FIELD TRIPS !!!

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us." - Marcel Proust 

As a kid, the most vivid school memories I have are of school picnics and field trips. I remember the excitement with which I would prepare my bag to go on a picnic. All my favourite things: chips, chocolates, sandwiches, cupcakes were packed and checked umpteen number of times before I left for home. Waking up early was never difficult on the D-day!! As a teacher now, I see the same joy, enthusiasm on my students' faces whenever we announce a field trip in class. The picture above is of some of the Achievers who scored above 80% in their unit assessments and we took them out to see a 6 D movie :D
Will share more field trip pictures soon.

P.s. It was a very scary dinosaur 6D movie, and Aditya, standing right next to Kanishka, was laughing his stomach out seeing my edginess.

HOME VISITS!!!

Saturday's are so much fun!! Home visits to meet the superstars. Had gone to visit Shama, but as i was bidding her goodbye, we met two other superstars of my class and then soon word spread that didi has come over and i was surrounded by half a dozen of my kiddos !
One learns so much more about them by seeing them in their home environment. I came to know that Vedprakash can do push-ups the perfect way, Ankit loves to practise yoga, Naveen and Hemraj have their own mobile phones and these 7 year olds travel alone by auto-rickshaws fearless, while Shama has to search for her father for half an hour everyday on the streets:(
Vinayak, Mayur and Vaibhav are the best of buddies and always look out for each other.
Meeting the parents of my superstars makes me feel so proud that they are super invested in providing their children with the brightest future. They are so hospitable. Each and every home i went to i was welcomed with open arms, hot cups of ginger tea, and the liveliest conversations.

Meet my superstars :)

AHAD, one of the shy kids in my class is such a sweetheart. He was one of the first kids i made a connection with. It is always fun to interact with him. He has this really tiny voice and one has to position one's ear right next to his mouth to hear what he has to say. During the breaks, he loves to quietly come and sit next to the didi's and look at them very innocently with his naughty eyes :)

MORNING ASSEMBLY!!

My school works in 2 shifts, the secondary kids come for the morning half and then primary school is in the afternoon session. So my kids have to wait in a line outside on the ground till the classrooms are being cleaned after the morning sessions.
This presents the perfect opportunity to bond with the kids, hear them out, the wonderful stories that they have to share and try to keep pace with the unending list of questions they want to ask . Morning assembly is when i have had the most candid and interesting conversations with my kids..
One time we started discussing how each thing that is bought from the shop has a fixed price called MRP. One should never pay more than what is printed on the packet as MRP. The kids took this information and started compiling a list of all the things they buy and its MRP. Now they ensure that they are always paying the right amount for whatever they buy.

Another wonderful question posed to me by one of my kids after seeing a car was.."Didi why are tyres always round?"..This led to us discussing in class how circular objects can rotate and spin around an axis and how it is not possible using other shapes. They used their imaginations to make vehicles with the different types of tyres and we debated on whether the vehicle would be able to move or not..

Today the kids in my second grade surprised me! We had to teach them about Prayers and its relevance and then they had to learn a prayer byheart. Instead, we (my lovely co teacher Anagha a.k.a. Ana and me)thought it would be cool to let them come up with their own prayers.

This activity was an instant success. All the kids wrote wonderful prayers thanking god for their family,hands, legs, eyes, teachers and smaller but nonetheless very important things like erasers, pencils!

P.S. - a small prayer from me to God ...

"Thankyou God for my superstars,

Always keep them close to your heart, never too far,

Though they are a mischevious bunch,

Oh yes, sometimes they are caught munching on their lunch,

But each one has wonderful aspirations,

Guide us, so that we didi's can be their constant inspiration"

"If a doctor, lawyer, dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom did'nt want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, dentist without assistance had to treat them all with professional excellence the whole year then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job - Donand D Quinn "..
After being with my 55 awesome and hyperactive 2nd graders for about 2 months now i have realised that teachers the world over have not been given their due. It takes immense patience, creativity, energy, alertness , intutiveness to respond to the millions of things that are simultaneously happening in the class.One kid has lost an eraser, while the other forgot to bring any notebook to school; then all of a sudden there is a war cry from the other corner of the class where the tiniest of the lot is strangling a kid double his size, all this is commonfare along with the usual banter.