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World at Isha Vidhya |
| Educating Rural India |
December 2013 |
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| Jayanth Nag:
Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu conducted District level swimming competition where Cuddalore School student, Jayanth Nag, participated. He won the first position in 100m back stroke and second position in 100m category. Congratulations for a fine win Jayanth! |
Tamil Kit by Tamilmozhi:
Newly appointed teachers and those who have been with Isha Vidhya for more than a year but missed attending the training earlier in May, underwent the Math training in September. Each newly appointed teacher was paired with an old appointee for most of the training,. This ensured that new teachers received support and help of the returning teachers.
The training covered usage of Maths Kits, self learning methodology, creation and usage of worksheets, correctly framing word problems, creating story problems and designing lesson plan.
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National Children's
Science Competition:
Tuticorin students won the 1st prize in the district level competition of 'National Children's Science Congress' and were automatically selected for State level competition. Group of five students, Subhasini (8th std), Akash G. (8th std), Kanthimathi (6th std), Pravin Kumar (7th std) and Lavanya L. (7th std), presented a research on "Solar – an alternative source for cooking".
The students collected data from school kitchen by interviewing the kitchen supervisor. They found that the school kitchen used 2.5 kg of gas per day for cooking while using hot water heated by solar heater as opposed to 4.5 kg of gas per day when they did not use hot water. On calculating the cost difference between two methods of cooking, they found that Rs 4,755 per month was saved while using hot water for cooking. Thus the money saved in 5 years was approximately Rs. 2,85,300 (at current gas price). This amount was more than 7 times the initial cost of investment of Rs. 40,000. Approximate maintenance charge was calculated to be 20% of investment cost in the 5 years of operation.
The students concluded that even though initial cost of investment appeared high, continuous use of solar energy for heating water would reduce cooking expense by a large margin. They recommended the government to invest in solar energy based cooking in all school kitchens to reduce expense.
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Drawing Competition:
Vashister Academy conducted district level Drawing and English handwriting competitions. Over 325 students from Tuticorin Schools participated in the competition. Subashini, 8th std student of Tuticorin school, won the district level first prize in her category.
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Science Expo 2013:
Isha Vidhya Tuticorin School students, Susil Abishake and Arun Kumar (8th std), won the first prize in the district level Science Exhibition – 'The Science Expo 2013'. The theme of the exhibition was “Disposal of used polythene bag without polluting environment”. Mr. Shantha Kumar, PeT teacher, guided them during the project.
Plastics are indispensable in our current life but its rampant use is causing major environmental problems. Since it does not decompose naturally, it is causing environmental havoc every where. Even though Indian government has taken many steps to avoid plastics, yet it can’t be abolished completely. Susil and Arun's project sought to bring awareness among the people and also find solution to the problem of disposal of polythene bags.
In the experiment, Susil and Arun semi-ground the polythene and other plastic objects and mixed it with the sand that was kept in a tray. Then they sowed seeds in the mixture. Despite the presence of polythene, the seeds germinated and grew into plants. They conducted more experiments in similar vein and found that the presence of plastic in mud didn't affect the growing life. Susil and Arun presented this finding in the Science Expo as their project to win the 1st prize. They will now be participating in the State level exhibition.
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| Win in Volley Ball competition:
Eighth class students of Vanavasi school won the volley ball match organized by Rural Development Competition. They have qualified for the district level competition!
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KG to 2nd std teachers' training:
To enhance teaching ability, support team trains Isha Vidhya teachers every year. Some of the teachers, who have attended several trainings, have become experts and innovators in their classrooms. They have now stepped up to assist in the training sessions as well.
Six teachers from four different schools assisted as trainers in the recent KG to 2nd standard teachers training workshop: Ashtalakshmi (Coimbatore), Kala (Nagercoil), Ganapathy and Mariselvi (Tuticorin), Ambujam and Anitha (Villupuram). Kala, Ganapathy, Mariselvi especially, have worked hard to reach this level.
The assistant trainer teachers mentioned that during the initial days in Isha Vidhya, they were nervous and anxious of the class room teaching. The training, support from the mentors and repeated mock-sessions have helped them to up-skill themselves and also shed inhibitions so that they are now out of their shell. They also shared that the constant feed-back from their supervisors helped them to know expectations of the academic team, which empowered them to develop innovative methods to accomplish the objective.
Assisting in the training proved to be a great way to continue to perfect their skills, while also receiving recognition for their dedication and accomplishments in the classroom. It is highly motivating for the new teachers to see the examples set by their peers and aspire to reach the same level.
The first session of the training was on 'need assessment'. Teachers were asked to list the problems they wanted to discuss during the training. Assistant teachers handled the problems related to their sessions and rest were addressed by the support team during sessions taken by team.
The selected teachers were briefed about the sessions that they were going to handle. They trained the teachers in taking English, Math and Tamil class, writing work, Montessori activities, DVD class, PT class and LCD stories. Story telling session, with a demonstration by Kala and Ganapathi was amazing. Each participant was given a chance to give a mock class with a story.
Participant teachers had several queries, based on their 3 months of teaching. As the trainer-teachers have hands-on experience, they were able to give a solution for the queries with examples. Also, they knew the areas where the teachers usually struggled in the classrooms and thus stressed on them in the training.
Apart from class handling, trainers also helped the participants in material making, to make the learning material period more interesting.
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Science Exhibition:
Cuddalore School students continue to perform well in the science exhibitions. Two teams from the school participated in the District Level Science Exhibition in the categories – 7th to 8th std and 9th to 10th std. Jayanth Nag and Barath from 7th std won the third prize in 1st category. Abimanyu and Suryababu from 9th std won the 2nd place and have been selected for state level competition. Isha Vidhya Cuddalore is the only school to win 2 prizes in the District Level Science Exhibition!
Abhimanyu and Suryababu created a working model of a pump powered by a pedaling a cycle under the theme “Agriculture”. Jayanth Nag and Bharath presented a model under the theme “Environment”. They made a fume sensor which could be fitted in vehicles to automatically disable them if the fume emission exceeded the set limit.
Besides the science models, the explanation given by the students impressed the judges and visitors alike. The confidence and clarity with which the students answered the queries posed by visitors displayed the efficacy of teaching methodology and commitment of Isha Vidhya teachers.
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Life skills based competition:Life skills based competition was organized in Erode district in which students from about 35 schools participated. Isha Vidhya Erode student Kavitha, of 9th std, won the second prize in the drawing competition. Ninth std students. Varsha and Mahesh also participated in the essay and speech competition. |
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© Isha Vidhya 2014 14, C.A. Theyvar Layout,
Kannaperan Mills Road, Udayampalayam,
Coimbatore – 641 028, TN, India
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