Bangalore Visit

I was in Bangalore on the 2nd and 3rd of December 2011, in connection with a meeting, related to the "DE Induction Training Manual," and visited three DE Schools - two in Bangalore City and the other one in Kolar and had the opportunity to interact with teachers, students, DE Karnataka team members. I was very impressed with the presentations made by the teachers in Kolar on a selected topic - an example of "micro teaching," we're by a particular period of 45 minutes duration was meticulously planned out/sliced, minute by minute with considerable detailing on the pedagogy part - where technology will be used, where chalk and talk will be used etc. which I feel is the core of effective integration of technology in teaching. In each of the DE schools of Karnataka, one such period is planned out by selected teachers in consultation with the Coordinators, every month.

The other thing which impressed me was that "Balmela" is now system embedded and every year between November and December such activities are carried out in all the DE Schools with great fun and fervour.

Resource Group Meeting Kendrapada

A one day resource group meeting for Kendrapada district, was held on the 15th of December 2011, in Kakat Mangala UP School, located in Kendrapada town. 12 teachers attended this one day meeting, where they focused on preparing lesson plans - by working in groups. 3 lesson plans were prepared as part of this one day meeting and each of them were presented by a selected teacher from each group.

 The following lesson plans wer developed as part of the one day meeting:

Transpiration in plants - Biology (Life science)

Europe - Geography

Function - Mathematics

All the presentations were interesting but I personally liked the last one for the detailing. The teachers in fact enjoyed the day long hands on workshop/meeting. Some of them even told me that they required some additional resources on air pollution and something on the historic Los Angeles smog. I was able to access the Internet and show them some of the interesting links.

The meeting concluded with a look at videos of some of the ideal lab transactions, shot over some of the schools, visited at different locations.

Resource Group Meeting - RNIASE Cuttack

I attended a one day resource group meeting for selected teachers of Cuttack district, was held in RNIASE Cuttack on the 17th of December 2011. A total of 7 teachers participated in the one day meeting/workshop. I was able to have a very meaningful interaction with the group, who felt very positive about the training being conducted in the respective centres. The following lesson plans/designs were prepared and presented as part of the meeting:

1. Structure of Atom

2. Know about Earth

3. Plant Cell

4. Structure and Function of Blood Cell

5. Poem - Nobody's Friend

6. Function of Eye

7. Thallophyta Plants

I really enjoyed each of the presentations and yes some of them - notably the "structure of the atom," "structure and function of the plant cell"  and the one on "Thallophyta Plants," were worked in considerable detail and presented extremely well by the respective teachers. I personally feel that such workshops and sharing meetings are very fruitful in bringing about effective integration of technology in teaching.

Retreat

Attending the two day retreat was a first in many ways for me. It was the first time that the DE team was included as part of the retreat. It was the first time that the DE team was made to feel that it was part of a larger AIF family and not the "oh the DE people." Many a times I have felt that we are not part of the AIF staff and this was reinforced time and again during the visits to the office as part of the core group meeting. This was the first time that I felt like belonging to a larger whole - the AIF team, working with others to bring about serious socio-economic changes at the ground level. That some of the interventions are working and some of them needs to be streamlined, some of them are at the pilot stage are a different issue, but this is true that all of us are trying hard and really hard to bring about some changes, in the lives of the people we touch, including ourselves.

I really got an opportunity to sit back, relax and take a close look at the various programs as the respective teams went about making their presentations and answering all sorts of questions, raised by the participants - some of which happened to be of a very fundamental nature. In fact in the very process of answering one could sense the clarity of the concepts and the underpinning issues that became clear both to the audience as well as the presenter - the informal setting and the beautiful backdrop did the trick.

I for one got a lot of clarity as far as funding is concerned. How are funds raised, pledge drives conducted, restricted and unrestricted funding, necessity of working out a synergy between the program requirements, translated into budgetary demands and how are fund drives conducted, on the basis of understanding these demands, the necessity of a dedicated fund raising officer, who works in close coordination with the program directors/teams etc.

I really got to understand our various intentions much much better. For instance I never knew the difficulties that the LAMP team was facing as far as meaningful implementation at the ground level is concerned. Asutosh was forthright in mentioning the lack of partners with expertise in education at the local level and add to this the inability of the established players to function in those areas. Similarly I got to understand our public health interventions a lot better, thanks to my room mate - Anupam and Charu's passionate presentation and her evident frustration at not being able to extend her portfolio. The discussion on the fellowship program was interesting, especially the ethical angle brought about by the fellowship team as to whether we should internally absorb them in our program as that means an "opportunity loss" as far as a needy NGO is concerned.

All in all from the intricacies of partner selection to the ethics of being a donor agency as well as the technical support provider, as in case of the LAMP program to the modes operandi of funding et al, seemed to be very interesting. Last but not the least a number of close friendships and personal acquaintances were established as part of the two day retreat.