ST. JEROME'S CONVENT HIGH SCHOOL, KASHMIRA: TEACHERS' ORIENTATION PROGRAM

ST. JEROME'S CONVENT HIGH SCHOOL - KASHMIRA:  TEACHERS" ORIENTATION 

June 11, 2014

For the second day in succession, AVEC conducted a Value Education Orientation Program for the Teachers of St. Jerome's Convent High School, Kashmira. Thirty nine teachers took part. Sr. Nisha, Principal of the school, warmly welcomed the teachers after their summer holidays and also took the time to introduce Fr. Glenn Lowe and Mr. Rochwyn Fernandes.  The theme for the orientation program was "Management By Values' (MBV). The teachers took part in the entire program whole heartedly and were enthusiastic all through.  

The session began on a spiritual note, with an invitation to pray for God's blessings on peace, prosperity, abundance and fullness on all. The prayer songs, "Sarweshaam, Swastir Bhavatu' was inspiring and all faith encompassing too. Mr. Rochwyn Fernandes enabled the teachers to calm down and relax through the help of a fantasy meditation. Body awareness and relaxation, coupled with reflective moments on their past educative journey, was a need of the hour. He then briefed the participants on the activities of AVEC and then introduced Fr. Glenn to them.

"I have come to disturb you:, we Fr. Glenn's opening words. Right from the start, the participants were challenged to embrace 'perspective changes' - however small, simply because, 'perspective changes lead to procedural changes'. With the help of simple examples and the true life stories of great personalities like Mother Teresa, St. Paul, Gandhiji, Rosa Parks, etc. Fr. Glenn was able to draw their attention to making 'Qualitative changes' rather than simply working on 'quantitative changes'. 

 Management By Values (MBV) took centre stage, when the teachers were asked to look at their own personal life as educators and value gurus. It was an eye opener to all the teachers when Fr. Glenn presented the 'World of the Young' and their 'attitude to life'. "Grandmothers' solutions will not help us to intervene in their present day lifestyle. The only solution is, make a Value based qualitative change in our own personal lives and then, our students too, will experience the ripple effect", he said.   With the help of a number of exercises, the teachers were able to plot their 'Value Map' based on the Brian Hall-Benjamin Tonna module.

The four hour session was very lively, interactive and took on a very personal call to make a difference. At the end of the session, Ms. Natty DSouza, proposed the vote of thanks and took the opportunity to focus on the 'power of word' to start the qualitative change. 

 "We have surely invested the short four hours for the well being not only for our profession as teachers, but more than that, an insight to our very own personal life. Areas in which, we might never have thought so important. God bless you in all your endeavors" -  P. Rodricks

A sincere word of thanks to the Management and staff for this wonderful opportunity to speak to you all and to take Value education as an important dimension of our educative journey with the young. Thank you to the Religious community of Sisters for their warm hospitality and making us feel at home all along these two days - AVEC Team