School Social Work and Learning Disability Newsletter - Bridge the Gap

Inside this issue

Essential features of a

Good Teacher

What is your dream

about the student?

Visible Thinking

Responsibilities and Job

Chart

School Sanitation and

Hygiene

Functional Skills

Benefits of Yoga

Open School and learning Centre

Volume 1 | Issue 8

AUGUST 2014

www.helikxopenschool.org | [email protected] | +91-98427-33318

Dear Reader,

We have reached mid way of the academic year. Summative

Assessment are completed and time for Pooja holidays.

We thank our readers for their encouraging feed backs.

Our HSSW foremost work is on Mental Health of each individual in school setting. We

completed two day workshop on Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

Our focus is to create awareness, acceptance and seek personal help when its needed. To

promote this we have designed a counselling skill certificate program, three levels

(orientation, bare foot, advance). This will help people involved in school setting to make

the work place enjoyable and deliver the desire to perform at ease.

I wish your support to this program will 'help one to help himself'.

Happy Reading!

G. Senthilkumar

From Our Chairman’s Desk

The Cover Picture Animation by Master Anbuselvem, 9 year old R4

student of Helikx Open School.

An Official NEWSLETTER of

A teacher gets good recognition and status when his stu-dents perform well in the society

Essential Features of a Good School Teacher

This is a month of September known

for Teachers Day celebrations in

schools all over India. We celebrate

it in the memory of the great teach-

er of India Dr.Radhakrishnan. He

was a teacher of philosophy and so

he knew the philosophy of teaching.

Philosophically speaking teaching is

a noble job on earth. It is a direct

human service to the disciples and

indirect service to the larger com-

munity. Teachers are supposed to

have patience for dealing with the

pupil and need to have passion for

their profession. They cannot see

the outcome of their finished prod-

ucts immediately but they can real-

ize their value of their profession

after a long run. Teaching is karma

for teachers. The ‘Gurus’ of the an-

cient India imbibed this work cul-

ture with them.

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Whether all teachers reach the status

of Guru is a question to be thought of.

Teacher teaches for examinations but

Guru teaches and preaches for

knowledge and for leading a worthy

life. So Guru is a person with all round

knowledge of science and the

knowledge of life. A teacher becomes a

mentor when he takes special interest

on the student and teaches his student

in accordance with the needs and ca-

pacities of that particular student. A

good teacher can become a mentor

and in the long run may become the

real Guru. A teacher gets good recog-

nition and status when his students

perform well in the society. Teachers

should always be aware of this. Mere

teaching for the sake of completion of

the syllabus does not result in good

teaching. A good teacher needs to take

strains in understanding the contents

of the lessons, prepare it for delivering

in the class in such a manner that even

the dry lessons are becoming easy to

comprehend by the students.

A good teacher always identify the

students with their capacity to under-

stand and do not let them down for

their inability or disability. Encourage-

ment, motivation, reinforcements,

guidance, counselling are the magic

mantras associated with good teach-

ing. Presence of mind, sense of hu-

mour and quoting apt examples en-

hance the teaching capacity of the

teachers.

Teacher-student relationship is a topic

often forgotten or misunderstood. A

good teacher’s relationship with the

students is cordial to the extent of stat-

ing it as ‘I am O.K- You are O.K’ in

their transactions. Teacher can be a

role model for life if not for teaching

profession alone. In fact, students have

to learn Emotional Intelligence from

the teachers of the class rooms.

A good teacher has to kindle the

thoughts of the students in any aspect.

It can be in the areas of the subjects

taught, or in general science or about

application of science or about the

environment or about the conditions of

the Nation. Such kinds of analytical

thinking provide food for the thought

process of the pupil. What actually

happens in the present day educational

system is something different. Teach-

ing is considered as a job than service.

We cannot find fault with the teachers.

There are so many reasons behind this

situation. They are not able to move to

the position of mentor or Guru. Leave

alone the exceptions. In such circum-

stances the target of attack for the

problematic student is the teacher.

Such students are capable of conjoin-

ing parents and school management

with them.

Here, the problem students have to be

corrected. The management and the

teachers’ awareness about the stu-

dents and their expectations have to be

brought to light. Moreover the pro-

cesses of best teaching have to be in-

culcated among the teaching communi-

ty in the name of the capacity building.

The Parent-Teacher Associations have

to be strengthened and has to be made

meaningful. These and other related

areas are the areas of School Social

Work. School Social Work is an area of

Social Work Profession which is meant

not only for counselling students but

also in improving the functioning of the

schools. School Social Work believes

that teachers are not isolated per-

sons in the educational system and

teaching is not an isolated phe-

nomenon.

By Dr.K.Muralidaran

Mentor, Helikx School Social

Work & Research Department

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What is your dream about

the student?

We all have dreams, dreams about our fu-

ture, family etc. What is your dream about the student in

classroom? Is the teacher’s task is to fill the students with

the contents of his narration? Do we need a generation

which thinks?

Learning starts with learners own ideas. Students are asked

to drawn on previous knowledge. Learning is an active pro-

cess in which learners construct new knowledge by building

on ideas they already have. When thinking becomes more

visible and apparent element in the classroom students de-

velop thinking dispositions, which in turn allow for thought-

ful and deep learning.

How can teachers make thinking visible?

Routines: students can ask to think initially, provide evi-

dence, justify with explanation, compare & connect sum-

maries, explore multiple perspectives, identify parts in a

whole, draw conclusion, hypothesize, reflect on learning

process.

Thinking ideals: Understanding truth, fairness & creativity.

They constitute the aim at which thinking is oriented. They

can be used to asses’ students’ progress

Documentation: When think is visible it can be recorded

through chart, mind maps, videos and reflections

With this issue of Bridge the Gap we are introducing Visible

thinking in classroom. Hope you will make your students to

dig a little deeper.

EDITORIAL

By Alen Kuriakose,

Trainer, HSSW

September issue of Chuttiveran Story acted out by

our students

@ media

Two Day workshop organized by Helikx School Social

Work & Research Department on Cognitive Behavior

Theraphy by Dr Chandramohan

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4

E very committed educator wants

better learning and more

thoughtful students. Visible

Thinking is a way of helping to achieve

that without a separate „thinking skills'

course or fixed lessons.

Visible Thinking is a broad and flexible

framework for enriching classroom

learning in the content areas and foster-

ing students' intellectual development at

the same time. Here are some of its key

goals:

Deeper understanding of content

Greater motivation for learning

Development of learners' thinking and

learning abilities.

Development of learners' attitudes

toward thinking and learning and

their alert- ness to opportunities for

thinking and learning (the

"dispositional" side of think- ing).

A shift in classroom culture toward a

community of enthusiastically en-

gaged thinkers and learners.

Toward achieving these goals, Visible

Thinking involves several practices and

resources. Teachers are invited to use

with their students a number of

"thinking routines" – simple protocols

for exploring ideas – around whatever

topics are important, say fractions arith-

metic, the Industrial Revolution, World

War II, the meaning of a poem, the na-

ture of democracy. Visible Thinking in-

cludes attention to four big categories of

thinking – Under- standing, Truth, Fair-

ness, and Creativity. Sometimes we call

them "thinking ideals" because they are

all ideal aspirations for good thinking

and learning. And of course there are

other thinking ideals as well. Visible

Thinking emphasizes several ways of

making students' thinking visible to

themselves and one another, so that

they can improve it.

The idea of visible thinking helps to

make concrete what a thoughtful class-

room might look like. At any moment,

we can ask, "Is thinking visible here?

Are students explaining things to one

another? Are students offering creative

ideas? Are they, and I as their teach- er,

using the language of thinking? Is there

a brainstorm about alternative interpre-

tations on the wall? Are students debat-

ing a plan?"

When the answers to questions like

these are consistently yes, students are

more likely to show interest and com-

mitment as learning unfolds in the class-

room. They find more meaning in the

subject matters and more meaningful

connections between school and every-

day life. They begin to display the sorts

of attitudes toward thinking and learn-

ing we would most like to see in young

learners – not closed-minded but open-

minded, not bored but curious, neither

gullible nor sweepingly negative but

appropriately skeptical, not satisfied

with "just the facts" but wanting to un-

derstand.

The central idea of Visible Thinking is

very simple: making thinking visible.

When thinking is visible in class- rooms,

students are in a position to be more

metacognitive, to think about their

thinking. When thinking is visible, it be-

comes clear that school is not about

memorizing content but exploring ideas.

Teachers benefit when they can see stu-

dents' thinking because misconceptions,

prior knowledge, reasoning ability, and

degrees of understanding are more like-

ly to be uncovered. Teachers can then

address these challenges and extend

students' thinking by starting from

where they are.

Reference:http://admin.kasa.org/

Professional_Development/documents/

ThinkingClassroomResourceGuide.pdf

The central idea of Visible Thinking is very simple:

Visible Thinking Compiled by– Mr. G Senthilkumar (HSSW)

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Responsibilities and Job Chart- Setting up a re-

sponsible classroom and positive learning envi-

ronment.

By Murugalakshmi Thirumalai , USA

5

I s

there

one

simple

classroom management technique

that could change a difficult student

into a more cooperative student? Yes,

there is one such tool and it is

"(Assigning) Responsibility". It is un-

believable to see a student who is

always having trouble complying with

the classroom rules is ready to be

more responsible when he is entrust-

ed with responsibility.

In each and every classroom there

will be at least one "difficult to han-

dle" student who finds it difficult to

see that he is part of the classroom

community and his participation in

the classroom in a positive manner is

important to have a whole rounded

class. Such a student's self esteem

will be way below average and might

not even respect themselves. Giving

responsibility to such a student sur-

prises them knowing the fact that

teacher believes in his/her abilities.

This gives the child an opportunity to

work hard and take pride in their pos-

itive actions. When used consistently

and fairly it helps students to become

self responsible contributors in the

classroom. But it should not be used

as disciplining tool to reward or pun-

ish a child.

One of the core character education

that has to be done during the begin-

ning of the year is "respect" respect

your own self, others( people around

you), classroom and community at

large. How could a person be respect-

ful? A responsible student who under-

stand his value as a positive contribu-

tor in the classroom will start to re-

spect himself and others. As a bonus

assigning jobs to the children helps in

smooth running of the classroom and

avoids unnecessary confusions in who

needs to do what or in deciding whose

turn it is. It also builds a strong class-

room community. During the begin-

ning of the year classroom jobs can be

given to small groups of students, this

helps them to model and learn from

each other. When the teacher thinks

the students are ready for individual

jobs then the students can be as-

signed individual jobs.

A very simple way to introduce re-

sponsibility is using "Job Chart or Re-

sponsibility Chart" in the class-

room. The visual aid helps children to

keep track of their responsibility and

their partners to do a particular job.

Teachers may also use animated

pitures for younger students, this

helps them to understand even better.

A "Responsibility Chart " could be

organized according to a teachers

necessity. First the teacher may make

a list of jobs that has to be done with-

in the classroom. For example clean-

ing the black board, organizing the

books, tidying the class by the end of

the day, teacher's assistant, gardener,

supplies monitor etc. Then the teach-

er has to make a chart of the jobs and

decide a time line until when the job

will be retained by a particular stu-

dent. After preparing the chart , the

students should be given proper ori-

entation about the jobs and their cor-

responding duties. Thus valuing each

student's role as valuable contributor

of the classroom community.

Include all the student names and

have a system to choose who needs to

do what. Assign the jobs to the stu-

dents and stick to the routine and be

consistent in the system. Make neces-

sary changes as you use the system.

In this way encouraging students to

take responsibility not only promotes

responsible students but also pro-

motes more positive learning environ-

ment where everybody respects and

takes care of each other as a commu-

nity. This results in developing social

skills and organizational skills for the

students to work together as a team

and as individual contributor for the

benefit of the entire community.

Reference: Thanks to "The Corner-

stone for Teachers Blog" for sharing

the Responsibility chart.

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@

Independence Day Celebration

Getting Ready for Maraton @ Coimbatore

Winners 5S Competition at Erode

MSW Students of Sree Krishna College of Arts and Science, Cbe visit to HSSW Department

Teachers Day Celebration in Campus Getting trained on Clay Toy Making

6

BRIDGE THE G A P

I n many countries there exists a high

prevalence of water and sanitation re-

lated diseases, causing many people,

children in particular, to fall ill or even

die. Improved hygiene practices are

essential if transmission routes of wa-

ter and sanitation related diseases are

to be cut. Whereas appropriate Hy-

giene education can bring about the

intention to change hygiene behavior,

for most hygiene behaviors appropriate

water and sanitation facilities are need-

ed to allow people to transform inten-

tion to change into real change.

Why is it important to focus on

schools?

After the family, schools are most im-

portant places of learning for children;

they have a central place in the com-

munity. Schools are a stimulating

learning environment for children and

stimulate or initiate change. If sanitary

facilities in schools are available, they

can act as a model, and teachers can

function as role models. Schools can

also influence communities through

outreach activities, since through their

students; schools are in touch with a

large proportion of the households in a

community.

Increasing students’ knowledge about

health and disease prevention should

therefore only be part of the story.

When knowledge is supported by ena-

bling and reinforcing factors, desirable

changes may occur in the school set-

ting and in the community. This stress-

es the importance of combining hy-

giene education with the construction

of water and environmental sanitation

facilities and involving the community

and health institutions in School Sani-

tation and Hygiene (SSH).

A good SSH programme is a compre-

hensive programme, including:

1. A participatory needs assessment

involving students, teachers, parents

and community members;

2. Formulation of objectives,

outputs/results and an ac-

tion plan;

3. improved water and envi-

ronmental sanitation facili-

ties;

4. Properly used and main-

tained facilities;

5. Hygiene education for students;

6. Teaching aids which build on the

practical situation in and around

schools, making students aware of the

benefits of using improved facilities in

a proper and hygienic way and the seri-

ousness of diseases that result from

poor SSH;

7. Improved facilities and hygiene edu-

cation going hand-in-hand;

8. Involvement of students in planning,

implementation and maintenance;

9. Training for technical staff and

teachers;

10. Monitoring of the programme and

its impact, with a focus on self assess-

ment.

School Sanitation and Hygiene

Mr. Jibin S Joy

School Social Worker

TALKBACK Submissions to Bridge the Gap should include the

writer’s name and address and be sent by mail to

the [email protected] or by mail to Helikx

School Social Work And Research Department 149,

Alamelu Nagar, Pagalpatty, Muthunaicken patty

Road, Salem - 636304. +91-9842733318

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BRIDGE THE G A P

F unctional skills are abilities

that can be applied by the

individual in everyday life

situations. There are a wide range of

teaching approaches to functional

skills. In the case of young children,

the teaching of these skills can be

offered as a specific module. Never-

theless, these skills are also being

taught in four other ways. Functional

skills are all those skills a student

needs in order to live independently.

It helps special needed students to

gain independence and autonomy .

The highest goal for such students is

Self Determination.

Skills are defined as functional as

long as the outcome supports the

student's independence and to feed

themselves.

Life Skills

Academic Functional Skills

Community Based Learning

Social Skills

Life Skills

The most basic of functional

skills are those skills that we

usually acquire in the first few

years of life: walking, self feed-

ing, self hygiene, making simple

requests. Students with develop-

mental disabilities and signifi-

cant cognitive or multiple disa-

bilities, often need to have these

skills taught through breaking

them down, modeling them and

the use of Applied Behavior

Analysis.

Academic Skills

Living independently requires some

skills which are considered academic,

even if they do not lead to higher edu-

cation, or even completion of a regu-

lar diploma. Those skills include:

Math Skills The functional math skills

include telling time, counting and

using money, measurement and un-

derstanding volume. For higher func-

tioning students, they will expend to

vocationally oriented skills, such as

making change or following a sched-

ule.

Language Arts. Reading begins as

simply as recognizing symbols, mov-

ing on to reading signs and moves on

to reading directions. For many stu-

dents with disabilities, they may need

to have reading texts supported with

tapes or adults reading. Still, in order

to read a bus schedule, a sign in the

bathroom or directions a student with

disabilities gains independence by

learning to read.

Community Based Instruction

The skills a student needs to succeed

independently out in the community

often have to be taught in the commu-

nity. These skills include using public

transportation, shopping, making

choice in restaurants, crossing streets

at crosswalks. Too often their par-

ents, with the desire to protect their

disabled children, over-function for

their children and unknowingly stand

in the way of giving their children the

skills they need.

Social Skills

Social skills are usually modeled, but

for many students with disabilities

they need to be carefully and consist-

ently taught. In order to function in

the community, students need to un-

derstand how to interact appropriate-

ly with different members of the com-

munity, not only peers and teachers.

For the success of this approach

teachers have to work closely togeth-

er to establish the links between spe-

cific subjects and the functional skills

to be taught. The study of functional

skills in classroom is a very signifi-

cant, as it provide the most basic and

fundamental skills that school chil-

dren and young students will later

use in life during a wide range of eve-

ryday life situations, both in their

professional and personal skills.

Functional Skills

Mrs. P.V Ananthalakshmi, Principal Helikx Open School

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I f you thought yoga

is just for those

interested in slow

and boring movements you are quite

wrong. Yoga can actually help you

deal with a variety of issues.

It’s a total body workout: Working

out has now become synonymous with

huffing and puffing away at the gym.

But that is not necessarily the only

way to workout. Yoga gives you all

that a gym can but in a peaceful, safe

and more holistic way. The best part

about this workout is that it can be

done at your pace and combines car-

dio, functional and strength training

all in one.

It will help you master breathing

properly: When you perform any

pose in yoga, you are taught to

breathe in and out with a certain pace

and manner. This repeated and con-

trolled breathing helps supply a large

amount of fresh oxygen to all parts of

your body. Considering oxygen is the

one thing that is required in abun-

dance while working out, yoga gives

your body and muscles all they need

to become healthy and toned. Moreo-

ver all the breathing increases your

lung capacity, prevents the onset of

cramps, gives you a natural glow and

helps your entire body work optimally.

It will calm your mind: Yoga de-

mands that the practitioner concen-

trate and focus on what their body is

telling them – to notice their breathing

pattern, concentrate on any aches and

pains they might feel and calm the

mind to simply concentrate on them-

selves. Moreover, this entire practice

does not over stimulate the body and

mind – making you calmer and more

poised.

It will improve your flexibility: Ever

wanted to touch your toes with your

fingers without bending your knees?

Well, yoga can help with that. The

practice of yoga helps the body gently

regain its flexibility by stretching out

the muscles of various areas without

causing any harm to them.

It’s a great stress buster : Stress is

usually thought of as an innocuous

condition that can be ignored, but it

can actually wreak havoc on your

body. Apart from releasing harmful

free radicals, it also damages the

body’s immunity and leaves you tired

and irritable. Here’s where yoga

comes into the picture. Not only does

it help calm the mind but also helps

beat the ill effects of free radicals and

helps build your immunity.

It will boost your immunity : A re-

cent Norwegian study found that yo-

ga actually affects the way your body

reacts to attacks on your immune sys-

tem. It stimulates changes in gene

expression and boosts your immunity

at the cellular level.

It will help you improve your pos-

ture: Suffering from a nagging back

pain? Or maybe just aching all over

due to walking all day? Well, your pos-

ture may be to blame and yoga can

help you correct that. A bad posture is

partly due to bad habits and weak

muscles. Yoga helps stretch and tone

muscles all over the body, making

them stronger which in turn gives you

better posture.

And also help you sleep better: . A

study performed in the Brigham and

Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical

School found that the regular practice

of yoga helped chronic insomniacs

deal with the disease. It helped im-

prove their sleep patterns – helping

them sleep better, stay awake during

the day and made them feel more

energetic

Referance:www.thehealthsite.com/

By Ms Jainy John,

Helikx School Social Worker

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BRIDGE THE G A P

Art by Karthikeyan 2013-14 X batch

Art by A.N Arvinth of X th Creativity by Prasana Yogeshwaran of IXth

Snap by Hariprasad 2013-14 X standard student Creativity by Braneeshwaran of IXth

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