The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SCHOOL BUZZ
Heritage, the first school to launch educational portal
Smriti Kak

Heritage School, Rohini, becomes the first school in India to provide e-learning to its students by opening a computer division in collaboration with a multimedia educational portal.

This will help the school students and teachers as it provides a unique virtual lab feature, which comes with chapters on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics where concepts can be visually explained.

There is also a provision of online examination system that helps teachers to carry out regular evaluation of students, as the generation of question papers, as well as results, is done within a few seconds. Question bank can be prepared in English and Hindi.

Under this synergy, the schools computer labs have been divided into three levels, namely Pre-primary, Primary and Senior Labs. All the labs are connected to a digital network running throughout the school. The school has provided every classroom with a computer and a TV set.

Shemrock Showcase

Kids of Shemrock Pride at their cultural programme.

Shemrock Pride, Hargobind Enclave, organised Shemrock Showcase ’03, a cultural programme. The programme showcased rhymes, recitation contests, skits and group dances among other events.

The school wore a festive look with children having used balloons and ornaments to decorate the place.

Annual Day

Cultural programme showcasing the talent of the students formed a part of the annual day celebrations at Navyug Primary School, Tilak Marg. Students performed Rajasthani folk dances.

Ms Tajdar Babbar was the chief guest on the occasion and gave away the prizes to meritorious students. Addressing to the students, she said that the Navyug schools are increasingly becoming popular owing to their excellence. The Headmistress, Ms Neera Mehta, read the annual report on the occasion.

School magazine launched

GHPS, Shahdara, organised an event to launch a special issue of the schools’ monthly magazine. The journal published in three languages, English, Hindi and Punjabi, provides a platform to the students and the teachers to express their views and also highlights their achievements.

Among those present on the occasion were Chairman of the school, Mr Lakhwinder Singh Bahwa and Vice-Chairman, Mr Waryman Singh.

Sports Day

Winners of the annual sports day meet, Kamal Convent School.

Kamal Convent School, Vikaspuri, and Pioneer Kamal Coven, Vikas Nagar, jointly organised the school sports day in the Indira Gandhi Physical Education College, Vikaspuri.

Ms Asha Aggarwal, Assistant Director and Arjuna Award winner, took part in the oath taking ceremony while MLA, Vikaspuri, Mr Mukesh Sharma gave away the prizes.

The school band and the scouts and guides teams gave an impressive performance.

A day with disabled kids

Painting the town red: GE Elfun celebrates its annual day.

To mark the 4th year of the employee volunteerism, GE Elfun celebrated its annual day with nearly 750 mentally and physically challenged children from eight of Elfun’s NGO partners.

The children were treated to a variety of rides, a magic show and a puppet show. Face painting by Elfun volunteers was a popular event.

Skits and song and dance numbers had the children on their feet. About 100 volunteers spent the day with these special children.

PRINCIPALSPEAK
Examination challenge: Gain the cool edge

The Board Examinations have begun on a promising note - the papers were simple and manageable and students came out of the hall smiling and exchanging notes cheerfully. Keep the smile on! Your preparedness paid off and now it should motivate you to sustain your efforts and move towards your goals with unrelenting work and determination.

Each one of you has a goal to perform to the best of your ability and write a success story. This goal is essential, for it brings with it, a sense of self-worth and provides the right direction. When you have a goal you kill procrastination, you kill laziness and you kill mental weeds. Perhaps, when you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.

As an educationist, I have always been amazed at the mental strength displayed by students while facing challenges. They have resilience, enthusiasm and energy. Thus, the word ‘stress’ can have no place in their vocabulary. So, in case it has lingered on in you, discard it at once. With one milestone crossed, its time to move on and get ready to cross the next one.

In all our work, there are two aspects - essential and non-essential. We should sift the essential from the non-essential. When we prioritise, our focus becomes sharp and the basic concepts become clear. This provides firm foundation of a subject. The details and add-ons follow automatically. Then, this calls for organised work. You should not try to tackle all the topics at one time. By doing many things together you cannot achieve more or reach the goal faster. When you work at a stressful speed it may take you less time initially, but you would have to go over that portion once again for you to be able to assimilate the details.

However, when you study at a stress free speed, the comprehension as well as understanding of the content is clearer. You can store information in your mental floppies and while taking in the knowledge, one may even strike an excellent idea, which will give a better perspective, and your answers will get a scoring edge.

It is also essential to know our time-stealers and time-savers. Not having a fixed study schedule, too many interruptions to others and yourselves, worrying rather than doing things are some time burners that should be avoided.

Approaching one’s work with full sincerity of purpose, following a well-worked out time bound plan and avoiding distractions make you realise that 24 hours permit a well-spaced out time-table.

And now for some quick advice - look after your physical health. Have a balanced diet and avoid self-medication. Ensure some physical activity. Learn to laugh and relax. If necessary share your stress. It’s okay to make mistakes.

Do not expend your energy in small talk, instead, meditate to draw on your inner strength and most importantly have a positive attitude. Put the papers that are now over behind you.

Don’t waste your time congratulating yourself for having done well or condemning yourself for having spoilt them. Just focus on the forthcoming papers. Put yourselves in the hands of God and seek his blessings. He makes everything possible.

Madhu Chandra, Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan