Putting Our Best Foot Forward

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Suvarna writes.............

Here is a heart touching, eye-numbing memory from my Grade 8 student Suvarna.....

"This story I am about to share with you is because my brother means a lot to me even though he does pesters me at times .......this is dedicated to my brother,Yedi. Here it goes...

O! how I awaited that day, it was the day my little baby brother would be brought home. I had awaited the moment with anxious feelings. Now that the day had come I could not or would not hold back my feelings at least that is what my parents said. So I held my breath with great effort and waited for the best memory to unfold.

Nov. 5 2004 was the day I was waiting at home with my grandparents with different feelings. In each one of our hearts, I was jumping around with indescribable feeling.

Then it happened exactly at 12 o'clock the memory had been waiting for finally started unfolding we were startled by the ringing of our phone .My grandfather had slowly answered the phone speaking into the receiver slowly, but just so loud enough for me to hear, after a few minutes he spoke a few words and kept the phone down. I remember his words just like he had told me yesterday "Priya, your baby brother has breathed his first breath into the world" .There. right at that moment I could feel my smile stretched from ear to ear .

After a while we climbed into the car to see my little baby brother. The ride in the car seemed like hours. Finally, we had reached the hospital. Practically, everyone dashed out of the car within a fraction of a second .Then everything was a blur. We climbed up the stairs, took our visiting passes and slowly we crept into the room and everyone one was gushing over my brother . I crept and pushed through to get a glimpse my mum gave me a slight grin....I took a huge breath and...........

The little mouth,nose - he looked so adorable ;I touched the small balled up fist and he slowly ever so slightly opened his eyes to get a look at his sister - me !!!!!!!

The doctor said that he can't be brought home for a couple of reason. I really wasn't happy with the doctor's decision on keeping him in the hospital.

Then the day came when he was brought to our house now his too.There were tears of happiness and grins............and to this day there are times when I say "Oh brother!!!"

by Suvarna

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Our Tamarind Tree

Hello! You can call me Tamarind Tree. As you probably realized, I am a gorgeous tamarind tree, and I would like to tell you my story. When I was a young sapling I had no friends beside me. I was the lone tree in the garden. My home was filled with a carpet of lush green grass. Over the years, I grew up into a magnificent and beautiful tree. My strong, dark-brown branches gave birth to pretty flowers and ripe, tasty fruits. I was content and happy.

One day, I saw a few people digging the soil around me. I was nervous and tensed. What if they decided to cut me down? Maybe they did not like my flowers or my fruits. But the days went by, and I was left unharmed. They gave me a new identity. They dressed me up, made me prettier than I already was, and suddenly, I found new friends.

The silence evaporated under the musical notes of laughter of the children who began to play around me. Beside me stood a gorgeous building, housing first four children, and then thirteen- this turned to fifty, and eventually to ninety two enthusiastic children. Every one of them began to play around me, sit under my shade, and run about my huge bark.

Only some of them know me as the Tamarind Tree; some call me imli ka ped, some call me chinta pandu. I have grown fond of each and every child who treats me with care and love. I have been given a little house perched on my branches which children visit once in a while, finding that my tree-tops provide a lovely view of their second home. I do hope that more children would venture into this lovely atmosphere of both fun and seriousness, and I hope that they spread their wings as I have spread my branches out.

By: Meena and Preeti

Monday, July 11, 2011

First Field Trip of 2011

As Sancta Maria gives equal importance to learning out of the class room, we went for a field trip to various places on Saturday, the 9th of July. Grades 2,3,4,8,9 went to Botanical garden as the on going theme was plants. Grades 5,6,7 went to Salarjung Museum to get a glimpse into history.

Friday, July 8, 2011

No F7 Required...!

If vee rote...

Tha vay vee spoak...

Then vee wood not need

Spel cheks...

To chek tha ntyre album clik on: No F7 Required...! (1)

Tips for being a good teacher

While searching on internet I found a very good article which I want to share with everyone.

Teaching is a lucrative profession. And, as the education sector in India is getting recognition in both national and international arena, opportunities for teaching professionals are expected to grow further. But, not everyone in this profession can benefit from these opportunities. If you want to do well in this field as a teacher, inculcate some intrinsic personality characteristics in you along with brushing up your professional skills. It will help you cover miles in your career.

Personality Traits of Good Teachers
Every profession has its own demand and requirements and teaching is no exception. Before brushing up your professional skills, you first need to work on the basic personality traits. These include:

Passion: You need passion to motivate children to learn and perform things which are acceptable, relevant and meaningful.

Communication: In order to understand students and class, you first need to have great communication skills. If you are a good listener with sharp memory, your job will become easy. You should encourage students to ask questions and be ready with responses.

Flexibility: You should be comfortable in creating a fine balance between leniency and strictness in classroom.

Style: A teacher is a role model of many students and hence, having a good personality is very important. It includes dressing sense, presentation and mannerisms.

Humor: Unlike teachers of yester years, you need to interact with your students in a lighthearted way. You need to be friendly. Sometimes, cracking harmless jokes is required. But again, you must use your discretion to judge a particular situation.

Care: You should be caring and loving towards kids. It will help you understand them and accordingly, teach them.

Leadership: Since you have the responsibility to mould the youth of today into confident and responsible citizens for tomorrow, you first need to inculcate leadership qualities in you. You must know to make utmost use of the available funds, resources and manpower.

Teamwork: For a good teacher, it is a must to be a good team player also. He or she should work in collaboration and coordination with seniors and juniors.

Respect: If you give respect, you earn it as well. So, it’s important that you pay respect to your students. This is a sign of a supremely good teacher.

Professional Skills of Good Teachers
A good teacher, instructor or professor needs to possess excellent professional skills also in addition to a set of soft skills. While sound academic qualification is important, you as a teacher need to master some classroom etiquettes as well. These are:

Planning & Provision: An excellent teacher knows well to plan his or lessons for next day in advance. He or she needs to gather learning materials beforehand so that the class does not have to wait.

Paper Correction: Often teachers take long time to assess student’s performance in exam, which in turn creates nervous feeling or cause loss of interest in them. So, if you don’t want this situation to occur, make sure to correct papers on time.

Interactivity: While you are in the classroom, do interact with students. Don’t let your classroom slip into a monologue. It will create boredom and subsequently, defeat the very purpose of teaching.

Courtesy http://www.indiaedu.com/articles/tips-for-good-teacher.html

By Paramjit and Viji

Thursday, July 7, 2011

C for crochet

Today our Thursday's clubs came alive! Yeahhhhh! :)

Our little club - the "Art Club" - settled in the Art room and embarked an amazing art exploration journey with an unusual activity - crochet.

Let's begin! Introducing crochet.

Our goals were modest as it is quite a challenging form of handwork. Especially at the very beginning. It could be stated that while all handwork engages the whole human being, it is essentially in the following ways that handwork affects a growing child:

· it helps with fine motor skills

· it promotes patience

· it transforms willpower into beauty of form

· it changes what would otherwise be an insignificant activity into a virtue.

Even with a modest goal - a firendship wristband - i had some doubts about kids warming up to crochet. I think Sayuja and I were both exchanging doubtful glances and then, as it so often happens, kids proved us wrong. We got scared that the challenge was too difficult only to see that kids don't seem to mind the challenge at all. You should see those focused faces while struggling to guide the crochet needle into the "bunny hole" - the term used for the initial loop that starts it all.

Keerthi shrieked once: "My bunny hole is no longer there! Where did my bunny hole go?!?" We all thought that was funny! :)

Through the hole, grab the thread and pull it back through the hole....

So much coordination! So much focus!

Little ones can braid without the crochet needle...it is still not easy!
Sai Krishna guided Shamukhi to complete her friendship wristband - good job both of them!!!

Sahiti proud of her first few stitches..."I did one, i did one!"

Sajuya completely focused :)

The time went by way too fast and we had to get ready to leave but not before we all tied our brand new wristbands to our wrists and posed for a last photo!