Thursday, January 19, 2006
Time line of my teaching practice
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
How contexts have changed and how it has affected my teaching
Fresh out of college, brimming with enthusiasm, I took up the post of a spoken English teacher in a little institute in Kochi, Kerala. Needless to say, I had no clue as to what I was doing, had no ideas about what it took to be a teacher. My “students” , many of them older than me,were mostly gulf aspirants who just wanted to learn enough English to get by. I found I could not relate either to the context or to the content ( I was not inspired... the task seemed mundane )and so , with all the arrogance of youth, I bid good bye …..
A few years later, married, living in Calicut, bored.... I landed myself a job as a lecturer in English for the MA course in a private college. Wow! This was my dream job. I still had no understanding of the skills required for the job…. But I was enthusiastic…
I had to teach two disparate groups of students. The first years : fresh out of college, the boys; most of whom had chosen English literature because they thought it was an easy subject (time pass while they wrote tests and applied for jobs), the girls ;who were just whiling away their time as their parents sought the perfect groom…. The second years on the other hand were all in their forties, school teachers of 15 or more years of experience, who were trying to complete their masters so as to apply for posts in the newly initiated plus two classes…They had paid to be taught enough to pass and that was what they wanted…. no frills, thank you!
In the beginning I tried dealing with both the groups in the same way, stick to the topic at hand, and prepare them for the exams…. But I realized that I was making no head way with the first years. They seemed distracted and uninterested in the array of information I was presenting to them. I realized that many things that were spoken of in literature had no relevance for them, they could relate to Romeo and Juliet perhaps but not to an Emperor Jones… They needed to talk, they needed connectivity, they needed fun........so, out of necessity, my teaching methods changed for this group.....then , the bouquets came...... Looking back, I realise that my inexperience with life itself had been a stumbling block in my teaching....
Well…… much water flowed under the bridge; I moved back to Kochi. I was again teaching students of MA in a private college. My personal context had changed....I was a mother....had gone through personal turmoil, seen "the other side of the fence" as it were and could now personally relate to several things that I was teaching ( things that had been mere bookish knowledge earlier!). On reflection, I think this added a new dimension to my teaching...By now I had also realized what was needed to hold the attention of these 20 somethings..…how to use examples from reel or real life incidents to illustrate my points so as to make it relevant for them.... to make learning interactive....to solicit their opinions and comments....
Then my life went into tailspin! I learnt a new term- Learning Disability. It had great personal meaning and relevance for me. While still teaching part time, I did a course in special education and was offered a post in the same institution (a multi-disciplinary centre for diagnosis and remediation of developmental disabilities). It was the most challenging yet exciting phase of my life. Everything that I had done until then seemed to pale into insignificance in comparison. Everyday brought with it new challenges and new knowledge. I learnt to deal with children from different social strata, with a range of disabilities , age groups- retarded, learning disabled, autistic, spastic….Contexts changed everyday…. …the parents- pushy, helpless, illiterate, highly educated.. all brought with them their own emotional and social contexts…. To explain their child’s difficulties to them required modification of the content… to each in way that would be acceptable and understandable (Sometimes, my emotions would get the better of me..... how do you tell a mother that all three of her children suffer from various degrees of retardation...?). Dealing with them gave me a new perspective on life... the bravery... the sheer courage some showed in just going from day to day.... made me feel that my problems were miniscule.... a mere speck... in comparison. The saying "I wept because I had no shos till I met the man who had no feet" was literally, figuratively, metaphorically being replayed..... My personal context made the work more meaningful, more relevant....
Remedial classes for each child required us to focus on the background, the difficulty level, and the emotional state of the child. Content had to be tailored to suit each child. Even the way I spoke to different children varied, my accent, the words….. These experiences showed in interactions with my own child..
There were sensitization programmes for teachers and parents. Content was re-arranged, cut, shaped, to suit the need, one way for parents, another for teachers....
Here, I learnt valuable lessons in empathy, patience, understanding and teamwork.....
I changed, grew.... perspectives broadened, emotional corridors widened.......
A change in my circumstances brought me to MAIS. It was with a heavy heart that I left the Child Guidance Clinic, but MAIS has been an equally rich experience....Though I still deal with students with special needs , the physical context has changed. The context in which education is imparted has changed ,the background of the students and their level of interaction is different. Learning disability has become the focus of intervention.I deal with the same set of students and their parents every day.......But the challenges remain …… content still needs to be tailored to the personal demands of the child. Learning new things everyday..... hurdling new obstacles.......
# posted by Raji Nair @ 1:31 PM 8 comments
Post a Comment On: ppseraji "Time line of my teaching practice"
8 Comments -Show Original Post
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mahesh said...
Hi Raji,
Nice feeling to be part of your journey. Your journey reinforces the sifnificance of living by and being aware of those momentary experiences that change one's life forever. If you had not been aware of the issues of learning disabilities, your life would have been like any body else's. Nice learning for me: "always be alive and aware"
1:14 AM
joel said...
Raji
It's nice to know about your journey and also like to know why you have decided to educate learning disability students.
9:17 PM
a.v.koshy said...
raji, you write in a beautifully flowing style, enjoyed reading every bit of it , looking forward to hearing the complete story before commenting more on the content...
12:11 AM
Geeta Kamat said...
Hey Raji,
It was inspiring to read your blog!
9:34 AM
sandra kunder said...
A wonderful 'guided tour' of your personal journey Raji. Keep going!
Sandra
9:37 AM
Balakrishnan said...
Blood on the blog!
I am sorry if I am reading too much in your time line.
I am adding your response to my posting with this time line and I am tempted to think a bit more than the flow of the text and the nice reading otherwise attributed to it. One more thing I noticed is that, there is no real ending to your posting. It continues or remains as unsaid. All the best!
10:38 PM
Tara Kini said...
I just wonder if all of teachers should be involved in learning assistance (teaching learning disabled students) at least for a couple of years in order to understand the teaching learning process and develop empathy!
7:34 AM
Shuchi said...
You do done a wonderful job of expressing your timeline as an engaging, personal narrative - it flows very naturally (this is on response to a small f2f chat about your apprehensions about your writing style).
Your changing contexts have come through well - contexts of your students, their parents, and above all, your own changing stations (figuratively speaking) in life.
I agree with Tara - it would be great if all teachers could become familiar with some basic strategies used by learning specialists in order to appropriately engage every child in their classrooms.
1:15 AM
How contexts have changed and how it has affected my teaching
Fresh out of college, brimming with enthusiasm, I took up the post of a spoken English teacher in a little institute in Kochi, Kerala. Needless to say, I had no clue as to what I was doing, had no ideas about what it took to be a teacher. My “students” , many of them older than me,were mostly gulf aspirants who just wanted to learn enough English to get by. I found I could not relate either to the context or to the content ( I was not inspired... the task seemed mundane )and so , with all the arrogance of youth, I bid good bye …..
A few years later, married, living in Calicut, bored.... I landed myself a job as a lecturer in English for the MA course in a private college. Wow! This was my dream job. I still had no understanding of the skills required for the job…. But I was enthusiastic…
I had to teach two disparate groups of students. The first years : fresh out of college, the boys; most of whom had chosen English literature because they thought it was an easy subject (time pass while they wrote tests and applied for jobs), the girls ;who were just whiling away their time as their parents sought the perfect groom…. The second years on the other hand were all in their forties, school teachers of 15 or more years of experience, who were trying to complete their masters so as to apply for posts in the newly initiated plus two classes…They had paid to be taught enough to pass and that was what they wanted…. no frills, thank you!
In the beginning I tried dealing with both the groups in the same way, stick to the topic at hand, and prepare them for the exams…. But I realized that I was making no head way with the first years. They seemed distracted and uninterested in the array of information I was presenting to them. I realized that many things that were spoken of in literature had no relevance for them, they could relate to Romeo and Juliet perhaps but not to an Emperor Jones… They needed to talk, they needed connectivity, they needed fun........so, out of necessity, my teaching methods changed for this group.....then , the bouquets came...... Looking back, I realise that my inexperience with life itself had been a stumbling block in my teaching....
Well…… much water flowed under the bridge; I moved back to Kochi. I was again teaching students of MA in a private college. My personal context had changed....I was a mother....had gone through personal turmoil, seen "the other side of the fence" as it were and could now personally relate to several things that I was teaching ( things that had been mere bookish knowledge earlier!). On reflection, I think this added a new dimension to my teaching...By now I had also realized what was needed to hold the attention of these 20 somethings..…how to use examples from reel or real life incidents to illustrate my points so as to make it relevant for them.... to make learning interactive....to solicit their opinions and comments....
Then my life went into tailspin! I learnt a new term- Learning Disability. It had great personal meaning and relevance for me. While still teaching part time, I did a course in special education and was offered a post in the same institution (a multi-disciplinary centre for diagnosis and remediation of developmental disabilities). It was the most challenging yet exciting phase of my life. Everything that I had done until then seemed to pale into insignificance in comparison. Everyday brought with it new challenges and new knowledge. I learnt to deal with children from different social strata, with a range of disabilities , age groups- retarded, learning disabled, autistic, spastic….Contexts changed everyday…. …the parents- pushy, helpless, illiterate, highly educated.. all brought with them their own emotional and social contexts…. To explain their child’s difficulties to them required modification of the content… to each in way that would be acceptable and understandable (Sometimes, my emotions would get the better of me..... how do you tell a mother that all three of her children suffer from various degrees of retardation...?). Dealing with them gave me a new perspective on life... the bravery... the sheer courage some showed in just going from day to day.... made me feel that my problems were miniscule.... a mere speck... in comparison. The saying "I wept because I had no shos till I met the man who had no feet" was literally, figuratively, metaphorically being replayed..... My personal context made the work more meaningful, more relevant....
Remedial classes for each child required us to focus on the background, the difficulty level, and the emotional state of the child. Content had to be tailored to suit each child. Even the way I spoke to different children varied, my accent, the words….. These experiences showed in interactions with my own child..
There were sensitization programmes for teachers and parents. Content was re-arranged, cut, shaped, to suit the need, one way for parents, another for teachers....
Here, I learnt valuable lessons in empathy, patience, understanding and teamwork.....
I changed, grew.... perspectives broadened, emotional corridors widened.......
A change in my circumstances brought me to MAIS. It was with a heavy heart that I left the Child Guidance Clinic, but MAIS has been an equally rich experience....Though I still deal with students with special needs , the physical context has changed. The context in which education is imparted has changed ,the background of the students and their level of interaction is different. Learning disability has become the focus of intervention.I deal with the same set of students and their parents every day.......But the challenges remain …… content still needs to be tailored to the personal demands of the child. Learning new things everyday..... hurdling new obstacles.......
# posted by Raji Nair @ 1:31 PM 8 comments
Post a Comment On: ppseraji "Time line of my teaching practice"
8 Comments -Show Original Post
Collapse comments
mahesh said...
Hi Raji,
Nice feeling to be part of your journey. Your journey reinforces the sifnificance of living by and being aware of those momentary experiences that change one's life forever. If you had not been aware of the issues of learning disabilities, your life would have been like any body else's. Nice learning for me: "always be alive and aware"
1:14 AM
joel said...
Raji
It's nice to know about your journey and also like to know why you have decided to educate learning disability students.
9:17 PM
a.v.koshy said...
raji, you write in a beautifully flowing style, enjoyed reading every bit of it , looking forward to hearing the complete story before commenting more on the content...
12:11 AM
Geeta Kamat said...
Hey Raji,
It was inspiring to read your blog!
9:34 AM
sandra kunder said...
A wonderful 'guided tour' of your personal journey Raji. Keep going!
Sandra
9:37 AM
Balakrishnan said...
Blood on the blog!
I am sorry if I am reading too much in your time line.
I am adding your response to my posting with this time line and I am tempted to think a bit more than the flow of the text and the nice reading otherwise attributed to it. One more thing I noticed is that, there is no real ending to your posting. It continues or remains as unsaid. All the best!
10:38 PM
Tara Kini said...
I just wonder if all of teachers should be involved in learning assistance (teaching learning disabled students) at least for a couple of years in order to understand the teaching learning process and develop empathy!
7:34 AM
Shuchi said...
You do done a wonderful job of expressing your timeline as an engaging, personal narrative - it flows very naturally (this is on response to a small f2f chat about your apprehensions about your writing style).
Your changing contexts have come through well - contexts of your students, their parents, and above all, your own changing stations (figuratively speaking) in life.
I agree with Tara - it would be great if all teachers could become familiar with some basic strategies used by learning specialists in order to appropriately engage every child in their classrooms.
1:15 AM
# posted by Raji Nair @ 10:10 PM 
