Courage and Patience - Flyers DGS

 The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter” – Paolo Coelho

The current scenario is the best example for us as humans to understand courage and patience is one of the most important values to survive the worse that life throws onto us. Here, our members of the group are sharing their experiences of courage and patience during Covid-19.    

·       Vijaya Jugran- नई प्रेरणा ने हमें जोशीला बनाया, सभी ने नया कदम शिक्षा क्षेत्र में बढ़ाया। हिम्मत साहस और त्याग के भावों ने, नये इतिहास के नए पन्नों को रचाया। 

विपरीत परिस्थितियां बनती हैं रुकावट, प्रकृति समय-समय पर लेटी है करवट, इंसान का जज्बा कहां रहता है सिमट, 2020 के इतिहास में बता दिया यह झटपट।

शिक्षा उन्माद है आशा है तमन्ना है, ना रुकने वाला यह सफर हमेशा आजाद है, शिक्षा शिक्षक शागिर्द सबका एक ही भाव है, 

सफल प्रयास प्रसन्नता की राह है। अतः तकनीक का लिया हमने सहारा , शिक्षा का नया स्वरूप निर्मित हुआ हमारा। 

·       Vandana Goel - To teach an empty classroom has been a whirlwind and everyone is being asked to do more than they can do in a day, so all teachers are just trying to be patient and courageous enough to deal with the kind of impossible solution in uncharted territory. A teacher of the first standard in PKR School Ambala said, “Teaching first graders virtually this spring was tough. It’s easier for bigger kids because they know how to navigate through the various programs, and most high school kids are already doing a lot of learning with technology. For our students, it was a challenge because they could not do the program by themselves. They required help. I had a few parents who were working, and they couldn’t just stop and help their child. A lot of parents were overwhelmed, so I went through each assignment and videotaped myself doing it, showing them how to circle a noun in a sentence or count money.” Ability to cope up with all the challenges in this era with hope and courage is what I call Patience.

 ·       Urvashi Uniyal - The year 2020 - 21 is the year of Courage and Patience. As an English teacher, I tend to “borrow” from my favourite authors.  I would like to quote Charles Dickens, who said, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” It was nice we could spend time with family, but it was worst as we had to do all our work on our own.

I personally exhibited a lot of courage when I had to teach students with parents sitting next to them. It was a demo class almost every time. I showed courage when I accepted that many things are beyond my control in an online class. So, patience followed suit with this.

 ·       Nandini Arora- All over the world, the teachers played the role of a COVID Warrior which no one acknowledged. I also like many other teachers faced many difficult situations such as lack of technical know-how, digital skills, virtual learning resources and observation of numbers of parents while teaching through an unfamiliar medium.  I struggled to engage my little ones to get the learning outcomes. But the immense support of my colleagues, coaches and some parents helped me to be courageous and perform my classes more effectively with patience. My kids’ sincerity, hard work and respectful behaviour is the reward of my courage and patience.

·       Bhumika Vyas- COVID-19 has taught everyone to be patient and courageous and made us understand that change is the only constant. Therefore, to understand and move along with the only constant in the world one requires both courage and patience. The living example is of all the teachers who continued to show courage and patience and brought a transformation from the horse and buggy days of teaching to a full-fledged technology-based experiential teaching. It would be right to say that through courage and patience, the teachers have risen like a phoenix from the ashes! 

 ·       Ritika Tyagi- 2020 has been a life-changing year in all aspects. Amid the lockdown, we teachers learnt that nothing is impossible for us to do! Working on the frontline and then bringing all the students together, making them feel comfortable in this virtual world was surely an uphill task. However, it made us more patient and gave us a chance to reflect on our teaching methodology. We felt insecure and scared about the whole situation too, but smilingly we kept motivating our kids; thus, it strengthened our courage.  We started thinking more about encouraging our kids patiently than just putting the deadlines and pressure on marks.  It has been a courageous leap forward for all the teachers, and we will continue to give our best patiently.

 Courage to forgo and forget what’s non-essential and incognito along with patience to tread unabated towards ones enlightened unique path is the sole purpose of all existence. COVID-19 has forced us to adapt to a new norm and helped us dive deep within our own selves to recognize our potential. Everything has a purpose in this world. Let’s be aligned with who we are today and as they say- ‘Only the present moment is ours’.

- FLYERS DGS @ The Doon Girls' School Dehradun: Vijaya Jugran, Vandana Goel, Urvashi Uniyal, Nandini Arora, Bhumika Vyas and Ritika Tyagi

साहस और धैर्य - Medley DGS

दुनिया एक रंगमंच है यहां प्रत्येक व्यक्ति अलग-अलग किरदार निभाता है।

                                                                                             --- विलियम शेक्सपियर

किरदार चाहे कोई भी हो माता- पिता, भाई- बहन, पति-पत्नी या सखा- साथी । परंतु एक किरदार जो इन सभी से ऊपर होता है तथा जिस पर समाज का भविष्य निर्भर होता है............. वह है, एक अध्यापक

हर बच्चा अपने में अलग होता है तथा उसके सोचने और समझने का स्तर बिल्कुल अलग होता है । हम उन्हें परखने के लिए एक ही मानदंड नहीं तय नहीं कर सकते । यह तो वही बात हो गई कि एक जलचर और एक नभचर के बीच उड़ने की प्रतियोगिता करा दी जाए, इसलिए अगर हमें पारस बनना है तो साहस और धैर्य को अपने व्यवहार में समाना आवश्यक है । इन दोनों गुणों के बिना हम अध्यापक प्रत्येक छात्र के साथ न्याय नहीं कर सकते इन दोनों गुणों की आवश्यकता तब और अधिक हो जाती है जब हम विशेष बच्चे, जो किसी कारणवश मानसिक या शारीरिक रूप से अक्षम होते हैं, को आवासीय विद्यालय में पढ़ा रहे हों ।

पिछले कुछ सालों से एक ऐसा ही छात्र मेरी कक्षा में है शारीरिक और मानसिक रूप से अन्य बच्चों से बिल्कुल अलग।  चाहे खेल का मैदान हो या कक्षा उसे धैर्य के साथ सारे तौर- तरीके से सिखाना और फिर अगले दिन वही प्रक्रिया दोहराना, धैर्य की परीक्षा देने के समान होता है।  परंतु इस बात का सुकून अवश्य होता है कि मेरे साथ वह बच्चा भी प्रतिदिन धैर्य और साहस की परीक्षा में खरा उतरता है। 

एक  परिस्थिति में मुझे बार-बार साहस की आवश्यकता  अधिक पड़ती है जब उस बच्चे के माता-पिता को बच्चे की सही तस्वीर दिखानी पड़ती है।  अगर झूठी उपलब्धियां दिखाकर या सच्चाई को छुपाकर बात को समाप्त कर दिया जाए तो यह बच्चे के भविष्य को अंधकारमय  करना होगा परंतु मेरे साथ साथ उसके माता-पिता ने भी धैर्य और साहस का प्रदर्शन किया और आज वह बच्चा धीरे-धीरे ही सही सफलता की ओर बढ़ रहा है

2020 के हालातों ने इस बात को और पुख्ता   कर दिया कि बिना धैर्य और साहस के अध्यापन का कार्य संभव नहीं है । online कक्षाओं के दौरान जिस साहस के साथ अध्यापकों ने कंप्यूटर पर काम करना सीखा और जिस धैर्य के साथ chalk  से keyboard  तक का सफर तय किया उससे साबित होता है कि साहस हम सभी के अंदर है जो हमें शक्तिशाली और आत्मनिर्भर बनाता है और धैर्य हमें निरंतर परिश्रम के लिए प्रेरित करता है।

इन्हीं दो गुणों को बयां करती हैं  सोहनलाल द्विवेदी जी की ये  पंक्तियां..

नन्ही चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,  चढ़ती दीवारों पर सौ बार फिसलती है

मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है, चढ़कर गिरना गिरकर चढ़ना ना अखरता है

आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती ,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

Medley DGS @The Doon Girls' School - Anubhuti Sharma, Chandralekha Negi, Kirti Bisht, Mamta Kandpal, Neelam Waldia, Rudrani Ray, Sugandha Ahluwalia

Thoughtfulness & Understanding - Super7 BHIS

HELPING HANDS

Different people see the world from different perspectives. Very often people do not see eye to eye with one another which leads to misunderstandings. Some choose to mope, groan, and even get angry about the way that themselves or others are treated while some decide to try and do something about it. Still, there are others who think to themselves that maybe the best way to deal with disagreements is to try and comprehend what others mean. This can be done only by the power of understanding. This is a very powerful virtue - if one is understanding enough, he can win the world very easily. An understanding person has more friends than foes and in case of any predicament, he will always have his well-wishers stand up for him as a wall of strength.

Thoughtfulness and understanding are two sides of the same coin- you possibly cannot be one without being the other. A thoughtful person is always considerate about others - he will never spell out anything that might be a cause of pain for someone else.

Thoughtfulness can also describe the intellectual depth - we have all read poems, stories and essays which speak of the thoughtfulness of the writer. Such works can be inspirational - they can motivate others to tread the same path. Only if the members are compassionate enough, can the society progress.

A perfect example to illustrate this would definitely be the current scenario - the unprecedented pandemic has perhaps been the greatest test of the two virtues. This is the time when we had to be thoughtful of each other's needs and work together to combat the disaster. We have seen workers from several sectors such as healthcare, police, emergency workers working on the front line to help others. Each member of the society had to understand the need of the hour and work accordingly. In the field of education, the teachers needed to quickly learn the various facets of technology in order to facilitate uninterrupted learning. Teachers also had to be understanding of the needs and restrictions of the learners and modify the curriculum accordingly. In most sectors, workers tried their best to work from home and employers had been considerate about the requirements of the employees. These are the two virtues which helped the society to move forward even during the phase of lockdown.

Online classes have proved to helpful for the children - the classes reduced their boredom and tried to bring about a little colour and cheer in their lives. Students were enthusiastic about trying on the new platform and could quickly adapt to the change from real to virtual. Students were able to devote time to learning new things without having to visit the schools. They were excited at being able to meet their peers and teachers, albeit virtually. Apart from studies, schools have also planned several Co-Curricular Activities, Yoga Sessions, Motivational Talks to keep the young minds happy and fresh. Rudransh Awasthi, a student of BHIS Thane, will share his views on this topic.

Super 7 @ Billabong High International School, Thane - Sayantani Mukherjee, Dimple Awasthi, Ritu Chitnis, Manjusha Saji, Jyoti Ramdhave, Vijaylaxmi Ramesh & Sumati Muthukumar