First day of School

Day 7- june 15th 2009

Today was the first day of school…parivartan has 2 centres with 2 batches each. The morning batch is for children between ages 4 to 7 while the second batch is for the ages 8-14. We attended the second batch. When we first entered I was really excited to be finally with the kids. The teacher handed over the class to us and we decided to play some ice breakers. Some of the kids were really really shy and we later found out that those were the new kids who had just joined parivartan. The others who had been a part of the school were a little more confident and spoke out loud. I thought that the shy kids might actually speak out if we spoke to them individually or spent more time with them. However, I don’t know if that would work as they were very quiet even when the teacher was leading the class.
We spent the class…trying to make songs…and getting them to speak…I feel its only a matter of time that we spend with them that they will start talking freely to us. The ones who have studied more are definitely the ones who speak out loud. As for me, I was really happy to be there and even though I might not have spoken much I need a little time too to be comfortable with talking to them. I feel I can talk better individually than to the class as a whole.
When we went to the second centre the children had just got back from recess. The teacher introduced us and we played the same games. It was nice to see that in this class the children did not seem that scared of us. It could be because they seemed a little older and also because not many of them were new. I also feel that in the second centre since the teacher herself was part of all the games, the children felt more comfortable to speak out, as they were familiar with her. Overall I was really happy to be there and am excited to go back. But I also really want to teach them something, rather than just play games. When I was there I felt that some of the kids really do want to study and might think of us as a waste of time. This I think might change if we explain to them why we’re there and also assure them that we’re here to help them and will keep coming back.