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St. Vincent in Nepal- August 2010

Walking in the temple area

A View from the the Swayambhu temple. The city of Kathmandu can be seen below.

A view of one of the gold-rimmed spires of the temple

Another view of the city

Saturday, August 14, 2010

This is my first posting from Kathmandu, Nepal. I've been here for exactly two weeks. As has been the case in each of our four other overseas postings, the first 14 days have been a blur of activity, frustration, excitement, and jet-lag, not to mention the fact that I've had to get my classroom ready for the first day of school. That being said, the first day of school has already come and gone, and we are now officially three days into the 2010-2011 school year.

The trip to Kathamandu began on July 28th, I believe, when my sister, Carolyn, and I took a Jefferson Bus from Bemidji to Minneapolis. The next day I flew from MSP to Los Angeles. I had about an 8 hour layover in L.A. during which time I was able to talk with Kris via my cell phone. Little did I know that within three or four hours of hour phone conversation she would be in the Bemidji hospital for a two-day stay. (that's a story best told by Kris, 'cause I still don't have all the details straight---all I can say about it is that I was shocked to learn of it upon my arrival in Nepal)

The flight from L.A. to Bangkok was the longest in my life.....16-17 hours in length.....Once I had arrived in the land of Thais I had another wait during which time I met some of the new as well as "old" Lincoln teachers. I don't remember when we left Bangkok, but I think we arrived in Kathmandu at about 12:30 p.m. on July 31, two days after I had left the Twin Cities.

There was a wonderful crew of Lincoln School administrators, bus drivers, etc. waiting for us at the airport, and they packed up all our bags and drove us right to our apts. They did a fabulous job...

My apartment is located in the southwest corner of Kathmandu, in an area called Ravi Bhawan. I'm only a ten-minute walk from Lincoln School, for which I am eternally grateful, for driving in this country, just as was the case in Alexandria, Egypt, is a mind-numbing experience, each and every time........!!!!!!!! Having said THAT..WALKING is also a mind-numbing experience, each and every time... The roads leading from here to school or from here to anywhere are generally narrow and often packed with pedestrians, cars, trucks, and many, many motorscooters.

From what I've been told, Kathmandu is really made up of a collection of villages that have sort of merged over the years to become a city of about 1-2 million souls. There is still a feel of "village" in the different neighborhoods. For example, in front of my apartment building, there is a rice paddy, perhaps 2-3 acres in size. Winding amidst the rice field is a dirt path upon which my neighbors walk back and forth throughout the day. The "road" that leads from the gate of the apt. is identical to the trail that leads from our property in Puposky to Jill and Charlie's place. There are corn fields along the path, and about 50 yards from the gate is a very healthy stand of marijuana plants which look to be about ready to be harvested...(don't know the story behind that.....must be for medicinal purposes)

The first several days here were made up of new-teacher workshops...We were then joined by the vets on the staff. There are several teachers at Lincoln who have been here a LONG time. One of them, Suzie Burns, is about 67 years old, hails from Chicago, and has been at Lincoln for 35 years!!!! Suzie is an example of the the type of ex-pat Americans who have been coming to Nepal for years. I think that in the 70's many young American (and other Western-European folk) were attracted to the "peace and harmony" that they felt they could get by nestling amongst the foothills of the Himalayas. Suzie's husband hails from New York.. I met him last week at a teacher-party.. He has long, graying hair tied back in a ponytail, and looks like a hippy still walkin' the walk and talkin' the talk...The guy must be brilliant..he speaks 8 languages...Anyway, Suzie is one VERY INTERESTING person....

School began on Wednesday, August 11... I am doing something I've never done before in my 31 years of teaching---I am truly teach-teaching with a whirlwind, dynamic lady by the name of Tina Warren. Tina originally hails from Austria, but has been teaching at Lincoln for 17 years. I think that in one day she expends more energy than my entire annual output. She is organized, enthusiastic, and determined... I am just going to hang on and enjoy the ride this year. We are going to do quite a bit of our instruction together during the day. In math and reading we will eventually divide up our groups according to ability.

Today I took a two-hour hike to a beautiful Buddhist temple area by the name of Swayambhu. It's nestled in the foothills north of my apt. and takes about an hour to reach. From there one has a fantastic view of the Kathmandu Valley. Though I didn't tour the grounds, there is a huge temple adorned with gold that one can see from the city. There are forests surrounding the temples, and in the forests live hundreds upon hundreds of wild monkeys.. I passed many of them on my walk today...One of the first things we were told upon our arrival in-country is: don't stare or smile at the monkeys. If you do you are liable to literally have a monkey on your back. Last week our principal, Craig Baker, was out jogging with some folks from school, and a monkey did indeed jump on his back. They are potentially very dangerous because of the bite they can inflict...So NOW I know that those three rabies shots I got were not just for the legions of wild dogs that roam the city.... Anyway, I tried to make sure not to have a staring contest with my monkey cousins as I trekked up the hillsides today.

So that's all for today.......For more photos.....go to www.flickr.com/photos/mjwavrin

Mike

Debate Speeches and Feedback

The Great Debates of 2010



Here are the instructions given to my students as they prepared to write their debate speeches this spring.


The Grade 5 2010 Great Debates
10 May, 2010
Dear Parents and Students:
As you already know, the children are preparing for their debate speeches. These will be delivered on June 2 during our family get-together in the IT room. The instructions for the debates are just a bit different. The main difference, of course, is that that each student is paired up with an “opponent”. They will be debating a topic chosen last week. One of them will speak in favor of the topic or statement, while his or her opponent will speak in opposition to the stated position.
1. The person speaking in favor of the topic will speak first. They will have two minutes to give what they consider to be the best reasons why they support that position. Then the student speaking against the position will have their turn to state the reasons why they oppose it. Each speech should be about two minutes in length.
2. Following the opening statements, each of the team members will have up to one minute to rebut or challenge something that their opponent mentioned or perhaps failed to mention in their speech. While each of the members of the team are giving their opening statements, their partner should listen carefully and jot down any notes that they think they might use in their rebuttal statement.
3. While preparing for this debate it would be a great idea to think about the debate as a chess game of sorts. In other words, along with giving your best reasons why you support or are against the statement, you should also be thinking about what your partner might say. Be prepared to challenge them on something you THINK they might say in their speech.

Good luck to you as you prepare for these speeches. I am looking forward to hearing them…..

Mr. M






The next step was to record the debates. This was done at school. The two participants in each debate recorded the speeches during lunch hour in an empty classroom.










The speech was linked to the class website. After school the students took the following rubric document home, listened to the speeches and gave each participant a performance grade.

CLASSROOM DEBATE RUBRIC
Homework Should Be Given Every Night Levels of Performance
Criteria 1 2 3 4
1. Organization and Clarity:
Viewpoints and responses are outlined both clearly and orderly Unclear in most parts Clear in some parts but not over all Most clear and orderly in all parts Completely clear and orderly presentation


2. Use of Arguments:
Reasons are given to support viewpoint. Few or no relevant reasons given Some relevant reasons given Most relevant reasons given in support


3. Use of Examples and Facts:
Examples and facts are given to support reasons. Few or no relevant supporting examples/facts Some relevant examples/facts given Many examples/facts given Many relevant supporting examples and facts given


4. Use of Rebuttal:
Arguments made by the other teams are responded to and dealt with effectively. No effective counter-arguments made Few effective counter-arguments made Some effective counter-arguments made Many effective counter-arguments made


5. Presentation Style:
Tone of voice, use of gestures, and level of enthusiasm are convincing to audience. Few style features were used; not convincingly Few style features were used convincingly All style features were used, most convincingly All style features were used convincingly

N=Neha
FD=Farida D
Give each member of the team a score by placing their initials in all five boxes, according to how you think they did in that section of the debate. They will either get a score of 1,2,3, or 4 points for each section. On the back side of this form write a paragraph of between 5-10 sentences in which you give your general opinion of the debate. What did the debaters do well, and how could they have done a better job?

Classroom Website

http://www.schutzschool.org.eg/webpages/mwavrin/
This is a link to my classroom website as I have been using it this year. At the beginning of the year we had an outbreak of the H1N1 flu here in Egypt. All of us had to scramble and get our websites set up in such a way that they could be used every day by students who were not able to come to school for two weeks. It is still a work in progress, and next year I want to incorporate some new features. We have learned through the "Flu School" experience that one must simplify websites in such a way that they are easy for both students and teachers to use.

The Varied Uses of Video Recording Within the Classroom

This is an example of what I would like to do each year at the beginning of September. It's very interesting to get a sample of each student thinking about the upcoming year, and then do the same thing at the end of the year as they reflect on the past 10 months.

Matt's Graduation

Matt at pizza parlor...he has just discovered something very interesting on the secret microfilm

The Nutty Professor as portayed by Neil

Matt and Mary after the ceremony

Mama at the pizza parlor
There is nothing that needs to be said :)

Matt at ceremony
Matt and the rest of the gang

May 13, 2010

On Thursday, May 13, Matthew graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson!! Kris and my little surprise was a complete success. Matt had no idea that his mother would be on-hand for the ceremony. Matt's friend, Mary, was a great help to us as she was the "go-to" person these past several weeks. In fact she concocted a story that her sister was coming to Tucson to attend the graduation. Thus she told Matt that he should go to the airport on May 11th when the sister arrived. Well they did, but as Matt later recalled, "Mary's sister morphed into my mom." I have included some photos here of the ceremony.

Mike Wavrin Portfolio