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Art & Culture

A Walk into Delhi's Past

The Delhi History

Delhi is a city where the new and the ancient fit together seamlessly. Delhi has a rich past that is evident today through its amazing architecture and heritage sites, a vibrant city in which millions work and dream. The land that has seen many strong empires in the past is filled with very well preserved ancient monuments and a joy to visit.

We are exploring some of the historical monuments of Delhi that will take you back in time and help you trace this beautiful and majestic city's past.

Gurushala | 12 Nov 2020

Virtual Tour

Australia: The Land Down Under

Exploring Australia

Australia is known as 'the land Down Under' for its position in the southern hemisphere.
Australia is the smallest continent however, it is one of the largest countries on the globe. The country is an island lying between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific ocean in the southern hemisphere. The capital of Australia is Canberra however, some of the country’s more popular cities are Sydney and Melbourne. Australia is also the only continent in the world that doesn’t have an active volcano. Australia is also the second driest continent in the world after Antarctica.

Australia, aside from this, also has other names. One of the most common nicknames is The Land of Oz. Oz is a phonetic derivative of an informal reference to an Australian from the word Aussie. The greenery and the abundance, though can trick you into thinking that it is the Wizard of Oz's magical land.

Read more: Why is Australia Called Down Under?.

Gurushala | 10 Nov 2020

Wildlife

Endangered Animals

Into the Wild and Endangered

Time on planet earth is running out for certain animals. With poaching, habitat loss and the impact of climate change causing a lot of issues, human beings are the biggest threat to the survival of endangered species. Read on to learn about our support, security and conservation of some of the magnificent species most in need.

Read more: Top 10 Most Endangered Animals.

Gurushala | 06 Nov 2020

Classroom Learning

Different Types of Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking In Students

As a teacher, we always thought about how we can develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in our students. And in every classroom scenario, we know that the seating arrangement/classroom setup is playing the main role during the teaching in the classroom and seating arrangement in the classroom is an important part for the students on regular days. There should be a proper seating arrangement for learning and teaching in the classroom.

Many of these aren’t immediately reproducible in our own classroom. They may not work for your grade level or furniture or budget or content area. But we can take it as an idea, learn from it, and use it accordingly. Classroom design, classroom management, curriculum needs and technology needs are impact teaching strategies. Each one of these possibilities will only work as well as you are able to adapt the way you plan instruction and design learning experiences.

If we take a new approach, we’ll need to design with that in mind as well. And that’s where the actions and behaviours that promote thinking, interaction, study, making, collaboration, thinking alone, and so on and those help students to become independent learners.

In this article, we will be talking about the same and try to find out the answers to such questions. They’re ideas. If they are used well to solve a problem of the classroom seating arrangement, they are being used well and if they don’t, they’re not.

Here we are sharing some classroom seating arrangement ideas for the teachers:

Two Sides: We can split the classroom into ‘two sides.’ This may comprise rows, but the room is set up in halves oftentimes facing one another. This can be especially effective for Social Studies classes, or other content areas that use accountable talk as a teaching strategy.

Teacher In The Middle: In a ‘regular classroom,’ the teacher has a seat in the front of the classroom but if the teacher and their desk, will be in the middle, it changes the dynamic of the classroom quite a bit. Whether that’s an effective teaching tool or not depends on how a teacher uses it. We can try this seating arrangement as per the need of students, I think, it will help the teacher and student both when students have maximum doubts on any topic. The teacher also will be able to make eye contact with all the students.

Maker Spaces: This arrangement can be created when students learn by doing. We can give them a space with provided materials and let them create conceptual models or projects. And we know that any content area can use ‘making’ as a primary teaching and learning strategy.

Geometric Mix: This approach takes a mix of forms like rows, groups, semi-circle tables. We can create an effective setup with a combination of tables and desks that are available in our classrooms. We can use this arrangement when students are working on different topics and activities in the classrooms.

Differentiation Stations: This arrangement is based on students’ areas of differentiation like background knowledge, reading level, an individual skill, etc. When we create a group of a mixed level of students then there are more opportunities to come up to build various skills like thinking, participating, contributing and learning.

Fishbowl: Fishbowl is a strategy for organizing medium- to large-group discussions. Students are separated into an inner and outer circle. In the inner circle, or fishbowl, students will have discussions on a topic and students in the outer circle listen to the discussion and take notes. Also, they can ask questions or share their thoughts with the inner circle students. Here everyone gets an opportunity to put their voice and take a part in the discussion.

Standing Desks: Standing has proven to be an effective way to improve memory and focus, and research shows that classroom standing desks can also enhance cognitive skills and improve test scores. Students feel more alert when they're able to stand when they need to and this translates to improved focus in class.

Two Circles: Circles allow students to face one another and encourage conversation. It’s not ideal for small group work, but for direct instruction and literacy activities, it has potential. With two circles, the size is obviously reduced compared to one, giving us a bit more flexibility for classroom management.

Rotating Groups: This is less about the shape of the desks, and more about the workflow and lesson design. The idea here is to plan chapters and topics that require students to work together with different groups for different reasons, and to keep them moving, within one class.

Learning Labs: Learning labs' arrangement is to promote creativity and self-learning in the students. In this arrangement, students are standing and moving around small areas of collaborative learning space and that’s the idea of learning labs. This can be used in any content area and any grade level. Labs can be pre-created on the various subjects and give the chance to students to learn from the tools and using TLM's.

One Group Plus Two Rows: This seating arrangement can be used in any grade-level students. It promotes collaborative learning in a big group. When we want to use any interesting engagement with the whole class, we can try this setup. This setup could be useful if the majority of the class is often working on one activity or part of an activity, while the bulk of the class works on something else or doing work on the same activity. It obviously can be used collaboratively as well.

Source of images :Freepik

Yasmeen Begam | 05 Nov 2020