domingo, 28 de septiembre de 2008
thoughts
...sometimes i walk away from the blog feeling that i've been much too negative. as i try to get to know bangladesh i hope i give it an open mind, but i'm not sure that i succeed. the blog is a place to express surprise and frustration as much as everything else, i guess. i feel better after i write things, but it rings very heavy on occasion and i hope i'm not too judgmental. i apologize for what comes across that way. there are many wonderful people in bangladesh, citizens and foreigners. there are so many people working on initiatives to help out. the land itself can be very beautiful, beyond the crazy cities. the struggle of bangladesh, i'm learning, has everything to do with corruption, over-population, and geography... the problems are vast, but there is much good too - often richest in the realm of personal relationships and people's commitment to one another.
sábado, 27 de septiembre de 2008
if that sort of things bothers you
hello family and friends,
boy am i feeling lonely for you all right this instant. it's a saturday afternoon and the end of the weekend for us. like usual, the weekend has revolved around school activities like photography club and running club, and this weekend AISD is hosting a regional volleyball tournament with other international schools from around south asia (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal) - that competition is keeping the campus buzzing. the different international schools, interestingly, all have student populations that look remarkably similar: a mix of all Asia, some Africans, with a few white faces scattered through. they are a pretty competent and confident group.
i have seen two eye-opening things just recently, close by in the general area of our neighborhood. first this: when i was running with the kids last saturday we ran passed a group of 3 midget men, the shortest adults i have ever seen... the size of toddlers but walking and dressed as adults. they were doing something like a vaudeville act, dressed alike in overalls and singing circus songs in harmony, going door-to-door and getting donations. they had a decent crowd of people listening when we ran by. imagine the double-take that happened as we realized what was going on. a funny thing is that cnn covered some pictures of the world's smallest man last week which i saw, and i am absolutely certain that these guys were smaller! they seemed healthy and happy at first glance.
i don't know which sighting is the stranger one for me. today i was riding in our car down a busy road with lots of people on the sidewalks and a stark naked man, tall and seeming in full control of his mental capacities, carrying baskets of stuff on his head, walked slowly down the middle of the sidewalk. buck-naked and in no hurry. no further comment here!
truthfully, bangladesh continues to be deeply disturbing to me. it seems a story similar to that of many african countries steeped in corruption: in the 30 years of its existence no government has been self-less enough to take care of a suffering human population. that is what i see, at least. and we see the incidents of human suffering constantly, as well as many random fatal accidents caused by carelessness and lack of infrastructure. the roads are too dangerous to drive on; highway accidents are deadly and many. there is one decent hospital in the whole country (our own insurance encourages us to fly out of here for broken bones. the hospital doesn't do procedures more serious than appendectomy). there is no preventative medicine.
the sewers that line every road are uncovered: we live in a maze of raw sewage ditches. the water pollution is horrible, because this is a city of 13 million people and there is no water treatment. vegetables are grown with this water, fish are taken from the lakes and ponds that it empties into. and people get terribly ill from the water all the time. i have never had to think much about water treatment before, but i think a lot about it now. one teacher friend says, dhaka would be a hard place to live if sewage is the sort of thing that bothers you.
bangladesh has me thinking about the environment more than really i ever have... i worry that this is what an over-populated world could feel like just decades from now. i have begun to think that average people living in dhaka have never experienced clean nature - they live in a filthy world and don't know otherwise. how sad it would be if the world came to this. furthermore, i find you can't be here and not think about population control. this is what the densest place on earth feels like - and it is projected that dhaka will almost double its population in one more generation. it is enough to make me think seriously about worldwide one-child policies.
on a brighter note, i spent thursday night at the very special grand opening of a new "spa" beauty salon staffed by orphanage girls. our school has a connection to this orphanage; a Canadian organization Families for Children runs the orphanage, and our middle school fosters service-learning relationships between their kids and ours, as well as gives money. I took just a few pictures of what felt like a very successful night; the atmosphere was clean and hopeful. You'll notice in the pictures one Canadian woman who had this original vision of creating a "spa" location for the purpose of training the orphanage girls in marketable skills. She got a grant from her government to make it happen, and i hope you can see from just a quick glimpse-in how beloved she is in this orphanage community for all her commitment to the kids.
finally, Proshika was a nice place to visit. the organization is like a co-op, with centers throughout bangladesh: people live together and participate in businesses that sustain their collective livelihood. where we were, the Proshika group was running a retreat center that felt very very much like the 4H place we go to for family reunions. they get business from schools and universities and companies. they also were doing small-scale farming, the processing of honey gathered in the Sunderbans, raising orchids, and the weaving of silk fabric (not making clothes, just making fabric - very cool to see). I think that several hundred people were living and supporting themselves in a healthy way at that particular Proshika site. the kids mostly did group problem-solving games and told ghost stories and other middle school retreat-type stuff. i'm not sure how deeply they understood the workings of the place itself... and as for me! between one AISD event and the next I am slowly becoming a master facilitator of group cooperation and leadership training scenarios - ! what fun! next family reunion, babies, watch out :)
boy am i feeling lonely for you all right this instant. it's a saturday afternoon and the end of the weekend for us. like usual, the weekend has revolved around school activities like photography club and running club, and this weekend AISD is hosting a regional volleyball tournament with other international schools from around south asia (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal) - that competition is keeping the campus buzzing. the different international schools, interestingly, all have student populations that look remarkably similar: a mix of all Asia, some Africans, with a few white faces scattered through. they are a pretty competent and confident group.
i have seen two eye-opening things just recently, close by in the general area of our neighborhood. first this: when i was running with the kids last saturday we ran passed a group of 3 midget men, the shortest adults i have ever seen... the size of toddlers but walking and dressed as adults. they were doing something like a vaudeville act, dressed alike in overalls and singing circus songs in harmony, going door-to-door and getting donations. they had a decent crowd of people listening when we ran by. imagine the double-take that happened as we realized what was going on. a funny thing is that cnn covered some pictures of the world's smallest man last week which i saw, and i am absolutely certain that these guys were smaller! they seemed healthy and happy at first glance.
i don't know which sighting is the stranger one for me. today i was riding in our car down a busy road with lots of people on the sidewalks and a stark naked man, tall and seeming in full control of his mental capacities, carrying baskets of stuff on his head, walked slowly down the middle of the sidewalk. buck-naked and in no hurry. no further comment here!
truthfully, bangladesh continues to be deeply disturbing to me. it seems a story similar to that of many african countries steeped in corruption: in the 30 years of its existence no government has been self-less enough to take care of a suffering human population. that is what i see, at least. and we see the incidents of human suffering constantly, as well as many random fatal accidents caused by carelessness and lack of infrastructure. the roads are too dangerous to drive on; highway accidents are deadly and many. there is one decent hospital in the whole country (our own insurance encourages us to fly out of here for broken bones. the hospital doesn't do procedures more serious than appendectomy). there is no preventative medicine.
the sewers that line every road are uncovered: we live in a maze of raw sewage ditches. the water pollution is horrible, because this is a city of 13 million people and there is no water treatment. vegetables are grown with this water, fish are taken from the lakes and ponds that it empties into. and people get terribly ill from the water all the time. i have never had to think much about water treatment before, but i think a lot about it now. one teacher friend says, dhaka would be a hard place to live if sewage is the sort of thing that bothers you.
bangladesh has me thinking about the environment more than really i ever have... i worry that this is what an over-populated world could feel like just decades from now. i have begun to think that average people living in dhaka have never experienced clean nature - they live in a filthy world and don't know otherwise. how sad it would be if the world came to this. furthermore, i find you can't be here and not think about population control. this is what the densest place on earth feels like - and it is projected that dhaka will almost double its population in one more generation. it is enough to make me think seriously about worldwide one-child policies.
on a brighter note, i spent thursday night at the very special grand opening of a new "spa" beauty salon staffed by orphanage girls. our school has a connection to this orphanage; a Canadian organization Families for Children runs the orphanage, and our middle school fosters service-learning relationships between their kids and ours, as well as gives money. I took just a few pictures of what felt like a very successful night; the atmosphere was clean and hopeful. You'll notice in the pictures one Canadian woman who had this original vision of creating a "spa" location for the purpose of training the orphanage girls in marketable skills. She got a grant from her government to make it happen, and i hope you can see from just a quick glimpse-in how beloved she is in this orphanage community for all her commitment to the kids.
finally, Proshika was a nice place to visit. the organization is like a co-op, with centers throughout bangladesh: people live together and participate in businesses that sustain their collective livelihood. where we were, the Proshika group was running a retreat center that felt very very much like the 4H place we go to for family reunions. they get business from schools and universities and companies. they also were doing small-scale farming, the processing of honey gathered in the Sunderbans, raising orchids, and the weaving of silk fabric (not making clothes, just making fabric - very cool to see). I think that several hundred people were living and supporting themselves in a healthy way at that particular Proshika site. the kids mostly did group problem-solving games and told ghost stories and other middle school retreat-type stuff. i'm not sure how deeply they understood the workings of the place itself... and as for me! between one AISD event and the next I am slowly becoming a master facilitator of group cooperation and leadership training scenarios - ! what fun! next family reunion, babies, watch out :)
martes, 23 de septiembre de 2008
Scenes from India
Hello! This set of pictures is soooo good. Dave shared this link with me today and here are some of the best South Asia photos I think I've seen. Also, there are some shots of The Sunderbands (land of Bengal tigers), where with a little luck I might get to visit in October...
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/scenes_from_india.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/scenes_from_india.html
UN and global poverty article
A Measure of Hope
By PAUL COLLIER
The United Nations is falling short on helping the poorest countries converge with the rest of mankind.
NYTimes Article
By PAUL COLLIER
The United Nations is falling short on helping the poorest countries converge with the rest of mankind.
NYTimes Article
sábado, 20 de septiembre de 2008
miércoles, 17 de septiembre de 2008
photographers here -
some photographers hanging out here in bangladesh are having an exhibit this weekend at the british embassy. here is a link to some of their photos, which are really nice!
photos of bangladesh
photos of bangladesh
martes, 16 de septiembre de 2008
8th grade retreat
on thursday the 8th grade, for which i am an enthusiastic advisor, is going to Proshika for an overnight retreat. i'm hoping to learn much more about place/organization while we're there. it's about 2 hours NW of Dhaka. i love what i know so far. here's a website! www.proshika.org
school, the latest
hello! the second post of the night, i think i'm too wiped-out to do much more than sit and meditate on the last week gone by - which has been all school, all the time. there haven't been any free hours to go get my hands dirty and my head confused in thoughts of bigger bangladesh this week.
so! this school has regular professional development workshops. for two solid days each semester the students are kicked out and the teachers take their place, while expert educators from somewhere are flown in to teach us. then, after the two days, you have the option of extending your time in the workshop for 6 more days with the benefit of earning 3 credits toward a master's degree or doctorate - hosted by SUNY Buffalo. the real selling point is this: school pays for it! and they (mr. Plotkin, our great superintendent) agreed to pay for the interns to take the course too. and so for the last full week i've been sitting in some long days of class. since sunday we've been teaching normal school hours and then going to class right after the last bell rings. the classes are generally taught by accomplished people in the field of education. this time around, Bill Powell and Ochan Kosuma-Powell came in to teach a course on Differentiation (which is the broad idea of teaching to meet the readiness levels and interests/aptitudes of diverse learners in a given classroom). These two are a husband-wife team, and they are the leading experts education in international schools. The U.S. state department buys their materials for all the embassy schools worldwide, and so on. They have been AWESOME in presenting an intensive and worthwhile course for us. It has been a hyper-interactive recap of my two years of ed school in just one week's time. I've got one more day to go, and I'm coming out of this class feeling very centered in good education practices. These paid-for courses are another way that the international school community takes good care of its teachers. And it obviously makes for a very professional faculty team; many of our teachers are very progressive and really do teach according to best-researched practices. Most all faculty members at AISD have their master's degree and are working on a second one or on their doctorate - slowly over time, and on the school's wallet.
It just so happens that UVA and the Curry School are the biggest experts on differentiation out there today, and that is the flat truth of it. UVA has Professor Carole Anne Tomlinson, who is the big, big name researching and teaching on the subject. Articles by Carole Anne have been a big chunk of our reading material for the course this week. And yes it feels too cool to be identified with UVA when all these teachers are hanging out in Bangladesh and reading Carole Anne's stuff.
But even more cool happened 3 days ago, when we watched a video of a model "differentiated" high school classroom in action, and the classroom out of Charlottesville High School in the last year. Holy cow. In fact, we watched a 45-minute video on one of my colleagues from student teaching last fall, 9th grade history teacher Chad Prather (who is also a Curry grad!). He's doing amazing things, with a big initiative to collapse readiness-level tracking in the 9th-grade. For those of you familiar with CHS, you know there are big racial and economic divides among the student population, which translates to a stark divide in the student body as it is tracked into high and low. Chad has done something big to bring them closer together. I have substitute-taught for him, and I knew a bunch of the kids in the video. So, sitting in Dhaka, I was just beaming - I couldn't help it - it was really cool to see this. I'm starting to wonder if CHS might need some good new teachers to help implement their program at a broader scale, say, next year.... I'm sure that many US public schools are needing similar efforts.
I know, when I finally sit down to type it all comes out in such massive quantities. But this blogging, articulating, actually feels so good sometimes.
There's a lot to learn here, because what I was saying early on has proven to be true: AISD is a best-practice school. In the middle school they are not teaching to any tests, but rather teaching though big global understandings, student reflection, aligned assessments, authentic and project-based learning, social and emotional learning, and lots of other ed-school techniques that work well with emerging brain science about learning. I like what I'm seeing in the middle school: big engaging projects that stress essential skills and organization... I keep thinking of how this sort of teaching is very appropriate for the struggling kids I was working with at CHS last fall, who had such poor school skills. This kind of teaching would engage them in important questions and critical thinking, but give non-traditional ways of interacting with the material - it's a much less conventional, more creative, and more applied approach than much of what I've seen out there. So, like I was saying earlier, I'm looking forward to putting all these ideas into action next year.
And in the mean time, to sum up this long blog post, and to encourage you all who made it to the end of this if there are any such patient souls, i have this advice:
you guys should know that 7th grade is the most awkward, out of place year in anyone's life and if you're ever finding yourself feeling down then just remember that at least you are not a 7th grader, who it's hard for even the most open-hearted intern teacher to love for a sustained 90-minute period.
so! this school has regular professional development workshops. for two solid days each semester the students are kicked out and the teachers take their place, while expert educators from somewhere are flown in to teach us. then, after the two days, you have the option of extending your time in the workshop for 6 more days with the benefit of earning 3 credits toward a master's degree or doctorate - hosted by SUNY Buffalo. the real selling point is this: school pays for it! and they (mr. Plotkin, our great superintendent) agreed to pay for the interns to take the course too. and so for the last full week i've been sitting in some long days of class. since sunday we've been teaching normal school hours and then going to class right after the last bell rings. the classes are generally taught by accomplished people in the field of education. this time around, Bill Powell and Ochan Kosuma-Powell came in to teach a course on Differentiation (which is the broad idea of teaching to meet the readiness levels and interests/aptitudes of diverse learners in a given classroom). These two are a husband-wife team, and they are the leading experts education in international schools. The U.S. state department buys their materials for all the embassy schools worldwide, and so on. They have been AWESOME in presenting an intensive and worthwhile course for us. It has been a hyper-interactive recap of my two years of ed school in just one week's time. I've got one more day to go, and I'm coming out of this class feeling very centered in good education practices. These paid-for courses are another way that the international school community takes good care of its teachers. And it obviously makes for a very professional faculty team; many of our teachers are very progressive and really do teach according to best-researched practices. Most all faculty members at AISD have their master's degree and are working on a second one or on their doctorate - slowly over time, and on the school's wallet.
It just so happens that UVA and the Curry School are the biggest experts on differentiation out there today, and that is the flat truth of it. UVA has Professor Carole Anne Tomlinson, who is the big, big name researching and teaching on the subject. Articles by Carole Anne have been a big chunk of our reading material for the course this week. And yes it feels too cool to be identified with UVA when all these teachers are hanging out in Bangladesh and reading Carole Anne's stuff.
But even more cool happened 3 days ago, when we watched a video of a model "differentiated" high school classroom in action, and the classroom out of Charlottesville High School in the last year. Holy cow. In fact, we watched a 45-minute video on one of my colleagues from student teaching last fall, 9th grade history teacher Chad Prather (who is also a Curry grad!). He's doing amazing things, with a big initiative to collapse readiness-level tracking in the 9th-grade. For those of you familiar with CHS, you know there are big racial and economic divides among the student population, which translates to a stark divide in the student body as it is tracked into high and low. Chad has done something big to bring them closer together. I have substitute-taught for him, and I knew a bunch of the kids in the video. So, sitting in Dhaka, I was just beaming - I couldn't help it - it was really cool to see this. I'm starting to wonder if CHS might need some good new teachers to help implement their program at a broader scale, say, next year.... I'm sure that many US public schools are needing similar efforts.
I know, when I finally sit down to type it all comes out in such massive quantities. But this blogging, articulating, actually feels so good sometimes.
There's a lot to learn here, because what I was saying early on has proven to be true: AISD is a best-practice school. In the middle school they are not teaching to any tests, but rather teaching though big global understandings, student reflection, aligned assessments, authentic and project-based learning, social and emotional learning, and lots of other ed-school techniques that work well with emerging brain science about learning. I like what I'm seeing in the middle school: big engaging projects that stress essential skills and organization... I keep thinking of how this sort of teaching is very appropriate for the struggling kids I was working with at CHS last fall, who had such poor school skills. This kind of teaching would engage them in important questions and critical thinking, but give non-traditional ways of interacting with the material - it's a much less conventional, more creative, and more applied approach than much of what I've seen out there. So, like I was saying earlier, I'm looking forward to putting all these ideas into action next year.
And in the mean time, to sum up this long blog post, and to encourage you all who made it to the end of this if there are any such patient souls, i have this advice:
you guys should know that 7th grade is the most awkward, out of place year in anyone's life and if you're ever finding yourself feeling down then just remember that at least you are not a 7th grader, who it's hard for even the most open-hearted intern teacher to love for a sustained 90-minute period.
funny thing
hi! i haven't posted in quite a while, things have been kinda wild here. this'll be quick, but it's funny to think on...
you know i've been so excited about the middle schoolers in photography club, right? i thought we would take pictures for this magazine... and we had such a great lesson on mary ellen mark last week, and on photo composition basics too. and then i gave them an assignment that i thought could have some cool results: to try to compose good pictures within the confines of their kitchen. they had to email me their top 3 shots.
and i've been so excited to get the photos. and oh yes i've been receiving them. ....and oh yes, these are the "most challenged" (middle school speech) pictures you have ever seen. they are the fuzziest, most lacking-in-composition you could really imagine anyone taking while stuck in a kitchen. pictures of your empty dining room table, from a good 8-feet away. a cabinet. a counter-top with nothing on it. there are no colors, no shapes, no people in their pics -
agh! i wasn't expecting things to be so grim!! i wish i could show you - these photos would make you smile, they are so strangely bad. and they keep showing up in my inbox, one submission even less focused - so to speak - than the next. the bright side, dave reminds me, is there is A LOT to be taught and learned.
you know i've been so excited about the middle schoolers in photography club, right? i thought we would take pictures for this magazine... and we had such a great lesson on mary ellen mark last week, and on photo composition basics too. and then i gave them an assignment that i thought could have some cool results: to try to compose good pictures within the confines of their kitchen. they had to email me their top 3 shots.
and i've been so excited to get the photos. and oh yes i've been receiving them. ....and oh yes, these are the "most challenged" (middle school speech) pictures you have ever seen. they are the fuzziest, most lacking-in-composition you could really imagine anyone taking while stuck in a kitchen. pictures of your empty dining room table, from a good 8-feet away. a cabinet. a counter-top with nothing on it. there are no colors, no shapes, no people in their pics -
agh! i wasn't expecting things to be so grim!! i wish i could show you - these photos would make you smile, they are so strangely bad. and they keep showing up in my inbox, one submission even less focused - so to speak - than the next. the bright side, dave reminds me, is there is A LOT to be taught and learned.
viernes, 12 de septiembre de 2008
domingo, 7 de septiembre de 2008
processing
my house in dhaka is in the most peaceful neighborhood in this city, and still it is a dirty place full of beggars - mothers with babies, loiterers, primitive-style construction projects and the smell of raw sewage all around us all the time. the walk between house and school, cool haven to cool haven, feels absurd almost every day. twelve streets behind my house you cross through a gate to go outside the 'diplomatic enclave' into something much poorer. today i took a short walk there and i'm sure i saw a man dying in the gravels on the side of the road while we all world walked by him. a metaphor hit me. i got hit by a rickshaw today. i had a scarf on and looked like anyone else from behind, and a rickshaw ran right into me from the back with its big back wheels. it didn't hurt at all, though it gave me a good knock off my feet. it shocked me and the driver too though he looked more stressed than worried.
i have developed a way of moving around town that is very uncharacteristic of me. i've learned to stare with glazed eyes straight ahead and not to look directly at anyone, in general. i don't answer to constant calls for rickshaws or bakshish/change. i try not to let the children in the city touch me, though they want to, because they look sick sometimes and dirty always. i have often walked the quarter mile home from school with a rickshaw driver pedaling right beside me slowly, as close as possible, hoping i will change my mind and get in. we might be the only two people for 100 meters, me and my rickshaw buddy who says nothing much but rings his bell over and over at my ear.
last thursday i held the first photo club meeting, and showed the photographer of the day mary ellen mark. she photographed mother theresa in her mission in calcutta. i showed the kids these pictures, and realized that the images are familiar to any child growing up in bangladesh - even expat kids. the streets sometimes look like the pictures of the mission.
www.maryellenmark.com click "books" and see 'mother theresa's mission'
note to self and everyone that cindy mccain raised a child she adopted from mother theresa's orphanage here in dhaka in the 90s.
i'm not yet sure how to come to terms with dhaka.
in the mean time, the international teaching circuit is seductive. jimmy and beckly and i talk about this as we begin to see the big picture of the international education community; the way that couples hop around the world making good money, living for free, having maids and drivers and cooks and aiyahs take care of their at-home basics while they play tennis and golf at the expat clubs. actually i really am not hating on these teachers; they have made some neat career and life decisions:
in the states teachers are paid below their worth and given hard workloads and sometimes frightening student performance requirements. the international schools are private schools funded by governments and corporations who pay to send their employees children to good schools abroad. these schools serve a talented and worldly group of kids and their parents. the school facilities are veritable community centers, with open gyms and swimming pools and soccer fields and community education classes in any hobby you might want to explore on the weekends. these schools gave birth to the IB program. and so on...
there is a nice family who came from Houston to join the AISD team this year. the wife Karly is a kindergarten teacher, the husband Mike a high school special needs teacher and a football coach. they are a mixed race couple with two smart and nice boys around age 5 and 8. the parents in this family were burned by years of public school teaching in Houston. they say the schools were terrible places. in fact they paid to send Mike's older sons from an earlier marriage to private high school there. they wanted an option for their younger kids that would give them strong education basics in the early grades and not require them to pay private school prices for years to come. so someone told them about international teaching and they really thought hard about it. two people who hadn't traveled before picked up their family and moved to bangladesh:
at AISD Karly and Mike make significantly more than your average public school teachers at home, and their housing is paid for (like all of us), and they can easily afford a cook and nanny, and their two sons get to attend school for free (...you guys have gathered that this is a REALLY good school). they are going to save a lot of money these next years; people do that here.
some of the teachers have a goal to see the world. some of the teachers have a goal to make a living. mostly there are people doing as much as they can of both.
i have developed a way of moving around town that is very uncharacteristic of me. i've learned to stare with glazed eyes straight ahead and not to look directly at anyone, in general. i don't answer to constant calls for rickshaws or bakshish/change. i try not to let the children in the city touch me, though they want to, because they look sick sometimes and dirty always. i have often walked the quarter mile home from school with a rickshaw driver pedaling right beside me slowly, as close as possible, hoping i will change my mind and get in. we might be the only two people for 100 meters, me and my rickshaw buddy who says nothing much but rings his bell over and over at my ear.
last thursday i held the first photo club meeting, and showed the photographer of the day mary ellen mark. she photographed mother theresa in her mission in calcutta. i showed the kids these pictures, and realized that the images are familiar to any child growing up in bangladesh - even expat kids. the streets sometimes look like the pictures of the mission.
www.maryellenmark.com click "books" and see 'mother theresa's mission'
note to self and everyone that cindy mccain raised a child she adopted from mother theresa's orphanage here in dhaka in the 90s.
i'm not yet sure how to come to terms with dhaka.
in the mean time, the international teaching circuit is seductive. jimmy and beckly and i talk about this as we begin to see the big picture of the international education community; the way that couples hop around the world making good money, living for free, having maids and drivers and cooks and aiyahs take care of their at-home basics while they play tennis and golf at the expat clubs. actually i really am not hating on these teachers; they have made some neat career and life decisions:
in the states teachers are paid below their worth and given hard workloads and sometimes frightening student performance requirements. the international schools are private schools funded by governments and corporations who pay to send their employees children to good schools abroad. these schools serve a talented and worldly group of kids and their parents. the school facilities are veritable community centers, with open gyms and swimming pools and soccer fields and community education classes in any hobby you might want to explore on the weekends. these schools gave birth to the IB program. and so on...
there is a nice family who came from Houston to join the AISD team this year. the wife Karly is a kindergarten teacher, the husband Mike a high school special needs teacher and a football coach. they are a mixed race couple with two smart and nice boys around age 5 and 8. the parents in this family were burned by years of public school teaching in Houston. they say the schools were terrible places. in fact they paid to send Mike's older sons from an earlier marriage to private high school there. they wanted an option for their younger kids that would give them strong education basics in the early grades and not require them to pay private school prices for years to come. so someone told them about international teaching and they really thought hard about it. two people who hadn't traveled before picked up their family and moved to bangladesh:
at AISD Karly and Mike make significantly more than your average public school teachers at home, and their housing is paid for (like all of us), and they can easily afford a cook and nanny, and their two sons get to attend school for free (...you guys have gathered that this is a REALLY good school). they are going to save a lot of money these next years; people do that here.
some of the teachers have a goal to see the world. some of the teachers have a goal to make a living. mostly there are people doing as much as they can of both.
"what your global beighbors are buying"
the nytimes came out with this cool graphic this weekend and ive enjoyed checking it out. kids also love stuff like this in their social studies classes...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/business/20080907-metrics-graphic.html?th&emc=th
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/business/20080907-metrics-graphic.html?th&emc=th
jueves, 4 de septiembre de 2008
bengali food
you've gotta check this out!
http://www.worldcook.net/Cooking/WorldRecipes/Bangladesh-recipes.htm
for me my favorite thing here is dahl - which is yellow lentil soup usually served with rice. i've got to say, it tastes so good and so healthy. it's a great substitute for black beans and rice - just as good??? it's really good.
we've eaten lots of roti/chapati, and i like these grilled breads. hilsa fish is good; it's dry and also grilled. the chutneys are mouth-watering, whether sweet or spicey. rasmalal is sweet and simple, nice for dessert.
we've tried chicken khubani, samosas, and several biryanis too. a lot of the food that i thought i'd like - the curries and 'gravies' are just too oily for me - and these dishes are everywhere. but as long as the fruits are around all the time i'll do just fine here.
tomorrow night the roommates and i are invited to join mr. sinha for dinner and i think we may try iftar food. mr. sinha, so nice, told me on the phone today to come hungry.
if you guys try a recipe let me know how it goes!
missing you all
http://www.worldcook.net/Cooking/WorldRecipes/Bangladesh-recipes.htm
for me my favorite thing here is dahl - which is yellow lentil soup usually served with rice. i've got to say, it tastes so good and so healthy. it's a great substitute for black beans and rice - just as good??? it's really good.
we've eaten lots of roti/chapati, and i like these grilled breads. hilsa fish is good; it's dry and also grilled. the chutneys are mouth-watering, whether sweet or spicey. rasmalal is sweet and simple, nice for dessert.
we've tried chicken khubani, samosas, and several biryanis too. a lot of the food that i thought i'd like - the curries and 'gravies' are just too oily for me - and these dishes are everywhere. but as long as the fruits are around all the time i'll do just fine here.
tomorrow night the roommates and i are invited to join mr. sinha for dinner and i think we may try iftar food. mr. sinha, so nice, told me on the phone today to come hungry.
if you guys try a recipe let me know how it goes!
missing you all
Ramadan
began this last Tuesday. about 1/3 of my students, and about 85% of the country are celebrating the holy month by fasting while the sun is up. they get up before the sun, have a big breakfast, then abstain from food or any liquid all day until about 6:20 or sundown. then there is the iftar dinner celebration with family and friends eating together and lots of sweet and fried iftar foods. there is much giving to the poor during this month of Ramadan; the poor go to mosques for food donations at dinner time. my kids at school seem accustomed to Ramadan practices, and proud to be a part. especially during Ramadan the streets get progressively busy and pushy until iftar (breaking fast) time as people are trying to get home at the same time. and then the streets clear out entirely (unheard of in Dhaka) when feasting begins. it has been interesting to watch the moon at the start of Ramadan this week; it is an eerie crescent that looks like the kind that decorates the tops of mosque minarets.
miércoles, 3 de septiembre de 2008
lunes, 1 de septiembre de 2008
strange observation
yesterday at school we had a fire drill. because we are a whole school, pk-12, we had a whole school fire drill and everyone lined up on our turf field to wait for the all-clear signal. i have NEVER seen a fire drill like this, it felt absurd to me in comparison to everything i have known of school drills. without any prompting, the students were dead silent and kept that way. every class lined up single file on the field with their assigned fire drill teacher and each teacher stood at the head of the line with a special colored signal to show the superintendent they had all of their designated kids. all the school staff lined up in special places, the janitors in one line, the cafeteria workers in one line, the finance staff, the general services staff, the secretaries in a line. the preschool students held hands. the administrators and many other adults, i swear without prompting, stood in an at-ease military way. rigid. we looked like a child army and no one made a sound for 5 straight minutes. such a FAR cry from charlottesville high school or salem or anything else, and i couldn't figure this out. then my 'steward teacher' lissa made it all clear when she explained that international schools serve the kids of all the ambassadors from all over the world and they don't mess around when it comes to emergency drills. these families have known real emergencies, some of them. lissa and her family were teaching/attending a school in saudia arabia 2004 when al qaida (suspected) terrorists bombed the school and nearby residences. one of my 8th grade students was one train ahead of one badly hit in the london bombing a few years ago, and one was in bali during that bombing - they shared in their 'personal history timelines' this week. so they know real risk, and they are serious about the drill.
why hello....
it is monday evening. i'm ready to blog. blogging comes on in waves and i've been feeling it gather all day. the first thing i should say is that i had a wonderful day today because i got packages. i have received more mail here today than i did all last year in charlottesville, just about. i got 5 packages. it was a pre-birthday celebration. i am about to be a quarter century old and therefore i think i do deserve the kind of party that arrived to my school mailbox today. first, from T and Michael i got a one hundred calorie pack of goldfish crackers flattened and several packs of teacher stickers. it was a satisfying recall to the reliable kindness of T's special occasion boxes, and gold fish crums are a good after school snack. by my mama i was well taken care of... i received 3 packages, very exciting because i don't know when i have ever received a package from my mom - it is not our usual way. each contained one plastic thing of dentine gum, which would have cured my goldfish breath, - but with a closer look i saw that they contained white pills for treating 'severe infection' as the note in package three told. how sweetly they were packed, with such care, to ensure they arrived to me flat. but dave was not satisfied with flat. i know he has been thinking for at least 3 weeks about how to get around that flat rule and he did succeed remarkably when he found a 3d picture with attached 3d goggles for me to look into. i got that today, a surprise, and 20 sixth graders were also able to enjoy it. he also sent new music that sounds much like sufjan stevens and thus makes me very happy and quite sappily relaxed. lastly i did open one package to find country songs from the 1980s. the reason for this is that dave knows them and likes them and i just like them but don't know them and we both always figure that we should be able to sing to them loudly together while doing random other things. in any case, this was a big part of my good day and there has been no part bad.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)