SANGAM-FRANKLIN STARTALK Hindi Language and Culture Camp
JUNE 19-JULY 8, 2017
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
DAY 1-JUNE 19 : Introduction-Me and My Family:
The first day of Sangam-Franklin STARTALK Hindi Program 2017 was launched with great enthusiasm among teachers, students, parents and the school officials. We were waiting for this day with patience. Our instructors were fully prepared to receive students at the orientation session at 9 am after which they headed straight to classrooms. A day before we met for a review of material. All classroom material, including the daily schedule for the day, was shared and reviewed by all members of the group.
- At the program venue: The program team including all instructors, associates and volunteers reported early on Monday to take charge of their classrooms on June 19. Andrew Knechel, the Technological Officer at the Franklin Board of Education had assigned his colleague Rob to help us with log in and wifi connections. With their help all instructors got connected well before 9 am when the orientation was scheduled to be held at the school cafeteria. The excellent resources provide by Franklin High School included Mac book computers for each plus a cart full of wifi connected laptops for students to work on multimedia projects.
- At the orientation session we interacted with students and parents who were very curious to know about the content and activities we planned to use during the program. The classroom sessions started on time when students were soon engaged in learning about families with the help of power point presentations and you tube videos selected for different classes. During the first one and half hour students and teachers familiarized themselves with each other through various assessment tasks and activities. It was the time to know each other and learn from each other. It was clear from the beginning that students were eager to express themselves in Hindi. They appeared highly motivated to learn the language and practice the culture that was familiar to them through family activities.
- Later during the day both Intermediate and Novice students were conducted through a series of technological, cultural and theatrical activities, all of which was woven around the topic and led to varieties of presentational activities. Novice students improved their understanding about family relationship and shared information about typical characteristics of their family members. It was an occasion to transport their understanding to places and people of their native country from where their parents or grandparents came from. All classrooms were nicely decorated with maps and posters that talked about India’s geography, history, and cultural traditions.
- Our cultural instructor Sandy Bhagat, cultural coordinator Akhila Sekhar and Nikki Tripathi and classroom teachers had plenty in store to share with students who were eager to learn more and more. Master teachers Dr. Nilakshi Phukan and Mama Tripathi created layers of learning activities for students throughout the day. The day ended at 4 pm when parents returned to pick up their children while we sat down to review our first day of work and prepare for the second day.