The Calm Before the Storm

Life at RSO is already busy, busy, busy and the summer volunteers haven't even arrived yet! Sunday, my first full day on campus, was spent unpacking, organizing my room, and generally settling in. I met three of the other summer coordinators, Derek, Kim, and Kim. As well as a long-term volunteer that has been here since the beginning of April (who is oddly enough named April). By late Sunday afternoon, I was already working. 

The other coordinators have been hard at work getting the volunteer hostel ready for everyone to start coming, meeting all of the various contacts they will be using throughout the summer, preparing transportation for the coming volunteers....and the list goes on and on. Normally, I would be working with them more closely in the tasks they have been assigned since I am also a summer coordinator, but instead I have been working with April in the school. Celina, the director of education for RSO, was supposed to arrive in India before me...I have been in India for four days and it's looking like she won't be here anytime soon.  Because Celina is not here, April has stepped in as the temporary director of education and I have become her assistant/right arm. We both have been planning and teaching the teacher training course as well as, getting the teachers their class schedules, getting class rosters, preparing for registration, figuring out where the textbooks are, and a zillion other things that Celina was originally going to do that have now fallen to April and myself. I LOVE that I have been able to start working with the teachers and doing teacher training right off the bat. Teacher training was one of the main things I wanted to do when I came to RSO and, lo and behold, it's the first thing I get to do.

Now, let me explain why RSO needs teacher training. In India, all classes are taught through rote memorization ( a teacher standing at the front of the classroom reading from the book with the students following along and repeating after they read). As is plain to Americans and a lot of western society, this is not the most effective teaching method. Through this teacher training program, we are trying to help the teachers learn new, creative ways to approach their classes this year. All of the teachers are wonderful and very open to the new methods....we just hope that they take the methods we are teaching them and actually use them in the classroom. Doing teacher training now has also been great because I am building relationships with the RSO teachers right from the start. They all know who I am now so when I am working in the school with the other volunteers or when I switch to being a teacher coordinator after the summer, they will know who I am and will be more open to me working in their classes and with their students. This whole week doing all of Celina's leg work has been a great way for me to get to know the school and how it is run.

Kala, Fathima, Leema Rose, and Rajalakshmi--some of RSO's amazing teachers

Kumar, Uvaraj, Kala, Leema Rose, Rajalakshmi, and Fathima discovering what learning style they are

Leema Rose, Rajalakshmi Uvaraj, Kumar, Dhamaseskaran, and Karthiravan enjoying the intro to Gardner's multiple intelligences

Anjeli, Ragakumari, and Shama - they're just great :)

Well, other than teacher training and work there is not much else to report. Rising Star is as peaceful and special as ever. The frogs are out and hoppin, I have a zillion bug bites, the power goes out often, the bucket showers are amazing (and that isn't sarcasm I seriously love them), they killed a snake in the bushes today and showed us it's dead body, I don't stop sweating till I am in my room for the night...I love it. It's exactly where I want to be. :)

 First Volunteers arrive in 4 days

RSO Kids arrive in 3 days

As crazy as we are right now....this is definitely the calm before the storm.

Vanakkam