Teaching in Tikri - by Kat



*This blog is written by Kat who is currently working as a volunteer for Friends in Khajuraho Association and has taken on teaching English in Tikri as well*

Walking along the garden path and up the ill-formed stone steps, the smiling family greet us each day with a chorus of ‘namaste’ or ‘good morning’ from the more confident pupils, a rush to prepare the classroom, and a cup of sweet chai. Their home consists of two rooms with one bed, a couple of chairs and household objects such as clothes and cooking materials. In the early mornings the children are either rocking the just-got-out-of-bed look, or are bright-eyed and combing recently-washed hair. In the late afternoons we welcome the goats when they come home from grazing and only leave when it is too dark to see the board (which has meant resorting to using torches once or twice!). With their mother watching from the step in the corner, the atmosphere moves comfortably between that of a living space and an orderly classroom.

The age difference, spanning from one cheeky five year old girl to a hard-working eighteen year old, has resulted in a couple of disagreements over erasers or ‘whose book is whose’, but overall it does credit to their family as the siblings are kind and look out for each other. I think the children enjoy the opportunity to think and focus, as one afternoon I remember two of the girls looking sullenly at each other with red eyes, but within twenty minutes their dryer eyes were darting between the board and their books, scribbling down words.

We teach four times per week to a large family and a couple of their neighbours. I do an hour of English, then Vijay does an hour of Hindi. Initially I joined in the latter (I’m a beginner as of moving to India!), but recently some new and more advanced students have joined the class, so I use this time to give them extra tuition. My focus is on beginner lexical sets and we’ve covered animals, colours, numbers, fruits, vegetables, family members and pronouns. Each week I add in a few key phrases such as introductions, however in reality full sentences are too complicated for the vast majority. Most of the children struggle to remember or even read out words of three or four syllables (which I think is due to under confidence and a lack of concentration – both of which we’re working on through encouragement and repetition). Therefore, rather than start on grammar I wanted to build up their confidence with vocabulary, so we practice lots of spelling, drilling, copying words and word searches. When we covered prepositions I made sure to use all the previously mentioned sets of words, and of course draw some pictures on the board – imagine cats in boxes and apples next to bananas. Our only resources are pens, paper, the board and a few handwriting books, so I’ve developed a newly acquired talent for drawing cartoons of elephants, which the children find hugely amusing (but my lions need some work!).

In the first few weeks it was difficult to measure improvement, and not because they’re beginners, but because most of the children hardly attended school and when they did the level of teaching was poor. Their lack of education is apparent in a number of ways in the classroom. Before I begin I’d like to write a quick note about my observations. I’m new to teaching English and I haven’t studied psychology so my interpretations are informal and still developing.

Firstly, they struggle to recall information, even during an activity when the answers are on the board. I believe their teachers prioritise learning by rote rather than instilling an understanding of meaning and thus creating a lasting memory of word groups. It will be a slow process to overcome this, with lots and lots of encouragement. Over the last few weeks however I have been able to mention some words, in particular animals, fruits, colours or prepositions and they are excited to remember them.

Secondly, despite knowing the alphabet (and even some still make mistakes) they often can’t adapt their knowledge of letters into reading a written word and speaking it out loud. I found this quite shocking at first, that a teenager who attended English classes throughout his schooling would know the sounds of ‘b’ ‘a’ and ‘t’, but be unable to connect them and say the word ‘bat’. This indicates a potential difficulty in transferring knowledge from one activity to a new setting. I’m working on it by correcting them while pointing to the written word and repeating syllables when I introduce new words.

Lastly, their ability to comprehend instructions or grasp the aim of an activity is poor. I’ve seen this in direct contrast with the children I teach in the Khajuraho Old Village. Many are from slightly better socio-economic backgrounds and live in more accessible locations, so they attend better schools on a regular basis. Even with my lack of Hindi, in the Old Village if I ask the pupils to read out loud, drill words or complete an activity on a sheet, such as a word search or true/false statements, they eagerly get started. In Tikri they often look up at me hopefully, but they don’t have experience of classroom conventions so they aren’t ready to take on new activities. For this reason when we start a new drilling sequence or I’m asking each student for an answer, I’ll start with their cousins who attended a school in Delhi and have recently moved back to Tikri. They can understand what I’m looking for and the others have a moment to catch up. Nevertheless, I’m happy to say that this issue has improved! I’ve seen more engagement from all of the children and a willingness to try more. While the oldest boys may still sit at the back of the class, they no longer avoid eye contact and stare stubbornly at their books. At the beginning Vijay often had to step in and prompt their cooperation but now they look up more and join in with their siblings. There was a particularly inspiring morning when one of them picked up my ‘Guide to Beginner’s Hindi’ and started to copy out a whole paragraph of his own accord.

The second noticeable improvement is in their handwriting and written work. Some of the pupils, especially the older boys who work for the family rather than attend school, rarely pick up a pen during the week so this is an opportunity to practice. A few weeks in I led a handwriting session marking their alphabets and some sentences out of ‘five’. I gave most a ‘three’, and sometimes that was perhaps too generous, but this past week I genuinely gave everyone a ‘four’ or ‘five’. I was so pleasantly surprised when each child brought up their book – it really made me smile! Through these hours writing simple words they’ve not only improved their handwriting but also learnt to look more closely at the board and see how I form the letters, and to re-produce them correctly. This is a small indication that hopefully their attention span and critical thinking skills are slowly improving.  

Of course I hope to see more improvements and changes in the pupils as we enter the next stage of teaching! I’m really enjoying it and I’m so grateful to the family for their warm welcome and uplifting smiles. Now it’s on to the world of verbs as we continue to teach in a simple room on the outskirts of a poor village with goats in the garden, parrots flying over, and monkeys on next door’s fence.

 
  

Ravi is back for Diwali

Ravi is still busy with his German studies in Delhi, but is back in Khajuraho this week to celebrate Diwali. This means he is also back as our teacher in hindi class this week, giving Vijay some time off. We are really happy that Ravi wants to do this during his holiday. Vijay is in charge of the literacy project at the moment, and he is a good and dedicated teacher. We still consider Ravi as our primary teacher though, and are hoping he will come back to teach on a regular basis as soon as his studies allows.

The english lessons are run by Kat so Ravi and Kat travel to Tikri together. As for now, Kat's plan is to teach our English classes for the duration of her stay (until late december) - and we are thrilled to have her for as long as she wants to (and so are our pupils!).

We are wishing Ravi, Vio, Vijay and their familly, Kat, Aryan*s family, all our pupils and participants in the Cloth Bag Project a happy Diwali!

Literacy classes has started again

Our literacy class has started again after the break, three weeks early. Our teacher, Ravi, has the opportunity to stay in Delhi for his German studies for a few more months, and of course we support him in this decition. His brother Vijay, has agreed to continue to teach in his absence, and as the students were impatient for the class to start again, there was no reason to wait until October. As far as we know, Ravi plans to come back to us from December/January.

The class started on september 11th, but shortly after Vijay got sick and had to take time off to recover. He is now back on his feet and the classes have began again. The classes are still held in front of/inside the house of Aryan's* family and we are grateful that the family allows us to hold the class at their place for now. Most of the children in the family participate in class, so this makes attendence more easy for them too.

We have added two more classes to our literacy project, but as it turns out Vijay gives not six but eight classes a week! We really appriciate his dedication! The classes are held in the morning or late afternoon and he teaches four classes in Hindi and four in English. He has devided the class in two; one group for the more advanced students with good motivation and work ethic, and one class for the ones who struggle more and needs more of his time during class. We are told that some of the students are getting quite good, and some of them might even be good candidates for 9th grade from July 2018. We are especially happy to hear that this includes at least one boy who stopped after grade 8 a couple of years back. This has been one of our goals for the literacy project. We are also told that most of the students have made progress, but of course some of them need more time than others to learn.

We are also happy to hear that Kat, who works as a volunteer for Friends in Khajuraho Association, has joined Vijay in Tikri this past week. She likes to sit in Hindi class to learn the hindi alphabet, and she also teaches English together with Vijay. This must be very exciting for our students, and they also get the best English class possible! Teaching in Tikri is not one of her assignments, but she is more than welcome to be part of our literacy project as long as she wants to!

Dreams for the future

Before the literacy project took a break, we asked our students to write and/or draw what they think about the literacy project and/or what they dream of for their future. This is not an easy task for most indian children. They are more about "here and now" and what "is", and it is not easy to get them to talk about the future and what "could be".

To speak openly and honest with authority figures and open their hearts and mind are not something they are used to either. In our mind, it is important to encourage them to do so  - so we asked them, knowing this would be difficult for them. And they did their best. Here is what we got back from them (translated to english by Vio);

Dipika* (girl approx 16-17 years old, goes to school): I like the class very much. To be teacher is my dream. Like to study and I like the teacher who teaches very well and explaines very well. What he teaches I understand. That’s what I think about my dream. I want to study enough to stand on my feet and to prove the worth of my mother and father’s name. And I want to learn music and dance and henna tattoo. Thank you.

Ishaan* (boy, approx. 16 years old. Finished class 8, currently out of school/no job):  I want to go to school, work in Khajuraho and support my family.

Roshni* (girl, approx. 17 years old. Finished class 8. Currently taking sewingclass, sponsored by us): I want to study. I like study. I am learning English and Hindi also. I want to learn painting. I want to learn sewing and I will learn well.

Amrita* (girl, approx. 16 years old. Finished class 8. Currently taken sewingclasses together with Roshi*): I like sewing and painting.

Naveen* (boy, approx. 15 years old. Dropped out of school at class 2/3. Currently looking after goats during the day): I want to go to school and study.

Prakash* (boy, approx 21 years old. Dropped out of school at class 2/3. Currently no job): I want to get a job. I want to go to school. 

Suma* (girl, approx.13 years old, goes to school): I like very much, I like very much going to school. I like to do painting. I also like to learn music. I want to learn henna tattoo. I want to go to sewing school. I like sewing very much.

Priya* (girl, approx 13 years old, goes to school): I like to school and I like to study.

Raju* (boy, approx 17 years old. Currently out of school/no job): I like to study. I like to go to school. I want to learn reading. I will do job.

The two yougest in class this afternoon chose to draw. They are young and are still just practising letters and how to hold a pencil. One of them wants to be an artist, which shows in his painting. The other one drew a man watering som plants, so we guess he wants to be a farmer.

*All the names have been changed to protect their identity