Professional Development Surprise!

Events of Saturday, March 17:

A teacher’s work is never done. At Navrachana International School, the first and third Saturdays of the month are “working Saturdays” and classes are taught throughout the morning hours.  I woke up with a light heart, but my eyelids battled the heavy hand of sleep as I dragged myself to the academic building on a weekend. Fortunately I was not asked to teach any classes but had the opportunity to watch my cooperating-teacher, Sandhya (pronounced SUND-YAH), lecture to the sixth grade class about the Democratic government in India. The small classroom was crammed tight with about fifty attentive pupils; their inquisitive minds poured insightful comments and questions into the space, filling every nook and cranky of the room with learning. The teacher conducted an informative lecture where students did not take notes but were only required to listen so that they have some background knowledge when they read more on this topic in their textbooks. However, Sandhya frontloaded meaning at the beginning of the class period, explicitly speaking about the importance of her lesson, because it will help the students become more aware citizens; from my point of view, the students were already fairly knowledgeable about their system of government, reciting in unison that democracy was “for the people, of the people, by the people.” The students supported their ideas with examples of various leaders of government and previous elections and what information they did not understand they did not hesitate to ask questions. I discovered a poster on the wall that reflected the atmosphere that was created in this classroom and what values I also cherish as a future educator; the poster was entitled, “Acrostic Poem on Literature,” and went as follows:

L – Life-Long Learning

I – Intuitive Insight

T – Theatre of Life

E – Enriching Education

R – Radical Richness

A – Artistry of Language

T – Truth in the Telling

U – Undeniably Pleasurable

R – Rapturous Appreciation

E – Epiphany in Experience

My passion for teaching was rejuvenated as I sat and witnessed the proactive approach to learning as students investigated their own understanding and made it relevant and meaningful to their individual lives.

            One of the reasons that I admire the profession of education is the ability for teachers to not only enrich their student’s lives with ideas that provoke exploration and knowledge, but the opportunity for educators to get to know their students and learn from them as well.  While visiting the seventh grade English classroom I was able to spend quality time getting to know some of the students; they were more than willing to give me rich details about their lives and there was a wistful glimmer in their eyes as they spoke, which revealed their hope to form an intimate bond with the new, foreign teacher. Such a desire was also imprinted on my heart and was fulfilled as the student’s stories unfolded before me. In the front row sat two girls, Bethany and Ami (pronounced AH-ME) – best friends – with equally intriguing tales, interests, and goals. Bethany lived in Dallas, Texas for the past five years and has recently returned to India because her parents were called to the life of Christian missionaries. Her mother and father have a nondenominational church in Vadodara and although she is adjusting to life in India again, Bethany desperately misses the Whopper :D (especially because cows are sacred, according to the Hindu faith, and beef is not eaten). Bethany’s favorite band is SuperChic, a Christian rock band, and is learning to play the guitar herself and enjoys writing her own lyrics to the music she creates. Ami, like Bethany, is also a vibrant and friendly young girl and freely shared her stories of her family history. She schooled in Kenya for six years and said that the education program at that school ran from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm and the Kenyan students were extremely studious. Ami’s parents are currently living in Kenya again with her four-year-old brother, Jay, so Ami is living with her grandparents in Gujarat. This young pupil appears to be a big dreamer, wanting to become an architect or engineer or fashion designer when she graduates.  I have to admire the open arms and hearts of the students as they invited me, a foreigner, into their professional and personal lives.

The end of the class period was spent getting to know the competitive side of the students as we played a game that does not have an official name, but what I like to think of as Indian Checkers. The board was created from a sheet of paper and the students drew a pattern on the page that was a large rectangle with a "X" filling the entire box and a vertical line in the center of the rectangle, connecting the top and bottom of the shape.Miscellaneous objects, like erasers and stacks of staples, are placed as pawns on each side of the board. The player will move one pawn one space at his/her turn with the goal of the game being a player to align all of their three objects in a row, either horizontally or at an angle. I watched the students play a few games and then was invited to play the game against the continuous winner, Sheel Patal, who was previously living in Houston, Texas and is passionate about swimming.  About seven other students were gathered around to watch the game and were coaching me about which pawns to move. Despite the student’s help, Sheel was unbeatable; the game appears simple at first but it does require a lot of strategy and prior planning! I guess I should not have turned down so many games of Sequence with my mom back home lol :).

The school closed at 1:00 pm and all of the teachers were required to gather for a Professional Development Seminar. Throughout my first few days at the school I have been meeting teachers individually, but it was interesting to see almost one hundred teachers get together for roll-call amidst the sea of colorful saris and vibrant personalities. The small auditorium echoed with laughter and friendly greetings were said to me from all areas of the room. Instead of having a guest speaker talk to the group about educational topics, principal Theo D’souza surprised the teachers and asked everyone to board the buses to a secret location for a mysterious event. We were taken into the city of Vadodara to a plush hotel where we all were served lunch in the Lilac room and given the opportunity to mingle more with one another. My mom has requested that I talk about Indian food and the reason that I haven’t touched on this topic yet is because I do not know the names of the various dishes and like to give as much information as I can when describing new experiences. However, I will try to describe the food that I ate at this hotel. White rice is a staple of Indian cuisine (good thing I’m not allergic to it lol) and it is smothered with various kinds of sauces that have a blend of spices, like cumin and ginger. Many of the teachers were concerned that the meal would be too spicy for my American palate, but I assured them that I was accustomed to the spices since my boyfriend is from West Africa and likes to infuse our meals with similar tastes; they were extremely pleased to hear that I could enjoy the meal with them. I also had a cup of corn soup, which tasted exactly like the liquid that comes in a can of creamed corn at home – brought back memories of when I was a kid and had that sweet vegetable as a side for dinner. As the teachers slowly began to finish their meal, the Indian music was turned up and a few of the coordinators began dancing and encouraging others to join them in their impromptu fun. As the NISV staff began to let the rhythms vibrate within themselves and express their sheer joy through movement, their personalities were more clearly revealed. Usha (pronounced OO-SHA), the IB Curriculum coordinator, was the first one to shuffle around the dance floor and revealed her energetic, comedic persona. The entertaining spectacle of the spontaneous teacher dance-off caused my first big laugh in India. I was silently grateful to this random event because I was able to share the smiles and clapping of those who surrounded me and felt officially initiated into the Navrachana family of teachers. 

From the hotel luncheon, we all crammed back on the bus and were transported to the Chandan Multiplex movie theatre. Whenever I travel to another country I find that I am in the position where I will probably pee on myself lol – seriously! To my surprise, the bathroom in the movie theatre did not have a toilet but consisted of a tiny basin/drain on the floor of the stall. Despite the fact that I improved my “pop-a-squat” skills in Ghana, I did not want to risk smelling like pee throughout the entire movie surrounded by one hundred of my colleagues, so let’s just say that I got creative and took my pants completely off LOL. This may be TMI (too much information) for many readers, but know that going to the bathroom in another country with their different kinds of “toilets” can be an extremely interesting (not to mention, awkward) experience :D.  I really should get a T-Shirt like they have at amusement parks that says, “My bladder survived India.” LOL.  I was able to enjoy my first Indian movie without smelling like urine and it truly was a magnificent film! The entire movie was spoken in Hindi so I did not comprehend the dialogue and narration, but I was able to follow the plot through the emotions and actions of the actors.

Kahaani is a suspense thriller that opens with a scene where a terrorist group attacks a metro station with a gas bomb and all passengers are found dead. The story then jumps to two years later when a pregnant woman travels to an Indian police station from London, trying to find her missing husband who worked for a government organization. The plot unfolds as the woman and a police officer try to uncover the mystery of her husband’s disappearance amidst evidence hidden by the FBI and assassins hired to kill those with information.  Spoiler Alert! The ending is very dramatic and has a powerful twist where the woman finds her husband but he seems to not recognize her and turns away; she grabs his shoulder to turn him back around and the man proceeds to kick her in her pregnant stomach! The woman collapses to the floor with a grimace, but then she takes one hand under her sari and pulls out her fake pregnant stomach while her other hand reaches for her gun and she shoots her “husband” dead. WHAT?!?! It is then revealed that the woman’s real husband died on the metro that was attacked and so she set out to find the terrorists and murder them for the crimes against her family. Very intriguing plot line! The house lights came up again in the theatre and all teachers filed back onto the bus to return to Navrachana International School after a pleasant afternoon of full stomachs and full hearts.

Sleep is a shape shifter that transforms his body into several forms throughout the day. At times he is an angelic spirit that caresses your brow and kisses your eyelashes with blissful dreams; but yesterday Sleep was a brutish monster that reared its ugly head and one must viciously fight the beast in order to survive one more hour awake. Near the end of this eventful day, however, I could not conjure such strength to wield my sword and fend off Sleep.  At 6:30 pm I got off the Navrachana school bus and staggered back to my apartment; I immediately wrapped myself in the lingering shadows of dusk and gently rested my head against the monster’s chest ‘til morning.