Happy Dasian!!

This week we have managed to squeeze in two teacher training sessions. The first this week was the head teachers meeting on the 11^th followed by the early years training session on the 12^th. Barbara and I wanted to do as much as we could before Dasian started. Dasian is a 9 day festival, we tried to get to the bottom of what happens on each day but we could only figure out that something happens on only 3 of the 9 days.

During the head teachers meeting Barbara started with a detailed explanation of what Manisha UK do and why we are here- as in our previous training session it was highlighted that some teachers did not know the exact purpose of our work- so we wanted to clear that up as soon as possible.

Barbra and I then went on to cover a lot of new approaches with the head teachers including the use of lesson plans and lesson observations being used to identify good practice within their classrooms. The head teachers were keen to use the observations to help their teacher’s progress and to also see more of what teaching is going on in their classrooms. We also found that the head teachers are keen to do more with their twinned schools and we are collecting names and addresses for teachers who have Facebook and email so we can make communication between the schools more instant and hopefully increase the amount of communication.

The next day Barbara and I held another teacher training session in one of the Montessori schools in Tansen. Sargar, a close friend of Manisha UK, works and helps in the Montessori school a lot so he was able to organise the day for us. The main idea behind taking the early years teachers to the Montessori school, was to show them that the children were learning through play. A concept which is alien to most Nepali teachers. We wanted to show the most the children could get out of limited resources and how some resources that we have provided, can be used.

The early years teachers started by shadowing the Montessori teachers so they could see the different approaches that were being used. They were able to see the children play, sing and dance. Barbara and I then asked the teachers to feedback to each other in groups about the good practice they saw and identify 3 things that they would like to incorporate into their own classrooms. The teachers then came up with a time table for each day in their classrooms with lots of short activities as well as structured and unstructured play.

After the 2 training days Dasian began, so things for Barbara and I slowed down rapidly. We couldn’t visit any of the schools or run any more training sessions as the schools were closed. We soon started a bit of a factory in the office and homestay as I was designing and making posters and games on my laptop while Barbara was creating masks and puppets. We also spent time in the office doing a lot of laminating and I sorted through all the books that we bought in Kathmandu and was able to assign them to age appropriate schools. We were also busy making pots of fairness for schools and counting out the lolly sticks.

We were also lucky enough to get called outside to see a part of a Hindu wedding we saw the bride and groom recieve Tika and were then going to spend some time at the Bride's house before the main wedding party the next day. 

Tomorrow is the main day for Dasian and the Bashyal family have invited us to Dhani’s home village for the day where we celebrate the festival and return back to Tansen in the late afternoon. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some more visits once Dasian is over.