· Web viewChildren are taught classes in math, science, English and social studies. Special sessions in song and dance, library usage and personal hygiene are also important parts

Manav Sadhna:Educational Project Report

Manav SadhnaEducational Project Report

2013-2014

Our Education Program Objectives:

Promote the development of children through value-based education Strengthen the academic foundation of the children and improve their

reading and writing skills Bring out the potential and individual talents of the children so that they

may grow up to be productive and happy members of their communities Give remedial education in reading and writing to children who have not

been a regular part of the formal education system and to bring them to a level at which they may be enrolled in formal schools

Supply children with nutrition and teach them good health hygiene practices and values

Teach children the value of service

Community Approach

All the projects are carried out based on what the community needs and all integrated with each other. We believe in a home-to-home approach in which teachers visit the homes of those in the community and connect each family member with a project that may be beneficial to them. This connection with the community is important to us so that the needs of the community can be pinpointed and those in the community can be better served.

Value Based Education

Manav Sadhna believes that value based education is just as important as academic education and the values that children learn at a young age will be beneficial to them throughout life. Through our holistic approach, we hope the children will gain a sense of

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regularity, personal hygiene, self discipline, leadership skills and self confidence. Through value based education, children are taught to keep themselves clean and organized and be respectful of others. The children are asked to keep their shoes in a line and keep their hands to themselves in order to build up their self discipline and learn responsibility.

Prayer and Opening Activities

Manav Sadhna believes prayer is food for mind and soul and therefore each activity should begin with a prayer. Every morning and afternoon the children all come together for an all-religion prayer. The main purpose of this activity is so that as children develop their spiritual development is nurtured as well. They then do various activities together that help strengthen their self discipline and confidence. The children are encouraged to share their potential with their peers while gaining self-confidence and discipline. Every morning and afternoon, one standard is given the responsibility on leading the opening activities for that day. These activities include reading the newspaper, telling riddles and signing children’s songs.

Furthermore, one child each day is chosen to prepare a speech on a historical or political figure. All of this is arranged in advance by the class leaders, which improves their organizational skills. By giving the responsibility to the children and having them

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stand in front of all their peers, they learn values such as self-discipline, self-reliance, leadership and confidence.

Health and Hygiene

Keeping with our primary goals, we aim to foster hygiene and sanitation awareness as well. Children are shown how to keep their nails and hair neat and clean. They are asked to bathe every day. Presentations on when and why to brush their teeth and wash their hands are also a part of the curriculum. These lessons are done through different activities including stories, games, songs and demonstrations.

Once a year, the children are all given a regular dental, dermatological, and ophthalmic check-up at the community centre. If any of the children need to be evaluated further, they are then taken to specialist through Manav Sadhna.

Hemoglobin Camp

The Vidyadham students in Grades five and six participated in a hemoglobin check-up camp. Here, they were educated about blood groups and also tested for anemia. The teachers were able to identify students that may have a hemoglobin deficiency and follow up accordingly.

Leadership and Sustainability:

The main focus for value based education this year has been leadership. We have chosen two leaders from each class to encourage this quality. They have many roles including arranging activities during the prayer, disciplining the class and distributing the snacks in an efficient manner. Having developed a school council of sorts, we conduct a weekly meeting with all the leaders to give their constructive criticism and delegate tasks.

Yesha, one of our youngest student leaders, has carried out leadership activities this year with great prowess. She keeps a weekly diary, in which she records progress and brainstorms improvements. Yesha is responsible for

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deriving solutions for day to day problems, managing the prayer and giving talks on cooperation and time management.

Academic Education:

Our two academic education projects also utilize the theme of supportive education. With twenty-five to thirty students per class, we encourage small class sizes to ensure individual attention. In Bal Sanskar Kendra we have seven classes for standards 1 through 7 and another special class for students who need extra help with reading and writing. Our teachers focus on the subjects of Gujarati,

math, basic English and environmental studies through a unique teaching method using interactive lesson plans, group activities, games, songs and discussions.

In the afternoon classes of standards 5 through 10 are in session for the children attending Vidyadham. Children are taught classes in math, science, English and social studies. Special sessions in song and dance, library usage and personal hygiene are also important parts of the curriculum. These classes are taught by educated teachers appointed by Manav Sadhna and with the help of various volunteers.

Evaluation Test:

At the beginning of every year when the children begin a new school year, they are given an evaluation exam of English, Guajarati and math by the teachers at the centre. This evaluation exam allows the teachers to see where each student is compared to their peers and where they should be. Based on the evaluation scores, children are split into groups and given special attention for areas in which they may be falling behind.

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Lesson Plans

Our teachers use lessons plans as a base for what to teach in class each day. From sorting out what to teach, and how to approach teaching it in a creative manner, the lesson plans aid in developing an environment that is better for the students to learn. When creating lesson plans, our teachers consider what topics to teach, the objectives of the topics, how to introduce the topics and how to teach and apply the topics. This is so that the teacher-student relationships become stronger, the strengths and weaknesses of each student are better understood and to ensure the teachers know what they will teach to the class.

Observation and Feedback

Twice a month, class observations are done to witness the relationships between the students and teachers. Teachers are evaluated on how they interact with the students, the methods they use to teach them and what they teach them. Comments and feedback are then provided so that the teachers can create a better learning environment and receive support and encouragement.

Nutritional Support

Because of the unequivocal connection between nutrition and education, the children are all given a cup of warm milk and small nutritious snack each day. The children first come together for a small prayer, “Sathe Ramiye, Sathe Jamiye, Sathe Kariye Saara Kaam,” and

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after eating they return home content and one step closer to reaching their unrecognized potential.

Extracurricular Activities

For the last two years we have introduced several extracurricular activities to break the monotony of day to day education. This includes art and crafts, sports such as volleyball and football, library use, cultural activities, computer class, and adolescent changes class.

The objective of these extracurricular activities is to unleash the inner potential of the children, which might not otherwise be exposed at home or at school. The idea is to use activities and games to bring out their creative side.

Art and Crafts

Once a week, the children are given an art and craft activity. The children enjoy these activities as it strengthens their creative ability and thinking processes. Examples of activities include origami, drawing, painting and card making.

We also organize a monthly festive theme for arts and crafts. Themes in the past have included Rakshabandhan, Janmashtmi, Navratri Celebration, Diwali, Christmas, Uttarayan, Annual function, etc.

Sports Day

Once a week, the children have a sports day. Through sports, the children are able to learn values such as sportsmanship, team spirit, physical/mental fitness, decision-making skills and self-discipline. They also receive the health benefits of exercising and engaging in sports. The students play a variety of sports including volleyball, badminton, chess, kho-kho, kabaddi and frisbee. Physical exercises are also done to show the children how to stay fit and healthy.

Library

In the past few months, we have developed a school library. Prior to the library’s inauguration, we taught creative writing and illustrating within our

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classes. Now, we conduct interactive and fun activities in the new library according to a monthly theme. By taking books out on loan, students are able to increase their knowledge, language and conversational skills.

During January we transformed the Library into an underwater world. The students learned about marine animals and the oceans and continents. They also created a coral reef on the wall, complete with ‘growing’ coral and crabs, anemones and treasure chests… the final touch was some colorful reef fish. They bravely put their heads into a great white shark’s mouth, and wrote some wonderful pieces, both fact and fiction, about their favorite marine animals… the winners of a writing competition will be enjoying a trip to see Under the Sea in 3D.

Our underwater theme looked at how our actions on the land impact life in the oceans, and what we can do to reduce the environmental damage caused by plastic waste. We will also discover just how big a blue whale really is, and enjoy Disney’s Finding Nemo at Saturday Special!

This month we have begun a six week theme based

around the Amazon Rainforest with classes focusing on geography in the first week. The students are looking at latitude and longitude and why rain forests grow where they do. The younger classes are really enjoying a version of Simon

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Says where the equator is your waist; your head is the North Pole and so on! Next week, we will be looking at photosynthesis and why rain forests are the lungs of the world. We also made a giant anaconda out of cloth, which is a marvel for the kids and community.

We achieved our target of 200+ library cardholders ahead of schedule, and are welcoming members of the local community into the library as well as our students.

Cultural Activities

In order to preserve our cultural heritage, we focus our teaching on Ahmedabad, Gujarat as well as India as a whole. The children do projects on historical sites and national, religious and social festivals.

Twice a week, we teach dancing to the children in order to break the monotony of day to day school activities. Additionally, they develop their confidence during annual functions and festivals.

Our country, India, is known as the country of festivals and celebrations. Therefore, we celebrate all festivals, irrespective of religion or caste. By performing in front of large audiences, the students become more self-assured.

Computer Education

In today’s world, basic computer education is vital. In order to receive a basic computer education, the children are taken to the computer centre once a week where they learn basic programs like Paint, WordPad and Notepad.

Adolescent Class

Because of tradition, women’s sexual and gender issues are still taboo today in many parts of the world, India included. Manav Sadhna has begun adolescent

classes every Friday to bring about a change in the way many people approach these topics. Openly discussing gender issues and body changes is not common in the communities that Manav Sadhna works with, so many adolescents have no knowledge of what is happening when these changes arrive. The 8th and 9th standard girls that come to

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these classes are able to gain knowledge about how their body changes so that they are not confused when these changes occur.

There is also discrimination between genders in many of these communities. Through these adolescent classes, we hope to bring about the thought that everyone is equal whether female or male. These classes are being conducted by Manav Sadhna as well as the support of the Rudra Women’s Empowerment Centre.

Mentorship Program:

There are various families at the Rampir Tekra who cannot afford education for their children. For students associated with our project for around 4-5 years, who are extremely bright in studies but come from a very low-income background, the Centre has felicitated a Mentorship Adoption program wherein people not only grant money for the child’s education, but also personally mentor the child throughout for his or her bright future.

Parents Engaging Program

Twice a year, Manav Sadhna calls a parents meeting for all the children in all the education projects. Teachers and Staff personally visit the home of each child and invite the parents to the meeting. This meeting is so that the parents may get a better idea of what their child is engaging in when they are enrolled in the programs. Parents are also told of anything they may need to be aware about in regards to their child. Parents are also told the importance of education, especially the education of girls, and why to keep their children in school as long as possible. The personal growth of each child is also discussed with the parents. Parents are also encouraged to attend any community events that are held such as festival celebrations and awareness programs.

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Different types of celebration days:

“Cleanliness Day”: 26th December

In honor of Ishwarbhai Patel, founder of Manav Sadhna, the children of Vidyadham and Bal Sanskar spend the day of his death anniversary cleaning different centers as a tribute to his sanitation ideology. This includes the cleaning of roofs, classes and playgrounds.

Christmas Celebrations

All the Indian festivals are celebrated with great fervor and enthusiasm at the Community Centre. Celebrations for Christmas this year were held on 24th December which happens to be the opening day of the Community Centre. All the teachers and volunteers of the centre worked actively to make the program a success. An exhibition on the life

story of Jesus Christ was put up to enhance knowledge of the students. Volunteer Vrunali, who is an avid dancer, choreographed five dances for the children and one for the teachers. The celebrations began with a prayer, followed by dances by young Bal Sankar girls and boys. The students prepared speeches regarding Christmas and its celebrations. The elder students of the Vidyadham also put up a great show by dancing to the beats in hip-hop style followed by dance number by Vandana, a teacher at the Community Centre.

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The celebrations were concluded by distribution of snacks and gifts by employees of the company, Motif. The program turned out to be a great success. Not only did the teachers, students and volunteers participate, but also more than 500 children and 300-400 people from the community came to enjoy the event.

Republic Day

In 1950, India ratified its own constitution and became a republic. In order to celebrate this, Manav Sadhna hosts a flag hoisting at the community centre. The chief guest this year was Rebecca Dickson, a volunteer from Australia. Following the flag hoisting, which was carried out by the Boy Scouts, the students of the community centre sang various patriotic songs and gave speeches.

The Joy of Giving Week

During this week, which was from the 2nd to 8th of October, students and teachers were encouraged to do random acts of kindness to experience the joy of giving to others. Every student was given twenty rupees and were instructed to give them to someone they see who really needs it and would be grateful for it. On the 8th of October, the students had a Circle of Sharing, in which they shared their experience and stories of giving the money, as well as their week of doing acts of kindness.

“Crazy Day”

On December 31st, we celebrated “Crazy Day” with Vidyadham and Bal Sanskar children. On this occasion, we hoped to encourage the students to wear

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something out of the ordinary - this included mismatched clothes and shoes, crazy hairstyles and vivid colors. Following this, each class participated in a fashion show where they were able to showcase their appearances on a ramp. The day ended with a blast as all the kids joined the teachers on the dance floor. Following a successful year in 2013, we look forward to welcome the New Year with just as much zeal.

New Year Celebration: Group Day

On the first day of the New Year, we organized a “Group Day” in Vidyadham and Bal Sanskar, wherein the students were asked to form interclass groups and then dress in a similar fashion. This aided greatly in improving interaction between students and developing friendships. They then flaunted their identical attire with a dance performance.

In order to grow as an institution this New Year, we organized different group activities and asked children for their suggestions. They made illustrational charts to answer questions such as, “What you enjoyed most about Manav Sadhna this year and what would you like to see happen in the future?” and “Compare and contrast your school and Manav Sadhna.”

Gandhi Nirvaan Day

To honor Gandhiji’s death anniversary, we performed a short drama on Gandhian philosophy. Also, the students performed the Vaishnav Jan bhajan and spoke at length regarding his eleven vrats. This was followed by a two minute reflective silence.

Dream Camp

‘Make a Difference’ (MAD) has now been associated with Manav Sadhna for the past nine months. In the past, they have given the children various career advice and practical demonstrations with each profession. On the 1st and 2nd of February, the students were able to participate in a residential camp which took place in Nal Safari Resort. Here, the children took part in various activities to build confidence and teamwork.

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Various professionals were in attendance, including a radio jockey, army officer, karate master and yoga instructor. The children were also given sex education classes and were able to swim in a pool and carry out a rain-dance.

In an afternoon session, the children were instructed to explain the cultural differences between olden and modern times via dance. The children were also able to participate in a treasure hunt. Additionally, the children were able to put together a mock parliament were they had to campaign their political parties. At night, MAD organized a bonfire and star-gazing event where the children had the opportunity to see Jupiter. Other workshops included fashion designing, self defense and origami. All in all, this was a fun-filled educational field trip.

Volunteers

In the past three months, we had the privilege to work with many volunteers from across the globe. Bansri, Vrunali, Nehal, Nisha, Purvi, Shivzni, Natasha, Rohan, Nora, Beckyben and Jeel have contributed greatly to the day to day teaching and development of Vidyadham and Bal Sanskar school.

Bansari, an active volunteer of Manav Sadhna wanted to help the extremely underprivileged children in the community. Since she was around during Diwali, she decided to buy these kids new clothes. It was an absolutely pleasant experience for Bansari as well as the kids who were overjoyed to have such a presents this Diwali!

Vrunali, a law student from Ahmedabad, had come to Manav Sadhna for an education internship and put a lot of effort into organizing a great variety of dances for the Christmas Celebration.

Nehal, an architect from Nagpur, aided us significantly with different projects including documentation and the initial development of the library.

We benefitted greatly from two Gujarati speakers hailing from the US. Nisha, a pre-med student from Chicago helped us with teaching English during Bal Sanskar Kendra and Vidyadham.

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Purvi was one of the first volunteers to teach science; she conducted scientific experiments to ignite a passion and curiosity in the children. Additionally, she has worked closely the English department to encourage creative writing and taught the children how to write letters to political figures including Obama and Narendra Modi.

Shivani is a volunteer from the United States who has been teaching English to students in standards six through nine. She taught conjunctions, prepositions, indirect speech, pronouns and simple present tense. She has also worked with the teachers on monthly reports and cultural activities for the students. In addition to educational work, Shivani also helps with Gujarati-English translations when needed. She really enjoyed working with the students and found the work to be truly rewarding. She also loved working with the teachers and staff and found them to be really helpful and inspirational.

Natasha, a French-American volunteer, and Rohan, a volunteer from Mumbai, taught several art and photography workshops, which the children really enjoyed. They did drawing exercises with the students, taught them how to draw images using light and conducted a stop-motion photography workshop. Both volunteers loved working with the kids and enjoy seeing them every week. They found it wonderful to see the children really taking an interest in such creative activities.

Nora has worked closely with the library project and conducted different interactive activities with the children.

Beckyben, a volunteer from Australia has now spent a year with Manav Sadhna. For the past three months she has worked tirelessly to develop the library, introducing a new index system and an inspiring environment for the kids to read and study in. Every month, she introduces a new theme and decorates the library accordingly. Furthermore, Beckyben teaches English to 10th Grade students with new and innovative activity based learning.

Jeel, a volunteer from the U.K. spent two months volunteering with the Bal Sanskar and Vidyadham library classes. Additionally, she helped us choreograph dances for an annual function we held April.

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Groups

Every year, different groups come to Manav Sadhna for many different reasons. These reasons include gaining more knowledge about value based education, learning more about the world around them, observing the sanitation system, as well as for social service. This year Philips Academy, a prestigious high school in the USA, visited Manav Sadhna and the community center. They did different activities with the children at the community center as well as stayed

with different families for the night to experience a different world. Gandhi Fellowship as well as Teach for India also came to Manav Sadhna and visited the community center and the children there. This month, a group Lycee International School in France, came to Manav Sadhna through an exchange program with Mahatma Gandhi International School in Ahmedabad. This group came to the community center and did different

activities in arts and crafts, sports, English, and games for the purpose of learning about the lives of those who may not be as fortunate as them.

Picnic

In December, students of grades five and six visited Pavagadh. They were able to experience the spirituality of this divine place and enjoyed the cool atmosphere. Most importantly, the children were able to interact with their teachers in a more relaxed setting, whether it was playing antakshari or asking for information about the locations. We also visited Chapaner, Dakor, Fagwel and the beautiful beach of Galteshwar where teachers and students alike enjoyed swimming in the sea.

Similarly, students of grades three and four visited Taranga and Ambaji. The highlight of this trip was climbing Mount Taranga and gaining knowledge on its history. The students enjoyed doing darshan at Ambaji.

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During both picnics, alongside recreational activities, the students learned the valuable qualities of time management, discipline, cooperation, self confidence and leadership.

One-Day Picnic

The Bal Sanskar children visited the Riverfront in order to experience the attractions of Ahmedabad. They were taught about the importance of water recycling, pollution and the ozone layer with the help of visual aids and games.

The Story of Deval

Deval, a current sixth-grade student, attended Bal Sanskar last year, when she had irregular attendance and a lack of discipline and confidence. This has changed recently. This year, she has reformed and is at the apex of her class and participates in various leadership activities – these changes are a result of small words of appreciation from her teachers.

The Story of Raj

Last year, Raj was a very erratic student in both his school and Manav Sadhna, with a lackluster academic performance. This year he has changed significantly, with great cultural and educational involvement. He now harbors qualities of leadership, respect and self-awareness. He is now capable of conducting classes in the absence of teachers.

The Story of Khushboo

Khushboo had been connected with Manav Sadhna from a very young age. She is always at the top of her class in both Bal Sanskar and her school, participates in cultural activities and is very well-disciplined. Her family is not supportive of education and expects her to do housework. Despite this, she has taken it upon herself to tutor her five younger siblings daily.

Manav Sadhna Community Impact

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When Manav Sadhna first began these education projects, it began with a non-formal education system. The children that attended these projects did not attend formal school regularly, did not keep themselves clean and did not understand the importance of education. Through this non-formal system, these children learned to read and write and were admitted into a formal school. The non-formal education system slowly turned into a formal afterschool educational program in which the students are taught what they do not learn in school.

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· Web viewChildren are taught classes in math, science, English and social studies. Special sessions in song and dance, library usage and personal hygiene are also important parts