Video Conferencing with The Nurorda Public School, Kazakhstan

A video conference is a live, visual connection between two or more people residing in separate locations for the purpose of communication. School organised a video conferencing session for class 5 students with The Nurorda Public School, Kazakhstan on 17th October 2016.

The session began at 10:20 am Indian time and 10:50 am Kazakhstan time. 25 students of class 5 geared up filled with anticipation! The agenda of the video conference was: Introduction Exchange of information about each's school Brief about our forthcoming festival, Diwali Question/answer session

The children had prepared an effigy of Ravan, rangoli, torans and diyas as symbols of Diwali with the idea of sharing these with their counterparts in Kazakhstan. Children from The Nurorda Public School spoke about their festival Ramadan which is celebrated as Ramzan in India.

The Kazakhi children listened with great interest to the story of Diwali and Dusshera and both sides talked about themselves, their schools and the facilities they have at school, languages they learn and subjects they are taught. A lot of other information was also shared between the children of both schools including the weather in both countries, the dress they wear and the food.

Sejal and Mannsi of 5 A gave a small impromptu Kathak demo when they were asked about a traditional Indian dance. In response to our students curiosity about the traditional dance there, 2 boys from the school in Kazakhstan danced to a Turkish song sung by their boys and girls! This was a great delight and our students were prompted to burst into the song, ' Ayee Diwali'!

This session served as an important means of introducing our children to ideas they are not familiar with. On both sides the children seemed eager to share information and it turned out to be a really interesting and enjoyable session with great opportunities of learning.

Ms. Vandana Tewari.