First Educator Meetup will be held on 17th September 2020 focusing on ‘Child & Adolescent Mental Health – Red flags in the Classroom’ by Dr. Zirak Marker, Senior Psychiatrist & Advisor, Mpower – The Centre, Mumbai
Mumbai, September 16, 2020: Over the last five months of pandemic, while we have witnessed that the world had almost come to a standstill, teachers have ensured that the learning to their students does not stop. In this unprecedented health crisis, teachers have emerged as the real superheroes working tirelessly to facilitate transfer of knowledge in various forms. Amidst such scenario, teachers also feel the need to share, help, mentor, upgrade, enhance their own skills and knowledge. Aditya Birla Education Academy, India’s leading teacher training institute, identified these pressing needs of the teaching fraternity.
With this objective in mind, ABEA launched a new initiative on Teacher’s Day called ‘Educator Meetup’ – a virtual meeting space for teachers to come together once a month and discuss strategies to teach, solve problems and share experiences related to a certain topic or subject. The meetup will consist of a 15-minute talk by an Expert on any subject followed by 45 minutes of insightful interactions, moderated by a faculty from ABEA. After the session, a discussion thread will be created on a closed Facebook group Aditya Birla Education Academy Community, where teachers can share best practices, resource links, discuss their implementations, outcomes of the new strategies learned and also answer queries put by other group members related to the topic.
Taking the lead, ABEA has already empanelled 12 experts for these meetups for the next one year. Each of these experts will focus on any one subject area right from Pre-primary to Grade 12 covering all major subject groups and boards – CBSE, ICSE, IB, IGCSE. Participants in this session will be able to answer queries related to the subject on the closed Facebook group, promoting knowledge sharing and fostering a community building approach. Participation in Educator Meetup and subsequent discussions are free of charge but prior registration is mandatory. Link to register for the first meetup here.
Mrs. Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust, said, “In last few months, everything has gone virtual and school life is no exception to it. Teachers had to roll up their sleeves and quickly adapt to the challenge of online learning. Cooped up in their houses, they seamlessly did the balancing act between their students and family commitments. All this meant that they had to miss their regular staffroom discussions, informal chats and knowledge sharing, which they were earlier used to. To address this void, we felt our superheroes needed a platform, where they can share, help and mentor each other to be stronger together. I am very sure Educator Meetup will unlock the potential of each of the participants in this platform, which is a part of ABEA’s community building initiatives.”
Commenting on this initiative, Prodipta Hore, Program Director, Aditya Birla Education Academy (ABEA), said, “After interacting with educators via our various initiatives, we identified the need for a platform where educators can come together to learn, share and grow together. The Educator Meetup gives educators an opportunity to learn from an Expert, upskill themselves, discuss how classroom situations can be best dealt with and most importantly share their knowledge and expertise of a particular subject with each other. Taking these discussions to our Facebook group – Aditya Birla Education Academy Community after the meetup enables teachers to do what they do best – mentor each other.”
