We organized a three day workshop for the
teachers and staff of the Michael Job Educational Institutions during 27- 29th April, 2014. It is a part of our
continuous effort to upgrade the quality of our teaching and the guidance we
provide to our children.
We had three wonderful people with us to
lead the workshop. On day 1 we had Mr. Unnikrishnan Balakrishnan, CEO of Life
Purpose Consulting. Day 2 was led by Mr T Koshy who is a Partner of Ernst &
Young (India) and who is also one of our trustees. For the day 3 we had Dr
Thomas George, Founder & Chairman of Life Purpose Consulting.
All these three trainers introduced our
staff to different concepts and oraganised activities to bring out many
ideas to improve the effectiveness of our teachers. As Mathew Philip the Dy CEO
of the centre remarked this was our first such initiative and all the
participants felt enriched by the program.
Mr. T. Koshy, Trustee MJC, welcomed the participants
and reminded them of our vision ‘Empowering the Girl Child through Education’. The
goal of the founder, Dr P.P. Job was to create a Centre of Excellence where the
girl children would have an educational opportunity that is culturally,
socially and personally enriching. The
teachers were asked to think about their commitment to the children of MJC. While
the first priority of a teacher is the teach her subject, every teacher has a
larger role that of a friend, philosopher and guide. In MJC since there are many
children coming from underprivileged background who are not blessed to have regular parental
guidance and care our teaches also have to play the role of a mother to her
students.
Good teachers can become better ones and
endear themselves to their students if they ask themselves two questions: (i)How do I upgrade myself to become a
better teacher? (ii) How do I educate, train and develop my students? He
exhorted teachers to go that extra mile to make their classes as lively as
possible and never, ever give up on their students or their potential.
Mr. Unnikrishnan on Day 1 built on the
theme: Inspire Hope, Love & Learning. The objectives were to enable
teachers to (i)Awaken the teacher within (ii) Emotional Empowerment (iii) Achieve
work-life balance.
The session started with an ice breaker. Participants
were requested to agree on the following: We will participate willingly and
joyfully, Allow good things to happen, Be open-minded. Mentally say ‘From now
on.’ If you refrain from dwelling on the past and come to terms with the fact
that the only reality is the present, you can change the future. In life you
only have to compete with yourself.
Participants were organized into groups of
eight and were asked to create Role plays on some of the challenges that they
face and how they dealt with them. They were evaluated on the following
criteria: Creativity, Acting Skills, Script & Delivery, Team Participation,
Time Management & Theme Impact. In conclusion, the qualities of a good
teacher summarized by the participants as (i) Be a student always (ii) Be a
good role model (iii) Be a good communicator (iii) Be a powerful transformer
(iv) Avoid discrimination. The trainer also
demonstrated a few relaxation techniques.
Day 2 started with Mr. T. Koshy explaining the
significance of the training program and stressed that team work is the key to growth.
He stressed that acquiring finer skills like problem solving and critical
analysis are the need of the hour.
The take away for us as teachers we that we
need to be mentally alert, we should be adept on the modern tools for better
teaching, and we should learn to understand and apply how to shape children’s
minds.
He introduced the teachers to elements of Transactional
Analysis. This framework is used to understand human transactions.
He advised the teachers to watch the
classic movie ‘My Fair Lady’, based on the drama Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, where Eliza Doolittle’s was transformed
from a flower seller to a lady because Col. Pickering believed in her.
The progress of every organization is
dependent on continuous feedback Therefore we discussed how to implement a
system from next academic year which will have self-evaluation, peer evaluation
and student evaluation.
We also had a Yoga session conducted by
a professional trainer.
On Day 3 Dr Thomas George, led a very
motivating and exciting session. He recommended Chris J. Vitty’s ’21 days
Countdown to Success’, as a must read for all.
The Participants were organized into seven
groups to work on the challenges faced by teachers and students in the teaching
learning process. Some of the findings
were: Relationship, entertainment & interaction ; Deterioration in respect
for teachers; Value Education classes to
compensate spiritual and moral values ; Students
require more motivation nowadays; with the advent of mass media, teachers face
far less cooperation in the classroom. However, they concluded that students
are better decision makers today.
Post- lunch, there was a team activity in
which everyone participated with lot of enthusiasm and various tactics to
finish first. The learning were: Perception, Time management, innovative ideas,
improvising, team work, motivating
others.
Concluding Session
Mr. Mathew Philip, Deputy CEO, stated that
he considered this a major milestone in the history of the Michael Job Educational
Institutions. He thanked the teachers for their participation and involvement.
He reminded them that the success of the institution depended on the students
and exhorted the teachers to encourage deserving students from the vicinity to
avail of the educational facilities here. He requested the teachers to be brand
ambassadors for this institution.
