Date: Sep 10–13, 2014 Place: Sri Aurobindo School of Integral Education, Chandigarh
India Council for Integral Education (ICIE) organized a workshop for 3 days for teachers of Sri Aurobindo School of Integral Education, Chandigarh, from 10-13 September 2014.
Workshop facilitator – Monica Kochar
The workshop had 3 themes:
1. Integral life
2. Integral educator
3. Maths education under Integral education
Integral life is a life where there is integration between goals and the activities of life. To bring home this idea, activities were organized where teachers explored important goals for them and quality time spent on each and also created a future self where they lived their goals. The purpose of these activities to help them reflect and value the goals that direct their lives. Through this, very deftly, the discussion was taken to ‘inner growth’ as a goal for those who wish for it and the qualities that are needed to realize it. The sessions were interspersed with simple meditations for mindfulness and peace that were appreciated by most. Teachers came for individual discussions subsequently to discuss their goals and practical strategies to meet them.
Integral educator is an educator that designs his/her classes as against a subject expert who delivers the curriculum! Keeping this in mind, participants were given some qualities of an integral educator and were asked, alone and in groups, to reflect on their lessons with them as a lens. They also worked on implementation of many methods of teaching in their classes in subject groups. The 3 principles of education by Sri Aurobindo were linked with practical ideas wherever possible.
Maths classroom with a focus for designing lessons was taken up. Teachers worked as students on many methods that can be introduced in the classes and then together analysed them as teachers. The methods focused on were:
a) Strengthening maths through use of English language
b) Flip the class using web based material
c) Projects – task sheets and rubrics
d) Use of different settings in class
e) Pair- share as an ongoing strategy in the class
Documentation of lesson plans was looked through and suggestions were given to the school head for enhancement.
Some of the Feedbacks by the participants:
“We didn’t feel the loss of Saturday holiday”
“Many practical and doable ideas”
“My soul needed something and the IE workshop have it”
“The ‘peace’ meditation was amazing”
“Inspired to grow”
“A very refreshing approach to IE”
“Neither very mental nor frivolous. Just the right dose that we needed.”
“Thank you for providing us opportunity to attend such a good and valuable workshop conducted by Monika Ma’am. … With this workshop we learnt about variety of teaching skills, some of which we already use and the rest we will surely incorporate in our present teaching. Learning about relationship with students, others and ourselves with the aid of meditation and techniques such as project work was a great experience. It was a very interesting and knowledgeable workshop which helped us not only in professional growth but also personal elevation. Exposure to new useful websites both for students and teachers was another keen prospect of the workshop.”