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Academic Programme - New Teaching Learning Materials

New Teaching Learning Materials

Scope for teachers to experiment and prepare new teaching-learning materials

Most teacher-educators with flair and passion for teaching experience and realize the limitation of textbooks when innovative and out-of-the-box classroom exposures are to be provided to the students. Inadvertently they begin preparing and using their own teaching-learning materials and approaches.

Our school invites teachers to be in this innovative and creative mode. It supports and nurtures teachers to go deeper into aspects of curriculum development and preparing and using their own teaching learning materials. We intend to provide the following options to teachers with reference to the teaching materials they can use for their classes

One could begin with a textbook and prepare material to supplement it.
One could photocopy and use the earlier material (prepared by others or oneself) for classroom teaching.
One could prepare material based on the earlier material and use them for teaching.
One could ignore the earlier material and prepare materials afresh.
One could conduct classes spontaneously, dynamically and sensitively without referring to any materials in the classroom. This approach is adopted by only a few teachers, those with long experience and with a flair for teaching. Such teachers only make appropriate material available to the students for later revision.
One could recommend and use a textbook if one is comfortable that way.

Visits outside campus

The school arranges field visits to pertinent places, institutes and people for our students to have a firsthand exposure to principles and concepts learnt in the classroom. The intent is to provide realistic learning opportunities to children so that what they learn makes sense to them leading to a natural understanding and absorption of what has been taught or what has been learnt.

During the two previous academic sessions visits have been arranged to IIT-Mumbai TECHFEST, IIMC-Kolkata, factory visits in Nashik, IUCAA Pune, Nehru Science Center – Mumbai, Science Museum – Nashik, Gurdwara/ Temple/ Church in Nashik, Orphanages and old age homes in Nashik and many briefer visits. These visits are arranged based on the age/class of the children and prior to the visit appropriate information and guidance is provided. In addition to the field and outdoor visits we invite and ensure a stream of distinguished and passionate people of different fields and walks of life to the school for meeting and interacting with the children.

Visitors with longer association

The school has been having an increasingly deeper association with some premier learning and educational centers of the country. We have been visited by few of the people from such institutes for longer durations of time for providing specialized inputs to our students and also for our students to experience passionate people and what is behind such minds.

Activity oriented life in the hostels

We have been experimenting with our house parents and house matrons exposing children to different kinds of creative activities and games during part of the leisure hours in the hostels. In the case of the junior boys and girls we have had encouraging results and children have been spending their weekends in a very meaningfully interesting manner.

Specialized inputs on Sundays

Around six specialized artists and coaches have been visiting our school on Sundays throughout the first term of academic year 2010-11 for providing additional and special inputs to our children in the crafts. Observing the utility of this approach we intend to widen the invitees into fields like games and other academic subjects.

Coaching for competitive examinations

We are working with a coaching center of Nashik to provide AIEEE/JEE/MHCET inputs to our Class 11 and 12 children.

We are presently providing about 7 hours of input per week but the approach is still being fine tuned to meet the objectives of both a residential school as well as the need to take the competitive examinations rigorously.

Approach towards computer education

We would like our students to develop an understanding of what computers are and how they function within the overall perspective of the progress of science and technology. The potential for entertainment of computers and other electronic gadgets leading to addiction with such machines and equipment is an ill effect we would like to try and prevent in our children.

Accordingly, we are introducing a new subject called COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES and CONCEPTS for our junior and middle classes which will focus on computer education with a view to provide the knowledge, concepts and skills to our students. The students will be able to use computers more dexterously from Class 9 onwards when such exposure is provided.

The subject will be introduced from second term of 2010-11 in an informal manner. From June 2011 it will be done in a formal and more systematic manner. They will be exposed to exercises in logical thinking and mental mathematics too in these classes.

We are in the process of designing our own curriculum for this subject, which will cover development of computational abilities, logical abilities, mental arithmetic, and history of computers and associated skills in a systematic manner for children to understand the basis on which the machine functions rather than just being able to play games on it.

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