Ways of creating a healthy, happy, and productive school environment

How do we better engender a healthy, happy, and productive school environment where both teachers and students can flourish?

Rashmi Kathuria, Kulachi Hansraj Model School

This months blog is so interesting and relevant to current scenarios of unhealthy and deteriorating school education. Before I share here the ideas of creating a healthy, happy and productive school environment where both teachers and students can flourish, I would like to put some light on what do we mean by healthy, happy and productive school environment?

A place wherein teachers and students get ample opportunities to know their potential and learn to evolve as a self dependent better human being.
An environment in which a teacher is a facilitator who owns the responsibility of self professional development happily as per the current needs of students.
A place wherein a student acquire skills of living a life and serving the community along with content and knowledge.
A place wherein we see an ecosystem of prospering individuals becoming responsible global citizens.
A place where a child wants to come and hone skills for life.

What I believe as a teacher is that every child should get to know about his/her best potential in early years of life that is during school education years.

Motivated teachers act like mentors. Happy teachers are like spark generators in life of children. A positive dynamic school leader makes a difference. The mind set of a leader can create or develop a healthy and happy learning environment.

1. Students appreciation at every step can help a child evolve as a better person. There should not be any comparison of a child with any other. Self esteem, confidence and other traits are developed with appreciation.

2. Students should not be labelled as slow learners, poor achievers. Academics is not just all. Other co scholastic accomplishments are also important for running a successful and healthy life.

3. Students should be given ample opportunities to explore, learn, collaborate and share. Latest tools and techniques can be used for helping them learn in a better and enjoyable way. Use of technology is one way to make students learn at their own pace.

4. Participation in inter school events help students enhance variety of skills.

5. As per my experience, along with teaching of subjects students should be given experience of working on real life projects for enhancing skills namely creativity, critical thinking, communication, entrepreneurial skills etc. You may visit (http://ift.tt/29RBxq7) to see how students develop entrepreneurial skills.

Regarding teachers, they should be given a professional development period in their time table for enhancing their skills as per the need of hour.

Motivation in terms of giving them subsidised internet facility, certification vouchers etc can be given.

Teachers also need appreciation for their good work.

Thoughts by Ms. Rakhi Choudhary, DAYANAND PUBLIC SCHOOL,JAMSHEDPUR

There are many components that go into making a healthy, happy, learning environment for students. Positive learning environment should offer a climate of safety, there is open authentic conversation, trust and respect are fostered, and positive interaction is the norm.

Teacher-Student Workshops should be organized once in a month if possible. The student look forward to their teachers for inspiration and it's very important for them to know and understand their teachers.Students,at the same time will also be able to extract ideas of their teachers to present them in another way, ornamented with their creativity.
Students should be taught with more interesting ideas and with humor. Students who are interested in the material that what is going on in the class will be less likely to cause any disruption, as their attention will be focused on their lesson.
Also, Creating a positive environment where there is laughter and happiness is key into keep students interested and engaged in their work, and more likely to comply with any rules.

As students of 21st century,wants to utilize the technical recourses to the fullest. We should try to make skills as important as knowledge. Innovation and 21st century skills are closely related. 21st century skills such as collaboration or critical thinking, use of technical resources such as Internet (Use of search engines like: Google) can help. Incorporating them into lessons shall further helps students and would result in a productive school environment.
Use of thinking tools and several creativity tools related to the topics should be used. If explanation is synchronized with these tools, for sure teaching would be a fun, so will be studying.

Confidence boost has always been very important for teachers as well as the students. Failures are obvious but moral should always be high, whether it be a teacher or a student. So it is necessary for us to make Student-Teacher Teams rather than making Groups. Group work is common but teamwork is rare. If this system is implemented, for sure we can hope for the best.
Teacher-student ratio should be 1:20,to maximize the learning and to creating a positive environment.

Also we need to do something unorthodox. If we want an environment where both teachers and students can flourish, we should adopt the educational system that has no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions, apart from one exam at the end of students year in high school.

Thoughts by Ms. Shaily Chawla, DL DAV, Pitampura

Positive, productive learning environments are key to students' academic, emotional and social success in school and these don't just happen on their own, but must be created. Teachers also need positive and productive environment, to grow and develop professionally, upgrade themselves according to the changing times and be able to bring the best learning outcomes, in and out of the classroom. There are many components that go into making a positive learning environment for students as well as teachers.

Training the heart and mind, by heart and mind needs to be emphasized to create a positive learning environment at schools.
Today, there is a heightened awareness of, and commitment to, personalised and differentiated learning and support for every student to succeed. In this context, our understanding of wellbeing needs to be contemporary and forward-focussed.
Student-teacher wellbeing is enhanced when schools connect with and draw on the expertise, contribution and support of their communities. Community engagement maximises how students and teachers connect, succeed and thrive.
Positive relationships foster connectedness and feelings of belonging and are essential for healthy and productive living. These relationships are characterised by constructive interactions that provide enthusiastic and genuine support. They are important because they help us to build social and emotional skills and in turn nurture other positive, caring and respectful relationships.
Learning occurs more effectively in the context of positive emotions. Enjoyment broadens a person’s ability to think creatively, be innovative and to problem solve more effectively.
Development and personal growth can lead to greater satisfaction with life, more confidence and self-efficacy and greater feelings of resilience, health and happiness. Hence schools need to focus on giving learners and teachers, voice, being active learners and developing strong character qualities that will enable them to succeed, thrive and contribute positively throughout life.

To summarize- respect, value, encouragement, support and empowerment to succeed are the keys to engender a healthy, happy, and productive school environment where both teachers and students can flourish

from Mathematics Learning http://ift.tt/2ehsSlr