Exams, Exams and Exams!!!

The final examinations "finally" started, on 3rd March.. With Sanskrit and English done I m heading for MPC... I hope you all are writing well.. Meet you folks after 16th again here after the examinations All the very best in your examinations...

Personal Leadership

This is the slide deck of presentation I gave during Pongal to the SAAD Participants. I wanted to share this with everyone.

Personal leadership

View more PowerPoint from Bharadwaj Rallabandi

Let me know your feedback.

What Education means to me?

"Education is not the amount of information put into your brain runs riot there all through your life undigested. Its character building, men making and assimilation of Ideas"— Swami Vivekananda.

From the above quote we can deduce there are in essential 3 purposes of education. Unfortunately all the three have become a rare commodity especially in Indian context. Even without brooding over these ideals and confining ourselves with respect to learning Science, I feel that 2 fundamental things are that are lacking in our education system are Application and Extension.

The former one comes after application of the concept that is learnt. For example, the kid learns in geometry that a straight angle is 180 and sum of angles in a triangle is 180. Then if he is able to identify whats angle A given B/C following sum then it becomes application.

And if he can himself tell the sum of the opposite angles in triangles is equal to the angle remaining with in the straight angle by extending the line then it becomes the extension.  

Nurturing both these things must be the fundamental aim of education. Unfortunately arguably both these skills are "God Gifted" or "Must be there in the Kid". I beg to differ at least till the extent that we must strive inculcating essentially these skills as part of education. Depending upon the CPU/Hard Disk the kid might respond (Every Child is Unique – because of the Socio-cultural, genetic, psychological and perceptional differences they might have).

I would like to put forth my thought behind nurturing application and extension:

n  We can prod the child since childhood (probably we do it unknowingly till some time from the moment they took birth) for not just imitate, but whether they can use the acquired skill at different places. For eg. 

o    where do you see the right angled stuff at home. 

o    how can they measure milk / any liquid once they learn volume for solids. 

o    Can they see  "evaporation" from any live example round

n  We should also make them extending the thought by "probable / improbable" questions..  Like what I enunciated earlier while giving eg..

o    You have "hinge joint" at elbow and knee. What happens if the joints were of "Ball and socket in nature"?

o    What happens if earth stops moving (revolving / rotating)?

We need to nurture the passion for questioning till they understand / apply and extend. Fortunately if your kid is endowed and is passionate about the surroundings, and is relentless with questions please do not discourage him by brushing aside. Who knows probably he might be the next Einstein. Admit if you do not know the answer and find out the answer and let him know or else take him to somebody who can answer him. Probably he might get inspired too!!!. At the same time your admitting would give him good character by way of admitting and striving for answer too.

These things are not tough. The only thing is we do not meditate and apply ourselves for this cause. The thing I tell repeatedly to my students is -- "If you read for 40 minutes think for another 40 minutes". You just need to take the pain of observing the things around and make all the possible questions for your kid. Fortunately lot of times we get the material for putting the right questions from a bit of higher classes without much work from our side. 

What I see is teaching is the toughest part and the most responsible job too. We must not only cherish the moment of becoming a teacher as a job, but all the way of making the kid equipped too.

I see the following effects of integrating technology when combined with learning:

•  All the 3 kinds of kids (Audio, Video and Kinesthetic) can be effectively be taught
• The depth of understanding improved dramatically with the aids
• The gap between the “Intelligent” and “Not-so Intelligent” has come down. And this is the most important take away in my perception.

I see that Lot of innovation is happening around "Quality" Science education, the ones I really liked were Science and Engineering Program for Teachers (SEPT) program , and the Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP). If any teacher visits this blog item please visit those sites. They are enriching as well as empowering. 

Managing Activites

"How do you manage your activities along with your studies?" -- This was the question asked by my peers as well as the students during the camp. -- Here is the answer:

I divided my activities into 2 spheres:

• Academic
• Science is Fun
• Amateur Physics and Astro Club -- I would like to club my current "Teaching Assistant" Job with this.
• Olympians for Social Cause
• Non - Academic
• Students Against Alcohol and Drugs (SAAD)

If you see majority of my activity revolves around "Science". I named it differently but essentially the activity that happens is -- "Learning, Sharing and Loads of Innovation". 

And all the more the activities happen as "Group" and  I coordinate. The the synergy the team creates is the root cause for the success of all of this rather than me. If you see that 1+1 > 2 then it becomes synergistic. 

If you closely look for each activity I have volunteers 

• OSC has 30+ volunteers on Mathematics & Science. -- The volunteers also see a value add for them by teaching 
• They improve their communication skills
• By explaining the topic to others they retain it permanently and 
• in the process of making the concept clear to others they themselves lot of times become clear about the topics
• Science is Fun -- This activity grown over a period of time w.r.t. number of students, every year 2 new volunteers from my peers or students also come to my native place. They do a lot of brain storming and prepare the experiments along with me. -- The work is essentially shared again. :)
• SAAD -- Anyway runs with the help of the fraternity and its run for their own good.. 

And all the more the faith and belief of Teachers on me and the support they give in my activities.

What I do is essentially --

• Give Vision
• Encourage and inspire the team
• Hold the team in cohesion
• Felicitate from the School Admin or Institution with my contacts the required help 

The following are the qualities when I introspect which makes things happen:

• Passion -- Deep love towards whatever you undertake 
• Persistence -- To see any tangible results you need to wait for considerable time and believe in yourself that the desired change would come
• Attitude -- This is perhaps the most important thing -- If your intent is correct and you want to help others you will get help from "ALL" the sources. God will always be there to lend his hand if we genuinely 
• Time Management -- :Living in Quadrant II as Stephen R Covey said.

And I do not treat all the activities separately as lot of people think.. In fact the OSC fund raising happens some times in the "Astro Class" because of an inspired student. And we did see incidents the students from Astro class also becoming active participants in other activities too.. 

Its just the belief in "Common Good" and "Collective Effort" that is making the things happen. 

Let me know your thoughts about this post I 'm willing to listen. 

Incredible Indian Techinical Institutions --- IITs

For cheering up all my friends who are now preparing for IIT -- JEE 2012. The final count down has started and we are 10 weeks away!!!

This video can be inspirational!! Of ourse the number of participants increased to 0.48 millions though!

All the best for the coming examination.

Change for Betterment!!!

Change, which is inevitable and what is currently I m undergoing.. while thinking on that subject I came across this inspiring video…

Just wanted to share with all…