Resumo de Change In The Classroom

LEARNING NEW METHODS: Primary school teachers at a workshop.

I have come to the frightening conclusion that,
I am the decisive element in the classroom
It is my personal approach that creates the climate,
It is my daily mood that makes the weather
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous...
This anonymous poem is the essence of what Dr. Vasudha Prakash, Founder/Director, V-Excel Educational Trust, believes holds the key to new trends and redefining the role of the teacher.
In today's changing world, kids have a hard time keeping up. This is where, says Prakash, a teacher needs to be more than a teacher, reaching out to give emotional support and teach values that will help children combat the negative qualities in life. Social skills are almost non-existent and this along with etiquette, manners and considerations has to be inculcated.
Past or future?
Prakash also pointed out that children have a sensory and information overload. Children are bombarded with information from the TV, the Internet, the media, books and other sources. This has to be channelled by the teacher so that the information received does not baffle, go to waste or is misused.
Teachers today, she says, have to answer a pertinent question: "Have we responded to the `learning revolution'?" An honest answer would be: "No."
For mediocrity is easily accepted. Instead teachers need to work creatively and within a plan. At the same time, they have to look after the emotional health of the student. By reaching out, suicides can be avoided and emotional problems addressed.
Prakash says that schools themselves are schools of the past for the children of the future. Nothing has changed even though lifestyle has. And according to her, the method of instruction is "linear, didactic, rigid, uninteresting and alienating". There is no peer instruction or reciprocal teaching, but only direct instruction that can kill the curiosity and the creativity of the child. Schools need to get away from the "Education Factory" model or the "Industrial model." This is especially obvious in primary education, where the child is forced to write pages and pages of numbers and words that he does not understand. So it is necessary that model schools must be created.
Stepping into the classroom, it is up to the teacher, "to build on individual competence and exploration and tie up with the life around you". And the teacher must believe that "learning is not delivered, it is created". And most importantly it is up to the teacher to realise her influence that "she is the `heroine' of the class." A teacher therefore must subject herself to a regular inner analysis of herself as a teacher.
It is also important to synthesise education with child development, she says. The teacher-education curriculum is far too short and it has to be made longer to be more comprehensive. There should be more emphasis on education psychology with more leaning towards brain development. Teachers must plan their day-to-day work, and it must be done with interest and creativity. Workshops they attend must have follow-up sessions. So what they have learnt will show in their work. Regular, consistent teacher evaluations are a must to improve their quality of teaching. And it is imperative that planning must be done on a large scale.

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