Being A Teacher For A Week | Harison Xavier

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

- Albert Einstein

Being a teacher

I my recent blog Most Happiest Moment in Life, I mentioned about being a teacher for the special needs kids. Here I would like to share what I have learned on being a teacher. It was a big surprise when our Amma (Amma means mother, she founded this organization) asked me to take few classes for the kids, their teacher is on leave, so they need a substitute teacher . I asked myself "Me?" . What gives me the right to be a teacher ? I didn't wanted to say to no to her, so I said okay. I was exited and bit nervous, I didn't know what to expect. 

It is a every small school from classes 1 to 8 th, with total number of students below hundred, I know the kids as I was here for the past one week in the family. Both special needs and normal kids study that this school. The school is a different building from the home our special needs kids live in, most kids are from poor neighborhood outside, they are all given free education. I am so proud of our Amma, she our Mother Theresa of our times.

 The school began with an assembly meeting at 8:30 am. After that I was guided towards a class room by one of the teachers. The class strength is small, they told me to take English class, as it is one of my favorites subject I was happy about it.  

I introduced myself to the class, and asked each kids their names. They were curious to see a new teacher in the school too. I looked different, my English accent was different, they call looking at me as if I am some kind of alien from outer space. 

I told them that they could be very free in my class, they could ask me anything ( related to the subject). I wanted to make this class as interactive as possible. A one sided class room section is could always boring.

Shyness or Fear

There was a fear or a kind of shyness in most of the children's face. I didn't understand why that was, they give me a glance that I will judge them or punish them.  Few kids who knew me behaved very freely in the class and sometimes they took too much advantage out of it, the even acted like the boss. 

The look they give me may be a reflection of me, I may be shy or scared and they may be able to read my face. I was happy and confident, but they may have came up to the conclusion that I am shy or scared. 

We see everything

I remember my school days, it was pretty boring and there were interesting class too. School like was hard, have to wake up early and get ready, real school by 8:45 am and attend class till 5:00 pm. It was tough, the only thing that made me happy was my friends and other classmates, I love the have a conversation with them in the middle of the class. If the class was boring and I got tired, I sometime use to slip into a sleep. I try my best not to sleep, but most of the time it conquers me and I get caught.

Here in my class, I could see everyone, even though I am reading, teaching, looking at a different direction,  I could see in my peripheral vision some students speak to the one next to them.

Similarly, even though I have tried to make the class interactive, some students found it boring (I believe) and started falling asleep. I don't know what they are going through, but students at the back bench starts falling asleep soon after their lunch. 

And I can see all of this. Now I can only imagine how my teachers felt when I was not listening or sleeping in their class.

I am not fully prepared

Even though I prepared from the books of students in our home, the night before the classes , I found that the preparation was not good enough most of the time. Kids have a very curious mind and they will be asking questions most of the time. They can come up with tough questions, I can't even imagine. 

This gives me the insight how little I know. Even I am a student here, I wanted to know the answer for those questions too. I am being humbled by the revelation how little and tiny is my knowledge in a subject is. 

This was such an eye opener. Experiences like this taught me the lesson to be humble and learn everyday from the wisdom tree, be a life long student.

I am one of them

I made it clear to everyone that I am a very free and active person. I encouraged every class  and everyone to be active and free in my class, I even gave them opportunity to perform their talent at the end of our each sessions. 

There are always a few active ones who will go for it and take every single opportunity . 

The ones who are most active were mostly girls, they sing songs, talk out loud on their opinions. Clarify doubts. 

At intervals I spend time with them to understand who they really are and what are the expecting, I even asked few students how can I make the class more interesting, they didn't really have much of a comment on that, they are okay with what I was doing. I was great to have a lot of attention from the kids during the interval, they wanted to come and talk to me, say hello, shake hands with me. 

Sometimes they surround me asking me questions, where I come from, who all are in my family, how is it like in my home town and what I do? and on and on. 

 

It was great a be with the kids, I really enjoyed being a teacher, I believe this is one of the hardest jobs and the most divine one. I could be a part of history be igniting the light inside these young minds. I was humbled by the revelation I got from teaching them. This experience made me a student again and inspired me to learn more everyday. I was surrounded with love. I felt sad when I left, I knew it was temporary however I kinda wanted to be their for a while longer. 

Waiting for another opportunity to go  and be with them.