“A lady driving a scooter shot across while the other side had already started moving. A young volunteer traffic cop stopped her in the middle of the circle gesticulating to her to move aside. There seemed to be some heated verbal exchange and the lady refused shaking her head vigorously. She then struck the hand of the traffic cop and next started hitting him with her hands. He ducked. She then started driving her scooter onto the foot of the cop. There was no congestion at the circle. She then began to drive away. The cop held on to the back of the scooter. She had to stop so she jumped off the scooter which fell onto the road. She then ran after the cop beating him with her hands. He ran around the scooter trying to duck but never lifted his hands. Her head was covered with the usual dupatta and she wore sun glasses making her face invisible. Finally, another cop came and put himself between her and the other cop. Another cop came and lifted her scooter. She drove away after possible hurling abuses. I could not leave my car as I was at the wheel. I could do nothing but watch with a sense of shame. But the others around me, they watched the entire scene laughing.”

The incidents of traffic offenders attacking cops have become common
A couple of days later, my wife troubled at this civic misbehaviour went to the same cross road. She entered the police station and asked for the cop who was aggressed. There was only one young man and he looked up and smiled and said it was him. She recognised him and told him that she was a witness to that incident in case there was any action to be initiated. He shrugged and said that all that was in a day’s work. There were 50 such cases a day, he said. “How can I hit a woman?” he asked.

Obviously the woman seemed to have taken advantage of that fact. He said that the woman said that she would take action as he had molested her. “That’s outrageous!” my wife exclaimed. “I saw the whole thing clearly in front of my eyes.” Besides to molest a woman in full front of commuters in full daylight in the middle of a busy circle, how plausible was it?

He shrugged. “We have to bear this madam.” He was a young man, a volunteer, just starting out his career.

There have been so many instances of people attacking traffic cops and even injuring them whenever they are stopped. What is it that drives people to misbehave with the traffic cops? Do they cease to see them as human beings? Do they only see the uniform and beat them as a kind of perverse anger directed at those cops who might have abused the system? The traffic cop is unarmed and spends a good part of his day in polluted areas under a sweltering day. It’s not easy for them. All cops are not corrupt and if one is, then there is a redressal mechanism. Just remove all the traffic cops on the roads and see the chaos that will ensue!

Was the case mentioned above actually a battle of the sexes where the woman took out her full anger on a man? Today, I think I found an answer by the traffic police. A woman cop. At the law garden circle, two youth with scarves on their necks drove past and spat pan just in front of my car. They advanced beyond the acceptable line. This lady cop came and gesticulated to them to move back. They did not, trying to rev up their engine more. She calmly came forward and switched off their engine! They could do nothing but wait for the change in signal. More women participation will change the scenario!

The above article was published in the Ahmedabad Mirror on 01/05/2010

What I needed to know was what was expected of me and what I needed to improve. This is the other kind of reporting: a qualitative feedback. This feedback is directly related to the task and informs the child about the areas of strength and areas where improvement is needed.

The first thing about a qualitative feedback is to make the expectations clear to a child. This means that the criteria have to be defined with levels of achievement. In one task, let’s say creative writing – there can be several criteria. For example: imagination, structure and use of language. So a child may do well in one criterion and not so well in another. This itself gives a specific feedback.

Mostly grades are given in a qualitative report. But the human tendency is to then translate an ‘A’ grade into more than 90 % and so on. This brings a hierarchy back amongst the children. As a result of marks, children have a tendency to become competitive with each other. In the absence of marks and competition, I have noticed children are more cooperative.

The other point is who evaluates? Why should a child not have a say in what he or she has learnt? This articulation of one’s own learning is a very complex intellectual skill. Young children in our school put a tick mark against visual symbols that express different levels of achievement in a task. This makes the child more reflective. It also makes a report card more participatory and less judgmental.

The other aspect of reporting is the manner in which we give the reports to children. Rather than this being the dreaded moment, it should be the most exciting moment. What ruins a report card is when someone tells a child ‘Can do better.’ How unfulfilling this is! All of us can always do better. Come to think of it, the teacher could have done better!

The last point is about repeating a class. A reader asked me this question via mail some time ago. Repeating a class is a good solution when a child is either under age, was irregular due to some disturbance or needs to strengthen basic concepts before moving on. The problem is that it can be perceived as a punishment by a child or can be linked to failure. For a child, if his friends move on to another class, it can be very disturbing and can be counter-productive. In that case, it may be better to change the school so that the child’s self-esteem is not hurt.

Ideally, it is better to put a system into place where the child will come forward and express his or her own learning to the parents and class. This can be done by examples of work selected by the student in a kind of portfolio and should make a report card redundant!

The above article was published in the Ahmedabad Mirror on 27/4/2010.

Having completed the course, our teachers Seema Joshi, Ravinder Kaur, and Deepa Shah have been working to integrate more environmental-centric material into classroom activities and projects, so as to instill in students a greater sense of understanding and responsibility towards their surroundings. The teachers have been working with different batches of students on various projects all revolving around the contemporary issues regarding our environment: Sustainable development, global warming and so on.

The CEE recently acknowledged and applauded the three teachers by awarding each of them a ‘Gold Certificate’ for their contributions to the cause. All of us at the school are extremely proud of the wonderful work these teachers have done, and as other faculty members enroll and continue to participate in the Green teacher programme this year, we hope they will all come out equally industrious and determined to make a difference!

The first month, MGIS students started out with general classes on Sundays, conducting activities such as field games, art and other activities to get  to know the student group better. Three weeks later, actual classes were in session. Each of these classes required the MGIS student teachers to undergo training from the MGIS teachers to prepare their lesson plans, learn the school’s methodology of teaching and also learn how to handle a class. For English classes an interactive text book for standard 1 (authored by Anjou Musafir) , was to be of aid.

The MGIS students continue to teach children from Mithakali Gam every Saturday even from 4.30 to 7.00 PM and Sunday mornings. ID cards are now being made for the children and nutritional snacks are provided to them between classes. Recently, on the school Garba night, the gam children performed the traditional dance of Gujarat- ‘Garba’ on stage in school.

Despite the hardships of lesson planning, co-ordinating and handling so many children, MGIS students plan to continue their contribution to community and service and have said it is inspiring and extremely rewarding!

Article by Ruju Carlson (grade 11)

By having such a consistent program in the school, we want our students to also grasp that long term thinking needs to be part of any service project. That their work now, fortifying the links of the school with the community around it, should be done in a manner that will allow these activities to carry on even after the current group graduates. To establish in a sense, a legacy- a legacy that ensures a sustained effort to be the change that we want to see in the world around us.

Article by Nandita Dinesh, CAS Coordinator

Video one is a presentation created to spread awareness in regards  to  the issue of global warming. MGIS students conducted research on the subject and also integrated their own first-hand information and experiences of pollution in the city.

This second video was made by students of the MGIS batch of 2008 after their graduation. It is a sort of look-back at the experiences of the batch and features their thoughts on their time in the school.

Pascal and Anjou with Monique, former President of IBO

Pascal Chazot and Anjou Musafir attended the annual meeting of the Education Committee of the Governing Board of the International Baccalaureate Organisation in Geneva.In this meeting, the new President of the IBO was nominated and a grand farewell was given to the previous President, Dr Monique Seefried. Monique visited MGIS  few years ago and greatly appreciated the work done in the school,news about her visit was published in the IB World Magazine.

Click here to read the article written by Dr Pascal Chazot in Ahmedabad Mirror

Click here for the related article published in the IB World Magazine

Students through the Primary and Middle Years are participating in a performance in collaboration with Spin Academy to raise funds for Charity. The money collected will be used for the benefit of mentally challenged children. Students have been practicing regularly for the show which is due on Saturday, 17 December 2008 at Aakash Party Plot. Do come to cheer them!

Invitation by Lissa Chazot, Photographs by Grade 11 student Shriraj Sagara.

Students of MGIS were the first students who learned to use the Right to Information Act. Several forums and discussions with government officials, journalists, media persons and personalities later, they were ready to fight for issues they believed in. Many of them took a stand for their teachers with the RTI Act (click to read the article link above) and later used RTI to help others in their immediate surroundings.

Article 1: A therapeutic session in India in Part III
“ Pascal Chazot et Anjou Musafir : Une session thérapeutique en Inde”

Article 2: Multi-disciplinary approach explained in Part II
“Pascal Chazot : Des fractions, des fleuves et des dieux”

UNIVERSITE PARIS 13:

Thesis: The construction of knowledge. A case-study at Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad.

Pascal Chazot
Titre de la thèse : Co-naissance de la connaisssan- voyage au sein des processus d’apprentissageà l’école internationale Mahatma Gandhi en Inde. Directeur de thèse : Jean Biarnè
Link to a brief about the thesis subject (in French)

AIM:
To identify social/environmental issues around us and communicate about them effectively in a 30-60 second video announcement.

CONCEPTS
filming, photography concepts such as shots, sound recording, linear and non-linear video editing, graphic design, typography, storyboarding

ACTIVITIES

• Investigate tools suitable for production and post-production.
• Analyze existing ads, their call-to-action, duration, shots, etc…
• Reflect and develop your understanding of the social significance of the issue you have selected.
• Identify a target audience and accordingly, create a design specification of your ad.
• Identify ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your ad at the end of the cycle.
• Design several storyboard with written details of each shot.
• Get feeback from peers. Evaluate each designs against your design specs and select one final one.
• Plan each shot including props, actors, location, time and any other aspect needed.
• Make provisions for the unexpected.
• Identify post-production (editing) tools and time needs.
• Create footage of the ad as per your storyboard and follow the plan.
• Keep a process journal of the production and post-production.
• Evaluate the ads using appropriate testing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

GENERATED RESOURCES
short trial movies, storyboards, role-plays, 30-60seconds of edited video footage, audio-tracks, computer graphics
AREAS OF INTERACTION
Approaches to learning, homo faber, environment, health and social education, community and service. A rare case where all five AOI’s naturally integrated in this project.
LINKS TO OTHER SUBJECTS
Sciences, Humanities, English, local languages, visual and performing arts
Assessment Tasks
30 to 60 seconds of edited video footage
RESOURCES NEEDED
Computers, video-editing software, sound-editing software, graphic design software, photo-editing software, camera, boom mic, tripod, headphones.

BACKGROUND OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE VIDEO DESIGN CYCLE
This cycle’s title should have read “Blog Design Cycle”, I had initially planned a blog module that would have allowed students to create an online topical blog on a social/environmental issue that they felt strongly about. Learners’ interests and experiences is central to my technology unit planning. I had initiated this module, but it received lukewarm interest from the class, I quickly changed tack and reoriented them towards the making of video social service announcements. This was met with astounding enthusiasm. Three years prior, an MYP class had been approached by an Indian TV channel to create their own talk show, as part of the show, they had to product 5 to 7-minute segments. This took considerable planning and logistics. The students were bogged down by technical hitches and scattered storylines. As a result, they quickly lost interest. I knew the medium fascinated them, what teenager doesn’t want to make a movie? Later, I realised the task was too heavy for MYP learners, it was impossible to create a quality 5-7 minute segment in a reasonable amount of time. The experience prompted me to restrict the length of the ad within a range of 30 to 60 seconds. The typical ad slot on TV is 30 or 60 seconds. I chose a time range rather than a set duration because I felt the learners were novices and needed some flexibility to express themselves. Keeping the format under 60 seconds really encouraged the learners to articulate their thoughts and communicate their messages effectively. It also allowed them to concentrate on the quality of every second of the video, and I believe their final solution has more impact than if it had been just 30 seconds longer.

From a logistical standpoint, 60 seconds of video makes perfect sense as it frees up important material resource faster. At the production (shooting) stage, this meant greater availability of the school’s single camera, boom mic and tripod. At the post-production stage (editing), students were able to divide their time and share the computers needed for video editing. We have 22 students and our computer lab has about 16 Imacs and Emacs, G4, G5 or Intel Core (2) Duo.

For the sake of context, my background is in new media communication. My full-time profession is teaching. As a technology teacher in the MYP, there are two priorities that I take very seriously: the first is to encourage people to communicate openly yet ethically and sensitively. As articulated in our schools conceptual framework, my second priority – and this should be central to any computer-oriented technology programme- is to ensure that when students completes the 5-year course, they can consciously respond to communications stimulus around them. Moreover, they should be able to confidently and effectively communicate to achieve their goals by harnessing the power of a variety of media including:
print – brochures, posters, news publication, …
Web/screen – creating static HTML, using web services, blogs, screen presentations, …
Video – shooting, editing, distributing on DVD’s or with tools such as You-Tube, …
Audio – recording, mixing, distributing through podcasting, …

My measure of success deals with the ability of students to consciously and responsibly communicate their message to the world. If students walk away from the 5 years of MYP with that confidence and ability to harness technology to better their lives and the lives of others, they will have tremendous impact in their field of action

THE PEDAGOGICAL DEPLOYMENT
It was important to expose students to high-quality advertisement that were linked to the project. Throughout the cycle, I often used social service announcements by the Ad Council ( www.adcouncil.org ), a US organisation that calls on private advertising agencies to volunteer and create social service messages in several media formats on a wide range of social, health and environmental issues. I also exposed them to interesting commercial advertisements, especially when a making of video was available ( see http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/ ). The approaches were eclectic and targeted very different audiences. We often started a class with a short 30 to 60 second spot as a starter activity and to initiate a reflection on narrative styles, call-to-action, storyboarding, etc…

CUTS
To introduce the use of cuts, I asked screened an ad once, then the second time, I asked the students to say cut every time a cut occurred in the ad. This helped make learners aware of camera direction. At that stage the notion of establishing shots, extreme wide shots, wide shots, mid shots, close-ups and extreme close-ups was indirectly touched upon but remained abstract

STORYBOARD AND SHOTS
We approached storyboarding in a similar manner: we screened another ad once to give a global view of the ad. After a brief explanation about storyboarding, I invited them to storyboard each shot of the ad individually. I told them I would only replay the ad ‘once’ this forced them to be extremely attentive and not become spectators (a very important aspect of film-making). I screened the ad and let the students piece the storyboard individually. Later I merged them into small groups of 3 or 4 learners and invited them to compare and complete their storyboards. Finally upon the request of the learners, I re-screened the ad and allowed the students to fill in the missing shots. As we looked at the drawings we identified different shots and I formally introduced their names with the support of existing printed material from Videomaker.com and Media College. Using an emailing group, I provided students with links to these and other wonderful online resources. ( http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tutorial/01-framing.html )

It was important to create a sort of dry run that would allow the acquisition and utilisation of all the key concepts and skills before they got to the design stage of the advertisements. Time was a constraint, I devoted two sessions to the ‘Invisible Bench’ activity. In the same session as the storyboarding activity, I handed out the play called The Invisible Bench which is floating around several websites (http://gsleaders.org/files/skits.htm):

#1 is “sitting” on a bench (which really isn’t there).
#2 walks up – “What are you doing?”
#1 – “Sitting on an invisible bench.”
#2 – “Can I join you?
#1 – “Sure”
#2 “sits” next to #1.
#’s 3 &4 walk up – “what are you doing?”
#’s 1&2 – “Sitting on an invisible bench.”
#’s 3 &4 – “Can we join you?”
#’s 1&2 – “Sure” (and so on till only one person is left)
Last Person – “Hi! What are you guys doing?”
Everyone else – “Sitting on the invisble bench.”
Last Person – “Didn’t I tell you? I moved the bench over there.” (points in other direction)
Everyone sitting on bench says “Oh no!” and falls.

I invited learners to storyboard the above script individually at first. Later, I created groups of 5 to 6 learners and ask them to either adapt one of their storyboard or to start a new storyboard collectively. To help them envision the shots, I handed out recycled pieces of paper with a 4:3 rectangle cut out in the middle of the paper. I showed them how they could look through it to envision and crop a shot. I explained that each group would go on to shoot and edit their version of this play. Being under 20 seconds and requiring no major props and acting, the students could really focus on film-making concepts. We were able to focus on shots, cuts (and coherence), technical considerations of lighting and sound environments as well as the handling of sound and video equipment from technical and safety standpoint. The students had about 40000 Rs. worth of gear (about US $1000.00), we took this opportunity to lay down important guidelines around the equipment. I worked with each group individually as it would have been next to impossible to create a practical environment with the entire class. While I was working with a particular group and shooting the story in an empty classroom, the other students were trying their hand at storyboarding their actual social service video. The Invisible Bench segments were very quick to edit and made use of all the essential tools in the video-editing programme. I devoted 2 class sessions of 1.5 hour each, but the students spent another 2 hours after school to shoot and edit. Students were actually suggesting stay-backs to move ahead faster. Their overwhelming enthusiasm throughout this module made us progress at amazing speed. During the editing process, students became aware of issues ranging from camera shaking, back-lighting, discrepancies in continuity of storyboard, poor audio, etc… Editing also allowed us to explore how a few clever post-production techniques can make up for a missing or unusable shot. After finishing the edit, each group showed their ads to the class and a stimulating reflection ensued as we discussed the strengths and shortcomings of each video. I should not that I did not go into great length about camera motion and zooms as those techniques require a certain amount of experience to pull off. I encouraged students not to zoom and to stay on the tripod whenever possible.

I used the project to discuss responsible use of technology to tackle real issues using existing ads as starting points on a variety of relevant issues like Aids prevention, smoking, obesity, alcoholism. I also took up the issue of online sexual predators, the Ad Council has very powerful ads in this regard. Some students realised how exposed they were based on the information they disclosed on social networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook.

We frequently contrasted approaches of ads to different problems and sometimes audiences. To address ethics in the media, I walked into class one day with two ads on reckless driving. One ad was light and humorous (see New and Improved) , while the other was so graphic [LINK CONTAINS GRAPHICAL DEPICTION OF A CAR ACCIDENT] that I actually showed it to colleagues before screening it. When I walked into the class, I announced I would be showing 2 ads dealing with road safety, and that one ad would be very graphic. I asked wether any students wanted to go out of the class while we played the ad. All decided to stay. We watched both ads, and by the end of the second (graphic) ad, you could hear a pin drop in the room. I asked the students their responses to both ads, they contrasted the ads on a number of points and correctly identified that the first ad (US-based) was heavily geared towards teenagers, while the second ad (Irish) portrays all ages of people – perhaps a reflection of differing societal problem or just a call-to-action to different audiences. Many were really shaken by the second ad but said it had made an impact and had scared them into not driving fast. One boy raised concern about showing it on TV without warning viewers first. We got to talking about ethics, my choice to screen the ad, my prior warning about its graphical nature as well as censorship. Later we discussed inter-cultural sensitivity of ads and at that point I invited students to incorporate an evaluation of their ads from an ethical standpoint.

We entered the design stage charged up, students drafted and redrafted several storyboards, sometimes going back to their investigation and rethink their design specifications. They had animated exchanges about how to best convey a message, students drafted and redrafted their storyboard, sometimes amending the design specifications. Pretty soon, the project was the only thing on the students’ lips. I began receiving phone calls from them at all hours of the day even on Sundays, they were teeming with questions and ideas. I was conscious of the need to explore with more depth the Indian perspective of advertising, rather than referring to international ads for support. Fortunately one of the student’s parent who heads a large Indian advertising firm volunteered to take a session on advertising with the MYP 5 group. My concern to bring an Indian perspective to the project was addressed.

With ever-growing enthusiasm, we continued to work. At the planning stage, students scouted for location all around the city, some approached local businesses and obtained permissions to shoot on their premises. One student convinced the restaurant manager of an ice cream parlor to let his actor spit pan (chewing tobacco) on the store’s windows. The average student took about 2.5 hours to shoot 5 to 6 minutes of raw footage. Students were expected to direct, handle the camera and sound check. They were allowed support from their classmates and friends to act, hold the mic in one place or to redirect bystanders. Because students were often shooting off-campus, I imposed the strict rule (possibly the only non-negotiable one) to have a responsible adult with the student at all time while shooting. I introduced this requirement after realizing the public nature of their shoot locations on their plans of action, thus the students had not made provisions for the responsible adults at the planning stage. It often happened that I was the responsible adult, I can think of better places to spend my sunday afternoon than in a men’s bathroom, but one student’s storyboard mandated the location and to his credit he had pulled off quite a feat in securing permission to shoot his ad in an up-scale social club of Ahmedabad. Students were least concerned about how much time they spent making their ads, staying up late and pleading with the computer lab teacher to let them in.

Somewhere early in the creation stage, I also received a call from Mrs. Karwal. a parent who heads the state-wide cleanliness campaign for the government. She expressed her keen in the project and her amazement at the quality of the ideas that she had overheard from the students themselves. We determined a day when she could come to the class and address the group. Mrs. A heard the storyboards from each student and complimented the class by saying, “my team has been banging their heads for months about how to raise an awareness of many of these issues and you guys are doing it, I would very much like to bring a delegation to screen the ads, and possibly to purchase them for use in a state-wide campaign”. We looked at the production schedule and fixed a date 2 weeks later for a world-premier screening of the ads to an Indian government delegation. This became a non-negotiable deadline. The students were ecstatic to know their ads might be screened on a greater scale than initially intended (online, in the school and as part of community and service school initiatives).

In the post-production phase, students grappled with but eventually tamed their footage into the alloted time range. Students were furiously experimenting with sound effects, transitions, color tones and special effects. This was the real deal, they wanted it to be perfect. The editing lasted until 12:30 in the night for some of the students. And then the big day came, the Indian delegation included high-ranking officials from government offices that struggle with the issues in our ads. We had booked the school’s multi-media room and were ready to project the ads on the big screen. Each student had prepared a short introduction 20 second introduction before screening their ad, talking about what the issue meant to them. We had worked with the drama teacher on the delivery of this short speech one day prior. The ads were received with a standing ovation by the delegation and many praises about the quality of the ads and the process. Mrs. Karwal concluded by saying the government would like to use all the ads and take a keen interest in future projects of the sort to tackle social issues including controversial social taboos.

As the new Indian youth, these students are well equipped to speak out. They offer a refreshing, honest and refreshing perspective that may be what is needed to address difficult subjects in Indian society. The students’ present ads will be introduced in cinema halls across Gujarat (50 million inhabitants) and used in government awareness programmes. The video unit coupled with the power of the internet and TV distribution will hopefully become a voice and a lively online community fostering creativity and responsible social change.