THE PUNE ALUMNI CHAPTER IS 180 MEMBERS STRONG! WE KICKED OFF THE YEAR WITH OUR FIRST PAC MIXER AT CLASSIC ROCK CAFE, KALYANI NAGAR. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO MADE IT AND WATCH OUT FOR MORE IN THE COMING MONTHS!

LEARNING TOGETHER

PATHWAY LEARNING CIRCLES

As Fellows or Alumni, we're constantly seeking to understand the education landscape it's complexity. Solutions are plenty but where does our heart truly lie? What do we believe will help move the needle and what role do we begin to play? This year, to bring our community who are perhaps pondering on these very questions, together, we launched Pathway Learning Circles! These circles, led by members of our Alumni and Teach For India Community aim to explore certain 'pathways' and bring people with similar interests, ideas and belief systems together. This year we have three such circles - Policy Wonks (led by Tushar Jha, Fellow 2015 with partners), Beyond the Books (led by Rishi Nandwani, Fellow 2013 and Suraj Sudhakar, TFIx Entrepreneur) and Aspiring School Leadership Community (led by Soumya Jain, Fellow 2013, Anagha Padhye, Fellow 2011, Chinmaya Potnis, Fellow 2012 and Paromita Sen, Fellow 2014) Big thank you to the faciliators and here's to a great experience ahead!

PACathon Series

What would it take for students and teachers of Toranmal International School in the district of Nandurbar, a tribal region in Maharashtra, to be successful in PISA 2022? Teachers of Toranmal School along with Education Officers across districts joined by our Alumni,spent an entire day understanding the context and challenges of Nandurbar and Toranmal and designed prototypes and techniques to support teachers in the short term and long term as they take on this ambitious and daunting task. Participants, both teachers and Alumni who facilitated and participated in the discussion, left with insights on working together across different contexts, understand the purpose of education given the demands of the 21st century as well as the experience in itself of working along side educators with different belief systems from across the state. We were hosted by the Avasara Leadership Academy for Girls team and the discussions were led by Leaderhsip For Equity members Madhukar Banuri (Fellow 2009) Pratik Rajurkar (Fellow 2015) and Siddesh Sarma (Fellow 2011). Big thank you to everyone who spent their Sunday with us! Watch out for our next PACathon!

BUILDING TOGETHER

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

What would it take for a School Leader to make dramatic shifts in student learning outcomes for all students in a school? What would it take for a School Leader to lead a school with a vision and purpose that is compelling, challenges the status quo and ensures equity in education? What would it take for a School Leader to lead himself/herself and a team of motivated teachers and teacher leads to constantly reflect on their actions and underlying beliefs of what our students are capable of achieving? To address these very questions (and more) Akanksha Foundation, Pune City Connect and Teach For India have come together to launch the School Leadership Academy - a year long academy for Akanksha Teachers and Teacher Leads, PCC Academic Coordinators and Teach For India School Leader Incubatees to help understand the nuts and bolts of School Leadership and prepare themselves for the daunting role of being a excellent School Leader. Do reach out to Manoj SK, Akshat Sandh or Adhishree to know more!

PUNE FELLOW DURBAR

Started early this year, Fellow Durbar is an open, voluntary and continuous space for Fellows, Alumni and Staff who have been in big and way and small connected to the Fellowship to come together, share interests and ideas in space that is welcoming to all! These spaces, led by the Fellow Durbar team, aims to address the dynamic needs of our community and the dynamic nature of our work. Join us if you have an idea to share, a story to tell or if you just want to listen and unwind on a Friday evening! We've had close to 80 members join us in the past couple of months and we're already seeing connections for classroom resources, collaborative projects, internships to name a few! Fellow Durbar takes place every Friday, 6:30 to 8:00pm at the Teach For India Office, KP.

PUNE CHILDREN ZONE

PUNE CHILDREN'S ZONE is a program with an aim to positively impact ALL children in Pune over the next 10 years. I see this as a 'Womb to Work" trajectory that supports children all the way through. In the capacity of an Akanksha School Leader I hope to use the school ecosystem as a multiplier and impact the community via reaching out to other parents, children and schools. Please find the concept note attached. In the first year - we have started with two projects - Paalak Shaala: This is an eight week program that aims to build positive and responsive parenting skills in parents whose children are still under the age of three. A complete Medical camp and a Financial planning camp are two of the many direct interventions that we will have during these eight weeks. The goal is to impact 500 families this year through this program. Currently, 38 families are enrolled in the first cycle! School Improvement Project - This is a program through which the SBVS team aspires to tie up with municipal schools in the vicinity to impact their performance and the students' experience there. This will be done via multiple interventions ranging from thought partnering with the SL to helping them form their goals/action plans to helping them build investment in parents. They have already started working with 4 such schools and hope to work with 14 schools by the end of this year. These school are different mediums - English, Urdu,Marathi.

PMC LIFT SCHOOL PROJECT: LRTT - THERMAX COLLABORATION

Limited Resource Teacher Training, an international organization that aims to support schools and teachers in limited resource contexts with the pedagogical tools to support effective classroom teaching. The organisation delivers workshops and conferences to teachers in country on key aspects of pedagogical principles. LRTT operates programmes with Fellows: teams of highly qualified teachers from the UK, USA, and other nations, who use their experience and skills to facilitate workshops, coaching and observations. The fellows recruited are professionals and experts in the field of education in their home countries. Early this academic year, LRTT and Thermax Foundation came together to collaborate and provide a teacher training service to teacher’s part of the PMC LIFT School Project. Thermax Foundation was a partner in the delivery of the project and LRTT executed the project.

CELEBRATING TOGETHER

GRADE 10 RESULTS!

What a tremendous start to the academic year! After years of working together, failing together and rising together, our students did us and themselves proud! If you missed all the excitement on the numerous Whatsapp groups, here's a chart outlining our collective progress! While we have a long way to go as we get ourselves ready to enter college and everything that comes with it, take a minute to take in the results! Congratulations to the School Leaders and their teams for this success as well as everyone who played an important role in passing the baton! If you'd get involved in getting students through college, do write to punealumnichapter@teachforindia.org and we'll be happy to make the necessary connections!

TEACHER'S GLOBAL FORUM

Congratulations to Mohini Pandey (Fellow 2013) and Akash Tyagi (Fellow 2015) for their selection to the Qudwa Global Teacher's Forum which will take place in Abu Dhabi early October. Meaning “Role Model” in Arabic, Qudwa is a unique event of global scale for teachers by teachers, offering professional development and learning opportunities through networking and knowledge exchange. Qudwa is organised under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Together with global and local partners, Qudwa seeks to support teachers with a focus on experiences and shared knowledge.

TEACH FOR ALL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Teach For All Communities of Practice brings together alumni from around the global Teach For All network who are doing similar work and would benefit from learning together and networking. This year we have four of our Alumni participating in two such CoPs! Anagha Padhye (Fellow 2011) and Heena Narula (Fellow 2014) have been selected to join the School Leadership Global Community of Practice and Madhukar Banuri (Fellow 2009) and Saki Malose (Fellow 2013) have been selected to join the Global Community of Practice on Education Policy. Congratulations to all! For those of you interested to knowing more about these CoPs, watch the video below!

JUST FOR KICKS HEADS TO RUSSIA

Rishi Nandwani (Fellow 2013) had the opportunity of travelling with Sujal Kahar, who is part of the JFK Program in Mumbai, for the Football For Friendship Program in St. Petersburg, Russia between 26 June and 3rd July 2017. Football For Friendship invited India for the first time and Sujal, a player of Just For Kicks, was selected as the Goalkeeper of the Yellow Team. Over the course of his Russian adventure, Sujal interacted and became friends with other 12-year olds from 64 countries! He met Olympic Champions, spoke in front of an audience of 1200 that included FIFA's Vice Secretary, toured the historic city, and watched the Confederations Cup Final live! This experience opened his mind to the world, and showed him that despite all the differences - we all have things in common that empower us. In this case, football.