Saturday, 20 July 2013

Changing Times and Tides

An upcoming city, flourishing its trade all over the place, now Mohali is the hottest spot for every person, located adjacent to the Chandigarh city of Punjab, this town is coming up with several international schools that are assisting in redefining of education in schools for children.

International schools in Mohali are becoming useful tools of imparting quality education and learning divisions for children who are relocated with their parents to this place. Settling down in a completely new destination is not only hectic, costly and time-consuming but also a concern of adjusting well in the new place. While relocating to a different country, one would have to consider several factors. And amongst those several factors, one of the important factors is finding an apt school for the child.

The education sector of India is facing remarkable changes from the last decade. Especially, when we see those innumerable international schools spring up one after the other, we often debate as to what is so special about them that the child should go there. It is definitely a special place to be in, as every student is treated according to their own calibre. Subjects diverse in contrast to the usual ones taught in other schools are taught to kids here. And facilities like personal lockers, hygienic food facilities, outdoor activities, continuous outings with class to strengthen team bonding.

Mohali, which is an old town, is learning to adapt to the new ways of the world. Punjab is a state, which has maximum number of Non-residential Indians who are settled abroad. Hence, these NRI’s usually return to their homeland and face problems regarding how to provide their children with the similar education facilities that they received when they stayed in foreign land.

Kids, who are more acquainted to being with foreign children, feel quite comfortable studying at International schools and the ways of teaching and learning. Unlike other public and private schools of any city, which is more textbook oriented and stress on mugging up the answers and lessons they are taught at classroom. Schools of international standing holds an aura quite soothing to be in, learning becomes fun in such an environment where nothing is forced upon the kid that is beyond their capabilities. Hence, students and teachers have a very cordial relationship, which helps teachers to deal with each and every student on a personal level. This helps the student to confide into their teachers to look for help when they feel distressed or are in trouble.

Coping with Science Experiments



The Father of Economics, Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations quoted about science saying that, “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.” This era is the era of science; undoubtedly science has made an outstanding contribution in life of mankind. Science is a field where no discovery is considered the end all and be all of further prospects of delving deep into that subject.

Every day there are researchers and scientists who are coming across several new components of earlier researches that were done. That is how intense the field is. The technology we use, the medicines we take in, the indefinite number of inventions are all a gift of science. Children are very inquisitive one’s belonging to the race of humans and so they go on to indulge themselves into some very early inventions in their lives, few of them includes, sticking their finger into electric sockets and after getting the shock realising that it releases electricity. Finding objects lying around in some corner of the house, they often want to explore and later when discover a magnificent object of awe; they feel happy to hit the “Eureka”.

But these children when they grow up and are introduced to the subject of science, all their love affection and investigative nature to find about new things just goes down as a poof! Science however is a very interesting language, considering the several little experiments that are involved in it and how if one process goes wrong the end result might come as a surprise for every student in the lab.

Schools are trying to make this subject engaging by allowing students to take up small experiments in the lab and to bask in the glory of being able to achieve the accurate results. It acts as a morale booster for these younglings. Also, with the growing exposure and technology savvy kids there are several junior researcher or junior scientist competitions are coming up. These platforms are provided for those kids who are ardent lovers of this exploring subject. These students feel elated to be a part of such competitions where they get to flaunt their knowledge and win several exciting prizes for themselves and their schools and apart from all this it gives them fame at school. Other student’s get to know about them, they become teacher’s favourite and they get good grades at school. So when you have these many benefits attached to one subject alone, then all parents and students need to do is just give the extra push that will help them to inculcate a sense of belonging to this subject.

Communicating through Technological Gaps



Our entire life we have been encircled around by gadgets and technologies that we are still getting a hang of, but our succeeding generation seems to have mastered many such obstacles that took us a while to figure out in click of their fingers.

It is something to be very proud of to see the forth coming generations having a faster and quicker approach towards technology. However, in this race of time and technology we often forget to communicate with others who hold integral positions in our lives. One is very well aware of the challenges posed to the present world in terms of education , jobs and other requirements, but one thing we forget is that technology is a means to provide help to us, instead we tend to become slaves of this technology.

No sooner do we realise that it’s not we who run it, but technology which is actually controlling our lives. In this horde, we often tend to neglect friends, family and relatives and our communication with them sort of breaks or takes a sabbatical leave, which most of us never realise.

Especially parents of nuclear families who are immersed in their 9 to 5 jobs, where they don’t even make time for their own kids should realise it might be a beginning to a very dark tomorrow that they are unable to figure out. Buying expensive gifts, taking out for lunch, or keeping a 24 hour maid to look after your child, does not substitute for a mother’s care, fathers affection, and a complete family attention that usually kids look for, not an expensive gift to substitute for their parents presence in their lives.

India has registered in the past few decades a number of families who are turning into family counsellors for help to restore their family life. It is highly essential to note that work is definitely a requirement for all to survive n this world, but it cannot become an everything in life. We also have several other set priorities that we need to figure out and take out time for.

Parent and child relationship is similar to that of a tree’s trunk with its boughs and leaves. The stronger the trunk the better support it will provide for its branches and leaves and also protect them from breaking off faster. Families are a gift of God, let us respect this gift bestowed on us and take care of it till the end of our lives.

Changes in CBSE curriculum



Like every academic year, even this year brings change to the CBSE curriculum. According to a press conference held in Dubai, CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly informed to the press saying, “Emphasis is being laid on integrating peace and value education as well as adolescence education programmes into the curriculum from six grade upwards to expose students at an early age to various social, cultural and religious issues facing the world.”
On these grounds, all the CBSE affiliated schools will be incorporating a new subject, which aims at focusing on the adolescence education and peace. As of now, the contents of the course are being designed to suit the study schedule of every child and will be inculcated into the mainstream curriculum very soon.
The primary objective that lies behind this change is to kids, at a very early age to the various concerns and issues that are in concern to our own civilization. It is highly thoughtful of the board to incorporate this subject, as considering the changing events of the world it is becoming highly essential to make the future generation, the “Generation X” to know what is happening in their country, what are the recent events affecting the Indian panorama.
There are some vital insights to be looked into especially events, which are concerned to the future developments, in such a case all the matters related to social, cultural and religious matters which are the cause of on-going concern. Every day India faces an issue related to religious or communal violence, in such a case it becomes highly difficult for the government to keep the law and order and restore peace.
So, if public forums are created where young school kids are also allowed to voice their opinions about these issues then probably our government would be heaped with ideas to keep up with the law and order situation in the country and also keep the meddlers of peace at bay. Young children have the potential of coming up with innovative ideas that could be useful in our country’s working system.
Generally, elders have a habit of dismissing the views of the little ones in the family considering that they are so young and are unaware of the cruelties of this mean world. But considering that what if one out of every 10 youngster is able to hit the jackpot and his idea does help in bringing about a change. Thus, in that case we should not overlook anyone, be it big or small, in age or in height.

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Grade 4 visit to the doll museum













Oakridge Spell Bee - Spelling contests in hyderabad

Presenting you the mega event of this season, Oakridge in collaboration with Education Times ( Times of India) invites children of age 7 to 14 years for an exciting Spell Bee Contest.

Details of the Contest:

Junior Spell Bee – 7 to 10 years
Senior Spell Bee – 11 to 14 years

Competition Structure and Dates:

Prelims ( Round-1)

Written

11th August 10 AM

Venues: Oakridge International School Gachibowli and Bachupally Campus

Shortlisted from the Round 1 go through the Semi Finals (written) on 17th August 10 AM at Oakridge Gachibowli campus and shortlisted from the semis will contest in the Grand Finale ( Oral Round) for the title.

To Register : http://oakridge.in/spellbee/index.aspx