SAIIER 2021:Isai Ambalam School

Aikiyam School		Efficient and effective (English) language learning
Entity::Isai Ambalam School by Author::Sanjeev R.

The goal of Isai Ambalam School is to support children and teachers to reach their highest potential.

The challenge this year was the pandemic that started at the beginning of the academic year. We responded early and started giving online classes for grades 1 to 8 while still in the first wave lockdown. The parents who don't have a smartphone came to school once a week to get worksheets from their children's teachers.

During the Covid period all the teachers planned to improve their higher-order thinking (‘HOT’) skills in teaching and worked along with Anita on a Siddha curriculum.

Activities of the year:

This year we had 157 students enrolled in total, from lower kindergarten to Grade 8.

For a short time we were able to do small projects with the kids when the COVID cases were absent in the bioregion, and we started school with the older children in small numbers in the last week of January 2021. We had sessions in the morning from 9 to 12.30 pm. The children came with their parents and went home after lunch. Gradually the other grades also started coming with their parents. We took on activities to re-engage children into enjoying learning, engaging with the world around them, being outdoors as well as revisiting the basics especially for those who had not been able to follow up as well.

We had children come in for 3 days a week till before the elections in Tamil Nadu and Pudhucherry, when all the schools were closed down again, after which the second wave of COVID hit.

Our small projects with the kids included:

• Auroville project: In February the children watched videos about Mother and Auroville. We celebrated February as ‘Auroville month’ which includes the birthday of Auroville.
  The children made the Auroville symbol in the garden and planted seeds in it. They measured the dimension of each part and made a bund around it. They understood the concept of the dot at the center representing Unity, the inner circle representing Creation and the petals representing the power of expression and realisation.

• Spinach project: Fifth-grade children did a project on types of spinach that are available around them and in Auroville. They went to Solitude Farm and interviewed Krishna about spinach growing in their garden. The children wrote many questions before they went to the place. They interacted with Krishna with their questions and brought a variety of spinach to the school.

• Vegetables project: Grades 1 and 2 studied the vegetables and their uses. They had fun activities like drawing, colouring and pasting seeds.

• Pirandai project: 3rd-grade children learnt the uses of pirandai creeper. They created a song about pirandai and practiced it. They went around the school campus planting pirandai and made pirandai pickle.

• Sparrow project: The children learned many new things about sparrows and how they are connected to human life and agriculture, particularly in organic farming. They made sparrow nests at their home and invited the sparrows by feeding grains. The parents also enjoyed seeing their children’s activities.

• Corn project: The children planted corn, pumpkin and some creepers. They harvested some vegetables for their school kitchen.

As well as our engagement with the children we progressed with the lease of land next to the school (the children now have access to another ¾ acre of space), engaged with “Byju’s” educational company for online learning, and the school was showcased by the Directorate of Education as a practical model to implement the National Educational Policy (2020).

Byju’s app:

Given that online learning is becoming a norm, we took the opportunity to partner with Byju’s through Asha for 100 licenses for their app for 3 years. The app contains Math, Science and Social Science lessons. Children can choose their class and lessons and watch the videos and answer the tasks given.

NESS (New Era Secondary School – our senior school, 9th to 12th grade) and Isai Ambalam School got the license for the children whose parents had a smartphone and were willing to give it a try. We had sessions with the parents of one grade at a time to explain the possibility and the ones who were keen on having this option opted for it.

So far from our school 40 children and teachers have installed the Byju’s app on their mobile phone and started using it. We have found that younger children (4th grade) need support of the parents to us this app as it’s in English. Given that we are in the second wave of the pandemic and under lockdown this is currently possible and useful.

For the remaining children we are continuing their online classes and the worksheets depending on what is available for the parents and children.

Showcase of STEM Land and Isai Ambalam School by Directorate of Education:

We have been documenting our work in blogs at STEM Land for over 5 years and at Isai Ambalam for about 2 years. In February I got a call from the Pondicherry Directorate of Education. They had been asked by the central government to make a presentation of practical examples of how education can be approached in line with the new NEP (National Education Policy). The representative, Muthulakshmi, called me after going through our blogs and informed me that she will be using Isai Ambalam School and STEM Land's work at Udavi as examples to present to the central government of action through alternative education. It was refreshing to hear a government official looking for alternatives and experiential learning.

“Your information about Auroville outreach schools was useful and I was impressed by the activities carried by your students. Really ample opportunities are given to the students for holistic development. What our schools miss is that we never give ample time for our students to learn and discover the pattern or the underlying principle. Instead we provide the answer and never allow the student to think. The teachers are more concerned about marks in Board Exams. I am very happy to see that your students could repair minor faults, come with practical solutions for the problems. This prepares them for the future life where they boldly meet the challenges and come out successfully.”

Outcomes:

Teachers wrote 80 Tamil stories, typed them, added pictures and laminated them as a resource material for Tamil library. They also created 20 Tamil songs.

Teachers created 20 lesson plans for a Siddha curriculum and it will be used when the school reopens.

The learning outcomes were obviously not on par with what would have been possible with regular school.

Research highlights:

One paper was submitted to MES-11 (Mathematics Education and Society Conference) about ‘Education by Design’ (EBD) projects and experiences primarily of children at Isai Ambalam School, and we are awaiting the paper's acceptance.

Our research project on English based on comprehensible input and natural language acquisition has made progress this year (see following report).

Reflections:

Most meaningful this year was how teachers spent some of the time training themselves, and the efforts they made to reach out and connect to the children.

Reengaging the children during the short time they were at school was interesting and we took an effort to engage them and find ways to ground them.