Announcing Times Award for Excellence in Teaching (TAFET 2013)

Times Foundation in collaboration with The Teacher Foundation is happy to announce the launch of TAFET, “ Times Award For Excellence in Teaching – 2013” . These awards will be aptly presented on 5th September 2013, Teachers Day.Through these awards, we want to recognize and acknowledge the outstanding work of our teachers.   ‘Great teaching is easy to recognize, but hard to define. The truth is that there are as many great teaching styles as there are great teachers. The effort to find one has just begun.
Every teacher hopes that their teaching in their school is outstanding and aspires for an ‘outstanding' award.   A key factor in achieving outstanding status is the quality of teaching and learning. Outstanding teaching includes a focus on pupils making exceptional progress as a result of inspiring teaching, from teachers having excellent subject knowledge and the innovative use of new technology.

Outstanding teaching looks different depending on the circumstances and context. An outstanding lesson on algebra will look very different to an outstanding PE lesson. However, outstanding teaching and learning underpins every effective school. Research shows that all the best teachers motivate their pupils to work hard and assess them regularly. How teachers use pupil assessments to plan and shape future lessons is an important factor in outstanding teaching. This is one aspect of the culture of outstanding schools.  Building Confidence, ability to make difficult decisions, developing others, good Communicators, they thrive in the company of others and seeing the ‘bigger picture’ are collectively some of the traits of an outstanding teacher.

Indicators of outstanding teaching
An outstanding lesson is one with much significant strength and no areas for improvement. This should also be very closely linked with clear evidence of effective learning and progress for every learner in the class. It is often more important to focus on what the pupils are doing than what the teacher is doing. What the pupils do and learn in a lesson is often a better indicator of the quality of a lesson. The key factors include:

• Are the pupils highly engaged?
• Do they move from listening to being positively motivated?
• Do they learn and make progress?
• Do they obviously enjoy the lesson and have fun, and are they keen to discuss what they have learned and what they might be doing in the next lesson?
• Do the pupils ask appropriate (and challenging) questions?
• Do they show a keen interest in the tasks?
• Are they proud of their work?
• Are the pupils involved in deciding any part/content of the next lesson on the topic?

Effective teachers add value to lessons by using special approaches and features. These are usually on top of the normal good teaching approaches and may include some of the following:

• Subject expertise and flair
• The involvement of every pupil in the learning process
• Intelligent questioning involving every pupil
• The use of a wide variety of resources as appropriate including new technology
• Involvement of pupils in the learning process and developing independent learning.

Based on the above criteria we are calling on nominations for TAFET.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA TO REGISTER FOR TAFET
The 2 Categories for the competition are as follows:

• Affordable Private Schools (fee is Re. 1200 and below per month)
• ICSE and CBSE Schools (fee is between Re. 1250 and Re. 3500 per month)

In each Category, there will be divisions as given below:

• Middle School – Grades 5 to 8
• High School – Grades 8 to 12.

There will be first place and 1st runner-up in each division.

Levels for the competition

• Paper pencil Test(Multiple choice questions)
• Group Discussion
• Classroom observation.
• Award ceremony.

Last date for registration is 14 August  2013 (Please note that only teachers who teach in Bangalore Schools are eligible for the award!)

Click here to download the application form!