Become mentors: Expert’s tip to teachers

Ambala, September 13

Over 60 educators, school principals and directors from Ambala, Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra attended a seminar, ‘Innovative pedagogy and effective teaching learning’, organised by The Tribune Group of Newspapers, in collaboration with Chitkara University, here today.

While interacting with the educators, Swati Basotra, founder Ttalkeasy_takeasy and former consultant (training and placement), IIT Jammu, who was the resource person for the event, said schools should be like labs. “Create something and focus on social-emotional curriculum instead of just teaching what the world knows. Students should discover new things, she said, while asking the educators to make students work for society, make them problem solvers and researchers.

She said, “We as a stakeholder have the responsibility to make teachers and students of the 21st century. Small steps can bring big change. We need to shift from teacher-centered classrooms to student-centered classrooms.”

Talking about the New Education Policy, the public speaker said, “The NEP talks about 21st century skills and it is all about how we manage ourselves. The economy needs these kids, there are no jobs in the market and if our students are not in demand then what is the point of teaching. We have to give the students a skill that provides them a life, happiness and job. We have to make our students job givers and not job seekers.”

Discussing the role of teachers, she said, “Shifting and updating with the time is very important. Nowadays, we don’t require the kind of teachers we used to have. We need mentors who can develop an emotional connect with students. Along with teaching, caring is very important. We have to ensure that the attention is not just on the top five students, but it is on the entire class. At the same time, teachers are also looking for mentorship in principals and directors. They should get the importance in the institution.”

On technology, Swati said, “Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to replace a lot of things in education, but it wouldn’t be able to replace emotion, respect, ethics, discipline and creativity. A teacher can sense the emotion of a child, but the AI wouldn’t be able to do it.”

She highlighted the importance of understanding the change in pedagogy and classroom teaching before making the transition for an outcome-based impact. She said, “The transition is very important and it should be done gradually. People don’t accept fast transitions. Every school should have its own projects, see the success, learn from it and involve more people before taking the further step.”

The motivational speaker called upon the educators to connect, collaborate and create new things if they wanted to bring change, and update themselves.

EDUCATORS’ SPEAK

}Most of the times, we, as principals, are engrossed in our schools. Such platforms provide us a way to interact with our peers, listen to experts, reinvent and rediscover ourselves and work for the betterment of the students, and ultimately, the society. — Neelam Sharma, Principal, OPS Vidya Mandir, Ambala City

The session was quite informative. These types of programmes ignite the minds. Such events should be organised regularly for teachers and staff. If we want to do something for our students, we need to upgrade ourselves. — Monika Sharma, Principal, Mukund Public School, Model Town, Yamunanagar

The topic of the seminar is very relevant. The speaker has very well expounded what is needed to be done. If we implement connection, collaboration and care in our pedagogy, we can certainly help our students a lot. — Seema Kataria, Principal, Mukund Lal Public School, Yamunanagar

The things have changed and we have to follow them. I hope the examples quoted by the speaker will be helpful for principals. We are thankful to The Tribune for giving us an opportunity to recollect things and meet people of our fraternity. — Ruchi Sharma, Principal, Lord Mahavir Jain Public School, Ambala Cantonment

The experience today was great and we thank The Tribune for giving us the opportunity here. We have learnt many things like what we need to do in the classes and in the school. We would like to attend more such events in future. — Dr Chitra Anand, Principal, SR Dayanand Public School, Ambala City

The session was enlightening for all of us. The speaker taught certain things which we were not aware of. We will be inculcating all those things in our teaching learning methodology. Our students will benefit through the seminar as the takeaways are huge. — Nishtha Dua, Coordinator, MM International School, Sadopur, Ambala

It was a very good experience. The event was very good for teachers and principals. We have learnt a lot. We will be implementing the new things taught by the expert. We look forward to attending more such events. — Shalini Kapoor, Principal Springdale Public School, Ismailabad

We had a good discussion on the 21st century education. All the schools will be making changes according to the changing technology, make students aware of it and impart education as per their interests. We will successfully implement the new education policy in our schools. — RP Rathi, Principal, DAV Public School, Naraingarh

The resource person taught us how we can make the classrooms interesting and make children learn through games and activities. We are talking about 21st century and education is very challenging. We have to update ourselves and adopt new policies. — Anup Kumar Chopra, DAV Police Public School, Yamunanagar