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Project Tracks

Sep, 21

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Classroom News, multimedia home, Photo Stories, Project Tracks

Seetaphalmandi: Brothers and Sisters

Here is the first project from Seetaphalmandi Government High School in 2014. Though we got started a little bit later than other classes due to some administrative confusion, the late class schedule corresponded perfectly with a popular festival in India called Raksha Bandhan which celebrate the relationship between sisters and brothers.

Essentially a sister ties a “rakhi”, which is an embroidered bracelet, to her brother’s wrist and the brother gives the sister gifts. They both promise to protect and support one anther. Since all of the students at Seetaphalmandi have siblings and celebrate this holiday, we decided to show off an important tradition by explaining the Raksha Bandhan holiday and exploring what it means to be a good brother and sister. Enjoy!

Sep, 21

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Classroom News, multimedia home, Photo Stories, Project Tracks

MGM: “Our Precious Parents”

Proud to show off the first project by MGM Government Girl’s High School in 2014, “Our Precious Parents.” Initially I wasn’t sure what we would do our project on. MGM is filled with many unique and multi-faceted students that surprised me with new thoughts everyday. I wasn’t sure what would bring them together. For homework I asked them to draw a picture of something that was precious to them, giving an example of my bike as something that was precious to me. However, as they worked on their drawings it became clear what, or should I say who, is most precious to them: their parents.

Almost every student had something kind to say about their mother or father and sentences about lessons they had learned and experiences with their parents. With that in mind, I thought why not look into this relationship? So students brainstormed lessons their parents taught them, a poem about parents, and what makes a good daughter. Here is the final product. Enjoy!

Jul, 27

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Daily Updates, Project Tracks, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship

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Packing “jugaad” in our toolbox

They said it takes about three weeks before you feel comfortable in front of a class, comfortable with the language barriers, surprise holidays, and commuting confusion.

Well we’re about three weeks in, and I’m happy to say that I, along with my fellows, have started to become comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Classes have been cut in attendance and size due to holidays and festivals that have dotted nearly every weekend of this month (particularly in Hyderabad, as the sizeable Muslim population has been celebrating Ramadan). Miscommunication with school administrators led to some classroom snafus. The language barrier has led to many an altered lesson plan, finding ways to communicate with students who have so much enthusiasm but without a verbal way to convey all their ideas.

But part of the beauty of these moments, while infuriating, has taught us the importance of thinking on our feet, and embracing “jugaad.” Jugaad is a Hindi phrase that Piya and Remy taught us when we first went though training. Roughly, it translates to “an innovative fix or a simple work-around” and is used to signify applying creativity to make something simple work. I’ve found that this is something learned best by experience, and the last few weeks have offered experience by the ton.

Then, when something finally works, the reward is that much more gratifying.

For example, in our Railway class last week, Nandini and I spent two classes devoted to audio recording and photography. The tasks were simple (record a sentence about something you like to taste, smell, touch, hear, or see, and take a photo of the drawing that represents the student’s sentence), but it didn’t entirely go as planned. Many students were thrilled for the chance to use the equipment, but struggled to record audio without cutting off their sentence and not burst into giggles, or take a satisfactory (in their minds) photo. Regardless, all the students completed the task, and Nandini and I put together a short video that combined all their recordings and photos into one video montage that showed off all the things that Railway Girls like to taste, smell, touch, hear, and see (ranging from smelling lotus flowers to seeing new words –see below). When we brought the finished project into the class to show the students, they watched it over and over, grinning with pride at their work and brimming with ideas about how to make it better. All were filled with a newfound confidence on the equipment. It was a good reminder that even if it feels like your creative solutions do not work, these little efforts pay off in the end.

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Outside of class jugaad has also come in handy. From realizing that Uber is much less likely to overcharge you than an auto driver to Rachel’s impressive creations on our one-and-a-half burner stove, adjusting has just become a part of everyday life. And going with the flow has led us to meeting some wonderful new friends and exploring Hyderabad. Below, you can see one of our adventures, a trip to the Bonalu festival in Secunderbad.

From here we move onto our classes’ first project: photo essays. No doubt it will bring little challenges, but at least we have jugaad in our toolbox.

5
Sep

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Classroom News, Daily Updates, Project Tracks, Reflections

Brother Praneet

Praneet Reddy first approached The Modern Story in late June. He had just completed 10th class and was home in Hyderabad for the summer, looking for a valuable way to spend his time before pursuing his Higher Secondary School Certificate in Bangalore. He had discovered The Modern Story the way many people discover The Modern Story – through a chance encounter with our website – but took the extra step of contacting us directly and asking whether he could get involved.

Its a rare and wonderful step if you think about it –  the type of gesture that makes non-profit organizations such as The Modern Story possible. Ideas are only as powerful as the number of able bodied men and women to act upon them and doing so invites a certain leap of faith.  I cannot count the number of times I’ve stumbled across a web page for a cause whose work I admired, whose photographs I picked through, maybe whose newsletter I signed up for to give my time, eyes, and momentary attention. But it takes a special amount of courage, initiative, and character to send a cold e-mail and offer yourself. Praneet did this very thing and for six weeks, volunteered his creativity and English-to-Telugu translation abilities as a co-teacher at Audiah Memorial High School (during production of A Rainy Day photo story). We gratefully accepted, little knowing just how valuable he would be to our teaching and just how beloved he would become to our 15 students.

In the five weeks we had the pleasure of working with him, Praneet juggled a multitude of roles with steadfast calmness and  cheer. As a co-teacher, he muscled through every technical failure, every power outage, and every change in the lesson plan with patience. As a translator, he managed to digest our lengthy explanations into an abridged Telugu version faithful to (and often more articulate than) the English original, choosing those very words that would would bring a wave of comprehension across the faces of our Audiah students and draw our classroom back together.

Most importantly, Praneet was an unfailingly kind friend and role model for the students, answering questions, sharing stories, and alleviating any mental roadblocks so our lessons had traction. The early confidence he inspired in these fifteen students, both in the technical process and in themselves (“Yes, I can do this!”), has made all the difference in their long-term engagement. This is especially evident among our male students – Rahul, Rohit, Bhushan, Vinay, Asif, and Nagaraju – who sat resolutely in the back row the first two weeks of class, physically distant and distracted. Once Praneet became a regular fixture, this pattern broke down. The boys began to talk. To follow their curiosity and ask questions. To share. Rahul, who barely said a word and shied the camera, was a different person with Praneet in the room. The two of them huddled in quiet confidence was a common sight before class. These days, Rahul is among the most active and technologically savvy of our students, inseparable from Windows Movie Maker and endlessly curious. He continues the legacy of his former teacher and friend in ever question that he asks and every technology that he masters. Today we set up Rahul’s e-mail account and wouldn’t you know – Praneet was the first person he wanted to whom Rahul wished to address his very first message.

Jan, 31

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Daily Updates, Photo Stories, Project Tracks, Reflections, TMS Fellow Updates

The Modern Story completes the first week of the Social Justice curriculum

Students of The Modern Story program in Hyderabad, India completed their first week of the social justice curriculum created using resources from The Liberation Curriculum Initiative of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. At Nalgonda, a school in a rural area 3 hours south of Hyderabad, students finished the week by practicing story boarding shots and using still photos in sequence to tell a story related to Ghandi and King’s principles. Most students used the Telangana issue to discuss ideas of non-violence.
“Turn the other cheek”

But one group insisted the most important issue related to non-violence in India is the uneasiness between Muslims and Hindus following the 26/11 attacks and relations with Pakistan.

“Let’s stop the violence.”

And what a fitting finish it was to end a week of teaching non-violence by having tea with India’s leading political analyst and veteran of Indian media, Mr. Jyotirmara Sharma. He is American Eloquence dressed in an overbearing Indian. To describe him physically, he resembles the professor from the antedated TV series, Sliders, the big guy. His casual genius would be embarrassing in a smaller man. He remarked at a recent meeting with civil servants in Hyderabad, ‘they told me there would be a lot less poverty if I would simply stop eating so much’ to many chuckles in the audience admiring the man’s display of Pillsbury wit.

Mr. Shamar said “the difference between Gandhi and Martin Luther King is that MLK pushed people to the brink of real violence, without which governments too easily co-opt resistance toward their own ends.’ He continued, ‘Indians assume democracy should be without friction’ and as a result ‘national myths go unchallenged’ even in the face of glaring government blunders and policy failures. One of his main points is that students should develop their own vocabularies when discussing ideas they’re interested in. Mr. Shamar then connected this discussion back to education. Especially education curriculum such as that of The Modern Story’s social justice program around Hyderabad. He said that if students are going to learn about non-violence and change, they must be allowed to develop their own vocabulary that is new, fresh and entirely their own. This was a convenient suggestion because earlier in the day I had a talk with Mr. Prosenjit Ganguly, an inspirational and leading figure in India’s animation sector. He said, ‘Animation is a language. It is a language first voiced by Charlie Chaplin. Animation is slapstick movement.’ Children use it best. And so I began to see a connection between the importance of language in politics and the artistry of animation that provides youth with a language that is all their own. Animation is a language of movement and is so easy to relate to. Animation expands the imagination in an education system that is often about regurgitation. Animation is, at the end of the day, a language spoken so frequently in India from Tollywood to Tom & Jerry that it is accessible enough to express ideas with a necessary and sufficiently fresh vocabulary for social change. Mr. Shamar continued saying new vocabulary, when applied to political action, must be constantly reinvented for social change to be convincing. Otherwise the mythic ‘Tolerant Hindu’ will speak with complacency where change is due.

The Modern Story Fellowship affords countless opportunities in Hyderabad to participate in a national and often global debate about the intersection between education, politics and social change. I am happy to be here. I hope you enjoy the multi-media materials we have produced so far this year and those to come. Despite swine flu, school changes, Telangana riots and an unexpected extended holiday we are carrying on!

Aug, 30

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Daily Updates, Project Tracks

A Stimulating Start…

There is a festive mood sweeping over Hyderabad these days… Ganesh Charturdhi and Ramadan are in full swing, traditional songs and drumming on every street corner spell a new rhythm of urban life, the smell of haleem oozes from tiffin shops once evening falls, and every once in a while, the busy Hyderabad traffic will stop to allow a huge statue of Ganesh to be carried across the lanes.

It feels good to be back, and to be in awe, and to celebrate, once again.

At the Railway Girls School, we have just completed the first week of classes, preceded by a week of teacher training workshops. The training sessions were well attended: besides the Headmistress of the school, we had 8 teachers present, from a variety of disciplines. They were very eager to learn about the potential of digital storytelling, and even the Headmistress took time off from her busy schedule to attend the workshops – the high level of interest and the general atmosphere at the sessions felt very encouraging, especially since this academic year marks the debut of the TMS curriculum at this school. As part of the workshops, I instructed the teachers in the use of the digital and video cameras, from the initial steps of taking a picture or recording footage to the final stage of transferring this footage to the computer. They each practiced these skills, passing the cameras around and taking turns in trying out these newly learned operations. I also talked about the various ways that they can incorporate photography and video into their own curricula, and encouraged them to make use of their students’ new technical skills in the classroom.

The first week of classes has been highly productive and very fulfilling as well. The girls are extremely bright and outgoing, and they are not afraid to speak up in class or to ask questions. This is partly motivated by the fact that they are very comfortable speaking in English: I can clearly see that they understand everything I say, and I am impressed with their vocabulary and their general level of confidence while speaking. We have talked about the multimedia elements of a digital story, the difference between fiction and non-fiction, and the structural make-up of an efficient storytelling project. They were very quick to grasp the concepts, and their homework showed a high level of originality and creativity as well. When asked to plan and write a non-fiction or investigative story, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the topics the girls chose went beyond the standard responses like “Mahatma Gandhi”, “Nehru”, or “Mother Theresa”, and included some very original topics like “Unity and Diversity in India”, “Modernity and Traditions”, “The Dangers of Deforestation”, “Education in the Slums”, “Indian Festivals” and last but not least – this is one idea I was very proud to hear – the highly relevant “Technology in Education”.

And speaking of the potential of technology in education: on Monday I went on a visit to the Resource Center for Animation, set up by Technology for the People, a local Hyderabadi NGO founded and directed by Mr. Rajen Varada, who currently works in ICT for Development at the UNESCO headquarters in Delhi. I met Mr. Varada at the Video Volunteers Camp in Goa, and we talked at length about our experiences in using multimedia training as an educational tool. A highly inspired and dedicated man with years of expertise in ICT (Information Communication Technologies), he realized his vision of offering educational opportunities to underserved ethnic and gender minorities by founding Technology for the People (TFTP), which provides animation workshops to Muslim girls in the Old City, who were forced to drop out of school at an early age. After a one-year course at the organization’s Resource Center, the girls – who are taught to utilize their talent at henna tattoos by learning computer animation – receive a formal certificate, and are then placed in internships and jobs in the animation industry, which is currently booming here in Hyderabad. Thus, TFTP enables them to earn a livelihood by equipping them with technological skills that are in high demand, while simultaneously boosting their self-confidence and rebuilding their trust in the value of education.

Having met these amazing girls personally on my visit there, I was touched and inspired by their stories, by their ambition and their fortitude: one of them described to me how she commutes daily from her village which is 3.5 hours away just to attend these animation workshops, while another girl told me how she went on a hunger strike for 3 days when her father tried to forbid her from coming back to the sessions. They are true role models for myself, for our high school students, and for anyone who will have the pleasure of meeting them and hearing about their experiences. We are currently in touch with Mr. Varada about the possibility of a collaboration between TMS and TFTP, which can materialize in a variety of ways and bring great educational benefits for both our organizations. Once we have come up with the most efficient and propitious way to do so, I will be back with more details on this exciting partnership opportunity.

Jul, 23

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Project Tracks, The Modern Story Fellowship

Summer Update

The Modern Story is pleased to announce a few updates!

–We are pleased to introduce Danny Thiemann and Vidya Putcha as our newest Modern Story fellows! Danny and Vidya will be introducing themselves on the blog in the next month and will leave for Hyderabad in late September. Both are busy preparing for their upcoming adventures!

-Ioana Literat, a former TMS fellow will be returning to Hyderabad as our local coordinator. Ioana will be overseeing the fellowship, organizing local trainings for teachers and young educators and launching The Modern Story at the Railway Girl’s School in Hyderabad! Ioana will arrive in Hyderabad in early August and will be heading to Goa for Video Volunteers Media Camp.

-Prithvi Kunapareddi who worked with Mona and Dave and the Vijayanagar School last Spring will be running a digital storytelling camp for a small group of students starting next week. Prithvi will hopefully begin to update the blog and share some of the students work!

Please continue to check back as the program will resume full force in September – Stay tune for some more excellent and authentic stories from Youth in Hyderabad!

Mar, 1

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Project Tracks

The Modern Story Exhibit at Zeum!

Opening: Saturday, March 7, 3-5PM at Zeum: 221 Fourth St. at Howard, San Francisco

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We would like to share some exciting news: The Modern Story will be opening an exhibit at San Francisco’s Children’s Museum, Zeum! All the work created by our students & fellows, including videos, photography and drawings will be on display in Zeum’s Spiral Gallery for the month of March. Prior to the exhibit, The Modern Story taught a series of weekend workshops at Zeum. During these workshops, we showed Bay Area youth excerpts of the stories created in Andhra Pradesh and initiated a dialogue by teaching the participants how to create digital postcards in response. The participants, from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, were extremely eager to hear about the students in India and to ask them questions and tell them about their lives in return. We will be showing some of the postcards at the exhibit, side by side with the student work from India.

The Spiral Gallery can be seen from outside the Zeum structure

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The exhibit will open on Saturday, March 7 and we have gathered quite an audience thus far. It has been indescribably rewarding for Remy and I to collect all the work and put together a display that gives credit to the amazing effort that has been sustained by the students, by the fellows, by our in-country staff members, and by the administration of the schools in which we work.

In printing the photographs taken by the students, the vibrant colors of this program and of the students’ lives and messages have truly come alive.

We will post photographs and a video tour of the exhibit soon. A special thanks & congratulations to all the students and teachers at C. Ramchand Girls High School, to A.P. Boys Residential School, to Vijayanagar High School, to Swarna Kapoor and the American India Foundation, to Evita Fernandez, Campos & The Fernandez Hospital, to our incredible fellows, Mona Yeh, Dave Kutz, Ioana Literat and Sarah Calvert, and to Zeum for allowing our dreams of a global youth exchange to materialize.

And of course, thank you to our friends and family for all your support and love throughout this journey. We are so grateful.

We hope to see you at the exhibit; whether virtually or in person!

-Piya & Remy

Feb, 15

2

Project Tracks, Reflections

Nearing the End

Mona and my time is winding down here in India but there is still much work to be done. We are in the midst of working out long-term plans with an environmental group doing work in Hyderabad, the RIDHI Foundation. The Foundation is involved in eco-friendly projects like cloth bag distribution and tree planting campaigns. We are hoping to work out a cooperative relationship between this group and the school in Vijayanagar Colony as a means of instilling social activism into the students’ curricula. There is a new Head Master in charge at Vijayanagar, who seems open to progressive initiaives in education so we think this idea could really take off.

Students of Vijayanagar Colony School

The students’ final projects are nearing completion. At Nalgonda, the boys have shot most of the footage for their video on Independence. We need to interview some elders in the community in order to get an authentic voice in the piece, but the students have already done much work toward creating an informative and entertaining look at the meaning and importance of Indian Independence.

Boys of Nalgonda in Costume

At Vijayanagar, the students have really taken to the social activism aspect of their project on the environment. As part of the video, we wanted to raise funds in order to buy a tree that the students could plant on the school grounds. However, it seems there is insufficient space / inadequate soil for this idea, so we are thinking of distributing potted plants that the students can tend at their homes. This relatively small action by the students would show how anyone can combat air pollution, even if only in a small way. We started our activism at Vijyanagar by selling flower and vegetable plant seeds to different people in the community. We soon sold all of our seeds and then began simply asking for donations to our project. The effort and enthusiasm of the students has been great and they’ve collected much more than I think Mona or I expected. This past week, we were able to get a couple members of the previously mentioned RIDHI Foundation to come and do an interview with the students about our topic and their organization. The kids enjoyed having these visitors in the classroom, especially since they spoke their language . We are now working out the logistics for each schools’ closing ceremonies wherein the students will get certificates to commemorate their involvement in the program and pictures of themselves and their friends in the class that they can take home . Given the students’ repeated requests and enduring persistence, it is also reasonable to assume a dance party will happen somewhere during these last days.

Students of Vijayanagar Colony High School

In our time off from work, Mona and I have had many interesting, comic and memorable cross-cultural/societal experiences. For me, a highlight has been the encounters I have while going for jogs around the Hussain Sagar Lake situated in the middle of Hyderabad. Firstly, it is strange for the people here to see me in shorts. I guess you just don’t wear shorts in Hyderabad. Then, it is quite more strange for the people here to see someone running around for pleasure in the middle of the city. And a foreigner at that! Upon seeing me during a run, people will pull their motorcycles over to the side of the road and ask if i need a ride somewhere. They will give me seriously concerned looks and enquire “what are you doing…where are you going?” Others take less personal avenues of interaction and offer exaggerated impersonations of my runnning style in front of me or will simply holler “nice jogging!” at me from the road. One supremely bizarre encounter has given me good ammunition for a story which I haven’t yet tired of telling. One day, while I was walking toward the Lake, a man approached me with a tin box and a metal Q-tip. He said “hello sir…one minute, sir…soap for your ear?” I was very confused but stopped anyway, arrested by his confident pitch. In a flash, before I could react, the man had jammed his metal Q-tip into my ear and was wiping off the wax onto his arm, declaring for all in earshot to hear “see sir, very dirty!” Oh my. Dirty, my ears were. Ready for a public cleaning of them, I was not. I quickly made leave of the man though he repeatedly assured me he was somehow licensed for what he was doing, offering me a laminated business card which looked very much like something he typed on his home computer. Regardless of his credentials, I will remember his handiwork for some time to come.

During our time here, it has been great to work with Prithvi, our High School partner. He has been to many of the classes at Vijayanagar Colony and has really been indispensible for translation and general help throughout the day. We were unable to convince him to make a digital story about himself (I think he was too shy / modest for this concept) but he has informed us he’s thinking of making an animation on the environment. We’ll keep you posted on this. Prithvi comes across as very serious and has a tendency toward being a perfectionist, even in very imperfect situations. This can lead to some funny and memorable scenes. He will throw his hands up in the air and guffaw when a student fumbles their English. He’ll declare “no, it’s ALL wrong!” when what I believe to be a relatively insignificant part of a take fails to come up to snuff. His sincere eye on quality regardless of context is enviable and pretty rare for a kid his age. It is clear that Prithvi enjoys working with the kids and the students really appreciate his presence. We really hope he will be able to do work with the students in the future, perhaps even independently organizing a small project with them over the summer.

The Boys of Nalgonda

The presence of a native speaker in the classroom is very helpful (at Vijayanagar it has been mostly Prithvi; at Nalgonda, we have had little help with this). We find that we can definitely teach the students in English and make quality video projects despite the language gap. But when teaching, you really want to connect with the students in a way that goes beyond writing on the board and holding a hand as it attempts to naviagate a mouse across a computer screen. You really want to be able to communicate in a meaningful way with your kids. This has been difficult at times. Conversations with our variously Telugu and Urdu speaking students can end as soon as they start. “Hello…how are you…fine…” End scene. And repeat about 100 times a day. I’ve done enough emphatic hand shaking and prolonged smiling here to last a life time. Taking interactions past the greeting stage has a 50/50 chance of success. But it’s always worth the effort, as whether or not the students understand your words they can always understand the attention and regard you are giving them. Mona and I have become adept at some cross-lingual short hands as a means to interact with the students. It’s useful to use body language and emphatic hand gestures to get a point across. Drawings sometimes work. Fewer words is always better and these should be spoken slowly and loudly. You can judge comprehension by the expressions on the students’ faces as well as their body language. Confusion sets in at a squinted eye, scratching of the head, or inappropriately fast nodding of the head. Total disinterest and frustration manifests itself in a pained facial expression, initiation of conversation with a nearby classmate, or outright departure from the chair. I think that though some of the students know relatively little of what Mona or I are saying, most have still extended their trust and interest in a very encouraging way. And when in several years I look back on teaching for this project, I will remember more than anything else the positive energy and enthusiasm of the kids, something which is universal and understandable to all.

Ge ready for the final videos – they will be here very soon!