GURUTSAV 2014: A National Level Essay Writing Competition
/in 21st Century Skills, AVM Updates, Students' Creations, Teacher, Value Based Education /by AVM TeachersTo highlight and make the students of our country understand and share the importance of their teachers in their lives. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, announced ‘Gurutsav 2014‘ a national level essay competition for the students of our country, conducted on 1st of September, 2014.
From Atmiya Vidya Mandir, seven students’ were registered for the competition in the 1st category. These students were allotted one hour from the announcement of the topic, to record their feelings when they got a good remark from their teacher in a two minute audio recording. Two students from grade five, two from grade four, and three from grade three participated in this group. Students’ got their topic at 9.40 am and they were given 30 minutes to prepare on the given topic. After which, with assistance of their teachers, students’ responses were recorded and sent successfully by 10:40 am.
One inspiring observation made by the teachers during the competition was that, one student remembered even the date and month the remark was given to him by his teacher. All students spoke filled with confidence about the remarks that they had got and how it brought changes in them. The competition was designed to encourage young students to voice their opinions about their teacher. The little kids participated enthusiastically in this competition.
The topic that was announced for the second category was “The year when I got a new teacher……” The word limit in this category was 500 words and the time allotted was one hour from the announcement of the topic. Students showed their passion for the competition and typed to their best, recollecting their past reminiscences about their new teacher. The students were not allowed to use reference books or the Internet for the competition. Four students from grade 6, four from grade 7, and six from grade 8 were registered for the competition. They were very excited for the competition and one could see the joy on their faces recollecting their memoirs about their teacher and penning them down. It turned out to be a challenge for the students as on one hand they were so very eager to keep writing about their experiences and on the other they had to conclude it in the given time frame.
From the high school section, a total of 25 students registered for the competition: three from grade 9, five from grade 10, eight from grade 11, and nine from grade 12. Their topic was – “I can never forget the particular teacher because.…..” The students in this category had to write a 1000 word essay in one and a half hours. In the first half hour of the competition, it was difficult to miss the expression of deep thought and contemplation on the faces of the participants and their body language. Thinking and taking notes in the book. Occasionally, the thoughts also brought a smile on their faces. Once they started writing their thoughts in the word processor they never looked back, engrossed, going back in time mentally and remembering how their teachers had helped them and made a positive impact on their life.
Finally, out of the total 1,18,622 entries, only 148 students were declared winners across all categories at the national level. Out of that, only 5 were declared winners from the state of Gujarat. One in junior category, two from middle school and two from high school. Out of the five winners selected from Gujarat only one participant was selected from the city of Surat.
We are very happy to announce that from the high school category, Jaybhai Bariya, a student of 11th Science from our school was declared a winner by the MHRD. His winning essay can be found here. A felicitation ceremony was organized in the school auditorium on 9th of September. Principal Mr Anthony of J. H. Ambani School was the chief guest of the function. He awarded Master Jay Bariya with a certificate, a book gift and a cash prize of Rs. 5,000 sent by MHRD, India. Mr Anthony on this occasion also shared his experience with the students of the school, highlighting the importance that teachers play in the life of the students.
The competition gave an excellent opportunity to the students, to remember the involvement and inspiration their teachers provide to them day in and day out.
SAMARPAN 2014
/in AVM Updates, Role Models, Teacher, Value Based Education /by AVM StudentsWe then had glimpses of some beautiful moments that our beloved teachers have spent with the students. Moreover, a surprise element was added to this celebration for the first time: video tribute with students (past and present) expressing their feelings about teachers.
Everyone then witnessed an interactive question and answer session with teachers that was filled with insight into the field of teaching and life of a teacher. A dance was then presented by students of grades 7, 9 and 10. And then, on behalf of all the students, we had Keyurbhai Patel (11 Science) expressing his feelings and gratitude to teachers through a heart touching speech.
Towards the end of this marvellous and insightful event, our school principal, dear Vijay Sir, spoke about the true significance of the day and especially for Atmiya Vidya Mandir students. The event then concluded with gift distribution to the teachers by the Samarpan 2014 team of 11th Std. These gifts were conceptualised by the students themselves and they had poured their heart and soul in preparing them for each individual teacher!
For the teachers, the event then continued from the prayer hall to the senior school building where a special exhibition was held by the students, portraying the inspirational characters of Atmiya Vidya Mandir teachers.
For the students, the celebration took form of classes taken by “student teachers” in a regular manner in their respective classrooms. This tradition has helped the students gain a first-hand insight into the job and responsibilities of teaching and of a teacher.Samarpan 2014 was special also due to a first of its kind event that took place in India! The students of Std 11 and 12 witnessed the live interactive session between our Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and the youngsters of our country. It was telecast on TV channels and also webcast over the Internet. Through this simple yet insightful session, we got a unique insight into the life of Shri Modiji. The session was not only informative, but also inspired the students to keep India first in our actions and aspirations.
Samarpan 2014 was special also due to a first of its kind event that took place in India! The students of Std 11 and 12 witnessed the live interactive session between our Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and the youngsters of our country. It was telecast on TV channels and also webcast over the Internet. Through this simple yet insightful session, we got a unique insight into the life of Shri Modiji. The session was not only informative, but also inspired the students to keep India first in our actions and aspirations.
A Refreshing & Inspiring Trip!
/in AVM Updates, Teacher, Value Based Education /by AVM TeachersThe labs and the research facilities of the university are truly impressive. We were touched even more so by meeting with the HoDs. Dr. Thyagarajan (HoD, Dept. of Biotechnology), came across as an extremely learned and yet humble person. He spent about 2 hours with us, personally showing us around the labs and discussing his views about education and concern for welfare of the youths.
In our meeting with Dr. Murali (HoD, Dept. of Mechatronics), we found him also to be very much concerned about the well-being of the students. And in Mr Gopalakrishnan (Centre Incharge, Nanotechnology Research Centre), we found a patriotically hearted spiritual person.
We are extremely happy about the progress and performance of the atmiyans and especially so by seeing that they have continued with the Atmiya way of life, staying together, maintaining simplicity. They have made us proud of their continuing with the legacy. It was wonderful to see our children mature into responsible young men who are not only conscious about their academics and professional life, but also caring about their families, and making an effort to further improve their personal life. We feel all the more assured that these individuals will grow into outstanding citizens of our wonderful country and make their parents proud.
As for our views of the SRM University, we found it to be a place that offers ample opportunities for research, has great infrastructure while constantly improving and adding new facilities. Students indeed have the opportunity to learn from faculty who have exemplary qualifications and experience, and also the chance to study at some of the best places around the world due to the tie-ups with foreign universities.
The next part of the trip was to Mumbai where another sizeable community of atmiyans reside, doing great at great places like NMIMS, CBS, NM and HR. We spent an evening with them (with some good coffee!) and discussed a wide range of topics related to their all round development.
We came back re-energised and refresh, inspired by the thoughts, actions and aspirations of these young gentlemen.
And we look forward to meeting with them all soon and over and over again.
Little things you do for us
/0 Comments/in Motivational, Teacher, Teaching, Value Based Education /by AVM StudentsLeading us from darkness towards light…
/0 Comments/in Motivational, Teacher, Teaching, Value Based Education /by AVM StudentsThough there are many teachers around the world who impart high quality education, but, all of us are impossibly fortunate to have a very different calibre of teachers who not only impart education but instigate a fire of doing good for the society and making a contribution for everyone’s betterment. This is the wonderful concept of “Atmiyata” that we are being exposed to in this school. All the morals and values that we learn in this school are the things that actually matter more in our lives. There are many people who are much smarter than we are but the advantage that we have over all of them is that we have such a great environment and such great teachers around us.
All the actions that we perform in this school, all the activities that we do, all of them have two aspects. One is the learning aspect of discovering new things and improving our knowledge. But more importantly, the other part of all the activities is the spiritual aspect. Teachers here teach us to see only positive in all the things and imbibe all positive values from others in our lives which helps us to strengthen our character. These are the kind of things that we learn in the course of all the activities we do. This is the “divine touch” which is the hallmark of our school. But, all of this is only possible due to the grace of our guru, Param Pujya Swamiji. Swamiji is our ultimate teacher. With Swamiji’s divine grace and our teachers’ help, we can very well progress further in our most important journey:
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय।
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय।
The journey from ignorance towards truth, from darkness towards light and from mortality towards liberation.
If only we observe His life and His actions, it has the power to completely transform our lives!
All of the teachers of our school are there for us at any time of the day and are ever ready to help us in every situation of life. They don’t merely teach us, “they inspire”. They are not just our academic guides, they are our “portraits of inspiration”. They not only teach all the students but they see god in all the students and never fail to help any of them.
Although on the occasion of Teachers’ Day there is a lot of pomp and show but without understanding the actual meaning of Teachers’ Day, all of this celebration will go in vain. There are some situations when we hesitate in following our teachers. Though we may physically accept what they say, somewhere in the corner of our mind, we are uncertain about their decision. So the real celebration of Teachers’ Day will be to surrender to our teachers and accept their decisions completely and follow all their instructions to the dot. We must never distrust their decisions because they are wise, experienced as well as decisive. Thus they will always make a decision for our advantage. This day of Teachers’ Day will come each year but what is important is that we take the message.
Because the message is much more important than the celebration.
Are we ready to become role models?
/0 Comments/in Role Models, Teacher /by AVM TeachersFew days back I came across a good quote on parenting which goes something like this, “If you want to see how good or bad you have lived just look at your child.” There isn’t much difference when it comes to parenting and teaching especially when you are a teacher in a residential school. This quote actually got me thinking deep.
In a sense I think students are nothing but a reflection of their teachers. Young Students always model themselves on others around them. As they grow up their dreams become more reasonable and realistic, but when they are young they always want to become someone from whom they are fascinated. When I was a young student in school, I always wanted to become very good in math like my math teacher. I was fascinated the way my Hindi teacher used to tell us the intriguing stories and wished one day I could tell stories like him. In short I wanted to become very confident, smart, humble and so many other things which I thought my teachers were. I also even imitated their walk, the way they talked. I may even have learned so many things from my teachers without me knowing consciously.
In India if we ask any young boy what they want to become, couple names that will surely dominate are Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni. No price for guessing those two names. But then we always complain about not finding a genuine fast bowler. No child (may be very few) will tell you that they want to become a fast bowler growing up. Reason being they never seen a bowler who could become a role model.
You must be thinking why am I talking about cricket? Because I think in both the cases; academics and sports students need role models. Students always learn and inspired from immediate surroundings. If I am a teacher who reaches 1 minute late in the class I have no right to expect my students to be on time. Their sub conscious minds notice it and put it into action. If I don’t have seriousness and focus in my teaching, my students will not have that in them. If I am not sincere in my daily routine I should expect the same in my students. If I don’t have respect for my students, students will not have respect for me as well as for others.
If I keep pointing out their negative points not only they will be discouraged but they will also start finding negative points in others. On the other side if I am very positive, enthusiastic and optimist in my nature and in my work ethic, I will be able to transfer that enthusiasm and positive energy to my students. Meaning if I want my students to be the best I will have to become super best (I know there is no such word “super best” but you get what I am trying to say right?:))
Bottom line is that I have to become a role model for my students. I cannot teach them something that I am not.
Learning for Life
/0 Comments/in 21st Century Skills, AVM Updates, Teacher, Teaching /by Prajval SirBut the ones made here at Atmiya Vidya Mandir were erected by the class of 4th division with the help of their Gujarati Language teacher. These students have a poetry on scarecrows in their coursework/syllabus and for the introduction of the poem their teacher built a scare crow in the neem garden on the campus. When the children saw the scarecrow they said it would be very difficult for somebody to build one, but were positively challenged by their teacher to build their own. Under the guidance of the teacher the students together built the first prototype. The students were then divided into teams who created many other such Scarecrows. It seemed that the little champions erected these bogeyman’s to protect their beloved neem trees.
Confucius once said ‘You hear and you forget you see and you remember you do and you understand’.
Each child in this class now remembers the poem and even if they forget the lines, they have understood the meaning and importance of scarecrows for life.
Learning at Atmiya Vidya Mandir happens round the clock. A typical Science class for 8th standard on a particular day began at 9:54 pm on the terrace of the new school building. 42 students of class 8th with their teacher observed the moon through a telescope magnified at 160 X zoom and experienced beautiful craters on the moon. The curiosity of the students then rose to such an extent that they wanted to explore more and some said they wanted to find their own K-Pax. To challenge these inspirers the science teacher gave them a project and asked them to select any celestial object in the solar system – planet, satellite, comet, asteroid anything in the solar system and asked them to inform him why they were interested in that object. But he also made them think by asking a critical thinking question that if their research team is funded by our dear Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh with Rs 10,000 crore for their project what would they do?
All the teams did impressive research work and some of their original ideas are as follows:
- Setting up an Internet hub on Mars with a telecommunication satellite hovering over Mars.
- Sending plants and insect samples on Mars and see how life if any is affected on the planet.
- Coating their Venus Exploration spacecraft with platinum so the sulphuric acid clouds of Venus does not bother their mission.
- Young authors – this group started writing fiction – they said they went to Mercury and found a dead alien which they brought back to earth and are now going to spend the money on doing research on the alien. (X-files Returns – what will Scully and Moulder do?)
- Creating drilling equipment for their Mission to Europa (one of Jupiter’s many moons) so that they could drill easily through the frozen surface and will check if there is life under the ice sheets there!
It is said that Ye can lead a man to university but you cannot make a man think. But can you say the same about the children of Atmiya Vidya Mandir?
Empowering the leaders of tomorrow today.
/0 Comments/in Teacher, Teaching, Value Based Education /by Prajval SirWhere’s the teacher?
/0 Comments/in Teacher, Teaching /by AVM TeachersThe global meltdown may have hit India, but one sector that has weathered the storm so far is school education. No other country perhaps displays such a wide range of school within the system. There is the government sector with it’s municipal schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and non government sector with its playschools in larger cities, missionery schools and finally top- end private schools, last but not least conventional public schools.
These all schools have one thing in common, they are desperately crying out for teachers. We may have our periodic overabundance of doctors, engineers, MBAs and IT professionals, but we never seem to have enough teachers. Though everyone knows that the bedrock of any country is its education system but no one is unduly concerned about this glaring lacuna. Little wonder that we are docile or better say paying a heavy price in terms of the quality of our leadership.
This pitiful state of affairs (teaching profession) has much to do with the way we, as a nation, view the teaching profession. Teachers are not considered frontline professionals in the same manner as, doctors, lawyers or engineers. It is believed that anyone irrespective of qualifications or training can teach. And that is exactly what happens. From the village schoolmaster who could be a labour contractor (teaching when time permits) or a disheartened chap who has found teaching as the last option as a breadwinner, to the bored or desperate urban housewife who is more eager to earn something rather than contribute, teaching is open to all. Add the fact, it is a relatively poorly paid profession, and you have a deadly mix (various and ambiguous reasons to join teaching). Teaching then generally becomes the domain of the ‘bored’ or ‘failed’ individual. This is not to suggest that we do not have some of the world’s finest teachers. Ranging from NGOs to private schools we have extremely competent and motivated teachers. But when you consider India’s billion one population, their number appears disappointing.
Another area of concern is the dwindling number of men in the profession. It seems all the men have hopped off to greener pastures (the other so called luring or challenging vocation). The IT sector has recently claimed a larger number. While women do make great teachers but they also have the role of homemaker. Being a teacher for a woman is not as professional as, say being a corporate executive. And the men, who remain, have largely embedded themselves in the tuition market, as opposed to being genuine mentors as school teachers. The most sensitive issue in this sector is there are no top-of-the-line teacher’s training institutions, certainly not one of the statures of a St. Stephen’s and IIT or IIM. What we do have is an excess of ‘fly-by-night’ B.Ed courses, in most cases not worth the paper the degree is printed on (mostly in Bhopal and in U.P). Nothing in the higher education scenario will attract bright young boys and girls to enroll for a teacher-training course. Yet all we can do is to talk of increasing the number of IITs and IIMs!
Career growth in teaching profession is also very slow. Surprisingly, not too many teachers today aspire to be principals. Women feel it puts too much strain in their role as homemakers: men feel the seat is not worth the trouble it brings. Moreover, the system does not provide for any systematic grooming of principals. Most are there either by accident or ‘teachers on promotion’, certainly not as a result of some long term scientific plan. So where does one go as a teacher? Becoming a head of the department may well be the end of the road for most. The profession itself suffers from a sense of low self esteem. Teachers do not see themselves in the same category as lawyers, doctors, civil servants or engineers. How many of us are being proud as teachers? Are we less than those engineers who construct building while we construct future of the nation? Are we less than those doctors who are to stand guard against fatal diseases while we are to safe guard our society against social hitch (through making students a better individual). Do we need to be less proud than an IAS who governs and deals with state affairs; whereas we direct the thought process of a child who can be tomorrow’s Vivekanand or Sardar patel. We are no less than an industrialist who manufactures the most expensive product as we are in the exertion of MAKING OF MAHATMAS. What do you think friends? How noble but vulnerable this profession is? It is nothing apologetic about being teachers. The irony is that we are still supposed to be the epitome of all that is noble and good. A redefinition of our attitude to the profession is highly required.
Submitted by: Seema Joshi