TEACHERS’ WORKSHOP ON ENHANCING INSTITUTIONAL EXCELLENCE

Dr. Jose Parappully, Director of Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jharmari, Punjab was invited to facilitate a training workshop for teachers of Jesus and Mary School at Bhurewala, Haryana, on April 2, 2024.

Bhurewala is a very remote farming village in Haryana. The school caters to students from poor families. There are about 300 students and 19 teachers at Jesus and Mary School, Bhurewala. There is also a small hostel.

All the teachers, including the Principal Sr. Kusum, attended the workshop. The topic was Enhancing Educational excellence.

Dr. Parappully used data from organizational psychology research, exercises and group activities to discuss the significant contributors to institutional excellence.

He helped teachers to assess the current scenario in regard to institutional excellence at Jesus and Mary and helped them plan measures to enhance institutional excellence at the school.

The participants were unanimous in their feedback that the workshop was immensely useful. It had not only provided them ways and motivation to enhance excellence, but also insights and skills that will be useful for classroom management.

ENHANCING INSTITUTIONAL EXCELLENCE AT DON BOSCO.

Dr. Jose Parappully, Director of Sumedha Centre, facilitated a workshop on “Enhancing Institutional Excellence” for the staff of Don Bosco Sr. Secondary school, Jharmari, Punjab.

The workshop was held on June 30^th at Sumedha Centre, Jharmari, situated on thee campus of Don Bosco School.

There were 37 participants.

Dr. Parappully began the workshop with a short meditation and moved on to present what Organizational research shows in regard to factors that enhance institutional excellence.

He then led the group to assess the situation at Don Bosco in the light of the research findings and to commit themselves to actions that will enhance institutional excellence at Don Bosco.

The participants found the workshop immensely useful – “informative and beneficial.”

SUMEDHA OUTREACH – SOUTH CITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL KOLKATA

The Director of Sumedha Centre, Jose Parappully PhD, was invited to do another workshop for the teachers of the secondary section of South City International School, Kolkata on June 14-15. He had done a workshop there last year.

Last year the theme of the Workshop was “Enhancing Institutional Effectiveness.” This year the Workshop focused on one of the significant dynamics that contribute to  Institutional Effectiveness, namely, Relational (Communication) Networks.

Accordingly, the workshop was labelled “Enhancing Interpersonal Communication.”

Of the 48 participants this year, 15  had joined the school since the last workshop.  Hence, the facilitator briefly referred to the concepts explored last year to acquaint the new teachers with these foundational concepts. He then introduced Howard Gardner’s concept of Personal Intelligences and their role in effective interpersonal relationships and communication.

A major obstacle to effective interpersonal relationships is unaddressed conflicts. Teachers were helped to discern current conflicts between Management and Teachers and conflicts among themselves and introduced to tools that help address and work through conflicts in an effective and helpful manner.

The focus of exploration on the second day of the Workshop was Interpersonal Relationships among the teachers. The role of Assertive Communication was pointed out and teachers were helped to understand and practise it in a series of experiential exercises.

Video clips, songs, introspection and group interaction and processing were some of the tools used, besides insights from organisational psychology presented by the facilitator.

Teachers found the Workshop very useful to enhance their interpersonal and, consequently, work relationships. The Workshop especially provided them, they observed, opportunity to come to understand more deeply one another and the issues that affect them, which in turn has contributed to increased desire to work toward greater cohesion and collaboration.

SUMEDHA REACH OUT: TEACHERS’ WORKSHOP AT SOUTH CITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, KOLKOTA

Dr. Jose Parappully, the Director of Sumedha Centre, was invited to facilitate a Workshop for the High School teachers of South City International School in Kolkata on 14-15 June.

The school building is impressive and its infrastructure and facilities state-of-the-art with central air-conditioning. The school is only 4 years old and has had a very impressive growth. Starting with about 100 students in the first year, today the school has more than 1000 students and about 70 teachers. The high school section has 35 teachers, many of them with prior experience in other schools.

Dr. Parappully organised the Workshop on the first day around the theme “Enhancing Institutional Excellence.” He used structured exercises, videos and latest insights from organisational psychology to present the crucial ingredients that contribute to institutional excellence and helped the teachers to assess the dynamics at South City International that contribute to or stand in the way of institutional excellence.

The explorations on the second day centred around the person and functions of the teacher and focused on the theme of “The Emotionally Sensitive Teacher.” Starting with Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligence, the Workshop used the concepts of basic emotional needs from Self Determination Theory, and of Mirroring and Idealising from Self Psychology to help the teachers look at the level of their emotional sensitivity and provided tools and approaches to enhance it.

The teachers were extremely satisfied with the Workshop. A number of them said this was “the best of all the workshops” they ever had.  It had helped them to “enhance cohesion” among themselves, “open up communication channels” and create “greater connectedness and trust” and “be more aware of and sensitive to the emotional needs” of students and colleagues.

“The workshop has touched us not only professionally but also personally. Its effect goes much beyond our life in the school.” This was another common sentiment expressed by the teachers as they reflected on their experience of the workshop.