Indian-American teacher Revathi Balakrishnan was recently honoured by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House for her work in the education.

Indian-American teacher Revathi Balakrishnan, who was recently honoured by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House for her work in the education space, said she was open to visiting India to conduct workshops or have dialogues with teachers here.

“I can teach them how to motivate students to learn, how to teach with rigor and relevance and how to build resilience,” Ms. Balakrishnan toldThe Hindu .

Native of Chennai

The Chennai-born teacher was named 2016 ‘Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year’ and will now represent Texas in the ‘National Teacher of the Year’ competition – a programme that identifies exceptional teachers in the U.S.

Ms. Balakrishnan, who works at Patsy Sommer Elementary School in Texas, did her B.A in economics from Ethiraj College in Chennai. She then did her M.A in economics from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

“My teaching degree is from Texas State University. I came to the U.S. in the eighties and was a systems analyst for 12 years with Liberty Mutual before becoming an educator. Teaching allows me to be creative in my ways of presenting curriculum to students,” she said. She has been teaching for 10 years now.

Her role is to teach math and English to students who are identified as Gifted and Talented (GT). That is, the top 5 per cent of students in the school.

“GT students have the ability to learn fast and they think in a different way, but too often, they are not understood. This leads to boredom, behaviour issues and under-achievement. In my classroom, they are challenged at their academic and creative level through project-based learning and Socratic questioning,” Ms. Balakrishnan explained.

Quality of teaching

On the education system in India and why it is so tough to get quality teachers here, she said, “I have never taught in India, so I don’t know much about it. Quality teachers just don’t appear magically, whether it is India or the U.S. In order to ‘grow’ successful students, we must ‘grow’ successful teachers. Higher teacher salaries also attract the best of the best to the profession. There has to be a fundamental shift in the way we view teacher support,” she emphasised.

Meeting

On her meeting the U.S. President, Ms. Balakrishnan said, it was a lifetime opportunity to visit the White House and meet the President.

“The ceremony was supposed to take place in the South Lawn. However, as it had rained, it was moved inside. So, I got to see the fantastic portraits of all the Presidents and the lavish decorations. Imagine all the historical conversations that have taken place in the Red Room and the Green Room,” she said.

‘GT students have the ability to learn fast and they think in a different way, but too often, they are not understood’

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Sangeetha Kandavel / Chennai – May 18th, 2016