A frenetic, packed day one at Diamond Jubilee High School in Mumbai on Monday, August 6th. Alan, Julia, Ingrid, Brendan and I taught straight through from 8:20-2:00 with a 30-minute break, then had a debriefing session with the teachers before returning to the YMCA Guest House, where I sit to write this entry, at 6:43pm local time.
My day was terrific. I opened with Parishma in Class 7-A. In this school, the students do not move between periods - the teachers do. There are 30-35 students per class, and 3-4 sections per grade (7-A, 7-B, etc.) Teachers move from class to class depending on their specialty. Students wear uniforms: khaki pants for boys, skirts for girls, button down uniform shirts, and neckties. Every student is in uniform. Parishma and I co-taught from 8:20-9:30, a creative writing lesson. We reviewed the Bread Loaf rules, then I asked students to make a list of they favorite places in Mumbai, choose one, then write a 5-senses poem about that place. (I went to... I saw..., I heard..., ending with "I felt"). The class ended with a sharing session in which students read their individual pieces. Next I went to 7-C, for a 35-minute lesson with Mehnaz, looking at a Roald Dahl poem called Television. Most of the class was a discussion about the positive and negative effects of television and other technology. Next was an elective period, a 35-minute session with Grade 10 students, taught by Grace. The students were writing advocacy pieces about sustainable practices to solve environmental problems. I gave a quick, impromtu lecture on the Rhetorical Triangle and appeals to Pathos, Ethos, and Logos, then we asked the students to begin constructing arguments. I was amazed at how well they incorporated the agreement strategies in pieces written so quickly. Next was a Grade 8 class with Krishnaveni, a terrific, veteran teacher whom I worked with in the past. I got there late, and the class was doing dramatic readings from the play The Mousetrap. Krishnavni asked me to coach a group on their reading, and video recorded me as I did it, to show other classes.
From 11:15-11:40, we had a tea break, then it was back to class. From 11:40-12:50 I worked with Shabnam in Class 6-A, on a creative writing lesson. We split the class into groups and used the Story Circle model that we've learned from New Orleans folks:
After the Story Circles, students wrote, then shared. The process went really well.
My final class of the day, from 12:50-2:00, was with Glenn, a first-year chemistry teacher, in Class 6-A. The lesson was an experiment, designed to help student synthesize what they have learned about chemical elements so far in the class. First, I led students through writing an 8-line "I am" poem (I am [name], I am wonderful because, I am useful because, I am dangerous because, I want to interact with, I do not want to hang out with, I want to, I am [name]). After students wrote those poems, and five shared, I then explained how we were going to convert it into a Chemistry lesson. Glenn put the students in pairs and assigned each pair one chemical element - Hydrogen, Oxygen, Flourine, etc. We then asked the students to write an "I am" poem from the perspective of that chemical element. When students has questions about the elements, we referred them back to their textbooks. After they had time to write those poems, we invited them to share:
My favorite was, "I am silicon"
"I am silicon (Si).
I am wonderful because I am metalloid
I am useful because I am used in semi-conductors and computer chips
I am dangerous because I cause damage to the skin
I want to interact with silver, gold and oxygen
I do not get along with chlorine, sulphur and sodium
I want to be the most used chemical in the world
I am silicon (Si)."
The lesson worked well.
From 2:00-2:45 all of us and our cooperating teachers met in the Teacher Resource Center and debriefed the day. Also today, Ingrid did art projects with various grades, Julia did drama and close reading workshops, Alan did a variety of music workshops (including re-working Dolly Parton's classic song '9-to-5' in a class on Commerce), and Brendan taught writing workshops to grades 3 and 5.
The student workshop has been officially rescheduled to Saturday, out of concern about the possible strike and protests. We do not believe they will impact the area where we are staying, but students attending the workshop will be traveling from other parts of the city, and so the event was rescheduled to ensure their safety.
And so we will return to DJHS tomorrow (Tuesday), and go to the Girl's School on Wednesday as planned. The teacher workshop (75 teachers from 17 schools) is Friday, and the student workshop (102 signed up!) is Saturday. It should be a good week.
Thanks for reading,
Rich
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