On the job training

Namrata, one of our older House of Hope girls has joined us in the school.

She is being trained to become a teacher in the future. Monika, a Dutch intern is helping by showing  her how to teach and how to respond to the children in different situations.  Every day they plan out the lessons together and discuss which things to focus on during that day. Namrata is watching Monika most of the lessons and is asking questions about what she doesn't understand yet.Some lessons she is teaching and Monika discusses how it went and which things Namrata needs to work on..

Namrata still needs to work on her English, but is doing very well in picking up learning. In the meantime she is working on her own math exam, for 10th standard. Last year she failed for that and she will try again coming March. The children are enjoying her teaching very much.Look at Tanmay's big smile!! She even comes up with ideas of her own and feels free to try out new and different things. Great job, Namrata!

A new place for our school!

Hello new school!!

I'm so excited. We found a new place for the school an yes, it was on time!!!

And worth waiting for as well: since December 1st, Bright Star Education is located almost next to House of Hope!! No more six seater for these wonderful kids, from now on they just walk to school!

Our new school is located in a two storey building. On the ground floor a family is living and the first and second floor are ours!! On the first floor we teach the nursery and lower kindergarten children and on the second floor is "the office” and the classroom for the older children. The office is really just an old desk that falls apart and a cupboard separating it from the classroom, but it is the idea that counts. I'm ready for it. Last week the owner placed the glass in the windows and he is going to fix the roof later... Yes, things are so different here. Can you imagine renting a home without its windows fixed? But I really can see through these inconveniences and envision many more disadvantaged children receiving quality education in a building with its windows fixed!!!

The last day in our garage

Today is the last day we taught the children in our garage. Funny, but it is kind of sentimental to say goodbye to this place. This is where it all started, the very beginning of Bright Star Education. Coming Monday we will move house and from then onwards the school will no longer be in our garage.
We still haven't found a new school yet but yes, I know that there's a time for everything. And obviously this is the time for waiting (again). The question is only how long, since it is Friday today and we have packed everything....

Anyway we are planning to keep the school closed until December 1st. From that time onwards we will reach out to the slum areas in our new neigbourhood. I'm so excited about the fact that we are offering quality education for the disadvantaged. Isn’t it great? Children that normally cannot get (English) education at all, will get a change and hope for a much better future!

The Water man...

Learning  and teaching can be so much fun! This morning I was showing a picture of a firefighter and asked the children what they saw on the picture. Prasanna, one of our 6 year olds, aswered eagerly: "Miss, that is the water man!" Greatly found, don't you think? 

Usually we teach theme wise and try relate all the activities during the day with eachother. So we are singing about 10 little firefighters, we learm about afety and the fireman job and we can colour or cut and paste about the same. Maybe nothing special for you, but here in india a revolutional concept.Teaching here is still be done in classrooms with too many students, unqualified teachers and very little place for creativity with the focus on writing and knowledge only.

The Bright Star Education kids are having a  good time learning about vehicles. Last week they learned  about boats and the small ones got to play with water, foodclouring and bubbles....You can only imagine the fun they had, playing outside. But as always they are not only playing but learning as well.The mother tongue of these children is Maharati, so often very common words for us, are still foreign to them. When we let them play with the water they called it pani. After we explained that it is water in English, they kept on saying: "water, pani, water, pani",while playing with it.What a great way to learn!

Using fork and knife for the first time.

"Miss, can we eat with fork and knife again tomorrow?"

Here in India having your food with fork and knife is not commonly practiced. In fact, most of the Indians don't use silverwear at all, but their hands. Do you know that they only use their right hand? The left hand is used instead of toilet paper...

The Bright Star Education kids learned that in other countries people use silverwear or sticks to eat with. During our snack time they all sat down around the table and  tried eating with fork and knife and learned how to set the table. It was very difficult, but they enjoyed it a lot. After finishing their food they asked if it was possible to eat with silverwear again  the next day.
Then, Prasanna asked: "Miss, when will we eat with sticks, like they do in China? "
Well, uhm, I guess we need to practice that a little...

At the restaurant

"Excuse me Sir, may I have a dosa please? And some tea?"

When the girls are asking to be served, the waiters and the cook eagerly run around to answer all their requests. The girls love it and make the guys run even faster!
In our restaurant, made in a corner of our classroom the children learn to verbalise their orders and ask polite questions.
We discussed how you should call a waiter if you want to be served. The typical Indian way of asking along with the "tsjj, tsjj" sounds, is not how we teach it... And what if the waiter forgets to add sugar to your tea? It's amazing to see how easy it is to learn if we make things practical. Next to all the discussions we had we also made our own menu and food that we can eat in our little in-school restaurant.

Well,enjoy your meal Sonali!

Hello there :)

Hi everybody - This time a big hello out of the jungle….. Everywhere are monkeys swinging on branches, lions peeking through the bushes and giraffes taking care not to be caught…

At Bright Star Education we believe that learning comes through playing and having fun. The children love to act out animals, read books next to a tiger in ‘the jungle’ corner, write and read stories about their favourite animals and of course do lots of craft work.

At BSE 14 children between 2 and 11 years old are being educated, with every month a new exiting learning theme. Our focus is to give quality education to the disadvantaged in India. At this blog we’d like to keep you up to date what and how we are doing with some pictures and stories to enjoy.

On the picture you see Sonali playing mother bear with her ‘cub’.

Kavita (mother of a 4 year old): “Priyanka is sick but does not want to stay at home, she loves school…”

Read more next time!