Yes, "Other Side" are just the correct two words to describe my experience of the past day. We did not "teach" anything new, but nor did we let the kids not learn anything either. The day started off with us giving them five questions, which they were supposed to do well so as to play the decided games in the later half of the day.
The result was disappointing. Without saying anything or explaining the questions, we just wrote down the answers, gave them time to discuss amongst themselves and then gave them another set of questions. The performance seemed to have improved, but was still not satisfactory. The same thing was repeated again and five more questions were given. The result ? Almost everyone got more than four correct. What I understood of this little exercise was just this, that it is not that the kids do not know what is being asked, nor is it that we haven't been able to make ourselves clear to them, but it is more of the fact that there is a lack of self study, because of which they need some time to recall whatever it is that has been happening in the class since the past few days.
To come to think of it, we taught decimals to these kids in just a span of two weeks, as easy as it maybe appearing to us, the fact that it is difficult and a not-so-easy-to-grasp concept must be accepted. Despite that if it is just ten questions which they need to refresh their memory and remind them of how to handle the "point", I don't think its too big of a worry for us.
An aspect of Parichay, which I think I just mentioned once before is the conductance of classes for children below the age of nine. My co-intern Shivangi works with them.
Their class seems to go at a different pace and level altogether. Not only is there a slight lack of seriousness there, but the discipline level is also level. How she is able to manage them, make them learn and have fun simultaneously, I am yet to figure out ! All said and done, these kids are not meant to be taken lightly though, when they happened to see decimals being done in their elder brother/sisters class, the first thing they went and told Shivangi was, "Hume bhi woh sab karwa do..hume unse aage badhna hai ! "("Teach us all that as well, we want to be ahead of them !") Yes, the level of enthusiasm is probably much higher at this side of the community!
The later half of Wednesday was spent in playing the games that had been decided for them. One of them involved creating sentences from jumbled words in a team. Initially the kids had to find their team-members on the basis of the colour of the words which they had and then form the sentence, which was actually a famous quotation. It was a fun exercise and not only did it serve as an activity to check sentence formation but also taught them some never-to-forget famous lines.
It was fun to watch them play and even more to see them getting excited about coming first. They seemed to have developed a liking for "Shruti didi" and were even more determined to win the game! Even she, I think, now seems to have become connected with the kids at a different level altogether.
In all, the day was an eventful one and now I can finally say with pride that we are truly done with Maths ! No, now there would not be any more discussion on the same. Its time for us to now explore their other interests and likings, i.e. Science.
The result was disappointing. Without saying anything or explaining the questions, we just wrote down the answers, gave them time to discuss amongst themselves and then gave them another set of questions. The performance seemed to have improved, but was still not satisfactory. The same thing was repeated again and five more questions were given. The result ? Almost everyone got more than four correct. What I understood of this little exercise was just this, that it is not that the kids do not know what is being asked, nor is it that we haven't been able to make ourselves clear to them, but it is more of the fact that there is a lack of self study, because of which they need some time to recall whatever it is that has been happening in the class since the past few days.
To come to think of it, we taught decimals to these kids in just a span of two weeks, as easy as it maybe appearing to us, the fact that it is difficult and a not-so-easy-to-grasp concept must be accepted. Despite that if it is just ten questions which they need to refresh their memory and remind them of how to handle the "point", I don't think its too big of a worry for us.
An aspect of Parichay, which I think I just mentioned once before is the conductance of classes for children below the age of nine. My co-intern Shivangi works with them.
Their class seems to go at a different pace and level altogether. Not only is there a slight lack of seriousness there, but the discipline level is also level. How she is able to manage them, make them learn and have fun simultaneously, I am yet to figure out ! All said and done, these kids are not meant to be taken lightly though, when they happened to see decimals being done in their elder brother/sisters class, the first thing they went and told Shivangi was, "Hume bhi woh sab karwa do..hume unse aage badhna hai ! "("Teach us all that as well, we want to be ahead of them !") Yes, the level of enthusiasm is probably much higher at this side of the community!
The later half of Wednesday was spent in playing the games that had been decided for them. One of them involved creating sentences from jumbled words in a team. Initially the kids had to find their team-members on the basis of the colour of the words which they had and then form the sentence, which was actually a famous quotation. It was a fun exercise and not only did it serve as an activity to check sentence formation but also taught them some never-to-forget famous lines.
It was fun to watch them play and even more to see them getting excited about coming first. They seemed to have developed a liking for "Shruti didi" and were even more determined to win the game! Even she, I think, now seems to have become connected with the kids at a different level altogether.
In all, the day was an eventful one and now I can finally say with pride that we are truly done with Maths ! No, now there would not be any more discussion on the same. Its time for us to now explore their other interests and likings, i.e. Science.
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