So this morning I woke up and realised I had lost all my photos from the day before…there’s not really any way I can explain so I’m guessing I managed to delete them somehow. Great.
I haven’t told Stacey, the trip leader yet…I should probably do that but I am slightly putting it off.
We were allowed a sleep in today and met down for breakfast at 9:30am. I tried some dhall and this puffy little savoury pancake thing but my stomach can’t quite handle the Indian way in the morning just yet so I settled for an omelette instead.
Today was mostly focused on getting ready for the week so we had a training session in which we went through what to expect and how to go about our days.
Impact have made programmes and curriculum to follow in the training which consists of 4 sessions a year. So the topic that this group is focused on is how to plan a lesson. I found this really interesting so I was taking in all the information I could!
The things that the group will be assessing include: do the teachers actually plan the lessons, are they curriculum based, do they include the students or just talk more at them, do they have a conclusion to the lesson where they sum it all up and do they keep it in the timeframe.
One of the members of our group is an ex head teacher, John, who now does a lot of consultancy work and has a ridiculous amount of experience, so as you can imagine his knowledge is invaluable. He helped a lot in getting everyone ready as he has been a part of the programme for a while. He emphasised the importance of phrasing, making sure to keep things positive. Rather than what a teacher didn’t do it is ‘that was good and what you could do to enhance could be…’
He will be working with the head teachers of the schools here in Delhi and rotating amongst them each day.
The schools that we work with are private schools which means the teachers are not trained (hence our training) so the head teachers are really keen for their teachers to be a part of this professional development and also for them to enhance their English.
It is a bit of a risk for them though as by improving their skills they risk them moving to another school for more money, it’s a catch22! So one of the things John will be helping the HT’s with is retention.
In the afternoon we then went to a beautiful temple called Akshardham which was built in 2005 by 7000 workers and 3000 volunteers. It was amazing! We couldn’t take anything in with us though – no bags, cameras, paper, food, water, leather – nothing! Well except for some money to spend inside of course.
We did get a group photo though which looks like we were photoshopped in but I promise you, we were actually there!
Wow this is much longer than expected. I am now off to bed ready for an early 6:30 start!
Phoebe
