July 19, 2014
Today we visited the Muslim Orphanage in Bangalore. It was interesting to see that most of the students were female. I chose to take the safe route when dealing with students here and predominantly dealt with the male students.That might seem wrong to some but one has to remember the point of being here: observation and education for myself and those I can interact with. If cultural traditions here prevent me from doing something, I am not in a position to question the validity in the immediacy but maybe use it as a talking/learning point in my classes this coming fall.
The orphans at this school are awesome and love any attention that they receive. Many of the guys that I was sitting with had their mind blown by the Texas handshake. They seemed to enjoy getting their hand crushed by a foreigner. So, I taught them how to do it properly. When I left the class I was in, they were crushing each others' hands. I'm pretty proud of that.
On the note of education practices that I found universal, was the use of things that the students knew in order to establish a foundation in the subject learned. I also need to note that the quality of connection between students and instructor are important factors in the success of the students in buying into what the teacher is presenting.
One thing does stand out. It was the statement by one of the chemistry teachers that dealt with terminology for elements on the periodic table. There were terms that they use because of convenience and are not recognized in the international community. So, convenience vs international standards. This is like the Americans clinging to the standard measurements vs switching to metric. I also saw this as teachers teaching how they are comfortable vs trying to expand their skills and find what works for the students. Comfort in a teaching style might work for a year, or for a class but does not necessarily mean that it will translate to success for future classes or school years.ON the other side of this coin though, there is no golden bullet for education, anywhere. Just because a campus in inner city Houston or inner city New York or LA had huge success implementing a program and had results to back it up does not mean it will work on your campus. The variables involved with implementing those types of programs range from support of admin, buy in from teachers, buy in from the community at large, and buy in from students. If one of these variables is not there, your "golden bullet" just turned to lead.
Today we visited the Muslim Orphanage in Bangalore. It was interesting to see that most of the students were female. I chose to take the safe route when dealing with students here and predominantly dealt with the male students.That might seem wrong to some but one has to remember the point of being here: observation and education for myself and those I can interact with. If cultural traditions here prevent me from doing something, I am not in a position to question the validity in the immediacy but maybe use it as a talking/learning point in my classes this coming fall.
The orphans at this school are awesome and love any attention that they receive. Many of the guys that I was sitting with had their mind blown by the Texas handshake. They seemed to enjoy getting their hand crushed by a foreigner. So, I taught them how to do it properly. When I left the class I was in, they were crushing each others' hands. I'm pretty proud of that.
On the note of education practices that I found universal, was the use of things that the students knew in order to establish a foundation in the subject learned. I also need to note that the quality of connection between students and instructor are important factors in the success of the students in buying into what the teacher is presenting.
One thing does stand out. It was the statement by one of the chemistry teachers that dealt with terminology for elements on the periodic table. There were terms that they use because of convenience and are not recognized in the international community. So, convenience vs international standards. This is like the Americans clinging to the standard measurements vs switching to metric. I also saw this as teachers teaching how they are comfortable vs trying to expand their skills and find what works for the students. Comfort in a teaching style might work for a year, or for a class but does not necessarily mean that it will translate to success for future classes or school years.ON the other side of this coin though, there is no golden bullet for education, anywhere. Just because a campus in inner city Houston or inner city New York or LA had huge success implementing a program and had results to back it up does not mean it will work on your campus. The variables involved with implementing those types of programs range from support of admin, buy in from teachers, buy in from the community at large, and buy in from students. If one of these variables is not there, your "golden bullet" just turned to lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment