Soma Banerjee at her residence. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Nov. 14: Steel city teacher Soma Banerjee has done the state proud.

The vice-principal of Kerala Public School, Mango, is one among the nine teachers and administrators from India who have been selected for the Fulbright Scholarship. With 77 other teachers from across the world, she would get a scholarship sponsored by the United States-India Educational Foundation to teach and understand the teaching pattern followed in Kentucky.

The five-month professional development programme will help the beneficiaries to contribute in improving teaching by preparing participants to serve as teacher leaders. The teachers would exchange methodologies, lesson planning and technologies of teaching to create a global classroom.

“There are many areas that I want to work on in India. First, I want to do away with the translation method while teaching in English and make the curriculum more student-friendly. And would like the students to make the curriculum rather than the teachers,” said Banerjee.

The programme will start from January 2009 and would continue till May.

One thing that she plans to bring back for the US for her students is the love for one’s country. “In the US, students start their day at school by showing respect to the US map,” she said.