Natural Disaster: Tsunami

Migratory Birds

Food Habits Across the Borders

Census as conducted in Developed and Developing countries

Bismarck and Patel: The Iron Men

Caring and Conserving: Flora and Fauna

A Day in Life

Great National Heroes: Gandhi and Mandela

Annual Exhibition- Vasudev Kutumbhkam (World is my family)

Writing a good Blog!

It’s always a good idea to remember that Face to Faith is your chance to teach other people around the world about your life and experiences! Part of the purpose of this site is to give you a voice that be heard around the world about the things that are important to you – so don’t waste the opportunity.

It doesn’t matter how long your blogs are; what’s important is that it is worth reading, and will show people the important ideas, strong feelings, powerful beliefs and key experiences that have made up your lives.

Please make sure that you always use your own words.  Material copied from elsewhere on the internet will be removed. 

What shall I write about?

Well, anything that is worth doing – so good topics might include –

• Your experiences of videoconferences.
• Descriptions of important things in your lives –
• The celebration of festivals (how do you and your family celebrate?)
• Visits to special places (particularly places of worship and pilgrimage)
• Family events (how do your family welcome new babies or celebrate weddings?)

Remember:

• That your readers may not know anything about your culture or faith, so put in lots of detail and explanations.
• To add photos and videos to show people what you are writing about.
• To include your own feelings (and possibly those of others that you’ve talked to) – make it personal! (A really good guideline is to think – “is this something that someone could find out from reading a book?” if not, you’re on the right lines)

Read proactively.

• When you read other people’s blogs make sure that you “favourite” the ones that you think are really good, so they become popular.  
• Write comments – praise what they’ve done, but ask for more detail as well – use them as the basis for starting discussions. If someone is writing about something that is interesting to you, then ask them for more!

For more suggestions on writing blogs, and adding pictures and videos, see our Youtube Channel;

http://www.youtube.com/user/Face2FaithAdm

Special Notice: Visit of German Delegation

Dear Students,

As you know in last one year we have been doing a few international activities in our school. This is to give you better learning experience and exposure to the outside world. This will help you become a more confident and aware global citizen. There is another event scheduled to happen in our school. You will be glad to know that a group of teachers from Germany will visit our school on 11’November, 2011 i.e. Friday.  Since our behavior and our hospitality towards them is an image of our school in their eyes, we need to present ourselves well in front of them. We, also, must try to make it a good and memorable experience both for them and us. I am sure, you will enjoy your time with them and to make that meeting more enjoyable, here is some more information about Germany.

Germany is located at the centre of Europe. Historically Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker (the land of poets and thinkers)

President-  Christian Wulff

Scientists from Germany: Albert Einstein ,Max Planck , Werner Heisenberg, Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel

Other Important personalities: Otto von Bismarck ("The Iron Chancellor of Germany") , Adolf Hitler

Important cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Bonn

Capital of Germany: Berlin

Main Religions: Christianity and Islam

Official Languages: 23 languages but most important is German

Currency: Euro ( 1 EUR= 67.34 INR)

National Flag: Tricolour ( Top- Black, Middle- Red, Bottom- Gold)

National Animal: Black Eagle

National Bird: White stork

Now, here are some common words and phrases in official language of Germany which is German.

Good morning-  Guten Morgen

Good afternoon-  Guten Nachmittag

Hello-  Guten Tag

Hi- Tag

Good bye-  Auf wiedersehen

How are you?- Wie gehts?

 I am fine- Es geht mir gut.

Hello!- Hallo! [hah-LOH]

Dear- Liebe   

This is my Friend- Das ist meine Freundin (dâs îsst my-ne froyn-dîn)

This is- Das ist . . . (dâs îsst)

I am pleased- Freut mich. (froyt mîH)

Me too- Mich auch. (mîH owH)

My name is- Mein Name ist . . . (myn nah-me îsst)

Yes- Ja (Yah)

Please- bitte. (bî-te)

Thank you- Dank (dângk)

My name is- Mein Name ist …. (myn nah-me îsst ….)

What’s your name?-  wie heißt Du? (vee hysst dû)

And you?- Und Du? (ûnt dû)

No- Nein

Photographs of Malaria Day Special VC

Some captured moments of Videoconferences

Where's the Net- A Report

VC Link

To view the recording of Videoconference with Nottingham Girls School, U.K., please see the link below:

 https://www.box.com/s/mqv5cr7wwspf6ktht065

VC Feedback from Facilitator for VC with Nottingham Girls School, UK

Dear Toni and Rachita,

Thank you for participating in your recent videoconference.  I apologize it has taken so long to send out my reflections.  We are having an incredibly busy month.  Please let your students know that they did a wonderful job talking about their daily lives, school activities, and the impact of religious traditions in the community.  Following are my reflections on the VC, but the Face to Faith team is equally interested in knowing your thoughts.  Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey at the end of this email.

Highlights of the Videoconference: 

• Students in both schools demonstrated good listening skills.  They asked some very good response questions and showed genuine interest in finding out about their peers.  I usually have to ask students to be very specific and give lots of description, but your students were prepared to paint a picture of their communities for their partner schools.  After one student explained that people are given sweets before they go on a journey, a student in the UK followed up by wanting to know why.  After talking about sacred animals, students in India wanted to know if there are sacred animals in the UK.  A student answered saying,  ‘We don’t have any sacred animals in our tradition, but we do have sacred places’. She then went on to describe different places she considers sacred.
• Students had a very good discussion about how their faith impacts their everyday lives.  Students in India talked about the blessings that the elder persons receive; the sandalwood that is burned that purifies the air; how the elders touch the ground in the morning to honour the earth; how cows are given special patties to honour their presence.  A student in the UK said that most people in her community are non-believers, but the whole village comes together at Christmas time to celebrate being together.  ‘The festival brings us into a special spirit’.  A student in India followed up by saying, please tell us the story of Christmas. 
• Students ended the VC, by sharing how their personal beliefs impact their actions in the community:  ‘My faith as a Christian influences me to be a nice person.’  ‘I’m an agnostic, but my parents have taught me to be very respectful’.  ‘My faith inspires me to do charity work.’  ‘I have faith in my religious book, it helps me to know how to live’.  ‘I believe that when we help poor people, God will give us blessings.’  It was excellent to see students connecting their beliefs with their actions in the community. 

Learning Opportunities:      

• We did not have time for students to engage in dialogue about how their faith/beliefs/values impact their everyday lives.  This would be a wonderful topic for them to continue to explore on the on-line community.
• It would also be interesting to have a follow up discussion on the ‘sacred.’ Sacred rivers, animals, and places were mentioned.  What makes something ‘sacred?’  How are these ‘sacred’ places/things recognized in your community?  Are they important in your lives?  Why or why not?     

Suggestions for future VCs:

• Your students demonstrated some excellent listening and responding skills.  It is obvious that you have given them time to practice these skills.  I encourage students to continue practicing these basic dialogue skills found in the introductory module.  The more they are practiced, the more skilled your students will become. 
• It would be great to see your schools engage in another VC together.  Perhaps you can discuss partnering for a videoconference on the Wealth, Poverty, Charity module or The Common Word, which focuses on compassion. 

As mentioned above, it is very important for us to collect feedback from teachers so that we can ensure that we are meeting your expectations.  Our short survey only takes a few minutes to complete and can be found by clicking here <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GDVPX2S

Thank you again for a wonderful videoconference.  It was great working with you and your students.  I look forward to working with you again soon!

Warm Wishes,

Kristen