Andaman Islands or Work

The panoramic view from the headteacher's office

Should I update you on my Andaman Islands trip or share the improvements I've made to my classes?  Work first I reckon.  What do they say about assumptions?  Well this applies even more so to India.  When you arrive customs should stamp your passport with a reminder.  I assumed my classes would alternate between boys & girls; that the same students would return each week.  How wrong was I - the knock on of this is that I've have students who've have had five lessons mixed with ones who hadn't had any.  So when I asked the class "Does everyone understand?" half the class would say yes, the others would just looked confused – a bit like me.  The same thing was also happening in the teacher's training sessions; certain staff members wanted to skip sections as they clearly already held degrees in computer studies and knew everything!

I was getting cross-eyed; you could say I was losing control of my pupils.  A meeting with Urmila (GV Education Manager) was quickly arranged and we spent all of Saturday ironing out the problems; one great big staff meeting.  I felt a bit guilty as Urmila set about chastising the teachers in Oriya - the key words I could understand as they were in English.  It sounded like I was being very critical – I’d only raised a couple of points.  By the end of the day we'd agreed that all year nine students would attend my classes, the teachers would be split into two groups and that I'd also start teaching all the year five kids too (a crafty move that I completely missed).  To be fair it meant that I'd head to school straight after lunch for three, hour long lessons.  I never really managed to get anything started in this hour at this office. I'd also get a translator for the times when my Peter Sellers impressions didn't work.

Oriya script in a PowerPoint presentation, not as easy as it looks - which it doesn't

Another improvement would be the supply of a projector for lessons.  I would connect it to a PC and project my course notes - goodbye whiteboard and wonky writing. I was also getting through a serious number of marker pens; my full stops were probably way too big.  I made a few visits into Berhampur to find the correct model - we settled on a Sharp XR50S (it has a DLP (digital light processing) so has got to be good).  The other plus would be that I could start using animations to make my lessons really "jazzy".  I wanted to try my hardest to spark an interest in computers with the children.  I accept that listening to boring old me waffle on can’t be that inspiring.  I then found BrainPOP.com - an amazing website jam packed with educational animations - perfect for the students.

BrainPOP animations - all about software

During February I've also helped out with science workshops at Kankia, created by Geeta from our Bio-diesel department.  Again the new projector helped us, this time by allowing Oriya script to be used in PowerPoint.  If the students and teachers could type in Oriya then this would be an amazing step forward - lesson notes could also be bilingual.  After much grief I managed to muster-up a virtual screen keyboard and the necessary fonts together (Oriya script is rather neglected in Microsoft's world - a bit like Orissa in reality).  At lunchtime we've even managed to start playing Oriyan music videos - not my cup of chai as there's way to much whirling about in fields - but it does guarantee a full house.

Science workshops - batteries, bulbs, switches and wire     

Cycling to and from the school is still great fun - the temperatures are slowing rising (we're hitting 40 degrees this weekend).  Heading off at 2pm does mean I'm in the hottest part of the day - plenty of water drunk and factor 25 applied.  The wildlife has been improving too (or I'm becoming more observant).  During the last few weeks I've seen my first proper big snake (4-5 feet), a mongoose (probably after said snake), three beautiful golden jackals, and a peacock (with the noise it was making a certain supper for the jackals).  Scorpions have also been on the increase, accidentally I cycled over one on the way to the mess (very messy).  I think I’ll also take the plunge and buy a bicycle – one I can then donate to GV in July.  With gears I’ll easily be able to beat 14 minutes 52 seconds… 

Scorpion season - UV light really helps

Saraswati Puja

Time for a few more photographs from Kankia School. A few days ago we celebrated Saraswati Puja, one of the most important festivals of the school year. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science - so no wonder she's celebrated so enthusiastically! I'll let the photographs do the talking, as to be honest I didn't really understand what was going on!

The shrine to the Goddess Saraswati

The pupils take a hand in cooking the food - for five hundred people!

Gifts are placed in front of the shrine

A little bit too much incense at this point

People touch the flame in hope of improved knowledge (didn't help me)

At the end of the celebrations we enjoyed a wonderful feast, presented on a customary banana leave. The festivities weren't exactly over as pupils were then given coconuts to smash on a rock near the shrine. As a teacher I also took part - it took me two whacks to break my coconut!

A Puja is a Hindu day of worship - the children took weeks to make the shrine