Projects: We Amra Bangla Pathshala (Kochipata)
কচিপাতা (Kochipata) Bangala Pathshala is established in Kansas city, USA in June, 2019 to achieve one of the major learning goals of We-Amra Part 1 project (Let Us Learn Our Mother Tongue) to help NRI Bengali children to learn their mother tongue and help them to know their roots."Kochipata" is a non traditional educational platform (we call it Pathshala in Bengali) where children learn in a very relaxed and joyful manner without too much hard and fast rules, but it is fairly organized with a sturctured curriculum so children may learn effectively. Learning areas, those are focused in terms of teaching, are Bengali language, Bengali culture traditions, iconic figures of Bengal/India, festivals and special days, social values and character building. Main mode of providing education is through literature, music and various creative art forms, hands on activities, pictorial presentations, practicing conversation, small group discussions, story telling and learn through celebrations. Our main goal is to teach children meaningful conversation in Bengali so that they are able to connect with their roots, family and relatives. Childern may also learn basic reading and writing depending on individual level according to child's interstest, ablity and goal. One of our learning resources is We-Amra Book part 1 (chpater 4: Let us learn our mother tongue). In this chapter, every liteary item has explanation in English so that it becomes easy for the NRI Bengali children to learn the content. Besides We-Amra Part 1 book, our iconic Bengali children books (e.g. Sahaz Path, Borno Porichoy and other children books) are also used for providing education as necessary. We have our pathshala on Sundays (3 pm to 4 pm ) and two-three classes are held monthly. This pathshala is eastablished as part of We-Amra Project, conceptualized by Dr. Nivedita Ganguly, Kansas City, Kansas, and Mr. Nirmalya Roy, Kolkata, India along with active participation of community members, parents and children. We have a team of members with assigned tasks as educators (Dr. Nivedita Ganguly & Dr. Soma Ray), class assistants (by rotations), music mentors (Sarmistha Banerjee), mentors for arts and design (Deepa Kanjilal), Dance Mentors (Dithi Banerjee, Sonali Choudhury, Soma Ray), mentors for recitation (Sangita Bhattacharyya) and in-change of children food/party activites and supplies (by rotations).Threre is no fees for this pathshala.This is soley run by contribution by the founder and by donation, book and music CD sale and fund raising activities as necessary. Currently since COVID 19 pandemic, teaching is being provided through zoom class only. Given virtual platform the scope and utility of We-Amra Bangla pathshala is extended beyond Kansas City. Our main mode of communication for pathshala is email: weamraproject@gmail.com/info@weamra.org. All email subject line should mention: We-Amra Bengla Pathshala.
