Education

A child explores painting with her hand.

Some Changes

I have now been at Riverside for a month. With any new culture I enter, I am very cautious and sometimes hesitant to implement change. So far, the changes I’ve made are small, but I am hoping that these small changes will lead to bigger changes later. These simple changes adds consistency, value and ease to the daily routine. In the classroom, I have placed an “art and construction area”. Here, there is a painting easel, aprons/smocks, buckets of recycled items (newspaper, plastic bottles, ribbons). Right next to it is a “cleaning area” (window washing, dustpan and broom, cleaning towels and a bucket). I’ve also placed all the books on the bookshelf so children can have access to the books. The children are now using small mats to do manipulatives (puzzles, beading, legos, etc) on them. For the Circle Time routine, the children are now pretty much settled. I give them 5 minutes warning before it is time to clean up for Circle Time. And as they come to Circle, I sing songs. So far they love singing Open Shut Them, and A-Roosta-Sha. Then after singing, I sing a name song to say hello. Then after that I do a presentation of one of the activities on the shelf. Then I read a story (reading the 3 Little Pigs for the past few days). Then the children are dismissed to return back to the classroom. Another thing that I’ve changed is the lunchtime routine. Before, the children were eating on the floor (it is part of their culture) and they are all over the place. Now, they are sitting at tables and having conversations. Though the children are sometimes reminded to “be quiet” and “hurry up and finish your food”,

Visit to the nearby Colony

which I am hoping to change. Children are now finishing up their lunch by themselves without having to be hand fed!

Something Amazing

Every week, the children go on a nature walk. A local guide takes us around the community. Last week, we were fortunate enough to visit a “colony”—think of a shanty town. Throughout the walk of the colony, the guide kept on saying, “This is how some people live. Is your house different from this house? And what are some things that are the same?”

Some people get their water from a water truck

Talk about experiencing social/cultural studies! It is the most amazing thing in the world! Wouldn’t it be awesome if we can do that in the states? Have children experience what it is like to live in a different way? Experiential learning at its finest!

InspirEd Conference Sept 3-4, Mumbai

Allison Rouse, EdVillage, InspirEd Conference

There are some amazing things going on in India! One amazing talk was presented by Jo Chopra of LatikaRoy Foundation. She runs an inclusionary school in the Himalayas. Another is Akanksha Foundation, the host of the conference. This organization gets children from the slums on the college track! Amazing! Right to Education is a policy that is being initiated in 2009-2011 in which 25% of the children admitted into a private school must have family income of less than 5000 (or was it 3000?) Rupees per month. Current exchange rate right now is about 45 rupees to the dollar.

Week 1 of Ahmedabad

I arrived in Ahmedabad, India on August 6, 2011.

Our Apartment:
Jim and I are currently sharing a two-story “flat” with three Taiwanese interns at Riverside School. It is in Tirth Bhoomi, Law Garden area of Ahmedabad. It is on the 10th floor. Living right next door to us is the school’s director brother-in-law. The first floor has marble flooring, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, large living room area, a kitchen and clothes washing room. There is also a balcony that overlooks the city. Our bedroom is on the second floor. There is an en-suite bathroom and a rooftop patio/ garden.

Our Work:
The Riverside School is a progressive, private school that is located on the east bank of Sabarmati River. I just recently learned that because of the Right to Education Act of 2009, all Indian private schools are to “admit at least 25% of the children in their schools without any fee”. This is something that Beijing private schools should consider doing. On Wednesday, I watched 8th-11th graders present their “Pecha Kucha”. This is an ongoing “mastery” research project that the students conduct throughout the year. Think of it as a thesis project. Each child is assigned a mentor that can guide them to complete their project. A Pecha Kucha is a way of presenting a topic. Each child has to discuss their topic using 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. It was amazing! Some topics that the students were addressing were: Adulteration, media’s influence on adolescent psychology, modern art and architecture, a car’s body type and its speed, and Greece’s economic crisis. I will post pictures soon.

Moove it or lose it

As for my classroom…
The children come in at 8:30-9:15 (this is when the bus drops them off). Circle time is called “conglom”, I think short for “conglomerate”. From 11-11:30 the children have lunch. Then they go home at 1pm. The teachers stay till 3pm to plan/ discuss classroom events. The layout of the classroom is aesthetically pleasing; with high ceilings and mosaic and brick walls. One and a half wall is huge glass wall, doors and windows. The materials on the shelves need a bit of work, but I have the whole year to work on that. During “Free Choice” time children can go outside and play or stay inside and do work or they can take an inside activity and do it outside. Because it is the middle of monsoon season, there is limited work and play outside. What I have noticed is that it’s not a big deal for children to be walking inside or outside barefooted—it is sometimes more preferred to have them walk barfooted. There is a built in paddling pool (which is now empty) for the children to use. Every Wednesday there is a Professional Development workshop in which the teachers read 2 chapters from the current education book and then discuss its importance/ relevance/ irrelevance. Then there are also PD’s on two Saturdays of every month. Yup… will be super busy!

The Life:
So far, we have yet found bacon nor booze! We had our first meat dinner Wednesday night, after 5 days of no meat! I had a chicken tikka something something with garlic naan. And Jim had some minced lamb meat roll thingy. We have seen the following animals: a peacock on our neighbor’s roof; camels, horses, dogs, cows and water buffaloes owning the streets; and hawks gliding over our rooftop garden. The head bobbing is done by everybody. It can mean: yes, no, maybe, ok, I don’t understand, I agree, I disagree. Rain is the water life. When it is raining, people are just enjoying the mere freshness of rain. They are walking and splashing in the rain. I think because they only get rain 2 months out of the year, that they relish in the rain.

Can’t wait to reflect on the weeks to come!

Run for the Border

Yes I am stubborn. It’s interesting how many times people have called me that within the past few days. Yes I am going to do what I have on my mind. And my mind is pretty fried right now.

I’ve signed onto another school and I hope to start work in a couple of weeks! Can’t wait to be productive again. It will not be the same position, rather I will be working as an assistant teacher/ literacy specialist. We’ll see how it goes.

Why am I here? Why am I still working in education? Why be a teacher for this age group? What is it that I want to achieve during the next couple of year How about the next 5 years? And for the next 10 years?

I definitely want to learn new skills out here, learn the language, and start my masters degree (either through Open University, Drexal Uni, or Chaminade Uni). Then I would love to do a research project. I don’t know what or where. Maybe in Nunavut or Alaska.

I’m a visionary and have been told I live life recklessly. I wouldn’t say reckless, I would say pizzazz! Ok, so I don’t have a retirement fund, but will any of us actually live to use it? I know I have not traveled as extensively as someone should at my age, but I have lived in quite a few places that lets me experience what life is like at that particular location. Why have a foot massage if you can have a full body massage for the same price? When living in, lets say, NYC for a few years, is not the same as visiting NYC for a few days.

Anyhow, I was put through the gauntlet (again) for the past few weeks. Got told on June 30th that June 30th will be my last day of work. I’m still waiting for my salary for June as the company is holding it hostage. Hopefully, things will resolve itself soon. So I MIGHT have to run for the border… well, just down to Hong Kong. My former employee is telling me that I have to cancel my visa, which gives me 10 days to leave the country. Not a happy thought. But it doesn’t sound that bad. It’s forcing me to have a vacation and have fun in the mist of this turmoil. When was the last time I had fun? As you know, it’s hard for me to relax. This is the first time I have had a solid month off of working. It’s not bad. But it’s not great either. Doing absolutely nothing everyday!

Sorry that there are no pictures up with this blog. I took my camera to the beach and now it no longer works. Cameras here are knock-offs and don’t last that long. The real stuff costs double the price of things back in America.

All in all, I’m hanging in there. I’m managing.

Will keep you abreast as soon things have smoothed out.

XOXO,
Sov.

Blocked

SO I’m not sure if this will make onto WordPress as it seems all free forum are currently blocked. Thanks to a wonderful brother-in-law, his proxy server at least allows me to sometimes access my WordPress account. Jeff, can you figure out how I can access my facebook?

So, since my arrival everything seems to be a mind trip. I will be in China for 3 months on July 15th. And I’ve been kicked out of an apartment, resigned from a job but to only be fired in the end, and now on the verge of getting deported (maybe). Maybe this whole thing is my fault. It’s definitely an experience and a life lesson. I’m impulsive, spontaneous, type A, control freak. I should have done what many have told me after my volunteering… take a couple months off and relax and digest my experience. Of course I didn’t do that. I went from The Gambia to a whirlwind tour in the States then arriving here in Beijing. And look at where my proactive situation got me: unemployed!

I have yet regret a life decision, though there are definitely some really BAD decisions that I’ve make, but I’ve suffered the consequence and that’s punishment enough. Now I’ve felt like I’ve just made either the biggest mistake of my life or the best bad decision. I’ve quit my job without having another one lined up. There were a lot things going on within the corporation that I did not agree with. At least now I know I do not have the stomach to deal with the BS that goes on in the corporate world. Since I’ve been here, I’ve spent about RMB4000 of my personal finance to operate the school, and now I’m not seeing a dime of it back. It just blows. I came to this country with barely any money and now I even less money. I spent almost my life savings moving out here. I’m distraught but I have to make an effort to stay here. It’s a beautiful city with beautiful people. Now I know how to lookout for “shady business”.

As an official unemployed professional, I have taken this “month off” to reflect my life experiences. You know that I got excited the other day because I discovered I can make ice cubes! Geez, I can’t remember the last time I made ice cubes in my freezer! It’s the simple things that makes me happy. It’s the simple things that I appreciate in life. I’ve learned that I am able to live life without much. Maybe that’s why I’ve always lived in the mountains every summer to balance things out from living in the city. It’s the whole ying-yang thing– balance between the natural world and the material world.

On a good note, I am interviewing at various schools throughout Beijing. I think I will be a bit more nervous if I wasn’t! Will let you know in a month if I’m employed or not. OR if I get deported!

	Temple Of Heaven

May Madness in Beijing

Sometimes I have access to wordpress, and sometimes I don’t. The Great Fire Wall…

So how has it been? I guess I’m scared to write anything down. I have to be careful what I say and to whom and make sure to not mention names. I will use lots of metaphors and similes …  sorry if this isn’t an easy read…

How’s the work?

Work has been frustrating. There is no procedure for anything. And if there is a procedure it is in Chinese and the papers are like 50 pages thick. Nope not going to learn Mandarin that way. It’s been very frustrating. The most frustrating thing is realizing China is not a third world country nor it is a developed country, it’s a developing country. And it pretends that it is not. Yes there are stadium seating movie theatre that plays the recent blockbuster movies and shopping plazas that have shops like Coach and Gucci and Lacoste. But if you get to the bottom of things, the foundation is mediocre, not solidly built. Everything is like stucco plaster to cover-up the shitty engineering of a building. I have nothing against stucco, it’s just that stucco is just a thin layer of the building wall that sometimes gets mildewy, cracked and need repair every so often. And if it gets ignored enough the mildew and maybe even termites will seep into the drywall and wood beams of the building that holds the building together… then one day.. poof! The building just collapses!! I feel like I am unearthing a lot of shit that has been ignored over the years. And when you shake shit up, it stinks! What can I do with that odor? Spray perfume and cover it up? Or do I remove the shit to uncover what is really there and decide on my trajectory from there? That my friend, is hard work and not the type of work people here might not be used to. So what do I do? Me, being the obvious stubborn, non-subtle, person, does the opposite of what I am told and do what I find in my heart is the ethical and right thing to do (of course this too is subjective). A lot of flames and steam have been shot out of ears from the higher ups. That is just the beginning…

Lets see what happens in month two!

Ok, another thought on work… I wonder if there is a policy on child protection. For me constantly publicizing children for the sake of marketing to increase school enrollment without informing parents of what their children’s picture will be used for is a law suit waiting to happen. And then for Dragon Boat Festival, there was an event having the children strut down the run way being fashion models is considered good publicity for the school and promoting to the public our school’s name… I beg to differ. And having to choose the prettiest girl and most handsome boy in the school to be fashion models is not something I would call academically related to the school’s mission. This isn’t the kind of name I would associate myself nor the school that I work for. More events like this to come. Yes there is a lot of tug-of-war between what is academic and what is pseudo-academic. Some principals here believe that how to make the hallway pretty is academic. Well, it can be if the bulletien board is delivering a message or is used as a reporting board of what the children are investigating and learning in the class. But then again, the topic/ theme learned in the class is driven by the teacher and not necessarily using an organic approach to fostering the children’s learning interest…. I know.. I’m expecting too much… I know I do have high expectations. But  I have them because I know that there is potential. It’s just that there is a glass ceiling that needs to be broken..

Life In General

Well, besides having the runs for the past week, Beijing is an easy city to adjust to. I love the fact that I can walk or take public transport anywhere… like NYC, but not as busy. This place reminds me of DC. There are wide streets, lined with trees and the sidewalks  are relatively spotless, with a few dog poop here and there. However, I have spotted quite a few times, men just whipping out their shlong and peeing anywhere they please, despite the fact that there are public latrines almost on any street block.  Then parents allowing their children peeing anywhere and at anytime. In fact I’ve seen children’s pants where the crotch is cut out to aid children in their business. I guess this beats the pull-up, eh?

Where I live, in Boya Garden Apts, it’s a 5 minute walk to the bus stop, 15 minute walk to the subway station, 20 minute walk to “The Village/ San Li Tun” shopping/ bar/ restaurant area. I live right across the street from Jenny Lou’s (expat grocery store), Muse Vietnamese restaurant, Suzie Wong’s Café/ Club, Annie’s Italian Restaurant… so not a bad location. The apt itself is beautiful. Don’t remind me of the ordeal I went through to finally have a place to live. Obviously I must have been over reacting. One of the hardest thing about trying to communicate with locals is that I’m not sure if they understand how important it is to have a home. So to receive a phone call at 9:30am at work and being told that I am to move out of my [previous] apt by the afternoon, I went bizurk! I told them no. I am at work and can not move out of the apt now. So my organization thought it was kind of them to allow me to spend one last night at the apt and move out by the morning. Luckily, one of my colleagues was going away for the weekend, and she introduced me to a friend that is leaving the country. My colleague’s friend is the landlord of this apt and I am grateful. SO everything worked out in the end. Now I just have to register with the police saying that I live here.

Miss ya’ll!Sov.

Beautiful Beijing

Visual assumptions. According to Gambians, I’m Chinese. According to the Chinese, I’m Chinese. It’s interesting because they look at me in guffaw when I’m not answering/ understanding them in Mandarin. I’ve gotten by. I have things written down to hand over to taxi drivers when I need to go somewhere. I shop at the super market where I just have to look at the cash register to figure out the price. The only thing is trying to figure out what the product is. Some items have English written on the label, but most don’t. So spices and sauces, I’m screwed. But if I shop in the more expensive, expat stores, there are labels written in both languages. Things are great so far. I have a beautiful apartment in the Chaoyang District. It is a fully furnished 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, on the 22nd floor, with large windows with great views. Kinda like So Cal, on a good day you can see the mountains clearly. The only problem I have is trying to figure out the hot water system. Yes, I’ve reverted back to bucket bathing. People say that I have to leave the water running for a good few minutes. But that’s not working and I feel guilty for wasting so much water, especially since China is in a drought. I do not yet have internet access at home, will get that organized soon. So get your skype accounts ready!

Since I’ve landed (besides trying to adjust to the time difference, +15 hours, Pacific Standard Time). I’ve been enjoying the sight seeing. On Saturday, a colleague took me around my neighborhood and showed me the local market, the supermarket. This is a swiping culture. You need a swipe card to do everything.. getting into my apartment complex, bus ride. Sunday, I went to this shopping area called Sanlitun. Huge shopping area. It has the Mac store, North Face, Columbia, any store you an think of. And then enxt door to this is Yashow. This is where all the knock-offs are. It’s great! I didn’t buy anything, but you can find everything here for under $20!!! Bargain paradise!

This is my first week of work/ orientation. The school’s campus  is beautiful. Dark wood furniture, all the school supplies you need. It broke my heart. There were a couple of times when I got really teary eyed just by observing the classroom. I know that a classroom like this will probably not exist in the interior of China and will not exist in the provinces of The Gambia. There is so much disparity in the world. How do we reduce the chasm? Or do we need this chasm so that us fortunate people can be happy?

So I walked to school today. It took me about 1.5 hours from my apartment. A cab ride will take about 15 minutes. The location of the school is in the CBD (Central Business District) right where all the embassies are. There is a mall in the building next door! High end stuff.

All is well in Beijing. I will try to sight see this weekend.

XOXO,

Sov.

VSO The Gambia

Click on the link below to get a 15 minute glimpse to my 18 months of working in The Gambia as a teacher trainer.

VSO Gambia Video

Sov.

Snowbird Video

Me and the Gang having fun in the snow! Can’t wait for our 2010 trip, wherever that may be!

Love you guys!

One Week Till Beijing

This is it guys. I will be on the plane to Beijing next week, April 16th. It has been a crazy month and a half vacationing at homebase.

March 1- Landed in DC. First meal: a bowl of spinach, kim chi, and pa-hok (stinky Khmer food)

brooklyn bridge

March 6-12- NYC. Visiting friends, former colleagues, reminiscing what life was like living in NYC. The first thing I did as soon as I stepped foot off the Chinatown bus: eyebrow threading.

Shoreline Village

March 14- Landed in Long Beach, CA. Been spending quality time with old time friends.

Snowbird, Utah

April 2-6- Snowboard trip to Snowbird, Utah. The best snowboarding trip with the coolest people.

April 11-12- Stockton, Ca. Visiting Wat Dhammaram Buddhist Temple. Khmer New Year Celebration.

April 14- Belmont Shores, Ca. One Last Shabang with So Cal friends.

April 16. 1:30pm- Depart LAX