Tuesday 5 December 2017

Video Conference with Partner Schools #KHMS

A virtual meeting via video conferencing among the students and teachers of the three schools - Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Delhi, India; Kuressare Regional Training Centre and Tartu Art School, Estonia and Taras Shevchenko Himnazia, Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, took place on 30th November 2017. All the three schools introduced their countries, schools and the subjects that they study.

During the video conferencing, our teacher Ms. Taranjeet Kaur, along with students displayed the students' work in their files, projects and various articles which the students prepare during their classes using screen printing, embroideries and other ways of value addition to various fashion related products.

 Kuressare Regional Training Centre and Tartu Art School, Estonia, we were told, deal with Graphic Designing and design logos, banners and various other products that are put-up for advertising, PR and display.

Ms. Hanna Dudich from Ukraine introduced us to her work. She prepares puppets and Christmas materials.

This very interactive session was summed up after discussing and planning of various activities that will be conducted in the coming months.

Saturday 2 December 2017

KHMS Global Journey

KHMS has achieved numerous milestones in the past four decades. We are recipients of British Council International School Award 2017-20, 2014-17, embedding global dimensions to the curriculum. We are at present  collaborating with more than 20 schools from different parts of the world (http://khms24x7.blogspot.in , http://khmsudaan.blogspot.in ). We have well established science laboratories,Atl lab, computer labs and Interactive Mathematics lab, Digital library ,to mention a few. The school seeks to nurture talent through academics and co- curricular activities through vedic values to cultivate a modern outlook among its students. KHMS believes in exploring, learning and sharing. Through cultural exchange visits and activities students learn to become a responsible global citizens.
Our school is managed by DAVCMC (Dayanand Anglo Vedic College Managing Committee) which is running more than 900 institutions all across India.
KHMS International Journey since April 2013
  • Completed 10 international projects under the British Council International School Award accreditation programme. KHMS got ISA 2014-2017. Created http://khms24x7.blogspot.in for sharing international activities of school with partner school. Established partner school connection of KHMS with the following schools:
o   Barnes Wallis Academy, Lincolnshire, UK
o   Boston College, Boston, UK
o   Coningsby Primary School, Lincolnshire, UK
o   School no. 11, “St. O. Losif”, Brasov, Romania
o   Peshawar Model Girls Higher Secondary School, Peshawar
o   Lyceum School, Lahore
o   German International School, Indonesia
o   Ahmed Zwail Primary School, Egypt
 Our school students were able to  acquire 21st century skills viz. Communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking while learning and sharing with students of partner schools through video
Conferences and other platforms like Edmodo, Skype etc.


  • “Udaan Creating Identity” a Kulachi enterprise, received School Enterprise Challenge Top Global Prize 2014 of 5000 US Dollars from UK based organisation “Teach a Man to Fish”.  School
    Enterprise Challenge Business Development Prize 2015 of 1000 US Dollars from UK based organisation “Teach a Man to Fish”.
  • Our school is a lead school collaborating with international organization ENO (Environment Online) for promoting awareness about making our planet green and peaceful. Twice a year on 8 May and 21 September we plant for green and peaceful planet. Ms. Rashmi Kathuria is National coordinator from India for the project.
  • KHMS participated in Global Virtual Classroom contest 2014,2015,1015(Mini GVC0 40 students participated in the activity, learnt website designing and collaborated with Walton Middle School, US and developed website https://sites.google.com/a/gsbi.org/gvc1419/hom. Students won the Silver Award and school bagged a trophy and sponsorship of    500 dollars to do a charity for the
    organisation Give something back International. The Primary students bagged the bronze award for their website and award for academic excellence in year 2015.
  • KHMS applied for the Connecting Classroom UK Exchange grant from the British Council.  The School received 1500 pounds for the teacher exchange visit to Barnes Wallis Academy, Lincolnshire. We Completed Action research with partner school Math teacher. Mr. Pocklington and Ms. Gillian Bush visited our school for the teacher exchange in Oct-Nov, 2014. From our school Ms. Sunita Sindhwani and Ms. Rashmi Kathuria visited UK in April, 2015. The partnership strengthened the international bonds and school students are collaborating in various projects with partner schools.
  • KHMS participated in Global Virtual Classroom contest 2015 and won commendation for the website made by students.
  • Ms. Rashmi Kathuria got Google [Teach] Grant of 2000 USD to conduct teacher training. Only four teachers from India were selected from 700 applications.
  • The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Vancouver, Canada established CEMCA in 1994 as an international agency to promote the meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of ICTs to serve the educational and training needs of Commonwealth member states of Asia. The Government of India notified CEMCA as a diplomatic mission under section 3 of the United Nations (privileges and immunities) Act, 1947 vide The Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section  (ii) dated 10 February 2000. CEMCA works in eight Commonwealth countries in Asia. To extend the benefit of this modern technology, CEMCA trained teachers and tested the toolkit through a workshop conducted at Kulachi Hansraj Model School, New Delhi from 18 to 20 March, 2015. 25 Teachers from DAV Schools  benefitted from the programme. Our school was chosen as a pilot school in Asia for hosting this programme and received a grant of Rs 168000 for the same. As a next step KHMS received a grant of Rs 82000 to  conduct a training of 25 students of KHMS for creating Mobile Applications.
  • Our school bagged Face to Faith ( Generation Global) Outstanding Award in 2015 under the face to faith online programme. More than 50 students of The Kulachi Global Club are members of this online community. Students participate in team blogging, acquiring writing skills and participate in video conferences to  acquire listening skills. The programme is well received by all participants and is running successfully for past two years.
  • Our school is a Google Showcase school. Rashmi Kathuria is a Google certified teacher/Innovator/Certified Level 2. A team from Google visited our school and made a movie on the use of Google tools by students and teachers at KHMS. The clips of movie were showcased during the GEG Events in India and abroad. Our school gets a priority in all events hosted by Google in
    Delhi. Our students received  an invitation to meet Mr. Sunder Pichai, CEO, Google live at Shriram College, Delhi University. 50 students and two teachers attended the programme.
  • Our school is a Microsoft Associate Showcase School 2014, Microsoft School 2015 and Microsoft School 2016. Teachers are connected on online community of Microsoft and use Microsoft tools. Students enthusiastically participate in Compudon and bring laurels for the school. 10 teachers are MOS and 10 teachers are MCE.
  • Ms. Rashmi Kathuria, P.G.T.(Mathematics), ISA Coordinator, is amongst Top 50 Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2016 by Varkey Foundation. She was invited for VTA conference and GESF Conference, Dubai. She worked as the advisory board of VTA 2016 and connected with Top teachers of the world for embedding core skills in the curriculum.
  • 15 students and two teachers Ms. Rashmi Kathuria and Ms. Anita Chadha visited Oltea Doamna, Oradea, Romania from 3 Nov to 11 November, 2016 for students cultural exchange programme. Students stayed with Romanian families and visited school, university and Heritage sites. Our students demonstrated their skills of doing mental maths using vedic Maths techniques and Abacus.
  • The Korean Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Technology (KOFAC) and GLOBE - Republic of Korea is organised Asia-Pacific Science Fair from November 8 to November 10, 2016, in Seoul. The Asia-Pacific Globe Fair is a global venue where students and teachers collaborate to showcase their science projects and scientific skills. Two students and a teacher, Ms. Madhu Mehta visited Seoul participated in the conference. They presented on the theme Save Our Soil and won The Best Poster Award and Second Best Project (Overall).
  • Our school hosted Cultural Extravaganza Grand Finale for delegates from countries Egypt, Germany, Indonesia and Russia on 18 November, 2016. Cultural Extravaganza is an international event organized by DAV schools with their partner school under the aegis of DAVCMC. The event was held between partner schools from 15-19 November, 2016.
  • Under the British council connecting classrooms programme KHMS partnered with Boston College, UK. Ms. Gill Bush, coordinator teacher, Boston College and Ms. Rashmi Kathuria, ISA Coordinator, KHMS and other teachers of the core group  completed their core skills course. UK school applied for grant to visit the partner school in India. Two teachers Ms. Liz Purnell and Ms. Sarah Hatfield visited KHMS from 25 Nov- 2 Dec, 2016. We had a sharing of our partnership during British Council international conference in which 10 UK schools with their partners presented their journey of embedding core skills in curriculum.
  • 7 International Projects for the year 2016-17 are completed with partner schools
o   Oltea Doamna, Oradea, Romania
o   Boston College, Lincolnshire, UK
o   Mackay Memorial College, Uganda
o   SMK La Salle, Petaling Jaya Secondary School, Malaysia
o   Coningsby Primary School, UK


Our school is British Council ISA 2017-2020.
  • Ms. Rashmi Kathuria was invited by Varkey Foundation to attend GESF 2017 held at The Atlantis in Dubai in March 2017.
  • Ms. Paola, Project manager of School Enterprise Challenge, Teach a Man to Fish, UK based NGO visited our school in May 2017 for promoting and creating awareness about SEC programme. Principals and teachers of 12 schools attended the workshop. Ms.Sneh Verma, Principal KHMS and Ms. Rashmi Kathuria, Lead teacher SEC shared about our school enterprise.
  • 16 students, 3 teachers and the Principal of St. Andrew Kaggwa Gombe High School visited KHMS from 30th July 2017 to 2nd August 2017.
  • Ms. Rashmi Kathuria was invited by St. Andrew Kaggwa Gombe High School for training teachers of Uganda on use of Google Apps and Open Source from 29th Sept 2017 to 2nd Oct 2017.
  • Ms. Rashmi Kathuria attended QUDWA Forum conference in Abu Dhabi from 6th to 9th Sept 2017. She was invited as a speaker to present about School Enterprise Challenge in the conference.
  • Ms. Sally Ann Walker, Senior Project Manager visited KHMS to  interview ex student Ms. Nidhi Lahoti who is running her business of handicrafts and Jewellery online. Nidhi worked as Handicrafts manager in our school enterprise in the first year.
  • Our school was declared Mangahigh Asia no. 2 in Online Mathematics Challenge 2016. We received 295 Gold medals and a Gift voucher of 1000 dollars. At National Level we were declared at First position for consecutive two years 2016 and 2017. We received 85 gold medals in 2016 and 20 gold medals for Top 20 students in 2017. School received a gift voucher of Rs 31000 for both the years.
  • Ms Nina Vaskunlahti, Ambassador of Finland to India, Ms Katariina Oivo, Second Secretary, Ms Meenakshi Mahajan, Public Diplomacy and communication officer, Embassy of Finland in Delhi, Ms Miina Holappa Finnish School teacher and 4 children visited KHMS on 20th November for the celebration of Universal Children’s Day and  to commemorate 100 years of Independence of Finland by planting trees in the school campus.
  • Our school students and teachers are participating in Global Projects, Human Differences, Climate Change under the UN SDGs programme.
  • Ms. Neeru Gaur, German teacher at KHMS went to Germany for attending  a 1 week training programme by Max Muller.

About Kulachi Hansraj Model School

I am glad to share with you all about our school.
Kulachi Hansraj Model School, established in 1972, a premier institution of DAV is located in one of the greenest areas of North Delhi. Established by visionaries Shri. DarbariLal Ji and founder Principal Smt. Santosh Taneja, the school started small with just a handful of students and few dedicated teachers. It moved onward and forward and grew from strength to strength, adding classrooms, floors, buildings and campuses as the strength increased.
Known to be one of the most progressive schools of the area providing inclusive education, Kulachi Hansraj Model School achieved numerous milestones along its 4 decade long journey - 3 huge campuses, large playgrounds, a fleet of buses, a 800 seating capacity auditorium, 2 open air theatres, 3 large halls, 150 smart classrooms, a fully equipped conference hall, technology enabled resource rooms, well equipped labs, 13 fully automated computer labs, fully automated libraries and office blocks, solar lights, exhaust fans, 6580 students, 300 fully trained dedicated staff members, Supervisory Heads, Headmistress and Principal Ms. Sneh Verma.
The leading school is ISA certified, Microsoft School and maintains a global outlook towards education. It is committed to help young learners become effective global citizens. The school collaborates with schools and people all over the world in order to help. Being EMS and ISO certified it fulfills the norms of a Green School.
KHMS, with its motto of ‘Asto Ma Sadgamaya’ from darkness towards light, has spread the light of education in the lives of thousands since its inception. It aims to continue taking great strides towards providing education to the common man. It provides a total learning experience to the students who enter the hallowed portals of the institution preparing them for life. With the knowledge of Vedas and the rich heritage of Vedic culture and values, the school cultivates not just the intellect but also nurtures highly principled, spiritually strong and morally compassionate individuals who can handle the world with balance, composure and equanimity.
Nurturing @ Nursery wing
Nursery Celebrates Childhood. We endeavour to nurture the creativity of our tiny tots with love, patience and dedication. Our activity-based curriculum is child-friendly.
Learning at the Nursery is full of fun and joie-de-vivre as the tiny tots learn independence and develop their physical and motor skills. They learn to share and create bonds for life. Children learn through play and fun.
The Early Education Development is a highly scientific and well-developed program which seeks to provide learners experiential learning and monitor growth continuously and comprehensively without bringing in formal testing at this tender age. It is a methodology that includes games and activities to teach concepts and includes trips, walks and hands–on learning, group activities, phonetics, sight-impact cards, flash cards etc. to make learning interesting and retentive. A wide range of activities of the Early Education Development Programme provide ample of scope of learning with zest and enthusiasm.
Being full air conditioned, with play facilties-swimming pool, muddy room, the nursery provides a superlative learning experience for the child who moves out of home for the first time.
Learning @ Primary wing
The formal learning process begins with a host of activities to ensure holistic development in a perfectly harmonized atmosphere.
Students participate in class, house activities and competitions, Project Days, Celebration of Special Days, Assemblies, Festivals, Presentations, Debates, Skits, Dance all provide ample opportunities to enable learning and maximize potential.
As the child advances in years, the Primary section caters to his growing needs through a variety of additional activities, coaching classes and clubs and competitions. Children easily adapt to various different groups and become effective members of the house-system. They grow up to be good followers as well as team leaders thus laying strong foundation of individuals who will be effective global future citizens of an evolving society.
The school aims to equip young learners with skills to face the challenges of the future. They learn to work together and share. They inculcate the spirit of respect and responsibility towards all living creatures and the bio-diversity. A sense of multi pluralism and democratic beliefs nurture in them a desire to bring peace and contribute towards society by working towards justice, peace and equality.
The concept of assessments assumes enormous significance in this context as it seeks to develop all the domains of a child’s personality. The comprehensive system of evaluation cultivates the multiple intelligence of the learners to develop as holistically balanced personalities.
Academic Growth Towards Excellence At Senior Wing
Young adults are steered to develop inter-personal communication and leadership skills in order to help them chose their life paths and adapt to the changing needs of society by widening their outlook. Learning at KHMS accentuates the process of capacity building and imparting true knowledge to multi-skill development.
At KHMS we train young adults to be balanced socially adapted humane students, who effectively use information with their varied competencies to contribute positively to the enhancement of quality of life. Free flow of knowledge beyond boundaries is the mantra at Kulachi.
The focus in the Secondary and Senior Secondary classes is primarily on academic excellence. The young students are provided ample opportunities to develop not only their aesthetic sensibilities but also nurture values of fine citizens of the nation. Being part of clubs like Rotary, Vasundhara, Tech4Us instills in them the habits and conventions to give back to society a little of all that they receive and fulfill their social responsibilities.
The school seeks to nurture talent through Physical Education, Fine Arts, theatre, technology, textile designing and various other fields thus allowing scope of development in alternative careers. Creative and critical thinking, decision making, logical and analytical reasoning, communication skills confidence and life-skills are some of the multiple aspects of responsible behaviour which are cultivated in every child at Kulachi. The school believes that every child has undiscovered potential. He only needs to be polished till every facet shines through with its own brilliance.
KHMS thus imparts as education by which character is formed, strength of body and mind increased manifold and the intellect expanded. It aims to encourage thinking beyond the ordinary and cultivate innovation and freshness in thought and action. No child is bound by any limits. The sky is the limit for every Kulachian.

Friday 1 December 2017

About GTP Finalists

About Merit Karise
Experiencing her home country Estonia break free from the Soviet Union, Merit was impressed by the power of the media’s verbal and image language. She now works at two vocational schools, Kuressaare Regional Training Centre and Tartu Art School, teaching creativity, English, career planning, and advertising as socio-cultural communication.
Merit was voted Teacher of the Year by the Kuressaare Regional Training Centre, received a national award for Best Internet Course in Social Sciences at Tartu Art School and won several prizes in EU video-making contests with her students. As a result, she has been invited to speak at many events, workshops and seminars about creativity and innovation, inside and outside of the realm of teaching.
In 2010 Merit set up an NGO to promote local heritage, world cultures, innovation and activism in social life, partly funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture. Among other projects, they have built a website featuring hundreds of local folksongs and folktales, and also contributed the winning idea to the 50th jubilee song festival of the region. These local projects are complemented by her coordinating her school in an EU Comenius project involving schools in 9 countries. In addition, she writes op-ed articles for national newspapers on culture from a youth perspective and is a member of the Kuressaare city council.
About Rashmi Kathuria
Rashmi has been working as a maths teacher in Delhi for twenty years. She decided to teach mathematics in a new way, using a blended approach, instead of following the standard textbook method. Apart from covering literacy and numeracy, she includes life skills, entrepreneurial skills and global citizenship in her classes.
In 2000 she set up a Mathematics Laboratory in her school that helps students visualise and experiment with mathematical concepts using concrete objects. She supplemented the lab with a blog for students and other teachers, providing over 500 enriching resources, project ideas and more. For making her materials available on the Internet in this way she received awards from two Presidents of India: the National Best e-teacher award from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2007 and the National ICT Award from President Dr Pranab Mukherjee in 2010.
To make maths more realistic and teach students entrepreneurial skills, she helped set up a school business, “Udaan Creating Identity”. This project won the Top Global Prize in the School Enterprise Challenge from NGO Teach a Man to Fish.
Rashmi shares her methods widely by conducting workshops for teachers and university students, advising organisations that develop teaching materials, and building an international network of maths educators.
Rashmi is a Google Certified teacher/innovator, won Pearson’s Teaching Excellence in Mathematics award 2015, AIRMC National Best Mathematics teacher 2010, Face to Faith Gold award 2014 and Outstanding award 2015.
About Hanna Dudich
Hanna was born in Ukraine to a family of doctors, and everyone thought she would be a doctor too. However, she was inspired by her English teacher at school to teach English as a foreign language. Experience of the American educational system as an exchange student convinced Hanna that the Ukrainian system needed some new ideas. She imported project-based learning and student-centred methods, and has spent her years as a teacher pioneering these in Ukraine, using up-to-date technology such as tablets, smartphones and Google Class pages.
She has also had success in establishing partnerships with schools in other countries. She is the vice-principal of STEM integration and educational innovation at her school, and she has been the school coordinator of the Connecting Classrooms and eTwinning programmes; a Microsoft Expert Educator; and a PenPal Schools Global Ambassador. Some of the school’s projects have been recognized on an international level: winning a Macmillan competition, a British Council Olympic Games competition, and coming second in a Microsoft Global Forum project. She has received awards from the American Council, the British Council, and Teacher of the Year on a city level in Ukraine.

With the prize funds, Hanna would set up a pilot programme of portable STEAM laboratories, equipped with basic instruments and materials for scientific experiments. The lab would travel from place to place bringing new educational technology to every classroom, no matter how far from a city it is.

3 Schools one mission

Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Delhi, India
India is a vast South Asian country with diverse terrain – from Himalayan peaks to Indian Ocean coastline – and history reaching back 5 millennia. In the north, Mughal Empire landmarks include Delhi’s Red Fort complex and massive Jama Masjid mosque, plus Agra’s iconic Taj Mahal mausoleum. Pilgrims bathe in the Ganges in Varanasi, and Rishikesh is a yoga centre and base for Himalayan trekking.

Capital: New Delhi
Kuressaare Regional Training Centre and Tartu Art School
Estonia
Estonia, a country in Northern Europe, borders the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. Including more than 1,500 islands, its diverse terrain spans rocky beaches, old-growth forest and many lakes. Formerly part of the Soviet Union, it's dotted with castles, churches and hilltop fortresses. The capital, Tallinn, is known for its preserved Old Town, museums and the 314m-high Tallinn TV Tower, which has an observation deck.
Capital: Tallinn
Taras Shevchenko Himnazia, Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine
Ukraine is situated in Central-Eastern Europe. It is the largest country in Europe. It borders on Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania. There are two seas - the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the Carpathian and the Crimean mountains, and lots of rivers, the biggest of which is the Dnipro.The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. The capital city Kyiv is known for its beautiful architecture, hills and chestnut trees.
Capital: Kyiv

Top 50 Global teacher Prize Finalists Ms. Rashmi Kathuria, Delhi, India, Ms. Merit, Estonia and Ms. Hanna Dudich, Ukraine decided to connect students of their institutions to explore FASHION, DESIGNING, GARMENT AND TECHNOLOGY under the leadership of their respective school heads Ms. Sneh Verma, Principal, KHMS, Ms. Maila, Head teacher, Estonia along with coordinator teachers from their schools Ms. Mamta, Ms Taranjeet and Ms. Akshita from KHMS, Ms. Lilia Pererva Handcraft and Technology teacher from Ukraine.

It is a matter of great pride for starting this project in collaboration for developing and enhancing knowledge, skills and attitude of students.

Video Conference with Partner Schools #KHMS A virtual meeting via video conferencing among the students and teachers of the three schools...