Open House at Indus and 3- Way Conferences for James and Ashram
Becoming a mom has made me a better person and teacher. Seeing the world through their eyes has really allowed me to reflect on my own being and teaching practices. Today, there was an open house at the kids school. I wanted to go to understand the kids curriculum better so I could assist them with their homework. While I learned a lot to foster good learning habits at home for James and Ashram, I also learned a lot about my inquiry project.
The head of the primary school said something very profound. "If you have the skills you can learn anything." That is so true. Even on this journey in India, I have had so many situations arise where I had to think quickly, critically, and creatively to problem solve. One example is that sometimes the Ola driver will call me to get my exact location, but I do not speak Hindi and they do not speak English and standing on a busy, dusty road is far from ideal. So, I look around and see if someone will help translate. I hand the phone over to them and they talk in their local language and the Ola car arrives in 2 minutes. So much of life is thinking on your feet, even the most well planned itinerary can go awry.
Long story short, during the presentation for the primary years it was clear that the whole child is developed and they provide several opportunities for students to learn key concepts. In the primary years, the students have units of inquiry. For Ashram, he is learning about farms and where food comes from and how it sold in the markets. Very cross disciplinary. They took a filed trip to a farm to see where it all starts. Ashram got to pick a potato and now is very eager to eat it with his dinner. James' unit of inquiry is about procedures and how food is taken from the farm, processed, and then sold in grocery stores. Again very cross disciplinary. They also took a filed trip to a farm and a local market to understand the economic aspect of it as well. James and Ashram have taken more field trips at school in the 1 month they have been here than the 4 months when we were in the States. To come think of it, they did not go on any field trips in the States.
My question now becomes what happens when they get into the higher grades (9, 10, 11, 12)? Here in India it seems that there becomes a shift to the exams and all the leadership and life skills move to after school programs. Why? In the States, there are far and few Boston Public High Schools that are even risking the idea of fusing assessments with skills.
On another note, James and Ashram had their 3 way conferences today. There were no surprises. Ashram is thriving and really a reflective thinker. He needs to work on his fine motor skills. He also has to work on keeping his emotions in check. He has become very close to another student and she happens to live across the street from us. They fight like siblings and it has started to seep into the classroom. I am friends with the mom so that will be easy to negotiate. Well semi-easy. She only speaks Portuguese but understands Spanish more than English. So I speak to her in Spanish. Who would have ever thought that I would get to practice my Spanish in India:)
James is thriving at school more so than at home in the States. The teachers are fantastic and noticed that sometimes James is reclusive. We reassured them that he is shy and needs lots of encouragement. During the conference, they asked James and Ashram to step out and in my head I was worried. They asked if everything was ok at home because James seemed sad. Then all of a sudden we heard silliness outside the room. The teachers looked at each other and said that they had never seen James interact this happily. We told them that we were surprised to hear that because happy, goofy, silly James is what we know. We were glad that they got to see the side that we always see with James. Now we just have to work on that shining through in school. Baby steps right.
The head of the primary school said something very profound. "If you have the skills you can learn anything." That is so true. Even on this journey in India, I have had so many situations arise where I had to think quickly, critically, and creatively to problem solve. One example is that sometimes the Ola driver will call me to get my exact location, but I do not speak Hindi and they do not speak English and standing on a busy, dusty road is far from ideal. So, I look around and see if someone will help translate. I hand the phone over to them and they talk in their local language and the Ola car arrives in 2 minutes. So much of life is thinking on your feet, even the most well planned itinerary can go awry.
Long story short, during the presentation for the primary years it was clear that the whole child is developed and they provide several opportunities for students to learn key concepts. In the primary years, the students have units of inquiry. For Ashram, he is learning about farms and where food comes from and how it sold in the markets. Very cross disciplinary. They took a filed trip to a farm to see where it all starts. Ashram got to pick a potato and now is very eager to eat it with his dinner. James' unit of inquiry is about procedures and how food is taken from the farm, processed, and then sold in grocery stores. Again very cross disciplinary. They also took a filed trip to a farm and a local market to understand the economic aspect of it as well. James and Ashram have taken more field trips at school in the 1 month they have been here than the 4 months when we were in the States. To come think of it, they did not go on any field trips in the States.
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| All the art displayed is by students |
. My question now becomes what happens when they get into the higher grades (9, 10, 11, 12)? Here in India it seems that there becomes a shift to the exams and all the leadership and life skills move to after school programs. Why? In the States, there are far and few Boston Public High Schools that are even risking the idea of fusing assessments with skills.
On another note, James and Ashram had their 3 way conferences today. There were no surprises. Ashram is thriving and really a reflective thinker. He needs to work on his fine motor skills. He also has to work on keeping his emotions in check. He has become very close to another student and she happens to live across the street from us. They fight like siblings and it has started to seep into the classroom. I am friends with the mom so that will be easy to negotiate. Well semi-easy. She only speaks Portuguese but understands Spanish more than English. So I speak to her in Spanish. Who would have ever thought that I would get to practice my Spanish in India:)
James is thriving at school more so than at home in the States. The teachers are fantastic and noticed that sometimes James is reclusive. We reassured them that he is shy and needs lots of encouragement. During the conference, they asked James and Ashram to step out and in my head I was worried. They asked if everything was ok at home because James seemed sad. Then all of a sudden we heard silliness outside the room. The teachers looked at each other and said that they had never seen James interact this happily. We told them that we were surprised to hear that because happy, goofy, silly James is what we know. We were glad that they got to see the side that we always see with James. Now we just have to work on that shining through in school. Baby steps right.
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