This past Saturday, we were privileged to join ATN in hosting a special luncheon for teachers from all over the GTA.
The purpose of the function was to introduce The Legend of Ponnivala to the educational market. The series in its many forms of presentation has the potential to be a valuable teaching tool for a wide variety of subjects ranging from History to Mythology, to Ethics and World Religions.
In fact, we have already laid out some great starting points for a variety of subjects at http://www.legendofponnivala.com/subjects/
The teachers present were very receptive to the idea of introducing the Ponnivala legend in their classrooms in video and interactive formats (both coming soon), and in print.
Following Dr. Beck’s general introduction to the legend, Mr. Parthi Kandavel, who has spent this semester showing the entire series to his grade six class at Sathya Sai School in Scarborough, shared some wonderful insights into how the program was used.
Parthi Kandavel of Sathya Sai School
The major points that Parthi emphasized in his discussion were that :
- Kids need to see themselves and their own stories reflected in the story.
- This story allows the teacher to connect all their subjects together.
- It’s a really great story that’s fun to teach.
As the Sathya Sai School class was reaching the end of their study unit on The Legend of Ponnivala, we were able to get into the classroom for some interviews with the kids (those videos will be up shortly), and with Parthi. Here’s what he had to say:
