Re: session review on 25th oct session

Liked this review...

 

Am wondering what is the difference between a stimulation activity and the reflection activity....

Mina

session review on 25th oct session

experience based on a concept and concept based on experience ?

Huh, It left me thinking.  Looks like I am going to design activites verbs again.

 

what is 5, what is water......

everything can be experienced and learned thru experience.

Well this was quiet a good exp for me to learn the importance experience based learning.

 

First comes the experience, then comes the reflection followed by experiments and exploration.

I really feel the need to redesign my activites all over again. Does it have everything? I had an experience, but am I experimenting with it enough.

 

I designed reflection games and realised that we can incorporate any game for that matter after few changes.

 

And while designing the activity, I designed it considering that if I have to design something on verbs, it has to be linguistic activity.

 

But then came the exp, the relfection games was blend of verbal and kinesthetic.

 

Lot of scope to experiment with activirty designing itself now.

Has my activity passed the 3Generation test, does it have all the components in it?

 

Lot of basic key guiding questions for any activity design.

This is what I learned from this session. Stimulate, get into exp, reflect on the same and experiment it with further.

 

kirti

Observations….

 

Overall schedule…

 

I was an observer to Shivani's class on  21^st Sept. Did not attend the "morning assembly", but went straight to the class.

First was sandplay, followed by giving animals for a bath.. Materials – sand, water, blocks and animals

 

Childrens interaction with material and activity…

Some children were attarcetd to the blocks and started palying with it, some did not want to touch sand and some did not want to touch water. Some of them were very interested in the animals and  others in the blocks. Lot of display material, but children seemed to be familiar.

 

Childrens interaction with peers…

Some of the children were looking for feedback from peers – taking their "creation" around and showing, but not ready to give it up. One  of the children picked up some sand from the boy near him to see/check if it was OK.. Facilitator was almost a peer. Some children were visibly aggressive and again, some had their own "friends"…

Don't touch the sand, lets clean up etc… Again one chld wanted to quickly move to animcal play..

 

Interaction with faculty…

Facilitator was almost a peer, yet there was this threshold. Number of them were looking for positive vibes from the facilirtator and when she said xyz is looking fresh ( at the end of clas, child had changed since dress was wet), everyone wanted to change!!

 

Interact with themselves

Not sure, will need to observe more

 

Reaction to communication..

A lot of the communication was by way of encouraging the one whose behaviour the facilitator wanted to encourage and that helped the rest slowly get into the same framework. Also statements – non-judgemental like "we don't do this" and "we talk of ourselves" were part of refrain. Children reacted positively. The only bit was when there was a fight. Facilitator did not say one word, but the child responded to the non verballl

 

Building rapport

A lot of specific communication – like this is the plan for the day,, we will be doing this after this, can you wait etc. And commenting on their food, specific comment on the work done and process questions…

 

Behaviour exhibited, intentions visible and intentions addressed

Words of appreciation on +ve behaviour, specifc comments like – I don't like that etc.. helped. Thanks for helping etc helped..

 

What I learnt about children…

It looked quite simple, there must have been so much for thought into it. Also each child comes with a different frame of mind to school…

 

Mina

Session Review - 26th Sept

Consciously titled this note as a session review than a session learnings...

 

Looked at Programme design from different angles ( including right angles!!)

 

Experiential learning - where you want the child to experience something

Experimtental learning - concept to experiments - understanding

Integrated learning - where we cut across subjects - maths, logical, science, history everything is weaved together into one whole..

 

I am still playing with how to design a plan for Xth std students which is integrated... Hmmm lets seee

 

Cheers

Mina

 

football coach

First of all thanks for so many responses tot he football coach assignment.

What is coming out clearly is that all of you have understood the importance of acceptance and empathy.

 

Now take the next step to see how you can actually facilitate his hitting the penalty.

 

Tips:

1. See if you would like to write down some questions on this situation.

2. See if you would like to use the concept of modeling.

 

ratnesh

 

session review on taking effective sessions

Session review

Taking effective sessions

 

Before coming to the session, I expected everything about taking the session is told but after attending the session I realized that it is worth more than that.

The concept of leader, follower was made to understand very nicely through activities. To transfer the qualities of a leader to a follower by questioning is a very effective method. It sets the child's mind to think more (goal achieved).

The basic question "how do you get a set of children to meditate?".

            Instead of asking what is meditation, make them think why is meditation required. Kids come from different frame of mind – to settle that, meditation is required.

            I realized that giving knowledge and providing data are two different entities.

            Setting the codes for any activity was nice. There were so many different kinds of setting codes :

1)      We set the codes

2)      The object themselves set the codes

3)      Let the children set their codes

I'm still thinking and need to explore more of :

      P : Plan

      R : Rapport

      E : Encourage

      P : Positive

     A : Acceptable (to me and to the group)

     R : Relax

     E : Excited

suma

session review on Questioning

Session review on Questioning

 

            Asking questions is more powerful than just making the statements because it kindles the other persons thoughts.

            To make the questions powerful, it should be OPEN,PLURAL,TIME FRAME, embedding FEELINGS & THINKING  Questions, INVITATION, include HOM in questioning.

            Writing mind map(one picture worth 1000 words) is easy but still in the process of getting used to it.

            Questions should not be –LOADED,CHECKING,CLOSED.

The activity was an eye opener for me. I got an idea from where to start the questioning.

Focusing on the process the child is going through is important rather than the out come.

            To trigger the Key Processing Questions(KPQ s) the steps required are

1.Observing, 2.analyzing, 3.comparing, 4.composing.

sometimes its better to throw the KPQ s into the air.

            Above all SPACE is very essential in conducting an effective session.

      S- silence

      P- provide data

A-    Acceptance

C-    Clarify

E- empathy

 

Suma

session review on humour

Session review on Humour

Initially to make everyone laugh was a bit difficult for me as I was having some inhibitions and I wanted to do many things but was shy in doing that (eg .like a duck walk). Still got to open up more.

            Then enjoyed doing one character each  to achieve the objective of rain cycle. I felt I was more open and comfortable in theatre session than humour session for some reason initially, but then I got into the track.

            I enjoyed doing the second part of the session. To start with, I was totally confused about setting the classroom environment to motivate the kids to achieve our given objective. Then started to do something and then so many thoughts kept flowing and finally we ended up in something and later also, there were many other values added to our thoughts. My experience was made richer  when others gave their feed back. There are so many different things to learn from others. Still thinking about how I do a session. But now as I'm starting, I keep getting thoughts.

            Thank you all for your wonderful support for me getting richer by value added thoughts.

 

Suma

Guided Visualization Assignment

Guided Visualization Assignment

 

The Human Digestive System

 

Let everybody sit in a comfortable position. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and relax. Relax your calf muscles, tighten and relax your leg muscles, tighten and relax your thigh muscles, relax your back bones, relax your neck muscles, relax your jaws, relax your mind.

            Now you are becoming smaller and smaller, and now you are the size of a mustard seed.

            All the way you carry one imaginary light with you since it is very dark inside there.

            Now imagine you are in the Upma prepared by your mother. Then your friend eats the Upma in which you are a mustard seed. Now you enter the mouth of your friend.

Now stick on the top of the mouth and watch how the chewing process is going on, how the food is being crushed between the teeth, how does saliva help in swallowing ? What is the role of the tongue ? How does this help in digesting ? What sound do you hear ? How does it smell in there ?…

            After chewing, the food is swallowed into the throat. Along with it, you move. How is it in the throat ?…

            Now the food is squeezed down the Oesophagus by wavelike muscular contractions. Now how do you feel ? What are the shapes you can see in the Oesophagus ? What are the sounds you can hear ? How does it smell ? How does Oesophagus feels to touch, is it rough, smooth, hard, soft ?

            Now you enter the stomach. It expands like a balloon. Visualize how it churns the food, mixing strong digestive juices to break into smaller particles. See what all acids and enzymes are present in the stomach. What all sounds do you hear while digesting ? How it smells in there ? How does it taste in the stomach ?

            Now you move into the small intestine. Now can you see the liver and pancreas ? What juices they produce ? How they help in digesting further ?

            Now you move through small intestine. See there how the walls of small intestine helps in assimilating the digested food. How does it feel in there ? What all can you visualize ? Can you see any roundworms, flatworms, ringworms…

            Now you are at the entrance of the large intestine. Do you see an organ called appendix there at the entrance which has lost its significance due to lack of grass eating by humans. How does it look like ? What is its color ? How does it feel when touched ? Does it have any smell ?

            Now you move through the large intestine. What all sounds you hear ? What all is there inside the large intestine ? How it helps small intestine in further assimilation of the food…

            Now the waste material is stored in the large intestine. Now you enter one of the air bubbles present in the large intestine. Now you move towards the anus. Can you see the piles (ie., blood vessels surrounding the anus) there. How it feels to be in there ?

            Now with a fart you come out and now you become bigger and bigger and come to your normal size. Now you slowly open your eyes and see how you feel.

suma

football coach assignment

Football Coach Assignment

 

            First of all – I will be silent and I will let him express his feelings ie., why he is not getting penalty kicks. I will give him some time to think about it.

            Then I will acknowledge his feelings, and accept him as he is. I will empathize his feelings. The next step is providing data to him by asking effective questions, like –

a) what all he can observe (like goalkeeper's position, net, ball)

b) where and in which direction he should hit to get the penalty kick

c) how did he hit penalty kicks earlier

d) how would he like to analyze it

            I will let him visualize the picture by taking him through guided visualization. Then I will encourage him by saying he can do it, giving cheers etc.

            In the meantime, if he has any questions regarding how to go about it, I can clarify his doubts by asking questions and giving examples how he did it earlier etc. Hope this will motivate him to reach his goal.

            Finally, for me, if he finally gets or doesn't get the penalty kicks doesn't matter. I'm satisfied the way what all process went in his mind. That process is more important to me, not the final product.

I'm more confident of him that finally he gets the penalty kick.

suma

Mindmap

Attached is my mindmap...

 

I had done it earlier, but somehow had not loaded it. And then yesterday, I saw the mindmap of "How children Learn" posted @ geniekids.

 

I quickly redid mine and now I am much happier and wiser.....

 

Suggest whoever is sttuck on MM to see the one posted

 

Cheers

Mina

 

Re: 18th sept Session Review...

quite innovative - thought followed by immediate application
I enjoyed reading
Aditi

On 21 Sep 2007 07:39:53 -0000, Shubha Srinivasan < shubhsri@rediffmail.com> wrote:

Hi,
    I had passed on a note in the class if we can do a Haiku poem to review the session on 'Taking effective sessions' effectively. Well I have tried, not exactly Haiku, but someway in which with minimum words I can convey what ever I want... Anyone else trying Haiku/poetry?

     We went exploring a 'leader' from the activity on drawing water from the well...
      Realised that what a leader needs to do is to let 'followers', 'draw motivation '  for themselves.

    There's no one who cannot be a 'leader'...
    I think his job is to just to diffuse in the group like camphor.

    We revisited the circle time codes with examples
     yet to see how kids use glue, paint and stationary.

     How do we get kids to do 'meditation?
     Mini showed: Focus on the effects of it rather than 'Action'
         
   She also has added another hay to the pile of assignments.

Shubha

Observe a person

Observed my husband, I compare his day to a Mumbai local train -

 

Woke up early in the morning
Morning routine like the train has a routine
Milkwowam wants an advance, gives generously like the Mumbai local never says no to people
Phone calls to many people to get their buy-in like the local which always takes people along
Offer helps and advice and helps them move (progress thru new thoughts).
Not a dull moment, just breaks for refuelling - like the train halts at the station

Ah... Finally the day is up and its time to get back to the shed.... (bed)

 

Is this the assignment??

 

Mina

 

18th sept Session Review...

Hi,
    I had passed on a note in the class if we can do a Haiku poem to review the session on 'Taking effective sessions' effectively. Well I have tried, not exactly Haiku, but someway in which with minimum words I can convey what ever I want... Anyone else trying Haiku/poetry?

     We went exploring a 'leader' from the activity on drawing water from the well...
      Realised that what a leader needs to do is to let 'followers', 'draw motivation '  for themselves.

    There's no one who cannot be a 'leader'...
    I think his job is to just to diffuse in the group like camphor.

    We revisited the circle time codes with examples
     yet to see how kids use glue, paint and stationary.

     How do we get kids to do 'meditation?
     Mini showed: Focus on the effects of it rather than 'Action'
         
   She also has added another hay to the pile of assignments.

Shubha

17th Sept Session review

Hi,
   This session was on Questioning.  Focus was
1.on what questioning does to anyone
2. How it feels to be asked meaningful Qs
3. How to ask open ended Qs
4. How to ask Qs that will lead you to the next step

Different scenarios where asking the right sort of Qs will help resolve a problem/conflict were brought up.
I understood the importance of key process questions(KPQs) and how to ask these questions with the help of the group activity.
I noticed that preparing KPQs for any activity which we'll be disigning, will help tackle different situations which we may come up during the activity.

While doing the circletime activity on odd numbers/multiple of seven .... I realised what our responsibility is as a facilitator.
What a mistake(of making someone extremely uncomfortable) we did while we actually thought we were helping someone...
In a way I think, doing a wrong thing and realising how wrong it was... is a very good and effective way of learning, now I'll always remember SPACE in a classroom. I also think we could afford to do a mistake now, learn from it... hope such mistakes don't occour later in the class.

Shubha

i need to meet you

I'm a beautiful girl, brunette with brown eyes, and I'm looking for an intelligent man to communicate by e-mail, Skype, or on real dates!

Send me an email: Nqir5Ky@virtualshl.com

story assignment

 Topic is patterns and helping

 Material Required;  tissue roll[empty],ice cream sticks, plastic round bowl,some bottle caps.,some black bindis and big rubber band. ,piece of ribbon,tape ,markers

LAMBU  Rabbit------=== Fix 2 ice cream stick as legs to tissue roll.put bindis as eyes ,nose etc and attach ears   with stick where ribbon  is stick

  ,decorate with different patterns

.

MOTU Tortoise ' Make hole in the cap put band through  bowl and cap ,,put bindi 4 eyes and decorate with patterns.

 

To make above characters we can take help of kids.

 We can do this story doing in the sand pit area.

let one kid hold the hare and other kid tortoise.

Before the race starts ,winner will be the one who depicts maximum no of patterns on the sand.

One kid can be the judge and  the story starts.

Once  lambu and motu were sitting in the cafe  and telling about themselves.

Lambu was telling big things about him ,as he is great artist and can do anything,but motu felt bad,so plan to have race on sand .tHE ONE WHO MAKE MORE DESIGNS IS THE WINNER.

LAMBU walk on the sand  zigzag,crossly,making waves but motu was rolling slowly making waves,then circle,then double wave opposite to each other.

Lambu was making criss cross ,mat  but motu went 2  steps then made half circle then 2 steps and neXTt time motu rolled full then again rolled where 1st circle ends   and two of them reaches finish line .

Lambu made simple straight designs but mottu made complex designs with slow speed.

[fOR MAKING DIFFERENT PATTERNS KIDS CAN HELP ONE BY ONE AND MOVE THE CHARACTER]

Finally the winner was  motu with 7 designs AND LAMBU MADE 4 ONLY

 

This is one idea ,any thought s

Shruti.

Re: session on 18/09/07

still thinking about accepting the child and not agreeing to what the child wants .confused about the how? part.

need help.

 

pragya

Pragya Tak <pragyatak2007@yahoo.co.in> wrote:

when i heard the topic of today's session "how to conduct a session effectively" , i thought we would be given a list of some do's and don'ts 

the question that came in my dreams "how to make children meditate" was answered to some extent.

we discussed briefly about circle time. i liked the idea of first let the children experience and then decide about the different codes, instead of forcing the codes on them.

the concept of SPACE become more clear. Accepting a child is imp. not only physically but also mentally. accepting doesn't mean that i agree with the child. there are certain things that are/not  acceptable to the facilitator and the group as a whole and they should be taken care of.

i even found a totally different face of a leader. a leader still leads by becoming a follower. i feel that a leader's role as a follower is more challenging. when you are not in the picture but your presence is felt.

that is what the facilitators at GK  do. not lead us directly, but make us think by asking questions, giving activities, making us talk and keep quiet. they channelize our thinking. help us to make a beautiful necklace of beads that are scattered in our own brains and we are not aware of them.

still thinking on the PREPARE part for an effective session.

 

sayonara

pragya

 

RE: Caluclators - LOOOOOONG pending

"something we were withholding made us weak; until we found it was ourselves"

ratnesh 

 -----Original Message-----
From: Minakshi Prabhu [mailto:mina_prabhu@yahoo.com]
Sent: 19 September 2007 16:19
To: 9ttt@geniekids.com; genieblogspot
Subject: Caluclators - LOOOOOONG pending

Calculators – using it as an aid to teach maths…. Starting position was - we could use it as an aid from 5th / 6th standard onwards

 

Arguments :

- Understanding the concepts requires practice. So provide it as an aid one understanding has set-in.

- Real life use of complex maths is limited and thus skills for what is required to be done mentally will already be developed by then

- Calculator is just another aid, leave choice to them

- Creates more time to apply concepts

 

Counter arguements

- Can’t it be used to teach concepts??? So earlier Figured out that I am basing my whole thinking on a BELIEF that calculators cant be used to TEACH / UNDERSTAND. They can only be an aid.

- After some investigation on the net, I find that people are using it even at KG / 1st std for

- investigating patterns in #s

- Builds a number sense in children

- Can be used to understand place value

- The assignments will have to be of a different type to use the calculators (not like 3+4 = ?)

- Children who have a good number sense can use it to movefatsre, children who don’t can go at their pace

 - Increasing motivation

- UNDERSTANDING of concepts has to be done together with calculator usage

 

Now my mind is working on how to do this effectively. So the jury is not out yet.

 

This has been a NEW learning altogether. Thanks for the same…

 

And thanks Kayal for helping me get started...

 

Mina

 

Caluclators - LOOOOOONG pending

Calculators – using it as an aid to teach maths…. Starting position was - we could use it as an aid from 5th / 6th standard onwards

 

Arguments :

- Understanding the concepts requires practice. So provide it as an aid one understanding has set-in.

- Real life use of complex maths is limited and thus skills for what is required to be done mentally will already be developed by then

- Calculator is just another aid, leave choice to them

- Creates more time to apply concepts

 

Counter arguements

- Can't it be used to teach concepts??? So earlier Figured out that I am basing my whole thinking on a BELIEF that calculators cant be used to TEACH / UNDERSTAND. They can only be an aid.

- After some investigation on the net, I find that people are using it even at KG / 1st std for

- investigating patterns in #s

- Builds a number sense in children

- Can be used to understand place value

- The assignments will have to be of a different type to use the calculators (not like 3+4 = ?)

- Children who have a good number sense can use it to movefatsre, children who don't can go at their pace

 - Increasing motivation

- UNDERSTANDING of concepts has to be done together with calculator usage

 

Now my mind is working on how to do this effectively. So the jury is not out yet.

 

This has been a NEW learning altogether. Thanks for the same…

 

And thanks Kayal for helping me get started...

 

Mina

 

session on 18/09/07

when i heard the topic of today's session "how to conduct a session effectively" , i thought we would be given a list of some do's and don'ts 

the question that came in my dreams "how to make children meditate" was answered to some extent.

we discussed briefly about circle time. i liked the idea of first let the children experience and then decide about the different codes, instead of forcing the codes on them.

the concept of SPACE become more clear. Accepting a child is imp. not only physically but also mentally. accepting doesn't mean that i agree with the child. there are certain things that are/not  acceptable to the facilitator and the group as a whole and they should be taken care of.

i even found a totally different face of a leader. a leader still leads by becoming a follower. i feel that a leader's role as a follower is more challenging. when you are not in the picture but your presence is felt.

that is what the facilitators at GK  do. not lead us directly, but make us think by asking questions, giving activities, making us talk and keep quiet. they channelize our thinking. help us to make a beautiful necklace of beads that are scattered in our own brains and we are not aware of them.

still thinking on the PREPARE part for an effective session.

 

sayonara

pragya

 

Sand Assignment

1.Sand activity with kids------

                   Fill one plastic bottle with  sand ,make a hole in  the cap or any one place   ----ask kids to make patterns on the newspaper or any sheet.

                    We can  mix dry colours in the sand and then  fill bottles with different colours,they can make make rangoli too.

                     If we can put glue to sheet and then draw patterns or any picture   then we get sand painting also.

                Tissue  cardboard roll----put sand little bit close the end with paper and band ,,,it can make musical  sounds..

 

2 SAND TOY---------- 1.tissue roll  can be use to make path of houses  what kids make  then u can roll it to make different designs.

                                  2 old ice  trey ,preferably shapes of fruits,depict shapes

 

 3 Group game----------Big trey full of sand and hide some things like small lock,key,pencil.piece of cloth,soft toy, plastic cup,plate (kids kitchen toy) so on depend on how big is trey.Then one kid come ,ask him to close eyes and search  the toy and identify  it.We can use  stop clock using 1 min time .We can play this in sand pit area also by marking the play area.     Kids can also tell different types of materials used.

Shruti                            

Coach 2

Belief - He needs SPACE, the space has got reinforced after the class.

A lot of it also depends on the indivudual and his bent of mind, but I would start first with silence and not too much of noice. Once I know he is opening up, ask him to

a. Teach me his style of penalty kick
b. Use questions to help in understanding the "good" kicks he used to do before. So understanding and emphaising on the +ves of his earlier kicks and his football in other areas today

Understand what else he likes best, is he worn out, does he need a break etc. too.

Show immense respect for his capabilities and him as an indivudual.

Wait for him to make the moves and take it from there, but showing acceptance and empathy

Will def retain him in the team

Cheers

Mina

 

Developing Integrity assignment

1. Lion and Camel story with two different endings – one where the lion eats the camel and the other where it does not.
2. Cat and Patridges story –where the cat says it cant hear … and finally eats the patridges
3. The monekys and pappad story

 

Can use all the above stories to understand integrity - discuss in circle, , be the camel, be the mosue etc.etc.

 

4. Day began with the milkwala cheating on milk, the newspaperwala not putting the paper, the maid giving some lame excuse and so onnnn. And how I am feeling just now

 

Explain disintegrity…

Discuss feelings / Get children to sketch / Get them to do some clay work

 

5. We have an agreed rule of (say) not more than 2 chocs a day. You visit someplace and there is TEMPTATION. What happens to you, what makes you resist, how do you feel. How do you feel if you don't resist
6. You have a younger sister and insist that she puts things back in place. But you yourself don't do it… What does it mean
7. Practising Integrity myself
8. Create teams of 3/4 and ask them to depict integrity

Circle time discussion on Integrity and other HOM linked to integrity. Use the ball with labels on it and have number of open questions on what happens to you, to others when you say something and do something else, conflicts faced, the right vs the easy way out and so on.

1. Lion and Camel story with two different endings – one where the lion eats the camel and the other where it does not.
2. Cat and Patridges story –where the cat says it cant hear … and finally eats the patridges
3. The monekys and pappad story

 

Can use all the above stories to understand integrity - discuss in circle, , be the camel, be the mosue etc.etc.

 

4. Day began with the milkwala cheating on milk, the newspaperwala not putting the paper, the maid giving some lame excuse and so onnnn. And how I am feeling just now

 

Explain disintegrity…

Discuss feelings / Get children to sketch / Get them to do some clay work

 

5. We have an agreed rule of (say) not more than 2 chocs a day. You visit someplace and there is TEMPTATION. What happens to you, what makes you resist, how do you feel. How do you feel if you don't resist
6. You have a younger sister and insist that she puts things back in place. But you yourself don't do it… What does it mean
7. Practising Integrity myself - in the way I conduct the class, situations, keeping my word etc.
8. Create teams of 3/4 and ask them to depict integrity
9. Circle time discussion on Integrity and other HOM linked to integrity. Use the ball with labels on it and have number of open questions on what happens to you, to others when you say something and do something else, conflicts faced, the right vs the easy way out and so on.
10. Recollect a situation when you had promised your Mum(/anyone else) something. Then you forgot about it / broke promise ... what happenned,feelings etc. - discuss in circle, collage, play etc. etc.
11. Same as above except that someone broke their promise to you..

 

Cheers

Mina

session review on conducting effective session

I was expecting the details on the process of how do we go abt it. How do we handle situations.

And I am more than satisfied. THough qestions are still there in my mind, I have got the stimulation on how to think abt them.

 

We started with leadership exercise. Discussed what kind of leader we want to be, what kind of follwer we want.

Then came totally switching the roles of leader and follower. Wow, that was amazing.

 

Got lot of practical tips and directions for taking practicals.

 

The exploring meditaions, why meditaion, how to get them to form codes wa very very useful and surprising.

How can we get children to think, learn and form the codes instead of forcing it on to them.

 

We discussed SPACE again. ANd also reminded us that acceptnce is diff than agreeing.

 

Then we discussed PREPARE. We have that as an assignment now.

 

We are also given a practical situation. We need to look into oursevles as well as children's state of mind.

 

Its a wonderful assignment.

 

kirti

 

 

 

session review on 17th sept session.

First exercise showed how to get connected. Make someone feel special and ask them specific questions.

When u compliment, it should be genuine and deep.

 

But questions which are checking questions, putting down or closed are not helpful in learning n thinking.

The questions that are open ended, like how , what, feelings, or questions that include thinking skills  ,questions can be asked using different time frames.

Make ur questions plural to enhance their thinking.

Instead of asking just what do u think abt it, ask questions in diff directions.

 

Suggestve question with anser loaded are big No No. Its no more a choice for them then.

Experiment with your questions as much as possibe.

 

The questions should be invitational, invitation to explore, express and think.

Ask more n more meaningful, engaging, thoughtful and explorative questions rather than just informative questions.

 

Questions not being asked suitably , can actually hinder the thinking process, or irritating.

 

Focus on the process ste by step. Prepare your process questions accordingly.

Make a choice if I want to throw a question in the air or ask specifically to one prticular child.

 

Prepare reflection questions before hand.

 

But before getti9ng into asking questoins , basically just observe and

 

Give them SPACE.

 

1. Silence : Give them time, freedom to explre n think. Dont jump in with the answers. In fact dont think abt the answer, think abt the child, the process he is going thrrough. Conc on concept rather than answers.

 

2. Acceptance: Accept thee child, whateer state of mind he is. Where ever he is relating to the process.

 

3. E - Empathise : Get connected with the child, acknowledge his mental state.

 

C: clarify : if he needs help. What help, how it should be provided is again decided.

 

P: Providing data : If needed, provide with data. U may not neccessarily give data diretly.  Can take help from other children to get data.

 

 

 

Answers to questions or product of any acitvity is the last important thing in itself. The process, the reflections are the key areas. Ask more questions about them and the y learn more. But all this needs preparation atleast the for the stage I am in. Make them awqare of their own strenghts. Use HOM and thinking skills in ur questions.  Also Dont forget to encourage and appreciate.

Do lot of thinking and preparation, go trhough each step urself. Go prepared in ur sessions for each and every step to give your best.

 

 

Session Review 17th Sept...

The session was on questions and how we could use questions to facilitate...

 

Good questioning style is one which has a lot of open questions, is reflective and thus gives multiple options, choices without one particular choice. Typical ones we discussed are the How and what questions. Feel we did not get into example questions - like when you did this, situations which were similar to this one and how did we do there..

 

The process of doing and facilitating was quite challenging...

 

SPACE - Silent Provide(Data) Acceptance Clarify Empathy. This is what we discussed in terms of what to deploy while facilitating. And on reflection, I feel that at some level, this is also the way in which the whole activity happens - need silence to think first and do my evaluation, then helps if someone provides data, Accept what is being made, clarify and then empathy after it is done..

 

Aditi excuse - but I tried it on my daughters assignment today and ..... the result was amazing, we'd cut out the objects for her collage and we started with looking at what we'd cut, how many, what types leading onto what can  we make from them. Also discussed if she wanted any other things ( crayons was what she wanted) and it was enlightening. It made me surpass myself and create a nice collage on my turn ( one that exceeded my expectations)

 

One big suggestion was - DONT TRY TO SOLVE yourself - and thats soooo true.

 

My own experience, when I was doing the math problem during circle time today was - I am so used to getting a confirmation that the answer is correct, I could not stop till smeone confirmed it to me..

 

We also discussed using HOM while asking questions and this too I tried out on my daughter and her friend ( aek aur bakara mila :)) ). I was getting them to look at self-control and they've def latched on to the word. The key is to use it in multiple ways and situations so that they UNDERSTAND it...

 

I also tried wriing notes - but my book is empty.. The session reviews are a way for me of looking back tooooo.

 

Mina

GV SHRUTI

Today we r going to explore what is down in the heart of sea.
Make urself comfortable ,relax close ur eyes,
look ur a sand particle lying near our door mat in our class.
Now the wind blows,and takes u out from hear to a beach.
There after wind settles down u find urself on the wet beach.
With the next wave u go in the sea ,now feel urself going down in the sea.
We can see life in the water ,fishes , see there goes jelly fish,see there soft bodies.
Fishes have two layers,of skin to protect them,the outer layer protect them from fungi and bacteria.
Ucan see shark,porcupine fish.,so many new fishes .
Fish have ears,nose and they sleep also..See there water plants,eggs of the gold fish near the plants .
Hey look ,flying fish just crossed u..
Nice to see hundred of fishes swimming together and lot more animals are down there .
With one next big wave u came back to shore.,wind started blowing again and we cross so many places and fly back to gennie kids ,stuck in the mats then on the floor.Feel urself .,move ur hands .feet..and urself .
open ur eyes.

session review 17 Sep

Hi everyone,

Trying to put my thought ,I was late so missed 1 st activity, but joined the second one, it was little difficult to ask Q without expecting the Ans ,, AND VICE VERSA NOT TO Ans when other ask u Q.

But if we don't Ans we can try to be good listener  also.

Then was how can we tell different qualities of QUESTIONS AS e.g.   it has to be  open  end Q {  how  what   }

                                                                                               ,we should ask Q which give invitation  to think

                                                                                                 ,Q  should be plural

,                                                                                                 Q can be in different time frame  as how else u can do it?

                                                                                                    some checking Q[ why]

                                                                                                    Q related to them ..their feelings .

Then was given activity with shapes,work in pairs using the shapes create the picture given on the board,same time we have to ask Q while in process and after the completion

In  the pair role change will be their one kid other the facilitator.

 Actually i  found little difficult to communicate when u r facilitator,but we discussed later on how can we encourage the kids with the Q S.

 After that i was little confident  ,in what way i can ask encouraging Qs.

Last activity was really good to understand how sometimes we don't accept others.

Then Ratnesh told us about SPACE

S ---silence,P-- providing enough resources,A-- accepting them ,C--clarification  and E-- empathy.

  If we really think that way then who is scared of practicals gals.,,,any thoughts

bye Shruti

                                                                                                  

Sept 17 Facilitator Review Session

THE ART OF FACILITATION

In order to be an effective facilitator when working
with children, we should understand SPACE:

S â€" Silence â€" means observing; being an active
listener; knowing when to be quiet (more often than
not); giving the child time â€" there is no rush

P - Provide data â€" give knowledge as appropriate,
with the intention of maximizing learnings, but not
providing answers

A â€" Acceptance â€" be accepting of the participants
and their needs

C â€" Clarify - to ensure appropriate learnings by
asking meaningful questions; keep things on track;
keep in mind that process is more important than the
right answer; summarize

E â€" Empathy â€" which requires you to be
non-judgemental; see things from the child’s point
of view; be caring and compassionate; be encouraging

Asking meaningful questions is a BIG component of
facilitation, and is a skill that can be acquired with
practice and observation. You can frame questions
with a specific HOM in mind (don’t be afraid to use
the HOM in the question). You can frame a question
such that it triggers a particular thinking skill
also. Questions need not be directed at a specific
person, but just thrown out there generally to the
room. Remember not to ask questions that begin with
Why, Can, Can you, Are you, Do you, Is it, Isn’t it?
These are limiting and can hamper learning. Avoid
loaded questions -- those with the answer contained in
them.

Two types of questions you’d ask as a facilitator
when working with children are process questions and
reflective questions. Process questions are asked
while activity is being conducted, and reflective
questions after the activity.

To ask effective process questions, need to have an
in-depth understanding of all the steps involved in
doing the activity -- break it down into the smallest
components. Then think ahead of q’s associated with
each step, write them down and bring them with you.

Sujata

Book Review

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Session Review on Language Development (Thursday, 13th September)

Activity on using ice-cream sticks as puppets to make a story involving me in a recent conflict was an interesting one. I could see myself revisiting the conflict as a spectator and could see and understand the viewpoint of other side.

Why do we need language? To express, share, communicate….How is communication different that effective communication? How is it different than expressing? When do I decide that my communication was effective and when its not? What if the other person is still taking time to act then is it effective or not? Still thinking…..

What are we really teaching kids in the school? To communicate the way the teacher wants them to write or to express themselves what they feel, think or learnt? If I am bothered by what others will think of me or I am trying to impress others or just I am too scared to hurt others feelings then am I expressing or just communicating? When am I more satisfied, when communicating or expressing….

How is language related to thinking? When we think we do so in a particular language (mother tongue). More languages we know, more we can expand our  thinking. We tend to speak to our children in so many languages sometimes English, Hindi, sometimes Telugu or Kannada. But what if a child has not yet developed one particular language as mother tongue and I am exposing the child to all sorts of languages, how will it help the child to expand his thinking? How can he build a house of thinking if the foundation is not strong yet? Still confused…..

Thinking becomes richer, if we enrich our language and vice versa.  But how can I make my thinking richer? By reading, talking, listening, expressing, writing ….  Observing, experiencing, soaking in everything through my five senses and expressing. If I learn to think richly, my language will become richer too.

Exploring our classroom made me realize that it's not an ordinary classroom with whiteboard, curtains, mats, teacher and students. It's a room where I am learning to learn, understand, respect, accept and think beyond. Learning to share, express, question myself, my beliefs and actions. Learning to listen, understand, appreciate and respect my fellow class friends, teachers and everyone I come in contact with for who they are and what they are doing….

Talking about what is a mop made me realize how we focus so much on knowledge and application part and so little on synthesis, understanding, relating and using metaphor.

Also enjoyed doing activity ideas on developing listening skills in children and listening to different ideas each group came up with.

Anu

 

session review on language development

hi,

Language development

The activity using ice-cream sticks were nice. I was thinking about the conflict more &  how to resolve the conflict was my main issue. Still it is an open one. I'm still confused about the purpose of doing that activity.

During the session, I mainly understood the clarity between expression & effective communication. Communication may be effective or not but expression is about "ME".

Core language development is by thinking & expressing. This forms a loop.

The moment we were given 2 minutes to explore the room, I saw so many things in the room which I never observed. From that exploration I can see the change in my writing. There are so many different perspectives to see the same object I wonder.

Most of the time, we don't give ex. And explain it to the kid. I realized how examples plays a vital role in learning.

 

The listening activity was so nice. I sometimes wonder how so many thoughts come to me and make me think that how much creative I am and that boosts my self esteem. My myth about hearing and listening broke while doing the activity.

suma v

Sept 13 Session Review on Language

(Sorry everyone -- when i save e-mails as a draft, for
some reason, the action performed is to SEND instead
of SAVE AS A DRAFT. Please ignore previous e-mail).

In this sequel to the storytelling session, we
explored "Language", and developing language skills.

First, we learnt the difference between communication
and expression. This was a distinction i had never
thought of before. Schools teach communication (and
that too in the teacher's language) over expressing.
Some things i learnt:

That "language" and "thinking" form a loop (thinking
leads to language which leads to better thinking which
leads to better language, and so on)

When you experience something, you reflect and then
automatically describe it better (improve expression)

Get children to think in all 3 aspects of language:
knowledge, outcome and understanding (we normally
focus on knowledge only)

Set aside reading time for the children; have
meaningful, exploratory conversations with them

Listening skills are also very important in language
devleopment.

I think that as far as language skills is concerned,
it's important for children to create, express and
communicate. Experiences, reflections, reading,
writing, listening, speaking, exploring -- are all
enriching.

Sujata

Sept 13 Session Review on Language

In this sequel to the storytelling session, we
explored "Language", and how to develop language
skills.

First, we learnt the difference between communication
and expression.

Sujata

Sept 11 Session Review on Activities

We started with using handfuls of bottle caps and
coming up with ways to use them for all MIs. I was
amazed at how many ideas i was spouting out! Getting
quite comfortable with MIs now.

We then entered the arena of designing activities for
children. To start off, we explored the definition of
"Activity", and came up with some key elements we felt
an activity should have: be open-ended; child should
set the goals (within framework of the teacher's
objectives); enjoyable and stimulating; focus on the
process.

Motivating kids to draw 5-cm circles using a compass
by saying that everything in a village is made up of
precisely 5-cm circles… this automatically fires the
imagination, brings in an element of fun, and is
therefore stimulating. I would never have thought of
this approach!

We then dived into how to design an activity. It
begins with reading a lot, & becoming intimately
familiar with the subject. The more research you do,
the greater your understanding.

Write down a whole lot of questions about the subject
and then identify a key guiding question (KGQ). [The
research done in the first step helps you frame
relevant questions.] A good KGQ will have an activity
idea waiting to be discovered when you explore the
question.

Once you pick a KGQ, now you can write the teacher's
objectives for the activities, activity ideas will
come to you, and can start developing activities.
Bring in Bloom's Taxonomy and MI in this phase. Have
to consider materials needed for the activities also.

After activities are designed, now design
stimulations. It's important to have the children
EXPERIENCE your objectives.

I've been thinking about some stimulations for the
"how do you experience gravity" KGQ we did in class.
Some ideas are:

a Guided Visualization where you are an
absent-minded space adventurer visiting planets with
varying gravities and you keep getting into
gravity-related mishaps;

ask kids to play hopscotch while pretending they are
on the moon, Jupiter...

Sujata

session reivew on activity designing

Activity designing , i thought it would be as simple as implementing just that MI.

But it has lot more added to it.

 

U can use any material and still activity can be designed that too using almost any MIs.

Once u have decided that u want to design activity on one particular topic.

Write all possible questions on that topic.

Select 1 or 2 key guiding questions. That becomes facilitator's objective.

After this : Keep space in ur activity , so that kids have freedom to choose their goal.

Kids should have freedom to decide how part of it too (may be in given structure or using given material), so that they r thinking and they are involved.

All the outcomes will be different. The results differ from one child to another.

 

When u want to teach them something, give them exaples and non examples too along with other attributes.

As a fascilitator, I am not going to asses their outcomes.

But I feel I would want to  know what they have understood, what have they learned, also how much. So  that next time I can decide if I want to take up new topic or continuw with the same.

 

 

Stimulation should be used. It can be anything, one question, one action or some statement, which evokes them to explore , think and do the activity.

 

I remember only the word hypotheses, not able to remember what abou it.

More to come here after more exploration.

 

 

 

 

Re: review on HOM session

hmm........ let me try. Its not about what comes first. Even if My thinking abt thinking patterns come later, thats fine, because next time it may be helpful. But yes, If  I want to change the way my thinking pattern works, I need to find out some way so that it becomes part of my subconscious. At such situations like conflicts, I first start thinking on my usual patterns, but again I take a step back and think abt it again.

 

I dont know how to explain. See, I am angry with my husband for something. I even reacted to it negatively. (and may be not expressed it, i directly behaved angrily. )Instead of expressing that I am angry, I showed my anger thru my behavior. And that incidence can keep hurting me for long even after iwhen I am not there with him. But when I think over my thinking, at least the hurt that I feel later is come down drastically.

I am able to talk to him with a fresh mind next time again. I havent succeded in adopting the new pattern quickly, but I am at a point where I look at it after a while and then I am at peace.

 

I hope I tried to clarify what I feel abt this. To me expressing is important. But feeling has to expressed , instead of reacting out of that feeling.

 

On 9/15/07, Suma V <suma_47@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi kirti,
I've a question here.Anybody please clarify.If everybody ends up in thinking like this, then who is going to start expressing their view first?Then this becomes the chicken or egg problem.
suma

kirti lodhe <amkirti@gmail.com> wrote:

Exploring it more.

 

What was the thinking process when we were doing the agree and disagree exercise .

We were given the oject of listening to other person's point of view.

 

First time round it was my belief that my opinion has a base. Let me checkout  why they dont agree with my opinion. I had a point to prove.

It was like, I know something, I want you to know that first, and make u think on ur opinion after knowing that rather than me thinking over what u know. The objective was totally lost.

 

Somewhere the belief was the person who is talking is greater. He who convinces other is smarter in life.  I wasnt able to see the simple fact that, anyway, I know what I know.

I need to know what they know or think so that I can widen my perspectives of looking at the topic.

I am the one who was going to become rich by listening to others.

or there was strange fear that if u dont remind urself abt what ur opnion is, u may get lost in their thoughts.

 

I was actually thinking in the direction of  conveying my thoughts than listening to other's thoughts.

 

How would my thought process be if it was restructured. Like if it was asked that find out what other person has views abt love marriage ? My opinion is not at all asked . I am rather supposed to understand the other person and represnt him.

 

Now I dont have to prove my opinion becaue I am not agreeing or disagreeing to something.

Its just finding out what other person thinks. It would have been better, because now I am not putting forward my thoughts. Its not about my thoughts at all. In this case, I am more open to listen to other person.

 

** When u want to listen to other person, its not abt what u think, feel. Its all about the other person.

I can always go back and reflect on whatever I listened and then decide to agree or not.

 

**I show different thinking patterns when I am invloved in the conflict (diff of opinion) and when I am just the observer. I am not directly involved in it. I learn more as observer.

 

** may be then I need to change my thinking pattern so that, Even in conflicts, I forget abt myself for a while, understand other person, represent him and learn and then come up with sloution to that conflict. Or may be there would be no more conflict.

 

I would then classify my thinking pattern as

1. Centred only to myself

2. open for myself as well as other person.

3. only abt other person.

 

But I can always first go into 3rd catagory and come back to second one. I think that would be best combination for me to learn more n more and be more productive.

 

I would abstract is as:

Respect other person's thoughts even when u dont agree to enrich urself.

 

If I want do inductive thinking ,

 

A. Me putting just my point forward, causes

1. conflict remains where it was.

2. I fail to learn something new which I could have .

3. I just keep finding reasons to challange what other person is saying.

 

Challenging the new thoughts that u r listening is a very good idea. But listening comes first and then challenging it.

 

Or deductive thinking.

Generalisation : to learn more, u need to empty urself first.

And if applied in this situation, its much easier to understand other person's point of view.

But emptying urself is a task u need to do. Put urself aside for some time.

 

Now I know what thinkin pattern is useful to me in case of conflicts. Let me test it in practical life now.

 

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session on 13/09/07

hi all,

playing the conflict using puppets was excellent. the emphasis now was more on the event than the characters(me). i was able to realise my weakness, my mistakes which i was not able to see at the time of conflict. we can also use puppets in our day to day life and instead of saying or arguing with the person we can do the same to his/her puppet. that can make our life easier.

 

not communicating effectively is as good as not communicating atall.  

ratnesh kept on saying to complete assignments, write reviews. he even send gentle remainders, but things didn't move as he wanted. his communication was not effective. few words from aditi has triggered the process. her's is an effective communication.

for a communication to be effective it should be combined with appropriate expressions (facial or tonal quality or written, etc). i feel aditi's communication was effective because her voice, her expressions, her body language was supporting what she was saying.

 

explaning using examples triggers the imagination and thinking. so next time a kid brings something. along with praise i have to ask the child questions related to the work. it not only helps me in finding out what the child knows but also makes the child curious to find more.

 

sayonara

pragya

 

Review

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review 13 sep

Hi everyone,

            Language 4 me was only grammar  and vocabulary,but now i know its real meaning it is related to

thinking,expressing feelings and thoughts.

            We generally don't  let kids to express their thoughts ,we tell them to communicate may be that 

 why they cant express  so many things.

  By doing MOP activity  ,i learnt how by giving example we can tell them so many thing..

Still i want to learn how can i make /teach kids to express  effectively?

    bye Shruti

book review

SELF ESTEEM

--ANITA NAIK   

I was confused regarding self esteem session .I took the book for my clarification.When i was going through it,i felt that the author kept certain age group in mind and wrote it.The link between asstertiveness and self esteem was great. The book recommended lot of exercises. which helped me to assess  and improve myself.I learnt how to build positive assertiveness and self esteem which are important to be a better person.The key word for everthing is RESPECT.

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session review

LANGUAGE

I really felt that this session is just for me.When it comes to expression i never check my writing and talking.Today it made me to realise what is the use when my expression are not clear to others and they may be misinterperted. 

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Session Review 13th Sept - Language

The discussion on communication and language was extremely interesting.

 

When I used to speak to my daughter in 3 languages, I used to be told not to do it and confuse the child. I persisted becuase I wnated her to understand what is spoken in each of our families... It was quite nice to learn that it helps in expressing....

 

On another note - have been thinking deeply on commnication and expressing. Now feel that we can communicate thru' the body, but can we expree thru' the body?? Maybe body signs communicate more than words?

 

The poem on the room was quite interesting...

 

I am also reconsidering a point of view which I have had - that taking notes inhibits my absorbing what goes on in the class. The input - output quadrant is raising some questions in my mind. Maybe I need to store some pointers somewhere... But this is not resolved yet.

 

The other quadrant which we did about how we talk of something - describing vs giving examples ( see I cant get clearly the other quads - Uses, Decsibing and ??? - i recollect roughly classifying it as how) vs giving examples is something I am chewing on...

 

My experiences have now expanded to 2-3kids ( ones who come to play with my daughter). Thanks Aditi for pointing it out to me...

 

Mina

Re: review on HOM session

Exploring further.....

 

How do I take it furthur to my students ?

 

How do I make them aware of their thinking pattern ?

 

May be same thing that I did. The only diff may be I wrote questions for myself.

If I want them to think over their thinking, I need to ask them more thinking questions on their thinking.

 

Or first giving them diff situations first to act. And then compare diff situations, and observe and reflect on their thinking pattern in each of them and then to deicde which was more productive.

 

hmm.........

 

Since yesterday everything is boiling down to thinking skills. Langauage development, HOM development , more to come here I guess......