By Ram Sundaram
Dear Team Crossover,
Hope you got the sleep you deserved on your way back. It’s just been a week since Crossover and so much has happened already:
- PARENTS: A parent is trying to set me up with the local ward Councillor to seek permissions to enable kids in the region to use the basketball court that belongs to a nearby college. They want this programme to be sustainable and through the year.
- TEACHERS: Indrani miss, my co-teacher from the Corporation of Chennai, feels strongly about leveraging the physical education slot in our timetables to take the students to the nearby playground. She is awaiting our Headmistress’ return to convince her with the help of other teachers and seek permissions.
- KIDS: Some of my students will be taking part in the Design For Change contest to be held by the Riverside School real soon. It involves students identifying and solving a problem in their community/city. It’s extremely heartwarming to see their courage and confidence levels peak as they brave conversations with transgenders, the differently abled and many more people on the streets to identify what they can do challenge the status quo.
- TFI: Emily, the TFI Regional Director, is kicked about having us lead a session on Sport in Education at one of our City Conferences while Sandhya wants me to document the journey with Crossover to pass it on to the next cohort to keep the association alive. They are beginning to see value & great potential.
- MYSELF: I am in the process of launching my Be The Change Project (BTCP) on Child Safety. Just pieced together some creatives?? to pitch this in front of our cohort at TFI to build a team. Am also exploring how to leverage sport to prevent abuse. Do shoot me suggestions if any.
Now that’s a huge leap from last year for I am no longer witnessing simple behavioural changes & few values demonstrated by my kids in the classroom, but I bear testimony to widespread impact across the spectrum of influence in education.
From parents to teachers to students to staff to myself; we can’t thank you enough for empowering us to do more. Will keep you posted as we build on our collective learnings and move ahead with determination like never before.
Cheers,
Ram