As a part of the teachers’ professional development programme, Shantiniketan Indian School organized an education conference titled ‘Makeover’ spread over two days. The conference focused on various aspects of teaching-learning process in adherence to the Academic Capacity Building (ACB). The topics included were ‘Behavioural Policies’, ‘Objective Assessment’, ‘Lesson Planning’, ‘The Five Es of Enquiry Based Learning’, ‘Designing Rubrics’, ‘Cooperative Learning’, ‘Thinking Skills’, ‘Blended Learning’ and ‘Designing Question Papers’.
The ‘Makeover’ aimed at making the SIS Teachers ‘Delightful Teachers’ and encouraged them to emphasize on creative and meaningful involvement of parents in the schooling process. It also stressed on the behaviour modification strategies and research for developing value and skill based curriculum in the perspective of developing our children as global citizens.
Dr. Subhash B Nair, Principal, in his keynote address stressed on the qualities of a ‘Delightful Teacher’ and urged teachers to maximize utilization of resources to attain academic excellence in their children.
This Makeover was an interactive and activity oriented session with multimedia presentations, exercises and group discussions, which enriched the knowledge base, skills and preparedness of a teacher to face major changes in the trends in education. The purpose of the session was Academic Capacity Building of teachers, and to practice the process of ‘learn, unlearn and relearn’.
“The knowledge, classroom process, value systems and assessment should be objective so that each learner is benefited by the process,” expressed Mr. Dudley O’Connor, Vice Principal CBSE-i & Staff Professional Development Co-ordinator.
“The students, parents, teachers and community in general will be benefited by these sessions” commented Mr. Shihabudheen Pulath, Vice Principal-Admin.
Mr. Rashid Ahmed, Senior Analyst, Ooredoo, Qatar and a member in the school management committee, as a resource person, conducted an innovative session on ‘Blended Learning’.
Besides the Principal and the Vice Principals, Mr. Syed Meraj Ali, Mr. Tono Fernandez, Mr. Donald D’Costa, Ms Nazneen Fathima, Mrs Afshan Rathore and Mr. Shakir Hussain, were resource persons for this Makeover. The conference made use of the online resources available for teachers viz. Edmodo and SIS Learn.
In the closing ceremony, teachers expressed their appreciation to the Management and the school officials for providing them with such productive sessions. Dr. Jasmine Ahmed (Section Head NIOS) expressed notes of appreciation for the resource persons and delegates.