About Us
Mission
The Mission of the Teach India Project is to work with educators and parents to create global studies, multicultural and social justice programs so that our children can live, work, and contribute confidently and responsibly in an increasingly interconnected world.
We provide educators with tools and resources for global awareness, multicultural and social justice programming and give parents of the Indian Diaspora a cultural literacy resource.
We believe that globally aware students will go beyond the basic understanding that global issues of economics, environment and equity affect all of us. Students who fully identify as global citizens will realize their role in the world community: that their actions have global consequences and that this carries a big responsibility.
We support educators in providing opportunities for multicultural and social justice programming. Socially aware students value diversity, understand the perspectives of other cultural groups, and are sensitive to issues of bias, racism, prejudice, and stereotyping. Multicultural programming validates the experience of students of diverse backgrounds and is the bedrock of culturally responsive teaching. And as changes in places far away ripple through our lives, our lessons help all students acquire skills to actively engage beyond the confines of their cultural borders.
We offer parents of the Indian Diaspora a slate of lessons about India in a secular context. Our purpose is to develop cultural literacy so that parents and children share a broad range of specific knowledge (about India) that makes good communication possible. We hope to go beyond learning that one might acquire from a textbook to real life that is interwoven with art, expression, history, and experience. We want our children to have the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to function effectively within their own cultural communities, within the cultures of whichever country they live in, and in the global community.
We execute our Mission in the following ways:
- We create, collate, collaborate and present lessons for grades K-12 on our website www.teachindiaproject.org , an open education resource.
- We publish The Online Newsletter of the Teach India Project.
- We offer professional development opportunities for educators that include workshops, seminars, online forums, travel study tours and the creation of teaching kits.
- We assist organizations such as schools and school districts, universities and museums in creating global education programming.
Teach India Project is a 501(c)3 organization.
Project people
Vinita Shah
Vinita is a founder of the Teach India Project. She set out to solve the problem of a lack of readily available, quickly ‘unpackable’ classroom ready teaching materials for global studies. Mapping to curriculum standards ensures teachers of a good fit. She is a writer, number cruncher, cook and eternal optimist.
Pallavi Datar
Pallavi is interested in Global studies and the impact of social networking on children’s education. As a founder of the Teach India Project she wants to create an online resource for information about India for children as well as educators. As a finance professional Pallavi watches and tends our bottom lines.
Steve Preston
Steve Preston is a retired elementary school principal. He is also the president of The Burlington (Massachusetts) Community Scholarship Foundation . He is interested in promoting Global Education, especially the history and culture of South Asia. His goal in joining the Teach India Project was to find the means to send educators to India.
Tara Olshaw
Teacher, Burlington MA
Has the greatest job, hanging out with fourth graders, inspiring her to explore the world and learn every day. She teaches diverse students from many corners of the earth using global awareness lesson plans that open the world to her students. During the summer months you can find her reading memoirs, take classes or traveling with study groups throughout the world.
Aruna Varshney
Aruna came to U.S.A. thirty years ago and for the last twenty she has taught at Shishubharati, a school of languages and culture of India with three sites in New England. She is now also the Director and Coordinator for Hindi Language. She says, “I keep my mind open for different cultures and want learn the best from them. I love to teach small children especially when they associate Indian culture with American culture.”