Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Social Innovation Project as a part of SOIL Curriculum

24th August 2011

This was our fourth visit to Rewasan School with a feeling in the heart that we could do something better in this visit. After our last visit we were sure that students studying in this school are very bright and will have a bright future if they are given proper attention and facilities.
Our task to make them understand the importance of education, good health, proper hygiene, discipline had already started from the third visit. During our last visit, we saw very few students in school uniform and to our surprise; there were lot more students wearing school uniform this time. On the contrary, condition of the school ground deteriorated this time because of rain a day before. It was full of water and there was very little dry space left on the ground to walk. So, this time we restricted our activities to class room only as opposed to our earlier plan of having few activities on the ground.




We segregated ourselves in to three groups of two persons each as we did on our last visit. Our main focus was to instil below mentioned attributes to them:
1. Discipline
2. Acquaintance with state names
3. Increase their confidence

We performed following activities in a playful way with students to initiate the process of learning above mentioned qualities:
A. One group was with 6th and 7th standard students asking them about state names in our country that they were taught last week and we were giving gifts to those who were able to tell at least 10 names. We were astonished to see that last week there were no students even with a single name and this week there were 5 students who were able to say 10 names correctly.



B. One group was with class 8th students, making the students aware about their future learning and why they should study further and how are they different from primary school students. Moreover, they were asked to sing songs and there was only one girl who stood up for this without any incentive offered. Then they were offered prizes which attracted them to get going with this activity.
C. Other group was with class 3rd students asking them to write about themselves and their families. Out of 30 students, there were only 6 students who were able to write something and there were 3 who wrote somewhat correct. Then they were asked to speak in front of everyone, initially they were reluctant but we were able to convince them to speak up. There was a loud noise in class and then we identified two students and asked them to make queue of students according to their heights so that we could start with national anthem. Then we sang national anthem together that filled in energy amongst the students and we could feel that.

The best thing about the overall exercise this time was that we were able to connect to the students and they were expecting us next time.