It's a new start to Year Two!!

   I had one of the best times in the in the first year of my classroom! The roller coaster ride was fun &  memorable.  Undoubtedly,  Teach For India is the best thing that ever happened to me.

   After days of waiting, missing my class/kids and more missing, I am finally here.  Tomorrow dawns the second year in my classroom. I can't wait to do all the things I planned for the classroom.

  A lot of familiarity breeds - The school, classroom, kids, co-teacher, other teachers at the school, the system, the fellowship and I carry a rich experience from first year.  At the same time, I realize being a teacher is a huge responsibility. One of my fight is against 'time' ,  I have a lot to do in a little time.

Wish me & my students a lot of learning time!!


   

Pathshala - It's a new world, it's a new beginning!!

    27 Schools, 310 Students, 40 Fellows/teachers chanted one anthem  'Pathshala'.    Pathshala is an event held on Feb 10th for Teach For India schools in Pune.  It was independently organized by a bunch of Teach For India Fellows with Srini (volunteer) as the chief architect and managed by various volunteers.
   I am sure the students and Fellows had an memorable time!

  My Defining moment was the opening ceremony in the  packed auditorium with phots (taken a few minutes ago) displayed on the large screen & Bryan Adam's 'Here I am' as the score.  It was worth the effort we put in for days.

   Happy & Proud to have contributed to the Pathshala!   Thanks to all the enthusiastic participants :- )

Stay Tuned!

Thank You donors! Our classroom now boasts of a projector :- )

Hey,
      Sometime back, I raised funds for our classroom through giveindia fund
http://www.giveindia.org/iGive-Racingchamps

    The effort and your contribution has borne fruits!  We now boast of a classroom Projector!!!!

In today's class - we watched video of Felix Baumgartner Supersonic Jump. The kids watched it in rapt attention and were baffled to learn about something like this. We had a 10 minute discussion on the video.

I am grateful to you guys !!  bdw, bought Epson EBX-11 projector. It costed Rs 32,500 (after discount)

This is exactly 'Why' I need to be here

      Lucky(name changed), a Grade 4th student of  my class,  travels everyday to the school by bus.  In the last three years, he changed three schools and once switched medium of instruction from Marathi to English. He can barely do a single digit addition.  He can add 3 + 3 at the tip of his tongue as everyday he carries exactly Rs 6 to pay for his bus ticket that costs Rs 3 one way.   Lucky  reading skills are of below 4 grades.   I must add that Lucky is an enthusiastic and a keen learner. He believes schooling will make him intelligent and make him go to a good college and eventually find him a good job.

      Students like Lucky are a grim reminder of my need to be here in the classroom and provide quality education  In the last 8 months, it was not possible for us to cater to the differentiation in the classroom.  Thanks to my co-teacher Nithya, we are working around to have parallel instruction time. Secondly, I plan to create additional instructional time outside the classroom.

   According to the ASER Report - 2012 , of all children enrolled in Standard V 46.5% students cannot solve two digit addition with carryover.
  (Source : "http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER_2012/nationalfinding.pdf)

My students have three more months before they graduate to Grade 5th. I am going to make sure that 'Every' student in the class has mastered atleast three digit addition,subtraction, two-by-two multiplication and four-by-one division .  Thanks to Lucky real life addition skill by purchasing bus ticket. I learnt  the need to correlate the learning in the classroom with the real world.

It can't be worse than today. And tomorrow is yet another day

      For days, I almost dragged myself out of the bed to turn up at the school.  From my experience, one of the most difficult thing to do is - Teach .   I chose to be a teacher and I am loving it.  I understand the responsibilities of being a teacher. We shape the future of an individual and in turn future of the nation.

      I fail .  I fail innumerable times in a day. It is hard to smoothly run the show. A typical classroom is something like this - Students  pick up a fight at the drop of a hat, students  use the most refined swear words, yelling, a student chasing another.  We try to hold the fort, often put off fire and occasionally try to teach.   I blame myself for the state of things.  The challenges are plenty - cater to various learning styles, differentiated learners, students with learning disability, needs & wants of the students, the list is endless.
 
     The most challenging part has been build a strong bond with the students and understand the reasons for their behavior.   It is challenging to inspire someone to do make things you believe is the right thing to do. In the words of David Eisenhower ' Leadership is t he art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it ". I couldn't agree more.

      Each day is a struggle within. Nevertheless  I would like to make sure each time I fall down I bounce back. 

Will do whatever it takes to fix things. 

it's definitely an unfair world..

     I am deeply overwhelmed . The news is yet to sink.  Why does it happens &  Why him?   I know a teacher is supposed to be unbiased, but 'S'  is my favorite student. His cute smile makes my day.

     A week ago, 'S' was tested  for learning disability. Sometime back, to my utter dismay, the psychiatrist
tells us that 'S' has  intellectual disability and ADHD. I am shaken up.

     A lot of my questions doesn't have answers. .  At Teach For India, I aspire to turn around
lives of my students and provide them with skills and equal opportunities on par with students from higher income strata.  I feel helpless & defeated.

   Nevertheless, I am going to be there for 'S' and will leave no stone unturned to prepare 'S' for the perceived mainstream life.

   
 

It's an unfair World

    The rattling of the vessels and the vibration of the floor seemed like an earthquake.  An uncomfortable premonition of fear pervaded my senses. My adrenaline rush made me to look for the exit door. In the next second, it dawned to me that it was a passing by train and I was seated in a home, that's next to a railway track. 

     I could not fathom how one of my adoring students and his three siblings lived under that roof.  How about the basic necessity to have sound sleep?     I wondered if adorable kiddo didn't get to have good sleep, How could he even "dream"?  

    I brushed away his thought for a moment and focused  our one-one conversation on how education helped me,why I am here at Teach For India and how quality education can make a changeover to one's life.  

     An hour at my student's place completely overwhelmed me.I felt guilty of living in a cozy palace-like home. I felt guilty of being a little harsh on this kiddo for his unruly behavior in the class. I felt guilty for being an inefficient teacher in the classroom. Apologies!  Nevertheless,  I was equally proud and happy to be part of movement at Teach For India ,to bridge the education inequity. I realized, we have a long way to go!  

      The one-one discussions charged up the kiddo. He was not the only one who charged up. I walked in to their home with the idea of  knowing the student better and make the student understand the importance of education . Ironically, when I walked-out ,it was me who got to know myself better and deeply understood the importance of education in transforming someone's life.


     Literally and figuratively , all these while, in the journey of my life, I have been on the other comfortable end and today when I am at a student's home and perceive the harsh realities from this bitter end - I realize it's an unfair world. 

Please check http://www.giveindia.org/iGive-Racingchamps for contributions to my classroom resources.

Courtesy: http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol16/no4/teachingfairlyinanunfairworld.jpg