On Monday, we visit Pyari's school and meet students and faculty for the first time. I am very excited and nervous. Everyone here tells me that "guests are like Gods in India" and I'm feeling a quite unworthy...
We arrive at our school - immediately (and continually!) Cheri and I are overwhelmed by the incredible adulation which greets us... we are rock stars!
It turns out that for 99% of the population, we are the first Westerners they have ever seen - it's humbling! They love us and it would be easy to let it go to our heads. :)
Morning assembly begins in the courtyard with all of the school children lined up in tight rows by grade (standard). Standards 5 to 12 are the grades that are here, with Cheri and I stationed primarily in the buildings that house Standard 8 to 12 (just like Dennis-Yarmouth).
This is the opening line that Shila, the principal for the younger standards, uses to introduce us after the singing of their national anthem and opening prayers: "Finally, the day that we have been waiting for for so long has arrived - our guests from the United States are with us!" Wow..... Repeatedly we are told, "In India, guests are like gods and goddesses." And I would agree that that is how guests are treated - it's amazing.
The children are enthralled and so excited! Every time we pass a classroom, an uproar ensues - and it's unavoidable in these open air classrooms - the only thing dividing them from the passageway that runs down the side of the building is a low-lying wall. (Later in the week, we realize that, in order to create an auditorium, all they do is move the thin barriers that divide the classrooms from one another.) We are continually apologizing for disrupting everyone's classes, but the teachers appear to be equally interested in us and are not at all upset.
But don't assume that the uproar or the simplicity of the setting indicates a substandard approach to the art of teaching. You would be mistaken.
We visit Pyari's Standard 10 English class. Pyari is a physics teacher, but his U.S. teaching experience has made him remarkably fluent in our language. He was a fellow in a companion program to IREX that brings teachers from elsewhere to the United States for six-week immersion in university education programs. Pyari lived in Orlando and attended the University of Central Florida and worked with their teacher education program. Pyari interned at Hageraty High School in 2012-13. This is a photo of our host in front of his classroom.
His students are so welcoming - they start the class by greeting us with roses (this happens repeatedly throughout the week - students beginning a class by presenting gifts of flowers or little gifts). One of Pyari's students has made Cheri and I beautiful paper craft earrings.
Once they recover from their bashfulness, they ask us questions about the U.S. and we ask them questions about their lives. We discover a diversity of aspirations that is at equivalent to that of our U.S. students.
Tuesday and Thursday are spent moving from class to class and we observe numerous instructional practices that are familiar to us. In a physics class we watch student groups set up a demonstration of Newton's 3rd law with a toy car and a balloon. Once they carry out the demonstration, they are asked to discuss three questions that require higher order skills among themselves. When the instructor is satisfied that they are finished, he asks one member of each group to "report out."
Another class taught by our good friend, Vinod, is that of the local language, Malayalam. He uses a combination of drama, good literature, and expressive calling and repeating to help the children better understand their native language.
Our friend Josit, the state of Kerala's "Coach of the Year 2014," invites us to watch his after school wrestling teams practice. Wow. Two things strike me:
It turns out that the TEA program that sent Pyari to the United States was incredibly effective. He watched and learned and practiced while in Florida and returned to Kerala with a new "toolbox" of instructional ideas. Pyari's school, much like my own, is peopled with faculty members who embrace collaboration and common planning. He brought back ideas, just as he had shared his own with the teachers in the U.S. And the teachers embraced them.
This collaborative spirit is one that I have always felt is somewhat unique to my high school - in other places and schools that I have taught, teachers mostly jealously protected their own "superstar" lesson plans, and chose not to use common planning or materials. Since my arrival at Dennis-Yarmouth 22 years ago, I had always been impressed by the collaborative and collegial qualities of our faculty and believed that it was one of the most important characteristics that defined our success with students.
Now I am convinced more than ever that that is one of the keys to the educational craft that we all practice, regardless of our geography.
We arrive at our school - immediately (and continually!) Cheri and I are overwhelmed by the incredible adulation which greets us... we are rock stars!
It turns out that for 99% of the population, we are the first Westerners they have ever seen - it's humbling! They love us and it would be easy to let it go to our heads. :)
This is the opening line that Shila, the principal for the younger standards, uses to introduce us after the singing of their national anthem and opening prayers: "Finally, the day that we have been waiting for for so long has arrived - our guests from the United States are with us!" Wow..... Repeatedly we are told, "In India, guests are like gods and goddesses." And I would agree that that is how guests are treated - it's amazing.
The children are enthralled and so excited! Every time we pass a classroom, an uproar ensues - and it's unavoidable in these open air classrooms - the only thing dividing them from the passageway that runs down the side of the building is a low-lying wall. (Later in the week, we realize that, in order to create an auditorium, all they do is move the thin barriers that divide the classrooms from one another.) We are continually apologizing for disrupting everyone's classes, but the teachers appear to be equally interested in us and are not at all upset.
We visit Pyari's Standard 10 English class. Pyari is a physics teacher, but his U.S. teaching experience has made him remarkably fluent in our language. He was a fellow in a companion program to IREX that brings teachers from elsewhere to the United States for six-week immersion in university education programs. Pyari lived in Orlando and attended the University of Central Florida and worked with their teacher education program. Pyari interned at Hageraty High School in 2012-13. This is a photo of our host in front of his classroom.
Once they recover from their bashfulness, they ask us questions about the U.S. and we ask them questions about their lives. We discover a diversity of aspirations that is at equivalent to that of our U.S. students.
Tuesday and Thursday are spent moving from class to class and we observe numerous instructional practices that are familiar to us. In a physics class we watch student groups set up a demonstration of Newton's 3rd law with a toy car and a balloon. Once they carry out the demonstration, they are asked to discuss three questions that require higher order skills among themselves. When the instructor is satisfied that they are finished, he asks one member of each group to "report out."
Our friend Josit, the state of Kerala's "Coach of the Year 2014," invites us to watch his after school wrestling teams practice. Wow. Two things strike me:
- Every match, no matter how brutal, ends with a genuine embrace between the two combatants - they leave the mats with arms around one another.
- There is a women's wrestling contingent, coached by a female faculty member. Josit explains that it is not as populous as the boys team because of a natural reserve, but it is getting there. The match that we see is aggressive and as competitive as the boys....
And it continues.Finally, on Thursday, I have an opportunity to speak more deeply with Pyari about the instructional practices in his building. We had come to expect through our workshops prior to Kerala that a public school might rely more heavily on the traditional practice of teacher as "dispenser of knowledge" and student as "receiver." Particularly since some of the class sizes reached over 50 students! But that was clearly not the case and I was curious.
It turns out that the TEA program that sent Pyari to the United States was incredibly effective. He watched and learned and practiced while in Florida and returned to Kerala with a new "toolbox" of instructional ideas. Pyari's school, much like my own, is peopled with faculty members who embrace collaboration and common planning. He brought back ideas, just as he had shared his own with the teachers in the U.S. And the teachers embraced them.
This collaborative spirit is one that I have always felt is somewhat unique to my high school - in other places and schools that I have taught, teachers mostly jealously protected their own "superstar" lesson plans, and chose not to use common planning or materials. Since my arrival at Dennis-Yarmouth 22 years ago, I had always been impressed by the collaborative and collegial qualities of our faculty and believed that it was one of the most important characteristics that defined our success with students.
Now I am convinced more than ever that that is one of the keys to the educational craft that we all practice, regardless of our geography.
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