Excellent education for 2500+ students in Chennai

Students are the core of the work we do at Teach For India! With the New Year upon us, we are happy to share some moments during the course of last year to sum up all the exposure and access opportunities that our students were a part of!

Independence Day: Teach For India students from schools in Rangarajapuram, McNichols Road, Nungambakkam and Sanjeevarayan presented a dance performance at the 69^th Independence Day celebrations at Ripon Building. This event was presided over by the Hon’ble Mayor, Commissioner of CoC, Deputy Commissioner of Education and other dignitaries. The dance was appreciated for its’ choreography and presentation. 

 Dream Madras Week: On 25^th August 2015, Teach For India students from various Corporation schools in Rangarajapuram, Mc Nichols Road and Saidapet presented their vision for a clean Chennai at the Dream Madras Week event organized by United Way of Chennai. Children engaged in research around the concept of cleanliness and pollution in the city and presented their ideas through different mediums such as models, skit and games. A crucial takeaway for the children from this experience is that they are now more aware of the environmental challenges faced by Chennai and are keen to contribute as students and individuals to achieve their vision of a clean Chennai. This event saw the coming together of participants from over a 100 schools and hence was a great exposure opportunity for students to understand their own ideas and vision and learn from their counterparts. 

Teach For India has been working in close collaboration with the Corporation of Chennai over the last 3 years. This year, Teach For India is working with 32 Corporation schools spread from Tondiarpet to Thiruvanmiyur in both Primary and Higher Secondary, impacting over 3000 students directly.

 IEEE WiE International Leadership Summit: Our Teach for India (Chennai) City Director Archana Ramachandran was invited to share Teach For India’s experiences on “Leadership Lessons we learned from being a teacher in a low-income school"at the IEEE WIE International Leadership Summit. This event was special because we had Divya Bharthi, 2014-16 Teach For India Fellow along with her 6th Standard students Dhanush and Venilla, and Ms Sathya, CoC Teacher & AHM from Chennai Corporation Higher Secondary School McNichols Road also share their reflections on Leadership with the delegates. Students R. Dhanush and P.Venilla wrote their own speeches for the conference, and here are some lines from what they shared –

R. Dhanush: "I think Leadership is not only for bigger things, it is also for small day-to-day life activities" 

P. Venilla: "I am showing Leadership only in some places because I am not remembering Leadership in all places. This helped me learn that Leadership is also about Reflection - To go back and think about what we did correct, and what we did wrong"

 It was a proud moment for Divya Bharti, 2014-16 Fellow and their class teacher. Reflecting upon her experiences, she shared: "As I was teaching them, they were teaching me– they were teaching me everything I was trying to teach them.” 

This conference experience reinforced our biggest learning in leadership, as Archana Ramachandran mentioned in her closing, “To change what is going on around me, I need to start changing what is within me."

We will continue to bring you more updates about our students and their reflections on education, careers, life and more!