Tomoe Gakuen - Aanya Kumar

A school on a train does sound weird. But, according to Totto-chan, it could be real fun. Tomoe Gakuen was full of fun-filled surprises for all its students.

I would like to present this poem on Tomoe Gakuen:

Tomoe Gakuen, an unusal school,

With train boogies as its classrooms.

With no rules for studying or going in the pool,

To the students, it seemed relatively cool.

Totto-chan was expelled,

Mother was worried.

She had to find a new school,

An unusual one indeed!

Tomoe Gakuen, was fit for Totto-chan,

As her day at the new school quickly began.

Totto-Chan was happy and had hights to seek 

And I’d say the school was pretty unique.

Aanya Kumar

Podar International School

Grade 6 B

The Headmaster - Rishona Chopra

 

The headmaster or the headmistress leads the school. Teachers sometimes use them as a weapon to scare them; when someone does something wrong, the teacher says that she'll send that child to the Headmistress's office. They aren't that scary. They are not frightening at all. They can be as sweet as plum and a strict at a stick.

In this book, Totto-chan meets the headmaster to see if she gets approved. Surprisingly, the headmaster told her to speak whatever she wanted. The headmaster listened to her for hours without a yawn!

This chapter is a must read for everyone as it changes the point of view about teachers.

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

Poem for my mother - Arav Agarwal

This poem is dedicated to my Mother on Mother's day. Our Mothers are like role models in daily life. They nurture us, support us in everything we do and selflessly work to see us happy. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers.

 

Thank you, mom, for doing so much for me;
You always make sure that I have a feeling of glee! 

I love spending time with you;
You always taught me the value of being true! 

Thank you so much again for supporting me in the journey of sports and studies till now;
For me, you are the leading example to whom I can bow!

Name: Arav Agarwal
Grade: 6A
Billabong High International School, Thane

Hope - Aishwarya Kalia Ahuja

 

Ms Aishwarya Kalia Ahuja

TGT English

Ahlcon Public School

I am an experienced English teacher. Alongside teaching, I enjoy writing. I've also authored research papers and published poems. I've a keen interest in research which is always leveraged in analyzing learners' language needs.

An Illusionary Friend 

(Poem Based on the value of the month of May - Hope)

An ingenuine crowd always around,

But I talked to an illusion and the voice reverted sound:

"Everything'll  be fine one day",

"You'll also see a sunshine ray"

 

Illusion was optimistic, if it sustained,

And this was how my hope maintained

Echoes were growing familiar

And set off a voice which I always wanted to hear.

Was this smart cookie an acointier?

It (so -well- knew-me) triggered in a brief encounter.

Why did it only linger in the twilight?

Was it an elf who sank into the obscure eyesight?

And it was growing so intimate,

When I closed my eyes, it dwelled and dominate.

Finally, I transcended my contemplation

A soul's voice misapprehended for illusion!

Totto-chan - Aadya Sharma

Aadya Sharma

III-C

Gyanshree school

My First Immersive VR Experience - Reveda Bhatt

Image courtesy readwrite.com

In 2019, almost all of us saw the launch of Chandrayaan 2 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre by the Indian Space Research Institute (ISRO) on television on 22nd July to circle the moon and provide information about its surface. Still, we never got to feel it in reality just because we were not there, in that particular place, at that specific time!

But in today’s world, a technology called Virtual Reality, VR for short, has been introduced wherein you can feel what had happened even if you weren’t there then. Initially, VR could be experienced just with headgears at home or, at most, the headgears with the moving chairs at malls. But these days, a technology known as immersive virtual reality is coming into view, yes, the one showing at our school!

We watched the show the day before, and it was really breathtaking. You see the control room’s architecture, the satellite being prepared for the launch, exiting Earth, going into space, the satellite being detached, Lander Vikram landing on the Moon and Pragyan Lunar Rover coming out of the lander and onto the moon’s surface. Then with the help of the controllers in your hands in your real world, you walk solo on the Moon in your virtual world, feeling like when Neil Armstrong became the first one to walk on the moon!

There were moments when the screen went black due to the transition between scenes, and we were literally praying that it should not finish right now, but luckily, it didn’t finish then and crossed the boundary of our expectations up towards the space!

Hoping we all get to cherish moments like this and make the sky our limit!

Thank you! Reveda Bhatt Class 9, The Aryan School reveda0311@gmail.com

Empathy - Rishona Chopra

Empathy is understanding others' feelings and reacting accordingly. It is to feel what they are feeling, to be in their shoes.

We often misunderstand Empathy and Sympathy. Sympathy is when we feel pity for someone, while Empathy is feeling what the other person thinks and helping them out. If your friend won a basketball match, you can understand his feelings and be happy for him and celebrate his happiness. Even if you hate basketball, after being happy for him and by making him happy, you feel good too. This is where Empathy connects with Making Others Happy. 

The above picture shows how two people can connect and understand each other as one. This is all because of Empathy.

Here is a poem I wrote on Empathy:

Empathy is something so strong, 
It senses when something is wrong.

It connects us together,
And we become as calm as the weather!

I know how you feel,
And we can together heal.

I feel your pleasure and pain,
But empathy is a feeling, and it's hard to explain.

Understanding each other's feelings,

makes you look appealing,

it helps you make friends,

and makes fights end!!

It might be a bit difficult,
but it's nothing different.

Everyone should understand it,
at least a little bit!!

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

How sports has helped me to build hope - Arav Agarwal

Playing sports has helped me to build hope. Whenever we are standing on the ground, we have that ray of hope which inspires us to believe and never give up. In life and sports, anything can change at any moment, so hope helps us to keep on going.

I was bowling the last over in one of the practice cricket matches, and the other team needed only 1 run to win in 4 balls. But still, we kept hope and stretched the match to 1 run to win in 1 ball. Though we lost, it was a great learning for my team members about the power of hope and me.

As rightly said that hope means hoping even when things seem hopeless. Sports have taught me to keep hope alive in any situation and have faith and trust. 

Name: Arav Agarwal
Grade: 6A
Billabong High International School, Thane

Poem on Hope - Arav Agarwal

 

Poem On Hope

Hope is the light in the dark
It always gives us the motivation to shine our spark.

Never lose hope and belief.
In any challenging situation, hope is needed to conceive.

Hope is the faith when we need one
It tells you that with me, you have always won

So remember that hope is the key.
It assures that I am always there whenever you need me.

Name: Arav Agarwal

Grade: 6A

Billabong High International School, Thane

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window - Amaira Bhati

                                                                 

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is from Japan. She was born in 1933 and is 88 years old. She wrote Totto-chan in 1982. On May First, we started reading the book. This story is about a little girl named Totto-chan, who is strong-willed yet kind-hearted, compassionate yet unwavering in principle. Totto used to go to a school where she had a strict teacher, and the teacher often observed her very carefully. Totto-chan always used to shut her desk; she would bang it with a big noise. Totto never used to sit on her chair; she would stand near the window every time her teacher was teaching. One day her teacher held an activity of making the flag of Japan and the teacher kept roaming around the class looking at her students' drawings, but when she saw Totto-chan’s drawing, she was very disappointed. Totto had made her flag in many colours, she made strokes and flinches around the flag, and her flag was so big that she drew some flinches on the table. It took them some severe trouble to rub it off. 

Another day Totto-chan went out of the window and started talking to someone. When her teacher leaned out to see who she was talking to, the teacher caught her talking to birds who were making their nests. Her teacher was so frustrated by Totto's behaviour that she held a meeting with her mother, and the teacher told everything about Totto-chan’s mischief. The teacher told her mother that she didn't want to make a nuisance out of her class, so she had to expel Totto-chan from the school. 

Totto-chan’s mother didn’t tell her anything about being expelled from school. She told Totto that she would be going to another school, which would be even more fun. So they went off to a new city, a new school, and a new beginning. Toto was so excited about going to her new school by train. She sat quietly on the train, but when the ticket collector came and asked Totto-chan for her ticket instead of handing in the ticket, questions had now popped up in her inquisitive mind, but the ticket collector snatched the ticket away from her. Totto-chan’s mother was very worried about Totto’s admission. Her mother took her hand and said that they couldn't be late because ahead of them, the gate of a small school was gradually coming into view in the distance.

Amaira Bhati,

Grade 3 - F,

Gyanshree school