SCHOOL REPORTS | MALLYA ADITI

07.07.2010

Aditi is a global school with children from various different nationalities and coming from upper middle class backgrounds. The education system focuses a lot on creativity, self discovery, reasoning and active learning beyond the classroom. The Preparatory class consists of 27 students in total with a Class teacher (Miss Rodriguez) and an assistant teacher. The students get a lot of one on one attention which really helps then learn by ensuring that each child gets the attention they need.

Having worked with Aditi junior school kids before, I know that most of them are very friendly and easy to talk to. Sitting in Prep and helping out the teachers also made me realise that though all the kids come from the same economic background they have obvious cultural differences, especially since some of the kids were from different nationalities. Children are encouraged to embrace differences and are exposed to different languages (how to say hello in different countries). They are constantly split into groups and made to change, making them interact with everyone in class and also ensures that each child gets attention and is compelled to participate.

The Students

Insights:

• Children are given a lot of exposure to lots of things new and different which is probably going to make them more likely to accept novel ideas and experiences.

Their learning abilities

Being between the ages of 4-6, they seemed pretty advanced for their age as they already have the ability to reason and think about things logically as shown while they were learning what the word “estimate” means in Math Class. Their counting skills are good and they are taught to break down words and to try to read them. Their spoken English is very good and they have a vast vocabulary. They are also willing to get dirty and work with their hands.

Insights:

• Due to their spoken language skills they have the ability to understand things of greater complexity.

• They can also communicate well with each other- helpful while asking people to spread awareness about issues.

Food

The students in Prep have 4 meal times and everything has to be eaten in class using a table mat, and you can only go out and play once you have finished eating everything.

During fruit time (9:30am) the students ate one or two whole fruits each. Their fruit boxes consisted of a variety of fruits, beginning with the local (bananas, water melon, mango, pomegranate, papaya, etc.) to the exotic (kiwis, tinned pineapple, peaches, etc.)

Snack time (10:30am) also showcased a selection of food in the colourful boxes- biscuits, cookies, chips; white bread with chocolate sauce was sometimes accompanied with anoth-er fruit. But there were some delectable and healthy items such as zucchini muffins, carrot sticks, omelettes and egg sandwiches, dosa with sagu, uppitu and fried rice with veggies. Since the students eat together they get to see a variety of food in their friends’ boxes and taste them when they are inclined to share.

Lunch is at 12:30 and this was the meal that most kids took forever to eat. Again some box-es really were the epitome of health with grilled baby corn and broccoli with a portion of rice, beetroot rice, and vangi bhath and vegetable. On the other extreme there was one lit-tle girl nibbling on chapatti and sauce. I didn’t stay till bus snack time which if before 3 pm when the buses leave, but it was admirable how the parents and cooks of these children spend so much time preparing such a large variety of food early in the morning.

Teaching Methods

The class teacher Miss Rodriguez was a friendly yet authoritative woman which made the kids not feel intimidated but also made them behave (most of the time!). She along with co-teachers used a variety of methods to learn subjects like math, science, and technology.

Learning numbers:

• Through observation of everyday things like the date- 7th day of the 7th month. • The numbers of days passed since the students joined Prep that are marked and out

up and spotting patterns in the numbers such as primary numbers and even numbers.• Counting from 0-10 by changing body positions.• Peer learning/ show & tell- learning how to count till 10 in Chinese and learning the

different characters for the numbers.• Learning math vocabulary (the word “estimate”) by reasoning and estimating the

number of objects in different containers and then physically counting them out loud.

Learning about the weather:• Through observing the days weather outside and noting it in weather books through

illustration.• Learning to measure temperature from actual thermometers and recording it in their

weather books using colour.

Learning the parts of the computer:• Through class participation.• Matching the part pictures with their spelled names.• Through familiar games like 4 corners.

Insights:

• All the methods of teaching actively engaged the students by making them use multi-ple senses (auditory, motor, vision, etc.) which compelled them to be active and didn’t give room for boredom or passivity.

• The open attitude of the teachers encouraged the students to speak out loud and participate.