Teacher Empowerment...!

Hello friends, after a gap of a month,  I have resumed my journey of blogging once again..

Today I am going to write about Teacher Empowerment..

The topic was the same there in the opening planery of IATEFL CONFERENCE , held in Liverpool and brilliantly presented by Paulo Rebolledo...

After her presentation , I really sat back to think upon the topic in deep and some of the thoughts that came into my mind the then , I am going to jot down today throyth this article..

Friends , have you ever thought about Teacher Empowerment personally ?

To me, the answer was 'No', till that first  day of IATEFL CONFERENCE..But as the planery session began with the great zeal and a thought provoking topic of Teacher Empowerment, I was really impressed and made to look into the matter personally and deeply.

What is Teacher Empowerment in your views ?

About teacher empowerment, something I found is that , it not only the power within you but it is also the power with others..

I would support my findings with the example that when you have lot of power  in you to speak but there is no one to have power to listen to you , then your only power can not do anything.
The same happened with our teachers as well most of the times.
They have power in them in various streams of education but they are not valued for their expertise.

Resulted that the teachers feel disappointed and frustrated.

That's the reason teachers are silent because no one hear them.

I would like to support these with some of the practical evidences as follows:
Let us just think about the following aspects with reference to teachers.

1. Decision making
2.Status
3.Impact
4.self efficacy
5.Autonomy
6.Professional growth

Now let's talk about decision making.
How many teachers are considered in the process of decision making regarding education?

Just think about , who take part in deciding- 
1.Curriculum
2.schedule of the school
3.class size
4.infra structure
5.coursebook selection
6. Evaluation pattern 

And so many
more........

Even though all the above factors are related directly to the teaching learning process and they impact on  it greatly, I could hardly find teachers are involving in the process of decision making of these factors.

Some of the teachers voices are as follows-

"Change in the length of class, class sizes increased or decreased, decision made to give coursebook to the students - teachers are never consulted even though it's the teachers who are impacted the most."

"Everytime , so that means every year when we have to teach the curriculum which has already determined the topics and linguistic contents. I can not properly modify in accordance to the groups , abilities and  backgrounds."

The above examples would clearly portray the picture of what is in real.

So the question raised into my mind so eventually that , are we really empowering teachers?

Then I thought for a while and came up with an answer that teachers would really feel empowered when we give them -

1.Autonomy to decide
2. Collaborative actions 
3. Opportunities for professional development
4. Risk taking factors

etc....
After all,

Teacher Empowerment is the process whereby the teachers develop autonomy to make decision and exercise their professional judgement about how and what to teach.

What do you feel about teacher empowerment?

Visit to school in Liverpool...part 2

Hello friends, I wish you all a very Happy Monsoon...

With the charming drizzle and drips,  let us enjoy reading this article..exploring the findings from the Plantation Primary school...

In my last article I talked about my visit to Plantation Primary school in Liverpool, England wherein I wrote about some of the  highlights that I noticed in the classroom...In my today's article, I am writing about the highlights in detail...
So, talking about the highlights,  first of all I would like to talk about



What is learner autonomy??
In my opinion,  learner's autonomy is something that gives children the freedom of learning..
 It provides an opportunity to learn on their own and of their interest.... what I found in the classroom of Pre primary grade where children were allowed to learn on their interest... children were given opportunity to learn on their own...
I could see that the children were enjoying the things they were doing...They themselves chose the material they want to play and learn with....
Some of the children were playing with the sand...
3- 4 children were playing and learning with Tablets...
3-5 children were enjoying with wooden blocks of various shapes...

So all were busy doing the things of their own interest ...But at the same time they were learning and developing the skill of learning...

 2.Guided freedom :

The another thing in my notice was guided freedom in the classroom.. Guided freedom means the children were allowed to do the things of their interest but they were under the monitoring and  supervision of the teachers...
Though they were free but at the same time they had their guide...

3. Digital Learning :

As I mentioned above that some of the children were busy with the tablets , playing some numbers game..it was the evidence of digital literacy since the beginning...
Not only in the primary and upper  grades but also the library was digitally equipped ...the library was provided with the projector and availability of e- books..
Thus the children were getting knowledge physically and digitally....

4.Constructivism :
T
Constructivism is nothing but constructing knowledge on their own through various learning experiences...

So this constructivism could be seen in every action...
I would really like to mention that the children of the age group 4 to 5 were using scissors so brilliantly that I was astonished for a while...because in our schools we do not even allow the children of second or third grade, to use scissors in the school.....
But ,
They were cutting the papers in various geometrical shapes and filling the glass jars with respective shapes....
Here they were actually constructing their own knowledge about the geometrical shapes...
They were learning by doing themselves...

5. Skill development :

this is one of the observation that children were developing the preparatory  skills of learning...
I observed that one girl was stringing the ribbon through holes made in the card....
At the glance she was only playing with colourful ribbons and cards but at the same time she was developing the skill of holding the pen to write....She was developing the eye hand coordination...She was developing the grip in her fingers...
These skills would definitely be helpful to further learning....

6. Personal facilitation :

This is a praiseworthy observation from the pre primary grade that one of the girl child was personally being facilitated by the assistant  teacher of their class....
Actually they have 2 teachers appointed to every class of which one is a class teacher and the other is assistant teacher...
I really liked this approach as well... Because it helps them to monitor the class more effectively...
About personal facilitation I saw that an assistant teacher of the class was telling story to one girl child sitting very motherly to her.....
Even the girl was enjoying as if she is at home....

7. Assessment based on time variation :

The another impressive observation was the assessment based on time variation...
On asking to the class teacher of pre primary grades I came to know about the assessment pattern which is based on time variation of learning during 3 consecutive academic sessions...

They have developed the framework of assessment on some criteria of language learning , mathematics skills, and other related subjects..

What do they do in assessment ??

They actually assess the children's achievement in that span of time and accordingly take him or her to the desired criteria till he completes his pre primary education in 3 consecutive sessions...

I am really impressed by this assessment pattern because this is really an opportunity to the children to learn as per his pace...

He can take all his time to achieve the desired goal...

This is really the autonomy to learn...

In this way, I observed the things and tried to bring it to you through this article...please do not forget to give your valuable feedback about my findings...
I will be back soon with another topic from IATEFL conference...
Till then have a lovely time....!!!

Visit to school in Liverpool....!!

Dear friends, thank you very much for your response to my last articles... In my very last article I wrote about my journey to Liverpool, England.
In today's article and onward I will be writing about my learning experiences at IATEFL CONFERENCE...
So today I will talk about the pre- conference event organized on 31st March 2019. It was a memorable visit  to a primary school in Liverpool.
The name of the school is PLANTATION PRIMARY SCHOOL...which is run by private management..
As the name , so the school is...
The praiseworthy plantation done by students and the special education about plants is given in there nursery... according to the information we got from school authority, the head master ; students have a special class to go into the plantation area and teacher gives information about the plants in practical...students learn by all their sensory organs...These is something  through which we can imbibe the knowledge about so many things in environment...
The other noteworthy thing that I found about plantation was they made use of waste to make it best...
I could see that the empty plastic cans  were cut to make pot and the saplings were planted in that...
The front yard was looking beautiful with numerous delicate and beautiful flowers,  plants and blossoms... Through  the pleasant entrance when we entered into the school , the very first thing I was attracted by an innocent and a lovely child of pre primary grade standing near the entrance... He was very shy and charming boy...I went to him and asked his name but he only smiled at me...
Till then we were called to make our entry digitally by the biomatrics...
Even we had some issues with registration , I was impressed by the technology that they used to keep record of visits to their school...
Completing that process , when we entered the assembly hall where  pre primary and primary grades were presenting some of their daily routine activities including some action songs and moral conversations...
Then we went to observe the classes from pre-primary grades..
I went to one of the classroom where the learners of age group 4 to 5 years were busy doing so many things..
I could noticibly see that the classroom was full of the resources including physical and digital...
The best practices I could experience in the classroom can be listed as follows :
* Learner autonomy
* Assessment on time variation
* Guided freedom
* Digital learning
* Constructivism
* Skill development
* Personal facilitation
* Self dependence
etc.....

I spent maximum time in pre primary grades... because I wanted to see that how did they prepare children to learn...and I was lucky enough to see all the above features that really help to develop the preparatory learning skills among the children..

In my next article I will be sharing the features in detail..till then have a look to this...
Wish you all very happy monsoon.....!!!

Journey to Liverpool.....!!

Hello friends thank you very much for the overwhelming response to my last article on my blog... In today's article I am Sharing about my journey to Liverpool for the 53rd IATEFL conference...
On getting packed up with lots of excitement , I started my journey from Mumbai airport... It was my first airtrip...of course I was very much excited with everything.... And no doubt the journey was full of learning experience to me....since very beginning with the check in to airport in my country to the last checkout at my country back.... I was looking forward to everything with learning approach.. and yes I would really like to mention that I really strenghthened my patience,, standing in queue to check in....
The another thing I noticed and learnt about was self-discipline... To be very frank I was wondering, if we are so  disciplined at airport , why don't we do behave like the same on other public places ???

And my sixth sense only replied to me that maybe because of security reason and inter national affairs...

Anyways, I was very happy to see the world of discipline....

I had my flight by 5:30 a.m. in the morning. So I had to check in by 2:30 AM.
and really it was to my surprise that whole night I  was standing in a queue to move on from 1 desk to another without getting even sleepy for a second....
That was the real excitement to fly for the first time....
Seated in the flight I was wondering about the inventions of human being...Right from fire to the moment we are now.....and what not stroked my mind....
And soon I flew high and higher with my learning desire ......

With the little jerk, after three and half hours; I landed to the Airport at Abu Dhabi to get my another flight to Manchester.....

And very soon followed by the process of security check and all,  I got my another flight to Manchester...

I started my journey with lot of imaginations and expectations about UK....

And passing a long time of 8 hours, finally I landed to the Airport at Manchester....The city called Cottonopolis...for having large number of cotton mills there.....

As of I got down the flight,  the first ever thing that made me to register was no doubt the shivering chill and blowing breezes...

At once I put on my overcoat and tried my best to face the chill and  windy weather...and soon I adapted for the same....Indeed I loved the weather...that was really pleasant to roam around....

In the next couple of hours I reached to my destination at Liverpool....

From the next day my Learning begins with a school visit and get together with British council team and IATEFL Conference team....

So friends , in my next article I will be sharing my learning and observations from school visit at Liverpool...

Till then have a nice time...

See you soon...

Dream come True !!!!!!

A new beginning.....

Hello friends,
Today I am very glad to share my
Step towards global platform through the blog...As this is my first blog, I would really love to share my professional journey with some highlights..
Dear friends, after getting appointed as a primary teacher in one of the government school in Maharashtra state in India I had gotten an opportunity to meet my dreams in education.
Even though my school was located in the mountains and dense forest , I was satisfied with my work and passion.
Being a small village I had very less number of students in my school but those who were there , they really liked to do everything learnable with me...
I also enjoyed a lot, being with them..
Everything was as natural as the sunshine..the weather, the food , the people and what not...life was full of adventures then...
The only thing that I was really deprived of was the connectivity with the global world...There was no network of internet at all...so  blogging was just dream to me in those struggling days...
But as it is said that where there is will there is way...I also got an attempt of transfer of my job location and I got a place to cherish all my dreams...Meanwhil I did get a lot many things that enriched me and my skills...out of which a worth mentioning was my journey to UK to attend the 53rd IATEFL CONFERENCE held at Liverpool..
It was the journey of my dream in many ways...
So friends I will surely come with my another blog talking about my journey to IATEFL CONFERENCE.....!!!!
Till then have a wonderful time!!