First Day of School

Today was the first day of classes. I was able to sit in on classes with both of my cooperating teachers and see how they taught and managed their classrooms. The feel here is much more casual and friendly between teachers and students than what I have observed in schools back home. Here teachers and students see each other all of the time, including outside of school hours and around their homes. This contributes to a joking, friendly relationship. You can really tell that the teachers care about all aspects of their students' lives and the students love these teachers.

I will be teaching in a PHL (11th grade) biology class (2 sections) and a 9th grade science class, as well as a little work in a PHL chemistry class. This gives me a full and varied schedule that I can tell already will be tough but rewarding. I got copies of the students' textbooks to review and settled into my new office that I share with the department head. I'm already feeling like a full staff member here. Now I just need to get to work learning students' names and working on pronunciation.

I have already been prepared that I will be teaching the 9th grade class a unit on human impact on the environment, and the 11th grade bio class a unit on evolution. It is exciting to be given so much freedom to jump right in and start learning by doing.

Now here are a couple of random photos:

Paneer dosa in the Delhi airport. This is the first food I ate on the ground in India. I am posting this because Katie requested food pics.

Today's cafeteria menu. I don't know what most of it is but it all tastes good.

Poinsettias here grow as trees. Not the little potted plant for Christmas.