Pratibha Mishra
WHAT MAKES ME A PROGRESSIVE PRINCIPAL
I have devoted my life to helping students achieve more and I have done that for the past 15 years and I intend to continue that. I want to make education more accessible and personalized because no two students are same. This is what we need in the future and I remain committed towards achieving it. For me, it is not about any award but the acknowledgment of effort that comes with it. Acknowledgment of the hard work, the vision and my mission of democratizing education. I believe this is what progressive leaders do. They Dream.
MY MISSION AS A PROGRESSIVE PRINCIPAL
My mission is to democratize education. Democratize it in a way that every person in this country and the world can access it and learn things that they always wanted to. One of the issues we face is that underprivileged and differently-able children don’t receive education, I envision to change that situation. It is not just about democratizing it but also changing education to match international levels and go beyond. Building an infrastructure of learning where every student interacts with knowledge differently. An ecosystem that fosters critical thinking and research. It is not only about building this at premium schools but at every school in this country. I believe if anything education needs to do is, appeal to the curiosity of young minds.
LEARNING BY DOING
I am of the opinion that Projects, Experiential and Expeditionary Learning need to be mandatory in every curriculum. Since I have principled IGCSE schools, I had the opportunity to introduce various learning methods in our modus operandi. I ensure that teachers teach our students to understand, reason and apply. I am an advocate of practical approach to education and have advocated this at various meetings and training sessions. I also believe that we need to be at par with the digital transformation. These methods are of the past, the future is in hands of technology and our ability to embrace it.
INTEGRATED CURRICULUM
We are in the time when ‘Jack of All Trades’ works better than ‘Master of One.’ I am not against specializations but I think students should have knowledge across various streams. We are constantly working to inculcate thematic units and build an integrated curriculum at our school. Holding regular faculty meetings, re-visiting teaching methodologies and introducing new ways to deliver knowledge all help towards converging the varied expertise and experience of teachers to develop a holistic educational experience for students.
INTEGRATION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTO EDUCATION THROUGH FACULTY
I think that entrepreneurs build the nation and contribute a lot towards progressing national and global goals. At school level, it is not about having a business but having the entrepreneurial mindset. A growth mindset comes from enlightenment of the mind, by gaining essential knowledge and experience. It is more than the curriculum, it is more than marks, it is more than winning a competition. Entrepreneurship and Education meet where a never ending quest to learn begins. I and my teachers always inspire our students to take the extra step and learn beyond what is taught in class. The teachers understand this and support it by not stopping to learn new things and make the learning at school even better.
PROBLEM SOLVING & CRITICAL THINKING AMIDST THE FACULTY
As mentioned earlier, I strongly support the entrepreneurship. There are risks involved but they’re for a greater good. The same goes for problem solving and critical thinking. You don’t get it right the first time yet we do it. Whether it is a child’s life crisis or an educational issue we commit all our energy and possible resources to solve it. We just don’t help our students but we also train them to be a problem solver. These are the areas where trial-and-error works best because you have to keep trying new things and then stick to a solution that works for a problem. Then we try to optimize the solution to deliver it more effectively and efficiently. To inculcate such an approach in students, the teachers need to have a similar mindset. I work with teachers personally to help them apply their expertise into problem solving and help our students do it as well. I don’t have a prescribed method to problem solving and I try to innovate as I solve multifarious problems.
GROUP WORK AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SKILLS AMIDST THE FACULTY
I, myself, conduct and participate in various events that promote skill development in teachers. I train teachers at my and other institutions to adapt better social skills like confidence in case of young teachers or understanding child behavior to help our students. I visit various workshops to learn more and stay updated on social skills involved in education so that I can apply myself better as a teacher and as a Principal. I motivate teachers to push their boundaries and make themselves better humans before better teachers. A lot of this involves group activities with other teachers, psychological and educational mentors and much more. There is no single thing we do and we look forward to improvise on all aspects of our human souls.
UNDERSTANDING & ACTION BASED LEARNING
While we teach the curriculum, we deliver it in a way that appeals to the curiosity of the tender minds. We give assignments and homeworks that expects them to go beyond textbook. Our tasks force them to understand and apply what they learn. We also organize activities and events that are closely related to the curriculum and the students gain hands-on experience on the things they learn. We also train them to become problem solvers and experience critically and both these things rely on understanding the end application. It is all a part of a cycle where one thing cannot work without the other. Repeating such methods make our students acclimatized to practical and action based learning. We’re not perfect yet but we’re trying our best to deeply inculcate these skills.
COLLABORATIVE & COOPERATIVE LEARNING PROJECTS FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT
A lot of faculty trainings and workshops involve group activities with other teachers, psychological and educational mentors. These activities help teachers interact better with each other and collaborate on various academic and non-academic projects. As a result, the faculty has shown development in collaborating working together towards institutional goals and that of individual students. Teachers on my team, learn together, execute together, teach together and do a lot more but TOGETHER.
EDUCATION ACCENTUATING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SAFEGUARDING DEMOCRACY
Education is more about building people than just imparting knowledge. Education should build highly-skilled compassionate communities. Communities that focus on valuing humankind over racial and social discriminations. The most terrifying acts of violence are based on fundamentally racist or extremist beliefs. Education should be the key to solving such multifarious problems as it works towards preaching human values that can build a better world. We encourage everyone at our school to get involved at various levels of democracy. I encourage them to participate in various online forums and voice opinions on concerns that matter to the society. I encourage them to stay updated with the latest happenings in the country and in the world so that they can be better and more informed decision makers. Regular news briefings, social drives and other similar efforts constitute our attempt to participate in the society.
DESIGN & DELIVERY OF A LEARNING ECOSYSTEM WHEREBY HIGHLY PERSONALIZED LEARNING ACCOUNTING IS DONE FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL’S PERSONAL GOALS
We work closely with students and parents to ensure that everyone makes the most the system instituted at our school. I along with the management believe that every student is different and special and to cater to each one’s individual needs we need to broaden our vision and work at ground level so that nobody is left out. I encourage students to take online classes on multiple topics that we don’t offer at school. I am, personally, against the coaching classes or specialized tutoring just for the sake of marks. I monitor every student’s progress and goals through a well-established digital and physical system and regularly help each student in their success. While doing this we try to make it as personal as possible and we try to leave the general metrics like grades out of the influencing equation.
INTEGRATION OF COMMUNITY SERVICE AND SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS INTO THE DAILY CURRICULUM
Community service constitutes a large part of education because it helps us progress on our goal of building highly skilled compassionate communities. We cannot teach values like compassion, empathy or love by textbook and to help our students understand the true meaning of these values and morals we take them out to give back to the society. It includes participating social drives, policy building activities and helping each other at all times. We just don’t shove such things in their throat. We show them their true value and try to train them in a way that they be good citizens and help people even when not at school. We try to merge these things with our curriculum by telling our students how to use the things they learn class, out in public. I believe promising results will show up with continued efforts to build community service skills.
FUTURISTIC SELECTION OF SUBJECT CONTENT
I try to keep up with the world and the industries of the future so that I can help students make better choices. I work with the academic advisor to help students select the right subjects propel their career choice and also personally coach students and parents to help them select the right career. I don’t force my opinions on them instead just help the clear the fog in their path of selection. I understand that STEM fields like Robotics, Artificial Intelligence or Data Analysis have a great future but not every student needs to be pursuing that. It is very important for a person to love what he does and that is what I expect my students to do – follow their passion. Even a dancer or artist is significant to our existence and I think all we need to do is just help students do what he love.
I have contributed in curriculum planning for my own school in subject English wherein with my team based on the content we have devised and chalked out the implementation of the curriculum through different teaching methodologies.
LIFELONG LEARNING AND SOCIAL SKILLS OF FACULTY MEMBERS
We teach students to be lifelong learners and keep going beyond traditional approaches. What happens if the people who teach them these things become outdated? The results will be devastating. I tell this to all my faculty member and reason with them as to why it is important to keep learning. Teachers understand this and keep updating themselves so that they can help the students and innovate along the way.
FACULTY ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION OF THEIR INNOVATIVE PROJECTS & PRODUCTIONS
We have an appraisal system in place that evaluates teachers on multiple aspects including the newness they bring to each class. We ask students for their feedbacks and our senior leadership constantly monitors each teacher to see whether, and how much, practices are changing within classrooms and the organisation, how teachers develop and use their pedagogical resources, and to what extent change can be linked to improvements would provide a substantial increase in the international education knowledge base.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY TO FACULTY EMPOWERMENT
Everyone needs to grow including those who help others grow. I as their leader, help teachers solve problems that arise inside and outside classroom. I help them make better decisions in their personal and professional life. It is my job to empower them and ensure that they keep loving what they do and keep teaching in an innovative way.