tms@themodernstory.com

Tamil Nadu

Oct, 22

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Daily Updates

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Communities Rising Video: Women in Sports

The girls at Analadi High Secondary School voted overwhelmingly to create a video about their favorite sports and games. They explain the rules of their favorite games while demonstrating the technical skill through video. As a runner myself (I completed the Hyderabad Heritage Half Marathon the day after we returned from Tamil Nadu, coming in 6th in my category), I was thrilled to work with a group of active girls who wanted to prove that women can be just as athletic as boys.

 

Analadi Hostel Girls: Women in Sports from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Jan, 28

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TMS Fellow Updates, Videos

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Final Videos from Communities Rising Workshops

Arriving back from Pongal break last week, Ilana and I jumped into a long task list in our final push to complete projects and classes. We took the Railway girls on a field trip to the Google office in Hi-Tec City and had our last class and celebration with the boy at APRS. The students at Railway and Sultan Bazaar have been working hard to finalize their videos, and we’ll have screenings and celebrations with them tomorrow and Monday.

Before all the Hyderabad hubbub, though, I completed TMS workshops at Communities Rising in Tamil Nadu, and also had a final screening and celebration there. I am proud of the projects the students created in such a short time frame, so this morning I’m taking a few minutes to share them here.

At Communities Rising I worked with three different sets of students. The first video was envisioned and produced by Siva, a participant in the staff workshop I conducted. Siva is a computer teacher at CR’s after-school program in Periathachoor village. The video addresses the issues of fear and corporal punishment in schools and will be used by CR as a tool for promoting positive disciplinary tactics. Siva made both an English and Tamil version of his project.

Fear (Bayam) from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

As Ilana and I have experienced in our other classes, having a committed local teacher involved with TMS activities exponentially improves our effectiveness as digital storytelling instructors, both because of translation and the ability for the youth involved to continue learning when our program ends. After his own training, Siva played a crucial role assisting me as I taught photography, video, and editing skills to two groups of children in the Periathachoor after-school program. All of the equipment and software we used belongs to CR, and I know that Siva will continue guiding his young students through creative video projects in the coming months.

In the two projects below I created lesson plans that focused on practicing English skills while learning digital technology. My goal was to provide a model for meeting two of CR’s educational objectives–they emphasize literacy, math, English and computer skills–in an engaging way.

The following video shows two of five emotion dramas performed and filmed by 6th through 8th class students.

Emotions from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

The next video focuses on the English alphabet. Fourth and fifth class students explored letters visually with the cameras and verbally by reading on film.

ABC Movie from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Communities Rising’s college volunteers created the final three videos, in which they discuss their life experiences and perspectives on CR’s role in education for youth in rural India.

Fire at Communities Rising from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

An Engineer from a Village from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Education at Communities Rising from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Jan, 10

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TMS Fellow Updates

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“I” is for India: An update from Tamil Nadu

While Ilana dealt with the uncertainties of AP’s Telangana situation, I’ve stayed on in Tamil Nadu to conduct TMS workshops at Communities Rising. Last week I worked with teachers from CR’s after-school program for village youth. They are creating a video that discourages the use of corporal punishment in education, which will become a teaching tool for CR staff trainings, as well as a great Tamil-language resource for other organizations. Expect to see a subtitled version in the next few days!

This week I am conducting two three-day workshops with 4th to 8th standard students in CR’s after-school programs. Inspired by the success Ilana and I have had in our curriculum-focused Sultan Bazaar classes, I’ve designed photo and video activities in which the kids reinforce their English lessons through learning multimedia skills. The teachers to whom I introduced digital storytelling last week are a great help in organizing these activities.

Today I held my first session with forty 4th and 5th standard students. After a quick name game with the younger crew, Siva–CR’s Periathachoor computer teacher–and I demonstrated how still cameras work. The 4th and 5th class students each practiced taking group shots, using TMS’s “3-S” tip of straight-steady-smooth. Then it was time for their break while the older bunch rolled in. Again Siva and I explained the parts of a digital camera and how it works, this time to twenty-five 6th to 8th standard students. We also demonstrated the use of a Flip video camera and tripod before they ended for and distribution of snacks and brand new Communities Rising backpacks. Tomorrow the older kids will get the chance to be more hands-on, but one particularly eager student, Androos, hung around and tested out the Flip camera after getting his goodies. The rest of them shook my hand at least seventeen times each (as Indian kids are wont to do) before heading out the gate.

The students gaze curiously into the lens as I explain how the shutter works.

Next the 4th and 5th graders returned for their second session, which is typically English class. We divided them into 3 groups, with one adult per group. I passed out pages showing alphabet letters to the groups, so that each group had eight or nine letters. They were supposed to go around the schoolyard, identifying and writing down things they saw that began with those letters. With the sun setting, this ambulatory activity descended into a bit of chaos, but by the time we reigned them in for closing, the groups had a list for almost every letter, and the kids were excited to take pictures of those objects tomorrow to create their own photo alphabet!

Group shot captured by one of the students during camera practice.

Jan, 2

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TMS Fellow Updates, Videos

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The Modern Story Ventures South!

Happy New Year from Tamil Nadu! While Ilana headed north over the holidays I traveled west to Mumbai and then south to visit an another education organization, Communities Rising. CR runs after-school programs in villages of Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district. They work especially with Dalit children, and tonight I had the great opportunity to hear a presentation by a Dalit priest and lobbyist. I listened eagerly and asked many questions, as caste discrimination is an issue that hasn’t come up easily in conversations in Andhra Pradesh. I’ve wanted to learn more about the topic but wasn’t sure how to approach it, so that is party of why I came to visit CR.

While I’m here I’ve also been holding video workshops with some of CR’s great college students who volunteer in the after-school program. One of those students, Agni, has already completed editing a project in which he talks about CR’s work and his experiences with the organization. Check it out!

Fire at Communities Rising from The Modern Story on Vimeo.