Capacity Building Programme – Happy Classrooms organised with teachers under the aegis of CBSE
A one day insightful Capacity Building Program on “Happy Classroom” was organized in DPS Srinagar on June 21st, under the aegis of Central Board of Secondary Education. The resource people for the workshop were Ms. Kalpana Kapoor and Dr. Vandna Shahi. The emphasis of this workshop was on creating happy classrooms and working with unbridled enthusiasm. The main focus of the workshop was to ‘Share ideas and strategies about making a classroom happy’.
The workshop aimed at providing an insight for creating ‘happy classrooms’. This was done by sharing different strategies and activities which can be of great help to foster a congenial learning atmosphere. A few important ones were Know Your Child (KYC), Understanding Emotional Intelligence which includes, Personal Competence: self-management and self-awareness and Social Competence: social awareness and relationship management.
The resource people opined that the purpose of education is to create happy individuals and happiness in classroom will definitely help to enhance the learning experience of students. Therefore, in happy classroom, the teacher not only encourages knowledge but at the same time paves way for interactive and experiential learning. Enjoyment of learning motivates students to increase self-efficacy.
The teachers were asked to state their perspectives on various situations, explore “self”, work on self-awareness, learn self-regulation, time management, achieve social competence and learn relationship management through various interactive activities which helped the teachers remain actively involved in the session.
It was stressed that though negative emotions are a significant part of our lives, but teachers must learn to cope with them. Well-being of a teacher also plays a key role in a successful classroom.
She averred that during situations that trigger emotions, one must exercise the STOPP technique which helps one to respond rather react. The technique involves five steps –
(1) S- Stop or pause for a moment, (2) T – Take a deep breath, (3) O- Observe your thoughts, (4) P – Pull Back and put in some perspective, and (5) P – Practice (what works & proceed).
The Resource Persons provided the participants with an insight on Managing stressful situations, Creating a balance in their personal and professional fields and Taking care of their physical and psychological well-being. All the participants felt overwhelmed and participated actively in all the self- awareness and self-reflection exercises, group discussions and activities. They also shared their first hand professional experiences and enhanced the concept of learning from each other. The teachers were motivated to work on the happiness score and ponder over the areas which required attention and improvement.
