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The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education board is a private, non-governmental board. The board has a mission to serve the nation’s children by imparting high quality education to them. It aims to empower them to form a humane and pluralistic society. The board revises its syllabus and curriculum to ensure that the lessons imparted are relevant and up to date.
The history of the ICSE board goes all the way back to 1952 when the All India Certificate Examinations Conference was held under the chairmanship of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who was the Minister of Education. The conference wanted to hold discussions for the replacement of Cambridge School Certificate Examination by an Indian based Council. It was decided that the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations would be set up. The council was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in 1967. There are three examinations conducted under CISCE, the first is the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education for the high school class X board, the Indian School Certificate for higher secondary or class XII board, and Certificate in Vocational Education or CVE – Year 12. Over 2, 300 schools in India and abroad are affiliated to ICSE.
The ICSE Board Curriculum has been designed as per the recommendations of the New Education Policy 1986. It is required that the candidates should appear for six subjects and also engage in Socially Useful Productive work. The revised syllabus for the ICSE examination includes subjects such as English, Indian Languages, Modern Foreign Language, History and Civics, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, Commercial Studies, Classical Language, Environmental Science, Computer Applications, Economic Applications, Commercial Applications, Performing Art, Fashion Designing, Home Science and Cookery among other options. The ICSE board offers a wide range of curriculum.
The ICSE board decides the syllabus, exam pattern and textbooks for each affiliated school. Among the ICSE subjects, Group 1 is compulsory for all students, these subjects are English, History, Civics, Geography and a second language. From Group II, students can select two or three subjects, the options given are Mathematics, Science, Economics, Commercial Studies, a Modern Foreign Language, a Classical Language and Environmental Science. From Group III, the student can choose 1 subject from 12 options. The examination pattern consists of essay type quotations, short compulsory questions and objective type questions. For Group I and Group II of the subjects, assessment is done by taking 20% from the internal assessment and 80% from the external assessment, while for group III, 50% each will be considered from internal and external assessment. The students will also have to face practical exams in the subjects of Art, Physics, Indian Music, Home Science, Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology, Computer Science, and Fashion Designing. The practical examination should be given as much importance as the theoretical examination as the marks will be considered in the final assessment. The student must prove to be an expert in the subject in theoretical as well as practical terms. To prepare for examinations, students can undertake mock tests and go through ICSE board sample papers which are available online.
The ICSE board focuses on the development of the students and helps them gain strong analytical skills and practical knowledge to prepare them for the future. Due to the vast syllabus offered, students can pursue their line of interests and focus on their future career right from the ICSE board. The board focuses on helping children become skillful with the use of the English language, this in turn helps share their future course. It makes it easier for the students to appear for exams such as TOEFL( Test of English as a Foreign Language) and IELTS(International English Language Testing System).
The best ICSE schools in India can be found in cities and towns across the country. If you are looking for the best ICSE schools in Bangalore, Ekya Schools are one the best schools offering ICSE boards in a few campuses. Ekya is focused on a global mission towards Innovation in Learning, providing high quality education and making learning fun and practical for students across all ages. The mission of Ekya is to empower young minds to make a difference in the world through technology-rich and immersive learning experiences. Whether you are looking for ICSE schools in Hebbal, ICSE schools in JP nagar, ICSE schools in Whitefield or ICSE schools in BTM layout, Ekya Schools can be found in each of these locations with state of the art campuses and skilled educators.
Time is one of the most important resources we have, and the most scarce too! As educators, we have many priorities like instruction time, assessment planning, lesson planning, reviewing and grading student work and more. When there are so many important things to do, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, over stretched and even miss out on a few key tasks.
This is where managing your time effectively comes in. Time management has always been important, but given the multitude of tasks that we generally have to contend with on a day to day basis, It has become a key 21st century skill which increases productivity, reduces stress and helps achieve all our tasks and goals.
Let’s look at 4 strategies that can help you manage your time better:
The Pareto Principle: 80:20 rule
As per the Pareto Principle our focus should be on the key 20% of our tasks that drive 80% of the impact.
For example, In the beginning of the year, prioritising building a classroom contract with students over finishing a lesson will yield better results, since the classroom contract will set the tone for the rest of the academic year, and eventually will result in more learning time.
Pareto Principle pushes us to think about our priorities and where we should focus our efforts.
2. Kanban Board
A kanban board is a visual tool to identify things you have to work on, things you are currently working on, and things that have been completed.
It has 3 columns - To Do, Doing, Done.
Let’s look at how to create a Kanban board-
You can use a whiteboard or just a normal board to put this together.
Step 1 - Add all of your To-do list
To do | Doing | Done |
Speak to Coordinator about a child’s issue Grade assessment papers Lesson Planning |
Step 2 - Once you start doing an action item move it to Doing.
To do | Doing | Done |
Lesson Planning | Speak to Coordinator about a child’s issue Grade assessment papers |
Step 3 - Once the action item is completed, you can add it to the Done list.
To do | Doing | Done |
Lesson Planning | Speak to Coordinator about a child’s issue Grade assessment papers |
It is an easy visual tool to track your tasks and will also help you prioritise your tasks on a day to day basis.
3. The Pomodoro Technique
A simple technique to do deep work, once you have decided on the task you wish to finish, set a timer for 25 minutes, start as the timer starts, and until the timer goes off complete the work you have started without any interruptions. Put all of your distractions aside and just focus on the task at hand for 25 minutes and after 25 minutes, take a 5 minutes break and begin again.
Here are a few tips to help you execute Pomodoro Technique effectively:
i. Put all the distractions away
Phone, tablets, and any other gadgets should be put on silent or be put away, this is to ensure that you are not distracted and can't focus for 25 mins on the task at hand.
ii. Isolate yourself
To ensure that you are not disturbed during the 25 mins of working, isolate yourself from other people, and let everyone around you know that you are working on something and need the time to yourself.
iii. Take a break
Avoid extending the work time when you are starting to use this technique. Instead, take a break and relax before you start another round of focused work.
Use this online pomodoro timer to regulate the time spent on the tasks.
4. Urgent - Important Prioritisation Matrix
Before the start of the month, week and day, create a to-do list, add all that you need to do there, and bracket all the items into important and unimportant items, urgent and not urgent. This to-do list will help you stay in charge of your time and ensure that you get all of your work done on time. You can also build an urgent important matrix that will help you stay organised and on top of your tasks.
A few additional tips and tricks that will help you save time and ensure efficiency:
Self-correction / Peer correction: Give students a chance, and time, to correct themselves, Students can also correct notebooks of one another. Peer correction often helps to create a positive class atmosphere as students realise teachers are not the only source of error correction and they can learn a lot from one another.
Avoid Reinventing the Wheel: There are plenty of lesson plans and teaching resources available online, you can use the same instead of reinventing the wheel. However, you can always contextualise the resources to your students' needs.
Give tasks to students: Engage your students in planning and executing morning meetings, closing circles, and other spaces that you think they can manage, you can give them a template and set standards for the same, and students can plan it around it and get the plan reviewed by you.
Use Technology: Use technology in processes that can be automated. For example, attendance can be recorded and score analysis can be easily done on excel or google sheets. Online tools can be used to assign and automate grading. This will help draw trends easily and process all the raw data.
Find time for yourself: Finally, find time for yourself to do what you enjoy and can relax doing it. A relaxed mind is more efficient in problem-solving and time management than a stressed one.
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