A Young Artist at Work

Ken Robinson in his TED talk on ‘School Kills creativity,’ which is the most watched talk on TED, argues that “Creativity is as important as literacy”. Importance of creativity was selected as one of the four 21^st Century Skills along with critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Thus incorporating creativity in classroom can be further used as powerful tool to hone skills like problem solving, critical thinking and decision making required to build children, as citizens of 21^st century. Unlike the traditional way of teaching when the teacher directs students to learn through memorization of concepts and children become mere recipient of information, creativity encourages students to think out of the box and express themselves. In classroom, project based learning plays a vital role to encourage learning by creating as it provides children an opportunity to think of themes, use different tools and materials, manage time, learn with each other and design a model.

Creativity is a valuable skill that cannot be taught but developed in conducive learning environment

Abhishek, a young boy learning at Raj Kumar’s Community Learning Centre dived his hands into what most children of his age could not even think of. Abhishek is a keen observer and fond of watching videos demonstrating car manufacturing. He has been observing a working JCB (Joseph Cyril Bamford) in his village for one month and this drived him to try his hands on designing a JCB model.

Abhishek spent three days with full dedication to gather tools like syringes, pipes and cardboard and completed his model. He managed to find these in and around his home all by himself. He used cardboard to make structure, pipe to connect and syringes to change the directions and facilitate working of JCB to lift thing.

 JCB Model

Abhishek’s family and Raj Kumar, his teacher were happy to see his exceptionally talented work and appreciated his efforts. “ बहुत अच्छा बनाया हैं I अभिषेकं बचपन से ही मेहनती हैं। वह अपनी शिक्षा के प्रति पर्याप्त जिम्मेदार है।” says Abhishek’s mother. For him this is just the beginning, “ये तो शुरवात हैं, अभी बहुत कुछ करना हैं |” says a 13 year old boy who aspires to be an Engineer. He is passionate about his own interest as well as dedicated towards his learning. He spends nearly two hours in self-study. He likes to play badminton and dance.

                                          A JCB Machine by young hands 

The process of creating model by one student inspired others to unleash their potential to create 

The JCB model designed by Abhishek inspired other students in class to explore their talents and thoughts. His classmates started designing models and looked up to Raj Kumar to give them project. 

Aditya, who is also Abhishek’s brother studying in class 4th made a small toy car with the help of battery box of Philips bulb and wheels of broken toy. He also designed a water fall using pipe and thermocol.

Anant, studying in class 1^st with the help of Abhishek made computer using thermocol. 

Ankit, studying in UKG made Chandrayaan using chart paper and with the support of Raj Kumar.

JCB, Water fall, Cement mixer, Chandrayaan, Computer designed by students at Raj Kumar’s Centre

A great teacher can change everything

Raj Kumar, an edu-leader running his community learning centre at Lagma plays supportive role amongst his students to think out of the box. His strong belief that creativity enhances thinking ability and allows children to explore their imagination inspires him to promote creative activities. He encouraged students to try hands on making Chandrayaan, following ISRO news. Going forward, he plans to give children projects on different themes in every two months and practice project based learning in his classroom. He plans to exhibit these models during Saraswati festival to show hidden talents of his students to their parents and community. His constant motivation led Abhishek to design cement mixer and he is intending to make model of his village for Saraswati festival. Raj Kumar is a young enthusiast and these significant changes are glaring example of his perseverant efforts to strengthen primary education in his community and nurture young minds for better tomorrow.

We, at i-Saksham, carry a dream to improve primary education of underserved children and strongly belief that local youths have power to bring the social change and lead their community. Constant coaching, mentoring, and supportive ecosystem are the keys. 

We thank Anubhuti who volunteered with us for all her contribution in this article. 

A Young Artist at Work

Ken Robinson in his TED talk on ‘School Kills creativity,’ which is the most watched talk on TED, argues that “Creativity is as important as literacy”. Importance of creativity was selected as one of the four 21^st Century Skills along with critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Thus incorporating creativity in classroom can be further used as powerful tool to hone skills like problem solving, critical thinking and decision making required to build children, as citizens of 21^st century. Unlike the traditional way of teaching when the teacher directs students to learn through memorization of concepts and children become mere recipient of information, creativity encourages students to think out of the box and express themselves. In classroom, project based learning plays a vital role to encourage learning by creating as it provides children an opportunity to think of themes, use different tools and materials, manage time, learn with each other and design a model.

Creativity is a valuable skill that cannot be taught but developed in conducive learning environment

Abhishek, a young boy learning at Raj Kumar’s Community Learning Centre dived his hands into what most children of his age could not even think of. Abhishek is a keen observer and fond of watching videos demonstrating car manufacturing. He has been observing a working JCB (Joseph Cyril Bamford) in his village for one month and this drived him to try his hands on designing a JCB model.

Abhishek spent three days with full dedication to gather tools like syringes, pipes and cardboard and completed his model. He managed to find these in and around his home all by himself. He used cardboard to make structure, pipe to connect and syringes to change the directions and facilitate working of JCB to lift thing.

JCB Model 

Abhishek’s family and Raj Kumar, his teacher were happy to see his exceptionally talented work and appreciated his efforts. “बहुत अच्छा बनाया हैं I अभिषेकं बचपन से ही मेहनती हैं। वह अपनी शिक्षा के प्रति पर्याप्त जिम्मेदार है।” says Abhishek’s mother. For him this is just the beginning, “ये तो शुरवात हैं, अभी बहुत कुछ करना हैं |” says a 13 year old boy who aspires to be an Engineer. He is passionate about his own interest as well as dedicated towards his learning. He spends nearly two hours in self study. He likes to play badminton and dance. 

 A JCB Machine by young hands

The process of creating model by one student inspired others to unleash their potential to create

The JCB model designed by Abhishek inspired other students in class to explore their talents and thoughts. His classmates started designing models and looked up to Raj Kumar to give them project. 

Aditya, who is also Abhishek’s brother studying in class 4th made a small toy car with the help of battery box of Philips bulb and wheels of broken toy. He also designed a water fall using pipe and thermocol.

Anant, studying in class 1^st with the help of Abhishek made computer using thermocol. 

Ankit, studying in UKG made Chandrayaan using chart paper and with the support of Raj Kumar.

Creative models by students at Raj Kumar's Centre

A great teacher can change everything

Raj Kumar, an edu-leader running his community learning centre at Lagma plays supportive role amongst his students to think out of the box. His strong belief that creativity enhances thinking ability and allows children to explore their imagination inspires him to promote creative activities. He encouraged students to try hands on making Chandrayaan, following ISRO news. Going forward, he plans to give children projects on different themes in every two months and practice project based learning in his classroom. He plans to exhibit these models during Saraswati festival to show hidden talents of his students to their parents and community. His constant motivation led Abhishek to design cement mixer and he is intending to make model of his village for Saraswati festival. Raj Kumar is a young enthusiast and these significant changes are glaring example of his perseverant efforts to strengthen primary education in his community and nurture young minds for better tomorrow.

We, at i-Saksham, carry a dream to improve primary education of underserved children and strongly belief that local youths have power to bring the social change and lead their community. Constant coaching, mentoring, and supportive ecosystem are the keys. 

We thank Anubhuti who volunteered with us for all her contribution in this article. 

Innovative Teaching Practices and Enhanced Learning

Albert Einstein once said- “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Many of your life’s examples must have also made you reflect that creativity brings vibrancy, and we at i-Saksham are trying our best to be as creative as possible when it comes to teaching children. 

How did you learn as a child in your classroom? Would your teacher give a lecture on Mathematics or just bring out some concretes from outside and make you play with it? If there is a yes to the former, how learning through creativity and fun would have transformed you? What if your teachers would come to the classroom every day bringing in some or the other new activity to make learning fun for you?

We, at i-Saksham, have realized that innovative practices in teaching are the way to enhance the teaching performance and the learning experiences of the children. The more innovative a teacher becomes, the easier it is for children to understand the things taught.

Most of the teachers in rural India are appointed on an ad-hoc basis and due to lack of training and mentoring support, they generally lack the skills and support to teach multilevel classes. Due to the absence of other supplementary resources and parent’s illiteracy, this case becomes worst.

i-Saksham, through its fellowship program, is trying to bridge this gap in the rural context by training local youth on innovative pedagogies. Within the course of their 2 years of fellowship, these youths are trained on various pedagogical practices to improve the learning outcomes of children. Some of them are:

Activity-based learning

The more concepts become fun for children, the faster they learn. On each training day at the i-Saksham office, the edu-leaders learn about a number of activities that can make learning fun for children. These activities include rhymes for teaching ascending and descending order, jumping in and out of figures to understand shapes, playing speed games to learn action words, making word maps to enrich vocabulary, etc. 

Learning vocabulary by making
a map of words

Learning numbers by counting pebbles
  and placing them before the correct number

Teaching through Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs)

Our edu-leaders are trained on using different teaching and learning materials like ganit mala, word cards, phonics sheets, fraction sets, UTH blocks, etc. Along with these TLMs that are provided to them by the organization, the routine of practicing classroom sessions with creativity leads them to make several other TLMs as well. These edu-leaders have created TLMs such as CVC word cards, the ladder of days in a week, number cards, model solar system, etc  

Edu-leaders learning how to
use a ‘ganitmaala’

Children learning through
 ‘ganitmaala’

Managing multi-grade and multi-level classroom

Due to either less number of classrooms against grades or less number of teachers present, students of various grades are, very often, accommodated together in one classroom. With teachers not trained in the art of multi-grade teaching, it hampers the grade-specific learning process. To bridge this gap, i-Saksham trains edu-leaders on multi-grade and multi-level classroom teaching practices so that no child is left unattended and each child can show a positive shift in his/her learning levels. They are being trained on assigning level-appropriate tasks to each group of children from a single topic. The edu-leaders replicate the same practices in their classrooms for effective learning to take place.

A multi-level classroom set up where edu-leader is
 assigning tasks to every group from a single topic

Use of technology

With the advancement in technology and our country moving towards digitalization, it is very important to prepare the up-coming generation for it. Unfortunately, due to poverty and poor access to technology in government schools in the areas we are working with; it becomes almost impossible for children to avail technological resources. i-Saksham provides each of its edu-leaders a smart-phone with appropriate learning content. Along with using the phones for their own learning, these edu-leaders make Mathematics, English and Hindi learning fun for children letting them leverage the benefits of tech. Children use apps like Math Duel to do simple addition and subtraction, Bolo to improve their reading skills, Story Weavers for listening stories etc.

Edu-leaders getting trained on using apps

Children doing addition and subtraction using Math Dual app.

Use of worksheets

With regular practice and iteration, children learn to avoid mistakes. Also in a class of about 30 children, it becomes difficult for the teacher to assign tasks, especially when the class is a multi-level one. That is where the worksheets come into play. i-Saksham uses various laminated worksheets for children to practice what they learn in the classroom and hence improve their learning outcomes. These sheets can be easily rubbed with a wet cloth and can be used multiple times. 

Learning to write alphabets

Children making words from alphabet grids

                   

At one end, where these innovative practices in teaching are making learning fun and interesting for children; it is also bridging the gap of quality trained teachers in the under-served areas. These innovations in teaching are significantly enhancing the learning outcomes of the children and are increasing their attendance as well as participation in the classroom. Avoiding the rote learning methods are giving children the opportunity to learn as they want and express themselves better through various activities. With the continuous implementation of such practices, we are seeing an increased motivation among children and our edu-leaders as well. When parents are being told about these practices during Parents Teacher’s meetings (PTMs), they are able to relate them with their children’s growth and confidence and understand the importance of innovative pedagogy.

We hope to see a day when these practices will be implemented at a larger reach and no child will be left from getting a quality education. We hope for a day when people in the extremism affected regions can dream of better life prospects by virtue of education and our vision of them being educated, skilled and self-reliant would be true.

Abbreviations:

TLM*: Teaching and learning materials that are used in classrooms for better understanding of concepts.

UTH Blocks*: Unit, tens and hundreds blocks to make an understanding of place values.

Ganit Maala*: A teaching and learning material made of beads that is used to teach the concepts of counting, addition, subtraction, and multiplications.