Twilight—August 30, 2010

I’ve passed the two-week-to-go mark. It’s thoroughly arbitrary, I know, but somehow when my departure was a month in the future it felt far off but two weeks just feels more imminent, more urgent. Maybe it’s knowing that I’ll have one more full weekend at home—hits all the dad-guilt buttons. I’ll watch my daughter play soccer and then fly out the next day. My wife and I had what will probably be our last night out together (without the munchkin in tow) until January. We went to Barbette—our usual place—ordered our old favorites, tried a couple of new desserts from their pastry chef and said good-bye to the manager. Our usual waiter was unfortunately on vacation. We chatted with her for awhile and she comped us champagne. Good closure for one piece of our life here.

The past few weeks have been strange—I mean throughout the whole summer I’ve been sending out e-mails that will arrive in the middle of the night or early, early morning. When I wake up the next morning there are replies from people with beautiful names whom I’ve never met. It’s like being caught between two worlds—a twilight existence. I live my day-to-day life with all of the responsibilities—driving, groceries, play dates, walking the dog, tuck-in duty—but as I look around, there’s an awareness, almost an observational distance and reflection. I experience the stores, traffic and the personal interactions but I’m looking for the assumptions. I look at what I’ve laid out for packing and then all that we have in our house and wonder how much of it is necessary. What am I carrying with me culturally that I don’t even know is there? While I’m trying to stay in the present and not obsess about the next few months, I can’t help but wonder about what my life will be like in India. I walk Jack and I marvel at how broad the streets are and how far apart the houses are (not to mention the size of the houses, the newness of the cars, and the amount of stuff we have). I received some really hard family news this weekend and found solace in the fact that the Basilica of Saint Thomas will be close by, but then moments later a letter about the transformational experience from working with a guru and Eastern mysticism arrives from a friend. Two worlds—connections in both, twilight. How will I change? While I know that would not have to travel 11 time zones to have these thoughts, there they are nonetheless. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m ready to go.

I wonder about how this will affect my daughter, too. How will it influence her thinking? What will it mean to her? What will she take away from it? She’s five, bright (well, I think so at least) and very observant. She’ll have memories and she’ll think about experiences; she’ll have stories to tell her friends. Maybe it’s just going to be part of her and her reality—this is what families just do. Talking with a neighbor a couple of weeks ago we discussed how they were trying to instill values of openness, tolerance and cultural curiosity in their daughter by hosting a foreign exchange student. I hope that this experience will have that affect on Mads.

Pictures of home

Fall colors.

Tettegouche State Park.

Cascade River.

Downtown from the Stone Arch Bridge--you can tell fall is beginning.

Mill City Museum and mill ruins.

Grain elevators by the mill ruins--I just like this picture.

Tennessee Williams--the new Guthrie.

Mill City Farmers' Market--one of our CSAs does drop-off here.

Channel between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles.

Southern Lake Calhoun view of downtown Minneapolis--shot from my kayak.

Photos--AED training

Here are the men doing what became known as the "Linda Dance" (after the South African teacher who taught it to us--he's in the front grey track suit jacket). I can't believe I made this public. Sorry, guys.

Here's the group--U.S. and international teachers on the Capitol Steps. I'm in the second row--purple polo (my daughter picked it out). My good friend from Finland is at the bottom of the steps--white shirt. My friend from southern India is standing in front of him. The guy standing next to me is a teacher from Colorado who is doing research in Argentina.

Post AED-training, just visited the National Mall, DC

Four days of training in DC with our international counterparts—teachers from India, Finland, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico and Singapore. Hours and hours of training session and meals in the lower meeting rooms of our hotel which is enough to disorient anyone on top of late nights filled with conversation. It’s hard to put it together into a linear account—so much has happened over the past few days it will take a little time to process it fully. Hopefully writing will help. It feels like dream time—stretched, but intensely focused and vivid with pieces of conversation spiderwebbing off into other meaningful conversations.

The teachers I met this week are incredible educators and people—brilliant, committed, deeply engaged in the craft. I wish that had remembered my camera, but AED took a lot of pictures so hopefully I can download those soon. I’m still blown away by the conversations and connections made outside of the sessions—incredibly memorable. I haven’t even left the hotel yet and I miss these people intensely. I have room for just a few of the highlights—this entry could be a book unto itself.

One vivid memory that I will keep with me for a long time is discussing race, politics and history with a teacher from South Africa. Two hours passed like minutes and we both walked away grateful for having the time. I also had a chance to get to know a science teacher from Finland (we initially connected over a mutual appreciation for good beer) and we had many discussions about the role of the teacher in our students’ lives, our families, sport, guitars—our common ground. Just on a personal level, I am going to miss him the most—great guy to have a beer with. We left last night with invitations to each other’s homes and I hope we can keep them. I think our little girls would get along tremendously. AED set up two meetings with IB teachers/coordinators in the DC area. It was wonderful to have conversations as well as share materials, success stories, difficulties our programs face and to get another couple of sets of eyes on my proposal. Both of these women helped me a great deal in how to think about this project and additional questions I could ask—I am so grateful for their time and wisdom. I had an unbelievable discussion with an Indian math teacher from Pune. Before one of the morning sessions, we discussed her research proposal—using Vedic methods to teach mathematics—and she gave us a mini-lesson in how they work. It was an incredible experience—we talked about number sense and teaching students how to think about math and then instructing the student on how the math works. Her students never use calculators, and these techniques are designed in reinforce computational skills as well as save time on exams. We also discussed how she folds in the logical foundation of math and how it is different than science—a mini-lesson in knowledge with her students, but an essential component for their understanding. I desperately want this teacher to come to my daughter’s school—her approach is fascinating. This is how almost all of the discussion went—you’d walk away with new ideas, feeling intellectually invigorated, marveling at the assembly of truly great professionals who care deeply about kids and education or just a new personal connection with someone who is about to embark upon a similar journey.

There is one last piece—DC. I’m getting ready to leave in a few weeks and I had a chance to walk down the Mall. I made it all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial before I had to turn around and head back to my hotel. The conversations about our country and its culture over the past few days, the tour of the Capitol building, taking in a play at the Kennedy Center and watching Marine One fly over us with the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials as the backdrop, combined with today’s sights I can’t help but feel deeply patriotic and proud of my country. Perhaps this is a good way to begin my journey—reminders of values and principles, but then also having to step away from my own culture and really listen to others explain theirs. The conversations and experiences over the past few days have really given me a chance to reflect on my own culture and understanding (this really built on the presentation by one of our presenters—a professor from American University who discussed cultural awareness and collisions). I feel ready to go—just more at ease, a better mind set. It all seems connected, a oneness—the biography I’m reading, the conversations, the lectures—but maybe (and my ToK students would laugh at this) it’s just how I want to see it, how I want to see the meaning in it. Perhaps there is more than one right answer to this.

AED Training--DC

Heading to Washington to train with AED and meet the other DAT teachers and our international counterparts. Hopefully housing will be taken care of this week and then I can just focus on fine tuning the interview questions, packing and spending time with my family. All the gear has been purchased, made a couple of contacts in Chennai. Spoke with my principal this morning about helping foster connections with my host school—and it looks like we got some interesting things to offer. Picked up a book (another one!) on Gandhi and Churchill. Started reading it and it is fascinating—supposedly it gives a unique insight into modern India.

I’m taking this as a bad sign—I miss my daughter already and my flight hasn’t even left. I can be such a hopeless sap, but I love being a dad and Mads is such a wonderful kid. September through mid-November is going to be hard.

Thank heavens I’ll be busy. Gotta stay busy.

Places

I will be in Southern India this fall—Chennai. This is really where I wanted to be—close to the ocean, deep cultural roots, a cosmopolitan city. The school looks fantastic and the city beautiful and rich in culture. There’s a music festival in December and lots of dance performances. The city has the second largest urban beach in the world and it’s only a few minutes from my work site. Only one bummer—Maddie and I were studying Hindi in anticipation of the trip and the state language is Tamil. Perhaps we’ll find language classes upon arriving.

I have met my supervisor and she is wonderful. It appears that the school is pretty new to IB—only since 2009. Looks like there are about 25 kids in the diploma programme. However, the more I talk with Ms. Sudha the more connections are evident in our teaching and approach. I think this is going to be a fantastic experience. Just looking at the biographies of the staff is enough to blow you away. I am going to learn so much—can’t wait to get into conversations with the staff and students.