Ridhima Bahl
Kavita Sanghvi, Principal at MET Rishikul Vidyalaya. She is currently the Principal at MET Rishikul Vidyalaya and a teacher of STEM subjects. She has been felicitated by many honorable awards such as Global Teachers Accreditation ‘Progressive Principals’, ‘Bharat Jyoti Award’ and many more. Here’s what she has to share with you.
1. Briefly, share your teaching experience with us.
I have been teaching STEM subjects for the past 17 years beginning with a National curriculum and moving to an International curriculum a few years back. I have also been heading a school for the past many years and the position has given me opportunities to network with remarkable educators and conduct several action types of research in education. Along with teaching, my focus has been on building STEM and life skills.
My journey has been a very satisfying one and even today, I feel the excitement when I enter my class. With a national curriculum, I developed the skills of hard work, reaching out to many students at once and art of collaborating with 7 different co-teachers teaching the same subject. With an International curriculum, I developed more problem solving and critical thinking skills, used the experiential learning model to enhance my classes and ensured that the learning developed both content and skills.
2. Keeping in mind the current trends in the education sector, what are the different challenges you face as a teacher?
As a teacher, one looks forward to experiencing innovations and discoveries around the world, bringing in new technologies and teaching strategies, freedom to experiment with new projects within the classrooms. Yet we still do not have easy access to the global education classrooms to understand these educational reforms and methods to implement it.
To be actually able to do a month internship in an innovative global school and bring back the new learning is challenging as many schools and school heads are still closed to sharing.
3. What is your vision and goal in the teaching system?
With the 4th Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality around the corner, the goal is to connect STEAM to Industry so that students are prepared for the future which is highly uncertain. The World Economic Forum mentions that 65% of students entering primary school will end up in completely new jobs in the future. Keeping that in mind, have we equipped our educational systems for the new future? The vision is to offer both teachers and students regular internship in Industries so that they are ready with relevant skills for the future.
Along with academic skills, developing life skills for the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to be achieved so that quality education is not a dream but a reality for every child.
4. How can an educator make teaching effortless?
The Instructional Core by Dr. Elizabeth City from Harvard University mentions that in the classroom, the relation between the learner, content, and teacher is of utmost importance in the presence of the task. So, if the teaching-learning task has involved all the three in a meaningful way, the teaching will be effortless.
Furthermore, the bonding between the teacher and learner is primary for any learning to take place. The teacher has to believe that the learner is capable and worthy content flows easily.
5. Being a teacher, what do you do for yourself to better your purpose of existence?
As a teacher, I am an ongoing learner. I regularly take up courses to further my knowledge and build my teaching competencies. At present, I am pursuing CAEL [Certificate in Advanced course in Educational Leadership] course from Harvard University and STEM course from SCIENTIX. Recently, I completed my pisa4u learning course from OECD where my resource was appreciated as Top 6 resource from over 400 resources across the world. Apart from that, I attend workshops, conferences, and network with teachers to keep myself regularly updated with novel educational practices.
6. What are your aspirations? What do you wish to achieve and what are doing to get there?
My aspiration is to have a STEAM Coffee station wherein all passionate teachers wishing to explore new projects, teaching strategies, methodologies have an abode to create new learning. They meet like-minded people with whom they have driving intellectual talk so that pioneering ideas are shared and worked upon in their respective institutions.
At present, I am trying to connect STEM in schools. I am meeting industry personnel and passionate teachers willing to go the extra mile and see how the teaching-learning maps out.
7. What are the effective classroom management styles?
Over years, I have witnessed amazing teachers and not so amazing. The amazing teachers have displayed an authoritative management style where the teacher places limits and controls on the students but simultaneously encourages independence. She is open to discussions, varied perspectives, open to having the students lead the class while ensuring the rules of the class are clearly laid out and firm while taking difficult decisions.
8. What’s your view on co-teaching?
When two creative, collaborative dedicated teachers, teaching same or different subjects come together for teaching a particular theme or lesson, you can expect magic in the class as the content will be viewed and understood by students through all facets using a range of teaching materials.
9. Share your guidance with the other teachers of our community, Teachers of Tomorrow.
As teachers, it is important that we are lifelong learners and thus actively participate in regular PDQ’s though online and offline courses, workshops and teacher training. The global doors are much open to us now than before so explore possibilities of linking your classrooms to classrooms of the world so that both you and your students are updated for the learning and skills desired in the coming future.
