Portfolio 1

Zeal Educational Services Pvt. Ltd., E-22, Takshashila Apartments, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380 015. Tel: (079) 40036565, 98240-38938. Email: [email protected] [email protected]

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Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 3 About Zeal Educational Services 4 Zeal Educational Services was set up in September 2002 by Dr. B R Sitaram and Ms. Sandhya Sitaram to provide specific educational services to institutions. Since then, we have worked with schools in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Valsad, Kalol, Himmatnagar, Mundra, Mahesana, Allahabad, Faizabad, Hyderabad, Udupi, Guwahati and Dhaka (Bangladesh). Our main work has been organising Teacher Interaction Workshops based on the Process Approach to Learning. 4 Dr. Sitaram worked as a scientist at the Physical Research Laboratory from 1983 to 1996 and as the Director of the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre from 1996 to 2002. His main interests are in the teaching of science and mathematics and in the use of computers in education. He was one of the chief designers of the syllabus for the teaching of computers in Std. VIII-X in the state of Gujarat and was the subject expert for the textbooks for the same. He was also part of the State-level Implementation committee for the same. He has served on committees in Science education at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi. He is a Fellow of the Gujarat Science Academy. 4 Ms. Sandhya Sitaram, a gold medallist (M.Sc. in Zoology) from Bangalore University, taught Zoology in MES College, Bangalore before shifting to computers. She has worked in various organisations, including NIIT as a senior faculty member and technical head of the Ahmedabad centre. She has been involved in giving personalised training for Computer Engineering and MCA students in languages like C, C++, Visual Basic and others. She has also been running the Prosoft Children's Computer Club for over 15 years and has been a pioneer in the use of computers in Education for children. She has also been a consultant for educational software development. 5 How can we get involved with schools? / How exactly will the schools benefit from our involvement? 26 2

What is the duration of our work with a school? 28 Some comments about our Workshops and Training Programs 29 Some Schools that we have worked with 35 The Children’s Computer Club - Parents’ Comments 38

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About Zeal Educational Services

Zeal Educational Services was set up in September 2002 by Dr. B R Sitaram and Ms. Sandhya Sitaram to provide specific educational services to institutions. Since then, we have worked with schools in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Valsad, Kalol, Himmatnagar, Mundra, Mahesana, Allahabad, Faizabad,

Hyderabad,

Udupi,

Guwahati

and

Dhaka

(Bangladesh). Our main work has been organising Teacher Interaction Workshops based on the Process Approach to Learning.

Dr. Sitaram worked as a scientist at the Physical Research Laboratory from 1983 to 1996 and as the Director of the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre from 1996 to 2002. His main interests are in the teaching of science and mathematics and in the use of computers in education. He was one of the chief designers of the syllabus for the teaching of computers in Std. VIII-X in the state of Gujarat and was the subject expert for the textbooks for the same. He was also part of the State-level Implementation committee for the same. He has served on committees in 4

Science education at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi. He is a Fellow of the Gujarat Science Academy.

Ms. Sandhya Sitaram, a gold medallist (M.Sc. in Zoology) from Bangalore University, taught Zoology in MES College, Bangalore before shifting to computers. She has worked in various organisations, including NIIT as a senior faculty member and technical head of the Ahmedabad centre. She has been involved in giving personalised training for Computer Engineering and MCA students in languages like C, C++, Visual Basic and others. She has also been running the Prosoft Children's Computer Club for over 15 years and has been a pioneer in the use of computers in Education for children. She has also been a consultant for educational software development.

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Our Focus Area Students (children, teenagers, adults) learn best when they are motivated, convinced about the need to learn something, when they are excited and eager to know, when they are challenged and most importantly when they are having fun.

All our activities focus on incorporating these characteristics.

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What Do We Do?

• We are Consultants to schools that are eager to implement the

process

approach

to

learning

especially

science,

mathematics and computers. We work with teachers and sometimes with students. • We run a Children’s Computer Club • We impart Personalized Training in Computer Programming to students from 6th to 10th Standard, 11th and 12th Standard Students who take Computer Science as a subject, Engineering students and MCA students • We conduct Workshops o I Love Maths ( Class 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) o Tiny Tots having Fun with Science ( Class 1 and 2) o Tiny Scientists Exploring Science (Class 3 and 4) o Little Scientists Exploring Science (Class 5 and 6) o Young Scientists Exploring Science(Class 7 and above) • We

work

as

Consultants

to

Educational

Software

Companies for content designing for educational software

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Tiny Tots Having Fun with Science

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How do we make education meaningful in each of these activities? • As Consultants to Schools •

Short term (one time): Conduct workshops for teachers on

•

o

The Process Approach to Learning

o

How to set up a Mathematics Laboratory

Long Term: o To review and critically examine existing practices in the school o To develop lesson plans o To develop assignments o To design evaluation and feedback materials o To design and select suitable equipment for activities o

To design extra-curricular activities like exhibitions, fairs, dramas in science and mathematics, clubs and wall magazines

o To set up the Young Scientists’ and the Young Mathematicians’ Clubs and discuss possible research projects that students at various levels can take up

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o To discuss pedagogical issues in teaching IT in the school o

To develop suitable examples and projects for use in teaching IT;

o To evaluate the implementation of the program from time to time by our attending actual classroom sessions

Kindly Note: All the above activities are tailor made based on the needs of the school in question.

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The Children’s Computer Club •

We use computers as a tool to excite a child’s imagination and curiosity to learn.

•

We use hundreds of excellent educational software to help children learn their school subjects

•

We use several other software that encourage children explore many thinking skills that are not normally possible in school. This kind of an approach leads to overall development.

•

We

make

children

(class

6

onwards)

learn

computer

programming in Visual BASIC by making them create game programs •

We normally begin by having a detailed talk with the child’s parents in an attempt to understand the child. Based on this and our continuous interaction with the child and its parents, we take the child through a course unique to that child. Thus, no two children go through a standard course.

•

The children who have been enrolled in our club vary considerably in age and interests. The youngest child was around 3 ½ years old when he joined us, while the oldest was around 15 years old.

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•

We run the Young Expert Certification courses like The Young Artist, The Young Designer, The Young Writer, The Young Info Manager, The Young Programmer, etc.

• Each member is provided with reports of two kinds: 1.

Session wise Report: Here the parent is informed about the activities taken up the child in every session and comments about the child’s performance

2.

Unit wise Evaluation Report: After the child completes a unit (24 sessions), a detailed report about various skills is provided and discussed with parents.

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Sample Evaluation Report

Name:

Prasham

Class:

Jr.Kg.

Jobanputra

School: Children’s Nook Date:

18/2/08 Evaluation Report

Computer usage skills Mouse usage skills

10

Key board usage skills

9

Numerical skills

8

Phonetics/Sounds Spellings

7 Value out of 10

Vocabulary

6 General Knowledge

5

Eagerness to learn new things

4

Concentration

3

Attention Span

2

Logical skills Creativity

1

Comprehension

0 Criteria

Interaction and Communication with other members of the Club

Remarks: Prasham is a very polite, always smiling and a well-behaved member of our computer club. He has improved a lot in phonics and sounds in a very short period of time. He is always ready to try new spellings on his own. He enjoys all the activities given to him. He is good at logic activities. He likes to do drawing in ‘Paint’. Now he knows how to explore new software on his own. Sandhya Sitaram Director 13

The Children’s Computer Club

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T h e W o r k s h o p s I Love Maths

This is a year long workshop where children meet twice a week. In each session we facilitate discovering mathematical

exploring, and

learning concepts.

Children do a lot of activities and play games in the process. In addition to the testing assignments, they are also given assignments that are exploratory in nature. Students are regularly and personally monitored, meetings with parents are held and steps to take corrective measures are discussed. The content is entirely based on the syllabus for a particular class and therefore we have different batches for different classes.

I Love Maths Class V 15

Tiny Tots Having Fun with Science This is a 10 session workshop meant for children of class 1 and 2. The objectives of the workshop are to ignite children’s curiosity and to make them observe the world around them and to realize that there is a lot of fun while doing simple experiments.

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Tiny Scientists Exploring Science This is a 10 session workshop meant for children of class 3 and 4. The objectives of this workshop are to ignite children’s curiosity and to make them observe the world around them and to realize that there is a lot of fun while doing simple experiments. Children are also encouraged to question and reason the processes they observe.

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Little Scientists Exploring Science This is an 18 hour workshop meant for children of class 5 and 6. This workshop aims at posing problems to children and forcing them to think. During the process of finding the answers

to

questions,

children

may

do

experiments,

calculations, make models or simply reason using various thinking skills like observation, pattern recognition, logical reasoning, forming hypothesis, and so on. At the end of each session, two students are appointed to make a report on the proceedings of the session, how they discovered the answer and how they felt about the whole experience. The report is presented in the following session and the rest of the students are allowed to comment on it.

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Young Scientists Exploring Science This is an 18 hour workshop meant for children of class 7 and 8. This workshop aims at posing problems to children and forcing them to think. During the process of finding the answers

to

questions,

children

may

do

experiments,

calculations, make models or simply reason using various thinking skills like observation, pattern recognition, logical reasoning, forming hypothesis, and so on. At the end of each session, two students are appointed to make a report on the proceedings of the session, how they discovered the answer and how they felt about the whole experience. The report is presented in the following session and the rest of the students are allowed to comment on it.

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Some Sample Scientists

Reports

by

the

Little

and

the

Young

The Young Scientist Session 1 22nd June 2003 Our first topic of the day was why the moon appears to be following us while we move. We had thought of many reasons for why this might be so. Some of our hypotheses were as follows: • The moon and the earth are rotating at the same speed, • The size of the moon and • The distance of the moon from us. We pondered about the theories for a while. We found that none of the hypotheses was convincing. Then we did an experiment. We looked at objects that were at various distances from us and observed the following. • When an object was very close to us and when we moved a few steps to the left or right, we had to turn our head quite a bit to be able to see the object. • As the object was kept further and further away, we had to turn our heads less and less when we moved to the left or to the right. From this we concluded that the reason the moon seems to follow us is that it is very far away and as we keep looking at the moon we do not need to tilt our heads at all, so the moon appears to be following us. Then we made cards out of iron filings and some magnets. By placing the magnet under the card the magnetic field of the magnets were activated. Then we spread the iron filings on the top of the card. The filings were immediately attracted towards the magnet making a very beautiful design. By gluing the filings and letting them dry the card was done!

Joshua Pandian Standard VIII Delhi Public School

Exploring Science 20

The Little Scientist Session 7 13th Nov.2002. On

Wednesday

we

learnt

about

Archimedes and Archimedes principle. We did some experiments to find the volume of objects. We took a measuring cylinder. We filled it up to 210 ml. We took a nut and put it in the water. The water level rose. We noted the new level of water in the cylinder, for example, 215 ml.

Then we

calculated 215ml - 210ml and got 5ml as the volume of the nut. We also did an experiment to find out how much weight is lost when we put an object in water. For this, we took a spring balance and tied the nut to it. We measured the weight. Then we dipped in to the water and measured the weight again. It had lost some of its weight because the water was helping it to float. We all had a good time. Thank you. Vishwesh Majithia Standard IV Udgam School

Exploring Science

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What is unique about our work? There are three ways of making students learn. • Teaching and Learning Approach In this approach the teacher is the active person in the knowledge construction and the students are passive listeners. This leads to boredom and lack of sense of achievement for the students. There is no opportunity for confidence building. When students are tested, it is only to check whether they have learnt up whatever the teacher has already taught. • Teaching, Verifying and Learning Approach This is also called the Activity Approach. Here both the teacher and the students are actively involved in the session. The teacher still teaches the concepts and makes the students verify concepts taught by doing activities. It is better than the earlier approach because the students have some fun while doing something in addition to just listening to the teachers. Also the learning done by verifying is retained for a longer time.

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• Exploring, Discovering and Learning Approach This approach is very different although it is often mistaken for the Activity Approach. Here the students are more active than the teacher in the session. The teacher truly plays the role of a facilitator. The teacher starts the session by posing a question or an exploring activity that leads the students to observe reason and infer. The teacher then gathers all the knowledge constructed in bits and pieces by the students and summarizes it formally and reinforces it through assignments and tests. This approach results in developing self confidence and a sense of achievement among students. This also encourages students to acquire various kinds of thinking skills and other soft skills. This is also called the Doing and Becoming Approach. For example, if a science concept is to be understood, the students actually become scientists and do science instead of just being taught by the teacher. If something in history needs to be understood, the students actually become historians and study history rather than just being taught by the teacher some facts. Our Exploring, Discovering and Learning approach is what makes our work unique.

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Why do schools need us as Educational Consultants? / What are the existing constraints in the present day modern school? Most modern schools today are realizing the need for a better education system in terms of • providing better physical infrastructure so that the learning environment becomes attractive to children •

making a lot of effort in training and orienting existing teachers and new recruits so that they can truly facilitate the joys of learning by providing stimulating,

enriching

and

a student friendly,

intellectually

challenging

environment for students While providing better physical infrastructure is straight forward,

ensuring

that

innovative

methodologies

are

appropriately implemented has become a challenging task.

After having worked with children for more than a decade and several schools for the last 6 years, we have come to the conclusion that in order for the teachers to work in conformation with the training, it requires a change in attitude and orientation as the first step. This phase takes a 24

considerable amount of time. Teachers cannot be expected to bring about the change all by themselves. They require hand holding and reinforcement of the concepts they have been introduced to in the training if they have undergone training. They also need to be shown how to implement the process approach according to the conditions that exist in their own school. This is where we can bridge the gap as consultants.

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How can we get involved with schools? / How exactly will the schools benefit from our involvement? Our role would be as follows. • Studying the existing system by observing classroom sessions • Providing detailed reports to the school management about the study on a regular basis • Continuously emphasizing the difference between the activity approach and the exploring approach through regular demonstration sessions with the teachers on various topics • Working on lesson planning with teachers •

Seeing

to

it

that

the

lesson

plan

is

implemented

appropriately through continuous feedback • Working with teachers on how to create innovative assignments and tests •

Working with teachers on how to interpret performance and give feedback to the students and parents

• Working on how to take personalized corrective measures on students for better performance •

Reporting to the management on the ongoing activities within our framework 26

•

Helping teachers launch Activity clubs like the Computer Club, Science Club, Math Club, Art Club, Language Club and so on

•

Helping the school in conducting quizzes, plays in science and mathematics

Each school’s requirements are different. How exactly we get involved with a school would depend on the school’s requirements and priorities.

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What is the duration of our work with a school? The duration varies with the targets that the school and Zeal Education set. However, the ideal time required to bring about tangible positive changes in the system is 2 years. The logistics would

be

worked

out in

consultation

with the school

management and the teachers. The Teacher Interaction Workshop held at Oxford International School, Dhaka in 2006

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Some comments about our Workshops and Training Programs

“My comment at the final training session that it had met all my expectations and hopes, and a lot more, was no idle comment. I think it has set a very positive foundation for transformation for all the teachers who attended. This will be reinforced by the online support over the coming months to ensure that these teachers can feel the full confidence and support to go ahead and dramatically upgrade their teaching methodologies by adding an array of alternatives beyond the confines of traditional dogma.” - Mark Parkinson, Principal and Head, Oxford International School, Dhaka

“Dr Sitaram and Mrs Sandhya Sitaram also addressed the participants at an International Symposium we organized in our school last year. Their presentation was rated high by the participants.

To sum up, the Sitaram couple makes a great

resource team for school teachers." - Mathew C. Ninan Principal, Little Rock

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“Dr. B R Sitaram & Sandhya Sitaram conducted a series of workshops in 2004-05 with our teachers and students. Dr. Sitaram’s workshops were in Science & Mathematics. Sandhya worked in the area of Computers. . They used to visit the school for 2 days in a month. In his workshops with teachers, he would touch upon various topics and areas which were conceptually difficult and bring out the underlying ideas through discussions and demonstrations. He also showed them the wealth of materials available on the Web like lesson plans, animations etc. With students he used to have demonstrations based on scientific principles and help students perceive and understand them through probing questions and discussions. Ms. Sandhya helped our computer teachers to completely revise our Computer Studies curriculum from classes 2 to 8 so that it develops logical thinking and creativity.” Sundaram Subbharatnam, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya, Atul (Valsad)

“Thank you very much for accepting our invitation and coming over to our school and conducting the workshop for our teachers. After interacting with my teachers, I am happy with the kind of feedback they gave me about the concepts, the 30

teaching techniques, lesson plans, the various slide shows, website details, resources, etc. that you shared with them in the I phase of the workshop. During most of the workshops, it’s always a challenge for the faculty to reach out, involve and take along all the participants which I heard was well carried out by you both. I along with my colleagues convey our heartfelt gratitude for all knowledge you have imparted and the activities you shared with them. It was a very learning and enjoyable experience for all of them. Hope you too, had a good time. Looking forward for many more such fruitful associations with you and your organization. I would be happy if you could send us some handouts of the concepts, teaching techniques, etc. you shared with them. Thanks again.” M L Pauly, Ahmedabad.

Principal,

Zydus

School

for

Excellence,

“One week is not enough for learning or getting benefit from this program. I hope and wish we will be able to join this kind of program more in future. “ - Hasan Eman, Oxford International School, Dhaka 31

“This interactive workshop inspires

participants

to be

motivated as they can play a role of a team leader in a creative learning game which is nothing but a class. Thanks to the program organizer for presenting learning process which is a well organized doing process and easy to implement. “ - Dr. Anupam Das Burman, Oxford International School, Dhaka

“The workshop had many thought provoking questions. It helped me realize the importance of generating a process based teaching methodology to facilitate the understanding of students” - Hiral Mody – The Galaxy International School, Rajkot

Teachers and Heads of Oxford International School, Dhaka along with Zeal Education Team in 2006

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“We would like to have more of such sessions. I liked the part where we solved simple problems observed in daily life. The tricks in mathematics were fantastic. Reasoning has been enhanced. “ - Mrinalini Rao – SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

“The workshop was excellent. It helped me a lot as to how to introduce certain topics or how to make certain concepts teach in a simple way. I would like you to give some ideas as how to teach theorems to higher standards.” - Kavitha Somu – SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

“This workshop had been an excellent brainstorming session & it helped me to think in the way mathematicians and Scientists might have approached to the solution of various problems. More examples may be discussed & frequent workshops of this sort shall be of great help in teaching.” - Ratish Ravindran Nair – SN Kansagara School, Rajkot 33

“I would like to attend more of the kind of workshops to meet my personal learning objectives and to develop conceptual understanding among the students. It would be more helpful if we have a continuous one-week time for such a useful workshop. I felt that due to time constraint many topics that I would have liked being discussed were not possible.” - Manisha Upadhyay – MVD School, Rajkot

“Excellent program. I only wish we could do this in a more comprehensive manner – subject wise & topic wise especially for Physics, Chemistry. This should be a yearlong program with monthly, fortnightly sessions running parallel with sessions in class. Also continuous classroom interaction should be there. Thanks.” - Swati Faldu – TGIS

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Some Schools that we have worked with •

Oxford

International

School,

Dhaka,

Bangladesh,

2

September 2006 to 8 September 2006. The Oxford International School is a CIE school with about 2000 students. Following the 6-day workshop, we are interacting with teachers on the Net, assisting them with creating lesson plans in science and mathematics. •

Amrit Vidyalaya, Kalol, Gujarat, India, monthly visits from June 2005 to present. Run by a private trust, Amrut Vidyalaya is a small school in a very small town that has big ambitions. The school runs a very innovative Process of Inquiry based education program for its students. In October 2005, the school had a very successful 2-day fair where students put up, among

other

programs,

a

science

drama

and

2

mathematics skits. Although the story-line was given by us, the extremely innovative staff and students wrote the 35

script and even some songs for the dramas and enacted them very well! •

Atul Vidyalaya, Atul, Gujarat, India, monthly visits from October 2004 to April 2005. Situated in the small town of Valsad, South Gujarat, Atul is rated as among the best ICSE schools in the country. Headed by Mr. Sundaram, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, the school is run professionally and has an excellent academic record.

•

Little Rock Indian School, Bhramavar, Karnataka, India, 20 December 2004 to 22 Decmber 2004. LRIS is a very big school (about 2000 students) situated near a very small town in South Karnataka. The school enjoys such a reputation that students come from far away just to study here. The extremely dynamic principal, Mr. Mathew Ninan, regularly organises workshops, not only for his staff, but also for staff of neighbouring schools.

•

J G International School, Ahmedabad

•

St. Mary's Convent School, Ghoorpur, Allahabad, India, 1 April 2005 to 7 April 2005. Once again, a school situated 36

in a small town near Allahabad. The school manages to attract a large number of students from Allahabad because of the excellence of its education programs. •

Zydus School for Excellence, Ahmedabad, June 2007

•

SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

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The Children’s Computer Club -

Parents’ Comments

1. “I am quite happy. Our child enjoys being a part of the Zeal family.” Mrs. Sunaina Tomar, mother of Esha Tomar of Class V.

2. “I am very much thankful to everybody for putting efforts for my son. He has improved a lot. His thinking skills, creativity skills, vocabulary, etc. has improved a lot. His comfort ability of operating computer is great. He enjoys a lot. He also loves special programs on Maths and Science. Overall I am very satisfied and happy to send my son to such a Computer Club. I wish everybody good luck and hope that they continue to be the best and outstanding Computer Club. Once again thanks a lot for putting lot of efforts in my child.” Mrs. Payal Shah, mother of Hrishee Shah of Class I

3. “Its fantafabulous. She didn’t know what a computer is before coming to Zeal Education – Children’s Computer Club. 38

But now she seems to be teaching her friends. She waits for Tuesdays and Fridays for her class coz she loves to come here.” Mrs. Jigna Bavishi, mother of Aashna Bavishi of Class Sr. Kg.

4. “He has become more computer savvy and it helps him with his school activities. More practice is given for subjects taught i.e. maths and computers.” Mrs. Neha V Shah, mother of Rahul Shah of Class V.

5. “I like the concept (method) which is going on there and teachers are also good and cooperative with parents and even have good English. One thing is you must plan a practical test every three months for the child and with their mothers individually so that mother comes to know where the child has progressed and what he has learnt in computers and then evaluation reports does say it, but seeing the child doing it on computer makes a difference. As Prasham learnt how to explore new software on his own I believe but practically seeing him exploring new software

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will make me feel happier. Thanking you for all. Thanks to all the teachers.” Mrs. Priti A. Jobanputra, mother of Prasham Jobanputra of Class Jr. Kg.

6. “We are glad to send our son there. Everything is excellent. Keep it up. “ Mrs. Falguni C. Patel, mother of Krish Patel of Class I.

7. “My daughter likes coming to her Computer Club and she does all her work with enthusiasm. So I am also very much satisfied.” Mrs. Stuti K. Gala, mother of Anushka Gala, of Class I.

8. “Your classes are worth joining and I am pleased to see Yashvi’s growth.” Mrs. Alka V. Patel, mother of Yashvi Patel of Class II.

9. “You all are doing good job, just that they need more computer practice in using technical terms. I thank you all for all that you are doing, and I even appreciate for understanding her individually.” 40

Mrs. Bhairavi Patel, mother of Michelle Patel, of Class II.

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