Palki - Break from school

Could not go to the school for 3 days due to the festival of Palki in Pune. Missed the school, class and students! 

Did get the time to run, keep up to date with news and connect with more people. Most throats were sore and noses were choked. Days were spent in classroom sessions focussed more on practice than theory. Was enjoyable.

SchoolTeam Meeting on Saturday was low key compared to the previous one. Was wonderful to listen to Megan Fallone of Barefoot College  in Leadership Development Forum. 

After days of uncertainty, did manage to make the home visits. Nothing dramatic but somethings were sure surprising. Hmmm ...

Next week is going to be much more hectic with Eid, PTM, night stay and ownership day. Bring it on.

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Day 4 & Day 5 of school

Teaching English is definitely not same as teaching Maths. I knew that already. What I had not thought about was the class may be less interested. It showed, I struggled. No one had to jump into assist though, I was able to maintain the hold.

With the objective of "describing reaction to text and own response", I covered the prologue to I Am Malala and a poem from the text book. Pity, no-one did suggested homework.

While I spoke to students about visiting their homes, got to know later in afternoon that we won't even visit the school duet Palaki festival. Called students to inform change of plans.

Surprisingly, did not have any sessions scheduled in the afternoon/evening. So, I spent time catching up with news, family, friends and works. Much needed ME time.

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Me Sunday

Slept till late to rest and recuperate. Did wake up just in time for breakfast and coffee. Was a lovely morning but felt groggy.

Visited a community where friend's NGO is working. Saw the kids engaged in creative and thinking board games, learnt Uno. Heard some of the people of the community.

Lunch was at a Parsee restaurant. Food was great, even though we did not eat what we actually ordered. Felt a lot better.

Evening was spent in going over the lesson plan, morning meeting and closing circle.

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Busy Saturday ...

Finally got some more time to sleep. Had completed the lesson plan yesterday evening. Sessions were scheduled to start only at 0800 today.

Breakfast was followed by the school team meeting, 1st week of teaching was celebrated and reflected upon. Head of Arpan then spoke about child sexual abuse in the leadership development forum. And finally we had a discussion on child safety.

Team mate was sick, gave him medicines after lunch. Packed and travelled to the new campus, journey took more than 1hr. Got in the room and unpacked. Ran to library and print room for books and prints. They will be closed tomorrow.

Glad we have a laundry on campus here. Costly but quick, very useful.

Met with team to plan for Monday, took a pill for the sore throat, could sleep well before midnight. Remembered to cancel the alarm and set the phone in silence mode.

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Day 3 of School

Yesterday's samosa did not go down well. Had to wake up 0330. Glad I had turned in relatively early last night.

Tried to teach reading a frequency table and making inferences from it, using a poll on the values and rules in class. Worked beautifully. It is so satisfying when the class answers correctly. Was kind of a holiday for teachers, so helped to manage some non-teaching procedures too.

Class seemed more disruptive, other teammates too felt the burn. At the same time I got to connect with a boy. Heated to join the military and said that he needs to he strong, beefy to do that. He listened with rapt attention when I told him about the NDA. Will take some printed information for him in the next class.

My last day of Maths. Will work with English next week.

Look forward to the new campus and new subject.

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Day 2 of School

Thursday, 23 June

Picking up from yesterday, tried to teach Frequency Table using the connection of raw food, cooking and cooked delicious dishes. Ws delighted to find that class had remembered the lesson from yesterday. Also, there were more students in the class.

Unlike yesterday, all classes could be held. Spoke to a few students during lunch before coming back for my own classes. Learnt more about teaching.

This is hectic but enjoyable.

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Day 1 of School

Wednesday, 22 June

Oh yes, I will teach today, woke with that spirit at 0445. Tried waking up team, telephone network was down. Something was wrong with the water in shower, had to crouch under the tap. Put up the charts in classroom but was asked to remove as the classrooms were new and administration did not want to damage the walls. Not a great start to the day!

Felt alive in the classroom. Tackled the matters of significance of data, various ways of collecting and arranging data using Cricket. Mention of Tendulkar and Kohli helped to engage the class. I seem to have converted at least one student ...

There sure were some disruptions and apologies too ...

Lessons on English and Science planned by teammates could not happen due to a function, lesson on Social Studies sure happened.

Students wouldn't have me not share their lunch. Was back in my training school for more sessions and preparation in the afternoon.

Good beginning.

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