9th March 2020 will be remembered as one of the most memorable moments in Bookworm because it is the day where 15 teachers were felicitated for participating and completing Bookworm’s ‘Training and mentoring program’. it was a privilege to be with these teachers on their journey of learning more about library and how this work can be made more lively for the children. We had officially begun the journey in June 2019 and completed it in February 2020. This was a dual journey where we as a facilitator not only shared our learning with the teacher but also we learnt many things from them. This makes it even more special.
This seminar took place in “The Crown” Hotel which is situated in the city of Panjim, at the crown of the river Mandovi. This event was graced by Dr. Padma Sarangapani, Professor of Education at TISS , Mumbai, Dr. Mrs. Maria Auroro Couto, writer and padmashree awardee as a benefactor and supporter of Bookworm, Mr. Mahesh Bhat of Cipla Foundation together with Mr. Viraj Shinde, Head Corporate Affairs Cipla and all the teachers ,school principals and other guests. This was a perfect space and moment for teachers and for Bookworm to share about this training and mentoring program course.
I would like to share some of the voices of the teachers on their learnings through this program:
“I learnt new games, to ask different types of questions, to use bilingual talk , to make the class comfortable and to give exposure to the children”.
By Diksha Barad,
Swami Vivekananda School, Borim, Goa
“I got more information about book talk and I learnt many settling down activities that I’ll start in my library class”
By Samiksha Naik,
Swastik Prathamik Shaala, Priol, Goa
“I learnt that we must use different languages in a book talk to motivate children. I also learnt different actions to motivate children for the library period. We must ask basic and extended questions and this can be in other languages”
By Angelica Almeida,
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Goa Velha. Goa
“Library is a place vibrating with ideas”
By Valencia Dias,
Good Shepherd School, Succor, Goa
“I learnt that we can encourage new ideas, new games, actions from the students. We can collect stories from students about the village. We learnt different clapping styles and simple learning games”.
By Franky Rodrigues,
2nd Lt. J.J Rane Government School, Kudchire, Bicholim, Goa
“I learnt about extended questions that can be asked during the book-talk. Also using multilingual during book talks to allow children to speak in their own language. I also learnt about some new games to play with children, before and after the library class.
Basic intention of the library class is fun”.
By Celine D’Souza
St.Thomas Girls School, Aldona, Goa
“I learnt about new settling down activities from different teachers. Also we must allow students to ask and answer extended questions which are not in the book
Using different languages for better understanding and easier to explain.
Words of library songs”
By Julie Tavares,
Mae de Deus School, Corjuem, Goa
“I enjoyed classroom activities and ideas to get the attention of a child. It was interesting to learn about book talk”.
By Flaviolla Pereira,
Good Shepherd , Succor, Goa
“ I learn lots of new things. The three main things are.
Bi-Lingual
Basic and extended
Different class games from different teachers”
By Maria Souza,
Green Lawns , Neura
“I got to know that we should also talk in other languages so that children can understand the language which we talk.
we should know that in our school we should talk about basic and extended questions.
We got different ideas on how to keep a library.
We got some good sharing of different teacher of a different schools.
Today’s day was well spent. I was very happy to be here in Bookworm.”
By Blossom D’Silva,
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Goa Velha. Goa
“I learnt that we can use multi language in the class. I also learnt different activities to manage the classes. We must encourage more questions and allow child to express in her own language. I learnt how to make book-talk more interesting”
By Yogita Kamat,
Swami Vivekananda School, Borim, Goa
“Let the Bookworm spirit fly high
Books open our mind. A good Book-talk inspire a child”
By Minette Gomes,
Mae de Deus School, Corjuem, Goa.
However, as previously mentioned, this was a duel journey where we from Bookworm as facilitators too learnt many things. We gathered our thoughts about our learnings here:
“Becoming a novice mentor to another teacher”
“Experiencing observations as a way to learn about our own knowledge”
“Facilitating sessions as a way to revise our practice and reinforce the theory”
“Observations of TMP offer a mirror to our own practice in the classroom”
“Record keeping as a form of documentation and learning”
“Participants as both learners and teachers”
“Reflection in shared meetings, journals and conversations as a way of learning”.
Teacher and mentoring program might have ended for year 2019 – 20 but the journey of making libraries more active for children has only just begun. We very much believe that we have seeded something within the teacher that will sprout into little sapling and then eventually become a fruit bearing tree. Because of this program over 2000 children in various rural schools in Goa have had the beginnings of a library program that we know will grow stronger.
