Honing in on my sixth week at Deepa Academy now. Getting ready to wrap things up and push out a preliminary draft of my manual before I head out on a few final adventures in India. Need to get as much good South Indian food as I can before I leave!
Sitting after class the other day, JayLakshmi and Nalina, a college student and a high schooler were rifling through my bag. Nalina would pull something out and hand it to Jaylakshmi: "Akka, is this from India or USA?"
"That pen? Oh its from the US..."
" Super! And this book, its from India or USA?"
"That's from the US too...."
"Super! What's this?"
"Thats my swiss army knife, see it opens like this..."
"Wow Akka! Super!"
My water bottle; Super! My flashlight; Super! My camera; Super!
The word is really growing on me....
Spent last Friday in Mysore, taking in the sights. Parimala madame and her son accompanied me for the day trip that started at 5:30 in the morning and lasted till 11:30 at night. We visited the Tomb and the Summer Palace of Sultan Tipu. The Islamic art and architecture at both Gumbaz and the Palace were spectacular and diverse - from portraits to ornate geometric designs, with a fair sprinkling of British influence thrown in. Also took a trip to the Chamarajendra Zoo, which seemed to have more animals than any other zoo I’ve visited before and was in spectacular condition. After a hot lunch, we made our way to the Mysore Palace where I was absolutely blown away by the grand and colorful halls, still in near perfect condition. I’m proud to say that though all of these locations had an increased rate for foreigners, I paid the local price wherever I went. Perhaps I’ve been more successful at blending in than I thought! We ended our trip with the musical fountain at the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam on the Kauveri river. Throughout the day it rained and poured, but I tend to enjoy that kind of weather and somehow it made the adventuring all the more adventurous.
Since I missed class on Friday, I held class for an hour and a half with the high school students yesterday. Spent the first 20 minutes with the students having a photo shoot. Uma, Manjula, Heena Banu, Nalina, and a few of the other partially sighted students went crazy with the camera while everyone else was trying to get into a shot or two. We had a very relaxed session, reviewing the material of the week - weather and the past and future tenses - while sitting in one big circle and passing around a ball to determine which unlucky soul would have to speak next. I let the class play with the playdough that I keep on hand as a conversation starter with the older group and tried my best to keep the light conversation as much as possible in English.
It’s been really wonderful to see that most, if not all, of the students have warmed up to me and have warmed up to speaking English in the month and half that I have been here. Many of the girls come to speak with me after class or after 5 o’clock when they finish school for the day. I had been worried at the beginning of my internship that the students wouldn’t like me or that they would not take my class seriously, but luckily neither of those things seem to have come true.
It has never really been my goal to become an educator, so I am surprised at how comfortable I have become in the classroom. I’m sure that I have made innumerable rookie mistakes teaching these kids, but I am pretty confident that the end result will still be positive. I still believe that a proper ESL or TEFL course, prepared and taught by someone trained in special education would be the best and most effective way for these students to learn English, but I am more and more sure that my manual and methods will suffice in the meantime.
Sitting after class the other day, JayLakshmi and Nalina, a college student and a high schooler were rifling through my bag. Nalina would pull something out and hand it to Jaylakshmi: "Akka, is this from India or USA?"
"That pen? Oh its from the US..."
" Super! And this book, its from India or USA?"
"That's from the US too...."
"Super! What's this?"
"Thats my swiss army knife, see it opens like this..."
"Wow Akka! Super!"
My water bottle; Super! My flashlight; Super! My camera; Super!
The word is really growing on me....
Spent last Friday in Mysore, taking in the sights. Parimala madame and her son accompanied me for the day trip that started at 5:30 in the morning and lasted till 11:30 at night. We visited the Tomb and the Summer Palace of Sultan Tipu. The Islamic art and architecture at both Gumbaz and the Palace were spectacular and diverse - from portraits to ornate geometric designs, with a fair sprinkling of British influence thrown in. Also took a trip to the Chamarajendra Zoo, which seemed to have more animals than any other zoo I’ve visited before and was in spectacular condition. After a hot lunch, we made our way to the Mysore Palace where I was absolutely blown away by the grand and colorful halls, still in near perfect condition. I’m proud to say that though all of these locations had an increased rate for foreigners, I paid the local price wherever I went. Perhaps I’ve been more successful at blending in than I thought! We ended our trip with the musical fountain at the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam on the Kauveri river. Throughout the day it rained and poured, but I tend to enjoy that kind of weather and somehow it made the adventuring all the more adventurous.
Since I missed class on Friday, I held class for an hour and a half with the high school students yesterday. Spent the first 20 minutes with the students having a photo shoot. Uma, Manjula, Heena Banu, Nalina, and a few of the other partially sighted students went crazy with the camera while everyone else was trying to get into a shot or two. We had a very relaxed session, reviewing the material of the week - weather and the past and future tenses - while sitting in one big circle and passing around a ball to determine which unlucky soul would have to speak next. I let the class play with the playdough that I keep on hand as a conversation starter with the older group and tried my best to keep the light conversation as much as possible in English.
It’s been really wonderful to see that most, if not all, of the students have warmed up to me and have warmed up to speaking English in the month and half that I have been here. Many of the girls come to speak with me after class or after 5 o’clock when they finish school for the day. I had been worried at the beginning of my internship that the students wouldn’t like me or that they would not take my class seriously, but luckily neither of those things seem to have come true.
It has never really been my goal to become an educator, so I am surprised at how comfortable I have become in the classroom. I’m sure that I have made innumerable rookie mistakes teaching these kids, but I am pretty confident that the end result will still be positive. I still believe that a proper ESL or TEFL course, prepared and taught by someone trained in special education would be the best and most effective way for these students to learn English, but I am more and more sure that my manual and methods will suffice in the meantime.
No comments:
Post a Comment