Reflections of students on CAS activity

“We went to Vivakananda Vidyalaya, a small but charming school. It was a mere fifteen minutes’ journey from Oakridge on a bus – we all looked forward to teaching and putting our knowledge to good use: the benefit of others.

We felt quite peaceful, somehow, and enjoyed meeting the students. We all split into our respective groups, and started prepping for the class.

I taught English with my friends, Yagna and Tejaswini. We first put together a simple spelling test – just to test their knowledge – and when we understood their levels of education, started reading an excerpt from Tom Sawyer and a Jataka Tale.

Later, I tried my hand at Science, Math, and Art. It was quite fascinating, because they were quite an enigmatic class. Surely, we all made a team effort and polished their knowledge because they gradually showed signs of improvement, much to their (and our) elation. They seemed so happy to gain knowledge and wisdom, especially the little kids! I liked the way they responded: with added energy and enthusiasm, it seemed, after some time. They’d truly transformed like butterflies from a cocoon. It was a pleasure to spin that cocoon of knowledge!

Teaching gave me an insight of the difficulties and joys of teaching. Some students were a bit stubborn, but a few minutes’ introductions (and star stickers) made them wonderful student we loved educating. Though, I could never have accomplished this much without help from my peers, I did return, enlightened, and indeed, very glad I could do something I never thought I ever would have the chance of doing.

The language barrier was a hard obstacle to overcome, but we did so, with a few quick words in Hindi and Telugu. It was harder for those who weren’t very good with these languages, but with team-effort, we all ran the education smoothly.

Overall, it was a surprisingly difficult but very enlightening experience, to put ourselves in our teachers’ shoes, and we hope to do so again” - Kriti Arohi Kapa (Grade VII)

We went to Vivekananda Vidhyalaya, a school just ten minutes far from ours. When we reached school all of us were welcomed and given rooms. I had picked to teach dance to some of the students with my team. We all started the class with an introduction like always, but the children found difficulty in understanding English. So there was an obstacle. My team decided to speak in a language they are all comfortable with (Hindi and Telugu). We all picked out a few songs as planned and taught them easy steps to identify their strengths in dance. To our surprise everyone was very quick and showed lots of interest in learning more. I taught them the dance and in return they taught me more.

With this session all the students were able to improve their sense of rhythm, body movements and team work. I was able to judge myself and found the areas I have to improve. Today I have realized the joy in learning is more when teaching. I thank my team to cooperate with me and make this experience successful. I will always try to participate more in these events and I shall await for more” - Srinidhi Atmakuru (Grade VII)