Joel Anderson

Even though I have traveled in Europe, the South Pacific and Asia, the cultural experiences in India were very new for me. I knew very little about Indian culture before this trip. I was saturated with the language, music, dance, literature, art, religion, architecture, and food of South India and found it so enjoyable.

The preparation for the trip to India and the five weeks in Tamil Nadu, South India have had a positive impact on my life and teaching. The experience has developed a great network of people and resource material regarding India that I did not have access to before. Insights gained for my classroom have included a new perspective of geography and its effect on people in the sub continent.

It is amazing that connections with India are made while teaching fourth grade Wisconsin history. Current events from India have a greater meaning for me and I stop to share them with my students. It was a pleasure to stay with a host teacher in suburban Madurai, a city that I had never heard of nor could pronounce just weeks before. We share many of the same concerns and joys.

Joel Anderson
Joel teaches 4th grade in Wausau, WI

Go to Joel’s lesson plans (Elementary level+):
– Geography of India
– Trash! How Cities Work: Dealing with Garbage in the US and India

Randy Colton
What strikes me about India is that, from what I witnessed, the nation is made up of so many and such diverse parts: traditions, belief-systems, languages, and means for doing things. These all exist in concert, and amazingly, the blend seems to work. One example of this that comes to mind is transportation on roadways. Bicycles, bullock carts, pedal carts, motorcycles, motor rickshaws, autos, buses, and trucks use two-lane roads and crowded city streets in ways that seem so chaotic, yet there is a general sense of order that all share which helps the whole transportation organism to function fairly effectively.

India appears to be moving through some big changes as it increases connections with the rest of the world. Television seems to be quite an influence for this. Passing through tent cities, one can see the glow of television screens lighting up the interiors of dwellings. Cable TV, with domestic and international channels, distribute many notions about lifestyles, many of them at odds with traditional lifestyles. The Internet brings on a growing link with other people and ideas around the world. World markets are making inroads to India, evidenced by a surging consumerism that yearns for foreign goods.

Randy Colton
Randy teaches 4th grade in Schofield, WI
Go to Randy’s lesson plans (Elementary level+)
– Water: Access and Use
– Human power vs. Machine power

Jean Hoffman

One of my most memorable moments was when we were working on one of our curriculum units. I was working on the Gandhi lesson plan and made the comment “I wish we had gotten a better video clip from the Gandhi museum lectures.” Just a few minutes later a car drove up with 5 Gandhian scholars who were on their way to a funeral 20 minutes from where we were staying. One of the men in the car–the premier Gandhian scholar Ravindra Varma from New Delhi–had heard about the NGO (non-government agency) that we were staying at and wanted to stop in. He gave us a quick,12 minute lecture about why teaching Gandhi was relevant and important in today’s world. It was phenomenal! The next day there was a feature article on him in the newspaper. Unfortunately the video sound did not come through, but I will use the article when teaching about Gandhi in my classroom.

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to interact with 16-17 year old students at the school that I worked in for a week. I had one week of working with 11th and 12th standard students at the Mahatma School in Madurai–standard is the Indian equivalent to grade; essentially these students were about the same age as the students I am working with at Wauwatosa East High School. My homestay was with the principal of the school. This family also ran a residential school on their property about 20km outside of the city. They had a huge hall on the third floor of their home and one night I was asked to speak to about 300 of the residential students. I found that students there are concerned with the same things as my students here–college, grades, relationships, balancing school, work and home responsibilities–and they enjoy some of the same things–hanging out with friends, listening to music, going to movies, reading…. Differences included what they were asked to do academically: the emphasis in India is on memorizing content for their exit test.

We visited Hindu temples, Christian churches, Muslim mosques, an ashram, and sacred mountains that had 2200 year old Jain carvings in the stone. I loved learning about the diversity of religious culture in India–I was presented with information that broke through many of the stereotypes that are often associated with Indian culture and religion. Most people assume that all Indians are Hindu and that Hindi is the language of choice. In the southern states the Dravidian languages are still very much alive. In Tamil Nadu–the southernmost state–there is a large population that rejects Hindi as the preferred language and is working to preserve the Tamil language; the purists lament the fact that even Tamil is becoming corrupt–for instance, many native Tamil speakers do not know the Tamil words for telephone or bus. The fear is that as words are lost, parts of the culture are also lost–in our own country we see this with American Indian languages.

Again and again we heard the warning: if you know something about India the opposite is also true. It was an eye-opening experience–I had moments of intense peace standing upon beautiful mountain tops and moments of great despair when presented with devastating poverty. I saw great wealth and academic rigor in the schools in Madras and struggling teachers and students in a poverty stricken village near my homestay. I met women breaking stones in a rock quarry with sledge hammers with their preschool children waiting patiently nearby and women academics and authors who rely on the latest technology to aid them in their daily work-related tasks. I met people working for non-government agencies to empower women through micro-banking cooperatives and creating medicinal gardens, to combat the spreading of AIDS in rural areas, to end displacement of the forest dwellers in central India, and to raise awareness of water rights violations and political corruption. All of the people that we met were kind, welcoming, and willing to share their struggles and successes with us.

The experience of the Fulbright Hays Group Projects Abroad has impacted my teaching in a most positive way. I feel much more qualified to talk about India when teaching World Literature excerpts of the Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita and the novel Nectar in a Sieve; though I am still cautious and warn students that I am not an expert–I just have some interesting observations that can help to illuminate our understanding of the texts. Last year I spent three days in class watching the movie Gandhi and had one day of discussion. This year I extended the unit to include genuine reflection and sharing of our experiences with violence and efforts to bring forth a non-violent paradigm in our society. The information from the Gandhi Institute really helped me and my students to see that violent behavior is much more than the physical–it can be verbal, it can be manifested in fear and fundamentalism, it can be as innocuous as inaction or passivity in the face of injustice. I was pleased with the projects that my students completed: the effort, the sense of commitment, the revealing of “the self” were all much greater than in any other project that I assigned throughout the semester.

I feel privileged and blessed to have had the opportunity to interact on a more intimate level with the people and the culture rather than having had a mere tourist experience. There are days that I find myself longing for India–I miss the sea air in Pondicherry, the bustle of Town Hall road in Madurai, the auto rickshaws, roof-top restaurants, the wonderfully warm weather. Most of all I miss the people. I look forward to the day that I can return.

Jean Hoffmann
Jean is an English teacher in Wauwatosa, WI.

Go to Jean’s lessons (High School – can be modified for middle level)

– Peace and Non-Violence: The Teachings of Gandhi
– Women in India: Tradition vs. Modernity

Jackie Kaplan

The teachers at my elementary school have found it difficult to include anything additional in their curriculum in these times of high-stakes standardized testing and increasingly rigid state standards. But we have been able to incorporate small things about India. I have made brief presentations in several classrooms, shared materials, and we now have a display case of Indian artifacts in the library. Through my influence, the principal hopes to invite one of our teachers from India to be our artist in residence next year.

As with all experiences like ours, probably the greatest impact of our Indian trip has been on the participants. We had the priceless opportunity to explore a culture very different from our own, with people who dearly love India and Tamil Nadu. More than anything, I was impressed with the intelligence, kindness and wonderful sense of humor of everyone that we met.

Besides deepening my knowledge of Indian religion, history, politics, cooking, yoga, music, dance, and the arts, I also was able to interact with educators involved with teaching children with special needs. I had the opportunity to lecture the incoming class
at a college for training teachers in special education, work with the speech therapist at a school for mildly and moderately cognitively delayed students, and consult at a new residential program for profoundly handicapped young children who have been
abandoned by their parents because of extreme poverty. I am very interested in special education and how it is possible to provide education for handicapped children in a world of limited resources where it is difficult to provide schooling for even the most
capable students. Although the need is still very great, I was very impressed by what I saw in India.

Jackie Kaplan
Jackie is a speech and language clinician for the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Go to Jackie’s lesson plan- (Elementary, Middle, High School)

– Trash! How Cities Work: Dealing with Garbage in the US and India

Sandy Kowalczyk

Tamil Nadu

Burnt orange earthen clay pots

fashioned by hand

on the spinning potter’s wheel

balanced on the head

and in the brown arms

of an indigo sari draped woman

carrying water from the pump

down the terra cotta dusty road

to her home roofed in thatch.

constructed from bricks

formed in molds by hand

from the sun baked earth.

Sandy

Sandy is a reading specialist at Patrick Marsh Middle School in Sun Prairie.

Go to Sandy’s lesson plans (Middle level +)

– Kolam: A Living Art of South Asia
– Shadow Puppetry in South India

Kathy Kozub

Our journey to Tamil Nadu was a wonderfully enriching experience. I was able to learn about and participate in a culture that is both vastly different from and in some ways the same as ours. Language, customs, educational practices, art and music, social differentiation, economics, government, religion, food (loved it!), climate, and health care were only some of the aspects of South Indian life that we explored.

Perhaps more importantly, it was the human connection of our similarities that I think of often. It was enlightening to interact with workers from various NGOs, gain understandings, and hear their views on problems that are both local and worldwide in scope, such as land use issues, globalization, women’s empowerment, and AIDS education. Our talks with Gandhian philosophers and teachers were a heartwarming reminder that many groups in this world are actively working to promote peaceful solutions to conflict. A favorite photo of village children, laughing and caring for younger siblings, reminds me that love and laughter are universal.

Having the opportunity to see a variety of educational settings, from special needs schools to colleges and village schools to private schools, was quite insightful. While it was difficult to not dwell on the differences in facilities and materials between our schools and theirs, it was impressive to see the love of learning and the use of what was available to enhance education. The students in my kindergarten class have really enjoyed learning about Southern India this year. Artifacts, from books to lunch pails to puppets to rupees, along with photos have provided hands-on involvement for lessons. Lessons range from describing a child’s life in an Indian village to the making of kolam designs. As kindergartners, they are naturally curious about similarities and differences in world cultures.

In all, our trip was a remarkable experience. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in the project, especially with such a great group of people.

Thank you Rachel, Eveline, and Judy for your organization, knowledge, caring, and commitment.

And thank you CESCI, our peaceful, green oasis.

Kathy Kozub
Kathy teaches kindergarten in River Falls, WI.

Go to Kathy’s lesson plans: (Elementary+):

Introduction to South India

Amy Morgan

It is hard to put into words exactly how the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad to southern India has affected my life personally and professionally. Having never traveled overseas before much less out of the Midwest, I was eager to begin my educational journey to India with my fellow colleagues. Little did I realize at the time, that the country of India along with its diverse population and culture would leave a long lasting impression on me.

My experiences in India have enabled me to construct a broader picture of India within my classroom—a picture that most textbooks exclude. My students have gained an appreciation for a country that is often known in most textbooks for being a poor, overpopulated country with limited technology and resources. Although some of this is true throughout parts of India, my students also view India as the world’s largest Democracy whose struggle for independence is very similar to that of the United States. They have also come to realize that one uniqueness of India is the diverse religious and ethnic populations living together in the country with little conflict. The people of India show pride in these differences through their daily lives.

The Fulbright experience has been a springboard for my professional career. It has allowed me to serve as a contact person in my district for other teachers whose knowledge of India is quite limited. I have spoken to many grades not only within my district, but area schools as well. I have also spoken to community organizations and student teachers about my experience and how important it is to bring different cultures of the world into our classroom from our own personal experiences. These experiences promote learning and understanding at a different level than textbooks allow.

The minute I set foot off the plane into Madras, I was completely overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells of India. I will never forget the congestion of traffic and all the horns sounding to help maintain the flow of traffic or my first shopping experience at Spencer’s Plaza. For the next five weeks, my affection continued to grow towards a country and culture that is often misrepresented in textbooks. No matter where we went, we were always greeted by the Indian people who were eager to learn more about us as individuals and why we came to India to study. Many of these individuals wanted to invite us into their homes for coffee/tea and to talk about our experiences in their country. I never imagined that after the short amount of time I spent in India, that it would be an unforgettable experience. I am proud to say that my home away from home for the summer of 2003 was southern India.

Amy Morgan
Amy teaches middle school for the Belmont Community School District in Wisconsin.

Go to Amy’s lesson plan (Middle Level):

Two Nations Struggle for Independence
India Powerpoint Presentation

Stacy Ohnesorge

My lifetime professional and personal goal as an educator is to promote acceptance of diversity of all people. Going to Southern India has better enabled me to present to my students a multi-cultural curriculum that empowers them to love themselves and value the differences of others. By traveling to Southern India I had the opportunity to become more acquainted with another region’s culture.

Flying into Chennai I was taken by surprise by all of the lights, tall buildings, and commotion. I had not expected the view from the airplane to be so similar as one would see flying into a large U.S. city. When I stepped out of the airport my senses were submerged in chaos. I was astonished by the amount of people active on the streets at one in the morning. As I walked out of the airport, I was immediately caught off guard by the intense smells, sounds and sights. For example, the air fumed with diesel mixed with a smell of urine, my ears rang with car horns and ringing cell phones, and my eyes were mystified by the chaos of cars, cows, busses, auto rickshaws, and people all traveling the street. We made it to the motel with our over packed luggage on our laps and tied to the top of the van. I felt amazed and could not believe that I was really in Tamil Nadu. It felt like a dream. But a dream it wasn’t because in the morning I awoke to sounds and smells that were foreign to me. I could hear the sounds of horns, unusual sounding music, and lull of murmured voices of another language. A smell of incense and spices filled the air. I was about to encounter the best travel experience I have ever had.

As I took my first daytime steps around Chennai I was surprised at the merging of the new and old in Southern India. I learned of people who had no homes, no running water, no electricity, etc. In stark comparison I saw people climbing up on stick scaffolding creating skyscrapers. And even more contrasting I saw thriving malls, Internet cafes, and heard cell phones ringing steadily. Although there seemed to be a huge dichotomy between the old and new the city seemed to work effortlessly.

The people I had opportunities to interact with in India were very charming and hospitable. People invited us into their homes with open arms and I immediately felt like family. The value placed on family life in Southern India appeared to be held in very high regard. I heard of no divorces. I only heard positives about families. The people had a devotion to their families that was refreshing to see and be part of.

My experience team teaching with teachers at S.E.V. school was marvelous. I had opportunities to work with other teachers, share ideas, interact with students, and teach them about our culture while at the same time learning about theirs. I was very impressed with the school’s extra curricula choices the students had. Some of which I had the opportunity to observe and participate in included yoga, karate, Western Dance and traditional Southern India Dance. I was shocked that students were learning multiplication in standard two and they already had learned how to write in cursive. The students were very serious about school. At the young of age 7 they were already speaking of going to university. The students were very kind in sharing with me favorite past time activities. I found that a lot of what the children loved to do in Tamil Nadu was similar to what my students enjoy doing in the United States.

They both love playing make believe, listening and telling stories, playing ball, running, making art projects, singing and dancing. While working with a standard 4 class students orally shared with me their favorite folk tales. They allowed me to tape record their stories. My students here in Wisconsin have enjoyed listening to the stories and retelling them through written words and illustrations.c

At S.E.V. school the students spoke English. The students at a village school did not; however, through mimicking games we were able to communicate and have fun. It brought me great joy to be able to find a common language with the children through play. The children were delighted at the opportunity to stop their schoolwork for the time being and break for a little song and dance. I will forever remember the expressions of happiness and laughter as we sang “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” and played games of mimicking.

My journey to India has significantly enriched my life and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity. It has given me the chance to observe and participate in the daily lives of some people in Southern India. My students now have been able to have hands on opportunities with artifacts and stories that have made them more aware of the world around them. The trip to Tamil Nadu has also changed the way I view the society in which I live. It has allowed me to see my community more objectively and appreciate all the little things I have forever taken for granted.

Stacy Onesorge
Stacy teaches in Verona, Wisconsin

Denise Roseland

I arrived in India filled with great expectations about the amount of material I would gather for use in my classroom. After all, India is a growing economic powerhouse in the global economy and I teach business and marketing. The added dimension of the technology boom in India made this an even richer opportunity for me to “internationalize” some of my technology courses. I would soon find out, I was in for subtle surprises.

About four days into the trip, my journal switched to a noticeably different tone: from one that documented how the people, places and things I saw and experienced were different from home to one where I reflected on how similar things were in India to the issues of my daily life. I stopped rambling on with pity over the things people didn’t have to admiring how rich their lives were in ways I’d never thought of.

As the weeks progressed, I gathered a lot of very useful information about the country, its economy, the people, their culture and traditions, the history, the role of business and government, education, and so much more. I thought of hundreds of ways I would integrate this into lessons in my classroom. I knew that every class I teach would become “more global” in perspective because of this experience.

The biggest impact of this Fulbright experience came by surprise and in a much subtler form. One day, quite by chance, our group was visited by one of the world’s leading Gandhian scholars. We asked him, “What should school-aged children be learning about Gandhi and his philosophy?” His answer forever changed my vision for how this trip would impact my classroom.

“They should not be learning about Gandhi as a freedom leader but instead as a man who believed in Inter-dependence, peace, love AND logic,” he replied.

All of a sudden, my goal was to no longer gather just facts to turn into knowledge for my students. I certainly didn’t want my students to simply have a culture fest where they explored matters of culture like food, dress, history, religions and customs. Now, I hoped they would FEEL something on a personal level as a result of things I would share and encourage them to explore. I hoped it would be things like genuine respect, compassion, shared responsibility, and empathy but I was willing to accept anger, resentment and misunderstanding as possibilities as well. I knew that if something I shared with them as a result of this trip might trigger them to feel, they were more likely to personalize learning and this might lead to a longer lasting impact.

Classroom activities that I use place a much higher value on working effectively together, using strong academic skills to solve real problems and require students to demonstrate their own genuine respect for differences. I wish for my students to learn, laugh, share responsibility with each other and feel a sense of community where they feel free from judgment. This vision allows me to move my classroom towards that interdependence, peace, love and logic the Gandhian scholar referred to.
Denise Roseland
Denise teaches in Kettle Moraine, WI

Go to Denise’s lesson plans (High School Level)

Organizing a Business Trip: A Technology-Integrated Project
Microfinancing Works for Local Citizens and Foreign Business

Lori Woitalla

As I sit here contemplating the question of how my trip to India has influenced my teaching, I realize that traveling to this magnificent country has impacted my life both personally and professionally.

Before I started this program, I knew very little about the country of India other than where it was. While in India, our group was able to explore a multitude of experiences. We talked with a variety of classes of people, were able to see life in small villages as well as large cities, visited temples and churches, and observed the lives of both wealthy and poverty-stricken people. The ability to partake in such encounters was definitely a positive experience for me. I felt like this trip enabled me to look into the world of an Indian citizen for a brief period and to begin to understand what it must be like to live in this country full of extreme opposites.

As I continue to let my mind wander back in time, many wonderful memories appear. Repeatedly, I keep coming back to the people of India. Everybody we met was kind to us. In the temples, they let us explore their religion. People selling their goods were persistent but were always accepting of us whether we bought their merchandise or not. Educators shared their knowledge and pedagogy freely. Village people talked with us and let us take their photographs. Weavers invited us into their homes to see how and where they work. Doctors and nurses took good care of us when we were ill. Every person we met greeted us with a smile. The people of India made my experience most memorable. They taught me about life in ways never intended, but lessons learned will never be forgotten. I came home feeling very blessed to have met so many wonderful people in my time away.

A person could devote a lifetime to studying this country and culture and still have more to learn. However, the most significant piece of wisdom I have gained from this trip is the realization of how important it is to not judge other cultures by my own American ideals. This one piece of knowledge has influenced my teaching the most.

My third grade students were fascinated with every aspect of Indian society that we explored. They loved learning about the schools, family life, food, clothing, housing, music, and even practicing Yoga. We enjoyed comparing and contrasting the two cultures. Throughout the lessons, I made sure to emphasize that one belief or way of doing something was not superior to the other. They were just different. It is very astounding to children to learn that other cultures do not always agree with the way we choose to do things in America. It is my hope that my students will grow up to be adults who think and make decisions on a global level.

India changed me personally and professionally. I feel fortunate to have been part of such a dynamic group of teachers exploring a country that in so many ways is different from our own. I look forward to sharing this knowledge with students and adults for countless years to come.

Lori Woitalla
Lori teaches 2nd grade in River Falls, Wisconsin

Go to Lori’s lesson plans (Elementary+):

How Many Languages do you Speak?
What is a Democracy?
What Makes House a House?
A Comparison of Two Great Leaders: Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr