SAIIER 2020:Isai Ambalam School
Isai Ambalam School
Entity::Isai Ambalam school is an outreach school of Auroville that uses alternative educational methods and works with children from the villages around Auroville. It aims to be a model school based on the holistic education principles of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, where each child and teacher can reach his or her true potential. This is done through alternative educational methods and an individualized learning program that includes critical skills and values.
Over 30% of the parents of our students or their kin work in Auroville. There are classes from Crèche (3 years old) to 8th Grade (13 years old). The children from 1st Grade to 8th Grade are registered under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as part of New Era Secondary School (NESS), Auroville. We have qualified and well-trained teachers and many volunteers, including 15 engineers who work with the children in science, technology, programming, electronics and mathematics, as well as graduates who work with English. The medium of instruction is English (and Tamil) and the children can continue their higher education at NESS or another school of their choice.
This year our special goals were research into how we can inspire ourselves, research towards better comprehension and confidence in English, focus on speaking classical Tamil, and being able to cope with academic requirements.
Activities of the year:
- We do individual learning plans and assessment every week to know where the child is, and track his or her progress with a software designed by our volunteers. We are also able to generate a monthly progress card that uses this information to create an update for each child.
- “Inspiration” project - We worked intensively on a personality development program with children beyond 6th grade called “Inspiration”, where we explored powerful stories from India with the perspective of building values. (See “Inspiration” report.)
- We worked with programs that helped children take care of themselves by creating their own organic tooth power, soap and home remedies. The children were also helped to understand social issues, and they created plays that highlighted these issues and their alternatives for their parents (e.g. addressing alcoholism, unethical practices during elections).
- We did several Education By Design (EBD) projects to understand the concepts of maths and science and apply these concepts.
- We had a sleepover at the school once a week (sometimes more) where we could do many activities.
- Children participated in different Auroville activities and learned about Auroville.
- We have almost no fees, and cater to some of the most dis-empowered communities (e.g. Scheduled Caste) around Auroville by raising funds ourselves through our Support-a-Child program.
- We actively research and publish. This year we are taking up research on Values and on learning English through Total Physical Response (TPR) and Teaching Proficiency in Reading and Storytelling (TPRS).
- Children participate in spoken Tamil classes and this year sang the “Sivapuranamslogam” at Irumbai Temple on the day before Shivarathiri.
- We have an active Sanskrit program with the support of the Society that looks at using Sanskrit as a communication language.
Outcomes:
- Most children have very little access to English at home, and we found gaps in reading comprehension among children. We created sub-groups and worked with Total Physical Response (TPR) and Teaching Proficiency in Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) methods along with storytelling and story reading. With pre- and post-assessments, we have found a marked improvement in reading, comprehension and fluency.
- Some of the research performed at our school by STEM Land youth was published at the Mathematics Education and Society (MES) conference last year.
- At home, children use dialects of Tamil and find classical Tamil (which is required academically) difficult. This difficulty grows in higher grades. Through our spoken Tamil class with activities that make speaking classical Tamil fun and usable for communication, we could see the improvement in both their speaking and their writing of classical Tamil.
- The 5th to 8th graders have learnt 30 “Thirukural” verses and their meaning through stories. They also learnt and gave a performance on “Shiva Puranam”, a rythmic classical Tamil recitation.
- Through our “Inspiration” project the children connected to values and qualities including self-confidence, discovery of a deeper self, concentration, tolerance and fearlessness.
- Through our “Empowered children, healthy homes” project, students learnt to prepare home remedies (cold, cough & fever), soaps and tooth powder. A mill was bought to grind our own ragi porridge and masala powder for lunch.
As a part of this project students visited Auroville services including Solar Kitchen, Pour Tous Distribution Centre (PTDC) and Free Store to learn about the collaborative community lifestyle in Auroville. They came to know how these places help the community to grow. They selected these places also in connection to where some of the children’s parents work in Auroville. - Eight students from 8th Grade have completed their studies and are transitioning to NESS school.
- Fifty students were participants in the Dehashakthi sports program. The children also performed a demo on Judo.
- Twelve students participated in the Endangered Craft Mela where they learnt many new craft activities, and went on to teach those skills to other students.
- We raised awareness on national events including Children’s Day, Gandhi Jayanthi, Abul Kalam Azad and Sri Aurobindo’s Birthday. Smaller children made drawings and older children had speech competitions.
Reflections:
Most meaningful this year was the “Inspiration” project which was an opportunity to break the silos of just doing ‘my work’. The STEM teachers and Isai Ambalam children were distributed across teams and cooperated well among themselves, understood one another's work, skills and talents and supported each other.
We feel that we have been adding more value as an Auroville school, as we have been connecting deeper with the values of Auroville and engaging more with Auroville.
We had a limitation of space for our activities and lacked a teachers' room. This year the construction of two rooms on the first floor was completed, which will be used as a classroom and teachers' and resource room which we require now.
Subash who was a long-time executive of the school till a couple of years back has passed away, leaving only Sanjeev as an executive. We have created a core group of 4 who deliberates and takes decisions at the school.
Conclusion:
Next year we hope to:
- Create a language resource room for Tamil and English.
- Prepare more Teaching-Learning Materials (TLM) for learning activities.
- Interact with more resource people from around the country.
- Continue to work on our personality development programs.
- Improve the children’s concentration through breath awareness meditation.
- Some of our full-time teachers will take up research in the areas mentioned, and publish in international and national conferences/journals.
- We hope to add one more executive for the school.
External links