By Anu Chhabra
For the past five years, I’ve looked for ways to enrich my experience as a Math teacher at Dr. Pillai Global Academy (DPGA) in Mumbai, India. DPGA prides itself on being a “maximum opportunity” learning environment school, designed to impart education that empowers children to pursue a globally challenging career. The focus is on activity-oriented teaching and beyond-the-classroom methods. That’s why Level Up Village was perfect for us.
My name is Anu Chhabra, and this year, I participated in LUV’s Global Conversations: The Giver program, which was enthusiastically completed by my Grade 6 students in the month of March, along with their partner students in Utah.
The mission of Level Up Village is to globalize the classroom and facilitate seamless collaboration between students from around the world via pioneering Global STEAM (STEM + Arts) enrichment courses. We, being an international school, wanted to be a part of this to promote international mindedness amongst our students, along with equipping them with STEAM skills that prepare them to be able learners of the 21st century.
As the class picked up pace, students became very enthusiastic about making new friends in Utah. They eagerly awaited their partner’s video to be uploaded, in which they shared their personal likes and dislikes and their views on the novel “The Giver”. They got the opportunity to research and think creatively about problems in the book, which increased their awareness of the different social issues in both their partner’s country and their own. It also taught them to empathize, to share, and to become global citizens. The use of technology to make digital posters and video collaborations throughout the program was an enriching experience, too. The best part was the live video chat which was done — very enthusiastically — by the students of both partner countries.
During this program, I watched my students learn to be more patient, more social and, most importantly, more confident with each opportunity to exchange their ideas on a global platform. I feel their thinking skills were nurtured through the STEAM-based, problem-solving aspect of the course, and their sensitivity was developed through their relationship with their partners.
I am thankful to LUV for this eye-opening opportunity to participate in their programs.
