REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

SECTION 1: CLASS NOTES

SECTION 2: CRITICAL REFLECTION ON SELF-TEACHING
SECTION 3: REFLECTION NOTES ON GENERAL CLASSES

To
Prof. Kaustuv Roy

By
Mohammed Mishad K
MAE18055
CLASS NOTES
Monday, 26/08/2019
Atreyee:
made assumption of going to Lal bagh.
7th class. She made a group of four. Told to discuss about the thing you could see and compare it
with your environment. Now compare that in 2017 summer and 2019 summer.
K stops in between and told: avoid mystifying your children, avoid asking children to compare
both periods of time as it is completely an adult idea, try to avoid making groups unless there is a
well refined necessity because it is mere a waste of time.
So, the comparison task was not at all good.
Avantika:
8th grade, laws.
Law: order, to be obeyed, rules, consequences like punishment,
made group, gave a criminal scenario to discuss
K stops and says that one does not start a class, talking about law (I’m talking about law today).
You cannot address children about law like you address adults (superior ontological possibility =
talking law to children as we don’t like to follow rules). You could start with simple laws that
children follow in classrooms, bathroom, rules of clothing or their very immediate environment.
Don’t confuse the constitution with law. Laws are not part of the constitution.
A question about the intellectual power of private school students are higher. K negated and told
that what matters is the cultural capital of a child and nothing matters.
Monica:
2nd Class: introductory class
asked what all ate today, then came to tastes, then about sour and bitter, and then acid
acid: clean washroom,
acid: latin word acere meaning sour. So, we say whatever has sour taste, it is acid.
Examples: lemon, tamarind, raw mango, orange, which are natural acids.
Base: bitter in taste,
K stopped, and told that we should caution about the danger of acid.
Don’t be in a rush (here moving to base).
Friday, 30/08/2019
Chhote Lal:
6th class – moon, sun, star in hindi
number of the stars is increasing
sun is very far and we can see moon from here.
moonlight is reflected. So, we have to have a clear idea about what you are going to teach.
Deepika:
6th grade – change
started with a story (notebook covering)
changes happening everywhere
why changes are taught in science textbooks, why not in epics which is also a change. Why
should a child be bothered with it?
To teach science, we need models always like globe and torch. But before introducing the
concept, we should ask about the children’s intuition, because it needs not be proved. So, teacher
must be watchful over the children. Teaching from textbook is like throwing rice to somebody.
But we have to cook it – that is pedagogy.
The book does not tell you the ‘so what’. That thing we have to find out.
Reversibility
Elwin:
social and political life - 8th grade
connecting the school to the country
avoid going to the board first. But talk to children. The conversation would be our entry point.
Before laws, there is something like norms, which may be informal. The rules are formal,
codified norms. Also, rules should be stumbled upon. It will have a very long history.
School is not an information centre. The purpose of teaching is not information, which is in the
textbook or internet.
Friday, 06/09/2019
Himanshu:
7th (medium of instruction Hindi)
Informal talk about food and clothes. Ownership of house and other things. (Adhikar – rights).
Natural rights.
Kaustuv:
there is difference between natural rights and necessity. Neither of them is guaranteed by the
constitution.
Additional responsibility of adequate research is needed as teacher is fully trusted by the
children. No other employees are trusted by their stakeholders.
don’t do interdisciplinary teaching.
Hriday:
7th grade – MoI English.
Informal talk with breakfast. Classification of things: foods, groceries. Shops. Malls.
Kaustuv: I don’t understand the discipline he is talking about.
Jijitha:
8th class – physics
light- straight line- optical denser medium – water.
To clear every hypothesis eg: rising of coin in the water . Negate that hypothesis by showing that
coin did not rise in the water
Keep the same materials used in the activity while explaining that. Here, pencil and coin. It will
confuse the children.
Teaching is always indirect. We can give only hints at what we are going to teach. We can’t
implant something in the head of children.
Try to minimize your engagement with gadgets. don’t try to fascinate children, because children
will drawn to it.
Monday, 14/10/2019
Sukirti:
7th grade – Science
Passed a balloon and jug with half water and passed it around. She asked to tell three things we
could observe.
Classified into liquid, solid and gas and wrote on the board their characteristics.
Rigidity: the lesser the space between molecules, the more rigid they are (the assumption is that
the molecule has been taught in the previous class).
Asked five volunteers and made them stand together in order to convince the rigidity and less
rigidity.
Someone asked about the clay, which was a good question. The answer would be that the clay is
mostly mixed with water in between.
Kaustuv: The case of anesthesia should be broken.

Sunitha:
8th, science: sound
Vacuum cleaner. Increase and decrease in volume of sound.
Sound requires a medium to travel (contrasted with talking over mobile phone which does not
require a medium). don’t mistake waves with medium. Whether two mobile phones can
communicate? Kaustuv asked as example of how to make a class buzzing. (Electromagnetic
waves do not require a medium. It is not explicated well by the science). Obviously, this is not a
question to ask to 8th grade, as Kaustuv mentioned.

Tolesh:
6th std, mathematics
17 * 13 = 17 * (10+3)
6 * 5 = (6*3) + (6*2)
Its use primarily occurs with algebra
Speed is not an indicator of intelligence. It is an historical error. It originated from the
recruitment of US military personnel.