My first teaching experience
Who knew that my first teaching experience would be in a 9th standard Hindi-medium Math class… at a school in a gham 10 km outside of Haridwar?!? No preparation whatsoever… I found out only minutes before the class began. Yesterday, we went and observed the school… today, they have 5 teachers that went to Delhi for some huge Book Fair… soo, they needed to “make arrangements”.. soo, bam, Sampat and I were put into action.
My first class -- 9th Standard Math. I was definitely in WAY over my head. First, I barely understood the math that they were doing in that class (some Yoganandrapal’s Theorem.. or sumthing like that…). Second, my Hindi is still pretty poor.. improving incremently but not enuf to teach a math class well. Third, I don’t have any teaching experience. The odds were definitely against me. My goal was to just make it through the period. I started off by giving them an introduction about me… then, asked them what their hwk was… we went over some problems – different students would do them on the board… and then went over some basics… and that was about it. Woo— I was one of those terribly boring math teachers, but at least I made it through the period. I had an 8th Standard Math class, as well… and made it through that class in a similar way. I wasn’t going to try anything fancy or get creative or anything… although I probably should have.. what did I have to lose? But, I didn’t really even have any time to think about what creative thing I could do…. I know that “making it through” is definitely NOT the goal of teaching, but for today, it’ll suffice.
The next (and last) class I had for the day was 4th Standard math… or so I thought. “I can definitely teach math to 4th graders” – I thought to myself. I walk into the class.. and, man, these kids are nuts!! I ask them to take out their math books, and they all start yelling. They just had math class… and now they’re supposed to have art.. and there was no way they were going to let their “art period” be replaced by Math. So, now… what am I supposed to do w/ a bunch of 4th graders for ART? I have no clue what art supplies they have, if any… all I know is the chalkboard and chalk. I’m thinking to myself – “Maybe, we can just do a huge mural drawing on the chalkboard w/ each child drawing something different contributing to the entire “scene”. So, I ask them, “What do you like to draw?” and they say “nature”.. and in particular, a “village scene”. Sweet.. this will be fun. So, 3 students at a time (since I have 3 chalk) draw a different part of the “scene” on the chalkboard… that idea works out.. the picture is coming along beautifully and the kids are enjoying it. Major problem though… is that I have only 3 of the kids engaged at a time… definite learning experience.. must think of activities that have ALL the kids engaged… at ALL times. I got eaten alive!
The kids that weren’t drawing… were asking to go drink water, were hitting each other (kids hit each other a lot in India), running around... pretty chaotic.
Overall… the day was a solid learning experience for me. I got a little teaching experience… I was able to practice my Hindi… It kinda took me by "shock" because I'm still in a "traveller's mentality"... not a "doer's mentality"... although, I should be able to be ready "to do" at any moment. It shouldn't be something that has an "on" and "off" switch.
Sampat… said he kinda froze up during his first class… but, then… he just had a blast. It reminded him of how much he enjoyed teaching, and the excitement of it. I sat in on a couple of his classes… he was tearing it up… pretty phenomenal.
P.S. So, this experience also ties in to my "fearlessness" quest. I was "fearful" standing in front of those classes. Why? Because of ignorance. I didn't know the math, I don't speak Hindi well, and I don't have teaching experience. I remember back to GMU camp... the "Devang" discussions... we had a little series of "cause and effects".. I don't remember all of them... but I do remember that we had ignorance causes fear (or the positive side of it... "knowledge leads to fearlessness".)
My first class -- 9th Standard Math. I was definitely in WAY over my head. First, I barely understood the math that they were doing in that class (some Yoganandrapal’s Theorem.. or sumthing like that…). Second, my Hindi is still pretty poor.. improving incremently but not enuf to teach a math class well. Third, I don’t have any teaching experience. The odds were definitely against me. My goal was to just make it through the period. I started off by giving them an introduction about me… then, asked them what their hwk was… we went over some problems – different students would do them on the board… and then went over some basics… and that was about it. Woo— I was one of those terribly boring math teachers, but at least I made it through the period. I had an 8th Standard Math class, as well… and made it through that class in a similar way. I wasn’t going to try anything fancy or get creative or anything… although I probably should have.. what did I have to lose? But, I didn’t really even have any time to think about what creative thing I could do…. I know that “making it through” is definitely NOT the goal of teaching, but for today, it’ll suffice.
The next (and last) class I had for the day was 4th Standard math… or so I thought. “I can definitely teach math to 4th graders” – I thought to myself. I walk into the class.. and, man, these kids are nuts!! I ask them to take out their math books, and they all start yelling. They just had math class… and now they’re supposed to have art.. and there was no way they were going to let their “art period” be replaced by Math. So, now… what am I supposed to do w/ a bunch of 4th graders for ART? I have no clue what art supplies they have, if any… all I know is the chalkboard and chalk. I’m thinking to myself – “Maybe, we can just do a huge mural drawing on the chalkboard w/ each child drawing something different contributing to the entire “scene”. So, I ask them, “What do you like to draw?” and they say “nature”.. and in particular, a “village scene”. Sweet.. this will be fun. So, 3 students at a time (since I have 3 chalk) draw a different part of the “scene” on the chalkboard… that idea works out.. the picture is coming along beautifully and the kids are enjoying it. Major problem though… is that I have only 3 of the kids engaged at a time… definite learning experience.. must think of activities that have ALL the kids engaged… at ALL times. I got eaten alive!
The kids that weren’t drawing… were asking to go drink water, were hitting each other (kids hit each other a lot in India), running around... pretty chaotic.Overall… the day was a solid learning experience for me. I got a little teaching experience… I was able to practice my Hindi… It kinda took me by "shock" because I'm still in a "traveller's mentality"... not a "doer's mentality"... although, I should be able to be ready "to do" at any moment. It shouldn't be something that has an "on" and "off" switch.
Sampat… said he kinda froze up during his first class… but, then… he just had a blast. It reminded him of how much he enjoyed teaching, and the excitement of it. I sat in on a couple of his classes… he was tearing it up… pretty phenomenal.
P.S. So, this experience also ties in to my "fearlessness" quest. I was "fearful" standing in front of those classes. Why? Because of ignorance. I didn't know the math, I don't speak Hindi well, and I don't have teaching experience. I remember back to GMU camp... the "Devang" discussions... we had a little series of "cause and effects".. I don't remember all of them... but I do remember that we had ignorance causes fear (or the positive side of it... "knowledge leads to fearlessness".)
posted by Raj Kanani | 9:49 PM
3 Comments:
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Raj,
What a memorable experience! I think it is awesome that the two of you stepped up to run the classes... you definitely left a positive impression of ABCD's in this remote village!
I was curious about how you got along given the language barrier. I know that you guys are improving your Hindi while you are there, but teaching a math class!? How were your sentences? Putting myself in your shoes, I would just frustrate myself standing up there trying to find the right words to articulate myself. Gujurati is one thing (although that would be hard as hell for me too), but Hindi!?! How do you translate "derivative"?
Lastly, this really was a good experiment of fearlessness. It would have been easy to say that you couldn't do it, and just continue to go on in the more comfortable 'traveller's mentality', but you chose to step outside of your comfort zone and face your reservations. That is truly commendable. When faced with these situations, just ask yourself, what do you have to lose, and what can you possibly gain? From there your choice is simple.
-Neil
HAHA! Raju! This is hilarious! Yes, def want ALL kids engaged the same time! I am glad you had a teaching experience, good to know for your future as the high school math teacher, na?:) Pictures were amazing, I was surprised to see Biggie...was that his family...Keep all this coming, it is so fun to live vicariously through you! :):):)
Reema
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