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.