Winter Storm 2010 at Queens, New York - The day after Dec 27

The day after Christmas I was lucky to be back home, before the snow storm set in. What followed was 17 hours of continuous snowfall, that include lightening and thunder. This was the sixth largest snow storm in the city and the second largest since '96. The city saw over a foot and a half of snow. [18" - 20"]

Some of that 10 FPS speed came in handy for these two shots.

Queens with and without tilt shift Magic :

Peace,

Ajay

Christmas Post 2

Here is the second Christmas Photography post. Spent the weekend with a the DSouza's at their lovely house, that made for a great first Christmas in New York.





Merry Christmas,

Ajay

Christmas Post 1- The City

A christmas themed photography post in New York City.

 

I am looking forward to the next photography post Christmas Post 2 : A Christmas Family.

Peace ,

Ajay

Black and White Photography

I had long skype session with my Papa today, kept him awake till almost 3 AM India time. Amongst things we discussed were photography and how strangely a lot of people I know from my school batch are fascinated with it and do a real good job of it as well. I shared with him a link to some of the images uploaded by Reihem [Link Here] on his photo blog. Papa mentioned how a lot of photographers lean on black and white to capture a certain artisic depth of an image. So far I haven't switched over to black and white mode on my camera, but after seeing some of the great work on Roy's photo blog, I got the itch. I started by processing some of the shots I had taken in color, desaturating them while maintaining the luminosity and playing around with the contrast.
These two shots are examples of this.

I was very satisfied with the results. Though the second one was a bit out of focus, I call it arty farty soft on the eyes. 

So I kicked camera into black and white mode, and looked around my room for objects of affection, a flask, my cleats (right boot) and an empty bottle.

The Adult Learning Experience from the eye of a rookie tutor : Post 2 "Getting to know you !"

So here it is post 2. I am glad I am not slacking off  and am following up on my previous post. These posts are a mere reflection on my tutoring sessions. Don't go looking for the right way of doing things here.

INTERLUDE : Tonnes of changes on this web site. Dang! Adi Joshi you spoke sense.When I started the blog I was so in touch with the geek in me. Hence the retro wordstar processor blue on white high contrast styling that would send the blind into a stroke.

At the ALC (Adult Learning Center) I am obliged to conduct two sessions of two hours each every week. I hop in after work from 6 pm to 8 pm for these sessions. Hunger and the cold are generally on my mind when I head out of office.

On the night of my first ALC group session I had a familiar tune in my head.
"Getting to know you! tu du du tuoooo...
getting to know you! La la la!"

Ever since I had labeled this session "Getting to Know You" on my tutor file these were the exact thoughts that were going through my my mind on the train ride from work to the library. If you don't get what I am saying just watch the embedded youtube video below.

It was essential that I established why the learner has approached ALC to get tutored. As I mentioned in my last post, the motive of these learners is very different from that of a learner enrolled in a school or university curriculum. Their needs are more immediate, for instance : writing a check out, reading the weekend subway plan changes, filling out a government form or job searching.The main aim is to have motivated learners and the trick is to find out what motivates them and incorporate that in my lesson plans for the following few weeks. The ALC program doesn't have a fixed curriculum, teaching is need based. Learners often leave after they have acheived their immediate goal.

Assessing their current proficiency was a main takeaway from this session. This wasn't easy. I used an ice breaking technique. Thing in the bag. [won't work on your potential date :)] I asked them to take out an item in their bag that they would never leave home without. I picked out my MTA card and gave five reasons why it is important to me. Then I asked the two of them to tell me about why the mobile phone or the little bag in the bag the two had picked were important to them. This got them talking more to each other and share a few anecdotes about the thing in the bag. After getting the ball rolling, I got them to read out aloud different levels of materials, write a sample piece and do a little Language Experience. I will elaborate more on Language Experience and my take on lesson plan on my next post.
Handing them different levels of reading material to read out I looked at a few key abilties that make it easy for me to assess them. These are Sight word recognition, Letter name recognition and  decoding abilities. Looking at their writing sample helps too. I see misplaced capitals, misused punctuations, poor letter formation techniques : all very actionable and a definite on my lesson plan.

Last but not the least I ask them about their BackStory. What? Why? When? Where? Who ? How? were my friends on this session. This helped to find out wether they would be able to take time outside the two weekly sessions to work on their take home assignments. I could gauge to some extent a reading material that the learner would use in real life. The kind of support from a spouse or the family is also another thing I found out about. 

Some words I used here which I was clueless about before attending Tutor training -

Sight Words - words that can be recognized by the learner without sounding them out. i.e. recognizing words the same way that they recognize familiar faces in a picture. 'EXIT' , 'STOP', 'Coca-Cola', "McDonald's" etc.

Letter Name recognition - The ability to say the names of the alphabet

Decoding - The ability to break printed words into segments. This is a slower process than sight word reading as the reader has to disect a word by producing sounds and then combine the segments to form words. Non native english learners might be able to read the word correctly but not understand what they are reading.

During the course of tutor training I actually compared these aspects with my experience with Tamil. I have pretty much forgotten how if I hade any problems with English and Hindi. I was too young to recall anything now. But I started learning Tamil the summer before my parents planned to move to Chennai. I vividly remember my Grandpa instructing the two of us(sister and I) first on the alphabet and then the possible sounds and combinations on words. Till date I can read tamil at most times without understanding what I am reading. Largely because the language used in written tamil (books, periodicals and poems)are notches above Chennai Tamil [completely basterized by english,hindi and telugu words seeping in a-plenty.]. Well atleast I have graduated to watching Tamil movies without english subtitles now.

So that was my agenda for the session.

"Haven't you noticed Suddenly I am bright and breeeeeezy"

Getting to know you !

Ajay

The Adult Learning Experience from the eye of a rookie tutor : Post 1 Androgogy

I walked into the Elmhurst Library in search for a quick fix to my boredom on the train. It was early August 2010, around four months since I had moved into New York City. "A few graphic novels" I thought to my self - yes those are the easiest to digest and should keep me occupied on the commute. Leafing through the dc superheroes section I see a yellow Queens library flier. Its for the adult literacy center (ALC). [Link Here] I turn around and I see the door leading to the ALC located in the basement of the Elmhurst Library.The Library has the hustle and bustle of the community. My new community. A community to which I was new to. It was the need to get absorbed by the community that got me to sign up as a volunteer tutor at the ALC. I spent Saturdays in the following September attending tutor training sessions along with a bunch of other first time volunteers from all across Queens. Queens has around 65 public libraries [Link Here] , and 6 of them have ALCs located on their premises. The training period was lively, and full of debates, discussions and disagreements on methods of tutoring adults. A number of the volunteers had teaching background at schools. They were taken back by the difference in techniques that need to be used when tutoring adults. I found myself more open to these methodologies than the teachers were.

Andragogy, or the study of adult learning was developed out of a realization that there is a difference between the way adults learned as children, and the way they approach learning as adults.

"..if in an educational situation an adult's experience is ignored, not valued, not made use of, it is not just the experience that is being rejected; it is the person. Hence the great importance of using the experience of adult learners as a rich resource for learning. This principle is especially important in working with the undereducated adults, who, after all, have little to sustain their dignity other than their experience" 

 "...For the most part, adults do not learn for the sake of learning: they learn in order to be able to perform a task, solve a problem, or live in a more satisfying way .."

Excerpt from : Malcolm Knowles (1984) Andragogy in action : Applying Modern principles of Adult Learning

Malcolm Knowles is one of the most frequently cited theorists in adult education, and is frequently referred to as the "Father of Andragogy".

Through out these posts I will try and bring out how my experience as a tutor, has fared over time. I will end this post with a short introduction to the learning group assigned to me. My learning group has two adult learners. Again I would hate to call this a class, or any form of tutor and student model. As a tutor I am learning as much from them about literacy coaching as they are about the written form of the language. A middle age Nepalese lady, working part time as a baby sitter in Queens  is my first learner-friend. Her husband works in a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn. She has three school going kids, no formal education and been in New York City for five years. A young African-American lady, a high school drop out is my second learner-friend. Her husband is a painter, electrician and a plumber . She has four kids, all of whom live in Alabama with her cousin. She has been in New York all her life.

A NY Giant's Miniature world: Tilt shift effect

Adding blur to  the fore ground and background of a picture can cause the optical illusion of a miniature lego blocks city. The tilt shift lens in your SLR kit is an enabler to these effects.

A far cheaper option is the digital post processing of a regular image. Here is a free tool to add tilt shift to a photo taken on a regular zoom lens.

http://tiltshiftmaker.com/.

Here are two shots, the first one taken I had taken at Central Park. The second one really works for me its a shot I took today from my room. The view from top further enhances this optical illusion.

   

Peace

Ajay

Photography Challenge 2 - Leisure Priority Mode

Still at Central park, having been the high speed guy whole afternoon, and with an hour to go for sunset, I go into Leisure mode.

Set the camera on Aperture Priority. Switch lenses take a seat and relax.

Peace,

Ajay

 



Day 1: Photography Challenge - NYnja arts

Central Park ,NYC. Its 12 .30 PM, Dec 04 2010. 3 hours and 58 mins to sunset. Temperature 4 Celsius, factor in wind chill, feels lik -2 Celsius.

The theme capture active New Yorkers at the 10 fps offered by my sony alpha 55. Challenge accepted.

  



See more pictures on the alpha dog public web album on picasa. Find the Picasa widget on the right of this story to get there.

Peace,

Ajay