Questions, Quiz and Quexaminations

Was just listening to John Holt's discourse on questions and quiz. Amazing guy...and I am in total alignment with this guy.

Quizzing is the most archaic thing to do as far as education goes because it just tests information and does not neccessarily let you create an answer.

In fact it made me feel a little proud as well because I have written on similar lines in my book in the chapter on questions and later on the new concept of 'quexaminations'. In fact the chapter on quexaminations can be read online at www.quexaminations.blogspot.com

Appreciation Tags for school students

Happen to be at Springdays School, Jabalpur sometime back on some official work.

Its a usual small town school by the look of it but I found something unusual about the school.

While roaming around the school...found some students going around with 'unusual' name tags...like Punctuality, Confident, All rounder etc. It was obvious the guy with the 'confident' tag was confident but the practice of tagging kids was interesting.

Instead of the usual intelligent and non-intelligent categories which conventional schools often tag(virtual not real) students with...this was different.

Dont know about the long term ramifications of this practice but I guess there is actually no harm in such 'appreciation' or 'acknowlegement' tags. I wonder what are the long term ramifications of this on the kids?

Spoke to the Principal...and complimented her for starting this practice. She told me that she had actually got the idea from some school in Delhi. Dont know... but havent seen any school actually doing this. The only tags that I have seen are the class monitor, School Captain and House Captain tags.

Well...if we follow this I am sure every kid would have at least one tag to flaunt...and happy kids lead to better learning.

Ferrari ki Sawaari

Watched the film Ferrari ki Sawaari...nice film.

One of the first few scenes in the film touched a cord somewhere.

The father is driving his son to school on his scooter and break a traffic signal.

He immediately realises the mistake and stops....asks the son to look for a cop...but there is no cop around.

They go ahead to the next intersection and find a traffic cop there. The father walks up to the cop and tells that he broke a traffic signal at the last intersection... and wants to pay the fine. The cop asks who caught you...he says nobody...we have come on our own.

The cop is astonished and says that if nobody caught you or saw you breaking the light...why didnt you just ride away...why have you come to me.

The father says...somebody did see. (Frankly speaking I thought the father would answer that
'God saw me'....but the script write tripped me)

The cops asks 'who saw you'

And the father points towards his son. He says..."My son saw me break the signal and I cant go ahead without paying a fine"

That was a Wow point for me in the film...not because the script bowled me but because it just made me present to what true parenting is. Its anybody's answer...what that kid is going to grow into?


My friend runs a parenting insitute...would definitely ask him to include this clip in his parenting workshops at Parwarish.

As a school educator what fascinated me was the simplicity with which the message gets conveyed...class.
I wish I could write similar scripts in the school education domain.

Jodogyan Resource Centre and Shop

I have known of Jodogyan for a long long time...and really appreciate their work. But wonder how I never got a chance to be at their store at Jia Serai, near IIT Delhi.

Last week I was there and was thrilled to be there. A must visit for any teacher. I am sure you will pick up a lot of stuff even if you had walked in without the thought of buying something.







Interestingly apart from the Maths and Science kits around...there is a book corner as well. You will find all the important and popular titles on school education at this place. Krishna Kumar's old book 'Learning from Conflict' which is hard to find anywhere can be found here...I picked up one.


The address is- Jodogyan Resource Centre, 28A/1, Jia Sarai, Hauz Khas, Near IIT Gate, New Delhi-110016
Phone- 011-32400290; 09891516084

Teachers Outbound

Its a trend in the corporate sector these days especially in the multi-nationals to take executives on outbound trips...where they spend a day or two in natural surroundings doing various kinds to activities (river rafting, rappling etc) to enhance their team skills and many other facets.

Lekin...to take teachers on an outbound trip is something not many schools want to indulge in. While teachers may accompany students on outbound trips...there arent many schools, who would take teachers on an outbound trip...just to enrich the team which runs a school.


(walking the tight rope - Principal of the school...does it too)

I am glad its started happening. Was at the Indus World School, Indore's outbound trip. A bunch of 51 teachers from two schools in Indore were taken to a camping site near Kolar Dam in M.P.

Starting from treasure hunts in the jungle to team activities to risk taking and trust exercises...it had everything.

Like in many such exercises...there was a post activity reflection and it was fun to see how things got related to day to day activities in school.

Now the trip didnt have much to do teaching -learning activities in the classroom but I am sure the batch of 51 walked out as better teachers..any day.


(the balancing act)

Just like our students like doing all this...our teachers love it too.

Interestingly...my HR informs me that some outdoor activity is a part of the recruitment process at Indus World Schools.

A process to emulate.

The demise of 'I cant'

I have written at length about the Principal's room in my book 'To, The Principal...Yours sincerely'...about how we could add more value to the room.

Met up with the Nashy Chauhan, Director of Anand Niketan School, Satellite Town, Ahmedabad. One interesting thing that I noticed in the room was an interesting wall hanging. I was thrilled to find it on the wall of the office of school leadership. A clear departure from the conventional quotes...I would say.

The wall had a framed picture of 'I cant' with a garland around it...signifies the demise of the person in the picture. Now with 'I cant' written on the picture...it was obviously the demise of 'I cant'...interesting way to put the message across to students and teachers alike.

Just loved it.

Any more ideas for the room of a school leader?

P.S - Interestingly, the idea of the innovation lab mentioned in my book has already been put into practice and initiated at the school. Saw some scooters opened up in their basement. A Maruti 800 donated by the Director was waiting to be doctored.

Jeans as school uniform

Had written an entry on school uniforms a while back...about pants, shoes etc. Read it here

Talking about pants, I have often talked about comfort wear. Now what could be a comfort and trendy wear than a Jeans....and its durable too...ready for the wear and tear of an average school day.

Now I found a school which has jeans as a part of thier school uniform and that school is no metro...its in Mandi...a small town in Himachal Pradesh. Indus World School, Mandi has jeans as their school uniform. Check out the pictures of some students below:

I also like the placing of the logos of the school...done very nicely.

Chandan and Bharti, founders of the school shared that 'Jeans was the obvious choice'. Incidentally Chandan was wearing a jeans on the day.

Generations of teenagers have longed to wear a jeans to school...may be on a half day or off day.

I am sure students of Indus World School, Mandi are not part of that league....as jeans is official.