Bargarh Resource Group Meeting

A resource group meeting was held in George High School, Bargarh on the 26th of November, 2011. 25 teachers selected for their lead role in integrating technology in teaching, at the school level, attended this meeting. 9 lesson plans were developed as part of this meeting by teachers working in groups. 

Sambalpur and Bargarh Field Trip

Putibandha UGME School, Sambalpur

Date of visit: 22^nd November 2011

Time spent: 2 hrs

I started my visit with a discussion with the following teachers:

Gitanjali Sahu

Rajasree Behera

Jaysree Seth

Anandini Mishra

Observations

This school has 6 teachers who are undergoing training in DIET Sambalpur and one of them the HM has undergone 9 days of training. I actually spent time in the school interacting with the HM and some of the selected teachers, taking feed- back on how they felt about the training. As usual they were very positive and satisfied with the way it was being conducted. The only request they made was if they can be provided with some more resources, on topics which were not available in the “Edukit.”

The discussions were followed by a collaborative project on “acid, base and salts” with the class VII students. Although the project was well planned and executed and the students were very interactive, the HM didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic while doing the same and had to be prompted on many counts by Samtanu. A video shoot of the same is available. I did ask some of the students as to whether they are learning computers and how many times a week and their answers seem to be satisfactory. This school like other Upper Primary Schools have content provided by APF and NIIT available with them apart from the Edukit.

A video recording of the classroom transaction is available.

Kirba UP School, Burla, Sambalpur

Date of visit: 22^nd November 2011

Time spent: 1.5 hrs hrs

I had a discussion with

Sharmistha Palai

Itishree Badapanda

Kasturi Jena

Observations

Here again I made a classroom observation and the teacher was teaching acid, bases and salt (as per the syllabus) and she did repeat the experiment, using different materials – turmeric paste, lime water, detergent solution and litmus paper (red and blue). This time the teacher, who happens to be a trainee, did display high energy levels and was very enthusiastic and got the students experiment in groups and note down their observations in a sheet, which was prepared earlier. I did not have much of a time to interact with the HM and the teachers as I reached the school late in the afternoon (after reaching from Bhubaneshwar and completing a school visit earlier in the afternoon). It was but evident that the student training was not happening on a very regular basis since the last one month, because of some internal problems between the HM and the teachers and as a result the lab remained locked. The school management committee has since intervened and things are somewhat limping back to normal.

A video recording of the classroom transaction is available.

Cement Nagar High School, Bargarh

Date of visit: 23^rd November 2011

Time spent: 4 hrs

My visit started with a discussion with the HM (who is very new to the school as well as the DE Program) and two other teachers as mentioned below:

Jagabandhu Pradhan

Debjivan Kar

Yudhistir Das

Both the teachers have undergone 14 days of training and were full of praise for the way DE training was being conducted. They were of the view that the training experience was unique and none of the training that they had previously attended (including the ones on pedagogy) could match up to the DE training on techno-pedagogy.

I had expressed my desire earlier to the monitoring expert that I wanted to watch a classroom transaction and a collaborative project in the school and what I saw made me feel extremely satisfied, with the work we have been doing. The first transaction was on “Area of a Parallelogram” by Debjivan Kar. He not only had an excellent hold over content but displayed in good measure the skills, imparted as part of the DE training especially critical and creative thinking. The students enjoyed every bit of bit and posed questions as well as answered questions posed by their teacher, confidently. Good use of computers, were made as part of the transaction, especially Edukit. This was followed by a brilliant display of creative teaching skills by Yudhistir Das, who taught the “laws of reflection” to class IX students and seamlessly integrated a collaborative project as part of his overall lesson design. The students conducted the experiment themselves and noted down their observations. The best part of the overall process was the video that was shot capturing the classroom transaction and an interview with teachers and students on what they felt about the program. The video footage needs to be edited and uploaded.

Kadaligarh High School, Redhakhol

Date of visit: 24^th November 2011

Time spent: 4 hrs

This school is located at a distance of 85 kms from Sambalpur town. I had a FGD with the following teachers:

Purnima Rani Nayak, HM

Pragyan Parmita Das, Science Teacher

Birendra Kumar Sahoo, Science Teacher

Apart from the above group two other teachers joined us for a while – Sanskrit and English teacher, who are attending training but are unable to make much use of computers because of the subjects they teach do not have much of content available. Pankaj Pati, Monitoring Expert, Sambalpur, assisted the mathematics teacher, Birendra Kumar Sahoo, in demonstrating “origami” as a pedagogic method for teaching traingles. The students participated enthusiastically, by folding their own papers in learning about triangles. Some of them even made a presentation for the entire class. Pragyan Parmita Das, Science Teacher, did a collaborative project on “sound.” I did not have enough time to watch a lab transaction using “Edukit” on the same as we had to visit another school. The students of this school proved to be an intelligent lot and a majority of them I conversed with were pretty much confident in using different computer applications. All the mandatory registers were being maintained in this school.

Video footage of the collaborative project is available.

The last school I visited on my way back was Jujomara ME school and it was very late past 4 pm and the HM and some of the students were waiting for us. We couldn’t watch a lab transaction and only interacted with the HM and the students – a majority of whom said that they attended computer classes regularly, more than four times a week. This school has a very good reputation as far as CAL program (Govt. run) is concerned.

Cuttack and Kendrapada School Visit

Janashakti High School, Pentha, Kendrapada

Date of visit: 17th November 2011

Time spent: 3.5 hrs

Observations

My visit to the school started with a focussed group discussion with the headmaster and three other teachers who had completed 9 days of training in RNIASE, training centre, Cuttack, as mentioned below. Apart from these 4 teachers the other one was attending the on-going training session in RNIASE.

Narendra Kumar Sethy, HM

Dilip Kumar Sahoo

Ashok Kumar Parida

Nalini Prabha Sahoo

The teachers were very satisfied with the training on techno-pedagogy being imparted in the training centre. Their only regret being the gap between the trainings were quite long – one to one and a half months and I guess nothing can be done about that given the training schedule and the time frame within which we need to complete the training. There was a request for a projector by the HM, which he said will help them a lot, in dealing with one class at a time, doing away with the infrastructural constraints – the small size of the lab.

This was followed by a lab transaction which was carried out by Dilip Kumar Sahoo, on area and circumference of circles. The lab transaction was carried out well and on a ten point scale I will mark it seven. The teacher had an excellent hold over content, made use of technology, activities and mostly importantly could hold the attention of students for a long time. It was very interactive and the students did pose a lot of questions and even gave answers to quite a few that were posed by the teacher. The only missing piece in the entire lab transaction is it was not connected with a lesson plan / design which should ideally have been the case. I will not say that there was no planning but rather there was no documentation available. I personally feel that a lab transaction and a collaborative project should all flow from a well thought out lesson plan / design and although not all the topics can be transacted in this manner due to pressure of completing the syllabus, within a stipulated time, we can at least begin by transacting 25% of the topics, using this engaged learning methodology. I shared my observations with the teacher concerned.

This was followed by a collaborative project / engaged learning activity carried out in the lab on the “chemical properties of metals,” by Nalini Prabha Sahoo. The students were made to think by the teacher before actually starting the experiments. She did this by posing intelligent why and what question’s, which was demonstration, of getting the students engaged by making them think critically. This was followed by demonstration by the teacher herself and experimentation and observation by the students themselves. The students were an excited lot and each of them took interest in holding the test tube and making the experiment along with the observation.

This was followed by one last lab transaction on the “structure and functions of cells,” carried out by Dilip Kumar Sahoo, who displayed excellent teaching skills. It was a very interactive session and he made use of both charts and computers – especially EDU-KIT. He had been a teacher trainer earlier and does know about the importance of the pedagogic aspects.

All in all I was very impressed with the motivation and energy displayed by the HM as well as the teachers and last but not the least our very own resource person – Soumya, who has done a pretty good job as far as hand holding is concerned.

Baleswar Nodal UP School, Poporada, Cuttack

Date of visit: 16th November 2011

Time spent: 3 hrs

My visit to the school started with a focussed group discussion with the headmaster and one of the teacher, who had completed 9 days of training in Dolipur, training centre, Jajpur, as mentioned below. This school has only six teachers and all of them are undergoing training as part of the DE program.

Dibakar Pradhan, HM

Lipsa Naik, Science Teacher

Observations

As far as the training is concerned both the HM and the science teacher were satisfied with the way it is being conducted and their only regret being that they have to travel all the way to Jajpur for the training.

I had the opportunity to watch a collaborative project as well as a lab transaction on “photosynthesis” carried out by Lipsa Naik. It was very well planned and well executed. There were a lot of activities, use of charts and computers. The class was very interactive and the students actually enjoyed it.

Similarly the HM conducted a collaborative project on “triangles” and used the TLM provided by the department for the purpose. He asked a lot of questions and actually made the students do a lot of activities and make their own observations. The only difference between the former and the latter being that while in the former computers and “edukit” were used in case of the latter computers were not used (thus edukit was also not used). The class taken by Lipsa Naik, was technology and activity based learning – rolled into one. It was an excellent example of effective use of techno-pedagogy. The HM was also very encouraging and motivating and because of health reasons, could not climb the stairs to the computer lab, located in the first floor.

My only request to them was to have a lesson design / plan as the starting point and to transact at least 25% of the syllabus, using this method.

I also need to thank Baidyanath Behera, AIF Monitoring Expert, for the good job he is doing. He in fact has mingled well with the teachers and students and as a result is able to get the desired output.

DE Scholarship - 2010-2012

The DE Scholarship was finally distributed as part of the three day "Suravi" event organized by the School and Mass Education Department, Govt., of Orissa. Twenty students - ten boys and ten girls, were selected from 160 graduated DE Schools, on the basis of marks scored in the annual High School Certificate Exams, 2010. Each of the students will get Rs. 24000, spread over a period of two years, covering their higher secondary education.  The scholarships were handed over as part of a glittering ceremony by Shri RN Senapati, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner, Govt. of Orissa. Aparajita Sarangi, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, and other senior members of the School and Mass education dept. were present as part of the occasion.

Technology in Teaching Learning

I recently had the opportunity to visit Khan Nagar High School in Cuttack and was impressed by some of the teachers, who are actually making efforts in effectively integrating technology as part of their day to day teaching learning. I was impressed by the passion displayed by some of the teachers in going about collaborative projects on triangles - different types and preparation of hydrogen gas. They meticulously went about grouping the students and making them observe and note down the critical points as they went about their activities and to round it up making use of computers - EDUKIT and their own resources as a final summing up of the same. The students did enjoy the sessions and did pose a number of questions, that made the class enjoyable and fun and some of the students, even made a presentation at the end. 

Project Quality Monitoring Workshop

A project quality monitoring committee meeting for the central zone was held in RNIASE Cuttack, on the 31st of October, 2011. A total of 3 lesson plans and 10 teaching aids, which were picked up from a host of other projects at the school level, were presented to the committee for approval as per a set of indicators. A total of three teaching aids were finally selected by the committee, as meeting the accepted standards.

DE Resource Group Meeting Southern Zone

A resource group meeting for selected teachers (selected on the basis of performance on output indicators) was held in DPIASE, Berhampur, on the 25th of October. 13 teachers participated in this workshop. t lesson plans and 6 teaching aids were developed as part of this workshop.