Convocation Ceremony and Final Workshop of XIth Peer Educators' Life Skills Course 2012-13.

On the 19 February, 2013, we the students of The Indian School along with our School Counsellor Ms.SukhmeenCheemawelcomed38schoolsfor theConvocation Ceremony and Final Workshopof theXIthAdoloscentPeer Educators' Life Skills Course 2012-13 by Expressions India lead by Dr.JitendraNagpal.It was an interactive session with teachers and students from all over Delhi-NCR. The Peer Educators received theirPeer Educator badges and Certificates as well as brainstormed on the task ahead in their respective schools.

We started the workshop with an informal address by the students of the Peer Educator program from Delhi Public School, MathuraRoad .This was followed by a brief but enlightening talk by our guestofhonour,Education Officer, CBSE, MrSandeepSethi.Not to forget, the children themselves, who shared their experiences while conducting workshops on life skills such as empathy, anger management and peer pressure etc in their own schools.

An educative play was put up by some students capturing the conflict between the brain and the heart. It made us think about the power each organ holds upon our decision- making skills.

To set the mood for a rigorous discussion, the hosts of the workshop started with a song,'HaiJunoon',portraying the experiences of the 6 workshops held through the year gone by.

The topic of discussion for this last gathering of the current batch of peer educators was Gender Sensitization.We evaluated the issue from several angles. Questions were raised by teachers, the organizers and of course, the students. The discussion started with an evaluation of the meaning of gender. Thereafter, we talked about the core cause behind gender differences in India. Then, we tried to identify certain prominent gender discrimination scenarios in our day to day lives. Measures to ensure women's safety in the capital, in particular South Delhi, were discussed in detail.

Ms.GeetanjaliKumar ,Counsellor, KolachiHansrajModel Schoolthrough her presentation, made us aware that girls are, not the only vulnerable section of the society; infact an equal safety should be provided to both genders. She also busted the myth about pink for girls and blue for boys by sharing a personal anecdote in which she was apprehensive at first to let her son buy a pink tee-shirt, but soon submitted to the larger importance of letting children decide the direction of their personalities independantly.

The highlight of the workshop was an interesting perspective given to us by Ms.SangeetaAswani, our schools PTA Head. She shared with us her personal conflicts and moments of pridewhile raising her own children.

Following this, we had an entertaining game of 'pop the weasel'. Selected students were divided into 2 groups. 1group was provided with balloons and the other with pins. They had to chase each other and pop the balloons. This game, though fun to watch, also gave us a hands-on opportunity at experiencing, what was named 'fight or flight situations'.

Our experiences of the Expressions India workshops have been memorable and we look forward to be privileged to bea part of the workshops in the coming year as well.

By SanchariBanerjeeandIshanMehandru, Humanities.

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