Appreciation - Nishan Karki

 "When you don't come from struggle, gaining appreciation is a difficult quality." ― Shania Twain.

Appreciation means expressing our gratitude to others or praising, admiring and complimenting others. We appreciate people by saying phrases such as You have a friendly personality, you are very respectful, etc. Appreciation is one of the great values which we possess. Appreciating others also shows our respect for them. We take and give Appreciation to many people such as our parents, teachers, elders, juniors, seniors, relatives, youngers, neighbours, etc. If we appreciate people positively, we, in return, will also get a positive response like thank you. We will get adverse reactions if we disrespect or say wrong about people. It means that Appreciation is one of our positive values.

At Pestalozzi, we all respect and appreciate every staff including Cheme Ma'am, office staff, housemothers, cooks, drivers, guards, cleaners, and our friends. We understand the work which they are doing for us. Pestalozzi provides us with every best thing possible such as education, food, clothes, entertainment, etc. Its main motive is to provide us with good education to improve our future. Pestalozzi encourages, helps and supports us to exceed our potential. It prepares us to face the world, its challenges and difficulties. Pestalozzi doing all these things for us, deserve respect and appreciation for their work.

Nishan Karki
Pestalozzi Children's Village India

What it takes to spread the joy of learning at schools - Unnati Dabral

Children and Young Adults tend to spend their joyful yet crucial years of life in school. School days are the precious years of a student's life. 

The joy of learning in schools may be defined in numerous ways. Learning something new with fellow mates always has its charms and challenges, whether in the classroom or on the playground. 'Finding Joy' is seeing oneself grow little by little, learning, growing, falling, escaping, again coming on the loop, trying and experiencing unusual things in those marvellous hours at school.

Have you ever thought about our adrenaline rush while reading a thrilling novel? Oh! And how just a mere acknowledgement of the fact that its sequel might be available in our school library in the coming month excites us? What a relieving thought with an inexpressible enthusiasm.

An infusion of joy with learning helps a learner to feel less stressed. It motivates positive learning experiences. Children are more eager to learn when handled with care and happiness.

To understand what it takes to spread the joy of learning at schools, we need to know what actually brings joy to the students?

The answer is:-
∆ Games
∆ Toys
∆ Colours
∆ Artworks
∆ Cartoons
∆ Adventures
∆ Jokes
∆ Celebrations

And for these to take place, a teacher should have the listed qualities and thus qualifies his/her limitations to strengths:- 
∆ Passionate towards teaching
∆ Caring
∆ Kind
∆ Able to create a flowing atmosphere
∆ Introducing egalitarianism among students
∆ Humourous
∆ Knows his/her students

There is much more to learn, give, write, do, and thus explore. Looking forward to spreading the joy of learning at schools and worldwide.

- Unnati Dabral 
Fellow at My Good School for the year 2023-24

Appreciation - Rishona Chopra

Appreciation is to appreciate, as in to be grateful and thankful for something. 

Most of us have so much to appreciate, but we still take time to find mistakes and need to remember to embrace all the privileges we have and don't appreciate. There shall always be greed for more, but it's on us to know how to control it, appreciates what we have, avoids finding what we don't have and stop this greed for more.

Finding out mistakes is easier and more catchy to talk about. I faced this problem myself! Although I have a lot to appreciate, I used to find what I didn't have. I have worked on that mistake and have stopped complaining and enjoying what I have. It's a little tricky, but when you think about your home, good clothes, and education, most people might not even have you feeling happy and grateful for what you have. 

Apart from appreciating the little things in our life, appreciating someone can fill a heart with joy. It can motivate someone to work harder and strive for more. 

Just clapping for someone, giving them a thumbs up, or even smiling at their work can bring a smile to someone's face. 

Appreciation is also a vital quality. Appreciating the little efforts done by our peers and students is essential. We each have something special about us, and instead of thinking just about ourselves, we should take the time to appreciate others. Who understands that better than our teachers? Teachers take particular time enjoying, helping, and thinking about their students. And I am sure we all can appreciate our teachers for the time they took to think about us.

At the same time, Appreciation for others shows your modesty and humbleness. Instead of thinking about ourselves, we appreciate other person's efforts. Humility and Appreciation build a good relationship between peers, two base values of a healthy classroom. Values like cooperation and respect come in when we have the base of humility ready.

Rishona Chopra Grade VII Gyanshree School

A trip to SchoolEducation.Com - Veda Varshita Marrivada

It was a fun and knowledgeable trip visiting the SchoolEducation.Com. It is a website created by the Good School Alliance program. It was an outstanding experience with many things to know about. As I scrolled through the web pages, I came across many other programs held by the Good Schools Alliance. There were many informative videos. Some programs were Happy Teachers, Sunday School, My Good School Retreat etc.

The school song of My Good School was melodious and splendid. It was soothing, lovely, and relaxing to hear. Also, many takeaways from the reflections given by many students were creative and helpful. Coming to the Internships, the reviews provided by the interns made me determined to become an intern in the future.

The various programs listed on the website gave me a sensation of excitement. The website also gave me the curiosity to learn many more things. The Meet and Greet podcasts were fascinating. It was a unique website because it was like an online school. There were several books to read. I could not notice how fast the time passed by just scrolling on the website for half an hour. The various programs also help us to build our vocabulary.

The My Good School Program focuses on the 6 C's, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, character, and citizenship, which are very important to success in our life and career. There is also a facility to buy many exciting books, such as:

Live Life In Crescendo
Blue Sky, White Cloud
Ratan Tata Ek Prakash Stambh

My Good School
Where passion meets education
And many more are based on our daily life and have many things to learn. This website is very inspirational for me as I could understand there are "No limits to knowledge and learning". It was a spectacular trip visiting the SchoolEducation.com website.

In conclusion, we have many things to learn, and what we know today might help us tomorrow, and whatever we learn is a drop or a pond compared to an ocean. The trip to SchoolEducation.Com will allow us to learn many new things and succeed in our life.

Veda Varishta Marrivada
Grade 5 Hyderabad Public School Begumpet

Please listen to my blog post.

Vist to SchoolEducation.com - Aria Gupta

I’ve loved reading for a long time, so I chose to join the Sunday school. We read every week, every Sunday, which might sound boring, but it’s actually quite fun. Schooleducation.com is My Good School’s website meant to tell more people about it and its programs. Scroll down, and you’ll see what affordable education is to My Good School.

Then, as you scroll down, see the Happy Teachers section. This section is for all the teachers. Last but not least comes the Joy of Learning fund. You can donate there to ensure good quality education for more children. 

Click here if you want to visit too.

As a bookworm, I recommend you join it. You can think of it as a ‘special book club’ where we discuss the story and its hidden meaning.

Aria Gupta
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

My Graduation Day Experience - Tenzin Jambey

Middle School Khremeteng Tawang is located in a lovely place in Tawng district in Arunachal Pradesh, and it was a government school still; I never felt it like some people say about government schools. My old school was one-tenth of my Ann Mary School at Dehradun.

Middle School Khremeteng is a small school with a playing ground in the middle; during assembly hours, the rising sun scene used to be much like Paradise. The total strength of the students there was less than 100, and here in one class, students exceeded more than 100. I was so attached to my school, the teachers, friends, seniors, peon aunty and other staff. My love for my old school can not be expressed in words, people love thinking of the future, but it makes me feel good when I think of my past time. The school here at Dehradun is different from my old school in the way of teaching, the school environment, people's way of speaking, rules and regulations, and almost everything else. After seeing this week's reflection topic, the happy memories of my childhood in my old school flashed back. The name of my school is Govt. 

I hated the word Sunday and holiday then, but now I wait for Sunday; it proves everything changes with time. The starting time of school was 8:30, but I would reach at 7:00 and wait for everyone to come; it used to be fun spending time alone at school in the winter morning, and the cold breeze would make my body shiver. I would often take a page from my notebook and make an aeroplane out of it and watch it flying into the air; I still remember my math teacher, Rai sir, who would pull my ears till they turned red in colour for taring pages he would tell me the value of paper. Yes, it was a valuable lesson for me. 

The total strength of students at my new school is 1000+, and it is difficult to know and make everyone my friend, but I still remember the names and qualities of each student of my old school. Sometimes I feel like hugging my childhood friends and shedding happy tears. It was them who made my childhood days Wonderland. I will never forget the games we used to play marbles, matchbox cards, coins, 7 stamps, gilli danda, chor police, cock fight, hopscotch, hoop rolling and many more. At that time, we knew very little about mobile games and entertainment. We would entertain ourselves by saying filmy dialogues. It was a government school, as I said, that's why we used to get lunch meals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and eat food with friends on the same plate friends in the same plate with raw chilli and chips packet was what I enjoyment really meant for me. 

Every teachers and peon aunty had a great love for us, and I loved the way they used to love and care for us. During those time, time really flew like a kite in the sky, and I didn't even realise that I had reached class 5 after the finals were over; one of my teachers told us that we needed to give a test and the students who will pass in an exam would be taken for a trip to Shillong, but this wasn't the actual case it was actually the selection test, the selection of students for Pestalozzi. After one month or two, I got a message that I got selected and had to say goodbye to my friends. 

On the last day, they all hugged me with all their power and strength as nobody knew whether we would meet again or not, and yes, it did happen; I still didn't get to contact my few friends. 

Their last word was, " Jambey make a cut in my hand, and it would serve as a friendship mark", and I told them ", it's not always necessary to let the world know how much you love somebody " I told them I would miss them and promised to never forget them.

This is the story of my graduation day experience at my old school. On the last day of school, all these memories kept distributing me till late at night; even now, when I see the word friends, their faces come back to my mind.

Tenzin Jambey, Pestalozzi Children's Villiage India

Reflection on my experience of new school - Akanksha Panwar

My experience of the new school could have been better. I was happy because it is good for studying and brightens my future. I was also unhappy because I was leaving all my previous teachers, classmates and friends. It was really different from my last school. The first day was not good because I was so nervous about how the new school would be. But after that, I interacted with classmates and teachers and made new friends. It is going really well in school, and I am happy to be there. 

Akanksha Panwar

My Graduation Day Speech - Prachi Thakur

I would like to thank all the Pestalozzi staff members who provided me education and all the facilities. Because of them, only I can be in this position. I also thank my teachers and friends who supported me in my difficult situation. Without them, I was nothing. They encouraged me whenever I tried to give up and were there for me every time. 

I don't have words to express my gratitude to them. I am really great full to you. Thank you for doing everything for me.