Tag: skills

about me, Education, HIndi, Online learning, parenting, short stories, skills

Folktales -6

A Learning Leader

Whatever you want to become in life? Patience and wisdom will always lead your path!

A short story to depict the learning from India’s rich yet simple to understand treasure of stories!

जीवन में जो कुछ भी बनना है?

धैर्य और समझदारी की आवश्यकता हमेशा होती है।

एक बार एक नवयुवक इस भ्रम में पड़ गया कि उसे जीवन में क्या करना चाहिए। उसे यह नहीं सूझ रहा था कि क्या करें, कहां जाए ? ऐसे अनेक सवालों के भार से वह अपने आप को बहुत कमजोर समझ रहा था। भ्रमित और बोझिल मन के आगे लाचार था। जब कुछ भी नहीं कह कर पाया तो उसने सोचा चलो अपनी दुविधा और इस भ्रम को अपने गांव के पास आश्रम के साधु को बताया जाए। ऐसा तय करके वह नवयुवक गांव के पास वाले आश्रम में तपस्या कर रहे साधु महाराज के पास गया। वहां जाकर उस नवयुवक ने बहुत विनम्रता से साधु महाराज को दंडवत प्रणाम किया और अनमना होकर होकर बैठ गया। सरल हृदय साधु महाराज ने उस नवयुवक से पूछा, ‘बेटे विचलित से लग रहे हो, क्या बात है। इस उम्र में इतने निराश और व्यथित क्यों हो?’ वह नवयुवक बोला “साधु महाराज, “मैं इस भ्रम में हूं कि मुझे क्या बनना चाहिए। निर्णय नहीं कर पा रहा हूं कि गृहस्थ बनूं या साधु-संत। कुछ भी निर्णय नहीं हो पा रहा है। मुझे कोई रास्ता दिखाओ।” साधु ने पूरे मन से उस नवयुवक की बात सुनी और बोले “बेटा, तुम कल 11:00 बजे मेरे पास आ जाना। हम दोनों मिलकर इस समस्या का समाधान ढूंढ लेंगे।”

A young man

साधु महाराज की बात सुनकर नवयुवक अपने घर चला गया और अगले दिन जल्दी ही ठीक 11:00 बजे प्रसन्न मन से साधु महाराज के पास पहुंचा कि आज उसकी समस्या का समाधान हो जाएगा। साधु महाराज उसकी प्रतीक्षा ही कर रहे थे। उसके आते ही वह उसे साथ लेकर कुछ दूर एक ऊंची पहाड़ी पर कुटिया में तपस्या कर रहे अपने गुरु के पास ले गए। जैसे ही उस पहाड़ी की तलहटी में पहुंचे तो गांव के उस साधु ने नवयुवक से कहा, “बेटा, इस पहाड़ी पर कुटिया में मेरे 80 वर्ष के गुरुदेव तपस्या कर रहे गेन। तू उनको जोर से आवाज लगाकर नीचे बुलाना और जब वे इस पहाड़ी से नीचे तुम्हारे पास आ जाएं तो तुम कहना, “क्षमा करें गुरुदेव। मैंने तो ऐसे ही आपको दर्शन के लिए बुलाया है। आप वापस जा सकते हैं।” साधु महाराज ने नवयुवक को कहा कि ऐसा तुम तीन बार करना। वे नाराज नहीं होते।”

इतना कहकर वह साधु महाराज पास ही एक झाड़ी की ओट में छिप कर बैठ गए। अब नवयुवक ने वैसा ही किया, जैसा कहा गया था। इस पर वे 80 वर्ष के वृद्ध संत पहाड़ी से नीचे आए और नवयुवक से बोले, “कहो बेटा, क्या परेशानी है।” उस नवयुवक ने कहा, “महाराज मैंने तो बस ऐसे ही आपको दर्शन करने के लिए बुला लिया। क्षमा करें, आप वापस जा सकते हैं।” संत बोले, कोई बात नहीं, प्रसन्न रहो।” इतना कहकर हुए 80 वर्ष के संत भरी दुपहरी में पसीने पसीने होकर वापस पहाड़ी पर अपनी कुटिया में चले गए। साधु महाराज के कहे अनुसार उस नवयुवक ने उस 80 वर्ष के संत को दो बार और नीचे बुलाया और वह सरल और सहज हृदय के संत उस नवयुवक को अज्ञानी समझकर बड़े कष्ट पाकर भी पहाड़ी पर अपनी कुटिया से बार बार आए और चले गए। ऐसा करते उस नवयुवक का दिन बीत गया।

कुछ देर में साधु महाराज आए और बोले, आओ गांव चलें। दोनों गांव चले गए। साधु महाराज ने उस नवयुवक को अगले दिन फिर 11:00 बजे बुलाया

An Indian saint

अगले दिन वह नवयुवक फिर ठीक समय पर साधु महाराज के पास आ गया और साधु महाराज उसे फिर अपने साथ लेकर गांव के एक बूढ़े गृहस्थ के पास ले गए वहां जाकर बैठ गए। वह गृहस्थी कोई पुस्तक पढ़ रहे थे कि अचानक अपनी पत्नी से बोले, “भाग्यवान सुनो, मुझे भरी दुपहरी में नहीं दिख रहा है। दीया जला कर लाओ, अंधियारा हो गया है। उस ग्रहस्थी की पत्नी आज्ञाकारी थी। बोली, “जी, अभी जला कर लाती हूं और वह तुरंत दीपक जला कर ले आई। गृहस्थ ने कहा अंधियारा मिट गया। इसे वापस ले जाओ।” अपने घर दो अतिथि आए हैं। भोजन बना लो, उस गृहस्थ की पत्नी ने बिना कोई प्रश्न किए भोजन बनाया परंतु सब्जी में नमक डालना भूल गई।

जब तीनों ने मिलकर भोजन करना आरंभ किया तो पता चला कि उनकी पत्नी भोजन में नमक डालना भूल गई है। वो गृहस्थी तुरंत बोले, “वाह! क्या स्वादिष्ट सब्जी बनी है। नमक मिर्च एकदम सही मात्रा में डाले गए हैं।” इतना सुनकर इन साधु और नवयुवक दोनों ने चुपचाप भोजन समाप्त कर लिया। साधु महाराज ने उस ग्रहस्थी से विदा ली और उस नवयुवक को साथ लेकर आश्रम पर आ गए।
अब साधु महाराज बोले, “बेटा, अगर साधु बनना है तो मेरे गुरु जैसा बनना जिनको 80 वर्ष की उम्र में भी आपने तीन बार पहाड़ी से नीचे बुलाया और वह शांत रहे क्रोध नहीं किया, सरल बने रहे, आपकी बात मानते गए, आपको आशीर्वाद देते रहे।और यदि गृहस्थ बनना है तो उस गृहस्थी की तरह बनना जिन्होंने भरी दुपहरी में अपनी पत्नी को दीपक जलाने के लिए कहा तो उनकी पत्नी बिना कोई प्रश्न किए दीपक जला कर ले आई और बाद में उनकी पत्नी से सब्जी में नमक नहीं डालने की भूल हो गई तो उस गृहस्थी ने नमक की भूल का सुधार किस प्रकार किया कि “कितना स्वादिष्ट भोजन बनाया है।”

lighted candle /Diya

जो भी बनना है उसमें इस प्रकार के धैर्य और समझदारी की आवश्यकता होती है। अब तुम अपनी योग्यता स्वम तय कर लो।
इति शुभम।🌹🙏

Story credit:

Mr. Dalchand

A Storyteller by heart

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Storytelling has its own charm in learning and teaching. Native stories make a strong impact, with ease of understanding as they are deep rooted in culture and community. Hindi being my mother tongue never left its space in my heart. I strongly believe that in early childhood teaching in mother tongue is definitely the easiest way to reach to a child’s heart.
Indian folklore has been passed through generations over the centuries, with the words of wisdom which benefit young and old equally. I plan to share these short stories aka folk tales every once in a while to my audience, use them as a warm up activity, lunch break filler, going home time activity or simply read to your own children. Stories have their own magic!
about me, Education, leadership, parenting, skills

An open letter to parents part-2

A Learning Leader

Foundation of raising a genius….

To see the truth,
to know the way,
I cast a spell in every way.
By the power of three
I conjure thee
To give thy truth unto me.

Dear parent,

We all have that one moment when we see a perfect child and a perfect parent, and all our self doubts over power us to think; what am I not doing right?

Just like me, you must have wondered what is that magic formula? what is that spell? which helps Parents in raising a genius child!

let me reveal the truth to you through an experienced , behold !

When Tiktok was taking last breaths in India before its ban, I saw a very interesting Tiktok video. The video was on effective upbringing of our little ones. The orator in the video emphasized on the fact that right from the childhood, we should inculcate in our child’s mind that “She/he is a genius and a god gifted child”.

Could parenting be that simple!

I found it an intriguing idea to try and was eager to see its consequences.

Earlier, I used to get angry easily and scold my child without taking a note of the surrounding people, thinking that he is not old enough to understand complexities of self respect. His usual reaction would be like, he would not talk for sometime and then after a while he will pretend to forget everything and would start talking normally. A real consequence was when he would try to lie around to save himself from similar incident. That shocked my nerves, I never expected my child to become a liar. I found myself guilty and wanted to find a perfect solution for this problem . I thought and thought that what a wonderful thing it will be if my child stop committing mistakes at all ,oh! my world would be perfect.

I decided to apply this formula, I started praising my child in front of other people for small yet good deeds, no matter, how least commendable they were? I started to make him feel that he is exceptionally good, sort of god gifted. I completely stopped scolding him in public and tried to make him understand, that what he did was wrong and why, but most importantly only when we two were present.

Few days went without much to notice then I could observed a drastic change, a visible winning attitude and a boy with effervescent self confidence could be seen. He started talking to me more than ever before. I was flabbergasted that a boy of this age has this many tales to tell in which he proved himself over his friends in classroom which he never shared with me. He was bubbling with self reliance and self confidence. He, in trying to get more praises from me, started doing most of the things himself. He started carrying things for me even if they are heavy or carry my mobile if I had my hands full. He, the same little boy who would do even a single thing after saying 5-6 times followed by scolding at least 2 times was doing the tasks in advance without being told and was even willing to help me out in dusting. I was speechless. He has became my adorable loving boy from a irritating boy.

I am continuing with practice of putting the beautiful thought in his mind that he is a boy with exceptional talent and awesome qualities which is a boon over others. I was overwhelmed by the astonishing results of this experiment. I believe this strategy can make the child conquer the unconquerable things. to the least, children are going to achieve much more than their usual capacity. I believe every parent will see positive results by using this strategy to make their children ultimate winners and successful happy citizens.

World famous writer Dale Carnegie has written in his book “How to win friends and influence people”

Happiness is followed by a cause and vice versa.

Dale Carnegie

. This means that if we keep ourselves happy, things which will cause more happiness will follow automatically. The same thing applies in case of children ‘s mindset also if we successfully become capable of inculcating the thought that our child is a genius and god gifted, the intelligence will surely follow and god gift talent will surely bestow on him.

Hence the magic spell to have genius child is as simple as that as telling him/her that you are genius and I believe in you!

Go ahead, cast the spell of positive words and see the magic unwinding yourself!

Thanks,

A teacher and a parent

Story credit : Pooja

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Education, school, skills

Pedagogy

A Learning Leader

Pedagogy

Pedagogy is frequently used term in Education settings but at times, we use it without learning its context and meaning. let’s find out What is Pedagogy?

Pedagogy is an education-related word which is more frequently used in other languages such as French or German. Etymology and definition of the word pedagogy (from the OED): “ adopted from French pédagogie (Calvin 16th century), adaptation from Greek παιδαγωγία office of a παιδαγωγός: see pedagogue. So modern German pädagogie. “

Pedagogy is “The function, profession, or practice of a pedagogue [ a man whose occupation is the instruction of children or youths; a schoolmaster, teacher, preceptor. Now usually in a more or less contemptuous sense, with implication of pedantry, dogmatism, or severity; the work or occupation of teaching; the art or science of teaching, pedagogics. “

Moreover, pedagogy “refers to the art and profession of teaching. It stands for how a teacher teaches, the methodology one uses as a teacher, and the style of teaching a teacher chooses. It also refers to the preparatory training or instruction would-be teachers acquire in teacher education programs.”

(from the Greenwood Dictionary of Education, 2nd edition)

In ancient Greece the person who was given the task of educating the children was known as a ‘Pedagogue’. The word pedagogy is related to this being the method of teaching used by a pedagogue. Thought to be ‘over formal, pedantic, and dull’…

Pedagogy (etymology and pronunciation) is the discipline that offers the theory to follow in schooling of children. The instruction of adults, however, is also referred to as Andragogy.

Relation between Learning and its 3 major component: Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Pedagogy in education simply means giving the practical knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge which can be through any means such as cultural, social, spiritual, and ethics.

It is just like a doctor understand the physiology and treat humans. Just like a software engineer learns programming. It is as important as air for a teacher to impart knowledge. Without understanding pedagogy, a teacher will not be a competent & professional educator.

The position of teacher is normally formal and ongoing, carried out at a institution or different location of formal schooling. A individual who wishes to emerge as a instructor needs to first obtain special official skills or credentials from a university or college. These legit qualifications may just comprise the traning of pedagogy, the science of educating. Academics, like different specialists, should/ must continue their education after they qualify, a method referred to as continuing authentic progress. Teachers may use a lesson plan to facilitate pupil learning, offering a path to learn which is known as the curriculum. Assessment is the next step which evaluates the effectiveness and guides the path of learning.

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Education, leadership, school, skills

Let your child struggle a little!

A Learning Leader

Let your child struggle a little!

Protecting the child , from all the big and small hardships, is the the first parental instinct and the greatest moral struggle of our time. However, unless the situation is life-threatening, it’s often better to let your child navigate the problem on his/her own, struggle and fail at times. With children, shielding them from struggle builds a safety net around them — but your child won’t have that safety net when he/she goes into adulthood.

We are a generation of parents, who don’t want our childhood to be replicated and want to avoid all the hurdles that pained us, in our childhood but, remember it’s that struggle what made us today what we are. We don’t need to rescue our child if he/she is scared or nervous about a situation by sheltering the child from those situations or providing excessive reassurance.

Learning to handle difficult situations and making decisions is critical to lead the life. 

As I mentioned earlier too, Butterflies are my favorite, let me bring in a story of butterflies again.( Never give up)

Once, a man walking in his garden saw a cocoon of a butterfly hanging from a branch. Now every day that man started looking at him, and one day he noticed that a small hole has formed in that cocoon. That day he sat there and kept looking at him for hours. She saw that the butterfly is trying hard to get out of that shell, but even after trying for a long time, she could not get out of that hole, and then she became completely calm as if she had given up.

So the man decided that he would help the butterfly. He picked up a scissor and made the cocoon hole so big that the butterfly could easily get out. And this is what happened, the butterfly came out easily without any further struggle, but its body was swollen, and the wings were dry.

The man kept looking at the butterfly thinking that at any time he would start flying with his wings spread, but nothing like this happened. In contrast, the poor butterfly has never been able to fly and has to spend the rest of her life flailing around. Nature has made the process of release from the cocoon so difficult that by doing this, the liquid present in the butterfly’s body can reach into its wings and fly out of the hole.

Forcing our offspring to come out of small difficulties on their own is just like getting out of the butterfly’s cocoon, in fact sometimes struggle in our life is the thing that we really need. Without hard work and struggle, they can never become as strong as they are capable of becoming. Getting out of the cocoon in the form of these troubles will teach them something that will take care of the flight of their lives.

The goal is to teach your children to overcome obstacles and cope with situations  more independently. Letting younger children struggle through obstacles can teach them how to deal with a difficult person, how to stay calm when they’re being punished, or how to perform independent tasks.That is why it is important to see the difficult moments in life from a positive perspective.Your child will emerge stronger, develop better coping skills, and learn to make good decisions and accept the consequences of poor decisions.

Your hardest times often lead to greatest moments on your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.

Roy T. Bennett

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Education, leadership, skills

Learnability

A Learning Leader

The most essential skill in today’s time is learnability which is the ability to acquire knowledge efficiently and effectively and use it in a meaningful way over and over again.

We as leaders need to bring up learners who are ready to

LEARN UNLEARN RELEARN

The internet and its increasingly wide accessibility, with the high penetration rates of 4G ,5G networks and smart phones in the country, has resulted in knowledge no longer offering the competitive advantage that it once did. It is no longer a differentiator.

Knowledge has become an increasingly ubiquitous commodity, as every information is available a touch away, learnability is increasingly replacing the knowledge in every context, which once was the single most important trait that the younger student need to be inculcated in. In today’s context knowledge is a perishable commodity, what one learns today will be obsolete by a new discovery made tomorrow.

In such a fast pacing era, training children in critical thinking ought to take precedence over spoon feeding them information.

The current education philosophy was designed hundred of years ago for the purpose of retaining knowledge and information. At schools, we feed children information,we expect them to remember that information and test for accuracy at exams. In real, we actually expect our children to become walking encyclopedia memorizing tons of facts and figures. It might have worked in the past because the information once learned was valid over a long period of time but today the older generation is already struggling with the accelerated changes that happen overnight.

While knowledge and the ability to retain that knowledge is by no means completely redundant yet – but the difference between a great career and a mediocre one is often determined by learnability and the skills possessed by the person -not by his knowledge.

In the rapidly changing world, what defines our success is not what we know, but rather, our ability to learn what we don’t know. Being knowledgeable does not imply learnability but the reverse certainly holds true. One could make a child knowledgeable in a chosen field by feeding her a ton of relevant information; but she may not know how to acquire a new knowledge independently.

Give a man a fish and you him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time.

This is the high time, we need to look for an education methodology that gives importance to developing creative abilities and skills for practical life over drilling in knowledge. our educational philosophy should priorities learnability, creativity and skill development.

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Education, leadership, skills

Never give up

A Learning Leader

Butterflies are my favorite and the reason is just beyond their beauty and colors.

When you thought the world is about to close over you, it just began and life was more beautiful than ever again.

As a preschool teacher, we have been teaching the famous story of The Hungry Caterpillar for ages every year to every batch.

For those who haven’t got a chance to read this story, The gist of the story is that a tiny caterpillar is born and he starts eating a lot of food over the days which finally starts hurting his stomach being too full and when he is about to give up, he finds himself tightly bundled in his own cocoon, exhausted with pain and efforts, but he gives it a one more try and out comes a big beautiful butterfly with colorful wings flying high in the sky.

Now when we teach this story to the little learners, we have our objectives mostly defined as the child would be able to learn name of the days, numbers, counting, colors and objects etc. and if we wish to add some value education to it we would say the child will be able to learn the importance of healthy food.

But there is deeper meaning to it that I derive , butterfly’s life cycle teaches us an important lesson of life specially to the learning leaders.

A butterfly starts it’s life as a tiny caterpillar who’s only objective is to eat and eat more until it becomes full and then the same food starts hurting it so much, the caterpillar starts building a wall around it in form of cocoon as he feels it’s the end of the world, he is totally cut off from the word for days and just when he cannot bear it anymore, the cocoon starts to break and out comes a beautiful butterfly.

Had that caterpillar has given up to those walls, to the loneliness, to the pain and pressure of growing inside a limited space, he would have never seen the world and the world would have missed a marvel of nature.

So my dear friends,

Be like a butterfly, because just when we feel that the pressure, pain and agony of the world will crush us down, the beautiful dawn and a bright Sun awaits us with a beautiful beginning..

Never give up!

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