Indu Varma
For seven years, Marshview Middle School teacher, Indu Varma, has taken her students around the world. Virtually. Through projects such as Blue Print Earth, Canadian World Fest, the Ms. Project and Pets, students have communicated online with their peers, on topics ranging from the future of the human race to self-esteem. Her students have participated in over 30 radio and television broadcasts over the past few years.
It's a great opportunity for the students, as they learn through interaction and sharing using the technologies such as the world wide web, and by building web pages themselves. Blue Print Earth, for example, emphasizes the need to clean up the Earth. Students are invited to examine the earth's problems and create a blue print for making the Earth a better place to live now, and for future generations.
The Blue Print Earth Project is only one of the educational telecommunications initiatives launched by Indu Varma. She has developed four others, and over the past 10 years has written 14 publications including curriculum guides for incorporating the use of computers in classrooms. She has given 44 workshops, presented at national and international conferences and offered courses to teachers to assist them in using technology in education.
Her efforts have earned her the Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History (1977), the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in Science, Technology and Mathematics (1993), the Hilroy Fellowship Award for Innovation in Education (1992) and the national Marshall McLuhan Award for Excellence in Education (1991-1991). She received an award for the CD-ROM, Impressions of Canada, and recognition from the Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica for raising $10,000 US to aid the Los Corales School earthquake relief effort.
The awards not only bring recognition to the school and improved learning opportunities to the students, but also result in the acquisition of resources and equipment. In 1995, Indu won the A & E Grand Prize for Teacher Grant Competition, which netted the school a Sony TV with a close caption unit for the hearing impaired, a Sony VCR, an A & E library of video tapes and accompanying books.
Indu was born in India, but has lived in Canada for 28 years. She is a graduate of both Mount Allison and Dalhousie University, and is "a proud Canadian teacher who believes in doing her best in helping students learn."