When I sit to write, there are numerous conflicting emotions that I feel at the present moment. Hundreds of different varied thoughts which I would like to pen down all at once. I wish to just preserve all these feelings, this uneasiness, excitement,sadness, all of it, because I don't think I will feel such varying emotions all together ever again !
Lets go sequentially, the first being the past three days. The days were spent in doing Science and questions based on whatever has been taught before in Maths. Everyday there was a test on what had been taught the previous day including ten questions regarding decimals. I wouldn't say that the results were always promising, but they seemed satisfactory enough! However, day before when the kids could not answer simple basic questions on the Water Cycle which had been taught just a day back, my disappointment was beyond measure. After having done the same thing around five times, if one does not get results, one does begin to question themselves and that is exactly what I did.
It didn't take me much to realise that it was not that the kids hadn't understood anything, the problem was, they weren't able to express themselves in English. I thought till the time the kids were understanding the basic concept of what was being taught, language should not be any bar to judge them. We worked upon the English of this Science with the kids and soon enough got the desired results!
Basically the topics taught in these few days were Water Cycle, properties of water, Solar System and Air.
Today the class started off with a test (yes, again) on Solar System. I also realised another thing today, kids tend to understand and give a better performance in tests that test specific aspects of their knowledge rather than a test having a loose open ended question. For instance, a paper having objective type questions like "Which is the nearest planet to Earth ? , Which is the nearest star to Earth ? " will tend to provide a larger scope for kids to score rather than one having a ten mark question "Write about the Solar System" . Once again comes the difficult task of the teachers and the effort that they spend in making each and everything appear extra simple to us will never go unnoticed by me.
Today's class was the last class. The last teaching class. The last class ever actually. We might come to visit these kids again sometime, but things won't be the same as they were today. They never could be. It was a day of mixed emotions. I wanted to dance with the kids but teach them everything as well ! I wanted to sit and laugh with them but make them revise whatever we had done as well! I wanted to just talk with them but make them do questions of higher order as well! So much to do. In so little a time.
What we ended up doing ? We taught Air, completed a few trailing points of the Solar System, revised decimals with the help of the questions given in the beginning of the class(test) and even laughed a lot.
At that moment I just felt regret for all those moments not lived fully with these kids, for those videos not captured, those photographs not taken, those laughs left in mid-air and those conversations which we never got the time to have.
The kids haven't even taught me Urdu yet! How is it possible for one month to be over this soon ? There was a different level of excitement that could be seen in the kids today. Their function was taking place tomorrow ! I had mentioned once, the kids are planning a surprise function for us, all on their own. Yes, the time for that function, the time for them to bid us farewell has come. The function is tomorrow and we have been told of its duration to be around three hours tentatively. What these kids have in store for us tomorrow, no one except them knows. Its all a "big surprise". What we know is that there is a "surprise" for us tomorrow, what they don't know is that we have the same for them! One wouldn't possibly think that we'll leave the kids without giving them something special?
These kids have changed our lives, and I am sure I am absolutely correct in speaking on behalf of my co-interns. They seemed to have given a new perspective to things, a new outlook towards life and a new way to enjoy things better :) I am just anticipating about tomorrow! Just hoping it won't be too difficult to leave that place with the acceptance of the fact that we won't be coming there on a regular basis anymore.
How something started off with a completely different motive, a different intention, becomes such a big part of your life that it becomes hard to say good-bye to it, is one thing that I explored in this past month. There were too many emotions bottled up inside me and now hopefully facing tomorrow would not be as difficult as it seemed earlier.
It's going to be another day! Another day filled with the kids shining faces, bright smiles, echoing laughter and joyful talks! It might be the last, but it would definitely be worth it :)
Lets go sequentially, the first being the past three days. The days were spent in doing Science and questions based on whatever has been taught before in Maths. Everyday there was a test on what had been taught the previous day including ten questions regarding decimals. I wouldn't say that the results were always promising, but they seemed satisfactory enough! However, day before when the kids could not answer simple basic questions on the Water Cycle which had been taught just a day back, my disappointment was beyond measure. After having done the same thing around five times, if one does not get results, one does begin to question themselves and that is exactly what I did.
It didn't take me much to realise that it was not that the kids hadn't understood anything, the problem was, they weren't able to express themselves in English. I thought till the time the kids were understanding the basic concept of what was being taught, language should not be any bar to judge them. We worked upon the English of this Science with the kids and soon enough got the desired results!
Basically the topics taught in these few days were Water Cycle, properties of water, Solar System and Air.
Today the class started off with a test (yes, again) on Solar System. I also realised another thing today, kids tend to understand and give a better performance in tests that test specific aspects of their knowledge rather than a test having a loose open ended question. For instance, a paper having objective type questions like "Which is the nearest planet to Earth ? , Which is the nearest star to Earth ? " will tend to provide a larger scope for kids to score rather than one having a ten mark question "Write about the Solar System" . Once again comes the difficult task of the teachers and the effort that they spend in making each and everything appear extra simple to us will never go unnoticed by me.
Today's class was the last class. The last teaching class. The last class ever actually. We might come to visit these kids again sometime, but things won't be the same as they were today. They never could be. It was a day of mixed emotions. I wanted to dance with the kids but teach them everything as well ! I wanted to sit and laugh with them but make them revise whatever we had done as well! I wanted to just talk with them but make them do questions of higher order as well! So much to do. In so little a time.
What we ended up doing ? We taught Air, completed a few trailing points of the Solar System, revised decimals with the help of the questions given in the beginning of the class(test) and even laughed a lot.
At that moment I just felt regret for all those moments not lived fully with these kids, for those videos not captured, those photographs not taken, those laughs left in mid-air and those conversations which we never got the time to have.
The kids haven't even taught me Urdu yet! How is it possible for one month to be over this soon ? There was a different level of excitement that could be seen in the kids today. Their function was taking place tomorrow ! I had mentioned once, the kids are planning a surprise function for us, all on their own. Yes, the time for that function, the time for them to bid us farewell has come. The function is tomorrow and we have been told of its duration to be around three hours tentatively. What these kids have in store for us tomorrow, no one except them knows. Its all a "big surprise". What we know is that there is a "surprise" for us tomorrow, what they don't know is that we have the same for them! One wouldn't possibly think that we'll leave the kids without giving them something special?
These kids have changed our lives, and I am sure I am absolutely correct in speaking on behalf of my co-interns. They seemed to have given a new perspective to things, a new outlook towards life and a new way to enjoy things better :) I am just anticipating about tomorrow! Just hoping it won't be too difficult to leave that place with the acceptance of the fact that we won't be coming there on a regular basis anymore.
How something started off with a completely different motive, a different intention, becomes such a big part of your life that it becomes hard to say good-bye to it, is one thing that I explored in this past month. There were too many emotions bottled up inside me and now hopefully facing tomorrow would not be as difficult as it seemed earlier.
It's going to be another day! Another day filled with the kids shining faces, bright smiles, echoing laughter and joyful talks! It might be the last, but it would definitely be worth it :)
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