Teacher's day

Teacher's day is just passed (Sep 5th) yesterday. Being a teacher myself and taught & being taught by many teachers then and now, I thought of putting across some of my thoughts in this context. What I would expect from a typical teacher are:

• Don't teach, inspire people instead! Make them think. Ask a practical question before introducing a new theory. E.g. If you are teaching chemistry, ask what happens to the water temperature if some salt is dissolved in it - does it remain the same, increases or decreases and why? Where do you find practical application of it? That will make the students think and inspire them to learn more and ask more questions.
• Reduce your ego! The amount of ego we have is inversely proportional to the amount of knowledge we possess and directly proportional to the no. of weaknesses we have. If we make a mistake, I don't think there is anything wrong in admitting it in front of the students (irrespective of their ages) for there is no "know-all" person in the whole world.
• Never underestimate students' capability; they are smarter than you think they are (again, irrespective of their ages). They also do have their senses and thinking capabilities. Let's respect it.
• Everybody does mistakes. I don't believe in punishing students for their wrongdoings unless they are repeating it many times. E.g. If some students arrive late to the class everyday, you can try to pleasantly embarrass them by asking rest of them to clap or stand-up when they come in late. Chances are that they come late to the class from next day is very less. Try it! (I had a headmaster in my elementary school, who used to whip with a rope for even very small mistakes of students. I still remember him not with respect, but still with that fear! I don't think anybody would like to be remembered that way. :-)
• Give lot of practical examples and real-life stories. There's nobody who is not interested in listening to stories. If it's a science subject, show practicals in the class. We had a science teacher in 9th std, who used to bring lot of apparatus from the lab to the class to show practicals. He was a real inspiration to many of us.
• Walk the talk (which many of us fail to do) before 'preaching' anything to students. If you expect them to be in the class on time, you better be in the class on time always. All other reasons are just excuses. If you want them to be clean, make sure that you erase the board every time before you leave the class. If you commit something to them on a particular day, stick to it.
• Do socialize with students - talk about their life, games, movies, outings, etc. It will help them open-up. They will be more interactive in the class and there will be less trouble makers
• Never gossip! Even though this looks silly, I've seen people gossiping (about students, other faculty, their relationships and many others which I can't mention here) in schools & colleges. In certain cases, I've seen higher authorities taking decisions in professional colleges based on gossips without even bothering to verify the facts, which is really unprofessional.
• Read, read and read a lot. Read subject related stuff; read outside the subject area (e.g. technical / related magazines, websites, management related contents, etc. which indirectly help in getting to know more about the subject and the profession) and 'read' about current affairs. Take it from me, this will help us while teaching our subjects.

I think if we treat students as one among us, everything will fall into place. 

Disclaimer: These are just my thoughts. Any resemblance or similarity with any situation or person is purely unintentional.

Got the following story as a forward recently. Read it completely till end!

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God bless the self less teachers.

A Teacher Answers……lThe dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie.  Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied,
"You want to know what I make?
(She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

You want to know what I make? (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)

I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

I teach them how to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America.

Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.

(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make Mr. CEO?

His jaw dropped; he went silent.

THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY TEACHER, EVERY CEO, EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW.

Even all your personal teachers like mother, father, brothers, sisters, coaches and your spiritual leaders/teachers.

A profound answer!!!
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That's the end of that story. To apply it to Indian context, one has to make a small change to it. Just add "am supposed to" between the "I" and "make" above! :-)


It's not a rhetoric though. It's applicable to many of the teachers in India I think!

Me and my Kindle

The first time when I heard about Kindle, an e-book reader from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/kindle), a couple of years back, I had fallen flat for it looking at its features. I had put it in my Wish List at that time itself. However, I had to hold back myself for three reasons: first, it's better wait for a couple of release of any newly innovated product of any kind or brand for it to get improvised in its subsequent versions after the customer feedbacks; second, the price - usually it will be higher when it newly comes to the market as there will not be any competitors for it; third, it wasn't available in India and nor Amazon was shipping it internationally;.

At last, I bought it during this March, not using 'international shipping' option though (it was costing $100 more due to customs duty, S&H, etc.); but shipping to my one of my friends' US address (Thanks to Arjun) and later getting it to India (thanks to my neighbour Srikanth).

I think it's one of its kind of an innovative product. Whilst I don't want to write about its various features per se (which can be seen from the link above), it's a wonderful product that any person who has a good reading habit should own. You can store 1500-2000 books in it! It directly connects to Amazon.com (using whispernet) to enable you to buy books from its online store. The experience and the feeling (esp. when you read it in the bus and people look at it curiously as it's still a new product around) is amazing! :-) It's certainly handy especially when you are traveling where you don't have to carry bulky books. You can upload PDF files and play musics too. If you are planning to buy one, pls don't hesitate, just buy one, it's really worth it and pays your buck off!

Professionalism and College Management

Continuing with my views on how management can run the colleges more professionally:

It’s no doubt that allowing private players in the education sector has added a lot of quality and value to education. Needless to say, it has also increased the competition among the players there. Contrarily, this competition has led to ‘education business’ whose primary objective seems to be only making money. Yes, objective of any business is ‘to make money’; but unfortunately people seem to miss its additional clause, ‘legally and ethically’. If this clause is forgotten while running the business especially in the education sector, I think that’s where the system starts failing.

What I expect managements to ensure professionalism in their running of education system:

• Have a long term vision – though it may look like rhetoric, I think that’s where problem lies if you are not sure about where you want your institutes to be in a long term. The sight of the brighter, long-term vision and its benefits could be easily lost in the course of making few quick bucks in the short-term (without bothering if it’s legal or not). Such (unfair) practices if any, even small, certainly don’t carry the institutes for long (E.g.  Going for pirated software, showing wrong accounts, too much of penalties to students, decision making based on gossips / here says, etc.)
• My views on achieving immense benefits in the long-term (which I would like to address from 3 different perspectives)

• Infrastructure / systems in the institutes – don’t compromise on its quality. Go for branded, good quality products (e.g. computers, UPS, machinery, etc.). Though it may seem expensive initially, they certainly last longer without causing any maintenance hassles or annoyance to its users. Automate routine work using software systems. There’s absolutely no doubt that it’ll bring in huge, huge amount of benefits (which can’t always be measured in terms of money of course!) Gone are the days of manual, routine task based systems. It definitely proves to be a profitable proposition in the long-term.

• TRUST your people – from whatever I see, here and experience, this aspect majorly seems to be lacking in institutes. If the management doesn’t trust its people, how can it expect its staff to trust the management? The ‘handshake’ seems to be missing or very loose!

Managements also seem to be indifferent with its staff. It looks as if they take it for granted that if they pay the money (salary) regularly, the people will just come and do their work. There is somewhat like master-slave relationship. It appears as if sycophancy (chamcha giri) is prevailing in there. This is leading to a major chasm between these two parties. All such things should go.

Mind that there are very learned, highly qualified and experienced people in there. I think they command a respect even more than a company would give to its employees. Regularly meeting them to listen to their woes and suggestions would certainly take the institute to newer heights. It also makes the staff get ‘more involved’ in the overall system. Any disgruntled staff can spread his / her unhappiness within no time.

• Whether or not the institute goes for any kind of accreditation (like NBA) or certification, I think there should be proper procedures to every process and it should be meticulously documented and followed very strictly (e.g. examination process, attendance process, administration process, etc.) and it should be continuously improved based on feedbacks and suggestions. Though exceptions may be derived from such things the exception itself shouldn’t become the main process! Now there seems to ‘reinventing the wheel’ approach every time when new tasks are taken up. People don’t seem to learn from the past (lack of proper knowledge management). Setting up a proper process framework is the need of the hour.

These are some of the points that if implemented will certainly take the institutes to newer heights. I have not written these blindly by referring here and there to sound like rhetoric; I’ve experienced it personally and have seen the benefits which such long-term plans can bring in.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are certain reflections of my mind while I blogged them. Any resemblance or similarity with any person, institute or event is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Continuing my take on professionalism in colleges

Well, it needs to be addressed at various levels starting from management till junior faculty and then to the students. It looks somewhat like oxymoronic where faculty is expecting students to become professionals whilst they themselves lack professionalism! I’m making this comment after seeing many faculties in various colleges and at various levels – senior most to junior. :-)

Let me make myself clear by what I mean by professionalism – well, tons of pages have been written on this subject; my take on this is very simple: Walk the talk, be true to yourself and others, respect to others (senior or junior most), fulfill the commitments, follow a value system, value for  time and no gossips.

Let me take an example for each of these (in order). Do you believe a person who preaches honesty being a hypocrite himself? Do you say a person is true to himself if he himself is involved in bluffing things? What’s your take on a person who doesn’t bother to wish back when wished? What do you say about a management who doesn’t bother to meet its subordinates even once in a year even after promising they’ll do so regularly? What do you say about a person who doesn’t value honesty, integrity, etc.? Value for time – I think being late to any function is in the blood of we Indians. It’s taken for granted everywhere. Being punctual at times is treated as the person doesn’t have any work to do. Gossiping – I think it’s the highest in colleges!? Unfortunately, people (including seniors) take decisions based on such gossips without even bothering to confirm it with facts and figures!

Whilst it may seem that I’m using generalized statements here, I do agree there are exceptions to it.

I will blog about such professionalism at each level – management, faculty (both senior and junior) and students’ levels. Is it helpful? I don’t know – at least for me yes, I get a kind of satisfaction.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are certain reflections of my mind while I blogged them. Any similarity with any person, institute or event is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Motivation

I think one of the essential things that that I see lacking in educational institutions (vis-à-vis industries), is a motivating environment.  There is a saying, ‘you cannot motivate anybody; all you can do is to create a motivating environment’. Very true. It’s left to an individual whether to get motivated or not in such environment. Nevertheless, what’s the harm in creating a better motivating environment if it helps most of them perform better and enthuses people do more?

What’s required then to create such envt.? Just a few simple steps:

• Appreciate people (either junior or senior) for doing good work, even small ones. It carries a long-way (People may be poor, but why should there be the poverty for good words?)
• Recognize or reward (again it can also be small) people for their accomplishments
• Mention about their good deed in meetings and other occasions
• After recognizing their feat, give them some more tasks, even tougher ones, I bet, they will be happy to take it up
• Don’t reprimand them for first few mistakes; nobody does mistakes deliberately. Instead encourage by asking them to learn from those mistakes and improve upon it. Most importantly, don’t carry it along by making that person the scapegoat for every blunder from there on
• Ask them to share their experience with others to spread the news. See if s/he can be made the ‘go to guy’ for such solutions
• and there may be many more ...

Well, I’m not generalizing my first statement; there are exceptions. But these points are based on my observations in many institutions. So I’m confident that there’s some truth in it then! :-)

Open up!

Why is it that people seem to stifle or hold back in expressing themselves in the office environment especially in colleges? Why is it that they look up to their higher ups for taking even smaller decisions? Why is it that they don’t want to take chances in doing new things? Why don’t they question the status quo? Why do they carry on with same old, routine, manual, ineffective procedures? Well, answer seems to be obvious– they don’t want to risk themselves by getting into any trouble!

Now look at the other side of it. Express yourself clearly to avoid any communication gaps and misunderstandings. I see people are not able to delineate between official / business relationships and personal relationships. If you are not satisfied with the work done by any of your colleague friends, is it possible to articulate it to him / her clearly and directly? I bet if it's possible in such environment for you think that s/he will feel bad if you say so. (It’s also difficult because you expect a favor from him / her in the future!). Moreover, the likelihood of that colleague taking it personally and carrying it along is also higher. That’s got to do with the Indian culture anyway! I’m still finding a way out of this. :-)

Is it that in a more hierarchical org. structure, making even trivial decisions becomes non-trivial? Does the manager need to decide which color & font to use for the presentation, whether to come by the college bus or not, whether to conduct the class in room no. 100 or 101!? Or is it the trend set by the superiors themselves by not empowering their subordinates enough – a chicken-egg problem?

The net result of it – people become ‘busy’ (?) in their mundane work without questioning the status quo, accepting whatever standards or procedures, not realizing inefficiency in the system, seemingly happy  in their own comfort zones. :-) Probably, that’s what may be expected of them too – any change to the system is a pain for everybody.  Why take that chance anyway? Little they realize that this questioning attitude itself is a great trait of a leader. Remember, there is no charm in life, if you don't take risks. I think we need open up more and see the outside world …!