Friday 20th February (although slightly delayed due to powercuts on the last couple of days...a leaf from a banana palm fell on the electric cables!)

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Yesterday (Thursday) we headed off early to Mysore. We saw an amazing temple; watched ladies working in paddy fields; saw silk worms making cocoons and even saw how sugar cane is processed.

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.. Camels on the road to Mysore

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Today, Friday, we visited Bangalore. This was an opportunity for us to collect some more resources for school. We started spending at a craft market. There were lots of beautiful things to buy including puppets, bangles and paintings. Later Miss Simpson took her first ride in an auto-rickshaw (a three wheeled vehicle) – she was pleased to arrive in one piece! Our driver crossed three lanes of traffic and then turned right on a dual carriageway.

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A shop in Bangalore, any relation Miss Higginbotham?

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We were hoping to see some traditional dancing this evening but unfortunately it was cancelled. Instead we took our taxi driver on a couple of detours so that Miss Wells could buy her very own ‘Bingy’ (a fluorescent green water carrier). We arrived back late with bags full of goodies and some spices for Mr Cumpson.

Unfortunately it is our last day tomorrow but it will still be busy. We are starting with a visit to the local Convent School at 8:30.

See you very soon.

Miss Simpson and Miss Wells
xx

PS We'll try and update the last of our India update Blog ASAP

Visiting Schools

Wednesday 18th February
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This morning we got up early to visit a Government run primary school in the next village (there are 27 pupils and 2 classes). We started by teaching an English lesson to the youngest class. The children were very excited about our visit and quickly learnt about parts of the body by playing games and singing songs.
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Teaching in a government school
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Then in the older class we introduced farmyard animals and we showed them photos of our school in the snow! We also showed them a photo of 4W and they wanted to know all of your names!
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In the afternoon we visited an international school which showed us yet another side of Bangalore’s Education System. The school has 600 pupils and includes an Art College. It has a more relaxed uniform (T-shirts and shorts) from the other schools we’ve visited.
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Later we learnt about spices used in Indian cooking and we were given some recipes to try at home. Later we will learn more about Hinduism to prepare us for visiting a temple tomorrow.
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SSundried Tamarind - this will be made in to a paste for cooking

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We are both feeling very tired now and are hoping for a good nights sleep!
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Miss Simpson and Miss Wells
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Patterning and Traditional Cultures

Tuesday 17th February
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After a day of teaching yesterday Miss Simpson got up early and practiced Yoga. It was really peaceful and prepared her for another busy day.
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Today we were learning about creative arts. We were shown how to make a Traditional Clay Tiles by rolling out coils of clay and joining them by scoring and adding slip (a mixture of clay and water). We then chose to create mythical or Indian creatures. As you can see Miss Wells designed a creature with a snakes head; elephants front legs; wings of a peacock; lions back and monkeys tail!
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Clay Tile


In the afternoon we learnt about traditional dances. We practiced a southern Indian folk dance. We can’t wait to show you our new dance moves!
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Our final activity was understanding and creating Rangoli patterns. These are in front of all of the houses in the villages and we tried our hand at making some. They are made using stone powder or rice powder and are really tricky to draw. It was worth sticking at it because they looked fantastic in the end.
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. Rangoli Pattern Demonstration

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Miss Simpson and Miss Wells

xx

Teaching English Language

Pupils lining up before school

Today we had an early start as it was our first day of teaching. In the morning we went to St Anthony's School. The pupils are between 3 -16 years old. They start their day outside in straight lines - just like we do! Then they say prayers, read the newspaper and sing the Indian National Anthem. The teachers then go to say prayers in the Headmasters office.

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We had a tour of the school and then taught Standard 3 pupils (year 4). They were very excited to meet us and shake our hands. We had great fun singing 10 Green Bottles!

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Miss Simpson reading a story

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Miss Wells & Miss Simpson

XXX

Bangalore City: A Case Study

Sunday 15th February

Yesterday, (Saturday) we couldn’t use the internet but we had a busy day collecting information about the history of Silvapura. We also did some research on Bangalore ready for the case study today. Later in the evening we spotted a house decorated in bright lights. The family were getting ready to celebrate their grandson’s naming ceremony.

We were invited to attend the babies Baptism at the Sacred Heart Church today. It started at 7:15am and we given the baby to hold, to bless it for a happy future.

We returned to ‘The Land’ and at 9am we started our study of Bangalore. We visited lots of places on the way to the city including a rubbish tip, new houses and the train station. We sampled traditional Thali meal at a restaurant in town, it was very, very spicy ...but tasty too! We also had time to collect some things to bring back to school. It was exciting as we had to barter over prices to make sure we got the best deal!

Buying a Sari blouse

In the evening, we had a late dinner and are now preparing to teach at the local school tomorrow.
Hope you enjoy the new photos!

A government building, Bangalore

Xx Miss Simpson and Miss Wells

A visit Nelamangala market

Friday 13th February

Our first nights sleep was interrupted from time to time by the local dogs barking; car horns blaring; insects twittering and people being called to prayer at 5am. However our day was off to a great start when we had the opportunity to investigate some local artefacts – including some which we hope to buy so you can see them too.

Nelamangala Market is a farmers market which took us 40 minutes to drive to. It was a fantastic experience, filled with all sorts of sights and sounds including monkeys.At the market there were a lot of goats for sale (we thought about being one back as a new school mascot) and chickens. You could also buy vegetables, kitchen utensils and flowers.

After lunch we visited local farms and saw trees filled with bananas. We tried lots of new fruits and even had a fresh coconut.

Miss Simpson and Miss Wells

xx

Our very first day in India.

Our First Curry

Thursday 12th February

After 9 and a half hours on a plane we arrived in Bangalore. Although it was still Wednesday evening in England it was Thursday and 5.15 in the morning in India! We were extremely tired but far too excited to sleep.

We were met at the airport and taken on a very bumpy journey to Silvepura, the village we will be staying in. The sun was just coming up and the local people were getting ready for work.

After breakfast we had a snooze before exploring the local village. We were definitely a hit with the local school children who followed us around to make sure they were in our photos. There were lots of cows and chickens on the roads and plenty of holes to fall down!

Some of the local children

Our lunch was fantastic, our first Indian curry with lots of exciting dishes to sample. We ate it outside surrounded by palm trees and bamboo. Then we headed out for another walk around the local area. We learnt how bricks were made from the local clay and saw coconuts and pawpaws growing.

We are ready for a good night sleep and looking forward to going to a farming market tomorrow.

Miss Simpson and Miss Wells

1 week to go

7.30 Am Thursday 5th February

Our visit is quickly approaching and this time next week we will have arrived in Bangalore.

Due to heavy snow Newbridge Primary is closed today. We are making the most of this and catching up with planning for schools in both countries!

We have decided to focus our English lessons on the theme of Time. We hope to share some of our favourite songs including 10 green bottles, Rock around the Clock and The Crocodile Song as recommended by class 1H.

The change in weather has meant that we have some great photos to take with us too! We've put a couple on here for you to compare with our photos of Bangalore where the current temperature is 30˚C. We're informed that the weather is changing, leaves are falling from the trees and the green surroundings are becoming drier and dustier by the day.

Our last jobs are to do some last minute shopping and purchase some gifts for the schools in India.

Bye for now

Bangalore 2009

Greetings from our first Blog.

With only one month to go until our teacher study visit we thought it would be a good idea to keep you up to date. Our intention is to complete this blog during our visit and share our exciting journey with you all.

The Background
Carolyn wells and Catherine Simpson, that's us, applied to take part in a Teacher Study Visit to Bangalore, India in the summer of 2008. We were delighted to be accepted and then came the hardwork...the fund raising!

The Fundraising
We needed to raise £1600 (in addition to our Professional development fund) to take part. Plus money for resources to take to India and of course funds to purchase resources to share on our return.
It was a big undertaking but we had a huge amount of support. Our fundraising included:
80s Skool disco at Revolution bar, Mr C's curry lunch, Table top sale, Cake Sale, Mufti day, The Quiz Factor and a stall at the Christmas Fair. Amazingly we met our target...huge thanks to everyone who joined in and supported us.

The Preparation
We shared the brilliant news with the pupils during two asemblies.
It was great to get their perspective and impressions of India. We also collected their questions to find out the answer whilst we are India such as, "What do the children wear to school?" and "What do they eat for breakfast?"

We are currently planning our lessons to teach in the schools in India. We are looking forward to the experience of having classes of up to 70!!!!! Another task is to gather resources to share information about our school with children in India. If you have any great ideas please let us now.

Hope you can continue to join us on the journey. Thanks again for your support!