PROFILE
Ms Sharada did her schooling
from Convent of Jesus and Mary, New Delhi. She
graduated with honours in English literature from
Jesus and Mary College and post-graduated in English
literature from Miranda House of Delhi University.
She has done her B Ed from Central Institute of
Education (CIE), Delhi University.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Ms Sharada began teaching more
than twenty years ago. She joined as a TGT and
seven years later, was promoted to a PGT in English.
While teaching, she also did a Post Graduate Certificate
Course in the Teaching of English and later a
Post Graduate Diploma in the Teaching of English
from Central Institute of English and Foreign
Languages (CIEFL), Hyderabad. Currently, she is
working on her dissertation for M Phil in ELT
from CIEFL.
As the senior-most teacher in the English Department,
she coordinates several language-teaching programmes.
She also coordinates co-curricular activities
in the school and organises an inter-school debate
annually. She prepares students for debates, declamations,
book discussions, extempore speeches, etc. As
the Editor of the school magazine, she has been
actively involved in the design, layout and publishing
of the magazine. She has initiated and involved
students in the whole process of creating the
school magazine. Now, students play a very active
role in the preparation of the magazine.
Ms Sharada has attended several workshops related
to language teaching and ELT in particular. On
several occasions she has conducted workshops
on teaching strategies in language teaching for
teachers from other schools. She has been an Examiner
for CBSE class XII Board exams for the last few
years. She is also the Coordinator for the NIE
programme in school.
She has been awarded the Professional
Competency Award on three different occasions
for the excellent performance of her students
in the class XII Board exams. She has authored
a book of Practice Papers to enable students of
class XII to revise better for their exams. She
has also been devising language tasks and exercises
for textbooks under revision. She has done an
advanced course in using computers in classroom
teaching. She finds the Macmillan website to be
truly interesting and an excellent companion in
her teaching. It generates new ideas and helps
her in being innovative in thought. The shift
in the focus in language teaching (making it more
communicative) and her years at CIEFL has made
her to emphasise effective communication skills.
She finds activities and situational contexts
much better in making her students become more
effective in using language. She says, "Most of
the learners in my school come from homes where
there is hardly any exposure to English. They
get no help or guidance in English at home. Consequently,
they depend entirely on school for language learning.
Adding to this is the fact that they are least
motivated to learn English for both students and
their parents believe language is of no importance
in life. So motivating them and making language
learning an interesting thing is a very challenging
task".
However, for someone who came
into teaching quite accidentally and a little
reluctantly, she loves her job thoroughly. Today,
she says, she cannot think of being anything but
a teacher. "When students keep in touch long after
leaving school and still write to me I feel immensely
satisfied. I would like to share some lines that
have been constantly with me in my heart - lines
that help me in becoming a better teacher.
