SOME SUGGESTIVE ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE LEARNING OF THE CHILDREN

The State is conducting in-service teacher training under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan through SCERT, DIETs and District Project Offices. During last two years, the State has conducted series of in-service teacher trainings for 1536 teachers teaching in Classes I & II, 3468 teachers teaching Classes III to V and 372 teachers teaching mathematics and science in Classes VI to VIII on “Teaching through Activities”. The sole purpose of these trainings is to equip the teachers to teach the children through activities thereby making the classroom practices more activities based, collaborative and joyful. This is also expected that this new approach will ensure higher order leaning and instill the habits of thinking aloud among children.

However, the recent school visit reports of the District Collector, South, reveal that the trainings being provided to teachers are not getting its place inside the elementary classrooms. There may a range of reasons for ineffectiveness of these training inputs. One of the most significant reasons can be the lack of administrative instructions to different level monitoring officials i.e. school heads, Cluster Resource Coordinators, Block Resource Coordinators, Sub-Divisional and District level monitoring officials regarding effective implementation of training inputs at classroom level. Hence, an instruction to the heads of schools and officials of different levels to initiate different activities to stimulate the training impacts in the schools and innovate various activities to bridge the competency gaps of low performing students is need of the hour. The strategies should include the activities to support the better performing children as well for further improvements. Some of the suggestive activities for school heads, CRC/BRC Coordinators, Sub-Divisional and District level officials are given below:  

I.         Activities for School Heads

a)       To ask the teachers to share his/her training experiences through a presentation as soon as the teacher joins school after completing the training

b)        To ask all the teachers irrespective of their category to be present during the presentation

c)        To make arrangements to conduct a model class for the teacher to demonstrate the teaching skills acquired from the training

d)   To encourage all the teachers to apply new teaching skills in classroom practices propagated  by the training programme

e)     To observe classes and appreciate the new teaching strategies applied by the teachers and provide onsite support if required

f)    To inspire teachers to initiate innovative classroom practices and to appreciate/reinforce them as and when the need arises

g)    To encourage and provide support the teachers to use various resources available in the school and its vicinity like Reading Corners, Learner-friendly environment, school campus, locally available materials, etc. during the teaching learning process

h)   To instruct the teachers to identify the children who have been performing below the expected level and to provide additional support during teaching hours to meet up the learning gaps so that all children reach the desired grade appropriate competency level

i)        To encourage the subject teachers to share the students’ performances with their parents on a regular basis and to involve them in the teaching learning processes

j)      To initiate Guardian-Teacher system allocating a fix group of students to every working teacher and ask them to keep track of their learning and behavioural patterns for improving on their weak areas

k)        To take pictures/record videos of all the innovative activities and classroom practices being carried out by the schools/teachers and to share it during the SMC/PTA/MTA/Cluster/Block meetings

l)          To prepare documents on the good practices of the school/teachers and share it with the Cluster Resource Coordinators/ Block Resource Coordinators/ District Officials

m)    To identify the best performing teachers, give recognition to their contribution, at public gatherings and make it a base for the recommendation of these teachers for the teacher awards on Teachers Day.

II.      Activities for Cluster and Block Resource Coordinators, Sub-Divisional and District Level Officials

a)     To monitor and supervise the activities of the school heads on the effectiveness of in-service teacher training in schools

b)      To support and reinforce the school heads and the teachers to apply training inputs 

c)    To appreciate the schools and teachers on the materialization of the inputs acquired during the training

d)   To observe classroom teachings of the teachers whose students are falling behind and provide onsite support to the teachers for improvements

e)      To encourage the system of peer classroom observations among teachers wherein a teacher observes her/his peer’s classroom teaching and thereafter suggest teaching improvements 

f)     To provide a platform for pedagogically sound teachers to share her/his teaching experiences within the clusters/blocks

g)     To identify best performing  schools/teachers and document the processes, impacts and outcomes

h)       To motivate schools to identify the low performing students and organize special remedial classes

i)          To encourage the schools to establish close and continuous contact with parents

j)          To support schools to  organize parenting programmes at regular intervals

k)        To support the Guardian-Teacher system initiated by the school heads

l)          To prepare documents on the process of the good practices of schools/teachers, impacts on children’s learning and character building and its major outcomes.  

m)  To take pictures and video clips of various innovative practices initiated by the schools/teachers

n)  To strategize actions for sustainability and extension of the good practices in the neighbouring schools

o)        To share the good practices of schools and teachers at various platforms and higher offices including teacher educational institutions like DIETs and SCERT

p)      To identify the best performing teachers, recognize her/his contribution at public gatherings and make it a base for the recommendation of teachers for teacher awards. 

Thank You!