ASSETScope June 2009

Teach it Forward and Reap it Forever by Professor Joe Martin

Sometimes the smallest gifts are the greatest gifts. I should know, because my physical education teacher made an impact on my life that has stayed with me.

I had just completed my final exam (don’t ask me why we had to take a written exam in P.E). However, when I went to give it to, Coach Bruce, he passed a hand-written note to me and insisted that I read it later. Bewildered, I just agreed and proceeded to leave.

Later that afternoon, as I stood in my room getting ready to change in something more comfortable, I felt the note Coach Bruce had given me stuffed in my back pocket and proceeded to read it.

The note said the following:
“Joe, it was an absolute pleasure to have you in my class this year. Your attitude and work ethic was a joy to watch. I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to seeing you everyday.

The reason I wrote you this note is because I’m not sure if I’ll ever get a chance to speak to you again. However, I just want you to know that I am certain I will be reading about you and seeing your face again, because I know you’re going to do some extraordinary things in your life and impact a lot of people.

So I’m writing you this note so when you do indeed become ‘famous” and I read and hear about you one day, you’ll know that I was first to say ‘I told you so.’ Good luck and God bless.”

My initial reaction moved from disbelief to pride. For the first time, in a long time, I felt there was greatness inside of me. As a child, I suffered from low self-esteem, and I wanted desperately to win the approval of others, especially men; because my father wasn’t active in my life as a child.

I can’t tell you what Coach Bruce’s letter did for my spirit, my self-esteem, and my attitude towards school. I saved his note and carried it with me throughout college, eventually graduating at the top of my class and being voted “Most Outstanding Student” in my major.

As a result of Coach Bruce’s impact, when I became a teacher, I quickly made it a tradition to pick one student in each of my classes (not necessarily the one with the highest grade), and I would give him or her, a similar note on the last day of class (just like Coach Bruce did). All I can say now is I seem to get as much pleasure out of giving it to my students as I did receiving it from Coach Bruce.

As a new teacher (or even a veteran one), I encourage you today to look for unique ways you can celebrate and encourage a student, colleague, or administrator at your school. I guarantee you, you’ll be making a down payment on a future blessing. If you don’t believe me, just ask Coach Bruce.

Source: http://www.newteacheruniversity.com/resources/teacher-articles/
continued/teach-it-forward-and-reap-it-forever/-modified

Book Review

Teaching Social Science in Schools
NCERT’s New Textbook Initiative
Alex M. George and Amman Madan

The world has changed. Today the best paying jobs are no longer in the technical fields, but in
the applied social sciences. Most jobs today deal more with people than with machines. But
more importantly, all major challenges of today’s world—be they terrorism, the global economic meltdown, or the place of women in metropolitan India—can be understood only through social
sciences. The question is can children afford not to know social science?
—Interview with Amman Madan in the Deccan Herald

The NCERT has been publishing a new generation of social science textbooks since 2005. Teaching Social Science in Schools is a manual that explains the rationale for the new approach, and illustrates how the new textbooks can be used effectively. It provides answers to many questions such as:

• What problems are teachers likely to face while teaching the new textbooks?
• Why not provide straight and direct definitions for children to learn?
• Have such textbooks been used elsewhere in the country?
• What roles are parents expected to play?

Alex M. George and Amman Madan come up with jargon-free replies in a friendly, ‘frequently-asked-questions’ format. They take us through the challenges of textbook preparation, and offer guidelines for interactive classroom sessions. This book is a must-have not only for school and college libraries, but would also be of immense value to teachers, trainee teachers, parents, students, educationists, designers of school curricula, or simply any reader interested in the way young people are taught social science in India.

Alex M. George is an independent researcher based in Kerala, India. Amman Madan is Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Kanpur, India.

Email the authors: alexmgeorge@gmail.com and ammanm@gmail.com

News Bite

• Apex Court Seeks Update on Facilities in Schools Across the Country
• India to Provide Training to Afghan School Teachers

Apex Court Seeks Update on Facilities in Schools Across the Country

The Supreme Court has asked the government to apprise it about the problems faced by schools across the country in terms of availability of basic amenities like drinking water, toilets, seating facility and classrooms. A bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Harjeet Singh Bedi sought the update within two months while adjudicating a lawsuit, which has complained of the lack of various basic facilities like drinking water, toilets, chairs, fans, chairs and classrooms in about 1,000 government-run schools in Delhi.
Source: http://indiaedunews.net/

India to Provide Training to Afghan School Teachers

The National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) has been directed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to prepare a specific curriculum to train Afghan school teachers on student- friendly methods of teaching to strengthen the education system in Afghanistan. “Teachers coming from Afghanistan will be here for two years and will be imparted with the modern and student-friendly methods of teaching,” said a senior HRD Ministry official.
Source: http://indiaedunews.net/

Teacher’s Bite

Ms. Mahalakshmi Vijaychand
Principal,
Sindhi High School, Hebbal

Importance of Teacher Training and Development in Educating Students.
Let us compare a driver without a license and a driver with a license. In the first case, the person knows just how to drive whereas a licensed driver is also aware of the various signals, interpretation of signboards, how to manipulate the vehicles at hairpin bends/uphill/downhill etc. Similarly a trained teacher is made aware of the nuances in the teaching – learning transaction! Teaching is a skill which is honed by teacher training. This will give confidence to the teacher to face a class which is eagerly looking forward to assess the teacher. The teacher gains acceptance by

• Having command over the subjects • Using varied methodology and technology

With the technology boom teaching has become more challenging. Students have access to information from difference sources. The training also has to keep pace with the changes, hence teacher development is imperative.

ASSET
The ASSET examination has brought about new dimensions in evaluation. The thought-provoking questions have motivated teachers to incorporate more application level and higher order mental skills in their lesson plans. They have also set questions on the lines of ASSET in their activity sheets, unit tests and terminal exam papers.

The evaluation sheets give a clear picture of the students’ strengths and weaknesses which would enable the students to work at areas which require improvement. If we administer such question papers to a whole class it would be an assessment not just of the students’ abilities, it would also give a graphic analysis of teaching – learning transaction. This would help the teacher to re-teach specific concepts with alternate methods if the general performance is not satisfactory.

ASSET Question Making Competition 2009

The ASSET Question Making Contest for year 2009 begins from July1st
The competition has seen tremendous response last year from teachers spread across the nation. 2008 witnessed more than 5000 teachers coming together in this event of Question-Making. The objective of this contest is to form a network of like-minded teachers and schools who work towards improvement of understanding among students, through good question making.

Under this contest, we would be rewarding and recognizing schools and teachers who submit high-quality questions for this competition on a national platform. This competition is open to English medium schools across India wherein, teachers of classes 3 to 9, in the subjects of English, Hindi, Maths, Science and Social Studies, can participate. Teachers interested in participating will have to fill in the registration form online or send it through courier/post.

For regular updates about details of this event, log on to our website www.ei-india.com

Till then sharpen your axes as the hunt for best question makers is about to begin.

Happy Question Making!
EI Team
ASSET-qmc@ei-india.com

ASSET Erratum

This is to inform you about errata in an ASSET paper for Class 8-Science Round F. None of the options given in question 18 in the paper 38F is correct.

Option D is incorrect - “The burning paper used up the oxygen in the bottle and pressure inside became lower. The air pressure outside the bottle pushed the egg in.”

The accurate explanation for this to occur is as follows:
• The process of combustion (paper burning in the bottle) causes air inside of the bottle to heat up and expand. When the egg is placed on top of the bottle, it acts as a one way valve (due to its shape) allowing some air to move out due to higher air pressure within the bottle caused by the expansion of the hot air.
• However, this arrangement does not allow air to enter into the bottle. Moreover, the flame goes out (as the oxygen is depleted) and the gases on the inside of the bottle begin to cool. The cooler molecules of gas, move less rapidly, causing less collisions of the gas molecules, which results in less air pressure.
• However, the air pressure remains the same on the outside of the bottle. This causes the air pressure on the outside of the bottle (which has a greater pressure than the inside of the bottle) to push the egg through the tiny opening and into the bottle.

Hence, the correct answer to this question should be:

“Some hot air escaped from the bottle, reducing the amount of air and the pressure inside. The air pressure outside pushed the egg in.”

Reports were already dispatched before the error was caught. We regret this error and hope that your students will be informed of the right answer.

Humour

Teacher: In what way are the letter “A” and “noon” alike?
Student: Both of them are in the middle of the “day”.