11th May 2012. The second day when I had to go and teach those young kids whom I had met just two days back but who seemed a part of my life already.
After traveling for an hour, I was a bit disheartened to see the empty class-room when I reached the community. However, word spreads fast around there and within a few minutes I could see all bright faces with smiles on their faces and a polite question of "May i come in " on their lips.
The agenda for the day was Maths and English. The class started with concepts like number-names, place-value with division being the last thing before the much awaited fifteen minutes break.
I was greatly reminded of my own childhood when dividing a number by any number bigger than ten seemed like such a big task. Keeping this is mind, we tried to go slowly, explaining each step with patience and helping wherever we could. The surprising part about this entire thing was the excitement that the children had towards Maths. It was after quite a long time that I had found a bunch of kids who weren't afraid of numbers and I was determined to not let them lose interest in them either!
After the break, it was time for English. The children were comfortable in reading out sentences and understanding simple ones, but when it came to forming their own, it seemed like a difficult task to them. We tried to make a few concepts clear, one of them being the correct usage of articles.The satisfaction that was obtained upon seeing the kids correctly "fill in the blanks" given by us was immense!
What surprised me the most (yes, these kids have a tendency to surprise me everyday with something new!) was when just before the class ended one child asked us to give them homework so as to ensure that they wouldn't forget any of what we had taught during the weekend. This enthusiasm to not only learn new things, but also to test whether they learnt it well is a virtue worthy of being inculcated.
As for the homework ? We did give them a bit on each topic taught, to ensure that neither do they forget what has been taught and nor do they spend the entire weekend busy doing that only!
After the class, I ended up standing outside the room, talking to a few girls, getting to know them more while they also asked me questions about about my background. I left the community with a smile that was to last for long, a heart filled with emotion and a promise of being taught Urdu by a bunch of fourteen year olds!
After traveling for an hour, I was a bit disheartened to see the empty class-room when I reached the community. However, word spreads fast around there and within a few minutes I could see all bright faces with smiles on their faces and a polite question of "May i come in " on their lips.
The agenda for the day was Maths and English. The class started with concepts like number-names, place-value with division being the last thing before the much awaited fifteen minutes break.
I was greatly reminded of my own childhood when dividing a number by any number bigger than ten seemed like such a big task. Keeping this is mind, we tried to go slowly, explaining each step with patience and helping wherever we could. The surprising part about this entire thing was the excitement that the children had towards Maths. It was after quite a long time that I had found a bunch of kids who weren't afraid of numbers and I was determined to not let them lose interest in them either!
After the break, it was time for English. The children were comfortable in reading out sentences and understanding simple ones, but when it came to forming their own, it seemed like a difficult task to them. We tried to make a few concepts clear, one of them being the correct usage of articles.The satisfaction that was obtained upon seeing the kids correctly "fill in the blanks" given by us was immense!
What surprised me the most (yes, these kids have a tendency to surprise me everyday with something new!) was when just before the class ended one child asked us to give them homework so as to ensure that they wouldn't forget any of what we had taught during the weekend. This enthusiasm to not only learn new things, but also to test whether they learnt it well is a virtue worthy of being inculcated.
As for the homework ? We did give them a bit on each topic taught, to ensure that neither do they forget what has been taught and nor do they spend the entire weekend busy doing that only!
After the class, I ended up standing outside the room, talking to a few girls, getting to know them more while they also asked me questions about about my background. I left the community with a smile that was to last for long, a heart filled with emotion and a promise of being taught Urdu by a bunch of fourteen year olds!
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