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 1st to
July 5th 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 8th 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 8th
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 6th,
7th, and 8th 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 6th 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 5th 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 7th 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 4th
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 5th
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,
