July-Aug 2013

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Inspiring Teachers
Human Excellence
In this issue: Faculty of the month Dr Aruna Tijare Must Read Links .. Sevalaya Workshop for teachers Reflection on learning 2 3 4 4

From the editor..

Welcome to this joint issue of the newsletter for July and August 2013. We have had a busy time with three workshops very different from each other. You can read the reports on this page, page 3 and 4. This months FoM interview has been facilitated by Urjita Deshpande. Dr Aruna Tijare is a well known trainer and counselor. She has loyal participants who have been attending her sessions for more than 15 years (on various topics) and still want more. Truly an inspiring teacher. If someone were to ask me for a single most important skill in life, I would say reflection. If you can reflect on any aspect of your life with understanding, you are sure to become better. Simply put, if you can ask yourself a few questions as to what was the situation, what did you do well, what could you have done differently and what lesson did you learn from the situation, you will be on a path of awareness and growth. Reflection is also an important aspect of academic learning. It is a way of reinforcement. It also allows the learner to assimilate and own the learning. It is also called metacognition or thinking about thinking. On page 4 I have given a few questions that can help your students to reflect. As usual I have shared some links to videos and articles thanks to Dr Anil Kumar Challa, Marutish Varanasi and Raman Garimella.

Team Spirit workshop for DRDO scientists 24-27th June 2013

20 scientists from various DRDO labs in India attended a four day workshop conducted by Teachers Academy at ITM, Mussoori. We had sessions on Team Structures, Six Thinking Hats, Personality Types for individual and team interactions, Team values, Situational Leadership, EI and 7 habits of highly effective people. The sessions were facilitated by Dr Akila Jaikumar, Ms Urjita Deshpande and me. There were several games and activities and self assessment questionnaires. There were role plays and discussions. The participants found the sessions useful and felt that such programs should be done for whole teams from specific labs.

Contact us: info@theprofessor.in,

July-Aug 2013

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VOL. #7 ISSUE #7-8

Faculty of the month

DR. ARUNA K. TIJARE, M. A. Ph.D (Industrial Psychology), Practicing Psychologist, H.R.D. Trainer and Counselor 1. How did your career begin? My Training Career started in 1995, after completing my Career as a Home maker for 20 yrs. 2. How did you know that you have a potential for training? I have always been a voracious reader of self help books, so it was just a casual attempt that I started helping students with their studies, improving their memory, talking to parents, counselling people on various issues. This kind of help led to the opportunity that I started getting invitation for speeches on different subjects by different social organisations, where I realised I am a good speaker. Those lectures led to industrial training programs. Actually that was when I realised that I have the potential to be a Professional Trainer. 3. Which areas do you train in? Being a psychologist I focus on behavioural aspects, such as Attitude change, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership, Communication, Interpersonal skills, Time Management, Stress Management, Managing Change, Seven Habits of highly effective people, Memory Improvement and Speed Reading, Parenting etc. 4. Do you get a feel of work cultures of different companies as you train the employees? Can you throw some light on these corporate training programs? Of course!! Every organisation has more or less different cultures. Some are very particular about the subjects, the methodology and results. They are genuinely interested in the improvement of the employees and their output after training. While some want to just complete the formality. Then Govt & private organisations participants differ in their attitude towards training. 5. Would you like to share some of your experiences of training in your centre? In one of my Memory improvement program there were 40 students one participant was 13yrs old and one was 70 years old while others were ranging from 20 to 30s group. It was very challenging as well as fun to teach 3 generations together on the same subject as their needs and intellectual levels were totally diverse. Dealing with Union Leaders without taking the side of management in a session where there are lot of grievances is really challenging.

Before caption a goes here

What makes you become better and better? Your tips for trainers?

Meditating on the subjects, reading constantly, talking to participants, introspecting the good and bad after every performance, talking and sharing with like minded people on various training issues etc help me to become more effective. Being a trainer is a very noble profession. So the first and the basic requirement of this profession is that practise what you preach. This will help you to sound much more authentic and genuine. Being honest and trustworthy is the key. And you cannot fake these qualities for long term success
Dr Aruna has been training, counseling and undertaking workshops on a wide range of subjects like human relations, communication skills, emotional intelligence, leadership skills and memory skills in different industries and forums for last 20 years. Some of her prestigious regular clients are L&T, Mahindra& Mahindra, Bosch, Herdillia chemicals, ONGC, ColourChem, Gharda Chemicals, Heavy Water Board, Nuclear Power Corporation, Bombay Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Indo American Society, CEAT, Various Banks, Management Institutes, and a wide band of other industries all over India. Though her Ph.D is related to industrial Labor from Rural Area, she takes keen interest in addressing problems concerning day-to-day competitive life. She has proved her credibility as a Trainer by conducting workshops for various groups of people, students, housewives, senior citizens as well as employees in industry. She has released many audiocassettes on her subjects. Her articles in news paper and programs on TV are very popular. She has studied scientific religion for last 25 years and this spiritual background adds depths to her programs. Her programs have helped a large cross section of people to live a more meaningful and happy life.

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July-Aug 2013

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VOL. # 7 ISSUE #7-8

MUST READ LINKS

Resources for schools
http://www.teacherplus.org/resources

Parenting
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10250/11-things-iwish-every-parent-knew.html Awareness on racism http://www.upworthy.com/watch-a-teacher-make-her3rd-grade-kids-hate-each-other-for-the-best-reasonimaginable-2?g=3 Teaching Skills for Teachers Sevalaya, Mahakavi Bharathiar HSS
Rarely do you find a group of 60 teachers sitting with rapt attention on a weekend for a workshop. But this set of teachers is different they are working in an NGO run school that provides free education to 1800 children from KG to XII free of cost. The NGO Sevalaya also runs a hostel for orphans, an old age home and a goshala. This is the 25th year of its operation. See
http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/c_779_A_little _caring_a_little_sharing32010.asp

Self Development
Reading Literature makes us smarter and nicer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HRXhRjfS7Q Energy medicine simple and effective techniques to heal yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMbdFb8URY Confessions of a converted lecturer Eric Mazur on Flipped classroom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI Clues to a great story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDwieKpawg How simple things lead to scientific discoveries by Adam Savage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8UFGu2M2gM How to change education from the ground up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HRXhRjfS7Q

Videos- education

This is our third workshop at Sevalaya. Previous ones were in 2010 and 2011. There were a few senior teachers from those years but majority were first time participants for us. We had sessions on making learning activities from newspapers, six thinking hats, meditation, handling emotional problems of children, differentiation and rubrics. There were a few games and group activities. The teachers were very eager to learn. Dr Akila Jaikumar and I were facilitating the sessions especially Akila took care of the Tamil speaking teachers.

News
IITs and IT companies get together to provide on-line courses

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/201 3-07-19/news/40681617_1_seven-older-iits-nptelandrew-thangaraj
ISB graduates bring Touch-on-cloud to improve education

http://www.zdnet.com/touch-on-cloud-innovateslearning-for-indian-students-7000017017/ Google to train AP students on cloud computing http://www.sakshipost.com/index.php/news/state/1 8663-google-to-train-ap-students-on-cloudcomputing

June 2013

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VOL. #7 ISSUE #6

Reflection on Learning
Summarize the academic objectives of todays session. Identify the content you were supposed to learn and how well you mastered it. What was the muddiest or least clear point in todays session? In this weeks lectures? In this weeks reading assignment? What was the most useful thing you learned during this session? What questions remain uppermost in your mind as we end this session? Identify the three most important concepts you learned today. List five concepts that you found important today and explain what they mean to you. List five things that you learned about _____________ today. In no more than three sentences, summarize what was learned about _____________. Why is the concept of _____________ important in _____________? In your own words, summarize the meaning of _____________ (or the relationship between _____________ and _____________, or how _____________ can be applied). Provide one example of how an equation encountered today must be manipulated or combined with another equation to solve problems or answer questions. Explain how the concept of _____________ helps us understand _____________. Identify and illustrate how topic _____________ can be used. Explain why and how concept _____________ is useful in solving problem _____________. Explain why topic _____________ is important. Write a methodology for doing _____________. What information do you need to determine _____________. Identify an everyday example or analogy for _____________.

Pre-retirement Planning DMRL, Hyderabad July 2nd and 3rd 2013 Report
About 30 employees who will retire in the next few months attended enthusiastically our program on planning for retirement. We had sessions on Psychosocial transitioning and productive living by me, financial planning for peaceful life by Suri Seetaram, independent wealth expert; emotional and spiritual well being by Dr Akila Jaikumar and Physical wellbeing

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(health and nutrition) by Dr Raghunatha Rao, Head-Training at NIN, Hyderabad. In the modern times with increased longevity, people have almost as much retired life as their working life. Hence it becomes vital to plan the next 30 years or so to be financially comfortable, physically healthy and emotionally stable. There are many opportunities to keep oneself busy with meaningful work. Unless one has a spiritual outlook towards life, it becomes difficult to cope with the changing dynamics of society and family. Simple breathing exercises and mudras, meditation, new perspectives on relationships, alternate therapies were introduced. Suri spoke about different instruments of investment suitable for them. A lively interaction on dos and donts of food and exercise was facilitated by Dr Raghunatha Rao.