The World Literature Blog

I thought I'll reflect a bit on what has happened to me after coming to Aditi. First came the Mapping/ Evolving Professional Practice Course which was a real good orientation programme and helped induct me into the school system and aslo to the idea that we are professionals and need to know about pedagogy. I am learning. as a result of that course, to write tight lesson plans and have aslo learned how to write annual plans and unit plans. I also met wonderful teachers, primarily Tara Kini, Shuchi, Arundhati Raja, my seven "new" colleagues whom I really admire and many others like Nalini, Jyotsna,Satish, Aruna, Suravi, Anjana, Sneha, Vandana, Kalpana - too many to name in fact. I picked up many new techniques like mind mapping procedures, using planners and organisers etc. A video I watched on how to use time in Blocks was really entertaining and instructive. Moving forward into actual practice after that was therefore not so daunting . But I soon found out that theory and practice are two different things. I wanted to go in with the Learning is Fun approach. But my kids soon clipped my wings. They were more into exams and grades!!! I was a bit surprised I must admit. It used to be a little different in my days, if I remember correctly. Our problem with our teachers was that we thought they were too exams and marks centred and never seemed to realise that there were skills and attitudes outside the syllabus that were as relevant as what we were doing "in class." I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. anyway, always! Then came the PPSE course. Its use of web tools and the six hats exercise plus Tara's content-context mindbender and GN's inspirational talk on teaching with its unforgettable diagram , the essays and assignments given to us so far for reading and doing have all made a deep impact on me. Surprisingly the effect has been one of awakening to a fierce sense of competition in me. I find that I want to be the best and get a string of AAAAAA's !!!!!! As a teacher and a student. Facilitator, pedagogue, professional practitioner , educator - whatever word we use - guide, guru, mentor, friend and philosopher - I suddenly feel once again the drive I had when I was a research student. "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield,/ To follow knowledge like a sinking star beyond the uttermost bound of human thought" to echo Tennyson's Ulysses's famous lines. Meanwhile i've also come across a simple fact -teachers out here in Aditi are definitely much better than where I come from ( and that includes me) and I need to be aware of this and learn from them before launching out on finding my own style of teaching as for as education in schools is concerned. I now want to read the essays by Anita Rampal and the other essays given to me by Tara and also read stuff by Gandhi, Krishnamurthy (J.K.), Tagore and also take a look at Paulo Freire and Ivan Illyich. Pedagogy of the Opressed and Deschooling Society are two books I always wanted to read but never got around to. Maybe now I can. I have started on Krishnamurthy's Education and the Significance of Life. It is slow going. But in the end it will be rewarding, I have no doubt about that.

The threaded discussion board was a good experience, as was writng down my timeline. In the company of people with deep, wide and varied experiences like Amarnathan sir, Srinivasan, Maheshwaran , Bala, Raji , Sandra, Gudrun, Geeta, Parbati, Joel, Gulab, Neela, Anu,Vijaya, Uday and indeed all my colleagues who form the 21 who are now taking the PPSE course plus new professional friends I'm making like Beena Babu and Vasu sir etc. - too many names and not enough names !!!! - so don't mind if i didn't mention your name - I am blossoming.

So there is generally a good feel regarding my profession in me these days. Let's see where all this goes. The tough thing is to be simple like Socrates could be in his dialogues and compassionate like Buddha or pure like Jesus in one's relationship with one's students while also being explosive in triggering of learning and interest and potential in them like some post-modern thinkers have made me explode in the realm of literary and critical theory............

The voyage is heady , anyway........... :)