Impact Evaluation of DE Program by Policy Innovations team

An Impact evaluation on DE program has successfully been carried out by the Policy innovations team across the three Districts, during their second visit to Odisha, from 21^st Feb 2013 through 23^rd Feb 2013. The assessment was done between six schools spread over the three Districts such as Cuttack, Ganjam and Bargarh comprising of three DE Schools or Treatment schools and three non-DE schools or Control schools.

DE Review meeting held in SSA office on 18th Feb 2013

DE Review meeting was held in SSA office, on the 18^th of Feb 2013. The meeting was chaired by the State Project Director. Additional Director Planning SSA, Assistant Director MIS SSA, Operations Director DE, AIFT participated in the meeting. A status update on the DE Program was provided by the AIFT team. Expansion plan along with a concrete road map were also discussed as part of the meeting. 

Core Group meeting held in Delhi for 2012-13

The final core group meeting for the academic year 2012- 13 was held in Delhi from 13^th through 15^th Feb 2013. The meeting basically focused on key learning, for the year 2012-13 along with planning and budgeting for the coming academic year. Dr. Hemant Paul, Country director AIF and M.A.Ravi Kumar, CEO, AIF attended the meeting. 

6th Resource Group team workshop at RNIASE, Cuttack

The 6^th Resource Group Team Workshop has been held at RNIASE, Cuttack on the 6^th Feb 2013. The meeting was chaired by the Principal, RNIASE and was presided by the Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa. The one day orientation program was conducted on the topic: “Motion of Earth” meant for Grade 6^th as far as School curriculum is concerned. A total of ten teachers from the selected DE Schools of Cuttack Dist thronged to the Zonal resource center where in they were taken through the presentation based on latest developments and researches in Cognitive Science domain “How we Learn”. Technology integration is a pedagogic decision and is completely at the discretion of a teacher as to when and where they can either complement or supplement it along with their curriculum rather than supplanting it which otherwise does not yield to better learning output. The instances sited by Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa, during explanation related to exploratory play and Mindset (Fixed and growth) captivated everyone’s attention and encouraged to implement and follow the process at filed level to achieve significant improvement in academic ground in students. The objectives of DE program was explained to the participants for building capacity in teachers in order to bring revolutionary change in making learning joyful and fun. The choices and tools that teachers are now equipped with after completing 18 days of training were emphasised. Even if in case of the teachers having teaching experience more than a decade, came forward with many riddles during the presentation and demonstration of the power point on the same topic as was designed in collaboration between Trainer and MEs. The meeting was concluded around 4.30 pm by asking every participant to accept the Teacher subject forum to post their questions and answers, to take the discussion to next level.   

8th Resource group team workshop at DPIASE, Berhampur

The 8^th Resource group team workshop was held on the 1^st Feb 2013 at DPIASE, Berhampur. The Dist Education officer had given his kind consent to grace the occasion on the said date however due to unavoidable circumstances the meeting was chaired by Prof (Dr). Maheswar Panda the Principal, DPIASE. The meeting was planned to be carried on the topic named “Latitude and Longitude” with a total strength of 7 teachers from the selected DE schools across Ganjam and Gajapati Dist. The meeting kicked off at 10.30 am. The initial round of discussion was based on “Rotation and Revolution of Earth” that was organized in the previous Resource group team workshop, following that the participants were taken through the presentation “How We Learn” as directed by the Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa. The latest research and developments included in the presentation pertaining to cognitive Science was appreciated by the participants as it would add value to class room teaching process while enabling the constructivism learning theory said the participants. The resource members participated in the activities designed and came forward in demonstrating the concepts that needs to be internalised in the topic using the choices available to address the hard spots. Nevertheless it was urged to share questions and answers based out of the same topic through the Teacher subject forum that has already been created using Google groups for the resource members of GEOGRAPHY while implementing the same in their class room practices and was complied by everyone before we winded up the meeting with vote of thanks.