MY TEACHING CAREER…

Someone once remarked, if you want your work to be like a paid holiday, start enjoying it. I truly believe in this philosophy. I embarked on this journey many years ago quite by accident, to fill in for a teacher on maternity leave in a school close to my house. That teacher extended her leave, and so did my teaching stint. I ended up teaching in that school for a whole year instead of three months and that is when I realized my calling. I quit to do my B.Ed and became a full-fledged teacher thereafter.

From then on, I have taught in many schools in Delhi and Bengaluru. I have always found every school experience deeply enriching and rewarding. In fact, it has been more of learning than teaching, receiving more than giving. There is always so much to learn from one’s leaders, colleagues and most of all, from the students. I taught in two vastly different schools in Bengaluru before moving to Delhi post marriage. There too, I taught in three very different types of schools and learnt a lot. Now, I would like to share little tit-bits of my learning from each of these institutions.

My very first stint was in a well-known Convent school of Bengaluru. Completely raw and fresh out of college, I suddenly had to confront scores of boisterous, highly enthusiastic and eager children in every class that I went to. Admittedly, my struggles in class management overshadowed my every attempt at teaching. My key learning from this experience was the importance of creating interesting lessons as the automatic solution to well managed classes. The next school that I went to teach was one run by a religious organization. Here, I learnt what multi-tasking was all about. The teacher single-handedly was responsible for not only teaching related tasks, but also all the clerical work usually taken care of by the school office staff. Though I did learn a lot of new things, I cannot say that I particularly cherished that kind of learning.

The next phase of my teaching journey took me to the nation’s capital, New Delhi. There, the first school I worked in was one which practiced inclusion in true sense of the word. There were physically and mentally challenged children. Initially I felt hesitant to handle these special children with no prior experience; however, with time, I learnt that too. From this school, I moved to a newly opened branch of one of the reputed public schools of Delhi which happened to be very close to my new house. The building was still not ready when the academic session began, so the children and teachers had to huddle in tents in the summer heat of Delhi. It was a true camping experience and nobody complained!

From there, my sojourn took me to a government job in one of the several New Delhi Municipal Schools, where for the first time I encountered the challenges of teaching socially and economically under-privileged children. It was a completely new experience for me at that time, an experience that I must confess completely threw me off guard at first. It was extremely challenging and intimidating for me at that point of time. I got a class full of five year olds who were first generation learners, with no prior schooling and absolutely no training of sitting for extended hours in a classroom environment conducive for learning. There, I discovered the meaning of true fulfilment when I learnt the magnitude of the impact that I was capable of making on these young children’s minds.

From there on, I decided to continue working with children from deprived backgrounds. I am currently working in a school which is an American run NGO for under-privileged children. I have already spent nearly nine years here, and I am amazed at the transformation that I have witnessed in children’s academic achievement, behavior, grooming, etiquette, and even values. It is an incredible feeling to acknowledge that I could have contributed to such a metamorphosis.

My journey goes on… I don’t know where it will take me from here. Professionally, I have moved up in the organization to become the academic coordinator for the Junior School. Personally, the journey has been much more rewarding. What would have I been doing if not for teaching? I often ponder over this question after all these years. Probably I would have been making a great deal more money, travelling places and meeting many interesting people. But would I have had so much fun while working, and also job satisfaction? I very much doubt that.