November 2009 Newsletter

Newsletter - November 2009

Message From The Director by Visvambhara das I am pleased to present the inaugural issue of the Bhaktivedanta Academy newsletter for the 2009-2010 school year. By the grace of the Lord we saw all of the fundraising efforts of the prior school year come to fruition when we opened up our new Audarya Bhavan classroom to students on August 24th. This new classroom space is a significant improvement: a cramped dark space has been transformed into a spacious and vibrant learning environment. As a bonus, this new building gave us the facility to establish a multi-use room that is being well utilized for reading instruction, meetings, and other uses. Thank you to everyone who stepped forward to ensure that the new Audarya Bhavan classroom was ready to receive students on the first day of school. This project is a testament to what can be achieved when we work together to achieve a worthwhile goal. I want to take an opportunity to welcome the new additions to the Bhaktivedanta Academy community this year: Janaki, Radha, and Divya – daughters of Rakesh and Pooja Jishnu – son of Gaura Shakti and Krishna Dhama Nimai Sundar – son of Jaya Gaurasundara and Gopi Paranadhana Nityananda Ram - son of Mahakirti and Jvalamukhi Nityanavina and Navakishore – sons of Bhagavan and Ananga Manjari Penny - daughter of Paul and Sabrina Rai Kisori – daughter of Ishvara Puri and Kamala Sarva Mangala – daughter of Kulavira and Adi Gopi Shyamananda – son of Pundarika Vidyanidhi and Indrani Surya – daughter of Rama and Phisima We are seeing many families making the move to Alachua from far and wide to give their children the opportunity to have a unique educational experience; one that fosters both spiritual and intellectual growth. We are taking some steps this year to continue to bring parents and the school together via the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization). The Bhaktivedanta Academy board of directors recently voted to establish the PTO as an official committee. Padmaksi and Sabrina have graciously agreed to lead the group and have been hard at work on several initiatives. Their dedication and commitment to the growth of the school have been an inspiration. Be on the look out for an invitation to the next PTO meeting and for other announcements relating to school development projects you can be a part of. Thank you for your continued support and trust. I am looking forward to another productive year working together to continue to develop Bhaktivedanta Academy into an unequalled educational institution that Srila Prabhupada would be proud of. Your servant, Visvambhara das Director Bhakti Bhavan - Pre-K/Kindergarten by Vrindavanesvari dasi The start of the school year ushered in a time of new beginnings for all of the children in Bhakti Bhavan. Bhakti Bhavan students playing together as a group. We spent the month of September forming many new friendships and routines, and learning how to function both as individuals and as a group. We spent a lot of time focusing on lessons of Grace and Courtesy. Serving the young child’s need for orientation or order, we gave many demonstrations and lessons and role-played what to do in many scenarios. From our three-year-olds to our six-year-olds, all our students learned very practically how to walk in the classroom (slowly), how to talk (softly), how to accept something graciously (yes, please), how to refuse something (no, thank you), how to have a proper lesson, how to put their work away, how to clean up spills, how to care for the pets and plants in our classroom, how to independently take their snack, how to take care of our classroom Deities, how to set up for lunch, and even how to resolve conflicts if and when they arise. Harini and Chandramukhi dress the class deities. Such lessons go a long way towards building the foundations of a positive and harmonious classroom society filled with confident, independent children (and an adult or two or three). Amidst all these specific rules and guidelines, we also let the children know that, really, we only have two main rules: take care of/respect all of the living things in our classroom (students, teachers, pets) and take care of all of the non-living things in our environment (which covers about everything else). Children from the age range of 3-6 are experiencing a developmental period in which they are particularly sensitive to acquiring these manners and etiquette and our hope is to take advantage of this time to equip them with lifelong skills befitting Vaisnava ladies and gentlemen. Nataka-candrika presenting devotional flannel board stories. Some highlights of our first couple months of school: learning about the Govardhana Puja pastime, seeing many beautiful flannel-board stories depicting devotional tales told and presented by Nataka-candrika, and learning and putting on a play at the temple, “The Brahmana’s Wives.” This featured our whole class enacting this lila as well as collectively singing a song about this story. The line repeated three times at the end of the song: ‘Krsna is our life and soul’ sung by the children with their eyes closed, hands on their hearts, swaying gently back and forth struck me as the real essence of our philosophy, readily realized by young children who are so connected to the Lord in their hearts. The month of Karttika was observed in our class daily with Damodarastakam prayers sung and candles offered to our Lords Jagannatha, Baladeva and Lady Subhadra. Students dressed as their favorite devotional characters. Our annual Harvest Festival fair at school was another highlight with teachers and staff dressing up as devotional personalities of their choosing. We had many Radhas, Krsnas, and gopis as well as a devotee dragon. The children spent the afternoon outside happily engaged in face painting, arts and crafts, cookie decorating, and an ox cart ride around the cow pasture. These are a few of the special events that have marked the first quarter of school, and there aremany more to come! Audarya Bhavan - Grade 1-3 by Satyaki dasi Vishnu shows off his talents. The first quarter of the school year was filled with new experiences in the Audarya Bhavan classroom. Talent Show Thursdays were a chance for all the students in our class to share their many talents. We had magicians, singers, dancers, and actors. We learned what it means to be a courteous audience and an effective performer. A good time was had by all. Mahavishnupriya discusses Hawaiian culture. We explored the Hawaiian culture by learning Hawaiian songs and stories. Mahavishnupriya, who is of Hawaiian heritage, visited our class. She told us of her experiences while growing up in Honolulu. She shared the history of hula and many Hawaiian family traditions. We hope to have her back again. Audarya Bhavan class deities. Daily we worship our Deities with songs and service but in September we had a special day of worship. The children brought in fruits and vegetables for the Lord’s pleasure. Our altar was decorated with fragrant flowers and colorful pictures. Offering this service made all our hearts happy. Bhakti Vasudeva Swami distributes cookies. We were honored with a visit from His Holiness Bhakti Vasudeva Swami. He told stories about Krishna and about his life as a preacher. Lali joined the Tooth Fairy Club and we celebrated Radhe’s 7th birthday with a birthday walk and homemade fudge. We also held our annual Star Gazing /Sleepover Night. The evening events started with a potluck dinner followed by Moon Dancing and a chance to view the night sky with friends. The first 9 weeks of school turned out to be very eventful in our classroom. Madhurya Bhavan - Grade 4-6 by Krishna Priya dasi Oh no! I knew this would happen! I knew it! You must not have put in the credit card number soon enough because I checked my Reserve America account and it didn't go through! We don't have the reservation! What should I do? Awaiting further orders, Bali Krishna Priya and students canoeing on the water. A week before our planned overnight field trip, I received the above e-mail from my student Balarama das, who had heard that the trip was cancelled. The rumor was correct. I needed a parent present the entire time, and I only had part-time volunteers. Balarama’s concern was justified; after all, he had researched the location, Gold Head Branch State Park, complete with a lake, canoeing, and comfortable cabins. He even took the extra step of creating a camping supply list and printing the directions. The rest of the students were involved as well. Nayana and Narayani had planned a menu, and Ramai, Nityananda and Narottama had already signed up as servers, pujaris and cooks. Because each student had taken responsibility for a part of the planning and preparation, they were keen on going. So when Jahnavi dropped off Balarama andannounced, “I’ll be a chaperone for the entire trip,” the students were overjoyed. Narottama, Ramai, and Nityananda having fun in the mud. During my Montessori training, many teachers shared that they took students on an overnight field trip during the first six weeks of school to give them the opportunity to bond outside the classroom and thus create a stronger community when inside it. The camping trip exceeded my expectations in this regard. During the day, we swam together, canoed together, and (to confirm the worst fears of some of the parents) spotted an alligator together. In the evening, we danced like Indians around the bonfire and chanted the Lord’s holy names while high on the sugar from prasadam Smores. As a bedtime story, we listened to a gory part of the Mahabharata. While I read about the mutilation of Kichaka by Bhima, I had all the students scream on cue. After all, what is a camping trip without scary stories and creepy reptiles? The next day, as a final activity, I had the students choose a spot in nature and write a description of what they saw. I observed Nityananda, writing furiously, pausing only to watch a flying crane ski on to the water.. I noticed Balarama and Ramai drop their notebooks, run closer to the water’s edge and point to the crane now dipping into the water and emerging with a flapping fish. As I watched my student’s wonderat one of nature’s daily cycles in, it occurred to me that when they are in an environment that thrives on interconnectedness, it is natural for them to connect with each other on a deeper level. A special thank you to Jahnavi (Balarama’s mother) for coming and all the other parents who made this possible. Srila Prabhupada Didn’t Write A Math Book by Navina-Shyama das When I first heard about the use of Montessori methods at Bhaktivedanta Academy, I wasn’t sure what to think. Here I was, about to make a commitment to help manage what I thought was a devotional school, and the first name I heard cited belonged, not to one of the goswamis or acharyas, but to Italy’s first female doctor. Since that time, however, I have come to appreciate the compatibility of many Montessori techniques with Vedic ideals, and I am convinced that Srila Prabhupada would be happy with how we use them at his school. The natural touch: One of the first aspects of the Montessori classroom I noticed was the ubiquitous wooden furnishings. Plastic furniture and toys are eschewed in favor of more organic materials. From my previous study of Vedic environmental design (Vastu Veda), I already knew that synthetic, processed materials didn’t resonate as well with the human body and mind, so I welcomed the ideal. Walk into any of our classrooms, and you’ll find shelf after wooden shelf full of simple and elegant learning materials. Besides just being more natural to work with, such items are easily produced locally (Mother Akuti made most of the shelves and teachers fashion new materials all the time), more eco-friendly, and more durable. Take it to the floor: Wooden or not, what you won’t find here is a room full of desks. There are certainly single-person work areas throughout the room, but the Montessori approach doesn’t keep young bodies pinned in the same place all day, like so many cubicle-workers-in-training. Instead, there are large round or U-shaped tables to work at in groups, and much of daily instruction takes place on the ground. Sitting cross-legged on the floor working on mats...not such an unfamiliar situation to devotees! This variety is good for the posture, facilitates healthy social interaction and is just plain practical in the amount of useable surface it creates. Order is the order of the day: Together these elements create a pleasing and well-organized space in which learning can occur. And the children’s time is as regulated as their space. Not only does the day itself follow a fixed schedule, but the procedures for many activities also have a constant form, from the way a student unfolds a mat or napkin (left to right, top to bottom) to the way a student resolves a conflict (by getting the peace flower). Routines like these are characteristic of the mode of goodness, which is always pleasing to the mind, especially that of a developing child. Maria Montessori may have arrived at this conclusion through observation and thoughtful analysis, while we as devotees learned it from the Bhagavad Gita, but the principle is one and the same. Clean as a whistle: We further enhance the mode of goodness at school by our focus on cleanliness. In addition to the after-hours cleaning carried out by staff, children rotate through various maintenance tasks throughout the day (washing dishes, doing laundry, sweeping the floor, etc.), as do students in any Montessori classroom. This practice helps them learn responsibility and conscientiousness, and it is strongly reminiscent of a traditional gurukula. All of the above considerations were apparent to me over the course of last year, as they probably would be to anyone who even casually observed the classroom in action. Not until Krishna Priya undertook Montessori training last summer, however, did I note two broader and more subtle themes that underlie this approach, and are equally harmonious with Vedic ideals. Gross to subtle: The first theme is the progression from concrete to abstract. Most evident in the Montessori approach to math and reading, the idea is to appeal to students’ various senses before appealing to their intelligence. Thus, letters are learned as sounds, traced in wooden form with one’s fingers, and color-coded as either vowels (blue) or consonants (pink) well before they are given names and assigned categories. In math, this orientation means students are able to physically handle a single bead, a row of ten beads, a grid of one hundred beads and a cube of a thousand beads instead of just looking at digits on a piece of paper that merely keep gaining zero after zero. Such a progression is also advised in the Vedic culture, as young children have keener and more active senses, while their intelligence is not ready for theoretical processes until later in their development. No impersonalism here: The second theme is the Montessori focus on the individual. While mainstream classrooms have the teacher giving uniform assignments to a large number of students -- leaving only the gifted few to achieve success while the rest struggle with unaddressed needs -- both Vedic and Montessori classrooms feature personalized instruction. Children work alone or in small groups, taking assistance from either a peer or one of the teachers, who move throughout the classroom as needed. The philosophy of Krishna Consciousness makes it abundantly clear that each living entity in the material world functions under a unique combination of the three modes of material nature and is subject to a unique “karma cocktail” from previous activities. It thus makes perfect sense that each child will exhibit varying abilities, needs and speeds of progress. The Montessori approach, which involves little whole-class instruction, is highly suited to addressing this reality. Though I had my doubts at first, I now see the logic behind adopting Montessori teaching methods at a Hare Krishna school. The simple fact is that Srila Prabhupada didn’t write a math book…or any other general subject textbooks, for that matter. That’s why gurukulas throughout ISKCON’s history have had to adopt some or other outside curriculum to meet the basic academic needs of their students. But His Divine Grace did transmit the eternal Vedic model of education, complemented by his own guidance and insights, leaving it to us to use our intelligence and common sense in applying it in a modern context. So until we have a comprehensive ISKCON curriculum (which is a worthy and attainable goal, already under development but far from complete), the careful adoption of compatible principles from the Montessori method is turning out to be an excellent strategy for educating the youngest members of Srila Prabhupada’s family.

Dedicated to the the service of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Important Dates Wed., Nov. 9: 1st Qtr Student Reports Sent Home (AB and MB only) Wed., Nov. 11: School Holiday - Veterans Day Sat., Nov. 14: Garden Party Wed., Nov. 25 - 27: Thanksgiving Holidays Mon., Dec. 21 - Jan. 1: Winter Holidays Mon., Jan. 18: School Holiday - MLK Birthday Mon., Jan. 25: Pupil Holiday - Teacher Workday Thu., Jan. 28: School Holiday - Nityananda's Appearance Day View Online Calendar Mahajan Corner Current Mahajans Thanks to the following "Mahajans" for volunteering their time, talent or treasure to the school: Bali: The Givers of Charity The family of Anasuya for $50 towards classroom supplies. Bhagavan (Nava Kishore and Nitya Navina’s father) for making a coat rack and lunchbox shelf for Audarya Bhavan. Gaura Priya for some valuable Montessori materials and educational CDs. Jahnavi for some wooden puzzles. The family of Janaki, Radha and Divya for two new digital cameras to help the school create its first yearbook, as well as some cooking supplies for Audarya Bhavan. Jnanagamya for a foam alphabet set. Krsna Katha and Gopinatha for art supplies and an assortment of useful books. Mahamaya for keychain curios for a Bhakti Bhavan work. Nataka-candrika for a rug for the Bhakti Bhavan altar, hula hoops, sand toys, a play parachute and a framed picture of Krishna. The family of Navakishore and Nityanavina for some fun Montessori puzzles. The family of Naya Kumari for a Tulasi plant. Radha Sylvester for books. The family of Ross and Penny for a blender and microwave for Audarya Bhavan. Visnupriya from Jacksonville for an ice cream maker for Audarya Bhavan, clipboards for Madhurya Bhavan, and a wide assortment of much-needed stationary items, including new markers, pens and highlighters and several reams of pastel colored paper. Bhishma: The Dutiful Bhaktas Ananga Manjari and Bhagavan, Babhru Prabhu, Hanuman (Shyam and Vishnu’s father), Jaya Govardhan (Karuna and Haridas’s father), Malati (Kalyani’s mother), Madhava (Ramai’s father), Raghunath (Chandramukhi’s father), Rakesh, Ram (Surya’s father), Yadu and Param (Anasuya’s parents) for their tireless work over the school’s two summer work days. Lalita Sakhi (Karuna and Haridas’s mother) for cooking for the troops on both work days. Kapila: Parents and Children Helping Each Other Learn The families of Balarama, Haridas/Karuna, Krishangi/Jishnu, Divya/Radha/Janaki, Narottama, Vishnu/Shyam and others for coming to guru puja on a regular basis. Kumaras: Assisting the Instruction of Your Kumaras and Kumaris Bada Haridas for recording and mixing Madhurya Bhavan’s audio production at his home studio. Bev (Karuna and Haridas’s grandmother) for reading to Bhakti Bhavan and bringing colorful fall leaves from her home state of Indiana. Gaura Purnima, Lilananda and Rucira for volunteering to be interviewed by Madhurya Bhavan students for their project on ISKCON throughout the world. Haripriya, Vani and Vrindavani (Balarama’s sister) for Rama bhajans on Dashera. Kamala (Rai Kisori’s mother) for coming in on a weekly basis to help dress Bhakti Bhavan’s deities. Lila Padma for assisting with the Bhakti Bhavan play. Pooja (Divya, Radha and Janaki’s mother) for assisting with art projects in Bhakti Bhavan. Radha Damodara (Nataka-candrika’s husband) for bringing caranamrita to Bhakti Bhavan on a regular basis. Visnupriya for volunteering in Madhurya Bhavan. Yamaraja: Supervising the Students Jahnavi for driving and chaperoning Madhurya Bhavan on their field trip to Gold Head Branch State Park. Guruseva (Ramai’s mother), Indrani (Narottama’s mother) and Jahnavi (Balarama’s mother) for driving and chaperoning Madhurya Bhavan on their field trip to Paynes Prairie. Future Mahajans We need the following services for the upcoming month: Bali: The Givers of Charity Programmable thermostats for Bhakti and Madhurya Bhavans would help us save a lot of energy...and money! Our soccer goals were broken and had to be disposed of and our basketball hoop is damaged. Any help in replacing the goals and/or fixing the hoop would be greatly appreciated by our young athletes! Kapila: Parents and Children Helping Each Other Learn The school is ready to host parents and community members for classroom observations. Please contact the school office at 386-462-2886 if you would like to schedule a time to come in and see Krishna-conscious Montessori education at work. The quality for October was self-control, in honor of the special month of Kartikka and the austerities many devotees accept during this time. November’s quality is honesty, the trademark of any cultured lady or gentleman. Prahlada: Creating the Right Conditions for Learning As the season changes, please be sure and dress your children in layers. Unless it is raining or freezing, we begin the day outside to help children socialize with their peers and work off some energy before they settle into the workday.

17414 NW 112th Blvd, Alachua, FL 32615 ⋅ PO Box 937, Alachua FL 32616
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