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411-2/A, Hemu Kalani Marg, Natvar Parikh Chowk, Sindhi Society, Chembur, Mumbai – 400071.
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This session featured an inspiring showcase by Ms. Radhika Zahedi, Google Champion and Director at The Green Acres Academy, Mumbai, who demonstrated how their organization has built a platform for self-paced teacher professional development. Following this, Mr. Anuj Iyer, Chief Analytics Officer at The Green Acres Academy, shared their journey of making data-driven decisions with Looker Studio. The innovative use of Edu Plus licenses and Looker Studio has transformed their institution’s methodologies and outcomes.
The presentations left educators full of innovative ideas and new perspectives!
The workshop was facilitated by Google’s team members along with Ms. Sangeeta Gulati, Leader of the Google Educator Group in Delhi. Together, they guided educators through best practices for integrating Google’s advanced tools in classroom settings.
TGAA’s Contribution
The Green Acres Academy (TGAA) played an active role in the event by demonstrating Google Classroom’s new “Practice Sets” feature. This tool empowers teachers by providing interactive lessons, enabling quicker feedback, and supporting more personalized learning. TGAA’s demonstration showcased how Practice Sets can enhance technology integration within classrooms, benefiting both students and teachers.
The demo showcased Practice Sets in action, demonstrating how TGAA teachers use them to receive real-time classroom insights and engage students in a more interactive learning process. With Practice Sets, students receive immediate feedback on their answers, helping them stay on track or seek additional hints through visual explainers and videos. Correct answers are celebrated with fun animations and confetti, further enhancing motivation and engagement. Over 94 educators engaged in learning how to incorporate Practice Sets into their classrooms.
Through this workshop, TGAA contributed to the ongoing movement towards technology-enhanced education, showcasing innovative tools that foster deeper engagement and support educators across the region.
The webinar provided clear guidance on structuring lessons with pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities, enabling teachers to build a comprehensive reading framework. Participants explored key reading comprehension strategies such as predicting, questioning, and summarizing, and learned how to adapt these techniques for various types of texts, including both fiction and nonfiction.
The session was attended live by 460 participants and has since been viewed by 1,300 teachers. Additionally, we released an online self-paced course based on the webinar’s key concepts, allowing participants to engage further and earn an e-certificate upon completion.
Understanding the Fundamentals of Phonics:
Participants gained a deep understanding of the relationship between sounds and letters, and how to apply this knowledge to improve reading and spelling instruction. The workshop provided practical strategies and techniques for teaching phonics in an engaging, meaningful, and developmentally appropriate manner.
The workshop was conducted online as a Webinar/YouTube Live, in collaboration with the Unaided School Forum (USF), and drew over 500 live participants and 2.5k viewers from schools across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. During the session, we also launched our dedicated phonics website.
Participants who completed the workshop received an e-certificate, with over 100 certificates issued so far.
Together, we are committed to empowering educators and fostering a love for reading and writing in the next generation of learners.
Tejas enjoys spending time with his wife and two young boys. He is an ardent F1 fan in addition to following Tennis, Football and Basketball. He enjoys science fiction, reading business biographies, as well as having an ear for music. He is deeply passionate and involved in the well-being of impoverished and underprivileged children and supports charities in India for the same.
She carries extensive experience in Early Childhood Education, encompassing teaching and curriculum development. She has served in both teaching and leadership roles at renowned Cambridge and IB schools, including JBCN International and Oberoi International School. In addition, she has worked in Montessori and Reggio-inspired schools during her international ventures in Singapore and Canada, where she dedicated over four years to exploring diverse educational cultures and systems. Dakshata has been a valued member of the Green Acres Academy team since 2019. She curates Early Childhood Curriculum and Teaching practices, conducts Professional Development for teachers and team members and conducts parent webinar on various topics. Daskhata pursued her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Education at Mumbai University, earned International Certificate in Education Preschool Teaching, from Asian International College, Singapore, and holds a diploma in Montessori education from AMI-Association Montessori Internationale.
Recognizing the widespread adoption of similar teaching methodologies in ICSE, CBSE, and SSC schools, we are committed to knowledge sharing and collaboration within the educational community. To facilitate this exchange, we recently conducted a professional development session for 30 early childhood educators at Matrix School, Virar. This session was led by our Head of Academics for Early Childhood. This hybrid outreach session comprised an online course supplemented by a hands-on, face-to-face workshop. Participants engaged in lively discussions, dispelling myths, and delving deeper into effective phonics practices, alongside exploring innovative playway methodologies to enhance phonemic and phonological awareness. Teachers were afforded the opportunity to create teaching resources using minimal stationery and cost-effective materials, fostering creativity and resourcefulness in instructional design.
Through continued collaboration and knowledge exchange, we aim to further enrich the learning experiences of young learners across educational institutions.
Recognizing that several schools are currently undertaking a similar journey, we believe that sharing our practical learning and insights can help them be effective in their own paths. To facilitate this knowledge exchange, we welcomed eight educators from Lighthouse Learning to learn from our experiences with digital transformation. Among the schools affiliated with Lighthouse are EuroKids International, Kangaroo Kids International (pre-school), Mother’s Pet Kindergarten, EuroSchool, Billabong High International School, Centre Point School, Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Heritage International Xperiential School, and Heritage International Xperiential School.
A half-day outreach session was organized, led by our Vice-President of Professional Development at CenTEL, who also serves as an instructional leader at TGAA, Chembur. This session included classroom observations to witness implementation in action, as well as consultations with our academic and IT team leaders who shared their insights and answered questions.
The observers spent their time in primary classrooms to gain a better understanding of how routines were established to ensure the safekeeping of devices. Across primary and secondary classrooms, the visiting school team also studied the use of 1:1 device integration for the purpose of engaging students in assessments for learning through the use of Kahoot and Peardeck extensions found on Google Workspace. This helped them see how students receive real-time feedback on student mastery and empowers them to course-correct during the course of study. In higher secondary classrooms, the students showcased the use of devices for collaboration and student-led learning as well as the responsible use of ChatGPT. They experienced students delivering instructional presentations and participating in Model United Nations, which required the students to conduct extensive guided research with their peers. Each of the classroom observations was followed by a detailed debrief around structures that led to successful use, teacher training that empowered the educators, and a culture of continuous improvement in the use of technology to elevate student learning.
Overall, it was a very positive exchange of learning and ideas!
The Acres Foundation’s long-term vision is to inspire educational transformation in India and so the team was glad to support this initiative. The goal was to share important theoretical knowledge from experts and practical knowledge from experience with the next generation of teachers and teacher leaders in education.
Siamack Zahedi, our Director of Education and Research shared key leadership ideas from our schools in an interactive session. They discussed the essential qualities that educational leaders need and how schools might structure this leadership.
