Humility and Appreciation - Mridula Ranjit and Roopa Bhattacharya

HUMILITY
The students discuss the value of humility. The students are encouraged to come up with what
their take on humility is....inputs from teacher ranges from thinking not too high of oneself to
thinking highly about others, and having patience in listening to others' viewpoints to show empathy for everyone's view.

Then students are divided into 5 groups of 8 students each. The students first name their group. Then they make a story to bring out 'humility'. They are given a fixed amount of time, after which each group gets to present the story. The teacher ensures that all students participate. She provides each group understanding of the activity. The creativity of children in story weaving was noteworthy. 

One story that came up involved a rich man who was stranded on the street due to a flat tyre. And who helps him but a cobbler. The novelty in stories ensured the engagement of children.

The impact is that children are engaged and actually talk about the subject with feelings and passion. Another observation is that when activity on one value is done, it automatically encompasses many other matters. The satisfaction of a deal being talked about, discussed, narrated and even acted out is a big takeaway for the teacher.

APPRECIATION
The activity starts with the teacher appreciating the class. Then the class discusses the impact of
appreciation and why it is essential to appreciate. The teacher steers the discussion to discuss
points like appreciation brings in happiness, and the quality appreciated is reinforced.

Next, the student's attention is brought to genuine appreciation and honest appreciation. They discuss how dishonest appreciation breaks trust. (we again observe values cannot be compartmentalized). The students are asked to find a word or sentence of appreciation for their partner, preferably starting with the first alphabet of their names. They say the words of appreciation in front of the whole class.

Our primary children usually complain a lot about their classmates. It was observed that after this activity if the students started to complain, the teacher would immediately remind them to first think of what they had said about their partner. This significantly reduced the complaints among the students.

The teacher's takeaway was the increase in happiness in the class.

Mridula Renjit
Roopa Bhattacharyya
Ahlcon Public School 

JOL Cohort 2022