Aruna Thappa’s Amazing Story of
Transformation
Can one be blessed with a power of
teaching? Aruna Thappa tells us an amazing story of her transformation as a
Mount Litera Zee School Teacher.
“Before joining Mount Litera Zee
School, I worked with many reputed schools. I won many awards. The perks were
high, my seniors and students were very happy with me, but as a teacher I
wanted to do something different. I was not satisfied and missed something. I
wanted to explore my creativity, my innovative method of teaching. Sadly, my
hands were tied. I couldn’t do anything as I had to follow the structured
method of the school’s methodology.”
Ever so
often, we are shackled by the chains of tradition, when it comes to our
children. Since children are our most precious possession, it is only natural
we don’t want anything to go wrong in the way they are brought up. And thus, we
rely on traditions. A bit too much sometimes, for our own good.
But there
are some creative souls out there, like our teacher Aruna Thappa, who is slowly
changing the way things work in a teacher-pupil relationship. When she came to
Mount Litera Zee School, she could feel the palpable difference between the
attitudes of children here.
“I shifted to HSR layout and joined
MLZS in 2011 and this turned out to be the best decision of my life. I hadn’t
imagined a school where students were so excited to attend the classes. They
had a desire to work on projects and research, plus had no issues staying back
after school or on weekends. There were no discipline problems here because the
students were so engaged in their studies and activities that those problems
disappeared. I was very impressed with their vision- ‘To help each child to
realize their true potential” and “To create 21st century leaders.”
Here Aruna
had to actually unlearn a lot of traditional approaches to teaching. Her
previous 10 years as a teacher amounted to zilch. She carefully started
polishing her inherent creativity and started seeing the uniqueness of each
child. She developed ways to cater to each one of her differently talented
children in the short 40 minutes of her period.
“Learning mathematics by doing activities is fun filled.
Once I started infusing my classes with these frequent doses of interactivity,
there was genuine joy in learning. Lots of brain storming questions, quiz,
role-plays and hands on activities make our classes so alive. I uploaded their lessons videos on you tube,
so that they can access it from anywhere"
Suddenly,
completion of syllabus didn’t matter as much as it used to. Her children were
already racing towards that goal without her having to rush it.
“At the core of everything we do at
MLZS is one simple question - What’s Right for the Child? Using this mantra
we filter all our decisions and actions. WRFC helps us to keep child at the
centre of everything we do.”
Learning
happens best when it is connected to the real world we live in. Emerging
student profile (ESP) is our goal and our promise. It has 3 main faculties: Core
values, Knowledge and Life skills. Core values function as the foundation of
leadership. Our student’s role models these values:
·
Integrity
·
Open
Mindedness
·
Authenticity
·
Humility
·
Growth
Mindset
·
Compassion
In MLZS,
Knowledge goes beyond the traditional boundaries of academic learning. Our
students gained knowledge in:
·
Higher
order thinking skills
·
Sports
·
Art
·
Entrepreneurship
·
Finance
Life skills
are critical to lead life powerfully. Our students emerged out of school with
the following life skills:
·
Effective
habits
·
Media
literacy
·
Aesthetic
sense
·
Meta-cognition
·
Risk
taking
·
Self-Management
To achieve
ESP we have eight dimension approaches, through our model “Litera Octave”
·
Litera
content
·
Litera
teacher
·
Litera
assessment
·
Litera
parents
·
Litera
enrichment
·
Litera
life skills
·
Litera
network
·
Litera
Infra
Aruna
underwent training in our in-house workshops which helped her hone her
creativity and pass it onto the students. Today, she is no longer a tutor. She
is a facilitator who ensures that she keeps the joy of learning alive in her
children, thereby turning them into life-long learners.
“As a Zee school teacher, yes I am
very different. We may have the same eyes but I use mine differently, to see no
one is left unattended in my class. We may have the same heart but I use mine
differently, because I am teaching children not machines. I’m different because
I do things differently. I am not motivated by money and position, my best
rewards are their unconditional love and respect. I may stand out differently
because I salute my duty rather than saluting others. Yes, I am different but I
love it and I love being different.
My achievements may not appeal to
some- but for me those are my strengths. It gives me an adrenaline rush- and
makes me feel worthwhile. I’m a heroine to the kids I’ve taught or am teaching.
The greatest thing I’ve ever done.”
-Aruna
Thappa
Aruna Thapa, has been with MLZS South since four years. She teaches mathematics to grade V.
Aruna – in her own words – “Being confident and passionate towards teaching is the key to my life. I always believe, don’t be afraid to be you! Create your own visual style, let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
I inspire my students to follow their dreams, discover their creativity, interests and talents, and learn to their fullest potential. My purpose is not to create students of my own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.
I always follow Mr. Kalam words “If you salute your duty, you no need to salute anybody, but if you pollute your duty, you have to salute everyone.”