July 6-8, 2011

Site of the pond project

Clean-up will be one of the first major tasks

There is beauty in even the dirtiest of ponds!

The pond is multi-use, and therefore education about clean water is needed

Archana's biology students sharing their knowledge about phyllums

An inter-house competition - skits about fabrics, and this was about cotton

Wouldn't you want to buy cotton after seeing this ad?

5th graders playing a foodweb game

This morning’s first task was a trip to a local pond with Archana, a couple of colleagues and some students to gather information to begin a school-wide pond project.  They hope to develop a long range plan that would include clean-up and revitalization of the area, but they realize that there are number of challenges that must be addressed if the project is to be a success.  On one side of the pond is a community of under-privileged people who use the pond for fish, cooking, and cleaning. On the other side of the pond is a busy street, and at one end of the pond is an entry area filled with trash that will wash into the pond when the monsoon rains pour.  In regards to the community of under-privileged people, the community service club will develop a survey to seek information about how the community views the pond and this information will in turn guide their outreach efforts.  The city of Vadodara will also need to be brought in to assist with the clean-up and with support to ensure the pond remains clean. While there Archana and I brainstormed a number of science related activities the students could do begin a long-term study of the physical and biological characteristics of the pond.  

Back at the school, the students presented their ideas to Baksi Ma’am.  She listened to everything the students had to say and heard their enthusiasm for the project in their voices.  She began asking a number of questions that were meant to guide their thinking and actions.  As I watched all this transpire, I realized how fortunate the school was to have Baksi Ma’am as their leader.  She is a type of leader, who fosters creativity and professionalism in her faculty, supports and encourages student growth, and does this while seeing the big picture of where the school is and where it is going.  She is a role-model for all those who aspire to be school leaders. 

The rest of my day included teaching one class about soils and another about natural resources as a global issue, and afterwards I debriefed what I taught with teachers of those classes.  I had a blast doing both.  It appears that the students are well versed in the book content of each of these topics, and what I brought along supported and enhanced what they previously learned.  The teachers had some good questions about how to cover content while using inquiry approaches.  I told them to hold onto their questions because my workshop would address those questions.  Julia and I were back to the hotel by 4PM and out to dinner at the Science Department Chair’s home by 8PM.  It was another delightful evening with wonderful colleagues.  It has been a treat watching the faculty interact; it appears that they have been the best of friends for years being so supportive of each other and having fun at the same time.  Archana mentioned that she and her colleagues don’t normally get together for dinner because everyone is so busy.  Julia and I made the suggestion that they develop a master calendar to continue their social gatherings after we leave!

Thursday morning Julia and I were guest judges for an inter-house poetry contest. Yup, this science teacher was asked to judge poetry performances AND to provide comments on the performances!  The school is divided into 4 “houses” (emerald, ruby, topaz, and sapphire) and there are inter-house competitions throughout the year as each house vies for the school trophy.  The students remain in their houses while they are in the Navrachana School so over time they get better and better at performing in these competitions.  All the performances were extremely impressive and I couldn’t help but to give high marks to each house.  Thank goodness Julia knew watch she was watching since she is an accomplished theater arts and language arts teacher, and she was able to provide them with constructive feedback.

After the judging I watched Archana’s students give oral presentations on phylums and then later I spoke to the junior-level science teachers and assisted them in identifying their cache from the field trip.  I wish I had more time to spend with them and their students.  Later in the afternoon Archana and I spoke to the senior-level science teachers about problem-based learning methods, and hopefully a few will try to incorporate some of our suggestions into their teaching repertoires.

I’m sure you are wondering what the weather has been like here in India. Well, I was expecting hot, and got it!  The temperatures in the classrooms hover around 95 degrees Fahrenheit and outside temperatures hover above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  In regards to the monsoon rains, I was ready for torrential downpours on a daily basis, but in reality only experienced seer rain on a few of the days while in India.  Sporadic downpours were more the norm than full days of rain, although there were a couple of those.  One of those storms occurred today while a few of us were shopping after school.  The drainage is so poor that we had to walk through over 12 inches of water to get into the car.  Umbrellas are okay if there is no wind, and raincoats are barely used by anyone.  That evening we were out with the English department at a restaurant and got caught in another storm as we left.

First thing Friday morning I met with an astronomy club filled with students of differing background knowledge. I had planned a few items to fill the hour but chose to do something a little different after beginning to talk to them.  We chatted about tools of an astronomer and how different bands of electromagnetic energy are used to detect cosmic objects we can’t see or touch.  They seemed to enjoy it, although it didn’t leave us much time to complete our planispheres.  I left the supplies with the teacher so she could wrap up the activity for the students.  After that I stopped by to see some performances by grades 4-6 on the topics of fabrics. Each house had a different fabric and they each needed to develop a skit, advertisement, and jingle.  I only saw 2 to the 4, and they were really good! After that I watched as the 5^th graders played a web of life game, and a predator-prey game.  The teacher did a nice job of wrapping the games up back in the classroom.  Next, Archana and I finally got more time to plan for my Monday workshop.  I’m now ready to go except for the powerpoint presentation, which will take a little time to create.  Julia and I took an auto-rickshaw back to the hotel and it cost less than $1!  We had “high tea” at the home of a junior level English teacher at 6PM.  The gathering was very nice and included about 10 faculty members.  The school is like a community and in particular it is a part of the Navarachana educational trust which includes many schools and outreach programs.  For instance,  after the children leave at 2PM, underprivileged children from the community come to the school to study.  The families pay an extremely small amount of money and the kids learn a vocation, Hindi, English and a few other subjects.  The school is also big into community development with all their green projects.  Very impressive indeed!