Dear Parent,

I deem it a great pleasure and privilege in communicating through this E-book

on ‘Teacher Interact’. This might serve as a tool for you to pick some

information relating to academic transactions that has happened between school

and the Helga Todd teachers ( from Oxford).

Ms. Emma is a teacher of Math with a specialized training in mathematics. She

has rich experience of teaching in various countries and has taught English to

various age group of students.

Ms. Ashleigh is a teacher of Chemistry with an additional experience in

designing teaching strategies to engage and develop the learning of students with

English as an additional language (EAL).

It really gives me a feel good factor about the things that transpired between our

teachers, students and the two teachers from Oxford, Emma Thomas and

Ashleigh Lockett. Through this e-book we intend to communicate to you that our

children were ranked the best in the eyes of the two teachers . The very presence

of the two brought out lots of life in learning English. This time we had an

advantage of other subjects too—Mathematics and Chemistry.

In the year 2012, our management initiated the Teacher Interact Programme

supported by the Helga Todd Foundation with an objective of empowering the

teachers by ways of exchange of latest teaching pedagogies, sharing class room

practices and methods of assessment and evaluation.

I wish this initiative would continue to bring lots of international academic

exchanges between the school and the Helga Todd Foundation. I take this

opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to our management for providing

such a wonderful platform for us to learn, grow and transform. Hope to connect

with you during the academic year 2017-18.

Thanks and regards

Principal

Inauguration

The day began with the little ones of kindergarten garlanding and welcoming our

guests Ms. Emma Thomas and Ms. Ashleigh Lockett. The inauguration com-

menced with the invocation song “Maithreem bhajatha” followed by the welcome

address by our Principal Mr.D.Senthil Kumar.

Our Advisor Mr.P.R.Rao addressed the gathering and talked about the challenges

faced by Indian students in learning English. . He emphasized on the need for

improving communication and critical thinking skills in young children.

Ms. Emma Thomas and Ms. Ashleigh Lockett also shared their views and excite-

ment about the eight week programme. As an introduction, the school presenta-

tion was screened and the student council members took them on a school tour ex-

plaining the different facilities and practices.

On the latter part of the day, Principal T.I., Headmaster SRM along with teachers

of English from both the schools met to understand the tentative plan and discuss

the methodology of taking forward

this programme effectively.

The teachers handling English (SRM

and T.I.) briefed the O.T’s on the exist-

ing methods of teaching English. Also

they had a look at the lesson plan, text

books – Xseed, samacheer kalvi and

workbooks

What we have gained from Emma and Ashleigh..Teachers speak…….

Emma and Ashleigh remind me of those days where I had a golden opportunity to

interact with them through the ‘Teacher Interact Programme’. This paved the way

for an effective mode of communication and exchange of ideas and views to aug-

ment the teaching learning process in an enjoyable atmosphere.

The students were engrossed in listening

to the native speakers of English and

were able to converse in their accent.—

Yolanda Mcpherson

Teacher Interact Programme served as an ideal platform for our school to make

learning meaningful, engaging and enjoyable. Undoubtedly , unarguably and un-

deniably this interaction was an experience of a life time.

Students of classes 11 and 12 enjoyed interacting with Emma and Ashleigh. They

participated well in the debate and interview session conducted by the Oxford

teachers.

‘Good teaching is more a giving of the right questions than a giving of the right

answers.’ With the right set of questions, Emma and Asheigh made the sessions

very interactive and lively.

I personally feel that Emma and Ashleigh are extremely passionate and enthusias-

tic about teaching and that was the reason why students enjoyed being a part of

their sessions.

‘It is the supreme art of a teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowl-

edge.’ Emma and Ashleigh with their positivity, enthusiasm and commitment have

found a special place in our hearts.

Thank you dear teachers for your valuable interaction. We cherish your stay with

us.

Ambili Unnikrishnan

Teacher’s speak……..

Teacher exchange programme is a perfect opportunity to share ideas

and knowledge as well as learn about educational practices from

across countries.

Teaching experiences shared with Emma Thomas were insightful. I

could get another meaning for some key words we use in mathemat-

ics. For example ,the word “into” means multiplication for me whereas Emma gave a new

perspective that it means division. Asking inquisitive questions to engage very active children

is another skill demonstrated by Emma.

The foreign teacher also appreciated the activities given to children in the math classes. For

example, using graph sheets for multiplying decimals is highly appreciated by Emma. It is a

wonderful way to truly appreciate the meaning of the phrase “ Walking a mile in someone

else’s shoes”. - Jayshree Narayanan

“Learning language through body language and facial expressions” - was my key learning

from this programme. Both Emma and Asheligh are highly enthusiastic and expressive and

creative teachers.

They enacted the story “Goldilocks and the three bears”. Their language was simple and

children easily could differentiate the words like ‘cold—too cold, hard—very hard. The

children enjoyed imitating them. The camp songs were interesting in terms of learning new

words through actions.

The Teachers did two reading sessions with us. They emphasized on the importance of reading

stories aloud to children. We observed their reading and also tried reading stories with

appropriate stress, pause and intonation. - D.Parasakthi

Mr. Ram Todd’s Visit

.

Our Correspondent, Joint Correspon-

dent, Principal and Head master

SRM School review the pro-

gramme along with Mr.Ram

The Correspondent, Joint corre-

spondent, Principal and Mr.

Ram Todd observe classes

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Workshops During the first couple of weeks of the programmeme we organized a workshop on Assess-ment for Learning. This was after we had observed lessons and felt that this was an area that our training and knowledge could influence. The session was more general rather than English specific (as we are not English specialists) and after conducting the workshop with the English teachers we were requested to deliver it to the whole school. We also worked with teachers of KG and primary on story-telling and songs/dances/ action

songs.

Involvement at the KG We spent a few lessons with kindergarten. We conducted story telling by acting out (and getting the students to act out) Goldilocks . We are not expert teachers of this age but we suggested ideas using our considered opinions.

The experience I have had has

been overall a positive one . I am

sure that the children have en-

joyed spending time with us and

conversing with people from dif-

Involvement at the Primary We conducted songs and activities inside and outside the classroom. We attempted to teach grammar to this age and were im-pressed at the level of grammar they were learning. Also, We did a couple of one-off lessons such as origami. and dances to the students and teachers.

Involvement at the Secondary

When we first arrived we taught English to middle school students. We taught

poetry, informal writing and various other topics. As the programmeme pro-

gressed we also taught English lessons to the

senior classes. This focussed on speaking and

we conducted debates, discussions and prac-

tised interview techniques. We also taught our

specialist subjects, maths and science, to mid-

dle school and discussed pedagogy with the

teachers.

Extra-curricular We attended various important ceremonies including the Investiture ceremony, ‘Toppers’ Felicitation ceremony and Sports day. We accompanied 11th standard on a four-day school trip to Kodaikanal. This was really exciting. We took part in walks around the hills and lakes.

Involvement at SRM school We established an English Club with 8 standard

which focused on interactive games and drama

activities.

We taught lessons with a focus on engaging gram-

mar activities with middle school.

Like in TI school we conducted debates and discus-

sions with 12 standard.

Ideas introduced New story writing and reading techniques

Sharing success criteria

Whole-class feedback (thumbs, smiley faces)

Questioning

About TI School A creative and loving school where students’ happiness is important.

Surprisingly, there is no use of sanctions. Students generally behave well, however,

they do like to call out in class which made lessons difficult for us at first as we

were not used to this.

Students were enthusiastic, always greeting us politely.

The classes are larger than in the UK, about 45

The classrooms can be quite hot. There are bench desks with 2-3 students per desk

and a black board on a raised platform. The rooms can be noisy with the traffic

from outside.

The school is separated into two buildings, KG is on one side of the road and pri-

mary and secondary are together on the other side. This layout brings about a

lovely feel to the school, with students of different ages mixing together. Back in

the UK , primary and secondary schools are usually separate.

Hospitality

We stayed in a lovely guest-house, a few minutes drive from the school. All meals

were provided, with requests possible, and laundry was taken care of. The

guesthouse is situated on a factory site and is primarily for employees who are

quite high up in the company – so we were very lucky to be there.

At school we were able to work in the air-conditioned conference room and were

served lunch in the dining room.

The school’s driver would drive us for our school commute and outings in a nice

big air-conditioned SUV. The school was generally quite good at organising out-

ings.

Overall, we were very well looked after.

Experiences outside school

The best outings were to Pondicherry and Mahabalibrium.

Wedding reception and wearing saris

Local shops

Watching movies at the mall

We spend our week away visiting the Golden Triangle

Visiting teachers’ homes and accompanying them to temples.

Upon landing we were greeted at the airport by staff from T.I. School and driven to our guesthouse. The

next day we were greeted with traditional Indian flower garlands and Bindis applied. On our first day we were shown around the school by staff and students. We also had a welcoming ceremony where the teachers and ourselves communicated our hopes for the program-meme Workshops On some Saturdays we gave workshops to teachers from T.I school and S.R.M school. These workshops were on Assessment for Learning. This is a series of techniques used in most Brit-ish schools and given as part of the Oxford University Teacher Training Programmeme. We also had some after school sessions with the teachers of kindergarten on storytelling and reading. It was interesting seeing them try out our sugges-tions afterwards and we also ended by teaching them ‘The Penguin Song’ which caused much amusement!

During our involvement in the project

we participated in a wide variety of

activities and interacted with many

different students. My hope is that

these exchanges have benefited each

person I met in some way.

Teaching at T.I School

Initially we focused up on middle school English

worked closely with Ms. Yolanda and Prem. I

gave a lesson on Imagery to 6 standard children,

encouraging them to visualise the subject of the

poem by closing their eyes and listening to the

words.

I also taught a variety of science lessons to middle

school students. This proved times quite challenging

as I did not have an access to the equipment and tech-

nology I would in my school in the UK. However,

this made the experience very valuable as I had to

think harder and be more creative with my teaching

techniques.

I taught art lessons to lower and middle school students. These would mainly be origami

techniques where I taught students how to make a paper

bird and a fortune teller. The fortune teller was particularly

popular with students as they liked predicting their friends’

future and also mine using the fortune teller they had made

Lastly, we also led lessons with Kinder-

garten students. These consisted of songs and storytelling. The students

were very enthusiastic to learn the songs and dance moves to the Penguin

Song and Princess Pat. They also quickly picked up the actions to short

phrases such as “Too Hot” and “Just Right” quickly during story telling

sessions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Emma and I also led discussion based lessons with 11 Standard and 12 Stan-

dard students. A particular highlight of these sessions was a debate on Ar-

ranged Marriage vs. Love Marriage where students communicated their

views articulately and confidently. It was very interesting to hear their

views on this controversial topic and gain an insight into part of their cul-

ture.

SRM School

With 8 and 6 Standard classes we played grammar

games with the children. We hoped to make gram-

mar activities more interesting and fun be having

the children participate in role plays and creative

writing. We left a PDF with the school of different

activities teachers could try when we left.

I also chaired some debates and discussions with 12

Standard Classes on Animal Testing and India’s performance compared to China’s in

the 2016 Olympics.

We also led an English club with 8 Standard students. Here students learnt about UK cul-

ture, in particular food and songs and dances.

Outings

During our stay we went on outings with

teachers from the school

Our very first outing was to get fitted for saris

for an Indian wedding reception of one of the

teachers from the school. We went for two

wheeler and auto in the busy roads of Chen-

nai, a quite thrilling experience. I also learned

how to put on a sari after much difficulty! We

also visited Pondicherry and spent time medi-

tating at the famous Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

This was a nice opportunity to relax and

spend time away from the noise of the city. One of our first visits was to Mahabalipu-

ram where we got to pose with Krishna’s Butter Ball and take in the beauty of the

monuments carved from stone.

Accommodation

Our accommodation was a shared room in a guesthouse on the T.I factory site

During our stay our food was prepared, room clean and laundry done by caretakers who

also stayed on the site

Accommodation was comfortable with air conditioning

However the guesthouse was quite isolated and exploring independently was discouraged

Closing Ceremony

Beyond school ……

A day at Marina…….

Trip to Kodai with

students of class XI

At SRM…...

Candid clicks!!!!

Class Sub-

ject

Techniques learnt Action Plan for incorpora-

tion

Frequency

KG

&

PRI-

MARY

ENG-

LISH

Camp songs ( Action )

Reading aloud

Introducing new words

through story telling -

Listen and show

Micro teaching among

teachers

Five Camp songs per

class

For all prose lessons/

stories

Through the

year

Twice a month

Through the

year

VI – VIII

MAT

HS

HOTS questions to engage

and enhance thinking

skills in children

Introduction of statistics

All topics

Statistics introduced

through a game

Through the

year

Once a year

VI-VIII

SCI-

ENCE

Devise an experiment

Challenging common mis-

conceptions

For select topics

Once a term

VI – VIII

ENG-

LISH

Imagery in a poem

Composing tunes to sing a

poem

Understanding contextual

meaning through actions

All poems

All poems

For all prose and poems

Through the

year

Through the

year

Through the

year

IX-XII

ENG-

LISH

Debating skills

ECA

Once a year

Whole

school

--

Effective question stems

( (What if…? / How

would you…? Could you

explain…?)

Evaluation techniques for

teachers for instant feed-

back

Exit cards (the most impor-

tant thing I remember

from today’s class)

All subjects /topics

Through the year

Class Sub-

ject

Techniques learnt 2016 Techniques learnt & implemented -

2012

KG

&

PRI-

MARY

ENG-

LISH

Camp songs ( Action )

Reading aloud

Introducing new words through story

telling - Listen and show

Jolly phonics

Creating Shape poems

Poetry collapsor

Character voice

VI – VIII

MATH

S

HOTS questions to engage and enhance

thinking skills in children

Introduction of statistics

--

VI-VIII

SCI-

ENCE

Devise an experiment

Challenging common misconceptions

--

VI – VIII

ENG-

LISH

Imagery in a poem

Composing tunes to sing a poem

Understanding contextual meaning

through actions

workshops for teachers on teaching

poems creatively,

Non -verbal silencing techniques,

presenting research on dialogic

teaching,

using drama for teaching English

(Freeze frame, character voice)

Planning and evaluation.

IX-XII

ENG-

LISH

Debating skills

Whole

school

--

Effective question stems ( (What if…? /

How would you…? Could you ex-

plain…?)

Evaluation techniques for teachers for

instant feedback

Exit cards (the most important thing I

remember from today’s class)

Work shop on yoga

Writing lesson plans incorporating

review and follow up at the mi-

cro level