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