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!