End of school year…yet again!

This must be the most repeated title in my blog. I am sure there are eight other times that I have talked about it. That is how long I have been blogging about Akank. So much happens during the year at school that I really look forward to blogging about the end of the school year, every year.

This year has been a difficult year for Akank. The challenges have been many.  Beginning with a new school, in a new country with new methods of teaching, new culture, new schedules, new subjects, new accents, new cliques to contend with. The first two terms were pretty traumatic and shook her confidence and self esteem. From a popular, liked, influential individual to almost being a non entity is a big change. She managed alright but only barely. She has learnt that not everybody needs to be friends, has become self reliant with school work and become more assertive with speaking her mind.

We have had our share of mother daughter tiffs, but that has helped us learn about each other better. She is independent, confident, restrained and surefooted. Her sense of humour is sharp and that helps in a big way.

At school, she has had fantastic exposure to the performing arts and global services through out the year. Apart from academics where she learnt to make her own presentations and models, she has been a part of the developmental swimming team, the choir and the junior band. She learnt to Irish dance and unicycle. She went camping, cleared a high ropes course and was part of the dragon boating team. She raised money for charity at bake sales and by playing her piano. She auditioned for roles for drama (Never won the part though), took active parts in the day of sport, the disco, the talent show. She hosted a few play dates with people she wanted to be friends. She continues to acquire skills in piano and classical music.

That in a nut shell tells you what was up the whole year in Akank’s life. Next year, she moves to a sprawling new campus (I will need a GPS to find my way around that campus!) and she is very excited with the prospect of being a buddy to the new kids who will join the school next year. Good luck, Akank!

 

The birds and the bees in Science

This term Akank’s grade is learning a very touchy lesson in science. The Human Reproductive System (HRS). I recall my school days when the boys and girls were separated into two groups just for this lesson. Of course, I am talking about 30 years back in Trichy, where I grew up. I think it was in a higher grade too, maybe in Grade 8 or 9 when we were much older and could digest some hard facts of life. Things have changed, I accept, from what it was 30 years back in a little town to now. Akank said her science teacher played them a video of the HRS to introduce the lesson to the class. She said the whole classroom erupted with a war cry like objection, voicing how they felt about the subject. She feels insulted to be in the same classroom with the boys when they discuss the finer details of a female body. To add insult to injury, her home assignment was to colour and name the parts of the HRS of both the male and female body.

But that is not all. Akank’s English teacher was not in class last week and so the Science teacher stepped in to keep the grade busy with an exercise in poetry. He chose a topic for them to write a poem on- Science this week! Akank said that while they wrote their poems, he whistled and waited for them to come up with their thoughts. This is what Akank wrote -

Science this week, Was worse than bleak
It was sicker than a lizards suction, we were learning reproduction!
It made our teeth grit, even the ones with wit
I went totally red, like when I was one and wet the bed,
All the girls had closed their eyes,
We wished we had been separated from the guys.

Akank also asked me to observe if she become quieter of late. When I wondered aloud why she had asked me the question she blamed it on the poor lesson.

 

Learning by doing

I love the learning methodologies that Akank is being exposed to in the new school system.  In Humanities, they took the lesson on development a few steps ahead. Akank was asked to read a book by an author who wrote on the subject and she chose Minfong Ho’s “Rice without Rain“. I can tell you with conviction that Akank would never have ventured into reading books like those if it had not been for the school. The best part of the deal was that she loved the book and reviewed it on Shelfari.  At school, Akank is learning to write book reviews in the format followed world wide.  The Grade 6 students were invited by the tutor to open accounts at Shelfari to review books that they have read and share it with the others. The Humanities lesson on development began with the hunger banquet, the role playing of families from different parts of West Africa and it progressed to building shanties with recycled material. Akank took rags, shoe boxes, milk cartons and everything she could find her hands on that qualified as scrap to contribute to building material for the shanty that her group had to build. Last week, they were taught to make envelopes from newspapers using home made glue, that they could trade off to the teachers to break away from the poverty cycle. It is as real as it gets. I think this methodology of learning the concept of what it means to have less makes a huge impact on learning and retaining what is learnt.

I wish more schools in India could teach subjects like Social studies with more creative approaches that will change the way our children comprehend social studies instead of regarding it as just another subject one has to learn till Grade 10.

 

Roleplaying to the hilt

Akank’s class is discussing Poverty in West Africa in humanities this term. They have been divided into teams and each team represents a country from the African continent. Akank and her team represent a family from the Ivory coast (Côte d’Ivoire). Each day the teams are presented with a stack of cards that have situations described for crops, family, disease etc. Each team gets to choose one card from each stack that dictates the situation in their representative country. The kids are then asked to reflect on the situation and write down their thoughts into their Humanities work books. Akank is the geriatric head of family with a drug addicted son in law, a grandson with worms in his stomach ( as though that is ghastly), an unmarried depressed young man who is her son in law’s brother and as of yesterday a refugee from Ghana where the crops failed. Each day she gets a new situation to reflect and write. On day one her situation card read a very grave message ” You hate your son in law because he is an addict. Your daughter died at childbirth, the grandson has worms, the crops are failing”. Yesterday the situation changed to ” your country is disease free, you have a refugee from Ghana, he is young and energetic, your relationship with son in law has improved”.

I am waiting for her to get back from school to tell me what the new twist in her life in West Africa is!  What a way to learn social studies!

 

The morning after

Akank gets better organized with her work, eats her lunch till the last scrap, completes all classwork, enters homework in her school organizer and updates me on her lessons at school, the day after we have an encounter at home. I have read articles, received advice from family and friends, on how children have to be treated as responsible people, how it is not advisable to ever raise your voice or be annoyed at them. Major pooh-pooh. I call that methodology impractical. I have seen it not work with Akank. There have been days when I have been blessed with immense patience, understanding and good humour and on such days home work lasts over 3 hours. Then there are days when I am short fused, irritable, crabby and easily annoyed. Home work and revisions get done in half the time.

Two days back Akank and I had a face off after school. The next day, she came back with completed classwork, lunch and entries in the organizer. Even the books that she had collected for deprived children in Bintan, that was rotting in our library for weeks on end, were dropped into the collection box at school. When I asked Akank what brought about the change, she shrugged. I observed that the show down seems to have worked well and she was quick to say this -

‘ Not really. I was sitting in the school bus thinking about it. Then a thought occurred to me. Piece of cake. As soon as I got to school, I completed everything on my check list. I realized that I was delaying it all because I didn’t really want to do them. I even stuck the cover of my portfolio that was falling apart. My teacher had reminded me of it a few times last week ‘.

No, I am not celebrating yet. I have a strong sense of deja vu about all of this. I know this will happen again. And yet again. Till then I hope to have more days filled with immense patience, understanding and good humor.

 

Scavengers and Brokers

Last week, Akank began learning a new concept in Math that needed her to keep tabs on the ‘stock market’ at school. The assignment is supposed to run for two weeks at the end of which the kids would be assessed for data management and bar graphs skills. They have been given a set of 12 stocks of various values to track and a sum of 10,000 dollars as portfolio capital.  The teacher posts a daily update of the price list and once in a while , a piece of news about a few companies from the list. The children are expected to understand how the news affects the value of the stocks and accordingly make decisions to buy, sell or hold stock.

This week, she is also going on a Scavenger hunt to China Town. The Chinese New Year celebration is on full swing this time of the year, and that is the theme of the hunt. The kids have been divided into small groups and given tasks to complete. From picking up something from the New year market and explaining its significance, to identifying characters and phrases related to the New year, to creative photographs to writing her observations, she has a packed 4 hour trip tomorrow afternoon!

 

 

The mantra – No one did it.

I knew there was going to be troubled times ahead.  Show me a parent who has not needed to raise her voice to make her tween see her point. Show me a tween who has never been shouted at. Akank and I will miss that list many times over. If she makes me happy 83% of the time, she upsets me the other 17%. It’s just a number, don’t do the math.

Maybe its the age and this phase will pass. When we were kids, I think it was the boys that got shouted at more often than girls. At least, at home, my brother seemed at the receiving end of my dad’s wrath all the time. I could get away with murder. Or a bad report. The tears would be my savior- it still is!  No dad could bear see his little girl weep.

But tell me, what is with the girls these days? Or is it just Akank that does not shed a tear in fear of not completing some assignment or forgetting an important file back at school. I remember being a nervous wreck  about such things at school. I would complete assignments and submit them on time even if it meant only to please the teacher. With Akank, when I point out unfinished work she says, ” No one had the time to complete it”.  And If I argue that point this is how the conversation shapes up.

Me -Oh come now Akank, let us not assume that everyone else is like you.

Her -No really ma. You can call anyone and find out. ( an open dare to see if you will pick the phone and call)

This is when you begin to doubt if you were over reacting. So you settle for a ” So when do you intend to complete this work?

Her – We don’t have EngHum ( English- Humanities) tomorrow. So the next time I have it, then.

Today she had an EngHum class and I asked if she had completed the work that was unfinished.’ Oh that? No, I didn’t. I forgot”

And I say to myself, at least the child is not continuing to pull wool over my eyes.

 

 

Vacation diary and then some

Akank had a packed term break . She had listed out her choice destinations to visit over the term break and we managed to take her to a few.

Apart from a cruise to Malaysia on the Super Star Libra that lasted for three days and nights, Akank also went to the Flyer, Sentosa, Boat Quay and the botanical garden.We threw in a ride on the Jewel cable car ride to Sentosa as an extra. Her initial list also had Universal Studios at Sentosa, the East coast Park, a ride on the Hop on hop off and visit to the Marina bay sands. Of course we asked to iterate her list to accommodate our time constraints. We have left the list of places that we-did- not- make- it- to, for later.

Akank has begun her Term 2 with a fresh frame of mind. The New year resolve that she has made includes many desirable traits that she wants to inculcate, topping the list are- being organized, honest, humble and friendly to all.

Over the break, Akank revised some concepts in math, re read a few of her favourite books, watched reruns of her favourite movies, spent a lot of bonding time with Maxx and her grand mothers and chilled at home. By the end of the 3 week vacation, she was ready to begin Term 2!

The first day at school seems to have gone off well. Some highlights from her debriefing session after school hours:

A new kid in the class from Beijing. ” A cute chubby girl”

A friend who noticed a few desirable changes in her- ” You seem less vain and quieter”

A classmate who had ignored Akank the whole of the first term, finally noticed Akank and said hello ” Hey.. ssup”

A bunch of paint smudged,work sheets from Art class that she brought back to share. ” I have something exciting to show you!

I love school, ma!

 

The UN day and Foodfest

There is always something to celebrate at school this year! Akank and her classmates had been rehearsing for the UN day celebrations for a month and finally the day was celebrated on Friday last week. Akank’s school has students from all parts of the World and so it was an apt celebration to showcase the true spirit of being a united nation! Akank herself was part of the choir and sang a French Canadian folk song called ‘Jéntends le Moulin’ (zhon-tala-moola in case I forget the pronunciation!)  an Israeli folk song ‘Çhiri biri bim’ and John Legend’s If you are out there ( What a song!).  Here is the original version by the man himself.

She also played the rhythms of Mbira a piece of Shona African Marimba music. It was an ensemble and Akank did not miss a beat on the Kalimba! I am so proud of her (in retrospect that is – since while she was at it, my heart was in my mouth).

Alongside, the parents from the various continents of the World were invited to host food for the children on UN day. There was food from 20 different countries and the kids could feast on food from a country that they fancied. Though I must tell you that among all food stalls, the one with the chocolate fountain and ice cream cones won hands down.

 

On Mufti days at school.

Back in the days when I was at school, Wednesdays were assigned as colour dress days. That was the day of the week, that we were allowed to be at school wearing clothes other than uniforms. That was the day, my mother chose what I would wear to school. Not that I had too many clothes in the wardrobe to choose from. There was a dress from the birthday, one from Diwali or another festival and a few from previous birthday’s and Diwali’s and other festivals of the previous years. I was never given a choice. Even then, my ma would be stressed out on Wednesdays. She resented the fact that I would ask to wear something different from what she chose.

Today was mufti day at school for Akank. She does not get ‘colour dress’ days every week.  She is allowed to be in mufti only when there is a fund collection drive at school. Even with these rare occasions, my stress quotient gets tested, even though she has more clothes than I did in my days. Like this morning, Akank tried out six different combination before she settled on one that I did not approve. As such we have a tight schedule between her wake up time and the time by which the school pick up arrives. With this added confusion of what- would- be- the- perfect- dress- to -be- seen- in -at- school, there was little time for breakfast and saying thanks for blessings received. What I chose for her was ‘ I wore that for last Mufti day’ or ‘ my friends have seen me in that already’ or ‘ I wore that last time to the movies’.  What she chose would be either ‘ too short’  or a wrong choice because of a reason known only to moms. Between us, we woke the house up. With my ‘ I wish- you-showed- half- the interest- in your subjects’ and with her retorts of ‘ ‘you- always- have- to -connect- everything- to- subjects’ I think we even woke the neighbors.

All the time, my ma, who is visiting us, was listening. When Akank left for school she came around to talk to me. She  casually remarked that it looked like I had a tough morning. When I began telling her about what the noise was about, she gleefully chuckled and reminded me of my growing up days and said something that sounded like ‘pay back time’.