The Personal Project- My Experience

When I started thinking about a suitable personal project topic, I was puzzled about where my passion lied. With the deadline to submit my project topic in 2 weeks, I thought of all the possible options: ranging from the creation of a website, making a magazine, to my own organization. At that time I met a movie director, who told me about his experience of documentary making. After listening to him, I was really passionate about this job and wanted to make a documentary for my personal project. Successful completion of this project seemed like reaching the zenith to me.

This documentary was meant to draw the attention of my audience towards the burning social issue of child labor and paint a picture of it within the time of fifteen minutes. I began by researching my topic for few months and then I started visiting villages to expand my knowledge about the subject.  This aided me in framing my own opinions about the matter and not relying on the knowledge of the internet.  These visits made me more sensitive while dealing with the working kids and also while talking to their parents.  At times it was really arduous for me to make them believe that this film is for a noble cause.

My first shoot was the most difficult one. After shooting the whole day, I discovered that my film had disturbed pixels, with background traffic noises, and no clarity. Then I realized the need of better equipment and shooting techniques. Later, I worked on editing which was the toughest part of the whole process. I had never worked on this before, and for my project I was using the most advanced software. After some hit and trials, some falling and rising, at the end of my project I think I can be called a good film maker!

-Divya Tyagi

8B

Adventure camp Grade 6 & 7

Yes, it was time to pack up and I had butterflies in my stomach. I didn't want to leave behind my friends and the time we spent together for the past three days, which were marvelous. Sure, we had some strange and funny incidents, but even they will be memorable. We set off on the 20th of March at hours that seemed nearly alien to us. With so much eagerness in our drowsy and sleepy systems we travelled in an enormous bus to Camp Corbett in Nanital. We had tremendous amounts of fun in our activities there and the ones that really come to my mind are Rock Scrambling and the gypsy ride to deep secluded parts of the jungle, apart from the elephant and horse rides. However, the most intense part of the camp was finding the tiger print on the forest path and learning how they marked their territories.

Through so many activities and learnings, all of us defnitely bonded and that is one of the many things that I will miss from this camp. All in all, I loved being on this camp and I would definitely go again, if given the opportunity.

-Kasvi Bhasin

7B

Adventure camp Grade 8

On the 20^th of March, Form 8 had gone for an Adventure Camp to Nainital for 3 days. We had to gather at the school by 4:30am, or reach the station at 5:30am. The train journey was of 6-7 hours, and we reached Kathgodam around 12:30pm. We then got into a cab, which took us to Camp Anubhav at Nainital. We were divided in two groups: Green Guerillas and Black Commandos. Then, we ate lunch at the camp. After that, we went scrambling, in which we had to get to know the area. Then, we went valley crossing, in which we had to cross the distance between two trees from above, using the equipment we had. Next, we went back to camp for a break, and then we had the silent hour, in which we had to write our experience of the day. Afterwards, we did the Samba, in which we had to make music using scrap material. We then lit the bonfire and sang songs and enjoyed its warmth in the cold night. Soon we went for dinner and we were free to do anything we want in our cottages till we had to go to sleep.

Next morning, we went for a jog. When we came back we were all tired, and we were sent to our cottages. We changed, and then went back down to eat breakfast. We then went mountain biking, and the other group went for rock climbing. We finished before the other group, so we waited for them to finish by playing games taught by the instructors. When the other group had finished, we switched activities, and we went for rock climbing. After we finished, we went for lunch back to camp, and then we rested for a while. Then, we went for a long trek uphill, and everybody was so tired that when we reached, we immediately sat down. Over there, we did some fun activities, and we had to cook Maggi for ourselves, after collecting wood to light the fire. We also made tea for everyone, and had lunch over there. We took a short cut for the route back, and we enjoyed walking downhill as it was less tiring. We reached camp again, and had our evening snacks, and went back to our cottages. We came back down for Silent Hour, and then we continued to make music in Samba. We lit the bonfire when it was getting dark, and then ate dinner. We then went back to our cottages to sleep.

The next day, our first activity after waking up was a game that required concentration. We had breakfast after the game, and then we were told to go back to our cottages to change. We then came back down for our next activity, rappelling. We had to go quite far to get to the place for rappelling, and then had to climb up, so that we reach the point from which we had to go down. After everybody had finished, we went back to camp for lunch. After we had our lunch, we played cricket for a while, and then were called for our next activity. We went caving, in which we had to cross 4 caves, which was quite easy. This day, we had to go for a night trek, and we were very excited about this. We had silent hour after getting back to the camp and resting for a while, and then we finished our composition in Samba. We didn’t light the bonfire, as we were going for the Night Trek. We went into the forest for 5-10 minutes, and came back. After, we went inside and played music, to which we danced too. Afterwards, we ate dinner and went to sleep.

On the last day of camp, we had a competition between the two groups, which required some of the skills taught to us during the camp. Green Guerillas won. We then ate lunch, and were sent to pack our bags. We soon departed for the train station at Kathgodam. We arrived at the train station, and after a while, we departed for Delhi. We reached Delhi at night, said good-bye to our friends, and then some of us went back to school. Our parents picked us up, and we finally went back home.  

-          Kshitij Upmanyu

-          8B

Sports Day

God may have planned for the 22^nd of February to be a cold, windy and glum day, but it was not to be so. The sheer excitement of all the students at Pathways School Noida brought the sun out of the clouds. At precisely 8:30 am, by Pathways time, the music began and the Annual Walk Past commenced. With excitement and anticipation clearly visible on everybody’s face, a speech from a famous Indian basketball player, Mr. Singh started. After his speech, the balloons were let loose and thus began the 3^rd Pathways Noida Sports Day. Through many different events like the 100 meter sprint, the 800 meter run, shot-put, long jump and hurdles, different athletes displayed their myriad skills. The great part about sports day was that everyone was given a chance to display their talents. There were standout performers who won the Best athlete trophy in their respective age groups whereas the Best House trophy was won by the house that displayed the most courage that day, the Water house. All in all, Sports Day was a fun-filled day full of great sporting feats and a competitive atmosphere.

-Karan Pandanda 

-Grade 8A

Sports Day started at 8:30 am when our houses started doing the walk past. Then everybody sat down and watched their house members running, jumping, throwing, etc. Everybody had a lot of fun and everybody participated in each competition. Then we arrived at the moment that everybody was waiting for: the results! They all wanted to know the results. When the winner of the first place was announced, which was Water house, the participants were running around the field and enjoying the victory. In second place came Fire house. They were a bit sad because they could have won. In the third place came the Earth House, who were a bit sadder, and at the fourth place came the Air House, who were very sad because they came last. Then came the part which everybody liked: the medal distribution. Everybody got the medals they won, which they kept with them and went home tired, but enjoying their journey.

-Maxime Wydemans

                -7B

Integration of Technology in Education

In today’s modern world it is important to keep abreast of all the latest developments in the world of technology. It is also important to develop the basic technological skills, as they are required for working in many fields. They are also essential as they can help us with practically everything we do, be it at home or work. There is of course, no better way to make today’s generation completely aware of all these technological skills and information, than to integrate technology in education. It not only helps in all spheres of life, but it also makes education more interesting and hands- on for the vast majority of students. Keeping these facts in mind, our school organized Jharokha, a fair based on the concept of technology and how it can be used in and incorporated into every subject area, including subjects ranging from Visual Arts to Science.

While preparing for this huge event, the students were exposed to all sorts of applications, softwares, and other technology- related facilities. For example, in English class students used movie making softwares like iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premier Pro to create book trailers. In Mathematics, we used softwares like Geogebra, a co-ordinate mapping software, NearPod, and myimaths.com to make math more interactive. In Science, we used many different online applications and educational tools depending on the subject we chose. For History class, we created online commentary walls as well as online comic strips, and for Geography we created documentaries using various computer- based tools. Yet other important technologies we used were 2d Design in DT, Visual Basic and Dreamweaver in ICT, and Photoshop in Art Class. By doing this, we not only learnt a lot about technology and its importance and uses, but also proved that technology can be integrated in each and every subject.

-Malak Khan

8B

Board Making Competition

Everyone was very excited for the board making competition. The participants of each house gathered around. In the competition all the participants had to make an inspiring board using waste materials. The time given was 45 minutes for each house. All the participants began their work and the end products of all the houses were amazing. The boards looked motivating and a lot of hard work was put in by every participant of the houses, which was good to see. They all did a tremendous job in making such amazing, attractive and decorative boards. Last but not the least, the whole school was waiting for the results of the competition and the results were out soon. It was a tough job for the judges to decide because the boards were all looking fabulous. And then finally the result came- Earth house secured the first position, Air house secured the second position, Fire house came third, and Water house came fourth.

-          Muskaan Srivastava

Grade 7B

Book Review

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

The Plot –

Harvard professor Robert Langdon gets a late night visit from Lieutenant Jérôme Collet, Direction Centrale Police Judiciare (DCPJ). Jacques Saunière, the elderly curator of the French museum, Louvre has been found dead. Next to his body there are codes which lead to more codes and so on. Later they understand they lead to the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. As Langdon and a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, understand some of them they are shocked to see an answer that might destroy the ‘The Vatican Church’ as we know it. Unless they figure everything out quickly, a stunning and powerful historical truth might be lost forever.

The characters –

Sophie Neveu – A French cryptologist, who is the granddaughter of the curator of the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere.

Robert Langdon – A Harvard professor of Religious Symbology, he appears in 3 other of Dan Brown’s books. The DCPJ brings him in to solve the codes next to Saunière’s body but secretly he is the prime suspect because one of the codes were “Find Robert Langdon.”

Silas – He killed Jacques Saunière, for the “historical truth”. He didn’t find it but follows Langdon and Sophie till they find and threatens to kill them.

Jacques Saunière – He is the elderly curator of the museum Louvre. He is also a Headmaster of The Priory Of Sion, and Sophie’s grandfather. After being shot in the stomach, he uses his last breaths to arrange clues for his granddaughter, who is angry at him and has been staying away from him for nine years. She understands the truth later on in the book. Although his part is small, he is an important character in the book.

Sir Leigh Teabing – He comes later on in the book. Langdon and Sophie come to him to seek his knowledge as he is a grail scholar. He actually framed Silas so he could find about the Holy Grail.

The Holy Grail – It is not really a character, but it is a word to describe The Holy Grail, Which is not a chalice (cup), as it was first presumed to be, but Mary Magdalene the supposed wife of Christ. It has been cause for a huge disagreement between Historians and grail seekers, because, according to some, Jesus being holy couldn't have a wife. In the bible, it was written that it is the cup in which Jesus drank wine during the last supper, but in Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper there are lots of glasses on the table instead of one cup. In the bible it also said that there were only men with Jesus on The Last Supper, but in the painting next to Jesus there is a woman, considered to be The Holy Grail Herself.

Other Details –

It’s written that the bible is an edited version of the original, and that Jesus was originally a normal prophet. A roman emperor, Constantine, seeing that Christianity was powering over Roman Religion, wrote the new Bible portraying Jesus as the Son of God, thus creating modern Christianity. He mixed the Roman Religion and Christianity, and as in Rome a holy person could not have a spouse, he had to erase her. The Holy Grail is Mary Magdalene’s skeleton, and “holy grail seekers” are just people who seek her to pray once at her feet. But if this secret is revealed it could destroy the modern Catholic Church.

- Nihaar Tyagi

-7A

CS Club

Community Service is very important in our daily lives as we get to do charity, not only for the sake of doing it, but also to be a better person and to contribute to society. In the CS Club we are ten people. We try collecting funds to give to Goonj, an NGO, or any other organization. We also try to keep our environment clean. Our teacher supervisor is Ms. Aprajita. At the moment, we have started a project called “Green Thumb” in which grades 6- 7 are given a small area of land and some seeds. They are then told to look after that area and in the end there will be a competition held. We have also started one more project called the Anti- Earth Abusers which is about recycling old papers. In it, we recycle old papers using the recycling machine in our school. First, we turn it into Paper Mache. Then we take out the water from it and pour it into the machine which has a flat surface which makes it firm. In the past we have organized many projects like the Muffin Sale, the Readathon and the Fun Fair. By now we have collected a lot of money which we have given to Goonj, so they can buy stationery for poor children. In the future we plan to have many more projects and raise a lot of funds.

By Riddhi Jain

8B

Music Competition

This was the first ever music competition at Pathways School, Noida. As I myself was a part of this event, I personally found it simply rocking. All the participants from the different houses did an amazing job. It was a pleasure to watch all the musicians showing off their incredible musical skills. Earth House was the house that finally won. It was a magical moment to win and make everybody so proud. The audience too had a wonderful time singing and humming along to the music. Our judges were Dr. Advani, Mr. Mowry, Mr. Kamlesh and Mr. Tagore who were fair to all the houses. It was a great experience.

-Karn Nag

8A

Return from the Holidays

After a relaxing holiday and getting into warm blankets in the cold winter, we are finally BACK TO SCHOOL. We are going to have to face the terrifying assignments and deadlines (and the horrific detention policy to add to it). We have to hear the bell and run for the next lesson; otherwise we have to get a late slip and get it signed by the respective teacher. We have to open our laptop screens and log in to moodle to complete online assignments and watch videos after which come the confusing web quests. The teachers say we’ll get credits if we complete it in a week; it creates competition and behold: everybody’s planner is filled with stars. We were enjoying ourselves back in the winters and waking up late, but now we are back to school.

 – Radhesh Chowdhary and Rahul Grover Grade 7A