We were invited by the management of St. Mary’s Public School, Rajkot to introduce teachers to new & innovative teaching methodologies. The Principal, Fr. James, hoped that the teachers would start implementing these methodologies and make the classroom very exciting for the students.

The teachers comprised newcomers to people who had about a decade’s experience in teaching. They were an extremely warm and friendly bunch and eager to learn. Three of us, Sibu Vaz, C.N.Soundarya and Rajesh.P.I conducted the sessions. We guided the teachers with a couple of introductory theatre games that were focused in getting them to shed their inhibitions and build a level of mutual trust with their fellow participants. Then we moved onto teaching methodology specific exercises.

 Teachers experienced the exercises first hand and then worked together in groups to see how they could implement them in their classroom. The results were very encouraging. We could see that there was considerable progress in their thinking. Various material were given to them to aid them in the classroom. This was followed by a demonstration session where they were asked to demonstrate the new methodologies vis-a-vis their subject in the classroom. Constructive feedback was given to enable them to learn from their experience and to be more effective in the classroom.