My association with my alma mater continues to date.  I felt very privileged when I was invited by my school SDH Jain Vidyalaya, a CBSE school in Madurai, Tamil Nadu to run a workshop for the Pre-Primary and Primary teachers on developing reading skills in the classroom during my recent visit to my hometown this Christmas. 

While I ran the workshop with a host of games and activities engaging all participants to read happily as they completed their tasks, what satisfied me was the level of engagement of the cohort. The teacher group picked up nuances on how the facilitator (that’s me) got the reluctant readers to read and listen.

The workshop gave me an opportunity to recall all the best practices and techniques that we now so ingenuously use in the classrooms to promote reading skills amongst the learners. It also helped me reflect that as teachers it is important for us too to keep reading (both books of our choice and books read by our students). Talking to the kids about books and showing much interest and enthusiasm in what the child is reading by the key adult enhances the child’s attraction to books.

 Not to mention the underlying facilitation skills, reflection, and feedback that I gathered, sharpened, and acquired through this process of planning and execution.

To further sum it up, everyone in any organization, be it the management, leaders, teachers, parents, or the support staff all need to invest time in training and professional development on a regular basis. This leads to better processes, better productivity, and growth and that’s how all can keep contributing and growing along……..!