“Beating 4500 contestants Payal won the Champion trophy held at Vadodara. She solved 200 sums in just seven minutes, with few seconds to go before the exam got over,” Ramesh Merja, Payal’s father said.

The All Gujarat Mental Arithmetic Champion Trophy-2008 was held recently at Vadodara, and over 4500 contestants from across the state participated in the competition.

“If we ask Payal about the sum total of three digit sums, which involves fractions, subtractions, additions and mulitiplications, she answers them very swiftly,” he added.

A class five at Bavis Gam Vidhyalaya-Vallabh Vidhyanagar, Payal is quick in solving mathematical problems, and holds the distinction of being runners up in All India UC-MAS competitions,” Merja said.

According to Payal, concentration is the key to her success. She is an intelligent and gifted child with inclination towards science and maths.

Payal loves reading autobiographies of great leaders and towering personalities during leisure time, Merja said adding, “she is an intelligent and gifted child.”

Originally posted in The Hindu.

Oh, for the days of expectations in public education. There was a time when attendance was an afterthought — teachers and parents demanded that students be in class every day, barring illness, and that they pay attention in class, study at home and be able to read, write and perform basic calculations with ease.

Students faced undesirable consequences at home and at school for not fulfilling their charge.

Now it’s the schools themselves that face punishment if the kids decide to play hooky. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, poor attendance rates can get a campus designated inadequate, even if the students who actually come to class exceed academic benchmarks. That can cost schools funding.

So schools have taken steps that would have been considered disgraceful just a few generations ago — they’re offering trophies to children just for showing up. Clark County School District campuses are providing academic awards ranging from free yearbooks and prom tickets to bicycles and iPods.

Compared with some parts of the country, the valley’s schools are showing restraint. A couple of systems have offered cars to kids with perfect attendance.

“We shouldn’t have to bribe kids to come to school,” Clark County School Board Trustee Terri Janison said during a recent board meeting.

The trophies are worsening “this generation’s sense of entitlement” and absolving students and parents of their “sense of personal responsibility,” she said.

Exactly. What’s the point in rewarding a middling student with another distraction device such as an iPod?

Clark County School District brass say the goods are funded through donations, campus vending machine revenues and other student-generated fees, not tax revenue. That’s certainly appropriate.

But principals should ask themselves whether they’re sending the right message to students by providing trophies for good attendance. If schools decide to stay in the business of providing material incentives, is it too much to ask that they reward … excellence?

Originally Written in the Las Vegas Review Journal

Langley Mill Safer Neighbourhood Team has presented a trophy and book token to a group of pupils from Aldercar School for their services to the community.
The winners of the trophy were a group of children who write The Termly Times, a school newspaper featuring sport, teacher interviews, news, competitions and details of school visits.

Heather Salter, Learning Resource Manager at Aldercar School, said: “The children do a huge amount of work on the paper, which is 14 pages long, full of photos and produced in colour.

“They’re over the moon to have been given this award and it’s really boosted them to know that people are acknowledging their hard work.”

PC Bob Molloy said: “People are always criticising young people, but the vast majority are hard working, decent children.

“We introduced this award to draw attention to the positive things that young people do and to encourage others to become involved.”

Originally Written by the Eastwood Advertiser Staff

Every month a teacher in Minnesota is awarded the Golden Apple Trophy. December’s recipient has taught several generations in her long career.

Marilyn Pavlich has been teaching one student’s family for 34 years. “I had his mother in first grade and also his uncle in first grade. There’s a lot of history here and I’m grandmother to a lot of them.”

Teaching runs in this Grand Rapids native’s family. She started teaching swimming lessons at 16.

Along with a golden apple trophy, Mrs. Pavlich’s award included money from Duluth Teachers Credit Union and the Slyvan Learning Center.

She plans to use the cash to buy books so her kids can keep on learning.

About the Trophies
Northland, Minnestoa teachers are working hard to educate area students. A local news station is giving students an opportunity to show their teachers how much it is appreciated with the Golden Apple Trophy.

Reward your teacher or students with a unique trophy, award, medal or plaque!