Attraction and joy

The constant changes between the two schools give me a good relieve in teaching because the students start each time with new energy and enthusiasm. They seem to be so happy to have me here and to learn totally new things, to have new equipment and games and to get to know them, that my teaching is combined with even more joy. Watching the photos in the evenings encourages me in doing the right thing and having made the right decision to come here.
Meanwhile we are working with several different tools and all of them are also very attractive to people working here or passing by and thus I usually have a few more “students”. It is great to see how people of all age groups are working together and learning the same things. – But because my activities are so attractive to all the kids I’m sometimes having several classes together, meaning 30-40 students for me and free time for the other teacher if he likes, but I suppose that is part of India – be flexible and learn to handle new situations, many things don’t go their strict way.

A totally different world

The blind school is located in Dang-district, 2-3 hours drive from Navsari. It is a forestry mountain area, also called “Jungle” by Indians, with nothing more than small villages. Thus staying at this school was totally different from my time in Navsari. Because the school doesn’t have its proper buildings yet and in general only very basic and simple things I had to stay in a tent. The only people were the students and staff and except for a lot of traffic going to the far away hill station and some locals and wild animals there is nothing around. Thus it’s not very odd that also school life was more flexible and spontaneous than it already was in Navsari. And when I finally managed to get a fixed schedule for the deaf school, I had to realize that this was impossible for Dang and the easiest was to adjust. No matter how often I asked about the program for me and which classes and lessons I would have, the answers were always different and in the end reality as well;. Thus I always go to know the class right at the beginning of the lessons which left me no time for specific preparations or planning. I had to decide immediately what to do and be present to give the class structure and be a good teacher. This was even harder because of my lack of Gujarati and since language is the most important thing in communicating with blind it left not many opportunities for me. But fortunately the children were very happy to have me with them and very keen to learn new western – especially English - songs.

The first day I was having standard 1-4 all the time and had to bring out everything I know. Starting with drawing for the partially blind and arts & crafts for the totally blind children I continued with music and finally games. Fortunately I had two teachers with me which supported me a little, especially when it came to explaining things. Although not everybody did always sing correctly and they did not always understand my instructions we managed quite well and at the end of the day most of the students already new a new German song.

The following days were always different but generally I was teaching alone, having one or two classes (7-25 children, sometimes also about 30). Every day I was surprised by new changes in schedule, timing and program occurring and after a while and having some real problems with it at the beginning I managed to become more flexible and accept their system. For example it was very likely to happen that I had one class for more than one hour instead of 35 minutes (= one period). Sometimes lessons never took place and usually I had to pick the right information out of several about what classes I would have, what made it even more flexible. Sometimes there were days when I was ready to go to a lesson but actually no school was going on because of a national holiday or some work the students had to do in the ground. But after a while I found out how to handle it best and very often just asked the kids whether they wanted to do drawing or music, because both things were new to them in a way and the best I could offer them to do.

My 11 days in Dang were very different each. Sometimes it mad a lot of fun to teach and make music together with the kids, but sometimes it was also very exhausting and difficult because of above mentioned problems. With hardly speaking the language it made it hard to start initiatives. Music lessons sometimes became very long for me, because I had to sing all the time and the students basically copied me and hardly any explanations or interactions were possible. But I learned to do different things with them, let them listen to western music, did some recordings and used a few percussion instruments to accompany our singing. Latter usually led to a mix of western and Indian music bit it was quite alright because with giving the drums etc. to musically talented students their rhythms usually suited. And if not, it was not always a big problem because even the singing was sometimes quite mixed up. Some of the kids didn’t seem to have a feeling for the tunes at all and just sang enthusiastically the wrong melody, but because of usually big groups the others were very often able to cover them. The main problem for all of them was to understand little differences in our western music scale.
Although it was not always easy and I was confronted with many other problems I had a nice and intensive time in Dang. Besides teaching the students I did also learn to make rotis and finally sing an Indian song and as I found out later also improved my Gujarat. In the end the students and me got to know each other better and I think next time will definitely be easier because I do basically know how everything goes. And in the end the students and staff let me know that they are looking forward for me to come again soon.

Time goes on...

India is a country which differs to Germany in nearly everything. Now that I have really started teaching everyday, I’m also confronted with timing and organizing a lot. Because I’m a person usually needing and having a lot of structure, the Indian spontaneity and flexibility is even more challenging.
After several hours of discussion I finally managed to get a fixed schedule. And although it took some days to find out everything and fix it and still changes always happen (and always will) I do now have a plan what to do every day and when I have to be where.
The fact that I’m sometimes whole days or weeks teaching classes on my own and sometimes together with other teachers, especially the drawing teacher whose schedule I’ve got, has become quite normal and beside showing the students different circus skills – especially juggling – and games I do also learn a way of giving drawing classes.
Sometimes it’s very difficult to explain juggling. On one hand there is the language barrier – because although learning sign language quite fast I’m still far away of being fluent in it – and on the other hand for the children juggling and all sorts of circus activities have a totally different meaning then I got to know it in Germany. Very often it’s more like a game then a special skill. Thus it’s not always easy to bring structure in the groups. But by just letting it go and working with each student separately I could see a good progress. I’ve begun to learn new ways and methods of teaching and explaining and after practicing a little and having a break for a few days suddenly many students seem to have understood the process and are very successful now. It is always a great pleasure to be able to tell them that they have got it and see them smile, see their joy and their new efforts to improve.
One other thing I had to learn to deal with in the right way was the age. Especially for drawing age mattered a lot, while for games it often played a less important role. Concerning juggling etc. I had to make a huge difference in explaining on one hand, but on the other hand age finally didn’t matter at all. In all age-groups were students that understood and learned very fast, sometimes the younger even faster than the older, and others who needed more explanations and help. But no matter how long it took, in the end all students who succeeded at some point were very keen to continue practicing. Thus it will be very interesting to see how they continue after my return from the blind school.