On Monday, August 1, we began our fourth and final week of volunteering at the school in Faizabad, India. Once again, the first three days of the week were at in-town campuses of the school.

Kimberly’s Fourth Graders at Jingle Bells School

Above Photos: 1. K with Security guard who escorted her through the gate every day. 2-3 A man walking his monkey (a variety not commonly  seen in Faizabad) on JBS campus 4. Fourth Grade students engaged in an activity taught by K.

Kimberly had been working with the fourth grade drama club on a rendition of The Silly Boy (a.k.a. Simple Ivan, one of the perennial favorite stories from our repertoire during our many years of presenting educational theatre). Wanting to give everyone a chance, she divided the class into six groups and tasked each with performing a part of the story in sequence. The students were given the outline of the story and allowed to devise their own lines and actions, with some direction from Kimberly and the other teachers. With little rehearsal the students came to school in costumes and brought props ready to put on a show for the fifth graders. There were some hiccups, but the kids acted like pros and just kept going. All in all the students pulled it off and had a great time.

Simple Ivan by the 4th Grade Theatre Club

The rest of week Kimberly continued to work with the fourth grade students on refining their English skills, using games to emphasis prepositions of place and develop communication.

On Wednesday, knowing it would be her last class with the students and not wanting to ever forget them, she asked if she could take some selfies with the students. And as you might be able to tell from the photos the kids in all five of her classes were eager to comply.

Below Photos: 1. One of the caretakers who make the school clean and make sure every person who walks through the gates is greeted with a smile. 2. Street scene taken from our balcony 3. Kimberly's lunch, served in the Principal's office daily. 4-6. Installation of solar panels, taken on our balcony

BALA – Building as Learning Aid

A unique feature of the Jingle Bells School campus is the buildings. They are designed with education in mind. Everywhere you look is a learning opportunity. Some walls doubled as play stores, others were adorned with geometric shapes, the floors were used as chalkboards for the students to do calculations, the trees were labeled and identified.

Dennis at Jingle Bells Academy

The last and most productive meeting of the drama group took place at the campus where Dennis had been volunteering. The students performed scenes from Silly Boy (Simple Ivan), and really got into it. Someone delivered to the session a set of speakers, which were of no use there; Dennis had requested them the previous week to be used in English classes to play some audio prompts, but apparently there was a miscommunication. Oh well.

On his last day at this campus, the students expressed their appreciation for his efforts. Some gave him homemade cards and notes with thanks and well wishes. One said, “you are my favorite teacher”. Another said, “please don’t leave us, sir.” The staff were also quite gracious, presenting him with a little scenic painting done by the art teacher, and a really cool bookmark shaped like an elephant’s head.

Yash Vidya Mondir Campus

Above Photos: Street view in front of JBS taken as were waiting for our ride to the YVM campus

Above photos taken en route to YVM campus

On Thursday and Friday, we were again at the remote campus, which also gave us tokens of esteem, including a clever thank you card designed like a three-dimensional umbrella, and constructed of repurposed materials. And the seventh grade student who, as part of a letter-writing assignment, had addressed her letter to Dennis, brought him a nicely decorated hand-written copy of it — one of his most treasured mementos of this tour.

During these final two days, we were stretched rather thin, as the administration, apparently under pressure from the teachers, tried to whisk us among as many classrooms as possible. Thus, we had more sessions than usual, and of shorter duration. Additionally, some of the teachers, having already witnessed the same exercises when we presented them to different students, would sometimes jump the gun by telling the students about the next steps to be taken before we (or the students) were ready.

Dennis felt rather uncomfortable during these last few classes, because the students and teachers seemed to regard him largely as a curiosity. They wanted him to sing, they wanted him to demonstrate his thespian skill, they wanted him to tell them about America; so it was even more difficult to get any actual teaching done in the limited time. We don’t mind reverting to our old roles as entertainers on occasion, but not if it does not detracts from the actual educational process.

Even after we had completed our whirlwind schedule on the final day and were walking to the car that would take us back to the main campus where we had our living quarters, a group of students came out to meet us and asked if we could come to their classroom. Sorry, we had to tell them, but we were all wrapped.

Back at the office, we were given a copy of the review the school had written of us to post on Workaway; and they asked us to turn in a review of them for perusal before we left, which we did. Both reviews were quite glowing. In fact, we were told that all the teachers had only the highest praise for us, and would welcome us back. Which just might be a possibility one of these days — this turned out to be one of our favorite volunteer experiences.

There were a few little rough spots, to be sure. But it was a great teaching opportunity that gave us plenty of free rein to exercise our creativity. The students were responsive and a joy to work with. Our living situation was comfortable, and the school provided us with food.

And oh yes, did we mention there were lots of monkeys?

Above photos of monkeys all taken on the balcony above the school where we were living.

Aug 1-5, 2022