Catch the Excitement of the Founders Weekend 2010 at Pathways World School, Aravali

Pathways Gurgaon Students and Teachers Visited the Bookaroo Festival | An Exciting Time Indeed!

The children of grade 7 and 8 were fortunate to be a part of the ongoing ‘Bookaroo’ festival which was being celebrated at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. It is established as thefirst Children’s Literature Festival in India. It is considered to be plural, multilingual festival, showcasing the best in International and Indian children’s literature. It aims inpromoting Children’s literature both locally, regionally and globally to encourage cultural exchange and dialogue, education and development.

The children were excited to meet the prominent teen author, ‘Anthony Horowitz’, who spoke about his series of books titled: Alex Rider. He gave an insight into what interests the teens world over, calling ‘Alex Rider’ a phenomenon to deal with. He spoke about how parents can become part of ‘One family reading together’. He highlighted the importance of reading time as a family bonding time and reiterated that his series of books give plenty of opportunity to enjoy that time together even with children aged 12-16, as his books have all the adventure and freshness for the child and seriousness and newness for an adult

The children also enjoyed, ‘The art of Pop Ups’ by ‘Robert Sabuda’ who is the creator of intricate and magical pop-up books. He appears regularly on television to share his enthusiasm for creativity, art and books with children. He showcased what it takes to create a popup book, what earlier seemed too childish to an adult. He was generous enough to regard the hard work of all the men engaged in giving the book its shape in which it reaches the readers. He showed how his work is truly global; how the work is created and contributed by people who live across continents and get to the readers world over who read and savour the elements of the creative spirit imbibed in the books.

By: Ambika Roshan
English Teacher, Middle School
Pathways Gurgaon

http://pathways.in/gurgaon/

Pathways World School Does It Again! | Ranked amongst the top 10 International Schools in the country!

It gives us immense pleasure to share the wonderful news of Pathways World School being ranked amongst the top 10 International schools in India. The survey which was conducted by Education World has ranked Pathways as thenumber 1 International school in Delhi NCR, and number 2 in the entire North India region.

The Award was received by Dr. Sarvesh Naidu, the School Director of Pathways World School.

Pathways has also been adjudged as the best International School in the region by another survey conducted by Hindustan Times.

Once again we are extremely joyous with this recognition. This continues to motivate us to set even higher benchmarks for ourselves and reinforces the exceptional efforts put together by the entire team at Pathways.

Follow this link to take a tour of the school.

Literary Week Celebrations at Pathways Noida

Teachers Play

Role Play by the PYP teachers on essential elements of a book and teachers personified each element. The highlight of the play was teachers dressed up as characters from different genres.

Book Fair by Scholastic

Children learnt how to choose books of their level and interest and we saw them reading blurbs!!

Sharing a story with Early Learners and we saw most the children from KG and Grade buy the same book at the Book Exhibition.

Assembly

Form 5 introduced the happenings in the Book Week to the whole school in a special assembly on Tuesday.

Buddy Reading

Two children reading to one another. If the child was younger, student tried and picked up cues from picture.

As a finale of the Literary Week, children dressed up in their favourite book character and enjoyed introducing themselves.

Literary Week

Reading is the basic foundation on which academic skills of an individual are built. You can read almost anything including encyclopedias, novels, dailies, magazines…the list is pretty long, but that hardly matters, as long as you like doing it. Whether you like fiction or non-fiction is not important, but whether you like reading or not is! But children are often too busy with their computer games and television, whereas adults are glued on to their computer screen, amassing the wealth of knowledge through Internet search engines. Reading does have its loyal fan following, but the fan base is rapidly decreasing. We at Pathways, have made a studied attempt at increasing this fan base through our literary week celebrated from 4^th December to 10^th December.

The growing Caterpillar

A Caterpillar’s was put up in the school Aangan. Every time a child read a book. He wrote a little reflection on a pre cut circle that was added to the Caterpillar’s face, thus grew the caterpillar. He had his own spurts of growth. If his length is any indicator of the success of the reading week, we have succeeded with our objective.

Take a tour of the Pathways Schools here http://pathways.in/

First Educational Field Trip for the Students of Pathways Gurgaon|Harappan Gallery-A Close Look



Saturday, 27^th November, was a day on which all the planning and preparation for the visit to the National Museum in New Delhi would be tested. Students and teachers had all geared up for the ‘First Educational field trip’ keeping in mind how curricular understanding and skills taught in the different subjects could support their understanding of Historical Sources.

The students prepared for the trip by first surfing through a wonderful website http://web.singnet.com.sg/thiens/story1.htmwhich helped them get a glimpse of what they would be studying at the museum. The history teacher had visited the museum and created a slide show which she showed. There were discussions about the sources. Teachers and students together designed a field book keeping in mind the current objective of the History curriculum –a study of primary and secondary sources of historical information through their upcoming unit the ‘Harappan Civilization’.

On the way to the museum, the students marked the route from their homes to the Museum on the map provided to them in the field book. On reaching the Museum their attention was captivated by the magnificent Chariot displayed right at the entrance.

We entered the Harappan gallery where the students spent time carefully observing the details of each display and reading up the write ups. Students were curious and surprised to see the displays which depicted the similarities to modern times – the utensils and the ornaments, the layout of cities, games, embellishments on drapery. They appreciated the miniature and skilled craftsmanship of the artists and were inquisitive about burial practices, and tomb offerings, the tools used for agriculture and the scales and weights used for measurement during the 2700B.C. all of which gave them an insight into how such artefacts are used to draw historical conclusions,

Next the students got down to recording their learning on related task sheets and completing the questionnaires that they themselves had made, prior to the visit to set the focus for the visit. They moved from one corner of the gallery to the other to ensure that they were very precise and accurate regarding the information which they were noting and had not missed out on what they had intended to find out about.

A long conversation and discussion with the curator Mr R.S Atal (Lecturing and Education Department) was the next activity. It helped the students to go deeper to understand the uniqueness of the seals that depicted the lifestyle of the people living during those times, which we as lay people might have ignored. He was very passionate in explaining to the students the various techniques used during the Harappan civilization in art-the color technique and the model making. He also discussed with the students how it is important to differentiate between prediction and reality when we study History. He shared with us how these terms are different but yet interrelated.

Students asked questions regarding scientific integration in History and how Science was used during the Harappan civilization. The question and answer session would not have ended if teachers had not intervened in order to maintain planned schedules.

Students returned having learnt the skill of using community resources to enhance their learning and armed with information to proceed with their project.

Article by: Tanwinder Kohli
Social Sciences Teacher
Middle School- Pathways Gurgaon

Visit Pathways at http://pathways.in/

The International School Perspective in India | Pathways Schools

Various international schools are cropping up through out India, parents are enrolling their kids to these schools. An article published in TOI few month ago spelled out clearly about what an international school consist of:

International Curriculum, International faculty & International student body. It is very important for parents to check the affiliation of school before enrolling their kids. All international schools must be affiliated with at least one international Curriculum.

Pathways World School in Gurgaon, Noida and Aravali is open to year-long admissions for the session of 2011-2012. Pathways is a truly international school with all modern amenities like fully air-conditioned classrooms, an advanced international curriculum and a set of highly qualified and dedicated faculty. Pathways World School Gurgaon, Noida and Aravali invites applications for admission from nursery to graduation. The school imparts practical methods of Montessori to implant values of self discipline and cultural awareness.

In India parents & kids are under the assumption that international schools are meant for foreign students only but in reality it is not true. International schools enroll students from all parts of the world. These schools train students from international perspective. Students from such schools can easily mingle in multilingual culture, so, they wont face any difficulty when they move out from one country to another, either for higher studies or jobs.

Yes, International schools help student for Globalised culture. These students interact with students of other countries and know about their culture, traditions and values. Another feature of truly international school is the academic year which coincides with rest of the countries outside India. When students switch from one country to another without compromising on losing a term or reapting a term.

Looking at the success of international schools in India, many school following syllabus ICSE & CBSE affiliated schools have started proclaiming to be international schools.

For more information on Pathways Schools visit: http://pathways.in/

Five Motivation Tips for Students for Enjoying Home Work | Pathways World School

Hey kids, need some perspective for doing your homework? We understand sometimes we need a little push when it comes to “Home Work”. We will give you some inspirational tips which will get you through the time when you feel home work is futile. The problems which we talk about here are discussed and submitted by real life students.

Motivation Tip 1: Get Perspective!

When you start feeling like homework is a drag, it might help to start thinking about the reason you’re doing homework in the first place. The work you do now really is important, even though it’s probably hard to see sometimes. In truth, your nightly homework is really work that will form the foundation for your future. Right now you are probably being forced to study topics that don’t interest you at all. It may seem cruel and unfair now, but it’s really an important and necessary “evil.”

Why? Because a strong foundation must include a good mix of ingredients. You see, you may not believe that you’ll need your algebra skills later in life, but algebra sets the stage for understanding principles of science, economics, and business.

It’s the same for English homework. You’ll need those skills desperately in college, and you’ll certainly need them to succeed in the world.

Motivation Tip 2: Get an Attitude!

Are you a math whiz? A great writer? Are you artistic—or maybe good at solving puzzles?

Most students have a special talent in one particular area, so they enjoy doing homework in that topic. The problem comes when they avoid doing the other stuff. Sound familiar?

The good news is that you don’t need to love everything. Just pick one area you love and become the self-appointed expert in your school. Get a serious attitude!

Think of yourself as the very best at that one topic, and then make it a reality. For inspiration, you can create a web site or perhaps a series of podcasts about your topic. Become a star!

Once you become the expert in your field, you will gain confidence in yourself and become more tolerant of the topics you don’t enjoy so much. You’ll start thinking of all your least favorite topics as “supporting” actors in your quest for a career in the area you love.

Motivation Tip 3: Get Competitive!

This problem could be real or imagined. Either way, this problem is the best kind! If you have a competitive spirit, you can have a lot of fun with this one.

If you think you’re at a disadvantage to other students, you can turn things around by getting a competitive attitude.

Think of every project as a challenge and set out to do your assignment better than anybody else. Try to surprise everyone—including the teacher—by doing outstanding work.

If you feel like you are part of a misfit crowd, then it might help to team up with a friend or two. Put your heads together and plot to outdo the popular crowd. You’ll find that this can be very inspiring!

Motivation Tip 4: Get Your Eye on the Prize!

If you get bored just thinking about homework, then you may need to focus on setting and reaching goals.

For instance, if you are having trouble getting started on a big science project, then divide your project into steps. Then, reward yourself each time you finish a step successfully. Your first step could be library research.

Set a time line for visiting the library and completing your research. Think of a good way to reward yourself, like a frothy iced coffee drink or another favorite treat. Then focus on the prize and make it happen!

Your parents will probably support you in this endeavor. Just ask!

There are many variations to the “eye on the prize” system. You may want to create a dream box or a bulletin board with pictures of big prizes, like the college of your dreams. Fill the box or board with the objects of your dreams and make a habit of looking at them often.

In other words, keep your eyes on those prizes!

Motivation Tip 5: Get Support!

It’s unfortunate but true that some students don’t receive much encouragement or support when it comes to school work. Some students don’t have any encouragement from family or don’t even have any family at all.But that doesn’t mean nobody cares.

There are lots of people who care very much that you succeed in school. Just think about it—this web site wouldn’t exist if somebody didn’t want you to succeed.

There are many people who care. People in your school have a big stake in your success. They are judged on your performance. If you don’t do well, they don’t do well.

Adults from all walks of life are concerned about education and the plight of students just like you. The state of education is a big topic of discussion and debate among adults. If you feel like you don’t get support at home, then find an education forum and talk about it.

You’ll find that there are lots of people who are interested and willing to cheer you on!

These great tips are compiled by Grace Fleming. Grace has worked with students for many years as a college adviser and admission counselor. She currently works at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia, where she teaches courses such as Strategies for Success and University 101.

Get more details on Pathways World School here: http://pathways.in/