June 2016 - Sri Atmananda Memorial School

ATMA VIDYA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
Students from the Big History class visit
the Lower Primary with their dinosaur exhibit
A NEW SCHOOL YEAR
May 18th marked the opening of a new school year, and the children and teachers have returned with
an anticipation of new learning opportunities and new horizons. An initiative is underway this year to
document the school’s curriculum, which is rooted in the individual learner and his or her interests. As
the curriculum here is flexible and caters to each child, documenting it poses a major challenge. A
committee of teachers will try to capture the actual learning experience in the school in the form of a
curricular map or programme which will be of use to our teachers and, perhaps, to other schools as
well. Focusing on the Upper Primary section, teachers are trying out various approaches to
curriculum, including module-based learning, described below.
In the High School, the innovative Big History program enters its second year, while a series of clubs
has also been established to cater to the extracurricular interests of the children. In the Lower Primary
section, teachers are finding innovative ways to develop the children’s reading and writing skills
through their interest in cars, cooking, sand play, dinosaurs and other passions.
With a 2016 Colloquium being planned for August, as well as the traditional December graduation, it
promises to be a lively academic year, the twenty-ninth in the history of the school.
www.avef.org Malakkara, P.O. Edayaranmulla, Kerala 689532. email: avef@avef.org
Pages of a cosmos calendar made by the Big History students
BIG HISTORY
Eighteen eighth-standard students who are newcomers to the High School are entering the Big History
class, which is being offered for the second year in the school. They are embarking upon an adventure
that will lead them to studying the stars, building hunter-gatherer huts, operating a classroom factory
and even making virtual visits to outer space.
Big History is an interdisciplinary study of the history of the Universe from the Big Bang to the
present based primarily on project work. Each of the ten units in the course is based on a different
discipline, including physics, chemistry, biology, geology, anthropology, economics and environmental
science, which gives the children a broad framework and introduction to their future high school
courses.
Big History as a discipline was pioneered by David Christian, an American historian whose course in
an Australian university caught the attention of Bill Gates, who funded a website that makes the course
available for free to schools worldwide. Sri Atmananda Memorial School was the second school in
India to adopt the course, and in 2015 was honoured by a visit from Dr. Craig Benjamin, one of the
course directors who co-authored the Big History textbook.
The popularity of the course is attested by a visit from last year’s students on the first day of school,
wanting to know if they “were missing anything.”
www.avef.org Malakkara, P.O. Edayaranmulla, Kerala 689532. email: avef@avef.org
Upper Primary children design and build an electronic voting
machine for upcoming elections
FOCUS ON SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
In an effort to promote self-directed learning and to improve the children’s retention of the rich
curricular offerings, Module-based Learning has been introduced in the Upper Primary section. This
method uses small modules to cover large topics in an interdisciplinary way. Children are given
activity sheets and other resources and allowed to do the work at their own pace. They may research
areas that particularly interest them and cover a wide range of aspects of a single topic. For example,
they may learn about plants, animals, astronomy or other broad topics and study different aspects of
each. The teachers provide resource books, videos and websites to facilitate the children's interests.
This helps fulfill the child's need for individuality, takes into account individual learning differences
and promotes initiative.
SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNERS:
The school is an English-medium school, with teachers speaking in English and following an Englishmedium syllabus, though Malayalam, Hindi and French are also offered in the curriculum. But the
children primarily have learned Malayalam as their first language, which poses a challenge to children
and teachers alike. The school’s approach has been to provide a rich English environment where
children can naturally absorb the language and be encouraged, without forcing, to use it. In a further
effort to refine their skills, teachers in the Upper Primary section are offering targeted activities for
English as a Second Language learners in the fifth, sixth and seventh standards. The syllabus is taught
through interactive means such as skits, music, videos and games. Spoken English is also emphasized.
WEDNESDAY CLUBS
Each Wednesday afternoon in the High School there is a current of excitement in the air, as the club
period approaches. Extra-curricular activities in the school are being offered through clubs where the
students can focus on interests such as arts and crafts, cooking, literature, photography and cinema.
Though these clubs are labeled “extra-curricular,” they offer children the opportunity to explore
interests, and even career paths, outside the ICSE and ISC curricula. It is not surprising that the
cooking club is popular with some of the boys, as two of the school’s recent graduates have pursued
the career of chef. Likewise, the arts and crafts club provides an outlet for children who may follow
their seniors who have gone on in the fields of graphic and textile design. Teachers are assigned to
each of the clubs to provide support and guidance.
CLONLARA PROGRAM
In addition to the syllabus provided by the Council on the Indian School Certificate Examinations, the
school also offers an alternative syllabus in conjunction with Clonlara School (USA), a pioneer in
alternative education. Children who follow the Clonlara syllabus have more flexibility in course
content and also in assessment, as the Clonlara system emphasizes project work, self-assessment and
ongoing assessment (homework), rather than focusing on the results of a single examination. This
year’s six Clonlara students, ranging from the ninth through twelfth standards, are taking the regular
ICSE and ISC classes but also are pursuing independent study in areas including world literature,
computer software and visual communication.
WISH LIST
The teachers in all the sections of the school are increasingly using visual aids in the classroom but
find it difficult, with only a few laptop computers available. The school would welcome donations of
laptops and UPS battery back-up from well-wishers, as this would directly benefit the children.
www.avef.org Malakkara, P.O. Edayaranmulla, Kerala 689532. email: avef@avef.org