Monday, July 20, 2015

Discovering the World of Pratham

2:35:00 PM
                                                        By Mallika Kishore, Intern

The first day I stepped into a 10x12 ft classroom at a ‘Balwadi’ in Mayur Vihar, Delhi with 16 enthusiastic children between the ages of 6-14 years- my perception of what could be achieved in educating the under-privileged children of India, was changed forever. 

The environment was inspiring, stimulating and superbly impressive!

All around the class, walls had been decorated with lovely creative charts of Alphabets, Numbers, Animals, Body Parts and many more. The floors were covered with clean, colourful woven mats. What an energetic and attractive surrounding!

The teacher: Rekha Maám was clearly a skilled educator, who took a deep interest in each of her pupils. She treated them like her own... often pulling them out of their homes and firmly walking them to class!  

The lessons: I was amazed to see such a wonderful, structured curriculum being followed and so committedly. In fact, it closely resembled the one at the ‘privileged’ school I had attended. Rekha Maám enabled this by engaging the children through a dynamic style of teaching, mixing the concepts with games to keep their interest alive and a very firm hand on discipline.   

The challenge here was to ensure that the children thrived in this environment- so much so that they were drawn to attend day after day, and absorb the learning as well. The ‘balwadi’ was clearly succeeding in it’s mission.

I was witnessing a remarkable, organised education program in action.

Elements I Brought to the Classroom
In this scenario, I was puzzled as to how I could contribute to this ‘replete’ classroom. My assigned role was as a support to the teacher in running the curriculum. This I found to be an easy task and extremely enjoyable. But, I was searching for how I could enhance the learning experience for the children. Over the first few days, I realized that I could add:

  • Creativity to enhance understanding of the lessons
  • Increased activities to build interest and attendanc
  • Introduce a moral compass to build on value systems
  • Reward system to motivate

The mission for my class at Pratham was to work to re-introduce the children (who had fallen out of the curriculum due to inconsistent attendance or parental will to send them) back to the mainstream.

I set about to make creative learning modules and an array of activities ranging from “Alphabet Caterpillars”, “Shape Building”, ‘’Number Cube” and many more.  I decided to introduce the children to the simple lessons from the short stories of ’Aesop’s Fables’ which had left such an impact in my childhood.

Mission
Days Assigned
What
Achievements
Method
Moral Lessons
14
Aesop’s Fables
Values:   Lies, Common Sense, Hard Work
Group Discussion- All
Vocabulary building:   English and Hindi
Summary of the Lesson- Students
Creativity
26
Colours
Consolidate Alphabets, Numbers
Caterpillar of Alphabets, Number Cube
Shapes
Logic Skills
Drawing/Cutting Shapes & Creating Images
Drawing
Alphabets, numbers
Illustrate each Alphabet
Maths
26
3 Digit nos.
Addition & Subtraction with carry over
Ice- cream sticks activity
Rewards
26
Stars
Motivation
Stickers
Learning is fun
Selective Awarding: Quick learners, Top 3, Best effort
Bands
Reassurance & Caring
Sweets

I Believe I Left Behind...
The children had a spectrum of traits which were unusual to their respective ages (6-9) and displayed highly developed motor skills and an infectious enthusiasm. They took to the different creativity based exercises with zest! I found that with my creative approach the attendance in the class as well as the joy for learning, multiplied. I first used the system of rewards, to motivate those who were slower to pick up taught concepts and often brought prizes to class to further hone their desire for learning. Then, to accelerate the keenness of the performers. The moral stories re-enforced their feelings towards right and wrong.

I believe I left behind love, fun and a new dimension for the learning in the classroom and for life.

In Conclusion
With this experience I saw how the right education, especially at a primary stage helped children blossom across their many facets.

All the children that I interacted with through Pratham impacted my life as well. They gave me many laughs, warm moments, a huge sense of satisfaction and memories to last a lifetime.

I came away with a grass-root understanding of the education system for the children of India and a true desire to educate those less fortunate, in every opportunity that I can.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

An Exciting Experience

2:39:00 PM
By Surendra Kumar, Uttar Pradesh, Science program Master Trainer, Pratham Education Foundation

I was at the Harriyapur, a small village in Kaushambi  district of Uttar Pradesh  to conduct mobilization for Science workshop which was to be held at our science exploratory situated one and half kilometres away . There, I spoke with some of the community members about our program. Soon, group of children gathered around. That is when I met Sumit, who was also a part of the group.

Some of the older members of the group pointed at Sumit and told me to take him along with me .
Hearing this the other children started laughing. Although it was meant as a joke, this comment piqued my curiosity because nobody had made any such comments about any other child from the group.
           
According to the villagers, Sumit is mischievous. He heads the gang of similarly mischievous children. Even though he goes to school, he studies only when he wants to and usually spends his time playing games, loitering around, making mischief or picking up fights. The next day at Harriyapur, I invited him to join the other children in the science exploratory.

Sumit  heeded my request and was present the next day along with other children. I asked the children to sit so that I could talk with them. All the children followed my instruction except for Sumit who was examining his surroundings very carefully.

When I asked him to sit again he replied by saying that he will do so very soon and continued to stare at one of the models. The model was that of a magnetic train which had a pencil floating mid-air. I pretended not to take notice.

I asked Sumit to sit once again and told him that the model will still be there after we finish talking.  On hearing this, Sumit finally sat down. However, while the other children were listening to what I had to say, Sumit still seemed to be thinking about the train.

After speaking with the children, I decided to show them some films about scientific toys and experiments by Arvind Gupta. This was the first time that the children were seeing a film on the projector. The children watched 7 to 8 films attentively. The films were about making paper caps, paper houses, a small book with 14 pages, magical match sticks and dancing man. All the children enjoyed watching the films but Sumit seemed to enjoy them the most.

When the children were tasked with making the same scientific toys, Sumit was the first one to finish making the paper cap and was soon helping other children with it. Eventually, Sumit saw a paper crocodile that was sitting right next to the model that had caught Sumit's fancy initially. Sumit picked the paper crocodile and looked at it closely.

At the end of the day, Sumit had spent 3 hours with the rest of the children and had not picked up fights, loitered around or indulged in any mischief. When it was time to go home Sumit came to me and said that he can make the magnetic train if he gets the magnets. I gave him the magnets and with little guidance he made the model which he was so fascinated about. His joy new no bounds  

The next day, the students brought some of the scientific toys that they had created at home. Each child had made one or two other models, Sumit, however, had made them all.

“Look! Magical matchstick”, he said as he entered the classroom, ”A crocodile!”

He even started reading Arvind Gupta's book on scientific toys and experiments.

Perhaps Sumit truly enjoyed participating in the activities of the science exploratory. Perhaps this is what he wants to do. His desire to learn and achieve something different is hard to miss.

Sumit is now participating in the summer camp at the science exploratory.

This experience is reminiscent of my childhood. The only difference is that Sumit found his purpose in life at the age of 14 and I found mine at the age of 22, which I am pursuing now.


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Pratham India is the official blog of non-for-profit organization Pratham Education Foundation showcasing exciting stories throughout India.

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