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.