From August to October, 2022, the team at SwaTaleem Foundation conducted several workshops with KGBVs (Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya) across Haryana. Here are glimpses into the parts that I designed and conducted.

1. An activity to collate what their understanding of quality education is, and the vision for their schools. We asked the teachers to read Aims of Education by the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training), and imagine they are the the board to create next years NCF (National Curriculum Framework). 

2. Discussing experiences of gender discrimination, followed by what a safe space discussion is, how it can help them and their students, and how they can create such spaces for their students. 

3. Analysing textbooks through the lens of gender: Teachers were organised into groups and given the same text and illustrations, and look these parameters: 
Neglect and Invisibility: Are women/girls there in the story?
Stereotyping: Are the roles conservative and rigid?
Isolation: Is their role of any importance to the story?

If you were re-writing the story, what are the changes you would make?

How can we implement these lenses in the classroom?

4. An activity to discuss positive discipline in classrooms: Teachers were asked to list down the qualities they would like to nourish in their students. Then prompts containing different situations and responses were read out, and 2 walls were designated increase and decrease. Teachers had to listen to the prompt, and decide whether the response would increase of decrease the qualities they had mentioned. This helped them question their own responses, and opened a discussion with other teachers.

5. Creating spaces for teachers to share their grievances and issues in their schools: 

6. Disseminating the curriculum created by the organization: 

7. Ice-breakers

Mingle Mingle Activity, where teachers walk around the space and break into pairs to discuss a given prompt. It is repeated a few times till the group get's a chance to mix.

Funky Chicken, an energiser to play in the middle of sessions to bring back focus and enthusiasm.