One of the highlights of my trip will be the experience I had today: visiting each of the classes at Panchsheel School. After Morning Assembly, I visited the first grade class and they were practicing their counting. They counted in Marathi, counted by ten, identified their colors in Marathi and English. The Second grade class was doing a reading comprehension exercise in Marathi and it was wonderful to see them participating. Class Three was engaged in a reading exercise as well, but they stopped to ask me some questions. Class Four was learning a wonderful Marathi poem about the growth of seeds and the teacher taught in Marathi and English.
Class Five had an English reading competition and I judged who would be the “winner” between the boys and girls. One girl from the class read a paragraph from their book, then one boy read the same paragraph and I chose the best reader. They were both great and I chose the girl as the winner. Class six sang me three songs: one in English, one in Marathi and one in Hindi. They also asked me questions about my favorite color, my favorite food, etc. Class seven also sang me songs and asked about where I was from, what the name of my dog was and what I did for a living.
Class eight and nine were curious about me and my life in California, the composition of my family and asked many questions. Class ten was engaged in a writing exercise and Classes eleven and twelve were doing a practice exam.
It was wonderful to have that time with the students and the teachers. All who were working hard engage the material, to learn the skills and to build the confidence of each student.
