Quotes, Questions and Comments- An Ethic Of Excellence by Ron Berger

Jaydeep Mehta Jagtap CF- Shridhar

The book basically talks about developing a culture in school which encourages, motivates and sustains public display of genuine students work as pro ects incorporating various disciplines and which are regularly sub ected to criti!ue and multiple drafts" This book has given me a lot of insight in terms of co-relating with my practice, newer ideas which # would like to implement as advisory and insights on areas of improvement in my teaching practices" # have taken a few !uotes and statements from the book and have tried to connect with the following aspects Making connections with my current ractice o It is with their own work that their self-esteem will grow. # have always believed that students strive towards e$cellence by becoming e$cellent in their work" Someone who wants to achieve e$cellence in recitation or creative writing, # encourage them to keep on making their work better and put more and focused efforts in what they want to do" This will develop their self-esteem and they will become proud of their self" # provide them with opportunities in class to display their work, solve problems within their group, produce work of real !uality and some of them have responded positively like using CF% as a part of giving feedback" !tudents need to "e taught the stages of "uilding a ro#ect into a sensi"le rogression of ste s$ #n standard &', we had given them (eography pro ect which was broken down in ) stages- first was registration with an industrial unit, second stage was to collect information, third stage was preparing the first draft and getting approval from me and finally the fourth stage was to write the pro ect and submit" *ates for the same were also given and we regularly gave feedback to students whenever they submitted their drafts %ro#ects ha&e assessment ru"rics, checklists which make it clear #ust what is ex ected of each student$ # elaborately discuss the rubric with students at the time of giving pro ects and make sure that all of them fulfill the basic re!uirements for obtaining marks according to the rubrics" 'he o ortunities of genuine research are e&erywhere$ #n std +, instead of teaching them earth!uakes, # have given them a pro ect in which the students would find out reasons of earth!uake, scales used for measuring earth!uakes, find out the most devastating earth!uakes in human history and develop earth!uake preparedness skills by conducting independent research from our own city which suffered a ma or earth!uake in ,''&" *uring this research, they would contact and interview e$perts in all

fields and develop ,&st century skills like creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking" o Many teachers ha&e ne&er had the o ortunity to engage in original research themsel&es "ecause of which they are afraid to try$ # had the same approach before we embarked upon a ourney to create a documentary of the geology of -bu .oad" /hen we studied research papers and shot our se!uences as a team we found out what genuine research means" That has helped me in creating such an awareness in my students also" Colla"oration "etween teachers is the norm, as is o"ser&ing each other(s lessons$ -s a team of (eography teachers we work collaboratively in terms of pro ect induction and design, assignment making and preparing videos" /e have yet to start observing each other0s lessons, but that will follow very soon" 'he more ) allow students to assume res onsi"ility, the more a&enues for creati&ity or originality ) ro&ide them, the greater their chance of achie&ing excellence$ # generally allot classroom responsibility as per students choices so that they are e!uipped to handle that responsibility without much assistance" # strongly believe that if we create opportunities according to students preference, they would do a better ob by bringing their own creativity"

!omething meaningful found o There is an urgent need for schools to do things which are centered around bringing the best in our students, be in whatever area- academics, sports, co-curricular or e$tra curricular activities" 1ach student has a uni!ue talent which needs to be harnessed in order for the students to achieve e$cellence" #f we aspire to have students to be citi2ens who value integrity, respect, responsibility, compassion and hard work, we need to build school cultures that modal these attributes" Students need to care about their work and appreciate other people0s work too and must be ready to take feedback assertively and give kind, specific and helpful feedback to other0s work" /e can mandate tests and standards and curricula all that we want, but it will mean nothing if we can0t inspire students to care$ Service is considered an active part of citizenship. Students learn best when they cater to other peoples re!uirements which develops their skills of cross-cultural understanding and communication" %roviding useful service also sensiti2es them towards difficulties in other people0s lives and they can develop important human attributes live love and compassion"

Quality means rethinking, reworking and olishing$ /hen students put their work to criti!ue and use feedback to make improvements and create numerous drafts, they will definitely create e$cellence in their work" !tart !mall$ )ts "etter to im ro&e one as ect of a culture and do it really well than to take on too much too soon and do it oorly$ This is aptly applicable to our school"

*o es and +ears - culture based on beautiful students work, as per the author, should begin from the age of 3 years when students enter school" They do not need to read only te$tbooks or filling in blanks on worksheets" They are given opportunities to create books, make maps, researching local history and designing e$periments" 4y the time they reach 5th and 6th standard, they develop the ethic and get motivated to care about their own work" My worst fear with this is our board which demands rote learning and total focus on te$tbooks and worksheets" Most of our students ran around frantically the night before the submission date" # wonder how will be able to get them off this practice and adopt time management and compliance with deadlines for each of the steps identified" /e encourage students to create their own portfolios in which they store their pro ects, multiple drafts, keep pack with their desired results and reflect on their practices on a constant basis" /e hope that some of them will do it seriously with intent but at the same time, due to lack of ethic of e$cellence in the lower classes, many of them would be reluctant to do it as they may not find it of relevance to their performance"

Jaydeep Mehta ,&st September ,'&3