Employability skills refer to the skills, knowledge, competencies, and personal attributes that enhance our ability to obtain and sustain employment, be successful in our chosen occupations and benefit ourselves while contributing to the organisation, the community, and the economy. It also includes the capacity to move between jobs and remain employable throughout life.
Employability skills also refer to a group of vital abilities that involve the development of a knowledge base and mindset that are key to success in the 21st-century workplace. They include skills necessary for self-advocacy and networking, as well as skills required to cope with changing work circumstances, learn continuously and be capable of working within changing teams. Skills that help to cope with changing work circumstances, build capabilities to work within changing teams, and ensure continuous learning.
Wellbeing skills refer to a wide array of skills that enable us to generally feel good and function well, experience positive emotions (such as happiness and contentment) and relationships, develop our potential, exercise control over our own lives, and have a sense of purpose. Wellbeing skills include aspects of emotional, physical, and social wellbeing. These skills are crucial for positive mental health and help us sustain ourselves throughout life.
Listen to Deepak Dhananjaya here
Thinking skills involve mental processes that we apply when we seek to make sense of any experience. They refer to the human capacity to think in conscious ways to achieve certain purposes. Thinking skills enable us to integrate each new experience into the schema that we are constructing of “how things are.” These skills need to extend to what we see, what we understand, and what we can demonstrate to others. They are a large collection of individual skills and strategies that enable us to monitor and regulate our learning and memory.
Thinking skills are necessary tools in a society characterised by rapid change, many alternative actions, and demand for numerous individual and collective choices and decisions. They are essential in understanding how to learn and are considered to be integral to higher-order cognitive learning. The guiding principle in the thinking skills movement is the idea that individuals will learn to think better if effort and attention is paid to teaching them how to do so.
Listen to Sundar Sarukai here
Social skills are a set of learned abilities that enable us to interact competently and appropriately in a given social context. These skills, also referred to as interpersonal or relational skills, enable us to effectively communicate/interact with and meet the needs of people in various situations. Social skills are necessary for a large variety of interpersonal contexts and include capacities for appropriate verbal and non-verbal reactions. These skills also help regulate interpersonal relations and a variety of social situations.
Social skills are important for harmonious existence in different social groups and have a great influence on the overall quality of our lives.
Listen to Dharshini J here
Personal Skills are centred on knowledge and understanding about what goes on within us, allowing us to respond with awareness, thought, and intent. Self-knowledge and self-awareness are fundamental aspects of personal skills. They are necessary to manage ourselves, reflect on our thoughts and actions and thereby help us operate effectively in social contexts. Therefore, personal skills are considered a prerequisite & are known to support the development of interpersonal skills. Knowing and accepting ourselves is the first step in understanding and accepting others, which is essential in learning to cope.
Personal skills are concerned with reducing internal conflict. They help us understand how we internally handle perceived external experiences and come to terms with our attributes, limitations and potential. People with high personal skills tend to know themselves well, feel positive about themselves, and have a sense of purpose in their lives. These skills form the very foundation of everyday life and can be acquired in the same way that we learn maths and language skills.
Entrepreneurship skills refer to a broad range of skills and abilities that enable an individual to develop, organize and run a business enterprise, in order to make a profit and provide employment for others, even in the face of uncertainty. These skills assist in developing, organising, and running business enterprises that can earn profits and provide employment for others. It includes the skills required to seek new opportunities and use a new idea or innovation to run a business, ultimately helping the buyer or the customer. Entrepreneurship skills also include the abilities and the mindset required to transform the world by solving big problems, like bringing about social change or creating an innovative product that challenges the status quo.
Citizenship skills refer to the skills and abilities that enable us to be aware of our rights and responsibilities as citizens. They guide us in being active and engaged citizens who work together to make a positive impact in the society we belong to – locally, nationally and globally. These skills are paramount in strengthening and safeguarding a democratic way of life. They include the knowledge and skills required to understand, challenge, and engage with people, politics, media, economy and law. Thus, citizenship skills foster personal dignity and contribute to creating responsible thinking citizens, who are supportive, participatory, respectful, and aware of their rights and obligations.
Listen to Zion Parlawma here
This half-day module encourages teachers to reflect on their own happiness and explore key facets like gratitude, kindness, laughter, reflection, and relationships. Teachers will examine factors that support well-being and brainstorm ways to cultivate a positive, happiness-centered school culture. Most teachers are overburdened, anxious and irritable. The impact such a teacher has on student learning is significant. A teacher’s irritability and anxiety is transferred into the lesson, and the students receive a sullen lecture that leads to an aversion to learning. This module will use the idea of Visiting the 5 Wells (coined by Jenny Mosley) as a metaphor for replenishing teachers’ lives at the Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Creative and Emotional levels. In short it will SPICE up teachers’ lives. By the session’s end, teachers will have practical ideas to enhance well-being, creating a supportive and joyful environment for both staff and students.
Teachers explore various methods of assessing and documenting the progress of children and how to share the information with parents.
The workshop is for teachers of Pre-Primary and Grades 1 to 3.
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping education — and with it comes both exciting possibility and genuine complexity.
This certified course invites educators to engage with AI not just as a tool, but as a subject worthy of careful reflection.
Participants develop a balanced understanding of AI’s possibilities and limitations, explore its role in pedagogy, creative practice, and student wellbeing, and establish clear personal and professional boundaries. The programme is grounded in the belief that technology must always serve educational purposes and human values.
Participants will emerge with:
– Increased confidence in engaging with AI
– Clear personal and professional boundaries
– Enhanced ethical awareness
– Practical strategies for responsible integration
– Leadership capacity in guiding school communities
The workshop is aimed at teachers of all grades and levels.
Effective teaching begins with truly seeing your students. When teachers systematically observe and record what children know, can do, and feel, they unlock insights that transform both planning and practice. This workshop gives teachers a practical toolkit for observation — moving beyond gut feeling to structured, evidence-based methods that track development, inform instruction, and support every learner’s progress.
How do young children make sense of the world? Through touch, sound, sight, smell, and taste — and through the stories they tell and the songs they sing.
This workshop equips teachers with practical strategies to create rich, sensory environments where curiosity flourishes and creativity becomes a daily habit. Participants explore how storytelling, poetry, music, movement, play, art, and craft can be woven into everyday classroom life to nurture imagination in the earliest years of learning.
The workshop is applicable for teachers of Pre-primary & Grades 1–3
ISELF – Taking SEL from Concept to Classroom is a two-day experiential professional development workshop developed by The Teacher Foundation to help educators meaningfully integrate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into everyday classroom practice.
In today’s complex world, academic knowledge alone is not enough. Students need strong social and emotional competencies to manage challenges, build relationships, and engage deeply with learning. This workshop helps teachers and school leaders understand how SEL strengthens student wellbeing, classroom climate, motivation, and academic engagement.
Anchored in the Indian Social and Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF), the programme supports educators in moving beyond token activities to create intentional, inclusive, and nurturing learning environments.
Through a highly interactive and reflective learning experience, participants explore the five core SEL competencies:
The workshop blends participatory activities, storytelling, reflection, dialogue, and practical classroom application, helping educators translate SEL principles into meaningful teaching practices.
By the end of the programme, participants develop a clear understanding of SEL in the Indian context and gain practical strategies to create safe, responsive, and emotionally supportive classrooms where students can thrive both academically and personally.
This programme is ideal for teachers, school leaders, counsellors, and educators committed to building holistic learning environment.
Kritika joined TTF in 2022 and has made significant contributions in content creation and teacher training. Her intuitive nature and quick learning abilities have enabled her to effectively take on larger responsibilities to Head the Training and Content Development team.
Before joining TTF, Kritika served as a middle school educator at an International school in Gurugram for 5 years. During this time, she excelled in designing experiential learning projects and mentoring trainee teachers through a diploma course. She is also an experienced blogger and shares her insights into various aspects of education.
This gentle whole school ecosystemic model enables honest and authentic conversations between students and their teacher. It has been used by several leading schools across India for over 21 years. The Teacher Foundation (TTF) is the sole accredited training provider for Jenny Mosley Consultancies, UK. TTF has trained thousands of teachers across India on QCT.
Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic are the traditional 3 Rs of education. A fourth equally important R is Relationships and Circle Times fosters this R by enhancing self-esteem, emotional intelligence and team or group work skills of students and teachers in schools.
The world becomes what we teach…… (Zoe Weill)
The world will not become what we don’t teach!
Through Quality Circle Time we can explicitly model and teach the social and emotional learning facets – self awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making and relationship skills.
Quality Circle Time entails:
Programme Overview*:
Follow-up Support
*The school needs to organise to bring in 30 students for a demo session on the 2nd day in the first half for an hour for the offline mode of workshop. Please note that the students must be from the same grade and division and should know each other.
The Indian Social Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF) is available for all teachers and organisations working on SEL in India, under a Creative Commons License 4.0
The 5Ws and 1H is a popular formula used by journalists for getting the complete story on a subject. Therefore in true journalistic style let’s examine the 5Ws and 1H of Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) – What, Who, Where, When, Why & How.
SEL is the wellspring for helping young people lead a purposeful life. The Teacher Foundation (TTF), after several years of research and exploration in this field has encapsulated the essence of a complex domain of learning, like SEL, in this simple ready reckoner for Indian schools and education professionals.
To quote Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University “You cannot learn without attending to social relationships and emotional development. The science is clear”.
There are no existing well-researched and articulated standards for social and emotional learning of Indian school children. Despite the mention of the importance of SEL in the National Education Policy 2020 and national documents like the NCERT’s National Curricular Framework, the affective domain has not been understood or addressed meaningfully by the vast majority of schools and teachers in India.
It is the Indian Social & Emotional Learning Framework. It is a research-based educational resource developed by The Teacher Foundation to foster social emotional development of Indian children, using a carefully age-banded approach, from 6 years to 18 years.
ISELF will help teachers, counsellors, facilitators develop 5 vital social-emotional competencies in children: Self Awareness, Self Management, Relationship Management, Social Awareness and Decision Making.
ISELF is freely accessible online to all schools and teachers through www.teacherfoundation.org. It will also be available in other Indian languages soon. There are numerous ways in which schools could use ISELF with their students. Schools and teachers would need an in-depth orientation from TTF to know how to navigate through ISELF.
To make it easy for teachers to navigate ISELF, the learning standards and outcomes are provided for each age band competency-wise. There are many ways in which ISELF could be included into a school curriculum and used with children. Here are some practical approaches:
Separate time-tabled SEL Periods
A time-tabled weekly period across grades 1 to 12, for planned and structured sessions on SEL. The facilitator can refer to ISELF on a specific social-emotional skill appropriate to the children and plans the lesson around it. TTF recommends schools to use Jenny Mosley’s Whole School Quality Circle Time as the approach for these weekly SEL periods.
Focused SEL programmes
The school allots specific days at the beginning or towards the end of the academic year, or after school hours during the academic year, to conduct SEL programmes with a planned and structured approach to developing specific social emotional skills. ISELF is used to plan activities appropriate to the age group.
Specialised SEL Interventions
These interventions are specially planned for children with identified behavioural or emotional problems. Similar to other SEL interventions, they have a design and structure to meet certain key SEL objectives, within a time-frame. ISELF can be used to plan activities appropriate to the age group.
Integrated with the Academic curriculum
This however requires teachers to have in-depth knowledge of and skills in SEL, apart from fluency in seamlessly integrating the age-appropriate SEL outcomes with the learning objectives of the subject and topic at hand.
To know more about the research conducted for ISELF please click here
ISELF has been mapped by EASEL Labs of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, along with other SEL and Life Skills frameworks from across the world. ISELF has been found to have the most depth of focus in terms of absolute values. Do click on this link http://inee.exploresel.gse.harvard.edu/compare-domains/
The diagram provided below shows ISELF with 5 SEL competencies. Each competency comprises 2-3 Learning Standards and each Learning Standard has Learning Outcomes in 5 age-bands. Finally each learning outcome has a set of learning opportunities that students must be provided with to develop the appropriate SEL outcome.
Here’s an example to understand how to make sense of ISELF.
In order to address routine negative student behaviours of bullying, conflicts amongst peers, the school/ teacher could examine the competency of Relationship Management in ISELF and its corresponding learning standard of ‘Demonstrate an ability to resolve interpersonal conflicts’.The age-banded learning outcomes provided below suggest tasks that could be designed by teachers in a grade and age-specific manner.
ISELF is meant for anyone who has the best interests of children at heart! It can be used by schools and teachers for teaching SE skills, developing content or creating curriculum for SEL; mental health professionals; child social workers as well as parents.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is defined as “the process of acquiring a set of social and emotional skills—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making—in a safe, supportive environment that encourages social, emotional, and cognitive development and provides authentic opportunities for practising social-emotional skills” *
* (adapted from Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), 2005)
The Safe and Sensitive Schools (SASS) programme is a unique tried and tested initiative of The Teacher Foundation, delivered across a period of 18 months. Jenny Mosley’s Whole School Ecosystemic (WSE) model of Quality Circle Time forms the basis of TTF’s SASS initiative
The tools are multi-modal and have been designed in 5 age-bands. They have been pilot-tested and are being reviewed and validated by data science experts from IIM, Bangalore
Sheela has been successfully managing teacher development and school support projects for over a decade now. Her professional expertise include implementing projects, developing organizational systems and processes, building teams and liaising with funding agencies in her capacity as a member of the senior team at The Teacher Foundation.
Sheela effectively manages end-to-end delivery of multiple projects in both private and government schools across India and abroad.
She also guides the school relationship team to promote TTF services in schools. She has been with TTF since 2004 and ensured the effective operational implementation of Continuing Professional Development projects for teachers and school heads supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Reach India, Deshpande Foundation, Swades etc.
The Enabling Inclusion programme, designed in collaboration with CBM, is a meaningful school intervention package aimed at sensitising teachers and equipping them with skills to set up inclusive classrooms and teaching methods. It is powerful, practical and effective in ensuring visible, measurable changes through inclusive classroom practices across the school.
Teachers learn to use different types of questions and use them deliberately to promote deeper thought and greater participation in class.
TTF uses video clips of actual early years classes, to help teachers identify good practices and reflect on their own practice.
Teachers look at long-term, medium-term and short-term planning as well as lesson plans.
Teachers explore various methods of assessing and documenting the progress of children and how to report back to the parents.
Enriches teachers with creative ways of involving music & movement in classrooms.
This module helps teachers recognize the role of play as a powerful, natural behaviour contributing to children’s learning and development.
Identifies the purpose and characteristic of an effective portfolio and how it can be used by the teacher for recording, reporting and measuring the child’s progress.
Learn how children can use the 5 senses to explore and make sense of their immediate environment.
Teachers understand developmentally appropriate mathematical teaching practices and learning outcomes in a pre-primary classroom.
Master a variety of developmentally appropriate literacy and language experience in a classroom environment to foster communication and literacy development.
Helps to create learning corners to nurture each child’s optimal development and enable interaction between the indoor and outdoor environment.
Teachers build their background knowledge to know who their child is, what he/ she can do best at their age.
This gentle whole school ecosystemic model enables honest and authentic conversations between students and their teacher. It has been used by several leading schools across India for over 21 years. The Teacher Foundation (TTF) is the sole accredited training provider for Jenny Mosley Consultancies, UK. TTF has trained thousands of teachers across India on QCT.
Based on the progress the school makes, at the end of the programme, it will be awarded a certificate at one of the 3 levels – Bronze, Silver or Gold. This will be tracked by the TTF team from the Needs Assessment / Baseline Report to the second round of School Based Support. A school that makes a 25% improvement from the baseline will get a Bronze certification; above 25% shift will be awarded a Silver certification and any school that has moved to 75% or above score for Classroom Practice will get a Gold Certification.
School-based support involves every teacher being observed twice in the course of the project. During the classroom observations, TTF facilitators will look for/examine teacher-student interaction, teaching-learning methodology, assessment practices and the physical classroom environment. Every teacher will be given one-on-one feedback , post observation. This will enable the teachers to reflect on their existing practices and explore more impactful approaches. After each round of SBS, the school will be given a qualitative and quantitative report highlighting the strengths and areas for further improvement in the school’s classroom practice.
To better understand existing school resources and teacher practices, The Teacher Foundation does a thorough needs analysis at the outset. The needs analysis consists of carefully reviewing existing classroom practices and teaching-learning processes through observing a sampling of teachers in their classrooms, understanding existing school resources and teacher practices. This enables TTF to customise the training and support to individual school’s needs.
Based on the needs analysis the school will be provided a baseline report as well as a recommendation of the training modules that would be suitable. The Training modules include a combination of mandatory Core Courses and a choice of Elective Courses. For details on the modules do get in touch with TTF.
Authentic understanding involves six facets: Explanation, Interpretation, Application, Perspective, Empathy, and Self- Knowledge. In order to enable this, teachers’ perspective of what ‘understanding’ is, needs to be broadened. This workshop helps teachers understand the facets of understanding and the practical techniques that could be used in class to check for true understanding. The workshop is particularly applicable for teachers of middle and high school.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Project-based Learning has numerous benefits such as offering a deeper understanding of concepts, broader knowledge base, improved communication and interpersonal / social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing and reporting skills. It thus serves as the ideal set up for a learning-centred classroom. In this workshop, teachers will get an in-depth understanding of what constitutes Project-based Learning by constructing teaching-learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary and student-centred. Teachers will also learn how to assess project-based learning meaningfully which will enable students to track the development of their own learning. The workshop is aimed at teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Teaching is more about asking the right questions than giving the right answers!
Teachers, therefore, need to be proficient in asking questions that steer away from rote-memorisation and convergent thinking to encourage higher-order and divergent thinking. This calls for effective asking of open-ended questions! In this workshop, teachers learn to use different types of questions and use them deliberately to promote deeper thought and more participation in class. The workshop is for teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
This sustained professional development course is most suitable when the entire teaching community of a school enrols for it. The goal of Touchstone is to significantly enhance teaching capability of the institution, apart from the obvious professional benefits that individual teachers accrue. Touchstone involves a combination of workshops and school-based support that involves classroom observation of teachers and followed by one-on-one coaching and feedback.
TEY is specifically designed to inspire and empower Pre-Primary School Teachers with the essential know-how and various innovative teaching and learning materials, that will go a long way in enabling them to nurture the early learners’ development and creativity whilst equipping them with foundational skills and competencies.
Maya has been in the field of education for 4 decades. Her areas of professional experience include conceptualizing, designing and implementing a wide range of school and teacher-related projects and services – including the Wipro Applying Thought in Schools Teacher Empowerment Project initiated in 2001 and Safe & Sensitive Schools initiated in 2009 and since 2012
the development of the Indian Social and Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF) – an age-banded set of standards for Social & Emotional Learning for Indian schools. ISELF is the only researched and contextualised SEL Framework existing in India. From 2021, she has led The Teacher Foundation as the Glossary Anchoring Partner of the Life Skills Collaborative, a partnership of 18 organisations with the goal of redefining the Life Skills education space in India.
Her professional interests and expertise include school effectiveness research and whole school improvement, whole school well-being, teacher development, collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, interpersonal communication in the classroom, leadership and strategic management of schools.
She has been a full-time teacher trainer since 1996, conducting professional development programmes for heads and teachers of schools across India and abroad. She has trained several thousand teachers across the past 25 years. She has presented at leading education conferences both nationally and internationally.
She is an Accredited Teacher Trainer for Jenny Mosley Consultancies (UK) for training teachers on Whole School Quality Circle Time (QCT) across schools in India. QCT is an ecosystemic model for fostering SEL amongst children and teachers alike.
Maya has written on issues concerning educational practice and management in leading publications like The Times of India, The Economic Times, Education World, Teacher Plus, Mentor etc. She has written a chapter on Addressing Teacher Quality and Training in a book titled Accelerating Access to Quality Education, a Brookings India 2015 publication. She has also been been a member of the British Council India’s Policy Think Tank for Continuing Professional Development. She was also invited to be on the National Technical Committee set up by National University for Educational Planning and Administration(NUEPA) for developing Standards for School Leaders and for several consultation meetings prior to the finalisation of the National Education Policy 2020.
Sandhya is Head of Content and Training at TTF, Bangalore.
She has been a teacher and trainer for nearly 2 decades and has an intuitive and native facility with technology for teaching and training. She began her career as an English teacher handling both national and international school curriculums. Her foray into training, began with Eng Language training, communication skills for adults and professionals from diverse backgrounds.
Monila brings in her professional experience of working with children and adults to varied areas of school well–being, which include, training teachers, providing school based support, conducting needs analysis and audits, developing tools of inquiry (questionnaires, interviews, observations etc.), analyzing data from schools and compiling reports. She trains teachers both in govt. and private schools on Whole School Quality Circle Time.
Her passion lies in studying human behavior, observing and interacting with people and critically reflecting on education – its power, influence and limitations.
Monila is proficient in speaking, reading and writing English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.
Ramya has been managing finances of The Teacher Foundation (Shraddha Trust) since 2006. Her responsibilities include Accounting & Governance , Revenue Management, Financial Planning & Analysis, Management Reporting & Taxation as per accepted accounting principles and norms.
She served the organisation as the Head of Finance until June 2020 and has started her own consultancy M/s.Peaksphere Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd, since July 2020. The Teacher Foundation has outsourced its financial services to Ramya through a consultancy contract w.e.f July 2020.
“If the way you teach isn’t helping children learn well, then teach the way children learn.”
In order to do this effectively, we need to know how children learn! In this workshop, teachers understand the principles of brain-based learning, their relevance and practical implications for classroom teaching. It also builds an awareness of the Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory and its application in the classroom, so that teachers are able to make learning meaningful for every student. The workshop is appropriate for teachers of all grades and levels.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to-
“Do YOU as a teacher want to be responsible for your students’ behaviour or do you want THEM to be responsible for their own behaviour?”
In this workshop, teachers examine the factors that influence student behaviour and effective strategies to deal with behaviours that may be disruptive or inappropriate. It also enables teachers to reflect on the long term benefits of fostering a culture of self discipline, so that children develop self awareness and take accountability for their actions. The module is applicable to teachers of all grades and levels.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to –
The Right to Education ensures that every child has the fundamental right to quality education regardless of their socio-economic background or their disabilities. NEP 2020 also emphasises ‘Inclusion’ as a vital approach to teaching-learning. This session helps teachers recognise the importance of inclusion, its implications, key challenges with regard to inclusion in schools and devise simple practical ways to make inclusion possible in every classroom. The workshop is applicable to teachers of all grades and levels.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to –
Children with disabilities are most prone to being excluded from education. If we are to help all students learn, then it is imperative that teachers are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to tailor their classrooms and teaching for children with special needs. Only then will ‘Inclusive Education’ become a reality. This workshop provides teachers an overview of different disabilities and helps them think about making adaptations to their classrooms to include children with different kinds of disabilities. The workshop is applicable to teachers of all grades and levels.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
All teachers would love teaching time that is free from disruption, behaviour issues or distractions. Effective classroom management is the glue that holds together meaningful learning experiences, guided by positive teacher behaviour, norms and routines. In this workshop, teachers identify reasons for disruptive behaviour and examine simple, effective and innovative strategies for managing students. The workshop is applicable to Pre-Primary, Primary and Middle school teachers.
This workshop will enable participants to –
“A task well begun is half done.”
Make subject/ topic beginnings captivating so that the teacher and students strike the right magical note at the beginning of the lesson. This workshop explores ways in which teachers can lift the ‘middle’ part of their lessons when they may tend to flag. It culminates with looking at ways in which teachers can ‘end’ or recap their lesson in interesting ways. The workshop is for teachers of primary and middle school.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Teachers must be able to ‘connect’ with children and young people if they are to make a difference in their learning, health and well-being. The workshop examines ways in which all teachers would be able to use simple strategies to enhance their relationships with each other and with students. Teachers, also, explore ways in which institutional checks can be put in place for fostering positive relationships. The workshop is applicable for teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
A positive attitude fosters energy and enthusiasm in teachers as well as others around them. A teacher’s attitude and behaviour plays a critical role in catalysing student learning, besides ensuring the effective functioning of the school. This workshop enables teachers to examine their attitude as teaching professionals and its impact on the learning environment. It helps them reflect on their current approach and evaluate themselves on a set of professional characteristics designed for teachers. The workshop is aimed at teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Teaching is a relationship-oriented profession and teachers, in order to be effective, need to have the appropriate skills to communicate with and understand people, especially children. This workshop aims at equipping teachers with the basic counselling skills of active listening that are absolutely vital for classroom and school situations. It focuses on having positive, constructive interpersonal communication. The workshop is aimed at teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Time management is about life management, but for a teacher it is also one of the key factors in learning management! This workshop focuses on how teachers can use their teaching time effectively, work smart in order to get maximum learning outcomes from students. It helps them reflect on how organised they are and optimise time for meaningful teaching-learning processes and relationships. The workshop is aimed at teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
A reflective teacher is a lifelong learning teacher. As Bartlett (1990) points out, becoming a reflective teacher involves moving beyond a primary concern with instructional techniques and “how to” questions and asking “what” and “why” questions. The latter questions address concerns about instruction and managerial techniques not as ends in themselves, but as part of broader educational purposes.This workshop explores the need for reflection and helps teachers practise simple methods to routinely reflect on their classroom practices. The workshop is aimed at teachers of all grades and levels.
This workshop will enable participants to –
“What the child can do in cooperation today he (sic) can do alone tomorrow” Lev Vygotsky
In this module, the process is the content ! The module focuses on helping teachers learn about group work, through actually doing group work themselves. It’s universal knowledge that children learn more effectively when they are engaged with their peers in activities. This session helps teachers incorporate a range of collaborative learning formats in their classrooms. Teachers examine the importance of group work and the factors that impact group work. The workshop is applicable for teachers of primary, middle and high school.
This workshop will enable participants to –
When students ask questions, formulate and solve problems, investigate and inquire, learning is more effective. This module helps teachers understand the difference between conventional passive learning and active learning. It equips teachers with strategies to convert seemingly passive activities like reading, listening or viewing into thought provoking and deep learning opportunities. The workshop is for teachers of primary, middle and high school.
This workshop will enable participants to –
The aim of this module is to equip teachers to use Marzano et al’s popular Dimensions of Learning (DOL) model as a practical teaching framework to enhance five dimensions of learning and five types of thinking.
This workshop will enable participants to –
In this module, participants explore the principles of formative assessment and its powerful ability to improve learning outcomes. Teachers practise various formative assessment strategies including self and peer assessment, use of portfolios and success criteria.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Most summative assessments are limited to question papers with objective and a few subjective questions. In many cases, the manner of according marks to subjective questions is reduced to looking for key words rather than looking looking at the reasoning behind the answer itself. The NEP 2020 recommends competency based assessment and encourages self-assessment and project based assessments. This means that teachers need to be equipped to create and deploy tools like checklists and rubrics and to measure learning through performances, products and such. The workshop is aimed at teachers of primary, middle and high school. There is an exclusive module for pre-primary teachers.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Differentiation is a teaching approach that attempts to ensure that all students learn well, despite their many differences. It is not what is done, but the way it is done that achieves differentiation. This one day workshop will enable teachers to explore the meaning of differentiated learning in the context of their own classrooms and learn strategies which will enable all students to succeed. Teachers will also design a lesson using any one strategy of differentiation they learn and reflect on its potential impact for their learners. The workshop is for teachers of all primary, middle and high schools.
This workshop will enable participants to –
Everyone thinks; it is in our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought.
“Critical thinking is the complex ability to question, interpret, analyse, evaluate, infer and explain using credible evidence, conceptual knowledge, clear criteria, relevant context and/or research methods to solve problems, develop innovative solutions or make an independent judgement or decision. It is a meta-skill through which we are able to reflect on our own thinking, discern biases, ascertain credibility of the information, recognise and interpret ambiguous and conflicting information, be open-minded, flexible and fair.”
This workshop will enable participants to –
The National Education Policy 2020 seeks to transform the contemporary education system and envisages creation, transmission, use and dissemination of knowledge to provide high quality education to all. The NEP is ambitious and forward-looking but much of its success will depend on how it is executed. There is a need to create awareness about the NEP amongst teachers, students, officials, and other stakeholders in the education system so that we can together help India build its human capital with a sense of purpose, clarity and urgency.
(NEP) “is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities ie the ‘foundational capacities’ of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving – but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.”
This workshop will enable participants to –
This module equips early years (pre-primary) teachers to use various ways to develop the innate skills required by young learners to construct their knowledge and understanding of basic mathematical concepts and explore the relationship between numbers, shapes and geometrical figures. The teachers will also learn how to help the young learners handle data, and will reflect on how early numeracy skills can be further developed in the primary school years of education. The workshop is appropriate for teachers of pre-primary.
Every subject has its own intrinsic pedagogy that must be used effectively by teachers to help students acquire the relevant knowledge. In this workshop, while teachers examine how each subject should be taught, they will also learn the subject-specific pedagogical skills. This will develop in students, an appreciation of what different subjects have in common, and also how they are distinctive. With the appropriate subject enrichment workshops, teachers will be able to encourage students to think like historians, mathematicians or scientists. The workshop is appropriate for teachers of primary and middle school.
Social Studies This workshop on subject enrichment will explore a range of Thinking Skills, both in teaching of History as well as Geography, that will enable a teacher to keep students engaged and learning with meaning.
Science
Vital concepts in science are best learnt through ‘doing’. In this Subject Enrichment workshop, participants will perform brief science activities that require the use of the essential science process skills. This gives teachers a hands-on experience of identifying, discussing, and refining their understanding of the Process Skills.
Mathematics Through this Subject Enrichment Workshop, teachers will experience and explore different strategies to teach mathematics concepts in an interactive fun manner. The strategies are built around the essential mathematical skills which help learners work with concrete materials and manipulatives to understand abstract concepts better. Teachers will be able to adopt these strategies in the classroom for making mathematical concepts accessible and relevant for learners. The workshop helps teachers explore simple low cost material like toothpicks, ice cream sticks, bottle cans, counters, playing cards and paper folds to explore concepts in Numbers – computation; Geometry – patterns, symmetry; Measurement – estimation and data handling.
English Teaching English is a complex task especially for learners whose first language is a vernacular. In this Subject Enrichment workshop, teachers examine how to build a strong foundation in English. Using a range of stimulating activities and games to teach vocabulary, creative writing, grammar, and reading, the workshop will enable teachers to build all the essential language skills in a seamless and integrated fashion. They are also empowered to teach language with greater levels of confidence, conviction and ease.
Embedding language fluency in students is a shared responsibility within the school. The Skills of English Language (listening, speaking, reading, writing), must not be limited to just the English Language classroom. Instead, they must be honed while teaching a wide range of subjects. It is now being recognized that all teachers play a vital role in language development for better acquisition of learning in other subjects – Maths, Science and Social Studies. This workshop helps teachers who teach subjects, other than English Language, get ideas on how they too can help language development while teaching their respective subject content. The workshop is for teachers of primary and middle school classes
The premise schools must work from is that both teachers and children work and respond better when they feel happy and cared for! Therefore schools must play a vital role in actively nurturing the social and emotional aspects of students’ learning. Only caring, enthusiastic and skilled teachers can help students gain the confidence and the competence to learn and grow!
As part of its enduring work in SEL, The Teacher Foundation (TTF) developed The Indian Social & Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF), a product of 7 years of research. It is an educational resource to foster social-emotional development of Indian children, using a carefully age-banded approach, from 6 years to 18 years.
ISELF will help teachers, mental health professionals, organisations working in the SEL space to develop 5 vital social-emotional competencies in children: Self Awareness, Self Management, Relationship Management, Social Awareness and Decision Making.
Some key objectives include enabling participants to:
Child safety needs to be of paramount importance to all schools. Today it is mandatory for all schools to have a functioning Child Safeguarding Policy. The Teacher Foundation’s Child Safeguarding initiative in adherence to best international practices and Indian legal mandates. The Child Safeguarding Policy (CSP) Programme offered by TTF aims to support schools in protecting their students from intentional as well as unintentional harm. TTF draws upon over 20 years of experience enabling and inspiring teachers, fostering safe and sensitive schools and whole school improvement efforts,
TTF’s Child Safeguarding Programme Includes:
I. Child Safety Baseline Audit by TTF – 1 Day The programme begins with a one-day audit carried out by TTF to help the school gather an external perspective on the existing strengths and needs with respect to child safeguarding initiatives in the school. It would examine the school’s existing policies, spaces, and interactions amongst the different stakeholders using the lenses of Social, Emotional Physical & Legal aspects of School Safety. This will include in-school observations, a set of self administered questionnaires to a sample of heads, teachers and students. The overall report will be immediately shared with the school with the assurance of complete confidentiality.
ii. Session on Need for Child Safeguarding Policy – 1 Day An interactive one day session for teachers would be conducted to create an awareness on the educational need and the legal imperative of a Child Safeguarding Policy for the school.
iii. Familiarising the School with the CSP Policy Document – 1⁄2 Day The Child Safeguarding Policy document (CSP) would be introduced where all the teachers will spend time deconstructing the policy and work out an implementation plan. The school will also be guided with the process of setting up a Child Protection Committee
iv. Self Audit by School – to be done after 3 months
A few months later, an online self audit would be carried out to help the school assess the implementation of the Child Safeguarding Programme.
Teaching is rewarding but also extremely demanding! Teachers and students are increasingly grappling with various levels of stress, anxiety, and trauma brought about by syllabus, time, physical and emotional constraints. Therefore, practising mindfulness in schools is becoming more important than ever before!
This module helps teachers understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of mindfulness and its implication on our personal and professional lives. Teachers get a taste of experiential mindfulness practices and tools to get in touch with themselves, make peace with their present as they embark on their journey as mindful practitioners.
By the end of this one-day workshop, teachers will:
An Economics Hons graduate, from Delhi University, Mr Nedungadi has done an MBA from IIM, Kolkata and the Stanford Executive Programme from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He has held several senior leadership positions in Unilever, Gillette and the Aditya Birla Group.
He was also Group Head, Consumer Insights and Brand Development at Aditya Birla Group until recently. He is currently Managing Director of RedVent Strategy & Design Ltd. He specialises in leadership, strategy, customer centricity and innovation.
Maya began her career 40 years ago as a high school teacher in New Delhi. Her areas of professional interest and expertise include school effectiveness research, teacher development, leadership and strategic management of schools. She has a B.Ed from Delhi University and a MBA Education Management with distinction from University of Leicester, UK
Since 1996, she has trained thousands of teachers and heads of schools across the country.
She has presented papers on teacher development and school improvement at numerous national and international seminars. She has also written on issues concerning educational practice and management in leading publications like The Times of India, The Economic Times, Education World, Teacher Plus, Mentor.
She is the Founder Director of The Teacher Foundation.
Prerana is a compact and comprehensive teacher development programme designed to offer middle income and affordable private schools support to significantly improve their routine teaching-learning practices and adopt more student-centred approaches.
This is a sustained 60 hours programme aimed at improving thinking and speaking skills in English. This programme is available in both face-to-face as well as online modes. It has been designed for teachers who wish to enhance their confidence and fluency in English as a medium of communication and instruction.
Halfway through Prerana, as well as after the completion of all the modules, TTF facilitators will observe each teacher as part of school based support. In the classroom observations, facilitators will look for/examine teacher-student interaction, teaching-learning methodology, assessment practices and the physical classroom environment.
Teachers utilise the different strategies provided in Prerana to create interactive revision exercises.
Teachers are able to design topic plans with classroom activities and materials that match the learning objectives to both enable learning and assess learning.
Teachers design goals and objectives that are student-centric rather than teacher centric. Teachers will also be able to identify clearly what the students will accomplish in each class.
Teachers explore the importance of assessment in promoting learning through use of formative assessments. Teachers also analyse their current question papers and design a question paper with the right balance of lower and higher order questions.
Teachers understand and implement different strategies like question games, mind maps and graphic organisers to make learning more interactive.
Teachers will design activities which will engage students and make them active participants in the classroom leading to improved recall and learning.
Teacher will be able to recognise the benefits students receive by working together in groups. They will design group activities which can be implemented in their classrooms across subjects.
The Textbook is the most basic resource available to the teacher. In this module teachers will learn to use the text and visuals in a textbook effectively and innovatively. Teachers will also be able to use different techniques to help students engage with the comprehension activities in the text.
Teachers will use existing classroom resources like blackboards, bulletin boards, walls, etc. that can be used to create an engaging colourful learning environment. Teachers will also be able to use the classroom to their best advantage despite existing constraints of time and resources.
Teachers will be able to communicate effectively with their students and manage classroom discipline better.
Teachers explore what makes a good teacher and link their own qualities to those that make teachers successful educators.
Enhancing family and community involvement ensures that a school is a vibrant place of learning with a social conscience. Daksh allows schools to examine the engagement of the parents and the local community and plan how it can establish positive and purposeful ties with these stakeholders.
Schools exist for the students. It is therefore that they are safe, caring and nurturing places. Daksh helps schools to evaluate their school’s culture and understand how it can empower students.
The classroom and what transpires within it inarguably reflects the soul and purpose of the school! Daksh helps a school to identify the existing gaps in their practices based on how teachers plan lessons, teach the curriculum and assess students; what kind of learning environments they create and the nature of their interactions with students.
Daksh enables the school to explore how the school principal, coordinators, head teachers and members of school management together contribute to the overall effectiveness of the school.
The school leadership impacts the quality of people, processes and policies of the institution.
The school will look more tidy and classrooms more attractive and cheerful. The school’s time-table will be organised to ensure a more rich and varied learning experience for the students. There will be enhanced participation and collaboration amongst all the stakeholders including parents and students. The school will have clear policies, systems and processes in place to achieve a more efficient and effective school management.
TTF’s in-class and out-of-class support focuses on improving the quality of teaching across the school by enhancing teacher confidence and morale, classroom management skills, lesson planning and teaching skills.
The program aims to bring about an increase in overall student achievement by 20%
Each school is unique. Any attempt to turn a school around must begin with understanding the current status of the school. Therefore, WST begins with a comprehensive school baseline audit and needs analysis. Based on this, The Teacher Foundation ensures that the 2-year intervention programme is tailored to meet the needs of school.
WST is a perfect school intervention package for school owners who have reached a readiness to improve the quality of student learning in their institution. The programme benefits schools who wish to evaluate and put into place more efficient school management structures and policies and promote effective teaching-learning practices.
TTF has worked with all types of schools on WST. Affordable English medium schools that cater to children from middle-class or underprivileged communities stand to greatly gain from WST.
Managing schools is often messy and very complex. Besides, schools are also highly conformist, tending to stay comfortable with tried and tested methods that won’t unnecessarily tax anyone. However, for schools to stay relevant in the 21st century, they need to rigorously reflect and review their existing practices, dump old archaic approaches and re-skill and adopt new methods.
Whole School Turnaround (WST) is a two-year intensive training and support programme, focusing on School Leaders/Management, Teachers, Parents and Students, aimed at creating sustained change in student learning outcomes and achievement.
TTF undertook a 5 year long exploratory research study across India with the objective of developing standards for socialemotional learning of Indian children, with age-banded learning outcomes.
Every few years it is vital for any aspirational and progressive school to undertake a 360° review of itself and its functioning. This is best done by an independent organisation that evaluates a school’s performance based on robust and reliable quality standards. TTF’s Daksh – The Whole School Audit is a tried and tested audit undertaken by experienced TTF facilitators. Leading schools in India, as well as abroad have used TTF’s Whole School Audit. Daksh draws inputs not just from all the key stakeholders of the school, it also involves rigorous review of policies and classroom and school practices. The school will receive a detailed report reflecting where it currently is and a set of recommendations for improvement and transformation.
TTF’s Whole School Turnaround (WST) model is based on the premise that sustained instructional change cannot occur in schools unless all the stakeholders are involved. WST is one of the most effective ways in which TTF and the leadership team in a school can catalyse sustained change in student learning outcomes and achievement.
Child Safeguarding is mandated for all schools by the Indian Government. TTF is committed to helping schools have clearly articulated child safeguarding policies. The CSP Programme offered by TTF aims draws from both the norms stated by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights as well as international guidelines for protecting children from intentional and unintentional harm.
ISELF was mapped by Harvard University’s EASEL Labs along with other SEL and Life Skills Frameworks from across the world. ISELF demonstrates the most depth in focus.
Teachers are trained and supported to become gentler and kinder in their interactions with students using Jenny Mosley’s Whole School Ecosystemic Model of Quality Circle Time (QCT)*
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In a country of 9.5 million teachers, there is still a grave shortage of competent, compassionate and enthusiastic teachers in both government and private schools. Whether untrained or B.Ed, D.Ed qualified, teachers are challenged by inadequate exposure to authentic learning experiences themselves which they can replicate in their classrooms. The New Teacher (TNT) is a unique pre-service teacher training programme that can be offered as a 1000 hours Certificate Course or a 2000 hours Diploma Course. TTF will also offer school placements for candidates who have completed the course successfully. 5 batches of trainees have completed TNT. Leading schools in Mumbai and Bangalore have employed TNT graduates.
Rhyme & Reason (R&R) is a theme-based early years curriculum for 4 levels – Play Group, Pre-K, K1 and K 2. R&R has been carefully designed with equal elements of art and craft, songs, hands-on activities and concepts. The curriculum is detailed out into daily plans and helps teachers introduce learning to early years learners in a playful, happy and meaningful manner – a sound basis for success later in their school life.
The Coaching for School Success (CFSS) is a rigorous high impact middle-level leadership programme that aims at building capacity for embedding coaching and mentoring in the school. This infuses a culture of ongoing professional learning and development amongst all teachers with a clear focus on fostering engaged students and meaningful learning experiences and outcomes.
Short bursts of energising workshops for contemporary classrooms
A 2 day game-based workshop designed for emerging leaders using educationist Tim Brighouse’s lucid booklet of the same name.
Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example.
– Donald McGannon,
Broadcasting industry executive
The school leader is also someone who has the power to make plans into productive actions using data, people and processes. This module will help them strategically manage their resources and build the school as a professional learning community.
Leadership…. is about creating change you believe in.
-Seth Godin
Education is always in a state of flux, and there’s new research that can be leveraged gainfully in this changing landscape. In this module school heads will explore the novel but well-researched concept of change that begins with a ‘nudge’.
Effective school leadership is indisputably crucial for a well run school in today’s world School Leaders need to be equipped and supported to do what they need to do, well! Enrolling for HeadLAMP is a leap in the right direction!
School should be a safe place for all students to learn and play, and it is the job of each teacher and administrator to ensure that safety.
– Unknown
A strong safety culture in the school depends on dedicated leaders. This module will focus on the various aspects such as physical, emotional and psychological safeguarding as well as help leaders understand how help their team prevent, report and respond to instances of child abuse, thus improving the child safety systems of the school.
Great leaders communicate and great communicators lead.
– Simon Sinek,
Author and motivational speaker
Communication is a core leadership function. In this module school leaders will explore the skills required for authentic, direct and meaningful communication both professionally and personally.
Your curriculum defines your school. Own it. Shape it. Celebrate it.
– Tom Sherrington,
Former Headteacher and Founder of Teacherhead Consulting, UK
Teaching and learning is the core business of every school. In this module School Leaders will compare the existing learning systems in their school to contemporary teaching-learning approaches.
Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right thing.
– Peter Drucker,
Management consultant, educator and author
Leading schools more than any other leadership role, is a value-driven function. In this module participants will explore the ethical dimension of leadership and how it affects their schools.