Hindi Immersion
I took the initiative along with Sahil to organize the Hindi immersion event. This was the first of a kind in the school and we were excited to make it worthwhile. The purpose of the event was to immerse the students into the language of Hindi and make them speak purely Hindi. The significance was that, all around the globe, English language has started to penetrate into every culture and language. So it was important that we make them relive the Hindi language that is forgotten. To make it interesting, we thought of keeping the theme as Bollywood so students could cherish the once-spoken language and also have fun.
We had nearly 10 days to do the entire planning. With this time constraint, we started our work right away. We ideated about what all things are we going to do and how do they help in achieving our central aim – hindi immersion. We made a plan and then consulted the ideas with teachers and students. After their suggestions, we reworked on it and made the changes accordingly. We sent our requirements to the respective people to have it ready on the day of the event – mics, shooting to be done, whiteboard and marker, etc.
We also sent mails for the introduction to the event, and explaining the event so we do not waste anytime on the day itself, as we had only one slot to finish 3 activities. We spoke to teachers from grade 11 and 12 to judge the event. We wanted one teacher from grade 11 and one from grade 12 so as to remove any bias in making judgements as it was a faceoff between grade 11 and grade 12. Finally, two teachers agreed to judge the event.
As we had less time left, I thought that a good way to reduce burden and divide the tasks in the limited period of time was to designate responsibilities. We sent a mail to the grade 11 students, asking if anyone is interested to volunteer for the activities. We got just enough volunteers to plan and execute the activities – 2 for each activity. We provided a basic idea of our plan but told them that they were free to add/change it; it was their own thing. I feel this motivated them to work as they felt in control. Nonetheless, we stepped in their part whenever needed so as to ensure the event quality is not compromised.
Sahil and I coordinated the planning of the event. We sat together calmly and discussed the outline, followed by every details that we could think of. We would also share progress of each activity by the volunteers and other preparations about the event (lights, music, resources). This was helpful; communicating and coordinating gave us a direction to work towards and we did not feel lost. For the 10 days, we were completely involved in the making of the event and constantly monitored work of volunteers, and did our part as well.
On the day of event, we faced a time crisis. The first activity took longer than it should so we had to revise the next activities by eliminating some portions of it. This was the last moment challenge we faced and had to be solved immediately. Furthermore, the whiteboard marker was not in place as per our request. We then decided to display the scores and other details on the screen by connecting it to the laptop which had to be done on the whiteboard. The two grades also didnt cease to make chaos in the xBox and people from the organising had to often ask them to maintain the decorum. What I learnt was to always imagine what situation will be and then plan activities, also keep some time spare for any mishappenings.
The ethical implications that came our way was to no be biased towards grade 11 in any way. We ensured this by asking the grade 11 volunteer to prepare dares for grade 12 and the other way round (for the third activity). We also did not disclose the quiz to anyone in our grade and let there be healthy competition. One more thing, we had to make sure that we did not violate any school policies, for example, inappropriate songs or pictures taken from Bollywood. We fulfilled this part of our duty too.