TMS Fellow Updates | The Modern Story

When you’re pushing to get a project done, sometimes it can be easy to lose sight of why you’re making the project in the first place. This was definitely the case with my class at West Marredpally as we worked to complete our video on alcohol. In my rush to move through the process of choosing a topic and writing a script, we ended up with a story that felt a little disconnected from the students’ actual experiences with alcohol in their communities. So, instead of moving on to the next steps of pre-production, we took a day to just step back and discuss the message we wanted our video to send. We talked through reasons why people choose to drink, researched the long-term and short-term effects of alcohol abuse, shared personal experiences of peer pressure, and in the end rewrote the script to be something the students would want to show their friends to encourage them to make smart choices about alcohol. From there, we plunged back into pre-production with renewed excitement. The girls put their all into writing a shotlist, rehearsing the dialogue, and decorating the set. As an added bonus, we filmed the birthday party scene on the date of my actual birthday. The students made me wear a sari (which they had to retie when I arrived at school) and once we finished filming, they turned the set into a party for me. This was definitely one of my most memorable birthdays, and that’s due a lot to it capping off a project that meant so much to the students. It wasn’t a celebration for me as much as it was congratulating ourselves for our hard work.

Here I am cutting the prop cake (not super tasty after three days of sitting on set).

Nov, 6

Karis

Classroom News, multimedia home, Project Tracks, Reflections, TMS Fellow Updates, Videos

documentary, film, Hyderabad, India, mgm, power cuts, psa, second project, short movie, Telangana, TMS, vimeo, youth media

MGM: Stop Power Cuts!

Ever since Telangana split off from Andhra Pradesh in June, power cuts have increased dramatically in Telangana because Andhrah is where most of the region’s power originates. The Hindu newspaper reported that people in Telangana are facing power cuts between four to 18 hours per day. Students at MGM Government Girls High School in Nampally have taken notice– in the middle of the day there will be no light for a classroom and we can’t use computers. At night, they sometimes have to do homework by candlelight or flashlight– or not do it at all. This PSA shows how power cuts affect three students’ lives in order to shed light on this problem. The idea, filming, and editing was done almost entirely independently by this group, which is quite a feat given this is their first movie ever. Proud of their work!

This video is one of a series of three short movies that the students produced focused on spreading a message about an issue in their community. The students came up with the concepts, scripts, and shots on their own, in addition to doing all the filming and most of the editing. Given these are their first movies, I am really impressed at the outcome!

Nov, 6

Karis

Classroom News, multimedia home, Project Tracks, Reflections, TMS Fellow Updates, Videos, Watch

documentary, film, Hyderabad, India, mgm, modi, psa, second project, short movie, swachh bharat, TMS, vimeo, youth media

MGM takes on Swachh Bharat (before Modi)

One of India’s currently most talked about civic works movements is Swachh Bharat– Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign to sweep the country’s streets clean of rubbish. MGM students were a step ahead of the Prime Minister, pointing out the issues with garbage on the streets and the poor infrastructure around trash pick up before the campaign even began. With this in mind, they have created a visual letter to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) discussing their issues and complaints around garbage in the city. They also include short fiction stories about how garbage affects citizens’ lives.

These students also brought up an important detail that specifically pertains to Hyderabad: population growth and infrastructure issues that arise because of it. From 2001 to 2011, Hyderabad’s population grew 87 percent, now resting at about 8 million. This massive influx of people, mostly from rural areas searching for better opportunities, has drastically changed the city and infrastructure has not necessarily kept up. I was really impressed with these students for noticing the nuances and context of this issue. Perhaps PM Modi should take notice!

https://vimeo.com/110616634

31
Oct

Dara

Classroom News, Daily Updates, Project Tracks, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates, Videos, Watch

Happy Halloween from Hyderabad!

Back in July after my first class at Audiah Memorial High School I road the bus back home with a lump in my throat. My first day did not go so well. My entire introduction lesson that I had planned fell apart in an instant when I realized that, as a Telugu-medium school, my students understood very little English. Explanations of The Modern Story, of me, and of our classroom goals were completely lost upon them with no translator present. How was I going to generate classroom discussions? How was I going to get to know these students? How would they get to know me? How would we learn?

These worries all vanished the moment I put them in front of the camera. Some of these students are born-actors. And some are incredibly creative about experimenting with different camera angles. After doing a few photo and video scavenger hunts, I knew I wanted to give them the opportunity to write, create, and act in films that they were truly interested in, and to keep them actively working in-front of and behind the cameras as much as possible.

Last week several of my students asked if we could do a film about ghosts for our final project. They were so passionate about the idea that within one day they created a story outline and a shot list. Ultimately (with guidance from the TMS Team), I decided that we should choose a different topic for the final project. As a compromise, I came to Audiah the next day and told them that we would spend one day in production for their horror film in the spirit of Halloween. This is what we created! Enjoy! Happy Halloween!

21
Oct

Dara

Classroom News, Photo Stories, Project Tracks, TMS Fellow Updates

Audiah Memorial: “I am” Visual Poem

What are you curious about?

To me this question seems nearly too open-ended. Everyday in Hyderabad something new will peak my curiosity or make me pause in thought. Sometimes it’s cultural (Why are we putting statues of Ganesh, the elephant God, into the lake?). Sometimes it’s food related, often along the lines of “What is that?!” and “I wonder how they make chicken biryani…” No really, though. How do they make chicken biryani?

When I posed this question to students at Audiah Memorial High School, I wasn’t sure what kind of response I was expecting from them, but I certainly didn’t expect what I heard that day!

Click here to view our first photo project! In addition to their curiosities, they also explore their collective and personal identities in the form of a Visual Poem. Enjoy!

Oct, 20

Karis

Classroom News, Project Tracks, TMS Fellow Updates, Videos, Watch

classroom exchange, India, introduction, ranong, school, students, thailand, youth media

Hyderabad, India to Ranong, Thailand

October has been a bit of a “swiss cheese” month in terms of classes given a 15-day Dussehra break, Eid al-Adha, quarterly exams, and (this week) Diwali, but students have been working hard with the few classes we have been given.

My school, Seetaphalmandi, is doing a classroom exchange with my friends (and fellow Loyola alums) Nick and Kristin’s class in Ranong, Thailand. We sent them this short video about our school just before the end of September and were thrilled to get a response video about two weeks after! Here are the first two videos in our exchange, and be sure to stay tuned for more updates about Seetaphalmandi Government High School and Anuban Ranong School!

Aug, 18

Rachel

Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

Andhra Pradesh, bombay, Hyderabad, India, Mumbai, The Modern Story Fellowship

The Moving Bus

Getting around in Hyderabad is always an adventure. From crossing 8 lanes of full-speed traffic to colliding with a motorbike during a late-night auto rickshaw ride, getting from point A to point B often includes moments of mingled terror and excitement. The bus, our most frequently-used form of transportation, is by far the most unpredictable. Sometimes it’s so crowded that you miss your stop because you can’t squeeze your way out. Sometimes a fight breaks out because a man refuses to give up his seat in the section of the bus reserved for women. And very often, people jump into the open doors of moving buses. Recently, I decided to mimic this last behavior. I was headed to class, almost but not quite at the bus stop when I saw the 8A, my ride to school, begin to pull away. In the few seconds of sprinting to close the distance between us, I psyched myself up to do something I had seen so many others before me accomplish. I leapt onto the bus, just barely making it onto the step. My body slammed against the side of the bus and I gripped the railing for dear life. When I finally managed to pull myself inside, I was met with a mix of shocked, confused and concerned faces. But along with a wave of embarrassment and a badly bruised leg came another important lesson about life in India: things won’t always stop for you. Sometimes you just have to jump in.

This is definitely a lesson I’ve had to put into practice in the classroom. Holidays and a collection of unexpected hurdles have made working on schedule for our first project a challenge. But time doesn’t stop to give me another 20 minutes to talk about point of view or another week to get to know my students before I ask them to photograph their hopes, worries and desires. As a class, we’ve had to jump onto this bus already in motion. But unlike the gasps, chuckles, and stares that greeted me on the 8A, our big jump has produced two projects I can’t wait to share, and a level of trust between myself and the students I could not have imagined to find so early.

This new ease with jumping carried beautifully into our plans for this past weekend. The majority of my travel experiences have taken months of planning and preparation. But in this life of objects already in motion, deciding on Sunday to go to Mumbai on Wednesday seemed perfectly reasonable. And though the overnight bus did stop to allow me, Karis and Dara to climb on safely, the experience still required a leap. The decision to jump is always rewarded, whether by a weekend full of memories, a productive and supportive classroom, or a fun story and battle scar. In all cases, I’m glad I managed to coax my feet off the ground.

Aug, 7

Nandini

Classroom News, TMS Fellow Updates

Entering Pre-Production

The previous week in Hyderabad was a humid, hazy one, punctuated with rain. At our apartment, we’ve grown accustomed to planning around the power cut cycle, with regular 2-hour outages in the morning and just after noon. What we can’t always anticipate is the furtive nighttime outage, which leaves us in darkness save for the light of our laptops, until those run out of battery as well. We have ~~not yet invested in~~ recently purchased candles. For me, after the initial frustration at losing our internet connection (!), I began to enjoy the momentary pause that being cut off from technology provided. It was a chance to clear my head, reflect, and remember the value of stillness in preparing yourself for action.

In many schools, we began work on our photo stories – the first major project, marking completion of Unit 1 in the TMS curriculum. Students in different classrooms are gearing up to tell stories about friendship, family, school, and the different states of India, among other topics. It was exciting to see students’ progression as they worked through the pre-production phase of their projects. After some action-packed, hands-on classes where they learned about and practiced their photography skills, we were now asking them pause from using technology and use the time to think and plan.

For some of our classes, the process of writing scripts and storyboarding were new concepts. It took some time for students to wrap their heads around what we were asking them to do, on top of the responsibility we were putting into their hands, in place of equipment. Still, their creative energy was in full-force and there was a palpable thrill in the air as ideas started coming together. Mental work spurs a new sort of dynamism, but it is hard, time-consuming, sometimes plodding. Although we impressed upon the students the importance of planning for the production stage, we also had to trust that they might not fully understand that lesson until they get there. In that way, the first project truly represents a landmark, not only for what students can create, but also to help them reflect on what they have learned along the way.

Jul, 20

Rachel

Classroom News, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

#dal, #first day, #food, #hill street, #west marredpally

The One and a Half Burner Cook

I love to cook. In college when I moved off campus into my first apartment, complete with four burners and a nice sized oven, I blossomed. So when I read that TMS fellows often cook for themselves I thought, “No problem.” Arriving in Hyderabad, however, my confidence deflated. In place of four burners and an oven, I have two burners, one of them less than consistent in its functioning, with an intimidatingly complex lighting system that feels vaguely like setting off a bomb. Needless to say, we spent our first few days here living off Maggi Noodles (the Indian equivalent of Ramen) and toast. But finally, once we got a little more settled in, we set out to make dal, a staple Indian dish of lentils and spices. Though far from perfect, our first real meal sent a message. In the sizzling of garlic and ginger, in the high-pitched whistle of the pressure cooker, I heard the words, “You can do this.” From there, I bookmarked a list of recipes to try out and quickly became what Karis has coined The One and a Half Burner Cook. After learning to work with the appliances and ingredients available to me, I can say I’ve made some things I’m genuinely proud of.

Stepping into my classrooms on the first day felt a lot like my first time stepping into the kitchen. At West Marredpally, I found out about two thirds of the way into class that the majority of the girls there had gone through the TMS program last year. So I’ll be starting over with an entirely new group of students this week. And when I showed up for my first day at Hill Street, fresh off the West Marredpally confusion and ready for something to go right, I was notified that the class time we had agreed upon would no longer work. After 45 minutes of discussion and compromise, however, we reached a consensus that the original time would work after all. So I used the remaining time to teach a very compressed and somewhat frazzled version of the lesson I had prepared. No four burners here. No nice sized oven. Just like in the kitchen, I’m learning in the classroom to make the most of what’s available to me. I’m sure somewhere in the clap of the chalk eraser, or a student’s voice calling “teacher,” I’ll hear those same words, “You can do this.” And just like the garlic butter pasta, spiced cauliflower, masala potatoes, and turmeric chicken pictured in this entry, I’m sure West Marredpally and Hill Street will end up with creations the students and I can all be proud of.

Jul, 13

Dara

Daily Updates, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

The Beginning

This week met the first of many milestones. First, was the end of our training period. Piya and Remy took us out for an outrageously delicious Farewell-and-You-Survived-Training Dinner and then dropped us off at our apartment where we said our goodbyes. The Fellows all agreed that the feeling reminded us of when our parents dropped us off at university for the first time. We were, somehow, on our own.

The beginning of the week was spent rickshawing acrossed Hyderabad to visit our schools. We survived our first week in India, and now we were to begin our navigation into the government school system, and into teaching. Each of us had to meet with our respective headmasters and teaching assistants, and also to finalize the class schedule.

By Wednesday all of our schedules for the next six months had been finalized. Between the four Fellows, we each have two schools where we will be teaching. Additionally, all of us are teaming up with one other Fellow to teach at The Railway Girls School.

This marked another important milestone; our first class. Rachel and I were paired up to teach at Railway, and spent all of Wednesday scripting our lesson plan for our first class on Thursday. We spent a lot of time thinking about important teachers in our life. What makes a good teacher? Which activities will be the most effective? How can we create a classroom environment that is fun and welcoming, but also one that will create equal learning opportunities for all students? How can we be liked, but respected?

Luckily, the Railway girls were welcoming, attentive, and ready to learn. We spent the first two days of class doing icebreakers, learning names, and preparing to dive deeper into the art of digital storytelling. The girls were just as excited as we were, and I can tell that we are going to have a great semester with them! Here are two pictures that we took to commemorate the first day of class!

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