A group of students from classes IV to X in a city school are taking classes for children a year junior to them in the same institution. Authorities thought this exercise would help the students focus because many are still unable to cope with in-person classes.
Teachers at Julien Day School Ganganagar have selected 10 students from each class to teach their juniors.
The students are taking classes once a week but are preparing for the lessons. They are getting an idea of the kind of effort their teachers put in to teach and manage the class, teachers said.
“After two years of online classes, children have become restless and their attention span is limited. But with this peer teaching, we noticed they are trying to focus. It is diverting their energy in a more positive way,” said Bobby Baxter, principal of the school.
The mentor programme is open to all the students, he said.
“When students see their peers taking a class, it is motivating them to do so as well. They are approaching their teachers with an interest to be the mentors,” Baxter said.
The teachers select the mentor, discuss the lesson plan with them, which the students prepare and teach in the presence of the teacher.
Teachers have noticed that the exercise is helping build peer bonding amongst students, too, something that had been lost in the last two years
Sourced by The TelegraphThe impact of two years of online classes is still showing across campuses where a large section of students are unable to concentrate for long in classrooms. Teachers across campuses are facing complaints like students being unable to sit straight for long or not being able to focus on what is being taught in class.
The teacher’s role has become more challenging now. In addition to teaching, she now has to manage the class under very different circumstances with more students being undisciplined, the heads of many schools said.
“Children have started to value the efforts put in by the teacher with the mentorship programme.
The same children who would play truant in class are either listening attentively or even teaching,” said Tuli Dasgupta, a biology teacher at the school.
“The class listens to the student when he or she is teaching because it is something new and exciting for them,” she said.
Chaiti Sur, another teacher at the school, said that the children have been preparing for the lessons before coming to teach a class.
“During an interaction in the classroom, they do not want to look blank. So, they are preparing for a lesson,” Sur said.
Teachers have noticed that the exercise is helping build peer bonding amongst students, too, something that had been lost in the last two years.
“There was not much scope for interaction between the junior and the senior classes. This is helping students to bond with each other, all of which is part of schooling,” said Baxter.
