Medaiyil Thisaimaani 2019

1. MedaiyilThisaimaani 2019 Annual conference for teachers

2. Annual conference for teachers to share experiences ( Stage Presentations, Teaching Learning Material exhibits and Dramas) in making their classrooms more engaging, student learning deeper and better engagement with the context of the community around them. • Weekly / Monthly workshops with teachers • Teachers contributing articles for Thisaimaani, a bi-monthly publication for sharing classroom and school experiences. Preparation Presentations made at the conference will be published in the conference booklet – Andu Malar

3. Purpose: • Summarize activities of an academic year and create case studies. • Facilitate group review and discussion on insights for sharing. • Support teachers in the writing process. • Prepare teachers for the Medaiyil Thisaimaani annual teachers seminar. • Session design • Context setting by providing sample case-studies Experience sharing from teachers • Discussion on themes; • Experience sharing of external resource person; • Sample ideas sharing by teachers; • Discussion on guidelines of article writing; • Teachers preparing first drafts • Group review of first drafts Writers workshop for MedaiyilThisaimaani (Primary & Upper Primary)

4. MedaiyilThisaimaani 2019 (Primary) Annual Teacher Seminar (Residential) Papers received: 130 Number of presentations: 48 Seminar participants: 50 Panelists: 10 Highlights: Themes of the seminar: Tamil Teaching, English Teaching, Math Teaching, Working together as a school community, Creating a classroom culture Panel discussion: 10 experts from the education field facilitated discussions at the end of every theme presentations. Residential: Enabled longer and active engagements Presentation design: 5 mins presentation, 40 mins panel discussion at the end of each theme.

5. Snapshot from the articles Theme 1: Learning Culture in the Classroom • Classroom challenge: Students lacked communication skills and mutual respect • Classroom election to elect a leader and thereby help students understand and experience a democratic process. • Reflection: Students understood the value of democracy and elected leaders developed self confidence and engaged better in the classroom processes. Classroom Election – Selection of a Leader I Kiran, PST, GPS Pudukuppam (B) Handcrafted Toys and Puppets for a Joyful Learning Experience K. Revathi, PST, GPS Pillaiyarkuppam • Cut-outs and puppets of characters from the textbook lessons were made. • These were then used to narrate the story. For e.g. A puppet of Robinson Crusoe and a cut-out of the island were made and the story was narrated. • Background sounds were played to enhance the listening and learning experience. • A permanent puppet theatre was made using wood.

6. Theme: Tamil Teaching KuzhanthaikalinPaadalkalumPuthirkalum (Songs and riddles for children) Kavitha, PST, GPS Manavely • Learning Changeover- In the beginning of the academic year, the students (of class 1) were allowed to write in the same way as they spoke (colloquial Tamil) as the textbook language could be very challenging initially. By employing this method, the teacher was able to make the students confident in expressing themselves. Gradually the children adapted to the textbook.

7. EVS TEACHING 1. Correlating English language with EVS learning ( Grade 3) IndraPriyadharshini PST, GPS KT Kuppam 2. Interesting EVS classroom experiences (Grade 3) Sankaradevi- PST, GPS Abhishekappakkam • Both these articles show how exposure visits helped in giving direct learning opportunity to students. • Pre-discussion, preparing questions for enquiry, visit to the site, debrief in the classroom, preparing write-up on observation and narration of the process provide direct learning opportunities to students. • Exposure visit to a potter: Students narrated in their mother tongue and the teacher used this opportunity by giving necessary English words to create short sentences for a write-up on their observation thereby correlating English language learning in the EVS classroom. • Exposure visit to a paddy field: Planning and organizing an exposure visit to a paddy field; students noted down observations on birds (sizes, colours, calls, local name), plants (flowers, shape of leaves, name of the plant, uses of the plant). Students created an album of different birds. This was a joyful learning experience.

8. Making crafts related to the content of the lesson is interesting for students, the teacher actively looked out for craft ideas in lessons. Crafts helped students to actively participate in class discussions, create artefacts using their own creativity and develop fine motor skills. • Examples: • Trees- A drawing of a tree was pasted on the wall, students drew what they had observed on the picture e.g. flowers, leaves, birds, insects etc. Students also made changes to the picture based on climate- e.g when leaves become yellow students coloured it, when leaves were shed changes were made in the picture accordingly. • Family- Paper cups were used to create members of a family. Each student created their family and described them. • Creating vegetable prints & Letter writing EVS Learning through crafts. Sasirekha PST, GPS TN Palayam

9. Working together as a school community • Socialization - Mingling with students by spending time with them. • Collaborating – Celebrating festivals in the schools by collaborating with parents, teachers and the students and this was published in local newspapers and TV which was appreciated by all. Street sweepers were invited on Swachh Bharat day and honored. • Motivating – Encouraging students to participate in regional and the state level competitions. • Getting support from the Parents – Consulting with SMC members periodically and receiving good feedback from the parents. • Academic Development: Enabling teachers to maintain the school registers and records effectively and independently. Handling classes using 5E approach. Using classroom observation report to give effective learning inputs and suggestions to the teacher to improve their teaching skills. Developing Multi-personal skills – Conducting extra-curricular activity classes like Yoga, Karate, Herbal awareness to develop various skills of the students. MeypadaKadamaigal (Realizing responsibilities) Sandacoumari-Head Teacher, GPS Vaduvakuppam. The teacher shared her professional experiences after being appointed as a Head Teacher. 

10. Neelkanavu: (A special initiative to bring about social change through literature) Neelkanavu & I Rajesh -PST,GPS Kodathur • The teacher introduced the idea of labour and spoke about farmers and the process involved in agriculture • Example • This gave the teacher an opportunity to address the food wastage in school. The children interviewed farmers and got an idea of the processes from cultivation to harvest and how much they earn. The children gradually began showing change as they respected the labour of the farmer and drastically reduced wastage of food during mid-day meals. The rest of the school has followed suit now.

11. Neelkanavu and my classroom Nathan.A - PST, GPS Sinnakarayambuthur • Neelkanavu helped to sharpen the social consciousness in the students. It changed his perception towards teaching and to create a democratic classroom. It challenged the belief that teacher is the epitome of knowledge. • Example • Conversation with the sanitation worker sensitized the students on difficulties faced by them. Students were very much worried about the social situation of a certain group of people whose job was to clean drainages and manholes.   • The story ‘Tea Kadai’, familiarized the students about occupation related inequality that is prevailing in our society. Students opined that all human beings should be treated equally despite their occupation.

12. Early Childhood Education One flower blooms with one pot of water Porkalai-PPST, GPS Muthialpet • Teaching number concepts and writing • Examples: • More and less - Showed different levels of water in pots of water / waterbottles / blackboard drawings to help children understand the concept of 'more / less""….They are now using this to describe their daily activities (who is drinking more /less milk) • Taught numbers from 1-10 using the song ""One flower blooms with one pot of water""... • Developing fine motor skills to prepare for writing – The teacher introduced activities that children enjoy like playing with sand, stringing beads, arranging pebbles on letter /number outlines, filling ragi seeds in letter outlines covered with glue (like Kolam) . • As writing should not be forced on children at an early age, the teacher undertook some efforts because of the community expectation.

13. Theme based learning in Pre-primary classroom. Amudha PPST, GMS Lawspet • The teacher has used the theme of vegetables to address multiple areas of learning. She introduced a variety of activities to engage different levels of learners. • Examples • Language development - Described the vegetables using picture cards, encouraging children to talk about vegetables. • Cognitive development - Children discussed the differences in shape, texture (e.g. smooth bottle gourd vs ridged bitter gourd), length (drumstick vs. beans); softness (Tomato vs beetroot) color shades (e.g. light green, dark green); taste (sour, sweet, bitter, hot) • Problem solving - solved jigsaw puzzles over multiple iterations. • Fine motor - coloring, bit pasting, joining the dots, crushing and pasting crepe paper • Social emotional development - Songs like 'Sharing pumpkin curry', 'Eating healthy vegetables', 'The big vegetable fight'. • Gross motor skills - Collecting vegetables, hide-and-seek with vegetables, making our own garden. Children conversation threw up some interesting ideas. They discussed the confusion between cabbage and cauliflower.

14. Math Teaching Students in grade 2 struggled to understand word problems. However, word problems are a way of teaching mathematical thinking and using math for solving real life problems. He used various strategies to help them overcome this challenge. Example: The teacher addressed the issue using contextual word problems started his class by asking simple questions: How many boys are present in class today? And, how many girls are present? What is the total number of students then? Another simple method used by him was by drawing a mango tree and an apple tree on the board with five mangoes and six apples, respectively. He then asked his students to form a word problem with trees and birds and draw pictures corresponding to the same. Similarly, he used Jenga blocks and asked students to work in pairs and come up with questions like Who has more blocks? What is the total number of Jenga blocks they have? By doing this regularly, students began to understand the meaning of these questions and were able to answer them. Dealing with word problems at the primary level (grade2) James Kumar pst, GPS Aranganoor-

15. Drama Pirambupadhesam Watch Video Watch Video Rose

16. Teachers Voices “ “ “ Very good platform to see other teachers’ work from Puducherry as well as Tamil Nadu. I also get to interact with them in person and learn.” A nice platform for the teachers to share their thoughts freely. If I go such forums, I always go and talk to unknown teachers to learn something new. In that way, MedaiyilThisaimaani introduced me to many such experts who worked in the field of education for years. And for all these years, I considered beating as a valuable tool to make children listen to us but after listening to JK, Preethi, Senthil’s talk, I realised that children’s attention can be gained even without beating them.” “ Their presentations were well prepared. “ A little more details about their works and paperswritten would have helped well. Frequent interactions with them would be something to look forward. “ The guest speakers were very expressive and talented

17. Presenters @ Medaiyil 2019 (Primary) TLM Exhibits Rajavanthika GPS Chinnakalapet Challenges in reading Nithya GPS TV Koil Dealing with math word problems James Kumar GPS Aranganur YaarKutumbam? Antoine Joseph GPS Periyarnagar TLM Exhibits Stella GPS Chinnakalapet PaadalgalVazhiPaadam JayasriAnandaragapillai, School for special need children Teaching Strategies in Data Handling Gayathri GPS Thattanchavady

18. KanithatooduThodarpupadithiyaOviya Vaguparai Lingeshwar GPS Pichaveeranpet Thursday task Umadevi GPS Meenatchipet TharchaarpuVaazhviyalKalvi Madhavraj Puvidham Tamil teaching in Pre-Primary Vijayalakshmi GBMS, Delearshpet Teaching Tamil- TLM Exhibits Mohanambal GPS CM Ashraf Appreciation: A key to locked doors KeshavardhiniMGGGMS Nellithope PalliInnaiSeyalpadugal Kalpana Thai TamizhPalli KetkaamalKattralillai S Kavitha GPS Manaveli A

19. Arasupalliyumaasiriyarsamookauravum Subhashini GHS Nonankupppam Conserving childhood Suganya GPS Kirumampakkam Kadamaigalmeipada Sandacoumari GPS Vaduvakuppam Language and math teaching in Pre-primary classroom Porkalai GPS Muthialpet Neel KanavumNaanum Rajesh GPS, Kodathur Neel KanavumenVagupparaiyum Patchiammal GGHS Kalapet

20. Anaivarukkum Ilavasa kalvi Anaivarukkum Thai Tamil Palli Razia Thai TamizhPalli Challenges and recommendation for Grade 5 math textbook Vasanthi GPS Sellipet Kulanthaigalin Valarchiyil Udal Iyyakkakalaigalin Pangu Preethi Payir SevithiranKuraiodaiyorkaanaKalvi Sarasvady Shri Patcheappane school for the hearing Impaired Neel KanavumenVagupparaiyum Nathan ; GPS Karayamputhur Strategies to enhance the performance of Slow Learners Sankarapandi BRT

21. Medaiyil Thisaimaani 2019-(Upper Primary) (Non-Residential) (6-8 May) Total articles received: 63 Total Participants: 61 Presenters: 43 Panelists: 3 Themes of the seminar: Science teaching; Math teaching; Social science teaching; Learning culture in the classroom; Educational practices; Working as a school community Session design: 8min presentation, 40 mins panel discussion

22. Snapshot from the articles Science Teaching Fun-filled Science Learning Stephen. S, GHS Mangalam • The teacher has worked on creating a classroom culture that enables a better learning environment. He has adopted certain pedagogical practices to create interest in science learning and improve the student learning process. • Classroom Culture • Tension free learning – The teacher provides space for students to freely ask questions to clarify their doubts, share their personal experiences, their expectations and speculations. Having general discussions and cracking occasional jokes provides the necessary break amidst heavy content load or learning. • Pedagogical Practices • Hands on learning – Raw materials are provided to students to conduct multiple experiments on trial and error basis to come up with their own understanding of Scientific concepts • Learning through Experiments – Once a week, students get to conduct science experiments relevant to the current topic. Experiments were done by students on Acids, bases and indicators, image formation with lenses, dissecting and observing plant cells under microscope. • Projects based on day today phenomena and experiences – Individual or group projects are given to students where they will have to observe, record or collect data. E.g. Comparisons between different fuels and the quality of smoke produced by them.

23. Learning Science through research projects Rajkumar. S, GHS Katterikuppam • Engaging students in long term projects  have helped in increasing students interest towards science and deepening their understanding of that topic. Students identify a problem/issue around them and engage in research for around 6 months to find answers. • A few projects highlighted by the teacher • A Study on soil and its types in Katteri village: Students studied the soil profile and identified that their village has 4 different types of soil that are suitable for different purposes. They also interviewed farmers to understand what crop grows better in which soil. • Detailed study of a local pond: They learned about the biotic and abiotic factors and its inter linkages. They marked the food chain, food web, food pyramid after observing the ecosystem. Water inlet and outlet methods were also studied. • A Study on open defecation and its impact: Students did a survey and identified households that did not have toilets. They studied the open defecation sites in a village, and created awareness among students and villagers about the importance of sanitation and hygiene. How to use and clean toilets was also demonstrated.   • Science behind superstition: Students asked their folks about magic tricks performed by godmen and others, discovered the science behind it and performed it in front of their class.

24. Role of structured questioning in activity-based learning Nirmala. C Learning by doing helps children understand concepts easily​. The teacher illustrates this using the lesson on Fluids taught to IX grade students. Instead of first introducing the technical terms like Pascals' law, force, pressure etc and its definition, through questioning, students are made to arrive at that understanding through simple low cost experiments. Example: when students are asked to explain their observation as to what happens when a balloon filled with water is poked with a needle, they explain that water comes out with equal force on all sides. This is Pascal's law.

25. Learning Culture in the Classroom • Students possess a basic understanding of the world around them based on their personal experiences. A teacher can utilize this understanding to further build new concepts or the teacher might have to break their misconceptions through science. Both of these can be achieved through – • Involving students in interesting activity based learning in Science class – Textbook activities on the given topic. • Giving freedom to children to explore and tinker with apparatus – Trusting the students’ sense of responsibility to handle apparatus with care. • Tapping curiosity and using the element of surprise to generate interest in science – Making students to create hypothesis based on prior knowledge and then testing it out to prove it wrong to build a new understanding of the world around them based on science. Generating curiosity and scientific thinking ability in students Ganesh Prabakaran, GHS Kanuvapet

26. Love for reading Saravanan, Municipal Middle School, Tiruppur • The teacher shares the methods used by him to generate the interest of reading books, beyond the school curriculum. • The teacher regularly shares a variety of interesting general information that makes them look at the teacher in awe thus creating the desire and thirst in students to acquire knowledge themselves. • The teacher then shares that the source of his information is books thereby kindling students’ interest in books. He then takes them to the school library; they get excited by the many books available. • Teacher announces regarding upcoming book fairs and encourages students to save money to buy books. Students buy many books from the fair. Following this, the teacher takes students to the public library and lets them know the procedure for enrolling as a member. Like a domino effect, students become library members influenced by their peers. • Some parents even share it as a pleasurable complaint that their children spend their weekends at the library. • Going beyond, students have started writing regularly and their writings are published on a weekly basis with the teacher's guidance. As an effect of becoming socially aware due to reading and being guided by their teacher, students had written notes to their parents letting them know that their votes are not to be sold. Students publish books

27. Addressing Literacy Gaps in Science Classroom Palanisamy, GHS Arumparthapuram Enabling Students to read - The science teacher, on finding out that his grade 8 students are not able to read and write, decided to spend the first few weeks to introduce Tamil alphabets, followed by words to his students. He then encouraged his students to read the textbook. One of the strategy he deploys is to get students to generate questions after reading a passage. The questions are then discussed in class, students answer the questions. They refer to other sources to find out answers to those questions that they do not know. If students are able to create a question, it is a sign that they have understood that passage - this ensures reading with comprehension. Peer learning - Each struggling learner is supported by a peer. The peer teacher supports the learner to read, study and reports the progress to the teacher. This  method has helped him motivate a 17 year old boy, who had failed in IX thrice, to pass X exam and pursue higher education.

28. Social Science Teaching Varalartrupadangkalumvagupparaimuyarchikalum Patchayammal, GHSS Kalapet • Teacher deployed multiple techniques in order to make Social Science lessons interesting for students. • Field visit - She taught students about human evolution and anthropology by taking the children to the places in and around Pondicherry which have a historic significance. • Teacher took the students out to various industries in the city to teach the students about various occupations stated in the Economics lesson. • She further used the role-play method to make the students aware about the various historic events mentioned in the textbooks. • The teacher created a platform for students to discuss social issues by screening documentaries and doing puppet shows. Students deliberate on the issue and how it can be remedied.

29. Teaching of Tamil Word games in mother tongue teaching, (Thaaimozhikkalviyil sol vilayattu) Rajkumari, GHSS Kirumampakkam • Language Games: The article explains how language games can be used to improve the reading skills of the students • Remedial Classes: Slow learners were identified from 6th and 7th standard classes based on their reading ability and grouped into a class • Connecting with previous knowledge:  The teacher again introduced the letters to check their ability and to make a connection with previous knowledge. • Word formation: The teacher asked the students to create new words by adding letters to the clue letter , for example if the teacher provides அ as the clue,  letter the students will add ம் + மா and create அம்மா the new word • Organization Skills: The teacher enabled the students to arrange the words and letters alphabetically which developed their organizing skills. Short and Long Sounds: The teacher helped the students to differentiate between short and long sounds and helped the students to change short sounds to long sounds (குறில் to நெடில் – பல் – பால் ) • Sentence Formation: The practices followed by the teacher in the remedial classes developed the students from the stage of word formation to sentence formation. • Basic Grammar: The teacher also helped the students to identify the gender, place, time , singular and plural differences between words and their usage in the sentences.

30. Teachers Voices “ Discussions on SMC were very useful” “ “ Opportunity to hear to honest sharing, experiences from schools, build relationships with like minded teacher and become part of a change movement” This forum need not be only done once a year, should be happening more frequently; online forums also could be used for discussions” “ A platform to discuss issues and challenges in schools openly and get ideas from like minded people” “ “ “ Organization of the program was brilliantly done; hospitality was outstanding- homely feeling” Freedom to express our views. Opportunity to meet fellow achievers” “Enforcement on fun learning methods used by teachers is much appreciated”

31. Presenters @ Medaiyil 2019 (Upper Primary) Learning by Doing in Science Classrooms MathiazhaganN PKGHS Muthialpet Parent Meeting Indira GHS Mangalam Learning through Teaching Jamuna, TPGGHSS Ariankuppam Classroom experience BharathiM GHSS Koravelimedu Let's expand the roots Uma Mageshwari ; GGHS Kalapet Stop Motion Animation Anita R GBHS Mettuppalayam Experience with NSS students Mahendran GGHSS Kalapet

32. Presenters @ Medaiyil 2019 (Upper Primary) Humor in social science class Premalatha SB GGHSS IlakkiyathilNayamumNaveenavum KalaiKovan GovtSchool Erode Learning by drawing diagrams JayasheelaS GHS Alankuppam Participatory Assessment Techniques for Science Learning - Innovation Jayasundhar. V GMS Manapet TLM Exhibits Rajakumari, GHSS Kirumampakkam Varalarumvaguparainigazhvugalum PachayammalKalapet Addressing Literacy Gaps in Science Classroom Pajanisamy, GHS Arumbarthapuram

33. Presenters @ Medaiyil 2019 (Upper Primary) Infected indianclassroom SengodeTevan; Kamban GHSS Nettapakkam ParambariyaUnavuThiruvizha Revathy R, TPGGHSS Ariankuppam The Reading Habit of Students in School Suresh GHSS Ariyur Changes due to Physical Education Sivakumar GHS Oulgaret Pallikoodam - Pala koodalkalai valarkum koodam Senthil Kumar, GMS Muthriarpalayam Akila MGGHS Maducarai Creating interest in science learning RajkumarS GHS Katterikuppam

34. Thank You