Last week was the first week of our first ever virtual Institute An 8 week training period where our 2020 Fellows will receive the training information and inspiration needed for their Fellowship The opening ceremony had guest speakers such as Harsh Mander social activist researcher teacher columnist and author Ramesh S Trustee Teach For India Aloka Majumdar Senior Vice President amp Head of Corporate Sustainability HSBC India Anu Aga Founder Trustee Teach For India and Mike Johnston President and CEO Gary Community Investments and Teach For America Alumnus

During her address Shaheen Mistri Founder and CEO Teach For India shared a poem she wrote to help our new Fellows see what school can and should be like for children across the world Click on the image below to read the poem

ldquoA huge believer in the fact that education goes much beyond the subjects that are taught Shaheen Mistri Founder and CEO Teach For India has been fighting to see a future where quality education in India is not a privilege but a basic human rightrdquo Thank you MAKERS India for this beautiful feature

To see the full interview please click on the video

ldquoDonrsquot believe that you need to be old to lead You can lead now You are leading now The muscles you use to lead in a classroom are the same muscles yoursquoll use when yoursquore running schools a non-profit or the governmentrdquo

Truth Hope and what it means to be a leader in an education system plagued by issues like access quality teacher shortage community involvement and a focus on rote learning Mike Johnston Chief Executive Officer at The Piton Foundation and Gary Community Investments addressed our 2020 batch of Teach For India Fellows during a webinar about the role of teachers as leaders in solving the problem of educational inequity

Founder and CEO of Teach For India Shaheen Mistri and Rutuja Safoora and Afsaar Teach For India Students and Alumni took part in a powerful session at Institute where they explored the power of children An important question raised in the session was ldquoWhat is an excellent educationrdquo For Rutuja an essential aspect of all-round holistic education is one that helps children understand the world around them to analyse amp think critically

Collaboration and safe spaces are paramount to help students explore their full potential according to Safoora a Teach For India Student in Hyderabad And we couldnrsquot agree more Kids deserve unwavering support to help them unleash the leader within

What enables Student potential Shaheen ended the session with this very important question Some of the answers our new Fellows gave included ownership freedom exposure experiences and encouragement

For our new Fellows to better understand the Fellowship journey the challenges of working in a low-income school amp opportunities post Fellowship we invited some of our Alumni to have a conversation with Aakanksha Gulati Chief Program Officer Teach For India

During the session Founder amp CEO of Leadership For Equity Madhukar Banuri said there are 3 things we need as a nation right now- livelihood the culture of social emotional learning amp the creation of jobs Gaps in leadership have to be filled to achieve all 3 amp for peoplersquos needs to be metThe need for accountability across the system was expressed by Shivani Agrawal Consultant BCG She asserted the importance of executing measures so that they may reach the right beneficiaries Jai Mishra spoke to our Fellows on bringing about change impact and leadership ldquoWe need to solve from the grasstops as well as in the grassroots Breadth amp depth are both okay We need leaders in both areas amp in both spheresrdquo In his address to our Fellows Jagnoor Grewal said ldquoReflection and service is what will keep you going - learning things and perseverancerdquo What an excellent way to summarise what the Fellowship stands for and hopes to achieve

The last leadership session of the week on lsquoTFIrsquos Storyrsquo was moderated by Sandeep Rai Chief of City Operations Teach For India and Nalika Braganza Program Director Training and Impact Teach For India where they consolidated and synthesized learnings from the week Sandeep expressed how he hoped our 2020 Fellows learnt about inequity and what that means for our children and their futures ldquoSystemic oppression is real and it plays out in many forms for a childrdquo He asserted how important community is and the power it wields in bringing about change He spoke of the work our Alumni are doing their teams and organisations but that we still needed more people ndash people in law policy nutrition ndash people who can infuse change at every level

Nalika urged our Fellows to pause and think about the days that had gone by and about what was needed to solve Indiarsquos inequity She spoke to them about how each one of them could transform their childrenrsquos lives and in turn go through the process of transformation themselves She explained that with every challenge they would build courage with every child they would teach they would build passion and with every concept that they would teach for the nth time they would develop communication and when they realize the mammoth task theyrsquove taken on and the goal they have to achieve they would develop collaboration

Welcome to the movement 2020 Fellows We canrsquot wait to see the magic yoursquoll create

Here are some of the thoughts our Fellows ended Induction week with-

ldquoTeach For India provides a lens that lets you see elements of a problem that otherwise are invisiblerdquo

ldquoWe are building a force of leadership planting the seed of change and letting people identify the changemakers in them instead of being the ones who keep on complaining about the situationrdquo

ldquoTeach For India gives hope to children and helps them believe in teachersrdquo

Wersquod like to leave you with some hilarious memes on Institute that our new Fellows made guaranteed to have you laugh out loud Enjoy

We also had some very special messages for our 2020 Fellows from a special group of people Take a look

We are so happy to announce that we were successful in reaching our fundraising goal to provide relief in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns This was done through donations made on our Milaap fundraising page as well as through donations made directly by individuals and organisations To each one of you who donated and supported us in our time of need from the bottom of our hearts thank you The money we raised and the Students and their families wersquove helped wouldnrsquot have been possible without your generosity

Grateful to have such an extensive network of friends and supporters who have rallied around us ensuring that our Students and their families donrsquot go hungry and are able to keep learning

To continue donating and supporting the work we do please do visithttpswwwteachforindiaorgdonate

Thank you once again for your love and support We are grateful

Applications for the Teach For India 2021 Fellowship are open

Indiarsquos most underserved children need the best teachers now more than ever If you know someone who has always wanted to make a difference this right here is their chance Help spread the word

Visit applyteachforindiaorg and apply today

The need to re-imagine education is clearer today than it ever was before Do watch Vishal Talreja Co-Founder Dream A Dream and the man behind the global WhatIf movement explain just what is possible if only you believe

The lsquoConnect With a Childrsquo session had quite a few surprises in store for our Fellows They were asked to to call any child and ask them questions to get to know them They were also asked to call any close relative or friend who knew them well as children and to ask what they were like when they were young This helped them connect with their lsquoinner childrsquo and brought them a step closer to understanding the realities and world of children

Mr Anoop Jaiswal former DGP and a friend of Teach For India in Chennai has put together a monograph with Indiarsquos top epidemiologists to ensure accurate information reaches everyoneRead more about it here

Free Virtual Coaching Conference Coaches Rising a global coach development organization based in the Netherlands is holding their second annual virtual coaching summit from July 13 to 28 The summit will feature global thought leaders in the fields of coaching leadership and adult development including Spring Cheng Dan Siegel Otto Scharmer Manish Jain and many more Admission is free and everything can be downloaded Click here for details and registration Open to all

The current times call for a more holistic integrated way of teaching and learning Therefore on the occasion of International Doctors Day TRIKON came up with a campaign called lsquoDoctorsrsquo Mathrsquo which is their way of paying tribute to our frontline workers while also bringing about awareness in a mathematical way They have also curated resources for elementary secondary and middle school grades

The last few months have been all hands on deck Wersquove had Students parents and our Fellows come together to ensure that in spite of schools being closed learning doesnrsquot stop Here are a few examples of the magic their tireless efforts created

Online Math Classes for Grade 4 Synchronous classes conducted on zoom

Grade 10 Economics Lesson

Google for Homework Lesson Plans

Virtual classroom culture plan and other practices

Asynchronous learning packetsSome Fun Activities

Virtual PTA

Our new Fellows also had this opportuinity to be part of a session where they got to know Shaheen and her story This was a session which explored Shaheenrsquos Journey of 30 years in the Education Sector through a QampA moderated by two very special students - Priyanka and Mrunali who have been part of Shaheenrsquos journey through Maya amp The Greatest Show On Earth

The Yellow Hat Introduction and Debrief session articulated the values of Teach For India where our 2020 Fellows got to see what these values would look like in action Through the session they connected these values with experiences in their own lives and pushed their sense of possibility of what is possible for and from our children The session was designed to get Fellows to think positively through chal-lenges and use their skills and values to counter problems

Herersquos a peek into what went on during the Yellow Hat session-

WE ARE THRILLED TO WELCOME

FELLOWS TO OUR2020 COHORT

FELLOWS INTO THETRANSFORMATIONALTEACHING FELLOWSHIPPROGRAM

479 48ampThe Induction week was designed to provide our cohort with an overviewof Teach For India and answer some questions

What is Teach For India tryingto create in the world

What makes Educational Inequitysuch a complex problem to tackle

In what way is teaching connectedto leadership

What is the leadership that Indianeeds Where am I on that path

Towards what outcomes hasInstitute been designed

Miss Courage

Miss Creativity

Miss Curiosity Mr Critical Thinking

Miss Communication

Miss Collaboration

Miss Compassion

Mr Consciousness

Induction week was steeped in learning and inspiration Here are some glimpses from the week

Click here

Click on the video

Stories of kindness courage and selflessness continue to pour in from all corners of the country Wersquore so happy and proud to be part of a community that rallies around one another operates with empathy and

refuses to give up This edition is packed with all the inspiration you need to get you through this fortnightFor a recap of our sixth edition click here

Send us SomeGoodNews at communicationteachforindiaorg

Wear a mask Stay at home Use a sanitizer Follow a routine Reach out to friends and family

Share SomeGoodNews

Aiming at improving our health and increasing physical activity during these unprecedented times CoolCoach has started the Get Active Program (GAP) And have rolled out a special offer for fitness classes just for Teach For India Fellows Staff and Alumni 15 Personal Training Sessions at the price of 10 sessions They only have 25 slots so if yoursquore interested sign up immediately For more information on their Fellowship program and all the cool things they get up to follow them on Facebook Instagram and Linkedin

Neeraj Doddamane and his team have done a wonderful job of collating stories of children across communities and geographies who are inspiring humanity with their acts of kindness and courage This Special edition of lsquoThe Happy Newsletter Projectrsquo covers the brilliant stories of their lsquoYoung Corona Warriorsrsquo from all their previous editions

Shreya Krishnan and the folks over at The Better Design Foundation have created a resource to help school administrators plan for the possibility of reopening schools in the COVID-19 climate Do take a look To know more about their work follow them on Facebook and Instagram

Saahil Sood is one of the three brilliant minds behind this If you missed signing up this time we urge you to follow him on Instagram to get updates on the incredible work he is doing You donrsquot want to miss these for a second time

As part of their on-going efforts to bridge the digital gender gap Pi Jam organised an online lsquoYoung Girls in Techrsquo webinar on the 11th of July 2020 The webinar had the objective of inspiring and demystifying tech for young girls showing them a pathway of limitless possibilities and breaking tech biases Panelists ranged from women leaders in the tech industry teachers parents government school students Pi Jam students and educators from various organisations

For updates on their events follow them on Facebook Instagram and Linkedin

Jigyasa Labroo Co-Founder Slam Out Loud collaborated with Sesame Workshop India and her friends Elmo and Chamki to write poems that helps one be vulnerable and express what theyrsquore feeling Take a look

For more updates on Slam Out Loud follow them on Facebook and Instagram

The eighth edition of Seekho Aur Sikhao an endeavour to bring the Alumni community together to learn from each other had Harsh Swaminarayan conduct a workshop on the tools one can use to manage your energy even on the busiest of days He did this by using a simple audit tool amp the latest guidelines which have been fundamental in helping 321 Foundationrsquos Team members amp many Teach For India Mumbai Fellows since the last 5+ years to get themselves to regularly practice things which are most relevant to them to improve their 4 energies

OUR ALUMNI- ALWAYS THE TRAILBLAZERS

MORE THAN TEACHERS IN THIS LOCKDOWN

THE FUTURE IS BLENDED

LEARNING NEVER STOPS

For a recap of our sixth edition click here

Follow us on for updates stories and inspiration

Send us stories of inspiration acts of kindness and courage campaigns and regional resources on communicationteachforindiaorg and wersquoll share them on our digital media platforms and in the next edition of SomeGoodNews

Click on the videos

Click on the pictures below

STUDENT LEADERSHIP AT ITS BEST

The Mind Room created by Anju Joseph Shraddha Ghadi Sajida Munaf Sumona Shetty Dipti Balwani and Romana Shaikh with the support of Elgiva Kharsati and Pooja Pawar from the Mumbai Alumni Impact team is organising workshops and holding space to foster mental health support for members of our community

Deepak V a Policy Action Fellow with Indus Action has written about his experiences in the past year of working in the education sector Read about it here

For more information on the work that Indus Action is doing follow them on Facebook Instagram Linkedin and Twitter

Yesha and her co-Fellow Aishwarya in Pune have been working on a mental health module for middle and high school Students called lsquoProject Hope and Beyondrsquo This project aims to collectively address and tackle mental health issues through different spaces and structures

Kairav uploads videos of his class everyday to his Youtube channel It covers Science and Math topics for Grade 6 and 7 and is extremely useful for Students who do not have phones available during class time

Our Fellows in Holy Star School in Mumbai were struggling to follow up with their 120 children due to their teacher student ratio They went on Internshala to look for volunteers and managed to find 700 volunteers for their classroom They had a selection process and finalised 31 volunteers for their children ensuring a 15 ratio for teacher and student

Deepika in Bangalore worked on a video series called lsquoHow to Write Effective Problem Statements for Kidsrsquo as part of her Internship project with CEL (Code to Enhance Learning Trust) CEL teaches coding to school students in an attempt to develop essential 21st century skills like creativity and critical-thinking The video series is best suited to kids in Grade 5 to Grade 9 A step-by-step guide on planning researching synthesizing and refining information to problem solve these videos can be used for school projects as well as coding competitions such as CEL Kids Hackathon Design for change and Google Code to learn contests

Rohita has also been leveraging the power of Youtube to reach as many Students as possible in a fun and engaging way Here is a video she made on Angles revision for her Grade 7 Students

Mantra recorded herself speaking on compassion and set her kids the assignment of listening to the full recording They were then required to watch a video on Compassion following which they were asked to watch a video on sharing After completing the assignment she debriefed the exercise with her kids where they all shared their thoughts and takeaways from the assignment

Such a great example of blended learning taking place Well done Mantra

Amit Sharma in Delhi piloted a volunteer management program in two schools Aurangzeb Lane and Moti Bagh with the help of his school team members Mehak and Mangesh The program is aimed to help Fellows with class observation and feedback setting up and sharing best practices organising resources and focus areas for the week and providing spaces for Fellows and teachers alike to deep dive into solving the problem of ed-inequity

Fellows across Middle schools in Mumbai have been working hard on their lesson plans and PPTs for a virtual environment and have started teaching with a mix of live classes and asynchronous classes Summer camps have also been organised to help Students become aware of current affairs and to introduce them to activities that will keep them interested and their participation high Fellows are also experimenting with various formats like google forms to capture learnings and assessments

Divya a Fellow in Ahmedabad found that her Students were having trouble in connecting the purpose of education to the choices they felt were available as vocations to them So she reached out to practitioners of different vocations so that her Students could hear from them and get more exposure She has a series called lsquoBack to Schoolrsquo which takes place on Sundays and till date has hosted an astronomer an artist an agricultural researcher and an army personnel

Teach For India Chennai saw many Fellows and their Students attend the cityrsquos second Pullingo party a space for Fellows and their kids to perform share and foster connections An overwhelming success the city will now host weekly Pullingo parties and continue hosting spaces where anyone interested can participate perform and share

Saloni a 2019 Fellow took a fun session with her Students in order to build their digital literacy Her motive was to enable Students to use the internet in a more effective manner Here is the presentation she made

Shreya Tobias and her co-Fellow Bhavna in Mumbai reached out to companies such as Camel DOMS and Fevicryl about changing the names of their art products from names that depict colours of skin tones for eg lsquoFlesh Tintrsquo to something less racial in nature To their delight Camel responded with the following statement Excellent work Shreya and Bhavna Wersquore so proud to have Fellows who bring about change not just in the communities we work with but globally You have us inspired

Project Jeevat an experiment in self-directed learning for better Student Outcomes has the involvement of both Fellows and Alumni in Hyderabad Their vision is to empower Students to choose and chase their dreams through self-directed learning They are approaching this vision with a curriculum for the same The team involved in creating this curriculum are Aamrapali Vaidehi Hafsa Gayathri Pallavi Alexis Sanhita and Raman This curriculum has 4 components to it the first is a set of seven learning to learn (L2L) skills which include reading comprehension taking notes and executive functions and tools The second component is the SCERT curriculum layered on top of the L2L skills This design drives practice of the L2L skills to learn the school curriculum The third component is personalized social emotional 11 support for this journey where they are designing a number of psychometric and personality tests and a reflection journal equipped with a self-evaluation rubric The last component is a set of lead and lag data points that they will collect to track the Studentsrsquo journey on a continuous basis The curriculum for 8 th and 9 th Grade is ready and is already being implemented in two classrooms

Great work team We canrsquot wait to hear more

Gulshan and Vishwanath two Grade 7 Students in Bangalore have been learning animation scratch programming and coding during the lockdown under the STEM learning project run by SRF foundation They even secured first and second place respectively on taking part in a competition as part of a digital summer camp they were attending Congratulations Gulshan and Vishwanath

This pandemic has seen Student Leadership reach new heights Ayman and Sadaf two of our Students in Ahmedabad hosted an online poetry event which had 25 participants Students from across cities came together to perform their poetry and celebrate each otherrsquos poems Sadaf and Ayman really enjoyed organising the event and are considering having similar spaces throughout the year

So wonderful to see Students creating opportunities for other Students to learn outside the classroom

Tejveer A Student Alumnus in Delhi who recently passed out of 10th Grade has started his own YouTube channel where he puts up videos of himself teaching so as to help his juniors and other students during this lockdown

Please Like Share and Subscribe to his Youtube channel and support Tejveer in his endeavour to keep learning going for his peers

Such a wonderful job yoursquore doing Tejveer The world needs more teachers like you

To amplify Student voice Teach For India Pune has assembled a Student Advisory Council (SAC) The SAC envisions Students working as aggregators These Student advisors will work closely with Fellows and Staff to support the planning and execution of different events and projects in the city They will also create spaces for Student voice in the form of Student led events

Wersquore delighted to welcome 11 Students as a part of this Council- Khushi Samyak Payal Abhay Rutik Ashish Dhanashree Prathamesh Shweta Shruti and Sujeet

Congratulations team we canrsquot wait to see all the great things yoursquore going to get up to

Kamal Vardhan in Hyderabad took part in the Cambio Online MUN which was held over Zoom from the 9th of July to the 11th of July Through his experience of taking part and preparing Kamal honed his negotiation and research skills which he believes are valuable skills for anyone to have And we couldnrsquot agree more Well done Kamal

Arsalanuddin student in Bombay can be seen in the video below teaching his brother multiplication He learnt how to pass on his learning and teach his brother after attending a summer camp started by Alumni and Fellows in the city to help Students teach and support their siblings during the lockdown

This is such a great initiative and Arsalanuddin wersquore so proud to see you teach your brother

Wersquore so happy to announce that Sanmyukta and the entire Project Rakt team who have been working towards tackling Anaemia in rural India received the Courage Award at the GSL Competition 2020 Big congratulations to everyone involved So proud of the incredible work yoursquove done Read more here

Taanika a KER 2020 Revolutionary Reap Benefit Youth Board Member and Core Member of the Reap Benefit COVID-19 Response Campaign collaborated with another Core Member Smruthi to highlight the issues with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Draft 2020 They took this forward under a movement led by Anjali Dalmia who united around 50 student unions and 200 students They sent a letter to the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) demanding the withdrawal of this draft

For more information on the EIA click here

Firki Teach For Indiarsquos online teacher training portal organised a webinar on ldquoFacilitating for students in a virtual worldrdquo with Craig Johnson Head of School American School of Bombay The webinar highlighted the importance of synchronous online classes Using his decades of experience as a teacher combined with experiences of educators who have been running online classes for the last few months Craig suggested tips and tools teachers can use to make virtual learning an enjoyable and thorough experience for students

TFIx is Teach For Indiarsquos year long incubation program for passionate entrepreneurs who want to adopt Teach For Indiarsquos Fellowship model

Self Reliant India (SRI) led by 2018 TFIx Entrepreneur Surender Yadav is reaching new heights everyday Their fellowship program helps children prepare for admission into Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya 35 students from SRI successfully cleared their examinations this year While Working in 3 Districts directly - Nuh Jhajjar and Rewari SRI has not only increased Govt School Student Participation in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya but also increased awareness about their examinations in their communities

With governments remaining unsure about when they will be able to safely re-open schools we thought it would be useful to collate a list of resources to help and enable learning at home

Click on the pictures

WE HAVE YOU COVEREDOur team has collated a list of resources - government helpline numbers shelters donation drives contacts of on-ground people contact details for therapists as well as information on testing and delivery These resources

are both city specific and state specific We hope that this will provide some relief and support to those within and outside our network

In Varsha Nagar in Mumbai Ananya had 6th Graders become study buddies with 3rd Graders to teach them phonics and reading

Teacher Student Ratio