Weekend in Matheran

Last Friday we beat the crowds and headed up to Matheran, a local hill station located about two and a half hours away from Mumbai. We joined up with three other ASB couples and left ASB at about 4:30pm on Friday. Sitting down to dinner at 7:30pm at our hotel in the the quiet forests of Matheran was a joy! In the morning we went on a long hike around the central part of the hill, finding many amazing vistas, most with 1,000 ft sheer cliff drops.

In the afternoon, the girls went out on horseback while the guys did a shorter hike. In the evening we all enjoyed card games and much laughter. A short weekend, but a much needed break from the crowded city we all call home.

PD Extravaganza

I have gone since summer of 2010 without any professional development geared specifically for elementary music, and I didn't realize how much this is a necessary thing to have on a regular basis as a teacher!

Last weekend I went to Hong Kong with 6 fellow ASBers for an International Baccalaureate conference. My workshop was on the Arts in the Primary Years Programme. Now, this may not be as specific as if I had been able to go to the Orff conference in the US last fall, but, this was at least a focus on how best to teach music within the PYP framework. I have been at two other PYP schools before coming to ASB, but, this is has been the first time that I have been expected to write the music curriculum under the same framework as the classroom teachers and it has been a bit of a struggle trying to organizea spiral curriculum into a unit based system. Without going into too many details, it was well worth it- I feel I walked away with a clear idea of what to do next and how better to implement the music curriculum, staying true to what I feel is good music ed pedagogy but that also fits with the school's goals.

And bonus, it all happened in HONG KONG! A place that I may have never gotten to otherwise. We stayed on Hong Kong island and had a little time to explore this most electric and skyscraper filled city. Highlights included a boat ride on the Star Ferry to Kowloon, an evening in the Temple Street Market, exploring the Midlevels along the worlds longest (and outdoor) escalator, exploring the back part of the island in Stanley Market, and lots of fantastic food (pork dumplings and beef noodles to die for), cool weather, stops at Starbucks, and shopping. As we traveled about, lots of random memories of high school Chinese class came time mind, and ever so often I'd see a character that I'd recognize, making me a bit wistful I didn't study harder or continue on with such an interesting and complex language. Now, sadly as they speak Cantonese I couldn't try out anything I did remember as we learned Mandarin, but, as the characters are the same, it was fun nontheless to try and remember what I could (and remember those Fridays we watched Jackie Chan movies as I passed his star of fame on their own version of the Hollywood walk of fame).

And then back to ASB on Wednesday where we were all thrown into the craziness of ASB Unplugged- a conference attended by 400+ educators from all over the world on how to integrate technology into education. Thursday was a "normal" school day with people walking in and out of our classrooms and interviewing our students in separate showcases of what we do here at ASB. Then, Friday and Saturday were all workshops geared towards the latest technologies and strategies for integrating tech. We attended a fantastic session that I walked away with a few more tools and ideas (which is rare at these things as not much is ever geared towards music). Reid in his natural role as a leader gave a session on green education (to about 200 people) and the another session on technology use in a performance based ensemble.

So, after a week of professional development overload, my brain was pretty overwhelmed. So many things! So much to think about! How will I even begin??

One step at a time. I find myself more motivated and excited about teaching and realized I've been sort of in "day to day" mode and in a bit of a funk this year due to how the year started and an increased work/stress load. I'm happy to report that I've found a bit of motivation again and I'm reminded of how important it is to actively seek out growth opportunities for yourself.

Europe Trip: 2011

So this post may be a bit late ... ok, it's probably six months late. As I was doing some digital cleaning on the computer I ran across this video that I created to share our pictures from our 45-day trip to the U.K., Norway, Sweden, and Ireland. If you have 10min of free time (plus the buffering time!), give it a watch and let us know what you think.

I Got the Bombay Blues

So it is deep within the school year and when the going gets tough, the tough go to ease their pains with a local blues festival.

My personal highlight was seeing John Lee Hooker Jr perform -- he lit up the stage on Saturday for the 8:30pm slot. He honored his dad, the famous bluesman, and had a superb band backing him up, especially the guitarist. Later in the evening Taj Mahal played a more subdued set with his down-home finger picking style.

On Sunday we joined friends for a blues brunch to hear a local Bombay jazz/blues/fusion band. They were solid and the tator tots were excellent too.

The big draw of the weekend of course was Buddy Guy. At age 75 he is having a great time, keeping the crowd alternatively laughing at his clever lyrics (most too profane to post here!) and in awe of his sheer guitar talent. It truly takes a guitar genius to rub his guitar, string-side, against his chest to get weird distortion sounds and still have the audience cheering like mad. He too played with an amazing band that had particularly amazing dynamic sensitivity.

All in all, a much better than average weekend here in Bandra (oh, did I mention it was a 10 minute from our apartment?)

A Brush With Fame

So, no, I did not meet The Big B, Shahruhk Khan, or any other Bollywood star, but, I did have a random interlude with someone any education or psychology student would get a little giddy about--- Howard Gardner (for anyone not sure, he is the Multiple Intelligences guy as well as the starter of Project Zero, and someone I've studied at Olaf and very much so for my Masters at St. Thomas).

It's another one of those random twists of fate about working at ASB. Being a leading education institution in a major city of the world, ASB was chosen to host Dr. Gardner on his new book tour that is visiting India. Now, since ASB was only the host and not the operator of the tour, we only were reserved 40 seats to the lecture and Q&A. We all put our names in a hat, and, 10 or so of us unfortunate ones got pulled out. I figured I would just then buy a ticket ($40-100), but, these had apparently sold out long before. Sigh. So close. Luckily, Reid was still in the mix so I figured I could just get a first hand account of the lecture later. Then, our superintendent, not wanting to disappoint anyway, decided to schedule a half hour coffee date for those of us that didn't win out on the lottery.

So, today after my last class, I walked to the library, thinking about the Gardner that has been more of a theory, books and articles I've read, a name on a notecard for my oral exams in grad school, a cornerstone in my own education philosophy,-- and today I shook his hand and he became someone whom we chatted with about interesting books, India, education, and a few other random topics. And then, half an hour later, off he went, a short stop amongst his many interviews and stops before his lecture to a few hundred people. Just like that.

Did this really happen today? Crazy India. This is one of those things I can safely say probably would never have happened to me back home.

Side note: I did however get to attend a session with Ellen Winner, his wife, on her research on the arts and improving other subjects (like math, test scores). She is a real proponent for advocating for the arts for ARTS sake, not because the arts supposedly improve other areas. The best part is I felt like I could keep up with what she was saying, and could actually add to the conversation. Thank you St. Thomas.

Rachel

Helpful Strangers

The inside handle on one of our school vans broke today as we were pulling out from school. Never fear, you could roll down the window and open the door from there. So that's actually kinda hard, especially for teachers with lots of bags in their hands.

I was the third teacher to get out of the van and a complete stranger outside our van opened the door not once but TWICE for us struggling foreigners. So even though this is a crazy crowded city, sometimes that helps. Each time a teacher struggled to open the door, a helpful stranger reached out as they were passing by or waiting to cross the street to simply open it for us.

Another great lesson: we often complain about traffic and congestion but no matter where you look there is always a random act of kindness just around the corner.

The Parents in India

A much belated entry... (Click HERE for the album from the trip!)

December brought the best Christmas gifts Reid and I could have asked for-- an extended visit from our parents. I will not go into too much detail on all the places we went, but more on the experience of being together.

Reid left for Chicago (for a conference) about the same time my parents arrived, the last week before school got out. The day my parents were to arrive I felt like a little kid anxiously waiting for Christmas Eve to happen and Santa to finally come. After a little rough start and Indian culture throwing itself at my parents in the baggage claim area (as my mom later said, she had to get her "to Wanda" self out), we had a fabulous week at ASB. They got to see my 3rd and 5th graders perform (where I had my 3rd graders enter with a surprise rendition of "Sankta Lucia", complete with candles and procession), as well as meet all the lovely people I work with and see the general flow of life at ASB.

The Wixsons joined us over the weekend and our first few days in Mumbai were spent walking around, a tour of the Dharavi slum (a highlight for both parents), and once Reid returned, our very own Christmas gathering. My fantastic twin brother had sent with my parents a reed defuser that smelled of a pine tree, since he knew we didn't have one.

We then headed out of Mumbai to see more of India. In Aurangabad, the city that plays the jumping off point for the two ancient cave sites of Ellora and Ajanta (where Reid and I had been the previous year), we had fabulous times exploring the caves, enjoying great tour guides at both places, feeling like rock stars as groups of school children ran over to get their picture taken with us, and we had an enchanting moment in the "choir loft" of a Buddhist prayer hall where the maintenance man came up to let us in and also sang buddhist chants for us that hauntingly and beautifully filled in that echoey space. We also walked around the "mini" Taj Mahal, and had some of the best chicken kebabs in India.

Rajasthan was next on the list, and we headed up to Jodhpur (the Blue City with the massive fort), Ranikpur (a small country area with a famous Jain temple), and finally Udaipur (the site of the Lake Palace that is also in the movie "Octopussy").

Rajasthan brought us many other great touring sites, including a tangled walk through the old Blue City, fabulous lassis that tasted like key lime pie, a 16 km hike through the jungle complete with local tribal guide (who we realized had been carrying a small tube of anti-cobra venom with him the whole time!), textile shopping, folk dance concert, lake cruise, palace and fort tours, and many, many rooftop meals.

Christmas Eve we went to a nicer rooftop restaurant below the Jodhpur Fort, where we had delicious food with a few friends from ASB who were also traveling through Jodhpur at the time, and finished off the evening by singing Christmas carols. New Years Eve we stayed in (we were in Udaipur), had a feast while watching Octopussy. By midnight, the Wixsons were fast asleep, but, the Widens went back up to the roof and saw a huge spectacle of fireworks. I stood there, snuggling into my dad's arm around me (his other around mom) and watched as those bursts of colored lights went off 360˚ around us for 15 minutes straight. I will remember that moment, and what it felt like the rest of my life.

Now, not everything was perfect (as most trips in India aren't). A little Delhi belly, a lost passport for a bit, a hotel with less than desirable bathrooms (who needs a toilet seat and hot water anyway?), the craziness that is Mumbai, complete with persistent beggars or shopkeepers....

And it's always interesting to see India through someone else's eyes, or how they react. Even though some things are hard, you can't protect people from it, and really, one needs to experience ALL of India to even begin to comprehend this place. Our parents were fantastic through it all. I think what I will remember the most are things like my mom giggling in the rickshaw (proclaiming it was just like when she used to play bumper cars with her brother Ben, only nobody crashes), or how she found such joy and peace in the small things that I had begun to miss. Or Rob becoming best friends with the drivers and waiters, making those connections to the people here who make this country what it is. Emily's spirit of adventure and ease with anything that we did and reflective conversation throughout the trip. My dad putting his feelings of helplessness about the poverty into action by looking into what NGO he could begin to donate monthly to when they returned.

So many people gave us this shocked look when we said that both sets of parents were coming to visit. "Are you crazy" or "Wow... you're brave" were common comments. But, that had never occurred to us. I realized how thankful I am that we both have such wonderful and supportive parents, who not only love us, but love us so much to have come all the way here to understand this part of our lives, and to share that with one another.

Reid and I are truly blessed.

And for photos of this excellent month of experiences, click HERE for the album from the trip!