Teachers’ Day Celebration
A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.
—Ever Garrison
At Shikshantar Teachers day was celebrated in a ‘large circle time’ with all of us reflecting on all that we are grateful for in our lives. The simple joys of childhood and growing up years, the wonder and curiosity that children bring in our lives and the ability to reflect each day and set new goals with pure intent and warmth.
The facilitators immersed themselves in the activity of giving final touch to large and intricate rangoli designs using fallen/ fresh flowers, flower petals, and fallen leaves. The significance lies in remembering and being grateful for a student, a colleague, a mentor, a parent, or some experiences in our learning journeys as an educator.
It was a day of heartwarming experiences, especially listening to our resource person and a parent - Major Mohammad Ali Shah who kept us spellbound with his theatrical style of poetry recitation in English, Urdu, and Hindi of poems by Rudyard Kipling, Ogden Nash, Khalil Gibran, Zauq and Sohan Lal Dwivedi with genre ranging from human wisdom and depth to a child's world view and life’s learnings through love.
Then came Hemant Bhaiya, our very own first music facilitator at Shikshantar who took us through the beautiful journey of writing, creating, and giving music to songs together with children. He talked about the original intent of creating music in Shikshantar and how when children are given a chance to identify rhythm in nature and around them, music is created. We sang songs with tunes created at Shikshantar – ‘Ek beej chota sa…’, ‘Incy Wincy spider…’ and many more.
Teachers Day celebration at Shikshantar is more than just another day of celebration. On this day we take an opportunity to reflect on the bonds we make each day with children. At the core, the day is a reminder about the spirit of learning with and from each other. The day closed with our reflection on how teachers are like flower blossoms, adapting to the environmental conditions of each new year, blossoming by connecting with their students and reflecting and perfecting on their own work.