During the first two weeks of the new term, I was made to teach the first lesson to STD 1 Divisions- A, B, and C. I must admit, I was nervous and extremely uneasy with the thought of having to teach STD 1 again in the English medium, as my first round with them in 1D was not all daffodils and butterflies, but nonetheless, I was up for the challenge. Since I have been getting to know the co-teachers very well in the first standard because I am with them once a week for library period (more description of that to come in the next blog!), I felt I was already in a better place to start my teaching.
My lesson, Saroja, was about an old woman who wanted to help build a temple, but she couldn’t because she was too old to lift the heavy stones. Instead, she decided to help the workers by making them buttermilk, so they could feel refreshed and continue working. The reading passage was not so long, but there were so many exercises to go along with this lesson, which made it very difficult to get through. It’s easy to forget how slowly these 1st graders write, and how much time they need to comprehend the questions I am asking them. I must admit, it is frustrating at times because I would really like to spend more time on reading each lesson, but I am plagued by time constraints--the necessity to finish within about a week’s time or else there is no possible way they can finish all the lessons they need to for the exams. So, I trudge through the lesson, and I hope that I am picking out important parts of the story to have them remember. By the end, I am able to dictate the basic sequence of the story, and they can fill in the blanks, or finish the sentences, although they sometimes give mindless answers because they know a certain word must be coming up soon in the sequence. (For example, they would answer “temple” or “buttermilk” for almost every question, until I reminded them to listen to what I was asking, and then a proper answer would appear.) After many days of pressing them to write faster, as I was taught to do quickly in these younger standards, a lot of reminders that we always leave one line between answers, and pleading for my students to listen to my instructions, I finally got through the lesson.
Now, the challenge with first standard isn’t that I can’t get through the lesson, even though it is really difficult to manage keeping on task with 30-40 youngsters all asking questions in Hindi or Gujarati about something I’ve just explained literally 10 times when I thought I had their attention. The challenge is the daunting combination of not just classroom management, but teaching these students the schemas of how to behave in school in general, and the expectations for them as students in this new environment, along with getting through very sophisticated lessons in solely English that made STD 1 a very… difficult place to be. I was overwhelmed easily, and I felt purely helpless at times because I wanted to be a good teacher to these students, but there seemed to be a level of communication and understanding that was, and still is, very challenging to get to with these students, as their English is minimal and my Hindi/Gujarati is nil. Reflecting back on these past two weeks, I think that was my biggest disappointment—I couldn’t get to a level of mutual understanding with most of my students. Two weeks is a very short time to be with a group of students, but my hopes were still high and of course I was slightly crushed when my students were still wild, and I couldn’t answer their basic questions to their satisfaction because of the language barrier.
However, no need to fear because all my hopes have not been lost. Fortunately, since last term, I have also had all of the STD 1 classes in the English medium for library period. Since we have had a regular routine set up of this weekly library period for 3 months now, they are beginning to get a grasp on the behavior expectations during this period, and even when I walk into the room, they know story time is coming and they must clear their desks and fold their hands before I will begin. How proud I am of my students that they have learned this!!!! Their sweet faces are so innocent, and their gleaming eyes are always so ready to jump into a learning adventure… it truly melts my heart. At the end of the day, I know that there is still some hope to be had with these small students and it just takes more time than I can be with them, based on the way my schedule is at the moment. As for now, I am moving on to teaching the 4th and 5th STD, and I am very excited to go on to the older students, but I am still happy I will get my weekly visit with my sweet 1st STD.
Until next time..
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