FAQ

Get answers to your questions (FAQ)

Have questions? Need more information?
Here are some FAQs (Frequently asked Questions) that may help you. If you do not see your answers here or have further questions, you can also email us with your questions using the Contact Page (click here)

Is Students Collective a business?

No, Students Collective is a volunteer organization. It is not for profit. 

As the name suggests, it consists of student volunteers who donate the time and resources to teach English in Government Schools in their locality.

We have a core team of students and parents who are coordinators. We manage the website and signups, train the students mentors , match the mentors with government school classes and address any issues. 

Want to be part of this? Please contact us by clicking here

Our content development and training is done by unpaid volunteers. The training in classrooms need a laptop connected to the internet with a projector. We expect the volunteers to bring that along as much as possible. We may look for donations for proje
Since most students/parents have their own laptops and can connect to their phone network or hotspot, we just need projectors to be procured for each class. These are available for a reasonable costs (Amazon – ~₹7000)

Private School Principals/Administrators

Actions needed:

  1. Send out a request to volunteer to your students (in 9th – 12th grades) prior to each semester. Via an email or other messaging platforms. NOTE: If you wish, we can also do an information session with your students in person or online. 

Commitments:

  1. Participate in the program for at least 1 academic year (2 semesters) and encourage your volunteer students to do the same.
  2. Be listed on Private School Partners database for other schools to know for matching classes with students. We hope to get testimonials from you if you and your students have a rewarding experience.

Actions needed:

  1. Mentor Induction – Online training of 2-3 hours,  followed by orientation (1 hour) and 2-3 shadow classes with an experienced trainer.
  2. Get matched with a government school most convenient to you and your co-teachers (1-3 other private students/parents)
  3. Conduct weekly classes (of 40-60 minutes duration), every Saturday (or any other day if better for all).  You will be using easy-to-teach, video-based interactive eLearning lessons on this LMS/website. About 10-12 lessons (including rubric-based assessments) in a semester.
  4. Between you and co-trainers, bring the equipment to run the eLearning courses – including (a) Laptop, (b) Speaker (Bluetooth) and (c) Projector (in case the school computer lab/projector is not available)

Commitments:

  1. Participate in the program for at least 1 academic year (2 semesters), attending most (>80%) of sessions. To get a digital certificate.
  2. Be listed on Private School Mentors database for other schools to know for matching classes. We hope to get testimonials from you if you have a rewarding experience.

Actions needed (if you sign up as a co-instructor):

  1. Mentor Induction – Online training of 2-3 hours,  followed by orientation (1 hour) and 2-3 shadow classes with an experienced trainer.
  2. Get matched with a government school most convenient to you and your co-teachers (1-3 other private students/parents).
  3. Conduct weekly classes (of 40-60 minutes duration), every Saturday (or any other day if better for all).  You will be using easy-to-teach, video-based interactive eLearning lessons on this LMS/website. About 10-12 lessons (including rubric-based assessments) in a semester.
  4. Between you and co-trainers, bring the equipment to run the eLearning courses – including (a) Laptop, (b) Speaker (Bluetooth) and (c) Projector (in case the school computer lab/projector is not available).

Commitments:

  1. Participate in the program for at least 1 academic year (2 semesters) attending most (>80%) of sessions. To get a digital certificate. 
  2. Be listed on Private School Mentors database for other schools to know for matching classes. We hope to get testimonials from you if you have a rewarding experience.

Actions needed:

  1. Assign at least one or more classes (3rd – 5th grades) for Spoken English teaching slots on Saturdays for an hour (or at least 1 period – 40 minutes) by filling out the form on this website. Explain the program to SDMC (School Dev. & Mgmt. Committee)/ Students/ Parents. 
    NOTE: If there are approvals needed from the Block Education Officer or  SDMC, we will work with you to get them. 
  2. Provide the Computer lab (with projector and projection screen and speakers) if available to run these classes.
  3. Allocate a govt. school teacher (ideally the Class or English teacher) to be present during these slots.
    NOTE: They will be mostly observing, but their presence will help maintain class discipline and their local/Kannada knowledge will be useful. They may also monitor and get some ideas for their own teaching.
Commitments:
  1. Participate in the program for at least 1 academic year (2 semesters) .
  2. Be listed on Govt. School Partners database for other schools to know for matching classes with students. We hope to get testimonials from you if you and your students have a rewarding experience.

Actions needed:

  1. Attend weekly classes (of 40-60 minutes duration) that is scheduled during normal school hours.
    NOTE: You will learn spoken English from other peer students (from private schools) through video-based interactive eLearning online lessons  (10-12 per semester). As part of this, you will participate in group activities and have rubric-based assessments of your skills.

Commitments:

  1. Participate in the program for at least 1 semester, attending most (>80%) of sessions. To get a digital certificate indicating your participation and competence level. Get a competence certificate after completing a CEFR level (over 2 academic years).
  2. If you have access to smartphones of laptops (yours or your parents), login as a student and revise the eLearning content.
  3. Participate actively in the lessons and group activities as well as practice at home with friends and family to develop your skills.

Actions needed:

  1. Provide your child access to your smartphone or laptop/computer if you have one for practicing at home if possible
Commitments:
  1. Support your child by teaching English (if you speak some) or practicing and learning together
  2. We hope to get testimonials from you if your child had a rewarding experience and you see improvement.

The program runs over mutliple semesters from as early as 3rd class all the way until 10th class. So it runs for 8 years as long as the schools participate actively. 

For Private School students, they can participate over 4 years from Grade 9th until Grade 12th.

How do you sign up to participate?

You can sign using the common signup form – no matter what your role (Private School Principals/Administrators, Students and Parents as well as Govt. School Principals/Administrator and Students. Click here to access.

As a Private School Student Mentor, once you go through the Mentor orientation and share your location and mentor group preference, we will assign you (along with your partner mentors, if any) to a school that is convenient to you all in consultation with you all. The steps are as follows:

  1. Look at the list of available Govt. Schools and class slots as per your location or other convenience and select your top choices (3 to start with) and share with your assignment coordinator.
  2. The assignment coordinator will then consider all requests and make the best possible assignments. 
  3. If the choices are not available, you can iterate on other schools/slots that can be made to work. 
How do I Access the Learning Management System and Courses?

Once you fill-up the signup form (click here) you will be contacted to verify and will be assigned login and password credentials associated with the School (Private or Govt.). This will give you access to the LMS as well as the courses and your reports

You will be assigned a batch that is created for your school. This will typically consist of a name that will be a composite of :
City-GovtSchoolName-ClassName-YearSem-CEFRLevel

What do I need to do to prepare for each class

As a student mentor, all the mentors assigned to the school and class will have to go through the lesson to be taught at least a day before the class. We recommend confirming the class timing and attendance with the principal or teacher-in-charge the day before. Please bring along your computer (Laptop), projector, Bluetooth speaker and projector/screen along with al cables/powerchords (if you do not have access to the computer lab.

How do I track progress?

Go under reports and click on “See your reports to get access to all the reports relveant to you.