ABL is an acronym that every student and teacher in DJHS understands perfectly.

"Miss Lee, when are the ABL guys coming to our class?" This was a question I was asked  many times in  the weeks preceding the Writing for Peace Conference, and  on Monday morning, the 6th of August, beginning at my 7am  volleyball practice.  It continued through the 6th and the 7th. After the team teaching, my students  had a new question. "When are the ABL guys coming back to our class?" On Wednesday, 8th August,  the question changed to, " Ms Lee, Why aren't the ABL teachers here yet?" 

Many of my students remembered the first conference in 2015, Writing for a Better World. They remembered the prompts they had written, the things they had done and three years later they still talked about Rich, Ceci, Alan, Brendan, Pat, Mohsin and Rex. 

The 'Writing for Peace' Conference in Mumbai, was approved without hesitation by our Principal Nutan Iyer and our  Management, (AKES,I) before I came to ABL last summer. It became the South Asia Peace Literacy Conference when three old friends, Rich, Mohsin and I had 4 hours to talk and plan on the coach back from  Bread Loaf, Vermont to Andover. 

Invitations were sent out in February 2018 and accepted. I think I drove everyone crazy with requests for information on visas and travel plans. Unfortunately, Ceci, Pat and Rex couldn't join us this time)

Mohsin and Basil Andrews from Karachi, still haven't got their visas. We miss you all!

So right now, as I write this, Alan Nunez, Brendan McGrath, Ingrid Hess, Julia Perlowski and Richard Gorham are in Mumbai, enjoying a well earned 'breather' thanks to a political protest and rally. 

Despite landing in Mumbai on the afternoon and late evening on the 4th, and Ingrid and Brendan early in the morning on the 5th, we began with a planning meeting that started at 12.30 pm on the 5th, which incidentally was a Sunday and ended around 5pm. 

This year the ABL team taught 26 different classes, with 21 different teachers from Grades 3 to 10, on the 6th and 7th of August.  Most classes had double periods and all the classes had more than one team teaching lesson. Our Primary Section works for 8 periods a day and the Secondary for 9. 

Do the Math.

Music and Math, Science and History and English, Writing across  the Curriculum, Dance, Theatre, Art across subjects...you name it, we did it in two action packed days that flew by. Both days ended with an intense Debrief Meeting over lunch where each facilitator and partner teacher shared their experience of what they had done that day.

On Wednesday, for the first time ever, we hosted the Family Literacy Night. There were 120 + parents and students ( Grades 3 to 5), and many teachers who stayed back or returned to school in the evening.  We wrote, read, shared our memories and our thoughts about Peace.  Brendan did a great job hosting the event. 

Tomorrow we have the Teacher Workshop where we have 75 teachers from 17 other schools and on Saturday the Student Workshop where we have 102 students registered.

An action packed week, learning, laughter, a few tears, with crazy schedules for the ABL team... We are still smiling. 

This is the power of ABL.