The Experience Learning Module (ELM) forms one of the important spheres of the Young India Fellowship program journey. For this, we have formed a team of 5 fellows who believe in working in education space and making an impact. After finishing all the required process and going through our ELM options, our ideas, principles and intentions are found to be congruent with what SwaTaleem Foundation is actively doing in the education sphere. Finally, we were really charged when we came to know that we got SwaTaleem as our ELM project.
After a couple of sessions by Kavya (YIF-Alum) and Bharat, we were equipped with the necessary practices, teaching modules and skill sets which helped us in streamlining our energy and time in the classroom. We kick-started our work with KGBV in November and from day one we found ourselves surrounded by a lot of positive energy as kids were really warm and welcoming. Though it took us some time to get the mechanics of the class and 30 curious children, in the tenure of two sessions the ice between the team and the children was shattered.
The bond we share with the children is really special and we were told by school principal that the students look forward to our visit. The students are very energetic, curious, and very studious. Although we do our lesson plans before going to the class, the students never cease to surprise us by performing something intuitive and out of the box.
On one such day, we divided the whole classroom into groups of 5 each and handed out one storybook to each team and asked them to narrate the story to their classmates. While some of the teams came forward and narrated the story to their classmates verbally, there are 2 teams from class 6 who enacted the whole story in front of the class and they supported the skit with props like plants to compliment the cow character in the story. This depth of involvement from the students’ side constantly propels us to do nothing but the best for our students.
As a part of our day in the school we do an array of activities starting from energizing fun dance, focused group discussions where we give them various interesting prompts to talk about and discuss and co-education sessions where they teach others what they have learned in class. To develop critical thinking in the students, we introduced games like “sudoku” to our students, the way they engage with the sudoku is really great.
Our ELM gave me the opportunity to go back to school again, but this time, for a change not as students but as teachers. This opened us to many new perspectives, gave us the opportunity to understand what it takes to teach children. Though initially, the whole thing seemed novice eventually everything fell in place and when I stop and look back the overall experience is very rewarding, and I especially thank the team who confided their faith and trust in us.
