Imparting education is not just giving knowledge but creating a stress free environment wherein students’ imagination is ignited for which the teacher acts as a facilitator. Education should enable the students develop all their faculties and hone their creativity. Hence, the school especially the curriculum should strike a right balance between academics and extracurricular activities and also see that it caters to the needs of all the students.
The class room environment plays a vital role in arousing natural curiosity and intrinsic motivation to learn and excel in all activities. Learning should be an enjoyable process which stimulates the students’ imagination, creativity, ability to think about for oneself and ability to solve problems in innumerable ways. Such type of learning experiences will enable them to become productive members of the society and also to choose good career options in future.
The foremost strategy to be adopted by a teacher is to awaken the love of learning in students. Hence, a number of activities must be taken up by the teachers. Everyone loves games irrespective of age factor because games are usually associated with fun and anything related with fun stimulates human mind. Hence, for teaching certain concepts, wherever possible, a variety of games can be incorporated according to the subject. For example in English, word games to enrich vocabulary, grammar games, dumb shards’ for tenses etc, Secondly, videos and listening programs entails visual and hearing which are the two most important ways with which human process language in their brain. It can be enhanced by making use of the software of the language labs. Also, technology has made the world a global village. One can make use of the internet, download information, videos related to different lessons or concepts in order to make the lessons more interesting. Students are given assignments and projects that can help them think creatively and hone their latent talent. Also, providing ample opportunities for the students to take part in different and a variety of competitive examinations and inter and intra school activities at different levels gives them a great exposure and helps in the holistic development of all the faculties of the students.
Activities like debating on current topics is a great way to develop a student’s critical thinking skills and maximize students’ participation not only in the class rooms as well as in the inter and intra school activities. In order to prepare for activities like debates, one minute talk, declamation, elocution, making power point presentations, planning for multi disciplinary projects etc., students start to research from library database, internet etc. Story telling sessions, dramatization not only caters to their interest but also helps in the development of their emotional and social intelligence which are vital in shaping the youngsters into citizens possessing humanitarian values. Values such as kindness, compassion, integrity, caring for others etc., make youngsters good citizens.
In a nut shell, one thing is evident that the responsibility of modern day’s teachers is to till the soil efficiently and kindling the knowledge to pave way for innovation and thereby making a positive difference in their lives.
Lakshmi Suvarchala
