REDEFINING THE ROLE OF A TEACHER

Here are few worlds i wrote for my college magazine 'Roots & Wings'. I feel glad to post the same on the blog. the following holds true for a science teacher too...

Redefining the Role of a Teacher
There are many professions that deal with humans and human relationships but the Teaching profession is the only one that deals with humans who are the future of the country. Thus, it is very rightly said that ‘The future of the country lies in the hands of a Teacher.’ According to Mahatma Gandhi, “Parents and teachers have to play a cardinal role in the building up of the character of the next generation.” No other personality can have an influence more profound than that of a teacher. Students are deeply impressed by the teacher's love and affection, his character, his competence, and his moral commitment. A popular teacher becomes a model for his students. The students try to follow their teacher in his manners, costumes, etiquette, style of conversation and his get up. He is their ideal. He can lead them anywhere. A teacher today needs to realize that he/ she can mould the learners to be good humans and global citizens.

Societal changes are putting new pressures on teachers and schools, including the need to meet the academic needs of Indigenous and other students with markedly differing cultural, social and economic backgrounds. Thus the teacher’s role is changed from being a sage on the stage to a facilitator. The Information and Communication Technology is an effective tool that helps the teacher address individual differences and knowledge explosion but at the same time has influenced the teaching styles and learning styles making the teaching profession more challenging!

A LETTER- ALL MUST READ!

ABRAHAM LINCOLN's LETTER TO HEADMASTER

A letter written by Abraham Lincoln to the Headmaster of a school in which his son was studying. It contains an advice, which is still relevant today for executives, workers, teachers, parents and students.
A WORD TO TEACHERS"He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just and are not true. But teach him if you can, the wonder of books.. but also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hillside.In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fall than to cheat.....Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is wrong.Teach him to be gentle with gentlepeople and tough with the tough.Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone getting on the bandwagon...Teach him to listen to all men; but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad... Teach him there is no shame in tears.Teach him to scoff at cynics and to be beware of too much sweetness.. Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to highest bidders, but never to put a price on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob.. and stand and fight if thinks he is right.Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient.. Let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have faith in humankind.This is a big order, but see what you can do. . He is such a fine little fellow my son!- Abraham Lincoln"

MISCONCEPTION IN SCIENCE

Air is weightless
No.We are not conscious of air's weight because we are immersed within it. In the same way, even a large bag of water seems weightless when it is immersed in a water tank. The bag of water in the tank is supported by buoyancy. In a similar way, buoyancy from the atmosphere makes a bag of air seem weightless when it's surrounded by air. One way to discover the real weight of air would be to take a bag of air into a vacuum chamber. Another way is to weigh a pressurized and an unpressurized football. A cubic meter of air at sea-level pressure and 0C temperature has a mass of 1.2KG. The non-metric rule of thumb says that the air that would fill a bathtub weighs about one pound. Here's a simple way to detect the mass of air even though the air seems weightless: open an umbrella, wiggle it slightly forwards and back, then close it and wiggle it again. When you wiggle it when open, you can feel its increased mass because of the air the umbrella must carry with it. (Ah, but then we must explain the difference between weight and mass!)