Learning lessons will not be the same for the 262 students of the Coimbatore Corporation Elementary School, Selvapuram North. In the next few days, the students of classes I to V will have more visual elements accompanying the lessons they learn from the teachers.
Sponsors
The visual elements include pictures and video clippings that will be beamed on to a screen in a classroom that the Aram Foundation Charitable Trust has set up with support from the Coimbatore Corporation and Propel Industries Pvt. Ltd., which has sponsored the project.
The project is not just about providing supplementary visual content to the students; it is more about making the students smart, says the Trust’s Managing Trustee Latha Sundaram.
The Trust has trained the teachers to use the computer and software so that they show students what they are learning.
The use of visual content will help the students' understanding and improve memory, as it is easier to recall visuals.
In addition to that, the Trust has developed hands-on activities for the students to learn science and mathematics and will send its volunteers who help engage students to improve their intelligence and emotional quotients.
As part of the project, the Trust’s volunteers will also help the teachers identify students with learning disabilities so that steps can be taken for early intervention, Ms. Sundaram says. On the emotional quotient front, the Trust has developed cards for each of the students for monitoring their progress.
This will be periodically sent to the parents so that the latter can also play a part in the students’ development.
That apart, the Trust's intervention in the school also includes crisis management training, stress bursting sessions for teachers, motivation sessions for students, bridge courses for slow learners and much more.
Corporation’s Chief Education Officer R. Ravi, who took part in the inauguration, says the Selvapuram school will be the first of the 15 elementary schools identified for the smart schooling project, which will help students learn lessons outside the curriculum and easily available for students of private schools.
Aero-astro club
Ms. Sundaram says the Trust has also set up an aero-astro club in the school by installing a telescope obtained from the ISRO to kindle students’ interest in science. The school head mistress S. Suganya says the teachers are looking forward to making use of the new teaching aids and sessions that the Trust will introduce.
