inspiring teachers jan 2011

Jan 2011

Volume 5, Issue 1 Inspiring Teachers

This month:

Article review - what’s the

difference

between a bad

and a good

teacher? … …..2

Uma

Classroom

Journal…………3

Behera

Double Meanings? -email fwd………...3

KVJ

Predictions for next

decade…………4

Interesting links …4

Announcements…5

Driving educational change through excellence in teaching

It’s not just the beginning of

a new year, but also a new

decade. The last two

decades have been eventful

with the opening of our

economy and the

consumerism that has now

become all pervasive. So

what’s the next decade

going to be like? I invite you

to write your opinions on

this topic to publish in 2011.

Editor’s Comments

Connect with Teacher’s Academy on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

http://www.facebook.com/people/Inspiring-Teachers/100000171661522?ref=search

http://twitter.com/TeachersAcademy#

http://in.linkedin.com/in/umagarimella

Teacher’s Academy has

formed an advisory

board with experienced

and passionate people

from academics and

industry. The year 2011

is being named as ‘The

year for the

professional

colleges’ with focus on

faculty development and

differentiation for

professional colleges. This

month Behera writes about an

initiative he has taken in his

school.

There’s also excerpt from a

book by Malcolm Gladwell

that is related to teachers.

Predictions for the next

decade and a picture contest

and more….

Read on and share…

!! Contests !! 1. Please suggest a creative tagline for the academy along with a logo/symbol for ‘the

year of the professional colleges’. Entries should reach by e-mail before 15th Jan 2011

to [email protected]

If your suggestion is used by Teacher’s Academy, you will get a SurPRIZE. If you don’t

feel creative enough, just answer the poll on our site

2. The website is due for another revamp. Please send your ideas to make the site more

useful and to drive traffic to the site on a daily basis. If your idea gets used, you get

credit on the site. Send to [email protected] before 10th Jan 2011

Inspiring Teachers of 5

Editorial Review of one

article - ‘Most likely to

succeed’, from Malcolm

Gladwell’s ‘What the

dog saw and other

adventures’

For those who haven’t read

or heard of Malcolm

Gladwell, he has been a staff

writer with The New Yorker

magazine since 1996. In

2005 he was named one of

Time Magazine's 100 Most

Influential People. He is the

author of four books, "The

Tipping Point: How Little

Things Make a Big

Difference," (2000) , "Blink:

The Power of Thinking

Without Thinking" (2005),

and "Outliers: The Story of

Success" (2008) "What the

Dog Saw" (2009).

In this last book, he has an

article titled ‘Most likely to

succeed’ with a tagline ‘how

do we hire when we can’t

tell who’s right for the job’.

What I was quite impressed

What’s the difference between a good and a bad teacher?

Gladwell talks at length of the process and the costs the financial industry incurs in hiring,

filtering and grooming investment advisors. Then he closes the paragraph with a thought

provoking line – ‘what does it say about a society that devotes more care and patience to

selection of those who handle its money than of those who handle its children?

in this article was some

Stanford survey about

teaching that he has

referred to.

He starts with the

statement that student

performance is a crude

measure of a teacher’s

ability, since a teacher is

not responsible for how

much is learnt and also all

that a teacher has taught

cannot be captured in a

standardized test.

But well, this is the metric

chosen for this study.

Eric Hanushek of Stanford

has conducted extensive

studies and concluded

that teacher effects dwarf

class-size effects and

school standards. He says

that on an average a good

teacher covers 1 ½ years

worth in one academic year

whereas a bad teacher

covers ½ year’s worth. So a

student is better off in bad

school with a good teacher

than an excellent school

with a bad teacher.

Similarly, you have to cut

down the class size to half to

get the same boost as you

would get by switching from

an average teacher to a good

teacher. Given that salaries

of both teachers are same,

you can figure out the costs

of doubling number of

classes to hiring good

teachers. He calculates that

among reforms like class

size, curricula and funding,

nothing matters more than

hiring and funding the right

kind of teachers.

Now comes the even more important facet of the study. It is very difficult to know who a good

teacher is before they start performing. Typically, we think higher quality of teachers is better

grades in academics and cognition. However, this study suggests that teaching is much more

complicated than just being ‘book smart’. The skills required are ability to engage the

students, to be in control without being aggressive, to quickly take rounds of class and give

individual attention to students.


In my journey as a teacher,

I recently had an

experience of bringing out

the school magazine. When

the committee asked for

articles, poems, jokes etc,

no one was interested to

submit. Even those who

did, many had copied from

the internet and had to be

rejected.

This made me think. Are

the children really

incapable of thinking and

writing on their own? Is

language their problem? Or

thinking? To address this

problem, I crafted the idea

called classroom journal

The classroom journal, an experiment – Bhagirathi Behera

• The bandage was wound around the wound.

• The farm was used to produce produce.

• The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse

• We must polish the Polish furniture.

• He could lead if he would get the lead out.

• The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

• Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

• A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

• When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

• I did not object to the object.

• The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

• There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

Bhagirathi Behera works in

Shantinikethan Vidyalaya in

Shamirpet, near Hyderabad.

You can get a copy of The

Campus by e-mailing:

[email protected]

which is for the students

and by the students. The

teachers will only help.

This provides a platform

for the students to show

their creative skills.

With the help of the

students we came up with

1. Creative team-Teacher

Editor. Student Editor,

Student Designer, Campus

Reporter, Publisher etc.

2. Sections- story, poem,

jokes, birthdays,

achievements,

celebrations, results,

upcoming events, special

messages, announcements

etc.

3. Features- Special Issue,

Student’s page, Teacher’s

page, Campus page etc.

The frequency of the

journal can be quarterly

or bimonthly. We have

named it “The Campus”

and I am happy to say the

first issue has come this

month as a special New

Year issue.

Students were extremely

happy and excited by

seeing their work and

craft on printed format. I

feel that students will

overcome their fear of

writing by contributing to

this journal regularly.

They will also get

• They were too close to the door to close it.

• The buck does funny things when the does are present.

• A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

• To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

• After a number of injections my jaw got number.

• Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

• I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

• How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

The classroom journal

Double meanings? – fwded by KV Jayakumar


Picture Contest

• The value associated with post-graduate degrees in Computer Science/related

fields continues to decline, because you can always pick up “hot” skills in the

industry if you are motivated and thus increase your market value. Formal

education will matter less and less. The phenomena of bright programmer kids

dropping out of school to do jobs/startups will happen in India on a wider scale.

• However, for those interested in R&D, post-graduate education will continue to

serve as a great formal introduction to the method of research and the span of

their research area. Knowing how to do R&D may not be enough — how to

commercialize it will matter equally.

• Early and rapid skills acquisition’ will become important for students and fresh

graduates if they want to survive in this industry. Downturns will be more

pronounced and more people will lose jobs when that happens. So graduates

will need to plan careers carefully and figure out the entire bouquet of skills (not

just tech skills) for them to grow in a company. At the same time, due to more

R&D, product development, and entrepreneurship happening in India,

opportunities for graduates will increase. As always, entire new sectors will also

emerge and they will need IT

From PuneTech.com

Higher Education predictions for the next decade com

• Corporates allowed to start technical institutions http://www.hindu.com/2010/12/31/stories/2010123169102400.htm

• MyDrona: An affordable portable personalized educational platform http://mydrona.com/mydrona/index.html

• EazyNotes – a site put by a computer science teacher http://eazynotes.com/

• The future of presenting http://revoltpresenting.com/

• A first hand account of ICT in education http://www.livemint.com/2010/12/15201000/Limits-of-ict-in-education.html?h=D

• Discover the creative engineer in you http://tryengineering.org/

• Singapore teacher network http://www.1800-teacher.com/

•

Interesting Links

Write 50 words of what

the above picture

conveys to you. Send

your entry before 5th

Jan 2011 to

info@inspiring-

teachers.com . The

most interesting answer

will get a surPRIZE.

This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word


We are looking for young,

talented and enthusiastic

interns for training,

marketing, content writing,

website management and

other activities. Those who

are studying or graduating in

Started three years ago,

already 1600 teacher

members on-line, 25

colleges and 10 schools

touched by the training.

Long term projects are

being taken up for

professional colleges.

Continuous support and

multiple initiatives will be

included for holistic and

sustainable change.

About Teacher’s Academy…

Teacher’s Academy Hyderabad

PHONE: 97011 41118

E-MAIL: [email protected]

See us at:

www.teachersacademy.co

e-mail your resume with a 200

word write up of why you want

to do this internship.

2011 can apply. For more

details contact

[email protected]

Stipend for the period will

range from 4,000/- to 7,000/-

based on the performance of

the candidate.

Please do leave your

feedback on workshops on

the site About Us�

Clients say

Share articles, useful

links, teaching resources

and tips for effective

teaching with a growing

community of our teacher

mailing list.

If anyone is passionate

about changing the

education scenario and to

work with Teacher’s

Academy can send

resume and talk to me.

--Thanks

Uma Garimella

For your students…

inspiring teachers jan 2011

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