Category: Blogs

Can air be a resource to learn? Yes it can!!!We discovered today in Floccinaucci. We were watching a video on “how to suck an egg in a bottle”.We also explored how hot and cold air creates different pressures.We also ponder on what all gases air contains and how do we filter oxygen from it.We also…

Children harvested first fruit from their own garden.

Last week I had interaction with House flies and Cobra at campus – both left me wondering “what else?” I have been thinking about mosquitoes at I-campus and thinking can we try “what else?” In both the interactions kids were part, sometimes passively, some times actively. They were around and involved in many ways. Till…

Aarohi is an action packed place. It’s hard to capture all the moments in words. This time I thought let my snaps speak. This week, one thing which left me inspired was the openness and energy of children. They pass immense energy to work. They are ready to explore, dance, try different materials, new ideas,…

We created our own speakers corner in Cubbon Park. Ideas, words and thoughts were being shared smoothly.Aarohi team went to Cubbon Park for outdoor to explore word intelligence. The objective was listening to each other. Children listened to each others ideas, conclusions, doubts, thoughts about current issues, civic issues, opinions about mythological epics.Children presented their…

Beliefs are funny things! You are absolutely convinced about them and willing to fight (or die) for some, unless someone/something challenges your beliefs. I was absolutely convinced that ‘Chotta Bheem’ was not a ‘good’ program for children. After all, look at it, there are a bunch of kids who tease each other, the protagonists steals…

In Manthan, one of the parent raised a thought on “gender bias” enviroenmt at Aarohi – Do kids work boys and girls group? Do they have girls can do and boys are this?” Shall we do something pro-actively to create a gender neutral environment at Aarohi? Shall we question when gender bias behavior is exhibited?…

Taking things in own hands….literally speaking

Open house at Aarohi in new year began with “what do we want to do in open house?’ I did not want to go with any pre-decide format, hence went with clean slate – no activity, no planning, only one quetsio in my mind “what we want to do in ope hosue, what is the…

Yesterday, for the whole day dana pani was occupied by carpenter ants (even during lunch hour). The design that they had (read my previous blog) was taking shape. When I went there in the morning I sawpieces glued together with fevicol. In the lunch hour that method was scraped and nailing was happening. In the…

One child was brooming the courtyard and the broom broke. The child said “tell me how much it costs, I will pay for it?” I asked “how about repairing it? He tried, he tried many ways with many mediums. Finally he gave up and came back saying, “I cannot repair it, I will pay for…

This week was musical week. Personally I only hear the music (that to when someone else puts the music for me). I enjoyed music in different ways this week. I got introduced to Karaoke and my singing abilities along with kids. I never liked western classical, but while I was preparing for flocci, I heard…

How many times have we heard this rhyme being parroted? After listening to this rhyme for the gazillionth time, a thought occured to me, did Johnny really eat the sugar? Pause, think about it… Did Johnny really eat the sugar? Did Johnny really tell a lie? No, there is no logical way of concluding that…

Reporting live from i-campus aarohi. Children are doing campus development. One group was busy making shelf for keeping bags in the classroom. They shared their design too (in the short video below). Some children got busy hunting for seeds. Some said they are closing the hole and creating wall to stop sand from going outside…

Anagha insisted that I record this video of her and write a blog too. She wanted to share with others how she learned to play keyboard on her own. Here is a short video.

Here are some photos from welcome activity at o campus. Welcome is the first thing that happens everyday. For welcome activity, faculty brings material, it can be anything from the big wide world, children just explore. This came out of one of such days.

This week was the first week at O-Campus after summer holidays. I was so excited throughout the week. It was also challenging for me. First time I was dealing with 12 to 13 children at a time. The age group was 4 to 15:). On the first day, we had a discussion on different elements…

This week I was coming back to Bangalore with o-campus children through train. At kelmanglam railway station we were waiting for train and one chips seller came on cycle. All children were excited to buy chips. The children who were without money tried to borrow from their peers and succeeded. All deals were done within…

This time we are trying flocci differently. We are involving children in doing things, thinking about topics in that time frame. It is not a five minutes duration now. Till now it looked collection of resources to me which they can do by themselves also. I was looking for more value add (than what we…

Yesterday in training one of my friends told me that because you are in GK you did not experience midage crises. Majority goes through it in normal jobs. It triggered chain of thoughts in my mind. What is different? Why did she tell this? She was so confident while sharing this. I did not conclude…

What is training? Training means the process of bringing a person, etc, to an agreed standard of proficiency, etc, by practice and instruction. The word training gives me the feeling that I need to train myself, I am the receiver, I have to learn…as if training is a task. When I was working as lecturer…

This was the first outdoor of the year. Till Wednesday we did not get any response from the places which we were trying for outdoor. I was not at peace. At one end I was challenged to settle new children in the session and outdoor kept running in the back of my mind. I wanted…

We went to a fitness center for outdoor. It was a nearby place and we decided to walk. It was a sunny day, full of traffic at all signals. Crossing the road was a great challenge for us. When we had planned we had decided to take help from traffic police. When we reached the…

Now that children are here in i-campus. Creations are flying around. Here are some pics. We are enjoying everything from armour, swords, guns, chapals, mix and match picture books, mud blocks, crowns to blubs, planes etc.

New Academic year,some new children and new buckets. NEW BUCKETS ???? Buckets are the new advents of our session and we are using these in our day planning.During session, 4 buckets were intoduced i.e SELF DEVELOPMENT,CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT,COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & CAMPUS WORK, using these buckets we do our day planning.Some children welcomed these new additions in…

Our first open house of the year was aligned with the theme of the week – I am able. I am able to find where all I need to be safe, how can I be safe and what will I do to be safe. First was brain storming – what is safety & what are…

We have a wonderful opportunity in our laps. The September issue ofTeacherPlus(TP) magazine will be completely done by Aarohi – cover to cover.TeacherPlus(TP) is a national levelteachersmag subscribed by many schools – so this is a huge PR opportunity for us – should put us on the national map. The brief given to us by…

My family shifted to campus last year with some basic belongings including toys and books for kids. It was 10% of what we had in our house. Rest of the stuff was packed and kept in our basement. Yesterday all the stuff came to campus and 80% of that is getting merged with campus. My…

One child was angry with another child and was sharing with me. During the conversation, I rephrased “so, you are feeling angry”. He said “and disappointed”……………And feeling hurt also, and …………..he cried and shared and talked and talked.

Learning is happening from what I know to what more can I do. As achild I come with a understanding of many things, as I work I realiseI need more and I go scouting for that. For e.g If I want to write story I start my journey with what I knowthe once upon a…