Classroom Chronicles #1

This post is the first in the series of ‘Classroom Chronicles’, which accounts for the curious tales of my 6^th grade classroom at Government High School Bowenpally, Hyderabad. After contemplating for quite a while, I’ve finally settled down to the idea of blogging about my students than sharing about them in the conventional manner. I’ve recently asked people to support my work in the school, and got an amazing response from my friends across the world. I immensely thank them for their generous support, and this is a way I can share the inquisitive talent of the kids with you guys. Anyway, here it is. A first of its kind (from myself), where I’d be sharing the way the students are learning every day and developing themselves to be people of tomorrow.

Starting with Chess

Unlocking the skill of students with the classic strategy game. And, here we can see an interesting game between 2 students. An intriguing part is the kid on the right (Harendra) has given a challenging game to the kid on the left (Muralikanth). Muralikanth won with great difficulty and he learnt that just because Harendra doesn’t perform well in the traditional mode of education, he shouldn’t be underestimated.

A huge thanks to the ones who donated Chess. The credit goes to Lucas, Brendan, Chelsea, Vaishnavi, Simran, Ravi Teja, Shreya, Amita Ma’am, Vishu and Akshay.

More chess games were played by kids, but they weren’t as interesting as this. I’ll keep you updated with more Chess games. And, to be frank, one kid was very good, and he kept me on my toes while playing with him. Await for his story!!!

India and the World… an interesting puzzle for sure

Here are the puzzles completed by the kids. They were intrigued by the physical map of India and started to shower questions about it.

Satya, Sona Rani and Amulya with the solved puzzle

 Sri Hari, Raj Kumar, Sona Rani and Taranum with the solved puzzle

World puzzle is surely complicated with 100 puzzle pieces, and the kids had to struggle to search for various countries. Of the 3 groups, only 1 group could succeed at the given time. The kid on the right corner (Gopi), was at the puzzle for 1 and a half hour straight. He didn’t move until he completed it. Although, others in the team have changed in those 90 minutes, he didn’t give up. It requires a lot of patience, and he surely possessed the exceptional quality at 12 years.

Here are a few other groups struggling with the puzzle. They could easily make Canada, Russia and USA (being bigger countries on the map).

Regards to Vaishnavi and Simran J

Rubik’s Cube

A cube which intrigued me since my childhood, and whenever I solve it in class, it keeps my kids awestruck and also silent (something which every teacher wishes). They were very happy when I brought the cubes for them to solve. The perplexing cube has left the kids with a great challenge. They have started to understand the logic, and in a few weeks, they’ll also solve it.

Dattatreya, Vani, Hari Krishna and Balaji fiddling with the cube

Thanks to Chelsea, Ravi Teja, Shreya and Akshay =D

Scrabble

A fun filled competing way to build vocabulary in kids. The kids enjoyed the game, learnt new words, and also expanding their vocabulary at a faster pace.

Kudos to Chelsea and Kavya!!!

More stories are on the way, with new learnings of the kids. :)