Training from the Back of the Room! - Sharon L. Bowman

65 Ways to Step Aside and Let Them Learn
The author's four-step instructional design and delivery process involves learners every step of the way. 
Designed to be user-friendly, Training from the BACK of the Room! is filled with definitions, descriptions, and practical training strategies for each of the 4 Cs:
Connections—Fifteen opening activities that connect learners to the topic, to each other, and to what they want and need to learn.
Concepts—Twenty strategies that engage and involve learners during the lecture or "direct instruction" training segment.
Concrete Practice—Fifteen strategies in which learners actively review content and practice skills.
Conclusions—Fifteen learner-led summaries, evaluations, and celebration activities.

In addition, the book offers "nice-to-know" information that will add to what you have learned: the secret about adult learning theory, a new way to write learning outcomes, The World Cafe, tips for interactive e-learning, and other useful resources to expand your learning adventure.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.27 out of 5 (136 Ratings; 18 Reviews - As on April 23 2017)
My Rating:  4 out of 5
My Comments:  A very innovative approach to training that promotes Learning by Doing. Techniques described in this book will appeal to learners who tend to get quickly bored by lecture style delivery by trainers.


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The Big Book of Team Building Games - John W. Newstrom & Edward Scannell

Quick, Fun Activities for Building Morale, Communication and Team Spirit 
Did you know that games can be a terrifically effective way to build team spirit, communication, and trust among people who work together day in and day out?

Team-building games and activities are so stimulating and enjoyable that everyone in the department actually looks forward to them! 
Now you can choose from 70 varied and imaginative games and activities that have been specifically designed for the manager who's looking to:

• Raise sagging morale in a department
• Liven up boring staff meetings
• Improve communication
• Promote a culture of harmony and cooperation
• Have fun with your work team

Each of these games is fast, creative, easy-to-lead, and will help you accomplish your team building goals.
Learn valuable tips on how to present games and how to select activities for particular situations. 
Get essential advice on what not to do when leading games, and much more!
 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.in]
 

Goodreads Rating - 2.0 out of 5 (46 Rating, 2 Reviews) 
My Rating:  2 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
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Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

Author:         John Wood
Published:   2008
Publisher:    Collins
Paperback: 284 pages

In late 1990s the author John Wood ,then a Marketing Director in Microsoft, was on a three weeks  trekking vacation in Nepal.
He came across a school in a remote village. The school had 450  students . But all it had in the name of a library  was a miserable collection of  20 odd books which included -a Danielle Steel romance, an Umberto Ecco novel in Italian, a Lonely Planet guide to Mongolia, a copy of "Finnegans Wake" ! Certainly not what you would expect to see in a school library.  It was obvious that the collection had been put together using books discarded by the previous trekkers. These books were both physically (the books were kept in a locked cupboard !) and intellectually out of school children's reach.
The headmaster of the school had a strong desire to inculcate the habit of reading among the students but was seriously hampered by lack of resources to build a good school library. He told the author "Perhaps, sir, you will someday comeback with books."
This sentence changed John Wood's life forever. It deeply moved him. He contacted nearly 100 friends and made a strong appeal to them to donate books for the school. This campaign was a huge success and thus the foundations of a massive social entrepreneurship undertaking  now known as "Room to Read" were laid.

Room to Read's mission is to provide opportunity for under-privileged children to gain the gift of education. Its strategy includes:

• Partnering with villages to build schools
• Establishing libraries and filling them with donated English books and local-language books published by it.
• Providing computer and language labs to improve employment skills, and
• Providing scholarships for under-privileged young girls who cannot afford fees that are required of all students, even those attending public schools.

To ensure the likelihood for success and long -term sustainability, Room to Read enlists community involvement and co-investment. Instead of  just doling out funds in a condescending manner , Room to Read believes in making the beneficiary earn it by working in partnership with Room to Read. Thus it preserves the dignity of the beneficiary and also teaches them to take care of themselves in future. 

Till date (May 2012)  Room to Read  has helped build over 1500 schools and 13,000 libraries and benefited about 6 million children of Third World countries like Nepal, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Tanzania.

This book tells  how it all happened. It has three parts.

Part 1 - Discovering Nepal; Leaving Microsoft: In this part Wood talks about how he discovered a pathetic school library during his vacation and helped in enriching it with children's books with the help of his father and friends. He also tells  how  after debating a lot he walked away from  Microsoft and also suffered a break-off  from his girl friend who did not share his passion for the ambitious child education mission he wanted to undertake.

Part II -  Starting Over: This part deals with the early days of Room to Read after Wood left Microsoft and how he built the organization making full use of lessons and skills he learned in Microsoft (especially from Steve Ballmer).

Part III - Hitting Our Stride: How 'Room to Read' expanded its operations through numerous fund raising campaigns is the main theme of this part.

All the chapters in this book narrate several touching stories  of how the author received help from various sources and how hard some under-privileged people work for a better education. Some of the chapters in this book  have a side-box to highlight  a  success story or a lesson learned or some tips on entrepreneurship.
The book has also several heartwarming  photographs of smiling children whose life have been positively impacted by Room to Read programs.

This book is an  inspiring and fascinating saga of Room to Read with doses of humor sprinkled in it. It is also a sort of post-Microsoft autobiography of the author. The author comes out as an ambitious, passionate and sincere person dedicated to the cause. It is a very noble cause indeed and everybody who is involved in this organization has to be admired at.

A must read for  entrepreneurs, educationists , social workers and anyone who cares for children !

Links:

• Room to Read - Official Website
• Book Website 
• Excerpt from the book : Chapter 1
• Life lessons from John Wood's biography

Key takeaways from this book:

•  "You are old enough to know that the only person  you have to satisfy in life is yourself. Do what you think is the right thing to do and get used to answering only to yourself" - Advice given by author's father when the author  was a school kid.
• "Look , there are two ways to remove a Band-Aid: slowly and painfully, or quickly and painfully. Your choice." - A friend's advice to the author when he was debating whether to leave Microsoft.
• Most people in the nonprofit world hate to ask others for money. They need to get past this barrier, quickly or their organization will suffer.
•  5 Core principles which Wood  reviews  before meeting with prospective donors:
1. Play up the fact that the donors, who would have been helped in their own life by education, now have the opportunity to give that same gift back to hundreds of children in the developing world.
2. Show the donors a direct connection between what they give and what gets done as a result.
3. Keep the overhead for running  Room to Read low, so donors will know that 90 percent on the dollars goes to the projects, not to administrative and fund-raising expenses.
4. Passion sells. There is not enough of it in the world, so when people meet a passionate individual, that person really stands out.
5. People are looking for more meaning in their lives. Funding education provides a great feeling that you have helped to change the world for better.

• Hope and Optimism, Not Doom and Gloom - Some charities find it effective to show photos of a child covered in flies, or a malnourished family lying in  dust. These images negate the inherent dignity of each human being. Guilt should not be used as a marketing tool. This is also in the financial interest of the charity because potential donors want hope and optimism in their lives. They want to see solutions. If we accost them with images of a poor person, they are likely to be sad, but may not take action. If you instead present a photo of a kid from the inner city in his graduation cap and gown, a little girl smiling as a result of a successful cleft palate operation, or farmers in Honduras using their new well, then people are more likely to share in that optimism by donating to the cause.
• Think Big from Day One - There is a saying at Microsoft - "Go big or go home" - and this lies at the heart of John Wood's advice to anyone who wants to create change. The problems facing the world today are immense. This is not a time for incremental thinking. If a cause is worth devoting your time to, you owe it to yourself - and those you will serve - to think in a big way. Thinking big can be self-fulfilling prophecy, because bold goals will attract bold people.
• Every entrepreneur needs a strong second-in-command.
• The positive and proactive forces in this universe will always defeat the dark and nihilistic ones. We simply must create spaces in which concerned citizens are offered a way to take action.
• Lessons learned from Microsoft  that helped the author :
• Intense Focus on Results - Rather than talking about what we are going to do, talk about what we have done.
• You cannot attack a person, but you can attack an idea.
•  Be data-driven. Passionately study every facet of your operations to such a degree that related facts and figures are seared into your brian.
• Be loyal to those who work for you

• True change requires mass participation, because one person writing a large check is never enough. Rely more on small contributions from large number of people rather than a few big donations from a small number of  donors.
• True entrepreneurs are not afraid to declare to the world that they are going to fill a market gap or offer a new product or service, even if they are not yet entirely sure how they are going to do so. They simply take the leap. 
• The hope that comes through education, the belief that in schooling lies the key to a brighter tomorrow - those are ubiquitous throughout so much of the developing world.
• "Do not wish anything to be what you are, and try to be that perfectly" - A quote from St. Francis de Sales, which a friend of the author wrote on his birthday card.
• Social Entrepreneurship - Social entrepreneurship is the melding of the best practices of the business world with the social focus of the charitable sector. Social entrepreneurs embrace ideas like reporting on their results, measuring the return on their investments, keeping their overhead expenses low, and constantly improving their programs.

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The Wikipedia Revolution

Author:         Andrew Lih
Published:   2009
Publisher:    Aurum Press Ltd.
Paperback: 272  pages
 

I will be extremely surprised if I come across a netizen who has not heard about Wikipedia. Over the last decade rarely there has been a day when I had surfed the net but not read a Wikipedia article.

To inform the uninitiated (and I hope there are none), Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia which is written and maintained by volunteers across the globe. It is accessible to any internet user without any access restrictions. Anyone can create, modify or delete its articles according to their whims and fancies. Sounds scary ! How can one trust the information provided by such a chaotic and anarchical encyclopedia ?  Yet over the years Wikipedia has become the world's first source of information on any topic on the earth.

How did this miracle happen ? This book reveals all this.

It begins with the story of how Wikipedia had its origins in Nupedia an online yet conventionally managed encyclopedia. It then goes on to describe how Ward Cunningham's invention of Wiki technology rejuvenated the stagnant Nupedia and transformed it into Wikipedia as we know today. However the  technology behind the scene is just one aspect of Wikipedia.The book is also a story about  the community of unpaid and mostly unidentified volunteers who tirelessly worked and continue to work to make Wikipedia a successful venture.

Author Andrew Lih, himself such a volunteer provides an excellent insider's view of how this global community works. He deals with topics like what motivates these volunteers; what are their values; how they collaborate; how a self-organizing and self-governing structure gets set up in the community; how they ensure the quality and neutrality of the articles which gets published; how they deal with issues like articles getting vandalized, difference of opinion between the editors, censorship. There is also a chapter which describes the crises and controversies Wikipedia has been subjected to.
Wikipedia is truly international. Articles in English comprise only about 20 % of over 20 million articles in 284 languages. This book also tells us the story of  Spanish, Japanese, German, Chinese, Serbian, Kazakh and African Wikipedias and discusses the technological and cultural challenges encountered during their evolution.
The book has a Foreword by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who conveys that "...Wikipedia is not about technology, it's about people. It's about leaving things open-ended, it's about trusting people, it's about encouraging people to do good."
The the last section Afterword is literally written collaboratively in a true Wikipedian spirit by the members of the community. It is intended to provide an honest contemplation of what is the road ahead for Wikipedia.

An interesting and fascinating story of world's greatest encyclopedia !
Recommended for all internet users.


Links:

• Official Website of the Book
• Author's Website
• Wikipedia article on Wikipedia
• History of Wikipedia

[Please feel free to leave your comments below or bookmark/share this summary]

A Slice of Pi - All the Maths You Forgot to Remember from School

Author:         Liz Strachan  
Published:   2009
Publisher:    Constable & Robinson  Ltd.
Hardcover:  176  pages
 


I am always on the lookout for tips and guidance on how to make a subject interesting while teaching it.

This compact book written by Liz Strachan, a school teacher whose experience spans 36 long years, is about how to make mathematics enjoyable to the students.
This book is a compilation of about 66 short 5-minute reads consisting of - anecdotes about famous mathematicians, her experiences from her classroom,  facts and stories behind some mathematical principles,  trivia, puzzles, tricks and short-cut calculations.

The author is able to demonstrate that mathematics can be fun and is not just a mysterious subject meant for those with high IQs.
No wonder she  was one of the four writers shortlisted  for Educational Writers Award 2010.
A right book to be presented to those who hate or  are scared of mathematics !

Links:

• Other Reviews of this book
• Review in Good Reads
• Review in TES - a network of teachers

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A Palace for the Poor

Published: 2007
Publisher: Ramakrishna Mission Students' Home, Chennai

This book is brought out by Ramakrishna Mission Students' Home, Chennai (endearing called the "Home" by its close associates) on occasion of its centenary celebrations . The 'Home' was established in 1905 Swami Ramakrishnananda, (the direct disciple of the saint Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa) along with Sri Ramaswamy Iyengar. It was intended to aid the students from poor families by providing food, clothing, shelter and education. The selection criteria for selecting such students being "poorest among the best " .
Subsequently it started several schools and technical institutes and completed its 100 years of illustrious history in 2005.
The book describes the origin and growth of the Home, establishment of educational institutions under its aegis , life sketches and anecdotes about its founders, close associates and some outstanding old students, glimpses of the life of the inmates of the Home. It also deals with its recent developments and its future plans.
This book will be of interest only to a select audience - mainly those who have been associated with the Home in particular and Ramakrishna Mission in general.
But it is a special book for me, since my grandfather Sri C. Ranga Iyengar was the teacher and then later the Headmaster of the Residential High School run by the Home, from mid 1930s (or probably even earlier) till he retired in 1959. His contribution towards Home has been recognized in this book with a two page write up about him along with his photograph. Through this writeup I came to know a couple of incidents which reveals his strange mixture of sterness and love to all boys residing in the Home without any bias or discrimination. I was not aware of these facts. Also the photograph of his is from his younger days which I had never seen, having always known him as an old man past his seventies.
My father and my uncle were also Old Boys of the Home and this book gave me some idea about the lives they would have lead when they were the inmates of the Home