Chennai
Dhilip was a secondary grade teacher till then and taught all subjects up to Class 8. But his zeal for learning helped him acquire a post-graduation and B Ed within seven years.
“I had to teach a class of 70 and most of the students felt that I was barely audible. It was then the idea of teaching with the help of computers struck me and I began using a hand mike and computer. I was surprised at the response I could elicit. Here was born the idea of smart classrooms,” said Dhilip.
Dhilip began a blog spot called www.dhilipteacher.blogspot.in This helped to share information with teachers and students. As this became a hit, he created blogspots for subjects such as English, Math, Science and Social Science. “It is so popular that I have more than 1 lakh visitors from more than 87 locations across the globe,” he said.
His computer assisted learning techniques have helped slow learners improve and had connected some of the US students through Skype.
Another innovative idea is his creation of a basic English material “Everyday English” which is offered free to one lakh students by the Chief Education Officer of the district. Though he is a Villupuram-based English teacher, his skills have been honed so much that he is often in city to train teachers through workshops.
He was part of the English Language Communication workshops from August (2016) to February (2017) in Chennai.
“It was a novel workshop which helped teachers teach English through phonetics. It was meant to develop reading skills among students. We are taking it back to districts,” explains Dhilip.
At the start of this academic year Dhilip was part of a team to frame test questions to identify dyslexic children and train them to read,” he explains.
Though he has won national awards and from universities across the globe, his proudest moment was when he received the National Award for school teachers for using Information and Communication Technology in 2013 from the President Pranab Mukherjee.
Another unforgettable moment was when he attended the global forum in Seatle in 2015 after winning the Microsoft Innovative Educator Leadership Award. “I was shortlisted among 10 out of 600 teachers across the country. I made it to the first place in the finals. I was so thrilled to shake hands with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.
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