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.
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.
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