Putting Our Best Foot Forward: June 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Fun with Numbers!!

Conceptual learning- And what is that??

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” -Clay P. Bedford

Oh yeah!!It happens here.

Students try to relate everything to real life and learn with a thought “Why”??

The same thing goes with NUMBERS too.

It happened that Paul Erdos, a Hungarian mathematician was once asked “Why are numbers beautiful? “

He replied “It's like asking why Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is.”

And rejoicing these beautiful numbers is not restricted to just notebooks and calculations, but through a varied range of activities in Sancta Maria.
Have a look at our kids enjoying numbers with a “Ganith mala”, Garland of beads.

“Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting”-Gottfried Leibniz
So let’s enjoy listening to this beautiful music…

Sunday, June 26, 2011

First TAAD @ Sancta Maria

“A thing of beauty is joy for ever!” said W.B.Yeats

TAAD – The Art Appreciation Day @ Sancta Maria was conceived with this idea of celebrating beauty in any form of art.

A divine piece of painting, a spell-bound acting, the loftiest dance movements, the musical notes, the expressions, the colours, the nature itself; all remind us of the beauty of life. Our senses respond and appreciate the charms of art. Hence, the conception of TAAD @ Sancta Maria.

The first TAAD was organized on 24 June 2011 with Aparna (dance teacher) acquainting the children with the simplest of ‘mudras’ of classical dance.

We discovered that dance movements are innate to all beings and formal dancing is an improvised form of daily actions (even a traffic police dances with ‘mudras’ while giving direction!)

Unbelievably, during the session our children exhibited such enthusiasm that they were on stage with Aparna to follow her movements!

The final presentation by Aparna left everybody spell bound!

Thus ended the first TAAD @ Sancta Maria. Eagerly awaiting for the next!

Integer football game

Learn integers on the football field. Open the link below. HAVE FUN!

http://www.mathgoodies.com/games/integer_game/football.html

Teaching?

When I started teaching, my principal once said ‘teaching your subject is just a medium to communicate something else, something much more significant’.

Perhaps intuitively I could understand what he was trying to say? I could also see that when he would interact with his students, while teaching his subjects English, Math or Physics, apart from learning the subjects, students would get much more.

What is this something else? Whatever it is, it is quite a liberating feeling.

Is it knowing oneself?

It is something which connects us.

It is something that is life

Still exploring…………

Be in touch with it always.

Is it something what Albert Einstein means by Education in the following quote -

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein