FROM US TO YOU .....GR 8 SHARES

"Life skills are abilities that help us to adapt and behave positively so that we can deal effectively with the challenges of everyday life"- WHO

The new globalised world is throwing new challenges in front of the younger generation. To equip them with the skills to cope up with this changing world, it is essential for them to get exposed to different situations and environments. Adventure camps will provide students with opportunities to develop many skills which will help them to lead a successful life. We, at Pathways are looking forward to safe, fun filled and educative adventure camps.  

                                                                                                                                     
     Ms. Gayatri Singh 

The Sports Day

I would have never thought that I would enjoy sports, but when I entered Pathways I was thrilled to discover the  sportsman in  me and I was happy that I found it. The sports practice was very hard and tiring but when the day came I was so excited and when I started playing I couldn’t stop ! The idea of the sports day was to enjoy sports but what we saw was competition. It was the competition between the four houses; Air, Water, Fire and Earth. I was barely thinking about that until the relay race came.  
I was participating in relay race between Grade 6 to 8^. I couldn’t think about anything other than imagining a dog running behind me.  When I finished my part I could see that the last person in my house was coming  I was cheering and  shouting for us to win.  After I finished the first relay I wanted to stand and support the people going for the relay. But when I noticed that my house captain was calling for me, I ran up to him and he told me that I had to go and do the relay again. As I looked to my opponents I realized my brother was standing in the line in his house. And I just couldn’t think of anything except that- I AM GOING AGAINST MY BROTHER! I used the same tactic which I used at my first relay. We did well in the race. Then we  had to assemble in our houses and had to sit for the prize distribution. When they finished the primary and the 6^th grade distribution they announced the first 3 winners and I heard my name come out of the speaker and  I was so excited  I ran and jogged  to get my medal. At the end of the day I GOT 4 MEDALS which were my first four. I was proud of myself and so was everyone who knew me.   I am so happy with my achievements. It was a wonderful experience  , hope I win even more medals next sports day !!! 

                                                                                         -Swagata (Grade 8)

leadership ....

BEING THE CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

John C. Maxwell said – “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

I have been elected as the class representative of Form 8. The students of our Grade are the ones who have elected me as their class representatives. There was a proper procedure where all the candidates had to give speeches and present their ideas to the whole class. I had never done such a thing before and was very excited and bit nervous too. I had always dreamt of this moment and when I became the class representative I was thrilled. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and I believe this is a step towards what I would love to achieve in the future. My goal is to become the School President. When we had trial elections I lost badly. I consider myself lucky that Dr. Advani wanted another set of elections where all the candidates would have to present speeches. So I got another chance, and I grabbed this opportunity with both hands and ensured my position as one of class representatives. I feel proud to represent my Grade and be their voice. I have not made any false promises. I will ensure to fulfill them and live up to their  expectations. I am happy that people have trusted me and selected me as their representative. People’s trust is the most important thing a leader should have. 


I know that if Grade 8 works as a team we can move mountains and achieve almost everything. My main goal will be to create a better bonding among the students of Grade 8 and make them work together as a team. 
Since I had started with a quote I would like to end with a quote by Helen Keller – “ Alone we can do so little , together we can do so much “

                                                                                    -Parth (Grade 8)

VILLAGE VISIT

THE  CONNECTION ..... STUDENTS LOVED THE ANIMALS  

VILLAGE OVERVIEW 

ROOM WITH THE VIEW ...Aash and Pritish went exploring  

THE  N G O ... ITIHAAS

ABSORBING IT ALL IN ....

SURAJ KUND ..... THE KUND THAT WA S

MARCHING AHEAD ...... GR 8 WITH  Ms. Dipti 

INNOVATION !

THE SCHOOL .

GROUP INTERACTION 

CLASS    REPRESENTATIVES   INTERACT .....

ITIHAAS  COORDINATOR   FACILITATING  TALKS 

EXCHANGE OF NOTES 

VIEW   FORM   THE   VILLAGE  TEMPLE 

TIRING AND LONG WALK ... BUT SEE THE SPIRITS ... UNDAUNTED 

                              

Form 8’s trip to the Anangpur and Surajkund  villages was one of a kind. Many of us students carried preconceived notions about villages. But I am sure most of us were proved wrong. After arriving in Surajkund, we were greeted by the Itihaas guides. We were then told about the history of the villages. We met the village “sarpanch” and a few villagers. We also met students of a local government school and learnt more about them. We had an unfortunate experience in the school. But as our teacher rightly said that it was just an unfortunate episode in our lives and we should move on and not cry over spilt milk. Overall the trip was brilliant since we got to know how a village functions and how much it can still improve.

 Tanmay Diwan 

Eragon..... Read It

Eragon is the first book of the inheritance cycle. The inheritance cycle is the name of the series written by Christoper Paolini. The book is about a young farm boy who had lost his parents when he was very young. He then had to live with his uncle and his cousin. He hunts for food. The boy’s name is Eragon. Once when he was hunting he found a shiny stone. The stone turned out to be a dragon egg. There was a raid and Eragon’s uncle was killed. Eragon thus has to escape from the hands of the army of King Galbatorix who wants Eragon’s dragon. With only Brom, the village adviser for company Eragon and his dragon Saphira has to face the forces of the evil king.

-Sohini Singh.

Irish Puppet Show

                                             

On Tuesday 14^th February, Pathways experienced something really different from what we expected. An Irish man name- Tommy Baker put on a hysterical puppet show for the whole school in the MYP Atrium. Everyone was enjoying themselves and laughing the whole time and it was great fun. Tommy was basically the only person doing the puppet show, and he had to act as several different characters who happened to be different people from his (made up for the story) family. The two main characters he acted out were himself and his brother; he kept swapping these roles throughout the show. The sound effects provided along with the show gave a really good effect. The little Primary kids were rolling on the floor laughing. (Literally)

I liked how Tommy Baker interacted with the audience and just made the whole thing memorable.

-Aana Kambhoj (Grade 8)

INTERNET SAFETY WEEK

Internet safety week has been a spectacular week for students and teachers. It was very productive. We made posters about how dangerous internet can be. How it can hurt people’s feelings. The theme of the posters had to be creative and beautiful. I made my poster not that g which didn’t come out as good J;but there were some student who made wonderful posters.  And I also feel there were students who copied some posters, that’s what I experienced . Our school is full creative students who produce some unimaginable work. Pathways rocks.

Pritish 

Form Tutor....tuts

The  old gave way to the new year , we give way to our new  young leaders . New thoughts sprout from fertile ground, so we let them grow their own plants and shrubs in their live's gardens! While the New Year beckoned us with many promises,we never  forgot to give the old year its due.  While we  teach them to live on their own, Our children teach us  to celebrate each moment of life; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
welcoming the new students to class  we celebrate the presence of the love and strong bond that  exists amongs the students of the class.
                                                                                       
                                                                                                Ms.Gayatri Singh

The book I read was Alex Rider: Skeleton Key. It’s an action, thriller, mystery and science fiction. Basically Alex is a talented 14 year old boy who knows karate, 4 different languages, he’s smart, flexible and very talented but he wants to be a normal school boy. He knows what he is capable of but he just wants a normal life and normal friends like every other school boy. His uncle dies and Alex finds out that his uncle was a spy working for MI6, and now MI6 is forcing him to take his uncle’s place. Alex is assigned a mission where he almost gets eaten by a shark, shot in an ambush and getting cut in half. General Sarov is planning to drop a nuclear bomb in a country and starting world war 3. Alex has to go to the island called Skeleton Key and stop the General with his fellow agents. He has to act like a son but he has no experience and his agents hate him, then how will he manage? How will he stop the evil General? He has to risk his life on a strange island to save the world. Alex doesn’t want to do this but MI6 is forcing him to.  The author is Anthony Horowitz. There are many series to Alex rider but this is my favorite. 

Pritish (Grade 8)

Practice: Sports Day

                                               The Sports Day Practice

Earlier , if I even heard the words “Sports Day”, I never used to have a very good feeling about it, but since I started school here I enjoy sports.Now I am excited about the day, the activities, and the competitions between people.  Also, I have improved at sports since I started. The activities seem very easy, but when you start learning, you have to follow specific rules, and that becomes hard. This idea of the Annual Sports Day is just great! I can’t wait until this day comes, and until then I will practice and practice and practice, and that is what matters…for now.

                                                                                        Swagatalaxmi Gr 8

Music Lessons

                                                                      We love them .......

                                   The peaceful sound of the perfect music in the class and coming from the hearts of the students. It is one of the Best classes in this school, and if there was nobody on this earth who does not like music has no compassion for anything. You may be thinking what is so special about music? It has a big impact on me and my class because what we do is very nice, peaceful, relaxing, and FUN!  We not only are given liberty to perform independently but when we are working as a group we are at our best.  I say it is the best way to enjoy and interact with everyone. So if you ask me if music is fun Of course it is FUN! I love my music lessons and teachers … I love the freedom with which we are allowed to be the in the classes.
  CLICK BELOW TO SEE WHAT WE DO IN OUR CLASS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9dFiFpPTZM

                                                                                                         Karan  (Grade 8)

What I feel......

                                            REPUBLIC DAY

                                                              

Someone truly said – “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage “. 
26^th January the day when the India “adopted” its own new constitution in the year 1950. It has been 62 years since we have been celebrating this day.  Every year the national flag is hoisted by the President at Red Fort.  I love to watch the parade, some it’s boring but to me it’s something I eagerly wait for. Through the parade I realize that we are a very powerful country, and if we work together there is nothing that can stop us. I feel ashamed to know that some people in India take it as a holiday which means a day off from office or school. Many people don’t even know the significance of Republic Day.  In my opinion, every citizen of India should know the significance of this day and take pride to be members of a great and developing nation.

Parth (Grade 8)

Holiday Experience

When our holidays started, I was very excited about what I would do in the holidays.  I had decided that I’d have fun the whole day and not study. After spending a couple of days doing that, Christmas came and then New Years and I did have a lot of fun in those special days.

In 10 to 12 days I had to go to Hong Kong and Macau. First I went to Macau and enjoyed our hotel stay a lot. There were so many things to entertain yourself in the hotel that you didn’t feel like going out.

I then went to Hong Kong, My mom and dad had their business fair so during the day I just spent my time playing my Playstation. In the evenings I did a lot of shopping and saw many interesting things. After 3-4 days in Hong Kong I returned to India.  I had a very nice time , the malls and the shops and all the people were so nice .i wish we can keep going back to Hong kong    

                                                                                                                            Tanish (Grade 8)

Transition from England to India

The Transition I made from England all the way to India was not the easiest of them. Even though my family had always made it a habit to come to India as part of the holidays meant that were always up to date with what was going on within the family and in India itself. Though after living in England for 8 going into 9 years, I felt my future always lay in England, friends, education, and job. To me, England was my future and I couldn’t see myself going anywhere else.

After finding out 4 months prior to the moving, I was totally against the idea of us moving back to India. I say this because my father had a choice whether to go or not. I did everything in my ability to convince my father to reject the offer, my effort was to no avail as I found out 1 month later ... WE WERE MOVING! After creating a strong relationship with my friends in and out of school, I felt so sad to leave them just as we were about to begin a year that was bound to be filled with fun as my cricket tour was about to come up in the summer and Duke of Edinburgh expedition was also quickly approaching so I felt bad having to leave events in which I would have many more memories with my friends.

Although a great positive send off from my friends was what I would’ve loved and it was exactly what I got with a great day out with my friends taking ample memories which I’m sure they won’t forget and neither will I. My 8 years in England would never be forgotten by me or my friends, I accept the fact that I would learn more about my home country and be more exposed to the big wide world.After missing my House Rugby event for the 2^nd time in October, I left  for India to find out what would become of my schools, at first my choice was the British School as they had an exact copy of the British curriculum so I thought it would be a much easier choice. But due to some difficult situations I was left to resort to Pathways which I do not regret. After coming to Pathways I was put off straight away by the ongoing construction. I later noticed the small number of students in the school in comparison with the size of the school campus, this came as a big surprise as my previous school in England had a fairly small campus mainly comprising of the sports field but the rest held 1200 students.

After filling the forms and walking right into the door of my future classroom, I was greeted with big smiles and happy shouts of joy as to the new addition of their form. A warm welcome is what every student needs when they enter a school at any time during a school term. It was a day I will not forget as I quickly made friends and was overjoyed to hear how close everyone here was, relationship-wise and distance-wise too.
On the whole, it was a successful transition as far as my social life was concerned but now the work starts and my school begins. It is going to be just as big a rollercoaster ride as my last school. I’m sure.

Advitya (Grade 8)

A tweet from the Form Tutor

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and most patients of teachers. -  Charles W. Eliot

There are a number of pathways to learn the essential lessons of life. One of the most enjoyable ways is through books. The school organised Literary Week, Read-A-Thon and a Book fair in the last fortnight to emphasize the importance of reading books. It was heartening to see the full fledged support of the parents for these activities. We hope for the continuation of such support in the future as well.Now is the time for festivities and resolutions as the New Year is approaching. New Year is the perfect time to look back into the past and make plans for the future. I wish, one of your resolutions is, to be continuing reading.

Wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. 

-Gayitri Singh (Form tutor of Grade 8)

Mark Inglis’ trip to Pathways Noida

On 12^th December 2011, Mark Inglis visited Pathways School Noida.

If you don’t know who Mark Inglis is, he is the world’s only double amputee to climb Mt. Everest.

Mark Inglis’ talk to the school was very inspiring; I was presenting him along with Aash. It was nerve-racking to talk to the whole school because I hardly ever talk to big crowd like that, but I think I managed fine. JAash and I know Mark very well as he is a close family friend of ours. And it felt very special introducing him to the school.

Mark did a short one hour talk to the school about aspects of the journey to Mt. Everest and the lessons learnt from it. He also talked about how he got his legs and fingers amputated and the goals and challenges he has now set for life as a result. Mark is really inspiring; because even though being a double amputee is a struggle, he’s put this disadvantage into an advantage, and carries a positive outlook in life. There’s a lot one can learn from Mark – about having a goal, staying focused, taking calculated risks, working as a team, researching and planning our paths, and more than anything, ensuring a positive attitude.

-Aana Kambhoj (Grade 8)

A word from the world of Design and Technology

 In all my life I thought being a teacher wasn’t  hard but I was completely wrong. From what I have earn about Design & Technology , it is a very complex job.  Some of the objectives of the lesson are     learning technical drawings on computers, and big paper sheets. The most  interesting activities to me  are  the usual wood crafting.  I realize  design and technology  is very important for our lives , our grade and for our  career.

THIS IS WHAT WE  LEARNT , when we met Mr Roger  our D.T Teacher ...                  

what do you think about pathways school by its self?

Pathways, it is a very unique opportunity for Indian students to get education in a different way, more creative way.

So what does it take to be good in Design & Technology?

 It take practice, accuracy, Skills, and effort.  

Well, how do you feel when you interact with students, do you enjoy it?

Yes, as a teacher of course I enjoy it, it is very interesting to get to know different personalities.

 what do you expect from the students next year?

That students should be punctual and more attentive ,  a little more organized . 

Swagata and Karan Malhotra 

Anita Roy’s interview

On 5^th of December, a famous Indian author named Anita Roy visited Pathways Noida. I feel very lucky to have gotten such a wonderful opportunity to interview her.

In our first session she introduced herself and we got to know more about her. You could probably write what she has written about, and name a few books. After that, she read a wonderful story for us which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. As part of the Editorial Board committee, I also got to interview her with a couple of other students. We asked her several questions; my question for her was– “While writing a book do you think before writing every paragraph?  Like do you think about where to put the plots, settings and other major parts of a story or you just keep writing and these things come to you automatically?” She said that she thinks before writing every single part of her book, which I thought was very sensible. This experience has helped me a lot for my personal project as I am also writing a book and I would like to thank Mrs. Anita Roy for clearing all my doubts.

-Parth (Grade- 8)

Studying is not Everything

In the 21^st century people consider being good is studies is one of the many paths to being successful in life. I believe that getting 97% in your board exams and getting into one of the collages like SRCC is not the only path for becoming successful. I mean Sir. Sachin Tendulkar might not be good in studies but he is a role model for millions today. Similarly other activities like acting, singing, dancing, athletics can take you very far in life. We have great examples like- Michael Jackson, Usain Bolt and many more. I don’t mean to offend anyone of you who wants to make a career through academics but I just want parents to let their children do whatever they want to do. They have their own life to live. Parents should just monitor what their children do and guide them if they’re not on the right path. Today several children are forced by their parents to study and leave other activities such as dancing, singing, acting. I am proud to have parents who are always encouraging me to do what I like and I salute all the parents who do the same with their children. This is how our country will progress and this progress needs to happen as soon as possible. There are a few people who are not very rich, don’t have big houses or luxurious cars but they are happy because they get to do what they like. They don’t need anything else from life; they have a reason to live. After all, money can’t buy you everything. Money can’t buy love, happiness and other things which are more important and satisfying.

-Parth (Grade 8)

The Read-A-Thon experience

Read-A-Thon was a very good experience for me because I read for fun and for the benefit of others. This Read-A-Thon  experience is something that I will remember for a long time.We organised this event because all of us in the Middle school wanted to fundraise and collect money for the children who don’t have any clothes. 
All the money collected will go to a Non government organization called Goonj. Goonj aims to make something useful for the people by using old and used material.

Through the Read-A-Thon fundraiser, we plan to donate money for some stationary of Goonj so that it can provide  for the poor children who cannot even by an eraser.  This event taught me  that people can change someone’s life just by putting in some effort.

I would have never thought that I would have to read a book  for charity but I had fun because you could read anything you want. I have already finished a book by the end of a week (which I thought would be impossible for me to achieve) which was pretty interesting and this event made me read the book.  Now I have already ensured that I have some money to give to Goonj.

'Readathon  build a wall' 

I think I had a great opportunity to help them. And I really, really hope that we do this every year in this school.  And even though I am going to go to the Senior School next year I would love to do this event again and again just to help those people out there.

-Swagata (Grade 8)