The 2010 Tara.Ed Teacher Tour ran from September 7 – September 30, 2010. Six Pre-Service Teachers from Australia were selected to participate in the tour.
The tour aimed to promote sustainable, quality education in rural India by
building star teachers to help students shine
. Each Pre-Service teacher was assigned an Indian teacher and a class, and worked in the class, alongside that teacher for the duration of the tour. The Pre-Service teachers each brought and used their own educational resources and modeled students-centered and inquiry learning strategies. Resources were then left at the school for future use.
Each trainee teacher was encouraged to become involved in the community outside of the classroom, and find ways to make impact. Activities ranged from renovating the school library, conducting afterschool study groups for vulnerable students, working one-on-one with special needs students and participating in adult literacy classes in the community college. The group also participated in village outreach activities to two local villages as well as engaging in cultural activities such as the Ganesh Chaturthi.
This was the second tour conducted to the village of Ajra. It was encouraging to see the contributions of the previous tour’s technology focus in the school. Five of the eight donated laptops were used in ICT classes and the use of technology as a cross-curricular teaching strategy was prevalent. Teachers were making use of powerpoint presentations, internet research and audio-visual equipment in subjects such as English, History and Geography.
The 2010 Tour focus was the Library at Rosary English School. As well as renovating the space and stocking the library with children’s books and Early Readers, the trainee teachers also modeled how to use the space and resources as a cross-curricular teaching strategy.
The 2010 Teacher Tour directly impacted 2 schools, 620 children and 18 teachers. The tour indirectly impacted 180 students and 6 teachers from a local Marathi-Medium School. The participants of the Tara.Ed Tour spent one day in the classroom teaching English and liaising with the school’s volunteer teachers.
