MENS-a-MEN....!!

AAND - Anshuman Shukla

RAND - Ronald Joseph

GAND - Adil Basha

SAAND- Neeraj Kuleta

A wonderful group of people on EARTH.

We all work with Teach For India. It all happened during the 1st training institute of TFI 2010. Training was in I2IT, Hinjawadi, Pune. It started in the 1st week of April 2010. During the training we meet each other and I don't remember how we got along with each other and today we are the BEST BUDDIES  :) . 

We had a wonderful time in Tammanna (Bar and Restaurant). We had party every weekend, Saand never drank, he was our Bouncer. He took care of us when we where pissed drunk. Gand left the Institute in between, now we where only 3 of us in the training.

Aand got placed in Mumbai. Saand and I was placed in Pune. 

I visited Aand after a month and had a blast with him. 

The only time we all meet together was my birthday (11/12/2010). Aand and Shweta Ramdas(TFI fellow) came down to Pune. Gand was working with some weired company, Culture Unplugged in Pune. 

They celebrated my birthday wonderfully. I had a awesome time with the MENS-A-MEN again after 7 months. We had dinner at Royal Orchid. 

The integral part of MENS-A-MEN...Miss. SHWETA  RAMDAS.

Shwets is a fellow in Mumbai. Its said that after a successful man its a wonderful women. Shwets is that wonderful women in TFI and our very good friend. As she says that we never include her in MENS-A-MEN, but the reality being, she is the core member of the this fantastic group. She is a amazing person, very socially out going and fun loving. I really don't have words to explain her. In short she is a wonderful person with loads of love for the friends and the work she does. 

From Pencil...pen...Now "CHALK"

From Pencil...Pen..and now CHALK....

I took pencil in my hand when I was 2

Mom said this is a,b and c.

Pencil became the only tool in my life.

To imagine, to draw and sometimes scratch my head to think.

Pencil spoke what I thought, I imagined and the result was in front of me.

Pencil played with me.

Sometimes pencil became aeroplane in the class, 
when I was bored.

Sometimes helped poking friends in the class.

Slowly I grew up, pen took over pencil.

Now, Pen was the only tool in my life.

Pen gave me on paper what ever 
I thought and imagined.

Pen decided my future, showed me the ‘right path’, 
pen was the only tool in my life.

Now, the situation is changed. I have chalk in my hanfd.

Chalk to help those cute kids
 who have pencils in their hand 
to think, draw, imagine,
 play and sometimes poke friends.

Pen decided my life.

But for those 50 kids pencils will decide their life.

I mean they will work
 on their talents and likings from the pencil age.

Working from the pencil age
 will make them the masters of the Talents and liking

This will bring them up

 with the shinning and WONDERFUL COLORS.

TEACHER's..!!

I am Ronald Joseph a graduate from Christ College, Bangalore.
In this section of my blog I would like to share some of my thoughts on what a Teacher is and how a student can be molded in any form as a teacher wishes. I grew up in a small town in Maharashtra. I went to a really good "ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOL", where Teachers were "HIGHLY QUALIFIED" and had good "WORK EXPERIENCE". The school which I studied had a huge play ground, had a huge computer lab, had about 80 staff and about 1500 students. Here, my concern is, having such amenities in the school is the only requirement of the school........???? 

I personally think, a  teacher is not only the one who takes classes from morning 7 a.m to 2 p.m and takes academic portions in the class and assumes the work is completed, but there is much more than that. Teacher is the one who brings out the best from a student, which includes students own talent(here, own talent refers to his/her interest which is not pressurized by parents, friends and teachers) and helps him/her to develop personally in the interested areas. Talent of a student can be anything, starting from cleaning a blackboard to managing a class of 80, when teacher is not around. We need to see the bigger picture of the student's interest and try analyzing the same in the future. If a student is really good in drawing then Teachers should encourage the student to work more in the interest and push  the student out of his/her comfort zone to do his/her best. Who knows that the same kid in the class who was really poor in academics can be a great painter in the future.
Teacher as a Role Model: Every action done by the teacher is the action repeated by the teacher.
Teacher in our country has been treated as the most respectful person. 20 years before teachers were one of the influential group of people. Teachers knew what they are expected and what they are suppose to do. Whereas, today when we are in need of those teachers, who can tell us about loyalty, respect, non-violence, terrorism, but today teachers are more satisfied by the marks the student get in the class than teaching some of the basic instnict which will make them independent in future, such teachers are only handfull. My concern in this section would be basically concentrated on government schools. Believe it or not but teachers in government school are not aware of the world outside, the level of knowledge is lower than the English Medium 10th Standard kid, when it comes to computer knowledge, books, general knowledge, which I think is really important. Signing on the salary register on every end of the month has been one of the routine of many of our govt. teachers.
Lets break this chain " NOW " 
This in what we do in TEACHFORINDIA....we teach in low income private and govt school in pune, mumbai and we will be in Delhi next year (2011). Our vision is that Every Child One Day Will Get Excellent Education.For more information on TEACHFORINDIA plz visithttp://www.teachforindia.org/.