Namaste!
I’m so behind in blogging and now its kind of to the point of where and how do I begin?!?! I think I will start with a list of quick observations.
I’m so behind in blogging and now its kind of to the point of where and how do I begin?!?! I think I will start with a list of quick observations.
I am currently in Bangalore, India in the province of Karnataka. The weather is soooooo much better than Delhi. Its a pleasant 80ish degrees most days with a breeze. In Delhi I was sweating through multiple shirts a day... SO the weather here is very welcome!!
The school I am at is a private school that teaches kids K-12. It was approximately 7000 students total and is a like a mini college campus. There are 5 buildings and they have amazing sports facilities, lab facilities, and beautiful classrooms. The school even has their own bus system of 125ish buses they operate. Teachers are also welcome to take the school bus into school which I personally think is awesome. We ride the bus to school too, which is really fun! It reminds me of my elementary school days waiting for my best friend Haley to get on the bus.
On Monday all the kids were studying when we got on the bus. I’m not even kidding!! They have beautiful notebooks with beautiful handwriting! We told the teachers this and they all laughed saying they had exams that day so that’s why they were studying and we would not see that again. (Well I’ve rode the bus 3 times now and there is always at least a couple kids studying!!).
Speaking of notebooks... I taught a physics class today on unit vectors. I tried to teach it in the style that I would teach back in the USA, but its very difficult to walk into a class that maybe has never seen that style. One of the things I do all the time in my class is give stars on kids papers when they get the question correct. I did this today as second nature and the kids were very surprised I was writing in their notebooks! They were like “What! You are giving me a star?” And I would say yeah, you got the problem correct! Then because the class had a various level of mastery on the topic, it became super clear really quickly there were a handful of kids who got the content right away and I needed to give them something more challenging to do ASAP. So I decided to write in their notebooks a challenge problem. Again complete shock that I would write in their notebooks! I asked the teachers about this later and they said they don’t write in their notebooks once they get to grade 11/12, and really they only write in struggling learners notebooks in the younger grades.
I have been doing so much learning the past fewdays! The principal here has connections all overthe world and in her home community too and makes a sure we meet everyone! She was a Fulbright scholar in the USA and when she proposed her topics to investigate the committee told her it was too big and that she should focus on one part for her project. Well she did it alland impressed everyone!! She is the kind of person who has a lot of light in her eyes and pep in her step who makes things happen! I am very grateful to be at her school!
Speaking of notebooks... I taught a physics class today on unit vectors. I tried to teach it in the style that I would teach back in the USA, but its very difficult to walk into a class that maybe has never seen that style. One of the things I do all the time in my class is give stars on kids papers when they get the question correct. I did this today as second nature and the kids were very surprised I was writing in their notebooks! They were like “What! You are giving me a star?” And I would say yeah, you got the problem correct! Then because the class had a various level of mastery on the topic, it became super clear really quickly there were a handful of kids who got the content right away and I needed to give them something more challenging to do ASAP. So I decided to write in their notebooks a challenge problem. Again complete shock that I would write in their notebooks! I asked the teachers about this later and they said they don’t write in their notebooks once they get to grade 11/12, and really they only write in struggling learners notebooks in the younger grades.
I have been doing so much learning the past fewdays! The principal here has connections all overthe world and in her home community too and makes a sure we meet everyone! She was a Fulbright scholar in the USA and when she proposed her topics to investigate the committee told her it was too big and that she should focus on one part for her project. Well she did it alland impressed everyone!! She is the kind of person who has a lot of light in her eyes and pep in her step who makes things happen! I am very grateful to be at her school!
Our schedules are packed during the working day. We have observed elementary and high school science classrooms, department meetings, the cabinet meetings for upper and lower house, presented at an assembly, watched a cultural assembly, and met with the guidance team/IEP team.I’m sure I’m forgetting something - but it is jam packed!
Something that has been a relief for me is that teachers here are very similar to teachers in the USA. They all have been incredibly kind, but whena meeting is over and the department chair dismisses them, they hurry off to their next thing. I identify with this strongly as a teacher as I am always bouncing around from one thing to the next. Even though I’d love to chat more with all of them about their experiences, its kind of comfortingto know that there are still things to be done.
One last thing, in the meetings I have observed it seems that the teachers and the admin communicate in a way that I often see in a market where you may bargain for a price. For instance, the AP wanted the teachers to be a specific place ata certain time, but the teacher leaders explained how it is too difficult to get their by said time and gave a brief anecdotes (story narrative) for why this was difficult for them. The AP responded back with another idea to still accomplish the same goal, and the teachers responded back with this might work, but we will need xyz. It was a very back and forth flow that was incredibly organic were multiple teachers spoke up. I was really impressed with this as I am used to a more top-down decision policy being made. Of course the AP had the final authority on decisions and would sometimes use this, but that was rare.
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