tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30603264351435824812024-02-26T02:42:54.234+05:30the lithiumheadAnurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-30194938362819988552023-11-27T13:48:00.002+05:302023-11-27T13:48:19.739+05:30Atoms in our body<p> </p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5b236fbe-7fff-137a-e212-ea3e7363f003" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Found the same question that I have been asking people all this while in this post </span><a href="https://finmoorhouse.com/writing/future-people/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Where do people come from? - Fin Moorhouse</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> :</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Inconsolata,monospace; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">“Here’s a question: as a great oak tree grows, the material for the tree came from somewhere. And just like how animals eat with their mouths, trees draw up nutrients from the soil. So why doesn’t a 10 ton oak tree form a big crater in the soil where its solid biomass came from? Where did all that tree come from?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Also from the article:</span></p><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Inconsolata,monospace; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">“or effectively everyone who has ever lived, and even most living adults, your body contains at least one atom that has been part of them,”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Inconsolata,monospace; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Inconsolata,monospace; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Inconsolata,monospace; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">“Of course, more likely than the planet somehow finding an extra India+US amount of arable land to farm, a world without fertilisers is just a world with fewer people. On some estimates, perhaps two billion fewer people would be alive today without the Haber process, or at least some way of producing synthetic fertiliser on an industrial scale.”</span>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-69356013054232697122021-05-21T20:36:00.002+05:302021-05-21T20:46:26.802+05:30Favourite Podcasts April & May 2021<p>My favourite podcasts episodes these last two months talk about the experiences of muslims growing up in India over the past 50 years, experiences of researchers trying to model Covid-19 in India, cultural phenomenon that is "banter", a simple idea on how to curb climate change for cheap, a SPAC posing as a Deli, the story of the guy who claims to have invented a hot version of a popular processed food, using social media and crowd funding for reparations, Brood 10 Periodical Cicadas, experiences of employees working in Amazon Warehouses and the fascinating story of the discovery of a live saving <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirolimus" target="_blank">immunosuppressant drug</a>.<br /></p><p> </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Radiolab</li><ul><li>The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub<br />21 May 2021 (<a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/dirty-drug-and-ice-cream-tub" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Brown Box<br />14 May 2021 (<a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/brown-box" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul><li>StarTalk</li><ul><li>Cosmic Queries – Cicada Invasion! With Jessica Ware<br />26 April 2021 (<a href="https://www.startalkradio.net/show/cosmic-queries-cicada-invasion-with-jessica-ware/" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul><li>NPR Planet Money</li><ul><li>DIY Reparations<br />5 May 2021 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/05/993976420/diy-reparations" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Hot Cheetos<br />12 May 2021 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/12/996228628/hot-cheetos" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>The $100 Million Deli<br />28 April 2021 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989625586/the-100-million-deli" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul><li>TED Talks Daily</li><ul><li>How we can curb climate change by spending two percent more on everything | Jens Burchardt<br />8 April 2021 (<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/jens_burchardt_how_we_can_curb_climate_change_by_spending_two_percent_more_on_everything?rss=172BB350-0207" target="_blank">watch/listen/read</a>)</li></ul><li>The Guardian's Audio Long Reads</li><ul><li>From the archive: The age of banter<br />21 April 2021 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/apr/21/from-the-archive-the-age-of-banter-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/30/the-age-of-banter" target="_blank">read</a>)</li></ul><li>The Seen and the Unseen</li><ul><li>Episode 224: Modeling Covid-19<br />9 May 2021 (<a href="https://seenunseen.in/episodes/2021/5/9/episode-224-modeling-covid-19/" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Episode 216: Being Muslim in India<br />14 March 2021 (<a href="https://seenunseen.in/episodes/2021/3/14/episode-216-being-muslim-in-india/" target="_blank">listen</a>)<br /></li></ul></ul>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-20520239732763456082021-02-04T21:57:00.005+05:302021-05-21T20:03:08.281+05:30Favourite Podcasts February 2021<p>My favourite podcasts episodes this month talk about our attitudes of the host nation's citizens towards refugees, learning new things throughout life, invention of syndication on television etc.<br /></p><div class="post-body entry-content float-container" id="post-body-659908056854433466"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Audio Long Read</li><ul><li>The ungrateful refugee: ‘We have no debt to repay’<br /> 1 Feb 2021 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/feb/01/ungrateful-refugee-dina-nayeri-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee" target="_blank">read</a>)</li><li>The joys of being an absolute beginner ... for life <br />29 Jan 2021 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/jan/29/the-joys-of-being-an-absolute-beginner-for-life-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/07/the-joys-of-being-an-absolute-beginner-for-life" target="_blank">read</a>)</li></ul><li>NPR Planet Money</li><ul><li>How Desi Invented Television<br />22 Jan 2021 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/959609533/how-desi-invented-television" target="_blank">listen</a>)<br /></li></ul></ul>
</div>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-6599080568544334662020-12-10T11:50:00.005+05:302021-02-04T21:49:31.815+05:30Favourite Podcasts December 2020<p>My favourite podcasts episodes this month talk about how an American company got back at counterfeiters in China,<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>NPR Planet Money</li><ul><li>The Stolen Company (Classic)<br /> 9 Dec 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/09/944687059/the-stolen-company-classic" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul></ul>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-24083078543098504132020-11-24T11:55:00.007+05:302020-12-10T11:47:38.807+05:30Favourite Podcasts November 2020<p>My favourite podcasts episodes this month talk about patenting genes, criticism of Malcom Gladwell's take on Amanda Knox case by Amanda Knox herself, History of Free Trade, Fermentation<br /></p><p> </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>NPR Planet Money</li><ul><li>All Your Genes Are Belong To Us<br />20 Nov 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/20/937167323/all-your-genes-are-belong-to-us" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Trade Show (UPDATE)<br />History of how the world took to the idea of Free Trade - albeit incompletely<br />18 Nov 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936394032/trade-show-update" target="_blank">listen</a>)<br /></li></ul><li>Labyrinths</li><ul><li>The Half-life of Prejudice<br />Amanda Knox clarifies what she thinks to be the cause of pre-judice against her, somewhat contrary to what Malcom Gladwell had to say in his book Talking To Strangers.<br />6 Nov 2020 (<a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-labyrinths-72424654/episode/the-half-life-of-prejudice-malcolm-gladwell-73415949/" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul><li>StarTalk</li><ul><li>Cosmic Queries – Fermentation<br />24 Nov 2020 (<a href="https://www.startalkradio.net/show/cosmic-queries-fermentation/" target="_blank">listen</a>)<br /></li></ul></ul>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-36583549838912311162020-10-19T20:35:00.002+05:302020-10-19T20:35:33.062+05:30Favourite Podcasts October 2020<p>My favourite podcasts episodes this month talk about startup culture, NGOs working in the Mediterranean sea, Misclassification of employees in USA, Casteism among Indians living in the USA</p><p><br /></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Guardian's Audio Long Reads</li><ul><li>How rescuing drowning migrants became a crime<br />22 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/oct/12/how-rescuing-drowning-migrants-became-a-podcast" target="_blank">listen </a>| <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/22/how-rescuing-drowning-migrants-became-a-crime-iuventa-salvini-italy" target="_blank">read</a>)</li><li>The disruption con: why big tech’s favourite buzzword is nonsense<br />24 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/oct/16/the-disruption-con-why-big-techs-favourite-buzzword-is-nonsense-podcast" target="_blank">listen </a>| <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/24/disruption-big-tech-buzzword-silicon-valley-power" target="_blank">read</a>)</li></ul><li>NPR Planet Money</li><ul><li>Call Center Call Out<br />2 Oct 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/918195277/call-center-call-out" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Caste Arrives In Silicon Valley<br />14 Oct 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/923736245/caste-arrives-in-silicon-valley" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul></ul><p></p>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-64846394859433278092020-09-15T11:35:00.015+05:302020-10-21T13:03:14.543+05:30Favourite Podcasts September 2020<p style="text-align: left;">My favourite podcasts episodes this month talk about Human grit, difficulty of recycling plastics, social movements, a dying religion, the dismal state of Indian Economy/Politics/Media, a killer fungus which has evolved due to climate change and the invention of modern financial systems.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Guardian's Audio Long Reads</li><ul><li>America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system<br />4 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/sep/04/americas-untouchables-the-silent-power-of-the-caste-system-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/28/untouchables-caste-system-us-race-martin-luther-king-india" target="_blank">read</a>)</li><li>Decolonising dermatology: why black and brown skin need better treatment<br />31 Aug 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/audio/2020/aug/31/decolonising-dermatology-black-brown-skin-treatment-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/13/decolonising-dermatology-why-black-and-brown-skin-need-better-treatment" target="_blank">read</a>)</li><li>The business of kidnapping: inside the secret world of hostage negotiation<br />28 Aug 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/aug/28/kidnapping-secret-world-hostage-negotiation-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/25/business-of-kidnapping-inside-the-secret-world-of-hostage-negotiation-ransom-insurance" target="_blank">read</a>)</li><li>The last of the Zoroastrians<br />24 Aug 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/aug/24/the-last-of-the-zoroastrians-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/06/last-of-the-zoroastrians-parsis-mumbai-india-ancient-religion" target="_blank">read</a>)</li><li>The evolution of Extinction Rebellion<br />21 Aug 2020 (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/aug/21/the-evolution-of-extinction-rebellion-podcast" target="_blank">listen</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/25/business-of-kidnapping-inside-the-secret-world-of-hostage-negotiation-ransom-insurance" target="_blank">read</a>)</li></ul><li>NPR Planet Money</li><ul><li>The Murderer, The Boy King, And The Invention Of Modern Finance<br />4 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909876702/the-murderer-the-boy-king-and-the-invention-of-modern-finance" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Waste Land<br />Recycling plastic has never worked very well. So who convinced us this was a good idea?<br />11 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912150085/waste-land" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Sell Me Your Climate Bombs<br />People looking for old tanks full of greenhouse effect causing refrigerant gases to earn carbon credits<br />25 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/917060248/sell-me-your-climate-bombs" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li><li>Trump's Tiny Taxes<br />Rich people and Taxes. Doesn't matter if you made losses last year or next, no need to file tax.<br />30 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918894535/trumps-tiny-taxes" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul><li>Econ Central - Amit Varma and Vivek Kaul</li><ul><li>Episode 13: Everyone Has Lost It!<br />Our media, our society and our politics have all gone nuts. Amit Varma and Vivek Kaul examine this drift to the extremes in episode 13 of Econ Central.<br />10 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://econcentral.in/episodes/2020/9/10/episode-13-everyone-has-lost-it/" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul><li>StarTalk</li><ul><li>StarTalk Podcast: Exploring Grit, with Angela Duckworth & Neil deGrasse Tyson<br />27 Aug 2020 (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDn98H-Rn_o" target="_blank">watch</a>)</li></ul><li>Radiolab</li><ul><li>Fungus Amungus<br />New killer fungus, climate change, why mammals won over reptiles when meteorite killed the dinosaurs, big worry.<br />4 Sep 2020 (<a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/fungus-amungus" target="_blank">listen or read</a>)</li></ul><li>Economist Radio</li><ul><li>Editor’s Picks: September 21st 2020<br />Moving from of fossil fuels to electric and the geopolitics involved during this pandemic, the birth of the Frankenfirm (TikTok, ARM being sold to Nvidia etc), Approved names for children in various countries.<br />(<a href="https://play.acast.com/s/theeconomisteditorspicks/editor-spicks-september21st2020" target="_blank">listen</a>)</li></ul></ul>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-38686108325507658872020-06-13T20:13:00.012+05:302020-09-15T11:46:49.557+05:30Growing Mustard Micro-greens Indoors - Light vs. No Light<p style="text-align: left;"></p>We recently got some nice grow lights. To measure the effectiveness of these lights, we decided to do simple experiment. We grew some mustard microgreens in the shade and some under these lights. The results, although obvious, were nevertheless fascinating.<div><br /></div><div><br /><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Gardening Exp #001</h2>
<b>Title:</b> Growing Mustard Micro-greens Indoors - Light vs. No Light
<div>
<b>Aim:</b> To observe the different in growth between two samples of mustard
micro-greens grown indoors - one with overhead LED grow light and one without.
</div>
<div>
<b>Expectation:</b> The ones with LED Grow light turned on will fare better -
how better and in what way is to be seen
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Setup</h2>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Location:</b> Wakad, Pune, India</li>
<li><b>Seeds:</b> Locally available Black Mustard Seeds ( राई )</li>
<li><b>Sowing Date:</b> 2020-06-07 1730 +0530 IST, Sunday</li>
<li>
<b>Harvest Date:</b> 2020-06-13 2030 +0530 IST, Saturday (6 days
later)
</li>
<li><b>Season:</b> Beginning of monsoon</li>
<li>
<b>Weather:</b> In the evening at around 1900 hrs, the temperature used to
be around 28 °C and Humidity at 70%
</li>
<li><b>Number of seeds:</b> 1 Teaspoon full in each planter</li>
<li><b>Placement and Illumination:</b></li>
<ul>
<li>
Placed on 2 shelve unit located a few meters from nearest window inside
the house
</li>
<li>
<b>Top Shelf:</b> A set of another 3 planters without any grow light
</li>
<li>
<b>Bottom Shelf:</b> A set of 3 planters with LED grow light turned on
24 hrs.
</li>
</ul>
<li>
<b>Soil: </b>Dry regular garden soil without any additives or supplements
</li>
<li><b>Water: </b>Regular RO+UV filtered drinking water</li>
<li><b>Watering Schedule</b>:</li>
<ul>
<li>
Watered around 1230 IST every day, initially the soil was dry so added
more water on sowing day and the day after that, but decreased the
quantity of water depending on the soil moisture
</li>
<li>2020-06-07: On sowing date 170 mL in each planter</li>
<li>2020-06-08: Next day 85 mL in each planter</li>
<li>2020-06-09 to 2020-06-12: 60 mL in each planter</li>
<li>2020-06-13: No watering on day of harvest</li>
</ul>
<li>
<b>LED Grow Light Specs</b>: 25 Watts Panel of a total of 75 LEDs (red:47,
blue:19, white:3, UV:3, IR:3) bought from AliExpress
<a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32972881405.html" target="_blank">here</a>
</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Zo5qyJiE7kwsFFNKWo0Js3S7icULEuKIxMHfuovFog1SLuWFRtGAbXMBDyMAmyapESTm1PRxd5ZZal6F9yHGctRx9Rj4RUALPvhyphenhyphenkmXKQ6LfEy0sBcoT5WnUfP7QkqeXAowzDaLkSRU/s4898/IMG_9582.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Zo5qyJiE7kwsFFNKWo0Js3S7icULEuKIxMHfuovFog1SLuWFRtGAbXMBDyMAmyapESTm1PRxd5ZZal6F9yHGctRx9Rj4RUALPvhyphenhyphenkmXKQ6LfEy0sBcoT5WnUfP7QkqeXAowzDaLkSRU/s320/IMG_9582.JPG" width="320" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Black Mustard Seeds<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzHrcTru0UEGkPBHexYpzV-KmCWIRas1jdYKz3nGUzbzJppeezJv6igcn6FqJZ_b-8VyC6Kia9cSt8Ws_bGYEJBRooQUNNUqAeLJlZ-2K0qUDnZwXcBwrPgLWWP7A0J07Fsu7ZuGzn6Nk/s4032/IMG_0527.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzHrcTru0UEGkPBHexYpzV-KmCWIRas1jdYKz3nGUzbzJppeezJv6igcn6FqJZ_b-8VyC6Kia9cSt8Ws_bGYEJBRooQUNNUqAeLJlZ-2K0qUDnZwXcBwrPgLWWP7A0J07Fsu7ZuGzn6Nk/w300-h400/IMG_0527.HEIC" width="300" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Indoor Setup for Exp #001 which ran for 6 days<br />Top shelf: 3
Planters, no light<br />Bottom shelf: 3 Planters, LED Grow Light left
on for 24 hours
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH-Vi_M5k0Uj0bq35JrD12i-qX14rUgrl2M5NUwFlIH7WAkLQUXiezrNt5q6vywvA1eey_I32azJomJnSvEOKBWIpXwuid78Wp73Mx-8EGOAtppGiNI82E-ia4UoSu4Izcs9RxK2NYlcg/s4000/20200607_170101.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH-Vi_M5k0Uj0bq35JrD12i-qX14rUgrl2M5NUwFlIH7WAkLQUXiezrNt5q6vywvA1eey_I32azJomJnSvEOKBWIpXwuid78Wp73Mx-8EGOAtppGiNI82E-ia4UoSu4Izcs9RxK2NYlcg/s320/20200607_170101.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
25 Watt LED Grow light panel with 75 LEDs of which<br />47 were red, 19
blue, 3 white, 3 UV and 3 IR<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpBZ9g-iH0BBitsYEg2mfUXhO-KbMGXIq_dc84U7r23Og9ficWLocywuIzCDuwc3cGNcBajLBM1vxSwON5HcHAdeW8wSh1SLeqMNZI2eHFlXcXIjKFVn4HbJyBZWLFZndtKm1ozM6f9Hc/s876/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="876" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpBZ9g-iH0BBitsYEg2mfUXhO-KbMGXIq_dc84U7r23Og9ficWLocywuIzCDuwc3cGNcBajLBM1vxSwON5HcHAdeW8wSh1SLeqMNZI2eHFlXcXIjKFVn4HbJyBZWLFZndtKm1ozM6f9Hc/s320/Untitled.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Layout of the LED Panel Purchased from Shop4793007 on AliExpress<br /><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32972881405.html" target="_blank">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32972881405.html</a><br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Daily Difference in Growths of the two samples
</h2>
</div>
<div>
The photos were taking around 1900 hrs everyday (since the initial sowing was
also done around evening)
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">1 day after sowing: Monday</h3>
<div><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFUUIRfdAZW7p5mb-w8YOC4b38lNHaypyxlna4Jg4ylNf-UczHZojWQuwEjsoi2noUmfcw-PcRapkCVln68FDz9fmAQWl48CZW97oc_FVuV2x1cnRpLkmV_8C3qXvQt7v_AesMoqHmoco/s4032/IMG_0611.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFUUIRfdAZW7p5mb-w8YOC4b38lNHaypyxlna4Jg4ylNf-UczHZojWQuwEjsoi2noUmfcw-PcRapkCVln68FDz9fmAQWl48CZW97oc_FVuV2x1cnRpLkmV_8C3qXvQt7v_AesMoqHmoco/w400-h300/IMG_0611.HEIC" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
A few seeds have started to germinate in both samples
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<div><br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">2 days after sowing: Tuesday</h3>
<div><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEBG1Xyt-0r0BX-3shohUaoHQtk_s1GbjsAfPXi22a5XphkkOYgzi4IaN70ldENHuzjggW1Pm9CwL9ipfwCD-j8Go6eQdZhz2kqHj-KyVPvXPEocFdqOPZR7Ky19HL_qYN7Yv4xVq0xk/s4032/IMG_0613.HEIC"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEBG1Xyt-0r0BX-3shohUaoHQtk_s1GbjsAfPXi22a5XphkkOYgzi4IaN70ldENHuzjggW1Pm9CwL9ipfwCD-j8Go6eQdZhz2kqHj-KyVPvXPEocFdqOPZR7Ky19HL_qYN7Yv4xVq0xk/w400-h300/IMG_0613.HEIC" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8R20r2BTriaXdb68Fzr2n2GcixV4T1jjc8nv5OInBJO3KymwhKlaKe_cWNNdf6lsIweMyK3zeAMIlRBO2T9GTipwEkZSEBub1m_Ll128k_Ykw2s8TGnuepcHuIw6MSiQQ8wknC1HS64/s4032/IMG_0614.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8R20r2BTriaXdb68Fzr2n2GcixV4T1jjc8nv5OInBJO3KymwhKlaKe_cWNNdf6lsIweMyK3zeAMIlRBO2T9GTipwEkZSEBub1m_Ll128k_Ykw2s8TGnuepcHuIw6MSiQQ8wknC1HS64/w400-h300/IMG_0614.HEIC" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
More of the seeds have germinated by now<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">3 days after sowing (Wednesday)</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cUH0EP3bxEpcbQG-V4h69xOufinJrnvFTHePQSoIkJQDEohFOqHfG2q90goBM5q_3MML5R_l0VwZgs2X9pe3YXYGX09WS8lGFoUjnG2R69g9sbuCELxGka3aCgrINCZrfxno-8IdaeI/s4000/20200610_164910.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cUH0EP3bxEpcbQG-V4h69xOufinJrnvFTHePQSoIkJQDEohFOqHfG2q90goBM5q_3MML5R_l0VwZgs2X9pe3YXYGX09WS8lGFoUjnG2R69g9sbuCELxGka3aCgrINCZrfxno-8IdaeI/w400-h300/20200610_164910.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4LP2R8q4zdc_E_JAawB2QKkNH9oqrolcqXtJKl6nEHiNaIscO5WA5gxwIes8KWSTymQO3qLUfREoS0sSQXVxAdGPXDaONSppPUKJFxONzkbLwVDw3vv03kegN3-sN0HBiB31JnEnPYE/s4000/20200610_164917.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4LP2R8q4zdc_E_JAawB2QKkNH9oqrolcqXtJKl6nEHiNaIscO5WA5gxwIes8KWSTymQO3qLUfREoS0sSQXVxAdGPXDaONSppPUKJFxONzkbLwVDw3vv03kegN3-sN0HBiB31JnEnPYE/w400-h300/20200610_164917.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Difference is clear by now. We see leaves in both samples but the
one<br />receiving light are larger and more dense already.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div><h3>4 days after sowing (Thursday)</h3></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Fs9INNk0g21yQp0whE0zqsMbtvNfhkO9ia4brD0LT5JijcZn2i0PuMEE0qHqOapSH2TBj6Z4zM09LyUUttPuTyyH-IZrQJhbsMEd7sEE0bnehKl5V5PIE9jvCkUVeK6lz-zwlBz5wbY/s4000/20200611_125745.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Fs9INNk0g21yQp0whE0zqsMbtvNfhkO9ia4brD0LT5JijcZn2i0PuMEE0qHqOapSH2TBj6Z4zM09LyUUttPuTyyH-IZrQJhbsMEd7sEE0bnehKl5V5PIE9jvCkUVeK6lz-zwlBz5wbY/w400-h300/20200611_125745.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLeVFWlGsRgV58VKe9Bl9Xe1L6spBjwjYJh0MW0YZEcNtLHcZfMUMNGugwVbYkLBazm36Z81u-FTqhei0xRinUqQxhK7-90UxZvBaEW2qt8Ggkh7db-CzZX78lP2qgeUneCkPsD-cSY2Y/s4000/20200611_125755.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLeVFWlGsRgV58VKe9Bl9Xe1L6spBjwjYJh0MW0YZEcNtLHcZfMUMNGugwVbYkLBazm36Z81u-FTqhei0xRinUqQxhK7-90UxZvBaEW2qt8Ggkh7db-CzZX78lP2qgeUneCkPsD-cSY2Y/w400-h300/20200611_125755.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
The samples on the bottom shelves exposed to LED are healthier and
flourishing.<br />Some of the saplings in the right most sample on the
top shelf have<br />started rotting and there is a stench emanating from
them.<br />This time we took the photo of the bottom shelf without the
LED turned on to get a better picture.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx8XhVBAlewxoDP_aNhzcn2Jlu2HkE8wg8ULOBzFHyXks2RRDysIkOtmi6Io4OhyvQoCU43L_4gdSfxYgq43uNKIx1bcsgMVwEDu77H6msc7f447Qi657Y64DrHphoU6DuDCvAXESeHqg/s4000/20200611_182419.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx8XhVBAlewxoDP_aNhzcn2Jlu2HkE8wg8ULOBzFHyXks2RRDysIkOtmi6Io4OhyvQoCU43L_4gdSfxYgq43uNKIx1bcsgMVwEDu77H6msc7f447Qi657Y64DrHphoU6DuDCvAXESeHqg/w400-h300/20200611_182419.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Another photo of the top shelf. The stalks are taller than the ones
of<br />bottom shelf and they are tilted towards the window to<br />capture
whatever little light they are getting. <br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>5 days after sowing (Friday)</h3>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5KJu0wl_VEm6o-2FelwFEoru8ZlGZvk_W0-ElUcEhAK_eWuX2uGt4F9wjt5-r-SBmiXeggKiE6mMzJyC6Y0G4qD0QeV6ocGru23Pf5ERjZW4mVFWKjWAurPWHI5naj0yYJU3oPQZsRf0/s4898/IMG_9564.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5KJu0wl_VEm6o-2FelwFEoru8ZlGZvk_W0-ElUcEhAK_eWuX2uGt4F9wjt5-r-SBmiXeggKiE6mMzJyC6Y0G4qD0QeV6ocGru23Pf5ERjZW4mVFWKjWAurPWHI5naj0yYJU3oPQZsRf0/w400-h266/IMG_9564.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5if1xo-3v01JkKDigZeE843EYeSIf_Hr9CsOciXMM4Itoib_aWnd4DMLJKHmM3suvBwI68nGPq6NboNyRX7oUPr4CP2ycGM9h9ZxsQUCwp6UQjrYajy5UIQyDIyDvCx1DM6dn38WPh0U/s4898/IMG_9565.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5if1xo-3v01JkKDigZeE843EYeSIf_Hr9CsOciXMM4Itoib_aWnd4DMLJKHmM3suvBwI68nGPq6NboNyRX7oUPr4CP2ycGM9h9ZxsQUCwp6UQjrYajy5UIQyDIyDvCx1DM6dn38WPh0U/w400-h266/IMG_9565.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Idhq43wp5iaIjnIofyuznTzhDBVL1wMKfgizHzFBDqhF9IQ7IeP3EYjR595m3dey-mnbSB1EOkGpYA6VHsGg3TG2slKMKmW0QbzMqLDlPCDmxVBI7_VQwmF__xuIE-YT3sXE20DORns/s4898/IMG_9566.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Idhq43wp5iaIjnIofyuznTzhDBVL1wMKfgizHzFBDqhF9IQ7IeP3EYjR595m3dey-mnbSB1EOkGpYA6VHsGg3TG2slKMKmW0QbzMqLDlPCDmxVBI7_VQwmF__xuIE-YT3sXE20DORns/w400-h266/IMG_9566.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Photos of left most planters from both shelves.<br />Saplings in the one taken
from top shelf are taller, have smaller leaves
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
and are tilted towards the window.<br />The saplings in the bottom shelf have
larger leaves, have shorter stalks and grow straight up.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1J2HkZXF3Gkp_3UgL8ZPnMYYmiZxWQ5OIIRKGSkOD68X3iohJkpDRcap3tk-QNTLcifqpKCNNp3Z5frLXtqw6flvxc3NZEWWOzmSfWt6hLnj7yGorB-0L-oZCW_5xna9qY7NrdKkonU/s4898/IMG_9569.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1J2HkZXF3Gkp_3UgL8ZPnMYYmiZxWQ5OIIRKGSkOD68X3iohJkpDRcap3tk-QNTLcifqpKCNNp3Z5frLXtqw6flvxc3NZEWWOzmSfWt6hLnj7yGorB-0L-oZCW_5xna9qY7NrdKkonU/w400-h266/IMG_9569.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Photo of the right most planter. More of the saplings have rotted.<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div><h3>6 days after sowing (Harvest Day)</h3></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2q9fwYdjONoyzsnX0kSzX6rMoLyOkERvuBjgBdH_cp-PrK0DcA0Cv1ZkyWXCsZkEAlzg6kRPu50cFUWoIzqO-ie1gbKoso_qh8wNis96aum6RtXSGPlHBRSTTZ7gT_7xZpdtxwQQE6y0/s4898/IMG_9576.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4898" data-original-width="3265" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2q9fwYdjONoyzsnX0kSzX6rMoLyOkERvuBjgBdH_cp-PrK0DcA0Cv1ZkyWXCsZkEAlzg6kRPu50cFUWoIzqO-ie1gbKoso_qh8wNis96aum6RtXSGPlHBRSTTZ7gT_7xZpdtxwQQE6y0/w426-h640/IMG_9576.JPG" width="426" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Just before harvest. Of course we only used the one grown under the<br />LED
light for our sandwiches. The ones grown in dark were rotted and seemed
unfit to eat - we did taste them tho!<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigfhMolMWFUuNXkQkQ8FSvHedGeSxuzP3YES6eZhIex7mskh12bh_Mjhu3sZZRFyoEN67qk121DiKRMz4Pf6E24NsNQrWcQPds7fL534iCvKDpiP0eyx8pwXs-HdlkpzKuSH3P49vbMak/s4898/IMG_9577.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigfhMolMWFUuNXkQkQ8FSvHedGeSxuzP3YES6eZhIex7mskh12bh_Mjhu3sZZRFyoEN67qk121DiKRMz4Pf6E24NsNQrWcQPds7fL534iCvKDpiP0eyx8pwXs-HdlkpzKuSH3P49vbMak/w400-h266/IMG_9577.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Both micro-green samples are tall enough to easily cut using scissors
without pulling up soil.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div><br /></div>
<div><h2>Summary</h2></div>
<div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<b>Germination Rates: </b>The number of seeds that germinated seems to be
equal in both samples.
</li>
<li>
<b>Height:</b> The micro-greens which were not exposed to LED grow light
grow taller and tilted towards the window located a couple meters away.
The ones having access to LED grow light were shorter but grow straight up
</li>
<li>
<b>Leaves:</b> The ones under the grow light fared better and have
thicker, larger and more number of leaves.
</li>
<li>
<b>Disease Resistance:</b> Many of the saplings on the dark shelf were
extremely tilted and fell down on the soil during watering and started to
rot and created foul order.
</li>
<li>
<b>Taste:</b> The ones grown under the light were mildly more flavorful than the ones grown in the dark.</li>
</ol>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><h2 style="text-align: left;">Harvest and Enjoy!</h2></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDRJtnxWuPnlRx2FdB-wjZrfbD8_2dVHHjjGRUH8YShqgoNcv4PjPyKqDzaWnDhmfmb2DPyx4-4TDel18EPYRBk962Fbwo4-hohHyiDcfTr2J0Z1Q_3seR6kah-2xIRMfrp76S4s0IqPg/s4898/IMG_9584.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDRJtnxWuPnlRx2FdB-wjZrfbD8_2dVHHjjGRUH8YShqgoNcv4PjPyKqDzaWnDhmfmb2DPyx4-4TDel18EPYRBk962Fbwo4-hohHyiDcfTr2J0Z1Q_3seR6kah-2xIRMfrp76S4s0IqPg/w400-h266/IMG_9584.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDd1bQce4KaptGUxCNB6mEHGLvLJRoZv785KwfvttZCA_TcTSxhzxwIEYPd6zY1nEJqAeavoHLWg0DJj0DMJnzQYqHdjneYDjfSpbK_KAkggwDc7OS0hhIjopHOYbhAmdwZ-0tmgcAJBY/s4898/IMG_9585.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4898" data-original-width="3265" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDd1bQce4KaptGUxCNB6mEHGLvLJRoZv785KwfvttZCA_TcTSxhzxwIEYPd6zY1nEJqAeavoHLWg0DJj0DMJnzQYqHdjneYDjfSpbK_KAkggwDc7OS0hhIjopHOYbhAmdwZ-0tmgcAJBY/w266-h400/IMG_9585.JPG" width="266" /></a>
</div>
<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtadN4tjNqHUp9gVwmWtuGLBZVMQESTGjgVNb-CdHIwarMF9xZ2TiNzRyACD2cV7OacXo7mCVgg0D8_vinOymzpN6mwQh_FxhP2qeIcv9m1skd0kd0uwUTZnlM2w20iDpfmfQrHHNJUsg/s3264/20200613_210819.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtadN4tjNqHUp9gVwmWtuGLBZVMQESTGjgVNb-CdHIwarMF9xZ2TiNzRyACD2cV7OacXo7mCVgg0D8_vinOymzpN6mwQh_FxhP2qeIcv9m1skd0kd0uwUTZnlM2w20iDpfmfQrHHNJUsg/w300-h400/20200613_210819.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXEd6k6hAtuxl6cbwg2ZWnkxtyaUYBWwG21IY3xqstwnirfnJZRcoZuAMHJ3z23rLs6_YqeiptSRD1A1z5BDtiRbQ2i4xhdJ6yMUt-rRvmfujcLEl1ueOPFPJwSYE5mD656tPe22dtMns/s3264/20200613_210914.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXEd6k6hAtuxl6cbwg2ZWnkxtyaUYBWwG21IY3xqstwnirfnJZRcoZuAMHJ3z23rLs6_YqeiptSRD1A1z5BDtiRbQ2i4xhdJ6yMUt-rRvmfujcLEl1ueOPFPJwSYE5mD656tPe22dtMns/w300-h400/20200613_210914.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div><br /></div>
</div>
</div>Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-82353320386694393502018-09-12T01:15:00.005+05:302020-06-13T00:39:55.166+05:30Roaming vs. Local SIM for Indians visiting the Bay area<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So either you get roaming activated for 10 or 30 days on your Indian phone
number like so (for post paid users):
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxoznJXzDquTFwq2jK08d6cUKmyXMWjk1TWaW5o7FmSarjnzUY3HXOWkHAEPDOI9BgFOu07il_tG0YWx-YdS6Fvw_ZT9E0OAlyMof5ah6IpdvDl_NYRLeOTGFt6I26bo-EyWPON4xYVY/s1600/Screenshot+from+2018-09-11+12-23-40.png"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="922"
data-original-width="1463"
height="251"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxoznJXzDquTFwq2jK08d6cUKmyXMWjk1TWaW5o7FmSarjnzUY3HXOWkHAEPDOI9BgFOu07il_tG0YWx-YdS6Fvw_ZT9E0OAlyMof5ah6IpdvDl_NYRLeOTGFt6I26bo-EyWPON4xYVY/s400/Screenshot+from+2018-09-11+12-23-40.png"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
Or you walk into a 7-Eleven and get prepaid SIM cards like one of these:<br />
<br />
<table
align="center"
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class="tr-caption-container"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"
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<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWDtlkTLkkt4bKGN1O-i9LGTIkH3B3pPzQNSjiT7OgEavvdwyWkzyUnrwkVYLDX7BDHjnVP2BUggwpcvzDu4QQ8zXAHlauLZnkH_rNEwn85-zejOLplx2lja7eNuO_0Ann6JJETMq_Cd4/s1600/IMG_20180911_093647066_HDR.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="1600"
data-original-width="1200"
height="400"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWDtlkTLkkt4bKGN1O-i9LGTIkH3B3pPzQNSjiT7OgEavvdwyWkzyUnrwkVYLDX7BDHjnVP2BUggwpcvzDu4QQ8zXAHlauLZnkH_rNEwn85-zejOLplx2lja7eNuO_0Ann6JJETMq_Cd4/s400/IMG_20180911_093647066_HDR.jpg"
width="300"
/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
This actually cost $53.85
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
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<table
align="center"
cellpadding="0"
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class="tr-caption-container"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"
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<tbody>
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<td style="text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGNrlH7YmCYfis9Me0yHXXjJaw7V1oGntzi3n4rAklE7i96kb8HKXNjhLsF7lv-MtT-XjlraRRKUbyjSrrgsPZvTPtQIWGLbmznypsIpBgqXacdh9l50ilxIRCErqJROqC5tQ5HTPZis/s1600/IMG_20180911_093657577.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="1200"
data-original-width="1600"
height="300"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGNrlH7YmCYfis9Me0yHXXjJaw7V1oGntzi3n4rAklE7i96kb8HKXNjhLsF7lv-MtT-XjlraRRKUbyjSrrgsPZvTPtQIWGLbmznypsIpBgqXacdh9l50ilxIRCErqJROqC5tQ5HTPZis/s400/IMG_20180911_093657577.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Had activation instructions on it
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table
align="center"
cellpadding="0"
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class="tr-caption-container"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"
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<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhax06VHqweY9Uxv5hHtOA6JfQrlM58g4tTOqpKNLwXl7SBLOgUloorD-d9Lypnaein8sGaI0EqVS1IzDAknGujesJQMEWNB7TK8ZzZCHcj9cjB7OaVGOm4fIFbbbVhlr5oFDJEavTXzkY/s1600/IMG_20180911_093839430_HDR.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="1600"
data-original-width="1200"
height="320"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhax06VHqweY9Uxv5hHtOA6JfQrlM58g4tTOqpKNLwXl7SBLOgUloorD-d9Lypnaein8sGaI0EqVS1IzDAknGujesJQMEWNB7TK8ZzZCHcj9cjB7OaVGOm4fIFbbbVhlr5oFDJEavTXzkY/s320/IMG_20180911_093839430_HDR.jpg"
width="240"
/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
The box had multiple SIM Cards (from 2 different operators - T-mobile
and AT&T)<br />
One of those would definitely suit any handset you may have.<br />
You have to pick one
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"
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<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWe6SMFRgtSrIG7qpxWx3Wc7lI2K4qIX0vKfGBSsvpLy4ZsOfOccQlMSvjjkaa9xQQAyBCqnn5Xwc1A2p6OY0UhUoaLIcEq8yxxc3hlng_dHX7ncK5cMAvORRL-QKiO-CZwjYMs4HCWc/s1600/IMG_20180911_123044335.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="1200"
data-original-width="1600"
height="240"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWe6SMFRgtSrIG7qpxWx3Wc7lI2K4qIX0vKfGBSsvpLy4ZsOfOccQlMSvjjkaa9xQQAyBCqnn5Xwc1A2p6OY0UhUoaLIcEq8yxxc3hlng_dHX7ncK5cMAvORRL-QKiO-CZwjYMs4HCWc/s320/IMG_20180911_123044335.jpg"
width="320"
/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
To sign up, you follow the instructions provided on paper attached to
the SIM Card you chose
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>I choose T-mobile Nano SIM (Number 4 above) for my MOTO G5s plus.</li>
<li>Worked without any issue.</li>
<li>
<b
>No ID Card or Passport was required to be submitted when purchasing or
activating the SIM</b
>
</li>
<li>The sign up process involves you:</li>
<ul>
<li>visiting a website</li>
<li>selecting the current option (Bring your own phone)</li>
<li>punching in the SIM card number of the SIM you chose</li>
<li>
selecting if you need a new phone number or reuse an existing one (I am
guessing its for the times when you want to resuse a number you had
gotten assigned from the last time you used the same card) - I chose
"Assign a new number" - it asked me for the PIN Code of the area I would
spent most of my time in
</li>
<li>
Finally - email address, DOB and password for setting up an account -
you could sign in via facebook as well
</li>
<li>
Then you just restart the phone and make a call to your friends phone to
get your own phone number
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
If you notice, the Airtel 30 day scheme gives you 5GB which is a lot more
than the 1.5GB that you get with Net10 - but with postpaid connection you
always have a risk of overrunning your consumption and running into
expensive bills. The talktime that airtel gives you (500 mins local) is more
than what you can possibly use in 2 weeks to a month here.
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
Besides, if you are going to be using lyft or uber, its always better to hve
a local number so that you can get in touch with drivers.
</div>
</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-84841330342030491592018-07-29T15:38:00.001+05:302020-09-15T11:35:44.831+05:30Favourite Podcasts July 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/everything-is-alive/" target="_blank">99% Invisible - Everything is alive</a><br />Biographical interview of a can of soda - Parts can be used in a TFI Classroom</li>
<li><a href="http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/27-malcolm-gladwell-s-12-rules-for-life" target="_blank">Revisionist History S03E07 - Malcolm Gladwell's 12 Rules for Life</a><br />Pull the Goalie!</li>
<li><a href="http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/28-the-imaginary-crimes-of-margit-hamosh" target="_blank">Revisionist History S03E08 - The Imaginary Crimes of Margit Hamosh</a> and<br /><a href="http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/29-strong-verbs-short-sentences" target="_blank">Revisionist History S03E09 - Strong Verbs, Short Sentences</a><br />Mass Hysteria</li>
<li><a href="http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/30-analysis-parapraxis-elvis" target="_blank">Revisionist History S03E10 - Analysis, Parapraxis, Elvis</a><br />Freudian Slips in Elvis's songs</li>
</ol>
</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-41190651374591217102018-07-16T00:09:00.004+05:302020-09-15T11:35:54.493+05:30Podcasts for the TFI classrooms (July 2018)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/hunting-the-ghost-fleet/" target="_blank">Hunting the ghost fleet</a></li>
<ol>
<li><b>Author:</b> Reveal</li>
<li><b>Category:</b> Investigative Journalism</li>
<li><b>Notes: </b>Talks about over fishing in oceans off coasts of South American Countries, and bonded laborers onboard fishing vessels. Simple language, non pop culture references, hard hitting</li>
<li><b>Listening Comprehension Levels</b>: Easy enough for Indian teenage students studying in 8/9/10 grade English medium schools. No American pop culture references.</li>
<li><b>Values and driving questions:</b> Can relate to Sustainable living. Would you eat an animal which is on the brink of extinction?</li>
<li><b>Access and Exposure:</b> Human Rights<br /></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/06/27/624048133/the-red-line" target="_blank">The Red Line</a></li>
<ol>
<li><b>Author:</b> NPR Embedded</li>
<li><b>Category:</b> Book Review / Politics</li>
<li><b>Notes:</b> Why didn't USA intervene in Syria</li>
<li><b>Listening Comprehension Levels:</b> Well read adults, too esoteric for students. But can be used for guided listening for 9th/10th graders</li>
<li><b>Values and driving questions:</b> Does a powerful country have the right to interfere in issues of another country undergoing civil war? Should they?</li>
<li><b>Access & Exposure:</b> War in Syria<br /></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="https://www.npr.org/programs/ask-me-another/584122306/chris-hadfield-ground-control-to-major-trivia" target="_blank">Chris Hadfield: Ground Control To Major Trivia</a></li>
<ol>
<li><b>Author:</b> NPR Ask Me Another</li>
<li><b>Category:</b> Quiz Show</li>
<li><b>Notes:</b> Chris Hadfield Interview</li>
<li><b>Listening Comprehension Levels:</b> Quiz section is 100% full of pop culture references so chuck that, but the interview section with Chris Hadfield should be played in classroom. The song he sings (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCiXYhWSBrY" target="_blank">Daughter of my sins</a>) has deep meaning as well and the lyrics can be used to teach some important values as well.</li>
<li><b>Values:</b></li>
<ol>
<li>Use the interview with Chris Hadfield to teach perseverance. Use this <a href="https://zenpencils.com/comic/106-chris-hadfield-an-astronauts-advice/" target="_blank">zen pencils comic</a> to go with it.</li>
<li>Use "daughter of my sins" to teach about living in the present and consequences of your action</li>
<li>Chris Hadfield live can also be a starting point point of discussion on <a href="https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/path-of-a-hero" target="_blank">survivor bias</a> - he tried his best to develop skills and discipline to be an astronaut knowing very well that USA is the one which had the space program (not Canada) - he did not have control over the opportunity, only his life, yet he stayed on the path, even if he would have failed (which is is what should have happened with 99.999% probability), he would have achieved all the other things in his life like skiing, singing etc. </li>
</ol>
<li><b>Access & Exposure:</b> What skills does one need to be an astronaut? What is it like living in space? Supplement with these videos:</li>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bCoGC532p8" target="_blank">Chris Hadfield Brushes his Teeth in Space</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM" target="_blank">Wringing out Water on the ISS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFYgeE32f0" target="_blank">Sleeping in Space</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goZM9NbH_40" target="_blank">Getting Sick in space</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo" target="_blank">Space Oddity Music Video</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo62S0ulqhA" target="_blank">What I learned from going blind in space TED Talk</a><br /></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<li><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stitcher/today-explained/e/55131934" target="_blank">We need to Talk about Yemen</a></li>
<ol>
<li><b>Author:</b> Vox Today Explained</li>
<li><b>Category:</b> World Issues</li>
<li><b>Notes:</b> Chris Hadfield Interview</li>
<li><b>Listening Comprehension Levels:</b> Easy enough for Indian teenage students studying in 8/9/10 grade English medium schools. No American pop culture references.</li>
<li><b>Values: </b>Broad spectrum, doesn't focus on one</li>
<li><b>Access & Exposure:</b> History of the crisis in Yemen.<br /></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="https://samharris.org/podcasts/title-132-freeing-hostages/" target="_blank">Freeing the Hostages</a></li>
<ol>
<li><b>Author:</b> Sam Harris's Waking Up</li>
<li><b>Category:</b> Expert Interview (What it is like to be in that profession?)</li>
<li><b>Notes:</b> Interview of Chris Voss - FBI negotiator who know teaches professionals to negotiate.</li>
<li><b>Listening Comprehension Levels:</b> Easy enough for Indian teenage students studying in 8/9/10 grade English medium schools. American references may need teacher guidance.</li>
<li><b>Values: </b>Being aggressive/hostile may yield short term gains but it always bad in the long term. </li>
<li><b>Access & Exposure:</b> Skills required to deal with other people. Excepts from Chris Voss' book (Easy English) can be used to supplement. <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/1847941494" target="_blank">Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It</a></li>
</ol>
</ol>
</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-90819229756250382942016-08-08T21:17:00.003+05:302016-08-08T21:17:58.218+05:30Delivering Value Education through stories from Humans of Bombay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" id="iframe_container" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://prezi.com/embed/urer4ryqsc5f/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI5dVFKa2dsWW5oa2FYYnRlWm40NjZueVZRPT0&landing_sign=GQTqTGNGAGfpqG4vaW-5goUMn7wzZXLkUR38nOMMrus" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe></div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-71258673707465944532016-07-27T18:17:00.004+05:302020-06-13T00:43:23.507+05:30The "Big Goals" Sessions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
During my 2 year long Teach For India fellowship, I designed and delivered 2
interesting courses. The first one was centered around "self" and the other
was to do with "technology". Like everything else at TFI, these courses took
root when I asked myself certain questions. These courses were my answers to
these questions. The "Big Goals" course was the one centered on self where I
tried to come up with a better question that "What do you want to be when you
grow up?"<br />
<br />
I have often wondered why do we ask little kids what they want to be when they
grow up. Little kids keep changing their minds all the time - astronaut,
scientist, footballer, dancer, teacher etc. And older kids set them up for
disappointment if they fixate on one thing and aren't able to achieve it later
on in life - think IIT and MBA aspirants, competitive exams, pressure of
studies and in some cases even suicide.<br />
<br />
There was something amiss in trying to inspire long term thinking through the
question "What do you want to be when you grow up?". Maybe there was a better
way to go about it, maybe there was a better question I could ask. I was sure
that it had something to do with "Access and Exposure" (one of the three rungs
of TFI's Student Vision Scale) but the right question to ask eluded me for the
longest time. I had a bunch of 118 eight graders that I was responsible for
and few ideas on how to keep them motivated to study and strive.<br />
<br />
Then one day during one of the Phase III meets at American School of Bombay, I
noticed the latest issue of
<a href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/about/current.html" target="_blank"
>Imagine magazine</a
> on one of the racks. This magazine published by John Hopkins Center for
Talented Youth and features stories of high achievers. Most of these stories
were 2 pages long and were biographical accounts written by the authors
themselves. Whether they were written by high school students or researchers
featured on TEDTalks, all the stories had a similar flow:<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>
The authors began with a few lines about the career/hobby that they are
pursuing and described how they got hooked on to it early on in life.
</li>
<li>
Then they spoke about how they seeked out opportunities and put themselves
out of their comfort zones. If they had more than one thing that they were
passionate about, they spoke of ways in which they tried to merge the two
things together.
</li>
<li>
They then talked about how they persevered, developed skills and excelled
in their field of choosing.
</li>
<li>
They finished with speaking about the values that they held dearest to
them and advice for the readers who wish to pursue similar interests.
</li>
</ol>
<div>
The best way to learn how to do anything is to copy others. I wondered if I
could use these stories as read aloud passages in my class and maybe my kids
would be able to copy the thinking patterns of the authors in trying to zero
in on their own passions. And so I set to work. I went to Imagine magazine's
website and downloaded a few articles, read through them a couple of times
and made a list of RC questions to go along with the articles. Some of the
articles were:
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>
Peter Otness –
<a
href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/crossing_cultures_past_present.pdf"
target="_blank"
>Crossing Cultures, Past and Present</a
><br />Peter a school student speaks about how he combined his love for
French with his love for Archaeology by joining a team of French
scientists in a dig at a Neanderthal site.
</li>
<li>
Sara Volz –
<a
href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/fueled_by_algae.pdf"
target="_blank"
>Fueled by Algae</a
><br />Sara speaks of how she grew cultures of algae under her bed and
isolated algae that could produce bio-fuels.
</li>
<li>
Edith Widder - <a
href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/IMOW_edie_widder.pdf"
target="_blank"
>The Glow of Discovery</a
><br />Dr Widder - A TED Talk speaker - talks of her journey researching
the "oh so awesome!" bio-luminescent creatures in the deep sea.
</li>
<li>
Will Gunderson - <a
href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/firstFIRST.pdf"
target="_blank"
>My First FIRST</a
><br />Will - A school student speaks of the robotics competitions that
he took part in and his role now as a mentor for young students.
</li>
<li>
Bernard Amadei -
<a
href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/IMOW_Amadei.pdf"
target="_blank"
>Engineering with a Human Face</a
><br />The founder of Engineers without Borders had the most fascinating
story to tell.
</li>
</ol>
<div>
Not all of the stories were by scientists. There were stories by artists,
sportsperson and dancers as well. Needless to say the RC articles were a
hit in the class. I integrated these sessions with the few other sessions
that we (School Team - Kashish and Kanika) had already executed under the
"Big Goals" brand in my class. The sessions I had covered earlier spoke of
KIPP Values, colleges and such. After I had read out enough stories with
the students in my class, I decided to now work on getting them to think
about their own passions - their own world problem that they would like to
solve. And so during one of the sessions I handed out worksheets that
looked like these:
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
</div>
<table
align="center"
cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0"
class="tr-caption-container"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"
>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaLmfmg32G5dYqxuO-zOAHrdg_MLyqIUnOrROw4QoysKYqzois1z3fEe4giZBGUPrFR_82kxySfIlk0rDLPqJ8p2cqAPrD_vNOYGPBwbJNbNeW9OY4r7ihokm2nfLNWuWsdopzMB7GdGc/s1600/What+Prblem+Will+I+solve.jpg"
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
><img
border="0"
height="210"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaLmfmg32G5dYqxuO-zOAHrdg_MLyqIUnOrROw4QoysKYqzois1z3fEe4giZBGUPrFR_82kxySfIlk0rDLPqJ8p2cqAPrD_vNOYGPBwbJNbNeW9OY4r7ihokm2nfLNWuWsdopzMB7GdGc/s400/What+Prblem+Will+I+solve.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Worksheet to help students articulate their goals in life along with
the values<br />
and skills they think they will require to get there.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div>
Soon I had gotten almost all of 118 students's responses. I set to work on
turning the responses scribbled on those worksheets in to posters titled
"Mission Cards". These personal posters feature their skills, values and
possible career paths. I would plaster these posters all over the walls of
the class for next year before the new fellows stepped in. Whenever the kids
exhibited any of the values, or developed any of the skills mentioned in
their posters, their teachers would give them a star next to the said
value/poster. This would trigger their internal motivation to keep striving
on. I even got them to write letter to their ex-fellow about their life's
mission - got them to stick a stamp on it and post it to him (I had observed
that the kids had never posted a letter in their lives). Here are some of
the mission cards:
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgru4BGWLtNxB7EXBc8xCYiCDg_6DrIWtT9MGkBfhRCyIHtxPWcEUWseAvbRYw5XeZMGBLyNHs-ubXEa2ACfWmcoks4nQ5KZRri6a9Eq-g-x0pvleCr1RgcaSoCMezF1v5-SQzXbSfaI9Y/s1600/2016-01-08+Big+Goal+-+Mamta+Chowdhary_001.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"
><img
border="0"
height="320"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgru4BGWLtNxB7EXBc8xCYiCDg_6DrIWtT9MGkBfhRCyIHtxPWcEUWseAvbRYw5XeZMGBLyNHs-ubXEa2ACfWmcoks4nQ5KZRri6a9Eq-g-x0pvleCr1RgcaSoCMezF1v5-SQzXbSfaI9Y/s320/2016-01-08+Big+Goal+-+Mamta+Chowdhary_001.jpg"
width="226" /></a
><a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIangOX0tX0BConGQThUUFyuvkUixO4RiVEjD7CapODdOKAHyYPMjkEaVvWrGURtPS0sIhXG1vS_qwC4hSZln6mind78O6f_Jvj_4gESBCjnMBnkAMlITAcbNc5tXSDUgM5ID-ueyASs/s1600/2016-01-08+Big+Goal+-+Naina+Dalvi_001.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"
><img
border="0"
height="320"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIangOX0tX0BConGQThUUFyuvkUixO4RiVEjD7CapODdOKAHyYPMjkEaVvWrGURtPS0sIhXG1vS_qwC4hSZln6mind78O6f_Jvj_4gESBCjnMBnkAMlITAcbNc5tXSDUgM5ID-ueyASs/s320/2016-01-08+Big+Goal+-+Naina+Dalvi_001.jpg"
width="226"
/></a>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOR-U7ls-Pxs7jExgiZ1XH5ttQqUKu3GRe4L2RlEOA3qgA411ek2A0Nd54hB8unaq10U0bWOfDek5zHfigIOOknGYNt_OhyXyIQ89D2zw0Cx73H3YF4Cm6M_Pkx02AO23B55RwYlrl2o8/s1600/2016-02-09+Big+Goal+-+Mayur+Dangi_001.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="320"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOR-U7ls-Pxs7jExgiZ1XH5ttQqUKu3GRe4L2RlEOA3qgA411ek2A0Nd54hB8unaq10U0bWOfDek5zHfigIOOknGYNt_OhyXyIQ89D2zw0Cx73H3YF4Cm6M_Pkx02AO23B55RwYlrl2o8/s320/2016-02-09+Big+Goal+-+Mayur+Dangi_001.jpg"
width="226" /></a
><a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfT8yljzmF4Z4zjEbZmgPCaMEo6J1AIVfF-_WjRIt62vpfWXQWQQ92MLHTNB-5JCrhZo59SCmGLWiG23lRg7WtKcTf3EAdkKipnFjWeHNQko01VR_uHJfSllVwWfjUvSE576oQx_kK1GQ/s1600/2016-03-24+Big+Goal+-+Abhishek+Phadtare_001.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"
><img
border="0"
height="320"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfT8yljzmF4Z4zjEbZmgPCaMEo6J1AIVfF-_WjRIt62vpfWXQWQQ92MLHTNB-5JCrhZo59SCmGLWiG23lRg7WtKcTf3EAdkKipnFjWeHNQko01VR_uHJfSllVwWfjUvSE576oQx_kK1GQ/s320/2016-03-24+Big+Goal+-+Abhishek+Phadtare_001.jpg"
width="226"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
As you can see, each kid now has a list of diverse professions that he/she
could take up to reach his/her goal. So, Asha who wants to "eradicate cancer
from the world" could become a doctor and help patients directly or become a
molecular biologist working to discover new drugs or even a businesswoman who
sponsors cancer research. Being queasy at the sight of blood is no longer
going to stop her from contributing to the problem that she wishes to help
solve.<br />
<br />
Here are a few slides from the overall Big Goals Sessions of which "What
problem will I solve?" session were a part of .<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYQlpZ4XdYcqBhtEOy7n-rSzvvgJ5NE-ilyhqrt6wjdjxQNUNwRAN4QZikk1QlsHR1pjalrVfdE6HMzdVzxAW5T96y3FE4zbhm8JiaqEhL2S6RCojH4LCtFakc6e-Oe7iS-Fm5gVysdo/s1600/Big+Goals+%25280%2529.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="225"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYQlpZ4XdYcqBhtEOy7n-rSzvvgJ5NE-ilyhqrt6wjdjxQNUNwRAN4QZikk1QlsHR1pjalrVfdE6HMzdVzxAW5T96y3FE4zbhm8JiaqEhL2S6RCojH4LCtFakc6e-Oe7iS-Fm5gVysdo/s400/Big+Goals+%25280%2529.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN_Aw6UW0D0xngCczNlEMKbUZNNsOrhJG_nVpvDukEqfh6K1yR1UNqqC2SAt3g0-OE6zj41f9_pa1zPP0IAEEI-mbrSaPKpTOfcDWMOTNII_50Iyea8ueKtZeAFUFdqxjinHmlmHjrZaA/s1600/Big+Goals+%25281%2529.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="225"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN_Aw6UW0D0xngCczNlEMKbUZNNsOrhJG_nVpvDukEqfh6K1yR1UNqqC2SAt3g0-OE6zj41f9_pa1zPP0IAEEI-mbrSaPKpTOfcDWMOTNII_50Iyea8ueKtZeAFUFdqxjinHmlmHjrZaA/s400/Big+Goals+%25281%2529.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtGLspN7jEmkfRBimvAM6oQ6txfa5OeoCZwHtp8i7XtGkxV0EhyOvfe_nVmD_jslF3sJv2Z9mqnIh6iFpcJORmv_K0_c8KNiq9UucY9rzB7O56eL5YXKh-W-hmG97S85yXrVwhm2K-3c/s1600/Big+Goals+%25282%2529.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="225"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtGLspN7jEmkfRBimvAM6oQ6txfa5OeoCZwHtp8i7XtGkxV0EhyOvfe_nVmD_jslF3sJv2Z9mqnIh6iFpcJORmv_K0_c8KNiq9UucY9rzB7O56eL5YXKh-W-hmG97S85yXrVwhm2K-3c/s400/Big+Goals+%25282%2529.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1IOeEVSU3-o7Xd7r41BWkdxQe3uM49K-AW6uMiYcS_KfFW3jWVVFop3gyjalYjd4Q1G3L3l1_sypNFM3RwTE_SrXLQZONNpuQo8XYjHl9cE8hw4CCp1-fVx0QnZE0zrJK42skgfr9NA/s1600/Big+Goals+%25283%2529.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="225"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1IOeEVSU3-o7Xd7r41BWkdxQe3uM49K-AW6uMiYcS_KfFW3jWVVFop3gyjalYjd4Q1G3L3l1_sypNFM3RwTE_SrXLQZONNpuQo8XYjHl9cE8hw4CCp1-fVx0QnZE0zrJK42skgfr9NA/s400/Big+Goals+%25283%2529.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwiePKBmuajyFtJ-92QBsjDSGddDPSIcmfup2tx_B8gFaSf0vKnOyOhTXhoWH-y0JubXdYXKFBBNlpzlR1DDPiwPKqQcEUqxFt9d-X0luE_ojgwcG-8yd7vKqIZKs9VtkW1EM_rUHu6E/s1600/Big+Goals+%25284%2529.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="225"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwiePKBmuajyFtJ-92QBsjDSGddDPSIcmfup2tx_B8gFaSf0vKnOyOhTXhoWH-y0JubXdYXKFBBNlpzlR1DDPiwPKqQcEUqxFt9d-X0luE_ojgwcG-8yd7vKqIZKs9VtkW1EM_rUHu6E/s400/Big+Goals+%25284%2529.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br />
</div>
<div>
As a part of the Big Goals sessions we also use Optical Mark Reader sheets
to conduct an in-class survey where students rated each other on a scale of
1-5 according to each rung of the TFI's Student Vision Scale. What resulted
in was a matrix of 118 x 118 x 3 data points. We used an OMR reader software
to collate the data. This gave them some tangible inputs as to how they
could improve themselves in the months to come and better align themselves
with their visualized life journey. Not only that, but the classmates would
now be invested in each other's growth as well. The survey provided us with
solid data that we would use to establish what the whole bunch thought of
particular kids. We would redirect all our counselling efforts towards that
kind in order to help him improve himself/herself.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtM4HGXi4DxILCa-dgxMLl48CAiNxXDmfRWBzL2NCZM5E_mVHmU2jwW0AppUF7cf1llJaV_wPNwvrrqEfyWPZmKjns3BjF5sDF5FbQjryWsiT3G3O7cTk2DhL-0TM7g4fylT2fPI49dA/s1600/Screenshot+2016-07-27+17.38.35.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="330"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtM4HGXi4DxILCa-dgxMLl48CAiNxXDmfRWBzL2NCZM5E_mVHmU2jwW0AppUF7cf1llJaV_wPNwvrrqEfyWPZmKjns3BjF5sDF5FbQjryWsiT3G3O7cTk2DhL-0TM7g4fylT2fPI49dA/s400/Screenshot+2016-07-27+17.38.35.jpg"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbaTAlpzfREnIKUZRX8kTKBxFWEv2UPiOZnmJDbhFDs3REqGvdlM7aCK8ZCcm0K-jJnvQQ84h5iXbMNMNhXTIjau_Fyv7DQ6adgriS7wJ6ph02CcOctK8Zz22Y-6DSva9U5vIxY2EasBM/s1600/Screenshot+2016-07-27+17.37.41.png"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="225"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbaTAlpzfREnIKUZRX8kTKBxFWEv2UPiOZnmJDbhFDs3REqGvdlM7aCK8ZCcm0K-jJnvQQ84h5iXbMNMNhXTIjau_Fyv7DQ6adgriS7wJ6ph02CcOctK8Zz22Y-6DSva9U5vIxY2EasBM/s400/Screenshot+2016-07-27+17.37.41.png"
width="400"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
</div>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/beladossantos" target="_blank"
>Isabela Dos Santos</a
>'s article "<a
href="http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/docs/accidental_animator.pdf"
target="_blank"
>Accidental Animator</a
>" in Imagine magazine inspired one of the kids - Pradeep Kale - to shoot his
own stop motion movies. I gave him a camera and soon shot a couple of stop
motion animations steadily improving his craft with each successive one. Here
are two of his videos:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe
allowfullscreen=""
frameborder="0"
height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uoaUsD34CY4"
width="560"
></iframe>
<br />
<iframe
allowfullscreen=""
frameborder="0"
height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bs9YGUGVp40"
width="560"
></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
Links:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<a
href="https://drive.google.com/a/teachforindia.org/folderview?id=0Bw9D_mXd95WEREJGREFNLXBsWG8&usp=sharing"
target="_blank"
>Google Drive folder</a
>
with all the resources that I created/curated for the Big Goals sessions.
Use your teachforindia.org credentials to access it.
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://worldexplorers.in/">worldexplorers.in</a> - A blog where
my kids post their compositions, videos and photos
</li>
<li>
Our classroom's
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/tfikilbil" target="_blank"
>facebook page</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.seekhow.in/">SeekHOW.in</a> - My startup where I am
trying to improve the big goals sessions and commercialize it for high
income schools as well. The course will be delivered in collaboration with
<a href="http://www.emoticonsindia.com/" target="_blank"
>Emoticons India</a
>. <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_emotive_behavior_therapy"
target="_blank"
>REBT Psychotherapy</a
> will be integrated into the Big Goals course.
</li>
<li>
SeekHOW's
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/seekhowindia" target="_blank"
>facebook page</a
>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0Pune, Maharashtra, India18.5204303 73.8567437-9.7898035361788445 38.700493699999996 46.830664136178846 109.0129937tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-64530960596773548232016-07-04T12:05:00.001+05:302016-07-04T12:13:08.697+05:30What I learnt from George Joseph's "Feature Article" on TFI and Apoorv Shah's response to it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
When I was in school, I was never told the difference between a 'feature article' and a 'news story'. It's only today that I cared enough to understand the difference between the two.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The purpose of a 'news story' is to relay <i>only the facts</i> about a particular incident through a particular style of writing. An author may paraphrase some lines from interviews that s/he conducts with people without changing the meaning. It seems to me that the author must practice <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYkhlXronNk" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Epistemic Responsibility</a> while writing such an article - suspending all personal opinions and judgement for the purpose of the story.</div>
<div>
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<div>
On the other hand, the purpose of a 'feature article' is to bring out the <i>human experience</i> from a particular angle chosen by the author. The author is free to forgo his/her epistemic responsibility. In fact, while reading a feature article, a reader expects to glean an insight via the author's point of view, his beliefs and judgement about the situation at hand. Hence, it is obvious that in case of a feature article, each journalist has his/her own fan following of readers who have beliefs similar to his/hers. The author presents his viewpoints - the reader may choose to accept it or reject it. Accusing the author of holding certain beliefs and passing judgement is obviously invalid in this context.</div>
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For more, please read: <a href="https://blogvault.net/the-difference-between-a-news-story-and-a-feature-article/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The difference between a news story and a feature article</a></div>
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That said, let's get to the main topic of this post.</div>
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The original article titled "<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/teach-for-america-has-gone-global-and-its-board-has-strange-ideas-about-what-poor-kids-need/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Teach for America Has Gone Global, and Its Board Has Strange Ideas About What Poor Kids Need</a>" was published on 1st July 2016 on The Nation's <a href="https://www.thenation.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">website</a>. The author is <a href="https://www.thenation.com/authors/george-joseph/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">George Joseph</a>. Wikipedia says, 'The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States, and the most widely read weekly journal of progressive political and cultural news, opinion and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865.'</div>
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Apoorv Shah's, a TFI alum and staff member voiced his 'disapproval' via his blog: "<a href="http://www.mytwocents.co.in/2016/07/how-not-to-report-story.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">How not to report a story</a>".</div>
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Before I move further, please take time to read the original article and Apoorv Shah's response to it.</div>
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Some points I would like to reveal about myself.</div>
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<ul style="color: #222222;">
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;">I was a TFI fellow placed at Kilbil School, Pune from 2014 to 2016. Together with 2 other fellows, we taught 3 classes full of around 120 kids during their 7th and 8th grade. The school was towards the higher end of low-income schools: the annual school fees is Rs 14,000. </li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;">This is the first article I have read of Mr George Joseph. I haven't read enough of his work to be his fan or detest him. I am aware that he has written another article on how he thinks <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/what-happens-when-you-criticize-teach-america/" target="_blank">TFA handles criticism</a> which I have not yet read and analyzed fully.I personally have never interacted with Apoorv Shah</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black;">I have interacted with Alisa Currimjee on many occasions and find her to be a sharp, self-aware and dedicated individual. </span></li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;">I have not yet read Shaheen's book: Redrawing India: The Teach for India Story </li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;">I am 31 years old as of writing this article. I am based in Pune working to build a tech startup.</li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: red;"><b>I am now a proud TFI alum.</b></span></li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;">I care more about my own 120 kids than the larger vision of TFI.</li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;"><b>I am concerned about the culture within TFI and want to help ensure that TFIers are able to take criticisms well. It shouldn't matter how the criticism is presented to us, what matters is our ability to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJLqOclPqis" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">keep our immediate defensiveness at bay</a> and take away the constructive parts from the criticisms to help improve our game.</b></li>
<li style="color: black; margin-left: 15px;"><b style="color: #222222;">My intention with the following analysis is not to be a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_advocate" target="_blank">Devil's Advocate</a> or be the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_A5j3RuWHM" target="_blank">10th man</a>. I want to promote a culture of rational thinking in TFI. I want TFIers to be able to recognize when a rational debate is brought to the table and engage in it without invoking emotions</b></li>
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In the face of it, much of Apoorv Shah's accusing George Joseph of bad journalism is invalid because Apoorv failed to realize that this is a feature article and not a news story. This is evident from the title that he has chosen for his blog post. And when it comes to feature articles, I believe that its okay to have some dissenting voices - as an organization, it keeps us on our toes to keep improving.<br />
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George Joseph seems to have spent a substantial amount of time interacting with different people within and outside TFI. He has mostly limited himself to Mumbai but refers to his conversations with people outside this city. He has quoted stuff from Shaheen's <a href="http://www.amazon.in/Redrawing-India-Teach-Story/dp/8184005636" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">book</a> and reproduced figures from reports. His <i>'human experience'</i> depends on the people he interacted with, reports and books that he read, classrooms/offices he stepped into and his own personal beliefs. <b>The byline "In India, school funding is sorely lacking, but Teach for India just wants to transform attitudes." clearly states his angle - he is concerned about the educational funding and policies in India and wants to find out if TFI's faith in transforming people's attitude can sort of compensate for the lack of funding.</b></div>
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A large part of George's opinion about TFI is based on his visits to the school and the office. He reports what he saw on those days. He has no obligations to paint positive pictures of the people he interacts with. He can only base his opinions what the TFIers chose to tell him - the words they used to express their thoughts and emotions at that particular point in time. </div>
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Apoorv Shah seems to have read between the lines and expresses his disapproval on what George "seems" to be insinuating. In his response, Apoorv has presented a list of things that he is not okay with, I have reproduced the same list with my thoughts on the same. Some of these thoughts are my way of extracting constructive criticism from the mishmash of opinions:</div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The start of the article paints a rather unattractive picture of a fellow's fellowship experience. I believe that Ms Alisa Currimjee might have wanted to say something about Ms Hemangi Joshi's opinion of her teaching technique. I also believe that even if Ms Hemangi's opinion was correct, it is unfair to judge a teacher based on one observation. I don't know how Ms Hemangi concluded that sticking to the textbook amounts to rote learning. The author writes about how the place where Ms Alisa is from stops her from being an effective teacher because she doesn't know the local language. How the author reached the conclusion about Ms Currimjee's competence in such a short span of time is something that surprises me. I believe that author should watch this video on the <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=en" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">danger of a single story</a>.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Apoorv thinks that George has presented his conclusions about Alisa's competence, when clearly he has not. He has simple reported what he saw in the classroom and what Alisa and Hemangi said to him. Nothing more. What impression the reader forms of Alisa and Hemangi is completely upto the reader.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author mentions that Teach for India is a sister organisation of Teach for America but fails to mention about Teach for All which is the main umbrella which coordinates between 40 odd such networks until later on in the article. The author fails to write about how 'Theory of Change' of different organisations are different based on their circumstances and ground realities. Just because there is similarity in the model, doesn't mean that they are 'one size fits all'. I would even go to the extent of saying that if a model works effectively in different countries, what's the harm in replicating?<br /><span style="color: blue;">What the author talks about is clearly upto him. This is a "Feature Article". He has chosen his angle (In India, school funding is sorely lacking, but Teach for India just wants to transform attitudes.) and tries to stick to it.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author's description of Ms Wendy Kopp's and Shaheen's education seems very sarcastic to me. In my opinion, the author is trying to hint, not so subtly, that Ms Kopp and Ms Shaheen went to elite schools and somehow that's a bad thing.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Feature article. He is allowed to do that if in fact he is actually doing that.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The quotes are taken from Ms Shaheen's book and seem disjointed and out of context at best.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Maybe - That's Apoorv's opinion of George's piece</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The five line summary of 'why' Teach for India came into being does absolutely no justice to the effort and thought that so many people put in at the start of the organisation. If the author had read the book more thoroughly and interviewed people, he would have found out.<br /><span style="color: blue;">George doesn't (and shouldn't) care about what went on into setting up TFI. He should and must care to present his angle and understanding. And that, only. </span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">"Despite this intensive work, however, the blueprint they came up with was almost identical to Teach for America's: Teach for India would recruit elite students, train them for five weeks, and then send them out to teach the urban poor." I believe the author's definition of 'almost identical' is very different from any dictionary definition. There are quite a few things similar between Teach for America's model and Teach for India's model but there are also a LOT of differences. Also, throughout the article, the author harps on the fact that the teachers get five weeks of training but fails to mention the ongoing training and support that fellows receive throughout the two years of the fellowship.<br /><div style="direction: ltr;">
<span style="color: blue;">Being a TFIer day in and day out, we know that there are a thousand minute differences between the models of organizations in various countries. For example. TFI limits itself to urban areas, where as Teach For China mostly serves rural areas. TFI fellows arrange for their own accommodations. Most TFC fellows live in schools that they teach in. But the basic idea of each organization is to recruit brilliant graduates, train them for 5 weeks and place them in low income schools or schools lacking good teachers and keep supporting them throughout their fellowship. Hence to an outsider, all the organizations would look similar. George has been careful to use the phrase "almost identical" and not just "identical"</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">"If deemed successful, this model will be poised to deliver large portions of India’s education system—and, indeed, others all over the world—into the control of the private sector on a for-profit basis." There is absolutely no evidence or data provided on how the author reached a conclusion that Teach for India is trying to privatize education or is even campaigning for a ‘for profit’ solution to the education crisis. The author does talk about Mr Ashish Dhawan funding organisations that are advocating for privatisation but there is no evidence provided to substantiate the author’s claim that Teach for India is trying to do it.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Later on in the article, George mentions two things:<br />"Despite these brutal reductions, Teach for India–affiliated groups like the Central Square Foundation and the Centre for Civil Society have hailed Modi’s education policies, satisfied with his willingness to slash regulations on private-school operators"<br />and<br />"TFA’s critics say that inexperienced teachers make educational inequality worse, and that the organization has become a Trojan horse for the private takeover of public-sector resources."<br />So his opinion is based on the conversations that he might have had with people from said groups. Also "poised" means "seems ready to" and doesn't not necessarily mean "actually going to". Nuances of meaning.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author’s description of Ms Meghna Rakshit is nauseating and unnecessary. I don’t know why the author needs to write about Ms Rakshit’s clothes and the way she speaks. I don’t know if the quotes in the article were all that Ms Rakshit had to say about the education crisis. I have a feeling they were not.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Doesn't seem nauseating to me. I think George has painted a very vivid picture of his interaction with Meghna - that's what you are supposed to bring out in a Feature Article - The Human Experience.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">"By promising innovative classroom techniques and inspirational leadership, the Teach for All model seeks to transform tremendous material deficits into a problem of character.” I don’t know how the author concluded that Teach for India or Teach for All don’t consider material deficits as a problem. Yet another unsubstantiated claim.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Maybe no one that he interacted with told him that we fellows hold collection drives to fund sporting gear for students, tech equipment and stationery for school/classroom etc. Note to self - if someone interviews you, remember to talk about this</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author then describes another teachers class whom the author addresses as Ms D. I don’t know why the author choose to use Ms Alisa Currimjee’s full name and even go into details of her native place. I hope that proper permissions were taken before using Ms Alisa’s name and other details.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Not really sure if he really needs to take permission. He is a journalist. He asks you if he can interview you, you agree and go ahead. Permission to use your name is implicit. Ms D might have a difficult to remember name in the local language. So George might have forgotten it or might have chosen to not use it least it become distracting to the reader. Also I think he is protecting the identity of Ms. D because he says that she swats her students which is clearly a violation of law.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author goes on to talk about how Narendra Modi government’s funding cuts have affected classrooms. There is also a line about how Teach for India’s patrons are friends with the Prime Minister. If this is the author’s attempt of giving this some political colour then I think the author should also have found out that Teach for India no political allegiances and that the organisation has an alum who works for the Congress party and also had Mr Arvind Kejriwal as a chief guest in one of its event a couple of years back. All this would have come out if the author had researched but it is not as easy as throwing allegations.<br /><span style="color: blue;">George probably only talks about Narendra Modi because he is the one who pushed for funding cuts and he is the one who supports TFI - this may support his main "angle" - (In India, school funding is sorely lacking, but Teach for India just wants to transform attitudes.)</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author claims that only people who are ‘global citizens’ and don’t speak English in a ‘thick Indian accent’ are likely to become Teach for India fellows. I believe that the author again has no idea of the different places from where Teach for India recruits and has probably never interacted with more than a handful of fellows.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Correct. That's the impression that George formed of TFI depending on the handful of fellows he interacted with. It is our responsibility to have helped expose him to all kids of fellows and staff members. He visited the office, that means he used official channels to access TFI's presence in Mumbai. We should have come up with a more diverse set of TFIers for him to have interacted with.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Also, ‘occasionally swatting’ students is illegal in the country. I am glad you did not mention Ms D’s real identity. I would urge you to talk to her about this ‘swatting’ and explain to her the mental trauma it causes students.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Already covered above. Talking to Ms D is not his battle. He is a journalist.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Another sentence which shows the complete lack of research from the author’s part is the author’s belief that all Teach for India classrooms have a ‘Coteacher’ and that there are less than 40 students in Teach for India classrooms. The author himself, in the beginning of the article, talks about how student teacher ratio in the country is very extreme. Ms D or any other Teach for India classroom is no different. I think it would be a good idea to go visit some Teach for India classrooms to see the numbers.<br /><span style="color: blue;">That's probably the impression that the TFIers that he interacted (and Ms D) with gave him. We should take a note and make sure that we expose a person wanting to know about TFI to a varied group of TFIers to ensure that we give them the correct picture. George seems to have gone through proper channels and seems to have reached a variety of people outside TFI as well. He seems to be a good researcher.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Ms D is not the only one doing three jobs. All fellows who work in government or private schools are required to do all that the other school teachers are required to do save election duty and census. So well, everyone is doing multiple jobs.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Thanks for clarifying, he doesn't claim otherwise anyway.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Author claims that Teach for India often describes its movement as the second freedom struggle yet provides not even one instance where it has done so. If it happened so ‘often’, should a reporter share those instances?<br /><span style="color: blue;">He doesn't need to produce instances - somebody from TFI or Ashish Dhawan seems to have used that line when talking about TFI. A quick google search, unearths to articles talking about "Second Freedom Struggle" in connection with TFI (<a href="http://www.thealternative.in/society/youth-can-change-the-future-of-education-in-india/?print=print" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Article 1</a> <a href="http://www.outlookbusiness.com/specials/the-worlds-greatest-philanthropists/indias-second-freedom-movement-1101" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Article 2</a>)</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Author links budget cuts to economic liberalization. A link that has no logical connection. It is my opinion that the author does not understand economic liberalization. Moving the focus from inputs to student outcomes is a decision state government get to make independently. Neither the central government and definitely not Teach for India has any say in it. Right to Education gives the states the power to do this.<br /><span style="color: blue;">I don't have a good handle on political spectrum and how it sways education and economic policies. So the only thing I understood while reading these lines is that maybe the government is trying to push for privatization of schools as well.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">“Some teachers are trying to resist the relentless expansion of Teach for India and the education-reform movement in general…” First of all, Teach for India never has and can never force any school or teacher to do anything. Expansion happens when both parties are willing and see value in the relationship. Also, is the author trying to suggest that there are teachers who are trying to resist education reform movement? Wow.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Here, George is not suggesting, he is reporting that Firoz Ahmed the primary school teacher feels this way. Maybe we as an organization need to work on our perception better. If Firoz Ahmad is afraid of TFI, we need to find out why and take corrective action in how we operate or clarify our stand and improve our relations with teachers in that area of Delhi.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">“We are quite afraid they are going to use early screening and labeling to screen [students] into vocational courses… purely economic schooling. This is not just Modi, but they are obviously more aggressive. And this not just in India.” How is one person’s fear backed by no proff at all being considered as a threat? Just to clarify, Teach for India never labels children or screens them into vocational courses at any point of time. Maybe Mr Firoz Ahmed needs to talk to someone and find out more about what is really happening.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Instead, TFI needs to look in to the matter and speak to Firoz. Maybe there is something going wrong in that region.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">“It is unclear how much students will benefit from this handoff to the private sector” NO ONE IS HANDING OFF STUDENTS TO ANYONE!!!<br /><span style="color: blue;">The sentence "It is unclear how much students will benefit from this handoff to the private sector, but the Teach for India program certainly strives to enhance its recruits’ future prospects beyond their brief careers in the classroom." does seem incoherent in referring to disjoint things. Not sure what George seems to be implying here. Not a good transition between paragraphs.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The author talks about how there are charts with dire consequences plans. It would be great if he would have mentioned one of them. Fellows are taught how to manage classroom behaviour in such a way that student dignity is maintained and still behaviour of the class is conducive to learning. This is done because traditionally, ‘swatting students’ like Ms D was the method used. Given Teach for India’s commitment towards Child Protection Policy, fellows are trained to use techniques which involve rewarding good behaviour with stars and tokens and there are consequences for bad behaviour which are generally taking away those stars and tokens. The most dire consequences are staying back for some time after school and having a conversation with the teacher so that the student understands the value of behaving in class and the importance of it in their education. Apparently trying to instil a work oriented culture is a crime. All this the author would have known if the author had not climbed the <a href="https://www.solonline.org/page/tool_ladder_of_infer" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Ladder of Inference</a> so fast.<br /><span style="color: blue;">None of the words that the author has used shows that he is inferring anything. He is only making connections - he finds that these charts and rules are similar to those used by American Charter Schools.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The article ends with the author talking to three fellows about their community engagement techniques to which the fellows respond by saying that it is decided top down and that communities treat them as outsiders. [Update: fellows who are quoted in the article have informed others who reached out to them that they have been misquoted.] It is true that this happens when fellows aren’t able to build those relations with the community members. If the author had researched about the different community projects that fellows in Mumbai have undertaken, he would have gotten a second opinion. There are community centres which are started by fellows and are now run by community members. The trust that fellows share with the community is different for different fellows because the effort put in and the results achieved by different fellows are different. To judge an entire organisation’s community relations effort based on what 3 out of the 1000 fellows had to say is not right.<br /><span style="color: blue;">I really believe that it was our duty to have presented an all encompassing view of TFI to George. Let this be a lesson to use. We should be frank enough to present our failures as well as successes to the world outside.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">About the fellowship being marketable enough. I think the author would love to know that we maintain a 7-8% acceptance rate for fellows and an even lower rate for staff members. The organisation attracts top talent already and marketing is done to spread more awareness about the education equity gap more than anything else. There are reasons for why it is a two year fellowship. Also, there are fellows who are selected to do a third year of the fellowship and there are quite a few fellows who live in the community that they work in.<br /><span style="color: blue;">Next time a journalist wants to know more about TFI, we would be sure to tell him/her all this.</span></li>
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<b><span style="color: red;">I think that Apoorv is quite passionate about the work he does at TFI and it is only human to become defensive when the work that you do "SEEMS" to have been questioned. Apoorv and many other TFIers seem to have been quick to jump the gun in mounting a defensive response to the article when none was needed.</span></b></div>
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<b>So here are a few things that I take away from the two articles:</b></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>It is essential to know the difference between feature article and news story</b></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>Its easy to get angered when someone accuses or "seems to accuse" you of the work that you are doing.</b></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>If a "feature article" provokes you, the thing to do is to read it again and try to empathize with the reader - try to understand his point of view, suspend your emotions and try to take away positive criticism from it. Not good to react to it immediately. One needs to sleep over it to understand what the author is getting at.</b></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>Being self-aware is important. If I think my reading comprehension skills aren't upto the mark, I would take the time to read the article to and fro a couple of time before deciding what to accept and what to reject. Good teachers/leaders need to work on developing good reading comprehension skills.</b></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>Don't read between the lines - you might think that the author is inferring something when he might simple be reporting facts or paraphrasing what some people have said to him.</b></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>When a person approaches your organization, it is our responsibility to makes sure that we present every facet of our collective to him/her.</b></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><b>We need to be able to recognize a rational debate when it comes our way and engage in it without invoking sentiments.</b></li>
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<b><span style="color: red;">As I wrote this blog and re-read George's piece I realized that unlike many feature articles, in the one above, he has been careful from explicitly revealing his opinions on the matter. He seems to have arranged the facts in a particular sequence so as to lead the reader smoothly in on his angle. All the inferences that might seem to have been made on George's part actually turn out - on second or third reading - to be inferences made on part of the reader. I am actually awed by George's skill in molding public opinion of the not-so-careful reader. </span></b></div>
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-4077347690588241342016-05-11T07:14:00.002+05:302016-05-11T07:26:08.907+05:30TFI vs. Religion vs. Amway<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Basic strategy for world domination is to be a good public speaker/effective trainer/manipulator so that you can invest others in your idea and create clones of yourselves to multiply your impact. Humans are wired (genetically evolved ) to seek out groups to belong to - safety in numbers.
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I am a 2014 Teach For India fellow.I have tried to be objective here, but I am sure my biases against ponzi schemes and religion would have crept in (although I know that direct selling and ponzi are not the same thing)<br />
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 0px; table-layout: fixed; width: 91.19351100811124%;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(211, 211, 211); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 17.407878017789074%;"><b>Parameter</b></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(211, 211, 211); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 29.09783989834816%;"><b>Teach For India</b></td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(211, 211, 211); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 53.367217280813215%;"><b>Direct Selling (Amway, Tupperware, Oriflame)</b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Impact parameter</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Reach as many children as possible</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Convert as many people (as customers and as representatives in the pyramid) as possible</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Appeals to</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Person's humanity</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Person's greed</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Key player</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Fellow</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Amway Business Owner</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Benefits</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Children</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Amway Business Owner</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Leadership development opportunity for key player?</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Yes</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Yes</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Training methodology</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Seniors trains junior, specialists train juniors</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Seniors train juniors</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Supervisor</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Program manager</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Sponsor (The person who introduced you)</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Small scale meeting</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Learning Circles at homes</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Tupperware tea party at homes</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Large scale meeting</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">City Conference held at hired venues</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Larger conferences held at hired venues</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Celebration style</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Song and dance</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">long term business owners who now earn a lot, come on the stage and brag.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Training</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Institute, Lesson Planning Clinics</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Special Training Programme, Books, Audio CDs, Online courses</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">What enforces cooperation between junior and senior players?</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Inherent human tendency</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Pyramid structure for sharing profits</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">What enforces cooperation between peers?</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Inherent human tendency</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Nothing. Infact there might be hostility</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">What enforces cooperation between players within and without organization?</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Inherent human tendency</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Nothing</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Hierarchy</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Management > Program Team > Fellows > Children</td><td style="border-color: rgb(211,211,211); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;">Pyramid structure</td></tr>
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid rgb(211,211,211); width: 555px;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="height: 43.8pt; margin-right: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.093525179856115%;" width="185"><b>Parameter</b></td><td style="border-left: none; margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; width: 33.273381294964025%;" width="185"><b>Teach For India</b></td><td style="border-left: none; margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; width: 33.45323741007194%;" width="185"><b>Religion (Hinduism, Christianity, New age like Sahaj Yoga and art of Living)</b></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Leader</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">CEO</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Self appointed Godman/Godwoman</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Impact parameter</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Reach as many children as possible</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Spread faith and indoctrinate as many people as possible</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Belief</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Education can save humanity</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Human society needs a common set of laws on how to live life</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Attitude</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Question everything, keep improving, scientific attitude</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Blind faith</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Appeals to</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Person's humanity</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Person's fear of death and loneliness only</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt;"><td height="20" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Key player</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Fellow</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Follower</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Benefits</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Children</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Guardians of faith - money and power</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Leadership development opportunity for key player?</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Yes</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Ghanta</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 58.2pt;"><td height="78" style="border-top: none; height: 58.2pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Conversion methodology</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Seniors trains junior, specialists train juniors, presentation at colleges, media</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Peer pressure, Family life influences children</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Supervisor</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Program manager</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Appointed local guardian of faith (Sadhu, bishop etc)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Small scale meeting</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Learning Circles at homes</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Hawan, Vigil, gathering during family events (birth, death, marriage)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 29.4pt;"><td height="39" style="border-top: none; height: 29.4pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Large scale meeting</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">City Conference held at hired venues</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Sunday mass, Forums, Community meditation</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Celebration style</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Song and dance</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Song and dance, sacrifice, flowers, pour milk, burn stuff, gluttony</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Training</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Institute, Lesson Planning Clinics</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Reading of scriptures, chanting of hymns, getting kids to follow parents</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">What enforces cooperation between junior and senior players?</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Inherent human tendency</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Fear of harm if trying to defect from group (death, amputation, ostracization)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">What enforces cooperation between peers?</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Inherent human tendency</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Fear of harm if trying to defect from group (death, amputation, ostracization)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">What enforces cooperation between players within and without organization?</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Inherent human tendency</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Fear of harm if trying to defect from group (death, amputation, ostracization)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Hierarchy</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">CEO and Management > Program Team > Fellows > Children</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Religious leader > guardians of faith > people</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 43.8pt;"><td height="58" style="border-top: none; height: 43.8pt; width: 139pt;" width="185">Cooperation between various organization</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">Yes through Teach For All</td><td style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 139pt;" width="185">No - they are competitors</td></tr>
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-73322914316155256332016-04-07T21:13:00.000+05:302016-04-07T21:13:32.131+05:30Modern Day Caste System<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
He: "Did you know that I am Kshatriya - I belong to warrior caste"<br />
Me: "To TCS mein kya kar raha hai?"<br />
He: "I fight and kill bugs. Software bugs"<br />
Me: "That explains the pot belly on your warrior body"<br />
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Me: "Who are your friends?"<br />
He: "I have three friends. This guy is a Brahmin - he designs the architecture and writes code. That guy is Vaishya caste, he has telecon with the client.<br />
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Me: "What does that fourth guy do?"<br />
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He: "He is Shudra caste. He updates he documentation whenever I kill a bug. Also he is the mandatory D bander during appraisal season. We need to adhere to the bell curve you know"<br />
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Me: "Ya the Ghanta curve"</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-16760894067814410252016-04-07T21:11:00.002+05:302016-04-07T21:11:19.442+05:30Algebra - Your first chance to show grit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />Algebra is the new caste barrier.<br /><br />Arithmetic is easy every child gets it. Algebra is abstract and hard. Those kids who fail to surmount the mountain that is algebra will be left behind and end up doing what most of us now perceive as 'menial' jobs. (They are menial because they pay less and don't require higher order thinking skills)<br /><br />So, all the math teachers of students in 7th grade and above, push your kids to work hard and practise practise practise until they get algebra right - integer operations, distributive property, exponents, division and factorization. <br /><br />BECAUSE IF THESE KIDS ARE LEFT AT THE BASE OF MOUNT ALGEBRA, THEY WILL FLUNK IN 10TH AND END UP DOING MENIAL JOBS AND NEVER REALIZE THEIR POTENTIAL.<br />TAKE IT PERSONALLY. RIGHT.NOW.<br /><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="uiGrid _51mz _5f0n" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px; table-layout: fixed; width: 644px;"><tbody>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-O7v4EJjx-g/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-O7v4EJjx-g?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-64834645883636377622016-04-07T21:09:00.003+05:302016-04-07T21:11:47.002+05:30The struggle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />I think we are running after the wrong thing. In stead of striving for a life with fewer struggles, we need to strive for a life with more meaningful struggles, equip our selves to handle that struggle better - increase impact and efficiency of our efforts.<br /><br /><br />We must focus on increasing the quality of the the fight instead of tying to decrease the quantity of the fight.</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-48790254531066551182016-03-08T11:34:00.000+05:302016-03-08T11:34:45.732+05:30School Science Education Workshop at IISER Pune<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-IN"><b>The following blog post is a compilation of notes by Ridhi Agarwal, TeachForIndia Pune Fellow 2014</b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN"><b>M</b></span><b>r. Kamal Mahendroo spoke about the
Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme, which is under Eklavya <<a href="http://www.eklavya.in/">http://www.eklavya.in/</a>></b></div>
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The three pillars of the HSTP were:</div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Development of Scientific Temper. (Scientific temper is the implementation of scientific method in every problem in our life.)</li>
<li>The modern times need technical and scientific literacy.</li>
<li>Science education is the foundation of the technological or scientific development of the society.</li>
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Some thoughts and questions he posed in front of the group were as follows:</div>
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<li>How do we build scientific temper?</li>
<li>What are you teaching them and what is being assessed in science assessments?</li>
<li>Joy of learning vs Joy in learning. This was to stress upon doing activities and experiments for entertainment and engagement during lessons as opposed to doing activities and experiments to attain deeper learning and work on deeper development of every kid.</li>
<li>Lastly, he spoke of something that baffled the group. The competitive exam which find us our future scientists and engineers, etc. are assessing students on syllabus which is of higher rigour and sometimes of different content. Hence, the school syllabus is redundant for them and they HAVE to take extra classes. This seems to be feeding into a hidden economic agenda of the coaching centres and other educational institutes.</li>
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<b>Teachers as partners</b></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Teachers should be equal partners towards education development and research.</li>
<li>Initiatives need to be taken to turn zero-resource classrooms to low-cost-resource classrooms.</li>
<li>For Activity Based Learning, there should be a continuum between activity/experiments and learning.</li>
<li>The wheel of teaching and learning needs to be established in the mind-set of teachers. Teachers need to DO the experiments themselves and record their observations and make inferences. Only then can they be confident enough to execute those in class and answer the questions.</li>
<li>High stress was given to need for Peer-Learning among teachers and the setting up of teacher communities and teacher networks and create teacher development activities for them.</li>
<li>Epistemological beliefs: Teacher beliefs are strong and difficult to break. However, they need to be challenged to bring change in classrooms and teaching practices. Some epistemological beliefs will be discussed in the Math Research section below.</li>
<li>These teacher beliefs will only change with different experiences and observations. A platform or community needs to be set up for this.</li>
<li>Students have their own imagination and interpretation of what they hear, see or experience. What you have said or done might not be understood or interpreted the same way in the mind of your students. [This was a thought point given to us to explore.]</li>
<li>There needs to be an organic link between education departments and parent (content) departments for strengthening teachers and helping them master their subjects. For example, a teacher undergoing B.Ed. in Math method should be expanding his/her knowledge along with a Math professor or student under the B.Sc. or M.Sc. courses.</li>
<li>Crisis builds curiosity and sparks passion in students. Experiments are essential for building scientific temper in kids. Although, Science promotes ONE solution to a problem but there is no SINGLE observation or conclusion to every experiment. The students need to understand the importance of observation, inferencing, discussions and deliberations and these should be encouraged by teachers in every lesson and every topic. That is when the scientific temper will develop in kids.</li>
</ul>
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<b>Science Education Research by Jayashree Ramdas</b></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Spatial Cognition in Science</li>
<li>SOTL – Scholarship of teaching and learning</li>
<li>POGIL – Process oriented guided inquiry learning</li>
<li>Confirmation bias among experimenters (students or teachers). This is relevant to activity based learning)</li>
<li>Alternative conceptions are present in kids and hence there is a difference in interpretation of the same content taught in every child.</li>
<li>Research needs to be done in how knowledge is organized in the memory and hence inform the methods of concept mapping for students.</li>
<li>Effects of socio-cultural factors on science education: STSE (Science, Technology, Society and Environment education), SSI (Socio-Scientific Issues).</li>
<li>Effects of different learning environments (Classroom, tuition, home, self-study) on learning.</li>
<li>Education Research is being done on how different disciplines are taught: DBER (Discipline-Based Education Research)</li>
</ul>
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The points mentioned above can easily be looked up on Google and information can be obtained. I shall add explanations as and when I explore them.</div>
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<b>Math Education Research by Ravi Subramaniam</b></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The session by Prof. Ravi was on the topic “What Math teachers need to know (and need to DO)?”</li>
<li>Teachers need to DO science and math in order to learn from it and teach.</li>
<li>Teachers will be ready for solving questions and doubts ONLY IF they do the math they are going to teach. Personal experience is essential to be more responsive in their teaching.</li>
<li>Some essential concepts that came out were:</li>
<ul>
<li>Teachers need to understand every concept in-depth. The deeper math hidden in every concept should be known before teaching it to the kids. It builds confidence in the teacher and they are able to answer students’ doubts.</li>
<li>There is a lot of math hidden in elementary math and that is exciting and essential to explore.</li>
<li>This is the PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) that teachers need to have. Teachers' Integration of Subject Matter, Pedagogy, Students, and Learning Environments.</li>
<li>Example: What is the connection between division and multiplication?</li>
</ul>
<li>Epistemological beliefs relating to Math which came out during their research were as follows:</li>
<ul>
<li>Students should be taught the right way to solve.</li>
<li>Repeated practice is the best way to deal with errors.</li>
<li>How can students answer the questions if not taught?</li>
<li>Paying attention to the teacher is important to learn anything.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
He argued that these aren’t essentially true. Students can arrive at the right way to solve; errors can be resolved in other ways too; and peer learning is another way students can learn.</div>
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<b>Post these talks we had the following resource-persons come and talk about their organization:</b></div>
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<li>Manish Jain, Toys from Trash spoke on Hands-on Science.</li>
<li>Tamara Philip, Avasara Academy spoke on Excitement and Enquiry in Science.</li>
<li>Reema, Disha spoke on how they bring quality science education to low income communities.</li>
<li>Gayatri Kshirsagar, Exciting Science spoke on the projects they undertake to expose students to the scientific community.</li>
<li>Tarun Ayitam, Sciensation spoke about his venture to make science cool for students and teachers.</li>
<li>Md. Irfan, spoke about his science centre in Nanded where he holds demonstrations of science experiments and trains students to perform experiments independently.</li>
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-27185616872653432032016-03-07T13:32:00.000+05:302016-03-07T13:41:11.309+05:30Some articles on parenting and teaching<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No, honey, you can’t be anything you want to be. And that’s okay.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Washington Post</span><br />
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/02/18/no-honey-you-cant-be-anythi" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Link</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Manipulative Child Behavior? My Kids Are “Too Smart for Their Own Good”</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Empowering Parents</span><br />
<a href="https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/manipulative-child-behavior-my-kids-are-too-smart-for-their-own-good/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Link</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(Related video ad - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2kWc0ILCM" target="_blank">Kissanpur - Real Joy Of Togetherness</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Indian Women Are Never Taught How To Be Alone, And That’s A Problem</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BuzzFeed</span><br />
<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/kavitharao/learning-aloneness-as-an-indian-woman" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Link</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Five fail-safe ways to silence a noisy class</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">TES</span><br />
<a href="http://five%20fail-safe%20ways%20to%20silence%20a%20noisy%20class/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Link</span></a><br />
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-75630248189181459282015-12-03T09:10:00.001+05:302016-01-18T00:20:46.942+05:30Setting hearts (and back-sides) on fire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Here is a speech that I thought of delivering at one of the closing ceremonies at Institute 2015. But it did not work out, so here it is for all eternity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><b>What?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">How can we continue building the Culture at Teach For India and take it forward?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><b>Why?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- We don't tell enough <b>stories</b>...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- ....and when we do, most of us leave our emotions out of it...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- ....We need to become <b>vulnerable </b>to each other if we are to let them help us heal in our moments of despair.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- Not enough focus on <b>empathizing </b>to building lasting relationships with others around us : especially non-TFI staff of the school</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- A reminder to strive to be more <b>consistent</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- Instilling a sense of brotherhood among the new cohort - collective action</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">- Also Kiran Bir Sethi's famous lines "Inspiration has a shelf life of only one week", so I hope this get the new cohort all fired up and raring to go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><b>How?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">A possible speech at the end of closing ceremony for Institute 1 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Good evening Institute 2015.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Inspiration has a shelf life of one week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">As the institute comes to a close, it is my job to stoke the fire within you for one last time as you get ready to bring the TFI magic to your cities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">On line with that theme, let me introduce to you a a call and response that you can use in your classrooms. It goes something like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">The teacher calls "All fired up?" and the students focus and reply "Ready to go!".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Let's try this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">.. 3 times</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Now that we are really fired up!, lets cool down a bit and do an activity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I want the first longitudinal row here on the extreme right to look to their left to the person sitting next to them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">And the person sitting next to them needs to look back at them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I want the rest of the hall to do likewise and pair up and look at each other.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Now.. I want you to really really look at each other. Look into each others eyes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Make them as uncomfortable as you can! like really stare them down!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Take 5 seconds to let their image burn into your eyes. 5...4..3..2..1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Now close your eyes and imagine the other person wearing an armour.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Parse through all the war movies that you have seen. Movies on Greek myths.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Superhero movies, Mahabharata even!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Imagine them wearing an armour - like the one in Game of Thrones or 300 or Troy. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Imagine them as Thor or even Ironman!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Imagine them as warriors just like they would be imagining you to be one right now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">In the last few days, we visualized education inequity to be like a jigsaw puzzle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Today I want us to see it in a different light.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I want us to visualize this movement of fellows and staff as a War effort against defeating ed inequity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Our battlegrounds are our schools and we are the warriors!.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Open your eyes please and hang on to the image of your partner as Ironman - I know I know most of you chose that!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">As you enter your classes and begin to get your basics in place, you will feel a sense of loneliness set in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">You will feel it every moment you are teaching in your classes, every time you fail and every time you face a new challenge in a new environment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">But you need to realize that you are not alone. We have been sent out there to fight small battles which are a part of a larger war.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">We all our fighting. And the only way to shoo away the despair and loneliness is to stay faithful to your brethren and this culture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">One way to do this is to tell war stories to each other. Meet other fellows, attend the regular learning circles, conversations with PM and just hang out </span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">with the fellows and staff who live near you. Share stories with each other. Stories of truth and despair. Stories of glory and hope.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Stories of how you failed in your class today - stories of how awesome your class went today - what worked, what didn't work!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">But as you tell the stories, remember to be vulnerable to your fellow well "fellows". Show them your wounds. Where it hurts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Breakdown in front of them if you have to. And at the end of the day, let them heal you so that you can stand up and live to fight another day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">YOU. ARE. NOT ALONE.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">As I wake up everyday, I like to imagine the awesome staffers and other fellows engaged in their own conquest for the day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I imagine Shaheen traveling to Pune to visit classrooms here looking for signs of student leadership and figuring out what it actually means.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I imagine Sandeep our city director visiting Learning Circles for a open hours with the fellows trying to understand how to support them better.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I imagine Sachin our SPM and Ashwath visiting schools and mend its relationship with TFI like miracle military doctors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I imagine my PM Mohini go through her day's schedule on her phone even before brushing her teeth and instead of Sighing, jumping out of her bed and getting started to make her way to the other end of a city for a class observation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I imagine Suchita and Soumya - my school team members - skipping their breakfast just so that they can squeeze in those extra minutes of perfecting their lesson plans for the day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">And that fires me up. They are there. Mostly out of sight. But always fighting. Just like me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">We all are in the same boat, we all are in it for the same cause - to nurture brave young soldiers for India.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">The fight is long. But you have weapons. I will talk about three of them:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">The Excalibur of Empathy. The Chetak of Consistency and the Kavach of The Collective.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I know you imagined each other as Ironman but come on be real now and let go of the hi-tech suit and bring in the horse, the armour and the sword</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Your first weapon - Empathy - use it to strike a debilitating blow in community disinvestment. Understand your children's parents, your school staff, your HM, Principal. share a chai with the, praise their new saree, buy macchi with them!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">And in one of those moments, they will open up to you and be receptive to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">your ideas about change. Empathy IS your super power. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Your second tool - Consistency - Strive to be consistent. go to bed on time, wake up on time, exercise, stay healthy, get to school on time,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">do your morning meetings, never miss out on any of the 5 steps of your lesson delivery,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">use your call and response, your rewards and consequences and remember to call your mom and dad regularly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Nothing accelerates learning more than being consistent in your class. Consistency IS your super power.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">The third weapon on your side - The Collective - will help shield yourself from upheavals. The school staff and TFI staff are their to support you, help you be awesome everyday in your class. Reach out to them, solicit their support, and let them help you and guide you. You don't get points for being a lone warrior. The collective IS your super power.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">And remember to continue sharing stories, in person, over email, on facebook, over phone, whatsapp.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Pick each other up and inspire each other for the next week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Never ever give up. Never let others give up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Your keenly observing children with see you as living breathing examples of grit and take after you. Be strong for them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">I close now by re appropriating Mr Spock's famous lines.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">"May you fight long and your children prosper"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Once more guys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">.. 3 times</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma;">Thank you Institute 2015!</span></div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-40397943253573107572015-12-02T10:39:00.001+05:302015-12-02T10:42:04.041+05:30How to build a yatch while swimming through your TeachForIndia fellowship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You know why <a href="https://medium.com/@RaginiCampion" target="_blank">Ragini</a> is so tall? Because she has gotten so many hugs over her life from so many people and that obviously stretched her out. The latest barrage of hugs is from TFIers (fellows, staff and supporters) who want are all determined to giver her some sweets (i.e. increase her height by 5mm) after reading her <a href="https://medium.com/@RaginiCampion/ten-tips-to-sail-through-your-fellowship-e73c7da3b5a3#.go45r2gf8" target="_blank">10 tips</a> piece for incoming TFI fellows.<br />
<br />
Like Ragini, I am a happy person and a 2014 TFI fellow.<br />
But I am also an engineer and I love building and improving stuff. I look at fellowship as being thrown into the ocean with minimal swimming lessons. You are expected to learn to swim and build a beautiful yatch around yourself from the shambles of stuff that isn't working anymore. And while you are at it, you may as well build yourself a better you as well.<br />
<br />
There are two kind of people who enter the fellowship - those that are fresh out of college, and those like me who have worked in the IT/Corporate/XYZ sectors and years of professional experience behind them. Ragini's advice is universal for all fellows that enter the fellowship. As an older person (half a decade older than miss tall beauty), I became aware of deeper nuances that play out when humans interact. And India has a lot of them humans. So it is only apt that you also look at the 2 years to un-Sheldon yourself and make yourself comfortable around people who are going to be your best applies in this fight against education inequity.<br />
<br />
So here are 10 additional tips appended to Ragini's list by a 30 year old senile fellow:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Kill the ego, suspend judgement.</b><br />You came here to transform the education system and you see the school staff as being ineffective at their work? Think again, they could be (should be) your comrades in the fight for excellence in education. You are entering a school run by those very existing teachers some of who have decades of teaching experience. And some one with that much life experience will definitely have a lot to teach some one like you who is probably less that half their age. Remember, 1 month ago before the institute you knew zilch about teaching. So deflate your ego, and be receptive to learning even from the maushis and peons who even though they don't teach would know how to control the class better than you.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7umCRNxjVCzXxDCv-6j7xr_CVUcGa-id03QS23Q-KtxwB5sTa0xsFVTAw-WRHQuBlw1HpL3UcHWfpJtZ0MvY5zJJ-C3SRFX1gyu0I0W88Hde_Yrw02YOeeR-PcGGpCRXeZVI3lTxbkU/s1600/IMG_20150618_121423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7umCRNxjVCzXxDCv-6j7xr_CVUcGa-id03QS23Q-KtxwB5sTa0xsFVTAw-WRHQuBlw1HpL3UcHWfpJtZ0MvY5zJJ-C3SRFX1gyu0I0W88Hde_Yrw02YOeeR-PcGGpCRXeZVI3lTxbkU/s320/IMG_20150618_121423.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very new fellow getting tips from her headmistress</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li><b>Don't be smug!</b><br />You are at a dinner with your chuddy buddies. You go on and on about how you made the right decision to improve the lives of children and talk about all the cool ideas you came up with and are carrying out in your class. To your friends you may be coming across as a condescending narcissist. Its easy to fall into the trap of judging people for seeming to not care enough about the society because they are "seemingly stuck" in a 9-to-5 job. Do not downplay the professions of others. They have their own role to play in the society and possibly its improvement. Also they will volunteer in your class (help you check answer papers) and give you money if you be nice to them. Be nice to them.</li>
<li><b>Manipulate people - give them what they want to get what you want!</b><br />You need to get people on your side. All kinds of people. So you think you have a principal who care a bit too much about his status and laurels? Tell him that as the "leader" of the school, it would be nice if the whole school could hear his voice in the morning everyday. Prepare the news and thought for the day for him everyday and other nuggets of advice which otherwise you would have delivered only to your own classroom. This way, you are not only empowering your school's leader, but also turning him into a a symbol of consistency and wisdom for the staff and students. Transform the leaders, transform the school.</li>
<li><b>Relationships may only work in burst mode</b><br />Teaching is new to you and its difficult work. It consumes your weekends leaving nothing left for your girlfriend. Maybe you could spend your time with her during diwali/summer/winter vacations when she gets an overdose of you and want to kick you in the teeth. When the school is in session, you are constantly in a dilemma - "Should I make a plan for this new idea to try in my class?" or "Should I go cycling with bae?". The lesson planning idea is always going to win (no matter what you do, you will always be swayed by the peer pressure of wanting to be an awesome teacher). Get your crush to your classroom and get her to meet your kids and perhaps she will understand you and stick around long enough till the end of your fellowship.</li>
<li><b>Work before you join the fellowship</b><br />Gain experience at a professional organization. This will help in many ways. Firstly you would have outgrown your naivety about how the world works - this will help you earn respect of non-TFI staff at school. Secondly, you would have de-sensitized yourselves to standard operating procedures within an organization. This would enable you to do administrative work assigned to you by the school and TFI (submit reimbursements, income tax etc) without cribbing. You would also have developed a mindset to document and improve processes at your previous organization and that mindset may help you (if you chose) to help your school become a more productive place - (think printing out student list on green ledger paper and sticking it in your attendance register every month to save the trouble of writing student's name). And lastly, you will end up making friends with working earning people who wouldn't mind parting with some cash and their time for their ex-colleague who is working to make an impact.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqTwyH6biP5mg8kwLUUbcw9g-qptke4tcxw1wef07I89Rr1oqc9RcN1uyCu0OLDMKZhefqGTIvqPc2Tmv8HBnNouWGmX_gBhy48p_6cRXIQRoSZvV7AoFNz1fc3A-6j_Dfo3k2dx9VVfI/s1600/2014-11-23+OMR+Sheets2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqTwyH6biP5mg8kwLUUbcw9g-qptke4tcxw1wef07I89Rr1oqc9RcN1uyCu0OLDMKZhefqGTIvqPc2Tmv8HBnNouWGmX_gBhy48p_6cRXIQRoSZvV7AoFNz1fc3A-6j_Dfo3k2dx9VVfI/s320/2014-11-23+OMR+Sheets2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Your Excel ninja could help you better the process of analysing marks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVv8oSIo3Fdt9dtJpCfTA4L_8msgsggrWsnMXfFI4Cc04Vo8n-KcioZmzzCTIWqCQSRYVZNuhQI81dmLpNrPi14eVwtZyz5Cv2tAtqCwaOMujgNskpARBe4lIKX6Hd2joObUYOO-ae14/s1600/Objective+Paper+Checking+%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVv8oSIo3Fdt9dtJpCfTA4L_8msgsggrWsnMXfFI4Cc04Vo8n-KcioZmzzCTIWqCQSRYVZNuhQI81dmLpNrPi14eVwtZyz5Cv2tAtqCwaOMujgNskpARBe4lIKX6Hd2joObUYOO-ae14/s320/Objective+Paper+Checking+%25283%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">The jugaad attitude that you developed at your ex-workplace would do wonders for you.<br />
Using a cellophane paper to grade objective answers? Oh! I am so getting a CI/Six Sigma green belt for this!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li><b>Its time for self improvement. Heal yourself.</b><br />You teach your kid all this stuff on how to be better organized and lead a healthy lifestyle. But are you following your own advice?<br />Go cycling/running with your kids on weekends.<br />Quit Smoking.<br />Get off any addiction that your have.<br />Tone down your OCDs.<br />Become emotionally independent.<br />Get better.<br />If bettering yourself because the kids are observing you doesn't motivate you enough to bring about that positive change, what else do you think will? </li>
<li><b>Learn and study</b><br />Read HBR article. Read Teacher Plus. Read about Steve Jobs. Read about Elon Musk. Read Read Read. Read what your PM sends you. Read what that "oh-such-an-enthu-cutlet" fellow sends you. Watch TED-Talks and Ted-Ed videos. Leaders need to learn how to be leaders.<br /><br />Also study math and English. Rekindle the critical thinker in you<br />You were never good at math?<br />You are scared of English grammar?<br />Stop being an abla nar/naari.<br />English/Math give you maximum facetime with your kids.<br />Come hell or high water, you need to step up and become good at these subject. DO IT NOW!<br /><br />Scour the net (or ask existing and past fellows) for advice on how to deliver value-ed sessions in your class.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-uH16v_Bc4tqsRjuuy8n4n-HGQuSmHRKLiFgSXCugKc0H9XhHpOJlit3PHWbOOrFy495_ugRWmDYDNWG5bowCFGe8L5SrxvGl_xbCFb8j8ueh3rd1j2TWJlvMxPlpFSdzWq2P0_hHc8/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-uH16v_Bc4tqsRjuuy8n4n-HGQuSmHRKLiFgSXCugKc0H9XhHpOJlit3PHWbOOrFy495_ugRWmDYDNWG5bowCFGe8L5SrxvGl_xbCFb8j8ueh3rd1j2TWJlvMxPlpFSdzWq2P0_hHc8/s320/Clipboard01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Value ed lesson plans</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li><b>Get chummy again with your family - close and extended</b><br />So you aren't an estranged daughter/son/brother/sister/cousin. You have pushed yourself to build strong relationships with the parents of kids who were strangers a few days ago. If you could do that with them, why won't you do that with your own family? So what if you are not a hugging family, your brother could do with some bhai time. Listen to his ideas as intently as you would listen to your PM and you shall find a new friend in him. Cousins - what do we have in common that can kick start our friendship with them? oh yes genes! <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsukSECtp3B7ViSSLLe_tr-H_UsL-qneZJZ51e3iARk0Vccv0EHmtsBDN9OqTsRO55z4Z4E_uHgXWbuuBzuC7u12vVJc400xxg3nypRgxfb33wGXF0dKctojPq0Hwz-YFNe3-IxhmJFA/s1600/IMG_20150928_144310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsukSECtp3B7ViSSLLe_tr-H_UsL-qneZJZ51e3iARk0Vccv0EHmtsBDN9OqTsRO55z4Z4E_uHgXWbuuBzuC7u12vVJc400xxg3nypRgxfb33wGXF0dKctojPq0Hwz-YFNe3-IxhmJFA/s320/IMG_20150928_144310.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chal bhai ice skating karein!<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzjaxiwvJmhqevufn0la6biqdosvLLUyhB2lsV6jr8u2SUucCT7g7GffDIw_Bsf9mA4BdSbUdUmhjf_j2TdzErEl8aABTOkahQ69fnaA5HggO6KiYQ44sCBhZ_kGId_E0pNvxNOqxsgA/s1600/IMG_5138.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzjaxiwvJmhqevufn0la6biqdosvLLUyhB2lsV6jr8u2SUucCT7g7GffDIw_Bsf9mA4BdSbUdUmhjf_j2TdzErEl8aABTOkahQ69fnaA5HggO6KiYQ44sCBhZ_kGId_E0pNvxNOqxsgA/s320/IMG_5138.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">And if your cousin joins the fellowship at the same time as you, its even more fun<br />
(Its easy to convince your parents as well - "But mom Vimal bhi to TFI kar raha hai!"<br />
and Vimal to his mom: "Anurag bhi kar raha hai fellowship, tenson mat lo!")</td></tr>
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</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li><b>Be vulnerable. Be genuine.</b><br />You find yourself evading a conversation with a person? Think deep, it might because of some inherent bias you have against him/her because of their religion/profession/financial status. Become aware of your biases and kill them one by one. This will help you feel genuinely for people regardless of their background rather then just put up a facade of "seeming nice". People can tell when you aren't being genuine with them. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and stay their until your comfort zone expands and your comfort zone get enlarged.<br /><br />Be vulnerable to a select few too. There are people who will genuinely begin caring for you. If you are lucky like me, might find godmothers and godfathers in your HMs. You know you now have and extra set of parents when they offer to look for a bride for you and invite you for mutton biryani ever so often. Who could say no to more caring and nurturing. And Biryani. Biryani is serious.</li>
<li><b>Have fun and Let go off your hang-ups. NOW!</b>Ale ale beta ko shalam aati hai?<br />Learn to dance - energizers are the way to go.<br />Learn to ride a cycle<br />Learn to swing<br />Paint your face<br />Learn to be a kid again and do the stuff that you never ended up doing.<br />You are surround by kids - a chance at a second childhood.<br />No regrets man!</li>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAT6sDYpeO7vKPn5iA_CeloLjkIukB1qUIZ4Fr8EVwfGhZB1T8iIpRGiMVSRqr3jRYTKzdBT1fOOXnSMpk9zNBqMmkuNZYt3Ujua7QSUqxJR6ohvUOIGLgEbDNjriZpIix9j9bdVPPm4/s1600/Class+Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAT6sDYpeO7vKPn5iA_CeloLjkIukB1qUIZ4Fr8EVwfGhZB1T8iIpRGiMVSRqr3jRYTKzdBT1fOOXnSMpk9zNBqMmkuNZYt3Ujua7QSUqxJR6ohvUOIGLgEbDNjriZpIix9j9bdVPPm4/s320/Class+Tree.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Climb a tree</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6wZ_8cG6wMiNm4A5kSepLKKJ60UK2qXxW8VTfBBvLBUxAyc_lvnCDEguTpS2nR7jLY01WzvpTdguXEweyj1yERQOvQG_5WwGe_q1llZHpws67FGEKYnW6CFTLYBvRWxUHjcPEO04brk/s1600/Class.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6wZ_8cG6wMiNm4A5kSepLKKJ60UK2qXxW8VTfBBvLBUxAyc_lvnCDEguTpS2nR7jLY01WzvpTdguXEweyj1yERQOvQG_5WwGe_q1llZHpws67FGEKYnW6CFTLYBvRWxUHjcPEO04brk/s320/Class.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wear Kurtas</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgBZGRF002u5F8_hkRs2fpzfKdd6H4gFk4SgY6-w0ZPkPRqXdIsmTYfYFDlkRKTtxsrl9xXbmHpBqjOu91ke9WxFG1p8FVizO3-8epHXKgmxfIA54d4d1Xk9fLLVhiOtOXBETm6aNj6k/s1600/IMG_20141114_141813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgBZGRF002u5F8_hkRs2fpzfKdd6H4gFk4SgY6-w0ZPkPRqXdIsmTYfYFDlkRKTtxsrl9xXbmHpBqjOu91ke9WxFG1p8FVizO3-8epHXKgmxfIA54d4d1Xk9fLLVhiOtOXBETm6aNj6k/s320/IMG_20141114_141813.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paint your face</td></tr>
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They say you become older as you become wiser - fellowship is your time to become wiser QUICKLY and it comes at a cost of just 2 years of your life. Welcome to the journey. May the your hair stay with you!</div>
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-38457790702505782372015-11-06T23:58:00.001+05:302015-11-06T23:58:25.291+05:30Scotch Brite Flat Mop - Microfibre<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As far as cleaning goes, there is nothing as good as the lint free swabbing done using microfibre cloths. Get a 7 of these and you can use one everyday of the week for tour your daily cleaning then wash them all together on the weekend in your washing machine.<br />
Make sure that you don't mix generic cotton cloths with the microfibre ones or else the cotton ones would unleash a volley of lint on your unsuspecting microfiber babies and render them as futile as themselves when it comes to swabbing.<br />
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A few months ago, Scotch Brite started selling these flat mops made of microfibre cloth. Needless to say, your life becomes easier with these babies. As is common with Indian households, people usually first sweep the floor with a broom and them swab it with wet dusters.<br />
Well if you get your hands on these mops, you can forgo sweeping and directly use these mops to round up all kinds of dust, hair and spilled liquids. Its a dream come true for cleanliness freaks like me.<br />
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-16165995375109068432014-10-24T20:51:00.001+05:302014-10-24T20:56:24.330+05:30TFI Pune 's Mid Year 2014 retreat at Ahmedabad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Thoughts by the various Dreamers/Innovators/Creators that we met:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>On inspiration</li>
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<li>"Inspiration has a shelf life of only one week"<br />- Kiran Bir Sethi (Director, <a href="http://www.schoolriverside.com/" target="_blank">Riverside School</a>)</li>
</ol>
<li>On hard work and perseverance</li>
<ol>
<li>Be consistent, day in and day out - kids are very receptive and would appreciate seeing you there in the class every morning no matter how the day ended the evening before.</li>
<li>"You can't live on the legacy of what you did yesterday"<br />- Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)</li>
</ol>
<li>On finding "your Why"</li>
<ol>
<li>If you are doing what you love, there won't be any burn out because doing what you are doing is no longer optional - you have no choice.<br />- Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)</li>
<li>Most of us know our "why" we just struggle to convert our thoughts to action - that is what requires courage.<br />- Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)</li>
</ol>
<li>On intentions</li>
<ol>
<li>"Do right by your children, not what may be right by you"<br />- Kiran Bir Sethi (Director, <a href="http://www.schoolriverside.com/" target="_blank">Riverside School</a>) while talking about how confident she was about raising her students that will become good humans - good citizens and good husbands & wives.</li>
</ol>
<li>On living in the now</li>
<ol>
<li>Since you do not know when in the future TeachForIndia's vision "one day all children in the world will attain an excellent education" is going to come alive, just focus on your vision for today : "today my classroom will get an excellent educator"<br />- Kiran Bir Sethi (Director, <a href="http://www.schoolriverside.com/" target="_blank">Riverside School</a>)</li>
<li>"Our minds are full that's why we aren't mindful"<br />- Jayesh Bhai</li>
</ol>
<li>On religion</li>
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<li>"All religions are ecologically taxing"<br />- Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)</li>
</ol>
</ol>
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<hr />
Finally my own thoughts:<br />
<ol>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>I was like let's do "seva"<br />She was like "say wha????"<br /></li>
<li>My advice/inspiration for people<br />If you don't know what to do with your life on any morning when you get up, just look up the meaning of your solid Indian name and think of its deeper meaning..and then spend the day justifying having that name. Continue doing that for the rest of your life and you will be fine.<br /></li>
<li>Thoughts about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WPOEXZNEgg" target="_blank">Narayanan Krishnan</a> (<a href="http://www.akshayatrust.org/" target="_blank">Akshaya Trust</a>):<br />What I now appreciate about him is how comfortable he is in his own skin regardless of what strata of society he may be in - whether with the rich and privileged or with the destitute/old/mentally handicapped. Whenever he is, whatever moment he is in, he makes the lives of the people he is with better.<br /></li>
<li>You will start doing things because of your nurturing/upbringing your "crisp strong Why statement (your purpose)" may come later during the course of your work and that will fuel you further for the rest of your life.<br /></li>
<li>Its easy to overlook the small things! (We learnt this while cleaning up the Gandhi Ashram)<br /></li>
<li>My kind of seva is to nurture - help people grow - help them learn new things - things they cannot do yet! focus on "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" and "<a href="http://whatwillmatter.com/2013/09/commentary-794-1-let-the-butterfly-struggle/" target="_blank">let the butterfly struggle</a>"<br /></li>
<li>My purpose (Theory of Change)<br />Our society is inflicted with lots of problems - pollution, poverty, population. I used to think that science and technology would help us eradicate those problems. But now I believe that science and technology by themselves are not enough. We need to build a country of conscientious, aware and educated citizens who can use science and technology to solve the problems that our society faces and will face as it evolves.<br /><br />I am passionate about nurturing individuals to find their own passions and strengths and lead them to do things that they never thought they could do. I would lead them to realize and accept that life is difficult but that there is immense pleasure and satisfaction in persevering and building things that one always dreams of.<br /><br />Finally, by leveraging my skills in manipulating technology, I would guide the individuals that I nurture to use science and technology ethically to enhance and improve their work and life.</li>
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Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060326435143582481.post-46848957494549692522014-09-20T22:27:00.000+05:302014-09-20T22:33:05.554+05:30Cognitive Dissonance for 7th Graders<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: blue;">Here is the content from a presentation on cognitive dissonance that I delivered in my class of 7th graders</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Cognitive Dissonance - What makes me sad?</b><br />
<br />
What makes me sad?<br />
अज्ञान (ignorance)<br />
अभाव (absence)<br />
अन्याय (injustice)<br />
अफसोस (regret)<br />
असमंजस (dilemma)</div>
<hr />
<b>What is the reason for irresolution or dilemma?</b><br />
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Answer: Cognitive Dissonance.<br />
<hr />
<b>Meaning of the words</b><br />
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<i>Cognition</i><br />
the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.<br />
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<i>Dissonance</i><br />
lack of harmony among musical notes.<br />
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In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.</div>
<hr />
<b>The conflict:</b><br />
Roma knows that smoking causes cancer.<br />
She still smokes because she enjoys it.<br />
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…what will Roma do?
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<hr />
<b>The conflict:</b><br />
Neeta loves Raj<br />
But Raj does not love Neeta<br />
<br />
…what will Neeta do?</div>
<hr />
Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals largely become psychologically distressed. His basic hypotheses are listed below:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>"The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance“ </li>
<li>"When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance"</li>
</ol>
<div>
source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance</a></div>
</div>
<hr />
Some Cartoons/Images:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.kartoen.be/wp/2008/06/28/cognitive-dissonance-reduction/" target="_blank">Cognitive dissonance reduction</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/262/1/Cognitive-Dissonance-and-Creative-Tension/Page1.html" target="_blank">Cognitive Dissonance and Creative Tension — the same or different?</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<hr />
<b>Example 1:</b><br />
Attitude: “I am going on a diet and will avoid high fat food”<br />
Behaviour: Eating a pizza or some other high fat food<br />
<br />
Reducing Cognitive Dissonance:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Change behaviour/cognition<br /> (Example: Stop eating the pizza)</li>
<li>Justify behaviour/cognition by changing the conflicting cognition <br />(Example: "I'm allowed to cheat every once in a while") </li>
<li>Justify behaviour/cognition by adding new cognitions<br /> (Example: "I'll spend 30 extra minutes at the gym to work it off") </li>
<li>Ignore/Deny any information that conflicts with existing beliefs<br /> (Example: "I did not eat that pizza. I always eat healthy.")</li>
</ol>
</div>
<hr />
</div>
<b>Example 2:</b><br />
Attitude: “I got below average marks in maths, I need to study hard and practice more”<br />
Behaviour: Watching TV<br />
<br />
Reducing Cognitive Dissonance:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Change behaviour/cognition<br /> (Example: Stop watching TV and start studying) </li>
<li>Justify behaviour/cognition by changing the conflicting cognition <br />(Example: "I'm allowed to cheat every once in a while") </li>
<li>Justify behaviour/cognition by adding new cognitions<br /> (Example: "I'll spend 30 extra minutes studying and sleep less") </li>
<li>Ignore/Deny any information that conflicts with existing beliefs<br /> (Example: "Main toh jyaada TV nahin dekhta")</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<b>Example 3:</b><br />
Attitude: “Bhaiya is a new teacher and is struggling to teach us better”<br />
Behaviour: Fighting in the class, making noise, teasing others, not paying attention<br />
<br />
Reducing Cognitive Dissonance:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Change behaviour/cognition <br />(Example: Stop disrupting the class and stay quite and pay attention) </li>
<li>Justify behaviour/cognition by changing the conflicting cognition <br />(Example: "I'm allowed have fun in the class every now and then") </li>
<li>Justify behaviour/cognition by adding new cognitions <br />(Example: "I will study on my own at home or during tuitions.")</li>
<li>Ignore/Deny any information that conflicts with existing beliefs <br />(Example: "I am not making noise, Bhaiya is a bad teacher")</li>
</ol>
<hr />
Don’t Justify or Ignore….
Change behavior – the choice is yours!</div>
Anurag Chughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390575283968794206noreply@blogger.com0