Education day! (Day 4 at campus)

Today was my favorite day. Education day where we got to go tutor the kids. I talked with the principal the other day and she had asked me to go observe some teachers, then give them ideas on how to get students more involved. In India, the typical learning style is by memorization. The teacher stands up at the front of the class, she reads a sentence, then the students repeat after her. They do a LOT of worksheets and repetitive work. My teaching style is very different than that. I try to incorporate as many different learning styles as I can in the lesson. It was interesting to how well the kids did respond to just the 'boring' repetitive instruction though. They are very disciplined. Today, I just observed three different teachers.
The classrooms look very different as well from American standards. The school is a cement building. Each classroom is very small with an open window with bars on it to let some air come through the muggy classroom. The teacher has her desk up front with a chalkboard and the students share wooden desks that hold up to three students on a long, wooden desk.
My favorite time is lunch time with the kids. We walk out to this big open pavilion where they are all served the typical Indian food. This consists of rice and curry to put on the rice. They all sit with their 'dorm families' on the floor and eat with their hands. There are no chairs. Even the dorm mothers sit on the ground to eat with them. Us volunteers are lucky cause we do get silverware! :-) I love kicking back and just talking to the kids during this time.
After lunch, we were able to measure each students foot as a volunteer just donated enough money to allow each student to get a new pair of shoes. The kids were so excited to get their foot measured. We saw a LOT of little feet that day!
I am getting used to the kids coming up and climbing all over me during playtime as if I were some rock climbing wall. I am beginning to love it! My favorite is when this little boy, Aravind, comes running up to me with this grin from ear to ear yelling at me “Auntie, Auntie” where I know it is time to brace myself cause soon he would be running up my legs climbing up to my neck to give me the biggest hug anyone could ask for.