Jan-Feb 2013 Volume 7, Issue 1-2

Inspiring Teachers
Driving educational change through excellence in teaching

A combined issue
As some of you noticed, we did not send the We also have an article by Chandrasekhar newsletter in Jan 2013. Hence this is a combined issue now. It is never too late to greet you all for the year 2013. Hope you all This month:
A teacher by choice Dr T Mala.2 Down Memory Lane Chandrasekhar.3 Vipassana a students experience 4

Swaminathan, reproduced from St Patricks online magazine started by their alumni. Its a about an inspiring Telugu teacher he had in school. I have shared my experience with Vipassana ten day program more in terms of the pedagogy and the benefits. One important message here is that I developed a new respect

experience growth in all areas of your life and you are able to achieve your potential. This month we have profiled Dr T Mala, teaching at Anna University. A her students and respected by her colleagues, she is a teacher by choice.

knowledgeable and humble person loved by for discipline. --Uma Garimella

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Inspiring Teachers
I believe that teaching is an art and can be improved through experience. I also feel the success of teaching depends on how much the students understand the subject. I make students participate in the class by asking simple questions, by telling them interesting facts related to the topic I teach and I also tell jokes to grab their attention and not to make them feel bored. Read full interview at http://www.theprofe ssor.in/faculty-ofthe-month.shtml Tell us briefly about career. Was it accidental or intentional? I was born and brought up in Chennai hailing from a middle class family. After completing my B.E(ECE) in 1991 I got married. I was at home for two

Page 2 of 5
Information Extraction Based Dr.T.V.Geetha. I love teaching and wanted to become a teacher as you can see my career path from school teaching to college teaching. How much work do you

A teacher by choice Dr T Mala, Anna University

yourself and your choice of Document Visualization under

years during which I completed expect from students PGDCA. Later I was working in outside class in terms of Dr.T.Mala, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Science and Technology in College of Engineering at Anna University. in Computer Science, she has chosen to be a teacher with great passion. Her areas of interest are Computer Graphics and Natural Language Processing. She balances her work (that involves teaching, research and administration) with taking care of her kids and watching her favourite programs on TV. She is known as a person who cares for people around her, not letting manners. very prestigious schools in Chennai like SBOA, Adarsh Vidyalaya etc. I was handling Since this is college teaching I XII standard Computer Science feel that it is the individual and produced many centums in students responsibility to study outside class hours. But then to it is course instructors responsibility to give assignments and home works to students so that they can work outside college hours. Group projects are given to students so that they can work collaboratively. I believe in smart work. I motivate students to learn their subjects well by giving example case studies and applications that are relevant to the subject I teach so that students tend to I completed my distance MCA in 1999 and thereafter joined a private Engineering college in Chennai. Here I learned the importance of M.E and wrote my Non GATE exam. I got selected for M.E (Multimedia Technology) in College of Engineering, Guindy getting sixth rank in entrance. During my M.E I was class first in first two semesters and completed rank in 2003. In the same year reading or assignments?

A BE in ECE and and ME and PhD XII.

anyone down and having pleasing M.E with University second

I joined CEG as Visiting faculty read their subject well to apply and with my 10 years of service the concepts studied to the in CEG I am now Assistant Professor in Department of given example applications.

Page 3 of 5 Down Memory Lane

Inspiring Teachers
Chandrasekhar Swaminathan
yagna. After the show, an old man walked upto Raghupati sir and complimented the show. He however found Siva's dialog "veLLi rA", a contradiction since Sati does not return and every spoken word of Lord Siva is considered the TRUTH. Raghupati sir bowed at the old man's feet. He also had the humility to share this with his students. The greatest lesson he imparted was the value of enthusiasm. The monopoly of a job wherein one has to keep repeating the same lessons year after year can easily dull a teacher's interest. However, Raghupati sir was genuinely enthusiastic about his students and his subject. Needless to say, he was very good at his job. It goes on to show that one would be very good in a job she/he is enthusiastic about. His classes were always interesting and stimulating. All the more praiseworthy when you consider that he must have taught the same lessons umpteen times. I recollect quiz-like sessions for paryAya padAlu (synonyms). There were also the odd 'pumpkin' games during classes. I can't remember much about the game except that I was pathetic in it. Numerous were the occasions when he would go off on a tangent during classes. In some respects, his digressions were the norm in any given period. These digressions made his classes a lot more interesting. He was pas sionate about his culture and traditions. I am sure that passion would have rubbed off on to many of us. I owe an interest in Indian history and mythology to this great teacher, not to mention the love for the language. His accidental death is a grave tragedy. The extent of that tragedy is compounded when the said person happens to be an exalted teacher and a great poet/lyricist. It is unfortunate that so many more students did not have the opportunity to interact with him. He had so much to offer when the end came. To me he was a lot more than someone I learnt Telugu from; a role model, a person I looked up to. High school students always look upon their teachers with awe and respect and teachers bear the burden of meeting those expectations. Raghupati sir carried that burden graciously in word and deed. He was one of the finest role models there ever could be. He must have touched countless lives in a special way. His memory lingers, in so many of us. He exemplified his often repeated phrase 'na bhUtO, na bhavaishyati' (never in the past, never again in the future). Taken with permission from http://st.patricks.tripod.com/echoes1. pdf
Chandrasekhar Swaminathan finished his Masters degree at Utah State Univesity and is currently working in New York State, working on transportation logistics. He can be reached at sekharswami@yahoo.com.

IT is often said that people die, relationships don't. One such enduring relationship I had the privilege of sharing was with Sri Pingali Raghupati Rao, our beloved Telugu teacher. The memories of high school last a lifetime. Truly, teachers are in that noble position of being able to mould impressionable minds. His performance at the school assemblies is a stand-out memory. The passion with which he sang "maa telugu talliki malle pUdanDa " says a lot about the man. Oblivious of the world around him and singing with his eyes closed, he felt every word of the song. It was merely incidental that he would drown the voice of Indira teacher who would be singing along most times. My guess is that he did not even realize it. He was an unconventional man. He married a person of his choice, not a small matter in those days. We were all awe struck when he told us stories of how he had eloped to Tirupati and was practically penniless at the time of his wedding. Though highly learned he displayed no intellectual pretensions. There was an incident where he was performing with a troupe. One of the acts had Lord Siva telling Sati "veLLi rA" (Go and return), when asked for permission to attend her father Daksha's

Inspiring Teachers

Page 4 of 5
Uma Garimella
The benefit of silence The first foundation for a life of dhamma is to follow the panchsheel; the ten days of rules are basically to adhere to these panchsheel. One of the panchsheel is not to speak lies. And the silence is to prevent us from speaking lies even the white lies! I have attended several spiritual workshops and conducted many training sessions. One immense benefit of this silence was that we didnt get carried away by the experience sharing that typically happens between participants. Another benefit that is more to do with logistics is that people didnt give unsolicited suggestions or feedback on how the program should be organized, when lunch should be served or when we should take breaks. The program is tightly run on a nice time table, there is no need to talk, good food is served and I enjoyed the whole of it except the body aches due to sitting. 3 weeks after the program Its just about three weeks after the program. I am practising at least 2 hrs of Vipassana per day and I am seeing several benefits. I am able to remain unaffected by people whose presence used to irritate me. I think I have become a little gentler in my relationships. As my daughter aptly put it you are not getting ruffled. Well, for beginners thats a big achievement. One of my weaknesses was to get very emotional, do something impulsive and then get into a guilt trip. I see a light at the end of the tunnel now. For more details read: http://www.dhamma.org/

Vipassana an amazing experience as a student

I attended the ten-day Vipassana camp near Medak from 9th to 20th of last month. I had read all the strict rules on their site and heard from others, but I had been wanting to attend this program since quite some time. Even the center spends quite some time in reiterating the rules and making sure people are willing to follow them. The two rules which appeared very difficult are the silence and getting up at 4AM! I was also quite shocked with the popcorn and tea meal at 5PM after which we didnt eat anything till next morning 630 breakfast. Well, these were the easiest parts of the program as I realized the very next day. The toughest part was sitting down for meditation almost 11 hrs per day with breaks of course! And by the fourth day we had a mandatory adhisthaan sitting without moving for three sessions of one hr each. I didnt have any miraculous healing or divine experiences with such intense meditation, but I had several insights into my behavior. What is Vipassana? It is actually a simple technique of observing yourself, all the sensations, (which are actually formed by the union of mind and body) and observing with equanimity, objectively. As we train our mind on the sensations, it also develops equanimity in life situations because every situation is in fact experienced at the physical/mental level. It is not a religion. It was an ancient Indian practice, forgotten and then rediscovered by Gautham Buddha. The pedagogy It was like sitting in a pre-primary class; repeating a small lesson endlessly! On the first day we had to focus on our breath, on day 2 it was the sensation of breath, then each day we progressed - on the triangular nose area, then the area below the nose, then inch-by-inch body from head to toe, then from toe to head, then parallel and then whole body. Each step is to be practiced for the whole day of meditation. The perfect model for scale Vipassana is taught in more than 125 centers world wide and all the centers run identically and using the audio tracks of Acharya SN Goenka ji. The instructions are simple and given in multiple languages. They are repeated for five minutes at the beginning of every session. The day concludes with a video discourse of about 90 min by Goenkaji (again in three languages). The discourse is only about the method and some background on why it is needed. It does not engage in any philosophical discussions in any case all of us are in silence and its only a video. The discourses are very rational, applicable to every human being and convince us that the technique if practiced can lead us to a life free of misery. Goenkaji has the right mix of inspiration, knowledge and humor. The role of the local teacher Initially, I felt that the teacher who was leading the meditation, wasnt contributing much to the process. Her role was only to switch on the tape and meet each of us oneon-one to check if we got the technique right. (We could talk with the teacher). But later I realized that it was the perfect model. The teacher is not supposed to add any opinions or experiences to the instructions given by Goenkaji. Further, by not engaging in philosophical or intellectual discussions, she leaves every participant to observe and get her own insight.