The eventful day of the 13th of February, 2012 began around 5 am with the cacophony of people around me. After all, the day was to be festooned with those memories including my first stint with teaching, under the banner of ‘Prayas’, that had taken the onus of teaching village kids during a camp of a week. Waking up at such an hour of dawn bribed me to go into my sweetest of dreams, but the thought of teaching for the first time in my life kept me awake. Within an hour I was ready with routine morning activities. Meanwhile I took my exercise till it was time to go for a bath. We were then called upon by Sir for briefing the task to perform for the day. Breakfast was an added booster for the day!
With all the adrenaline rushing, our team ‘Dakshin’ took the responsibility and moved in the direction of the school whose students we were to teach. One English and one Marathi medium school we were to cover. I thus landed up in the English medium school, where we reached around 9.30 am. To our surprise the classes commenced at 11 am. Yet, the wait was worth!
The prayer for classes LKG to 2 ended in half an hour. Meanwhile, I engaged myself in photography capturing some of the best moments that would be later treasured for memories. It was pledge-time and all students took it with sincerity, some yawning, rubbing their eyes, looking elsewhere, and making innocent yet funny faces that somewhere reminded me of my school days!
After prayers, my colleagues and I took charge of our respective classes. Ultimately I was named the teacher of upper KG class! Felt proud to be a teacher to those cute, little angels! A gullible I am when it comes to teaching, the ‘original’ teacher briefed me up about conduction of classes and gave me few books for reference. Starting with A, B, C…the response was amazing, with students shouting at their highest pitches. Later they were asked to identify some shapes followed by which there was a test to identify animals by their pictures. At once I thought of asking them random pictures, but when I started with the first picture all of them started with their ‘rattofied’ (sounds colloquial, yet conveys raw emotions!) answers! I was amazed how they managed to identify animals without showing them their pictures. Chocolates were ready rewards. One thing-bribing works in some cases like these!
I was then asked by the class teacher to check homework. It was a great feeling as I ticked so many books giving all of them good rewards. I suppose it’s a great experience for all teachers! For a change I went to take photographs of upper class and was surprised as everyone greeted me with great warmth which was something I never expected.
Lunch time! If it weren’t for the much awaited tiffin, our chances of leaving classes were bleak. Interacting with kids at the village was the best part, blessing me with lessons for life. The most touching part of the day was when I switched to a small girl and asked her to give a hi-five. It was then her friend told me she’s blind. Felt really bad. But her desire to learn and get educated in such a small village held back my emotions.
Wondering what to do next post-lunch for the rest half school time, a unanimous thumbs-up was voted up for watching ‘Ice Age’. It was an hour before we decided to take up scientific toy making. Toys pertaining to rocket, Bernoulli’s principle, centrifugal force, etc. were made.
Finally we left for our base camp in the evening after a complete day with the school, taking back loads of pictures and their love.
And this is how I ended my first teaching experience!
Even today, the nostalgia of those wonderful day swings in, ushering tears of joy and a sense of gratitude for returning back to the society to which we belong.
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