As most of you know, I've been living at an ashram (Aurovalley Ashram) in India for the past while and I've been volunteering here in many different ways. One of the ways is teaching and organizing at the ashram's school.
About 30 children, between the ages of 4-8, come to Aurovalley six days a week from the surrounding village of Raiwala to learn, grow and play. Our three young teachers, Rakhi, Ritu and Ujita, do their best to establish a loving and supportive environment for these children. Occasionally guests of the ashram will volunteer their time at the school and that's always a nice treat for the kids.
Recently I have established a routine of getting the teachers to teach the children three new English words each week followed by an art workshop incorporating the words so they don't forget them. This past week was our first try. One of the words was pig so I decided we would make pig snouts for the kids to paint and take home. So with the help of a fellow Canadian, we made pig snouts (she did most of the hard labour) and got the kids to paint them any colour they wished. It was a fun afternoon, although a little messy, but the kids seemed to enjoy getting their hands dirty and doing something different. [Pictures below]
I have also established a 'reward program' to get the kids motivated and excited about learning. Everday the teachers will give a checkmark to those students who were well behaved, tried hard with their school work and made improvements from the day before. At the end of the week, the top three students will get a prize from the 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place bag, respectively.
This past Saturday was our first prize giveaway and it worked well. We explained to all the students that everyone will eventually get a prize but that the three who got a prize this week did so because they tried really hard all week. I have already bought enough prizes for the next four weeks but to sustain this program for the next year I will need your help!
The list of things I still need to buy to improve the classrooms is growing. I need things like a blackboard, erasers and chalk, cardboard paper, markers, glue, sticky tack.....the list is endless.
I am also raising funds to rebuild the school building. At the moment, the kids are crammed into a small playroom which we've made into a makeshift classroom until the old school building is fixed up and functioning again. To do this I will need to raise at least $3000. Any additional funds will go towards paying a very modest salary to the teachers and petrol for the school bus which picks and drops off the children ever day (it aslo provides free trips to local men and women up and down the one main road in this village).
All you need to do to contribute is click on the button below which will take you directly to paypal.
Thank you to all in advance!
About 30 children, between the ages of 4-8, come to Aurovalley six days a week from the surrounding village of Raiwala to learn, grow and play. Our three young teachers, Rakhi, Ritu and Ujita, do their best to establish a loving and supportive environment for these children. Occasionally guests of the ashram will volunteer their time at the school and that's always a nice treat for the kids.
Recently I have established a routine of getting the teachers to teach the children three new English words each week followed by an art workshop incorporating the words so they don't forget them. This past week was our first try. One of the words was pig so I decided we would make pig snouts for the kids to paint and take home. So with the help of a fellow Canadian, we made pig snouts (she did most of the hard labour) and got the kids to paint them any colour they wished. It was a fun afternoon, although a little messy, but the kids seemed to enjoy getting their hands dirty and doing something different. [Pictures below]
I have also established a 'reward program' to get the kids motivated and excited about learning. Everday the teachers will give a checkmark to those students who were well behaved, tried hard with their school work and made improvements from the day before. At the end of the week, the top three students will get a prize from the 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place bag, respectively.
This past Saturday was our first prize giveaway and it worked well. We explained to all the students that everyone will eventually get a prize but that the three who got a prize this week did so because they tried really hard all week. I have already bought enough prizes for the next four weeks but to sustain this program for the next year I will need your help!
The list of things I still need to buy to improve the classrooms is growing. I need things like a blackboard, erasers and chalk, cardboard paper, markers, glue, sticky tack.....the list is endless.
I am also raising funds to rebuild the school building. At the moment, the kids are crammed into a small playroom which we've made into a makeshift classroom until the old school building is fixed up and functioning again. To do this I will need to raise at least $3000. Any additional funds will go towards paying a very modest salary to the teachers and petrol for the school bus which picks and drops off the children ever day (it aslo provides free trips to local men and women up and down the one main road in this village).
All you need to do to contribute is click on the button below which will take you directly to paypal.
Thank you to all in advance!
 |
| Lily and teacher Rakhi help the kids paint their snouts |
 |
| Rakhi helps one of the girls put on her snout |
 |
| Little pigs |
 |
| Group picture |
No comments:
Post a Comment