The monthly newsletter
SCOPE Issue 82 | March 2012 | www.ei-india.com
This Month’s Issue Music Education ............ 01 Kindle the Light .............. 02 ASSET Photo Contest ...... 03 Media Based Education .. 04 ASSET Quiz ..................... 05 Thoughtful Story ............ 06 Teacher’s Bite ................. 07 Competition for Teachers. 08
Why Music Education is Important? Music participation provides a unique opportunity for literacy preparation. Whether the children are singing, playing, or listening, teachers direct them to listen and hear in new ways, which exercises their aural discrimination. Playing instruments and adding movement to the lessons teaches children about sequential learning which is essential in reading comprehension.
Music is for Life Most people can’t play soccer, or football at 70 or 80 years of age but they can sing. And they can play the piano or some other instrument. Music is a gift you can give your child that will last their entire lives.
Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practising.
Plato once said that music “is a more potent instrument than any other for education”. You will find many teachers of young children who would agree with him. Recent research has found that music uses both sides of the brain, a fact that makes it valuable in all areas of development. Music affects the growth of a child’s brain academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Music is Physical Music can be described as a sport. Learning to sing and keep rhythm, develops coordination. The air and wind power necessary to blow a flute, trumpet or saxophone promotes a healthy body. Music is Emotional Music is an art form. We are emotional beings and every child requires an artistic outlet. Music may be child’s vehicle of expression.
In music, a mistake is a mistake; whether the instrument is in tune or not, whether the notes are well played or not, whether the entrance is made or not. It is only by hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through the study of music, students learn the value of sustained efforts to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.
There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced Mathematics problems to being able to pack a -bag with everything that will be needed for the day.
Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his/her life with his/her core, with what he/she is and what he feels. Selfesteem is a by-product of this selfexpression.
Kindle the Light Within Nandi Academy, a school where everyone believes that education is thinking beyond the box, followed by action. Mr. Sreedhar Reddy (the Managing Director of Nandi Groups), a man full of innovative ideas, spends his leisure time at school, challenging us with his new-fangled ideas. One morning, we were building a model of a suspension bridge in our “Learning with Fun” class with the Knex Bridge set. During the class, he apprehended that we were not learning much with that. Hence, he challenged us with the project of constructing a “Suspension Bridge” of 16 feet in 48 hourrs. At once, we pulled up our sleeves and set on to work! We constructed the bridge, over the school’s small pond using nylon ropes, wooden planks, logs, sticks and binding wire. It
weighed almost 150 Kgs. We learnt a lot about bridges by practically doing it. We enjoy taking a walk across it everyday. Our Art teacher, Mr. Chitti Babu has been a great support in accomplishing such goals. Moreover, we were also helped by the school’s carpenter, Mr. Maula Ali. Mrs. Arvind Rani, the backbone of Nandi Academy, along with our Principal Mrs. Meena Kant, joined us in the inauguration of the bridge and appreciated our efforts, as always. This keeps us going!!! By Sreekanth Reddy, Grade 7, Nandi Academy, Nandyal
Inauguration of Integrity Club “Integrity as a value means being a person who does what he/she says and says what he/she does.”This was one of the numerous values highlighted and showcased as a part of the inauguration of the Integrity club of HRS. The programme was held on 7th February 2012.The various programmes aimed at propagating human values in the society to strengthen value based culture in the country. The show was organized by the students of class IX .Various students from classes VI to VIII also participated. The teachers in charge were Mrs. Annamma Mathew and Mrs. AmrithaValli.The programme began with the
inauguration of the club by the Principal Mr. Santhosh Kannavalli. It was followed by the issuing of badges by the Vice Principal Mr. K. Sreenivasan. The cultural programme witnessed the highlighting of various values such as Honesty, Patriotism, Integrity, Peace etc. The students were also shown a presentation about the club. Apart from this, various programmes such as dance, music, skit, stories, poems etc were also put up. The delivering of the vote of thanks signalled the end of the programme. By Tamanna Elizabeth, ASSET Ambassador, The High Range School, Munnar
COLUMN: Round 6 We are sure you would be as eager to know the answers of last month’s quiz question and the winner’s Name. Last month’s answer for the quiz question is B and the winner is Tarun Agrawal, New Era Sn. Sec. School, Vadodara
Congratulations! This month’s question is from Science subject.
QUESTION OF THE MONTH When a scientist makes observations he reports things that can only be clearly seen or measured. He can then make conclusions based on these observations. The animal shown alongside is a moose. Which of these is a scientific observation made based on an inspection of the image? A. B. C. D.
It is adapted only for cold climates. It might use its horns to defend itself. It lives only in mountainous regions. It has hair covering its body.
If you know the correct answer of the question Send us a mail at assetscope@ei-india.com with the correct answer along with your name, your school’s name, city and contact number. The subjectline of the mail should be “SMSL Quiz Round 6 Answer”. Last date to send the entries is 15th April, 2012. Answer this question and get a chance to win SMSL goodies from the ASSET Team.
ASSET Photo Contest 2011 – Results In November, we announced the ASSET Photo Contest on the theme ‘Celebration’ in which we encouraged students of classes 5 to 10 to go out with their cameras and share their celebrations through their eyes. The more obvious photos which we received were of the World Cup celebration of the Indian team, birthday celebrations, Christmas Celebrations etc. 150+ SUBMISSIONS We received almost everything one could think of. The response was overwhelming and truly smashing: overall, we received over 150+photos, although some didn’t pass our automated processing or didn’t fit our guidelines. With so many emails from so many students across the world, sorting the submissions manually was a daunting task. But that’s what we had to do. It was a great experience reviewing and grouping the photos. Once we got these photos, we shortlisted the best 10 entries. As this contest was among the students, we thought that students should only select the best three entries.
And finally we got our top three entries from this exercise. And the winners are:
1st Prize Naitik Jain Vidya Vikas Academy, Goa
2nd Prize K Al-Mariam-ul-Aasia Sivakasi Nadars Mtr. H. S. School, Madurai
The best 10 entries were then selected for public voting by students. The 10 top entries were uploaded on India’s first social networking site for school students: www.assetambassador.com for voting.
3rd Prize Aastha The Gurukul, Panchkula
to judge had e h t t a h W st. the conte t u o b a y sa
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Life without celebrations can become so dull. Celebrations keep you cheerful; they bring people together, give you positive energy, and also give you break from your routine. Photographs keep those celebrations alive, you can get back to those cheerful moments looking at them. They also help others see how people celebrate festivals and events across the world.
This initiative by ASSET, is a wonderful way of showing not only the photography skills, but also how celebrations are done at various places. These photographs are a pool of knowledge and information. These photographs are not just to be seen, but to be read carefully. The winning photographs are judged on their composition, content, quality and public voting.
”
Happy Clicking!
Ms. Nikita Dutt, PGC Photography Design, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
We also hope we have achieved the goal of the contest: to provide our young minds to capture the moment through their eyes.
Media Based Education
History was made interesting in the classroom of class 8 with a change in approach. To understand the history of our National Movement in a better way a movie based on “Brand Mahatma Gandhi” was shown directed by ‘Richard Attenborough’ winning 8 academy awards in 1982. Students were shown real human history come to life on the screen.
it has become significant because of Brand Anna who is a Brand Extension of Mahatma Gandhi. They are similar in the following: their physical similarity (white cap, white dress, looks), their ideology- a better system based on value systems, their approach like indefinite fasting, practice of non violence, superior value system etc
It was an excellent summary of historically significant events of 55 years from 1893 to 1948. A correlation between national movement & Lokpal movement was drawn in the class. We also talked about the Lokpal bill which has gained significance after “Brand Anna” has been attached to it. The Lokpal bill is not new for our Parliament, it was introduced 45 years ago but
Brand Anna reminds us of the stories of the freedom struggle that Mahatma Gandhi lead. It is very heartening to see young India being exposed to Gandhian principles through this Lokpal movement. Related to this movement an Inter Class Quiz was held between class 7 and 8. And the response was overwhelming. By Ms. Seema Goyal, ASSET Coordinator, g d salwan public school, New Delhi
News Bite New class 10 ICT textbook with animation and GIS For the first time in the country, class 10 students in Kerala would be taught cartography using the detailed geographical information system (GIS) and will also be able to create their own animation films.
troubleshooting, computer networking, graphic design, database management and ICT enabled learning, among others. The new text is a continuation of the ICT-enabled learning begun in class 8 in 2010 and in class 9 in 2011. It has been prepared by a committee under K. Anvar Sadath, executive director of the IT@School Project.
The new text book has been prepared by the state's IT@School Project and would be applicable for Class 10 students opting for the state-run Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination. The textbook, which has been prepared on free software platform includes nine chapters on website creation, hardware
Apart from the Malayalam version, the text book will also be available in English, Tamil and Kannada. Source: www.indiaedunews.net
CBSE website to display quality answer scripts The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to soon upload on its website quality answer scripts from previous years. This initiative has been taken by the CBSE, so that students can gain an insight into examiners' mind and find out answers that have fetched the maximum marks. Similar initiative was taken by the CBSE in the year 2008, when they have uploaded the answer scripts of some students who had obtained full marks in various subjects. But, this time the move by the CBSE will be a step ahead where the answer sheets to be displayed on the website
will not be limited to those of toppers. Any student who have answered the question really well, but may not fall in the topper's list will also be made accessible online. The overall quality of the answer sheets will be assessed by the CBSE. The answer scripts of major subjects in Class 12 will be uploaded in a couple of days, which will serve as good examples of presentation, writing, creativity and reasoning. The answer sheets however may not belong to candidates who scored full marks, but will surely help students gauge what makes an ideal answer script. Source: www.indiaedunews.net
ASSET Quiz in ‘The Hindu Young World’ The first round of the ASSET Quiz in ‘The Hindu Young World’ was published on 7th February, 2012. The quiz carries one thought provoking question each from Maths and Science. The quiz column is open for the students upto the age to 15. It is a monthly quiz column. The Monthly quiz winner gets one month free subscription of Mindspark.
The Need of The Hour Ever since man discovered the utility of money, corruption has made its way into the world. The young mind is aware that the vice of corruption is doing irreparable harm to all vital institutions of the society. It travels from one end of the country to another in the company of the corrupt. In a country like ours where demand is far greater than the supply, it is easy for corruption to creep into the system. Let us assume a situation where one is required to travel urgently on some personal work to another city. The government legalized last minute sale of tickets calling it the Tatkal Scheme (which means immediate). But the Tatkal tickets get booked 2 days in advance, thus depriving a person wanting to travel in the last minute by forcing him to pay something extra for the ticket or use his influence to get an emergency quota released. In this situation the person travelling on a ticket obtained through the emergency quota and the one helping him are both corrupt. Corruption has taken over all walks of our life and it touches the common man in his day-to-day activities be it applying for driving license, getting approval of a plan for constructing a house, to get a ration card, registration of immovable property, getting community certificates, birth certificate or even a death certificate, it all involves unaccountable monetary transactions. How to control corruption as it percolates slowly down the ladder? The Central Vigilance Commission and Chief Vigilance Officers of Government Organizations can at best be focal points but it is only the citizens who can become fully aware of their rights and fight the corrupt public servants in a constructive and positive manner and try to reduce the scope of corruption. A toll free number on which corruption of any form in any place can be reported has also been provided in some departments in the past. Seminars and debates highlighting the importance of not being corrupt are being held right from schools and colleges. Journals are also being brought containing articles on bad effects of corruption. As a teacher dealing with youth at an impressionable age, I strongly welcome the CBSE’s initiative to advise its schools to
launch the Vigilance awareness programme. One of the Central Vigilance Commissioners said about 5 years back that the fight against corruption is becoming increasingly complex and painstaking requires concerted efforts by all concerned including the common citizens who are the worst victims of this malaise. As a part of this program Consumer Awareness Week, Debates, Banner making, Chart making, Quizzing, Enacting skits were organized in our school for Classes of VI to X, last year. Students vehemently expressed the need to be liberated from the web of corruption. There was a great amount of conviction in their promise. Visitors from the Free State Africa who were with us on an Exchange Program appreciated our efforts in this area. We strongly believe that the holistic development of a child depends on introducing values in the curriculum. We believe ‘Human excellence’ is the true aim of Education. Transformation must come from and will come from the younger generation who will weed out corruption from the garden of our globe. By Mrs. Saraswathy Narayanaswamy, P. S. Senior Secondary School, Chennai
Thoughtful Story: Determination and Persistence
John Roebling This is a real life story of Engineer, John Roebling building the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA back in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, after 13 years. In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.
enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment. It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.
Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with he wanted her to call the someone else. After much engineers again. Then he used discussion and persuasion he Perhaps this is one of the best examples the same method of tapping her managed to convince his son arm to tell the engineers what Washington, an up and coming of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes to do. It seemed foolish but the engineer, that the bridge in fact a terrible physical handicap and achieves project was under way again. could be built. an impossible goal. For 13 years Washington Working together for the first tapped out his instructions with time, the father and son his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, spirit and his determination not to be defeated by they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge. circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their The project started well, but when it was only a few months team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the Roebling. Washington was also injured and left with a certain love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers to talk or walk. what to do. “We told them so.” “Crazy men and their crazy dreams.” “It’s foolish to chase wild visions.” Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. He tried to inspire and pass on his
Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal. Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.
Teacher’s Bite Mrs. Rekha Jagasia, Principal, Kamala High School, Mumbai
Q:
Who has most influenced you to become an educator and how did they influence you?
My father Gopal Gurbaxani and my aunt Principal Sita Samtani. The passion for inculcating character building in kids through prayers and reading of biographies was their main focus and this could be done only through being an educator. They built many institutions from pre-primary to post graduation so I inherited their values.
Q:
What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline? Thinking out of the box and going beyond the
textbook, allowing children to challenge my opinion, never giving up on students, daily Quiet Time with them, focusing on children’s dreams has helped me a lot with classroom management and student discipline.
Q:
What are your views regarding the ‘Importance of Teacher Training and Development’ in educating students?
The greatest resource that we have is our teachers. Our management spends thousands of rupees in training them. A well developed teacher beyond her degrees gives the best of results with her students. Monthly training is a must on the personal, educational, social, emotional and spiritual level of a teacher. It’s a long term investment which shows its results in the success of the child.
Q:
What is your view regarding the ASSET Test? It’s a wonderful way of understanding where we have reached with our students and is a must for everyone.
Book Review ‘The Leader in Me”
the way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them.
How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child At a Time. Author: Stephen R. Covey Published by: Simon & Schuster UK
‘The confidence and self-esteem that students have acquired through the 7 habits is phenomenal. Recently my son had friends over to play, and some of the boys wanted to play baseball, while others wanted to jump on the trampoline. They decided to play “trampoline baseball” because that would make everybody happy. When he told me about it, he said, ‘we were thinking win-win.’ And so everybody was happy’. The testimonial above is from a parent about a school in North Carolina, the United States, where Steven R. Covey’s leadership programme ‘The Leader in Me’ is its soul and blood alike. The book authored by Covey himself is an outcome of the initiatives carried out by A.B. Combs Elementary School on 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People among a pilot group of students. The 7 Habits have changed the lives of millions of people worldwide, but this book shows how children can use them as they develop. The book involves today’s young people. It involves their future. It addresses the way to teach children
how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them. These are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results. In 1999, the 7 Habits had made a significant entry into schools, when Covey was approached by an elementary school principal Muriel Summers. Since then it has been a tremendous story transforming the school into a magnet school in America. Their intent is not to prepare world leaders and company CEOs, but to teach them how to lead their individual lives and how to succeed in the 21st century. The book is also about sacrifices and dedications of educators who do what they love and what they believe will make a difference in young lives. The book is a must for all inspiring educators of India irrespective of any subjects, such as sports, music or core academics. For more information one can visit www.theleaderinmebook.org. It can be purchased from any leading book shop or through online. By Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist, EI
Competition for All Teachers: Mindspark with Fractions Educational Initiatives (EI) is pleased to announce that it is opening the doors of Mindspark to all the Maths teachers across India. EI believes that in this collaborative wiki era, ideas can come from anywhere and from anyone; hence we are now inviting ideas to help us teach fractions effectively to kids. Fractions and decimal fractions have befuddled kids since time immemorial. Much of the confusion in learning these concepts appears to arise from the many different interpretations (constructs), representations (models) and notations (5/4, 1 1/4, 1.25, 125 percent). But, these concepts can’t be neglected. They form an important part of the middle years’ Mathematics curriculum. Fractions both underpin the development of proportional reasoning and are important for future mathematics study, including that of algebra and probability.
So, what are you waiting for, open you mail-boxes, draft a mail consisting of a great idea and send it across to mindsparkfractions@gmail.com in a Microsoft word file. The competition starts from 20th Feb, 2012. The last date to send your entries is 31st March, 2012. This is your shot at helping every kid learn with understanding; your help will go a long way in removing the fear of fractions and decimals from every kid’s mind. Bird’s Nest Game: Helping kids to understand fractions on number line
To create an amazing learning program for fractions and decimal fractions send us ideas in any form: games, hands-on activities, worksheets on fractions in real life situations, best practices in the classroom etc. The ideas which get used will be duly awarded. When we convert any idea into an activity, a game, an interactive, or the way Mindspark teaches a concept, the idea owner’s name will appear alongside. We shall also share the idea in ASSETScope if shortlisted. Format to send entries: Name: Affiliation: Place: Email-id: Name of Activity / Game / Class room best practices /Others: Description:
Bookpost
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