My INTERNSHIP

I know this is coming quite late, rather at a time when I'd almost be hunting for another intern (well,this time might be a research! :P)

The credit goes to Shashank Kundu,who recently showed me the Mumbai office add video. Loved it alot and could not help missing you all! :)

So here it goes for the "memorable" time spent with all of you:

I still remember the day I had to pack my bags for EI, thinking that for the first time in my life I’d be working for a COMPANY I packed a couple of formal trousers and shirts. To my pleasure, EI was so informal!

It was fun working there and did not take me long to mix up with people, call them by their names (no sir/ma’am) and sit together to share lunch!

Thanks to Balu and Ashok bhaiya who made my stay so convenient. I had to just tell them and forget! J (possibly got everything I required!)

Thanks to Suchi for “Dinner” (in and out). I would have been more grateful had I not denied your “vodka” proposal.Her daughter,Ananya, has been the most affectionate hostess I’ve ever met!

Thanks to Elgar for taking a 100 questions from Kunal and me each day and patiently answering them one by one.(Jinee khush hui ;))

It was fun irritating Dinesh, the one who used to design/animate our questions. Whatever I wanted he would never do that correctly in the first instant; there was some or the other misunderstanding! :P

I got to learn enough from Anu, Sumita Jee, and Vidula. Thank you Kushal bhai for the yummy pakodhaas and Thanks Meghna for the idly sambar(that was too good + you did not let me pay :P)

Last and most importantly, thank you so very much Kunal! I would not have enjoyed as much as I did had you not been there! Also, thanks for the daily breakfasts and masti! Had a great time at your home! J Was fun knowing you and your philosophies on the “uneasy” bus ride! :P And you are CRAZY!! Insanely crazy!

I joined as an internee for Educational Initiatives(EI), Navi Mumbai Office on the 20^th of May,2010.(http://www.ei-india.com/)

The best thing about the internship was the working part. I worked as much as any other person did; who had been working there for years! I basically worked as an educational specialist in the Mind Spark (MS) math team. Sp

They taught us all that we could possibly do in the Mind Spark(MS)

Oh! Did I tell you about MS?

Mindspark is a self-adaptive computer based programme that gives student the freedom to move at his own comfortable pace. It’s an interactive system where the difficulty rises with each correctly answered question. The system is able to identify the strong and weak concepts in a particular chapter and helps to understand those by means of “remedials.” Also the student can learn really well since he can go below and above his class level.

Yup! So I basically did vetting(that is finding out others mistakes. :P), made Q-types and pools(that is you decide on the sequence of questions and then make questions of same types in such a way that interests students.), made challenge questions, their hints and explanations, did data analysis(huge data!!!) and also worked on one remedial! J

Besides this we had lots of fun during our Ahmadabad Head Office visit where we had a formal introduction with all the members of EI. We were occupied all day meeting people and knowing about the different arms of the organization. Munching on the Junk was another pleasure J

We(me and Kunal) also did a CASE-STUDY PROJECT. We went to Gundecha Educational Academy where we interviewed students and made a report.This was pure FUN! Made me remember my school days! Also witnessed a MS session in progress.

It was Fun, Exciting, Challenging, Irritating, Shocking, Creative and a Feel-good experience!

Fun because it was my first time..was fun exploring the place

Exciting since i got to know all the ones associated to EI :)

Challenging as it took quite a time to understand and come down to the student-level, what works and doesnot work for them, writing hints in a way that is not too giving away..explaining them the CQ's in a way I thought they could best learn it!

Irritating as i would often sway back to my level and feel the question is way too easy..where as actually that was hard for the kids :P

Shocked I was when I viewed the students survey results.It was shocking to see how simple concepts like angles, area, and fractions are way to complex according to students.

Creative because we had to think of a way students would enjoy and learn! We came up with ideas which i hope will help EI in future.

Feel-Good since it's always nice to point mistakes of others! :D i enjoyed vetting the MOST! :)

To sum up: it was a memorable life experience! Never before was life so pleasant or at a few instances so unpleasant! :-D