Salutations . . .

It's so great to be home and back in the classroom! I am very proud that Gyaan Ghar students remain engaged, motivated, and highly excited about learning. They are currently on holiday, and come to class at 10 every morning, brushing up on academia and participating in additional activities for about two hours daily.

Today's class started with the washing and drying of chairs to be used in the lawn at our annual Spring Awards Ceremony on the 31st. Once this had been done, the students welcomed me into the classroom to catch me up on what this exciting year has held, and to introduce me to their new classmates.

We spent most of the lesson playing icebreaker games, including the Name Game; Ratna Didi Says (our version of Simon Says); Follow the Leader; and Rock, Paper, Scissors. I was pleased to see students (some of whom were new to these activities) volunteering to lead the games, rather than simply following along.

Next, students separated into smaller groups to start practicing their individual performances for next Thursday's Awards Ceremony. I sat down to chat with our oldest student, Vandna (grade 9) about how her year was going. Vandna joined Gyaan Ghar last year after attending our Spring Awards Ceremony as an invitee of her friend Kajal. She had approached me after the ceremony to share with me what an inspiration our school had been to her, even though she was not formally enrolled. She joined soon afterward, and I am pleased to see that she seems to be enjoying not only her time here at the Learning Center, but also her experience at her full-time public high school. Her hunger for education was very inspiring and reinvigorating to me, and I was lucky to have had a chance to talk to her for a few minutes about school, work, and life.