amWRit

A week back, I came across this article through a facebook page. Education Isn't the Key to a Good I ncome The title itself caught my attention. I worked as a Teach for Nepal fellow for 2 years in a community school of Sindhupalchok, Nepal, where I taught Science from grade 6 to 10. However being a TFN fellow didn't mean just teaching subject, it was way more than that. But one of the main beliefs we had was that if the kids in rural part could get proper education, this would help them have a better life - by better I mean financially. As mentioned in the article, Deborah Menkart, the executive director of Teaching for Change, agrees that Rothstein’s research supports what teachers have long known from their own experience on the front lines. “I think it also affirms the focus,” she said, on having “children not just see schools as a ticket out of poverty, as a way to ‘rise above’ your community, but as a way to [be] agents for change within their communities.” “P...

On 23rd November, 20163 guests viz. Mr. Sher Bdr. Tamang (MP), Mr. Karmath Dangol (VP of Engineering at Cloudfactory) and Mr. Sujin Joshi (Freelance software developer) along with alum Eva Manandhar and Shina Shrestha visited Terse Secondary School, Sindhupalchok participating in the #OneDayInAClassRoom under Teach for Nepal 's initiative. The 3 guests took 3 of the classes, sharing their stories, inspiring kids. Here, I have put some of the thoughts from kids after the classes. I along with my co-fellows Astha and Aakriti took a written feedback from the students. मैले के सिके ? मैले के प्रेरणा पाए ? Karmath Dangol (VP Engineering, Cloudfactory) “ आफुले कुनै काम गर्दा त्यसमा आफुलाई इच्छा हुनुपर्छ, इच्छा भएपछी, गर्ने कुराको मौका भएपछी त्यसको जानकारी हुनुपर्छ | जानकारी नभए खोजेर लिने | अरुबाट सिक्नुपर्छ र अरुलाई पनि सिकाउनुपर्छ | मैले पनि उंहाले जस्तै आफुलाई लागेको बिषय पढेर, विदेश गएर कमाएर फेरी आफ्नै देश फर्केर आफ्नै देशमा केहि गरेर देशको बिकाश गर्ने प्रेरण...

Note : This is just a technique to calculate and doesn’t explain ‘WHAT is valency and WHY is it so’. I have tried the technique with just first 20 elements, which are the must necessary ones according to our curriculum in Nepal. Please check the technique with more elements and let me know if it doesn’t work. Background : Valency is one important concept in chemistry. Being able to calculate it helps students with other chapters in chemistry like writing molecular formula, chemical reactions etc. So, I have been trying hard to make each student calculate valency. During my C2SATs class of grade 7 taken by grade 9 students, one of the student Gokul Lamichhane was using a different technique to teach calculation of valency. I asked him where he learnt it. He got it from an engineer relative. I found it amazing. It was as easy as counting chickens. However, he didn’t know how to give sign to the valency. Later, I dug into the technique. It was nothing new. It was always t...

Arjun Tamang (front), Sushila Khadka (middle) and Kumar Tamang(last) from grade 9 teaching  peer students of grade 7. June 7, 2016 I call them SATs, Students as Teachers. SATs came into being as a way to cover my classes during my absence. I had to take leave for my training. I couldn’t afford to lose any more classes as almost 2 months were lost due to the earthquake. So, I had to find a way to keep the course going on. Also, my absence could mean students talking, misbehaving and other classes getting disturbed. That was when, I thought of asking some students to teach some part of an easy chapter. That way, classes wouldn’t be vacant and the course would move along. This concept has helped me a lot of times I have been absent. We miss classes during our trainings. I had been thinking to improve this concept and using it cross-class, that is, students of one class would act as teacher for some other class. I fancily call it C2SATs (Cross Class Students as Teachers)...