Pupils learn teaching is not easy in education celebration
Pupils turned teachers for a day to celebrate the hard work of UAE educators.
Youngsters at Gems Modern Academy in Dubai marked Teachers Day, held every September 5 in India, by offering twists on the usual lesson plan.
Grade 11 pupils at the Indian curriculum school taught younger children and used modern influences such as references to Netflix shows to get their points across.
The pupils were taking part in a three-round teaching competition named after India’s second president, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, whose birthday falls in September.
The school has been running the competition since 2001.
The pupils incorporate technology to teach the classes, which follow a lesson plan created by a teacher.
After the first round, some pupils are shortlisted for the next, and after round three, two pupils are crowned winners and their names go on the school honour board.
Principal Nargish Khambatta believes the competition “gives pupils an opportunity to get under the skin of the role of the teacher and to understand what it means to be a teacher”.
“It gives them an opportunity to come out of their comfort zones. They’re not used to speaking in front of a class,” she said.
One hundred and thirty pu- pils from Grade 11 took part in the competition this year, in which the temporary teachers don suits and traditional Indian saris.
“They teach English, mathematics, computers and science but the best lessons are in music. They teach the pupils about the history of jazz and about the Beatles,” she said.
There were no barriers to taking part – a pupil with cerebral palsy taught with the help of an education technology tool and a girl who has a hearing impairment also led lessons. Aryan Kapoor, 17, a Grade 12 pupil, won the boys’ award last year after teaching sixth-grade poetry by using rap.
“Rap is something I’m passionate about and I thought if I’m having fun, everyone else would have fun,” Aryan said.
“The experience was great but planning the lesson was hectic. It gave us an insight into what our teachers do and the stress they go through.
“When I went to the class, the children were way smarter than I expected them to be. They understood concepts like the themes of poetry in minutes. I had to improvise, otherwise my lesson would have been over very fast.”
Isha Lingawar, 16, won the girls’ competition last year. She had been looking forward to it for five years after seeing her sister participate in it.
She taught physics to Grade 7 pupils but added a twist by using a magic box to teach reflection, mirrors to hide objects and a game round to pique the interest of pupils.
Isha asked the pupils to prepare some material before the class, but only two pupils studied the portion.
“We still went through the whole lesson. It taught me the importance of homework and preparing before class,” she said.
Abhiraj Mitra, 16, taught globalisation to economics pupils in Grade 9.
“I was nervous at the beginning because I had to speak in front of 20 pupils. We used an online quiz and an animated video,” he said.
For Abhiraj, who is considering becoming an economics professor, it was important that the pupils participated actively.
Arisma Arora is passionate about biology and wanted her class to no longer have the popular opinion that biology is boring.
She used online tools and a Netflix show on genetics to explain concepts.
“We never think of how teachers have to improvise on the day because so many problems happen at the last minute,” she said.