It takes time

Level1 and 2, term1, week10, 06/08/08, 11.45am-1.15am, Saturday,Teacher-Jenny.


THEME:TALES FROM THE ENCHANTED WORLD


FOCUS FOR THE DAY:THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER



ATTENDANCE: Isha did not come today and in this closed knit class everybody missed her. In a group everybody has their own unique place which is irreplaceable.

LESSON PLAN, I CREATED AND WE ESSENTIALLY FOLLOWED.

Sharing: General,not sticking to a theme.


Warm up:

Physical and voice:The ants line up in a queue, the front, middle and last ant have outstretched hands and without breaking the TRAIN ,they try catch the denner who is the bee,making a buzzing sound. The child who catches the bee is the the one who is slimed now and the game restarts while the child who was the bee now stands second in row.


Speech: poems on the block.

Main Body:The ant and the Grasshopper would be the modern day doers and dreamers. The drama goes to a school setting where in the dreamers recount their tale of misery when they did`nt finish the work in time and did not fare well in the tests and the doers help them cope up.

Journal: Draw and write how you helped the grasshopper get ready for future.

SHARING:
My checklist:
Vocabulary
Interest/withdrawn
Use of language
Prodded/self initiative
listening skills
Focus/distraction
Shy/enthusiastic/dominant
Interpersonal skills/team work
Organizational skills
Time management
Eye contact
Body language

MY OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS DURING SHARING:
The children and I are building a special bond and I am so happy to be greeted more effervescently by my class. After this term gets over I would be saddened as to not meet them on a weekly basis. Here I realize the attachments that you build as a teacher.
To tide over the intermittent lack of focus by the children: Jenny came up with the instant reward therapy of drawing a smiley on the hands /giving stickers to all those who sat nicely during the sharing, focused and listened really well.
To get the maximum out of sharing time: Jenny wrote a set of questions on the board which were to be used as pointers on which the children based their sharing. They were the ;
Who got it for you?
Why they got it for you?
When did they get it?
Where did they get it from?
Why do you like it?
How does it work?
I thought it was a great idea to give clear and sharp instructions like this. The questioning from the other children can be limited if a child describes so elaborately keeping in mind all the possible questions. These are the set of questions which can come in handy in any real life situation and academically also a lot can be answered using these basic set of questions. I would award Jenny a ten out of ten for coming up with this so---- simple, yet so effective technique. Jenny said, once these questions became a part of their sharing ,describing and discussing, she would then rub them of the board.

Aditya K: Volly the robot. Described so crisply and clearly all aspects of his sharing object. He is a very confident communicator and loves taking the focus.

Aditi: A sticker book. Her beautiful smile always is so welcoming. She shared so enthusiastically her birthday gift. She is such a friendly and warm person that I see she has created a special place for herself in the class.

Madhav: Sword. Today he listened so attentively when others shared, may be the sticker reward (which I mentioned earlier) worked its magic. His sharing as usual was very animated and full of energy. He is one child who brings lots of energy to the class along with Aditya K.

Shivam: Dinosaurs. Small slimy slithery Dino's, which completely captivated the others and the discussion went on quite prolonged. Shivam`s sharing is usually quite interesting and I personally look forward to it excitedly.

Aditya M: Ben10 colouring book. I marvelled at the power the famous cartoon telly shows have on children. Quite fluently,with a good language command he share his colouring book which was a return gift for his fathers forthcoming birthday.

Aryan: Did not bring object. Doesn't like to take the focus probably because he is struggling for words and the right articulation. But a cartoon buff that he is, the Ben10 sharing by Aditya got him motivated and unhindered he spoke on and on about the character and about his own relationship with the character.

Konkana: The safety kit. Initially had to be prodded, but towards the end spoke quite lively on his own. I feel she is now coming out of her shy mode and is getting more expressive.

Anya: Nothing to share. Still not comfortable taking the focus in a group. One on one though she is quite a chatterbox and communicates quite well with her partners during sharing time.

Debangshi: No object. Her description of the Kalbelia dance from Rajasthan was though quite elaborate and she displayed good vocabulary and use of language.

Suhani: Princess dress up book. Her face always lights up when she speaks and one can spot a nice mix of child like innocence and adult sensitivity. She uses both her language and body with ease.

Abhinav: Ball torch. Is usually clear, articulate and well prepared. displayed the same consistency today. The "Nerita" symbol again got the little Aryan talking.

WARM UPS:
PHYSICAL AND VOICE: We played The Train Game and children loved it,thoroughly enjoyed it and did`nt want to stop playing it. As I led the warm up I clearly explained the rules wherein the first, middle and last child had to catch the buzzing bee with outstretched arms. The bee when caught would stand second in row. It went off fine. I felt as it was a new game and was being improvised for the first time ,some disciplinary issues did arise , like breaking off of the train which can be of course settled by introducing a firmer set of rules. (Children love rules and structure)
SPEECH: Sharing was overstretched for up to 45 minutes so we decided to do away with the poems.

DRAMA:
HOW DID WE ENTER DRAMA :
Jenny started by asking the children if they remembered what had happened to the grasshopper last week and how was he helped, children did a rewind of how they taught him build the house and collect food.

MAIN BODY:
As the discussion was going on I sneaked out to get into the role of the grass hopper. A green scarf and here I was in front of the whole class which said almost unanimously,"oh, the grasshopper is here".
Shivam, Abhinav and Aditya K also took on the roles of the grasshopper.
Here we were the FOUR grasshoppers moaning. I started with , how I got scolded in the class for not finishing my work in time. Immediately picking up the cue from there Aditya K started to be grumpy about how studies were boring and he would rather play all day then study. Shivam and Abhinav echoed the thoughts.
The other group being led by Jenny witnessed it all and planned out to teach us in a fun way and infuse in us a love for reading,writing and learning.

One by one they pretended to be teachers and taught us how to enjoy English,Hindi,Maths and spellings on the board. The grasshoppers learnt that studies and school was fun, more so when done in time. Quite an important concept, dealt in an amazingly fun way.
Aditya M was the sports teacher and he taught Shivam the grasshopper sports like cricket and football in detail. It was awesome, the camaraderie and the team spirit in such a large group. If only adults could learn a lesson or two from these children working together.

Now the grasshoppers were asked to build a house on their own as was taught to them the last week by the children. The grasshoppers did it step by step thus displaying a good sense of structure and organization.
Chopped the woods first for the sloping roof and made it. Used bricks and cement for the walls. Steel to provide strength to the structure. Then came the doors and windows and the kitchen, bath and wooden furniture. Went in the chimney and fire. The group was now invited in to inspect and approve. Thanks was expressed by singing a thank you song. Politeness and acknowledgement for the help given in time was reinforced. The drama went off so beautifully with amazing order, structure and learning. All the children participated in their own little way. The enriching experience was well writ over their faces after the imagination, experience and enrichment that drama offered to each one of them

JOURNAL : They went into journal time satisfied and rejuvenated. They were quite motivated after the drama and focused on the writing job so beautifully and produced one of their best pieces in terms of expression as well as penmanship.
I was utterly impressed by how Aryan wrote. The little Anya who was always saying she did not know how to write wrote so beautifully well. Konkana has quite a mature sense of writing though we would like to see more of details there. I love the way Abhinav writes. My belief in the fact that motivation and positive reinforcement is the key to expressive and beautiful writing in children.

PLANNING OF THE LESSON AND MY ROLE as facilitator/observer/leader :
I would like to restate that I have certainly started to observe children and the proceedings of the class in great detail. In terms of leading the class I still have a long way to go.
The warm up was well, however should have been set up with clearer and sharper rules.
In drama as a grasshopper I really caught the attention of children and led as well as guided appropriately.

REFLECTIONS ON THE LESSON PLAN USED:
was well thought out. Supported a lot of action, movement and drama but everything with a positive burst of energy. The recap of the last weeks drama really helped in getting the focus back.

REFLECTIONS ON THE TEACHER:
Jenny's cool as a cucumber temperament during sharing time when clock was ticking away and her tendency of not rushing children through the different elements was so remarkable. Despite a 45 minutes excellent sharing we managed to give sufficient time to each element and made the entire journey and the whole process enjoyable. Hat`s off to a teacher like her--gentle, calm, genuine with a cool sense of humor. I would especially ask for that one quality of "thinking in ones feet" if I am allowed to completely imbibe one of her positive traits.
For the warm up she suggested a firmer rule that: any child who broke the train would be sitting out of the game for one turn.
She set up the drama so thoughtfully, that the credit for the smooth for drama goes entirely to her.

THE CLASS DYNAMICS:
The class has now figured out among themselves their individual weaknesses and strengths and are supporting each other in letting the drama come alive. An amazing show of team spirit.
I would specifically like to mention the chemistry between Aditya M and Shivam,which has completely changed. Previously Aditya M would lean on Shivam most of the times but now, he is on his own, asserting his individuality and feeding off of his individual energy as well as the energy of the whole class. (rather than just one person).

SOME UNTOWARD HAPPENING:
Little scuffle between Shivam and Abhinav continued even today. Jenny though handled it much more differently today and I am sure we will not witness any other incident like this in future. She heard them both out , asked them any other way they could have settled it ?, thus fostering a problem solving attitude which will hold them in good stead even as grown ups. Putting the onus of their act on them by telling them that they were big boys now and need to display some more responsibility.

NEXT WEEK: We have The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse as focus. I am looking forward to creating a lesson plan and enjoy the process.

I ENJOY LESSON PLANNING

Level1 and 2, term1, week9, 30/08/08, 11.45am-1.15am, Saturday,Teacher-Jenny.
THEME:TALES FROM THE ENCHANTED WORLD
FOCUS FOR THE DAY:THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

ATTENDANCE:
I am not sure if Arnav who only came for week 6, has joined/ will be joining the class. Now that only four classes are left for the term ,I presume he would not be coming, at least for this term.
His mother when came to meet us after his first and only class, said that she basically wanted him to join a writing class as he avoids writing and his handwriting is bad. I wondered if any writing class would be of any good. In my experience children write best when they are motivated and are enjoying the process. Forcing the act on them will only make them averse to the process of writing. I have seen penmanship also coming from motivation and positive reinforcement.
There are twelve children in all and all twelve are present.
On the late arrival of Aryan : I was wondering if he would come late even today, but here he was ,bang on time.

THE LESSON PLAN

Sharing: What are some of the things we do to prepare for summer?
Warm up: Physical: opposites.
Voice: resonators
Speech: The story/ T.T.
Story: The ant and the Grasshopper.
Main Body:The ant and the Grasshopper- Its summer again and the Grasshopper remembers what happened to him last time so he wants to be prepared for winter but he does not know what to do to be prepared and ants don’t have the time to help him can you please help him.
Journal: What did the grasshopper do to get ready for winter?
Next week:

LESSON PLAN I CREATED (NOT EXECUTED) FOR THE CLASS.
Sharing: General,not sticking to a theme.
Warm up:Physical and voice:
The ants line up in a queue, the front,middle and last ant have outstretched hands and without breaking the row ,they try catch the denner who is the bee,making a buzzing sound. The child who catches the bee is the the one who is slimed now and the game restarts.
Speech: poems on the block.
Story: Ant and The Grasshopper.
Main Body:The ant and the Grasshopper would be the modern day doers and dreamers. The drama goes to a school setting wherein the dreamers recount their tale of misery when they did`nt finish the work in time and did not fare well in the tests and the doers help them cope up.
Journal: Story of the boy who did not finish his task on time and how he was helped by his friends.

SHARING:
My checklist:
Vocabulary
Interest/withdrawn
Use of language
prodded/self initiative
listening skills
Focus/distraction
Shy/enthusiastic/dominant
Interpersonal skills/team work
Organizational skills
Time management
Eye contact
Body language
MY OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS DURING SHARING
As decided in the class before I was to lead the sharing. Here I was greeting children with more confidence as I was officially the main teacher at least for the sharing time. My new found enthusiasm was met with a very chirpy hello from my students. CIRCLE TIME, and here we were all sitting together for the sharing. everybody wanted to go first. After the "inni meeni myeni moh" caught Aditi we zoomed off with each making an attempt and sharing a part of themselves. Jenny had some work and she said she would be back in a while. My last iota of inhibition flew off, I knew now I was not being watched and of course not being judged. (No wonders children cannot be free communicators if they have a constant fear of being judged).
1.Aditi : Photograph book. Shared enthusiastically about the kind of photographs she would be putting in there. I still feel there is some part of her which is still holding back. I am sure though soon we would be seeing a more real Aditi.

2.Aanya : Said she has nothing to share. I prompted her to speak about her beautiful hair band but she was reluctant. The beautiful frock that she wore had an identical bow. I commented that made her look like a princess today. She refused to speak. She has been flip-flopping between being reluctant and forth coming. It will be a few more classes before a consistent behaviour and a much desirable shedding of inhibitions would occur. At times she is so shy that she even squirms at the gentle patting on the cheeks or her back.

3.Isha : Scooby strings. She demonstrated the ease of communication and seem to enjoy her sharing. She usually gets so lost in the sharing that she forgets to make an eye contact.

4.Debangshi : A set of abridged beautiful ENID BLYTON books. She was confident enough to narrate a short story from the book for the class. Amazing change in confidence levels. Articulation and vocabulary has always been good. I would still like to see more of throw in her voice though.

5.Konkana: A garden book. Flipped through the pages. Could not exactly figure out what she wanted to share. Had to be asked leading questions from the book. There was a page on pollination, I randomly asked what it meant? The entire class was at loss, though they wanted to know more. I did not give it to them and said they would come to the next class with more details about it. In my opinion motivating them to read and explore more was the right thing to do.
6.Suhani : This girl really amazes me with her impeccable organizational skills. She articulately share her pencil box where every item of stationary sat as if the place was just earmarked for it.

7.Aditya K :Airplane. Very forth coming with his sharing. Animatedly described as to how it flew. What kind of a plane was it? met with a blank expression. Promised to learn more about his plane.

10.Shivam : A knowledge book. Was flipping the pages randomly unsure of what interesting bit to share? My suggestion of sharing his favourite page as if cleared the confusion. He shared facts about the special air plane and its hanger. About ships and submarine and wanted to go on and on. On my part it was very tough asking him to share the rest at some other date. Here I realized one pertinent predicament that we face as teachers--PAUCITY OF TIME and how to best manage it. Shivam is certainly one of the readers of the class and has a comparatively vast resource bank of knowledge. Jenny`s question of what was a cargo ship? met with a prompt right answer.

11.Madhav : Madhav along with Aditya K are to be constantly reminded to be good listeners and wait for their turns.

MY LEADING SHARING :THE EXPERIENCE?: The experience was fulfilling and I thoroughly enjoyed it, though all along I felt the time constraint and I felt I needed to cut short and time the sharing, otherwise it would eat up on the time stipulated for other elements of the class. There were times when I felt self conscious and a doubt crept up as to --if I was really doing complete justice with my sharing? All in all I felt that I just did an O.K job with the sharing. Jenny though commented later that I was pretty good as a first timer independently leading the sharing. (One important reason why sharing could not be appropriately timed was the wall clock out of order and no watch or any kind of type of time keeper at close quarters).

WARM UPS:

PHYSICAL: Touch your body parts. In the end it was a vigorous nod of the head, shake of the body, shake up of limbs and shake up of your whole self. I was completely taken by surprise when Jenny announced the prizes for the best shake, which were given up on the block to every body for shaking up different body parts so well in form of stickers. An amazing way to motivate and reward and reinforcing that to comply with instructions is such a positive desirable trait. I thought Jenny was setting it up for the execution and rendition of poems to the best of the kids ability.

VOICE : Was skipped owing to time constraint.

SPEECH : Sharing poems on the block. Children are practicing and becoming better with voice projection and expression. I suggested Jenny that just like the children were rewarded with stickers for doing the warm up nicely, they could be rewarded the next time for doing the poem well.

STORY : As I have been maintaining all along that Jenny is a wonderful storyteller this week as well she enthralled the children as well as me by using puppets to tell the story. The story coming directly from the ant and the grasshopper as characters was a deviation from the normal style of narration. children enjoyed it so much more as it was told differently and also because kids love puppets.

DRAMA:
HOW DID WE ENTER DRAMA :Jenny said it was winter time and the grasshopper was cold and hungry. What can we do to help the grasshopper tide over the difficult weather. Before this there was a question posed to the children as to whether we should be helping and supporting the grass hopper. A good problem solving attitude being fostered here, I thought.

The children were quite empathetic with the grasshopper and unanimously said that: 1. They would help the grasshopper.

On asking that should they be helping someone who was not responsible, the kids were of the opinion that: 2. After helping the grass hopper once and making him comfortable, they would teach him how to help himself for the next winter, by teaching him skills to collect food and to make a home.

So, here I saw creativity being sparked and triggered by just the right question. On being prodded just a little, the children precisely set up the drama for themselves.

EXECUTION OF DRAMA: Aditya K took on the role of grasshopper and acted out cold and was shivering. Seeing him dramatize the miserable grasshopper Shivam, Aditya M, Abhinav and Madhav all became grasshoppers. (Imitation is the best form of flattery). They were taken to a sheltered and warm place represented by the blocks. Isha displayed a quick thinking and promptly tried sealing up the place using scooby strings which were the walls and the fencing to the house.

Others quickly started to help her in making the house warm. There were others who were bringing warm food for them and arranged heaters and blowers. After the grasshoppers felt better it was time to teach them the skills for next winter.

By this time Abhinav and Madhav had joined the rest of the team in teaching the grasshoppers the skills as they probably wanted to enjoy the other aspect of drama now. The three drama kings of our class, namely; Aditya M, Shivam and Aditya K were still dutifully enacting the roll of the grasshopper.

Now we divided ourselves into two groups : 1. Who were teaching grasshoppers to build the house. 2. Those who were teaching grasshoppers to collect food.

We taught grasshoppers to make house of wood , for which children chopped wood using the moving and speaking rhyme "chop the wood". (at this point in time I wondered that I personally would like to see drama more challenging than this, this rhyme they have done so many times before. May be we could have challenged them by asking as to how many different kinds of houses are there and in what climatic condition and regions what type of house is being used. In class1 and 2 they have done it in class and we could have used it to our advantage here and also they would have learnt to take the class learning to a different level. )

The house having been built we cemented it and used steel for support. Debangshi was quietly doing something else, on being asked what was she up to ?, she explained that she had made the door for the house. I admired her attention for detail and saw that she has a sharp mind of her own.

A couple of children were busy collecting food (here again I saw that the boundary between doing things for the grasshopper and teaching him to do things on his own were blurring. Our role as a teacher should have been to remind children of the difference and to guide them accordingly. )

Now the most fun part of drama: The house was to be painted. The very confident Aditya K said he would paint the house so very nicely because the grasshoppers have many legs. The other two grasshoppers joined him in doing just the same. I thoroughly enjoyed and marvelled at the way the three children painted one wall of the room with their backs to the wall and their legs and arms being used as paint brushes. I wouldn`t have been able to be so creative myself and I simply enjoyed the burst of energy, imagination and creativity here.

The house being ready, the grasshoppers were ready to move in and the rest of us bid farewell and goodbye to them and came back to Julia Gabriel Centre .

JOURNAL : No time left, as It was already 1.30pm.

MY PLANNING OF THE LESSON AND MY ROLE as facilitator/observer/leader I think I planned really well for the class and my leading sharing went off pretty well, but I truly regret that I did not respect the time whatever the reason may be. On discussion with Jenny as to what can be done to tide over this particular predicament of time management as there were 12 children and every body wants to share a considerable piece,she suggested that we can ask children to go up on the block and limit the sharing to one object.

I have certainly started to observe children and the proceedings of the class in great detail. In terms of leading the class I still have a long way to go.

I strongly feel that class has a lot of potential and needs to be aptly challenged.

REFLECTIONS ON THE LESSON PLAN USED
The narration of the story as by using puppets was truly different and interesting. Even before the story ended Aditya K started to say that he wanted to be the grasshopper in the drama. (that was the power of puppetry in story telling). The drama also went off pretty well but a little differently than what Jenny had planned but that is the power of imagination and the dynamics of the class which can execute the subject so very differently and can touch so very different heights.

Do we need to put forth more challenges
I certainly think that we should. I discussed it with Jenny and she said she was not quite sure if they are ready to take on more challenges in terms of the young age group of 6-8 yrs. We decided that next class we would be setting up the ant and the grasshopper drama in a more modern perspective.

REFLECTIONS ON THE TEACHER
I thought that the particular warm up was quite impromptu and Jenny came up with it because she wanted to compensate for the long sharing by a relatively quick warm up so that there was enough time for drama. I learned the last minute improvisations that you have to come up as a teacher and I really appreciated the fact that Jenny was so flexible with her approach and took a detour from executing the warm up in the originally planned way. It was truly, for the common good of the class so that the students can derive maximum benefit out of the class.

SOME UNTOWARD HAPPENING
Little scuffle between Shivam and Abhinav while waiting for their turn to share poems on the block. (Had happened before also). Shivam complained and Abhinav apologised on his own and things got sorted out on their own ,without any intervention from the teacher. I believed the rule of "no fighting and being gentle in the class" was revised by the children on their own accord and the contention got sorted out on its own. Its such a feeling of pride to see children taking responsibility for their own actions.

NEXT WEEK:We take on drama to a class setting the next week, me and Jenny role playing as the ant and the grasshopper respectively and setting it up for them.

Level 1 and2 (age group : 6-8 years) Term 1,Week 6, Date: 9/8/08 , Time: 11:45-1:15 Saturday ,Teacher: Jenny .
Theme:Tales from the Enchanted Wood(Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends)
Focus for Day: Jack and the Beanstalk

First Impressions:
Aditya Kashyap: Confident, articulate, contributes fairly well to all elements of the class .

Arnav: Quiet, withdrawn, copied the leader of the group, trying to create a space for himself in the group by wearing a smile.

Anya: Thinks and says that she is the only one who can't read/write . I wish she grows really nicely in terms of confidence .

Aditi: Sober and mature with good organizational skills .

Sohani: Good eye contact, seemed to absorb whatever she is looking at or listening to.

Debangshi: More initiative is desirable at the moment, has to be prodded.

Konkana: Inhibited, happy letting others lead.

Isha: Articulate, good vocabulary, likes to lead, friendly.

Abhinav: Articulate, expressive, interacts well.

Aditya Menon: Clear speech sounds, flip flops between being forthcoming/withdrawn in drama.

Shivam: Confident, loves books, likes to take focus in drama.

Madhav: Easily distracted, listening skill needs work, too energetic, quite expressive for his age though, hates to write.

Aryan: Imaginative, is able to express himself quite well in Hindi, doesn't want to write.

Liba: Good organizational skills, amazing drawing, has a keen eye for clothes and fashion.

Sambhav: Can be quite imaginative, but at times distract others.


SHARING:
OBSERVATION & REFLECTIONS:
Sohani: Shared her object with excitement, created a sense of surprise before taking out the sharing object from the pocket. Imaginatively and confidently asked the group to take guesses. The group responded animatedly and finally settled for four guesses before letting her show the object: small laser lights. Enthusiastically asked the group to turn off the lights. Demonstrated that those were wearable like a ring. Sohani is already growing in terms of communication skills.

Madhav: Superman toy. As usual he wanted to contribute on everybody's turn and had to be asked to listen nicely, just like the way others were being good listeners while he talked.

Isha: A box with different assorted things: used good vocabulary and language to share around 10 different objects in a box, including things from Hanna Montana. Was so engrossed in her objects that forgot to make eye contact. Responded appropriately to questions from the group.

Aditya Kashyap: Contributed about the role of the band aids and why we should take them with us during drama time.Jenny suggested that we might need Isha's compass during drama time.
Shivam: Small square magnets. Shared freely and completely focused on the object while sharing. While Aditya K was sharing Shivam said, "band aid is also used to tape your mouth when you speak too much, thus displaying a sense of humour (I would not call it, tongue in cheek at this age).

Anya: Did not bring sharing object, however, answered the leading questions and displayed good listening skills.
At the end of sharing, Jenny asked if they would like her keeping all their sharing objects and not returning back. It was met with a unanimous "no". I thought a mood was being set here about the focus of drama with of course a value being conveyed that we can't and should not take belongings without permission. In the drama setting (Jack and the Beanstalk) Jack running off with the giant's possessions is not all that acceptable.

WARM UP:
Physical: shake up game, post warm up everybody was rejuvenated mentally and tired out physically (a few of them had got confused with the left and right hand when it was said,"all right hands out" and then, "all left hands out".) All of them, however, soon self corrected. Whenever people self correct they are less likely to repeat the same mistake in future, it especially applies to children.
Voice: Watch your posture- met with no response. "Well done Mr. Shivam Commando" was followed by great posture from everybody in the group , especially Abhinav and Aditya. I couldn't help but marvel at the power of positive reinforcement and role modelling. Due to time constraint we could not do the humming/resonators.
Speech: Sharing poems on the block .
Those children ready with their poems stood in a queue and waited for their turn to be up on the block. The other children who were the spectators found it hard to focus and there was a small chaos. It was soon sorted out by giving a silver circle sticker(reward and praise) to those who focused and listened. Worked immediately like magic.
Isha, while doing the poem was quite soft. I appreciated the way Jenny addressed the issue of being loud by actually moving out of the class into the balcony and asking her to raise a voice so that she could hear it outside. A good demonstration/small experiment to teach a concept in voice projection. It really worked.
Almost all the children need more work with their expression and voice modulation. Abhinav displayed a strong keenness to learn and extremely good listening along with understanding when he rephrased how he would move his mouth as in "w" and "v" and how to pronounce "only". It was really cute and praise worthy.

Something disturbing in the group while sharing the poems: Shivam & Abhinav got into a scuffle over who stamped on whose foot. It was simply ignored and things soon fell in place. I appreciated the firm setting up of a rule in this particular context that is : no pushing/jostling/shoving in Julia Gabriel classes. We have to learn to be gentle with each other.

DRAMA:
HOW WE ENTERED DRAMA ?
What`s enchanted ? "magical" was the answer. Lets begin our journey into the magical world. Lights go off. We search for magical things. There are different responses, all very imaginative. Debangshi`s response was "a magical door". That door would open only by saying certain magical words. I wondered what was happening till I realised that Jenny had a set of tongue twisters which she planned to use as magical words.
The children amazingly chose the tongue twister they thought they would be able to articulate with ease. Kids do know what they can do and what they will have difficulty doing. Our role as a teacher is to motivate and challenge them.
The younger once chose "many messy mice".
Only Shivam & Aditya M chose "the sixths sheiks sixth sheep's sick". When the articulation for sheikh was not coming right I prodded further by asking if they knew what sheikh meant.
They came up with" shake up, milkshake, shake as in earth quake". On telling them that the sheikh in this particular context was a rich Arabic man, there were affirmative nods from everybody. Abhinav animatedly gave an appropriate description , which he said he picked up from television, thus, showing amazing observational skills and a good general awareness.

EXPERIENCE & ENGAGEMENT:
The magical door having opened, we were in the enchanted woods. Jenny disappeared behind closed doors only to soon reappear as a giant (the Giant in Jack and the Bean stalk ), using engaging props like a red helmet and a thermos. The props really caught the kid`s attention as it had to be explained that the thermos was a `drinking mug `for the giant. Jenny as the Giant demanded the children`s help to find out Jack for him, as he stole and ran away with his belongings and needed punishment. The children obviously showed no empathy for the Giant as is the case in the conventional interpretation of the story ie Jack is the good boy and the protagonist.
To turn the tables in favour of the Giant, the Jack and the Bean stalk story was narrated by Jenny with a different interpretation stressing the value of honesty and not stealing. Jenny, I must say is an amazing story teller and her very animated version nailed across the message quite crisply.
Isha displaying a good understanding of language and expression said that she had clearly understood the extremely valid Giant`s point of view. Soon others joined her and the entire group as a team displaying good team spirit agreed that Jack would be taught a lesson by all of them as a group. We all agreed to continue the drama week after next (next week was Rakhi holiday) and dispersed.

JOURNAL:
Did not have time for journaling down our experiences. I felt in a big group one and a half hour is too less a time when each of the 13 children are so enthusiastically sharing. Time management holds the key here.

MY ROLE:
In today`s class I was essentially an observer and intermittently a facilitator where I rephrased their articulation and language. After five weeks of hiatus recovering from pneumonia I wanted to reaffirm my position as part of the group and my energy levels and mental state guided me towards being a keen observer and thinker more than anything else.

LESSON PLANNING ON MY PART:
Went through the story of Jack and the Bean stalk and made a small note of the lesson I would have liked to create. In my lesson plan I would read the story first and then lead into drama, from the point where Jack and his mother had lots of money. I would divide the kids into two groups and give them time to figure out, as a team, as to what they thought happened to Jack there after? How did his life proceed after that point? I would give them sharp pointers keeping their age group in mind like Jack`s money, friends, behaviour and studies after that point.
My speech and voice exercise would be coupled with actions and would be a take on the moving and speaking rhyme-CHOP CHOP.
Chop Chop Choppity Chop,
Chop the bean stalk,
Chop it all, don`t you stop.
If at all you do, the Giant will come and hop,
He will chop off our heads,
Choppity Chop.

MY REFLECTIONS ON THE PLANNING:
Planning was good. It was setup very well. I think , the Drama did not go as well , due to the following factors:
1. Change in group dynamics (the group is much larger now).
2. Shivam, Aditya and Arnav falling off .
3. Lack of focus and nobody wanting to lead .
4. Probably need to challenge the group a little more .
5. Divide the group into smaller chunks and keeping them busy on one task, thus, bringing back
the focus and the leader ship.

MY REFLECTION ON THE TEACHER:
Jenny is a great story teller, who is a natural with children and thinks on her feet, coming up with on the spot solutions & answers.
Jenny realized that the larger group has a tendency to drift and lose focus. The instructions for them should be short, clear and sharp. Dividing into smaller groups help.
She told Shivam separately that we have a great task ahead of us in drama and we need, his so very strong shoulders to help us lead along. very positive reinforcement. It was met with a prompt" yes". The results will be evident (I`m sure )the next week.

A SPECIAL MENTION:
Shivam had been leading in first term, contributing significantly to drama and taking the focus. Today, he was falling down every now and then, acting hurt or sick and refusing to get up and participate, while others engaged in drama.
Reasons:
1. Probably needs more attention from the group and the teacher, due to change in group
dynamics. In a large group , with newer children, he is not able to lead reflexly.
2. May be a more challenging role in drama is needed to keep him involved.

level1/2 term1 wk8 23/08/08 Saturday 11.45-1.15 Teacher-Jenny
THEME:TALES FROM THE ENCHANTED WOOD
FOCUS FOR THE DAY:JACK AND THE BEANSTALK(CONT)

SHARING:

Anya:Barbie and hello kitty stickers.Was quite focused and enthusiastic about her sharing. Have been displaying good listening skills all along by concentrating on all that other children have to say,this being quite evident in her body language and her facial expressions.I was amazed to see that the up til now closed Anya is now beginning to open up beautifully in terms of sharing and her confidence level is steadily on a rise.(Later at the time of journal hour,the rising confidence was again evident as she put forth quite an age appropriate description of how the Giant got back the hen and the harp).

Debangshi:Transport project . Was a part of the level 1 class when I joined in as a trainee teacher. The once withdrawn and shy Debangshi who had to be often prompted to speak was so forthcoming and enthusiastic today.(I am happy to see the transition from a shy to a confident person).Her vocabulary and syntax though has always been praiseworthy. I also appreciated the creativity with which she had described and displayed the private and public transport.

Suhani:Origami dog , a colourful geometrical pattern card , wallet , coin collection , passport sized photographs of family members. She got so many things to share clearly indicate that she was an enthusiastic and confident communicator,clearly at ease with her group members . She gifted the origami dog to Jenny , clearly displaying the positive trait of trying to please the adults she is influenced by.(Anya also presented stickers to Jenny ,Isha and Debangshi thus clearly displaying a strong sense of sharing). With her hobby of coin collection Suhani demonstrated a love for things old and antique . Jenny commented appropriately as to how nicely she has kept her collection . I personally thought that we as teachers should be contributing and of course talking to her parents about nurturing her hobby of coin collection. When the passport sized photographs were doing the rounds and Suhani was confidently sharing a part of herself in the form of pictures of her family members ,there was some giggling from some children of the group.
Suhani just withdrew and became self conscious and said she would never be sharing again her pictures.Her response was understandable. I on my part was completely at loss for words and kept on struggling as to how to deal with the situation appropriately. I appreciated Jenny"s response of addressing the particular group and asking them if they would like being laughed at?
Later during the feed back time with Jenny we decided that we should be taking up this issue more seriously and should be doing a story on the value of " not making fun of people".

Konkana: Mobile wallet. She stills needs prompting to speak, though articulation and vocabulary are good.

Aditya Menon:No object to share. This is second time in succession . Sleepover at nana`s house was the great news he had to share. He was quite enthusiastic about it, I would have loved to hear more details but the clock was ticking away . (Jenny and I will now be more firm about letting children share just one object each so that the sharing time is fairly and adequately distributed among all the children .

Shivam: Sword. As usual was enthusiastic about sharing . Quite focused and confident ,was sharing freely. He could describe the sword in detail thus displaying a scientific temperament.

Isha : Photo book. The vocabulary and the ease with which she uses language is always like a treat. Though I would still like to see her sharing with more gusto . (She is easily capable of it I
know)

Madhav: A magic pen . The baby of the group loves grabbing all the attention . He tried weaving enough suspense into his sharing by asking all of us to guess the sharing object and then to guess as to what the magic was . I am totally enamoured by Madhav`s playfulness ,however, am deeply thinking if his high energy coupled with significant distractability at times signalling towards something else . Need to observe him more and more keenly especially using the relevant pointers before talking to anybody else .

Aditya Kashyap : Flip book . Was brimming with confidence as always and shared excitedly as to how you need to flip the pages using a certain technique to get the desired image of animals in a jungle . He was quite articulate though I would love to see more clarity in expression as I see the immense potential in him.

Aditi : Earring box. I have always appreciated her organizational skills and her fondness for a neat presentation , more so today as she proudly presented and shared an amazing display of earrings . Her sharing evoked an equally excited response from the boys of the class . Such a relief and joy to witness the gender biases fading . Its O. K for boys to wear earrings these days was the unanimous response . They all , however , said that they personally are not cut out to sport the earrings . Accepting and celebrating differences is the lesson I learnt from these young children .

WARM UP:
Today I really enjoyed the warm up which was resonators coupled with physical movement . We had to move our limbs like a boxer and powering each movement with a resonator sound . It was new and it was fun . What I appreciated most was that after performing once with the teacher each child had to lead . It was Aditi` s turn first . She was a little jittery , was trying though . A minor scoff from Aditya K and she was on a defensive . A prompt intervention from Jenny was therapeutic and an excellent lesson in co-operation and encouragement . She said it was not easy to lead and take the focus . The ever so confident Aditya K was immediately asked to lead and to see and feel for himself what it was like leading the group . His not so smooth go at it made him instantly learn an important lesson in life . I wondered if such a quick thinking and a prompt positive action was possible if I was leading the class . Debangshi deserves a special mention here as her movements were original and very much in sync with the sounds . I appreciated the ease , the sense of rhythm and the dare to try out something different .

SHARING POEMS ON THE BLOCK:
All the children enthusiastically shared their poems & they were allotted points on the board on the following criterion, voice projection, posture, learning, eye contact, articulation and expression (on face & in voice). It was quite interesting to see how children were growing in terms of their voice and speech.
I would like to make a specific mention here of Madhav, the youngest of the lot who has a slight problem differentiating between the "d" and "Th" sounds. Jenny always makes it a point to correct him gently after he has fumbled between the two sounds. I also noticed that Shivam is having a little problem now in the "s" sound which he has started articulating as "sh" sound due to his teething.

DRAMA :
We continued with Jack and the Beanstalk and Jenny said now that we reach the magical world what are we suppose to do ? After a gap of a fortnight the children were kind of clueless and some were confused as to what our agenda in drama was ?
Aditya K persisted that we were to help Jack get back the hen and harp because they primarily belonged to Jack and then the Giant stole them from him and me and Jenny were completely perplexed as to why was he saying things the other way round . We tried convincing him and explaining to him but to no avail.
I had a strong feeling then "Oh God we blundered here ,we should have primed the children before hand and should have done a quick recap". Now we tried making up for the mistake by asking them to recap , but none came forward . Jenny did the recap and we proceeded .

Now we were to : 1. Find Jack for the Giant so that he could take his things back and proceed to his castle .
2. To reach the castle we had to grow the beanstalk back or think of some other way to transport the Giant to his world . As we had planned it last time we divided the children(the children divided themselves) in two groups and began our search . After some time though the two groups merged .
I thought it was because they were divided into sections for the first time and secondly they were again not mentally prepared for this and the briefing from our side could have been more clear . To make sure that they had understood the instructions and knew what task they had to accomplish we could have asked them to repeat what they made out of the instructions .

The drama, however, began on an amazing note as children spontaneously took on role plays . Aditya M was now Jack and on being confronted as to where the hen and harp were , he said he had become a good boy and he gave the objects of contention to the `Old Man`. We started looking for the old man and here he was ---Mr Shivam . (Jenny had reminded Shivam again that he was really needed in drama and he can`t afford to keep falling down and keep getting hurt or sick, it worked .)

The old man was now pleaded to give back the hen and the harp , but he just would not budge . I thought " Oh my God , here is an impasse . What can I do ?" I tried the age old premise that the most simple things and common sense usually work best. I asked him, " as to why he didn`t want to give back the things "? To my surprise and relief he said "take them". He said he was a good man now and wanted to be a part of our team and help us taking the things back to the Giant .
Don`t know what became of me and here I was the howling Giant who was growling and being grumpy and badly wanted his things back as time was ticking away and if he didn`t go back home before sunset , he would never be able to go back . The children were suddenly taken aback by my instant transformation and I could see from the look on their faces that they were thoroughly enjoying it . The little Madhav said he is a brave boy now and not scared of Giants . (I feel there are times when for him the boundaries between the real and the unreal blur,but that is the magic of drama and stories that they start to travel deep within you and after a while you are experiencing them and living through /with them . Here in lies the power of transformation).
Having given the Giant his possessions the group now tried growing a beanstalk for him . There were no magic beans left . The prop of the bean stalk came in handy . As soon as the kids set it up for the Giant to go back , the magic in the enchanted woods reappeared . Jenny started it " the fairies are smiling again" , the kids added randomly "the witches found their broom , the flower were blooming and the fruits were ripe" and soooo on . Drama can do wonders for a child`s imagination and is such a marvellous language building tool, i saw it right in front of my eyes .

Today we all returned from the drama truly satisfied and brimming with confidence and a bonhomie for each other .

JOURNAL TIME:
As usual we sat on two tables , Jenny with one group and I with the other . I had this strong urge to write the experience myself. The children drew and wrote beautifully . Even the hitherto reluctant Anya and Madhav tried and came up with small simple yet creative pieces . We also had a discussion on the shape of HARP and we discussed that it could have virtually umpteen number of shapes .

MY REFLECTIONS ON MY ROLE:
I feel I am beginning to observe and listen more . After the last two classes I feel truly confident to take on one element of the class now . I still am not sure if I would be able to come up with instant solutions to the minor problems that keep on cropping up in the class .

MY REFLECTIONS ON JENNY AS THE ROLE MODEL:
I really marvel at the way she conducts sharing and comes up with these short and crisp confidence boosters . Today for example , about Suhani`s Origami dog , she said " I feel he is so cosily wrapped in a warm quilt " ,I thought she was constructively appreciative( I don`t know if that phrase would mean something for the reader ).

GROUP DYNAMICS:
Are clearly changing each time with the large class that we have now . It`s getting a wee bit challenging now that we have children over a wider age group . Today a learnt one important lesson of mentally priming up children( or anyone for that matter ) before putting them to a task for the best of co-operation and results.

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