The Earth Day

The School Programme acknowledged World Events with a lot of enthusiasm. The Earth Day was celebrated with like frenzy. For the first few years, I followed the usual structured activities that most teachers were following. Using recyclable materials to create models and showcase them on 22^nd April as planned. Children carried tons of newspapers, cans and bottles for recycling to school. The class to collect the most number of newspapers won the E-Competition. It was a week of awareness and contribution. I will say that it was a lot of learning for everyone and the success of the programme was felt when despite the closure of the week, some children continued to deposit recyclable materials in the school recycle bins.

My students were aged between 8 and 9 years. Year 3 was the last year for their in house assessments and the following year they were met with the horror of exams. Quite naturally, the system expected a certain level of independence and self-reliance on their part. It got me thinking. What could I do apart from the academic training that would help them attain the much needed confidence in their abilities? That’s when I came up with The Earth Day plan!

“I would like to extend our efforts to celebrate the Earth Day as a complete experience for our Year 3’s,” I informed my Supervisor who was always ready for a challenge. “And how do you plan to do that?” she placed her reading glasses on the table expecting a virtual tour. “I would like my children to plan the day’s events themselves, think of the various stalls they want to set up, decide on materials to use and then create a list of duties for each one to carry out through the day!” I knew her immediate response, “Do you have any idea how difficult that would be?” I wanted to give it a try, so I insisted, “I am aware of the enormity of the task, but imagine how much learning will happen along the way. The coming year is a great challenge for them. This event in itself will compel them to exercise so many skills that they would require as a pre-requisite to the demanding programme of Year 4.” Somehow, I was always able to convince her and she gave me the green signal.

I was the Year 3 Co-ordinator at that time. I gathered my fellow teachers and we sat together to pen down our objectives. The event would be a full day job for them. They needed to be involved in all decision making sittings. We agreed that creating different groups would be a good idea as that would streamline their contributions and provide them the structure to work with a lot more focus. Having done that, we identified the student strengths in each of our classes and created a rough draft for each one of us.

I entered my classroom. The children settled down immediately expecting the instructions to come through. “You know children that the Earth Day is coming up,” I asked to break the big news to them. “I know it’s on the 22^nd!” one girl answered quickly. “Well, this year we are thinking of doing it differently for our Year 3’s. In fact, how would you all like to plan and conduct the whole day?” Their response was as expected, “Yeahhhh! Teacher thank you!” And then the bombardment of questions began, “What will we have to do? Will we make things ourselves? Can I bring my tool kit to school?” And they needed a few minutes to digest the enormous gulp!

The next few days were indeed very trying for us as teachers. We watched them struggle with ideas. Sometimes, a good idea was abandoned due to lack of resources or a bad idea was discussed at length wasting precious time. However, it was heart-warming to see the growth towards the end of their academic year.

Finally plans were submitted to us by each group. The hall was to house 8 stations. Each station represented a group of like-minded individuals who excelled at some art form or creative craft.

The first station was “The Creator’s Pack”! The children wanted to teach the younger students who were to visit them in the hall how to be inventive with objects that can be reused. “We will teach them how to create new objects by modifying old. This activity will be done on reusable paper!” It was an intelligent idea. “How will you go about the activity?” I needed to know if they had followed through the idea. “Teacher, let’s say that we will draw a semi-circle. We will ask the children to modify that semi-circle into as many pictures as possible.” They were clear on paper. “So, what is the objective of this activity? What are you trying to teach them exactly?” I pressed on the question so as to prepare them well for the day. “It’s really quite simple! We are encouraging the reuse of old objects!” The local boy claimed honestly!

The second station was the “Art Studio”. These children were gifted painters and artists. “Teacher, you must place our station right next to station 1.” The demand was strong. “Why is that?” I asked with curiosity. “Teacher, the children from Year 1 and 2 who will come in and make their pictures at the Creator’s Pack will carry them to our studio for painting. We have already told the Creator’s group of this plan and they have no problem with it!” I was thrilled to discover their potential skills and understanding of working together.

Station 3 was the “Craft Corner”. “Why did you name the station Craft Corner?” “Teacher, if you look at the hall, you will see that if we are the 3^rd station, we will be setting up our things at the corner. So we thought it would be nice to name our station as Craft Corner.” I applauded their fieldwork. “And what are you going to show the students?” I was interested in knowing how these talented creators would create their magic. “Teacher, we have collected a lot of old tissue boxes, tins, beads and we are looking for some bigger tins or boxes to make some musical instruments!” The thought was enthralling. “Really! That would be awesome! But would you be able to manage that when the children are standing to watch?” The reason I asked them this question was because I knew that the nervousness would set in once the focus would be on them. “Teacher, we are going to prepare a pair of each instrument before the big day. So we can decorate our station. Then we will just carry on making as many as we can with the material that we are able to collect.” They sounded ready.

The next station took my breath away. It was called, “The Earth Rap!” The children had written a few lyrics to an earth rap and wanted to prepare a few dance steps to go with it! They were extremely talented. I asked them to prepare their rap well and give me a final presentation in three days. They ran to their seats excited by the approval.

Station 5 was strangely all girls. They had decided to have an E-Parade. “We are going to create fun costumes out of recyclable stuff and march across the hall at intervals.” The time was short and I wondered if they would be able to produce as many as 8 costumes? “Don’t worry teacher, our mums will help us. I will dress up as a Tree!” I wanted them to add a little more learning for the audience and said, “Why don’t you prepare a line or two just to talk about the issues a little. The tree can plead to the people not to cut it for it provides them with oxygen.” The idea was well received.

Station 6 and 7 were again placed together on request. Station 6 was “The Reading Room”. The students had planned to create an enclosed space on the stage with the help of the huge mobile screens. “We will read fun stories and amazing facts about the Earth and recycling. Then they will go to Station7 which is called “E-Quizzes”. There they will be questioned about what they remember from the information passed on to them in the Reading Room.” I was proud of their thinking minds. Suddenly one of the boy’s inquired, “Teacher, should we not have a prize for the winning team?” I was agreeable. “What kind of a prize would you like? There will be many children so what do you think would be appropriate?” They seemed to think really hard and long. The money factor had hit them and apparently no one was ready to take the jump. 

“I have a stringed puppet dog at home, if you like I can bring it on that day. You can use it as a reward. The team that wins, can take the stringed dog for a walk around the hall!” I offered them a solution and they jumped to the rescue and thankfully that station was secure as well.

Station 8 took up the responsibility to present a puppet show called, “Whoopie’s Puppet Show”. Again the script revolved around a pond with 3 more characters and brought to light the effects of people polluting the water and ruining a natural habitat. I asked them to submit the script for checking and informed them to produce the puppets in time.

And so the final decisions were made regarding their choice of dressing. “We want to wear jeans with green t-shirts. And yes, we’ll make head bands with colourful cloth."

Twelve ushers were chosen and a programme with classes and timings were given to them. My heart was a little worried as they had never been exposed to the success and failure that comes with planning and execution of a complete event.

The hall was decorated a day in advance. Models were placed around the hall. Stations had been set up by the students enjoying the activities every minute. The day began and we as teachers decided to spread out and monitor the happenings from a distance. 

The ushers set out to collect their first group of children from Year 1s. The rappers ran to me. “Teacher, can we use the musical instruments that the Craft Corner has made for our dance?” It was a brilliant idea. Thank god they weren’t nervous. The activities began. The Art Studio soon realised that they had run short of paint brushes! A little panic set in. They looked at me. I wanted to give them a little time to figure out a solution. When I looked back again, the Studio had set a new trend with “finger painting”! I stood with a huge smile on my face!

The Reading Room soon realised that the stories were too long and the excitement of the children was dying out. One of them ran to his teacher, “Can we replace the stories with some more amazing facts? They aren’t listening!” She replied, “Do whatever you feel will work. They should enjoy the station.” He ran back signalling his friends violently to change the course of plan!

In the meantime, one of the ushers got hurt while climbing onto the stage. Immediately, one of the girls standing at the reception to greet the incoming groups ran to his rescue. He was taken to the clinic and she carried on with his duties excited to pool in.

The students were in the hall from 8am till 1pm. They shared responsibilities to get a 10 minute break to eat something. They had been standing all that time. When the day was over, they had repeated their tasks for almost 32 groups that had visited them at intervals. Yet their enthusiasm was worth watching. The dances, the parade, the sounds of cheerful learning echo in my ears today.

There were many complaints by teachers later on regarding the mismanaged time and a certain group not getting enough time at a station. I listened to their complaints patiently. “Today was a phenomenal day for my children. They had been in the process of acquiring the much desired Management Skills. They exercised almost every possible artistry today to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Observational skills, analytical skills, team-building skills, organizational skills, stress management skills, presentation skills, social skills, good negotiation skills, asset management skills and crisis management skills. These were the focus in the entire event!” And though I was not able to convince all teachers, I was a joyous teacher that day.

The most difficult task for a teacher is to stand at a distance and watch the child struggle. The immediate impulse is to jump in and pull the right strings to solve the problem. Often teachers do that never really addressing the possibility of a child discovering his own potential and capability. Sometimes it’s necessary to let go of control. Especially when it guarantees a smooth transition of skills for a child!