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After beach coconuts!

Samarpan (in creche class) hot, sweaty, and happy on an outing with the classes on Monday!

The tinniest girl, Akshia, in a big canyon!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Today was my second day in a row wearing a sari! Yesterday I wore a green, shimmery sari with peacocks embroidered on it. It is the only sari I have ever purchased for myself, and I bought it because I simply loved it. Yesterday Galen kissed me goodbye and told me I was beautiful. Today I wore my “barbie” sari. The bright pink sari that was a gift from some of the girls in the 6th grade class for my 27th birthday. Galen laughed at me this morning and said I was wearing it to torture him…however, EVERY Tamil woman today told me that my sari was soooo beautiful- American taste and Indian taste don’t really match up- I fortunately appreciate both.

I wore my pink sari today because I went to hold a mini-workshop at Isai Amballam. It was a “rush, rush” day. Galen and I did not linger over our tea this morning chatting about politics and big life questions. I had to get 6th std by 8:30 to teach my Roald Dahl book clubs, and from there to Lower kindergarten for storytime and songs. Then I filled in for Vijaya who had to leave the school urgently and from there went to 4th std English and from there ate a hasty lunch and then climbed on my moped (pink sari and all) and headed off for the wilderness of Auroville. Driving over the bumpy, red dirt roads is a good time for being reflective and I enjoyed my drive until the road that I had driven on last week ended short in a pile of gravel. Confused I circled around and then finally followed a path through a field where I saw one lone motor-biker driving. Magically I arrived directly at the door to Isai Amballam!

I arrived at the kindergarten classrooms to be greated by Vanti who was setting the children up in a circle with drawing paper. Each child was given 2 colored pencils and directed to draw freely from their imagination about the story that they had heard that morning. The children- 4 and 5 year olds happily and busily drew flowers, suns, people, circles, and lots of lines and scribbles with their two colored pencils. One child held one in each hand. The children sat and lay on their stomach and frequently called out, “teacher teacher!” to either Vanti or I proudly holding up his/her drawing. One little boy lay on his stomach and sang to himself while he drew. The children were all totally engrossed in their work. After that the teacher gathered up the drawings and the children took turns telling stories that they had been told. Some children sleepily lounged about, others wriggled away from the circle. My energy was also waning and I was anxious about how I was going to pull it together to do a workshop.

Luckily, after the children were dismissed to the playground (where they play on their own- unattended for a half an hour) and the teachers and I gathered on the floor with my materials and books, my teacher instinct took over and I was able to move forward easily. We discussed creativity, I described that I had just observed happy, proud and engaged children who were working creatively. We did two activities, both of which I learned from Deborah, that helped me to illustrate points about the importance of creativity. We discussed cognitive flexibility- that children should develop the ability to respond creatively to new situations, we discussed specific activities and how they could be tailored for older and young children, we discussed how to “assess” creative work. And of course we laughed a lot, and of course the teachers created some fantastic art work. It left me feeling invigorated and inspired, and so I drove all over the rusty red roads of Auroville, taking in the huts, the greenery, the strange animal noises, the wind whipping by me with enjoyment.

Kavitha shares her drawing with the group!

A drawing by one of the teacher's. This one, the teacher began drawing with her eyes closed while listening to music.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

This is my short 45 minute break over a day that began at 8:30 and will be ending around 6 (I hope). Thursdays are busy but enjoyable days as I spend the morning doing Free Play with the creche – 1st std classes, and the afternoon doing Choice Time with the 2nd and 3rd std classes. In between today I displayed the art work that the children produced in Free Play and taught 4th std English (we read and discussed “Tikki- Tikki- Tembo”). Between Free Play and Choice Time this means that at least once a week, ALL of the children from age 3 to age 9 have access to a time when they can choose between art projects, block building, working with legos and puzzles, and other activities that the teachers have planned. This morning I was in charge of tearing and pasting (a collage project). I set up my materials on one side of the room and Jhoti (a 1st std teacher) set up drawing materials on the other side. We had many children come through the room during the 1 hour and 15 minute time period they were given. I loved watching the creche children sit down at the table and quietly experiment with the glue (favricole they call it here) and tearing the paper into small pieces. Many of them were so serious and worked for 10 or 15 minutes on their art work. This contrasted with the 1st std children who burst into the room with their own ideas and worked socially for most of the time. One child made a kite and then many other children also made kites. Many of the older children were focused on making a more realistic piece of art work and wanted to use pencils to draw on their pictures as well, where as the younger children were simply enjoying the tearing of the paper and the feel of the glue on their fingers. The time passed very quickly as I worked with them.

Kamally works very diligently on her collage!

Torn paper collages

I really love this collage that was made!

In block building with 3rd std I only had 5 children. They are able to speak quite good English and after laying down some basic rules (no throwing blocks, clean up when I say so…) they got right to work and created trains and an office. The children were very focused until one child at the end couldn’t resist knocking someone elses building over during clean up time and then didn’t want to clean up. But this was minor and the period ended very happily with Aravind stating, “I love blocks and legos and puzzles,” as he stayed to the very end to make sure everything was organized properly on the shelves. This comment which I shared with Selvaraj has inspired him to have the children share what they are working on in choice time and write it down so that we can hang up their quotes around the classroom. Selvaraj is such a lovely and thoughtful teacher. As he said to me at tea time this morning, “teaching is about giving, not gaining anything for ourselves. No matter what problems there are in life, when we are with the children, they all go away.” And you can see this love and care for what he does in the way in which he teaches and the way in which the children love and respect him in return.

Friday August 5, 2011

My visit to New Colors last night proved to be extremely fulfilling and inspirational- although I got home after 7! New Colors is an after school, school run by a couple, an Israeli woman and a Tamil man who live in a room off of the school with their gorgeous daughter, Lalli, who is 2.5 years old. They have started a program for the children in the village of Edeyan Chavedy. The children come at 5 and quietly walk up the stairs to the roof of the building where they sit down and extremely quietly work on their homework. Kumar  works with the children on their homework as he speaks both English and Tamil fluently and is also a teacher at Transition school in Auroville. After the children are finished with their homework they get to do different activities, games and art projects. 50 children come each night to their school!! They are interested in beginning a creche at some point which is why they invited me to come and see what they are doing and what their plans for the future are. I was extremely touched at the dreams and goals of this couple, who simply want to live to help these children to have better lives. I spent a good half an hour working with a little girl named Anandi on her English and science homework. She had been asked to memorize some ridiculously long names and words and she had me quizzing her on them. She worked fast, learned quickly and made sure to check off that she had done her homework in a neatly organized planner. I want to go back to this school. It made me wonder why I don’t drop my life in NYC and just come and work and teach in these villages permanently. I’m not saying that I’m going to do this…I’m just saying, that is how inspired I felt by this little school.

Children at New Colors playing after they have finished their homework!

Anandi, a 5th grader whom I helped with her homework.

Children doing their homework on the roof at New Colors School

 

Now it is Friday afternoon. This morning while doing yoga on the terrace, the sky was a brilliant blue with perfect white clouds drifting by in rippling patterns. However the air has been heavy all day and everyone has been commenting on how sleepy it is making them feel. Galen is nappy now and I am also drifting off though I am working hard to make sure everything is prepared for my third workshop which is happening tomorrow morning. I hope to go out to dinner tonight with Selvaraj and his wife and be able to relax for a little while before getting up tomorrow and leading some activities on art and creativity and on and on…