Masala Flavored Workshop

Everything is going well despite being eaten up by the bugs, and it seems to be getting hotter. Yesterday I had not realized how many bug bites I had on my neck until I was asked “why do you have so many boils on your neck?” I thought I had totally neck acne, but when I looked in the mirror and put it together with the feast that the rest of body has become I realized I have become a bug buffet.

Today was the workshop, and although I had planned extensively for this I never figured out how I was going to put it all together in two hours. The unfortunate reality is that I can’t do much in a couple of hours, so at best I’ll be a good ambassador and intrigue the teachers to delve into the resources and strategies I’ve shared. As the morning moved on I was figuring out my game plan, I feel like I’ve done this kind of stuff enough now that I wasn’t nervous, and was confident that I can adjust on the fly. When I got to school I started to write down my ideas to get my session rolling, and then the ever pleasant Devika greeted me with some home cooked chapattis. Her cooking is great, there is a perfect balance of the flavors and spices. The Indian representative for Fulbright also joined me in the conference room, as well as the assistant vice principal. This institution is very eager to get their teachers into international study programs, or anything else that will promote student and teacher growth.

After the introductions, Devika sang a fitting and beautiful prayer song. Mrs. YGP and I then lit a ceremonial candle and I was presented with some gifts. Ms. YGP kicked it off with a lengthy but thoughtful, relevant, and at times humorous talk on values. Again she is in her mid eighties and is super sharp and exudes wisdom. Although she is an education rock star she is very easy to talk to and is obviously very reflective and humble. I continue to be impressed with the fact that there fearless leader, as well as the rest of school management, is completely focused on education. I won’t even attempt to attempt to capture everything Ms. YGP said because it was exhaustive but simple, profound yet grounded, effortless and calm. Luckily she gave me her copy of the book that she was recently inspired by “The Value of Values.” One thing that she did mention was that she felt that the common man in American is honest and compassionate. She explained that even if someone in American is poor it would be unlikely to see them steal a piece fruit from a street vendor. When she was taking questions I thanked her for her kind representation of Americans and asked her what she thought we could learn from Indians. She thought we should respect and adhere to tradition, and forgo the immediate indulgences for lasting rewards. I agree with the second part, and want to agree with the first but struggle with identifying what tradition is or should be in America. I think we have a lot of wonderful qualities as a people and a country, but I don’t know if that translates to tradition. I’m among the oldest intact culture on the planet, and I’m a member of the newest culture. Granted we Americans are a melding of cultures, but that very melding creates something completely different. For instance I keep getting asked what we eat? It is not something that is understood, we eat everything and we also eat nothing at the same time (I gave a better answer). “Ok , Ok what is your staple, ours is rice?” Ahhh….burritos? (I said something else). The later comments represent superficial components of culture, but the underlying questions intrigue me greatly.

My two hour session seemed to go well. By the number of questions from the teachers and leadership it seemed that my presentation peaked an interest. I tried to acknowledge all the parallels of what we are striving for at nex+gen, and what they are already doing well; such as their laser focus on their mission, their school culture, and horizontal and vertical integration. I predicated the whole session by contextualizing our new school direction and my evaluation of the climate of US schools, part of which was the view that we are now competing for jobs globally. After referencing Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat,” I explained my standpoint that we are preparing students to cooperatively address the globes problem, rather than vying for position. My whole session was anchored in creating and promoting culture which seemed to over well with my audience. The workshop can be viewed on the website, which I linked in previous blogs.

There was a ton of questions from all angles, which helped the time flow (or so I think). I’m confident that they can pursue this style of teaching to enhance what they are already doing. They are seasoned at asking big questions, however they are not accustomed to teaching controversial subjects. Mrs. YGP was a big fan of the question I have created for what I hope turns into an ongoing collaborative project, “What is the good life?” I can now see why kids are not very excited about social science here, if you are only teaching the good side then it may seem either like a lie or something that doesn’t need to be addressed. I didn’t express this, but we did talk about how you deal with introducing and including difficult topics and it seems like they would have to walk a much finer rope than I’ve had to. Mrs. YGP interjected that they had done a project on animal cruelty, after students had been upset by some people beating a bullock (bull) by their school. She inquired if this is what I was talking about? It sounded like an outstanding project in that it was relevant and of interest of the students. As we finished the student who I continue to speak so fondly of added his endorsement and interest to everything I presented.

After the session some of the teachers wanted to talk with me, and quite a few were eager to get access to the materials. I greatly appreciated all of the kind complements that were expressed. I think there is a high concentration of teachers and leaders in this school who truly care about kids, are passionate about teaching, and believe that education can be an agent for change. Luckily the lessons I’ll be teaching to the classes will be open to teachers, so they can have some hands on exposure and experience. There is a lot of energy to pursue the project idea I’ve presented. More than ever I can see that a lasting relationship is developing between our schools.

After another incredible school lunch we returned for a few more presentations. Ms. Velsa who has spent time in the US read an article that she had published in the Hindi a couple years ago. The advisor demonstrated how a couple of activities and power points can be used for relaying basic knowledge in social science classrooms. I like that when they have PD everything they do revolves around teaching and learning. That may sound odd to an education outsider, but often teachers at home have to sit through benign meetings that are totally detached from improving student performance. For instance the obsession with reviewing standardized test data, is like a baseball team studying and obsessing over batting averages hoping to hit better.

Tomorrow I’m heading for Kerela via a 12 hours bus ride with A/C , so I decided to scratch an outing with Rajagopal so that I can pack, write, and do a little exercise. After school I went to the ATM and then wondered around a bit. I found a place to exchange money, so I went back to the hotel grab some British Pounds to exchange. I exchanged some money, and then popped my head in some shops. Already being pleased with my small feats, I was excited when I figured out that Spencers a few doors down is a grocery. For some reason, I always like hitting up grocery stores in other places. I don’t like shopping anywhere, but the grocery store I like. Short -story short it was small but had everything you need, and everything you need in masala flavor. I wanted to buy something so I got a mango juice, ice cream, and masala flavored potato chips. Not my normal fare, but I was curious and was told to stay away from all fresh fruits and vegetables.