Flambeau, 50:30:20 and a Passport to Cyberspace #30

Hello!

It’s Isuru again. Another awesome week has passed since our last blog update and we are so excited to share our thoughts and experiences with you people. Personally, last week was so special for me because it was my birthday. I still can’t stop smiling when I think about all the love and surprises I got. I feel grateful to all the amazing people around me, not only in my personal life - but also at Avinya! Life feels good when we surround ourselves with positivity and good vibes.

After the fantastic fashion show last week, our students continued to demonstrate their skills and talents with the project My Digital Passport. Well, it’s a different type of a passport. This passport allows you to access not only one country but a whole world. With this project, our students marked their presence in the world of Internet and CyberSpace. While the new generation is more advanced than ours in terms of technology and its use, there is still a considerable number of students among them who have not even gotten a chance to use a computer. In our venture of Empowerment, we strive to break those barriers and equip them with digital literacy to make them more suitable for the current job market. To make their learning experience more enjoyable, we introduced Google’s InterLand to them, which is an adventure based online game that teaches important lessons such as digital citizenship and cyber security. Students loved learning while playing the online game. At Avinya, we work hard and play hard!

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” - W.B. Yeats

Nothing satisfies a teacher more than a student who shows progress. When our students started sending emails to their Homeroom Educators, we felt very proud of our students. It is indeed a delightful experience because these are a bunch of students who did not have the basic knowledge on how to write an email or even a formal letter. But now they are capable of sending official request emails, statements and they feel confident enough to ask a question about their homework in English. The flambeau has been given to them. They now have to use it to light up their futures!

Financial management skills

Financial management is a topic we all should learn as a country. We see it as a key skill for the personal development of any professional. This is why we decided to have financial literacy as a key lesson in our Empower program. Our students are now familiar with financial management ideas such as saving, investment and the 50:30:20 Concept. We expect our students not just to earn money or to save it all without using it. Good financial management will help our students to enjoy their life better and to get used to a responsible lifestyle.

“Money, like emotions, is something you must control to keep your life on the right track.” - Natasha Munson

At Avinya, We always try to unlock the hidden potential of our students, but there is no single key to unlock them all. This is why we try to make our students multi-talented all rounders. We believe our passion enables us to empower these students to a level where they will come forth and empower another generation even better than how we do.

Let’s meet soon again with another blog. 

Have a wonderful day awesome people! Isuru signing off.

• Isuru

Isuru’s done a fabulous job of giving you a great update from our Academy this week. It’s been an eye-opening one, especially with regard to the disparity in access to technology and ICT related educational opportunities for some. We are so happy to be a part of a solution that gives students the tools to navigate a future filled with so much possibility created in part by a lot of digital enhancement and innovation.

While there’s a lot to be thankful for, we've also been very busy with keeping the ship afloat and steering it to still waters with some choppy waves coming our way. Though it looks like we’ve had smooth sailing, it’s because there’s a whole team below the deck making things happen!

This week, has been no exception to this, we’ve run into one problem after another. The winds have challenged our sails to stay on track.

So, what’s my contribution this week?

A dose of life. 

We tell our students we teach them life skills. Let me tell you some life skills I learnt this week. 

Watch out for the tremors before the cracks begin. Do a self check before all the juggling, all the late nights, all the demands on your time that swirl around you wrap around you too tight.

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are." - Chinese Proverb

I’m sure we’ve all been there and we juggle different things. 

Yet, sometimes one has to end up teetering on the edge, or sometimes slip over an edge to fully come to terms with the need to re-assess.

So here’s my two cents’

• Recognize the signs - it’s different for all of us

• Prioritize

• Everything urgent isn’t important. I always refer back to Eisenhower’s urgent/ important principle as I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog. You can read more about it here: https://www.mindtools.com/al1e0k5/eisenhowers-urgentimportant-principle

Sometimes you find yourself spending too much time on urgent/ unimportant things. It helps to take a step back and take time to breathe 

• Therapy - well you can get proper therapy or everyone has their own form of therapy too. I think it changes and evolves with you. My therapy has been a round or two of Monopoly Deal with a certain special eight year old who somehow always manages to beat me or some good ol' Lego. More than building I enjoy losing myself in the buildings and landscapes we build and playing different characters. My Avinya team will attest to my inclination towards voices.

• Sometimes, you just have to spend some time on yourself, to be more productive elsewhere, wherever that may be.

• Then you can relight your flambeau and see things with a fresh perspective/ light 🙂

That’s all the musings from me this week. A big thank you to the whole Avinya team for getting through yet another challenging week with big smiles on their faces and a spring in their step!

• Anju