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”.

IDEO’s Ten Tips for Creating a 21st–Century Classroom Experience

In recent years, IDEO has spent a lot of time and effort thinking about education. The firm’s work with Ormondale Elementary School, in Portola Valley, California, helped pioneer a special “investigative-learning” curriculum that inspires students to be seekers of knowledge. Sandy Speicher, who heads the Design for Learning efforts at IDEO mentioned the following powerful lessons for architects and designers, creating the schools of tomorrow:

1. Pull, Don’t Push: Create an environment that helps students ask questions and translate that into insight and understanding. Real learning happens when students feel the need to reconcile a question he or she is facing—and can’t help but seek out an answer.

2. Create from Relevance: Engage kids in meaningful and relevant ways, and you’ll capture their attention and imagination. Allow them to have first-hand experience, with concepts and then discuss them (instead of relying on explanation alone).

3. Stop Calling Them “Soft” Skills: Talents such as creativity, collaboration, communication, empathy, and adaptability are not just nice to have; they’re the core capabilities of a 21st-century global economy facing complex challenges.

4. Allow for Variation: Evolve from the past idea of a ‘one-size-fits-all mentality’ and permit mass customization, both in the system and the classroom. Too often, equality in education is treated as sameness. The truth is that everyone is starting from a different place and going to a different place.

5. No More Sage Onstage: In this interactive environment, the role of the teacher is transformed from the expert telling people the answer to an enabler of learning. Step away from the front of the room and find a place to engage with your learners as the “guide on the side.”

6. Teachers are Designers: Let them create. Build an environment where your teachers are actively engaged in learning by doing. Shift the conversation from prescriptive rules to permissive guidance. Even though the resulting environment may be more complicated to manage, the teachers will produce amazing results.

7. Build a Learning Community: Learning happens through the social interactions with other kids and teachers, parents, the community, and the world at large. Schools should find new ways to engage parents and build local and national partnerships which brings new resources and knowledge to your institution.

8. Be an Anthropologist, not an Archaeologist: An anthropologist studies people to understand their values, needs, and desires. If you want to design new solutions for the future, you have to understand what people care about and design for that. Don’t dig for the answer—connect.

9. Incubate the Future: Allow children to see their role in creating this world by studying and creating for topics like global warming, transportation, waste management, health care, poverty, and even education. It’s about being in a place where we learn ambition, involvement, and responsibility,
not to mention science, math, and literature.

10. Change the Discourse: We need to create new assessments that help us understand and talk about the developmental progress of 21st-century skills. This is about measuring ‘outcomes’ as well as ‘processes’. We can’t just have the measures. We actually have to value them.

Source: Adapted from http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20090218/ideos-ten-tips-for-creating-a-21st-century-classroom-experience

News Bite

• Extreme Negativity Amongst Schoolchildren: NCERT Study
• Failure No more an option in the Punjab Education Board
• One in Every Four MP Schools has only One Teacher
• Soon, ‘Private’ Schools by the Government

Extreme Negativity Amongst Schoolchildren: NCERT Study

Concerned about the mental well being of children as they grow into adults, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is conducting a nationwide survey to analyse the emotional experience of children in schools and the initial results have not been encouraging. These results have revealed that “there is extreme negativity amongst school children,” NCERT director Krishna Kumar said at a panel discussion on corporal punishment in schools.

The nationwide survey will be conducted to analyse the emotional experience of children as they go through school. The result of the survey is expected to be out by August-September this year.

Failure No more an option in the Punjab Education Board

Failure is not an option any more for students of class 10 of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) as unlike the earlier practice, they will not be promoted to the next class if they fail to secure the minimum required marks in three of the six subjects, officials said. The PSEB has decided to end the relaxation given to class 10 students under which they are promoted to class 11 despite failing in one subject except Punjabi.

However, as per the new rules that will be implemented from next session, a student has to necessarily pass Science and Mathematics along with Punjabi. If they fail in any of these three subjects, then they will not make it to the next class, said a senior official of PSEB.

One in Every Four MP Schools has only One Teacher

Single teacher-run Primary and Middle schools, have no Headmasters in most schools and, more shockingly, Senior Secondary schools till Class 12 are managed by a single teacher – and are a welcome to the Madhya Pradesh’s Education System. According to the latest District Information System for Education (DISE) report, as many as 25 percent schools - one in four – in Madhya Pradesh are managed by only one teacher. Of the total 120,661 schools in the state, 30,233 are governed by only one teacher. The statistics clearly show why even after the completion of four years in school, about 38 percent of the students are unable to read even a small sentence. The report states that the condition of middle schools is none too better.

Soon, ‘Private’ Schools by the Government

The city government is all set to open its own unaided schools. “We are starting these schools since there is a constant complaint from middle-class and upper middle-class parents about the paucity of good public schools. We have identified two locations in Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and Laxmi Bai Nagar. We plan to set up eight-nine such schools,” said Delhi Education Minister, A.S. Lovely.

The board for these schools would comprise eminent educationists. Sources said a society headed by the chief minister would run these schools assisted by the Education Minister.

Teacher’s Bite

Ms. Sara George,
Principal
St. George’s School, New Delhi

Our school has been associated with ASSET since 2004.

About the ASSET test
The ASSET test being a diagnostic test helps the students to find their strengths and weaknesses and also provides a benchmark with other students on a national level.
The questions asked encourage higher order thinking skills. The post result analysis, teacher sheets, ASSETQuestion a Day and Mindspark have made it a unique package – a real asset to the schools.

How has ASSET test helped your School?
The ASSET test has helped us get a detailed analysis of classwise /subjectwise strengths and weaknesses of the students. It has also helped us in identifying the misconceptions present. These in turn have been used to formulate an action plan to overcome weaknesses, consolidate strong areas and at the same time clarify the misconceptions found. Children too find it interesting and challenging.

Teacher Seminars on Student Misconceptions (Vadodara)

Educational Initiatives and Wipro have been working in the area of student misconceptions for the past 2 years. Over 2500 students were interviewed to understand how children think about the basic concepts in English, Maths and Science. These interactions were then reviewed by experts and put together as 15 (10 minute) videos. The video series was launched in November 2008. A CD containing 7 videos were sent to over 9000 schools across the country and a student interview contest was announced as an initiative to spread awareness about student misconceptions and encourage teachers to try the inquiry method in class.

As a part of the this project, EI And Wipro have decided to host 4 teacher seminars to felicitate the winners of the student interview contest as well as discuss on how to handle student misconceptions. The first of these seminars was held in Baroda on the 21st of March, 2009 and hosted by Anar Shukla and Meghna Kumar of Educational Initiatives.

The teacher seminar was aimed at understanding key aspects of the student interview method, handling misconceptions as well as sharing benefits of using the inquiry method in the teaching process. It was very well received by the teachers and was a great learning experience for our team as the teachers shared several examples from the class room experiences.

Bhuvaneswari Rajan (Teacher | Vadodara) said, “It was a very informative seminar and I learnt the different methods in which teaching can be done. I have decided to ask one question once a week or once in two weeks for different classes to encourage thinking capacity and clear misconceptions.”

Similar seminars will be held in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Kindly write to anar@ei-india.com to get detailed information about the seminars.

QMC winners go on an educational trip to Singapore

The winners of ASSET national Question-Making Competition – QMC 2008, went to Singapore on a four-day educational trip from February 23-26. In the scenic island country, Mr. S.R.S. Suryanarayana Rao (Science winner from Sishu Griha, Bangalore) and K.Pranavan (Maths winner from Swaminarayana Vidyapeeth, Anand) visited three schools belonging to the Global Indian International School group and had enriching interactions with the teachers and principals in each one of them. Their itinerary also included visits to Singapore Science Centre, Jurong Bird Park, Singapore Zoo and the Sentosa Island.

The QMC prize winners, Mr. Rao and Mr. Pranavan strike a happy pose with the teachers of Global Indian International School, Singapore…

Mr. Rao shared the following snippets after returning home– “At the East Coast campus school, children were determining the area of leaves and other shapes. The school had combined the Maths and Physics laboratory. It was amazing to see the wall painting done by teachers in the corridor of the school.”

Mr. Rao added –“At the Balestier campus school, they have a program of teachers’ lesson presentation from each level to all other teachers once or twice a month. Participation in this meeting is mandatory for teachers in all levels. This method gradually brings improvement in quality of teaching. This method is easily adoptable in Indian schools.”

On the visit to the Queeenstown campus, Mr. Pranavan recollected – “I observed from this campus that when teacher and student learn and seek knowledge together, a partnership develops.”

There were many more things to take back from the trip. On their part, both the visiting teachers shared some of their work and views on teaching and learning with their counterparts. The QMC prize winners fondly remembered the hospitality and meticulous organization of their hosts, the Global Indian Foundation and were very satisfied with the opportunity to establish bonds with like-minded people from their own profession.

Note : All teachers who participated in the competition and submitted valid entries have been sent their certificates, with a booklet of sample questions from the competition.We hope for even greater participation in 2009.

Humour

Teacher: What travels around the world and stays in a corner?
Student: Stamp

When a Vision Becomes Reality -Effective School Management Techniques

Several years ago, as a member of a group of researchers studying effective schools, I conducted visits to U.S. public schools, similar in demographics, and located within a few miles of the Texas-Mexico border. At the La Joya Independent School District, the counselor met us with a diminutive 5th, grade Mexican-American girl. The counselor introduced herself and Maria and informed us that Maria was to be our hostess for a school tour. We could ask her questions about the school program as we went along. This was an unexpected turnabout–university researchers being turned over to a child!

Cool and Composed
Maria was thin and small and spoke to us with confidence and gracious poise.

She showed us student essays, in English and Spanish, on the walls along the hallway. Tables outside every classroom attractively displayed current class projects. Mobiles reflecting current subjects of study hung from the ceiling. Mailboxes outside classroom doors created a postal service through which anyone could send letters within the building, thereby learning about communication services and postal careers.

Maria pointed out numerous posters that outlined the school’s discipline management system. Words and phrases such as “self-esteem” and “pride” and “success for all” were prominent on the walls. In the cafeteria we observed order and low noise in a room full of students having lunch. Along the way we observed a building that was clean, attractive and bustling with active elementary Mexican-American children.

Eventually we returned to the office where Maria parted with a charming statement of thanks and a greeting.

Typical Treatment
The counselor explained that Maria was only one of many students who filled the role of host or hostess as needed. A primary teacher mentioned that the students were incredible and the principal, encouraging and as hardworking as the teachers. Through flexible scheduling, grade-level teams had a common planning time. The teams regularly used this time to discuss the students, best practices and special challenges with individual students. Teachers at every grade level exchanged student-writing assignments and graded each other’s papers. Even the principal participated, grading each class’s work
periodically. She read outstanding essays on the public address system, celebrating student success with the entire school.

Worth Emulating
Within a five-year period, achievement scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills at this school had moved from the lowest quartile to the highest–and all with an entire student body that could be described as at-risk. What made the difference here when many other schools with the same challenges failed to see such outcomes? In my mind Maria exemplified the three key elements of the school’s vision that educators at all levels could emulate:

• school governance empowering everyone to foster student success
• instructional efforts structured around evolving student needs
• school culture deeply valuing everyone within the community

Who these educators were in their hearts had shaped their vision of student success and brought it into reality.

Source: Adapted from ‘When a Vision Becomes Reality-Effective School Management Techniques-School Administrator, Feb, 2001 - Carolyn S Carr’

News Bite

• A New Curriculum to Understand One’s Self
• India’s Primary School Education Info Goes Online
• Mumbai Schools to Have Language Labs
• Gujarat to Spend INR 500 crore on Computers for Schools

A New Curriculum to Understand One’s Self

A textbook on Human Ecology and Family Sciences (HEFS) will soon be introduced by the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) to enable students to develop a holistic understanding of life. The curriculum has been framed to enable learners to develop
an understanding of the ’self’ in relation to family and society, understand one’s role and responsibilities as a productive individual and as a member of one’s family, community and society among others. Also, a lot of emphasis has been laid on the practical component of a subject, which aims to foster critical thinking.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India’s Primary School Education Info Goes Online

The National University of Educational Planning and Administration (Nuepa) has created an online database on elementary education in India to provide comprehensive information of various primary and upper primary schools across the country. It consists of school report cards of more than 1.25 million primary and upper primary schools. The database provides users with comprehensive information in a standard format on all the vital parameters, be it student, teacher or school related variables, yet concise, accurate information about each school and allows meaningful comparisons among schools.
Source:http://www.igovernment.in

Mumbai Schools to Have Language Labs

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is to set up language laboratories in 49 schools across Mumbai. The initiative comes after additional importance was stressed on improvement of oral languages in schools especially from the disadvantaged sections of society.
The BMC has taken State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET), Pune on board to work on improving four languages: English, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. The labs proposed at the cost of INR 50 lakh is primarily aimed to cater to the learning needs of secondary schools. The first lab will come up in Gildertank School as a pilot project.
Source:http://www.digitallearning.in

Gujarat to Spend INR 500 crore on Computers for Schools

The state will install ICT peripherals in 500 primary schools under the BOT model. Educomp has struck a deal in the state for Computer Aided Education (CAE) programmes under the Gujarat Council of Primary Education (GCPE). The state has allocated INR 500 crores over five years to buy 1,50,000 computers, peripherals and LCDs to equip some 20,000 primary and upper primary schools in the state along with 3D multimedia educational content software, school management system and IT training to teachers across the state. The state will also get funds from the Centre to upgrade IT infrastructure in secondary schools.
Source:http://www.digitallearning.in

Teacher’s Bite

Ms. A Rajini
Principal,
P. S. Chidambara Nadar Senior English School, Virudhnagar

Innovative ideas or teaching methods being used in the school
To enable the children to learn the subjects in an effortless way we gave importance to languages in the early stages. We published a book captioned “Easy way to English” and chalked out many programmes based on that. The book helps the user not only to improve his vocabulary but also to use ornamental language when speaking or writing. This book has been useful in organizing language games during picnics. Apart from this, projects in other subjects and languages are conducted from class III.

Importance of Teacher Training and Development in Educating Students
A teacher has to face many challenges in the classroom. Therefore she has to update her knowledge to maintain her position of high standards in the students’ eyes. Teacher training and development programme provides the teacher with tools which she can use to make an impact on her students. A teacher training programme provides the teacher a with a learning platform in the latest trends in teaching methodology from the R&D officials. She also gets to know about innovative practices in other schools. A teacher should try hard to be open minded as much as possible. It has been rightly said that the destiny of India is shaped in the classroom. A teacher should therefore be a good facilitator to build a powerful india.

ASSET
ASSET is a fanastic diagnostic test designed in the interest of the future pillars of the nation. The team’s sincere effort at bringing out interesting question papers both for the teachers and students is very encouraging. Their contribution and support rendered to the educational institutions is commendable

Excellence

A German once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same idol?” “No,” said the sculptor without looking up, “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.” The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. “Where is the damage?” he asked. “There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.” said the sculptor, still busy with his work. “Where are you going to install the idol?” The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. “If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?” the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, “I will know it.”

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not. “Excellence” is a drive from inside, not outside. Excellence is not for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction and efficiency…

ASSET Pentathlon Results 2008

We conducted a National ASSET Pentathlon, an activity-based fun learning contest for students in November-December 2008. Students were asked to work in teams of two from the same class and perform five specified tasks – which were separate for junior (Classes 3-5) and senior (Classes 6-8) groups.

Though conducted for the first time - the response to the competition was awesome! More than 40,000 students from 402 schools participated in the competition. We had great difficulty choosing only a few winners from so many good entries, each one more creative than the last. It was quite heart-breaking to leave out many excellent contributions as we had to decide on one winning team per class. The students’ enthusiastic participation and encouragement from their teachers are greatly appreciated.

After we went through many levels of short-listing, our panel of three external judges – Mrs. Gowri Ishwaran (ex-Principal, Sanskriti School), Mrs. Deepa Raghavan (ex-Vice Principal, DPS R.K.Puram) and Mrs. Parvinder Kaur (Director, Katha schools) - adjudged the following as
Winners

Class	School	City	Winners
III	Choithram School	Indore	Rishwajeet Singh and Ritik Khatri
IV	DAV Public School Sector 10 A	Gurgaon	Garima Boken and Trisa Bhattacharya
V	Amity International School Sector 43	Gurgaon	Disha Purwar and Neha Singh
VI	Sri Gowthami Smart School	Rajahmundry	B.Y.Krishna Yogi and S.Rashi
VII	DAV Girls Senior Secondary School	Chennai	Vasundhra Iyengar and Akila Sridhar
VIII	Delhi Public School	Bokaro	Aman Kumar and Ankit Kumar

Congratulations to the National Heroes!
The winners would be invited to attend the exciting 8-day Youreka outdoor learning program. Details would be sent individually to the winners.