The Monthly Newsletter
Issue 118 | September, 2015 | www.ei-india.com
ASSET Talent Scholars - Inspiring Students TPO
AQAD
Happy Teach er’s Day!
COVER Story Surdas Surdas was an eager student who wanted to learn about Spirituality. He met a Guru who accepted him as his disciple. The Guru found that Surdas was hampered by his quality of getting angry easily, which prevented him from learning. Thus, the Guru decided to make Surdas shed his anger.
Student’s Zone
chores. After a month, he eagerly went to his Guruji's ashram and same thing happened again. Surdas again became really angry and blamed the sweeper. After bathing, he met his Guru who asked Surdas to chant God's name for one more month.
The Guru asked Surdas to chant God's name while doing all his activities for one month and then meet him. Surdas followed the Guru's instructions and the day after one month, he went to meet his Guru. On his way to Guru's ashram, a sweeper on the street carelessly put dirt on his clothes. Surdas got angry and scolded the sweeper. He went home, changed clothes and then met his Guru. To his surprise the Guru told Surdas that he was not yet ready to learn and he had to chant and do his chores for another month. Surdas returned sadly, and continued to chant God's name for another month while doing his
One month passed away and this time the same incident happened when Surdas went to meet his Guru. However, this time Surdas addressed him softly saying "Thank you. You are my master. You have helped me to overcome my anger." The sweeper felt bad for his action.
This time as Surdas approached his Guru's hermitage, he could see his Guru standing in front of the hermitage welcoming him. Guru told Surdas that he is now ready to teach him. Surdas could now understand the process he went through. Moral of the story: 1) A Guru knows what a student is lacking of and knows the ways that would teach him; 2) As a student, you must have faith in Guru's words and follow them with devotion.
Teachers’ Bite Recruiting, Retaining and Recognizing Great Teachers Introducing CENTA and Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad TPO 2015 “Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.” Legendary American journalist Andy Rooney could not have said it better. Teachers play an indispensable role in the success of any educational system. However, when it comes to recognizing excellence amongst teachers, most countries including India, have limited mechanisms. There aren’t enough standards or parameters of quality that help identify remarkable teachers, or provide recognition and career growth. No wonder, that in the absence of sufficient growth opportunities for excellent teachers, building aspiration in the profession is a difficult task. This in turn means that school principals and management often face a significant challenge in recruiting, retaining and developing great teachers. This is the challenge that the Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) is trying to help address. CENTA aims to recognize and celebrate teachers through a certification that connects outstanding teachers to great opportunities, and at the same time, serves as a signal of quality and a pointer for school principals and managements, in their teacher recruiting and development efforts. CENTA offers certificates of Levels 1, 2 and 3 for new, experienced and senior teachers, respectively. CENTA Certificates are based on CENTA Standards or competencies, which were developed through a rigorous process with several international and Indian inputs. CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad TPO 2015 is the first step towards the CENTA Certificates and is the first-of-its-kind of national competitions for teachers. TPO 2015 is presented by The Hindu and powered by HCL, with additional support from the Varkey Foundation and Kaizen. Winners can look forward to national recognition in the Hindu, invitation and sponsorship to the Global Education and Skills Forum and the Kaizen- INSEAD Education Symposium in Dubai, education technology devices, Digischool licenses for their schools and cash awards including Rs. 1 lakh for the first place winner. This Olympiad will run as an objective,
multiple-choice competition. Innovative situation response questions about the classroom make the test practice-oriented. TPO 2015 is based on the CENTA Standards or competencies, and is applicable across boards and syllabi. TPO 2015 is on Saturday December 5th, at multiple centres in seven cities across India – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai – and is open to all residents of India. Registrations are open since August 1st, at www.tpo-india.org. CENTA founders are Ramya Venkataraman, an IIT-IIM alumnus from the 90s who was previously the leader of McKinsey’s education practice and Nalini Haridas, a seasoned technology professional and Ramya’s fellow alumnus from IIT Delhi. The eminent advisory board includes Ashish Dhawan (Founder and CEO, Central Square Foundation), Bahram N. Vakil (Founding Partner, AZB Partners), Michael Fernandes (Partner, Leapfrog Investments) and Sridhar Rajagopalan (Managing Director, Educational Initiatives). For more information on CENTA log onto www.centa.org
STUDENT’s Zone ASSET Talent Scholar – Interview The students who perform in the top 5%, in the Tip ASSET talent search in any one of the subjects like English, Maths or Science overall is awarded the title of ‘ASSET Talent Scholar’. These students receive certificate and medal from ASSET.
Rahul Kothari Jamnabai Narsee School, Mumbai
To know more about ASSET talent Search write to us at talentsearch@ei-india.com
Interview of an ASSET Talent Scholar Q1. Apart from having a thirst for knowledge, what else excites your mind? Ans: Nature excites me, I love seeing and studying the animal kingdom. Q2. If you were in a time machine, what period of history would you go back to? And why? Ans: I would go to the cretaceous period as then I would be able to see dinosaurs and study them. Q3. Do you idolise anyone? If yes, who and why? Ans: No, I do not idolise anyone. Q4. What is your favourite book? Why Ans: My favourite book is ‘Where Eagles Dare” by Alistair Maclean. It is set in the World War II, a period that fascinates and interests me and has a well written plot that keeps the reader guessing. Q5. What is your favourite TV show? Ans: My favourite TV show is “Triggers - Weapons that Changed the World”, a show on Discovery Science.
Q6. What other talents do you possess? Ans: Writing and sketching. Q7. If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Ans: If I could be anyone for a day I would like to be Dr. Jack Horner, the famous palaeontologist. It would give me a chance to be on site and actually dig for fossils. Q8. If you got a chance to travel the world, which places would you like to see? Ans: I would like to visit the Amazon rainforest, the Ngorongoro crater and the battle fields of Normandy. Q9. If you can make one rule in the world for everyone to follow, what would that be? Ans: If I could make one rule for everyone to follow it would be to minimise killing of other living creatures. Q10. What do you aspire to be, when you grow up? Ans: I aspire to be a writer when I grow up.
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