Summer Lab

I meant to post earlier about my Summer Lab experience, but started traveling soon after the session was done.

I really had a blast with this group of 3rd and 4th graders. Going to work didn't feel like work. My head teacher was so knowledgeable and had been teaching this course for nearly 10 years!

Nature Detectives mostly involved kiddos showing me insects they discovered. Kidding, but really! We caught a lot of bugs to study them up close and then released them. We learned about what animals need to survive, food chains, and food webs. We explored Botany Pond on the U of C campus, learned about beehives, dissected owl pellets, glued together real vole skeletons, and went on a couple really cool field trips-a nature walk at the Little Red Schoolhouse, to a Nature Preserve in Lake Forest, and to the Field Museum.

It was exciting to see the kids so enthusiastic about science and nature. They LOVED to read, and just ate this material up. 

I often find myself to be a student of my students.They teach me so much. During Summer Lab, they reminded me to be curious, and it's OK to get nerdy excited because that means you're passionate!I find myself noticing and appreciating nature more, and saying things like, "LOOK at that fascinating spider web," and "Oh my! Those mushrooms are oddly shaped." As an adult, I am constantly learning, thinking, and growing.

I couldn't have asked for a better summer experience. These kids rock!

Selfie, Ma'am? Please?

Class 3F loved visiting the birds at the zoo--especially
the peacocks (the national bird).

Life is full here in India! We took the 3rd graders (all 245 of them) to the zoo last week. It was a blast. So cool to see them make connections to what we had been learning about birds in class and then get to see a bunch of exotic ones in real life. And it was just a nice break from the white-walled classroom. 

Students asked, "Selfie, Ma'am?
Please?

Lesson planning is a ton of work. Especially here, since there are no shortcuts with technology. I am finding myself getting crafty and drawing things by hand, making cut outs, etc. Little did I know, with teaching, I would consequently become a singer/songwriter, artist, magician and actress. It takes effort to keep 41 kiddos entertained! 

The Kindness Box, one of my
many crafty endeavors.

Science and math are now my favorite subjects to teach. I introduced multiplication and they are learning division next week. In Science, I am planning a unit on the human body. They are going to love adding new body systems to the class skeleton we are making! I am nervous though, as it could get tricky after that, learning about counting money (in rupees) in Math and measurement (metric system) for Science.

Next week we are implementing my creation, the Kindness Box. We've been having issues with students tattling (they don't have a Hindi word for tattling here, so I had to explain to my teacher what it meant!) and constantly coming up to us with problems. My goal is to help them start solving their problems among each other. I figured if they had to write out their complaints, they'd think twice before taking it to the teacher!

Bhel puri

In the no WiFi days, Andrea and I found a new coffee bar with delicious snacks. Bhel puri is a popular street food snack in Mumbai, but we were afraid we'd get sick if we ate it while we were there. It is made of rice, vegetables and tamarind sauce. It was SO good! The coffee bar serves all their soda with ice cream-my kind of place!

One of my teacher friends is so nice in explaining everything India. We go to the cafeteria for hot chai (tea with milk and sugar) every day (no matter how hot it is outside!). At first, I thought we were drinking chai tea, but she said you could get lemon chai, herbal chai, etc. When they serve it, people sometimes say, "with love" in Hindi, which I thought was  cute.    

Shruti, Andrea and I post sari shopping.

Since India's Independence Day celebration is on Saturday, my cooperating teacher, Sunu and her sister, Shruti, took us shopping for saris. It is quite the process--buying all the parts (sari, petticoat, blouse, bindi, earrings), putting them on, and getting them to stay on! We were instructed to buy 12 safety pins and practice walking in them every day until Saturday. We are so excited, and pictures to come!