The One with My Wonderful 7th Graders

The girls' side of the room. In Indian classrooms the girls
and boys sit at different desks.

As many of you know I have been teaching the past two weeks at Little Star's School. I assist Nikki in teaching the 6th Standard class and then I teach the 7th Standard class with her help. At first I had a lot of frustration surrounding my internship because they put us with very young children who do not speak any English. Since my Hindi is very limited, I learned quickly that I couldn't really teach the kids who needed the most help without someone to translate for them. After speaking with the principal and others who worked at the school we finally convinced them to let us teach 6th and 7th standard English classes each day.  They offered us a copy an English book that had stories and activities, but I quickly learned that my students were way below the level of their grade level materials and would often just copy the answers to the comprehension questions from the board.

The boys...taking notes?

My experience at Little Star's School has made me think a lot about what an education is and what is the best way to teach children. I struggle to appreciate the memorization-based methods that are often used in these classrooms. At Little Star's the root of the problem seems to be that none of the "English" teachers actually speak English, so the children's English classes are conducted in Hindi. They are also supposed to take Science, Math, and General Knowledge in English, but those classes are also translated by the teacher.  The children are quite good at reading English correctly, but have no idea what half of the words mean. I also had a difficult experience yesterday when I witnessed some of my students being physically punished for their poor remarks and behavior. Corporal punishment is common in most Indian schools, but there is a large difference between understanding that cultural difference and actually seeing it first hand. Last year I did a research project on the impacts of corporal punishment in schools and so it was hard for me to see it with knowledge of the negative impacts it has on the learning environment. Unfortunately it is really not my place to say anything, especially since the practice in both homes and schools is heavily embedded in the culture. With only two more weeks at the school I know that I will not be able to change the teaching strategies employed so I have resigned to teaching my class the way I think is best.

I am teaching a lesson on possessive adjectives.

Some of the girls and me (kind of dark but they are still
adorable)

After trying to get my students to write I learned that they really needed review of basic pronouns and vocabulary. Yesterday they had a test on some basic nouns, pronouns, and possessive phrases. I am excited to start present verb conjugations when I get back.  My work for my class has been taking up a lot of my time here. Every morning I lesson plan and make worksheets and then after I teach I grade.  Though I have been spending more time than we are supposed to on our internships, I feel as though it is very rewarding because I can see improvement each assignment. The children have been putting in a lot of effort and are very appreciative of my time. Yesterday I gave an exam on the material from the first week and according to the grades my exam seems to be equivocal to a Kucer lab exam, or our Proofs final... I think that my curve (calculated by hand since I thought it was important to leave my TI-89 at home) will rectify this though.  I am also bringing in cookies (or biscuits as they are called here).

Nikki grading papers while I checked their classwork.

It is important for me to note that despite the fact that this school is not perfect it is providing children from very low income homes an education. If these children did not go to Little Star's, it is likely that they would not get any education at all and perpetuate the cycle of poverty. It seems that this school has really encouraged students to dream of doing something with their lives and I think that hope of a better life is really the most important think the school can provide. Asha, the founder of Little Star's, works endlessly to secure funds to pay for these children's education and I know that it is making a large difference in their lives.

Here is the website: http://www.littlestarsschool.org/index.html