When Our Teachers Go Places!

The holiday season has come with a very unique gift for two of our teachers. Ms. Pooja Sharma and Mr Prakash Sahoo, middle school educators for Science and Mathematics, respectively, have been selected to participate in the prestigious Honeywell Educators @Space Centre programme, having competed with brilliant teachers worldwide!

The program takes middle school science and math teachers who are truly committed to education, to a week’s experiential learning tour and stay at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center at Alabama. Not only does it provide a transformational experience of how different science streams come together to create a seamless space shuttle program, but the teachers also take back the enthusiasm and excitement about science to the thousands of children they will touch in their lifetimes.

Both our lovely teachers are bubbling with almost childlike energy and curiosity to know what the experience has in store for them. Mr. Bijo Thomas, a teacher at Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon, had been selected to participate in the same programme last year, and he has very interested tales and anecdotes to share from the same. Pooja and Prakash are carrying the legacy of brilliance ahead, and we thought it would be a good idea catch up with them, and introduce you to the heart and mind of these teachers.

Mr. Prakash Sahoo, Teacher, Mathematics, Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon

Mr Sahoo brings with himself a wealth of experience and a treasure of love for the subject of Mathematics. In this profession for a satisfying 14 years, Prakash finds himself absolutely comfortable in the skin of a teacher. When you ask him what keeps up his enthusiasm for this profession, he will humbly tell you it is his 'Swadharma'. It is not merely his bread and butter, but teaching is a way of life. He has met and influenced the life of many students in his career. This has taken him through many parts of the country, and he will fondly share many heart-warming stories of the joy of seeing little minds exercise and push the horizons of their thinking and understanding. He remembers with particular interest instances where students spoke with him using the language of geometry, so clear were their concepts! Mr. Sahoo has also worked towards making Jodo Gyan an effective tool for making mathematics fun for students.

Mr. Sahoo thinks that the way to make mathematics interesting for students is by playing through their strengths, and not imposing it on them like a giant body of signs and numbers. We shall soon share with you a song on mathematics he made with students, which changed the way many young minds looked at this subject forever!

Ms. Pooja Sharma, Teacher, Science, Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon

Ms. Sharma is the Founding Teacher of Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon. When questioned on the profession of teaching, and why she feels passionately for it, she expresses, “Being a teacher gives me the opportunity to relive my childhood differently. It gives me the space to design situations that give my students a chance to do what I could not at their age. In many ways, it helps me keep the curious kid in me alive.” Being among the Founding Teachers, she has seen the school develop its thinking process, and then work towards making its teaching and learning philosophy convert into actions. Needless to say, it infuses tremendous pride in her.

Pooja brings with her the incredible flexibility of having taught all age groups of school students in her 13 year long career. Right now, she is teaching grades 6th, 7th and 8th and she feels most satisfied because this, as per her, is a dynamic age-group, in which you can notice changes each day. Here, she has a positive chance of engaging students into enquiry based learning, teaching them how to question, thereby understanding why the world is the way we know it is. What is her teaching high? She will enthusiastically tell you it is seeing students do something in class which completely transforms the way they look at the world. The opportunity to create such experiences with consistency for her students is what keeps the spark up in her.

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We have heard that our teachers will get to experience amazing things like, zero-gravity simulations at this programme. Well, we wish them the best, and we hope they bring back experiences from which all of us can learn something.

Dec 22, 2014 by Shiv Nadar School Gurgaon