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Feedback 2012
| Date | May 12, 2013 12:00 - 1:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Host | Brooklawn Middle School, Parsippany, NJ 07054 |
| Topic | Relevance of Sunday School |
| Moderator | TBD |
| Invitee | All current and former students of Vidyalaya who are currently in grade 8-11. We may invite prospects also. |
Agenda
- Student seminar - 55 minutes
- Winner Announcement
Prize
We will have a panel that will judge the presentation against the guielines listed below. One student will be presented with ITunes gift card of $25.00. The decision of the judges will be final.
Idea #1: Seminar
Many families allocate a significant time to help develop a learning environment with other members of the community. We have significant participation when the students are younger, however, we have also noticed a drop in enrollment as the students mature. It could be the case that Vidyalaya has not developed attractive options for the adolescents. It is also possible that families do not see any value of community participation in the growth of the child through the high school years. This conversation is being organized in a seminar format to solicit the opinioin of adolescents.
The participants are free to speak their mind and adults will not exercise any content managment in this conversation.
Suggested Topics
- Sunday School Experience Please describe your sunday school experience. Tell us about how many years you have been here and your role. What do you think is good about sunday school and what do you think can be improved.
- Challenges you face Please share the challenges you face at this stage of your life. Most of the students are second generation americans and growing up in 2013 is different from growing up in 70s and 80s. Are there things that you see other kids doing that you wish you could do.
- Role of community Do you see a role for others to help you through high school years. Are you all set or do you feel that commuity can help you.
- Immediate Future What do you see your life in near future. What would you be doing if everything went your way.
Idea #2: Debate
A series of debates are organized on various topics. We invite 4 students to each debate and it lasts approximately 15 minutes. Each students is required to argue both sides of the issue. We expect to hear only serious arguments and may have a preliminary filter process to select the participants. The primary objective is to display ability to understand both sides of the issue and express it intelligently.
We believe argumnets can be made in favor and against the following statements
Suggested Topics
- Relevance - Vidyalaya is a relevant organization in community
- Content - Vidylaya has been able to provide good content to its participants
- Structure - Vidyalaya model of all-volunteer is a good management model
- General Assembly
- General Assembly is well designed and useful
- We should only enroll those who are willing to come to school at 9:30
- Language Curriculum
- the language classes are well designed
- Learning indian languages is important.
- Learning non-indian, non-english languages is more important
- Nobody should drop out before completing the full curriculum
- Culture Curriculum - The curriculum of Vidyalaya is well designed and helps members of community in growth
- Execution - The volunteers do a perfect job and it is exciting to come to Vidyalaya
- Competition - Vidyalaya is the best run sunday school in the area
Draft email
Dear Friends,
We are writing this to invite all current and past high school students to participate in a seminar at Vidyalaya. The objective is to get feedback from them and to see if there is anything we can do as a community to help them through the high school. All of us deal with the challenge of preparing our kids for the next stage of their life in our own ways and many of us believe that we can do a better job working together.
A description of the idea can be found at http://www.vidyalaya.us/shiksha/feedback-2012.html. We would encourage all kids to participate in it and share their views. Please reply to this email if you are available. Please let us know the email address of the students and permission to communicate with them directly. The moderators may want to talk to them before the event.
Regards,
Pradeep Vashisht, Anurag Rochlani
Speaking Guidelines
- Speak in first person Avoid sentences that start with "you need to do this", start it with "I should be doing it". Instead of saying "you have to do this", use "i strive to do this".
- Equal Time for everyone Please use your time wisely. All participants are required to speak and the person with highest clock usage gets lowest priority for next speaking turn.
- Separate facts and opinions We could not possibly know for sure that college admission process is random. We only know that we have not figured out what works at a particular college. It is a fact if we do not know. It is an opnion if we say that the process is arbitrary.
- Speak positive, avoid negative We should try to use positive approach. Talking about what does not work is of little value. Let us focus on what we know works, it is more helpful.
- Minimize arguments If we disagree with someone, a simple statement stating the disagreement is sufficient. We should avoid explaining why we think a certain idea is unworkable. We should use our words to focus on the positive and what works for us.
- Avoid filler words Words like "Eh", "Ah", "like", "you know what i mean" and waving of hands to explain something are pointless. Please take your time, frame your sentences and then expres them.
- Complete sentences Many time we tend to stop in the middle of a sentence leaving it to the listener's imagination to complete. We should avoid that tendency in an intellectual conversation and speak in complete and grammatically correct english sentences.
- One person at a time Only one person will speak at a time. This is a group conversation, not a dialogue or argument and one needs to wait for turn to speak. There will not by any interruption of the speaker.
- Honesty/Opinion Since we expect everyone to be honest, there is no need to start sentences with words like 'To be honest' or 'I am being totally honest here'. Since we are only expressing what we think, it is also good to avoid phrases like "I think". A sentence is perfect, not when there is nothing to add to it, but when there is nothing to remove from it.
Role of Moderator
The role of the moderator is to keep the conversation going for the duration by inviting different participants to speak. The moderator is expected to keep a clock and after the opening statements is expected to give the person with least amount of used time to speak. The moderator may suggest a topic but the participant is free to speak about anything he or she wants. The moderator has a right to take the microphone away for any reason. The guidelines described above are just guidelines, we expect participants to follow it but the participants are free to express themselves in any manner they see fit. The moderators decisions about time allocation cannot be questioned during the session, the power of moderator is absolute. The moderator does not get a speech of hiw own and needs to limit moderator time usage to a minimum.
Selection
We hope that everyone invited participates. However, if there is an oversubscription, the moderator may decide to invite only some to the stage. We will keep everyone informed should such a situation arises.