අවින්‍යා වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන මඟ, Razzle Dazzle, Crossword Puzzles and Fun with Tech (#27)

රන් තැටියට හිඟමන් යදින

සුබසාධන ක්‍රමය වෙනස් කරන

අවින්‍යා වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන මඟ

බණ්ඩාරගම අවින්‍යා ඇකඩමිය දැන් ලංකාවට මඟඇරුණු වෘත්තීය මඟ පැහදිලි කර දී ඇත. එය ව්‍යාපෘති මූලික අධ්‍යයන ක්‍රියාවලියකි. පළමු මාස 6ට අයත් බලගැන්වීමේ වැඩාසටහන, විසිඑක්වැනි සියවසට ඉල්ලන වෘත්තීය සහ ජීවන කුසලතා මතු කිරීමට අවධානය ගනී. ඉතිරි වසර දෙකක කාලයට අයත් වෘත්තීය පුහුණුව මඟින්ත මන් ලෝකයෙන් අයදින්නකු නොව ලෝකයට අළෙවි කරන්නෙකු බව අවින්‍යා සිසුන් අවබෝධ කර ගන්නවා ඇත.

තනි තනිව විෂයයන් ඉගෙන විභාග සමත්කරන ආත්මාර්ථකාමී ඉලක්කය වෙනුවට අවින්‍යා සිසුන් කණ්ඩායම් හැඟීමෙන් නිශ්පාදන ඉලක්කයක් කරා ප්‍රායෝගික පියවර තබා ඇත. නිවසේ ඉවතලන ද්‍රව්‍යය ප්‍රතිචක්ක්‍රීයකරණය කිරීමෙන් ඔබබට ගොස්, එයින් නව නිශ්පාදන කළ හැකි බව තම පළමු පාඩමේදීම ඔවුන් අවබෝධයට ගැනීම නිදසුනකි. එම කණ්ඩායම් ක්‍රියාවලිය නිශ්පාදන ආර්ථිකයේ පදනම ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට අත්‍යවශ්‍ය සාධකයකි. රන් තැටියකට හිඟමන් යදින සුබසාධන ආර්තිකය ද රට බංකොලොත් කිරීමට හේතු වූ බව අවින්‍යා සිසුන් ඊළංගට අවබෝධ කර ගනු ඇත. ‘රන් තැටිය’යනු තමා සතු කුසලතාවයයි.

ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය කුසලතාව මතු කරන්නක් නොවේ. අඩුම තරමින් වසර දොලහක පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය ඇසුරේ නොලද නවමු අත්දැකීමක් විඳ ගන්නට අවින්‍යා ඇකඩමිය ඉඩ සලසා ඇත.

ලංකාව, නොමිලේ අධ්‍යපනය හෙවත් සර්වජන අධ්‍යාපනය ක්‍රියාවට නංවා 2023 ට වසර අසූවකි. විචාරශීලී සංස්කෘතික සමාජයක් සඳහා, සිත කය දෙක සමබරව ජීවිතය හැඩගස්වා ගැනීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වනවා සේ ඉදිරිගාමී ආර්ථිකයක් සඳහා ශිල්ප සහ ශාස්ත්‍ර දෙක සමබරව අධ්‍යනය කිරීම ද අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වේ. එහෙත් ශිල්ප කොටස ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපනයට මඟඇරුණි. ශාස්ත්‍ර කටපාඩම් කරන අධ්‍යපනය රටට අත්කර දුන් වටිනාකමක් ද නැත. එම මඟඇරීම රට අද මුහුණ දෙන ආර්ථික අර්බුධයට ප්‍රධාන හේතුවකි. වැටුණු වළෙන් ගොඩ ඒමට මඟඇරුණු ශිල්ප මඟ, ඉනිමඟට ගත යුතු බව වටහා ගන්නට අවින්‍යා සිසුහු උත්සාහ කරති. අවින්‍යා ගුරුමණ්ඩලය ඔවුන්ට ඒ සඳහා අත්වැලක් වී ඇත. කණ්ඩායම් හැඟීම කුළුගැන්වීමෙන් එම අත්වැල සවිමත් කර ඇත. 

ලංකාවට වැරදුණු මඟ යළි නිවැරදි කර ගැනීම පිණිස වහාම අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ ආත්මාර්ථකාමීව හිතන පතන ස්වභාවය වෙනස් කළ හැකි ජාතික වැඩසටහනකි. අවින්‍යා ඇකඩමිය මඟින් හඳුන්වා දෙන ව්‍යාපෘති මූලික ඉගෙනුම් රටාව ඒ සඳහා දායකව ඇත. වටිනාකම් ඉතිරි වන්නේ අනෙකා ඉවසන සාමූහික පෙළගැසමකින් බව ඒත්තු ගැන්විම අවින්‍යා අධ්‍යයන රටාවේ විශේෂත්වයයි. 

අවින්‍යා පදනම සර්වෝදය හා එක්ව, ‘රන් තැටිය’ හෙවත් සහජ කුසලතාව මතුකරන මෙම වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය ක්‍රියවට නංවයි. බණ්ඩාරගම අවින්‍යා ඇකඩමිය රටට මඟඇරුණු අධ්‍යාපන මඟ පාදන පළමු ඇකඩමියයි.

- Lakshman

Hello and a wonderful Friday to everyone who keeps popping in to read our weekly blogs! It is Educator take over week because as I'm writing this, Anju is still sitting in her borrowed office mumbling at her computer. It was time.

Project Runway

We at Avinya are now hitting our stride, week three arriving on the heels of the euphoria of finishing off our first project successfully last week. All of us entered the week fresh faced, knuckles cracking and with much more sound knowledge on upcycling than we did two weeks ago. This time our students are combining their new found knowledge on upcycling with some razzle and dazzle for our next venture: project runway. That's right! Who needs a personal shopper when you have Avinya? 

Students spent the week deep diving into global fashion throughout the ages and have made some interesting discoveries that will take form next week. We needed words, words, words to talk about all the clothes, clothes, clothes. All the input sessions were consolidated by a fun activity of designing a crossword puzzle which was taken up by students with much enthusiasm. Can you solve our crosswords? Winner gets an Avinya original piece from our runway.

Extra curricular activities

Our extracurriculars this week saw students wholeheartedly throw themselves (a little too literally) into house competitions. So far, house Earth is in the lead (In the distance: gimme an E!, gimme an A!...), followed by Air, Water and Fire. The students have been keen contributors in planning these activities and eager participants in each round. The birds in the area took flight when they heard the victorious roars of all the houses trying to get the upper hand in the competitions. We hope to make it a common occurrence.

Student Magazine

“Epic journey of Avinya” will be coming to you in a week! Our new student magazine team is hard at work brainstorming creative avenues to produce our first ever student magazine for the Avinya Academy. Our editors-in-chief are ever ready to take on responsibility and head the team. Our marketing managers are busy making sure everyone has a chance to be equally involved in this creation and our fact checkers are on their toes, to make sure all the information is current and free of any falsehoods. All exciting stuff! 

Tech set-up

Amidst all the other exciting developments, this week we’ve set up the laptops and mobile phones that the students will be using for their digital learning this week. Woohoo! A big thanks to Samisa and his team; Zaeema, Rujhan, Yujith and Lahiru who have been superstars this week, making sure all the students had the required support to set up their devices successfully. We still have some steps to complete but we’re now pros in identifying which squares have traffic lights and how to put on a protector for our phones.

All in all, it’s been an exciting and busy week at Avinya. The adventures keep happening and we keep rolling with them. Of course, the day is not over unless someone makes Rujhan uncomfortable with a random “what’s up?” and Vihan has mentioned the leopard run (more on this in the future) during our post-lesson catch ups. 

Anju is having attachment issues and wants to mention some more things to our readers. Sinalie out, we will catch up with you next week!

- Sinalie

As my lovely colleague, Sinalie’s mentioned above as I write this blog, I’m still usurping her office. I’ve grown on her now. She’s very kind to me whenever she’s around and puts up with me talking to the computer, myself and my unannounced sound effects.

I’m not sure how many of you are like me or maybe I’m just weird but I thoroughly enjoy talking things through in my head. I’m lucky that sometimes there are other people around me to share these thoughts. Perhaps they are just being polite but ah well - we start talking to each other and then… look there’s a whiteboard and we go crazy! As someone from the academic field, I have met a good whiteboard in my day, but I don’t think I’ve put one to good use as I have in my Avinya journey. It has helped many a time to lay it all out, bring in pieces from everywhere, pick someone’s brain and then make it all whole (well as whole as one can make it in!).

My thoughts shift as I hear whoops of fun. 

I pop my head out and I hear the extracurricular Educator’s random instructions - shout, go, move, stand up straight, cup and I hear lots of laughter. 

It’s mirrored by the next Educator.  The energy, the vibe, the passion is clear when you watch them all. We are lucky to have such a great team. The enthusiasm bubbles over to the students who are having so much fun. But you know what? I don’t hear fun. I hear self confidence being built, I hear a team being born, I feel the spirit of Avinya evolving and weaving into a tapestry of hope! That’s what I hear 🙂

Right, that’s my epiphany / nostalgia out of my system. Onto project 2! 

The students have been amazing as we started off on project two.

We are taking the upcycling concept to the world of fashion. Yes, that’s right, here we come! We’ve been raiding our cupboards for used clothes for resources and can’t wait to see what our creative bunch of students produce for their final product. 

Instead of going abstract and high level, I’ll go minute and detailed. Have you ever had to sew a button on your shirt or blouse? Have you ever had to patch up a tear? I know I have and whether you are male or female these are basic skills one needs. 

That’s not all.

Have you ever thought about how to price something? 

How to create a product that has a need or demand? 

Well this is the critical thinking boundary we are pushing this week. We decided after our first project that in our next one we want to push the bar higher and it will be all about enhancing and upgrading critical thinking. 

There’s so much of our life where we aren’t allowed to think for ourselves, we aren’t allowed to ask why or step out of a well defined box. Then you are let loose into the world and you get overwhelmed and lost. It happened to me and I’m sure this possibly resonates with some of you.

So, we want our students to not just be - not overwhelmed and lost. We want them to be trailblazers in whatever career pathway they choose. The only way to do that is always ask why and look at better ways of doing things.

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." —Coco Chanel

And while on the mission to be irreplaceable and different one does also encounter mountains and stumbling blocks.

“When something goes wrong in your life, just yell “Plot twist!” and move on.” – Unknown 

I like this way of dealing with the curve balls. To the extent that I’m known for my hysterical laughter when the going gets tough ;)

It’s our second week in our Avinya Bandaragama home and it’s been a challenging one. Don’t worry, definitely not close to hysterical laughter level tough 🙂

So with all the fun this week, how has it been challenging?

Well, we’ve been dealing with the elements. 

The heat and the rain. Both have posed some interesting stressors for our new campus.Some of us deal better with heat and some of us deal better with rain? Which one are you? I’m a team rain kind of person.

We had to deal with some teething issues in our new home with both so personal preference wasn’t considered ;) But what I love about our team is we take it all in our stride and they have the amazing ability to laugh it all off, pick up the next piece, fit it in the puzzle and out pops a very happy student ;) you get my drift. The show goes on and the stars go on stage unaffected. 

Technology

Sinalie’s talked about the fun we had with phones this week but the air of excitement all around was unmistakable. We also had some fun with the laptop set up which are using for classroom use. Let me tell you, it was the first time I had to open a laptop from a box, plug cable parts in, charge them and who knew you actually needed to fit the straps together of the backpack that comes with it. I clearly haven’t lived ;) 

I also learnt that my strengths clearly are not taking things out of packages neatly. Which the team can attest to. So much so that we decided my skills were better utilized carrying things to and fro. It was stressful, I won't lie to ensure everything was ready in time for class start time, but it worked out. No resting though because just then the internet stopped working. Then we really knew it was going to be one of those days! 

But you know what I admired?

The way everyone just got on with everything. Nothing phased them and it went from problem 1 - oh I’ve got a solution, problem 2 - shall we try this? - to eventually oh look, we’ve solved the problems for today!

If you like predictability and calm then the Academy job doesn’t do that and what I’ve noticed is we ride the wave, laugh off what we can’t take home and get up again the next day with a spring in our step.

Operations and Logistics has had another week of fun, trying to find our rhythm with operational expenditure, logistics, and daily scheduling. Training up our support team and empowering them is something we are working on and we are slowly chipping away at this very important component. 

Finally, a big thank you for reading and following us. I’d like to add a short note on how anyone interested could get involved.

This was actually a comment on our Avinya public discussion group and a very valid one. At the moment, we are still settling in. We would love any and all support.

If there’s a skillset that you’d like to share, please do write to us and we’ll add you to the list. We have a list of well wishers and while we may not have something immediate we will get in touch when we do.

Until then, do cheer our students on. They are breaking walls, pushing through mental blocks and working very hard to carve out a future for themselves.

See you next week if unless I’ve worked through my attachment issues.

- Anju