Attendees:
Chair: Mr. D. D’Monte, Headmaster, St. Peter’s School. Panchgani
Faculty:
Mr. Christopher Gaynor, Head, Department of English, Webmaster
Mr. Prasanna Kelkar, Head, ICT Department, Webmaster
Ms. Reetuparna Ganguly, Head, Environmental Education Department
Mr. Mathew Skariah, Teacher Co-ordinator, Finn-India Cooperation, Webmaster
Mr. Shrikand Pophale, Head, Art Department
Ms. Ingrid Fernandes, Science &Environmental Education Teacher
Mr. K. D. Shijo, Social Studies & Environmental Education Teacher
Mr. Jonathan Peterson, Teacher, Junior School
Mr. Terence D’Souza, School Analyst
Mr. Peter Patrao, Ecological Curriculum Advisor, Networker
Headmaster D’Monte, briefly recapitulated the Finn-India thrust and urged the faculty to use the October 2007 visit of Finnish teachers to India to explore new dimensions of collaborative teaching / learning processes – to make learning more effective at St. Peter’s. He stressed two immediate priorities:
Preparations / Planning of the visit
Teacher-toteacher ‘twining’ to concretize an ongoing projects to be reflected on eJournal & the school’s website
Mr. Kelkar suggested that either a blog or a google group be created to introduce the teachers of both countries, while Mr. Mathew suggested that simultaneously a reporting of the visit on Finn-India eJournal 10 could point to the blog.
The Headmaster asked the core team to prepare their resumes / C.Vs. For the Finn teachers to effectively model / showcase their pedagogy in the Indian context, Mr. D’Monte instructed the teachers to schedule at least 2 hours / day to allow the Finn teachers to proactively interact directly with the students of St. Peter’s. The St. Peter’s teachers were expected to observe the Finn teachers in action and assist them with aids / hand outs / evaluation forms – and other photocopies as required by their Finnish counterparts.
A further 2 hours / day needed to be scheduled with each Finnish teacher outside the classroom for them to better understand the ambience of the school so that realistic ongoing projects on the ground could be formulated.
Teachers were instructed to plan an additional two hours for social recreation / visits to other schools and an exposure to our school town.
Mr. Mathew was instructed to draw up the schedules ASAP. He expressed the urgent need to obtain & circulate the Finn teachers’ c.vs. so that the ‘matching’ be effective.
Mr. Shijo was entrusted to gather tools to effectively asses the impact / efficacy of Finn pedagogy.
To ensure a smooth synch with existing school activities, Mr. D’Monte urged each of the core team to draw up the topics along with the prescribed text /syllabus that would normally be scheduled and make it available to the Finnish teachers at least 10 days in advance.
All present were urged to check their email daily and hand in their C.Vs. by September 13th and their topics by September 14th.
Mr. Patrao promised that he would secure the names & C.Vs. ASAP
