On Friday I gave a lesson on solar cookers. I was informed just before I started presenting that this was a cross curricular lesson so my class size doubled to include home and health as well as my class. The lesson was ok but I feel my other lessons have been better. Although I tried to make it as interactive as possible I didn’t include any exercises and instead it was really just informative. I’m ashamed to say that I caught one or two of the home and health students snoozing, but I put this down to the big class size and not everyone being able to see my slides clearly J. What did add extreme value to it though was the tour of the ‘Solar Park’ on campus afterwards. This was constructed in 2010 and supposedly all the cooking for the students takes place here in summer. I had used these solar cookers as examples in my lesson and the students reacted really well to seeing them in real life and seeing demonstrations with newspaper. I’m not going to lie-until I saw a piece of newspaper go up in flames after about 5 seconds on a relatively cloudy day I had my doubts about solar cookers! But they must be pretty powerful things in summer! The students were able to identify how they worked from my lesson so I was pleased with the outcome.
Following my lesson, me and Abi headed into town for a Friday afternoon market treat! Most of the market had packed up but there were still a few stalls left so we stocked up on bananas and pomegranates. As we were making our purchase we were once again asked for our photo and were snapped away at as if we were celebrities! Then we headed for that well awaited ‘Thumbs Up’ otherwise known as 14p cola. It was tasty after the long week-that’s our first fizzy juice since being in Pabal-I was very excited! Then we (obviously when in India) got chatting to the owner and his wife in a mixture of mahrati and splatters of English. From the sounds of things everyone has sons and daughters that are engineers. And everyones father is a farmer. It’s a definite trend! I complemented her Mindi (Henna) even though it was pretty scuffy but just trying to make chat as know we are drinking tea. And she grabbed my hand and got her ‘cone’ of henna and started decorating away! Abi got an ‘A’ in the middle of the hand and I got a big ‘S’. Then a passer by who came into the café sent his daughter round to decorate us properly and she did a beautiful design on the backs of our hand! I loved this experience and am looking forward to heading back for another ‘Thumbs Up’ soon!
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| Us dancing with the girls! |
That evening after dinner the girls invited us back to their room for dancing! It was great we danced to 1 song from their phones repeatedly-it was very much fun and I tried to learn some Indian moves! We also both got henna’d again. I got a beautiful design up my left hand this time with flowers and leaves. It was really lovely to spend some time with the girls as none of them are in our classes and obviously during meal times etc we have to be quiet. That evening after being henna’d on our hands we tried out designs on our feet. I don’t think I’ll have a blank body part when I come home!
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My beautiful henna
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| The students of Depuk's old school |
On Saturday we finally had our first proper morning off. It was great, we went to Depuks (computer teacher) village (3 on a motor bike=quite a squeeze but very entertaining!). First we went to his old school where we ‘presented’ to the pupils. They couldn’t understand a word we were saying so it was a bit random and Depuk was translating but I’m not sure he was actually translating what we were saying! I spoke with the boys after and Abi with the girls-there was very much a divide! They were all lovely and we spoke about the favourite topics of Indian children, families and cricket! Depuk announced that we must return to survey some of the student’s houses. I’m not sure what we are supposed to be surveying but he didn’t seem to understand when we enquired over this! We were offered rice from the school and we ate it with our hands! We were both very pleased with ourselves that we had mustered a new skill until we stood up and realized how much mess we had made in the progress!
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| Me attempting to pretend I knew famous cricket players! |
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| Us at the almost edible temple |
Then we zoomed off to his farm and met his extended family-it was very confusing trying to work out who everyone was but they were all very lovely! Then he took us to this amazing temple which looks edible! There is a big festival here in March. Then (again randomly!) we went to the local government office and drank tea while looking at pictures of the village. I think Depuk wants us to write a blog for the village and was trying to get all the information for us. Luckily they could not get us this information on a Saturday. I didnt point out to him that we weren’t able to ready mahrati script but he didn’t seem to think that would matter!.
When we got back to his home (2 rooms=kitchen and bedroom/living room-I asked how many people slept in the room but couldn’t really get an answer) his mother was in the process of making us a lovely lunch of crazy crisps, chapatti, bajis and this chilli dip thing. It was very tasty and exciting to have something different. She then filled our bags with ground nuts and we zoomed back to Pabal!
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| Depuk's mother making our lunch |
I had such a lovely time on this visit. I was just overwhelmed with the kindness of Depuk and his family. I think we are going back another time and look forward to it!
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| Us with Depuk and his lovely mother |
As it was rainy on sat afternoon we just worked away-I needed all the time I had to get my head round atomic bonding! I was supposed to be preparing a lesson on solar panels but the details in the curriculum skipped so much to p and n type semi conductors that I had to go onto BBC Bitesize standard grade chemistry and revise my covalent and ionic bonding! So instead of completely overwhelming the students I divided the lesson into two. The first which I delivered today was all about atoms and bonding and Wednesdays lesson will be on semi conductors and solar panels. I was dubious as to whether this was indeed valuable for the students so seeked advice from staff. I was informed that it was necessary and the students would benefit from it. I delivered my atom lesson today and I admit I had resigned to the fact that the students wouldn’t understand a thing and half would be asleep. However they were fully engaged and keeping up with me. I was so very proud of them and pleased. Turns out when you give atoms smiley faces, arms and legs they are less scary! I briefly went over semi conductors and totally lost them but thats ok as I will focus on that in the next lesson.
It is difficult to gauge the understanding of the students before hand. Some can’t do 2x4 and then others were able to tell me what and ion was! We are going to suggest to Yogesh the director that the classes should be sorted into groups of levels. Before this wouldn’t have mattered but with theory we think it is necessary. Also I’m keen to find out who on earth made the curriculum and decided that it was a good idea to teach about semi conductors without any background.
Today we headed into the village with Mukesh and Sidart for a snack. It was great we had a potato burger thing (like what the kids made last Saturday) and this selection of spiced rice and noodle things and tea. Per head it was 25p. We tried explaining that at home it would cost closer to 5 or 6 pounds per head and they finally clicked that’s why we need to get paid more in the UK!
Im pleased with how my lessons are going. I’m trying to deliver what we have been asked for and what I consider is easily replicated when we leave. Abi is packaging her lessons into a big project which is a great idea but I don’t feel that the energy & Environment lessons really fit into this. Yesterday I was called by a student to come and see their wind turbine. I had no idea that they were building this and will need to do some investigation work on what other ‘projects’ they appear to be doing. It looks like you don’t get told anything unless you ask a couple of times! I try and include interactive excersises and questions into the lessons but am still keen to keep the hands on practicals for the teacher as this has been his job for the past 10 or so years. I do feel like I have gained his support and respect now which Im very pleased about. He has given me advice on my lessons such as the atom one and asked to get copies of the slide shows to date. I have learnt it is necessary to be patient with him and our conversations which can be difficult due to the language barrier. Now that I now he thinks I’m ok I’m no longer worrying about him shouting and not smiling-that’s just the way he communicates!
I am a little concerned with how much time I seem to spend in front of my lap top preparing and researching lessons when one of things I had been looking forward to most was getting outside and doing physical work and communicating with lots of people. We were told by one of the senior management the other day how he couldn’t do what we do and sit in front of a computer for hours on end and how great it was that we could do it. This helped as again it reinforced that they are grateful for what we are preparing and presenting. It does make me feel very proud to think that the presentations will be used again. Even if its just some of them used some of the time I think our project has been successful. I’m going to have a look through my ICE workbook later this week and start thinking about my objectives that I could be working towards while I’m here. It’s a pretty selfish thing to think about but I think it is an extra thing that help me stay motivated.
So tomorrow I will finish my solar panel lesson. Then on Friday afternoon we are heading to Pune to see Graeme. I am looking forward to having a full day off from work and my lap top! We are hopefully going to see a Bollywood movie and go to the zoo and to a museum. Im excited about a few days in the city but I’m sure I will be itching to get back to the quiet of Pabal by Sunday! Also very excited about the rickety buses that take us there!
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