Last night we had quite a shower of rain, and this morning the weather is cool again and remained so all day. I had fifty scholars at school today, suffered with the headache considerably yesterday and last night… –Mary Jane Edwards, writing in Jackson, Mississippi
Fifty students in one classroom! No wonder Mary Jane had a headache!
That’s close to the number my dear friend Rugmini Menon and her colleagues at Kendriya Vidyalya Kanjikode taught every single period when I visited them in 2010. A veteran teacher at this government school in Palakkad, India, Rugmini hosted me for two weeks as part of a US Department of State teacher exchange program.
Unlike Mary Jane’s class, Rugmini Ma’am’s students were dressed in neatly pressed blue and white uniforms, the girls at tables on one side and boys on the other, and completely silent during our writing workshop. I was so excited to introduce memoir writing to them using the “River of Life” activity recommended by Lisa Dale Norton in her book Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir.
Memoir is an excellent way to engage students in writing. We all have a story to tell!
Elementary classroom at KVK, 2010
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