Global video classrooms for classes 6 and 7

During these unprecedented times, we cant travel, but who said that we cant get a taste of other cultures? To make learning a fun experience, the students of were yet again connected to their peers from around the world.

An online session was conducted with the Iju Senior Grammar School in Lagos, Nigeria on 15 July at 1:30 pm (IST). The by Ms Vandana Tewari and the students of class VII who interacted and discussed their respective cultures. They chatted about how the recent lockdown had affected their lives. It was wonderful to see children shedding their inhibitions and freely sharing how they were reorienting themselves in this unusual time. They observed that the experience was very similar across the continents!

The beautiful presentations prepared by the students of both the schools depicted various facets of their culture and traditions. These were truly a treat for the eyes. The session lasted for an hour with the children even observing similarities between the food habits and cuisines of both the nations, the weather conditions and how Unity in Diversity was a determiner for the strong cultural and traditional background in both places.

The session ended with a promise to meet again and discuss a new topic A Book that I read recently.

Another online second session was conducted for the students of class VII with the Einstein High School, H Ch Minh, Vietnam at 2.30 pm (IST). This session too was organised to enable a cultural exchange between peers across the globe. The students were very animated and spoke about their favourite cuisines and festivals.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC"]

One of our students, gave a live demonstration of how the golgappa is stuffed with different ingredients including tongue tingling chutneys! Our students sang Saare Jahaan se Accha, while the Vietnamese group sang Beo Dat May Troi. The session greatly helped both the sides to get to know each other and a hitherto unfamiliar culture. It was interesting to note that the students in the Vietnam school were in a regular sual classroom situation sans masks!

The same day another session was held for the students of class VI. The students along with their Math teacher Ms Sandhya Batheja interacted with Ms Sapna Iyer, teacher at Nav Rachna School in Vadodara. Ms Iyer introduced the concept of Lines, Angles and Polygons in an interesting manner using a Powerpoint presentation. Everyone listened to her in rapt attention and responded to all her questions in great eagerness. She was pleasantly surprised with the answers volunteered as some students displayed out of the box thinking and shared ideas which were beyond the scope of their textbook, she noted.

The session lasted for 40 minutes and ended with an interesting activity in which the students wrote their names using line segments and illustrated the different types of angles formed between straight lines.

Similar sessions were also conducted on 14 July, 2020 where students of class VII collaborated with the students of the Rambuka Maha Vidyalaya, Kalawana-Depedene-Rakwana in Sri Lanka for a science activity on acids and bases. Students of class VIII interacted with students of the El Kafrawy Official Language School, Al Hayy Ath Thani, in Egypt to discuss the works of Charles Dickens.

In yet another session, students of class VII interacted with Ms Marta Surbevski, educator from Sweden, who highlighted the different measures undertaken by Sweden to deal with the pandemic.

All the sessions were thoroughly enjoyed by the students who were introduced to many new perspectives in the process. them. As Robert John Meehan, once said The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives.

The above is so true and elicits the essence of Team teaching. It is a fresh approach to the Teaching Learning process and makes the class entertaining and educative. The sessions incorporate a feeling of newness in the class and moreover, there is always an element of surprise which makes the students look forward to it in excitement.