And The Session Ends...

Before going for this activity, it had been decided that I will continue working on English with my new students and I was very excited about it. In the last class I had noticed that they usually concentrated on understanding their lessons, but, all of them ignored the grammar and creative writing section that were more difficult for them. So, I had planned to work on different styles of creative writing with them and concentrate on their grammar in the next session. I decided this, because I thought that as this was their last activity with me before their annual exams, there would be no time to teach them all the grammar concepts in their course and I might just end up confusing them. I also went prepared to give them about half an hour to clear out any old doubts.

And I was very happy to note that the class went according to my plans. We started with revision of all the creative writing formats that they have and then I gave a writing exercise to them in which each one had to write a paragraph on their best friend. We first discussed what they wanted to write and then I slowly helped them to translate their ideas from Hindi to English. This was a success because I could help them to look at their grammatical errors as well as give them some writing practise. After writing, I asked them if they had any doubts which they would like get cleared and they mainly pointed out at two things: Direct/ Indirect Speech and Active & Passive Voices. I started teaching them with examples that were given in their books, but, then I realized that the examples were of a higher level than what they were at. So I had to make my own and create my own exercise at the end to ensure they understood the concepts. This was something very new for me, and it really made me appreciate the way our teachers just pull out examples out of thin air every minute. I had a very difficult time at first and, though it took me some time to get used to, I was a bit better by the end of the class. I also realized that relating examples with things like cricket and ice – cream and movies helped a lot because it kept them from straying when things got difficult.

It was a rather difficult class for me because I really had to work hard to make sure they understood. But, I persevered and believe me I was very jubilant when we arrived at a stage when all three of them could distinguish between sentences properly and convert them to opposite forms correctly. It made me very proud to see them understand and actually enjoy doing it.

We ended the class by deciding to concentrate only on grammar and writing aspects in the upcoming session and sometimes dabble a bit with mathematics. I also took a good look of the grammatical concepts they had learnt this year and I plan on making a worksheet which would be a kind of revision and help me understand the areas I need to concentrate on, in the first class of the next session. It was a bit sad to say bye to them and to realize that there is going to be a break of about two – three months till we would be doing English again. I felt like I wanted more time with them so that they might probably stop running away from the language and enjoy it with appreciation and be confident.

Something New...

Yesterday was yet another trip to the ashram. Last time, my student, Sandeep had told me that their exams would be starting in another three weeks and this would mean about two more sessions before their finals. I usually teach them Mathematical concepts that they are going to learn next in school. But, last time I had asked both of them about chapters they had difficulties in and they told me about factorization and statistics mainly. Thus, for yesterday's trip, I had planned to quickly revise the concepts with them and then help them clear their doubts. There was an ethical issue involved here. I myself wasn't very comfortable with factorization and I didn't see the point in teaching them something I wasn't very sure of myself. So, last time, when they were painting, I made sure I understood every step of the concept; the way it was taught to them and I also came home and researched a bit more on it.

But, due to sudden change of events, I could not carry on with my plan. One of my classmates, Abhilash, was absent and he taught English to his students. Initially I started with teaching statistics to both of my students and then I noticed that one of Abhilash's students, Omprakash, was sitting alone and doing nothing, so on Jha Sir's suggestion I started teaching English to him too. After some time, another one his students, Dhruva, turned up and I realized that, ethically, I wouldn't be doing justice to either of the groups by shifting between Mathematics and English. So, in collaboration with my two classmates, Hyunju and Dasom, I decided that they could teach one of my students each as they were doing math already and I could take up teaching English. Fortunately, this worked well for all of us. Though, I did end up feeling a bit guilty because one of my students was having a hard time understanding English with Dasom. But, it turned out well as Dasom's other student, Mrunal helped her overcome the language problem.



This was my first time ever teaching English and since I have always loved the language and read a lot, it was never something I was scared of and ran from. But, initially it hit me as a surprise that both, Omprakash and Dhruva found it very frustrating and difficult. It was a totally new challenge for me as I took some time to understand the language at their level and then teach it. It was a little difficult and I persevered because I had to stop and look at words and phrases that I just passed off as "easy". I never had this problem in math because I can connect with the problems they have. It took me some time, but, I learned something new by the end of the session.

I also tried giving them incentives as I had planned in the earlier week. They both told me that they loved working on filling blanks and matching columns and I also discovered that they were both very weak at conjunctions.This inspired me to strike a deal with them. I told them that I would make an exercise of filling in blanks with conjunctions if they wrote a small essay type question on their text. I was happy to see this work out. Though, we struggled and tried to connect with English through their mother tongue, Hindi, it turned out to be enriching. I learnt how to skip between the two languages and yet not lose focus of what we were doing. I had had a problem with this earlier. I usually start off, go deep, and return back to the topic too late for anyone to make sense. So this was a new skill that I developed. The best part was seeing them enjoy the writing part because of the incentive which was also an exercise in a subject they were afraid of. It felt good to have been able to interest them enough.

Overall, this trip to the ashram taught me lot. It made me look at something that I love through a very different angle and I was sad to know that I won't be teaching them English again. I would really like to try it again and improve myself.

Fun with Water Colours!!!

We visit an ashram on the first three Saturdays of every month to teach the students living there. I have two students, Sandeep and Bhushan, both of whom are in Grade 7. Their weakest subject is mathematics and, thus, we usually concentrate on it more. Today, I had planned to finish surface areas and volumes of cubes and cuboids and start off with basics in geometrical constructions.

A few weeks ago, my classmates and I discovered that most the students living there love art and playing with colours, but, don't get an opportunity to do so. So we collectively planned to learn small techniques from our art teacher and pass them on to our students once a month. We decided that we would do this every first Saturday of the month. And I am very glad we did think of this idea.
I had planned that we would study math for one hour of our time and allot half of an hour to the painting. I was so excited and happy to notice that both of my students were highly willing to work twice as hard as usual just so that they could get extra art time. Both of them were having problems understanding the concept of volumes and I went prepared to be patient, but, I was surprised to see them so determined. In the end, we satisfactorily finished learning the concepts and had enough time to paint.

We painted with primary water colours. Initially, they were reluctant to learn official techniques in painting, but, then they discovered that knowing what you do makes you enjoy things more. This was a lesson for me too. Overall, this was a very enjoyable CAS activity and it made me realize two major things. One, that just teaching things dryly makes them boring and hard to understand, but, using realistic examples and connecting with things they like helps to overcome this problem. Two, that people work better if they have incentives to look forward to. This made me think that I could probably add some small motivator at the end of each class to make both of my students more interested. But, this adds a bit of and ethical issue. Is it really correct to use incentives as bribes to make them work better? Is it good if it helps them learn and enjoy more?