When I proposed the idea of doing a fiction film to the students of Bansilalpet High School, they were unanimously excited to begin screen writing, story-boarding, and preparing for their parts in the movie.
We chose to do a crime show to further utilize and explore the problems of pollution in Hyderabad. They were very familiar with the crime show trope, and were eager to play the roles of police officers, criminals, and victims, especially in the context of very real problems in their communities.
This project began with the question: “What is a problem in your community?” We discussed noise pollution, water pollution, drinking and smoking, and lack of jobs. Then we decided to look at the ones that were most common. Everyone in the class agreed that plastic pollution was the most rampant problem where they lived, and that the lack of dust bins (trash cans) and awareness were large contributing factors to this issue.
The students wanted to create this short crime piece to raise more awareness about plastic pollution.
Stay tuned for the third project, where they show and explain how to recycling your plastics into useful everyday items!
This year, for the first time ever, TMS teamed up with Teach for India to expand TMS curriculum into three more schools in Hyderabad.
The partnership between TMS and TFI paired a TMS fellow with a TFI teacher for six weeks. Together, the TMS and TFI fellows co-created curriculum, brainstormed story ideas — essentially doing a mini TMS workshop in a new school.
One of TMS’ perpetual goals is to make our work sustainable. That happens by training local teachers in digital skills. Previously that has mostly come through a day of training with Adobe Youth Voices, where we invite teachers from our school to learn a bit more about digital storytelling techniques. The TFI partnership was an opportunity to go a bit deeper with training local teachers, but also the chance for TMS fellows to learn classroom management and teaching techniques from TFI fellows.
TFI is big on project based, creative learning which is something TMS strives for in its own classrooms, so already we were on the same page with our fellow teachers. From there, each partnership did things a little bit differently. Some of us aligned our projects with ongoing curriculum in their classrooms (such as a project on mosquito borne diseases), while some of us focused on bringing TMS-type projects to students who wouldn’t have usually gotten to make movies or take photos.
Overall, it was great to meet more local teachers, work in a new school, and partner with a new organization. Check back as we post the projects from our TFI/TMS partnership.
Government High School Afzalgunj is located in Puranapul locality of Hyderabad, south of the the River Musi and not too far from the High Court for the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (as declared by fresh signage outside the Court, following the creation of India’s newest state). Purana Pul means “old bridge” in Hindi and Urdu. The locality is in the older part of the city and the bridge you cross to reach it was the first to be built in Hyderabad city, back in 1578.
The school itself is tucked away in a small residential colony. To reach it, you pass under an arch and past a temple dedicated to Goddess Durga. Initially, I confused the sound of temple bells with the school bell, that’s how close it is. I’ve been told that the community surrounding the school is economically-deprived; teachers often refer to it as a slum. Like children in all the schools we work in, many of the students face challenges in their lives and must work hard both in school and outside of it. GHS Afzalgunj is a small school and one truly gets the sense of family when you spend time within its walls. It is clear that the teachers care deeply for their students and the students love their school. No surprise then, that for their first project, the 9th class students were eager to highlight their school in this photo essay about different aspects of their school lives.
For their first project, Railway Girls High School is proud to present a photo essay exploring unique cultural aspects of 3 states where students have roots and family. Not only did they cover geographic breadth in highlighting the states of Telangana, Maharashtra, and Bengal – located in the south, west, and east of the country – but students also showcased diverse topics, from food and dance, to language and history. They worked incredibly hard on this project, taking full ownership of developing their ideas, scripting, photography, recording sound effects, and also creating props. This video even features mini-animations and a student’s rendition of a popular Telugu revolutionary song! From the outset, the project was an ambitious one, but Railway’s 8th class girls certainly proved that they were more than up for the challenge.
Just wait till you see what they’ve been working on for their second project… coming soon!
It’s long overdue on this blog, but with our second project in the final stages of post-production, I wanted to make sure that everyone had first been properly introduced to the 9th class at Aliya, Government Model High School for Boys. What better way than through this beautiful mixed-media visual poem about the places, people, objects, stories, and traditions that have shaped them, both as individuals and as a class. For their first project, students began by writing individual poems using a template adapted from the original George Ella Lyon poem, “Where I’m From.” While this is no simple task in one’s second or third language, and students may have initially struggled a bit with the sentence structure, they eventually brought out some true gems. After selecting their favourite lines and recording themselves reading these out loud, they added visual components to their poem using photography, clay modeling, and illustrations. So, from the smell of biscuits, from believing in yourself, and from studying hard to grow in life… please meet the creative and intelligent boys of GMHS Aliya.
Last Monday morning while I was setting up for my morning class at Bansilalpet, a student came up to me, grabbed my wrist, and tied a red ribbon around it.
“Happy Friendship Day, teacher!” she said.
I looked around and all of the students had red ribbons tied around their wrists. The ribbons had white letters that said things like “My Special Friend”, “My Best Friend”, and “Happy Friendship Day”. Some students had different colored bands, some only had a few, and some had so many that they filled both wrists nearly to their elbows.
Friendship Day is a popular holiday in India which takes place on the first Sunday of August. One of my teaching assistants, Gita, told me that within the past three years the holiday has become increasingly more popular, especially within junior high and high schools.
“It’s a really cute holiday that the children get excited about,” she said. “But I think it is an important day too. It promotes peace and understanding, caring and sharing.”
I wasn’t surprised that friendship was an important theme in many of my students’ lives. Two of the four schools that I teach at, Bansilalpet and Railway Girls, both decided to center their first big project, a photo story, around friendship. Each school has spent the last two weeks exploring the notion of friendship. What is a friend? How can you be a good friend? Why is friendship important?
It made me reflect on the role of friendship in my own life. Bouncing around from place to place, it can be difficult sometimes to make and keep friends. But already in Hyderabad I feel like I am falling into a really supportive and fun community. I have had an amazing month and am excited to continue learning about the city and meeting new wonderful and exciting people.
I continue to be startled by the distinct personality of each school and how quickly they evolve – like new friends, who for every interaction open your eyes to surprises. As the girls get more comfortable in class, we have witnessed the breakout of closet poets, the soft voice of silent activists beginning to sound, and a humbling confrontation with the limits of our communication which force us to get creative with our bridges across the cultural and linguistic divide.
I have not updated since my start of class at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Government Girls High School. I was most self-conscious to begin teaching at this school – the courtyard, shared with a number of other girls’ schools, initially felt heavy to me in a conservative discipline that left me unsure how I would be received. These was a stark contrast between the disruptive excitement that meets me upon my entrance into Sultaan Bazar, and the cautious curiosity mixed with skepticism I felt while sitting amidst the students waiting for a teacher to arrive and open the school that first day. I watch the students stand in straight-lined assembly and repeat the words of various national and cultural anthems, rising and falling to attention with the sound of a drum. When the lights of the classroom give out upon my first opening words of 9 o’clock class, I come to know that there are daily power cuts scheduled to the precise timing of my computer based class. Hyderabad gets the majority of its power from hydroelectric dams, and the low rainfall thus far this monsoon season which may necessitate lengthier power cuts jeopardizing the students’ learning environment.
I must admit, I was nervous – but this aside, and with two weeks of retrospect on this school, I can comfortably say I am most impressed with the dedication of these students to take full appreciation in their opportunity for education. It is this school that is now pushing me to be as creative in the classroom as I can, and to ensure that each lesson plan is rich in educational content deeper than the technical logistics needed to carry out our curriculum. The girls are demanding me of substance, so it was this school that motivated me to initiate a unit on human rights earlier than I had intended, and to incorporate lessons on the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. into our second week of class. I told the girls the story of Rosa Parks and segregation of the busses, and was impressed with how easily the girls could relate to this based upon the segregation of their own busses between male and female – a connection which makes an easy leap into the questions of gender equality that are made to feel taboo when you see the shyness in the girls when it is brought up. In pushing these touchy subjects and discussing civil disobedience, it is not to encourage a class of discontents but to stimulate critical thinking.
The barriers are quickly breaking down, and there was an amazing contrast between the photographs taken by the students in the second class, when cameras were introduced – as opposed to the fourth class, when they touched the camera for the second time. I was pleased to see the confidence to show action in front of the camera, and to express their own unique personalities to be captured by the eye of the lens.
Pictures from the first day of camera use, MGM:
On the first day of class, most of the photos were like this one below. As soon as in front of the camera, there was a rigidity – to the point that I had to introduce a ball to the frame to try to encourage them into activity.
Pictures from second day at MGM:
By the second time we use the camera, the girls are showing much more creativity – they are staging their own photographs, and coming up with fun ways to take pictures with each other.
In this class, the girls were asked to participate in an activity concerning the concepts of Justice, Fairness, and ‘Doing the Right Thing.’ I gave them prompts of various scenarios that serve as tests of character, and allowed the students to decide what they would do in these situations. Together in three groups, they discussed and came up with the right way to handle the situation presented to them. They then performed the scenario as a skit while other students took pictures. I have pieced together the product in the short clip below…
Finally, I will end with saying that there is as much diversity within the classroom as between them – and for every look of bewilderment is a response of striking insight. The following is a journal response written by one of the students named Neetu when prompted to write the ‘Letter to the World’ assignment. Neetu was in the Modern Story Class last year, and has joined into our class as a sort of ‘teaching assistant’ to help the new students in understanding. I do not know much about her own personal journey through the curriculum last year, but I am continually impressed by her composure and depth of attention and thought.
Dear World,
Hi. I am Neetu. Now I am in 9th Standard and I am from MGM School. My school is a little far away from my home so I have to come by bus. It is a little difficult for me to come to the school by bus, but in my life the most important thing is my education, for my education I am ready to fight with all the difficulties in life because I think education can change the world – even changing myself.
I am proud to be an Indian because the true wealth of India is the hearts of the people of India – which is very kind hearted. There is a lot of Brotherhood among the People of India, they give more importance to their culture. There are many different languages, cultures, religions, etc in India, but I think what is equal in all is the feeling of Indians that we are all Indians – there is unity in diversity in India as we all know.
India is a developing country, but it is not developed. After getting freedom so many years have passed, but still it is developing because there are some crises and social problems like child labor, child marriages, poverty, corruption, illiteracy. Still India is a developing country, but I hope that today’s children will work hard and be successful to make an India as a developed country in the whole world.
Thank you,
Neetu.
I am excited to keep you updated on our photo story projects that will be coming up soon!
In the midst of the hectic bazar crowds, beyond the yellow door that opens in upon the crisp white temple, past the stacks of paperbacks and street side printing press, and next to the man with the sugar cane stand, one can find the door to the Sultaan Bazar Girls School. At this school, I feel that my interaction with the students necessitates a breaking down of walls of ‘otherness’ I wear as a foreigner to be seen as person before romanticized celebrity. It is in these cross-cultural encounters that I recognize the breadth of learning and sharing that can take place through the Modern Story curriculum, but that also humble me to the challenges presented by engaging with a system and pedagogy unfamiliar to my Western upbringing. When I walk through the gate, all eyes of the courtyard turn to me, and I feel a bit insecure in my skin when I notice the teacher of a class being held outdoors search for the source of the spontaneous distraction. Although this attention can become burdensome in general, with these students there is something so innocent in their intrigue – so genuine in their questions to know how I got here and where I am from – and this sincerity makes me so excited to work with them towards integrating into the global dialogues available through technology and their own voices.
On the first day, the students got to class half an hour early. They have their lunch period before The Modern Story class, and it seemed as if they must have eaten as quickly as possible in order to come join me in the computer lab. I made sure they had, in fact, eaten properly before agreeing to start class fifteen minutes early. They were all sitting in a tight knit circle that had formed around my chair at the computer- wide eyed and leaving me with little choice but than to acknowledge they were ready to begin. We started class with an introduction to the curriculum, and once more with going through the rules that we expect in the Modern Story. When they were hesitant to respond to my questions, I was not sure if their nods of understanding were coming from a true grasp of my English. The teaching assistant working with me that day assured me that they did understand, but that speaking is a problem for them. I recognize that the most difficult rule to follow may be the last one we listed on the board, “I will not be afraid to speak.”
By the second day they seemed to have loosened up, and though still quiet, gave fully devoted attention to the lesson. My aim with this class was to introduce the girls to the idea of finding stories in the world around us. I am trying to use the ‘medium as my message’ as much as possible in class, so I showed them a small video I made on the stories that can be seen in the stars, and the lessons that nature teaches us all around. From this we moved on to the idea of a ‘picture says 1,000 words’ and did a free-write exercise responding to an image on the computer. The rigidity I saw in these girls when asked to be creative, the hesitation and fear they seemed to have of getting the ‘wrong answer,’ reminded me of the behavior the day before when many of them used straight edges to make sure the lines on their name cards were perfect. My desire to shake and loosen them up again beckons me to the boundaries of teacher and friend.
With that said, I am excited to get to know more about these girls throughout this six months and hope that I can facilitate their ability to speak up for themselves and believe in their power to effect change in their own lives, families, and communities.
