Teachers need to keep learning continuously. They need a space where they can reflect on their classroom experiences, plan their teaching with the support of their peers, discuss the issues they face in their classrooms and tap into their collective wisdom to find new ways forward.
The Teacher Resource Center is such a space for teachers – a space for conversations and collaboration, reading and reflection and connecting with each other as a community of practitioners.
Nature of activities at the Teacher Resource Center:
These Resource Centers conduct the following activities:
- Library: Access to learning resources like books, periodicals, digital learning material and computers. Teachers can borrow teaching learning material and audio visual equipment for use in their classrooms
- Resource development: Members of the Puducherry Teachers’ Circle will be involved in the creation of resources for the classroom. They will also share their experiences from trying out these ideas with each other and document their learning. These ideas and lesson resources will be published in the bi-monthly teachers’ magazine – Thisaimaani.
- Open events: Workshops and seminars will be conducted to help teachers continuously update their knowledge in different areas like subject domain, pedagogy, assessment, child psychology and broader perspectives on education.
- Learning festivals: Teachers will be supported in showcasing the work of their students through zonal / block level learning festivals in different areas – language, math, science, social sciences, art and other areas.
Kind of open events
- Read and review: Reading and review of books and articles. The topics would range from the role of education in society to subject content or pedagogy.
- Plan and develop: Planning units and lessons and developing the necessary teaching learning material for the classroom. Teachers can take this material for direct use in their classrooms.
- Let us talk: Discussions on topics of interest. These could be facilitated by teachers, external resource persons or experts in different domains
- Classroom diaries: Space for teachers to demonstrate their teaching practices to their peers, share classroom videos, student work and bring in specific classroom issues for discussion
- Movie reviews: Teachers can watch movies and videos made in different educational setting and use them for provoking new ideas and discussions.
Locations
There are four Teacher Resource Centers being run by the Foundation in Puducherry:
- Villianur -Vivekananda Government Higher Secondary School,Villianur
- Lawspet - Government Technical Higher Secondary School,Lawspet
- Nonankuppam - Government Higher Secondary School,Nonankuppam
- Mudaliarpet – #39,Ground Floor,Behind JK TVS Showroom, Opp RTO,100 feet road,Puducherry.