Beyond
Academics

CRISP WORKSHOP

Maxfort School, Parwana Road encourages the use of technology that can connect the child’s learning at the school and home. The School organized a workshop for the facilitators during the month of June to guide and equip them to use the technology effectively.

Technology is an important tool that plays an indispensable role in education. For the facilitators to be updated with the latest technology for today’s tech savvy students, Crisp Education
has been empowering facilitators in this field.

Crisp Education’s efficient resource persons work with facilitators to get the finesse. Facilitators were given a refresher workshop to recapitulate all the topics covered and creating video lectures. Facilitators felt enlightened after learning to operate various software’s. They were also grateful for query handling.

Effective and New Teaching Strategies Workshop

Teaching is an intricate art. The relation between a teacher or a facilitator and a student is unique and a teacher is capable of changing the life of a student forever. Hence, effective teaching is the goal of all facilitators who constantly strive to devise new methods and strategies to skillfully deliver knowledge and wisdom to the students preparing them for the future ahead.

Maxfort School, Parwana Road constantly endeavors to enhance the skills of its facilitators so that they can mentor students to realize their highest potential. Collaborating in this direction with Ratna Sagar, a renowned publishing house also engaged in promoting excellence and innovation in education, Maxfort School organized a workshop on 19th may 2016 for the facilitators. Conducted by Ms. Vinita Sareen, senior resource person from Ratna Sagar, the workshop aimed to introduce new and potent teaching strategies to the facilitators.

New skills, techniques and knowledge that best served the learning needs of students were shared in the workshop. These included soft skills, multiple intelligences, motivation, communication and leadership skills apart from classroom and behavior management.

The facilitators were also made aware about the CCE pattern and use of a range of pedagogies to engage and challenge students adequately. Empowering teachers with various skills, they were taught various strategies to encourage student responsibility as well as mastering their own teaching content with reflective teaching and learning approach. Suggestions and guidelines were also shared about building positive relations with students, providing individualized support to students since the students have varying aptitudes and abilities. The facilitators were also guided to address safety issues and take steps for providing safe environment for students to grow and learn efficiently.

Workshop on Behavioral Issues

Teaching students effectively not only involves mobilizing students to pursue the curriculum, it also means maintaining that mobilization along with facilitating learning efficiently. This, in fact, means engaging students to achieve positive academic results that include achievement as well as continuous attendance in school. Such engagement is easily achieved where there are supportive peers and facilitators, the curriculum is challenging and poses authentic tasks, the infrastructure is sufficiently adequate and the students turn up at school regularly and are responsive to the scheduled lessons.

However, on the other hand, if students have behavior and learning problems, it leads to disengagement and eventually dropping out of school. Misbehavior not only hurts the person towards whom it is directed, it may even repress others who are witness to such behavior. Therefore, discipline and management of classrooms are critical issues that facilitators need to handle. They must devise and learn strategies to engage and retain interest of students in learning in the class which is the key to enhancing good behavior.

Considering the significance of this issue, Maxfort School, Parwana Road, organized a workshop on ‘Behavioral Issues of Children and how to effectively deal with those situations’ on 17th May 2016. Conducted by Ms. Anu Singh, she explained complex and normal behaviors among children and the reasons behind misbehavior in some children. She then pointed out some management techniques that facilitators could use to tackle behavioral issues. Focusing on addressing such issues proactively, she suggested promoting healthy emotional and social development.

Building the self-esteem of such children with positive reinforcement, enhancing personal responsibility and integrity, promoting self-discipline, work ethics and bringing out their unique talents were some of the ways that she stressed. She also gave a briefing about class management. She pointed out that holistic growth of children is a joint effort between teachers and parents and hence teachers must seek and ensure involvement of the parents for desired results. The workshop ended with a feedback session where everyone shared their ideas and the facilitators learnt strategies to motivate and engage students effectively.

ASL Workshop by Oxford

A workshop was conducted at Maxfort School Parwana Road for the facilitators on the subject of ASL (Assessment of Speaking and Listening). Organized by the Oxford University Press, the goal of the workshop was to enrich the facilitators about the ASL program, the current addition to the curriculum.

Conducted by Ms. Alka Rai, an English teacher with 38 years of experience, the workshop focused on topics such as Phonetics and Pronunciation, Stress and Intonation and Communicative Language Teaching etc.

The facilitators were briefed about the ASL approach that focuses on the learners, enabling them to adopt and adapt to the different listening and speaking strategies using appropriate and relevant details. The facilitators were given an opportunity to practice the various ASL tasks and were introduced to new scripts to be used in the classes. They were made aware about the process of assessment, the purpose and goal behind ASL and how it was developed on the basis of CEFR(Common European Framework of Reference) used to measure language ability.

Ms. Alka, an expert in innovative and program based techniques for school level education, highlighted the need for implementing ASL right from the beginning in Class I to improve the speaking skills of students and enhance their confidence. A master trainer for ASL, Ms. Alka is actively involved with the CBSE and helped to reinforce the ASL skills along with the practice of other skills in English language during the workshop. She discussed the functions of the English language and how students could gain proficiency in it.

The facilitators shared their ideas and gave their feedback and absorbed the guidelines discussed during the workshop with great enthusiasm learning the procedure and objectives of ASL in great detail.

Code of Conduct Workshop

A code of conduct articulates the righteous standards that apply to professional skill and conduct expected from the facilitators. These standards are founded on the core values of respect, integrity, care and trust and help the facilitators in their day-to-day working by developing an awareness of professional and personal values.

Maxfort School Parwana Road organized a workshop on 17th May 2016 on this subject. Conducted by the honorable principal Ms. Mona Lakhanpal to familiarize the facilitators about the values, ethics and mission followed by the school and link them with professional practice, the workshop highlighted the standards expected from the facilitators.

The workshop was inspirational and helped the facilitators to learn how to navigate and resolve numerous professional dilemmas. It helped them to understand their professional obligations and responsibilities and included guidelines about discipline and communication principles that govern the school decorum.

The workshop aimed to ensure that the values and the principles of the school that are enforced among the students are also upheld by the facilitators themselves. It guided the facilitators about their conduct and communication with the students and made them aware of maintaining professional relations with students, parents, colleagues and community. The facilitators were guided to act with care and compassion in the best interest of the students. It was suggested that they must treat students fairly and hold their colleagues in high regard.

Since the facilitators hold a unique position of trust and influence, they were guided to always keep a professional relation with the students and their parents. They must work in collaboration with the parents for the benefit of the students and be positive role models.

Workshop on Understanding Adolescence

Adolescence is a period marked by massive change in the behavior and physical development of a child. It is a challenging time both for parents and facilitators as the teenagers undergoing a lot of social, emotional and physical change need a lot of support to understand their changed situation and navigate their life into the right direction by making the right choices.

Maxfort School, Parwana Road arranged a workshop for the facilitators on the subject, ‘Understanding Adolescence’ to sensitize the facilitators regarding the needs of the adolescents. Conducted by Ms. Komal Jain (Child Psychologist and Special Educator), it was organized on 16th May 2016. It was an interactive session where facilitators put forward their queries and learnt strategies to handle and deal with adolescent issues. The facilitators were made aware about the adolescent behavior and the reasons behind the way they behaved. Various aspects of adolescence such as need for independence and developing their own identity were discussed. The role of peer pressure to behave in a certain way was also dwelled upon.

The workshop helped the facilitators to understand that since adolescent children are neither children nor adults with maturity, they cannot handle their emotions and feelings. But however, there is pressure from parents and other people to act with maturity, establish balanced relations with other family members and follow a moral code of values. Apart from these factors affecting adolescent behavior, it is also a time when the child is going through insecurity, unsurety and hesitance. At this crucial time which can shape and direct the ultimate personality of a person, adolescent children need someone who is warm and kind, sensitive enough to understand their feelings.

It was suggested in the workshop that the facilitators provide acceptance along with genuine concern and understanding as well as a good listening ear to the teenager students. They must become companions to the adolescents and assist them actively as far as possible in their quest for their own identity or in other issues facing the teens.

The workshop highlighted that being present like a pillar of support is a great gift that the facilitators can give to these teens to help them answer their problems, frustrations and needs.

Inspirational Workshop

By Kamalneet Singh

Maxfort School, Parwana Road organized an inspirational Workshop’ for the teachers in collaboration with an esteemed organization called PROMISE. The speaker Mr. Kamalneet Singh, a resource person from the organization provided an enlightening insight onhow a smile can make a difference in our life. Mr. Kamalneet Singh was full of energy throughout the session. He inspired us and explained the importance of smile and happiness in our life.

The main objectives of the workshop was:

To motivate teachers to make self-assessment of their teaching style and methodology particularly in context of learning by children, their comprehension and their interest;Promote innovative and creative teaching practices making it joyful to the children who find school an enjoying, fun-filled place worth going every day – and thus leading to increasing enrollment and reduce dropouts; and Provide an open platform to the teachers to share their experiences, discuss constraints and ways to handle these and exchange views on day to day working situation/experiences and success stories. The sessions were participative and encouraged the participating facilitators to open up and freely express their viewpoints.

Adolescent Health Promotion & Counseling

Maxfort School,Parwana Road organized a teacher’s training workshop on 22ndMay,2018. The topic of the workshop was “Adolescent Health Promotion and Counseling”. The workshop was taken by Ms. SamridhiSagar, Editor with RatnaSagar P. Ltd., who is an influential communication strategist and trainer. She has extensive experience in designing content and training resources in the corporate as well as education sector.

The aim of the workshop was to sensitize and orient facilitators about adolescent problems and associated issues, need and relevance of reproductive health education, crucial role of teacher and suitability of school classroom for bringing this subject matter along with mainstream education.

The workshop aimed to facilitate awareness and knowledge among facilitators with particular focus on adolescent’s need and bridging the information gap.It also impressed upon the significance of listening, understanding, appreciating and suitably incorporating the adolescent’s viewpoints. While addressing the subject matter either in a classroom setting or one-to-one interactions and counseling.

Team Building Workshop

Teamwork is the heart and soul of a company, organization, family or relationship. Groups are comprised of individuals; and individual drive, skills and motivation are essential to the success of the group.

But it’s the spirit of teamwork that breathes life and creativity into any organization. Keeping this in mind,Maxfort School, Parwana Road organized a teacher’s training workshop on 24nd May,2018. The topic of the workshop was “Team Building”.

The workshop was taken by Ms. Geetanjali whose unique team building games and exercises infused trust and bonding between the staff members.She stressed on team work essentials like listen, question, persuade,respect, help share and participate. She also emphasized on stages in team building and team roles. Overall the session was interactive.