Staring Rabbit: Staring Rabbit: My School Fly Over Bridge

My School Fly Over Bridge 

My writing for today is a Rejoicing Note to My School Bridge.

Bridge is well known for its beauty and its breath taking structures. Besides
connecting the people, it also satisfies many learning needs of human mind from
the different shapes and structures as one may think so. 

Bridge connecting the academic blocks and the two  hostel

One bridge or a canopy in a school campus is rich in flashing back the passing
memory of the children being in school while he gets pass out from the school.

No wonder Bridge did wonders to our ancestors and even at this generations bridge
tells the story of Bhutan. It is seen prominently in big river confluence or in
the town to avoid unnecessary crowd. Building bridges in the past brought
people from various Dzongkhag together and laboriously they came up with
magnificent, appealing and admiring structures to connect various Dzongkhang.

I think our school is only a school that deserves the bridge besides its huge
expenditures and other infrastructures in need of. The distance between the
hostel, kitchen, Multi-purpose hall and the academic blocks is like visiting
Taktsang from the base to top. But installing of the bridge since 2013 helped
the struggling children with the huge school bag to reach inside learning room and
as of now they are walking wearing smiles through the Bridge.

 None of the school had the luxury to walk on a
long snaking bridge like ours in Pema gatshel. However, there seems to have
different story of the Bridge in my school. They say it was the gift of former
Prime Minister to fulfill  the needs of the Zobel people when people had
disputes over new road constructions. School got the bridge because of the
feeder road running via the school vicinity.

The bridge in my School is an inspiration to the aspiring engineers inside the
classrooms. It is also used in introducing the number counts and the concepts,
so children learn excitedly counting their steeps while crossing.

For some it has become a place for taking the photos, dating place while for few it
is a place for seeking the mobile network coverage. 

Ongoing Wall and Ramp Constructions for Special Child

Here at my school many adore the beauty of the bridge, and appeal you to walk and
watch the cold beaten children walking inside the rooms; you can hear the
unheard songs and the cry of the children from the two hostels. You will get
the refreshing air to your tensed mind. It stands like a watch tower in the
place.

But there is also a big risk standing strangely with its height and its numerous
steps for the special children. They find hard to walk and breath besides
other enjoying the walk over the Bridge.  Coming of another structure in place is going
to add the beauty of Gonpa School. A wall and Ramp construction is going to do
justice to the Special child. 

Finally I recollect the joke from someone who said “Chuu Mey Pay Zam is also needed in
a place to make it more fun living”.

Staring Rabbit: Gonpasingma School

Teacher Souls searching from student’s Note book 

Sometimes it’s interesting to study the student's notebook and spent further time in analyzing the impact you made in student's learning as a teacher beside  teaching in the four corners of the classroom.

 Note book in a Primary school days could be the memory chips of walking back to your journey of education. It tells your story once as a school goer child. What really makes you a man out of that childish thinking to the great man?

I have failed in my case. I don’t know where did i keep my years of written note book over the dying times. I don't  have ideas of documenting it until I realized it  now for  collecting it for future use than valuing only of the faded certificates.

 Do you remember the numbers of your notebook saved yourself for future use from class PP  till you finish your graduations?

Student Note Books collected for corrections and comments and feed backs.

Your note book is enough to describe your mind in a stage of growing and in the field of learning as a child. It is a treasure house of ideas and concepts. It has evolved  with a time, when I was studying in Class PP; I remember writing on stone slate with chalk.  No doubt many did the same when modern education was still naive in the system of ours.

For over the ages note taking is a process of learning. Note taking is considered to be the most preferred way of learning for centuries. It is widely used in current structure of disseminating the concepts, ideas and the information inside the classroom.

From one angle checking students note book as a teacher is only the means to measure the level of learning and the creativity. Some students have well taken care while few students failed even to put a simple cover, risking the durability of the note-for everyday use in learning and writing. Some students have been very creative in maintaining the notebook in their best of all.  Iconic work can be seen in number of pages celebrating the artistic expressions and the beauty of the mind. Similarly, one can make out clearly who are interested in taking up the joy of learning from scanning the simple notebook of the students. 

An encouraging comments of a  teacher

Some students have scribbled many thoughts in the back page of the notes.  Recently I heard some of the students tend to write their suicide note in the middle of the blank page or in the last page of the notebook. Thus, it is felt as the genuine need of timely checking note-book and look for the necessary intervention.

In light to the change in Education setting, resourcing and teaching, laptop is likely to (techno gadgets) replace the current Note-book.

Gonpasingma School

 Gonpasingma School is a Newly Found Place for Special Children

A school stands on the apex of Zobel village, connecting many villages nearby.
 If you take a distance view from the adjacent motor road, it presents you with an immediate invitation to the place. Historically the place was founded by the local priest Yalo and Kalo as a new hermitage sites more than two decade ago, thus the name Gonpasingma.

school standing in a distance view from road point

I never dream of being in the place, until I was placed by the Dzogkhag to serve the school.  Once as a primary school goer I had been to this school to participate in the talent hood haunt competition. I remember sleeping in the dusted hostel fighting hard against the chilly aired room. Since then, the place became once again the strange place in my memory. 
Another picture of the school was, students studying in the school were found to have red cheeks due to severe cold weather, thus making it easy for the identification of the previous school. My brother also studied in the school and it was this school that he was shaped and molded to a man of today.
 Once School was well known for producing a good Dzongkha calligrapher. Under the strict monitoring of teacher Jamba.  My brother nearly dropped the school, when he had failed in handwriting improvement.  It is also well-known for the water shortage and producing a good potatoes harvest from the household.
Today school is housing a special room for the differently abled children. It was instituted since 2015 and it is connecting the children from nearby villages like Restang, Norkhe,Zobel and Mongling.
My School being a place for the special child; teachers too were special. Teachers’ receives numerous workshops to fulfill the need of those needy students unlike other teachers and other school.

Teachers discussing the story of Special Child

The School caters the learning need of differently abled children such as autism, hearing impairments and speech impairments.
I have been teaching in this school for two years. My experience of teaching the students were like finding the jewels from the dust. As challenged by the working experience and meeting the learning needs of a teacher, I still find the joy of being in the SEN program.
Every child is treated as special. And teachers do believes in their hard-work and commitment to be the agents of change for those special souls. An inch of change, teachers are able to bring to those students is a big success story.
School is also transforming structurally. Completion of ongoing ramp constructions for the wheel-chaired students will add another structural transformation to the school. There is also a call for the need of changing the old classroom structures for the special children.
SEN school is a special school in Pema gatshel. What if there is no such room for those students, they are likely to become a complete waste to the family and to the nation as a whole. Or they could have become a perfect cow herder or victim of stigma in the public. The nature of disability is a complicated concept for teachers but they do understand it as acceptable.
Therefore, it is important for all of us to be aware of the special, abled and differently abled person in life. You or I may be the next person to sit on wheel chair, so, there lies a question of respecting and accepting them in our heart. Everyone should become one in system of ours.