My two year Success...!

 My 2 years of success

Vidya Poshak Yuva Fellowship 2023

Hello all, Myself Madhura. Here I am very excited to share my two years of Fellowship journey.

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself. I am Madhura, I completed my B.Sc at GFGC Sirsi. I am very much interested in teaching so I applied for the Fellowship. Before applying for the Fellowship, I took tuition classes for neighborhood children. On the basis of this experience I applied for the Fellowship program. 

In the starting of the Fellowship, I was not good at communication, teaching skills and stakeholder management. From the institution, I learnt how to make effective lesson plans, classroom management and stakeholder management. Also from Fellowship I improved myself a lot specially in taking feedback positively and changed myself in a better way.

After I applied for the Yuva Fellowship program I completed the written task which are given by the Vidya Poshak where I wrote essay on why I am joining for the you are fellowship program and how the program will allied to my future goals also I visited nearby school where I asked some questions regarding the education problems that are faced by parents children school teacher I noted some questions and also I recorded one teaching video where I took the topic moment system for that I used some teaching aids while recording the video I felt I am doing well and to the next step as my expectation I selected for the interview. 

In the Interview also I was very confident about my communication and thoughts. I successfully completed all the tasks which were given by the Vidya Poshak staff. In the group discussion I also freely shared my thoughts and took the ownership to conclude our group discussion.

As A result of my efforts I was selected as a fellow teacher at Vidya Poshak in the starting of the fellowship. I took one month of training at an institute where I learnt so many things like how to make effective lesson plans, classroom management,  strategies to improve teaching skill and how to manage stakeholders. Along with all these I gained the knowledge of how to make our documentation well. In the starting of Institution I was not good at English communication and my confidence level also was less. After spending some days in the institution I slowly started to talk confidently in all sessions and took ownership for the interaction. Also I learnt how to manage the classroom by practicing the teaching with our Fellow teacher.

After the completion of 1 month of Institute training our program manager allocated me for HPS Narendra School. Narendra is a small village which is allocated 8 km  far from Dharwad.  The infrastructure of the school has a good systematic classroom, blackboard and playground . All these made me excited to start my teaching journey. The school is situated in the middle of the village. Most of the people living in this village are educated. 

In the start of the fellowship I did community visits where I visited nearly 60 houses. Here I collected the student's data  like their interest, family and also did an ASER survey. I checked the student's literacy level. 

I started to teach Science and Math subjects for 7th students and EVS for 4th std students.  I reached a total of 99  students in the 1st year of fellowship. I have seen that the literacy level in students was very low because specially it was a boys school, the school teachers didn't take special care to improve their students' learning. Also the student's behavior was also not good. They behaved rudely and showed indiscipline with others.

 Especially since it was a boys school, issues like irregular attendance of students  and unhealthy habits in students were common. So to improve all these things, I had set my classroom vision. My classroom vision ; My students will grow as leaders who will become initiators of solving problems and decision makers. So I kept this in my mind and planned Friday activities for my classroom. In Friday activities I focused on improving student’s communication, courage, leadership quality and confidence. Activities like pick and speech, pick and act, showing videos related to morals,  group activities to improve english literacy etc. 

But in the second year of fellowship I I took science and Math subjects for 7th students. This year we took English subjects for 6th students as a teacher shortage problem in our school. I took English subjects for 7th students also so I nearly reached a hundred students in the 2nd year of fellowship.

But as compared to last year, this year my student behavior changed. They learned to respect others in the classroom. Also they learnt to show huge respect and kindness to others but I need it to implement some qualities like leadership creativity, critical thinking and collaboration in the children so I successfully did it through  my community development project.

In the First year of fellowship our Program manager observed my class for the first time. But I have  got more areas of improvement.I took all that feedback positively and put more effort into improving myself. Now  I have improved a lot in teaching, classroom management and making effective lesson plans. Now I am planning my lesson easily. I became very confident about my teaching skills.  Also I have developed strengths like fast learning, planning and execution and  presentation skills. 

In the First year of Fellowship journey our Head master behaved rudely with us. Our SDMC members were also not supportive. They always used to find our mistakes. So I felt very sad and it was very challenging to manage our stakeholders.   But Now as I am in  the second year of Fellowship, I improved in stakeholders management specially SDMC , School headmasters.  But after conducting the Parents circle, Thinktac exhibition, science day competition, classroom activities , Community development project, I involved my Head master, school teachers and SDMC members so that their response has changed. They gave me a positive response and supported me in all activities. 

In our  Fellowship  journey, I have attended different kinds of training. In the months of October and May, Our Program manager and Fellow mentor planned training to improve our quality of teaching. Training like effective English teaching, Differentiation, Firki courses, Learning Circle, Reflection circle,Movie review, Effective  PPT presentation skill, Development dialogue and Positive teacher -student relationship etc were given by Facilitators has helped us to improve our skills , ability and knowledge. 

In the months of vacation like October, April and March  we planned a Summer camp for our school children. Where we planned different fun activities for children. Our students will enjoy the learning with fun activities. We focused on Science, Math, English and our  culture also. In the October month we did Chinnara Dasara for 4 days  where we selected 4 themes like Dasara, Ajadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and our culture.  From all these activities students learnt about our culture, importance of science in daily life, freedom fighters and Importance of celebrating Dasara. 

In the Month of April 2023, We have done Summer camp for 8 Days. Where we selected themes like Water, culture, Farmer and Art. For each theme we planned different kinds of activities like drawing competitions of water resources, Rangoli competitions, awareness crafts on water, creating India maps using crops etc. So that students enjoyed each and every activity with fun. 

Thinktac is an amazing experience for me. My students enjoyed it a lot. For me it's excellent learning because through Think tac experiments I improved my science knowledge and how to encourage students in developing scientific manner. As a facilitator I was very engaged with students. All the Tactivities were attractive and gave good learnings to all my students. I was very happy to conduct an Exhibition in our school  where I involved my school headmaster, co teachers and other school teachers as judges. After That my 5 students were selected for the RAMAN AWARD in Bangalore. Where my students participated well. One of my students  won the Raman award. His name is Kiran Kallur, studying in 6th std. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life.

Another project is Slam Out Loud, which is focusing on giving awareness about the importance of Girl’s education. I gave my good contribution to Slam Out Loud program in successfully completing the project in my school. Both the year, I took SOL sessions for my students. Here students listened to the audio capsules of stories. The stories were about why education is important to each and every girl child. Also it  taught about  gender equality in society. At the end of the sessions, there was a Showcase Day program, where students did skits, songs, reading poems and stories etc. Last year we did this program at GHPS Kurubgatti school where students from 4 schools participated. This year we did the program at HPS Narendra school where 10 students from all 8 schools participated. The Program went well. All SDMC members, co teachers,  Head master, Program manager Namita hegde, 9 Fellows and students participated. 

In the second year of fellowship, I took English subjects for both 6th and 7th class. I took extra responsibilities in school. Our teachers believed in my work and ability and gave me responsibilities in  handling the school work. My co teachers became partners and helped me alot . I have done a Community development project in our school. The project was done for 6 months ( From June to December )  where I focused on the improvement of the school social system and discipline in students.  Also I focused on 21st century skills like Collaboration, communication, Critical thinking and creative thinking. To achieve this I have planned activities for 1 to 7 std. I have made a detailed plan and followed it. Successfully I reached my goals like making teachers as partners, laboratory and library setting up and building discipline in students. It was a wonderful experience for me because I got a lot of learnings from the CD project. 

As a fellow teacher I have worked with 5 Co fellows ( Deepa , Shobha, Sushma Manjunath  and Manjula)  in the First year of fellowship. It was a nice experience to work with them. Because I have learnt a few things from them like collaboration, way of talking, team work etc. In the second year of fellowship our team got enlarged. 4 more junior fellows were added to our team. After they joined the fellowship team, we  enjoyed our work a lot. Also our team work gets strengthened. We became like a family. If our Junior Fellows  asked us any doubts regarding work or tasks we helped them by clarifying their doubts. We both respected each other. 

Our Junior Fellows are Kavya, Nagveni, Gayatri and Saigeeta who have their work experience in other fields. But their teaching was good. In every session they used to talk confidently with others. 

Now I would like to talk about my Vidya Poshak staff .A total of 10 members were working from the Dharwad office. In other places like Belagavi, Sirsi and Davangere, Vidya Poshak is  working. Programs like Scholarship, Counseling, Residential bridge camp, Library facility and Yuva fellowship are the important programs of Vidya Poshak. Each staff is giving their best to make all the programs successful. Also I observed in each staff member the Willingness to help a team member in need. I am very happy to share that I have worked with those people.

I would like to say thank you for our Fellow mentor Ms. Chandana Sahukar. She supported and guided me in completing the tasks. Whenever I met with confusions she helped me to solve the task/problems. From her feedback I improved myself by taking her feedback positively. 

Another important person in my Fellowship journey was Mrs. Namita Hegde. I felt very happy to share that I have worked with them. In my 2 years of Fellowship journey, I always followed their instruction or suggestion in improving myself. Their suggestions and guidance helped me in  successfully completing 2 years of Fellowship journey. I liked their leadership quality. They always tried to make our team strong and made our work more meaningful. 

Vidya Poshak Yuva Fellowship is an amazing opportunity for those who have a dream to become excellent teachers in their future. It was a good platform for us. Vidya Poshak Yuva Fellowship has started in 2021 with 6 Fellows. Now it is working in 8 schools, Narendra, Kurubgatti, Jeerigwad, Nigadi, Kotabagi, Mulamuttala, Hebballi and Pudakalikatti are the places where Vidya Poshak Yuva Fellowship is working. Nearly 800 students were getting excellent education through our Fellowship Program. A total of 9 Fellows were working in 8 different schools of Dharwad district. Through the Fellowship program, Ihave improved a lot. 

Vidya Poshak Yuva fellowship program gave me a platform to improve myself better. Now I can communicate easily with confidence. I have good teaching skills and subject knowledge. I became able to teach students confidently. Thank you team Vidya Poshak for your support and guidance.

THANK YOU