"Teachers training"
After a long fruitful period of school in Visakhapatnam,
on October 10th our students set off for their villages. Ten
busy weeks of learning had
passed since their last vacations. They were looking forward
to see their families and the students were visibly excited
about going home. Like in any farewell, there also was a bit
of sadness, and it is good to know that we were not saying
goodbye forever. For the teachers and volunteers, however,
school life went on,
irrespective of the children’s departure. How comes?
More than 40 teachers from the Balamitra village schools (43
teachers, to be precise) came to Visakhapatnam in order to
attend the four-days long teachers training at our model school.
These regular teacher trainings are an appreciated opportunity
for our teachers to share and discuss their individual experience
with teaching. Furthermore the teachers are introduced to
new teaching methods, which may render their future classes
even more creative.
During the teacher training, we began every day with a class
of rhythmic activities and games, to sharpen the teacher’s
attention. In addition these classes had an awakening effect
and gave everyone plenty of energy to follow the theoretical
classes during the morning. The theoretical lessons were on
education in Waldorf schools, new teaching methods, main-lesson
subjects and health education. In the afternoon, practical
classes took place. In music classes both English and Telugu
songs were taught. In the speech classes, the teachers were
introduced to imaginative methods for teaching basic sentences
of the English language. Furthermore, we practiced juggling
and clay work and –wow- the Balamitra teachers turned
out to be really enthusiastic and talented students of artistic
and fine arts.
"New batch of volunteers "
In July and August, our five new volunteers from Germany
arrived and succeeded the former batch of volunteers. Their
main task is teaching common subjects like English, music
and all kind of artwork. Furthermore they are involved in
the work of Samata, especially in campaign work and fieldwork.
Our timetables had to be modified as the new volunteers brought
in new subjects. Peter and Felix build up a drama class. It
is a great pleasure to see how the students learn to use English
language more fluently through improvisation exercises in
drama classes. Soon the students could improve their abilities
in bargaining on the market through little role-plays. They
also have learned how to introduce themselves and describe
their family background. Another new subject is the juggling
class of Solveig and Maria. Children made their own juggling
balls out of balloons, filled with sand. After a lot of patient
exercise, all of the students were able to juggle two balls;
some of them already have juggled successfully with three
balls. Fabian’s music class may not be a new subject.
However, he faced the students with new elements, such as
canon singing or new songs for the recorder flute.
For the three guys of the volunteers this social work is
an alternative to German military service (in Germany obligatory
for males). The two young women serve as volunteers in the
framework of a practical social year. For all of them, volunteering
with Samata is a great opportunity to gain experience in the
social and educational work. Moreover, they gain the chance
for personal growth by the mutual sharing of knowledge, expertise
and awareness with the gorgeous Adivasi children.
"Ganesha Festival"
Starting on September 15th, the birthday of Ganesha, who
is the elephant god, is celebrated throughout nine days. In
this festive period, Indians commonly worship statues of Ganesha
until, after a traditional ceremony, they carry these statues
in a procession to a river or the ocean, where finally the
Ganesha statues are drowned.
Already in the beginning of September, we started preparing
the Ganesha festival in our school. In art classes the students
made little Ganesha figures out of clay. Finally the students
even painted their figures with bright colours. They visibly
enjoyed the traditional festival ceremony that took place
in school and they were proud of their own, self-made, felicitous
figures of Ganesha. And being proud of your own work and deeds,
is important for all of us.
Village Schools
In the past two months
a remarkable change took place in our village schools. The government
started to operate eight of our forty Balamitra Schools; all
of them are located in the Adivasimitra area. Samata sent the
former teachers of these schools to different Adivasi villages
where they have founded new Balamitra Schools.
Trying to involve parents more in school life, we started organizing
regular parent meetings. Subjects of discussion are local problem,
sanitation issues and the crucial nourishment issue. Fortunately
most of our students are not literally undernourished. However,
they mostly do not receive daily meal, as officially promised
by the government. This may change. Inspired by the gorgeous
kitchen garden at our model school, some of the village teachers
have taken the initiative in order to provide their children
balanced meals. They have created their own school gardens in
which they plant all kinds of vegetables such as ladyfingers,
cucumbers, potatoes and corn. Their perseverance already has
been crowned by success. Vegetable soups and curries are now
prepared with the products of these school gardens. Unfortunately
some of the gardens lately have been damaged or even destroyed
by the heavy rainfalls of our current rain season. In any event,
our teachers won’t give up and rebuild these gardens.
As much as we try to inspire the teachers concerning creative
teaching methods, we are also interested in a mutual teaching
process. Last year two of our former volunteers started an
exciting music project. They recorded a respectable collection
of original Adivasi songs. Now our current volunteer Fabian
continues this work. He recently took a
trip to the Sahugudu area and recorded further songs. One
purpose of this project is to promote both modern and original
songs can be taught to our children at the model School.
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