Class teacher plays a very important role in shaping the life of the children. He is the role model before the children. The innovative class teacher always creates new things within the children & inspires them to be creative & innovative. One of the creative works in the class is making a ‘Hand made Class Magazine'. I as a class teacher started the practice of class magazine by involving the children of class IX B in my school, Chinmaya Vidyalaya & now it became a feature of all the classes. An innovative class teacher doesn't think any new in the class as burden but an opportunity to be a part of creation. Involvement of the children in the editing & furnishing it solves the entire burden. The hand made creative class magazine can be prepared by the efforts of the children & the class teacher in the following ways.

1. Choosing Editorial Body in the class

Editorial board can be formed in the class. In the board the children of good at English, Art, and Hindi can be included. There should be one editor & one sub editor who are responsible for all works of the magazine. Time to time they will contact the class teacher for taking various advice & to work it out.

2. Plays the role of an adviser

Class teacher plays the role of an adviser to the editorial board & the pupil to make a magazine. Time to time he will notice the progress of the class magazine according to the time period allotted. He should think critically about the best effort that the children could give so that the magazine can be more beautiful.

3. Involvement of all members of the class

To prepare the magazine all the children should compulsorily involved. Suppose the strength of the class is 35 then the same number of articles must be in hand to prepare the magazine. The class is consisted of the heterogeneous group of writers, poets, painters etc. Some are good in Hindi & some at English. Every page should be A4 size paper so that the size of the magazine will not vary. With these 35 pages other selected pages like achievement page, class government page, content page, introductory page, editorial page, etc can be added & magazine will be of 40 to 45 pages.

4. Encouragement to original writings

While announcing the creation of a magazine, encouragement must be given to write the articles on the basis of originality, innovation & creativity. Editorial board should see that the child must not copy anything from the book or magazine. If copied or referred the child must mention the source from which he has taken. The child must maintain honesty while giving an article to the magazine.

5. Fixation of date & time

The editor must fix the last date of the submission of the articles by taking advice from the class teacher. The submission of articles is compulsory. But the tentative date of submission will bind them to write with date bound & submit. Children should be inspired not to be stick to the last date & complete the writings in a hasty method rather they should start writings from the inception of the declaration of the date.

6. Advise to design & size of the paper

There should be one size of paper for the submission of the write-ups. A-4 size paper is the best paper to be attempted. Before writing anything the paper should be design & decorated with light painting so that this background will better furnish the writing. The editor must speak about these from the very inception.

7. COLLECTIONS & Editing work

On the fixed date, the editor must collect all the articles, paintings, etc safely. He should start the editing work with the help of the editorial board afterwards. The careless & negligence articles must be rejected after due permission by the class teacher. Students should be motivated to write again to replace the rejected articles.

8. Role of the Artists

Artists of the editorial board have a vital role in shaping the magazine in a beautiful & systematic manner. They give the finishing touch to every paper of the magazine. They use colour to make the magazine beautiful.

9. Giving a title

Giving a title of the magazine is a difficult task. There should be a democratic selection of the title of the magazine in the class. The class teacher should go for the brain storming to select the title. The children should have participation in this discussion by giving one title each. At last the class teacher should fix the title out of several suggested by the children. This children involvement will increase the inclination of children towards the class & the magazine.

10. Designing Government page

There should be one page highlighting the government of the class. The posts such as President, Prime minister, Education minister etc should be highlighted by Writing their names & pasting their respective photos.

11. Editorial page

Editorial page must be designed by the editor of the class reflecting the unity & perseverance of the class as a whole. He should take the help of the class teacher while writing this page.

12. Achievement page

There must be a class achievement page where all achievements of the students like full attendance, best child of the month, Prizes for outstanding performance in any field like dance, sports, quiz, etc will get their place. The photo of the concerned persons must get the place in the achievement page.

13. Cover page

Cover page must be designed by the editor with the help of the artists & class teacher. The design of the cover page must qualify the title of the magazine. Cover page must be painted nicely with class & school name. The month & year must be highlighted on the top of the right side of the cover page.

14. Final touch by the Class Teacher & Editor

Once again the class teacher with the editor must check the pages of the magazine carefully & advise if any final touch is left aside. Then the magazine can be given for spiral binding.

In this way the magazine of a class becomes ready within a short span of time. The children themselves become aware about the creativity, innovation of the life. With this also they develop the feature of leadership quality & cooperation. The work of the magazine can inspire them to be the poets, writers, painters etc in their life beyond their academics.

Harekrushna Behera - Teacher in Social Science
E-Mail - hare_321ku(at)rediffmail.com
Qualification- M.Phil,B.Ed,Vedanta