Yet another day was coming to an end and the people of the land were tending their chores. It was all one peaceful ambiance with just minor disruptions here and there. To help manage the affairs, the architect of the land decided to pull up a few responsible men and women and give them the authority to administer sections of the land..Well, ‘Decentralization of power’ as they call it. And then, things changed. With just one word, rose eleven kingdoms all powerful and energetic. And within minutes, the Kings and Queens swore at the altar to uprise their just formed kingdoms. Ministers, Treasurers and Soldiers were deputed and responsibilities bestowed.
Ever since then, things have drastically improved. The men and women now have something really concrete to look forward to - a structure, a pattern and above all rejoice in the powers that they otherwise would not have. There’s now an aura of peace in the empire and the subjects seem to be showing quite some interest in strengthening their kingdoms. As days progress, the architect is still working out the finer details as to how the empires could be allowed to rule in mutual peace and still compete with each other for mutual benefit.
Welcome to Class of IIA at Epiphany- Where we play the Age of Empires with real Kings, Queens and Ministers!
Looking back, it’s kind of funny how just a random idea seems to be making so much of an impact on the kids. Ever since we divided the classroom into groups and gave them this theme to build upon, things have quite changed. Behavior management in the classroom has tremendously improved and almost every objective that is taught, once related to the theme even in some abstract form is investing the kids so much. It has also given scope to introduce an awesome value system in the class, which I’ve been trying in vain for the past 8 months to integrate in my regular classes. This coming friday, if things work well, I hopefully would be able to introduce them to the barter system and eventually trade and commerce. The options seem endless…
While biking back home today, I wonder why this idea didn’t strike me when I was scouting for a proper theme for my class late June, last year. There’s just about 25 instructional days left for this academic year to come to an end and I probably could have invested them a bit more had things ‘clicked’ before. But well, I guess thats just the feeling of not doing enough, that every teacher experiences every single day in his/her life. Really hoping this new system evolves into a robust framework and also if nothing works, I still can now be proud of founding eleven dynasties, not just in my dreams but in reality!