Teachers Community of Learning Bangalore South Block 3

Teachers Communities of Learning (TCOL)

The TCOL program attempts to demonstrate how technology can support the improvement of educational outcomes at a school level through a community of learning approach. The program attempts to build communities at multiple levels - within the school, across different subject teachers, and across the schools in the Bengaluru South 3 block.

This is the third phase of the program, working with government aided schools in Bengaluru South 3 block. The program attempts to expand and deepen the work done in the second phase TCOL from 2014-17 which had focused on government high schools.

Objectives of the program in Phase 3

Support teachers to interact with one another, for peer learning and mentoring, within a 'community of learning '
Support schools and teachers to learn and adopt ICTs in a variety of ways, for both their own development as well as for use in their teaching-learning processes
Demonstrate a model of ICT integration in teaching-learning
Identify possibilities for systemic reforms and policy
Integrate the above into the curricular and pedagogical processes of the education system.

The project will have two strands of work:

Teacher training workshops for a structured course around ICT integration for Mathematics and Kannada / English
School-based intensive work to demonstrate and train in ICT integration in teaching-learning and administrative processes

Program strategies

Working with identified, interested schools for demonstrating school level technology integration. This will include the following:
1. Working with identified subjects to demonstrate techno-pedagogies
2. Supporting technology integration for school management and administration
3. Digital literacy classes for the students in line with NCERT National ICT Curriculum, 2013
4. Support the development and maintenance of ICT labs
5. Communicate with parents using IVRS system
6. Helping interested schools develop a web page for their communication
Block level workshops for head masters, subject teachers. These workshops will be subject wise only, and will be conducted on an identified day each month. Teachers from the schools where ICT is being integrated for subject teaching will also present their work to support peer learning in these workshops
Creating and uploading digital resources in Kannada and in English; resources will be uploaded on the Karnataka Open Educational Resources portal, for use by all teachers.

Block workshops calendar

The following is the proposed schedule for workshops during 2018-19. Detailed program objectives by subject are available in each of the following pages for Mathematics program, Languages program and Head Masters' program.

Date	Subject
August 1-2, 2018	Mathematics
August 16-17, 2018	Languages
August 22, 2018	Head Masters
September 6-7 2018	Mathematics
September 19-20, 2018	Languages
September 28, 2018	Head Masters
October 4-5, 2018	Mathematics
October 11-12, 2018	Languages
November 16, 2018	Head Masters
November 21 - 22, 2018	Mathematics
November 28-29, 2018	Languages
December 14, 2018	Head Masters
January 3-4, 2019	Mathematics
January 10-11, 2019	Languages
January 24, 2019	Head Masters

Curricular areas

Mathematics
Kannada
English
School leadership (Head Masters)
Social Science
Science

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Program with Government High Schools in Phase 2 (Completed)

During the three academic years 2014-17, the program worked with the 16 Government High Schools of Bengaluru South 3 Block. The two components of the program were the block level community building workshops and the school level support for academic improvement.

Program focus areas

During the second phase of the TCOL program the program focused on the following :

Introducing teachers to new pedagogies
Introducing digital literacy for students
Demonstrating new classroom processes
Building a community of subject teachers and head masters
Strengthening the institutional identity of government schools

Block level workshops

The block level work attempted to bring together the teachers and head teachers across all the South 3 schools through workshops and digitally enabled methods focusing on the following:

Better teaching-learning practices
Creating a relevant, safe learning space in the school for students
Connecting with the community and focusing on better learning outcomes, adolescent issues and making the school a safe space for the children
Creation of a model block, enabled by ICT integration in classroom and school processes
Bringing together the block as a collective on issues of school development, curricular changes and sharing best practices

Details of block level work in Phase 2

Block-level work in 2014-15

Workshops were conducted in Mathematics, Science, Social Science and Kannada. Teachers from the schools were also connected to the state/ district groups for sharing resources and ideas.

May 28, 2014	Head Masters Orientation
June 19, 2014	Mathematics workshop - I
June 23, 2014	Social Science workshop - I
June 26, 2014	Science workshop - I
August 1, 2014	Mathematics workshop - II
August 4-5, 2014	Kannada workshop - I
September 22, 2014	Mathematics workshop - III
December 22,29, 2014	Head Teachers workshop - II

Block-level work in 2015-16

The year started with a head masters' workshop on May 18, 2015. During this workshop, the details of the programme last year were discussed and head masters also shared their ideas for work this year.

For this year, from July - November, the following workshops are planned and the details are below.

Workshops were planned and conducted for Kannada, Science and Mathematics. Head Masters also met periodically.

In addition the block-level Science events for students and teachers was held at GHS Jayanagara 9th Block.

Block-level work in 2016-17

The year started with a head masters' workshop in June 2016. During this workshop, the details of the programme last year were discussed and head masters also shared their ideas for work this year.

For this year, from July - November, the following workshops are planned and the details are below.

Workshops have been planned for Kannada, Science and Mathematics. Head Masters will also meet periodically.

In addition the following block level workshops/ events will also be planned.

Workshop/orientation on adolescent issues
Block-level events for students and teachers

School level work

School based work in conducted in GHS Agara, GHS Beguru, GHS Dommaluru, GHS Ejipura, GHS Jayanagara 9th Block, GHS Konappana Agrahara, GHS Tank Garden and GHS Yediyur. The focus of these school based activities included:

Mathematics demonstration classes
Kannada demonstration classes
Digital literacy for students and teachers
Community documentation through digital stories and local mapping
Implementing IVRS system for communicating with parents
Science fairs and exhibitions
Language festivals
Helping the schools make audio visual resources for reaching out to parents

Observed outcomes

Teachers learning new methods – changing classroom processes
Teachers creating resources
Improved student engagement
Schools, teachers, head masters saw themselves as a community
1. Common problems
2. Shared solutions
3. Acknowledging good work
ICT learning in schools became a realistic attainment
Moving closer to constructivist classrooms

Bengaluru South 3 Government High School Web pages

Computer labs in South 3 Block Schools