How the current situation is being handled by VKE, where IB is coupled with Vedanta?
Our PYP is the home to the most energetic, vibrant, creative, kinaesthetic and dynamic learners. Presently, the challenges that have suddenly erupted all around us have brought with them opportunities as well – to do something new, to broaden our perspectives and to learn in an innovative yet amazing way.
A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it. Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the world around us but it is heartening to know our darling students, as well as our valued teachers, have not allowed to dampen the spirit of true learning, or of the students or the parents spirit. While working within the safety of their homes, new and innovative methods have come in to fore. How do we reach them? How do we ensure our students continue to progress on their learning journeys? How to enable our teachers to continue their endeavours without access to ample resources at school? These were some of the questions that struck us when the school had to shut down suddenly without any time for preparation. While the measures were drastic it was imperative and necessary for the greater good of all.
Be willing to allow your challenges, to become your Motivation.
As we continue to adapt, explore and come up with a variety of means to accomplish our daily tasks, routines and necessary work, it is laudable to see the energy, enthusiasm and willingness of all involved. Everyone is working hard to overcome obstacles and maintain the necessary protocol, the seriousness and diligence required ensuring smooth virtual functioning of the school.
This is an entirely new spirit of learning in the air, new experience for us all, and in order to understand how we have evolved over the past week, let’s see, says Shri Ghosh, President of Victortious Kidss Educares, how is IB different and so learner friendly, so life long learner producer? Let us utilize the 6 PYP Trans-disciplinary themes to introspect, reflect, assess our position and understand the conceptual learning better.
Who we are?
We here comprise of the entire PYP staff who are working together harmoniously to ensure an unhindered work productivity and to keep providing school-like experience to our students at home as much as possible. All the PYP teachers, IT staff, Specialists and Librarians are collaborating every day with the PYP Head and Coordinator to come up with a variety of ways to function smoothly virtually.
Where we are in place and time?
Caught up in unprecedented times, and working from within the security of homes, have thrown up some challenges which we handled by providing the required assistance to our teachers in terms of Laptops, Internet connectivity and access to school server from home. Many teachers have also made individual trips to the school, when possible and picked up worksheets and books for correction and checking. Currently, with the uncertainties around us, teachers are continuing to punctually remain available online through WhatsApp groups, Gmail as well as teleconferencing.
How we organize ourselves?
Our working days start at 8:30 AM daily. The teachers are assigned a list of tasks for the day, which are compiled after a thorough discussion between the PYP Head and Coordinator, approved by the Principal. The teachers are making commendable efforts to work in an organised fashion, sticking to deadlines for submissions and ensuring that they are done according to criteria provided. The week-long activities and concepts which will be reinforced day-wise, are planned through grade-wise collaboration and submitted to their Head and Coordinator for checking at the beginning of the week. This enables us to stay focussed and keep ourselves on track as we try to create a balanced academic and non-academic learning experience for our students. Teachers log off at 4:30 PM every day.
How the world works?
Right now, our world i.e., the virtual world of learning at PYP is a work-in-progress.
Recently we enabled access to Google Drives per class. Teachers are making worksheets daily based on concepts that were taught previously across all the disciplines. The worksheets include skill-based activities, practice work as well as hands-on project work, which are aimed at keeping the students’ creative juices flowing. After the cross-checking and minute proof-reading of worksheets covering all PYP subjects, they are uploaded on daily basis, to the Google Drive which parents can access easily from home. Currently, teachers are also making smart use of their anecdotes and writing the Report Card comments, further submitting it to their Head and Coordinator for checking. Teachers are also doing Report Card marking using ERP in order to grade their students’ performance for this term.
How we express ourselves?
Interactive virtual learning, multimodal approaches and several learning Apps are taking the forefront which our teachers are confidently exploring with the help of the IT department. For example, the interesting and insightful reflections of the teachers, following their daily self-study sessions based on the enhanced PYP, are being recorded on Padlet links with many of them using a creative audio-video approach as well. Thanks to Technology, we at PYP are accomplishing more than we had earlier anticipated and this itself is a small victory for us all.
Sharing the planet
We as teachers completely understand the role that parents have had to take up suddenly which involves some homeschooling, supervision and regular checking for updates from us. The appreciation we have received from parents, as we together work cooperatively in order to share the responsibility of our students’ learning endeavours, is extremely motivating for all of us. We are also encouraging our students to take up independent self-learning, household chores and non-screen activities by sending them a plethora of ideas and ensuring that they can always come back to us with their doubts and questions. In conclusion, this is a testing yet opportunistic moment for us all, which we can pass only through perseverance and resilience.
We are proud of our teachers for their hard work and sincerity as well as the way they have shown flexibility and readiness along with full enthusiasm, as we navigate through impediments every day and yet come out with a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. We are also very grateful to our parents for cooperating with us and keeping our little champions engaged with the learning provided by us. Let us hope that we emerge stronger and more confident from this calamity and prove ourselves to be Victorious as ever!
