Sept 2011 Volume 5, Issue 9

Inspiring Teachers
Driving educational change through excellence in teaching

Nominations for Inspiring Teacher Awards - 2011

This is a unique platform for appreciating your school and college teachers. This year we provide a broad framework for your nominations by defining four areas 1. Clarity and expertise in subject, organization and presentation in class, motivation and interaction in class (exam success) This month:
Encounter with Prof Ratnalikar Uma Garimella..2 Faculty of the MonthDr Preeti Bajaj .3 Picture caption .4 Biotech Bootcamp.....4 Maths Blog - Sanjay Gulati 4 Interesting links 5 Teaching English through comic strips..5 Garware Book Reading Project....6

2. Interpersonal rapport with you as a student, concern and counseling outside class (support in your personal challenges, believing in you) 3. Intellectual stimulation and motivation to go beyond syllabus (projects, applications, innovation) 4. Good nature and behavior towards a large section of students (role model) A new form is online with these details on our site

Adhyaapan Teachers Mela See last page for details

Inspiring Teachers
He could manage to call about ten principals of engineering colleges and polytechnics for a meeting where Teachers Academy could present the offerings. EEF has been bringing out a quarterly "Journal of Engineering Education" Lokhande, Uma, Prof Ratnalikar and Brig T Ramaiah at AGPatil Institutes Pune faciltiy for video conferencing. They believe that in an educational system, the faculty is the key role player & any If there are problems it only means we have to work harder Prof Ratnalikar said when some of the principals in the meeting were citing issues with faculty training. ..to cater to the needs of the technical education system, some likeminded individuals from both engineering education system and industry have joined hands and formed a Public TrustEngineering Education Foundation (EEF), Pune, dedicated to the cause of quality leading to excellence in Engineering Education. changes in the system can be brought about only by the faculty. Hence, staff & educational development must be given the top priority in any quality management system. The management should take steps to enable the faculty to become competent committed & professionals by providing them necessary facilities. They also believe that it is possible that an Institute can be born with "a Quality Spoon in the Mouth". It was a pleasure to meet Prof NV Ratnalikar, almost in his eighties, excitedly talking about what is the need of the hour and how it can be done. Many of his students are holding important positions in the technical education departments and he quickly made some calls. Since 1986. The 100th issue is due now and there were 10 special issues on various themes of relevance like Autonomy of colleges, Technological Universities etc. They have also arranged seminars, work-shops and conferences at State and National level on various topics. Prof Ratnalikar feels that forming Consortia of Engineering Colleges is the way going forward. Cooperation is the key to growth. Autonomy is the first step in bringing quality. Centres of Excellence are to be formed in different cities and through these TQM awareness must be spread. Total Quality does not come by accident but it has to be part of the design at the time of the birth of the institute. And this is possible.

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Another interesting idea proposed by him which was completely agreeing with the agenda of Teachers Academy was that of Certification or Individual Accreditation of teachers. The programs that we are about to launch will exactly fit the idea of EEF however we may have to work for some kind of recognition by NITTTR or AICTE. Personally, neither Prof Ratnalikar nor I believe that recognition will enhance the quality of the certificate or its implementation, but it might just bring the audience for the training!! We were invited for another meeting at his home office and were treated to not just a cup of coffee and dhokla, but lots of love and enthusiasm. His house is a library with lots of books and articles related to pedagogy, university system and education. Prof Ratnalikar can be reached at 25457001. Cell: 9850 800 385, nratnalikar@hotmail.com http://www.eefedu.in/webPa ges/index1.html

An encounter with Prof Ratnalikar Uma Garimella

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Director, GHRC-Nagpur

Inspiring Teachers
Innovative Grading Policy (from the internet)
A professor stood before his class of twenty senior biology students, about to

Faculty of the month Dr Preeti Bajaj,

research. We have also made evaluation of research work in such a way that post graduate students cannot do cut and paste which Dr. Preeti R. Bajaj is the Director, G .H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur. With a PhD in Electronics and an MBA, Dr Preeti is active both in academics and administration, steering her college to exponential growth. Read her full interview at www.theprofessor.in but here are some excerpts. Their institute is trying to develop teaching skills in their PG students. Preeti: Being director of an autonomous Institute we tried to incorporate many skills to evaluate and also to enhance teaching skills in our present postgraduate programs. Those are personality development, presentation skills, teaching without any instrument/ blackboard so that he/she should be able to explain the idea in mind without any tool. We are carrying out special course on teaching methodology and research methodology workshops so that there is focused and systematic

normally all students do. We hand out the final exam. "I support them financially want to say that it's been a also. So nurturing and pleasure teaching you this creating teachers and semester. I know you've all identifying potential worked extremely hard and . teachers is also done at many of you are off to Humour institute level. medical college after Teacher: Abraham Lincoln What could be a summer. So that no one gets had a difficult childhood. He sustainable model to had to walk 7 miles to go to their GPA messed up anyone his school. improve the teaching Student: He should have got skills of existing faculty? who would like to opt out of up early like others and got the final exam today will into the school bus. Until and unless existing receive a 'B' for the course." faculty undergo massive There was much rejoicing in learning and practice model, the class as students got up and get attached to some and took the offer. As the knowledge partner it will be very difficult to sustain this competition. Yes, first job they will get easily but they will not be able to retain it for long. We give personality development training to the faculty, carry out training need analysis (TNA) and also carry out orientation. We have many knowledge partners in various disciplines for our teachers which update their skill and capacity. ---Editor last taker left the room, the professor looked out over the handful of remaining students and asked, "Anyone else? This is your last chance." One final student left. The professor closed the door and took attendance of those still remaining. "I'm glad to see you believe in yourselves," he said. "You all get 'A's." TEACHER: An anonymous person is one who doesn't wish to be known. Student: What a stupid definition! T(angry): Who said that? S: An anonymous person. Entry in a childs diary: I figured out what I will be doing when I am old. Homework.

Inspiring Teachers
Free Biotech Boot camp
http://indigenese.com/component/content/article/80

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As a part of its 5th anniversary celebrations, Indigense Biotechnologies (IB) announces a one-week Biotechnology Boot Camp for Class XII and BSc students in the twin cities. The bootcamp is being organized to introduce fundamental concepts and techniques in molecular life sciences through immersive and hands-on activities like DNA isolation, DNA fingerprinting, and genetic engineering. The main goal of the boot camp is to share Dolly Sandhu simple machines help you to do work... in a science lesson Satya Kiran: The real teachers have never ending work both in class and home :) Shiva Krishna Not only class work but also homework is important......!!!! Madhan Kumar: Your Potential; Our Passion Sumathi Mohan two sides of a coin ...we simply roll onnnnn! Raheem Mohammed Tug of work!!! Cheparthi Durga Prasad Teacher and student.. Both Carrying "Google" Vishnu 50:50 Sai Kumar Its time to shift to digital content to avoid unnecessary exercises Raj Balaka Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar ;) Sounds like an AD for either IPAD 2 or Amazon Kindle :)

Picture Caption

the excitement of DNA science with students aspiring to pursue scientific research in modern biomedical sciences. Interested students should submit their applications by 10 Sept 2011 . Fifteen students will be selected from the submitted applications.

mathematicsbhilai.blogspot.com Sanjay Gulati

The Blog mathematicsbhilai.blogspot.com is a blog on K-12 mathematics for teachers, students, and math lovers. It is a place to explore mathematics. It is my humble contribution to the body of knowledge on the internet. I am not an expert , but whatever little knowledge I have, I am willing to share through my blog. The objectives of my blog are the following: to provide a conceptual explanation of K-12 mathematics topics to Visualize various mathematics topics to suggest alternative ways of teaching and learning school mathematics to share useful and free resources on the internet to promote the integration of technology in teaching mathematics to provide a platform for students and math lovers to share their knowledge. About myself I am Sanjay Gulati and I work at a CBSE affiliated school in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh). I am also involved in teacher training and education research. I am interested in the integration of technology in teaching mathematics. I am a fan of GeoGebra, a free mathematics software for teaching and learning mathematics. I am a GeoGebra learner for last 3 years, and I have developed lots of applets / worksheets on Middle, Secondary and Sr.Secondary mathematics syllabus. Apart from learning GeoGebra, I love teaching MAT and Vedic Mathematics to NTSE students. I also write for the following blogs: GeoGebra Applet Central- a blog dedicated to posting GeoGebra applets. http://mathandmultimedia.com Besides math and blogging, I am a Badminton and Cricket lover. I also love listening songs of Kishore Kumar.

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Inspiring Teachers

Teaching English through Comic Strips --- Sofia Stefanidou

Interview with Sofia through Facebook messaging by Inspiring Teachers. phrasal verb. while learners of English master a number of phrasal verbs and are able to

IT: Why did you choose this understand them, they comic strip medium to teach prefer to use one word English? Sofia:Comics are fun, they can say what they want to say in minimum words and they are accompanied by pictures that can be easily understood. What is more, comics are the kind of stuff you can gladly go back to, read them again and again from time to time, unlike other examples of learning that you gladly get rid of when you finish a course. I'm glad you like them! IT: Your site is amazing Phrasal verbs are actually one of the most difficult aspects of learning English. This is proven by the fact that students avoid using them. As a matter of fact, one of the factors that differentiates native speakers' talk from that of foreigners', apart from the accent that strikes you first, is the minimum use of phrasal verbs by foreigners would normally use a http://learnwithcomics.bl ogspot.com/ Sofia works at Greek Public School as an English Teacher. She studied at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Greece for one person to be doing. When did you start it? Sofia: I started it in March, this year, 2011. verbs rather that a two word or three word verb, that makes up a phrasal verb. I hope the blog will help students and teachers incorporate phrasal verbs more in our speech and I also hope I will find the time to add new ones regularly! IT: Do you have a team? Sofia: I do it on my own. I draw the sketches and then write some examples. 1. Explore for different formative assessments. Good for CBSE schools http://wvde.state.wv.us/teach21/ExamplesofFormativeA ssessment.html 2. Lots of useful information on the following web link regarding assessment tools and techniques. http://ozpk.tripod.com/assess.html http://ngopost.org/story/funds-room-rent-and-musicalpoor-kids-pune 3. Interactive Teaching for English word bags http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4z6vUq5Ov0&feature=c hannel_video_title 4. Worlds largest Montessori school in Lucknow http://www.jagdishgandhi.org/inspiration.html 5. Now fitness in schools! http://www.hertzfurniture.com/school-matters/fittingfitness-schools

Interesting Links Dr PN Prasad, Dr Anil Kumar Challa

in cases that native speakers She lives in Katerni,

Garware Book Reading Project from their site Teachers Academy

Science is a human enterprise, evolving over time under the influence of socio-cultural pressures. This perspective is rarely exposed to students in the sciences. Most text books used in schools and colleges are ill-equipped to provide students an enthusiastic and real time portrayal of science, ideas about scientific inquiry and/or the overall process of science. Understanding the PROCESS of science plays an important role in the development of a student into not just a future scientist, researcher or academician but also an enlightened world citizen. Current science curricula provide only snapshots of turning point experiments and discoverie s, while the reality is often times a long and hard intellectual journey of individuals, groups and communities involved with the practice of science. Knowledge of these science processes has no better sources to come in the public domain than books written by and about the researchers and scientists who worked (or working) on the ground. The principal objective of this project is to make students enthusiastic followers of science as a process and philosophy. The perspective on science, the reasons that guided individuals to their discoveries and theories, the hardships and joys they experienced during their scientific journeys, and a larger picture of science itself through the researcher's eyes will be included in this project. The outcome of this project, we hope, will: Help students to better understand science (biology). Impart knowledge of scientific enquiry, power of observations and importance of scientific communication. Encourage and help students in their quest of science processes. MES Abasaheb Garware College Karve Road, Pune

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