Padmapriya Shirali is Part of the Community Math Centre based in Valley School (Bangalore) and Rishi Valley (AP), where she has worked since 1983, teaching a variety of subjects – mathematics, computer applications, geography, economics, environmental studies and Telugu. In the 1990s, she worked closely with the late Shri P K Srinivasan. She was part of the team that created the multi-grade elementary learning program of the Rishi Valley Rural Centre, known as ‘School in a Box.’ She is currently part of the NCERT textbook development group.
Padmapriya Shirali
padmapriya.shirali@gmail.com
From the Author
Handbooks
Foundational (Pre-primary, Class 1-2)
Preparatory (Class 3-5)
Math talk in the classroom
To answer the above question, let us ask ourselves a few more questions. Does a classroom where the teacher asks questions that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ provide scope for students to share their true understanding of knowledge?
Handbooks
Foundational (Pre-primary, Class 1-2)
Introduction to Counting
Children’s understanding of numbers begins naturally as they explore the world around them—even in infancy. Through repeated interactions with objects and the language used in their environment, they gradually build early number concepts.
Handbooks
Preparatory (Class 3-5)
Middle (Class 6-8)
Teaching Thinking Skills
Practically every human activity involves usage of thinking skills. What are thinking skills? They are essentially mental processes that we do: classifying objects, observing properties, encoding information, comparing, taking decisions, making inferences and solving problems. Thinking skills can be viewed as the building blocks of the whole canvas of thinking. These thinking skills are broadly classified into two categories: lower order thinking skills and higher order thinking skills.
Handbooks
Preparatory (Class 3-5)
Teaching Geometry-II
many ways, the teaching of geometry when approached in the right way holds an immense potential for learning the art of seeing and observing. As one begins to play around either with a plain square paper by folding it in different ways or connecting dots in a dot paper one begins to see a variety of shapes emerge. Personally I have always found it to be a pleasurable and enriching experience as every student that I meet sees and notices shapes in his or her own special way.