Anjali, Anish and Gurbaz India Journals

Beware! There is probably a lot more detail in this than you need or want…but I wrote this journal for personal use as well…Good luck!

Journal 1: As I sit on the plane waiting to land in India, I feel a crazy mix of emotions. There is a part of me that is incredibly nervous because there are so many new factors involved in comparison to last year. For one, every one has much higher expectations from me. Also, there are two additional schools involved, which I have never even interacted with before. All three environments seem so different from one another. In fact, the students at each of the individual location are each at varying levels in regards to their English knowledge.

            There are many different worries on my mind as I embark on this journey to teach in India through the Home of Home English Empowerment Program. What if the children are nowhere near the levels we anticipated? What if I am unsuccessful in quickly and smoothing the corners and improvising a lesson plan when needed? What if there is a problem and the teachers refuse to comply? What if someone gets sick?

            But the thing is no matter how many worries I have; I have to believe that everything will be all right. I mean, think about last year…I went into Koshish and KTC in total confusion, without any guidance or organization. I had no lesson plans and absolutely no idea how it was all going to go. But it all worked out. The kids even told Madhvi Aunty that they couldn't wait for me to come back. So I guess, I am not really worried about Koshish. As for Mijwan, although it will be a completely new environment, I feel like I am more relaxed since it will be all girls. Teaching the boys in India seems a bit too difficult for me right now. My true concern for Mijwan is that I will get sick. I guess I will have to be really careful. Plus, Geeta Aunty will be there and she is practically like my second mom.

            So why am I so stressed? Oh right. Saidham. The big unknown.

Journal 2:  Today I had a very interesting experience. I was staying at my uncle’s house where they have a servant who is just a year younger than I am, Rani. I have met her on my precious trips to India however, it was not until this year that she confessed her desire to learn English. Excited, I pulled out the tool books and got to work! 

Before we began, she knew the alphabet and had memorized the spellings of each word that showed up in her book that corresponded to a letter. For example "a for apple, b for ball". She had absolutely no idea why each word was associated with each letter or it’s meaning, but she was convinced she was learning by copying the words in order. 

With the help of the just read books, she now knows consonant sounds the short and long vowel sounds within two hours. She also is beginning to learn the meaning of each word that she had previously memorized. 

I am astonished at her commitment to learn. I kept asking her if she wanted to take a break, but she was insistent on learning as much as she could before she was called back to work. I am so glad that I could not only help kids in India but also in my own house. 

Journal 3: Today was my first day at Saidham. I will be teaching with EEP members, Anish, Gurbaz, his cousin Mannat, and my cousin Joshita. From July 1^st to July 5^th the schedule will be as follows. Monday, Thursday and Friday we will be teaching at Saidham and Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:30am until 3pm at Koshish from 9am to 11:30am and 2pm to 4pm. However the following week, July 8^th to July12th the schedule will be Monday and Tuesday and Koshish from 9am to 11:30am and 2pm to 4pm and at Saidhman Wednesday through Friday from 9:30am until 3pm.

When I first arrived at Saidham at 9:30 on Day 1, I had a little chat with the Principal, Vinu Ma’am and we discussed scheduling for the following week. While waiting for Neeti Aunty to arrive, I asked to sit in in an English Class. I was extremely excited and began taking notes of all of the things I noticed. Here are some of the main points: The teacher was not teaching them grammar. She was reading a story on Rabindranath Tagore with a focus on reading conversation. The children were unresponsive and unable to answer any of her questions excluding those relating to numbers. Therefore, the teacher began to speak in Hindi for a large majority of the time. Her speech in English was unclear, pronounced incorrectly and spoken at a very fast pace. Her tone was harsh and she never waited for the children to answer her questions. She merely blurted out the answer for them. At one point, my brother, Anish actually asked me if she knew what she was saying. We began to write down phrases she was saying incorrectly, like “Which subject he interested?”. “He interested in science application”, “Konsa story wrote kiya tha unne?” My goal is not to pinpoint her, which is why I have omitted her name. Since no action has been taken to improve her English and teaching styles, I can only assume that several if not all of the teachers teach in a similar manner.

Once Gurbaz and Neeti Aunty arrived, they insisted on seeing me teach. Especially since Abieshek, from Mijwan, was with them since he wanted to get a better understanding of my teaching style. And so, I was led into an 8^th grade class. These kids were very, very reluctant to teach, however I was expecting it. We began with my favorite, vowels. I defined vowels, and discussed the idea of short and long. Then, we went around the class with each person giving me a word with short a, then long a, and short b, then long b and so on…Since these children were very reluctant to talk, this process went a lot slower. But, all in all, I would say it was still a positive experience.

Next, I was led into a class with a mixture of 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students. This class soon became my favorite class to teach in. These students were a lot more receptive and willing to participate. I was also a lot more willing to laugh and relax with them and I realized this allowed me to teach in a much better manner. Once again, with these students I began with vowels. I have learned that this is a very good basic concept to start with, because most kids know it, but their teachers have never focused on it. I have noticed that the students appreciate the extra focus on this topic. This class got through the vowels much faster but they enjoyed it so much that we continued with vowels. I truly enjoyed teaching them. :)

Journal 4: Today is Tuesday and Day 2 of teaching, which we spent at Koshish. As many of you already know, I have a very special attachment with Koshish so it brings me great happiness to report that Koshish students have improved exponentially since last year. Their ability to remember the lessons I talk them last year amazes me. However, before I get into the curriculum and teaching aspects, I would like to discuss a challenge I faced on Day 1.  I had been teaching the boys (morning session) and one boy in particular had been taking quite some time to answer a question I had asked him. Behind him, I heard two boys whispering and snickering. At one point I heard one boy whisper something along the lines of, “sit down, you don’t know what you are doing” in Hindi. I politely asked the boy to sit down and erased all the notes I had written on their chalkboard. The kids were very confused because I had been in the middle of a lesson. I looked at them, took a deep breath, and then an idea struck.

“Why am I here?” I asked them. Some of them yelled out “to teach us English” and I responded. “Haan. Lekene aur bhi hai”, Yes, but there is more..  I explained to them that I was also here to work with their teachers. But there is another reason I am here, one that I had not even thought about consciously until that moment. I wrote English Empowerment Program” On the board and asked them what English meant, then what program meant. When they couldn't tell me what empowerment meant, I underlined the word power and asked what that meant. They said “Shakti” and I explained that empowerment meant that “I have shakti and I am here to give that shakti to you, to empower you  so that if you have any dreams or goals you feel confident that you can achieve them”. Then I discussed how it feels when someone compliments or encourages you, they told me it made them feel good. I said, “It feels good. So they are giving you shakti, power”. Then I asked how does it feel when someone teases you or insults you. 

They said it feels bad and I said, “They are ‘stealing’ the shakti, power, from you”. Then I referred to the incident I witnessed and asked that boy if he understood what I was saying. When he nodded I asked what he could have done instead of “stealing the shakti of the boy that didn't understand” and he told me he could give him more ‘shakti’ by encouraging him or helping him understand. Then I had the boys stand in front of the class and I had him explain the concept to the boy that had not previously understood and amazingly, he understood it immediately. I made the entire class applaud and pointed out that we may not realize it but there is a teacher in each of us and therefore if our peers do not understand something that we do, we should step up and help him out because you might be able to teach it better than me. This lesson seemed to be impactful and I made sure to mention it to the girls when I caught one of them snickering that afternoon. 

            Sorry, I realize that got a bit lengthy, but I thought it was important to share. I made sure to start with that lesson at Saidham as well. Anyways, back to Koshish. Morning sessions are for boys and evening sessions are for girls. A couple things I noticed, the kids were not wearing uniforms…I was told they were to only wear them on special outings….that was not my impression of their purpose. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. Also, the fees are 30 rupees per month. I believe we discussed this last year. What exactly had we decided? Because I had assumed after our “little talk” that the fees would be stopped? Where is the money going?

Also, the computer lab looks really pretty. Many of the “graduates” of Koshish are being trained to teach. One of them, Irfan, is handling the computer department. He taught three of the older girls about powerpoint, however they did not have any set syllabus (something I have started to create….)

Roshini, another graduate in training is aspiring to be a teacher. When I arrived at Koshish she was teaching them Capitalization from the Just Read Book (by the way, the already had a full set, so I did not leave an additional set there!) however, her style of teaching was the only one she knew. She wrote a line on the chalk board and the class stopped it. I was told to step in, but I wanted her to continue, so I simply encouraged her to talk to them as she wrote it. Slowly she began to explain the topics (I stepped in to help her out when I felt she needed it..). After she completed her lesson, I was asked to teach.

As I mentioned before, I taught the boys from 10am to 11:35am. We reviewed the Alphabet, vowels, Capitalization, and listened to the HaveFunTeaching Alphabet songs. Also, on the world map I showed them India and America. They had great participation but were still worried about getting it wrong. The boys said that in the next class they wanted to learn part of speech (everyone) and Direct and Indirect Objects (CHANDAN). My special students, Chandan (eager beaver), Pooja (the one I saw snickering and therefore talked about Empowerment), Priya (getting married soon) and Komal (female version of Chandan) were all very active in the morning session.

Then came the afternoon session, which to be honest was much, much, MUCH more fun fore me, simply because every single girl remembered me! With the girls, we got through the material very quickly. We reviewed vowels, parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb), contractions, compound words and sentence structure! In retrospect, I would say they were even above Saidham level! These girls had amazing participation! They insisted that tomorrow we do a review of the parts of speech, and focus on homophones, homonyms and homographs, as well as work on prefixes and suffixes.

            I really enjoyed teaching at Koshish, despite their lack of Smartboards, or wifi. These children have a true passion for education and I am really grateful I was given the opportunity to see it!

Journal #5: Today is Wednesday and our second day at Koshish. I decided to pair Gurbaz and Anish with Mannat, because both boys seemed a bit flustered with how to word things in Hindi, as they were not really comfortable with it. On the other  hand, Mannat lived in Chandighar and so was easily able to translate or help the boys say what ever they wished in Hindi. Today Mannat, Gurbaz and Anish taught the morning session, boys, for the most part because I wanted to see how they could teach. At first they were all very nervous, as it was their first time. But gradually, they began to gain confidence and control of the class. For a very long time they focused on compound words. I noticed the kids referring to examples I had mentioned a year prior and made sure to point that out.

            After that Mannat, Gurbaz and Anish zoomed through parts of speech very quickly because it seemed that was something they had previously learned. They picked it up easily through sentences and examples. Afterwards, from 11:20 to 11:50, Gurbaz implemented his sports idea. He believes its important for kids to exercise and participate in sports especially since there are many qualities that children learn from sports. So then the boys played soccer outside.

            On the other hand, with the girls, we also reviewed Parts of Speech. Then, I focused on homonyms, homophones and homographs. This took the entire class period but the girls had a lot of fun and were really good at participating. During my class, 4 girls were taken out in order to participate in the computer lessons that Anish and Gurbaz were teaching.

(ANISH BLURB)

Then, when I spoke with Sheetal, she requested that on my next visit I begin the implementation of the Train the Train process..

Journal #6:  Today is Thursday and my second day at Saidham. Today was very exciting for me, because Anish, Gurbaz and Mannat taught without me for the first time. Before class I prepped them and gave them a quick overview, but in the end, they had to handle the class.

            Anish, Gurbaz and Mannat first taught in a 6^th grade class (6A). They began with introductions and asked what they students knew. Then they began with vowels. They improved and created a game with a points system to make the activity more interactive and exciting. Then they continued onto blends like “bl” and “cl”.

After that class, they taught a 5^th grade class (5A) which soon became their favorite. They began with introductions, and once again asked what they knew. The kids were very excited and had a lot of energy. Since their class period was only 30 minutes they only got through long and short A and long E.  The promised the children to return the following day and continue.

Meanwhile, I was asked to work with the teachers and implement train the trainer tips. This entire process was recorded. Then I was asked to teach a class, which they also wanted to film, so I returned to 7a and taught them about punctuation. The class was really well behaved and eager to refresh what ever they had forgotten about this particular topic.

            After I finished teaching, I was interviewed regarding EEP and teaching at Saidham. They asked me questions like, “What inspired you to come to India and teach?”, “What were some challenges you faced?”, “What is something you learned?” and “What is your vision for EEP?”.

            Anish and Gurbaz were also interviewed. When we were interviewed, Gurbaz was asked questions about the EEP sports that he started at Koshish and Saihdam in which Anish helped. For example he was asked “What inspired you to start this program?” “How did you get involved?” “What’s your vision for the sports?” And Anish was asked questions like “How did you get involved in EEP?” “What has your experience been like so far?” “What challenges have you faced?” “What did you learn?”

Here is the Train the Trainer Tips I, Anjali, created!

Train the Trainer Tips

1.     Talk slowly, both in English and in Hindi

2.     When you ask the children a question, it is okay if they do not respond right away.

3.     Speak in English as much as you can, and after every sentence ask students to translate.

4.     Encourage participation of all students, through raising their hands.

5.     Allow students the time to struggle with answer. Do not tell them right away.

6.     If student’s answer is incorrect, do not correct them. Point it out to the class and encourage them to decided if it is correct or incorrect. Ask them to tell you why. If the class in unable to tell you, maybe the lesson should be reviewed.

7.     Reward the students for participating, even if the answer is incorrect.

8.     Try to avoid lecture. Keep class as interactive as possible.

9.     Never make a student feel bad for giving the wrong answer. If students knew all the answers, why would we have teachers?

10. Encourage all types of questions.

11. Patience is the key to being a good teacher.

12. Be open to new ideas and suggestions and student’s feedback.

13. Create a lesson plan for every day to stay organized.

14. Do not be afraid to stray from your lesson plans. There is nothing wrong with improvisation.

15. Find ways to test the students other than written exams.

16. Increase enthusiasm and energy.

17. Do not be afraid to smile.

18. Empower students and encourage them to pursue their dreams.

Journal#7: 

       Today is Friday and our third day at Saidham. I taught my 7^th grade class for an hour and we reviewed everything we had learned and then focused on the pen pal program. We discussed how to write their names, ages, dreams, and future goals.

Meanwhile, Gurbaz and Anish taught a fifth grade class, one that they now call their favorite. Gurbaz’s opinion on the afternoon class: We started by introducing ourselves again and then went right back into learning the vowels. Since we had got through a and e in the morning we started by learning long I, short I, long O, short O, long U, and short U. This took almost the entire afternoon class. As well as making sure they knew the sounds we asked them to make up words with these sounds and letters. The 5A class was really motivated and enthusiastic to learn which made it easier to teach. I look forward to working with this class again next year. Also, Anish and me made a few jokes, which made the class more fun for everyone. I feel if teachers did that as well that would make class more enjoyable for them. The proof is that at the end of the period they did not want to leave which is amazing. I have never seen a class want to learn even after the bell. This shows cracking a few jokes here and there will actually help the class learn because I felt we got through a lot today.

Then the kids had break from 10:30 to 11. Then I taught a 4^th grade class. We focused on vowels and English EMPOWERment (no bullying) which took up a lot of class. Their energy and enthusiasm, though great, made it difficult to get through a lot of material.

As I was walking back to the principal’s office, one of the kids from 7a class said they said Gurbaz and Anish playing outside. They explained that they had math, but they knew it was Gurbaz’s final day at Saidham and they really wanted to play. And so, I approached the Attendance Admin and pleaded with her to release them. She reluctantly agreed and I led them out to the field. The boys joined Gurbaz and Anish for football (soccer) and I took the girls to the court and taught them how to play basketball. We reviewed what we had done yesterday, dribbling, and they tried passing the ball, blocking other teammates, and shooting. After 10 minutes of drilling, the girls wanted to play a basketball game for the first time ever. By that time, Anish had joined us so we split up the teams into Anish’s team (7 girls with braids) and my team (7 girls without braids). Throughout the game I noticed energy, participation, encouragement, and persistence in the girls. Though they were competitive, they were still allowing everyone to try. For example, when one girl, Neha, claimed she was too shy to play, everyone circled around her and encouraged her to simply try to make a shot. Even when she missed the whole group cheered her on. Everyone was disappointed when the bell rang and it was time to go to class.

            I walked them to their room and they began to mention pen pal. They said they wanted to try it on the computer. I agreed and asked the teacher to allow me to take them up. On the computer, Anish, Gurbaz and I had them open up Microsoft Word and we had them write: their name, age, class, hobbies, and dreams. Since there were a lot of students, the three of us identified a boy that seemed to have a knack for computers and knew the kids pretty well. His name is Avid and he is 14 years old and he was incredibly helpful with managing the kids and making sure everyone understood the lesson. Since the computer lab did not have Internet, we had all the kids save it onto the desktop so we could retrieve it when we returned on Wednesday for the Pen Pal Program.

               Deepak, one of the boys in 7a is mischievous and really wants to come to US. When I first walked into his classroom, he was the one that was excited and enthusiastic about getting the answer right. He would always ask me about the States. “How is this? How is that? What are the schools like?” He would make jokes, telling me that they food that was served to them came from the States. Although he loved to joke around, I could always count on him for being the first to participate.

Anish and Gurbaz taught their favorite class, the 5^th graders. Here is Anish’s recollection of what happened:

When I walked in to the classroom, only for the second or third time, I saw a smile drawn across almost everyone in the classroom. And I knew right then and there that these kids wanted to learn. So, we got right to it. I started off with reviewing what we had done the day before, which was only the vowels: A and E due to shorter class periods for the little kids. After reviewing we continued on to the rest of the vowels, including their short and long sounds. We had the kids begin giving us examples and having them writes it on the board. If it were incorrect we’d have the class determine why instead of just telling them. And that was the end of the morning class for 5A.

Finally after Gurbaz and I helped Anjali, we headed back to our star class 5A. Again when we walked in smiles on the kids faces and even a couple of the boys around the room got up and started to dance! It was amazing seeing this before my very eyes. Kids this motivated, enthusiastic, and energetic just to learn! This made Gurbaz and I so very happy, so we kept the fun going. Cracking some jokes along the way. Instead of that making the kids more out of control it did the exact opposite. The kids are no used to having fun in the classroom while learning. That’s why we became their friend. We played with them outside, and taught them inside. Their energy transferred from playing to learning! Meanwhile in the classroom we continued to work on vowels because they needed some more understanding. By the time the end of class had come, their understanding about vowels was complete. These kids had the ability to learn so much in such little time especially with their age. When the bell rung, I asked the teacher if it was their bell. When I was informed it was, we began to say bye to the students, but the kids said NO!!!!! They all were begging us to stay just for five minutes more. When I asked the teacher if it was ok and she nodded yes, the children were dead silent, sitting in their seats not saying a single word looking forward. This was the first class I had ever seen that wanted to learn instead of going home or out to play sports. But I got to it right away. I introduced two consonant blends to them. I only introduced one example because of time shortage and because it was something new. In this case it was BL, all the kids had to do was give me an example. Like the word Black. Once the kids had written down the notes I left on the board, class was dismissed. It had been and amazing day and I can’t wait to go back next week!

        And back to Anjali! All in all, our experience at Saidham has been amazing and Anish, Joshita and I are looking forward to continue teaching next week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as well as continuing at my personal favorite, 

Vidya and Riya's Travel Journals

July 5th-
July 5th: Hi everyone, 

Riya and I arrived yesterday to India and we are currently staying in Faridabad with my grandparents. Today is Friday July 6th and we have just talked to Sohinee's dad about meeting up and learning more about the children at KTC/NIIC. We are waitng for Sohinee to wake up right now as it is 7:30 here but we do plan to meet her today around 12-2 in the afternoon. We're essentially meeting with her to better understand in person what it is that we should be teaching and also together the three of us will attempt to create a more advanced lesson plan for the different batches of children. After we meet with Sohinee we will definitely send another e-mail re-capping everything we went over. Riya and I think we should make a google docs with this whole group's e-mail on there so that there can be a solidified curriculum that everyone can view on the google docs and if anyone needs to add any changes/make suggestions they can reply and edit directly onto that document and there can also be live chatting going on as well. I will make the google docs shortly and add everyone to the list so we will all be able to view one solidified document and add/edit curriculum as needed! 

Thanks, we will update you as soon as possible. We are so excited to meet the children! 

July 6th-

Riya and I met with Sohinee yesterday at NIIT and we had a discussion with Anu Aunty and our parents as well. Sohinee shared with us the details of the teachings in person and we realized that since the children are more advanced than we thought and really only need to learn grammar and no vocabulary, it may be pretty difficult to integrate fun into the grammar lessons. But we will definitely have to be thinking on our feet for a little bit until we figure out a solidified plan of how to go about teaching the children grammar in a fun way. As of right now Sohinee is still trying to figure out how to make the lessons fun as well as teach the children. Sohinee told us that the children make fun of each other if someone does not know English and they are usually very embarrassed to answer questions and if they don't think they can answer the questions they will simply not answer questions, but they can easily talk amongst themselves. Riya and I have been thinking of doing the teaching in a more casual way such as a class discussion where Riya or I will ask a very simple question in English such as: What do you do during the summer? And the children can respond one by one in English with of course very simple answers while we help them/correct them along the way. This doesn't have to be done during every lesson but it will make the lessons a lot more intimidating if they see everyone participating. Also if they get embarrassed Riya and I decided that since Riya cannot speak Hindi that well, I would ask her a question in Hindi in front of the whole class if someone was getting made fun of and she would have to answer in Hindi and since she doesn't know how to speak it well, her Hindi would not be that good. This way the whole class would be able to understand that even one of their teachers cannot speak Hindi that well but they are still trying to learn it. Hopefully this will make the children more comfortable and make them more easygoing when trying to speak English. Riya and I already went in and said hello to the girls Sohinee was teaching Friday afternoon and introduced ourselves so if they come back Monday they will recognize us. Otherwise Riya and I will be joining Sohinee on Monday to watch her teach and chime in when we can and then Tuesday once we see Sohinee's teaching style and help out a little bit we will begin with our own lessons and games. Now we are just waiting until Monday so we can observe the children for ourselves and then we will write again! 

July 10th-

Hi everyone! This is Riya I am giving the update on what happened yesterday with the kids. Vidya was sick so it was Sohinee and I who taught the kids.

In the morning class we had all boys and one girl. They were older kids so Sohinee and I decided to split the class into two teams. We wrote down five words on the board and had each team create their own story using those words. A lot of the kids had creative stories and just needed a little help translating them. Once Sohinee and I helped them out they wrote it down in their notebooks. We decided that for the next class with them we  would have them create skits and do some roleplaying. For example one kid can be a store clerk and another can be a customer and they would have to interact with each other as they would if they were to be in that situation.

In the afternoon class I taught girls who were really young and still learning vocabulary and Sohinee taught the older girls. In my class I played pictionary with them and they really enjoyed it especially because they got to draw on the whiteboard. After that I would tell them a word such as APPLE and then they would have to spell it correctly on the board. If they made a mistake then I would correct them. Unfortunately the light went out about 40 minutes into the class and Anu aunty came in and told the kids that class was over because there was no fan or air conditioning. To my surprise all the kids told Anu aunty they didn't want to leave, they said they didn't care if there was no fan. They still wanted to play and learn which really touched my heart and made everything we are doing all the more worthwhile. We ended up going on for about another half hour and then I had to send them home because it was getting late. So for the younger kids the games we had planned work well with them and they can spell so we can also do games such as hangman.

I am having lots of fun here and I am looking forward to the next week in a half of teaching the kids!

~Riya

Sohinee's Travel Journals

July 2nd-

I started my day today at the NIIT foundation  office where I met Sapna Aunty, Rinki Didi, and Abhilasha didi. Rinki didi accompanied my dad and I to the center where we will be teaching. They gave us a background of the current system and how Koshish runs. It turns out that we are actually volunteering at the Koshish Technology Center (KTC). KTC is adjunct to Koshish for English and IT. Koshish itself is a remedial school for the students from the slums who attend the government school Sarvodaya. The student to teacher ratio is 1 to 90 at the government school they attend, and therefore they need remedial schools to gain the knowledge they are expected to have.

More about KTC: We started the visit at KTC by meeting Anu Aunty, the English teacher. She showed us her structured curriculum which include books and lesson plans. They have different levels as well, for example, students of grades 6-8 are level 3 and grades 9-12 are in level 4. Some of the expectations that we had set previously aren't all accurate(see more below), so I made sure to understand everything. The batches of students are divided by gender. The boys come in the morning from 9:00-10:30am. The girls come from 2:30-4:00pm. The kids are of all different ages and skill levels. 

The internet is not always running, they have problems with their internet connection. My dad is helping them get an internet connection to solve this problem. 

I think that email will work better when we need to communicate with them during the school year. The main thing with our plan during the school year is it must be interactive so they can participate and apply the English they have learned. Our program is not as much teaching them English as it is helping them apply and supplement the English they have learned at KTC through games or various fun activities. 

I worked with a batch of girls from level 3. They know a fair amount of English, a lot more than we thought they did. The first game we played was the matching game, and it was quite easy for them. Everything I asked them was more advanced than we had planned. I asked them questions such as "What did you do today" and "What do you like to do?" First I spoke with them in Hindi and then I translated in English. I spoke with them in English as much as possible, but I did speak a good amount of Hindi with them as well. They asked me multiple times if I could give them harder questions. They want to learn sentence structure and more grammar. Most of the things we had thought were too advanced to teach them right now  are exactly the things they want to learn. Much of the vocabulary we had thought of is too easy for them. 

I am planning on looking at the books that Anu Aunty uses and creating games and fun activities tomorrow. I'll email everyone the curriculum they are currently using. 

I was very happy with the batch I taught. All the girls were very motivated to learn and most of them were not hesitant to ask questions. There was one shy student and a few girls that did not know English as well, but its clear that they all want to learn English. It was very encouraging to me, as their teacher, to see so much interest. I'm not sure about other batches of students, but i'll be teaching this batch of students for the duration of my stay in India. Prior to meeting the girls, I was unsure of how students would react to a fellow student teaching them, but the reaction was great. 

The main thing we need to work on is changing our current curriculum to something they find more challenging for the students. Of course the only people I worked with were from level 3, but maybe we can use our current material to help the younger students. The students also need help with critical thinking and logical thinking rather than just memorizing what they have been taught. So maybe we can create scenarios or  where they could use and improve such skills.

After 1.5 hours of teaching one batch, the electricity went off and the back up power was depleted, so we had to end our class. Anu Aunty was worried that the electricity would not work for 2-3 days, so she said she would call us later if it came back. We got a call about an hour back that the electricity came back, but we need to keep in mind that if there is no electricity, there is no light to teach inside the building. 

I'm looking forward to teaching the students for the rest of my trip. It was a great experience for me and they seemed to learn something as well. 

I haven't given the girls a written assessment yet. I can ask Anu Aunty if they have one available. We need to make sure that everyone understands we aren't taking over their jobs as teachers, we are just helping the students apply what they have learned. 

 

I'll be using the game that Vidya posted on the google doc today. I'm also going to plan some scenarios or role plays that they have to act out in English. Anjali, do you mind sending me the storytelling description again? I think that would help them with their understanding and logical thinking. I think I can try charades and pictionary today as well. 

 

The idea of English books is great! They told me yesterday that they like to read and they would probably love some new English books. Something  with a simple vocabulary would be better. I know they currently have some books and movies at the center. I haven't taken a look at them, but I've heard they have movies such as The Pursuit of Happiness and 3 idiots. I can have them watch one of the movies and then give a 1-2 minute speech in English about the movie or what they learned from watching it. 

July 3rd-

I asked the children to write small role plays so they can understand the logic and order. They had difficulty and it took them a while to create their own lines after understanding my example. I feel they were less interested because it was quite difficult for them to grasp. I asked them to write a small story, about 5-6 sentences, to bring tomorrow. I told them they could think of a story in Hindi and translate it into English.  I want to see if they can understand how to convert sentences from Hindi to English correctly. 

I need help in creating games that we can use. The matching, pictionary, charades, and one of these things is not like the other were relatively easy for them. I tried making it more difficult by asking them to create sentences with charades and pictionary. Hopefully with the notes my dad took, we can think of games easily. I found that they can grasp the instructions of a game fairly easily, but its harder for them to think of a story or create something themselves. I need to find a middle ground as yesterday was easy and today was a bit too difficult for them. 

July 4th

Thanks so much for creating the tests and giving me ideas! Those are great suggestions! I actually played the Guess What I'm Thinking game yesterday. They really enjoyed it and learned something as well. They probably had the most fun with that game, so I would say it was quite successful. 

I'll use the relay race today because they have a lot of fun with competitive games. I am also going to print out the assessment for grammar and vocab and give that to them today. This will really help me see what level they are at. 

My dad has a cousin who runs a publishing company for school textbooks. They have given me a variety of resources we can use. including lesson plans, textbooks, activity ideas, etc. for grades 1-8. The people i am teaching are supposedly in grades 4-6 but after looking at the textbooks, I have seen that books from grades 1-3 have a significant amount of material that would be difficult for these children. When Vidya and Riya come here, I'll pass on the materials to them. While I feel that the KTC students would benefit from having these books, we need to discuss this as the EEP team before i can hand them over as we don't want the Koshish teachers to feel we are taking over their jobs. 

About the NIIT instructional materials, we asked Sapna Aunty on the first day if we could get a copy but she declined and said they were intellectual property. My dad will try asking her again. 

I'm really enjoying our team work and progress! Keep up the good work everyone :)

Anjali's Travel Journals

August 7th-
Today is my first official day in India. I have a gut feeling that this is going to work out beautifully. Even as I reached the airport, my cousin Joshita, told me that she is willing to help me make plans to go talk to her principal about them donating old uniforms. Actually, when my dad visited he noticed kids wearing thick, heavy sweaters simply because it was all they could afford and they needed them for the cold nights and winters. My dad was really touched when Joshita volunteered to spend her weekend speaking with her principal about this issue. I will be going to meet her vice principal in two days. Everything seems to be falling in place and I cannot wait to meet the kids at KTC and Koshish.

August 10th-

I spoke with Sapna did yesterday and she told me that I should report to the KTC location at 11am on Monday the 13th. Also, I met with Joshita's vice principal yesterday and took the Just Read books with me. I think it went really well. She seemed pretty sure that the uniform donations would all work out and in fact said that after this month she will arrange a volunteer group of kids from her school that will be willing to spend their free time at Koshish and KTC locations year round. I thought that was amazing news and would help to further our plans for a long sustaining program as well as gives KTC and Koshish kids mentors that are only a few minutes away. 

August 13th-

Today was an extremely rewarding experience as I had been looking forward to this day for quite some time now. It is nice to finally have all my questions answered. At first, there was a bit of confusion over the location of KTC but after some time we found it and then we were informed that no one was notified that I was supposed to come. I had previously spoken with Sapna didi who told me Rinky would receive me, however that did not occur. However, I spoke with Anu Aunty who was extremely helpful and gave me a concrete schedule of 4 classes I would be teaching; 10-11. 11-12, 2-3, and 3-4. I throughly enjoyed speaking with her and am so thankful she was there. 

I began my first class at 2pm with a batch of about 30 7-8 year olds girls. I can assure you that this was not when I expected. :) These kids were so excited they were practically bouncing out of their seats like air bubbles in boiling water. I was informed by Anu Aunty that these kids barely know their alphabet and I was to use their work books and teach them the next letter that they had not yet learned: G. I had them write upper case and lower case G three times each, and then try to come up with a list of words that began with that letter. Mostly, I found that they were able to do so if I let them yell it out rather than be called on specifically. I noticed that if I asked them individually, they would loose confidence and shyly tell me they didn't know. Though their English was extremely limited, their enthusiasm to learn and their respect for me was incredibly touching. When I had about 20 minutes left of class, they had all completed their assignments and I was so thrilled that I wanted to capture the moment with a few pictures. At that point, they were extremely difficult to control and I had to say things like, "if you aren't quite then I will put the camera away" and then they would all quiet down and sit properly. It was a complete surprise to me when 5 or 6 children clung to me with tears running down their cheeks when it was announced that my next class had arrived. They begged me not to leave and I asked them when they would return. They told me they only came on Mondays and were thrilled to hear that I would be back. I had an amazing experience with the youngsters and I even received gifts from two little girls: Ruby and Komal. I can't wait to see them all again. 

I began my second and final class of the day at 3pm with a batch of 16-19 year olds. I was so incredibly nervous as I had no clue how they would react to a 16 year old  teacher. So, before I began I introduced myself and told them I wanted to spend the hour simply talking and getting to know them. I could tell this was not what they expected as that is not what the girls before me had done. However, they opened up quickly and told me about themselves as well as asked me several questions about my life. I could tell that they were very surprised with the answers they got and I think that brought us much closer together. I continuously tried to get them to respond to all of my questions in English, however they seemed hesitant. So I would ask questions in English, translate them, and they when they replied in hindi, I would make them repeat their answers in English. Though I talked to everyone, there were two people that I felt I connected with the most, Anand and Pushpa. They told me they were glad that we had talked and become friends first because now they wouldn't be as shy speaking up when I called on them. They also told me that they remembered Sohinee, Vidya, and Riya. They told me about the games they played, which ones they enjoyed and wished they had played more of. I found their feedback extremely helpful and used them to create my lesson plans for the following days. These kids are extremely mature and intelligent and as Vidya told me, they are willing to learn. They simply need a little mentorship, and a confidence boost. 

My first day was much much better than I had expected and I am so excited to return tomorrow and finally get some use out of those lesson plans. :) I am so glad everything worked out and cannot wait to return to the States and share my pictures and videos with everyone.

About Us

What We Do
The goal of English Empowerment Program (EEP) is to ensure that underprivileged and or destitute kids are allowed the opportunity to thrive in the threshold of education through furthering their knowledge of the English language.

Who We Are
Our team is currently made up of a few high school students that have just recently come back from teaching their first lessons in India and a number of advisors. Anjali Bajaj is excited to be spear-heading the team's efforts, today. Some of our advisors includes our founders as well as experienced professionals, who have been certified to teach English as a second language and support local ESL schools.

Our Humble Beginnings
We were First founded by Tanya Shah and Ganisha Sethi a few years back. Tanya and Ganisha both worked closely with the Home of Hope board to get involved with the projects. Since then, we've been working hard to create a lot of learning material and teaching games for our future teachers. This year, things have really taken off. We're now part of the HOH Youth Chapter (HOHYC), although you can feel free to contact us directly if you're particularly interested in teaching English at the HOH projects. See how, below.


How To Get Involved
Anyone that decides to go to India to teach English at any of the Home of Hope projects won't regret it. And though you will be going to teach them, we can assure you that you will return having learnt something from them as well. To get involved feel free to leave us a comment below! You can also tell us about yourself here!