End of Term!

23rd April

Today marks an end to our first term of teaching which at just short of fourteen weeks, has flown by!

As an end of term celebration some children from my fourth section classes had arranged a surprise party. Though lacking the surprise elemenet having being told of the party the day before, to my actual surprise a cake reading 'Abiiee Miss' was sat surrounded by eclairs in the middle of the room. In all the excitement of 'Thumbs Up', (a drink similar to Coca-Cola), along with ripped paper confetti being thrown in every direction... it's hard to tell how much cake was actually eaten and how much was traditionally smothered over my face by the children... (However when I say traditionally, I don't reckon it's every teachers face)...!

At the start of the week I also began giving prizes to the winners of the reward charts I made earlier in the year. Last week a parcel from home arrived with a set of ball bearing maze games which I was able to use as prizes for the top sticker chart winners. Along with these my grandparents had also sent various stickers, from butterflies to robots. Topping these up with some chocolates and rubbers made for happy faces and I throughly enjoyed handing out their gifts.

Invilgating too has been an experience in itself. Over the past week the students have been busy revising morning and afternoon in prep for their exams. In February we invigilated unit exams accompanied by other teachers, however hitting April, Jadey and I, being the trusted teachers that we are... we were given our own rooms to watch and by watch I mean control! The exams last roughly two and a half hours, usually 3 children to a bench. Having recently sat exams, walking into a shiney white hall, exam papers layed out at the ready, seat numbers allocated, a desk and personal space - two fans and elbow banging distance is a whole new story... Though luckily, being in India, everything seeming much more layed back, the stress of exams seemed to escape the kids and the task of keeping the talking at bay began. Feeling their sense of 'yes another one down', we managed to power through together with the kids all super excited for their summer holidays!

Talking of summer holidays... Jadey and I are off on our travels on Monday!! The school is closed until the start of June and many of the children are returning to their villages and family homes for the month of May. We are travelling around the South coast before heading up North. 

Our route is as follows; Chennai, Mahaballipuram, Madurai, Kodaikanal, Kanyakumari (Southernly most tip of India), Varkala, Kollam (Kerela Backwaters), Munnar, Fort Kochi, Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Jalgaon and Aurangabad (Ajanta & Ellora Caves), Hyderabad, Hampi and Ongole!

Here's a few piccies from the last days of term... Enjoy!