Final Team Training!

Last night, our India Teams gathered for their final round of training before we leave next Thursday (7/30) to head to the field. We were joined by two very special guests who helped us in tremendous ways over the two hour span.

Dr. Shobana Pandian - Dr. Pandian is a local pediatrician who is a native of Tamilnadu and did her medical education just outside of the city of Chennai. Wearing traditional South Indian dress, she explained a great deal about Indian culture, some fun Tamil language basics and phrases, and answered a myriad of questions regarding everything the teams threw at her.

Mrs. Shanti Nand - Shanti (featured photo here) is a GCC member and close friend who taught ESL (English as a Second Language) for 5 years within the Elkhart School System. We asked if she would come and help both teams to understand some basic "do's" and "don't's" when teaching Conversational English to school children. As both teams will have a Conversational English focus point, Shanti was well prepared to help the teams understand that they need to a) focus on vocabulary over concepts, b) that the "unexpected is okay", and c) that we should focus on activities and opportunities for learning recognizing that everyone can participate, but maybe at different levels.

It was a great night, and i recorded the entire session if you'd like to hear. You can click here to go to my Livescribe notes. You may need to sign up for a quick Livescribe ID, but it's free and should just take a second.