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First Day of School, 2007!

The Indian schools run on a June to early April calendar (April/ May are the hottest times of the year).

Our new school years starts tomorrow!

To help recruit students, the school held three events. First, we held an ice cream party (thanks to an anonymous donor for the cash for the ice cream). How happy do these kids look? They have bellies full of ice cream, yummy.

Second, a great volunteer team from the India office of multinational firm came by and spent all day in the sweating hot, hot heat with the kids. They brought a fabulous lunch, mutton biryani...score! This pre-start of school visit was a great recruiting tool, for sure.

Third, we held one of our usual rallies this morning. The teachers and kids march through all the lanes in the slum, beating a drum, shouting go to school slogans while carrying a banner for the school. It is a real deal in the slum, everyone comes out to watch.

Tomorrow, enrollment opens for the school. We already have about 40 kids lined up to enroll. This is on top of the 200 kids already enrolled from last year.

For the first two weeks, there is only fun and games, no formal instruction on material that will be subject to tests.

Here is a selection of what the teachers have planned for tomorrow with some links to our sources of inspiration.
8:30: there is a school-wide devotional and quiet meditation.
General scuffling around follows that while the teachers take attendance and get the new kids registered and settled.
9:15: the preschool starts with a "big book" reading (http://rwproject.tc.columbia.edu/about/) and the 1st standard does poetry.
10:00: 3rd class starts music and dancing class, and 1st standard learns about colors. (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/montessori/method/method.html)
11:00: the 4th class will do paintings of vegetables and fruits and the preschool will have play time with lego blocks.
Everyone breaks for lunch at 11:45.
1:00 PM: Most are doing story-time but fourth class is doing beginners yoga!
2:30 PM: The first day of school is over.

On July 1, the "real" school starts. At that time, we will be handing out school supplies and bookbags to all the kids who need them. This will be thanks to the generous donations from parents in the Hyderabad community. They will be listed and thanked on that post.

Again and again it strikes me what a privilege it is to work with these teachers and kids. I am the one getting the most out of this experience.
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