My Teaching Volunteering Experiences - Observations So far

It has been over 2 months now with this NGO. Religiously, I have been developing lesson ideas, resources, planning instructional ideas and facilitating the lesson plans in the classroom. I am also simultaneously adjusting the lesson plans to meet the requirements of children. Even though i am trying hard to get these children synthesise their learning, think critically and reason out things, i still struggle on a daily basis. So while i want these children to become explorer, doer, and presenter of their learning, i gauge (almost with disbelieving eyes) the quality of our textbooks and the harshness of our medium that these teachers are subjected to.

I sit and try to think some of the challenges that these teachers perhaps associated with low-income schools face. Challenges are listed in no particular order.

• Most of these teachers are armed with the requisite degree as well as are conceptually sound. However what they lack is understanding of children development level, concept progressions, classroom management skills and infusing differentiated instructional strategies in teaching core concepts. This is the reason many a times we give them plans but they fail to execute them the way we wanted them to do.

• The NGO also runs the neighbouring low- school that is just few paces away. Unlike the NGO sections where the class comprises of appropriate age levels as well as children gets promoted/demoted/retained basis ongoing evaluations, the sections in the low-income school comprises of children of varying age levels and learning abilities. This makes it difficult for the teacher to ensure that concept is understood well by all the students.

• The school generally have 4-5 hours of instructional time everyday and several subjects have to be taught everyday. This means that there is a constant race against time. This would mean that all the lessons in their textbooks have been read at least once. And often that it seems impossible. So the thought about perhaps customising the teaching to different minds/intelligences is mentally eliminated because it is more time consuming.

• Another challenge would have to be lack of resources or perhaps not using resources to facilitate learning. Sometimes the resources are around us but hardly the teachers are making use of those resources.

• My idea of textbooks are that they need to have quality reinforcement content. Step by step the concept should be explained and cleared both through illustrations/pictures/diagrams and connected well with the procedural part. Content omissions/jumps and incomplete/misleading content can be detrimental to growing understanding level of children. Content in the textbooks are still verbose, inadequate and poorly written.

So while i continue to working, i keep thinking about these issues and keep unearthing newer issues , i am hoping to find solutions going forward.In midst of all these issues, i am thinking about our central protagonist, “the children” and the torch bearer, “Our Teacher”. 

Khushboo

My Teaching Volunteering Experiences - The Beginning

The Start Point

It was while I was working with  Content Design & Development function of a certain organisation, where i was entrusted with the task of developing Primary Math Content (Grades 1 to 5) for their digital product that I felt an innate need to understand how children learn. Prior to this, I was happy researching concepts in mathematics, developing working prototypes of those researched concepts, demonstrating the product to teaching communities to stir interest and need as well as sell the product. At this organisation, i become aware of the fact that “there are different learning styles”, “every child learns at his/her own pace”, also that “concepts taught should be developmentally appropriate”, and so it is imperative to create learning modules (activities/lesson plans/projects etc.) that caters to these diverse needs of our learners. This way learners will be able to maximise their own learning potential. While i understood these salient points and what defines a true learning cycle for an individual, i was too driven to make the product market ready. So even though, i had these pointers haunting me every now and then, i continued dishing out math activity ideas and scripting lesson plans (storyboards).

Obviously I am on a learning trajectory and will continue to do so but what really disturbs me is our own level of understanding of children. I realised that my lack of understanding of children was acting as a bottleneck in developing good quality content. I truly and genuinely want to contribute to effective learning solutions and be part of product bandwagon in long run that systematically captures the learnings of a child as well as provides scope for improvement. These thoughts were good enough to trigger me and so I decided to work with children for a while. So that’s how this NGO happened to me. At NGO's adopted low income school, I am currently teaching Mathematics and Communicative English to Grade 2 and 3 children.

Now while i am trying to plan my lessons, i am also trying to squeeze time in-between to put together my observations. So far, i have not been able to come up with right templates to note down generic and subject specifics observations. I hope to develop right templates soon so that I can share whatever i gathered so far in a concise way. 

If anybody has suggestions or references relating to good classroom observation templates, then please do share them with me. 

Khushboo

From Your Closet to a Box

"Every day is a learning experience"...so many times you would have heard this phrase. This is true only if you make this mantra a part of your everyday schedule. All you need to do is start jotting down the things you did each day and the learnings you had from those exercises. I began doing this exercise couple of months back and so have now gathered handful of every day learning experiences. This article, "From Your Closet to a Box", is a result of one such exercise that i did during my volunteering days. 

So many times, we would have seen corporates/social bodies running campaigns relating to Donating Clothes. I always wondered on the utility of these campaigns and how this would be benefiting the needy. During my volunteering days at a NGO, I found that children were wearing torn school uniform. It is not that the NGO didn't regularly distribute school uniforms to the children. In fact clothes and uniform distribution was a regular features of that particular NGO. The myth that resources channelised through NGOs (if not monitored) doesn't reach out to the target group is not always correct. Perhaps sometimes it doesn't but most of the time it does reach out to the people in need. 

Coming back to those children in the NGO. As you are aware, children are children, no matter whether they are rich or poor. They love to dirty their clothes, play in the dirt and dust as well as fight with fellow friends. Children in the NGO would also indulge in similar pleasures of childhood life and often come to class wearing torn uniform.I saw those children wearing torn shirts, trousers or skirts to the class. They would continue wearing till the uniform was deemed inappropriate by the class Teacher. 

Before this I never thought and considered the importance of clothes. It was during that period when I realised the value of clothes. For a good percentage of population, clothes that we hardly pay a heed to, are considered wearable. On several occasions, we discard a cloth material or dress because it has lost its sheen or the cool factor. One should never throw away or discard clothes because you don't like them or it is simply not trendy enough. Sometimes, I have seen that clothes generally sits in one's closet, with the individual not even being aware of the fact that such clothes do exist in his/her closet. It is thus important to frequently do a scrutiny of your own closet.One must make way for new clothes in their closet and way out for unused clothes. There are people who needs them. One should look for ways to donate good quality wearable clothes. 

Have you ever thought that clothes can be much more than donation items? So i did a little research to find if clothes can become more than mere donation items. My search took me to this organisation that is using discarded or unused quality clothes as a tool for social change and transformation. 

The organisation named, 'Goonj' (a social enterprise working with the mission to make clothing a matter of concern and to bring it among the list of subjects for the development sector ) are using clothes as well as other old materials as a powerful & proven tool for social change, huge resource for rural/slum development and a valuable asset for income generation. With the focus to make clothing accessible to one and all, Goonj is trying to use clothes as a means to alter the perception of the society that largely sees clothes as mere charitable thing to donate. Read more about Goonj and its initiative here [http://goonj.org/?page_id=1963] 

Khushboo

Lessons from the Book called, 'REWORK'

I have been constantly thinking of new ideas and things i could blog about. At the same time, i have also been thinking of different categories under which i could do blogging - Travelogue, Creative Pedagogy & Volunteering, Reviews or Reflections, and Self Starts.

After pondering for a while regarding the next post, I felt it would be good to write a blog on one of the recent book that I just read. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to do a good book review (probably people can share some experiences and possibly a robust template that they have used for doing any book review) and so I decided rather than doing a thorough book review, perhaps I can share my understanding and take away on one of the chapters.

Recently I picked up this book titled, “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson from one of the book stores. I have enclosed the front and back cover pages of this book (this would provide you with the look/feel of the book and help you evaluate whether you really want to buy or not). From long ago, my ex colleagues at workplace have been asking me to slow down and stop working long hours (and definitely NOT send emails at 2 or 3 AM), but I didn’t bother and avoided these suggestions as I felt that these are useless suggestions. I kept slogging and did lot of damage to my creativity/productivity/morale and attitude in the process. And then when all this happened, I stumbled upon this book and this particular chapter, “Go To Sleep”. I wondered why didn’t I get this book long time back when I was literary burning mid-night oil!

Never mind ..what is gone is gone and is difficult to get back but we can try to resurrect whatever we are left with. So what are the valuable lessons this particular chapter of the book teaches us. It starts with a caution notice,“forgoing sleep is a bad idea” and ends by saying that one can travel down this adventure path once in a while. But this shouldn’t be made into a regular habit.  The chapter lists down some of the serious cost implications of not sleeping well.

• Stubbornness; Sleep deprivation leads to inability in an individual to think straight and distinguish between the right or wrong. If you are acting stubborn, check whether you are taking adequate sleep or not.

• Lack of creativity: The ability to think creatively reduces drastically in a person who is tired and haven’t slept for a while. In fact the book says and I quote, “what distinguishes people who are 10 times more effective than the norm is not that they work ten times harder; it’s that they use their creativity to come up with solutions that require one-tenth of the effort.

• Diminished Morale: When your brain is tired, it is unable to focus/concentrate and so it starts indulging into not so important tasks (to some extent you start with extreme procrastination).

If you are suffering from any of these symptoms, then you might want to slow down a bit and relax. May be take some time off from work. This way you will not only be doing a great service to your self but also to your organisation.  I can say with conviction that you will return back with strength and power to get the work done.

Things that matters most in life but we tend to ignore them!

Effect of visuals and illustrations on learning levels of children - A story straight from the field

STORY TELLING then and now

I always (and even now) use to envy story tellers primarily because of the way they engaged the readers, viewers or listeners. So, when i got the opportunity to conduct story telling sessions with the children at NGO (where i worked as teacher volunteer), i grabbed the moment with both the hands. I was brimming with joy as it brought back vivid memories of my own childhood, when i use to look forward to story sessions. 

For most of us, story sessions were a way to break free from the routine life as a student and immerse into a life that was filled with fun and merry making. Teacher then use to read out and sometimes enact the stories to us. Unlike earlier, story telling has undergone tremendous change. For example, a good story teller makes use of not only written texts, but visuals & illustrations, drama, language styles and variations to communicate the story. 

The Big Idea 

The idea of conducting story telling sessions amongst the NGO children was aimed at these interwoven components:

(#) Instil reading habits, (#) Develop listening abilities, (#) Improve english comprehension, (#) Develop vocabulary base, and (#) Foster visual thinking. 

My instructional approach to story telling 

So,i read up articles and watched handful of videos in-order to prepare myself for this session. Based on the reading ability and vocabulary knowledge of the children, i picked up a story book from the scholastics called, " Chewy Louie by Howie Schneider". Apart from the fact that these children come from poor background and hardly have exposure to english language at their homes, the hindi medium of instruction at the school further provides them with limited english speaking exposure. This happens to be a prime cause of their poor english understandability level. After assessing the level of children, i decided to conduct the class in english with hindi translation. 

I started the class in English and asked children to explain the story so far. Many children struggled to explain even the basic sentences such as these:

He ate everything we put in his bowl. Then he ate the bowl.

My mother was very worried. "He'll get sick,"she said. "He won't get sick," my father said. "He's just a puppy. 

This prompted me to switch to Hindi and children began relating to the plot, characters, and sequence of events. But children looked far from an enthusiastic bunch. The participation was passive, while i wanted the children to become active participants. I wondered as to what was wrong and why children were looking less enthusiastic about being in this class. I started flipping through the book pages to find the answer and i saw the beautiful illustrations.

I began showing the illustrations to the children one by one and to my amusement, children rattled out the entire story as it was written in the book. That day, i witnessed the power of visual teaching and learning. 

So, i decided to embark upon a small research to validate the power of visual teaching and instructions upon the learning levels of children. 

Visual learning and teaching impact on children (especially beginner-intermediate readers)

In the next article, that is Part II of this post, I would share some perspectives on visual literacy and its effect on learning levels of children. 

Khushboo

The Julie&Julia Project - My inspiration behind blogging

Few years ago, i saw this motion picture called the, "Julie & Julia", a motion picture based on a blog of Julie Powell featuring all the 524 recipes of Julia Child, tried, tested and documented by Julie on her blog. The film contrasts the life of chef Julia child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell, who aspires to cook all the 524 recipes in Child's cookbook in 365 days, a challenge that she describes on her blog, "the Julie & Julia Project". When i had seen this film the 1st time, i had loved the unsaid bonding between Julie & Julia, their fiery attitude and undying love for cooking.

The ever charming and fluid Meryl Strip (who played the role of Julia child in this version) was simply outstanding in her role. She had a peculiar way of expressing herself and frequently rolled her body around to say things. Whereas Amy Adams (who played the role of Julie Powell), very convincingly portrait the role of city dweller caught up in her boring 9 to 5 job. No matter how boring the job was, Amy had to keep the job as it enabled the couple to pay the bills and somewhat prevented them from going back to the caravan (where the couple were living earlier). This is all i could gather, when i had first seen this film. Well at that juncture (or perhaps a point in life), i failed to realise the underlining message that the film was trying to deliver through the two lead characters. 

Recently, i again happened to see this film by chance. Behind this comedy-drama, i unearthed the poignant message that the film was trying to convey. The two foremost messages that came nicely through the film were, (#) finding your passion, interests or true calling and (#) finding ways to nurture the passion, interests. So for instance, when Julia Child (a childless but happily married women in her 40s) relocated to Paris along with her husband, she didn't want to become another social butterfly. She wanted to utilise her life well and do productive work. This led to her exploring various hobby classes to find her true interest. She finally found her calling in COOKING. She chopped, boiled, pouched, and baked her way through several dishes and finally collaborated with fellow cooking enthusiasts to document all the recipes in writing. Julia's life story presents us with a very important lesson of life, that is, finding out what interests you and then working towards that interest. 

Similarly, when Julie Powell (a happily married New Yorker, stuck in a boring job) was having hard time connecting herself with her work (where she answers telephone calls from the survivors of the September 9/11 attacks and members of the general public complaining about the controversial plans for rebuilding the World Trade Centre), she decided to revive her old passion of, "WRITING". She enjoyed COOKING and so she decide to cook and write about all the 524 recipes in Child's cookbook in 365 days. Julia gave a deadline to herself so that she could see this as a time bound project. Julie's blog not only became the most popular blog on Salon.com but also established her as a prolific writer. So, what did Julie do right! Julie decided to put her life back on track and not get drown in her boring job. She carefully evaluated as to what interests her and then worked towards that interest (finding ways to realise it). Being aware of the fact that she never complete things, Julie set herself a deadline. Julie's story presents us with yet another lesson of life, being aware of oneself and finding ways to overcome the limitations or self inflicted barriers. Well putting a deadline can be pressuring but it disciplines you.

Many a times, i have tried to start blogging but each time for some reason i discontinued. After watching this film, i realised that to follow your passion you need to have a disciplined and systematic approach just like both Julia and Julie had. They were passionate, aware, hardworking, disciplined and absolutely honest to their work. 

Cheers to Julia & Julie for igniting the writer within me and showing that disciplined approach is essential to realise anything. 

Khushboo 

Why blogging?