To Teach and Learn

It is a beautiful day. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. The sun’s ray flicker on the leaves as they rustle in the gentle breeze that gushes softly from the river below. Inside the class, the fans swing their hands slicing the air like warriors in a heated battle. The fans’ rotating sound is disturbing. Other than the soft flipping of the pages, falling pencils and pens and a little cough here and there, nothing is heard in the room. A pin dropping on the floor can be heard. Naïve but stern faces over papers are a spectacle to observe as each individual face has a story to tell.   First, there are the ‘no-nothing’ faces that are the easiest to spot in the group. It is amusing to watch them as they sweat and scratch their heads as if doing that will make the answers fall out of their jammed heads. Their eyes linger in mid-air thinking about what they should write just for the sake of not leaving the answer scripts blank. But at the same time, it is painful to watc...

The Nature of Language was not studied in the old English curriculum. It came with the new and it came with a wide possibility of answers that can come from anywhere, as long as it concerned language albeit the syllabus, which I doubt I can call one. The teachers were given three pages of notes on theories of language acquisition, levels of analysis and other basic terms in linguistics. I received the notes from a colleague of mine who attended a workshop on teaching Nature of Language. The same thing was to be taught from class nine till twelve (as far as we have been informed). Students have to write answers to 10 points under this section in the exam. Since the questions (set by the teachers who are put together by BIG SEA) don't follow the specified notes, most students lose marks in this section. Few questions always surprise/confuse us. Students may lose only one or two points but they lose and sometimes they don't qualify for a RGoB scholarship because their English m...

I remember my language teacher and Shakespeare. He would try to impersonate a victorian theatrical scene with the Shakespearean English that he so stylishly uttered to our bewilderment. Most of us then were amazed by the strange poetic language heard for the first time and few were, of course, dumbstruck because the English was different and difficult. But the excitement only lasted for the first few periods. After that, it was only listening to the teacher, period after period. Even the most promising student slowly drifted away into daydreams. Thinking about it right now, a role play would have made the whole awesomeness more exciting or simply put, more durable and understandable. Today students don't have to study Shakespeare. Instead, they have one-act plays, 'Once Upon a Greek Stage' in class eleven and 'Episode in the Life of an Author' in twelve. Going by the teacher's guide, most teachers I know start with a role play. And how they, the students, e...

Today, one of my students asked me why did poets write poems in languages that were difficult for the students to understand. He said, "Why didn't the poet use simple/straight forward language?" It was a straight forward question and I tried my best to satisfy him with an answer. I told him to compare two sentences:   "I miss you"    "I miss you like the dry earth misses the fresh showers of spring. " I asked him which one did he like. He said that he liked the second sentence. I asked why and he said the second sentence was more beautiful and I asked him why again and he said because the second sentence was talking about spring.  Then I told him to close his eyes and listen to the second sentence when I read it. I asked him what pictures did he imagine when he heard the words. He told me that he saw the rain in the spring. I asked him what else did he see and he said, "flowers". I told him to imagine the rain on his face ...

I have always loved poetry. My all-time favorite is Ulysses by Tennyson. At the moment I am teaching 'We are Seven' by William Wordsworth and it is a joy to read it aloud with my students. Every word conjures pictures so vivid that I can't help but live the moments and sing the song. Before reading the poem, my students wrote their own poem on the title 'We are seven' and that was an overwhelming experience to draw the pictures with their words. Pictures of seven stars that wrote, pictures of seven friends they spoke, and pictures of the seven beautiful colors of the rainbow arched over snow-capped mountains and the wide-open sky did they draw. It is a beautify poem, 'We are Seven', the simplicity with which Wordsworth touches on the subtle pleasure of being innocent and living in ignorance of death and the bliss that follows. We Are Seven BY  WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ———A simple Child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every l...

In one of my classes, we were discussing commitment and bonding in the story, Bluffing, by the Canadian writer Gail Helgason. In the story, the two main characters come across a grizzly bear. They face it together but one runs aways and we were later discussing which character was more committed to their relationship. With this, there was brainstorming and sharing of understandings of bonding and commitment. One of my students wanted to share a story he heard. He didn't go into the details but said that a father and a son can kill a bear but not two friends. He said since there was a stronger bond and commitment between the father and the son, they would not abandon each other but the friends may only think about themselves and render themselves vulnerable to an attack. So, a father and son can kill a bear but not two friends. I never heard the story/saying before but I felt its message was very augmenting to the values that enrich our lives. I am very happy that I have stud...

Winter vacations are good times. They give me moments where my time is not controlled by the bell. A time to be with my family, a time to set aside time and forget it doing things I love doing. But in the middle of forgetting the time I can’t forget that I don't get to do the one thing that I love doing: being back in school, teaching. So, here are some good reasons why I want to be back in school. Reasons: 1. For the Attention I can never ignore the tremendous attention I get from my students when I am in the classroom. I never lose my audience. It is one of the best reasons why I want to go back. 2. For Feeling Useful When I am in the classroom I feel useful. I feel useful to my young friends and myself. Almost every day I go home with a feel of “time well spent”, every day I teach and I learn. 3. For More Laughter I also realized after much contemplation that I get to laugh more when I am with my students. They have never failed to appreciate m...