A year ago I met Allison in a modeling workshop for h.s. physics teachers.
She was going to work on the energy unit but her dreams came true and she
is now our "ambassador" in Nepal (a Peace Core teacher there). Several
months ago Allison was asking for help in the form of simple laboratory
components. Jane Jackson (jane.jackson@asu.edu) is probably going to be
happy to provide you with details on how to send small items to Nepal.
She already posted this information on the modeling list from which
Allison's message (see below) originated.
Ludwik Kowalski
Am I putting you on the spot Jane?
Sorry for not askin for the permission. That is why Allison's last name
and address were removed.
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[sent by regular mail about a month ago]
Namaste, everyone!
Now that you're all reassembled back in the desert, I wanted to
write and say Hi, and let you know I'm thinking of you, and share some of
my adventure with you.
I've been teaching for nearly 2 months now, and am relatively
settled into a comfortable routine. My forty 6th and 7th graders (each
class!) are a joy. They are bright and very eager and always excited about
whatever we do in class. There are so many interesting educational issues
- extreme gender gap, which is very sad - the girls are obviously neglected
and not encouraged. Their critical thinking skills & abilities in general
lag FAR behind the boys. But the interesting thing is that in every grade
1 - 10 but for 2, there are more girls than boys enrolled.
Because of the relationship-oriented nature of this culture (as
opposed to our results-oriented culture) the students find the idea of
working alone incomprehensible. Ordinarily this is no problem - we do
group work constantly. But when they take tests, it's havoc. I don't have
a problem with it really, except when a bright girl copies a wrong answer
from a friend. So I address it not by trying to prevent the collaboration
(in America, read "cheating"), or by saying "work alone." Instead I said,
"use your own mind, & if your friend's answer isn't right, don't copy it!"
I saw a little improvement from this, & they'll get better at it. The
girls especially just need lots of attention & encouragement.
The classrooms are bare brick walls, a dirt/cement floor, a bare
tin roof, & a single blackboard up front. The kids sit at benches, girls &
boys on opposite sides of the room, & seated according to their standing in
the class, i.e, the top kids are in the front row, and the slowest ones in
back. Painful. So this week I started a bench rotation system. Every 2
days we'll shift. The lst day, the front rows went to the back, & everyone
shifted up one bench. They all loved it - except those front row kids!
Too bad - they'll get used to it. It was beautiful seeing all the other
kids' faces light up at being closer to the front.
The system here (in Nepal) is very test-oriented. After 10th grade,
students can take the SLC exam, or School Learning Certificate. If they
pass, it is cause for celebration. Guess what the required score is to
pass? 32%. Yes, 32%. Sobering. Everything here is extremely
memory-oriented, almost exclusively, so I've been working on developing my
kids' experimental skills, data taking and recording & analysis, etc. They
don't have much idea at all about it, but they are learning fast & doing
well. The 6th grades have begun a seed experiment where they'll record
their seedling's height every day. So simple, but even in an agricultural
village, they love having their little cups of dirt & a seed, & making
their data chart.
The 7th grades made a star system out of clay. But first they had
to look up their planet in their book, & scale the diameter from km down to
mm, every 1000 km =3D 1 mm. They did great, & they were amazed seeing
Mercury next to Jupiter. For days they were making little planets out of
the mud on the floor. And after we studied erosion, there was a big
rainstorm so the classroom was full of mud. When I walked in, they all
pointed to the floor & exclaimed, "Buchye!" - "Erosion!" A teacher's dream
- talk about application, & kids extrapolating outside the class. I was
impressed! It's all very rewarding. The kids actually cheer for me after
each class! It's an amazing feeling.
Additionally, I've been working closely with another teacher named
Hari Shankar Shah. He is science also, especially math & physics, & we
work very well together. He loves trying out new demos, & I frequently
help him put things together & do them in class. He comes to me usually
the day before a lesson and says, "Tomorrow is Newton's second law - how
can I teach it?" Well, that particular lesson I knew immediately, of
course, so we discussed the modified Atwood lab & he loved it. But with 60
ninth graders, it would have to be a demo. Well, we went shopping in our
little town, but there was not a toy cart to be found, so we made one out
of sewing machine bobbins for wheels, bamboo for axles, & a cardboard &
masking-tape body, & in class used rocks for mass. I taught the lesson
that day & used motion maps too! It was a fantastic success. And then he
took over & explained [a is proportional to F] and [a is proportional to
1/m], & thus ... [F is proportional to ma], & F=3D ma. You would have been
impressed with his work! He knows his physics pretty well! (Should I give
him the FCI? :-) ).
My language is progressing, although too slowly for MY desires!
You think questioning skills are tough in English?! Actually, I can
usually ask the questions OK; the difficulty is when the kids answer--and I
can't understand them! Kind of hard to follow up on an incomprehensible
answer.
Life outside of school is also good. I'm living with a nice
family. Actually the father is my school's head sir, which is pretty
convenient. There are 3 kids, 11, 14, & 17, all VERY sweet & helpful &
hard working. I'm learning to cook Nepali food, which is simpler than
Indian food, but delicious. Rice, with lentil broth, & vegetables that are
saut=E9ed/simmered with spices like turmeric (always!), cumin, ginger. We
eat twice a day, essentially 12 hours apart - 9 AM & 8 or 9 PM. There's
usually a snack around 4 PM too.
Everyone here is a farmer, so on the first floor of my house are
the cows & goats. And we have a big garden. I planted carrots & tomatoes
& mint. There's also an orange tree, lemon, peach, pomegranate, & banana
tree! It's very lush & almost tropical here. If we weren't at 5000 ft. it
would be very hot, & as it is, the afternoons are humid & hot, around 80 -
85 degrees I'd say (28 - 30 C).
I am pretty well-known around the village now, & as I walk
anywhere, I am invariably greeted with a chorus of, "Namaste, Miss!" by the
kids out playing, or the adults working or lounging or chatting. In the
States when we greet someone we usually say, "How are you doing?": or
"What's up?" That kind of thing. Well here it's "Did you eat yet?"
"Where are you coming from/going to?" And there are constant invitations
to come drink tea and eat "khajaa" - a snack. One day I had 7 cups of tea
and 3 khajaas! So now I limit my socializing to one house a day! :-)
My situation is good here - we have electricity, so I can do school
work at night. I'm only a 20 minute walk from the nearest phone. (A
friend of mine had a 15 km walk to a phone!) I'm 2 hours from Kathmandu,
which is convenient for supplies (science stuff) & keeping up with e-mail.
And yet I'm living in the country, only a few tractors going by
periodically. We have our own water tap out front so I can have a little
privacy, & we just had a beautiful toilet built!
Enjoy your summer! I hope it is productive & fun-filled -- how are
the Diamondbacks? I'll be thinking of you often; let me know how things go
for you! I have to go collect some leaves now for today's lab. Take care
of yourselves, & keep in touch!
Namaste,
Allison