Tieing up loose ends, I realize I never did publish a blog entry about the first videos of Railway or Seethafalmondi schools! I suppose at the time my mind was still too preoccupied by new accents and auto-rides and spicy curry to keep track. But as both schools finish up their final projects, it’s a good chance to look back at where we came from.

We are lucky that Railway was our first experience with Hyderabad government schools; the girls’ confidence showed us the potential of 8th class students, and caused us to push for more creativity at other schools. As an artmaker myself, I ask a lot of questions about how and what others make. RW girls were happy to share their favorite art practices at school: classical Indian dance, muggu, and friendship bands. Looking back, I see behaviors that held true through all projects: Priyanka will do the most animated voiceover, Thanuja and Srujana will rewrite and rewrite until I physically remove the script from their hands, and Sunaina and Manaswini will always shyly volunteer to act the roles of best friends.

Our Culture & Art from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Seethafalmondi started out chaotic, mostly because of the language barrier (mainly Telegu-medium) and the inconsistent and limited classroom space at their school. Both these factors led us directly into physical making, and the re-telling of familiar stories. The students are smart, hard-working, creative, and the work they composed clearly shows it. The first project was an illustrative photo story of poems which shows the diversity of languages spoken in the school. There are poems in Hindi, in Telegu, and in English. Each group of students took on two poems; one of which they illustrated with a series of paintings, the other of which they acted out. I will follow up more with the final project, but it is fascinating to see how, despite different prompts and new equipment, we ended up in a very similar place.

Languages of Poetry from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Of all the schools at which I teach, Railway students are the most vocal advocates of girl power. When the discussion of this project began, the group was overrun with injustices against girls and declarations of what should be. As such, it was difficult for them to develop the succinct plot that this animation required. However, I firmly believe that the ideas not included this particular story will continue to be lifted up by these students as they become adults.

This project was mostly led by Asma, our long-time TMS assistant teacher (check her out on our team page!). Asma has done much of her own graphic and animation work, and was able to share that experience with the students. Awesome! I am so grateful to have worked with her.

Ah, stop-motion animation: one of the most time-consuming video-making processes on the planet. To produce one takes patience and determination, but in return we experience the truly magical moment when illustrations come to life. Eight girls at Railway GGHS had that patience and determination – now check out their magic.

Brave Girl: Every Girl Have Their Own Rights from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Watch out, Cartoon Network, there's a new animation team in town. From brainstorming to final credits, eight illustrators, voice actors, and editors from Railway GGHS have done an enormous amount of work to create a simple but powerful story.

We are weeks late posting this entry, so it falls out of chronological order; please forgive. Its appearance now heralds two things: the upload of the last videos from our 3-week teaching trip Tamil Nadu, and the upcoming Hyderabad arrival of our amazing new friend Adriana from Communities Rising! This experience was productive and rewarding in innumerable ways, but I shall try to number some of them.

# days with SAMSSS / Communities Rising = 14
# students = 180
# videos produced = 12

Most of our time was spent with the 5th to 8th classes of Anilady, a combined primary and high school associated with the Catholic ministry. The school was not English-medium, an obvious challenge, but we were assisted diligently by Brother Philip and the computer teacher, Siva. We had a new class and thus new video project every day of the week. They produced Favorite Things, Feeling Thankful, When I Grow Up, Bodies, Our School Anilady, Colorful, I Can Fly, Memories, and a short welcome video for students in Piya’s new program in the U.S., Breakthrough. In our spare time (yes, jokes) we spent two days with students in Periyatchioor village making a video about animals, two days with students in Sengadu village making a song + dance music video about beauty, and five days of after-school time at the SAMSSS center with students from Vikravandy village making Fever, and This Boy Fever. Oh, also, the photo walk project.

Hostel boys at SAMSSS: “Hi-i-i-i Teacher!!”

Tech and prep work in the News Room.

In the “Photos Of Students Working” folder I keep on my desktop, the number of Hill Street photos overwhelm the rest, but it’s not because they work more. In the inevitable minutes of downtime when Sunita and I are preoccupied and the students have cameras in their hands, they don’t take photos of their friends awkwardly smiling or staring stony faced at the camera with their arms wrapped around each other. They document what’s going on in the classroom: boys using microphones, girls setting up tripods, teachers looking sweaty and frazzled… I don’t know why this practice is so consistent at Hill Street, but I appreciate it (minus the latter example). It makes sense that their first video project should skew towards documentary.

In Hyderabad, the Telangana conflict is always around us. Sometimes it is more present than others  – when groups of military police shadow a protest, or when bahnds (strikes) close school and bus service. As our first project continued to get derailed by bahnds, a conversation arose. Why was this happening? Who did it hurt? What were the students’ opinions? It soon became clear that the majority (if not all) students were pro-Telangana. But in the same way that I parroted my family’s beliefs at 12 years old, it was clear that the students’ beliefs were based on what they had overheard at home, rather than full comprehension of this complicated issue. When I asked too many “Why?” questions, the conversation petered off. And thus, research became our first focus. I brought in Andhra Pradesh maps, and news or opinion articles written in Telegu that presented both sides of the conflict (or at least I hope they did; I was pretty dependent on my friend Ravi at the copy shop to translate). A group of students conducted eight interviews of teachers and one auto wallah, and we watched them as a class to understand where everyone was coming from.

“What is your opinion about the Telangana separation?”

“Why do some people want the state to stay together?”

Here is what we discovered: After Indian independence, when the country was divided into states, three regions came together to form Andhra Pradesh: Andhra, Rayalaseema, and Telangana. The Telangana region wants to break off and form their own state. This conflict has been ongoing since the state formed in the 1950s, but came to a new place on July 30 and October 3 of this year, when government officials voted to move forward with separation. Some say this is a political move to get votes and not a real decision, but still – it has raised the stakes. Currently, Pro-Telangana supporters feel they are being cheated. Their land supplies a bulk of the resources for Andhra, and encompasses the city of Hyderabad, but they feel that the benefits of the state (mainly government jobs), are primarily being given to Andhra people. Unite-Andhra supporters feel that over the last sixty years they have been a valuable part of building the government and the city of Hyderabad. If the state were to split, they would be forced to leave the capital city of Hyderabad, and would lose all they have worked for in that time.

There is a lot of sensitivity around the potential separation, obviously. At the outset of this project, my amazing assistant Sunita expressed real trepidation. She worried that there was too much desperate anger around the topic to make it a safe and viable school project. But we talked with other teachers and with the students and made a plan to proceed… and a plan B if it seemed unsafe at any point. From the beginning, it was emphasized that while there would be space in the movie for the students to share their own beliefs, this was a news piece. Students were expected to act as researchers or objective reporters.

Although the topic was heavy, spirits are consistently light at Hill Street GHS. The students have a buoyant and mischievous creative energy. The TMS News theme song is a testament to this. After massacring a few news theme songs as an example, I handed a flip camera to a group of four tween boys and told them to record the intro music. What they came back with is awesome.

Tee–eMm–esS N E W S ! N E W S ! from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Live from Hill Street Government High School! Telangana’s desired split from Andhra Pradesh continues to cause turmoil throughout Greater Hyderabad. To explore this complicated cultural and political issue, students conducted interviews with teachers, auto wallahs, school visitors, and fellow students.

In a Tamil Nadu village that was strung with clotheslines
stood more than fifty boys in five straight lines
(and one tiny girl)

In five straight lines they walked Vikravandi
and photographed fruits, cows, busses, and beyond-y

Strong beginnings.

Nametags + pride.

On Thursday we met students from St. Mary’s, a crowd of ten that karate-chopped their way into our hearts. On Friday we met The Hostel Boys, a roaring mass of energy that rolled into SAMSSS for after-school learning and hijinx. On Saturday, the two groups joined forces to participate in Worldwide Photowalk, an international event that took place on October 5. As groups of photographers from dozens of countries documented their communities, we marched through Vikravandi, passing seven cameras from student to student. Their photos are amazing. From Aathvan to Vikram; from Infant to Karl Marks, the students captured images showing Vikravandi as the quintessential yet special place it is.

Although this was our rowdiest challenge to date, with the aid of the SAMSSS crew (Father Felix, Agni, Sabinesh, Priya) and Communities Rising intern Adriana Ganci we ended the night with hundreds of photos, most of which you can see here. The photos taken by kids 14 and older will be entered into Worldwide Photowalk’s prize competition – we will be sure to keep you updated as that progresses.

SEE ALL THE STUDENT PHOTOS HERE

There was once a young girl who encountered devastating obstacles. She was hungry and her father was sick; she was pulled out of school and pushed into labor; she was forced into a child marriage with a husband who drank and abused her; she gave birth to a baby, and struggled again with money. But despite this continuing hardship, the girl stayed strong. When it was suggested to her that she fix her money woes by giving her own daughter away as a child bride, the girl said no. She stood up to the forces that hurt her, allowing her daughter to finish her education and live a happy life. This is the photo-story created by students at West Marredpally Girls Government High School for their first project of the semester.

This week, from the midst of chaos, emerged many vibrant photo stories. My class at West Marredpally was the one I didn’t see coming. Certainly, the girls are always excited and pleased with TMS; they jumped into storyboarding and script-writing, and constantly heckle me for more and more technical experience – but I also always feel we are about to careen off-track. Perhaps it is because the project took root in this wild soil that it grew so strong. The story is solid, simple and poignant. The voiceover is clear. The settings and costumes are well-designed, and the photos are gorgeous.

The perceived wildness caused me to be a more prepared teacher. Unlike other classes, West Marredpally did a “pre-production” photo shoot: the girls shot the photos they would take in full costume the next day. At the end of the session, we critiqued their images on the computer. When it came time to take the real photos, the students were familiar with their roles, and had a solid idea of how to photograph each scene.

These students had full control of the story from the beginning. The original writing prompts I gave them elicited very little response, and it was only when I opened it up entirely that the students jumped in. The topics from that original brainstorming session provided fodder for all the directions our story took, and also informed our next video.

A Story Of Child Marriage from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Unlike the other three classes I teach, Hill Street did not start out shy. They started out with a circus of elbows, jostling to fit their twenty-two teenage bodies into a circle on a small carpet. They started with a frenzy of hand waving, shouting out answers and bizarre jokes. They started out with movement, jumping up to demonstrate fighting moves, to fetch me a duster (chalkboard eraser), and to keep non-TMS students from entering our cool cement classroom. They have chilled out, and I have imposed some order, but Hill Street students bring the same barely-contained energy to every class. They have focused that energy to finish their first photostory: a PSA entitled Enjoy Our Health: How To Live A Healthy Life.

In TMS, we believe in starting from what students know: these students knew how to be active. I asked questions to broaden the topic, and the kids examined their experiences with healthy living. The four sections we landed on were exercise, cleanliness, good food, and a healthy mind. We focused on health choices available to the average Secunderabadi in daily life. As students began to storyboard, take photos, and write voiceovers, I noticed many of these statements: “–––– is healthy because it is good for our health.” While I admired the range of ideas developed in our brainstorming, I realized that beyond a vague notion of It’s Good!-ness, most students had little information about their topics.

The fellows and I keep ourselves sane by working out at the hotel gym near our apartment. The trainer at the gym, Ramu, also works with kids at Rainbow Children’s Homes, teaching aerobics and giving information about healthy living. I invited him to give a presentation at Hill Street. I realized that this could be an opportunity not only for the students to teach others about health, but to learn more themselves. The students were rapt as Ramu demonstrated a correct push-up (dip), and answered their questions about leafy greens. They also laughed uproariously. I have a strong suspicion that many of his jokes centered around my idiocy at the gym, but (thankfully?) he was speaking Hindi and I couldn’t understand.

Class size at Hill Street fluctuates between twenty-two students and three, and hovers around eighteen. For the past two weeks classes have been smaller. This has allowed students much more hands-on editing time. I am impressed how quickly they took to the software – especially since many are using a mac platform and a touchpad for the first time. Our editing team chose to include a ridiculous number of photos, but luckily the voiceover team had created plenty of material. Collaboration success-o-rama!

I’m not sure how many students will be in class tomorrow (this week offers special craft workshops for all students, cool!) but we have decided to launch into an investigation of the proposed Telangana separation. I am excited to see the students debate and conduct person-on-the-street interviews, but am most excited for the soundtrack. As Anand said, “We will record all the songs. We are very good at singing.”

Enjoy Our Health: How To Live A Healthy Life from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Students at Hill Street Government High School have created a Public Service Announcement to explore how they make healthy choices in their daily life. Nineteen boys and two girls between the ages of 12 and 16 produced this work, taking positions as brainstormers, storyboard artists, photographers, directors, prop-masters, and actors. This video is a product of The Modern Story, and was facilitated by digital media teaching fellow Nelle Owens Dunlap.

I could probably start every blog entry from now on with the following sentence, but I’m choosing to use it now:  This phase of TMS is blowing my mind.

Oh, Nelle Night Owl brain, how I’ve missed you.

When I was in grad school, I often found myself awake at 3 am; scribbling notes and project inspirations on big sheets of butcher paper, arching lines of Sharpie between the ideas to create mind-maps. Something similar has happened this week. I don’t have butcher paper, but my biggest sketchbook is filled with connections between my students’ strengths, interests, and dreams – and my own.

It’s fascinating to me how much each class has its own personality. With all four classes, I have covered myself in chalk dust illustrating the same camera diagrams, and with all four I have perfected my comic timing by repeatedly acting out + storyboarding a tale about my pup Thisbe. But each class has moved forward differently; giving new answers to the same old questions and drawing unique conclusions from identical statements. It’s exciting to see this happen naturally. It’s also exciting to discover each class’s idiosyncrasies and link them to thoughts in my own life. I believe teachers and collaborators are most successful when they work from what they know, and so I am committed to the mutual discovery of these connections with my students.

Hill Street sports photogs captured many an action shot. I think they would enjoy interviewing the trainer at my gym!

We are keepin’ it active, healthy, and weird at Hill Street. “You wanna meet some crazy Baltimore kids??”

I see connections between student ideas and Hyderabad activists, organizations, and artists I have met. I envision collaborations between my 8th class at Railway and former students in a Baltimore, Maryland middle school. I watch themes emerge from a discussion of why girls should make media that were present in my thesis work. I can’t wait to see how these relationships will enrich our TMS projects, and how TMS projects will then enrich a multitude of different media communities.

But first, a qualifier: while it is valuable to me to strengthen these connections, it is far more essential that these students remain the creative producers of their own stories. And so, on these four Ships O’ Learning, I am careful not to let my creative experience and enthusiasm turn me from crew member to Captain.

I am sometimes, perhaps, a light-house beacon who keeps our ship from wreckage, or a friendly mermaid who guides it in a beautiful direction; but I am not the one with her hand on the ship’s wheel. I do not yet know for which coordinates we are headed, only that I shall discover them alongside my first mates.