The trails of adventure in Schools- Neetu Koranga

Recently, I had a golden chance to represent My Good School while attending the Heritage Xperiential School Conclave 2023 alongside some of the most extraordinary and progressive educators. The conclave included five fantabulous workshops on experiential learning that have made the school what it claims to be. 

Educators attended the workshop on Project-based Learning, The Human Framework, Heritage Literacy Framework, Design Thinking and Maker Engineering and Continuous School Improvement Ecosystem (It was no surprise that the school also focuses on the quality teacher training program). The conclave also raised some serious questions like: “When is learning relevant?” or “What is learning with purpose?” 

At present, schools are failing to interact and build relationships with parents and other stakeholders. Heritage Xperiential School is setting an example for other schools by involving teachers, parents and volunteers in the joy of learning. It has created a flawless framework which works well with the learning community.

Here are some of the highlights from the conclave on Learning: 

• Project-based Learning: The school propagates and practices Project-based Learning. In Project-based Learning, the student works according to the objective of the instruction. They explore, ideate, create, and participate in the field and with the help of projects.

• Deep Reading: The school promotes Deep Reading. It strictly acknowledges that reading is more than just comprehension and decoding the text. It’s about analysing, building points of view, having perspective, and critical reading. Pam Allyn’s quote beautifully describes their motto- ‘Reading is breathing in; writing is breathing out’.

• Community Engagement: The school works with parents, volunteers and other stakeholders to provide relevant knowledge to the students. It believes in “Public Collaboration of Learning” and “Engaging with the community"; doing so, it dodges the elements of “Purposeless Learning”. 

• Design Thinking: The school also heavily focuses on providing students with a “Problem-solving” or “Creator mindset” with the help of an integral “Design Thinking” curriculum.

• Happy Teachers: The school focuses on improving teachers' skills and well-being, preparing them to work with data and modern technologies like AI to enhance, support, and assess student performance.

Imagine going to school and not following the textbooks but the trails of adventure. India has a long way to go before providing quality education and passionate teachers to schools. However, a few progressive schools and organizations, such as My Good School, have maintained hope for the future of education.

Neetu Koranga @My Good School

Responsibility and Cooperation - Visionary J.M.M.S.

Responsibility is the faith that others have in you. When you are giving responsibility, people believe that you can do it. So now it becomes your responsibility to complete it, and that too with complete dedication and sincerity.

When a child comes to school, he is only 4 to 5 years old. The parents believe that the teachers will teach their child and grow him up into a good citizen. That's the responsibility of a parent towards their child and faith towards the school. After this, it is the teachers' responsibility to take care of the child, teach him and help him grow. The child's development is the result of cooperation between the parents and the teachers and sincerity towards their responsibilities.

Responsibility and Cooperation are the 2 major values of our life.

For teachers, these two values are influential as they are shaping the future. 

Our school takes students in grade 4 and 5 for outstation trips. There was a boy who was a bit shy and less active in the Class than other students.  Every student registered their name for the trip except the boy. As he wasn't confident enough and his mother was also not ready to send him away from her for a week.  As she  said, "मेरा बेटा नहीं जा सकता, वह जल्दी घुल मिल नहीं पाता और उसका ध्यान रखना दुसरे बच्चो के बीच मुश्किल होगा।" 

The class teacher and the other staff members built the mother's trust to let the boy go with the rest of the students, and the school staff will take his responsibility. The boy went on the trip; we noticed that he cooperated with the teachers very well, and the trip turned out to be progressive in his personality; he tried to interact more.

Responsibility creates cooperation, effortlessly and effectively. 

If the person is responsible enough, the other person will initiatively take interest and cooperate with them.

Visionary JMMS @John Martyn Memorial School, Salangaon Dehradun - Parineeta Negi, Ambika Gurung, Manmohan Kaur and Bharti Dangwal.