rules..happiness ka naya funda

This year,I am not a class teacher and am not teaching anything. In school, any rumour about anything remotely connected to free periods, holidays or teacher- on –leave and any class without TEACHING travels like wild fire .So, a teacher who will not teach is a fact that kids find difficult to believe and accept. They always have a sneaking suspicion that we are saying that only to get their attention.(most of the time we do).The sad thing is that kids are so conditioned to being TAUGHT, that a class without teaching seems like a paradox to them.
My new project probably deserves a full post. But, in the meanwhile here' s a small excerpt from a book, that I discovered accidentally and read out in class as an opening activity.

‘Seven habits of happy children” by Sean Covey has seven wonderfully written stories, that are interesting,funny yet convey the message in a very non preachy kind of way.(kids are very very wary of moral stories and they have this remarkable ability to pretend to listen to such stories with their minds completely off).


Read the book and the 'happy rules', if you have kids aged 5-12 years or if you are a teacher or work with kids and above all if you have a grumpy kid locked inside you somewhere .
I incidentally fall into all of the above three categories.

1. You are in charge of your own fun.
You can make your own fun.You don’t need others to make it happen. Just look around there are things waiting to happen.

2.Say sorry,if you have been rude, much before you are asked to apologise.


3.Plan your tomorrow.Be it clothes or homework.or your day.Save time,it saves money too.Plan ahead of time.


4.Don’t procrastinate.Be proactive.

Do what you have to do so that you can do what you want to do.


5.Seek first to understand,then to be understood.Listen before you talk.Listen with your eyes,your heart ,before you listen with your ears.


6. Complete your wish list. It’s your wish list and only you can fulfill it.


7.1+1 synergise,value differences, but work together to make a difference.

P.S
Some of these rules may need explanation especially when you read it out to the younger ones.Let me know what you thought about the book.

IN...STUCK....TIONS ! !

MASALA THAT MAKES NO 'HEAD OR TALE...TAIL ' !!!

Run Maddi Run

On Sunday May 31st,if you were on the road at 7 a.m with your sneakers on,with a large beaming smile,chances were that you were headed towards the Kanteerava Indoor stadium.If it wasn't the sneakers, then the little rug sack with the bright sunfeast logo gave you away.In our case,it couldn't have got any more obvious.We had our pin numbers proudly pasted on our tees.The autofellow didn't need any coaxing.Nobody seemed in a hurry to get to anywhere,yet looked focused. It seemed all roads in Bangalore led to only one destination.Even if they didn't ,everybody intended to make it to the same place.For a change being just one among thousands didn't feel as bad.This wasn't a race,it was more of a carnival.
You don't get many chances of running a marathon,not winning it and still feeling like a winner in the end.



Marathon statistics

Total participants 2009 sunfeast: 23,150
Majja run participants: 13,000
distance covered : 5 kms
race war cry: RUN MAADI RUN
Total Time spent on training : 2 weeks
last time you ran a race ever : NEVER
personal race timings : how does it matter !!!
No. of smiling faces in the stadium(including the sick bay): countless
race motivation factors:Milind Soman,cameras and being captured by the media.
prize trophy:an apple,a packet of biscuits,a sweet bun that never tasted better
sweat
laughter
and loads of memories.

in the picture,in order of best timing

Anshul finished the race first in 30 mins and spent the next 30 mins looking for his mother and the next 3 hrs rubbing my(poor race timings in).Padma was extremely focussed,on tracking Milind Soman,so she came in second and Shanu and Me decided to share the third position,as we felt the podium generally accepted three positions only.