1st Presentation in India.

Surprisingly, I was really calm and not stressed for the presentation that I had today on US Educational policies from 1960  onward and the impact these policies have on 1 teacher leader in a public school in Boston. 

 I wish we had more time to discuss my reflection questions: 1. What data will accurately show student progress at their grade level? and 2. What data is the most effective in determining student’s preparation for the real world? These concepts are applicable globally and everyone in education really needs to be asking themselves these questions. Through my discussions today, it is clear how much politics plays a role in education and how disconnected the policies are from helping students excel academically. I really tried to push students to think about creative solutions.

 Through all of this--the preparations, the conversations with my Professor, the discussion with students made me think about New Mission. I have three ideas to help find creative solutions to my reflection questions that center around the students being part of the conversation. When I get back home, I really want to create a student council and an alumni network. Both these groups will give us good data on building curriculums to help students succeed in college and/or in a profession. The last idea is why I am in India to begin with. Creating student-centered, project based learning for students to showcase their learning. The History team has started implemented this idea through our research papers and projects and I want to take it further and completely embed it into my curriculum.
II 
It felt so good to be in front of a class. Upon reflection, it is clear, my calling is to be a classroom teacher. I miss you New Mission and I look forward to incorporating my learning here in India into the History classroom at NewMission.
The boys got a ride home from our neighbour. They were ecstatic!
I swear there were more than 3 people at the presentation:-)

Comments

  1. YuriSinghJanuary 30, 2019 at 7:00 AM

    It's a fun game to guess which one of you has written a particular thing based on word choice or an observation that was made ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farmhouse Retreat

Image
My class on Education Policy and Decentralisation took a field trip to a village. One of the students, Sanjeet, was kind enough to offer his farmhouse for all of us to stay at the night before. Sanjeet has an amazing story which I will save for another post. Briefly though, for 20 years or so he worked in the corporate world and decided to leave his job and enter in the MA program at Azim Premji University. His family runs a school in a village outside Bangalore and he wanted to learn more about education in India and put his talents to good use in the social sector. There was about 15 of us including my Professor, Dr. Paik. This class is more like a community and how they interact with each other, with me, and our Professor is a case study in itself. Right from day 1 of the class, I felt the warmth, kindness, and enthusiasm from each one of them. The farmhouse adventure is a testament to their true generosity and compassion. We left the campus around 5:30pm on this bus th
Read more

Caste System in India

Image
Author's Note: Please know that I am trying to understand the Caste system in India and I am just thinking out loud based on what I am learning in my Class, Caste, Gender course. There is NO judgement. They are just thoughts. General History of Caste courtesy of BBC News:   Manusmriti , widely regarded to be the most important and authoritative book on Hindu law and dating back to at least 1,000 years before Christ was born, "acknowledges and justifies the caste system as the basis of order and regularity of society". The caste system divides Hindus into four main categories - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras. Many believe that the groups originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation. At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and are believed to have come from Brahma's head. Then came the Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, supposedly from his arms. The third slot went to the Vaishyas
Read more

John's World...Sports

Image
Nehru Stadium, Kochi.  One of the loudest outdoor stadiums in the world according to Guiness. While I plan on answering everyone’s questions they send me, this email caught my attention: Hi John, What is the sports scene like in India? Can you give more details on what sports they watch and how they support their team? RR from Roslindale Thank you RR from Roslindale.   I had planned on penning an entry on this very subject.   One of the things that attracts me to sports to the degree that it does is that you can see the beauty, horror, simplicity, and complexity of life played out over game time.   Race, religion, class, politics, gender, you name the issue-it comes to the forefront in sports.   Triumph over odds through merit, the great vehicle of endeavor plays out over a test, a game, a period and gives us hope.   Back in the states I am immersed in soccer, hockey, football, basketball and from time to time baseball.   I love watching, listening to com
Read more