Penning the Chaos- Teacher

Penning the Chaos in the mind of a Teacher

I have been in the field of education for almost a decade now and have interacted with thousands of students and hundreds of teachers across the country by virtue of many interactive programs that our organization has launched since its inception. Even today whenever, I interact with students or teachers, only one thought comes into my mind, that is, how do I ensure my class/ training program is effective and I am able to drive in my point across every person who attends my session.

The desperation of getting one's point across in the limited time one gets as a teacher or trainer is quite likely, because for us " Its race against time". This is challenge number one.
The second challenge is how do we get our point across to the audience, without getting stereotyped by them. After all its human nature, we all want to be flattered and don't want to falter in front of those whom we want should flatter us.

There are also two levels where 'a tug of war' that's happening simultaneously in the classroom, which the teacher is well aware of: 

First, the 'tug of war' that begins within our own self which is focuses between ' how to get our audience's undivided attention to the content which is being taught and how to achieve the learning outcomes in the given period of time'. 

The second level where the tug of war begins is in the mind of the audience, who is wondering why are we here and why are we listening to them, what's there for us to apply in our everyday life? How does this lecture benefit us? Should we just keep quite or should we voice our thoughts? 

Teacher being aware of these challenges, at times gets lost in her thoughts and ends up digressing from her real objective of achieving her designated learning outcomes. The tough task of maintaining a balance between the needs of the listener and actions which the teacher needs to take is where we as teachers get tired  and end up  losing this 'tug -of- war', where unfortunately both listener and teacher are losers.
 All these years one mantra  seems to have worked for me, though I may not have emerged as a polite or a happy go lucky trainer but I know, my teachers did benefit from these programs over the long run, that mantra is all about looking inwards.

The process behind this, is long and enduring, and will be possible only when we are ready to look back into the mind of child, which is our own childhood.

Ever wondered why the Hare lost the race?

We all have read the story of "The Hare and the Tortoise"... Its one of my favorite stories till date. In fact as I am growing old, I keep analyzing it further and it gives me inner strength of continuing my journey at a steady pace.Of late a question has been bothering me, and my inquisitive mind has been asking me, 'Why do you think the Hare went off to sleep even though he was about to win the race. What were those thoughts running in his head, which made him halt? How could he have not continued running?'

I mean how can you just stop a couple of meters or minutes before the finishing line and not bother to finish the race...

I know we have been taught that slow and steady makes you win the race... Why cant it apply to fast and being steady... Tortoise was steady that is why he won, but what is it that compelled the Hare not to be steady? 
Over confidence, pride, his ability to run fast in comparison to the tortoise, but again my question to you is what stopped him from being steady too... Pride is important in life as it gives you confidence to tackle all kinds of challenges that one faces in life, so is comparison because it helps or maybe at time compels you move forward in life. Over confidence is definitely a vice but then why do we end up being so...

That's what I have been trying to figure out for quite sometime... Over confidence probably makes us take a back seat, thus letting laxity seep in our behavior towards doing our task & letting this attitude set in that 'Ah I can do it in no time, so why bother to finish it right away, I will do it when I feel like'. But again the same question  pops over "Why am I letting this happen to myself? Why cant I be steady? Continue with the process till I reach the end."
The only answer that I can figure out is, I am hell bent on looking at reaching the results. From the day a human being is born he is only being taught only to reach the end and be a winner.

As a child we are told to study to get marks in the exams rather than learn to enjoy the process of learning. 

As a parent have you ever wondered, even if your child scores 100 percent, he will still not become the master of that subject ever. Its not that he does not know what has been asked in that paper, but its possible, if the questions came from another chapter in that subject where your child did not have a mastery then, what would you have done.
Education is not about getting A+ in your exams or getting into some prestigious institutes after school. Its all about enjoying the experiences you gather during the journey.

 Remember the race of life, has no end, there are no winners, because we are not competing with anyone but just our selves, our own insecurities, our thoughts , our desires is what we are running from or competing with.

There is no end to these thoughts and desires, and if we don't learn to enjoy the journey then there is possibility that while waiting to see how I have fared  in my race, I might get tired and fall asleep just like the Hare did in the race and end up losing completely and get into depression even though we were the best among our peer group.

As we grow up, we get so influenced by the speed at which the world takes on us and the growing wants and desires that we forget to enjoy the journey we ought to take to reach to these results.

In a nut shell, we forget to soak in the experiences the journey/ race of life offers us.

We need to learn the biggest virtue of life is being steady so that you can learn to enjoy the journey of life, rather than burn yourself out just before finishing line. 

A tribute to Mrs Kapoor my Hindi teacher

The other day I was meeting a good teacher friend of mine, after almost a year to discuss a few points on our new venture eShikshaChaupal a free online community for teachers which got launched in June this year. During discussion we just digressed a bit and she started off with the same old cliched statement,"Today's students are different! They don't know how to behave in school. They are rude and disrespectful. Worst is they love to give back answers to whatever you say to them." Well that's where I interrupted her and said, "This is the story of every generation, what's new in this."


I remember, in my middle school I had these three teachers who were nearing their retirement but left a deep impact on my formative years. Well! They were different not for what they taught but what left a mark on me was how they taught in the class.Their was something different about their teaching styles... I would love to describe it like the fragrance of Musk deer, which with time going by is having more stronger impact on my thinking. Somewhere they subtly ingrained the values of how to lead a positive life with their teaching styles.

Today when I reflect on what was different about them, I realize that they just followed one principle- they did not accuse us of being impatient and aggressive or being snobbish, but they beautifully took the onus on themselves bcoz we were learning from them. They believed that they were under students constant vigil and so they had to behave themselves... They truly believed that 'values can't be taught but had to be caught'... Their objective was to create an environment where we as students could catch them...

One such incident which I remember was, getting my half yearly Hindi paper in class 8. My father had got posted to Delhi in mid session and was adamant that we two sisters went to particular convent school only. So he made us sit at home for more than a month before the Principal of that school allowed us to take admission test. Like all families there's a black sheep & in our family its me. My younger sister scores were brilliant ,so Principal was super happy to have her in, well for everyone the cause of worry was me... even the Principal was a little skeptical in taking me in, but as luck would have it, I did exceptionally well in Maths (well much beyond my own expectations, I would be honest about that, I suppose that was the last time ever I did so well in any Maths paper thereafter). Probably those numbers in Maths blinded the Principal with umpteen happiness as if she had found a Kohinoor heera and she completely ignored the super low marks in the language papers. She just said with a smile,"I suppose languages can be worked upon in the coming years thus I will admit both the girls in the school."

One month after admission, came the half yearly exams. I did well in all subjects, well thats what I thought!
Then came Hindi paper results, every one was scared bcoz we were told only few kids had passed in Hindi.  I was confident that I had failed, and went slowly over with a grim face to take my Hindi Paper from Mrs Kapoor, while handing over my paper, she slowly uttered, "Thank God, you have at least made some progress in one month, there is some hope from you that you will improve in future. Well you have got one more marks than the last month- 27/100. Next time I hope you will cross the 40 mark". That walk from her desk to my chair was one of the longest moments in my life... It was a weird feeling.. I was feeling sad, bcoz I had flunked in Hindi again within a month, but then I was feeling hopeful because she had motivated me to work towards improving the future. It was definitely an uphill task for me but with her constant guidance in the classroom she made sure I was able to imbibe the beautiful value of not getting disheartened from my failures but pick up the loose ends of life and move on to reach the goal in the mind...
Well that's the objective of the teacher, to make the students learn these values of life through academics. If a teacher is able to do that, then student will not rebel but will respect all his life.

Wishing you all a very happy teachers day! :)

Decoding Entrepreneurship

A lot has been written on what is entrepreneurship? How do you become a successful entrepreneur and various success mantras on it..

Every one has his or her side of the story to write or tell on what it takes to be an entrepreneur... So do I! It might be reinventing the wheel but well there is one thing which I have realized that has made me stay put in my journey of an entrepreneur... I have believed in one statement "Do your work, don't worry about the results" as stated in Bhagwad Gita. That's the fact of life... If one makes this statement as his/ her foundation of life, it becomes quite easy to overcome every challenge that comes our way...
Well what this statement really means, is enjoy the process/ steps/ journey... results or your destination will be reached depending on the steps one took during the journey. Entrepreneurship is also the same.
When one decides to become an entrepreneur one needs to have a few things clear in his/her mind in the following order-

Question1. Why am I taking this journey?
 Be really honest with yourself. This is your journey nobody else's. Challenges and problems coming in your own path have been created for you and only you can solve them... No one will be able to give you the right answers. You need to be super clear in your head if you are ready to face these questions all by yourself. After all everyone will be there to tell you, either sugar coated or as a bitter statement, " It  was your decision, now face it... we cant do much about it, because we have not gone on that forbidden path..." So remember its not for weak hearts and dishonest people. (dishonesty with oneself)

Question 2. If you have the answer to the above question then its time to probe further- What am I gonna do? What is it that will keep me hooked on even when things are not working for me... Trust me it might take years before you really get cracking.... So be very clear and again do that heart to heart talk with yourself what is that you really love or are passionate and are willing to fight for  against all odds to get it right.  Trust me entrepreneurship is not about money... If you think you will make more money by becoming an entrepreneur, then my dear don't take this path.
Entrepreneurship is about freedom to do what you think is right! Its freedom from the mundane life! Its freedom from taking orders! Its all about creating new paths which world is yet to see.

Question 3. Last question to answer- How do you plan to take this journey?
You have a job! People are dependent on you, how will you sustain yourself and others? This is the toughest question to answer... But trust me if you have answered the above two questions honestly, you will manage your way out.
When you begin the journey of being a true entrepreneur you will be required to continuously ask yourself these questions as challenges will keep cropping every day in some way or the other... its these questions  and their honest answers which will help you move forward in your journey, it might be slow or fast, but you will move forward. You have to constantly keep asking these questions in the same order for any kind of challenge you come across in this beautiful journey to help you reach your destination.If you are asking why, then answer to that is also simple, you are the only one who knows the destination, everyone else are just following you... so they are dependent you and are ready to follow the path you are going to take... After all entrepreneurs are the real innovators and find a way for the rest of the world.

Why I feel smart classes are not that smart?

Smart classes are a norm now and there is nothing left to boast about them either. They came in the early years of the last decade and are still making inroads into the 1.5 million schools operating in India.

I am glad, I was out of school by then when they struck, as I am not in favor of them invading the blackboards.  Reason being simple.

Why are they called smart classes in the first place- just because they are run on computer and have every content on digital media... So how does it make them smart.. Aren't they the new version  of idiot box , this time installed in classroom.

They completely kill the objective of teaching the kid... b'coz its one side interaction... earlier it as just the teacher yapping away all the information she had, now its the so called smart board that does the yapping of the content.... 
They are worse than the teachers b'coz here the content which is playing does your part of thinking too by placing the questions and then giving the answers... 

1. If the video which is playing for three to five mins explains the concept then why does the teacher need 40 mins for the class...
2.   Secondly, if video ends up asking all the questions which the teacher is supposed to ask during that 40 mins class then why is she needed in the class itself...
3. Lastly, the answers which are to be given by the students to the questions that are asked by the teacher or in the video, have to be given by the video or the content in the smart class then,

 I think then we can completely abolish schools and just keep the exams for the children to come and clear the various levels of learning... 

 I think then we can completely abolish schools and just keep the exams for the children to come and clear the various levels of learning...(well that too can happen.. and I suppose will eventually happen, with the augment of technology in every sphere of our lives, will write about this idea in another blog ) but until it happens, we need to find a way where we can use smart classes and teachers in a symbiotic role... smart classes should not make us dumb but help the student understand the concept with the visual aid available to them.

• A smart content should provoke questions in the mind of the student and not blurt out information directly. 
• It should be an aid to the teacher and not make the teacher student classroom interaction redundant. 

If we do not resolve the problem highlighted then I suppose our goal of developing Higher Order Thinking Skills or following any modern pedagogic method which talks about developing HOTS will fail miserably in achieving its goal.

Education is Not Instant & Ready to Eat Meals!

 A couple of weeks back, I was conducting a training session on  why life skills need to be integrated with lesson planning in front of some 1100 plus teachers for a prestigious chain of school. At the beginning of every training or workshop whether its teachers or students, I keep thinking of innovative ways of engaging my audience and keeping the monotony at bay that generally sets in after first 10 minutes of commencing of the class.

What bothered me was how to engage such a huge audience all the time and help them relate the content of the workshop with their working style. So my little brain suggested that ‘Do not follow the pattern you have predefined’. Best thing is to let the audience give the information they know and slowly weave the same into the content of the workshop. The reason for this is - Thinking is driven by Questioning and when you are thinking your mind is alert & you don’t doze off! So it works well no matter how large the audience is!

During the first 15 minutes, I must have asked them multiple questions and got amazing responses, and we were sailing smoothly into the workshop, when one teacher asked me, “All that you said about life skills is good, but how are we going to integrate it with everyday curriculum?” So it was time to do some impromptu thinking because this question was supposed to come somewhere in the middle of the session and not right in the beginning. So I decided to conduct a simple 10 mins class for them- The question given to them at the beginning of this class was – Why do you think Junk food is bad? We got amazing answers- all facts on calories, fats, proteins and how the calorie count goes up when you have junk food etc etc. Pop came my next question, “If we have eaten 600 calories through the junk food which is actually what a Mc Donald’s happy meal contain, then why do we still feel hungry after an hour so of eating that food?” That’s when there was complete silence.  At the end of the hall a teacher got up and said, “Ma’am why don’t you tell us the answer?  Why are you making us think so much?” Obviously, the Life Skill bug in me smiled again and said, “Well! That’s the exact objective of this workshop Sir. To make you all think”.

The whole point of teaching is to make the students learn to think in a logical manner. Get them to using the information available in abundance to apply & find the answers to their problems and way forward also learn to analyze the same.

As a teacher you should be able to sense when your students start to lose attention, and not become immune to it and tell yourself, “Oh! This generation of students just don’t have the desire to learn. They are useless bunch of students who are ready to do all kinds of antics but are not ready to pay attention.” I suppose, then its time ask yourself a simple question- when was the last time you got bored when someone was speaking or lecturing you, and WHY did you get bored. Probably you might just stumble upon learning core life skill- empathy.

The whole objective of education is to help the children and even we adults learn to ask right set of questions at the appropriate time so that we can solve our problems or take the right decision. It’s not about giving information; it’s about explaining them the process of using that information to make a change in their attitudes and behavior.

Now if you are still wondering what happened to the answer to why do we still feel hungry after eating junk food and have not yet worn your thinking caps, then I will just give you another hint before signing off: What is that most important thing which we need to eat in our food other than carbohydrates, fats, proteins and essential minerals and vitamins. If you have got the answer and still wondering how, then there is another question which you need to ask- what is the property of cotton when it get soaked in liquid... In case you still did not get it then, just think why the example of cotton was given in the last question.

Importance of Healthy Eating Needs to Be Imbibed At School Level- But Is It Really Happening

It was my first Boss’s bday, this time I was in no mood to send her FB greetings, but decided to call her after all  it had been 11 long years, since we last met or spoke. 

No guesses on that, Obviously she was surprised and was super happy that we were talking. 

She is now CEO for a health based organization that deals with preventive heart care methodologies. Ah! Yes my first job was with a health care based organization and I used to meet the top cardiac anesthetist of India in various hospitals. And now I am in a different field all together- education and working with teachers and principal all across the country. To be honest, I am not qualified or certified or have any kind of degrees for any of these fields. I am hard core management graduate, so probably I do know how to manage these fields which were not even my core subjects of the degrees I attained in any way...

Well the discussion we were having was how her organization has devised a protocol to prevent heart attacks and how they were working closely with corporate as well as rural India to make them aware of these problems. My ex boss who is also a certified nutritionist now, and I were just exchanging notes how I have been able to lose over 14 plus kgs of weight in just 4 months time, with a slight change in my dietary patterns... That’s when it struck me if only we could decide to bring this awareness about importance of right eating at school level too. That’s also one of the objectives of education- to be able to perceive or anticipate how a certain action can create problems or solve one; in this case the focus being our health- after all we learn in school only ‘health is wealth’! The point we need to get across to children is WHY?

Last year during one of the Dastak workshops at one of the school, the teachers got us a small plate of aloo chat for me and my colleague. They told us excitedly, “We have hobby classes and one of them is fire-less cooking, children made this today in their class.” That’s when the Questioning Bug in me popped out aloud, “So what is the objective of teaching them in this cooking class.” She replied, “Oh ma’am! Children learn a new skill; you see we are integrating core life skills here! Learning to cook is a very important skill needed to live a good life. So it’s a very important life skill. Our School really works on imbibing life skills. That’s why you see, we are participating in Dastak.” The confidence and conviction, with which this was being said, made me re think if I have really understood the meaning of core life skills till now or not. The persistent and resistant questioner in me popped out again, “Glad to see you all are incorporating life skills in schools, but I was just thinking how do you connect it with your curriculum, because life skills have to be integrated with syllabus also, otherwise its of no use to the students! They need to learn to develop the connecting conduits between these skills and the information, how will they learn higher order thinking skills.” As usual there was an eerie silence in the room as if they had seen something they did not want to come out from the closed doors of their minds. The sparkle along with the beaming confidence in their eyes suddenly turned to a big blank question which they have all been struggling to find since ages.

Somewhere, I felt guilty for this expression on their faces, but on the other side, I felt quite happy, playing  the devil’s advocate had actually set them thinking in the right direction. Though I knew what the answer was, but my objective was to make them realize and face the challenge rather than brush it under the carpet like they have been doing for years.

 I continued with my suggestion, “ Madam, will it not be great if in these cooking classes the teacher in charge also told them why & how the ingredients involved in the recipe were important to making their body healthy. If information from the science books was also included in real cooking I suppose we would be more conscious about our eating and cooking habits as we grow older.” Well this is just one more example of how you evoke self awareness, one of the ten core life skills among students as well as oneself.” Obviously, the answer from them was- we never ever thought that ways.

Well! I think then it's time we start thinking like that if we really want a Strong & Healthy India.