On Monday, November 17th, the school finally started again after 3 weeks vacation. In connection with that I was supposed to give my first proper lessons, but because in India reliability is not always a big thing, everything started slowly and the students even continued coming back on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thus my lessons started slowly as well and on the first two days I only had a few hours to teach and less students.
On Monday I started with juggling, having a group of nine boys. They all participated well and were quite keen to learn it. After a while, though, it became clear that it was not always easy for me to explain everything to them in sign language and for some of them it became a bit hard to hold concentration. But because of showing them different versions of juggling we managed to do good training for at least 40 minutes, until many other students came as well having finished their lessons. For this matter we had to quit and just start playing games.
On Tuesday and Wednesday a beekeeping-seminar was being hold in the school and affected my teaching again. On Tuesday I was just able to play with the children, because all the lessons were canceled after the early morning. I brought out some material again and suggested games. It was very interesting to watch them play and see how they learned differently, picked up my ideas and brought in theirs. They were very happy about having me and the balls etc. there and for me it was a pleasure see them smile and very warming to hear their nice and clear laughter.
Wednesday was my first day of proper teaching and I immediately got a full schedule which meant being busy from at least 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the normal school time. Actually I was meant to be with the sports and drawing teacher, but because he was busy this day I was on my own all the time. Just a few minutes after 11 o clock, I got my timetable and had to start teaching immediately.
But everything went very well and the fascination, interest and joy of the students made it a lot easier for me. According to the age group and number of class members I had to vary and improvise the program every time.
Finally I can say I tried my best and had a very successful day with many different lessons, classes, students games and circus activities.
The rest of the week I kept teaching and introducing different versions of juggling and games to the students. Sometimes I was together with the teacher, sometimes on my own and sometimes it was easy to explain, but sometimes it was also very hard for the students to hold concentration and to understand the complexity of dealing with two or three balls at one time.
Beside teaching I got the chance to watch an English class and do some Yoga; And all the time it were not only the students who were learning but also me. Over the week I got to know some new games and new versions and I also realized the big difference of older and younger children in understanding and picking up new and foreign ideas. Unfortunately I’m not fluent in sign language which made it very often even harder to explain juggling and new games and will always be an additional difficulty.
The whole week I kept taking out playing equipment after school finished and thus made the students very happy. They usually never had so many things to play with but thanks to the group from the UK they are now very happy and satisfied and also thankful.
Because I’m living on school premises I’m together with the students nearly all the time and could play day and night with them if I wanted to. Thus the end of school time doesn’t mean that I’m out of everything. Usually I keep playing with them a little, go to their hostel in the evenings and talk to them, learn sign language or even learn some Indian cooking. My position here is very special, because I’m a foreigner and the only person doing this kind of job. That also means that the students are very interested and happy in having me around and really want to play with me all the time or be at least somewhere near. On the other hand it makes it a lot easier for me to get integrated and participate.
On Monday I started with juggling, having a group of nine boys. They all participated well and were quite keen to learn it. After a while, though, it became clear that it was not always easy for me to explain everything to them in sign language and for some of them it became a bit hard to hold concentration. But because of showing them different versions of juggling we managed to do good training for at least 40 minutes, until many other students came as well having finished their lessons. For this matter we had to quit and just start playing games.
On Tuesday and Wednesday a beekeeping-seminar was being hold in the school and affected my teaching again. On Tuesday I was just able to play with the children, because all the lessons were canceled after the early morning. I brought out some material again and suggested games. It was very interesting to watch them play and see how they learned differently, picked up my ideas and brought in theirs. They were very happy about having me and the balls etc. there and for me it was a pleasure see them smile and very warming to hear their nice and clear laughter.
Wednesday was my first day of proper teaching and I immediately got a full schedule which meant being busy from at least 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the normal school time. Actually I was meant to be with the sports and drawing teacher, but because he was busy this day I was on my own all the time. Just a few minutes after 11 o clock, I got my timetable and had to start teaching immediately.
But everything went very well and the fascination, interest and joy of the students made it a lot easier for me. According to the age group and number of class members I had to vary and improvise the program every time.Finally I can say I tried my best and had a very successful day with many different lessons, classes, students games and circus activities.
The rest of the week I kept teaching and introducing different versions of juggling and games to the students. Sometimes I was together with the teacher, sometimes on my own and sometimes it was easy to explain, but sometimes it was also very hard for the students to hold concentration and to understand the complexity of dealing with two or three balls at one time.
Beside teaching I got the chance to watch an English class and do some Yoga; And all the time it were not only the students who were learning but also me. Over the week I got to know some new games and new versions and I also realized the big difference of older and younger children in understanding and picking up new and foreign ideas. Unfortunately I’m not fluent in sign language which made it very often even harder to explain juggling and new games and will always be an additional difficulty.
The whole week I kept taking out playing equipment after school finished and thus made the students very happy. They usually never had so many things to play with but thanks to the group from the UK they are now very happy and satisfied and also thankful.
Because I’m living on school premises I’m together with the students nearly all the time and could play day and night with them if I wanted to. Thus the end of school time doesn’t mean that I’m out of everything. Usually I keep playing with them a little, go to their hostel in the evenings and talk to them, learn sign language or even learn some Indian cooking. My position here is very special, because I’m a foreigner and the only person doing this kind of job. That also means that the students are very interested and happy in having me around and really want to play with me all the time or be at least somewhere near. On the other hand it makes it a lot easier for me to get integrated and participate.
