The Open Gate School - Report by Sheetal Puthran
In this age of globalization, education has to be more broad-based to cater to universal demands. Now teachers have the added responsibility to develop relevant expertise and competencies, besides enhancing student knowledge base. The teacher exchange programme is a step forward in that direction.
This year the Open Gate School hosted the Teacher Exchange Programme for our teachers, which two of us attended. The school is situated in a quaint little village called Babice, which is about an hour way from the city of Prague. The Primary Program (Grades 1 to 5) is in accordance with the Ministry of Education Framework Program, (Czech) but also in line with the internationally acknowledged IB "The Primary Years" Programme. I interacted with the primary classes and worked closely with the English faculty to share ideas and learn about their system.
The most profound truth I gathered during my stay is that children all around the world are the same. Despite living across the seas, in different time zones and cultural backgrounds, their innate qualities are identical. Their innocence, curiousity and openness are universal. I bonded beautifully with them, which made teaching and learning fun and easy. The students were exposed to the cultural diversity of India through art, stories, games, pictures, music, discussions and presentations. They were curious, enthusiastic and even managed to write their names in Hindi and learnt a few words too. Grades 4 and 5 were open to delve into creative writing and other aspects of the English Language.
The school believes in providing an open-minded support to talent, and in nurturing the emotional quotient of the students. Free-play and music is balanced with learning, to make it fun and easy. The School and Nature week, allows the children to spend time with nature, up in the mountains, away from their homes, for a period of five days. Nature walks, excursions, stories, games, songs are inter-woven to make learning realistic and exciting.
It is heartening to know that through the Teacher Exchange Program we are transgressing national borders and physical boundaries, and exposing teachers to the repository of global knowledge and new experiences.
- Sheetal Puthran
The Open Gate School - Report by Dr Bipin Shah
Set amidst the dark and deep pine forests of Babice, a picturesque hamlet, 25 miles from Prague, OpenGate School is endowed with natural beauty. During the summer months, ( a novelty for me !) children often indulge in cherry picking within the school campus. Enclosed in a large campus of around 100 acres, the school includes facilities such horse-riding, swimming and cycling ( all in-house). Established in around the same time as DAIS, the school is run as an NGO since 70 percent of the students are on a scholarship, funded from primary school to high school, by the philanthropist-industrialist, Douglas Kellner.
With the spread and size of the campus along a strength of 300 students, the campus exuded a crisp air of spatial freedom. The average classroom size of around 5-9 students made it ideal for individualized and differentiated learning to be practiced without any anxiety about timelines. The verdant and salubrious surroundings encourage lot of group activities to be conducted outside classroom. In one of the middle school English classes, group activity and discussion beneath the pine trees outside, reminded one of Plato’s academy as seen in paintings of ancient Greece.
The first teacher exchange program was treated with lot of enthusiasm and engagement from both sides. Our reception at the school was warm and familial. The faculty and students were helpful through the month on guiding us in finding our way around the campus. The students, from primary to senior school, were remarkably polite in greeting and addressing us. There were generous in offering advice on cultural orientation and a quick travel tips and tricks in the Czech Republic.
The school’s commitment to making education an ‘enlightening experience’ while also adhering to ATL ( IB Approaches to Teaching and Learning ) was exemplified in the nature of learning skills practiced in IB English A : Language and Literature program. Instead of reading texts in classroom followed by discussion ( a common practice ), there were various formative assessments designed to encourage independent thinking such as : writing poems based on individually assigned chapters, connecting chapters to personal experiences, making video logs and showing them to the class, word quizzes, role playing and connections with other subjects. These exercises brought forth the key principles of Approaches to Learning such as Thinking skills, Social skills, Self-Management skills, Research Skills, and Communication Skills. More so, learning was challenging and fun since it was made to be more of a discovery than a memorization of facts and principles. The strong conceptual learning displayed by students was evident in the summative assessments done later. I had a chance to peruse some of these. It was refreshing to see such display of creativity and imagination in bringing forth the key aims of the literature : understanding of human conflicts and one’s position in the world.
The key strength of the school and learning experience for me was how the nature of formative assessments had a well-thought vertical intergration component built-in into the planning. For example, the IB students had already done media studies and analysis in earlier classes ( as early as grade 8 ). They had also been doing summative assessments in grade eight and nine, which had a resemblance to those in IBDP. For example: The Written Task that students in IBDP write ( thrice ), have already been practiced as imaginative and creative assignments in grade 9. Another instance of this vertical integration was that I was shown some V-Logs of students submitted as film reviews. To practice speaking in front of a camera at this early stage enables student to come to IBDP with strong public speaking (communication) skills and catapults them into making beautifully coherent FOAs ( presentations ) when they come to the DP later.
The Theory of Knowledge classes, to be candid, showed a striking similarity with students from DAIS. Engaging, interactive and knowledgeable, the IBDP year 1 students at Opengate were as reflective and inquirers as the students at our school. For the TOK classes, for some time in the class, I forgot that I was in a different school. This made me realize how knowledgeable and reflective were the DAIS students. The striking similarity with student responses and questions classes in ethics and human sciences also was a testimony to the nature of inquiry in these classes.
Opengate Teacher exchange program was a sharp lesson in cultural experience. The independent learning and stress-free life of students and faculty was a novel experience which set me into a deep reflection of working styles and time management. These are lifelong experiences which will stay for a long time to come.
- Dr Bipin Shah