Looking Ahead - Leading Others

Two weeks into taking classes, we realised that rapport building with the students is the most important thing ever. Initially, we did not know them, and they didnt know us. This lead to no accountability being taken and there was a lack of emotional connect in the classroom. Due to this, taking sessions on culture and SVS was becoming increasingly difficult. When we realised that we need to get to know the students at a personal level, we started spending more time with them. Whether it be after school, after classes, or in the lunch break. We started opening up about ourselves, and they started reciprocating. One month into being in school and I can confidently say that we know 90 percent of the children in each class, atleast one level deeper than on day 1, and that pushed the students to take responsibility of their behaviour in class. 

Another consistent action I brought into my science lessons is reiterating that what we are studying is extremely EASY. Every lesson is broken down into small chunks, and at no point is the information too large to digest. Initially, students were sceptical. "Ma'am science will never be easy, I hate the subject" is a sentence I used to hear every day. But after consistently modeling out that science CAN in fact be easy, I can see a steady rise in the confidence levels of my students. 

Getting to know the students beyond the classroom 

Something that hasn't worked is my effort into getting to know the so called "problematic" students in the class. A couple of weeks into teaching, I realised who the trouble makers are, and realised that the remaining class is learning well if you eliminate these few students. Ideally, now that I have identified the root cause of the disturbance, I should have put time into getting to know these few children personally. Mainly to try and understand what excites them, so that I can make my classes engaging for them as well, but over the last one month, I haven't gotten the time to do that. The implication of this is that the entire class knows that I know what the problem is but everyone can see that I'm unable to effectively tackle the issue. This is becoming a growing concern for the remaining students in the class as well. Post institute I will spend time tackling this specific problem so that it doesn't continue for the rest of the year. 

Some words I'd like to be true for my students are : 

1. Awareness - each child has to be conscious of their own feelings and emotions. 

2. Ownership - each child has to take ownership of their own growth - to instill a sense of individuality in each of them. 

3. Hardwork - each child has to realise that consistent effort is the only way to grow - and has to display this quality through their work.