Alysha Allen is a teacher for the last 3 years at Brimsdown Primary School in Enfield, north London. It is a mainstream school with a hearing-impaired resource base (known as the HIRBiE) team. Here, they teach the students and the staff how to sign in British Sign Language (BSL) and conduct signing workshops for staff and family members.

Allen was diagnosed profoundly deaf since she was a child but that did not stop her from being contagiously positive and a brilliant teacher. She teaches the class using sign language and lip-reading.

Allen tells The Guardian, “At the beginning, I was…

Children will always be anxious about starting school, this will never change. And their anxiety is well justified, hence, parents and teachers together must work in order to help the children feel safer.

Here is what they may try.

Parents can always sit with the children and talk to them about what is stressing them about starting kindergarten? Why are they screaming? What are they so scared of?

Dismissing a child’s feelings or worries will not help the parents, rather the child will suffer internally and develop more anxiety. Letting the kids explain their thoughts and fears (however much they…

The latest 2020 animation film ‘Soul’ is produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The protagonist, Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), however is not all animation and fiction. He is based on a teacher from Middle School 74 in Bayside, Queens, New York, named Dr. Peter Archer, who retired recently and is the actual soul of the movie ‘Soul.’

“It began with Pixar research,” Dr. Archer tells TODAY. “They found me out and conducted several trips to New York and brought me on board as a consultant to authenticate things a bit, because I am…

Schools are preparing to open after a long break due to the pandemic. One of the most important concerns for the parents will be the health and wellbeing of their children. The post-pandemic era will see an increased expectation of the parents in terms of the quality of infrastructure the schools are providing. This article attempts to answer a basic question — how can our schools be designed keeping in mind the health and wellbeing of the children?

It will be important to note that children spend about 200 days a year in their schools. Approximately 70% of that time…

A tweet for help was sent out on 17 Jan 2021 by Teach For India fellow Shreyasi Rao. The tweet was regarding a school having financial troubles since last year. As it is evident that the education field is not doing too great since the pandemic struck, some schools, that are working for the betterment of the children from lower-income groups, are doing even worse. Elite English High School, Neelasandra, had a similar situation with children from economically weaker sections of society.

Rao shared the post with crowdfunding links and an overwhelming message. The tweets went viral around January 19…

‘Zero Contact Mohalla School’ is located near the municipal primary school in Wadgaon ward, Chandrapur, Maharashtra. The headteacher here is Pradeep Deshmukh, a corporator/local politician, who’s also the brain behind this initiative.

Deshmukh, who is well-known for his innovative enterprises, is the reason this school began the previous year. He worries about the education of children who belong to low-income families because, unlike children of private schools, they could not afford to attend online classes. Due to school closure, these ‘mohalla’ kids suffered a huge loss in studies which is why Deshmukh himself decided to start taking classes.

“While students…

This is the story of Kasula Ravi Kumar, a resident of Narsampet town in Warangal Rural district, who overcame many hurdles like poverty to become one of the best teachers his town had seen in a long time. He received a gold medal in MA English, the second rank in EdCET and then the ‘Post Graduate Teacher (PGT)’ post at a government model school.

Ravi Kumar comes from a low-income family and his parents did not have enough to support his education. “I did several menial jobs to contribute to the little income of earned by my father, Narendra Chary…

G.Lily Jebamalar, a Physics teacher from DAV Model School IIT, West Medinipur, West Bengal, is an ‘Exemplary Teacher of Change’ 2020 awardee by Atal Innovation Mission. With a rich teaching experience of nine years, she undertook the responsibility of being an ATL in-charge two years ago to teach over 200 students (grade 6–11) twice a week. In fact, she was one of the teachers to initially prepare a proposal for ATL in her school.

The school she works in is situated in a small town and that meant none of the locals knew about Atal Innovation Mission or Atal Tinkering…