Saturday, January 25, 2014

CAS Student Reflections of Grade 7 Sections F and H




On 21st January, 2014, my class, 7 H, went to Vivekananda Vidyalaya for our second CAS visit. This time, I went to multiple classes unlike last time when I had stayed in one class for the two-and-a-half hours we were given. The school was pretty small but the classes were evenly spread — a couple of classes outside and a couple inside. The inside classes were stuffed and had dull lighting while the ones outside were in direct contact with the sun. I had difficulty communicating with them because of my limited knowledge of the language Hindi. But they made an effort to try speaking back. I first went to the pre-primary classes.

The children were quite smart and answered all my questions with great enthusiasm. We then played games and recited nursery rhymes together. Then I taught the higher classes of third, fourth and fifth grade Math. They all gave me their notebooks to write sums in and solved them with great ease. Finally, when we were about to leave, a bell rang and, all of them, without making any chaos, got their lunches, sat down and ate heartily. I realized that even though they didn’t have the luxury we did of ACs and electronics, they did not let that get in the way of their learning. They were no different than us little kids in need of great education. 
Aikya 7H

On 21st January, 2014, we went on our second CAS visit to Vivekananda Vidyalaya School. When I walked into the school with my friends, it seemed pretty much like how it was the last time. The children were doing all sorts of things. There were kids who were screaming and playing, some were studying and others just sat quietly and watched. We split ourselves into groups of 5 and chose classes. I, along with a few of my friends, taught a group of pre-primary kids. We taught them the alphabet, nursery rhymes, colours and numbers. Most of them were quick learners and were very keen to learn. It was a lot like how it was when we visited the first time. 

The children love to learn new things and are always ready for more. They’re very smart and they were so happy when we asked them questions and answered with so much enthusiasm that we didn’t want to stop asking. Every time they got an answer right, we gave them a high five or drew stars on their hands. They were fascinated as they never heard of high fives and always wanted us to give them one. Just when the lunch bell rang, everyone got really excited and there were kids running and screaming to get their bags and it was quite chaotic. I really enjoyed helping these children and I’m glad I got a chance to help them learn more things. I’m looking forward to our next CAS activity and I’m sure it will be just as good as or maybe even better. 
Deeksha 7H

On 21st January, 2014, classes 7F and 7H went on their second CAS trip to a school in Nanakramguda — Vivekananda Vidyalaya. As this was the second visit to that school, we had decided that we will be much better in whatever we do. Last time when 7F went, all the boys played a cricket match and we played 2 matches. In the first one, we lost by a few runs and the second match was a draw. So this time, 7F was prepared with a strategy to play. We had decided who will bowl and who will bat in the given 8 overs. First, we sat in the bus and moved on. All the people who were teaching got down in the front of the school gate and the majority of 7F boys went to an open ground nearby.

Over there, we did some warm-up through some simple exercises. After that, we did the toss; luckily, we won the toss and elected to bat first. We sent our best batsman in the opening and so on. Interestingly, our practice of batting was fruitful — we made 52 runs! At the last visit, we made 22 & 27. We thought that we will win this easily as we had some excellent bowlers. We bowled many overs, but also took many wickets but the deciding part was in the last 2 overs. There were 2 wickets left, 2 overs left and there were 15 runs to win. We did not lose hope — we made the fielding better. At the 4th bowl of that over, we got a wicket! But the opposing team did not agree so we had to discuss a lot to figure if it was out. At the end, it was given out. Now there was one over left and they needed 5 runs to win. We bowled our best for 5 bowls. But at the last bowl, they needed 3 runs to win. We had won the match by 1 run! That was a good improvement! Satwik and Varun played the best! At the next visit, we will look forward to teach!     
Kunal Kulkarni 7F

We went to Vivekananda Vidyalaya where we helped teach underprivileged children and also taught them some games. This trip was much different from last time we went. We taught Math and English to all the students. We interacted with them, but the only problem was that we didn’t know Telugu or Hindi very well. We got past this by using hand motions to help communicate. The change was that this time we interacted more with the children and didn’t let the language barrier between us have as much of an effect as last time. It was a great experience. If I go again, I will try to be more of a helpful friend instead of a teacher. This trip made me realize how lucky I am and that I have to spread awareness to help make these children have a better learning environment with things like better tables and chairs. 
Rithik 7F

Grade 7 Sections F and H visited Vivekananda Vidyalaya as part of the CAS program. Our plan this time was to teach academics to the children in the school. This trip was different from last time as I went to teach instead of playing cricket. My friends and I taught Math and English to underprivileged kids. At first, they were too scared to talk to us, but when their teacher introduced us, they began to interact without fear. Our biggest challenge was probably speaking as we did not know Telugu or Hindi well and they did not know English.
An Oakridger








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