A two day workshop called “Capacity Building Programme for Master Trainers on Teaching Class X” was conducted by CBSE on the 16th and 17th of August, 2016 at Birla School, Kalyan. Varsha Jaiswal, a Senior Secondary English teacher, and Jayalekshmi Pillai, a Senior Secondary Mathematics teacher attended the workshop from Amrita Vidyalayam, Juinagar.
English
The motive of the workshop for English teachers was to enhance the teaching-learning process in the classroom. There were 12 participants including teachers and principals of various schools and colleges. The 2 trainers, one of whom was the Principal of Orchid High School, Pune, were well versed with the syllabus and curriculum of Class XII. The discussions on the various aspects of learning such as reading, writing, speaking and listening skills were very interesting.
The first day, August 16th, started with an ice-breaker session where the participants got acquainted with each other. The session focused on reading and framing test items, letter writing, article writing, testing and evaluation. The day ended with a discussion on the chapter “Should Wizard hit Mommy” from Class XII Prose. The second day’s session started with note taking and note making, wherein the trainers guided the teachers on the marking schemes of note making and summarization. Poetry and Novel were discussed, followed by Role-Play. Invitations as well as replies to formal and informal invitations were discussed, and a power point presentation was made by the teachers.
The workshop was excellent overall, and gave an opportunity to the teachers to learn the various aspects of comprehension and writing skills and upgrade them.
Mathematics
The workshop for Mathematics teachers was inaugurated by Mrs. Ranjana Jangea, Principal of Birla School. She formally welcomed Mrs. Arunima Mazumdar, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of CBSE, Pune, resource persons, Mr. C. Sivaramkrishna and Mr. Rajeev Garg, and the participants from various parts of the state. She mentioned the significance of the workshop and its goal of bringing together accomplished mathematics teachers under the same roof. Ms. Mazumdar explained that the objective of the workshop was to provide a platform to question, learn and share knowledge about the system.
There were 9 sessions spread over two days. The meaning and importance of constructivism and Bloom’s Taxonomy were discussed in depth on the first day. The importance of innovative methods of teaching to overcome the child’s phobia towards the subject was also stressed upon. Everyone contributed and shared their views on gender sensitization through role play; tips to promote a gender equitable environment were given by the resource persons. Each participant was actively involved and shared their own different ways of developing lesson plans covering every topic from the Class X syllabus. A few samples of lesson plans were also given to all the participants.
The second day of the workshop was even more stimulating as different activities and group discussions opened new doors of learning for the teachers. It focussed on common errors committed by students which may be categorized as conceptual errors and procedural errors. A small activity was done on the same. Giving importance to the individuality of every child, different strategies for diverse learners through lesson planning and teaching methodology were discussed. Summative Assessments were discussed at length with its analysis, understanding of topology and how to design it. The resource persons guided the teachers about clarity in the co-scholastic aspect as well, along with the use of descriptors to assess a child’s progress. The teachers were awarded participation certificates by Ms. Mazumdar.
It was a highly informative workshop and helped in devising innovative methods to make Mathematics an interesting subject for students.
