My Very First Teaching Session

The day finally arrived! I went to the Nallagandla Primary School for my very first session with the children. Today, I would be teaching the 4th and 5th graders. I had everything prepared, including a document consisting of dialogues in Telugu to introduce myself and to set the tone of the session. To add on, I had printed out the Instructions document for reference during the session. I was very nervous, but I went ahead to get the session starter.

As soon as I got into the classroom, I began working on my preparatory tasks. I had reached half an hour early in order to make sure that all systems were up and running, and in a few minutes, everything was under control. As time passed, I began noticing steady rises in the number of voices I heard outside the room, and with each new voice my nervousness rose even further. Once I got all the systems ready, I decided it was time to call the children inside. I was assisted by Mr. Vasu, the school teacher, and Mrs. Lalitha.

The children were all extremely enthusiastic and sat on the dusty floor, waiting for me to start. I took a deep breath, smiled, and began. It was an amazing experience. I was trying to speak Telugu as confident as I could, but after hearing the children giggle at one oddly pronounced word, I felt horrible and disappointed in myself. I lost a bit of confidence and began glancing at my Telugu excerpts more often. I decided to overcome this fear by adopting a more conversational and interactive attitude, and asked the children whether they had ever used the computers and what they learnt using them. I handed out the survey and assessment sheet and asked them to write their name, grade and date on the sheet. It was good to see that most of them could write this in English, I asked them to fill out only the first half of the survey questions: ‘Before the Session’. Then, I told the children to keep the papers with them as we continued into the session.

I switched on the projector, and once my laptop’s screen displaying the code.org® site was projected, I began explaining the platform that we would be using, moving on to the concept of blocks and characters, and most importantly, code. I was all smiles when I saw the children scrambling off to the computers as soon as I told them to start, but nothing made me prouder than watching the children as they explored the games while I told them the instructions and introduced the characters. The gleam in their eyes as they dragged and added blocks, and more enjoyable to experience, their shouts of glee when they completed a level made me feel very accomplished indeed! But more than anything, I was moved by their drive and modesty. They would not hesitate to ask me questions, calling out not my name, but saying ‘annayya (brother)’. If they felt that a matter of discussion was very urgent, they would tug at my shirt to get my attention and that was just heartwarming!

They did not bother that I was not conversant in Telugu, asking questions in a mix of Telugu and broken English and I in turn would try to gauge what they were asking by looking at the screen and give a response in English and some broken Telugu. It was, humorously, the perfect combination! Because most of the conversation was about blocks, the language barrier did not stop the session from going smoothly, and that was really very comforting!

In all honesty, the children, and not just the teaching made the experience most enjoyable. They were the purpose, the reason and the motivation. The session was a huge success because they wanted to learn, and that meant the world to me.

The children could complete both games in the nick of time. At the end of the session, I asked them to fill out the second part of the survey sheet: After the Session. I also asked them to solve the short assessment that I had designed, to get a quick measure of their understanding. The children completed the quiz to pinpoint accuracy, and that lifted my spirits. Before we parted, however, I decided to give each child a token of appreciation and love for learning with me, a chocolate. Each and every chocolate, though may seem a very small gift, was really bursting with the flavor of love and gratefulness, to serve as a reminder to the children that they never let go of their dreams, that they must keep learning and exploring, most importantly, into unventured fields. A simple chocolate sparked a fiery smile on their radiant faces and twinkling eyes.

If there was anything I wish I could change, I would have changed how I structured my introduction. I realized that my introduction would be more inviting and hence much better by making it more interactive by asking the children about what games they play on smartphones, for instance, linking that to coding for them to better understand.

It was extremely bitter-sweet to watch the children leave as they said their last goodbyes. As I sat in my car watching the last few children depart on a cycle, I experienced that feeling of accomplishment and a sense of pride. Pride for the fact that children were able to complete the two games and really wanted to learn more; and accomplishment because not only was I able to teach them successfully but, in turn I realized that they taught me so much! In that short session, I realized that in the end we are all the same, all of us want to learn, all of us have the ability to learn and achieve all that we want to achieve, it is just that some of us are fortunate to get these opportunities easily while others are not.

The fact that the children so smilingly hauled their burdens over their shoulders made me think of how I was so fortunate to experience this magic.

Unarguably, I went a teacher and came back a learner…