Dear Tara and everyone else

If I didn't post at once it was not meant to be in any way a kind of discouragement , please!

You know that March is the busiest month for plus two teachers.
Geeta Kamat was telling me that for elementary teachers it's a bit more relaxed.
For us we have classes going on for twelfth ISC , plus exams, invigilator's work, question paper setting, correction of answer papers and soon around the corner - report writing.
Added to this is the fact that I'm also doing a Saturdays course in Srishti.

I want to actually share something about how PPSE has been useful fo me - recently in a class I took out two of the graphic organisers we got from the GO buffet and used it and honestly it was a big help to the students.

The graphic organisers I used were the fish-bone exercise and one which divides a story into four sections - beginning , end, conflict, consequence....

Regarding the PPSE course being helpful to all of us - there's no doubt - and I'm excited when I think of how this program can grow and be a help to many more teachers in the future both inside and outside our school.

Hope we can chip in and help too - Tara.

Ahhhh! I am saddened!

Dear PPSE-ites

There is no response to two posts that I have uploaded! I am truly disheartened! I had f2f assurances from soem of you about a post or comment that very afternoon when I met you last week, and there is none!

Hey, I do want us to continue this communication - this community of practitioners. Do you al not feel it would be worthwhile?

Well, at least give it a shot!

OOOOOO JI OOOOOOO!!! Can you hear me?!!!!!!!!!!


Tara

Happy Ugadi to PPSE-ites

O wow! Thanks Neela! That was a hugely complimentary comment to my previous posting, and coming on Ugadi day, it marks an auspicious beginning for me!

I would like to thank you all for being so involved, wholly participative, and most importantly, utterly honest with us, on this first round of the PPSE. It meant a lot to us who were trying to put the course together. Seeing the energy that this course seems to have brought into your practice for many of you, is my chief sense of joy, and continuing dialogue with you about your professional thoughts and practice will be a great source of learning for me. So I do request you to all to spend ten minutes every week, reading and writing on this blogspace.

I also hope this space of interaction with each other proves to be useful as well. If you have any moments of insight, depression or elation in your work, do express it here!

Let me start with sharing some insights that I have gained in the last week.

As you may be knowing, we at CERTAD, are planning to start a two year advanced diploma for graduates and post graduates who may be interested in entering a profession in education. In this connection we are meeting with people who may be consultants and teachers on this course. When we were debating what this course could do for the people on it, Poonam said, "You will be empowering and capacitating people - that is important. What the content of the course is not."

I found this a very thought-provoking statement. So I wanted to ask you all - did you find that the interactions, the reading, the writing, the classroom experiences that you had on the PPSE, made you feel empowered in any way?

Tara Kini

Ah got here at last!!!

Okay PPSE-ites

Here I am at the blog again - I had a problem getting in because the Blogger sites have been upgraded to enable signing in with a google account - which is what I am doing now.

Just to keep you all in the loop!

I am putting the finishing touches to the consolidated grade scripts and the examiners' validation sheet for all of you who have completed the PPSE. I have also printed out the assessments for Modules 7 &8 that have already been sent to you by email. Once all the signatures are done, I will send the hard copies of all these documents to you. As it is the first time all this is being put in place, it is taking long!

We at CERTAD, are in the throes of setting up a pre-service training course - for people who are graduates and post-graduates, and who want to become teachers/ teacher resources/ researchers in education. We are in the stage of concretising the programme and resources and will launch it in August.

We will also start cohort three of PPSE (Rekha is the only one in cohort two) by August and offer it to other schools as well. I look forward to chatting with you all about all this.

In April I am going to do four and three days of training in Drik Pathshala, a school for slum children, started by Anitha Reddy in Chittoor, and in Peepal Grove School in Saddum, respectively. Then I am going to Munich to visit my daughter's new home! Enroute I shall visit friends in London and meet Robin about the new course in Oxford.

Do post on this blog and just say what you are doing currently - it will be great to keep in touch.

Tara Kini

Hi - good to be back again.