After 4 healthy weeks, Dave and I finally picked up a little bit of sickness here in India.  Alas.  It didn’t really hit until later in the week, luckily, so we didn’t have to make the long trek to Nalgonda while feeling ill.  Many students in our classes have been out with the fever, so there is definitely something going around these days.  However, it’s nothing that a little rest, fluids, and some hug attacks from eager students can’t fix

Both classes have completed the production phase for Video #1, and will be moving into post-production next week.  While the students rotate in small groups to edit Video #1, the rest of the class will be preparing their pre-production for Video #2.  Video #2 will be more issue-based.  The students have been asked to produce small news stories.  They will becoming young reporters and anchors, and will hopefully conduct some mini-interviews, and write a short story on a topic of their choice.  We hope for them to also take this a step farther and address solutions for some of these issues, and Video #3 will hopefully synthesize the idea of civic engagement by having them put some of their plans into action in a documentary format.

At Vijaynagar Colony, we played Stand and Declare (also known at “4 Corners” or “Opinions”).  In this game, we posted the following signs in different corners of the room: “Agree”, “Disagree”, “Strongly agree”, and “Strongly disagree”.  We then prepared a list of different statements on various topics.  After reading each statement, the students had to go stand by whichever sign matched their opinions the most.  The students in each corner then had to discuss and report back to the class their reasons for their choice.  Some statements we used included: “Women in India are treated fairly”, “All children in my country are getting an equal education”, “I will always do what elders tell me to do, whether or not it is what I want to do”, “If a person is poor, it is their own fault”, “The most important thing about a job is the amount of money you make”, and “It’s okay to throw trash on the street-everybody else does it!”  At first Dave and I were unsure how the students would take to this activity, and feared that they would all just quietly shuffle around and murmur monosyllabic answers.  However, we were pleasantly surprised to see the class really plunge right into the topics!  The class has self divided into 3 distinct group of friends, and for the most part, these groups of friends still stuck together on their opinions, but the different groups picked answers independent of other groups.  And many students ended up stepping up to the plate and really preparing thoughtful cases for each point of view.  Dave and I had decided to let them present in Telugu, as the primary goal of the activity is to encourage them to really articulate their opinions, and we thought letting them speak in their own language would really allow them to bring out more important points that they might not have brought up if they were to speak in English.  Prithvi and another teacher who sometimes attends our class helped to translate.

The Nalgonda group also continues to forge ahead.  Dave led a drum circle activity with them this week, which was met with a lot of excitement.  It was quite difficult to relay the idea of taking turns with solos and staying on the beat, but the boys sure did have a lot of new rhythms to try out!  We will continue to use this activity with the boys, it seems like a good release for them and a nice way to warm up as a class.  Hopefully by the end of this term our circle will sound more like a drumline and less like a wild rumpus!

Stay tuned for Video #1, hopefully to be posted within the next week!