Department Of Elementary Education

Annual Academic Meet : SEHAR

This year’s annual academic meet, ‘SEHAR’ was held on February 16 on the theme “Happiness in Indian Classrooms”. The Annual meet began with three pre-events. “It stands stamped” was the first event, where students drew the logo of this year’s SEHAR which was symbolic of happiness. The second activity was a “flash mob”, where students presented a happy classroom through their dance and song performances. In the last pre-event of the fest, doodle corners were set up at different spaces in college, with prompts like “What made you smile today?”, “What means the most to you and why?” and “Who means the most to you and why?”, for students to doodle and pour their thoughts on the recycled doodling sheets.

The day of SEHAR was marked by our chief guest Dr. Anil Teotia, Principal, DIET Dilshad Garden, SCERT,  Delhi with an introduction to Happiness, its meaning, sources and the Delhi Government’s Happiness curriculum; its structure, implementation and outcome. This introduction was followed by a panel discussion where school teachers, practitioners, curriculum designers, headmasters, headmistresses, principals and school leaders, from different schools shared their perspective, suggestions and their school’s best practices on creating happy classrooms.

These insights into happy classrooms were delved further by two parallel workshops, “Integrating Mindfulness Curriculum in the Indian Education System”, by Dr. Soamya Arora from MindOn, and “Social-Emotional Learning Integrated Classrooms”, by Ms. Aashna Taneja and Ms. Priti from Labhya Foundation”. The first workshop helped student-teachers in understanding management of feelings, emotions and role as prospective teachers to integrate mindfulness in their classes. The second workshop helped the student-teachers to strengthen their understanding of the importance of social-emotional learning in a child’s development, understand the different aspects and dimensions of a classroom as well as the various challenges that needed to be catered to, along with numerous strategies to implement an integrated SEL approach during the teaching-learning process.

Various student activities such as Tell-a-Tale (the narrative competition of Humorous stories), Imagination Unleashed (Poster making competition on Happy Classrooms), Unboxing the Black Box (Activity designing competition) and Outlook: From Conception to Conviction (participatory Forum theatre) were organised by the Department where students from other B.El.Ed. colleges of  Delhi University participated.

An exhibition was set by the department to exhibit some exceptional teaching learning materials, reflections, projects and assignments made by our students. A post box was also placed in the exhibition hall where everyone from the college could write and post gratitude postcards to their source of happiness. The postcards were sent to their loved ones through emails and posts after the fest. The National Book Trust, our knowledge partner, also put a stall in the exhibition hall and sponsored prizes for the three competitive activities. The students were parallelly engaged in the Doodling Corner and Caption the Picture, a continued activity from one of the pre-events. The event ended with the valedictory ceremony and prize distribution.

 National Seminar on NEP 2020

The Department of Elementary Education at Lady Shri Ram College for Women organised a two-day National Seminar on the National Education Policy 2020, which was sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research. The seminar was held on 29th and 31st, March, 2023 under the able guidance of our Principal, Prof. Suman Sharma and the Convener of the seminar, Dr. Tripti Bassi. The seminar witnessed the participation of almost 30 eminent personalities in the field of education from all across the country. Furthermore, it provided a forum for critical discussion and reflection on the future implementation of the New Education Policy, 2020. During the conference, several experts shared their views on the policy and its implications for different areas of education. In the critical discussions, topics like the objective of fostering rationality, creativity, and critical thinking among students, the importance of focusing on foundational literacy and numeracy, the impact of an adverse childhood environment on learning and advocating for a ‘pedagogy of care’, indigenous systems of education and educational technology, its focus on historically marginalised children and the policy’s lack of attention to gender discourse. Emphasis was made on the need to identify the education agenda espoused in the policy, integrate different social classes in the school system while embracing diversity, multiplicity, and plurality in Indian classrooms, and to use social sciences as a tool to develop critical thinking and understand the nuances of the social world. It was argued that all policies should be viewed as expressions of people’s aspirations, thereby emphasising their relevance. There are currently several issues plaguing the higher education system. They include disciplines working in silos, inadequate funding, a lack of leadership development, and the need to carefully examine the recommendations contained in the policy concerning multidisciplinary universities, national research foundations, and autonomous higher education institutions.

Great diligence and dedicated effort from students resulted in the seminar’s successful conclusion on day two, adding to the department’s accomplishments and pride.

Lectures and talks

Samvaad

This meet was an initiative of receiving reviews related to the course as it collaborates with various schools in Delhi and reviving the bonds of how beautifully the college combined with schools during this pandemic and covid era to bring technological revolution. It was a fruitful discussion filled with practical yet hopeful ideas, suggestions, appreciations, questions regarding the curriculum, its having and the idea of students as “co-learners” was appreciated. Principals, teachers and headmasters of various schools participated in the meet and gave the collaboration system a beautiful outcome.

Link for pics

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sV1mz1CWKgdn5_OIHDCXgr7EFgoT5yAu?usp=drive_link

The Environment week was celebrated in the college in the first week of March. Being the first offline event, after the long period of lockdown due to the pandemic, the enthusiasm was exceptionally high. The B.El.Ed Department contributed immensely by working on the maximum number of boards, using recycled materials, to pass on messages of sustainability. The volunteers also made puppets, to depict the Chipko movement.

To welcome the new students, both formal and informal orientations were organised by the Union with the help of core team members and volunteers from the student body. 

On 14^th November, 2021, the Department collaborated with some organizations like Peepul and Teach for India and invited children registered with these organisations on the Google Meet platform for some art and craft activities like cap and puppet making, using newspaper and reusing other available material. The fun activity was enjoyed both by the students and the teachers.  To take a break from the hectic schedules and spend some fun time together an online informal event, the Scribble was organized on 21^st October, 2021.

Since teacher education is the main thrust of the Department, both National and International Teachers’ Day was celebrated with online games and quizzes, song and dance organized by the students on 5^th September and 5^th October, respectively.  On 8^th August , 2021, the Union had their inaugural GBM. The GBM was preceded by an informal event called ‘Sunday Funday’. The GBM highlighted the union’s goal for the coming term and provided an open platform for discussions, suggestions and concerns, if any. To enhance the integrity in decision making, the duties and responsibilities of the core teams, as well as the criteria for team selection was outlined in depth. The session was followed up by some dance videos compiled by students.

https://ncte.gov.in/website/index.aspx

President : Divya Gautam
Email : divyagautam1511@gmail.com

General Secretary : Ayushi Sinha
Email : ayushisinha.090203@gmail.com

Treasurer : Kanan Bariya
Email : kananbariya28@gmail.com

Sehar Newsletter 2021-2022