To Teach and Learn

Picture courtesy : Google Image  Experiencing the cold now astounds me thinking about how hot Punakha gets during the summer. During peak summer the real challenge a teacher in Punakha has to stand up to and compete with is sleep, which is induced by the heat. When the temperature soars 35 ° , the fans simply fail to serve their purpose. During the summer a teacher has to also eat well so that he or she is very loud. We lose more energy in the form of voice when we compete with the noise of the fans swinging their never tiring arms. But if you think that a loud voice is all you need to keep your students alive and awake then you are wrong. So, I resort to few things to keep them awake. One very effective strategy is cracking jokes. I am good with nonvege jokes but they are not appropriate in the classroom, so, I improvise. I use what ever I can to make them laugh and keep them alive. One hot afternoon sleepiness was in the classroom when I entered. I could feel their exhau...

‘’Why do we sometimes write about ourselves and expect people to be interested? Because our stories are usually not about ourselves. It is about everything, and everyone, around us.’’ – Within the Realm of Happiness, Dasho Kinley Dorji. I first met Sonam Gyeltshen five years a go when I first came here to Punakha HSS as a teacher. We were new to the school only as teachers having been here as students before. He came on transfer from a middle secondary school but it was my first placement as a teacher. He got a transfer, I later found out, because he had some problem with the principal who according to him was not so nice. Sonam Gyeltshen AKA Jackal is one of a kind and like any nickname-story he has his story too. When studying at Zhemgang High School he danced to a Michael Jackson song, and he got the name Michael Jackson. Over time Michael Jackson became Michael Jackal and by the time I met him he was only Jackal. Jackal is an interesting man, someone you would call a...

Picture from Google Image. People say size matters and this line literally exhibits me or, you may say, is exhibited by me. I am short, skinny, and tiny and I am a teacher with students who are all bigger than me. But, I do find some use for my size/height.  I crack height-jokes in my after noon classes to shake off sleep in my students.   I talk a lot about my wife in my class and my students ask, ‘ ‘isn’t she taller than you sir?’’ I say she is, and she makes me feel like Tom Cruise. When I slow dance I rest my head on her soft bosom and that I have to be on my toes when I kiss her. They laugh and I continue my lesson with students who are more awake. There have been many instances where my size deceived people.  But my favorite is the one I share with most of my friends. It was sometime in 2010, beginning of the year when the class ten results were out. The previous year I taught in class ten so I wanted to know how my students did their exam. ...

The chill curls around my bare knees like a pussy cat. I shiver with the intense smooching it gives me and struggle with the correction that is before me. I think about going out in the sun but I am so used to working on my table that I can't make myself leave the familiar setting. So, I continue. The variety of the hand writings, the ideas, the errors and the presentations always overwhelms me. So, before I begin I make sure I am in a good mood because I want to be fair and mark what they(students) deserve. But I am only human, so sometimes I can't help but lose myself to anger. Anger is destructive   and it manifest in my restrain in not wanting to tear, crumple, abuse and destroy the answer script before me. This happens, and I feel ashamed of myself for losing my cool. One may say this is natural and it is only normal. But, I know they are wrong and so am I in becoming angry with the paper before me. English paper correction is the most challenging. I know most tea...

The Dzong during the Royal Wedding Like a Maiden the Dzong smiles.   See Her laughter swells and falls with the river’s song.      Hear The fresh breeze I gulp down,      Taste As the sweetness in the air plays upon my nose,     Smell Excitement beats like a drum within me,   Feel As I watch the glorious Dzong before me.  Do My imagination makes me happy,   Imagine Coloring my dreams and giving them life.       Dream A poem written during the creative writing workshop.

Nicole Pluss For the first time in my life I find clarity with what I want to do with it and the happiness is so overwhelming that I find no words to describe it. I want to write and I want to develop my craft slowly and softly so that I don’t rush things.  I want to take time and do this one thing properly and fully. Nicole Pluss says, ‘I know I have a mountain to climb but I also know that there are people who will try to pull me up,’ I don’t know if she felt it but she was that hand that gently stroked me to wake me up from my slumber and pulled me one step up the mountain. I would like to thank her for helping me see clearly. After the two days workshop on creative writing I now realize I had already started my journey but I just didn’t realize it myself, this journey up the mountain. Writing is not easy and it will test my passion and it will test my dedication. At this moment I feel I will get through the ordeals, I just need to follow my dream and be ready for disa...

The Day We Waited For - Tashi Choden XI Sci A , Punakha HSS The day that we waited for, The moment that we longed for all these years, Has finally come, Has finally blessed us. I, like the rest of your people am excited, Yet, cannot express my feelings. I can only feel deep within myself, The warmth of the occasion. So, I just want to wish you happiness, May happiness forever be yours with her by your side. May the two of you shine together and grow in love, Wiser and fonder of each other as the years unfold. With this beginning of a new chapter in your life, May you live in each other the dream you always dreamt. May the two become one and grow on each other. Undying, undaunted, unwavering and undulated. The people’s Queen will be crowned.   My King’s Queen – Kelden D Tshomo XI Sci C, Punakha HSS Love and marriage go through, Like a horse and the carriage. One needs to give the best, At the very first choice. As...

Yeshi, Yuden and Rita. I teach with faces I learn innocent faces So wear happy face

‘’It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’’                                                                                              ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY,                                                      ...

On 30 th April His Majesty the Fifth Druk Gyalpo visited my school. It was a pleasant morning and everyone in the school was very excited. The atmosphere in the multipurpose hall where we waited, I felt, was intoxicatingly intense with everyone eager to meet His Majesty.    His Majesty came to school and only talked about love . When asked by one of the students, what he as a king expected from an educated Bhutanese, he simply told the student and all the other students to love their husbands and wives in the future. His Majesty said charity begins at home, so happiness should also begin at one’s home and then extend outwards. It was a morning filled with His Majesty’s laughter, the atmosphere in the hall was lively and everyone/thing was gay. It was also on that fine auspicious morning that His Majesty announced that he has decided to marry. A suitable person who will be his better half has been found. And there was love in the air. I was simply amazed to watc...

BY LEKI WANGMO AND NEELAM RAI, 12 Science A, 2010. S AP-school agriculture program has been instituted in almost all the schools and Punakha higher secondary school is no exception. It was initiated and reinstated as part of club activity in the year 2007 under the guidance of Mr. Bal Krishna Dungyel and the principal  Mr.Kinley Gyeltshen. Today, this club stands as one of the most successful clubs with 30 members and two co-coordinators along with SAP committee members.“Students learn by doing. They learn to respect dignity of labour and also value community service,” is what Mr.Sonam Gyeltshen, the club coordinator has to say. “LEARNING BY DOING,” thus stands their motto with the vision, to realize the concept of GNH through educational process by imparting values of dignity of labour, in mitigating rural to urban migration of youth and thus ushering balance development in the country. The SAP area includes a small demo garden for ...

Lately I have been very busy because I have asked my students to start writing journals. My students write three journal entries for one week and they have to get it corrected from me and rewrite again. The journal entry can be on anything they like to write about. It can be describing the tree outside their classroom, or guesses about why the teacher was late, or describing their friend or the weather...it can be about anything. Anything, as long as it is not personal.  I have started this so that they will improve their writing skills, express their thoughts better. I have also asked them to borrow/use the words and phrases they come across in their reading to express their own ideas and emotions in their journals. Like other classes my students don't maintain writing portfolios but they update their reading portfolios by writing the book reviews. I don't know where will this will take us, but am hopeful that it will result into something positive.  The only pr...

Bhutan the ‘Land of Thunder Dragon’ for a complete century has been under a wonderful system of Monarchy. Through good and bad times alike, she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideal which gave her strength because of the farsighted kings who led her. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, and opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievement that await us with its change to be a Democratic nation. His Majesty the Fifth King said ; “The highest achievement of one hundred years of Monarchy has been the constant nurturing of Democracy. This has culminated with the first sitting of Parliament and the start of Democracy, where my father the Fourth Druk Gyalpo and I, hereby, return to our people the powers that had been vested in our kings by our forefathers one hundred years ago. We do so with absolute faith and confidence, offer our complete support and prayers for the success of Democracy” Bhutan enjoyed long, unprecedented peace u...

Mr. Yesh B Ghaley (This writing may not be of much interest to people who are not related to Punakha HSS.) You hear words and you form images in your head, bits of colors, vague outlines and broken figures come together like pieces of puzzles to give life to your interpretation of the person. You try to form a picture as close as possible to the real man from the information you gather. It’s an interesting game and you may marvel at the many pictures you form and reject in your mind. This is what I did when I heard that my school was getting a new principal. I heard his name, ‘Yesh B Ghaley’, and instantly images started forming in my head. Later I heard more about him, a little from here and a little from there, the picture became clearer. Like one of the supporting staff described him after seeing him, ‘very hansom’, very true, he is hansom. But beyond the good looks, I found him overwhelmingly powerful. I don’t know if my opinion will remain the same but his first ad...