Friday July 25th

We are now in Bangalore. The last few days have been a frenzy of school visits, dance exhibitions and a little bit of curriculum shopping.

Last night after our arrival we were introduced to a wonderful troup of Yakshagana dancers and musicians who portrayed part of the epic Ramayana through their arts. This is a classical art from that combines dance and dialogue tell a story. It was very vibrant and intriguing and I the dancers practice at least 4 hours daily to keep fit and master their performance. One young man was only 12 years old and he had been practicing since the age of 4.

Later that evening a group of us went out to shop and I purchased 2 traditional outfits. I will wear one tonight as we are going to visit the family of the fiancée of our tour guide, Gorgon. This will be a great experience for the five of us and we are excited. Now I have reviewed all of the etiquette about eating and greeting so I am culturally correct.

This morning we visited a private Academy of Creative Teaching. What an extremely interesting concept. They offer teacher training to schools as the common belief here is that the Bachelor of Education required to teach does not incorporate enough hands-on teaching or skills base. They also act as an accreditation agency for schools and they have just opened up an international school in an adjacent building. We had some staff development on mathematical thinking and met a professor who is academically brilliant and can answer questions from up to 100 people in the same order as they were received. His method was attributing values to actions in order to remember them. I think that was it!! The students performed a small skit on one of the Indian fables and it was marvelous. This will be a part of my curriculum too for my class next year especially as we have the stage.

On a negative note - today we have had several bomb blasts in Bangalore. Don’t worry, Ella is safe and sound. Our activities have been cancelled and everyone is feeling a little antsy as we have to stay in the hotel. On a typically positive note, tomorrow we are going to start with dessert first then salad for lunch as the food is fantastic!!