The session started with some ice breaking activities where we all played some fun games and also provided the teachers a list of activities they can adapt in their daily school routine with the students. Followed by was an introductory session, where the participants had to say their name and the name of a vegetable with which they can relate to (was a fun way to remember each other’s name through vegetables).
Then a question ‘Why are you a teacher?’ was asked to each participants for them to have the self-reflection and for us to know their reason of being ‘a teacher’.
The participants shared us why they became a teacher:
- They love kids and have attachment with children.
- They perceived being a teacher was also a way of learning and gaining confidence.
- They considered being a teacher as a social work as well as a respected job.
- They lack of job opportunities which led them to apply for being a teacher in the school.
- It is a source of income for them.
- They are comfortable working in their school environment.
Then, we had an open discussion on the possible challenges the teachers face and might face in adopting new teaching methods and shared them the possible solutions as per our knowledge.
We introduced them: Types of Learners , Lesson Planning and Classroom Management.
For every topic, we introduced them to activities related to it so that the teachers can re-do the activities after the training as well. We highlighted the fact that, it is important for every teacher/educator to know what kind of learners they have in their class and design the class accordingly; knowing the learners will automatically help the teachers prepare a better lesson plan and also helps them to anticipate the possible challenges they might face while applying the lesson plan. The facilitator here briefly described about the 4 types of learners (Visual learners, auditory learners, Reading and Writing learners and kinesthetic learners). Afterwards, the participants were given a puzzle to solve, where they had to differentiate the 4 types of learners as the participants got an idea of the types of learners, they were introduced about Lesson Planning. Here, we asked the participants – ‘how often do they prepare a lesson plan and the answers varied as per the teachers. One teacher said he prepares lesson planning according to the number of paragraphs or content he has to teach in a day, another teacher said he prepares weekly lesson plan and one said she does lesson planning according to the school terminal exams. We emphasized that it is extremely important for every teacher to have a written lesson plan rather than depending on a memorized one.
As the teachers know the importance of lesson planning and have a habit of it, it will also be easy for the teachers to manage their classrooms. Positive Classroom management is yet another important factor of being a teacher. Here, we discussed and showed them the possible ways to set up a classroom, how teachers can play with the classroom design as needed and create a positive classroom environment and also EduLift facilitator added the importance of Roles and Responsibilities of a teacher which provides clarity, alignment, and expectations to execute the work and helps to keep positive classroom. Roles & Responsibilities enables effective communications between the various groups, facilitating the full integration of the administration and organization.
The participants also shared that none of the participants had the initial urge or aim of being a Teacher but the situations in their life somehow led them towards being a teacher, which they were proud of. We got to witness that the teachers were compassionate, patience and had a passion to improve the academic status of the school.