Mr. Prabhaker addresses TMS students

The full TMS team: Vidya, Danny, Ioana, Remy and Piya

Railway HS Student D.T. Navya makes an emotional speech about TMS

Here are some more photos from Piya and Remy’s visit to Hyderabad! Although time was short and rickshaw rides long, Piya and Remy managed to make the most of their time and, apart from their trip to Railway High School, they were also able to visit and meet the staff of the Byrraju Foundation and, respectively, Technology for the People, two inspiring and ambitious local nonprofit organizations that are making a tremendous contribution to ICT education in Andhra Pradesh and beyond.

The TMS team at the HQ of the Byrraju Foundation in Hyderabad

At a meeting with Mr. TLS Bhaskar and Mr. VSN Raju from the Byrraju Foundation

TMS has partnered up with the Byrraju Foundation for a weeklong digital storytelling workshop in the rural areas of the Godavari District in coastal Andhra Pradesh, and we certainly hope to expand this collaboration in the future. The workshop was impressively successful – stay tuned for pictures, videos and more details in the next post – and we all feel extremely excited about the opportunity to introduce the TMS curriculum and mode of teaching in these rural schools, which are perhaps most in need of this educational encouragement, both in terms of soft and hard skills.

As you may remember, I have written about the activity of Technology for the People in a previous post on this blog, mentioning how impressed I was with the way they are using animation and computer skills to empower young Muslim women in the conservative Charminar area of Hyderabad. Since the TMS directors also shared my feelings of admiration and awe towards the work of TFTP, we are currently looking for ways to cement this collaboration in a manner that will maximize the benefits for both our TMS students and the TFTP girls.

The young women studying animation and computer skills at the TFTP Resource Center

The Modern Story also organized a fundraising and awareness event at Kalakriti Art Gallery, to coincide with Piya and Remy’s visit. The exhibition consisted of photography and video documentaries made by the students of TMS since the inception of the program, and was extremely well received by the public. Guests included representatives from the American India Foundation, the University of Hyderabad’s School of Media and Fine Arts, Google Hyderabad, Video Volunteers, Microsoft, Monster.com, the Rotary Foundation, and many more. Thank you all for your continued support!

Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad

The Modern Story directors, Piya Kashyap and Remy Mansfield, visited Railway Girls High School during their trip to Hyderabad at the end of February. Here are photos of the event that Mr. Prabhakar, the school administrator and physics teacher, put together. Students showcased their video poems and audio-visual newscasts on issues ranging from women’s issues to race and education in India.

TMS Young Women's Spoken Word

Vidya pointed out to the girls how far they’d come by contrasting our first and last day together – the first day most girls were too shy to participate in the ‘bust a move’ activity where students introduced themselves with a dance; by the last class students came prepared with a choreographed routine, unprompted spoken word poetry, speeches, and a skit written and rehearsed completely on their own. It was incredible to mark the difference and see the change happen before our eyes.

Mr. Prabhakar commented on The Modern Story’s impact on his students, noting improvements in their confidence, English skills and public speaking abilities. He also expressed his gratitude to the Head Mistress. She stood by TMS throughout the year, accommodating the program to fit in between other teachers’ classes. In his speech, he expected even better performance next year as the class may begin earlier in the summer, become a more regular part of the girls’ schedules, and integrate the hard and soft skills TMS teaches into his own classroom.

TMS on the silver screen at Railway Auditorium

“Although I haven’t noted a sea change in our girls, as this is just the beginning of TMS at our school, I most certainly have seen it benefit our students’ confidence, improve their computer skills and their minds – even in my own classroom,” concluded Mr. Prabhakar during his address to TMS directors and the assembly of 8th and 9th class at Railway Girls High School in Hyderabad, India.

The Crew

I am extremely proud – and perhaps a little sad – to announce that the girls at Railway High School have successfully completed their final projects! Since they have a definite inclination for poetry, they decided to present a collection of different video-poems for their final project. I cannot help but be amazed at how natural it came to them to write these poems, in spite of the fact that it required the use of a very lyrical English, and the incorporation of rhyming schemes, measure, rhythm and other poetic elements that we discussed throughout the term. All these concepts, and the very language needed in order to write a successful poem, are not easy; however, our students felt stimulated by this new form of expression and the results are really amazing and awe-inspiring.

Furthermore, as an educator, I found this exercise to be extremely catalyzing, efficient and enjoyable for the students: while the act of writing in poetry was fun and inspiring for the girls, it also perfected their English and  acquainted them with many new and useful linguistic concepts. And the process of turning the written poems into visually intriguing videos is an excellent exercise in creative expression – while some of the poems, due to the meaning of their lines, lent themselves to an easier translation into visuals, others proves much more challenging, and required outstanding imagination and creative thinking.

And while I was blown away by the girls’ “soft” skills (creativity in both poetry writing and storyboarding), I was equally impressed with their “hard” skills (filming and editing). Working on PCs facilitated the editing process to a great extent, as the girls were more comfortable using this platform and they quickly became excellent editors. However, what impressed me most was the way in which they went beyond what I had taught them, exploring all the different features of the software by themselves. This is apparent in their choice of title animations, video transitions and video effects, but also in the way they incorporated external elements into their films. For instance, Navya, who wrote and recited an excellent self-portrait in poetry, managed to find a music sample from Beethoven on the school computer (it was one of those sample tracks that you find on any PC) and skillfully imported it into the editing program and laid it on top of her narration, perfectly syncing it with the time breaks in the poem.

See her poem, and more, in the YouTube links below, and also on our vimeo site: http://vimeo.com/themodernstory

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPVJGdVw5eU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM4qTK9yJ2I&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udyH0qo_3Wg&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq–716spm8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

If you have enjoyed the videos and would like to comment, please feel free to do so and we will make sure to pass on the comments to our students. They really appreciate receiving these comments and it is such a strong encouragement to them, as they are gaining more confidence in their creativity and power of expression with each and every day. Thank you!

Students at The Modern Story project in Nalgonda finished their final project on equal distribution of water in their community. They pointed out one farmer’s trouble with the irrigation and canal that many others share. Saving water means saving the town’s way of life.  For the students, they thought it was important for people to physically see water differently in order for them to use it differently. They did an incredible still-frame animation to prove their point. Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/9681394

Nalgonda Final Project – Save Water, Save Nalgonda Farmers’ Way of Life from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Congratulations Pavani on being a finalist for this newly inaugurated, international essay competition run by the Women’s Learning Partnership. Selected from a pool of young writers aged 14-18 from across the globe, Pavani wrote on the education deficit for women in India and how a new generation of young girls is overcoming it. The essays were graded on three criteria: Awareness of the Problem (35 marks), Ideas for the Solution (55 marks), and Communication and Writing (10 marks). The scores are weighted heavily in favor of those essays that suggest comprehensive solutions to advance gender rights. See a list of finalists here Post a comment on Pavani’s essay and help her win the audience prize. While they continue the judging process, go on over to the blog to learn more about the Women’s Learning Partnership, read the entries from the first group of finalists, and post comments! Remember, the essay with the most comments will receive a special audience choice prize. Thank you to all our students for submitting.
(Pavani’s essay re-posted below)

Details

I’m so proud of our students at Nalgonda. They are talented artists. Ideas for their video project on equitable distribution of water in their community began to take shape after I showed them some possibilities using Final Cut for animation. They finished the title screens and edited one segment of video last class. Here is the first cut of some animations that will be incorporated into the larger video. The boys love to listen to our music at the end of class and liked the following music for the soundtrack. They reminded me that the words in the music went well with their theme, ‘We love water.’  Telugu/English subtitles coming after the short holiday this weekend. Enjoy!

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