More Writing from Kids

About Miss Joanna
First of all she is not an Indian. But she came to India for all of us. I am very grateful to you. That you have come to meet us from another country.
She is a teacher, she teaches us science and maths. She loves all of us. She is not famous in America but she is famous in our school and villages. There are many people who are famous in America but they did not come to meet us. She is a kind and peaceful teacher.
There is an advice to you: “Please try to come again.” We will miss you very much.

Opportunities to Get Involved

On Thursday I leave for Delhi, where I will spend a few days sight-seeing before returning home. I want to take a minute to thank everyone who contributed to this trip, either through a monetary donation for the boys, by sending kind words to a friend who is far from home, or even just by following along on the blog. I have been blessed and honored to have this experience, and I’m determined not to let it end when the plane’s wheels touch down at PHL. Once I settle in to my new job, I’ve promised the founder that I will search out some grant opportunities and do my best to secure extra funding. I know some of you have grant-writing experience, and I’d accept any help you can offer. The school is busting at the seams right now, and they are hoping to move into a state-of-art facility by 2014 that will have new classrooms, nicer dormitories, and an area for the students to have physical education. They’ll be able to accept more students in each class, and use education to create more catalysts for change in the Musahar community. If you’ve been moved by stories of these kids and the mission of the school, I encourage you to make a donation. I’ll be sending a care package by the end of September with copies of the photos I’ve taken as well as some school supplies and books. I’ll publish a list of what would be helpful on the blog when I return. If you prefer, you can also make a donation directly to the school to help provide for clothing, food, school supplies and medical care for the kids at this website: http://seeyourimpact.org/2010/07/01/musahar_shoshit_seva_sangh/. There you can see photos of the kids your money is helping, real kids I’ve met this summer with unbelievable potential in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Leaving

I have only 2 days left here at the school, and it's hard not to tear up when I look at the boys. I will miss them more than they can possibly know. It seems that every day now, I meet a new boy with some amazing hidden talent or interest. You already know about Chance and his story writing. I published a book for him with his collected stories and it stretched to 14 pages single-spaced. Since then he has written at least five more, and he has spurred a wave of followers who dutifully bring me their stories for correction every evening. What they really want is for me to go clack-clack-clack and turn their stories into printed pages. I’ve had to limit most of them to one story a piece, otherwise I would do nothing but type at my computer all day. Then there is the boy who dances like Michael Jackson, despite growing up in a village with no electricity and only catching snippets of his moves on video. I couldn’t have presented my workshops without the Class Seven boy who is a technical genius to set up my audio visual equipment. I’m told he built a functioning toy car and a working lamp out of junk he found around the school. There is another boy who collects acronyms, and brought me a notebook filled with carefully printed letters and their full forms asking me “What is the meaning of B.C.? And A.D.?” I am disappointed to think that I won’t get to know all 238 of them in the same way. I think the feeling is compounded by the fact that I don't get to go back to my U.S. boys again this fall. I've been missing them this whole summer. Every time I get out the photos to show kids here, there are my Fitz boys in their uniforms, learning in my class or on field trips to the zoo or a college. Despite all the grieving I’ve done for leaving Fitz, I don’t think it’s truly sunk in that I’m really not going back. I find myself thinking about decorations for my classroom and new procedures I want to try in September. I'm really going to miss being a teacher.

Small Successes

I know that my being here has inspired many of the children to work harder in their studies. I know it has re-invigorated many of the teachers. I also know that I will never truly know the true impact these five and a half weeks have had on the people I met here. Yesterday at the weekly assembly, I was able to celebrate a small but rewarding success. The results from the weekly exams are reported on Mondays, with students who have earned stars asked to stand for a round of applause, and the students who have failed one or more subjects made to stand in public shame. [Note for an American audience: Although I was repulsed by the second part of this practice during the first assembly, after more fully understanding the context of this school, the amazing opportunity these boys are given, and the expectations of their parents, I have come to support it as both a discipline tool and as a way to remind students that it is their responsibility to study and take full advantage of the resources offered here.]

The students in kindergarten here range greatly in age and ability level. From the smallest who have trouble recognizing letters in English to the strongest students who can read sentences and know their times tables. For many of these children, SSK is the first experience in their lives when they must follow a strict routine, take regular baths, wash their own clothes, and sit for hours daily in a chair. The change from their villages to this school must be shocking to them. The kindergarten teacher is totally overwhelmed with 49 little ones in the same room with such varying abilities. When I started tutoring, the 10 lowest students were assigned to meet with me once weekly. I decided to meet one-on-one a few times a week with the three lowest, as they were quantitatively lower than the others. They all struggled to recognize letters and could not spell the numbers one through ten, let alone higher numbers that they were being asked on their exams. They were repeatedly failing their weekly exams. This week, all three of them passed their English test! Although such progress is not normally celebrated at the assembly (they did not do so well as to earn stars), I asked special permission for these three to stand, and the terrace was filled with thunderous applause for their accomplishment. In this one moment, all the inconveniences and hardships I suffered to secure the visa, to travel half-way around the world, to live in a vermin-infested room without air conditioning or reliable water or power for five and a half weeks melted away into insignificance. To see their beaming faces as their friends and teachers cheered for them paid me back a hundredfold.

Workshops

Last week I conducted five 90-minute workshops on the Five-Step Lesson Plan, Student Practice, and Checking for Understanding for the 14 teachers here (Sir hired two more just before the workshops began). The teachers were very excited and were conscientious students, doing their reading before hand and completing all homework assignments. Overall I think the workshops were successful, but if I had to do them over again I’d make a few changes. For example, I’d lessen the amount of reading required for the teachers. As second language learners, reading the annotated lesson plans seemed to take at least twice as long. I’d also try to conduct the workshops in the morning—it was so hot and the teachers were so tired by the end of the day that despite their general enthusiasm for the content, some had trouble staying awake or focusing. The feedback data is generally positive, although I’m a bit concerned that teachers were on the fence between Agree and Disagree when asked if the strategies presented could be put into practice at SSK. Definitely a learning experience for me, and I hope a learning experience for them. The best part was teaching the I Do/We Do/You Do dance to everyone on the first day and then hearing them critique each other’s dance steps throughout the week. Even the founder and chairman got into the action of the last day, breaking it down.

**Special Shoutout to Gabby at TFA for sharing so many resources that made workshop prep a million times easier!