Hey everyone!
It’s been a long and “kavili” filled week for all of us here at Avinya, as students and Educators alike have been celebrating the Sinhala and Tamil New Year with our families at home. Nevertheless, it seems it is time for yet another update on what has been going on at the Academy for the last two weeks.
It’s been roughly a month and a half or so since Isuru and I took up the challenge of teaching the vocational courses at the Academy and while it has indeed been a task, I think I speak for the two of us when I say it has been a fulfilling adventure with these kids.
Jumping into the subject of ICT after the Empower Program has been a change for the kids as well as myself. The subject matter has been very technical but the most interesting part has been seeing these kids acclimatize to the topics so quickly.
In the past six weeks, we have covered the basic foundations of ICT with lots more to follow. More recently, fresh off our first unit assessment, our kids began word processing for the first time! It’s amazing to see them find structure in their knowledge of Microsoft Office and more.
While our competency modules are the utmost priority term-long, our vocational team also focuses on giving the kids a well-rounded experience regardless of their chosen course. Near wrapping up our first term, we completed a module on team building, with less word processing and more physical activities. The kids had a day out in the sun (figuratively – heat issues and all) to prove their skills in an art exercise fueled by their collective creativity followed by a very hectic obstacle course where they were required to guide their blindfolded teammates just by directions. After a copious amount of “Turn Left”,”Turn Right” and “Stop!”, the kids proved their worth in coming up with the most intuitive ways of working together to make their way out.
As for last week, both the students of the Empower Short Term Course and Vocational Courses have been off on their own working on their holiday homework while our team has been working on improving and preparing their lesson plans (because we can never be too prepared!) . Excitement is in the air as we are just a few days away from jumping back into school work but not before we celebrate the new year with our very own Avinya Avurudu Celebrations, organized by our very own Empower students in conjunction with the kids from vocational studies.
That’s about it for now, but much to come! We hope everyone is having a great week coming off the celebratory season and is settling back into their work with ease.
See you all soon!
– Vihan