Before I start off with whats been up with me, I really want to apologise to all those who are pissed with me for not being in touch. I really have no excuses to give you since I don’t know why I haven’t been in touch myself...I guess school and work took a toll on me and Iv just been struggling with that....So before anyone of you freaks out I just want to say that I will be in Pune till 11th June and Bangalore soon after and then Delhi...so all my friends in these 3 cities please take time out and let me know when can we catchup....cant wait to see you all....:)
The last time I wrote was in February and these last 2 n half months have been so hectic that I havnt had the time to breathe....with school about to go in for vacations, exams, results, my co-teacher leaving, some kids leaving the school, this trip and that trip, friends visiting Mumbai and all that these two n half months have been full...of excitement, nervousness, work, happy moments and sad moments.....
Half way thru February, I took my class for a 3-d movie – Alpha and Omega, I am not sure if the kids enjoyed the movie cos some of them dozed off, but i am sure that stepping into a hall was extremely exciting for them and so was the bus trip...The biggest challenge of that trip was taking the kids to the washroom! Its another thing for us but for kids who have never seen a WC or a flush it was weird to use it....my volunteers I am sure realised that it wasn’t easy to handle them....but even though the kids were in a strange zone they were well behaved and did not cause any trouble
The month of March went in preparing for 2 things – End of Year exams and the Showcase....while we were struggling to ensure that we push the kids to do well in Math and English on one hand, we also made them practice songs, speeches for their Showcase (A showcase is a presentation of all that the kids have learnt over a year)....my lower order (weak students) struggled with practicing Math but ask them to sing the song “This is the way we brush our teeth” and they would jump to action
They did bomb their exams but I feel its more of my failure and not theirs as I havnt been a great teacher. Though individually most of them did very well in Math (I was primarily teaching Math and my co-teacher taught English) but we were unable to meet the class goal in Math. The good bit was they did meet the English goal. I am not concerned about the class goal honestly what bothers me today is that I haven’t been able to reach out to a silent Vikas, to a lost Sana and to a most-of-the-time-absent Mahek Fatima.
So next year I hope things will get better....
The last couple of days were fun....Namita and I took some kids to the beach one day and to hypercity on another..they even had a chance to go to the local fire station....and they did pot painting...I have never seen Ubed do anything with so much concentration! He cant sit straight for more than 5 seconds and here he was trying to beautify a mud pot with paints! On the last day we had a class party which ended on a sentimental note...it was my co-teacher’s last day in school...she hugged and bid farewell to the kids...I was teary-eyed but she just smiled
On 16th May, the first batch of TFI fellows graduated leaving us with the burden they had carried these last 2 years....on 17th May, my batch had our End of Year summit, where I found out that my class had grown 1.5 years in one year in Reading Fluency (number of words they can read per minute)! This just made me realise that having a Big goal is not just inspirational but as well as aspirational...
As soon as school ended I landed in Pune for Institute...and so a year later I was back to be a part of the Institute madness like last year...the difference is then I was a new fellow wanting to learn...this year I was an old fellow passing gyaan and trying to make people’s life easier....
More institute news in the next update!Till then loads of love
