The December issue of Gaon Connection’s monthly magazine — Teacher Connection — is out. The cover story is based on rural teachers who teach their students about environmental conservation apart from the regular academic curriculum.
The magazine is available for a free download from the website of Gaon Connection.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD E-MAGAZINE
School teachers have started to make conservation conversations a key element of every day teaching and learning process. And these teachers, many of whom are posted at village schools in far flung locations, are leading by example, notes the latest issue of the magazine.
For instance, Mohit Kumar Roy is a science teacher at a government school in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a global biodiversity hotspot. He teaches his students to map the natural resources in their villages and identify ecological rich areas for protection.
Archana Shukla, a teacher at a government school in Madhya Pradesh, has made hundreds of wooden sparrow boxes to help increase the population of the bird which was once a common visitor at our homes. Nowadays, house sparrows have almost disappeared from big cities.
For teachers and students who are keen to learn and do more about environment conservation, there is a section titled ‘Resource Room’ which is dedicated to providing useful information and free to download resources.
There is a guest column by Garima Bhatia who writes about how nature is the best teacher.
“There is a growing body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development, and improves focus, observation skills and mental health,” writes Bhatia. She is a Bengaluru based birdwatcher and photographer who heads Early Bird, a non-profit initiative to connect children with birds.
Bhatia goes on to note that “the lack of nature exposure that is an alarming aspect of modern life results in what has been called ‘nature deficit disorder’, which is linked to various childhood trends like a rise in obesity, depression and attention disorders”
Apart from stories on environmental conservation, the December edition also has stories of teachers who battled substance abuse amongst their students, ensured their good health and taught them filmmaking.
There are also reports on tribal children learning football and coding from these motivated teachers, one of whom also runs a mobile science lab for them. The Teacher Connection e-magazine has been documenting stories of educational innovations from rural areas as part of a longterm project of Gaon Connection.
The e-magazine is brought out in both Hindi and English languages.
Read previous issues of Teacher Connection magazine here.
