Over 500 teachers de-stress at workshop in Dubai

Dubai - It is quite stressful to teach for hours while standing and it takes a toll on the teachers.

A unique workshop titled 'Stress-Free Teaching' was held on Tuesday at the Little Flower English School in Deira with the aim of empowering teachers to combat any kind of stress they may encounter either in their classrooms, at home or with their colleagues.
The free workshop, that benefited more than 500 teachers across Dubai, was held by a team of teachers from International Association for Human Values (IAHV), a non-profit organisation registered with the International Humanitarian City, Dubai.
Over 40 teachers from the school assembled at the school hall, where three sessions of de-stressing on different levels were taken by the IAHV teachers.
Defining stress as a situation that occurs when we are not in agreement with what is happening around us, Sanju Rao, who handled a session, said: "This programme has been specially designed to de-stress teachers so that they can have a stress free interaction with their students, parents and colleagues. We teach them to first deal with the physical stress, emotional stress and find their inner peace, which they can then transfer to whoever they interact with. Teachers lay the foundation as they mould the minds of the future generations, therefore, their minds need to be the fittest."
It is quite stressful to teach for hours while standing and it takes a toll on the teachers. Another IAHV teacher, Sriya, took a session for that where she taught simple yoga exercises that could be done while sitting on the chair. Shreya taught the teachers how to do simple stretches while sitting on the chair for all their joints and muscles and head movement. This, she suggested could be done, while they sit in the staff room or during break time."
The third session was taken by IAHV instructor Sukumari, who talked about addressing the students' behavioural and academic needs. "There are different kinds of students a teacher has to handle, of which the most difficult lot is that of aggressive students and those who ask too many questions. The best way to deal with such students is to engage them and give them some responsibility and then appreciate them for their work."
For the questioning lot, Sukumari said: "We should alert them and make them think by posing the same question to them. The student might be blank but he or she will at once start thinking. Also it is a good practice to change their places and classrooms often so that they learn adaptability and become receptive to change."
Looking refreshed after the session, English department head Renuka Rajaguru, said:"We really enjoyed the sessions and got some very helpful classroom management tips in terms of de-stressing. We had never analysed the word stress the way we did today and it was quite refreshing for us. Some of the tips we got here are not only useful for teachers but also for students."
saman@khaleejtimes.com  

• Dubai