Recently a noted psychologist, Dr Arati Rajaratnam, visited our school to address the parents of the junior school children. The topic was ‘A Moving Child is a Learning Child’, in which she discussed how physical movement is important for the cognitive development and learning of the child. Extending this thought, I started wondering how movement and flexibility, not just physical, but also in the way we think and approach people and situations, leads to learning.
We usually get stuck in a particular way of doing things. A few years back, to reach my work place I used to walk for about fifteen minutes to a highway and then take a bus. One day as I was walking, the road was blocked with no way to cross. I started looking for an alternate parallel lane and found one which was much better and faster, and I managed to reach ahead of time. ‘Why did I not look for alternatives until I met a roadblock’ was something I wondered for the next few days. I got into an exploratory mode, started leaving home slightly earlier, trying out a different path each day and really enjoyed this.
I wonder how easy it is to get used to doing things in a particular way through habit, thinking in a particular way and resisting change. But if ‘learning’ by definition is ‘change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience’, does resisting change also mean resisting learning? While doing my work, isn’t it important not to get stuck in one way of doing things, without considering options? While working in a team, is it not important to listen with an open mind to others’ perspectives? One can stay in the same role and keep learning, looking at each day afresh, each interaction an opportunity to learn. Reflecting on my life over the last few years, I feel that in moving from one situation to another, from one role to another, I ended up in places where learning to do things differently became mandatory and not optional.
About ten years back I moved to The Valley School after having worked for about fifteen years in pharmaceutical companies. I started teaching biology and chemistry in senior school. A big change it was, from working in laboratories with fancy equipment, doing experiments using cutting-edge technologies, to classrooms and black or white boards, textbooks and children. I came from a place where people would come in a few minutes ahead of the appointed time and settle in for a discussion. In contrast, now there were days when I would enter the classroom, and less than half the class would be inside. As I entered, a few of them would call out, “Aunty is in the class”, and the remaining children would jump in through windows, running in from the volleyball court. One had no option but to figure out how to negotiate this new situation.
A couple of years after I joined the school, a parent who was a chemist working in a pharma company asked me, “Aren’t you missing the lab?” On the spur of the moment, I said, “No, I feel that I am in a bigger lab!” Later, reflecting on my own statement, I felt how true this was. Am I not in a much livelier place, trying out different things on a daily basis? Teaching biology and chemistry in the senior school was of course challenging. It needed intense pre-work, being with children, dealing with their tantrums at times, and admiring their maturity and adaptability at other times, always thinking and learning—about the content, the mode of delivery, the class dynamics and so on. In my four years in senior school, I got to teach biology and chemistry to grades 8 to 12 and every day was a new day. I learnt that even if I plan my lesson to the greatest detail, what happens in the class is greatly influenced by the learners. While planning for a class is important, equally important is the flexibility to change the plan if required.
I am tempted to share a trivial but very practical thing I learnt in the chemistry classroom. We had just graduated from a blackboard to a whiteboard with markers. An eleventh grader who used to trouble me a lot in chemistry classes noticed that I was changing the whiteboard markers frequently and asked me, “Aunty, don’t you think you should be buying refill ink for the markers, instead of buying markers?” Though I had a feeling that he was not concentrating much on the subject I was teaching, I admired his observation skills and was thankful for his comment. I didn’t even know that such a thing existed. And thereafter, buying ink to refill markers became the norm in school. I think this was a great learning for me and for the few of us who had got white boards installed in our classes.
After four years of teaching, when I felt a little settled in the senior school, a new challenge or rather an opportunity presented itself. There was a need for all the teachers to be formally trained in compliance with the RTE Act. The Government had planned a drive to train all in-service teachers across the country. So, a group of us enrolled for the NIOS Diploma in Elementary Education course. This was a strenuous phase where we were performing all our work at school from Monday to Friday, and then going to a college in Jayanagar on Saturdays and Sundays. As students, we had to attend classes, submit a lot of assignments, take exams, and go for field trips, among other things. It became overwhelming to start with, but over time we started learning how to manage time, prioritize, cooperate with each other and, in fact, started culling out some fun time within the tight schedule. As a practical component of the course, we had to write lesson plans and do practice teaching in the junior or the middle school. It would have been impossible for me to do this along with my scheduled senior school classes. The school accepted my request to move, and in the academic year 2018– 19, I became a group teacher in the junior school. This move presented an opportunity to have an amazing and enriching learning experience.
I now started working with much younger children and in a different setup. We have six mixed age-group (MAG) classes, each with about sixteen children of seven to ten years of age. As a group teacher, one had to take overall responsibility for the children in the class and teach them English, math and EVS, as well as accompany them to games and land-care classes. This organically presented a good opportunity for holistic learning. As the same curriculum had to be transacted in all the six MAG classes, the six teachers worked together on the curriculum. As the whole setup and the way of working was different, it provided an amazing scope for learning. As a new group teacher in the MAG, even as I felt that I had enough autonomy to conduct and plan for my group, I was able to receive support from the experienced coteachers and other group teachers. While the things I experienced and learnt during the three years as a group teacher are difficult to summarize, I will share a few that are significant.
Before starting to teach in the MAG, I had imagined that planning and conducting a mixed age-group class would be a herculean task, and wondered how to teach a group of children with such varied levels and capabilities in terms of reading, writing and math. However, with the support of my coteachers, I started learning how one can plan and execute such a class. Making the curriculum contextual, and the activities hands-on, is important for this age group of children. Understanding the ability of each child and planning accordingly, while leveraging the tremendous potential of peer learning, is something one needs to keep in mind in the MAG classes. The presence of a co-teacher in the class also allows for giving individual attention to the children who need it. A few of the most fascinating things that I observed closely were the group dynamics in the homogenous and heterogenous groups of children during MAG classes, and also how groups formed organically during free play time. The other amazing thing that I witnessed in MAG classes was how older children support the younger ones to adjust and learn.
I realized that, here, I needed to work like a true facilitator and provide the environment for children to become progressively independent. I needed to be flexible, giving the children time and space to learn independently, help where they required it, but pull back when not necessary. To see a child grow and become increasingly independent and start to support other children during their three year stay in the MAG class, is one of the most fulfilling experiences as a mixed age group teacher.
Listening to children and giving them opportunities to express themselves was very important and enjoyable. Once, we were working on the ‘Soil’ module in EVS and also had to teach ‘compare and contrast’ according to our English plan. So, after doing an experiment to separate gravel, sand and clay, I thought as a class we would compare and contrast sand and clay. Children looked at and touched sand and clay and also observed samples of these under the microscope. The number of similarities and differences they came up with were amazing. One of the similarities was that they are both fun to play with, and one difference was that clay can be moulded into toys but sand cannot. I realized that the way a child looks at sand and clay may be completely different as compared to how I look at it with my scientific, analytical mind. Allowing children to express how they look at things without boxing it in our narrow way of looking at things is something I feel I should remain alert to.
After working for three years as a group teacher, it was suggested that I take up the role of coordinator of the junior school. I was hesitant to take this up as I felt it would involve a lot of administrative responsibilities, with less opportunity to work with children. The logic given to convince me to take up this role was, ‘Why don’t you look at it as an opportunity to work closely with 130 children instead of 16?’. I ended up accepting it. Over the last three years it has really been a great journey, with many opportunities to connect with most of the junior school children inside and outside the classes, working closely with all the teachers there, along with children and colleagues from other sections such as the senior school, the middle school, as well as the administration and the sports department. Working in this capacity, I started seeing how demands from one section can be challenging for others to fulfil, and there is a frequent need to reach a mutually amicable solution.
I have come to believe, with Steve Jobs, that one can, “Learn continually. There is always ‘one more thing’ to learn.” I feel a sense of gratitude towards each person who has interacted with me over the years, and look forward to a life full of movement, change and learning.