On the 4th June, 2018, the teaching staff of St. Mary’s School ICSE in Mumbai, attended their annual orientation.

Their Principal Fr. Dr. Francis Swamy. S.J. welcomed the staff with a prayer followed by a meditative exercise. He then introduced the resource person for the day, Dr. Harish Shetty – an eminent psychiatrist and an educationist.

Dr. Shetty spoke about Emotional Well-being of Teachers and threw a light on the various aspects of mental health. He advised the teachers to get in touch with their emotional sides and use the power of emotions positively, more often in their daily lives.

The main take-away from this workshop was to get in touch with one’s emotions and use them to move towards their goals and objectives with a better understanding of themselves. Dr. Shetty spoke strongly on the issue of corporal punishment. He said that it is important to note that although it is difficult to move away from the age-old practice of corporal punishments, talking was a better alternative. He finally advised the teachers with a powerful quote saying, “Hitting is Cheaper, but Talking goes Deeper.”

On the following day, i.e. 5th of June 2018, the focus was on Behaviour Management in the School Campus. This program was conducted by Mrs. Meher Billimoria, a consultant for non-corporate and NGO institutions which cater to underprivileged children. The workshop was mainly based on the feedback given by the teaching staff. Various issues related to classroom behavior were discussed and many valuable inputs were given by the participants to make the teaching-learning process more effective and enriching.

On the whole the two days of orientation were a reflective exercise on the processes of mental health and the modalities of behavior –enrichment leading to effective enriching and fun-filled teaching-learning processes in school keeping in mind the holistic growth and development of every stakeholder.