Language & Cultural School Happenings

ISW School celebrates 30 years next year!!

In 2017, Neena Mohanka made this video (30 mins)  to celebrate the 25th year. Thanks to her persistence and work with Shrewsbury Media Connection, we have this amazing visual story forever

https://youtu.be/7piMmti2pUA

As one of the oldest Indian Languages program in New England, ISW Cultural and Language School was started by Carolyn Passey , Nalini Goyal & Pushpa Joshi in 1992

We stand on the shoulders of our veteran volunteers Usha Verma, Priti Dayal, Nisha Bawa, Sushmita Bando, Ragini Seth, Alka Yadav-Mehta, Neena Mohanka and many more

We are fortunate to have such dedicated volunteers.  The school has grown to 140 students , 5 languages  and a staff of 40+ teachers.

Hope to have a get together in 2022 send email to school@iswonline.org if interested.

Ruchi & Shiamin

ISW School assemblies are fun, remarked the students at ISW School

ISW school offers a variety of activities including crafts, religion, story time  If you have an idea or want to share your travels in India or knowledge of Indian culture, please contact Ruchi.

For today’s assembly we had story time with our parent volunteer -Subhashini.  She read the story from Panchtantra  'Musical Donkey' and 'Sky is falling' With our new AV equipment with  the illustrations were projected on the large screen TV . Kids were very engaged  and learned about the moral lesson behind the stories.

For the second part of the assembly kids participated in a winter craft lead by Our teacher Bindiya Jain and supported by our  teachers ,student teachers and parent volunteers. Younger kids had a chance to decorate wooden ornaments and decorate snowman and older kids made colorful festive pop up Cards.

Kids enjoyed both activities.  

OPEN HOUSE for Kannada classes   on  February 5th, 2022  Saturday.

REGISTRATION LINK
https://iswonline.org/event-4626185

Also we are in discussion talks about a possible partnership with  SAMSKRITA BHARATI USA, to commence beginning Sanskrit for children and adults in 2022 at ISW.   More info on their website https://www.samskritabharatiusa.org/index.php/about

Hi

Interest Survey Sanskrit & Kannada Classes at ISW

If you or your child is interested in taking beginner's classes in Sanskrit or Kannada, please complete the survey here

Link to Youtube Garba assembly

Last week , the ISW School had a fun assembly on our new outside Patio, built by funds donated by Vithal & Bharti Bhakta.

It was conducted by the Gujarati teachers.  Anjali Amin, the new student teacher taught the children on how and why Navratri is celebrated in different part of India. All the teachers then showed how to do Garba which  is danced in a circle while barefoot. and Dandiya Raas which is also danced in a circle barefoot with Dandiya (wooden sticks) .

Presentation Summary:

In the east, Durga puja is celebrated over the last 5 days of Navratri. Durgashtami is the day that Goddess Durga slayed the demon. On this day life sized clay idols of goddess Durga and the demon are immersed in water after being worshipped for 5 days in a temple.

In North India, Navratri is celebrated as the victory of Lord Ram over the demon king Ravan. Durgashtami is the day that Goddess Durga slayed the demon. On this day life sized clay idols of goddess Durga and the demon are immersed in water after being worshipped for 5 days in a temple.

In South India, during Navratri, friends, relatives, and neighbors are invited to look at the Kolu, which is a display of different idols and figurines of Goddess Durga.  

In western India Navratri is celebrated with Garba and dandiya Raas, which is danced everyday of the 10 days navratri is celebrated. 

July Storywalk® at Lake Street Park, Shrewsbury.

 Throughout the month of July - Walk through the park and read the Hindi book: Malli written by Jeeva Raghunath.  Listen to Ruchi Chauhan as she narrates the story in Hindi & English. This bilingual Storywalk® was created in partnership with Shrewsbury Public Library, Park & Rec Staff and ISW's  Cultural and Language School. Priya Rathnam, Director, Shrewsbury Public Library had approached Arathi Cowlagi, also on the Friends of SPL, to add multilingual version this summer. With Ashish's help, we added QR Codes, so  the children can enjoy the story in Hindi and in English. The pages were printed and laminated and the Parks and Rec staff installed the stakes and affixed the pages. The Friends of the Library funded the books and the lamination costs.

We hope to add more Indian languages to create awareness of the different languages offered by the ISW  School. There are other StoryWalk projects installations in 10 neighborhood parks across Boston.

---Ruchi Chauhan & Arathi Cowlagi

ShabdMadhura Marathi Bee-ISW Marathi Shala.pdf

On May 22, we held the ISW School's Annual Day program at INDIA CENTER.

The event was held on the patio and their attendance certificates were presented by the teachers.  The attendees  wore masks and followed social distancing.   Almost 95 students  came with their parents in three shifts, per their classes, as listed below . 

1.00 to 1.45 pm Tamil, Telugu, Hindi K1 Beg, Hindi 4

2.00 to 2.45 pm Gujarati, Hindi K2, Hindi 2 Beg and Adv, Hindi 3,  Hindi Adult, Hindi ++ Beg

3.00 to3.45 pm Marathi, Hindi K1 Adv, ,Hindi 1, Hindi ++Adv

 Many donated toiletry items to support  Nalini Goyal, one of  the founders of the school for ‘Gifts of Hope’.  In all we also collected $130 in donations also for it.

 We presented graduation certificates to  our 5 Hindi School graduates, Tanvi Gahlot,  Leisha Gupta, Prachet Mahawar, Priyanshu Sahu, and Diya Sadhu.  They had prepared appreciation speeches for Sonia entirely in Hindi.

We also want to give a big shout to Carolyn Passey for preparing the certificate of attendance for each and every one of our 140 students.  "Thank you Carolyn", and the calligraphy tags made by Suchitra and cupcakes by Priya Vaidya

As the year draws to a close , we specially want to thank our 4 student teachers, Mansi Gera  (taught Hindi for 2 years) Krishnaa Amin (taught Gujarati for 5 years) Menaja Raja (taught Tamil for 5 years) and Aanya Sachdeva (taught Hindi for 2 years) .   All the best to Mansi, Krishnaa, and Menaja who are off to college.

 Donation for Teacher Appreciation 2021

HI Parents, it is that time of year again, the academic year draws to an end.  Many of you wanted to show your appreciation for the great volunteer work done by the ISW  Language Teachers, Assembly Teachers and Staff.  Our school has been going strong for 28 years with the support  of our teachers, so thank you to them.  
Last year $900 was donated on behalf of teachers to Greater Worcester Community Foundation GWCF for the 'FIrst Responders Fund'. This year as agreed  by the teachers the donation collected for 2021 will go towards the ISW building expansion fund. Once again thanks to all the teachers and volunteers for their hard work and dedication.

 Should you wish to donate, you may do so at this link by the end of June 2021 and once thank you for your support

 https://iswonline.org/page-18137

We are very proud to announce that Mansi Gera, ISW School Hindi Student Teacher for two years and a graduate of ISW Cultural and Language school, achieved the Seal of Biliteracy for Hindi at Westboro High School this month.

Congrats to Mansi for going one step beyond, we are very proud of you.

The state of Massachusetts and the Department of Education describes the award as “A recognition of students who have achieved proficiency in English as well as one or more additional languages. It is a statement of accomplishment that helps to signal evidence of a student’s readiness for career and college, and to engage as a global citizen.” The State Seal of Biliteracy is an award that recognizes high school students who attain high functional and academic levels of proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation.

---Ruchi Chauhan and Shiamin Melville