various ways. To make it possible, we need to bring changes at various levels. 

Lakshmi Vilas Palace- Travel Diaries

For the first time, I visited a heritage site with the audio guide. The audio guide idea is an amazing idea. Loved the back ground score, narration and most of all, the reliving experience of  the whole past. I was spell bounded by the architecture and the sculptures. Audio guide mentioned the sculptor Fellici. Unable to find more info on him. 

The openings seemed to be a mix of Mughal architecute. I learnt that the architecture is called Indo Saracenic architecture, also called as Neo-Mughal architecture. British picked up the Indian aesthetics and constructed with the mix of their own architecture.

Of all, I loved the mosaic work. With mosaics, they created exceptional pieces. One by one, nothing seemed full and in full everything is a marvel piece. 

Early Language learning.

Soon after I walked out of induction after a heavy reading of Hindi paper. I reasoned myself that Hindi on paper is tough but, not when you speak.  I told myself that maybe people use colloquial language. Just like the suggestion in the paper mentioned. Contextual learning.  Learning through colloquial languages and interpreting from those words.

Right after Induction, I attended the Basic Numeracy, Literacy Workshop. Before I gather all the curiosity, enthusiasm, I was dismayed by the way the session was held.  Everyone is into the session right from the start of sharing their ideas, doubts. I gave my full attention and understood few things contextually just like how Mahender Ji in the session was mentioning. " Through contextual learning, children learn the language." Yes, Indeed I'm learning and understanding Hindi through context language.

4-hour session ended I'm quite dumbfounded to be able to understand a few words and be clueless about a lot of things. I tried asking for the translations who sat beside me. Once, twice, they bore me.  At a point, I couldn't disturb them beyond a point.

Maksad. Never heard in the lifetime and I was told, it means Objective. The objective of learning a language.

I knew my objective of being there and tried hard to understand a few things.

Comes the next day, where Maksad has been stated right at the beginning of the session and it was all about Maukik. Another new word which I heard for the first time. After inquiry, I got to know, it's oral learning.

And I'm there learning the language orally. The basic literacy session was more than the Maukik and also seemed to be a lot of objectives covered.  I learned a few other words and tried discussing with people during breaks on what was being told.

The worksheets helped me a bit but, nevertheless, it was Maukik learning that I had a good time understanding the language a bit.

I'm here to teach the basics of the language English, while I'm struggling to learn Hindi. It seems a great advantage to be the learner and also the teacher.

Learning the language with all the difficulties. I'm acknowledging and reflecting all the difficulties I'm facing and trying to relate to how kids would go through the same phase.

I've backed out many times when  I couldn't understand at all. And I can also assume when kids would back out.

It's interesting to be the learner at first and understand all the issues. It's gonna be interesting to teach the kids trying to acknowledge all the problems that may be faced by children.

Stories from Sirohi- Hush! It's Hindi.

Soon after I walked out of induction after a heavy reading of Hindi paper. I reasoned myself that Hindi on paper is tough but, not when you speak.  I told myself maybe people use colloquial language. Just like the suggestion in the Hindi paper mentioned. Contextual learning.  Learning through colloquial languages and interpreting from those words. It can help. 

 

Soon after Induction, I attended the Basic Numeracy, Literacy Workshop. Before I gather all the curiosity, enthusiasm, I was dismayed by the way the session was held.  Everyone is into the session sharing their ideas, doubts. The problem is not the participation but, the language. It's all Hindi. I gave my full attention and understood a few things contextually just like how Mahender Ji in the session was mentioning. " Through contextual learning, children learn the language." Yes, Indeed I'm learning and understanding Hindi through context language.

 

4 hour session got ended I'm dumbfounded to be able to understand a few words and be clueless about a lot of things. I tried asking for the translations who sat beside me. Once, twice, they bore me.  At a point, I couldn't disturb them beyond a point.

 

Maksad. Never heard in the lifetime and I was told, it means Objective. Objective of learning a language.

I knew my objective of being there and tried hard to understand a few things.

 

Comes the next day, where Maksad has been stated right at the beginning of the session and it was all about Maukik. Another new word which I heard for the first time. After inquiry, I got to know, it's oral learning.

 

And I'm there learning the language orally. The basic literacy session was more than the Maukik and also seemed to be a lot of objectives covered.  I learned a few other words and tried discussing with people during breaks on what was being told.

 

The worksheets helped me a bit but, nevertheless, it was Maukik learning that I had good time understanding the language  a bit.

 

I'm here to teach the basics of the English language, while I'm struggling to learn Hindi. It seems a great advantage to be the learner and also the teacher.

 

Learning the language with all the difficulties. I'm acknowledging and reflecting on all the difficulties I'm facing and trying to relate to how kids would go through the same phase.

 

I've backed out many times when I couldn't understand at all. And I can assume when kids would back out.

 

It's interesting to be the learner at first and understand all the issues. It's gonna be interesting to teach the kids trying to acknowledge all the problems that may be faced by children.

 

 and yet, a doubt flashes. I am not a child and children can't be adults. Is it right to compare and assume that I understood the children's problem? Only the time and experiences can answer my questions. 

 

Film for the archives

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/electrical-engineers-sravani-and-srikar-discuss-their-documentary-pv-narasimha-rao-change-with-continuity/article26910770.ece?utm_campaign=article_share&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=whatsapp.com



Interview of Sravani & Srikar on the release of Documentary on PV Narasimha Rao

Good Reads

https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/the-wilderness-library

Days at ECC

Sustainable Living.

My week stay at ECC reminded of my childhood times. ECC is a serene place with a lot of trees and a beautiful space to enjoy solitude.

I enjoyed my morning walks at this place. Birds chirping were the nature alarm to get out of my bed. I enjoyed my morning walks around this place.

Shefali, Dyu, and Falguni were the only people whom I ran into during morning walks.

Further walk, I used to go to the tree house to meditate for a while. With a lake view and morning breeze, it was rejuvenating to spend time in silence here.

Be it a day, a night, I didn't miss to swing on this cradle.

Hitichhiking at Gujarat- Stories on Wheels

In Gujarat, every time, I asked for the direction, people offered me a ride. Quite amusing to receive a lot of rides without asking for one.

Enroute Patan

On my way to Patan, many people helped me to reach the place, "Rani ki Vav."

Further my visit to the step well and Patola Weave House, I asked a person for the directions to Bus station. He offered me a ride and enquired about my destination. 

"Ahmedabad Jaana Hai." 

"You better take the train, you'll reach fast. You can catch up on the train at 2pm." And he offered me a ride till station.  Because of the person, plans were changed, I headed to Railway Station. 

I also had a chance to try out Biryani at Patan. 

Patan Railway Station. 

Stories on Wheels - Sev Utsal

Walked over the Mandvi Gate and upon conversations with local people, heard about this Lal Bhai's Sev Utsal. Walked a lot to discover this small cart and enjoyed this snack.

Sunday Haul- Rajesh ka Kithabh Ghar

I found this book store at Baroda, "Rajesh Ka Kithabh Ghar."  The owner, Rajesh, himself was in the place and helped me in getting a few books. After a conversation, I got to know about this book store a bit. It got started in 1973. Rajesh is an avid reader and has read a lot of books in Gujarati and Hindi. He handles the book chain around the railway station. This bookstore has various new books and also old books. I found a few interesting titles for a decent price. I got two titles of Raghuram Rajan, Spy Chronicles, "Becoming" by Michelle Obama.

"The Other Face of the Moon" by Asha Miro seemed an interesting book Another memoir I picked up is, "The Harlem Within" by Fatema Mernissi.

I found the memoir "Dream New Dreams," written by Randy Pausch's wife, Jai Pausch

Books at Baroda

My Language learning story

Soon after I walked out of induction after a heavy reading of Hindi paper. I reasoned myself that Hindi on paper is tough but, not when you speak.  I told myself may be people use colloquial language. Just like the suggestion in the paper mentioned. Contextual learning will help. I assumed that learning through colloquial languages and interpreting from those words would be easy. 

Right after Induction, I attended the Basic Numeracy, Literacy Workshop. Before I gather all the curiosity, enthusiasm, I was dismayed by the way the session was held.  Everyone was into the session right from the start sharing their ideas, doubts. I gave my full attention and understood few things contextually just like how Mahender Ji in the session was mentioning. "Through contextual learning, children learn the language." Yes, Indeed I'm learning and understanding Hindi through context language.

 

4 hour session ended I'm dumbfounded to be able to understand a few words and be clueless about a lot of things. I tried asking for the translations who sat beside me. Once, twice, they bore me.  At a point, I couldn't disturb them beyond a point.

 

Maksad. Never heard in the lifetime and I was told, it means Objective. Objective of learning a language.

I knew my objective of being there and tried hard to understand few things.

Long way to learn the language

 

Comes the next day, where Maksad has been stated right at the beginning of the session and it was all about Maukik. Another new word which I heard for the first time. After enquiry, I got to know, it's oral learning.

 

And I'm there learning the language orally. The basic literacy session was more than the Maukik and also seemed to be a lot of maksads are covered.  I learnt few other words and tried discussing with people during breaks on what was being told.

 

The worksheets helped me a bit but, nevertheless it was Maukik learning that I had good time understanding the language a bit.

 

I'm here to teach the basics of the language English, while I'm struggling to learn Hindi. It seems a great advantage to be the learner and also the teacher.

 

Learning the language with all the difficulties. I'm acknowledging and reflecting all the difficulties I'm facing and trying to relate how kids would go through the same phase.

 

I've backed out many a times when I couldn't understand at all. And I can also assume when kids would back out.

 

It's interesting to be the learner at first and understand all the issues. It's gonna be interesting to teach the kids trying to acknowledge all the problems that they may face in future.

Random meet

After long time met Akilesh. We couldn't meet up in Hyd but we met at Bangalore.  

L to R Azith, Akilesh, Abhinay, Akilesh's Friend

Bangalore is indeed a place to meet my friends often.

With Azith, it's the same story. He flew from Kerala, I flew from Ahmedabad. And over the lunch, we shared a lot of what's happening in our life.

Day in Pictures

Walks at the sight of the moon are always special. There was a time where there's nothing but moonlight. After years, I've experienced this. Somewhere or the other there will be light pollution. But, here, we had nothing but moonlight.

Values & actions.

Vision and values are big words in any organization which is hardly seen in the way people work as they seem intense but abstract or unexplainable to apply at work. Maybe the interpretation is always left to the employees without communicating much to them. 

It's important to have high values. And more necessarily, we need to have  values that be can be thoroughly put in action as well as easily communicated.

 

Conversations- Fillers

"Think before you speak," is not so much a wise word, It's a practical statement.

To think and articulate our thoughts is very important because it's upsetting to listen to people using a lot of fillers.

 

What I really think is, 

you know, 

that I think, 

it's this way. 

You know. 

So. 

Blah Blah Blah. 

I am distracted the moment, the speaker uses filler. Wait, how many fillers do I use in my articulation?  You know, it's time to observe myself. 

Understanding the class- Education

Got into 3rd class. And it's a ruckus. Handling the class is not that easy. Understanding children is the first task that needs to be done.  In the presence of the teacher, they're well composed. If a teacher walks away they're anything but silent. 

It's the first thing I observed, that students are upset and express their dissent by shutting the book away.

Few wants to walk out. Few wants to fight. Children are children. Can't expect them to be silent.  Few shared the opinion by strong questions, few by sheer silence. Interesting. 

Soliloquies- Time

Declassified the time into the morning, night, hours, minutes, seconds. In the flow of sunrise and sunset, I sit still, unattached to the time schedules and timetables. Doing 'nothing' as a thing that I ought to do is something I assume as a journey of achieving things in life. 

Quote of the hour

"At one moment, I had none of this, at the next I had all of it. If there's any one thing I love about writing more than the rest, it's that sudden flash of insight when you see how everything connects. I have heard it called, "Thinking above the curve."

                                                                        From the book, "On Writing" by Stephen King. 

Do not be the ultimate Truth

Listening is as important as speaking.

To listen out the opinions is important.  Value judging the opinions may cause a little imbalance in class. Do not value judge and give your nod to any opinion. It may create a notion in students to feel that they may be are wrong.

It's important you let everyone share their opinions. Teacher's judgment gives out the notion that there's right and wrong. While voicing out opinions, one doesn't need to know what's right and wrong. That may stunt their expressions in the class.

School Diaries - Difference between digit and number

It's important we don't kill the creativity and curiosity of children. Today, children were asking a lot of questions in math class. The students were learning digits and it's places.

3rd standard student asked, What's the difference between a number and a digit?

I had no clue and never gave it a thought. As student surprised me with the question, the teacher also surprised me saying, "I do not know. Will ask others and find out."

All my childhood, I 've never listened to such an answer. Never heard, "I don't know" from the teacher. They always signaled it that they'd refer and get back or totally skip.

For the first time, I've  seen a teacher saying, "I don't know."

And she indeed said later. "Digits are like alphabets and Numbers are like words."

It's important to say I don't know but it's bad to sit idle without knowing if you think you don't know things. 

Livelihood vs Lifestyle - Stories from Sirohi

Clock ticks 12 and I crave for something to eat, not because I'm hungry but because of the choices I have. Flicking through the phone, I've seen Zomato app 19 times and Swiggy 9 times.  Checks out the apps for no reason. Want to eat but need nothing. 

Shahgouse Mutton Biryani Double Masala is what I order when I'm hungry. Cream Stone Death by Chocolate is what I order when I want to eat. The cart goes beyond this when I have a cashback offer. Doesn't matter, If I'm hungry or not but I buy food which I can't finish.  One order costs 400 rupees which may seem an extravagance. That's okay. Got a card to pay and sulk later. 

Getting back to the present, I no more live an app life. I finish my dinner before 9. I tend to sleep by 11pm. Here I'm in a district where 8pm is the closing time for all the food. 

Comparing my lifestyle and livelihood, I'm glad I'm here in this foreign place without much anxiety to try out things or want to eat. 

8C's - Stories from Sirohi

We discussed how a school needs to be.  And Ken Robinson came to the rescue.

Ken Robinson in his book, "Creative Schools" shared the competencies that are the schools need to focus. These are the 8cs that are needed to create an environment for a good education. 

Curiosity: The ability to ask questions and explore how the world works

Creativity: The ability to generate new ideas and to apply them in practice

Criticism: The ability to analyze information and ideas and to form reasoned arguments and judgments

Communication: The ability to express thoughts and feelings clearly and confidently in a range of media and forms

Collaboration: The ability to work constructively with others

Compassion: The ability to empathize with other others and act accordingly

Composure: The ability to connect with the inner life of feeling and develop a sense of personal harmony and balance

Citizenship: The ability to engage constructively with society and to participate in the processes that sustain it

Four Miles to Freedom by Faith Johnston

Maniratnam referred to this book sharing about the movie Kaatru Veliyidai. Finally got a chance to read this.

Four miles to freedom written by Faith Johnson is an account of IAF officers escapes attempt after Indo-Pak war in 1971.
The war that gave out a new country, Bangladesh. 93000 PoW of Pakistan were detained in India. 700PoW IAF was detained in Pakistan.

It's interesting how both the county officers did their work. Dilip wished to escape and it was quite an adventurous stint. They were four miles away to freedom and one should read the book to know what happened next.  

Stories & Shayari

Ghar joh pura jal gaya,

Toh aur kya reh gaya,

Mein joh zinda reh gaya,

Toh phir kya jal gaya

Puri fursat thi desh ke liye kuch karne ka,

Pet jo puri bhar gayi, phir neend aa gayi

लोग हर मोड़ पे रुक-रुक के संभलते क्यों हैं

इतना डरते हैं तो फिर घर से निकलते क्यों हैं

Dyu shared these Shayaris he heard at Jodhpur Kavi Sammelan. Loved these Shayaris. Hope I'll make it next year to this place.  

Education- Stories from Sirohi

Education is more of human values, understanding the world and nature. Education is not merely math and science or any other subject. It's about how you understand others, how you listen to others. Everything matters and that’s what matters. 

Education over the ages seemed to be of two types. One is of human development through learning of values & knowledge.

And other is to examine and sort out people for higher education and for the occupation that helps highest achieving in all terms in the world. 

Right now, we're busy in sorting out the students for occupations that are created accordingly to current trends in the world. With the examination method, we've hardly focussing on human development through the teaching of values, knowledge. 

We should not jump into academics. Take time with the kids, build the rapo. Talk your terms, Tell your expectations, you listen to them. You understand them well and then begin the teaching rather than jumping into syllabus, tests and a lot more things which really don't help a child to be a better human being. 

Foundation of Love

Roads & Rajasthan- Stories from Sirohi

Rajasthan roads are awesome. Haven't travelled much but was told by people, " Rajasthan have better roads. Whenever the ride is bumpy and  improper, that's when you get to know Rajasthan roads ended."

Highways are the best. Have experienced it. 

The daily commute

In the middle of the road.

Meanwhile, I discovered a lane in the town having Borewell right in the middle of the road.

God Father- Book

God Father is a Don’s Carolene’s saga of the power and the influence. Vito hailing from Corleone gets escaped to the US by his mother as his father gets killed. He finds a way to live on his own terms. Once he lives on his terms, his friends follow him and become Caporegime. Many others reach him for his help and he becomes the new Don rising up to the power influencing the people in the system and the whole system. 

God Father is a gripping story with master storytelling. Mario Puzo wrote it in a simple style. And I can understand how hard it is to write in simple style. Kudos Mario Puzo. The classic for a reason.

I learnt a few words from this book. The omerta, Consiglieri, and a few other Italian words. There are a few of Don ’s words that etched on my mind.  These are the few, I loved.

“A man has his own destiny.”

“I’ll give him the offer that he can’t refuse.”

God Father

"Reasonable man. Wins over the reason."

The characters are well defined and the story has a gripping narration. This is the book that can't be put down once it's picked. It's gripping and quite a page-turner. 

Happy Birthday Shreya

You never know how you make friends. I met Shreya during my last year of college. And I'm grateful I met her. Recalling the years, It's been 3 years since I knew her. And Shreya is the person I relied on at all the time times seeking support in various situations. It's not about the support but her assuring presence that gives great confidence in life. 

I can't share my life of 2017 to 2019 without sharing about her since she was there at important things in my life. Time with Deccan Project is one personal rejuvenating experience I had. Time with them lifted my spirits focusing on things I love. 

And later, Shreya's venture, Roar was something that made us learn together a lot of new things. 

Thank you, Shreya for everything. Have a great day. Happy birthday. 

Quote of the hour

 “A time is coming when those, who are in the mad rush today of multiplying their wants, vainly thinking that they add to the real substance, real knowledge of the world, will retrace their steps and say: ‘What have we done?’”

-Gandhi

Memories- 3 Years to TEDxVNRVJIET

The Stage is Set

Vijay

Charishma

Samhita

Siva a.k.a SRK

Meghana

Meghana again trying out with a smile

Sruthi without 'H' in the name

Mallika

Add caption

Shreya Chilak

Amulya trying to avoid the camera

Sam

Shreya busy in making the X

Focussed Shreya

Art Director Samhita

Chief Captain  Meghana