Last Month and first day at school

When thinking of the last month, I could not believe how I pulled it off. As I mentioned earlier, I started interning at a school for the compulsory module at uni and also I started interning higher educational institute at my own will enhance my knowledge. My days were fully packed with it because I had to attend lectures while working at two places. And it is not only going to uni and then working in school and college, but also I had to read my prescribed texts and do assignments for uni and prepare teaching materials for the school and college. Even though I had to mechanically move from one task to another and get bare minimum of rest and sleep, I have no complaints because I enjoy this. Since I disappear for like three weeks, I thought of sharing one of the memorable experiences of last month which is my first day at school.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

The morning classes which were assigned to me was grade 11 and 7 and they went pretty okay. (when I say “okay” here it is not the common understanding of okay because the context was very different there and I had to rearrange all my lesson plans according to the new discoveries I made there.) I was traumatized on my very first day when I had to teach for G9 and G10. There were only few students in the Grade 9 class and when I stepped out to see what happened to them, the ones who were wandering here and there started to run. My first question was “don’t they know that if I want I can catch them easily” because there were only 5 to 6 buildings in a small space. And then I was like “wait! Why are they running? Do they even know me or the subject I’m teaching?” while this was the case for Grade 9, I had to go to the ground which was in the primary section to fetch my Grade 10 students for the English period. These students had no clue about who I was, what I am teaching and how I am teaching. This is when I got the first impression that they generally dislike learning and there is a huge psychological barrier to push if I am to make them learn something from me.

Photo by Church of the King on Unsplash

I was very taken aback with this, to be honest. This was my first time experiencing such a thing because my previous teaching environment was totally different from this. But at the same time, it didn’t make me dislike the students or school as I wanted to accept this new challenge. These kids are not “bad” or “stupid” as many people would call them, they were all nice to me even though they gave me a bit of trouble. It only took an ounce of affection to get tons of love and loyalty back from them. I am learning everyday thanks to them. I forgot all my previous teaching experiences and what I learned about teaching from uni. I studied the student and made lesson plans not for a class but for targeting the students. So it was co-learning for both them and me.

Thanks for reading!

Have a nice day!