‘Touchstone makes the teachers Touchstones!’

”Touchstone makes the teachers touchstones, so that they can turn their students into gold.’ was the concluding remark made by Mr. Manmohan Nayik, Principal of SDM English Medium School, Ujire on the final day of  Touchstone, a course for contemporary teachers. SDM Schools, with 30 teachers, successfully completed Touchstone on 29 March 2009 and is now confident that they can make teaching – learning in their school more effective and purpose-driven. The programme was run in the school with the support of Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Bombay.

‘Touchstone content should be made a part of the B Ed Curriculum.’ said Ms. Parimala, a teacher who has undergone the programme at SDM.

‘I am a computer teacher and I was struggiling with class control and I used to be very tiered by the end of the day. It was then, one of the facilitators after the classroom observation suggested that I form ground rules. I did that. And now I can confidently say that one of the best things I gained from Touchstone is regardning the formation of ground rules for every class.’ said Suma, the computer instructor at SDM Englih Medium School, who has undergone Touchstone.

Posted by Sojo Varughese, Coordinator, TTF Mangalore