EPTAF MEETING IN DECEMBER

Hi friends

You all are invited for the upcoming EPTAF meeting scheduled on 13th December,2008 from 11:00 A.M. onwards at Coffee Home, CP, opp Hanuman Mandir.

The agenda of this meeting is as follows:
1) Discussion on the topics chosen for our individual action researches. Preparing a broad outline of our research.
Drafting next month's plan, objectives and activities.
2) Sharing of our school experiences. Some issues that came up and what did we do and any other experience that we would like to share.
3) Presentation by MCD school teacher on a research on reading that she did in her own school followed by a discussion based on her research work.
4) Sharing on a book called The Indians: Portrait of a people by Sudhir and Katharina Kakar, Penguin Viking, India 2007.

Post your comments and suggestions whatsoever about the meetings agenda, we will try to incorporate your ideas in the plan.

Please be there and enrich the discussions through your participation. You can bring other interested teachers as well.
And please come on time.
Hoping to meet you on 13th December.

Minutes of EPTAF meeting: 8th Nov'08

For today’s meeting there were two of us: Baljeet and Nidhi. We were expecting more people but nobody turned up except Jitendra, M.C.D school teacher. So three of us discussed the issues.
Issues we discussed:
1. Jitendra came with the issue of discrimination of children on the bases of their religion and caste since his school is in a very backward area. Teachers are biased against the children who are Muslims and those who are STs and SCs. He and some new teachers tried to break this shackle but were discoursed by the senior staff. Nidhi said that such biases are prevalent in any government school whether its in the highly urban Gol Market or rural Alipor. On individual level we can tackle these issues in our classrooms by sensitising our children so that the biasness in the other teachers of the school does not affect our children.
2. Another issue that we talked about was regarding the textbooks. Jitendra find the current SCERT textbooks very boring for children. They do not have sufficient activities. Nidhi suggested why we can’t ask authorities switch from SCERT to NCERT textbooks. But this is an administrative decision where teachers have no say. I suggested that we can use NCERT textbooks along with SCERT textbooks. We can use the stories, poems and activities from NCERT.
3. Towards the end of our meeting we discussed about the themes that we want to pursue in the next few months. Since I’m working on developing reading-writing skills, so suggested this topic. What we have decided for the action research in our classrooms:
Baljeet: reading –writing skills with 2nd graders.
Nidhi: appreciating literature with neo-literate women.
Jitendra: yet to decide.

EPTAF meeting 8th Nov'08

for todays meeting there were three of us: Baljeet, Nidhi and Jitendra. we were expecting more people but nobody turned up.

EPTAF meeting: 8th Nov'08

Today was

Right to Education Bill

Hey people
Please read the following news that talks about the right to education bill. the articles have appeared in The Indian Express, Hindustan Times and Times of India newspapers. please read and comment.
The Times of India coverage:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Education_to_be_a_fundamental_right/articleshow/3659677.cms
Also read the comments given in the end, thay are very interesting and debatable.

The Indian Express coverage:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/right-to-education-bill-cleared-by-the-cabine.../380176/

The Hindustan Times coverage:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=610b1773-6f2b-4a0e-ada1-eb3bad05f93e&MatchID1=4815&TeamID1=6&TeamID2=1&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1212&PrimaryID=4815&Headline=Education-for-all+Bill+to+be+tabled+in+winter+session

Opinion

In the present times, education is seen as a means of propogation of one's ideology.
Therefore, education becomes a political issue in which everyone wants to intervene with their own agendas. Like to name a few the hindu nationalists would se it as an opportunity to spread their belief systems, whereas the marxists would like to influence it with their perspective of how the world functions.
Nobody wants the learner to equip herself and have a choice of her own instead they want to make a choice for all of them.

What is your take on this issue? Do you think it has an impact on curriculum and teaching-leraning practices? Please feel free to express yourself and put forward your argument for or against this statement.

EPTAF Meeting

Hi friends

You all are invited for the upcoming EPTAF meeting scheduled on 13th December,2008 from 11:00 A.M. onwards at Coffee Home, CP, opp Hanuman Mandir.

The agenda of this meeting is as follows:
1) Discussion on the topics chosen for our individual action researches. Preparing a broad outline of our research.
Drafting next month's plan, objectives and activities.
2) Sharing of our school experiences. Some issues that came up and what did we do and any other experience that we would like to share.
3) Presentation by MCD school teacher on a research on reading that she did in her own school followed by a discussion based on her research work.
4) Sharing on a book called The Indians: Portrait of a people by Sudhir and Katharina Kakar, Penguin Viking, India 2007.

Post your comments and suggestions whatsoever about the meetings agenda, we will try to incorporate your ideas in the plan.
Please be there and enrich the discussions through your participation. You can bring other interested teachers as well.
And please come on time.
Hoping to meet you on 13th December.

For the Spirit of EPTAF

jahan dharti aasman mil jayen,
chalo aesa kshitij banyen.
jahan khuli hava mein saan le saken,
jahan kaam kar sakein bina thake.
jahan chehre par muskaan rahe,
har kaam mein sab ki lagan lage.
jahan aazadi ho khoj ki,
jahan baat ho har roz ki.
jahan seekhne mein khel ho,
aur khel mein seekhna.
jahan sawaal hon bahut saare,
un ke jawabon ko khojana.
jahan bandhan naa koi baandhe,
aazad khyaalon ko pehechane.
bandh jaayen hum ik rishte mein,
har ek se kuchh na kuchh seekhen.
jahan jeevan ho unmukt gagan sa,
chalo ik aesa sansaar banayen.

For the Spirit of EPTAF

जहाँ धरती आसमां मिल जाएँ ,

चलो ऐसा क्षितिज बनायें।

जहाँ खुली हवा में सांस ले सहें

Themes covered in EPTAF so far

Classroom Management: Theory and Practice
This was our first action research in our own classrooms. the varied kinds of classrooms were used for this research, MCD school class I, Private school class KG, I, II, III. This informed us about how and what kinds of rules can help us in managing our classes. We also felt the importance of regular follow up of the rules that were democratically created with the learners. We spent around five months on this theme.

Understanding children's art
We wanted to know how can we understand art from a child's perspective and how should we respond to it. this was an interesting exercise. we first of all read Deviprasad's book, "Art: the basis of education". Then we got samples of our learners art and anlaysed them. We spent around two-three months on this them.

Emergent literacy
Sonce most of us are in teaching in the primary school and also taking language classes so we felt it is important to understand how children learn language. For this we have used readings by Frank Smith, Teale and Sulzby and few others. We are still working on this theme.

During this we also had a screening of the film "Kairee".