Voice and Choice

Hi..

The Students of riverside how we apply voice and choice in our school.

Assembly performance :

Every week a class has to perform on stage for the school assembly. This performance has to set a bench-mark for the rest of the school. We have the power of decision as to what we want to do. Every performance has to take our bench-mark higher and this time our performance has set up a new bench-mark. Last year we had performed ‘Marionette’ and we learnt a lot about co-ordination. This year we went one step ahead and performed a dance – blind-folded. We were literally blind for this dance performance and wanted to give a very valuable message. Our co-ordination was a big hurdle but we decided to overcome the same and perform this difficult dance. Every time we get a chance we choose to perform a difficult dance or play and learn from it. Next time, we will strive to further climb this ladder of improvement and set ourselves and the school’s bench-mark even higher. We really learn a lot from these performances in respect of unity and creativity.

Kavi Sammellan :

As a part of showing our learning in Hindi, we organized a Kavi Sammellan. We had written our own poems for the first time in Hindi and were really surprised by our own work. We wanted to surprise the school and teachers as well - so we decided to have a Kavi sammellan where we would present our poems in a formal and professional manner. Each of us wrote a poem on the topic of our choice - as it made us think more and enjoy more. We took help from our peers and teacher and we had full support from them. Our Hindi teacher helped us select the topic and increased our weak vocabulary. These things helped us make our poem sound professional. The show was successful – and we took away lots of good memories from the Sammellan.

Artist-in-Residence :

Artist-in-Residence is like a culture at Riverside. It happens every year and the children work with a professional artist for about 2 weeks, and come up with an extraordinary performance at the end of the workshop. An Artist-in-Residence helps each student work on his/her talent to make the show successful. There are several committees that the children work in. Costumes, Children – depending on their personal liking, choose to be in committees such as Music, Acting, Sponsorship and Documentation. All students get a chance to show-case their talent and make the end performance a “Rocking” one. 
 

Subject Choices :

Riverside has opted for the IGCSE curriculum in which the students have to choose subjects according to their interests. We in Grade 9 are the first batch from Riverside who have the privilege to select their subjects. We have to select a minimum of 7 subjects and appear for only these seven exams in 2010. The subjects we have chosen are based on our interests and our future plans. We have four compulsory subjects - Math, English, Global Perspectives and Hindi, besides which we’ve chosen 4-5 other subjects.

 


Identity Curriculum : 

Teenage years are a very critical period for adolescents. We realized this when we were in Grade 7 - when we became aware of what exactly “adolescence” is and learnt what goes on in adolescents’ minds - making them emotional, risk-taking, prone to pressure and other things that need to be taken care of. In Grade 8, we started feeling that it is not enough for only us to know how our brain functions and then “tackle the teenage” but other adolescents all over the globe also need to be aware of the same. We therefore designed a very unique ‘Identity Curriculum’, which has different tools to empower all Teens. It has tools such as the ‘Legacy’, ‘Introspective letter’, etc., which helps an adolescent to discover his or her identity. Not only is this curriculum successful in our school but many other schools too have been empowered by our curriculum.  

Archeological dig : 

This has been a “Funderstanding” year for us in Grade 9 - especially in learning Global Perspectives. This is because, though we have studied only two topics, we have understood it very deeply and thoroughly. One of the topics we studied was ‘Religious beliefs and point of views’ and the other one was ‘Civilizations’. We understood both these topics because they were activity based. We particularly enjoyed the ‘Civilization’ topic because we actually had an archaeological dig.  We were divided into two teams of boys and girls. We were supposed to create our own civilization and bury artifacts at a site where the other team could excavate and find out about the other team’s civilization. It was an amazing experience as we got the feel of real archaeologists.  

School Spaces :  

Key Stage 3 can never complain or argue about not getting enough Choice and Voice. We even designed our own school building! What more do students in a school want?!  We felt that whichever space or wherever we go, we should be able to feel free, work and interact with anyone and everyone. We should not only study but also understand thoroughly. We do feel stressed out at times; maybe because of  too much work or vigorous practice, but there is a place to chill out too!  We have a lounge which has couches, beds, games, refrigerator and what not? To chill out we also have a water body where we can literally “chill out”!! To study, we have spaces like the library, our balcony, our lobby and many more. Here we can study feeling free and not getting suffocated sitting in the class all the time. All this is a part of our identity curriculum and adolescent days.  

Hindi Divas : 

Full of memories was that night,

A day when only learning was shared and there were no fights!

The above rhyme is best suited for the highlight of the year for Key Stage 3. It is about the event that left all parents, teachers and students spellbound. The day was 14th of September 2009 - the Hindi Divas celebration. This grand performance was staged by us to highlight and showcase our learning in Hindi to our parents. By showcasing this learning, we realized how much we underestimated our own potential, and this was a true platform for us to transform from ugly caterpillars in to beautiful butterflies. We worked as a team, supporting each other to put up a quality performance. The final product and the process, in simple words could be put as : full effort is full victory!