B'Day Poems' Collage

P.S. : Specials thanks to the authors Tina M. Marascia, Mike and Kay Theese who have shared their amazing piece of work in public and others who shared amazing B'day pics on inter-net!

Happy Birthday Dear

The little princess in our family turns three today!

Small poem written by me on her B'day eve!

Birthday Bells

@ Pilot-Pooja

As the beautiful day ahead, 

All set to carve another marvellous year ahead,  

Is about to come and spread its fragrance,

A pre-B'Day gift, from somebody your own, though from quite a distance,

Some feelings shared, some words written,

From none other but amazing souls like you two,

Penning their thoughts into  words so precious few,

Please scroll right bar down, this sorted gift is just for the partying crew,

Your sweet poetic sister found hard to resist the wordy lace,

Spun by some magical people in poems below shining ablaze.

An Angel Left Her Wings

© Tina M. Marascia

I have this little angel. For me she left her wings.
She has no idea how much happiness she truly brings.
She brightens up my days with her smiles and her laughs.
She helps me to remember all the blessings that I have.

Her face, it is so perfect, she's sweet and soft and pure.
Sometimes she can be willful and sometimes she is demure.
She tries her very hardest to please and do what's right.
She gives the greatest hugs from morning until night.

Every person that has known her sees this light within her soul
I know that in this whole great world, she has a special role.
She's helpful and considerate to everyone she knows
This light in her shines brighter as my angel grows.

When she sees someone is sad, it opens up her heart.
She wants to do all that she can; she wants to do her part.
She'll squeeze away the sorrow and make me forget about my pain.
She shows me where the sun is when we're hiding from the rain.

I know that God must love me, He showed me with His Grace
I knew just how completely when I saw my angel's face.
And in that very moment when she came into my world,
I knew that she was so much more than just my baby girl.

She would be my sunshine, with a sweetness that won't end.
And when she grows up one day she would be my closest friend.
She would be the reason I would always try my best.
For my little angel baby girl would be my greatest test.

When God entrusts to you an angel, who has left her wings for you.
Encircle her with love with everything you do.
Let her know God made her, and that He trusts you with her care.
Be sure to make time for special moments with her to share.

And when at night she finally says her prayers and goes to sleep
I Thank Him for my angel, and ask for him to always keep
A watchful eye and hand to protect her from this world.
Protect my little angel; protect my baby girl.

Source: An Angel Left Her Wings, Daughter Poem and 27 Stories http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/an-angel-left-her-wings#ixzz1ZJJFeemZ 
Family Friend Poems 

Daughter Poem

A fathers love to his little princess.

I Am Yours To Keep

© Mike

You are a princess in my heart,
and I care for you so much.
I love the fondness in you eyes and your tender little touch.

I looked at you when you were born,
and knew then straight away,
that I would be forever here
to watch you grow and play.

You bring to me a heart of joy,
and memories so great,
and a powerful sense of fatherhood that no one can debate.

I watch you sleep and dream of things that I can only wonder.
That innocent look upon your face just makes my heart grow fonder.

I see you run and jump and shout and calling out my name.
No love that I have ever known could ever feel the same.
No suffering or tragedy nor deeply seated pain
could ever over shadow the bond that we retain.

And so my little princess before you go to sleep,
Remember I am your daddy and I am yours to keep.

Source: Fathers Love To Daughter, Daughter Poem and 7 Stories http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/fathers-love-to-daughter#ixzz1ZJJ6Y9uI 
Family Friend Poems 

A mother writes to her daughter letting her know how much she loves her.

As I Watch You Grow

© Kay Theese

Do you know how much you mean to me?
As you grow into what you will be.
You came from within, from just beneath my heart
it's there you'll always be though your own life will now start.
You're growing so fast it sends me awhirl,
With misty eyes I ask, Where's my little girl?
I know sometimes to you I seem harsh and so unfair,
But one day you will see, I taught you well because I care.
The next few years will so quickly fly,
With laughter and joy, mixed with a few tears to cry.
As you begin your growth to womanhood, this fact you must know,
You'll always be my source of pride, no matter where you go.
You must stand up tall and proud, within you feel no fear,
For all you dreams and goals, sit before you very near.
With god's love in your heart and the world by its tail,
You'll always be my winner, and victory will prevail.
For you this poem was written, with help from above,
To tell you in a rhythm of your Mother's heartfelt Love!

Source: As I Watch You Grow, Daughter Poem and 16 Stories http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/as-i-watch-you-grow#ixzz1ZJKOVhal 
Family Friend Poems 

Ways to teach Science in schools

I came across an intersting article by Kartikeya V. Sarabhai where he has demonstrated via an example how kids could be involved in scientific learning.

Reference: http://www.greenteacher.org/?page_id=11

Learning Science

About 20 years ago, my colleague from Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC), Jayshree Mehta and I used to go to teach once in a week or so in a school in Rajoda village near Ahmedabad. This was a part of our effort to understand how science and mathematics were being taught in schools, and how children learn. I would like to describe an incident from this experience, which was a very important lesson to me in terms of how to teach.

One day, we gave a multiplication problem to the students. The problem was simple: what is 25 X 5. We expected that some would get it right and some would get it wrong. What surprised us was that the answers fell into four clusters. One group gave the right answer, viz. 125. And the three wrong answers, each given by a group of children, were 30, 45 and 105.

We asked the children to make groups based on the answers they had given. We asked each to explain how they had arrived at their answers. The operations that the 3 groups with wrong answers had carried out were:

 

·         The group with answer ‘30’ had just added. In other words, they did not know what multiplication was, or how to carry out the operation.

·         The group with ‘45’ as answer had started by multiplying. They had even carried over ‘2’. But they had forgotten or did not know that the second digit too had to be multiplied. They had added the second digit to the carry over digit.

·         The group with ‘105’ as answer had carried over ‘2’ but forgotten to add it.

We asked the teacher what she did when students made mistakes in the multiplication lesson. She told us that she made them repeat the concerned multiplication table eight times. 

When we discussed the analyses of the class performance with her, it was obvious that no child had made a mistake because he or she did not know the multiplication table. Rather, it was to do with not understanding the process of multiplication. So repeating the tables would not really help.

The teacher appreciated the point and we set about teaching each of the groups individually, based on the mistakes the group had made. And sure enough, within a fairly short time, the whole class could actually multiply.

There are many lessons for educators. Unless we understand where we are not communicating, we cannot help learners. It is necessary to bring the method of science to the teaching of science. Rather than assuming why the children are not learning and take “corrective” action based on this, it would probably be better to observe the children and set up a hypothesis as to why children have not learnt a concept, then actually try to scientifically test and validate it, and then proceed from there.

Kartikeya V. Sarabhai
Director
Centre for Environment Education

Quotation on Tourist by John Carroll

http://quotes.dictionary.com/The_tourist_is_first_of_all_an_adventurer?__utma=1.555004383.1315559339.1315559339.1315559339.1&__utmb=1.2.9.1315559339&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1315559339.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)&__utmv=-&__utmk=35298337

Quote

"The tourist is first of all an adventurer. The dream is of the pioneer, the explorer, the great voyager or the conquering emperor. He leaves the security of home far behind and sets out beyond the perimeters of the known world for fame, fortune and excitement. He wants to take on the minotaur, scale the Matterhorn, discover a lost Amazonian tribe or sample the delights of a Thai brothel.... The essence of the tourist adventure is exhibited in the contours of the excitements that it provides. And these contours are best inferred from the stories that are told and re-told with animation to relatives, friends and colleagues at home. It is virtually never what has been seen that is recounted with enthusiasm. When the sites are described it is in the form of ritualized cliches: the Eiffel Tower really is a wonder—we went up it, and you get such a nice view. It is rather the personal moments of the tour, moments of near-crisis, that in retrospect were exciting: when one of the suitcases failed to arrive off the luggage chute at Frankfort Airport. Touring itself has been turned into a routine, restricting adventure to those moments when routine breaks down."

-John Carroll

Wetlands are Precious!

Came across a wonderful old article by an environmental expert Ms. Sadia Zahid:
Mass awareness on wetlands stressed.