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.
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