A proud moment- Srini

Today, I walked into School a bit earlier than usual and I noticed my class kid Kajal going towards the classroom with her Grandma. Seeing me, Kajal came running with a big grin, shouting ‘Bhaiya !’. Holding her little fingers, I climbed up the stairs to reach the classroom. Since the morning shift was going on, we decided to sit in the Staff room for a while going through her file which has a stack of homework sheets and test papers.

Later, when we went into the classroom, Kajal took out a paper (ripped off her English notebook) and handed it over to me with pride and shyness painted on her gleaming face. At first, I thought it is the usual letter my kids write to drop into the Class Letter Box but on reading it, I turned ecstatic. She had written about her Picnic experience without even me asking anyone to ! Exactly 4 months ago, Kajal could not even write her name properly or any words on her own. But now, she felt motivated enough to write so many sentences on her own and nothing more could bring joy to me than this. Here is what she wrote (the numbering and brackets are her writing as well !)

1) I can go to the Picnic

2) 4 boy and 7 girl

3) 10 stars and more go to the Picnic

4) Muskan is no go to the Picnic

5) 2:30 go to the Picnic

6) 8:30 come to the School

7) I can go got he Picnic very happy

I like my Bhaiya very must

9) Bhaiya is nose big

10) Bhaiya is very said

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“Every Child an Entrepreneur” – The power of “I CAN”

October is the birth month of the father of our Nation and the man who has influenced TFI’s theory of change in no small way. “BE THE CHANGE” said Mahatma Gandhi and we devote this month to TFI staff, fellows and students and who are living those words and being the change. The very first post comes from Shashank bhaiya and Sandeep bhaiya and their students’ amazing and inspiring effort in Being the change.

The idea of “Every Child an Entrepreneur” came about when the kids desired changes in their school (Sunrise English School) in the form of computer education. Since the school did not have funds for a computer, the kids initially decided to raise fund by donation but coming from low income communities, they were able to raise only 3K which was not sufficient to buy a computer. Despite the set-back, the children turned it into an opportunity by coming up with a brilliant idea to organize themselves in interest groups and work over Saturdays to produce artefacts for a Fun fair using the initial 3K as seed money. The idea was that they wanted to create a market where they could sell their goods and hopefully raise enough funds for a computer.

On 2nd October 2010, the Sunrise Team organized SUNFEST – A FUN FAIR!! The Fun Fair was Phase 2 of the “Every Child an Entrepreneur” program wherein the school children tried to raise funds for buying a school computer; from a fun filled event featuring games, prizes, music, delicious food and art+crafts made exclusively by the kids over the past few weeks. The event was a huge success with more than 20 stalls put up by the students attracting more than 1000 visitors. The event made a profit of 13K which was enough to buy a computer as was the original objective of the “Every Child an Entrepreneur”.

Watch the video for SUNFEST – A FUN FAIR!!

The most heartening aspect though is the fact that it has given the kids the confidence of “I CAN” and they are already planning for a larger “Annual Event”  with the objective of raising funds for a water purification unit in school. As was apt on occasion of 2nd October, “The Children became the CHANGE they want to see in the world”

The school submitted this project to the Design for Change Contest. Here’s wishing the young entrepreneurs all the best!

Shashank Shukla and Sandeep Mallareddy are two Teach for India fellows from the 2010 cohort, committed to ending educational inequity in India. They work in a low-income community private school in Pune called Sunrise English School.

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My best friends is Raisa- Raisa Romer

On Friday (a.k.a. Fun Friday) , we spent the hours after break talking about friends which culminated in the kids writing 5 lines about their best friend. While I was going around the room helping with spellings and sentence formation, I couldn’t help myself from smiling at some of the sentences. One girl wrote that she liked her best friend because she played with a bear ( a teddy bear, i’m hoping!) . Another boy said he played ‘bootball’ with his friend  (which technically is the right word as India sadly found out in 1950!).

As i’m walking around, I come across Krishna. Now Krishna is super bright which leads him to be really distracted in class, which leads to a lot of minus points for his team. I’ve tried different strategies, moved him around, but none seem to work. Now him making whichever team he’s in lose points means he’s become quite unpopular . So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw what he was writing .

I was surprised. “Your best friend is Raisa?” He looked up me and in his usual style said “Yes because only you like me. Everyone else is angry with me!” . I felt so bad! So I started with a lot of positive reinforcement with him, made him help me when I was putting up some of the writing on the wall and just generally tried to up his reputation among the class. I’ll know how well it went on Monday. But it reminded me to be more aware of how my point system was affecting the individual and not just the class as a whole. My kids teach me something new everyday!

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Fellow Blogs

Here are a few links to some blogs by TFI fellows from the 2009 and 2010 cohort and TFI staff members.

• TFI Journey: Srini, a 2010 Teach For India Fellow, writes about his journey with Teach for India and  his stories of change both inside and outside his classroom in Dharavi, Mumbai.
• It’s Political Motivational and…: Prakhar is a 2009 Teach for India Fellow. He has been teaching for a year now and his blog is an amazing repository of stories about his time as a teacher in a school called Sant Gadge Maharaj in Kondhwa, Pune. Do check out the “Letters to my friends” section on his blog for some great snippets of his life as a TFI fellow.
• Teaching as Leadership (Astitva): Another 2009 Teach for India Fellow, Dhiren teaches in K.C. Thackrey Vidya Niketan school in Pune. Besides his refelctions on his two year stint with Teach For India, a strongly recommended section on his blog would be his strategies to teach mathematics to children.
• Belief: Ritika is a Teach for India fellow from the 2010 cohort. She teaches in a school in Mumbai and the blog is her diary about the TFI experience. Keep an eye out for some great pictures.
• Mahesh Prajapati: Mahesh is also a 2010 Teach for India fellow. He teaches in Mumbai and writes about his experiences on the blog. He also writes lovely poetry in Hindi!
• My White Lotus: My White Lotus is Tarun’s exhaustive and wonderfully written description of his journey as a Teach for India fellow since the past year and a half in Pune. Do read his recollections from his recent trip to visit charter schools in NY as a Teach for India fellow.
• One in billion: Taylor is a staff member at Teach for India and has helped launch the Teach for India movement. His blog, as the introduction says, is about five things “- experiences related to living and working in India, happenings at Teach For India (my employer), development and fundraising-related, career-building, and entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, smart business ideas. “
• I Teach for India: With a very appropriately named blog, Divesh is a 201o Teach for India fellow. Read about his journey and “Why” he chooses to Teach for India.
• Reflections of my mind: Aritra is a part of the 2010 batch Teach for India fellows and the blog is his reflection as a Teach for India fellow in a school in Pune.
• Walking in their shoes: Raisa is also a 2010 batch Teach for India fellow or a “tenner” as they are called. She teaches in Mumbai and her blog is peppered with some great pics displaying her immense creativity.
• Insane Inanities: A 2010 Teach for India fellow, Anurag seeks to write about his journey to Teach from India from his college. He teaches in Mumbai.
• Frogs in my class: Meera is a 2010 Teach for India fellow. The curious title of the blog alludes to some real frogs who share Meera and her students’ class with them. Her blog is filled with her experiences as a teacher in a school in Pune and sometimes even a humourous take on them as the title of the blog suggests.
• With the Left and the Right: Srikanth, also a tenner, teaches in Pune and the blog is a mix of his experiences in the classroom as a Teach for India fellow and all that he gets to do in his spare time (whenever he might find it).
• Edoocation: Milind is a 2009 fellow and has been teaching in Mumbai since the past year and a half. On his blog, he speaks about his views on Education policy and issues as seen through his experience as a Teach for India fellow. He also came up with the wonderful idea of listing down the dreams/aspirations/ideas of all the 2009 fellows post their two year fellowship. Read about them on his blog.
• Words Raining: Dhanya is a 2010 Teach for India fellow teaching in Mumbai. On her blog, she writes about her experiences as class teacher in a school in Mumbai as a tenner.
• They Teach; I Learn: Subhadra is from the 2009 cohort of Teach for India fellows. She teaches the 5th standard in Mumbai. They Teach; I Learn, a blog title which speaks volumes, is a rich and often moving record of her experience as a teacher in Mumbai.
• Be the Change: Be the Change, which is also the Teach for India motto, is Rahul’s blog. He is a 2009 Teach for India fellow and teaches in Mumbai. His blog not only contains his experiences as a TFI fellow since the past one and a half year but also his opinions and ideas drawn from his work as a Teach for India fellow, on how to improve the state of education in India.
• Delusions, allusions, illusions, visions: Meenakshi is a 2010 Teach for India fellow teaching in a school in Pune. She muses, alludes, talks about her life as a teacher in Pune and the delusions, illusions and visions therein.
• The classroom for learning: Manu is a 2009 Teach for India fellow and has been teaching in a chool in Pune since the past year and a half. As a part of his summer internship, which he did as a part of his Teach for India fellowship, he interned at the Druk White Lotus Shey in Ladakh. He has posted a video of his experiences there. Also read about his experiences as a TFI fellow accompanied with some great videos and pictures.
• Conviction in Your Thoughts: “Conviction in Your Thoughts” is the title of Ritesh’s accounts of his two year stint with Teach for India. He is a fellow from the 2009 Teach for India cohort and teaches in Pune. On his blog, he reflects as an individual and as a teacher about his experiences during this fellowship. Read his post on “The challenges of being Abu“, which is his chronicle of his student, Abu’s, life with him.

• in on under above : Neha is a 2010 batch fellow. She writes about funny incidents and sometimes revelations in her classroom. Currently she is a grade 2 teacher in Worli Seaface BMC School in Mumbai.
• Gunvant Jain : Blog by 2010 Fellow and IIT-Madras graduate Gunvant. Some excellent articles on skill-based learning.

The opinions or column written by these fellows or staff are their  own personal experiences.

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Giving Trees- Srini Swaminathan

These days I have had this feeling that I am doing a lot for the kids; that I am giving them a lot. While going through the day-to-day austerity of living a Teacher’s life in Mumbai, I begin to think that I am ‘giving’. To the children. To society. But, gradually, I have begun seeing a change in the way I think. I now understand that I have been receiving a lot. From the community. From the city and most importantly, from the children.

Within a week of starting to teach, the children have been bringing something for their “Bhaiya”. It started with lunchtime sharing of their biscuits, candies, cakes, kichdi or pretty much all types of food. Then, they started bringing stuff from home -things that they considered special and fancy – like fake pearls, chamkis, beads and so on. I accepted them all with love and grace. I showed them how to accept gifts and thank. I kept reminding them that the best gift they can give me is – following the class rules, studying well and being good to each other.

As weeks went by, I saw this ‘giving’ develop into something really astonishing. They started bringing very thoughtful things for me. One day it would be small magnets collected from radio sets or discarded speakers and the other day, it would be marker pens. Then, they would draw and color something really nice just for me. (Today, one kid brought a full bar of Dairy Milk to give me. It was her birthday) The most common gift has to be red pens ! (though I hardly use red…I prefer green color to correct/check).

But, the one that really surprised me was from Roshan. He is a very quiet kid. Almost no one would notice him in class. He is very well behaved in class, naturally shy and quiet. He looks straight out of a playschool. The other day, he silently walked up to me during lunch and gave me a beautiful whistle ! This is special because I take their PT Games period as well and I was struggling without a whistle. Roshan had observed it and got me a whistle. Everytime I look at this whistle, it reminds me that I have 43 giving trees in my class !

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Teach For India student

A 3rd std. child shares views about her favorite teacher- Ritesh Bhaiya, A Teach For India Fellow and why she wants him to teach her through all her school years.

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Unravelling the Mystery of God in a IInd Grade classroom

Talking to kids can unravel some of the best kept mysteries of human existence and also lead to peace in the world.  It being a Saturday, I was talking to my IInd graders about the imminent Christmas holidays and about Jesus Christ and Santa Claus and gifts and reindeers and sleigh (reinforcing phonics at the same time), and about the fun time that we can have on 24th of December if they are at their best of behaviour and are not late to school and what not !!!

Suddenly the topic took a turn to whether their is God or not and whether he is in temples or churches.  I had this enlightenment somehow and I asked them a question: why we close our eyes when we pray..instantly a hand pops up and replies in broken English..that God lives in our heart and so we close our eyes to see Him inside.

End of session and beginning of my englitenment and reinforcement of my belief that we need to build up on kids pure minds and not let them be adulterated by someone telling them to hate their fellow being for him following some other religion.

Love,

-Amit Arora

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“Child is the Father of Man”

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In the presence of the Divine

November 11, 2009

What a great day it was at school today!  The phonics session, the spelling test, revising the verbs, the tables and group competition, aanapaan session, the drama practice and the drawing session where kids imagined how they got into the Big Potato and what they saw there, everything just went superbly well today.  Inside the potato Sakshi found the chocolate rain and she dancing on a pile of chocolates with her mother!  Isra saw a Barbie doll turn into an imaginary animal…little Sahil drew bullock cart and a space shuttle side-by-side.

Last but not the least, when the school closed unexpectedly early due to heavy rains, it was a task to call up all the parents to come and pick up their child.  Some kids still remained in the class and didn’t know what to do with them..was also very hungry it was 2 in the afternoon.  But as it turned out, something just really worked without much planning.  The kids drew on the board what for them means anger, fun, lazy, happiness and sadness…their ideas were mindboggling.  Like the bald joker standing upside down, a girl with a tail and catlike moustache, another man throwing mud at someone else, a lazy boy growing his hair too long because he is too lazy to cut them, a man helping someone who fell down at a construction site, the boxing scene with the two angry men fighting with each other…the attention to details and imagination was remarkable.

Also, today’s highlight turned out to be me being able to give that personal one-on-one attention to many of my kids and to appreciate their work.  It helped having only 20 kids attend school today.  It was less about an objective driven lesson plan and more about being in the moment.  Atharva jumping all over the place with smallest of admiration for his work, Little Sahil’s intricate drawing, Ammar writing five well thought sentences without a single spelling mistake, Sania getting more and more confident to raise her and at least try to answer my questions, Sakshi’s usual enthusiasm with learning, kids eagerly discussing about their buddy in England…these and many such small rewards made my day.

Here’s what it all led me to think deeply about my kids:

The creative faculty of kids and their originality of thinking, their curious, positive outlook towards life, the spark in and the innocence in their eyes, their full of energy and ready-for-anything state of being, their flexibility to absorb and change, their uniqueness of character, the ability to forgive and forget things, their egoless and selfless acts—all of it make me feel as I am in the presence of the divine.  Through their eyes I feel I have the possibility to see God.  They are an abundance of love, so full adoration for life and the beautiful world around. I yearn to be one with them, to be one of them…to get a peep inside their magical mind.  The purity of mind and truthfulness of their intentions almost offers me a spiritual experience in their company.  Their honesty to tell on the face what they do not like and what they like surprises me.  The fact that they do not pretend or fake their character, or put on a deceptive mask really gives me a sense of trust and creates mutual respect in the classroom.  Mostly they operate on intuition or their pure inner calling.  They have a knack of being joyful despite all the odds around in their lives…they ‘feel’ the things first and ‘think’ about them later.  They can almost very instantly catch the vibrations around them and respond accordingly.

So, as a teacher, it reminds me, it is not their problem if they are not learning anything, or that class is out of control and I am losing my temper…because kids don’t plan for it.  They simply act upon their natural instincts.  It is not their problem if the teacher has a miserable attitude, they don’t know how to help it..they are going to have it their own way as much as they can.  The baseline is that my class is a reflection of myself.  And that puts the onus completely on my shoulder.

They are not the ones who are in control of circumstances and situations around them they are innocent receivers of what is given to them…trying their best to cope with the system, its rigidity and discipline, the negative and cruel ways of the world.  As they desperately attempt to muddle through life…trying to survive their creativity and happiness, somewhere down the line, they too succumb to the demands and expectations of the world.  The pessimism, the competition, selfish narrow mindsets, the ruthless strangling for self-glory overtake them and begin to suck life out of these heavenly creations.  They fall prey to conventions and traditionally set patterns.  It makes me think that nothing damages this world and the tremendous potential it holds as much as the gradual killing of creativity of our children.

It also humbles me to think about this opportunity I have in life to reinforce these valuable childhood traits in myself, and nurture 33 other young souls along the way so that their originality is preserved.  Kids have bliss in ignorance, the real challenge lies in being in a state of bliss with awareness.  That’s the challenge I grapple with every moment of my life.

Vipul Shaha

Fellow, Teach For India.

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