After a gap of six years I am again cycling to work. I borrowed a bicycle from a friend of mine to try and see how it works out. The school is six kilometres from my house and I have been going by car all these days. There is no convenient bus, I have to change a bus from Banashankari bus stand. But the last 3 days I have been using the cycle to get there and back. It takes 30 minutes by bicycle and around 25 minutes by car. I take the inner roads and avoid traffic and so it works pretty well. In Bangalore I definitely need a cycle with gears. This one has the standard 18 setting Shimano gears and hence works well. Still, with all that ups and downs it is good exercise. 12 kilometres a day is not bad and I think if I do that till April I would be all set for the Ladakh trip :)
I used to bike to work when I was working for Oracle at Redwood Shores and lived in Belmont. It was just 2 miles but our apartment was on a hill so my commute back home was bloody hard work. I used to give up on the last bit where the gradient was almost 45%. Here it is not that bad but still needs some serious pedalling. The pollution is pretty bad, I get a good coating of dust and suspended particular matter on my throat and all over. I have to get a mask.
I also plan to use ear plugs, I find the honking so bad and so loud!
The kids were very amused to see me on a cycle. They wondered (aloud) that I was coming in a car few days back and now in a cycle. Why they asked and I let them ponder.... (there is this old MGR song in Tamil which loosely translated to "Why? The question Why? Without that there is no life". So let them ask why...
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Test results!
Last Saturday I had conducted a test. It was a VERY simple test to see if my students know the English alphabet and also some basic vocabulary (through pictures). I had taken only 20 students out of the 40 so that it would be easy to manage. I picked a good distribution of students ranging from mediocre to very good. Here are the results of that test
0 to 25 % - 0
26 to 50 % - 2
51 to 75 % - 8
76 to 100 % - 10
Out of this 6 students scored 100%.
Varalakshmi is the smallest person in the class. She is so tiny it is amazing. She must be badly malnourished. She has difficulty with her sight too. One of these days I will take her to a paediatrician whom I know. She has this intense look in her face whenever I ask her a question or when she has to read out something. She has scored 100% and I am thrilled.
The 2 who have scored lower than 50% are Diksha and Manjunath S. I know about them already. After 3 years in school they still don't know the Kannada alphabet itself. I thought may be it was worth trying differently with them. Azim Premji Foundation (APF) has these nice CDs through which students can reinforce their vocabulary etc. So I took my laptop with me and asked Manjunath and Diksha to work with the laptop. I also had to be with them and prompt them at every stage. It did not make a big difference and in fact I found the computer a distraction for them. May be my experience is limited but I feel that computers have no role to play in elementary education. There is no replacement for a good teacher and that is all that is required especially from class I to IV. May be computers can be of use in middle and high school. There is definitely potential in explaining science experiments etc with computers. And also good material can be useful for the teachers. Most teachers themselves don't know the full details about science experiments etc.
How do I handle the bottom 10% of the class? They are way behind the rest. The naughty ones who talk a lot are actually better once I get their attention they are able to learn quickly. But the bottom few pretty much stay quiet but are not absorbing anything at all. My energy is limited and I also confused (philosophically) where I should spend the energy on the 90% of the class who would benefit or whether I should spend on this 10%.
0 to 25 % - 0
26 to 50 % - 2
51 to 75 % - 8
76 to 100 % - 10
Out of this 6 students scored 100%.
Varalakshmi is the smallest person in the class. She is so tiny it is amazing. She must be badly malnourished. She has difficulty with her sight too. One of these days I will take her to a paediatrician whom I know. She has this intense look in her face whenever I ask her a question or when she has to read out something. She has scored 100% and I am thrilled.
The 2 who have scored lower than 50% are Diksha and Manjunath S. I know about them already. After 3 years in school they still don't know the Kannada alphabet itself. I thought may be it was worth trying differently with them. Azim Premji Foundation (APF) has these nice CDs through which students can reinforce their vocabulary etc. So I took my laptop with me and asked Manjunath and Diksha to work with the laptop. I also had to be with them and prompt them at every stage. It did not make a big difference and in fact I found the computer a distraction for them. May be my experience is limited but I feel that computers have no role to play in elementary education. There is no replacement for a good teacher and that is all that is required especially from class I to IV. May be computers can be of use in middle and high school. There is definitely potential in explaining science experiments etc with computers. And also good material can be useful for the teachers. Most teachers themselves don't know the full details about science experiments etc.
How do I handle the bottom 10% of the class? They are way behind the rest. The naughty ones who talk a lot are actually better once I get their attention they are able to learn quickly. But the bottom few pretty much stay quiet but are not absorbing anything at all. My energy is limited and I also confused (philosophically) where I should spend the energy on the 90% of the class who would benefit or whether I should spend on this 10%.
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