Hi Everyone!
I suppose the first decisive moment in my career as a teacher would be when I joined the B Ed. course. At that time I was still undecided about teaching as a career. I knew that I would like it but what I was concerned about was if I could sustain the interest I had in teaching.
Once I started teaching, I discovered that I not only liked it, but also enjoyed it, especially for its unpredictability – for no two days have ever been the same!
The next turning point came, now that I look back, when I joined a school to teach middle school students. Had I been asked then which classes I preferred to teach, I would have opted for high school. As it happens, there was no vacancy in high school and so I began teaching pre-teens for the first time and discovered what a completely different equation I could have with them. Their spontaneity and candidness is something I found refreshing.
Since then I’ve taught in a number of schools, each very different from the previous in terms of syllabi, functioning, and even size – ranging from a school with 350 students to a school with 350 teachers! Each stint has been a learning experience and I don’t see any possibility of my losing interest in teaching. Of course, there are the good days and the bad days, but each set of children that starts a new year is a group of distinctly different individuals. They respond differently and you respond differently. And it’s never the same old year.
Did you find that the content that you taught in each school was affected by context of the students and the school? Or was it the same no matter where you taught?
ReplyDeleteNice to see your teaching experience which is so different the different perspective u are looking into. When I did B.Ed., i had so much of expectations, but I taught the lower classes for an year before I took up the high school, which I thought for more than 2 years or so whch I enjoyed. Again getting back to lower classes was so difficult, because being a science teacher, I loved the subjects so much, either it was a life science or physical science, it was a nice experience. One of friend made me plan my lesons, demonstrate, write it out and she helped me to think of the content and the context with respect to the age group.Then it was fun, I still remember teaching a lesson on electricity, for class 01, it was to teach about the cell, + / -, wire, off and on/ switch and make a simple circuit, Children had hands on experience, they enjoyed. They recognised only if the wire got connected to + and - of the cell, the current passes thro' the wire and the bulb glows. It is so clear and lingers in my mind, the class that was so successful.
ReplyDeleteArchana, I enjoyed reading about your career path. I would repeat Dharma's query about how exactly did the main goalposts that you have written about affect the content that you taught?
ReplyDeleteBhagya, it is interesting that Archana's story brought back your journey to you. Particularly your experience of a hands on electricity lesson for grade 01! I think the lesson was succesful because you had a very clear expected outcome and an activity that matched the age group you were addressing. Do you remember any lesson in which the kids got a chance to explore the content in any way they liked - do you think that would give them a chance to choose content that suited their context best?
Tara