ICIE organized a three-day workshop for pre-primary teachers of AuroMirra International School (AMIS), Bengaluru, from May 29 to 31, 2017. The sessions were conducted by ICIE Research Associate, Shanker, who introduced several Integral Education concepts to AMIS teachers via games, group discussions and craftwork.

The sessions held in the afternoons over the three days involved activities such as i) Rhymes & Action songs in Hindi and English and ii) Indoor & outdoor games which encouraged teamwork, stimulate awareness and improve memory via observation and memory games. Besides demonstrating these games that the participants could teach children, Shanker also introduced to them craftwork such as flower-making, paper cutting and the art of pasting. 

In another participatory session, Shanker held group discussions with the 10 teachers on the following topics – ‘How to Prepare Oneself to Understand  Children?’, ‘Why Total Revolution of Values Cannot be Achieved Unless We Start with Ourselves’ and ‘Should Harsh Realities Be Shared With Children?’

Besides holding indoor and outdoor activities that helped to clear the above concepts for the teachers, Shanker also emphasized on the need for them to recognize that all our actions/attitudes are ‘inter-related’ and one cannot behave in a certain way at home and another in school or the world. He also showed that there are several ways to accomplish a single task. For instance, a teacher needs to have clarity and understanding of a child’s specific abilities to develop his/her fine motor skills and teach the child accordingly. 

All the teachers took active part in the workshop and were very open to the concepts of Integral Education as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.