A Spoken English Celebration!

10 weeks in Kadod passed by like the blink of an eye and I am now back in San Francisco. With the craziness of teaching our last few classes, saying goodbye to everyone in Kadod, and packing to come back to the US, I was unable to let you all know about the last few activities we completed with the kids. So here it is…

For our last two weeks in Kadod, our Spoken English students read, comprehended, memorized and performed an original play that Priya and I wrote, titled “The Rain Dance.” The students were extremely excited to read the play and comprehend what was going on in each of the scenes. After teaching some new vocabulary and holding role-playing activities with the play, the students completely understood what was going on in the play and started acting!

In “The Rain Dance,” a drought has caused villagers in the town of Chicago to , as their crops need water to grow. In need of rain, the villagers seek help from Shooting Star, the village leader. Shooting Star then suggests that the villagers seek aid from soldiers who have recently arrived in the village. Together, the villagers and soldiers decide they will hold a rain dance to call the rain. The idea is a success, and while everyone comes together in the rain dance, the rain falls and everyone celebrates!

The students really enjoyed acting out the play with each other and in front of their classmates! Some of the students played the roles of villagers, soldiers and a few even played the role of Shooting Star, the town leader. After the students had enough practice with the play, Priya and I decided to let them in on a little surprise: the students were going to perform the play for our Spoken English Celebration Program!

As it got closer and closer to the day of the program, the students got more and more excited! Some of them even decided to dress up to truly fit their roles.

Prahlad, Aamir and Nikhil ready to perform!

Vicky, dressed as a soldiers, accompanied by villagers Divyesh, Nikhil and Vivek

Our Spoken English Celebration and Final Program was attended by Principal Mahida and his family, Raj (President of NEF), Cat, Melissa, our entire Spoken English class, and many other students of KHS. To start off the program, Jinita, one of our 9^th standard students, sang an English song titled “My Heart is Beating.” Then, the students started the play! There were 5 scenes total in the play and each of the students in our Spoken English class was in 1-2 scenes.

All of the students memorized their lines and acted to the best of their abilities! We were so proud of each and everyone of our students. At the end of the play, the girls from our 9:00 am class also performed a Garba, (the rain dance in our play) that I choreographed and had been teaching them for the past 2 weeks.

The girls and I practicing the routine for their final performance!

The girls are such amazing, hardworking and motivated dancers!

They performed brilliantly even though we had limited practices that occurred right before our daily morning prayer and during the 2^nd half of our lunch break. After the rain dance occurred, all of the students stood up, cheering “The rain has come….The rain has come!!!!!!!” The rain had indeed come, and this ended the performance.

Afterwards, we congratulated the students for the brilliant work they have completed over the past 10 weeks. After the program ended, Priya and I realized that each of our students has grown so much in the past 10 weeks. All of the students have come so far and their hard work has truly paid off!

Now that I am back in the US, I have been reflecting on my experiences in Kadod, teaching at Kadod High School. I have realized that over the past 10 weeks, I’ve had some of the best experiences of my life. I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to develop strong relationships with such enthusiastic, thoughtful, and diligent students and I will truly miss each and every one of them. I feel like I have become a member of the Kadod High School community and I am sad that I will not be able to communicate with my students as often as I would like. However, I know that I will never forget what I have learned in Kadod and I will take what the students, teachers, and administration of KHS have taught me everywhere I go. Kadod has become a 2^nd home for me and I hope that I hope that I can continue to learn from everyone in Kadod in the future!

Thank you for reading our blog for the past few months and again, if you have any questions about Kadod High School, any of the work our students have been doing, or about Kadod, please let me or Priya know!

I hope you’ve enjoyed our Nanubhai 2008 Summer Blog!

Thanks,

Vanisha

A Tour of the Technical

Last week, Principal Mahida took us on a tour of the Technical Wing at Kadod High School. Priya, Cat, Melissa and I were thoroughly impressed!

When going into the 8th, 9th and 10th standards, students at KHS can choose what elective to take. For instance, a student can choose to take technical classes (which includes technology, engineering and drawing classes), computers, home science or dairy science.

Kadod High School has 3 computer labs with approximately 70 computers total. There are 3 science labs: a biology lab, a physics lab, and a chemistry lab. There are also 4 engineering labs: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electric gadgets and engineering/drawing. There are 4 trades labs which include carpentry, blacksmith, welding and home science. There is also a “science park.” This is where students learn physics concepts through practical means like playing with swings to demonstrate the idea of momentum.

During our tour, we first visited the chemistry lab. Filled with tons of different chemical solutions, the chemistry lab looked similar to the chemistry lab I used in high school. The other teachers and I marveled at the selection of solutions the students made in class, which include lotions, soaps, ink and even toothpaste!

Here's a picture of the chemistry lab!

After visiting the chemistry lab, the Principal took us to the Biology lab! The Biology lab was filled with glass jars holding different plants and animals, like lizards and sea creatures, that the teacher had preserved.

The Biology lab even had a human skeleton!
Next, we visited the Technical Wing. Here students showed us some of the work they do.

Here a student is sawing a piece of metal to make a nice design.

In addition to working with metals, the students also have a wood shop.
Here are some of the items the students make in class.

It is truly amazing how precise each piece the students create is. The Principal was telling us that all the students in the class are masters of precision! The teachers really stress the importance of getting all measurements correct according to their instructions.

This precision is obvious in this wooden model of the Technical section of Kadod High School!

As I talked about earlier, some of the younger students are also taken to the “Science Park.” This is where students can play with different structures to learn about the practical side of physics.

Here’s a picture of Anilbhai demonstrating the concept of momentum with the swing structure.

Seeing the Park sure made me wish I had one of these when I was taking Physics!

The students of Kadod HS are even taught to weld and solder.

Here, a few of my 9th grade students practice their welding skills.

The Principal then took us into a lab where students were practicing AutoCad, designing different structures on the computer! In the lab, there were also many posters and light-up demonstrations teachers use to teach students about different structures of the brain, blood flow throughout the body, and how electric currents flow. The Human Biology major in me could not help but take pictures of the different tools students use to learn about the human body in Kadod! I was so impressed with the rigor of the science curriculum here!
To end our tour of the Technical Wing at Kadod HS, we went to visit the physics teacher in his Physics Lab. He explained to us some of the experiments 11th standard students do during the Practicals they have. In one lab, the teacher explained to us how students calculate the acceleration due to gravity based on the speed of a continuous pendulum. In another lab, students study the idea of resistance and current flow.

And with that mini-lesson in Physics, our tour of the labs ended. The depth through which students here in Kadod study different scientific concepts amazes me, especially when they have so many different subjects to take in school at one time. For instance, students who choose to enter the Science stream take math or biology, physics, chemistry, and biology, chemistry and physics Practicals (labs) all in the same year! I don’t know if I would’ve survived high school if I had to take all those classes together!

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

वनिशा Vanisha

How to.....

Our students have turned out to be quite the teachers here in Kadod! Recently, Priya and I read the story “The Bike Lesson” a Berenstein Bears classic. In the story, Papa Bear buys Little Bear a new bike and teaches him how to ride it through a series of lessons. After the 9th and 11th graders read and fully understood to story, we had them write and then present instructions for how to make a favorite food of theirs or how to play their favorite games in a step-by-step manner to teach their classmates. Here’s what they came up with!

How to Make Lemon Juice by Manali S. Prujapati

First squeeze 2 lemons. Put the juice into a cup. Add 1 glass of water to the juice. Add 4-5 spoons of sugar into the mixture. Now add a pinch of salt. Also add a pinch of cumin. Mix everything together. Put into a glass with ice. Serve chilled and enjoy!

How to Make Dal by Manisha N. Rathod

First, bring a dal cooker. Then put in water. Put the dal in the cooker. Put the cooker on the stove. Next turn on the stove. The dal will be done in half an hour. After the dal is cooked, put masala in the dal and mix with a spoon. Let the mixture boil on the stove. After a few minutes the dal is ready. Enjoy with rice or roti!

How to Play Cricket by Rinkesh Dhangar

I play cricket. There are eleven cricketers on each team. There are bowlers and all-rounder cricketers on the team. There are fifty overs in the match. In one over, there are six balls. There are two players playing and eleven players fielding. There are two umpires in the match. There is one captain and one coach on each team. One team wins a match. There are many people in the stadium watching the cricket match.

In other news, we also showed “The Wizard of Oz” to the 9th standard students of Kadod High School. It turned out to be quite a production as we attempted to get everything from the sound to the screen and projector ready so all the students could watch in the large Examination Room. All the students (especially the girls!) really enjoyed it and kept cheering when all the different characters started singing. They especially loved the witches character as well as the fairy. However, we’ve promised the boys that next time, we’ll show them a funny animated film!

Well that’s it for now! And please let us know if you have any recommendations for movies you think the kids would enjoy!

Vanisha

Jokes!

And now for some jokes created by our lovely 9th and 11th standard students:

Daddy’s Boiling by Jinita J. Gamit, Binal H. Patel and Twinkal J. Patel.

Little Anne’s father fell asleep on the sofa and began to snore. The child ran out into the corridor and shouted “Mummy, mummy, mummy. Come quickly….Daddy’s Boiling!.”

A Fisher’s Boat by Nazim
[Two people go in the boat on the river. Then there is a hole in the boast so water is coming into the boat.]
Fisher 1 [asking Fisher 2]: What are you doing?
Fisher 2: I’m making another hole in the boat.
Fisher 1: Why?
Fisher 2: Because in the first hole water comes in and from the second hole water goes out again.

Silly Raju by Pinal Suresh Dhimmer, Sumaiya Nasrudhakh Shaikh, and Manali Shashikant Prajapati

There was a man named Raju. One day he told his friend “I have broken an elephant’s leg and a horse’s leg.” His friend said, “You are so strong! What did you do next?” Raju responded, “Nothing. My father gave some money to the toy maker.”

Mendhi Competition!

Last week Vanisha and I watched our very first mendhi competition! The students and teachers had been talking about this competition for days, but we had no idea what to expect when we walked to into the examination hall where it was being held. When we walked in, we were struck by how many students were participating - at least forty girls were carefully applying their best designs on the hands of their classmates.

After a quick scan, we saw two boys in the corner quietly drawing on the hands of another two boys. We had heard that boys participated last year, but we never thought we would see them putting mendhi on one another! Last year, a boy from our current Spoken English class won second place at this competition. Unfortunately, this year he forgot to bring mendhi.

After walking around and watching the students trying to finish their task, we decided to get our mendhi done as well! We sat down and were immediately surrounded by girls who asked us if they could put mendhi on our hands and arms. We eagerly agreed, and soon the students were drawing on us with the dark paste. Vanisha had both her arms and hands done, but I had to leave after one arm was finished, because I had to teach a class the following period. The designs ranged from simple ones that covered the wrist, palm, and fingers to ones that completely covered one's entire arm up to his or her elbow! We were so impressed with everyone's talent! Some designs took the full hour to complete while others were done in just twenty minutes!

Later that night, we took off the dried mendhi to uncover the designs that were left behind on our skin - they were so beautiful and dark! I hope I can get my other hand done soon!

Priya

Monkey….Monkeys…and More Monkeys!

So after my 5:00 pm Spoken English classes, the students always stay afterwards to tell me different stories about what’s going on in their lives. The boys were super excited early this week because Molly, one of my best friends from Stanford, was visiting me for a few days and I brought her to class last Monday. Even after class ended, the students continued asking both of us questions (in English of course!) about how we know each other and where we both live in the US.

Boys of my Spoken English class chit-chatting with me after-class

After a while, Molly left for our house and I was left amongst the herd of hyper 9th graders all talking to me at once. I suddenly caught a glimpse of two monkeys sitting on the roof of one edge of KHS. A few of the boys ran to get Molly as more and more monkeys came to join the ones sitting on the roof. Molly and I started screaming in excitement much to the amusement of all the 9th graders. Then the monkeys got tired of sitting on the roof and decided to climb down and run out of the school.

Naturally, the boys, Molly and I decided to follow them. As we all ran out of school passing the utterly confused watchman, we ran down a little path that leads to the Tapi River located right behind Kadod high school. As we looked to the left, we captured a glimpse of a few monkeys now sitting on a ledge of the roof of a nearby house. Unfortunately, the boys started yelling at them so they ran away once again in fear. Then one of the boys decided that he had to go purchase biscuits. He had the brilliant idea of enticing the monkeys with delicious Parle-G biscuits (a favorite of mine as well as that of the monkeys, or so I was told…). Unfortunately, right as Amir arrived with the biscuits, the monkeys ran away. So what did a bunch of rowdy 9th graders and their English teacher do? Chase after them once more of course!

The boys decided that the monkeys must now be near the roof of the Kadod library which is right down the path from the high school. After multiple times of trying to scare me to death and almost succeeding at that, the boys finally got me to go up the stairs of the Kadod library, a dusty room filled with Gujarati books and up to date newspapers in Gujarati, Hindi and English, to see the monkeys up close. As I slowly walked up with 2 boys holding my hands and others following closely behind me as if protecting me from any type of attack, a monkey sprinted up until it was about 2 feet away from us. We all shrieked and ran down the stairs into a safer place.

Some of the marvelous monkeys!

After some time, we got enough courage to walk up the stairs once again. This time, the kind librarian was standing at the top of the stairs with a stick, making sure the monkeys didn’t run into the library. The boys and I then darted up the stairs sprinting into the library. As I turned around, looking out onto the roof of the nearby building, I saw a family of about 7 monkeys playing around, scratching each other and relaxing amongst the falling electric wires. They were literally about 5 feet from where we were standing. The boys and I then, after being instructed by the Kadod librarian, went up yet another set of stairs onto the roof of the library and stared at the breathtaking views of the Tapi River and Kadod.

The gorgeous Tapi River, located right behind KHS!

After taking some pictures, we almost got attacked by another monkey and went screaming down two flights of stairs, running onto the rocky terrain outside Kadod HS.

An adventure I will truly never forget!

Vanisha

An American Visitor!

Last Friday, Vanisha had a friend from Stanford come visit us at KHS! Molly, en route to Andhra Pradesh to work in an orphanage, stopped by to stay with us for five days. Since this was her first time visiting India, we took her shopping in Surat to buy her first Indian clothes! She had a blast, purchasing several outfits and even a sari! It was also her first time riding an Indian bus – what a brave girl! The ride took two hours each way, and the bumps we went over made us jump in our seats every five minutes. However, she took everything in stride and even took pictures during the roller coaster ride!

When she arrived at the school, the news spread like wildfire that a new American had arrived in town. All the students eagerly crowded around our house, shouting questions about the new “teacher,” – "Where are you from?" "Are you our new teacher?" Molly, through many gestures and head movements, mimed that she would only be here for five days. The students, disappointed but satisfied, waved good-bye and headed home.

Five days went by in a flash, and suddenly the car pulled up to our house to take Molly back to the Surat airport. We waved her good-bye amid many hugs and promises to see each other soon.