Reward Trust 5th Teacher Training Refresher Course



Reward Trust 5th Teacher Training Refresher Course

 

        The fifth refresher course was held on 22-4-06 at Manamai.

 

        This time the resource persons invited were chosen in such a way that their experiences would inspire the teachers to overcome the difficulties they may face in handling a variety of children.

 

         The two key resource persons were Mr SS Rajagopalan (76), and Mr Pon Dhanasekharan(50). 

 

         SS Rajagopalan, a passionate teacher and 1982 best teacher award winner, drew from the vast experience he has had from 34 years of service as Head master. The importance of no detention, no home work ( particularly  for poor rural children),  the fairly significant probability for late bloomers and the need to own up responsiblity if a student does not fare well  in the same measure as the teacher takes credit for successful performance was highlighted with several examples.  The need for correcting papers instead of mere evaluation was brought out with an example of 5002 - 1875 = 1237.  Through this example he also highlighted that instead of simply saying that the answer is wrong, if we do an error analysis, the teacher can figure out that the concept of borrowing has not been properly taught / learnt.  Teachers were paticularly inspired by the fact the SS Rajagopalan, a gold medalist in BA maths, got a special exemption to join the II MSc,  ten years after his BA, and came first in the class.  His experience as a teachers' union leader and the historic demand by the union to change the Maths syllabus in the late 60's and the govt appointing him as a member of syllabus framing committee was considered as significant contribution. This was followed by a variety of specific questions posed by the REWARD- ASHA teachers for which SSR answered with a lot of examples drawn from the vast repertoire of his distinguished teaching career in rural areas of Coimbatore that he voluntarily chose despite the fact  that he had the opportunity to join Indian Civil Service. The work he did to revive the school, that was almost closed,  in the Port trust with the help of 45 teachers who were sacked and finally succeed in getting a 100% pass in tenth   &   its repercussions on the confidence and self esteem of the students who were mostly workers children,  was  quoted to emphasise the need for practiscing Achievement Motivation with students from the lower strata of the society.

 

             Mr Pon Dhanasekharan, one of the chief editors of Dinamani, shared his experience of significant contributions from dedicated teachers that shaped his life. He was instrumental in bringing out Manavar Malar in Dinamani. He also shared how he spotted several good students who got stuck due to lack of appropriate financial  support and how he used to leverage his position and contact to help them pursue academic career.  Lack of confidence and ability to speak coherently and glibly should not be misconstrued as lack of talent was the point that he stressed by quoting a number of cases where such students succeeded once the appropriate help was given and how they are leading very successful life.

 

             Dr Jalaludeen, a special educator for special children, whom we have booked for a whole day of refresher course sometime in July -August 06, dropped by to meet the teachers and get acquainted with them. He gave a preview to what he would do in the forthcoming course.

 

             Ms Amarantha, author of several translations of Spanish literature through English into Tamil, surprised the teachers by revealing that she was a mere SSLC and was a steno in the Income Tax Department. The teachers were excited when they learnt that her knowledge in English was solely due to the dedicated efforts of her English teacher in a Govt. school.

 

              Mr Balsubramanian, a retired Engineer from Neyveli, emphasised the need for a social outlook in the profession of a teacher and how some of his teachers were instrumental in he becoming a social activist working to ensure the rights of work force.

 

              Mr Palanisamy, current RTO Chengalpet & a former Scientific assistant in, IGCAR, narrated several experiences, insults and travails that he faced as a dalit student in welfare board school and how inspiration from some teachers made him take everything in his stride to reach the level he has reached.

 

              Dr SVM Satyanarayana one of the trustees of REWARD, spoke on the strength of his experience in teaching post graduate students to prepare and pass CSIR fellowship examinations.  The need  for emphasing the inquiry mode and free will search in students was brought out lucidly in Tamil even though his mother tongue was Telugu.  That self - motivation & passion in teachers can break language barriers between them and students was a significant learning point from his lecture.

 

            We have scheduled the next refresher course for june 2006.

 

Regards,

Sridh

Trustee

Reward Trust

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