[EnglishSTF-6467] The 'good morning' syndrome

[Gurumurthy K]

dear teachers

let us use whatsapp / telegram / hike and the google groups setup for our
interactions for education related discussions and avoid sending irrelevant
messages. We should avoid forwarding messages unless we are sure the
information is correct (blood donation requests, Maaza poisoning, medical
ailments and cures are usually false). So also any message which asks you
to forward to others!!

If we can ensure meaningful messages then these groups will be useful
forums for our learning...

source -
http://m.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/the-good-morning-syndrome/article8188372.ece

regards
Guru, IT for Change

Are you one of those who have suffered the wrath of the good morning
messenger on your WhatsApp group? You are not alone

Your phone lights up with a loud ping of a WhatsApp message. And a series
of pings follow. You wake up from your slumber to see who’s messaged you so
early in the morning and if it’s anything important. But no, it’s just a
string of good morning messages from the various groups you are part of.
Annoyed? You are just one among millions who suffer the wrath of the ‘good
morning’ group messenger.

Be it family, college, friends, work or hobby groups – they are everywhere.
Relentlessly and religiously, they spam our mornings with images, videos
and greetings that make the morning anything but good. “There is no escape
from them,” grieves student Siddharth Joshua. “The moment I leave a group I
am added back and though I’ve muted them all, my notification bar still
shows the unread messages piling up. It’s inevitably annoying and I’m left
with no choice but to open the messages. I can’t even be rude to them and
tell them to stop for fear of hurting their sentiments and invariably have
to silently bear the brunt of their ‘good’ will messages.”

Amit Shekhar, an engineer by profession and a blogger at heart, had to
resort to the extreme of quitting WhatsApp. He is not alone, he points out.
“I read about a lot of people online who have quit the popular social media
app. There are various reasons, including the relentless group
notifications and the huge amount of bandwidth that goes into downloading
forwarded images and videos, but the most important reason is, of course,
meaningless groups and their unrelenting ‘good morning’ messages.”

He contends that in the last few months that he has distanced himself from
his smartphone, he realises just how much time the app used to take in his
daily life. “There was one less distraction to worry about and the constant
need to look at the phone every five minutes vanished. I make use of this
free time to listen to some good music, watch my favourite movie in peace
or read a book without disturbance.”

One of the reasons IT professional Nikita Jacob has deactivated automatic
downloads on her phone is the people in her groups who wake up just to wish
one another good morning. “Clearly they have no purpose in life other than
annoying the hell out of me!” she laments. “Their one ‘good morning’
greeting is followed ritually by 20 other people responding back. They even
annoy creatively with images and videos that wish good morning in so many
terrible ways that the mornings have nothing good in them for me. I am sure
half the money I spent in footing my huge mobile bills was because of
internet charges for these nonsensical images and videos. I don’t even
bother downloading them now.”

It doesn’t just stop with the ‘good morning’ messages, mourns Simeon
D’Souza, a banker. “These people go on to share photos of what they have
for breakfast, lunch and dinner, forward random viral chain messages,
meaningless moral lessons and inspirational quotes. My cousins are the
worst with their absolutely random selfies they religiously share almost
every six hours to which the rest of the family in the group devotedly
shower praises.” The worst is when they get into a random personal
conversation with one person in the group, he adds. “Why can’t they just
chat in private? And to top all this is that one drama queen in the group
who has to exaggerate emotions for every message with a stream of
emoticons.”

Naveen Thomas, an architecture student, contends that it isn’t all that
bad. “At a time when people are becoming digital islands, WhatsApp groups
help families and friends connect. Look at the bright side – at least there
are people who wish you to have a good morning. If you can make it past the
mindless spam, the app does help us socialise and stay in touch.”




regards
Guru

IT for Change, Bengaluru
www.ITforChange.net

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Re: [EnglishSTF-6470] The 'good morning' syndrome

[Shiva Prasad]

  Dear Sir, Kindly download hike and telegram and login with the same number. Thanks a lot Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.From: Sreenivas ReddySent: Wednesday 3 February 2016 7:47 PMTo: englishstf@googlegroups.comReply To: englishstf@googlegroups.comSubject: Re: [EnglishSTF-6468] The 'good morning' syndromeSir pls join me in english hike or telegram group.plz
ವಿ.ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ್ ರೆಡ್ಡಿ.
SSHS . ತುಮಕೂರು. 9900395017
On Feb 3, 2016 7:22 PM, "Gurumurthy K"  wrote:dear teacherslet us use whatsapp / telegram / hike and the google groups setup for our interactions for education related discussions and avoid sending irrelevant messages. We should avoid forwarding messages unless we are sure the information is correct (blood donation requests, Maaza poisoning, medical ailments and cures are usually false). So also any message which asks you to forward to others!!If we can ensure meaningful messages then these groups will be useful forums for our learning...source - http://m.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/the-good-morning-syndrome/article8188372.eceregardsGuru, IT for ChangeAre you one of those who have suffered the wrath of the good morning messenger on your WhatsApp group? You are not alone
Your phone lights up with a loud ping of a 
WhatsApp message. And a series of pings follow. You wake up from your 
slumber to see who’s messaged you so early in the morning and if it’s 
anything important. But no, it’s just a string of good morning messages 
from the various groups you are part of. Annoyed? You are just one among
 millions who suffer the wrath of the ‘good morning’ group messenger.Be
 it family, college, friends, work or hobby groups – they are 
everywhere. Relentlessly and religiously, they spam our mornings with 
images, videos and greetings that make the morning anything but good. 
“There is no escape from them,” grieves student Siddharth Joshua. “The 
moment I leave a group I am added back and though I’ve muted them all, 
my notification bar still shows the unread messages piling up. It’s 
inevitably annoying and I’m left with no choice but to open the 
messages. I can’t even be rude to them and tell them to stop for fear of
 hurting their sentiments and invariably have to silently bear the brunt
 of their ‘good’ will messages.”Amit Shekhar, an engineer by 
profession and a blogger at heart, had to resort to the extreme of 
quitting WhatsApp. He is not alone, he points out. “I read about a lot 
of people online who have quit the popular social media app. There are 
various reasons, including the relentless group notifications and the 
huge amount of bandwidth that goes into downloading forwarded images and
 videos, but the most important reason is, of course, meaningless groups
 and their unrelenting ‘good morning’ messages.”He contends that 
in the last few months that he has distanced himself from his 
smartphone, he realises just how much time the app used to take in his 
daily life. “There was one less distraction to worry about and the 
constant need to look at the phone every five minutes vanished. I make 
use of this free time to listen to some good music, watch my favourite 
movie in peace or read a book without disturbance.”One of the 
reasons IT professional Nikita Jacob has deactivated automatic downloads
 on her phone is the people in her groups who wake up just to wish one 
another good morning. “Clearly they have no purpose in life other than 
annoying the hell out of me!” she laments. “Their one ‘good morning’ 
greeting is followed ritually by 20 other people responding back. They 
even annoy creatively with images and videos that wish good morning in 
so many terrible ways that the mornings have nothing good in them for 
me. I am sure half the money I spent in footing my huge mobile bills was
 because of internet charges for these nonsensical images and videos. I 
don’t even bother downloading them now.”It doesn’t just stop with
 the ‘good morning’ messages, mourns Simeon D’Souza, a banker. “These 
people go on to share photos of what they have for breakfast, lunch and 
dinner, forward random viral chain messages, meaningless moral lessons 
and inspirational quotes. My cousins are the worst with their absolutely
 random selfies they religiously share almost every six hours to which 
the rest of the family in the group devotedly shower praises.” The worst
 is 

[EnglishSTF-6471] All India Radio programme for SSLC students

[Gurumurthy K]

All India Radio programme for SSLC students:
http://m.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/all-india-radio-programme-for-sslc-students/article8190984.ece

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http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Public_Software ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ  
ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ  ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ  ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ
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[EnglishSTF-6472] making our education meaningful to students from poor/marginalised backgrounds... the challenges of a government (public) school

[Gurumurthy K]

Dear teachers,

In many of our schools, many if not most students come from poor /
marginalised backgrounds. They are unable to make sense of the syllabus in
its current form, which is unfortunately in many cases designed mainly for
middle class urban families. This problem is more acute in urban locations
like Bengaluru, where government school teachers struggle with the students
whose socio-economic background has challenges. Our government schools need
much much much more resource support to enable them to do a good job.

Read article below for an experience in an urban setting -
"According to Weiss at Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, policy makers
need to understand that low-income schools require vastly greater resources
because they must provide for expenses - extracurricular activities, field
trips, doctors' visits - that wealthier parents usually pay for out of
pocket."


Thursday, 04 February 2016 / TRUTH-OUT.ORG

It's 11:45 a.m. in East Harlem, and Samir Zaimi starts his lesson on life
in Colonial America. A social-studies teacher at a public middle school
called Renaissance School of the Arts, Zaimi urges the seventh-graders to
imagine themselves as colonial settlers, and to complete the writing prompt
on the board: "How can I convince people to come to my colony?" Then he
notices a student who has been absent for weeks and crosses the room to
welcome her.

"Been out a while."

"Yeah, 27 days," she says.

"We'll catch you up."

For the rest of the period, Zaimi barely takes a breath as he darts around
the room, addressing questions. There's Nunova Williams, who is usually
first to raise her hand and wonders what good can be said about
18th-century New Hampshire, which had slaves and high income-inequality.
But there are also students who come to class late after meeting with
social workers, and others struggling to take an interest in school. Last
year, only 13 percent of Renaissance's students demonstrated proficiency in
language arts and only 7 percent did so in math.

The conservative New York Post blames the problem at schools like
Renaissance on "ineffective teachers and staff." But the city's Department
of Education, while recognizing that some teachers should skill up, points
to students' difficult circumstances and social problems such as poverty as
the root source.

The department isn't just pointing fingers. It's actively working to
address those problems at Renaissance and 127 other schools. Last year, the
city began providing extra funds and support to these institutions to
transform them into "community schools" - places of learning that strive
not only for academic excellence, but for the holistic development of youth
and the strengthening of families and neighborhoods.

"You never know what's going on with a person at home," says seventh-grader
Jhanel McWhite, who found her passion in Renaissance's dance classes. She
says the school takes an interest in students' well-being, and that was one
of the reasons she chose Renaissance over the other middle schools in her
district.

When McWhite's brother died last year, the school gave her support through
a nonprofit called Partnership with Children. "They helped me feel better
about myself," she said. The Partnership has hired five social workers to
help students work through personal matters.

The idea that students' adverse circumstances - not bad teachers - could be
the real problem in poorly performing schools is not new. Studies show that
income is an important predictor of success, with students from families in
the highest-income 10 percent of the population scoring more than three
grade levels above students in the lowest 10 percent on standardized
reading tests, according to The New York Times.

And despite decades of politicians' handwringing, the disparity is only
getting worse: The testing gap has widened about 40 percent since the
1960s. This has led to questions about where education reform should focus.

"We would be well served to broaden the scope of who we hold accountable,"
says Elaine Weiss, national coordinator for the advocacy group Broader,
Bolder Approach to Education. Rather than just blaming teachers, she says,
why not turn to the politicians who fail to fund schools at adequate
levels? Or the officials who fail to ensure parents have living-wage jobs?

Over the past two decades, this simple understanding has taken root in the
community-school movement - a nationwide alliance of teachers,
administrators, and parents who reject the logic that reformers can save
students simply by replacing teachers and schools. They want schools to
transition into community hubs, adopting a strategy that combines rigorous
instruction and extracurricular enrichment with a vast social support
system. Any kind of school - public, private, or charter - can adopt the
model.

While the term "community school" has been in use for more than a century,
the current movement dates to the 1990s and gained strength from widespread