We are settling into some new routines here. We hired a rickshaw driver to take the kids all the way to school and bring them home. This is working out much better than finding a random rickshaw driver to take them to the bus stop. The same driver is taking me to Sukrupa 3 mornings per week. I think I will be working with Grade 2 students most of the time. There are only 7 of them which is great!
There names are: Arvind (boy-8), Bharath (boy-9), Vasanth (boy-9), Dinesh (boy-7), Sandhya (girl-9), Nasreen (girl-9), and Simran (girl-7). I am slowly learning how to pronounce their names! Arvind and Bharath live at Sukrupa while the others go home to their families everyday. As you can see from the pictures, the children are very happy and have a lot of fun at school. In the lower picture, they are acting out a skit for me. I have mostly
worked with them in maths (as they say here) and science. They have wonderful cursive writing and English. Sometimes I have trouble understanding them because of their accents but usually one of the others can explain in a way I can understand. They are working on tables (multiplication), expanding numbers, 3 digit addition and subtraction, etc. I enjoy teaching the science lessons more than the math. They are mostly attentive; surprisingly, the boys more so than the girls. I am kind of winging it since I have no formal training in elementary education. Any of you that are teachers feel free to send me some pointers. I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants!!
There names are: Arvind (boy-8), Bharath (boy-9), Vasanth (boy-9), Dinesh (boy-7), Sandhya (girl-9), Nasreen (girl-9), and Simran (girl-7). I am slowly learning how to pronounce their names! Arvind and Bharath live at Sukrupa while the others go home to their families everyday. As you can see from the pictures, the children are very happy and have a lot of fun at school. In the lower picture, they are acting out a skit for me. I have mostly
worked with them in maths (as they say here) and science. They have wonderful cursive writing and English. Sometimes I have trouble understanding them because of their accents but usually one of the others can explain in a way I can understand. They are working on tables (multiplication), expanding numbers, 3 digit addition and subtraction, etc. I enjoy teaching the science lessons more than the math. They are mostly attentive; surprisingly, the boys more so than the girls. I am kind of winging it since I have no formal training in elementary education. Any of you that are teachers feel free to send me some pointers. I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants!!The other routine that I am enjoying greatly is having a cook come every night to make us dinner. Her name is Jayamma. She is a wonderful cook and although she speaks very little English, we are able to communicate sufficiently (my neighbor helps translate when needed). She doesn't mind me watching her and taking notes on what she is doing. Often I get sidetracked by one of the kids and miss a couple steps so I don't know if I will be able to duplicate any of it. But, at least I am getting the gist of Indian cooking and I don't have to do all the work or cleaning up! Jamilla continues to do the wash. With all this help, I might not want to come home!
Jayamma
Jamilla
3 comments:
Amy, I am just now getting caught up on your family blog, as I didn't have much email access in India. I said to Michael today, "Isn't it amazing that two families can go to India, and have such vastly different experiences?" I am SO glad that you guys are settling in and doing well. It sounds like the kids have adjusted well. How awesome that you are able to teach, and learn to cook Indian food. You'll have to teach us when you return. We love you and are so glad things are going well. -- Tanya
Hi Fishers,
Cooking AND clean-up???? Sounds great! Glad things are going well for all of you. Tell the kids Reid & Hayley say, "hi."
Sign me up for a trip. I could use a cook and someone to do the wash too! It's too good to be true!:)
Kim
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