Principal's Desk
Dear SMSISJC Families
Welcome to the new school year 2021 - 2022!
I am happy to welcome you back to school. We are excited to work closely with you to ensure the success and wellbeing of all of our students.
Our school is a special place to learn and grow and we have high expectations for each and every student. Led by our Vision -Inspiring Learners to become Confident, Knowledgeable, Open minded and Responsible global citizens - we will do all we can to make sure that each one of our students embody these traits. Together with our dedicated and compassionate faculty, we strive to build connections with students and their families, to make each child feel valued, accepted, and safe.
Our mission is to provide rich experiences for our students whether in person or in an online mode. To this effect, we will continue to encourage active student engagement and foster a lifetime love for learning.
With parents as our partners , we move forward with focus and dedication reinventing our school design to optimize learning for our students. Together, we will make this school year one of progress and accomplishment for all our children.
“Change is a constant factor in human history. What is distinctive now is the rate and scale of change”
- (Robinson 2001)
As we stand in the 21st century we must understand and take note of the changing context in which our students live and learn. They readily embrace the instant communication, personalized media and the virtual world of today.
Prensky (2001) says ‘Today’s students think and process information differently from their predecessors. Young people today are more likely to multitask, network and access information very quickly. On the other hand teachers are more likely to have had a step by step approach to learning where everyone in the group was taught at the same pace. A tweet by Tom Whitby cautions us ‘Educators, remember the world we learn in is not the world we live in.The world we teach in is not the world we teach for’. So we educators are constantly asking ourselves, ‘What additional skills do we need to teach our students? How can we prepare our students if we do not know what the future may look like?
Today, more than ever, teachers are challenged to ensure true global understanding, cultural awareness and flexibility of individualized learning to engage, motivate and prepare our young people for their new world. We need to create an environment that will develop cognitive, affective and metacognitive skills in our students and draw learning out of them. In a world of diverse talents and aspirations we must have a good understanding of each student’s abilities, talents, skills, aptitudes and interests
Education becomes more interesting if we connect what students learn to the future. Active learning; project-based education; real-world education; inquiry based learning, transdisciplinary learning; and teaching thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills are becoming the need of the hour.Our focus must always be on developing students who are well-rounded, productive citizens who give back to their community.
We teachers must remain receptive, open minded and critically aware of developments in our understanding of learning in a time of such rapid change.Only then can we ensure that our school’s learning culture is global and relevant to our students’ individual needs.Only then can we be sure that every one of our students will leave our school having enjoyed learning, being encouraged to continue learning and remaining interested and involved which in turn will lead to success in the future.
“When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon or you will be taught to fly.”
- Patrick Overton
At Bunts Sangha’s S M Shetty International School and Junior College, the future arrives in our classrooms every day. So we believe that preparing our students for the future begins with us teachers.We will continue to keep searching and learning and reflecting. We will continue to challenge ourselves to give our students the best skill and mind set to enable them to make a successful transition from the classroom to the workplace.
We are preparing our children to step boldly into the unknown future.
