Jaclyn's Adventure in India

Day 5: August 19th

Yesterday was a nice day at the program, but it did take a lot of work to prepare for the lesson. Chantelle and I prepared Tues. night many different math activities for our class yesterday (and figured we were over prepared). After the initial shock of the first day, arriving at the slum was much easier than the day before. Our car was greeted by a few waving children in the street, who then ran along side the vehicle till our drop-off point. The children were adorable, poorly dressed (if clothed at all), but were generally excited to say the few English words they knew "Hello," "How are you." It was nice to shake all of there hands and then head off to the small room.

I felt much more comfortable in the room... but it is small, hot, and by the end the heat makes teaching quite draining. It's a challenge to prepare lessons because the children vary in age and ability. Also, in India they focus on rote learning. When we arrived the children were writing their multiplication tables (even a 6 year old). We started our lesson by trying to establish a morning routine with greetings, calendar, days of the week (song as well), and alphabet (establishing letter sounds). Next, we played a multiplication card game, used manipulatives to show higher values (7x7), etc. At 11 am, the students have lunch in the room. A woman brings a pot and the students take out their mats and plastic containers to be filled. Although we overplanned for the lesson, we used everything we brought (even a worksheet on colors).

The organizer was in the room the whole time with us translating for the children, but requested that we bring worksheets so that the teachers can use the lessons later on. This is a bit frustrating because I don't have any resources in India for this. I wish I packed my Flat Stanley book, but I thought I was going to be teaching high school children. Chantelle talks about a book she is reading, that discusses bringing wireless internet to the slums to bridge the learning gap. A little Wifi would be fantastic right now...but doubt that vision will take place in the near future.

At noon, we finished our lesson with them and head off to have tea and somewhat awkward casual conversation with the women (a group of 6 to 7). The women are extremely shy, and some don't seem like they want to chat, even when our questions are translated to Hindi. We'll see if they can overcome this.

After lunch, I skipped the Hindi lesson to go with Meena to purchase a cell phone on the street. It was extremely hot yesterday and we went at prime time, dodging motorcycles, bicycles, and school busses that were dropping off students. At 4, we had a speaker talk to us about Indian politics for a drawn out 2 hours... my attention span is unfortunately not long (an hour would have been plenty).

Dinner was a fantastic tandoori chicken, barbequed in a vat outside the headquarters. We had fresh naan and stuffed ourselves, even though we weren't really hungry. We had a venting session in our apt. just because we are all stressed preparing for the next days lessons at 9pm. In the U.S. we teach through literacy, and try to engage students in the language and I am frustrated because there are no books here to read to them, and I don't have worksheets (nor want to spend what little free time I have creating them), nor is there a copier in our apt.

My idea for next weeks lesson would be to create a unit on "Flat Stanley" and try to engage the children in writing, speaking, and listening activities. The final project would be to create a letter and send the letter to my NY school. I will suggest this to the program leader, because it's ridiculous to be stressed like this in India.

Despite the frustration, I have to say, I haven't laughed so much in a long time. The day started with a yoga class, that I will have to describe at a later point. Pretty much a man showed up dressed in a long sleeve collared shirt, pants, and dress shoes, and directed us to some poses. We started cracking up during the session, and he ended the session with "laughing yoga" .... needless to say my abdominals are working. Also, we stayed up late talking, and then Meena dressed me up in a sari and she and Rosie made-me up. I'm sure pictures will be posted at some point.

Hope all is well... sorry for any spelling / grammar errors but am too tired to read after I write :)