Backstage at Saandeepani
In this blog post, I begin to explore the world of a teacher. My earlier posts have focussed on what happens in the classroom. To use the analogy of theatre, that is what we see “on stage”. But a lot of effort is put in “backstage” to get to a point where a teacher can deliver engaging content to a critical audience of inquisitive children. With the ever-expanding wave of human knowledge and the open access to information that children have today, this job has become harder and harder.
So I went back to Prarthana Gupta at Saandeepani Academy with a request to observe this planning process firsthand. There are two parts to my observations:
- Lesson plan presentations by teachers
- Project-based learning: investigating a real-world problem in an inter-disciplinary and collaborative way
Lesson plan presentations
Earlier, Saandeepani teachers used to submit their lesson plans for review in a written form. But Prarthana found that an actual discussion was more fruitful because it allowed the teacher and the reviewer to debate various aspects:
- what were the learning outcomes last month?
- what is the plan for this month?
- what activities and teaching/learning materials would be used?
- how do we differentiate between learners at different levels?
- how will we assess their learning?
Junior school
The first lesson plan presentation I observed was for junior school. Ms. Remya, who teaches English to third- and fourth-graders was reviewing her lesson plans for August with Ms. Latha, the school co-ordinator.
The third-graders had just finished the poem Tall trees, and she intended to have them recite it at the beginning of every class so they wouldn’t forget it. Every month would begin with a new poem. Ms. Latha suggested that she incorporate a tune, to make it easier to remember.
Now, they are reading a story Being safe about a baby windhover who falls out of the nest, and is taken home by a child. The story has been read and discussed. The children did not know what a windhover is, and she had explained that it is bird that can hover in mid-air. She had asked them what else hovers, and they came up with dragonfly, helicopter. She had asked them what emotions the little bird must have felt. They said: “scared, afraid.” She has given them more words to use —” terrified”,” panicked”. Ms. Latha suggested an oracy activity where they talk to their buddies using new words. Ms. Remya mentioned that one boy had related an incident when his sister got lost in the mall and his father was “terrified” and his mother was “panicking”.
They discussed the plan ahead. In the coming week, the children will write out the answers to the questions in their notebook. Then they will work on Structure — present tense, followed by present progressive tense. They discussed activities that could bring out the usage of these tenses. They discussed the Comprehension worksheet and the Golden words (new vocabulary) that will be sent home.
Ms. Latha said she has reviewed the recent work of the children and apart from a few, their writing work has improved. Saandeepani practises a concept of Enrich or Reteach — where students who have the mastered the basics of a concept are given more advanced work, and those who need a little more time are taken through the basics again. Ms. Remya said she plans to pick out some exercises from the English Olympiad books for the enrich and some basic exercises from Wren and Martin for the reteach.
Ms. Latha went through her checklist, and asked about value-based-questions, and what will they do for environmental awareness? Ms. Remya said that they will create a portfolio of different birds, their habitats and how to protect them.
Senior school
The other lesson plan presentation was by Ms. Muthulakshmi who teaches Physics and Chemistry to Grades 6–9. She was presenting her lesson plans to Ms. Jayanti Roy, the Principal.
They started with Grade 6 Chemistry. The class had completed Introduction to Chemistry and was now studying its Applications. Apart from studying the text, they were making a little booklet that documents chemicals found in food, fibre, cosmetics, medicines and industrial use. For each chemical, they would study why it was used, its source, and potential ill-effects.
Ms. Jayanti suggested that they pick something that they are familiar with, for example instant noodles or chips. Ms. Muthulakshmi responded that yes, they were doing that. They had already brought toothpaste cartons to class to study and discuss the information on the labels.
Ms. Jayanti also suggested that ill-effects could include those to the user and the environment.
She asked about practical activities and Ms. Muthulakshmi said she will do those along with the next chapter on Mixtures. For the following chapter on Chemical Classification, she would be using a kit to build ball-and-stick models of molecules, to explain their structure and the concept of valence. She showed the kit to Ms. Jayanti.
Grade 7 had completed the chapter on Atoms and Molecules and would now be working on Light and reflection (plane mirrors). This would involve a lot of experimental work to demonstrate the laws of optics, how colours combine and what determines the colour of an object.
Grade 8 had finished Force, friction and pressure, and were now studying Fuels. They would be creating PowerPoint presentations and models to show how fossil fuels are formed. Ms. Jayanti suggested giving 5–6 questions to guide the structure of the presentations.
Grade 9 was studying the Laws of Motion, which is a pretty involved topic and would require 10 periods to cover in depth . She has explained the concepts of Inertia (with real-life examples what happens when a car brakes suddenly), Momentum, etc. She planned to take them to observe the football or skating class to illustrate these concepts. This is also a chapter that is heavy on numerical problems. They discussed revision strategies before the exam, and where to take this class for a field trip.
Project-based learning
Prarthana explained to me the motive behind this initiative. They wanted the children to not just learn what is in the curriculum but also apply their knowledge to investigate some real-world problem. The focus is on the inter-disciplinary nature of problems so that children can connect the different parts to assemble the whole. They work collaboratively in groups, and then build a complete narrative that is presented at the Annual day event.
For this year, the driving goal is My health in my hands. Each age-group is exploring a specific facet that is an extension of their curriculum.
I spent some time in each classroom to get a glimpse of how they were tackling their respective topics.
My body
Grades 1 and 2 were studying My body (as that is their curriculum focus in EVS). I spent an hour with a Grade 2 class who had recently studied respiration, and were now exploring how the quality of air can impact health. Ms. Rohini was the EVS teacher, and Ms. Deepti helped with the activities.
Ms. Rohini played a video that showed us how to inhale and exhale as part of a yoga exercise. The children imitated what they saw, pushing back their shoulders, filling their lungs with air and then releasing it slowly.
There followed a discussion on what happens when we inhale. “We take in oxygen,” said the children. “This oxygen is taken into our blood and flows all through our body and it gives us energy.” What happens when we exhale? “We give out carbon dioxide.”
“Is the air around us clean?” asked Ms. Rohini. “Sometimes it has dust in it,” said a child. They added that trees purify the air because they give out oxygen.
Then, they built a simple device to check the air quality. Ms. Rohini took a half-sheet of paper, punched holes on one side, threaded a piece of wool through the holes and tied the ends. She drew a smiley on the paper, and then proceeded to smear petroleum jelly, that is, Vaseline on it. Only part of her words registered, and the children cried out in alarm, “No, don’t put petrol! It will catch fire! Chhee, I will not do this.”
Ms. Rohini hung the paper from a wire in the classroom and asked them to observe it every day. “Why did we do this?” “So that dirty air will stick to it,” they said. The children worked in groups to create their own pollution detectors.
Next, Ms. Rohini played a video that showed how sneezing/coughing releases microbes into the air, and a magnified view of those germs. She demonstrated how something can spread through the air by spraying a room freshener in one corner, that over time we could smell at the other end of the class. They discussed germs and airborne diseases.
The class ended with her introducing a new member of the class — a potted plant that the children recognized as the Snake plant, which is a good indoor air purifier. The children named it “Snakey”.
Hygiene and Lifestyle
Grades 3 was studying Hygiene and Lifestyle (as that is their curriculum focus in Science).
Last week, they had visited the Green Path Organic State, in Malleswaram. Today, Ms. Remya revisited what they had seen there. The children described how they were welcomed by the manager, given watermelon juice to drink, and then shown a video about the founder and his dream to be an organic farmer.
Then they had split into three groups, to visit the kitchen, the organic store and talk to the housekeeping staff. The children had asked questions; they now narrated the answers they had got. The Green Path grows its own organic food. Only a few ingredients are bought from outside and those are also organic. All waste is composted, there is no plastic used. In the store, the products are made using organic cotton and vegetable dyes. The housekeeping staff told them how they maintain hygiene and use natural cleaning products like lemon juice and organic soaps.
Medicine and wellness through the ages
The sixth-graders had just completed studying Prehistoric man and the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. Prarthana ma’am had divided the class into four groups, and given each group an article on the state of medical knowledge in that era.
The children read and discussed the topic in their groups and then presented it to the rest of the class.
In the case of prehistoric man, there are no written records, so all that we know is based on archaeological finds like old skeletons, implements and cave paintings. Skeletons have been found with club feet, missing fingers and cancerous femurs. Did they know how to reset broken bones? Does a mortar and pestle indicate that herbs were used as medicine? Or did they use magic charms and spells? The group said that it is hard to draw firm conclusions, but one set of clues can come from the study of today’s aborigines.
The Egyptians used irrigation channels from the Nile to water their fields. They had noticed that a blockage in a channel led to a field drying up. They correlated this with the channels in our body (from their knowledge of mummification) and surmised that a blockage in one of our channels causes medical problems!
The Greeks had the theory of the four humours (fluids) — black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood — and how an excess or deficiency of each led to a certain temperament and health condition.
Alternative Medicine
The seventh- and eighth-graders were learning about Immunity this year, so their topic was Alternative medicine.
Today, they were away on a field trip to the Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine to see their herb garden and extraction facility for making Ayurvedic medicines.
Happiness
Health is incomplete without happiness and a study of that topic is imperative, especially in today’s times. The ninth-graders are the seniormost grade at Saandeepani and this was their topic.
During the lesson plan review, Ms. Muthulakshmi had told Ms. Jayanti that they would be learning a particular aspect in each subject. In Biology, they would learn about the mood chemicals (neurotransmitters like Dopamine, Seratonin, etc), in Maths and Social Studies they would learn how the WHO computes the happiness index of a country using various parameters, in Art they would discuss Art therapy, and so on.
Today, I observed a Games period where Dinesh sir asked the children to do 10 rounds of the court — initially walking, then jogging, then running, then laughing-while-jogging and several such variations. After the activity, there was a debrief. Each child spoke about how s/he felt. “Exhausted”, “happy”, “like a nursery kid again”, “released all negative feelings”, “free” — were the various responses.
So what causes these feelings? Jayanti ma’am stepped in and talked about Endorphins that are released during exercise and laughter, and how these help to reduce pain (analgesic), reduce stress and promote sleep (sedative), create a feeling of happiness (euphoric). The children discussed their sleep patterns on days when they had been sedentary vs active, and how they felt after being cooped up indoors for too long.
Dinesh sir then facilitated a discussion on indoor, outdoor and aquatic games and which ones are more likely to release endorphins.
When I was in school, the staff room was a hallowed place that we entered only on occasions — to run errands or take messages for a teacher. So, all I got to see was the delivery of content in the classroom. Things were also different back then. Our teachers taught us from static textbooks, but today our knowledge-base is much more dynamic.
“Pluto is a planet…not anymore!”
“India has 28 states…no, make that 29!”
“Blue-green algae…aren’t really algae. They are bacteria.”
“Gravity is a force…. it’s a wave… a ripple through space-time!”
We have also realized that things are not black and white, that there are nuances. History has many sides — some told, some untold. Ethics is a largely unexplored space, with a lot more scope for discussion. The modern teacher is one who incorporates all these facets and creates a learning environment that is constantly pushing the boundary - challenging, questing, experimenting.
Photo credit: Saandeepani team
This post is a continuation of an earlier post: Learning at Saandeepani
