Student-led Interest Centers
Age has nothing to do with COMPETENCY!
Try the empathy lens:
Encourage your teacher team to do a skill-fest within their group where they help their colleagues learn a new skill or introduce them to a passion.
This will help them to experience the joy of sharing their talents, what it takes to plan and pitch one’s skill and how it feels to be up for public scrutiny.
We experienced...
Though the interest centers were initially designed and led by teachers to help students explore a set of interests, very soon children identified these as opportunities for sharing their own skill-sets and passions with their peers.
Watch Kiran share the incident which sparked the design of the Student-Led Interest Centers.
Our Insights
- Teachers often led Interest Centers more focused around their expertise area and therefore the choice for children was limited to the available talent in the team.
- During a Conglom, when children were giving feedback on teacher-led Interest Centers, some students remarked that their skill-set should also allow them to lead Interest Centers. We realised that this could be a great opportunity to build the I CAN spirit!
- Once the children identified the Interest Centers they wanted to run such as singing, dancing, cooking, story-telling etc., they not only auditioned for the same but also sought help from the teachers for planning and presentation to run the Interest Centers efficiently.
teachers and parents believed that ‘Age has nothing to do with competency’ and everyone could be a learner and a teacher!
Students designed
Student-Led Interest Centers (SLICs) which offered them a platform to showcase their skills and also an opportunity to choose the skills that they would like to learn from their peers.
Every term started off with a skill-fest where they could voluntarily showcase their skills to their classmates and then to the entire Key Stage. Students voted for the skills they found most engaging and finally, the ones with the highest votes were included as SLICs for that term.
Teachers mentored the students for planning, presentation and reflection. They assumed the role of co-teachers for scaffolding the student facilitators.
The fallout of this program was that it not only helped children in honing their talent but also built their leadership and communication skills. Most importantly, children learnt that ‘Nothing is of value unless shared’.
Here is What we Do
This video helps make visible the design and implementation of SLIC.
In the above video, you’ll see how mentors and mentees self-nominate themselves to voluntarily participate in SLIC by organizing a skill-fest. You’ll also catch glimpses of students drawing out their plan, time-tabling and implementing the various interest centers with support from teachers. The video closes with student feedback and reflection.
Meet the Stakeholder:
Eduhero Phoram Desai is a KeyStage 1 leader and has been with Riverside since its inception. She is a popular mentor on campus and gives her best to uphold & build a shared understanding of the school culture. Over the years, she has collected many a gratitude note from her team members for helping them ‘stretch but not stress’ :-)
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4:40
FAQ Video
Watch Phoram share some insights on how SLIC has helped her unravel the talents in her students and build their leadership skills.
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5:10
Impact Video
Watch how facilitating the SLICs impacts Phoram’s practice and helps her to contribute to the growth & development of her students.
Tips for the Leader
- A good starting point would be to introduce the SLIC in the classroom and gradually shift it to become a KeyStage wide process.
- If running it for 6 months looks challenging, you can also start with month-long SLICs.
- Find time to have informal conversations with the children and their parents to identify the talents of your students.
- Ensure that SLICs are led by students voluntarily and not under pressure from parents or their teachers.
Share with us your experience of how you have used this process in your context, any challenges you might have faced or just inspire us with your story :-)
Still Curious?
Write us any questions you have about this process, and we’ll get back to you.
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